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there are times when you sit in front, wondering where life is heading? this weekend was packed, i did a lot, read some, relaxed, met friends and had a few meetings that direclty impact my future. but, today when i got to office, i just sat, and wondered. why? there is a lot of negativity that surrounds you. you wonder if this is good, if its required and more essentially- how it should not affect you. you need to be able to stand back, and take perspective on issues.

maybe i am crabby because i have not had my morning cuppa. but then again, there must be an underlying cause that is pushing me to this realm.

pretty interesting when an international chain – does something like this.

Mr Brown said the government was working to prevent fraud

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he “profoundly regrets” the loss of 25 million child benefit records.

He told MPs he apologised for the “inconvenience” caused and said the government was working to prevent the data being used for fraud.

But Conservative leader David Cameron said the government had “failed in its first duty to protect the public”.

The child benefit data on the missing discs includes names, ages, bank and address details.

‘Mistakes’

During a heated prime minister’s questions session, Mr Brown said: “I profoundly regret and apologise for the inconvenience and worries that have been caused to millions of families who receive child benefits.

“When mistakes happen in enforcing procedures, we have a duty to do everything we can to protect the public.”

But Mr Cameron said: “They will be angry that the government has failed in its first duty to protect the public.”

He added: “What people want from their prime minister on a day like this is to show some broad shoulders, be the big man and accept some responsibility.”

Earlier, the Tories questioned whether Alistair Darling was “up to the job” of chancellor.

Mr Darling said he “deeply regretted” what had happened, but stressed there was no evidence of misuse of the data.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Darling said his confidence had been “shaken” by what he described as a “catastrophic” incident.

”There’s no doubt in my mind there have been very, very serious breaches here.

“People are entitled to trust the government to look after information that is given to it – for child benefit or any other purposes – and that did not happen here,” said the chancellor.

He said the information, which was on two CDs, should “should never, ever have left the building in which it was stored”.

Mr Darling denied the problem was related to the merger of the Revenue and Customs departments and staff cuts, as claimed by staff members in e-mails to the BBC.

‘Difficult’

He also hit back at claims his own position as chancellor was in doubt amid continuing difficulties with Northern Rock, which has seen its share price plunge a further 15%.

“I am not going to start running away from things when things get difficult,” he told Today.

Referring to the data loss crisis, he said: “It is difficult, unwelcome in every respect, but I am determined to see it through”.

Earlier, Mr Darling said banks were monitoring all 7.25 million bank accounts whose details were on the discs, which contained the personal details of all child benefit recipients in the UK.

People are being urged by both the chancellor and banks to keep a close eye on their accounts “for unusual activity”.

Mr Darling said that anyone who lost money as a result of any misuse of the data would be covered for losses under the banking code.

On Tuesday the chancellor told MPs how the entire child benefit database was sent by a junior official from HMRC in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to the audit office in London through courier TNT on 18 October.

The chancellor said the official had broken the rules by downloading the data to disc and sending it by unrecorded delivery.

But he reassured those affected that police had no reason to believe the discs had found their way into the wrong hands, nor did they have any evidence of it being used for “fraudulent purposes or criminal activity.”

Buck questions

Bosses at the Revenue were not told about what had happened until 8 November and Mr Darling and Prime Minister Gordon Brown learned about the situation on 10 November.

The chancellor said he had delayed an emergency statement to the Commons because banks and building societies had asked for time to prepare and make sure security procedures were in place.

The officials involved waited before informing their superiors in the hope that the discs would be found.

The Metropolitan Police is leading the search, and the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which oversees the HMRC, is investigating the security breach.

A TNT spokesman said that because the discs had not been sent as recorded it was not possible to verify if they had ever been posted. He added that the company would not be responsible for any losses incurred.

Liberal Democrat Acting Leader Vince Cable asked: “Where does the buck stop in this government?”

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7104945.stm

A recent news article about the after-school program that teaches school kids football, and now gives them a change in their lifestyles – is quite touching, given the circumstances in todays news.

