Owner: MGL Unplugged URL:http://mglunplugged.com/ Join Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2007 05:43:33 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: We, at MGL, indulge in blogging for a variety of reasons. Some of us enjoy creative writing as a way of escaping the burden of constantly staring at our computer screens. Others blog since they believe that knowledge sharing is the only that the world wil Site statistics:Click here
Technically write... 2007-10-08 09:26:03 Technically, the write stuffHave you always wondered what these jargons - technical communication/technical writing - really mean? Have you been shying away from supporting dry documentation tasks or reviewing them? Alas! You have been into false fancies. Here, let me try to make you feel at home when you are to get involved in a documentation task.The field
Vroom! An ode to ‘The King’ 2007-10-04 09:14:42
The King has left the circuitTo blog or not to blog - that was the question on my mind that day. All of a sudden I had this sudden urge to blog. Was it pressure within or just peer pressure? Oh well, it was a bit of both!! Just I was contemplating what to blog about…a shrill sound permeated the living room. Vrooooooooooom
Thus squawketh 'Idea Mani' 2007-10-03 10:20:59
A bright idea!The Communication and Coordination Group of our company recently launched a contest called Srishti where each and every employee had the opportunity to christen a masc
The long road back to work 2007-10-03 07:32:26
All roads lead to gloom?In today’s IT environment, Chennai is a thriving, pulsating metropolis with giant flyovers, high-rises and some of India’s most important industrial houses. The city has a heterogeneous mix of architectural styles, ranging from the ethnical temple s
An "Allie" for MGL 2007-09-21 16:13:35
Photo courtesy: GartnerAllie Young, a VP Distinguished Analyst for Gartner, one of the world's largest research organisations based in US, shared her views on offshoring with MGL during her recent vi
Staying within the box 2007-09-20 09:34:09
If you've been down Brigade road in Bangalore and back, you might have noticed that it has a tendency to occasionally resemble a Linkin Park video. Blue hair, spikes and unnecessary earrings make for what are conventionally referred to as wannabes. People trying too hard to do wild, strange things to themselves, all to be different so they can be "cool".Oscillate back to the other extreme, an organization and surprisingly enough, some similarity still exists. It lies in the ironically cliché "thinking out of the box", the primary key to stand out from the rest in an organization. People are encouraged to think differently. The message is evident. Think strange thoughts, be different and be recognized by authority.Personally, I feel this complicates life for no apparent reason. Take Newton or Einstein, both of whom started out by asking simple questions, respectively "Why did the apple fall down?" or the "race with light" question. This done, they broke it down into simpler substance Read more:within
King Khan your way out of corporate obscurity 2007-09-20 04:49:39
Khan of one identity, master of none?Ever wondered why every virtual Tom, Dick and Harry seems to have heard the name of your competitors but not your company? More importantly, does it matter? I, for one, certainly Read more:corporate
Tagged and ready to be found 2007-09-13 11:30:09
Folksonomies. RDF Schema. Semantic Web. Any of these sound familiar? Maybe not. How about tags? No, no, I am not talking about those littler pieces of paper, which bear names in stylized fonts stuck to the front pockets of neatly dressed people at seminars and office parties! What I intend to talk about here is a web tag – one that is a relevant keyword assigned to a piece of information found in the online world.Authors/creators or consumers personally choose tags and use them for identifying resources such as web pages, digital images, and Internet bookmarks. To quite simply put it, if you find something that you admire on the Internet, you tag it. If somebody else likes it, they tag it too. This would not only make it easier for you to revisit the object of your virtual admiration, but it would also provide fast and easy access for any other person browsing the Internet to find the tagged object. This collaborative effort of making specific information easy to discover and Read more:Tagged
, ready
What's the big idea? 2007-09-06 06:57:39 An idea that started a revolution"We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be taught, he can be killed and forgotten but, 400 years later, an idea can still change the world"
- From the film "V For Vendetta"
I like the above dialog in the movie, as it rightly puts the perspective on idea
Water, water everywhere 2007-09-04 12:07:07
Have you ever wondered how much your thoughts can have an effect on you? This might seem more like a cliché but everything seemed new and mind-blowing when I came across a one-of-kind experiment conducted by a visionary Japanese scientist. Mr. Masaru Emoto has conducted different kinds of experimental study on water and has published his findings in the book “The Message from Water”. Let me tell you about one of the experiments conducted by him. He took two glass bottles, and filled them both with water. A person was asked to stand before the first bottle with a deep sense of clarity of thought and bless the water with words such as ‘be blessed’, ‘be healed’, ‘be fine’ and the same person was made to stand before the second bottle and say words of blasphemy like “you fool”, “idiot”, “worthless” etc. Water droplets from both the bottles taken before and after the experiment were frozen and examined under a dark field microscope that had phot Read more:everywhere
