Owner: Me and My Views URL:http://sudeepdsouza.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:58:55 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: My views on things that I see happening around me and also that happen to me in my life in India as a software engineer. Site statistics:Click here
Listing on blog catalogues does pay off 2008-03-08 00:41:00 In an earlier post "Advertising my blog" I was cribbing about listing my blog in blog directories and how even though I listed on them for quite some time I did not manage to get any traffic and got frustrated. Things suddenly changed after a post written by me listed on problogger.net. Suddenly I had visitors in the hundreds visit my blog and that automatically pushed up my blog in all the blog catalogues and immediately my blog started getting traffic from all the blog catalogues. Suddenly I have had a spurt of visitors from an average of about 30 per day to now a number that is closer to 100.So listing on blog catalogues does pay off if you can manage to get noticed by one of the bigger sites which can drive traffic to your blog. Increasing traffic to your blog is all about patience and
Earning money by giving it free 2008-03-06 18:22:00 You hear a lot of it in the software world free unlimited mail, free chat service, free software and so on. You start to wonder who is paying for all the servers that are running this software or who is paying for all the people that developed this service or who is paying for all the marketing that these services are doing (like the ads for ibibo, indiatimes mail, rediff mail on Indian television).All of this may be free to use as a direct service but if you look more closely you start to wonder is it really free, because all of these companies are earning money is some manner to pay for running their business. Let us take an example of all the Google products. They are all free to use for most of the features that they offer. But Google earns a lot of revenue in the following ways and th Read more:Earning
Team Blogs 2008-03-05 20:14:00 I have been getting quite a few requests asking whether I would be interested in teaming up in order to write a blog. In this article I would like to write about what I consider a blog to be and the reasons as to why I will not do team blogs.I consider a blog to be a personal expression of ones ideas and views. It has a style and a view that is very individualistic. It is a diary that is public. It gives you an insight into the ideas and thoughts of a person. What I have realised over time is that when you read a blog you either love a blog or you hate a blog. There is no middle ground. I have also realised that there are blogs where there is a lot of information but you just don't like the blog because of the style in which the post is written. So writing blogs is very individualistic and Read more:Blogs
India steps back 2008-03-03 20:35:00 After listening to the budget proposals on the waiver of the farmer loans the first thing that came to my mind is that we are stepping backwards. The issue I have is not about the money being spent but on what it is being spent. In this post I will try to elaborate as to why I have such strong views on this subject.Spending 650 billion rupees (65,000 crores) for no changeThe farmer whose loan is written off will anyway have no money again even after his loan is written off. He still has to borrow the next year to grow his crop. With no change in the environment surrounding his current situation which put him in this position in the first place what's stopping him from ending up where he is again two or three years down the line. So we are spending all this money in writing off his debt bu Read more:India
, steps
Featuring in the newspaper 2008-03-03 02:29:00 The Indiblogger meet sure seemed to have upped my popularity. It all started with a phone call from Ishita from Deccan Chronicle about my views on blogging and why I blog and after a 5 minute conversation with Mona and myself she seemed satisfied with the information that she had and before we could ask her anything more she hung up. On opening today mornings paper I was surprised to find thisThen there are blogs that will guide you about the basic things like how to apply for a passport, create a website, good places to hang out in a city, as CTO of Infornia.com, Sudeep D’Souza does. Sudeep’s wife, Mona, is also a serious blogger. “I have a baby product company and though we don’t use my blog to promote the company as yet, we give reviews on different baby products available in th
Hyderabad Indiblogger Meet 2008-03-01 21:35:00 After a 15 KM drive to the Microsoft Campus in Gachbowli and then the half-a-kilometer trek uphill in the hot afternoon sun from Gate 5 to Gate 3 of the Microsoft Campus on the road which has tons of construction trucks plying (there is no side walk on the road) and after negotiating all the security formalities to enter the campus we finally arrived at the hall.There were only about 10 of us even though 75 or so registered on the website but in the next 30 min or so the hall was packed with more than a 100 blogger/wannabe bloggers. Having never been to a blogging meet and it was the same for many of those that came the introverted nature of Indians came out and everyone stuck to their own groups.The meet started with introductions from Balaji who organized the meet and Renie from Indiblog
