A blog for technical problems and solutions
"Have Breakfast… or…Be Breakfast!"
By Y. L. R. MOORTHI
Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.
Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?
The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – "who is my competitor?"
Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.
—Dr. Y. L. R. Moorthi is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He is an M.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a post graduate in management from IIM, Bangalore.
The pressure was heavy, the schedule was tight,
Slogged like a dog, tested with all might,
Worked through the day, sat late in the night,
But for me, there is no onsite in sight...
She meets me for coffee, she catches up for a bite,
As I write this stupid poem, she is packing for her third long flight,
What did I do wrong, that she did right?
Why for me, there is no onsite in sight...
Want to climb the Eiffel, see Paris from that height,
Want to see the felled Berlin wall sipping beer light,
Want to bet that dollar as I see Vegas by the night,
Unfortunately for me, there is no onsite in sight...
Talked to my boss, with her I had a fight,
But she earns too much to understand my plight,
Now I don't work that hard, I take it light,
Because for me, there is no onsite in sight...
The future is dark, it ain't bright,
Life is routine, office bus I will board and alight,
Stay offshore and test byte by byte,
For me, there is no onsite in sight...
Useful if u use “Microsoft Outlook”
Forgot to mention subject in mail???
Very useful precaution, have tried this & its working, please do it in your Outlook too, reading below…
Forgot to mention subject while writing an Official Mail and feel bad later???????
Yes…. It's a concern for all…. A mail without a subject brings a bad impression on us.
To avoid this, just follow the simple steps mentioned below and see the result.
Here are the steps: -
1. Open your Outlook,
2. Press Alt+F11. This opens the Visual Basic Editor and open Project-Project 1 (left side). If this doesn’t open Project-Project 1 then press then Press Ctrl+R.
3. On the Left Pane, one can see "Microsoft Outlook Objects" or "Project1", expand this. Now one can see the "ThisOutLookSession".
4. Double click on "ThisOutLookSession". It will open up a Code Pane on the right hand side.
5. Copy and Paste the following code in the right pane (Code Pane) and save it
Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim strSubject As String
strSubject = Item.Subject
If Len(Trim(strSubject)) = 0 Then
Prompt$ = "Subject is Empty. Are you sure you want to send the Mail?"
If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Check for Subject") = vbNo Then
Cancel = True
End If
End If
End Sub
6. Now whenever you try to send a mail without subject, a pop-up is raised to remind you of the blank subject.
* (Walk up behind girl and point fingers shaped like gun into her back)
“You’re under arrest!” (For what?) “For stealing my heart.”
* Hi, my name is Chance, Do I have one?
* Are your legs tired?
(Girl: Why?)
Because you have been running through my mind all day!
* “I lost my phone number, can I borrow yours?”
* Can you give me directions to your heart? I’ve seemed to lose myself in your eyes
* (Take a look at the tag on the girls shirt, jacket, She would say, “What are doing”)
Respond, “Oh, just checking to see if you were made in Heaven.”
* (Pick up a flower and walk over to girl.)
“I was just showing this flower how beautiful you are.”
* Is it hot in here or is it just you?
* Walk up to a guy and say: “Are you from heaven?”
“No” he answers. “Oh, I thought all the angels were from heaven”
* I could be born in your eye, run down your cheek and die on your lips.
* Did you know they changed the alphabet?
They put U and I together.
* Are you lost?
Cause it’s so strange to see an angel so far from heaven.
* Do you believe in love at first sight, or do I have to walk by you again?
* What’s that in your eye? Oh…it’s a sparkle.
* Do you have a map? I just got lost in your eyes.
* You can forget about going to heaven because it’s sin to look that good.
Forty years ago this summer, a programmer sat down and knocked out in one month what would become one of the most important pieces of software ever created.
Let’s Cheer for that Legend!!
Read more at -- > http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/operating-systems/nix/in-depth/index.cfm?articleid=2281
How To Reinstall Windows Without Losing Anything Here Is Another Possible Solution: easy way and tested:
1- Start WindowsXP
2- Go to the location of your source files
3- Run WINNT32 /unattend
For example, D:\I386\winnt32 /unattend ( copy & paste this command into the RUN box, then press ENTER ) Your computer will do the rest.
