Shrunk Syntax

I recently read an article about how younger people were no longer using emails to communicate but instead chose text or short little messages understandable by only those who text short messages. Suddenly formulating and constructing sentences has become a burden for everyone just until recently when most of us though we had arrived if we were using email. Forget snail mail, it's really hard to remember when i sent a personal email to someone and got back a reply. Most of my friends no longer stay in touch with email. "You should have texted me" or even "scrapped me" (oops) they would probably say. I fail to understand whether communication has shrunk or worst, have the ideas and thoughts shrunk that one can express only in teeny weenie little messages on facebook, orkut, twitter etc. Blogging is already considered passé and tweeting is in. Schools who used to ask their wards to write an essay in no more than 600 words would be soon asking kids to tweet their creative ideas in, say a dozen words. The whole trend is turning out to be a gadget makers convenience as the opportunities for them are as clear as the trends. It just takes someone to figure out how to serve the public's falling attention span with the ever shorter and more perfunctory communication, itsy-bitsy sentences, sentences without verbs, dropped vowels. People want information in smaller packets today and very soon twitter and texting will be too prolix for the evolved. The apps that drive the market and the devices  will shrink the human expression to down to a nub that can be hosted on a touch screen no larger than the size of a biscuit. Don’t be surprised if you are not heard if you cannot express something in a single character...K? Very soon, each letter of the alphabet will have assigned words..

watdya thnk? cmmnts pls?

Choices and FDI in retail

A signboard at a home furnishing retail outlet screaming Buy 1 get 1 free caught our attention this evening more so because the brand that was being advertised and was on sale was Bombay Dyeing bed spreads which normally is never marked down. Following the instincts, and of course the prospect of striking a cool deal, went into the store to be greeted by a salesman who began pulling out neatly packed packs of bed spreads. It had been a while since we had this kind of a shopping experience where we were standing across the counter( in a now vanishing Kirana or Mom & Pop corner store) and waiting for the salesman to pull a dozen or so designs for us to choose from. While we were fortunate to find something that we could pick from the limited options we were allowed to choose from. We picked the bags and left immediately after paying. I keep wondering if this model of business will sustain any longer as consumers would like to look, touch,feel and evaluate before buying any product. One of the easiest ways to chase me out of a store would be for sales man to ask if I needed help (sorry! But I can manage myself) and often try to politely say, no, thanks, just looking around. I am not a believer of window shopping but definitely want my share of peace and privacy at any store and I am 10 on 10 times sure of what I need or not need. I always wonder how people manage to still enjoy shopping when being confronted by enthusiastic sales personnel (unless they are security guards in disguise shadowing suspect store lifters). Retail has been kind to me and has fed me and my folks for years and I am a supporter of FDI in retail including multi-brand retail. You will agree with me if you have shopped at a Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sports Authority,Target , JC Penny or even Big Bazar here in India. Any attempt so far in India to allow FDI in retail has been met with stiff resistance and the argument has been that large multi-nationals would sound the death knell for the corner store thousands of which today form the retail horizon in India. Developing economies have successfully built efficient supply chains (the recent onion crisis was largely due to the agricultural supply chain deficiency and the role of the middlemen) and reined in inflation by allowing multi brand retail.

As a consumer, choice, efficiency and easy availability and stable pricing is all people care for  and many are realizing this and the poor corner store bloke may be soon left with no patrons unless, he innovates to provide an experience to his shopper who has turned towards the large organized and glitzy retailer ( look at the crowds at Big Bazar and you will know what i am talking about). In an age when even Idlis and Dosas are franchised and soon, the small shop at the corner of the road could be left to fend for himself with his bags of unsold onions…How would a  whole generation of micro entrepreneurs innovate to take on the mighty?