Analyze This 2007-08-30 09:35:00
With a new project in the pipeline, the need for a business analyst cropped up once again. In came the mail from my Project Head, asking me to gather information about the domain and get started on gathering further relevant information to assess value and viability of the project. That’s me – business analyst by day and extremely sleepy by night. So back to the desk I went, sitting down in front of my computer and all ready to begin initial research.
As a person who is often prone to philosophical thinking, I let my mind wander a bit and thought of the age-old question - why do we need business analysts? Just as I was about to tell myself that BAs improve the quality of the requirements elicitation and analysis, another question popped up in my head – why on earth is there a parody song about Business Analysts on the World Wide Web? Well, I wasn’t hallucinating; I had stumbled across a web page that featured a song by this guy called Phil Alexander which featured mind-bogglin Read more:Analyze
Unconference 101 2007-08-27 09:43:03 The term Unconference
refers to equal participation of all members in attendance during a discussion. Stemming from the notion that every participant has interesting thoughts, insights and ideas, Unconferences are not based on any set agenda. Instead they take shape based on how the participants evolve the discussion. It differs from conventional conferences in the sense that everyone is given a chance to speak up, which helps the discussion to move on efficiently and spontaneously.Also the cost factor of hosting Unconferences is drastically cheaper than regular industry conferences, which are often weighed down by a truckload of costs. With this, all that is required are time, location and date of meeting, a pre-decided topic of discussion and a bunch of people willing to voice their ideas and opinions.The concept was first introduced in 1998 during the annual XML Developers’ Conference, which as held "by developers, for developers, in a locale noted for its French-Canadian culture,
Onam @ MGL 2007-08-27 05:52:07 MGL celebrates Onam in style!Yesterday, we celebrated the harvest festival – Onam - at MGL. For Keralites, it symbolizes a new ray of hope in life. This is the biggest festival of Kerala, as every one from God’s Own Country waits in baited breath for this celebratory event For those who have spent their
Indian Cricket League - What's all the fuss about? 2007-08-24 13:21:24 We're a nation of a billion people, and yes the count will increase by another 1,000 before I compete this sentence. At any point in time, only 20 or so cricketers get to represent the country. If you take the India A team into consideration, you're probably talking about 50 players who get to wear the "hallowed blue". From the dirt roads of Chennai to the maidans in Mumbai, anyone and everyone that has access to a bat and ball can play this game, which to most is a religion these days.Tennis, basketball, field athletics and the like are still light years behind in terms of acceptance from the general public. At a higher level, even when it comes to organized cricket, the examples of players coming through the ranks to represent the country are few and far between. Almost everyone that has donned the national colors has been a prodigy, be it Kapil, Sachin, Yuvraj Singh, etc. For every success story, there are a million stories of doors being closed on talented young players due to re Read more:League
, Cricket
Unveiling a complex web 2007-08-23 10:12:55
As part of the team that had recently launched a new micro-site for MGL, I had the chance to research, learn and implement web strategies, as well as learn a thing or two about design elements and content generation. Now I don’t claim to be a subject matter expert, but do consider this as a layman’s guide to unveiling the complex web of launching a website!Identify your target group: It is hard to build a website to suit everybody’s whims and fancies. Focus on the essential groups and try to use both demographic and psychographic components to describe your website.Select an eye-catching domain name: Select a domain name, which is unique and easy to remember and one that reflects your business expertise. Preferably the domain name must be same as that of your organisation.Content is king and design is queen: Focus and implement your strategies, bearing the following points in mind:
1. Use attractive paragraph titles
2. Use significant keywords in first paragraph
3. Downloa Read more:Unveiling
Far from the maddening crowd 2007-08-23 10:10:21 As Mark Twain rightly said "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
You need not be a "roadie" to travel or even be extremely passionate about it. Apart from being a fun activity or a hobby to many, travel is a great way to break the monotony of daily life. The mind needs constant rejuvenation and travel provides exactly that!
