My Digital Thoughts : Shashi's Diary

UPS_The_Last_mile_destroys_the_brand , originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda . What do I think of a company that efficiently transports a 1lb package for me 2800 miles coast to coast from Sunnyvale . CA to Gaithersburg MD but fails in the last 3 miles to do justice to its brand by making a efficient delivery ? This is the second time that this happened to me that the driver never came to my door and reported an exception in the UPS tracking system that no one was home. The first time was a a few weeks ago. The UPS driver had left no note even though there was someone present the whole day. I had briefly admonished my daughter for not paying attention to the door bell and believed UPS was right. Called them and requested they hold the package for me to pickup. UPS customer service is 1 800 PICK UPS ( 1 800 742 5877 ) but you will not find it easily on their website. The next day I drove from my work in Virginia on a riany day to reach the UPS center at 7.03 only to be told the...

I chanced upon BreakingNewsOn during one of my trolls on the Twitter public timeline when I first began using Twitter and since then I have been following BreakingNewsOn.. They have been great about breaking the news first. Yesterday I was amazed at their breaking of the Benazir Bhutto Assassination Story and generated a lot of buzz on Twitter. I decided that I should write about them and encourage everyone to follow them. I got in touch with BreakingNewsOn’s founder , 20 year old Michael van Poppel and interviewed him on GTalk. Shashi: What is BreakingNewsOn ? Michael: BreakingNewsOn is a "micro-news service" and is specifically aimed at bringing breaking news as soon as possible. I founded BreakingNewsOn on May 20th of this year and its size is growing rapidly. Some more details can also be found at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BreakingNewsOn . When you follow us you should be aware that we may send out a large number of updates in a short period as stories rapi...

My daughter is very tech savvy but she is more responsible with her time than me. She distributes her time between her school activities and reading and writing well so she is not on Twitter yet . When she asks me what the difference between a Geek and a nerd is , I yell for help and Twitter delivers. You will enjoy reading the responses. The answers were intelligent, funny and helpful. I am awed by the people who reponded . If you would like to add the conversation it will be awesome to get your comments. Matze_Jimdo : haha, poor you. maybe: geek = computer related, nerd = general markdavidson : A geek tinkers with stuff. A nerd researches stuff. There's a fine line between a computer nerd and a computer geek. AlbertMaruggi : nerd knows a lot, but can't really find the right application for it and people are a necessary element of this world. How's that? AlbertMaruggi : Geek knows alot and really can't stop talking about it no matter how hard they try, at parties, ...

I have been an Engish speaker for over 4 decades but Slang in the US is another story ( I was born and brought up in India) So when I hear people talking about 'SWAG" My curiousity gets me. I ask on Twitter what "Swag" means and I these friends responded quicly and gave me the exct meaning: @Jestutripup Schwag: bag of marketing goodies or junk you get at conferences, which include pens markers highlighters pads stickers tshirts etc @ ColleenCoplick i'm familiar with SWAG, which are all the freebies & giveaways from wherever. is sCHWag something else or just a diff spelling? @ mkrigsman Schwag is free crap you get a trade shows @ PreppyDude Schwag = free stuff that companies give out for self promotion at 11-12-2007 23:31 @ rslux Swag = "Stuff we all get" = tradeshow giveaways @ WillBrown , schwag is the misc free branded pens, notebooks, etc you get when you go to conventions. @ dacort Schwag is slang for sweet, or cool. At least that's ...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/9d94/ , originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda . I had told all my Twitter friends that I was moving jobs within Network Solutions and got some awesome encouragement in the form of direct messages, comments on the blog and links from their blogs. Today as i opened a package left at my door i was awestruck to see , Tojosan had sent me a awesome gift to encourage me in my new position. I cannot thank him enough. My family had a good time looking at these and i will take them to work with me in 2008

Frozen Peas Friday Avatar - Frozenpeafund,com , originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda . Susan Reynolds is the nicest person you can meet online. Not so long ago she announced that she was being tested for breast cancer and all of us had to pause and ponder. Why does this happen to nice people? Please join the Frozen Peas Fund group on Flickr. Donate for breast Cancer Research at http://frozenpeafund.com/ . Here are some people who have been working hard and contributing to this effort. I am sure there are many others I may not have mentioned or do not know about: AnnOhio is a tireless do gooder. Her post on Frozen Peas Friday says she has sacrificed even her regular Friday Avatar ! She is so full of cheer and humor. Connie Reece was instrumental in creating a Flickr group Frozen Peas Fund and has great post on Community vs. Cancer Laura Fitton of Pistachio Consulting helped set up the Frozen Peas Feed Chris Brogan has included links and his post will tell you how the F...