There are many after-school programs – that essentially work to keep the kids busy – and give them something to look forward to – either to learn music, or to study. Giving them a medium to express themselves- artistically or otherwise, does in turn reduce crime rates. Essentially since kids are off the streets.

Chennai: A group of young footballers from the slums of Chennai are gearing up to play football with the Manchester United team. The children from the slums of Vyasarpadi in Chennai- an area known for its extreme poverty and high crime rates – now have a chance to meet their football idols from the Manchester United team and train under them. The training schedule has been made possible due to the efforts of a local football enthusiast and the NGO CRY. A chance to meet their idols has the youngsters excited. When asked about his idol Dhileepan, one of the youngsters, says, “Ronaldo.” Another youngster A Raj says Cristiano Ronaldo is his idol. The young players are practicing for the finals of the Manchester United League selections to be held from November 24-27. If selected, four of them will fly to Manchester to get trained by their heroes. And they owe this to Umapathi, an Income Tax department employee, who was also born in the slums. He is teaching the young protégés the power of dreams through football. After training them for free for the last 10 years he says he can see the difference. “The crime rate has gone down in Vyasarpadi. These kids now realise they have a chance to make it big. So they don’t go loitering around and stealing. They play football instead,” Umapathi, the football coach, says

And this is what a little hope can do to a human being. “We’re all going to school now because in London they speak only English. So to be able to communicate, we need to know the language,” one of the youngster Ramkumar, says. “We used to loiter around earlier chewing tobacco and playing with marbles. Now we come to train. We have hope now,” Hridayaraj adds. And even all of them can’t make it to Manchester the journey so far has surely been dream-like.

Working for a software company in chennai, does sometimes entitle you to a long and arduous bus journey to and from offices. Sometime, it can be equated to cattle… you arrive in office and you will see all busses coming, dropping employees off and leaving.. so they swarm… colorful clothes filling hallways through the campus.

Well, once in a while you want to break out of that mould- and you decide to drive to office.

last night, my wife tells me that she has a meeting at 9Am, which is INSANITY. Considering her office is about 55 Km from home. So, in order to get there at that time, i would have to drop her at the railway station by about 640. Which was insane. So I said, why not i drop you???
Little did I think- she said “ok!”

anyways, i decided to give my good’ol lancer a run on the highway. We left home at 640, and started driving. Being this early, we managed to beat all the office/college/usual traffic and covered the 55kms in about 1 hr.

It was an awesome drive, wind blowing, crusing at 100, bliss… wish I could just drive on and on. We reached her office and I had to then drive over to mine, which is on the other side of town, another 50+kms. This route is however not on the highway but through a reserved forest region.

I guess, one of the most relaxing drives, is when you can see the road, not a soul and forests on both sides, and you know you are in the city.

It was bliss, RadioCity was cranking some nice rock numbers, put the windows down, and was cruising…untill i reached the “IT Highway”
to put the frustration in a nut shell, it took me over an hour to complete a 11km stretch. In which I think i banged the undeside of my car, went through about hub-cap deep water, got frustrated because of STUPID drivers and basically threw a wet blanket over the state of mind I was in.

Made me want to think, why are people so impatient? there was kilometer long pileup of traffic, and some jackass decides that he can go, and goes… blocking the traffic even more. And if there is an empty stretch, vehicles will go.

To complicate things, the IT highway is under construction, so various parts are either filled with gravel (to increase height) or with gravel dust, to add a foundation. Junta tries driving and vehicles are getting stuck,. Busses, trucks, sumos, bikes…everyone, but they still keep coming. Each thinkgin that they can get out of it better than the previous person.

The best picture- there is a big mess of traffic stuck in this mud and a tractor(HMT type) driver is laughing and driving slowly.. put put put puput puput puput put… I could feel his joy – like the tortoise in the race between the hare.