Everything seems different on the road. For those who thrive on challenges, it’s a time to test limits and contemplate life from new angles or create changes, big and small. And for those who are hurdled by the challenges and hardships of day-to-day life, it’s a great escape to a different world altogether. The experiences when you hit the road are diverse; good, bad, strange but most worth cherishing for an entire lifetime.
The journey from Read more:crowd
A space for mourning 2007-08-23 09:54:40 More often than not, Internet phenomenons have this uncanny knack of being kooky! Right from the Stars Wars kid who became a YouTube celebrity to the 3D-rendered dancing baby that got itself a free pass into the virtual wall of fame – all of them are showcased with the understanding that people enjoy a certain degree of absurdity in their daily dose of humour. Since its launch in 2005 by Mike Patterson – a 25-year old legal clerk, MyDeathSpace has become a fad on the World Wide Web. But it is not one that tickles your funny bone or grabs your attention with its in-your-face humour. Instead it reels you in with its morose intentions.At first sight, it is a website that records the death of MySpace users by connecting the deaths of account-holders to their news obituaries. The altruistic motive of the website according to its founder is that it warns young people of the consequences of irresponsible behaviour such as excessive consumption of alcohol or drug usage. He also believes th
Hit the road, Kutty 2007-08-23 09:48:46 Kutty
and I sharing a moment!All through my adolescence, the affection that my dad showered on his bike had imbibed strong images of bonding in me. The desire to hit the road on his bike kept clawing my insides and finally during one fine summer I was inspired to steal the forbidden ride. As my dad left India on
eMusic learns to rock 2007-08-22 10:28:06
Music sounds better with technology?In what would be a major boost to the Independent music scene, the second-largest online music seller in the US – eMusic – is on the of announcing a deal with AT&T that will allow cellphone users to buy songs from independent labels through their cellphones.The arrangement with AT&T Mobile Music
They’ve got mail…new and improved, apparently 2007-08-22 10:23:33
You've got mail, faster than ever beforeBoth my social and professional lives have been streamlined through emailing services. Ever since I got my first email ID in hotmail.com, I have scheduled appointments, sent documents, written polite refusals, got in touch with old friends - all through the wonderful world of w Read more:improved
Know your identity 2007-08-22 10:17:54
Searching for identities at the workplaceSo what is identity
management? According to Wikipedia, it is the management of the identity life cycle of entities. As far as I am concerned, identity management is the process through which authorized identities are implemented in line with established policies.Recently, I had a bird’s
On a road less marketed 2007-08-22 09:57:36
Visualizing a wider marketing horizonI had a chance to present a session on the new media and its implications to some of our board members recently. Two things hit me as I was making the presentation. Do all these people, who spend a lot of time reviewing numbers and governance, would they ever relate to n Read more:marketed
, road less
Raising a toast 2007-08-20 12:53:31 Clink! A toast to party etiquetteLast weekend, I attended a corporate dinner party with a few of my colleagues. Having successfully implemented a new service offering from MGL, we decided to celebrate with a few drinks and a whole lot of exotic culinary dishes! Being the designated teetotaler, I was halfway throu Read more:Raising
Archie gets a dose of Desi 2007-08-20 12:52:17 Archie
with his pal - RajMeet Raj Patel - the first Indian to inhabit Riverdale town, a quaint little place that can only be found between the pages of Archie comics. The teenager Patel, modeled by veteran Archie creator Fernando Ruiz, is touted to make cameo appearances in the next
Of magicians and physicists 2007-08-20 12:50:22