I fired away my previous post while still riding the Metro yesterday. As I was riding back home I saw this sign in the Metro which explains the "No Eating Rule". That makes sense . I am curious from you if your city has a Metro - is there a "No eating Rule" . if there isn't have you seen any rats in your Metro. Cheers!

I think the rule is really dumb. I say this as the girl in the seat in front is eating pretzels. Fine those who litter the metro heavily but people snacking its a essential activity. Of course last year a teenager was handcuffed for eating french fries on the metro- come on we live in a civlized world and we have better things to do than stop people from eating. I think my metro eating rule violater has finished her snack. My few cents.

| View | Upload your own As Twitter was down today I was exploring both Jaiku and Pownce when i saw this comment from "Joanbit" on jaiku 'Com millorar les nostres presentacions: http://www.slideshare.net/selias22/taking-your-slide-deck-to-the-next-level/". Thanks Joanbit Excellent slideshow

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I was really struggling to put my thoughts into a Tweet and as I kept misspelling words so that they would fit I was fervently hoping my daughter wouldn't read this post.If she did my authority to tell her to dot her "i"s and cross her "t"s would just disappear :). Then I had horrible thoughts of the punishment the "Language" Police would inflict on me. Of course the consoling thought was that if I created a new word it may find itself in the Washington Post like w00t did I braved myself and asked this question on Twitter. Do you think the language police will be after me because I have to have typos to make the message fit the 140 character Twitter limit? And here is the support I got: hoovers @shashib, the language police will have to read you your Miranda rights in 140 characters or less mariana_66 @shashib: i'm always spelling creatively on twitter & txt - i have a lot to say & have trouble fitting it into 140 chars! It's good p...

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If only you knew this was not garbage , originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda . If only you knew this was not garbage I don't want newspapers to die. Thats my quality time and sometimes that morphs into family time. The plastic wrapped package above is today's (12/12/2007) Washington Post. It does not deserve this place. Newspapers particularly good ones(IMHO) like the Washington Post have a place in our life. About an hour ago as we were having breakfast - my wife, daughter and me had a discussion on how nice the Cookies in the food section looked ( Thats what you can see on the top in this picture). The conversation was going to evolve around how we could make the weekend a fun activity and make some of these cookies. I am heavily plugged in to the Internet and to me a Newspaper is like a RSS reader. It usually does a good job of collecting news and information and if it doesnt I just move on. I felt passionate enough on this to stop and take this picture. Washi...

I am not sure how I got this link. But it was on my screen yesterday. It must have been an intervention of positive forces that made me click on the link. The video is inspiring and awesome, in fact I am behind 6 Million people who already viewed this video. Watch and get inspired. Randy Pausch's Home page is here He also lead some cool projects for novices / School students called Alice project Guys like him are the reason why there is innovation, humanity and kindness. hats off to Randy Pausch Update : Another inspirational link from Jess Kutch : @shashib Saw your tweets on living out childhood dreams, and thought you might enjoy this: http://tinyurl.com/2wogx3 ( Great story there too)

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This is a quote from Boris Jordan writing in the Washington post’s Outlook Section today . I totally associate with the experience of Boris Jordan because I lived in Moscow in the early 90’s. I was there from the pre- “Perestroika” days where I experienced the same problems that local people experienced with food shortages, empty shops and no production. I experienced the “country switched from a communist regime to a rudimentary free-market democracy virtually overnight.” When I first landed in Moscow in 1989 as an employee of a USSR-Indian joint venture restaurant the dollar was worth .70 kopeks officially and sold on the streets for 15 rubles. We left India with essentials like toothpaste, soaps etc in large numbers in our luggage which were in short supply in the USSR ( I am using the USSR because the Soviet Union was still intact). In those days the typical commute was a 5 min walk to the Shukinskaya metro. The Moscow Metro was very efficient and we made the commute from our Metr...

I get a good laugh as I watch the humorous comments on Twitter. This lead me to tweet:- " Who should we vote for the "most humorous on Twitter"? Any Nominations? " The response to this Tweet was great so it started getting difficult to manage. So the next thing was to make this a Poll. In the interest of not being self promoting I decided to ask help for someone to host this poll. The first offer for help was from @Technomom (She is a real hero - despite having a fall the next day she collected the info and launched the polls). please direct any brickbats at me as I am solely responsible. We got 33 nomnations and at last count 80 people had voted. There were no rules. It was all for fun. Just made some logistic decisions. No limit to number of people you could nominate. Closed the nominations at mid-night . I am sure we missed several good and funny people who didn't get the word on time (My apologies for not preparing well for this :) I may have started a cat...