Daughter's Passport : Submitting the form 2008-02-28 17:39:00 Having got the form and completing it with the necessary documentation I visited the passport office in Secunderabad. A visit to the passport office website gives you other places where the passport can be submitted but having already been to this office I was more comfortable going here. Its not on the website but the passport application can also be submitted at some of the e-seva counters. Although on casual enquiry (not official) at the passport office they told me that at times there might be a delay in the forms reaching the passport office from the e-seva counter.View Larger MapPhase 1 : Getting a token The first thing you need to do is to get a token. This token will have a time slot during which you have to submit your application. This token consists of a sticker that is stuck to Read more:Daughter
, Passport
Problogger guest post 2008-02-27 20:22:00 Today my guest post appeared on problogger.net. I wrote about 9 Tips to Start Blogging Successfully.Let me give you a bit of a background about where this article originated from. I have been blogging for close to 3 years now but I have been doing it seriously only for the last 2 months. I then analysed what were the things that I should have done in order to have become a successful blogger based on what I have noticed on the ones that have become successful. The final analysis of my study is what I put into that article and it is what I am trying to implement since the last 2 months.Reading the comments it was exhilarating to notice that some of the readers actually thought Darren was writing the post :-). It was also nice to notice that many readers agreed with my analysis and that stre
Daughter's Passport : Documents 2008-02-27 01:15:00 After getting the documents from the e-seva counter for Rs. 10, I had to put together the following documents to complete the applicationAn affidavit that needs to be signed by the mother and father - the proforma of this affidavit is present in the application form.Birth certificate of the child. Please make sure the name of the mother and father on the birth certificate is the same as what is on their passports. If it is not you will have to go through the process described here to get it changed on the birth certificate.Photo copy of the passport of the father and mother. If the address on the father's passport is not the same as the address requested on the child's passport then an address proof is required. For details of the address proof refer to the back of the passport application Read more:Daughter
, Passport
, Documents
Tata sky fixes at a cost 2008-02-25 06:41:00 After my earlier rant about Tata Sky which I forwarded to their customer care and publicity email ids that I got from the Internet I got a call from their customer care telling me that they can fix my problem at a cost. I was told that I would be refunded all my money but I had to pay the refund charges which worked out to about 2.5% of the refunded amount and then I can buy the new package by paying once again. Having no energy to argue with them anymore and the fact that I still save money at the end of the transaction I agreed to it. The fact that I have to pay money for no mistake of mine but a lack of a process capability on their side is something that still leaves a distaste in my mouth.Anyway for all those planning on getting Tata Sky - their service is good compared to a lot of ot
Cookbook for the novice 2008-02-25 04:20:00 Cooking can be hard to learn if you do not have the right tools and guidance. Many of us miss out on learning how to cook when we are at home due to a zillion reasons that each one of us can quickly come up with from just laziness to "I will never have to cook". All of this changes when we have to travel abroad or have to live on our own and have no option but to cook. At that point of time the phone calls home and the lack of information in the cookbooks in the market to address the novice cook just don't seem to alleviate our suffering.Many years ago my parents came out with a cookbook that addressed this need. This cookbook teaches you to make some of my favourite and simple dishes such as plain rice, tomato rasam, chocolate cake, Lemon Souffle and many many more recipes.You can catch a Read more:Cookbook
Offshore Development Challenges : Requirements 2008-02-23 01:16:00 Anyone who has done a reasonable amount of development will tell you that in order for a project to succeed getting the requirements right is the most important ingredient of the success. Communicating a requirement is another challenge due to the fact that along with the idea the intent should also be conveyed and doing this over a non visual communication medium over thousands of miles can be a challenge.Good requirements development is even more crucial in an off-shore project due to the following reasonsWhen the requirement is not clear valuable time can be lost as the clarifications can take time due to the time difference.Subject matter experts may not be available in the offshore team so the SMEs in the on site team have to explicitly explain each and everything - otherwise the deve Read more:Offshore