A 100 years of IBM

IBM is marking the 100-year anniversary of its founding on June 16, 2011 with a year-long initiative that engages local communities and thought leaders around the world on the theme of changing the way the world works. Over its century of existence, IBM has played a leading role in transforming business, science and society. These dimensions form the basis for the three themes driving IBM’s Centennial: Reinventing the Modern Corporation, Pioneering the Science of Information and Making the World Work Better. Together they provide a basis for understanding how the rise of information technology has changed society and the world.
IBM Centennial celebration highlights will include:
IBM Lecture Series IBM will partner with leading universities around the globe to engage the next-generation of leaders in a discussion about driving change and innovation. The lectures will offer an instructive view of the role IBM has played in transforming the dimensions of the modern era over the past 100 years, based on our key learnings about leadership and progress in an increasingly integrated and technologically enabled world.
Digital Experience IBM will create a new digital experience to celebrate IBM’s Centennial with rich, interactive experiences. It provides a destination for IBMers, clients, partners, alumni and friends around the world to engage in IBM Centennial-related programs. The site will feature 100 Icons of Progress – signature stories that describe IBM’s impact on the world during the last century including archival assets and the opportunity, where relevant, to engage IBM experts about how the past is going to propel IBM into the future. The Web site URL is: www.ibm100.com
100 Marks, 100 Stories IBM has created 100 unique visual “marks" to represent the 100 Icons of Progress. Each mark incorporates the number 100 plus illustration and photography to represent a key breakthrough or milestone, such as the First Salaried Workforce, the Punched Card and Space Exploration. They are designed to be shown individually to tell a single story or as a collection to tell multiple stories about the richness of IBM's history. Each week, IBM will publish new Icons of Progress. The design work was lead by VSA Partners in collaboration with Ogilvy & Mather and SYPartners.
IBM Colloquia Through a series of business and academic forums around the world, IBM will convene key influencers to share insights and spur conversations about future advances in science and technology and how they will affect such fields as health care, natural resource management and the IT industry. The colloquia will bring together scientists, academics, business and government leaders at IBM Research laboratories around the world to discuss how these emerging trends will impact business and society.

Free eBooks for the Kindle

After I bought the Amazon Kindle some months ago during a black Friday sale, I haven’t bought a single paper back. While browsing around, I found this cool site (http://fkbt.wordpress.com/about/) which lists and also provides a link to get free books from Amazon.com. Well, you could also get to Amazon.com and navigate to the eBooks section to download from the list of top 100 free books.  This website is actually an interactive blog from the author of the best-selling Kindle book - Free Kindle Books and How to Find Them, here’s a quick summary of the daily free book offerings from Amazon as well as the thousands upon thousands of books, short stories, and more available for you to read on your Kindle for no charge from numerous sites in addition to Amazon.  This blog also gives you the insider tips, tricks, and information you need for your Kindle!

Enjoy...

An evening at the UN headquarters

On a breezy Friday evening, i am back at the UN Headquarters on 41st Street,New York. This is my second attempt to get into the sacred place. The last one an unsuccessful attempt during my previous visit to New York in the summer of 2008 when i landed at the gate at 5 PM to be only told that the last visitor entry was at 4.45PM. Disappointed though,I had to be contented with a picture outside the building with the so recognizable UN headquarters in the background. UN as an institution has impressed me so much that during high school, i took part in every test they conducted on UN awareness and still cherish the experience and often look at the certificates i earned with a sense of pride. More recently i was disappointed when Shashi Tharoor lost out on the race for the top job.

The Headquarters of the United Nations is located along the East River in New York City. This 18-acre site is international territory and belongs to the Organization's 192 Member States.The United Nations has three additional, subsidiary, regional headquarters at Geneva ,Vienna and Nairobi. These adjunct offices help represent UN interests, facilitate diplomatic activities, and enjoy certain extraterritorial privileges, but only the main headquarters in New York contains the seats of the principal organs of the UN, including the General Assembly and Security Council. I was lucky this time to be on time to get a guided tour of the UN headquarters. The guided tour took us about an hour and half or so and mainly consisted of three parts - The Security council hall, The General Assembly and the hallway that houses unique and rare gifts to the United Nations by its member nations.Of the gifts displayed here are the expensive gifts by the South Asian countries and the one that stands out as unique is the AK47 remodelled into a guitar by the famous Columbian musician Cesar Lopez, the creation that is known as the Escopetarra - A creation that raised much needed awareness about gun related violence in many affected societies, now regarded as a symbol of peace.
The site of the United Nations Headquarters has extraterritoriality status which means the rules here override the laws of New York City, but it does not give immunity to those who commit crimes there :-)

The next stop was the majestic General assembly hall, this is a huge hall where representatives from all the member countries can be seated together and important issues that needs collective world's attention is discussed. The aura of this place is something that can certainly be felt here. There is a method to locate one's country seating in the 1800 seater hall. I tried but couldn't, the tour guide meanwhile told us that 'The General Assembly is not a world government - its resolutions are not legally binding upon Member States. However, through its recommendations it can focus world attention on important issues, generate international cooperation and, in some cases, its decisions can lead to legally binding treaties and conventions'.