Among the video upload sites I have used brightcove, Jumpcut along with Youtube. It looks like BrightCove is changing its business model considering the email i got today reproduced below: Key takeaway: Beginning December 18, 2007, we plan to end support of direct consumer uploads to Brightcove.TV. As a result, you will not be able to upload new videos to Brightcove.TV after December 17, 2007. But videos you have already uploaded to Brightcove.TV will remain available on the site and through your Brightcove.TV channel. Videos you have embedded in other sites and blogs will also continue to play. Dear Brightcove.TV member, Beginning December 18, 2007, we plan to end support of direct consumer uploads to Brightcove.TV. As a result, you will not be able to upload new videos to Brightcove.TV after December 17, 2007. But videos you have already uploaded to Brightcove.TV will remain available on the site and through your Brightcove.TV channel. Videos you have embedded in other sites and ...

Small Biz Survival: Want to Get FREE Tax Tips? See the States that love Small business in this article from CNN Money.CNn.com

Mary Ellen Slayter wrote a great article on getting an MBA and how important it is to get experience first. Extract: An MBA from a top school is often seen as a guaranteed investment, boosting your earnings as well as your career trajectory. But how do you know when it's the right time to pursue a master's degree in business? "You have to be ready," said Sam Kang, associate director for recruiting at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business at College Park. "You have to ask yourself three questions: Why an MBA, why now and why a particular school?" This decision should factor in your family responsibilities and finances, as well as the strength of your application and your long-term career goals. Link to complete article:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/17/AR2007111700683.html

The LRO Project and the Thrill Hill Gang , originally uploaded by geosteph . GeoSteph is a fantastic person and here is her story in her own words: It started with at tweet: "I wonder if Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and the Crew would like a tour of Goddard while they are in town?" A twitter friend bbluesman offered to put me in touch with one of the roadies on the tour. I passed the invitation to Aron (also on twitter) who passed the invitation to the entire crew. When I went to the concert on Sunday, Aron gave me a behind the scenes tour of the technology it takes to put on a Rock n Roll show. On Monday some of the crew the "Thrill Hill Gang" came to Goddard to see what it takes to put a space craft on a rocket...we had a great visit and tour..I just wish that Aron didn't have to work that morning Geosteph you are a rockstar too ! Source : http://geosteph-adventuresinearthandspace.blogspot.com/ Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/geostep...

This was not a prepared speech and i had others vying to take the attentions away. You will find this funny at best.

img0008 , originally uploaded by scripsi_scriptum . At the launch party for Geoff Livingston's book "Now is Gone" ISBN-10: 0910155739 I enjoyed talking to his Grandma Muriel. Very bright and excellent conversationalist- spent many years in France where they ran a winery. I hope i meet her again. Geoff's book is good. I just finished it today.

This was my first upload to YouTube

The various versions of this Blog have over 3 million views Micheal L Wesch is a Asst. Prof at Kansas State University Here is a link to the article by A ndrea Foster on Chronicle.com

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Embedded Video Source : http://nowisgone.com/2007/11/06/smc-austin-heuer-on-the-new-communications/ Blogged with Flock

Its cool that Yahoo beat Google in offering driving directions in India . I wasn in India in July. Who drives their own car anyway when visiting. After nearly 10 years in the US I am scared to drive. Still Yahoo's step is a cool thing that will give Yahoo an edge. Yahoo has a bigger presence in India than Google according to Fortune. I tried out a route that I had gone many times in July and the directions seemed quite accurate. I will give good marks to Yahoo. Driving from Hyderabad to Warangal

I was reading Fortune's article on the issue Oct 29th ( Online version ) and was amazed that India has a 400 million workforce. Extraordinary Human capital. Some other amazing numbers: Internet ad business = $53 million Puny compared to the $16 Billion US spending- so there is a huge potential here. Google realuzes that and has a huge India presence Internet Users= 25 million Cell Phone users = 200 million ( The government expects to have .5 Billion by 2010) With the dollar value weakening Indian powerhouses are seeking to buy companies. A few months ago Tata motors was mentioned as a possible suitor for Chrysler. Now its going after Landrover and Jaguar from Ford. Growing up in India I remeber the brands like Imapala were owned by filmstars and it would a couols of months if not years for new music releases to make it to India. Now Indian internet users are probably buying music online. Thank you Globalization. Two excellent books on globalization: The World Is Flat: A Brief Histo...