, Development
, Requirements
Handling spam : Blocking users in Orkut 2008-02-21 20:11:00 Does the image above look like your scrap book each morning you open it. Do these messages irratate you and only waste your time as you have to patiently delete each one and every time you delete one there just seem to be more that come.Ever thought of blocking the user that is sending the spam. After a little bit of digging around this is how Orkut
expects you to do it. Below is a descriptive screen shot of how to block and unblock users
. First you have to go to the profile of the user that you wish to ignore and then move your mouse over the more>> link and thats when you are presented the option.Let us say that you have accidently ignored a user (would be so hard to do given how complex the task is) then the screen shot below shows how you can un-ignore that user. Blocking
users is so Read more:Handling
Microsoft is changing with the times 2008-02-21 04:15:00 I was using Office 2003 to write a post and I noticed that all the words starting with blog were marked as spelling mistakes. This kind of irratated me as my post was about blogging and my whole article was painted in red.I was curious why I had not noticed this before and when I opened the same article in Office 2007 it was all fine. This shows how the Microsoft
dictionary is changing with the times. You can also publish to your blog directly from Office 2007. The only issue is that you will need to use an image provider such as Flickr, Picassa, etc to hold your pictures. Office 2007 currently does not upload pictures into blogger as you do when you publish from www.blogger.com.
Copyright Me and My Views () by Sudeep DSouza. All Rights Reserved
Cricket Ground : Lahari Resorts 2008-02-20 04:11:00 Given below are the details of renting the ground at Lahari Resorts
From9:00am2:00pm7:00pmTo0:00pm6:00pm00:00hrsRATES WEEKDAYSRs. 5000/-Rs. 5000/-Rs.10000/-RATES WEEKENDSRs. 7000/-Rs. 7000/-Rs.12000/-PROVIDED BY THE RESORTS:Ø WICKETSØ SCORE BOARDØ MARKING OF CREASENOT PROVIDED BY THE RESORTS:Ø BALLSØ BATSØ PADS AND KITSNOT PERMITTED:Ø CORK BALLØ SYNTHETIC BALLPERMITTED:Ø GLACE BALLØ RUBBER BALLØ SOFT TENNIS BALLØ HARD TENNIS BALLHere are some pictures of the match we played on this ground
Copyright Me and My Views () by Sudeep DSouza. All Rights Reserved Read more:Cricket
Free Microsoft Software for students - But Not To Indian Students 2008-02-19 02:46:00 Looking at this headline "Microsoft
Giving Away Free Developer Software
To Students" in this article got me quite excited. I thought it is an excellent opportunity for all the college students in India especially in this day and age when we are lamenting that they are not good enough when they join the industry and how the industry has to spend a lot of money in training them.So I continued reading the article and I read this line "Microsoft is announcing right now DreamSpark, a new program that gives free developer, designer and related software to college students in 11 countries. DreamSpark goes live today in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States..." If you noticed there is no mention of India in this list
Environment determines persistence to succeed 2008-02-18 06:30:00 Sitting in my daughter's school the other day I was watching a game that the teacher was playing with the kids. The game consisted of a block of wood with some sockets in it and it had long cylindrical pegs that needed to be put in the sockets. The pegs were all of different sizes and the aim of the game was to put the right sized peg in the correct socket. At first the kids looked at it kind of indifferently but on a bit of encouragement and excitement they were all very interested in it.What I noticed was that most of them were persistent till they completed it or thought they had completed it. I have found that with kids - once something catches their attention they are very persistent to do it. They have an unclouded mind and they attack the problem with a goal in mind (the goal may no Read more:Environment
Daughter's passport : Getting the application form 2008-02-17 17:36:00 Initially I wanted to add my daughter's name to my passport since I did not want to get her a passport so early as she would have 3 passports by the time she is in her 20's. But a visit to the Regional Passport Office website told me that we can no longer add a name to the parent's passport and that we have to get a fresh passport.I went to the local e-seva counter at S.R. Nagar and bought the application form for Rs. 10. Filling up the application was fairly straightforward following the instructions at the back of the form. It is also clearly mentioned what needs to be submitted along with the form.After getting the form you need to complete the form and submit it at the passport office.