Or,
Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
Copy & paste > D:\I386\winnt32 /unattend
Press Enter.
If you have i386 on your drive, you can replace D: ( if D: is your cd drive ) with the location of it.
I've often need to do this to repair something that had gotten corrupted and didn't want to do a clean install.
D: is the driver letter where your windows XP Cd is
if D:\I386\winnt32 /unattend doesn't work then try : d:\winnt32 /unattend.
Happy reinstalling windows… J
No, they aren't animated characters. They are human beings who were made to wear body suits. "The design of the characters is such that one gets fooled into thinking it is animation," shrugs Rao, which was indeed the very illusion that had to be created. "In a sense, it is 'live' animation!" he quips, referring to the fact that it was all shot live.
Prakash Varma, ad filmmaker, Nirvana Films, has directed the commercials, and reveals that the Zoozoos were a big challenge to create. The practical aspects of how they will move, talk, gesticulate and emote were very important. Essentially, costume design and artwork were crucial elements.
"It took me three weeks of pre-production to understand how it will work," says Varma. There were two fabrics that were considered for the body suits, and one was rejected for it had too many wrinkles and was shiny. The wrinkles would have shown when the characters moved, thereby shattering the illusion of animation. "So we chose the more practical, thicker fabric," Varma explains.
The production team divided the outfit into two parts: the body and the head. The body part of the outfit was stuffed with foam in some places, while the head was attached separately. To make it look bigger than a human head, a harder material called Perspex was used, which in turn was stuffed with foam (with scope for ventilation).
If one wishes to understand the size of this head, here's a fact: a human head would typically reach up to the mouth level of this giant Zoozoo head. "We kept the hands and legs thin, which is why we cast women - and occasionally children - wearing the costumes," says Varma. The thin limbs, contrasted with big bellies and a bulbous head, all add to the illusion that these creatures are 'smaller' than humans. Sets were created to suit the size of the Zoozoos.
Cinematically, this 'size' was a trick: the creatures look smaller than they actually are on screen, to portray a different world of sorts. For this, the speed of shooting was altered: Nirvana shot it in a high-speed format to make them look the size that they do.
Furthermore, simple sets/backdrops were created and spray painted with neutral Greys - a colour of choice so that attention isn't diverted from the main characters. For a supposedly 'outdoor' shot, even the shadow of a Zoozoo was kept 'live' and not done in post production: it was painted in a darker shade of grey on the ground. An even lighting was maintained throughout.
There was virtually no post production work done.
The films were shot by Nirvana in
Nagpal adds here that the production cost had to be minimal for unveiling such a large number of commercials. "Otherwise, our production costs would exceed media spends," he quips.

If you want to get the older data even after commit in Oracle you can use flashback transaction queries. This can be used by DBAs. By mistake if you have commited incorrectly you can get the previous data.
This will be usefull in your daily activity . Anyways be carefull before commiting any transaction. This is just an workaround for worst scenario.
Step 1- Open up notepad, the native text editor in Windows. Type in the exact line below:
[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
Note: The above line contains only zeroes and not the alphabet O.
Specify the picture to use: Now, in the next line we will specify the picture that we want to use as the background for the folder. We will do this by typing the following line:
iconarea_image=C:\My Pictures\picture.bmp
Let me elaborate the above-mentioned process. The image to be used as the folder background is specified through iconarea_image. So you can type in the exact path to any image of your liking after the "=" sign as shown above.
Step 2- Now we will save the contents in a file called desktop.ini in the folder that we are customizing (in this case the folder is C:\myfolder). From the File>Save option save the file as desktop.ini and put the file name in double quotes as shown in the picture below to maintain the .ini extension
Step 3- Now we will have to give the folder system attribute. This can be done very easily through the command prompt. Open up the command prompt through Start>All programs>Accessories>command prompt. Type the following and press enter (remember we are using myfolder as an example, so the path name may vary accordingly for you) :
Attrib +s "C:\myfolder"
Additionally you can hide the desktop.ini file.
That's it, done !! The folder will now display the picture of your choice in the background.