Size does matter in levitation!More often than not, physicists are an ambitious lot, desperately trying to make sense of gravity, equilibrium and other such laws that govern our daily lives. Recently UK physicists have claimed to be able to create “incredible levitation effects” by manipulating the Casimir force. Of course, street magicians have perfected the art of foiling the masses with their
French tube connection 2007-08-20 11:28:22
Kamini - Very hip with his hop!In September 2006, Marly-Gomont - a sleepy town located north of Paris with 423 inhabitants – felt the viral video wave sweeping through its scenic landscapes. Kamini, the hometown rapper, wrote a song, which was a humorous recounting of the daily li Read more:French
, connection
Kicking up an online buzz 2007-08-16 12:59:06
What happens when sports collides with web technology? As yesterday’s events have proven, history occurs. Premier English football club Manchester United have recruited nine-year-old Rhain Davis after his grandfather presented a four-minute video clip of the kid’s football prowess in an Under-10 side in Brisbane, Australia.You may ask, how come the footage generated enough interest to warrant recruitment? Well, apart from the kid’s unique football skills, this video clip has also been setting YouTube ablaze by garnering over "three million" hits.Now Rhain Davis has moved thousands of miles from Brisbane to Cheshire, with his family to kick up a storm on the football field.Click here to read more about how YouTube has introduced to the sporting world - a future star.TAGS:sports, football, video, Rhain Davis, YouTube Read more:online
, Kicking
BBC set to revolutionize TV programming 2007-08-16 12:44:31 All set to revolutionize the way viewers watch television, the BBC launched an online service on July 27 that allows people to download television programs from the last week. Comparing this new innovative service with the first colour television broadcasts in the 1960s, BBC Director General Mark Thompson announced the arrival of the ‘on-demand’ iPlayer through which viewers can choose from 400 hours of television programming, between 60-70 percent of the total TV output.Available to Microsoft XP users in Britain, the iPlayer is free, but people will only be allowed to save temporary copies to their computer. In this day and age where technology has made television more user friendly than ever before, BBC has just upped the ante on providing flexibility for its viewing audience.I imagine that other broadcasters such as Channel 4 and ITV in Britain will now try to innovate the similar services that they offer. That’s what I love about broadcast technology; the urge for them to con
Monkey see, man do 2007-08-16 12:39:15
There is supposed to be an experiment performed by a few Japanese scientists with a penchant for the unknown and apparently not much else to do by way of work. It involved taking one monkey out of a lot of monkeys from different islands and training it to wash a sweet potato before eating it. Having done this, this monkey was then put back on the island it was taken from. Within a relatively short period of time, the monkey had every other monkey washing its own sweet potato before eating, which is all very communitarian and cute, but wait, there's more.Within a significant period of time, monkeys on other islands who had no access to these monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes. While the scientists attempted to theorize how this could have happened, in some other part of the world, another bunch of scientists were performing similar experiments on how earthworms respond to light when they recognized a similar phenomena.Finally, the theory they put together was that when one bein
Locked and loaded 2007-08-16 12:35:18
Do you find it hard to press CTRL+ALT+DEL, to lock your computer every time? Then, here is a shortcut for you…
Right click an empty spot on the desktop, point to 'New' and click 'Shortcut'
In the 'Create Shortcut' dialog box, copy the following into the 'Type the location' space of the item text box. (rundll32 user32.dll, LockWorkStation)
Click Next
In the 'Type a name for this shortcut', type 'LOCK' and click on 'Finish'
Now every time you want to lock your system, just double click on the icon. Read more:Locked
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