Re: [silk] Road Trip Advice
On 19/10/2007, Ramakrishna Reddy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > route, till vijayawada. Not sure about Vijayawada to Hyderabad Well, I was told by a professional driver who does this route regularly that it is not in good shape, so I opted for Chennai-Chittoor-Kurnool-Hyderabad. It took me an hour to reach Nazarethpet (where I get on the GQ) from my home in Thiruvanmiyur - about 25 km, but Chennai-Ranipettai was fantastic (it was 140-150 kmph for most of this stretch). Ranipettai-Chittoor-Kurnool was 2-lane but reasonably well maintained road (except for about 30km on either side of Nandyal - it is a shame that while other former-Congress-PM-constituencies like Amethi and Rae Bareilly boast of world class infrastructure, Nandyal's is almost nonexistent). Kurnool-Hyderabad was a disappointment. The road's being 4-laned, so it is full of diversions, speed restrictions, narrow stretches, potholes and generally a nightmare to drive on. Started at 8AM, reached Hyderabad at 10PM. Total distance around 677km. Pit stops totalled about 4.5 hours. Thoroughly enjoyed the drive. Binand
Re: [silk] Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
shiv sastry wrote: [ on 08:39 PM 10/24/2007 ] There are only 24 hours in a day. The problem is that people are not religious enough. If people were more religious they could apply to God and ask it to make 36 hour days. Failing that, sticking to what is ho hum boring well known is the ONLY solution. Actually, there were two reasons I posted it. a. "Manage your energy, not your time" is an interesting slant on things; and also a catchy enough phrase that it is easy to *sell* the concept (one of my hot buttons, other good ideas have suffered from not being catchy enough, see [1] for an example) b. If _Harvard Business Review_ is writing about it, that means that work/life balance is now officially a "hot" topic among the CxO community - which is a Good Thing. Udhay [1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/silk-list/message/15085 -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] "Open access" on wireless networks
On 10/24/07, Dave Kumar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This is, admittedly, focused on the US regulatory world, but it includes > some discussion of the tension between wireless network operators and > software applications like Skype. This debate may be entirely different in > other countries. If I may shamelessly respond to my own post, here's a more accessible column on this general topic from Walt Mossberg, who writes about consumer technology for the Wall Street Journal. http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20071021/free-my-phone/ "Suppose you own a Dell computer, and you decide to replace it with a Sony. You don't have to get the permission of your Internet service provider to do so, or even tell the provider about it. You can just pack up the old machine and set up the new one. Now, suppose your new computer came with a particular Web browser or online music service, but you'd prefer a different one. You can just download and install the new software, and uninstall the old one. You can sign up for a new music service and cancel the old one. And, once again, you don't need to even notify your Internet provider, let alone seek its permission. Oh, and the developers of such computers, software and services can offer you their products directly, without going through the Internet provider, without getting the provider's approval, and without giving the provider a penny. The Internet provider gets paid simply for its contribution to the mix: providing your Internet connection. But, for all practical purposes, it doesn't control what is connected to the network, or carried over the network. This is the way digital capitalism should work, and, in the case of the mass-market personal-computer industry, and the modern Internet, it has created one of the greatest technological revolutions in human history, as well as one of the greatest spurts of wealth creation and of consumer empowerment. So, it's intolerable that the same country that produced all this has trapped its citizens in a backward, stifling system when it comes to the next great technology platform, the cellphone. A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer. Whether you are a consumer, a hardware maker, a software developer or a provider of cool new services, it's hard to make a move in the American cellphone world without the permission of the companies that own the pipes. While power in other technology sectors flows to consumers and nimble entrepreneurs, in the cellphone arena it remains squarely in the hands of the giant carriers." [snip]
[silk] "Open access" on wireless networks
This is, admittedly, focused on the US regulatory world, but it includes some discussion of the tension between wireless network operators and software applications like Skype. This debate may be entirely different in other countries. (In fact, seeing as how I'm supposedly teaching a class on Regulation of Wireless Networks in India in a few weeks, I'd welcome any thoughts on how this issue plays out in India, if there is an issue at all. Oh, and full disclosure -- Skype is my client.) http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071023/FREE/71018014/1066/newsletter69 "Skype dusted off the FCC's 1968 Carterfone decision—allowing unaffiliated devices to attach to the public landline telephone system so long as they do no harm to the network—and asked why not in the U.S. wireless space, too. Timothy Wu, a Columbia University law professor, asked the same question and made the case for allowing wireless Carterfone at a roundtable at the Federal Trade Commission early this year. Wu was at once applauded and attacked for his academic paper on the subject. [snip] Five months after the fact—aided by a blockbuster bandwagon effect that attracted support from Google Inc., Frontline Wireless L.L.C., consumer advocates, public-interest groups, thousands of citizens and Democrats hoping to add the White House to a power base that already includes the House and Senate—open access has become the rallying cry for loosening the iron-clad grip of wireless networks that cellular carriers have had the past 25 years. [snip] Cellphone carriers want control over their networks, having to make business decisions on how to best allocate spectrum among voice, Internet access, video, music, texting and other services that occupy their ever-valuable bandwidth portfolios. [snip] The open-access campaign begun by Skype could represent the start of a broader assault not only on networks that carriers have spent billions of dollars to build and operate, but also on the wireless business model itself. Skype and the others see it differently. Indeed, they argue carriers are self-inflicted victims of mobile myopia, a narrow mindset that refuses to appreciate the monetary benefits of increasing traffic on cellular systems. Policymakers, fond of expounding the benefits of innovation, competition in the telecom industry, suddenly find themselves put on the spot as to whether they really mean what they say."