Copyright Me and My Views () by Sudeep DSouza. All Rights Reserved Read more:Daughter
Cricket Grounds in Hyderabad 2008-02-16 22:00:00 This is a repost of the article I published on the 10th of Jan, 2008 as I have added a new ground - Lahari Resorts.View Larger MapIn this post I will try and update the list of cricket grounds that i know in Hyderabad. The grounds that I have listed till now areMCH Play ground, AmeerpetFrancis (Do not have the contact number but go to the ground and ask for him). The charges are Rs. 1100 for the ground. They do not charge for anything more. You get the ground from 9:00 AM to 4:00PM. The ground is small.Welfare Center, Sanath NagarDhanraj Babu (+91 9394556356). The charges are Rs. 1100 for the ground. They charge you an additional Rs. 500 for the mat and Rs. 100 for cleaning and drawing lines and stuff. They are supposed to give you the ground from 9:00 AM to 4:00PM but what they do is that Read more:Cricket
, Grounds
Changes in Birth Certificate - Finally got it 2008-02-14 17:18:00 For the first three parts of this series please readChanges in Birth Certificate
Changes in Birth Certificate - Day 2Changes in Birth Certificate - Day 3Finally
after 10 days of constant follow up I managed to pick up the birth certificate from the Ward office where I had submitted the completed checked application form. The process in the office is as follows - the birth certificate gets printed here and then goes back to the HUDA building at Tank Bund to get some signatures and then it comes back to the ward office and that is the reason why it gets delayed. Constant follow up is needed. The good part of the whole process was that I did not have to bribe anyone. That's a big step in the right direction. I just hope they make all these processes a lot easier and sleeker. I am sure we can d
Cricket Ground : Welfare Center, Sanath Nagar 2008-02-13 22:23:00 Here are some pictures from the cricket ground that is present at the WelfareCenter
, Sanath Nagar. Here are some points to note. The ground as you can see has absolutely no grass but the good thing is that is quite level and there are hardly any pot holes. They put a half mat but you have to make sure that it is nailed properly. So it is good for some of the players to reach earlier and make sure that the mat is nailed properly. You are not given any equipment including wickets so you have to carry your own. The boundaries are fuzzy which the caretaker of the ground will show you before the start of the match but you need to have a discussion between the captains and decide on the boundaries before the start of play since there is a stage and some walls that are quite close to the wicket. Read more:Cricket
Importance of engagement 2008-02-13 21:20:00 I had the opportunity to sit in my daughter's playgroup class and it was interesting watching how the children behaved when the teacher gave them her complete attention and when the teacher was distracted by something. For example let us say one of the kids started to cry, this distracted the teacher just briefly but that was enough for a couple of kids to go to the toy chest and throw all the toys around, another couple of kids to start a fight, one started to scream and this triggered off a few more screaming kids and it then took about 15 min to again put order in the room. Another thing I noticed in the class was that if the teacher did something that did not engage all the children then the others that were not attended to started to do their own thing.I realised that this is not very
Learn to have fun 2008-02-13 06:17:00 Life is fair and unfair at the same time. There are things that we like doing and then there are an equal number of things that we do not like doing that crop up at the same time. Does that mean that we only do the things we like and ignore the things that we do not like doing? Unfortunately it does not work that way.So how does one get through this? What I have realised is that we have to enjoy what we are doing and accept the rest of it however unpleasant it may be. There is no point fighting or ignoring the stuff you do not like doing since it will always be there to bring you down. It is better to look at the brighter side of it. We would not be doing it if there was an alternative.I was watching my 2 year old daughter make a big mess on the ground. She was on her hands and knees reall
Importance of the 5 W's 2008-02-12 03:11:00 I was spending time with my 2 year old daughter today and she kept asking me what, why, when, where and who for the entire time I was with her. She asked the same question a million times even though I gave her the same answer all the million times.The key is she never was shy to ask any question and she never got bored of asking a question. Which made me start to wonder - Do kids learn so fast because they are uninhibited in asking questions - they ask them with no fear. They have parents/grandparents/guardians that would answer the questions with patience till the answer is well engraved in their minds.Learning is the key to growth. And learning happens only when you have questions and I feel that as we grow older we have so many hang-ups in asking the questions. When we stop asking the
Tata Sky disappoints 2008-02-10 09:38:00 After forwarding this rant to the customer care and the publicity email ids of Tata Sky they fixed my problem at a cost.I have been using Tata Sky for close to a year now and have been extremely happy with their service. But then since you are paying a premium for the service when compared to cable TV operator you expect that from them. They have managed to disappoint me today.While recharging my Tata Sky account I noticed on their website the following offer "Pay for 10 months and enjoy 12 months of TV viewing ". Well this got me quite excited as it is quite a bit of saving. So I chose the option to do this and was directed to the screen like the one below that said "Note: The annual package is available only on recharging your account on My Tata Sky for a single transaction amount of Rs.