The UN has its own postal system called the United Nations Postal Administration which issues stamps and cancellations. The basement of the visitors center has a UNPA post office from where postcards can be mailed throughout the world using the UN stamps. For a fee, once can have a customized stamp sheetlet with your photograph. See the 98¢ stamp of myself! truely thrilling for the philatelist in me (Ranjini, however differs and calls it self-glorification though).

By the time we came out of the UN complex, it was quite late in the evening and Ram, my colleague at IBM GBS and I walked back to the 33rd street Path station via 42nd street, the Indian high commisioner's office and then stopped in front of Macy's at Herald Square for some pictures of the holiday crowd before heading home fully soaked on the spirit of NYC, no surprises when they say I ♥ NYC

Urban Transportation

I am at the big apple these days on work and stay across the Hudson river in Jersey city and make the daily commute to New York City in probably one of the best urban transport systems that i have travelled. I use the PATH and the New York City Subway to get to work on Madison Avenue in mid town Manhattan and back to my hotel.The Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York with New Jersey, and providing service to Jersey City, Hoboken, Harrison, and Newark. It is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. While some PATH stations are adjacent to New York City Subway, Newark Light Rail, Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and New Jersey Transit stations, there are no free transfers between these different, independently run transit systems; however, PATH does accept the same pay-per-ride MetroCard used by the New York City Subway. I am a big fan of using public transport and as i write this, i am curious and excited about the namma metro in Bangalore. Will the Bangalore metro some day be comparable to the ones in NYC,Paris,Zurich or any other European city. I have  traveled in quite a few on these public transport networks and one thing that has always amazed me about the public transport network in these countries is the fact that these systems were planned more than a hundred years ago and surprisingly, the systems are able to handle with ease today's traffic and volume. One probably didn't have the need to catch a 1:03 AM train to 33rd street those days. Alone as i am in the US, i spend the time on the commute thinking about this and the many other infrastructure marvels that makes an ordinary citizen's life so much easier and silently wish that we in India soon build it especially when our country faces mass exodus into our already burgeoning cities in search of the service employment. More on the tunneled train system,i will take the liberty calling the NYC subway and the PATH as the NY Metro. Most stations within the city are underground and especially in NYC, its almost a rathole of an entrance to the subway and surprisingly, the stations are well ventilated and upon a little research found out that the air supply is actually by the movement of trains in most places where the train acts as a piston inside the tunnel and pushes forward air as it races and at the same time "sucks-in" the air to the tunnel from the closest ventilation shaft behind it.

The town planners and the transportation authorities have done another thing worth mentioning here, interlinked different modes of transport to complement each other. This is very similar to what European countries have done as well. One ticket could enable you to travel in trains, buses, ferries and light rail trams. It is so convenient and simple things such as a turnstile not only keeps squatters away from the train stations, but helps to a large extent the problem of ticketing and inspecting whether people are actually travelling on tickets. Imagine a system like that in Bangalore where the Metro,BMTC,and Autos (why not! - a small swipe card that will deduct the fare in an auto) all get together and form an efficient transport and feeder network. That would really be good-bye to the trafic jams of the KR Puram types where i shudder to think the number of productive hours every productive person would have squandered while waiting for the crawling trafic to move.I will soon be back in my hometown and for sure be more disappointed initially about the sad state of traffic and eventually get over it since i guess, i will glad to be back home. Fortunately, my job gives me the chance to realize the dream of living an easy life in a developed country like the US,but, I am still helpless about getting that system and infrastructure back here..there are no easy answers but only questions and more questions - Costs ,will to build, laws, politicians, corruption...it could go on..

I have come to terms that Infrastructure is indeed a state of mind..experience it when(ever) it happens.