Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Visual Studio 2005 Beta Express edition free download !!

Wow ! MS has made available a beta editon for hobbyists and students called the Express edition of the latest Visual Studio 2005. And its got a version of SQL Server 2005 too :D - Am surely going to have a look at it.

Available at http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/default.aspx

Monday, June 28, 2004

Removed stuff

There's been too much of mud-slinging on my personal blog - so I've decided to remove it.

Sunday, June 27, 2004

The Digital Village

Found an interesting article - The Digital Village - in businessweek on how India's digital revolution is slowly percolation down to the rural masses by providing them accruate digitized land records and various other facilities. Hope this "digital divide" that we have in India now gets bridged soon.

Saturday, June 26, 2004

Five point someone

Have been reading "Five Point Someone" - a cool book by Chetan Bhagat - its the story of 3 friends who screw up their studies in IIT Delhi - but instead have a host of experiences from one falling in love with HOD's daughter to breaking into the Prof. room to steal answer sheets. In the process, they form a strong bond of friendship and have quite interesting experiences. One the whole, the writing makes it quite hilarious reading material and would be quite nostalgic for anyone who'd been through similar college experiences.

Friday, June 25, 2004

BillG to blog soon :D

According to a seattle times article Bill Gates is to start his own blog soon. Quite possible, he's been on the forefront of most innovation in the infotech space - I doubt he'd let this pass. Some interesting comments on the article though - "Which country should I buy today ?" :P :))

internal musings on MS future

Found quite a few interesting internal MS musings on its demise while reading the
msdn blogs

The blog entry's at http://blogs.msdn.com/sandyk/archive/2004/06/25/166048.aspx

Sandy goes on to give an optimistic view of the future of MS, though the entry seems to contend that internally MS employees seem worried about the future of the company. Well come to think of it - which employee in a company in the position of MS will not ?

How MS develops its software

David Gristwood has posted on his blog 21 Rules of Thumb on how MS develops its software. Pretty interesting stuff, particularly the focus on teamwork and the need for continuous assessment. Quite an interesting read for anyone in dev or in tech mgmt.

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Googlism for: vasant

Some interesting ones...

vasant is the time when mustard fields are yellow with it the spring is ushered in
vasant is the season when nature is at its beautiful and bountiful best
- i agree, i agree :D

vasant is country communications director in india of the association for international business inc
- i sure do hope so

vasant is also pronounced as basant
- hey not me !

vasant is a small element of a much larger turning away from things which are indian or persian in language or culture
- really ??

vasant is a great service and a great value
- "of" instead of "is" would be better :P

vasant is the period between the time when the sun enters the meen rashi
- thatz news

vasant is also the producer of the onzou records - what is it !!!

vasant is a first - yo man
vasant is in the airship - which one ??
vasant is tied to his fate - that's for sure
vasant is indian and was long time the right hand of shree - whoz this shree ??
vasant is the way out - yo :P
vasant is yet to respond to the protest - which protest :o ??

vasant is a first generation hindu
- next gen. would be better :)

vasant is not the only one quitting ranbaxy
- when did i get in eh ?
vasant is an 180 14001 certified company
- now thats not me
vasant is also involved in curating exhibitions
- i have indeed diverse interests i do not know of :P

vasant is involved with both the scottish and the english health surveys - since when ??
vasant is suresh wadkar's guru - whoz this guy !!
vasant is a former ranji trophy player and respected cricket historian and author
vasant is an expert on obesity
- whoa :))
vasant is touring entire ap to select the right kind of theaters
- to show what ??
vasant is only able to travel home to his farm at weekends
- eh... where is this farm of mine ??
vasant is said to be the prince of all seasons
- YO
vasant is homesick
- not yet
vasant is the owner and general manager of the hotel
- TAJ ??
vasant is looking for unconventional funding sources
- sure - very true
vasant is replying to this message
- this is sure mindreading :D

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

A new year begins...

My second year at XL began yesterday. Its great being back at this campus - and lots of juniors around.

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

On Pune

Thought I'd give a seperate entry for my views on Pune ...

Pune is a wonderful city - an amazing place to live - very green, clean roads, great places to hang out, nice multiplexes, good pubs - what more does one want from a city. I'm pretty impressed by this place. If you can just find a perfect house to stay - and one'll find many - you'll have quite a confortable existence. It aint as crowded as mumbai - but u'll find quite as many cars and rich people around. Food-wise, it is just THE place to be - the eateries serve everything from the best south-indian food to the best parathas (aalu, mooli, what not) i've had till date. You also get to buy books at the cheapest rates - the footpath book stores - particularly in the deccan area - make even footpaths great loitering places. On the overall - this place must surely be in the consideration set of any guy wanting to look at a place to live.

Blogging from Pune station

Well, me back again - this time blogging from Pune station. I've got my train at Midnight - which gives me 2 hours of free time to spend browsing :D - and a pretty cool cafe at the station. Well last few days have been pretty interesting. Citigroup shifted to new premises at Pune - on the day of my presentation - so it was quite a bit of confusion - but the presentation went on well. Last few days its been raining cats and dogs here at Pune - all roads flooded.

Friday, June 11, 2004

I'm back

Well, I'm back after so long - primary reason being that I've been too busy with the project. Now that its done and I've just got my presentation to finish, I've kinda relieved. Have been around quite a bit past few weeks - went to XL alumni meet at Mumbai Leela, then went to Aurangabad as part of my project for 2 days meeting clients, then went over to my relatives place last weekend for my birthday. But most of the time has been spent in office staying up late to finish my project - but whew ! - it's done :D. Amongst other things, saw the film 'Yuva' at e-square - pretty neat film, but not quite the Maniratnam level stuff - but still quite an interesting experiment - has taken up an interesting topic.

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Happy Birthdays

Today is my brother's birthday and mine too! - Happy Birthday Rajan.