Life revolves around fear 2008-03-12 09:32:00 A few days ago one of my colleagues told me "Fear is a great motivator" and that got me thinking. Our life revolves around fear. From the time we are kids we are told about the "Budda-Man" who will take you away if we are not good, you won't become strong if you do not eat and many more like that. As you grow up it is the fear of exams that forces you to study and learn and then once you get into work it is the fear of reviews and appraisals that force you to work harder and put in your best.I found this very interesting as we start with the fear of god and then move on to the fear of society to the fear of failure as an individual that keeps motivating us to give our best. There are also a lot of products that are sold to us by creating a fear some examples of this are insurance products
2 column to 3 column layout 2008-03-11 12:18:00 Having been seriously blogging for about 3 months now that is at least one post a day I have realised that there are limitations to the 2 column layout
that most blogger blogs have. Some of the limitations of two column layouts areYou have only limited space to tell the reader everything you want to tell. For example if you put labels and archive you don't have very much more prime real estate on top of the screen to put anything else.You have limited space to put ads on your blog. You have to either put it in your post or you need your ad to occupy the prime real estate on top of the screen making it look like all you are interested in is advertising. I am not sure why blogger has only 2 column layouts as default layouts. They are not really providing variety to the blogger out there othe
Kids have a way of reminding us 2008-03-10 04:18:00 I was watching television late at night on Friday and my daughter came and told me "Papa the police man will come and catch you if you do not go to sleep" and forced me to switch off the TV and go to sleep. This is the line that I used on her to get her to stop watching TV and to go to sleep. What I found very interesting is how she has figured out that, things that apply to her apply to others too.In software we have a term called "Eating one's own dog food" which wikipedia defines as "To say that a company eats its own dog food means that it uses the products that it makes." In the same way the rules that you make for others applies to yourself too and in the uncomplicated mind of my daughter this seems like something basic.When one makes rules it is good to use it on oneself to understa
First time blues 2008-03-08 20:30:00 I was playing with my daughter yesterday and I asked her to sing a new nursery rhyme with me and she told me "I cannot do it papa because it is difficult". Two phrases in that sentence caught my attention "cannot do it" and "difficult". Which made me wonder, when is it in life do we learn to say that we cannot do things because it is difficult.There are so many things that I remember finding difficult to do and wanting to give up but I had the right support system around me that persisted with me to continue trying or the circumstance at that point of time forced me to learn it. I was then able to overcome the initial hardships to be able to enjoy it now. One example is driving the car. I always had this fear to drive on Indian roads but the circumstance of needing a car with a blossom Read more:First
Pictures from Lahari 2008-03-13 23:23:00 In the post Cricket Ground : Lahari Resorts I gave details about the cricket ground in Lahari Resorts. Below are pictures of some of the other facilities that are available in the resort.
Copyright Me and My Views by Sudeep DSouza. All Rights Reserved Read more:Pictures
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