My Son in Daycare , originally uploaded by sbell1508 . Among the various uses of the Internet. I like this. My son's daycare sends me pictures now and then and its so nice to stop and look at the pictures. :)

My friend Tastybit posted this on Twitter and its a great blog post here - http://giussani.typepad.com Top sources of innovative ideas Interesting graph from this week's Economist report on innovation, showing the most significant sources of innovative ideas for corporations, based on a survey of CEOs and and business leaders done by IBM last year (so, a strong focus on technological innovation here). Notice the big role of customers (which would look even bigger if combined with the internal sales units), the small role of R&D, and the fact that hiring consultants roughly equals attending conferences and trade shows:

http://www.blueocean.org/seafood/ . They send cell phone-based service to send you text messages with the information you need to make smart seafood choices. Great guide to seafood: http://www.fishphone.org/seafoodguide.pdf Mobile device: The group also is launching FishPhone (http://fishphone.org), a Web site formatted for Web-enabled cell phones and PDAs. I wish they had the fishphone.mobi domain.

Answer: India, with the unusual distinction of being possibly the only country in the world losing Internet accounts, as in the second quarter of 2007 the number of tertiary users fell by 50,000. Yet, more Indians than ever report going onto the 'Net to surf or check email. How is this possible? Because, Net users are now accessing through their cell phones. Source: http://www.ibls.com/

I am really amazed at school students being so aware at what their parent generation has done to damage the environment. Google adwords team just sent a nice post on http://veggiewheels.com/ ( Nice website) Extract: Why vegetable oil is the perfect ingredient to reduce climate change: Sulfur, which causes acid rain, is eliminated Co2 emissions, a major contributor to global warming, are nearly eliminated because vegetable oil is a renewable fuel Emissions of others pollutants like HydroCarbons and Carbon-monoxide are reduced by about 30% - 50% Black soot (particulate) is significantly reduced by 50-70% On Sunday in the Parade magazine I liked the one common sense suggestion from a Doctor to practice hygiene. Leave your shoes at the door.

Check out the Washington-area blog directory on washingtonpost.com: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/local-blog-directory/ See what your neighbors in DC, Maryland and Virginia are writing in their blogs

Here is what Marissa Conrad posted on Facebook : ---------------------------------------------------------------- "I'm writing a few "how we met" stories for Washingtonian's annual wedding guide, so I need to find engaged or married couples in the Washington area who have cute/funny/otherwise entertaining stories on how they met, fell in love, got engaged... It will be a fun interview for a couple to do--who doesn't like talking about how they fell in love? If you're interested or know anyone who might be, please e-mail me at mconrad@washingtonian.com. Thanks!" ---------------------------------------------------- I am looking forward to a very interesting article

In the tech business JAVA is pretty important for a lot of Web Based applications. WHy is ti them the stock of Sun Microsystems (JAVA) trading at $5.76 (52 Week Range $4.50 - 6.78)I guess thier giving away of the software is not making the stock the favorite of Wall Street.

Just saw a post on Facebook from Marissa Conrad ( Freelance Journlaist)reproduced below. Really amazing and I am sure she will get a lot of leads. Social networks are the way for future communications.I have seen several Washington Post journalists on Facebook and Exchanged some plesantries with DOn Graham the head honcho of Washington Post. The very fact that he replied tells me that they take Facebook seriously and are organized to respond. Marissa Conrad's Post : I'm writing a few "how we met" stories for Washingtonian's annual wedding guide, so I need to find engaged or married couples in the Washington area who have cute/funny/otherwise entertaining stories on how they met, fell in love, got engaged... It will be a fun interview for a couple to do--who doesn't like talking about how they fell in love? If you're interested or know anyone who might be, please e-mail me (Marissa) at mconrad@washingtonian.com. Thanks!

From Oct. 9-11, 2007, Network Solutions® is participating in the EcomXpo, a virtual tradeshow for e-commerce marketers. As part of this event, we’re giving away a Top 10 Search Results package that provides expert search engine optimization (SEO) to get your web site ranked on the first page of search results. This is a $2,800 value! To enter for your chance to win, simply register for the expo (it’s free) at www.ecomxpo.com and visit the Network Solutions virtual booth.

I must have missed this story earlier. I saw this small item in the Business Briefs section of the Washington Post and nearly fell off my chair. Joining NetBank seemed cool and getting 5000 Marriott Rewards points was definitely a plus. I understand that all deposits below 100k will be taken over by ING bank. I am not worried, I like ING bank and wanted to be a member. I hope there are no migration problems. This seems surprising that you don't get notified of a bank closing. To be rationla that is probably to prevent a run on the bank. I look forward to getting my dollars back or atleast see them in an account. I will keep you posted. http://netbank.com/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21039715/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092801290.html?sub=AR