Re: [silk] Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
On Wednesday 24 Oct 2007 5:38 pm, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > > http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp >?ml_action=get-article&articleID=R0710B&ml_issueid=BR0710&ml_subscriber=true >&pageNumber=1&_requestid=54814 > > > Steve Wanner is a highly respected 37-year-old > partner at Ernst & Young, married with four young > children. When we met him a year ago, he was > working 12- to 14-hour days, felt perpetually > exhausted, and found it difficult to fully engage > with his family in the evenings, Surprise Surprise! > The rituals and behaviors Wanner established to > better manage his energy transformed his life. He > set an earlier bedtime and gave up drinking, > which had disrupted his sleep. As a consequence, > when he woke up he felt more rested and more > motivated to exercise, which he now does almost > every morning. In less than two months he lost 15 > pounds. After working out he now sits down with > his family for breakfast. Wanner still puts in > long hours on the job, but he renews himself > regularly along the way. He leaves his desk for > lunch and usually takes a morning and an > afternoon walk outside. When he arrives at home > in the evening, hes more relaxed and better able > to connect with his wife and children. Duh. I could have told him that. There are only 24 hours in a day. The problem is that people are not religious enough. If people were more religious they could apply to God and ask it to make 36 hour days. Failing that, sticking to what is ho hum boring well known is the ONLY solution. shiv
Re: [silk] India and Bittorrent
On Wed, Oct 24, 2007 at 10:42:05AM +0530, Gautam John wrote: > PS. In other news, the music industry is calling for flat rate file sharing > regime: > > http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/10/music_industry.html In other news, I call for the rapid death of the music industry. Good riddance to bad rubbish. -- Eugen* Leitl http://leitl.org";>leitl http://leitl.org __ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
[silk] Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
From the suit bible _Harvard Business Review_. You'll have to click through an (as these things go, no too bad) agreement to read the article, but it is interesting. Udhay http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_action=get-article&articleID=R0710B&ml_issueid=BR0710&ml_subscriber=true&pageNumber=1&_requestid=54814 Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time The science of stamina has advanced to the point where individuals, teams, and whole organizations can, with some straightforward interventions, significantly increase their capacity to get things done. by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy Steve Wanner is a highly respected 37-year-old partner at Ernst & Young, married with four young children. When we met him a year ago, he was working 12- to 14-hour days, felt perpetually exhausted, and found it difficult to fully engage with his family in the evenings, which left him feeling guilty and dissatisfied. He slept poorly, made no time to exercise, and seldom ate healthy meals, instead grabbing a bite to eat on the run or while working at his desk. Wanners experience is not uncommon. Most of us respond to rising demands in the workplace by putting in longer hours, which inevitably take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. That leads to declining levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates, and soaring medical costs among employees. We at the Energy Project have worked with thousands of leaders and managers in the course of doing consulting and coaching at large organizations during the past five years. With remarkable consistency, these executives tell us theyre pushing themselves harder than ever to keep up and increasingly feel they are at a breaking point. The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific ritualsbehaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible. To effectively reenergize their workforces, organizations need to shift their emphasis from getting more out of people to investing more in them, so they are motivatedand ableto bring more of themselves to work every day. To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances theyre facing. The rituals and behaviors Wanner established to better manage his energy transformed his life. He set an earlier bedtime and gave up drinking, which had disrupted his sleep. As a consequence, when he woke up he felt more rested and more motivated to exercise, which he now does almost every morning. In less than two months he lost 15 pounds. After working out he now sits down with his family for breakfast. Wanner still puts in long hours on the job, but he renews himself regularly along the way. He leaves his desk for lunch and usually takes a morning and an afternoon walk outside. When he arrives at home in the evening, hes more relaxed and better able to connect with his wife and children. Establishing simple rituals like these can lead to striking results across organizations. At Wachovia Bank, we took a group of employees through a pilot energy management program and then measured their performance against that of a control group. The participants outperformed the controls on a series of financial metrics, such as the value of loans they generated. They also reported substantial improvements in their customer relationships, their engagement with work, and their personal satisfaction. In this article, well describe the Wachovia study in a little more detail. Then well explain what executives and managers can do to increase and regularly renew work capacitythe approach used by the Energy Project, which builds on, deepens, and extends several core concepts developed byTonys former partner Jim Loehr in his seminal work with athletes. -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] India and Bittorrent
On 10/24/07, Srini Ramakrishnan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 10/24/07, Suresh Ramasubramanian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > This was some time back and may no longer be true. People plugged into > > > that crowd like Devdas or Suresh may have a more accurate picture than > > > I. > > > > Not changed at all. > > sshhh... now why would this even be a topic for discusson? Aren't you > just glad sometimes that you live amongst lazy people? Well, for one thing it cuts both ways. I once had a long conversation with Hathway tech support trying to explain that checking whether I could reach the Yahoo! homepage had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that incoming ssh connections to my box were blocked. -- b
Re: [silk] India and Bittorrent
On 10/24/07, Suresh Ramasubramanian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This was some time back and may no longer be true. People plugged into > > that crowd like Devdas or Suresh may have a more accurate picture than > > I. > > Not changed at all. sshhh... now why would this even be a topic for discusson? Aren't you just glad sometimes that you live amongst lazy people? Cheeni
Re: [silk] Today is the first day...
Happy Birthday Udhay ! Have fun ! -- Cheers ! Valsa On 10/23/07, Deepa Mohan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > For everyone who is trying to plan (or not) the next FoU ..today is > BoU...happy birthday, Udhay! > > Sometimes the icky-sweet things have to be said...through the > Silk-list, Udhay, you introduced me to a lot of really interesting > people, minds, and viewpoints, and I do enjoy the daily dose a lot. > So, for that, amongst other things ( Madam Up leads the list)...thank > you, and have a great day, month, year! > > Deepa. > >