I finally rolled into office at 920, after completing nearly 120 kms. but it was fun.

In a recent interview with Lee Kuan Yew – the much respected Minister Mentor of Singapore, he had a very interesting point to make about India:

Lee: They are a different mix, never mind their political structures. They are not one people. You can make a speech in Delhi; [Prime Minister] Manmohan Singh can speak in Hindi and 30, 40 percent of the country can understand him. He makes a speech in English and maybe 30 percent of the elite understand him.

In China, when a leader speaks, 90 percent will understand him. They all speak one language, they are one people. In India, they have got 32 official languages and in fact, 300-plus different languages. You look at Europe, 25 languages, 27 countries, how do you? The European Parliament? Had we not moved into one language here in Singapore, we would not have been able to govern this country.

It is our nemisis. Our greatest strength appears to be waning and has not become our Achilles heel. But why? Do we blame politicians? I personally believe they are the ones to blame. Stoking the “outsider” flame in order to gather votes- evidence in Karnataka, Maharashtra and many more states.

The IT boom and the resilient economy has thrust two very important aspects about our country into the light. Our inherent technical and economic prowess, as well as the widening rift between the have’s and have-nots.

The in equal spread of wealth is not helping the country as the so called “middle class” is now moving forward with a renewed purchasing power, and the so called “sub-prime” are working harder but seeing no results. But the question is: Are they?

They might be: the standard of living is still going up, with the cost of credit coming down [strictly in the urban scenario], affordability is going up. However, just as they are able to afford a new white good, others are able to afford something bigger. The race to get a better and bigger object is leaving those in the sidelines and watching.

Our greatest asset was and is our diversity. We are a proud nation of languages, communities and cultures; however, that is our greatest disadvantage. Our official language is … Hindi yes – but why is it that no signboard in Tamilnadu was allowed to be in Hindi? The whole anti-hindi drive continued and spread to various parts of Kerala and Karnataka as well. For what? Are we proud of our heritage as a nation or as states?

Kuan Lee’s statement hit the nail on the head- when Manmohan Singh speaks in Hindi – very few understand. We need to work together as a country, to bringing up the country. Not as a state or a SEZ in a city.

The other day, a friend of mine and I were sitting at a table in the lunch room in office, eating some breakfast. An enigmatic executive officer ( not the CEO, but another X level executive) comes, greets me and sits on the table beside me. his table is at the entrance to the dining area. All of us go on with our lives – talking what we need to talk, and he, immersed in his conversation with someone.

A little while later, a lady come walking up the ramp, physically disabled she was being help by another friend. When they reached the door, they were in the process of pushing- facing some problems since the door is a little tight. At this moment the executive jumped up, and ran to the door and held it open.

Many times, executive officers don’t bother. Its an “accepted rule” that the higher you go, the lesser you do, but sometimes this is carried on very literally. Managers wont bother, even to pick up paper that they drop.

Is it “uncool” to be yourself?
Is it “cool” to be a “disconnected” person?

What ever said, this one scene was quite very touching, and even though i dont work directly under this person, I am glad to know him. 🙂

After Indiana Jones- everyone in america thought Indians ate monkey’s brains. Well, things don’t seemed to have change much. with 17K people surveyed worldwide – a majority of Europeans thought that India topped in poverty- what about 80% of sub-Saharan Africa? what about Zimbabwe and its 7,634% inflation?

When they think of India they think of Gandhi and Taj Mahal, but when they think of Pakistan they think of nuclear, poverty and cricket, the people across the world, said in a survey conducted by BBC. In the survey conducted on the socio-economic perception on India and Pakistan after 60 years of independence from the British rule, the BBC found that the world also associated both countries with poverty. In Pakistan’s case, the respondents also associated it with the nuclear power. The survey, conducted in collaboration with international research company Synovate across 20 countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia Pacific and Australia, questioned 12,670 respondents about their perceptions of India and Pakistan. “It was conducted to coincide with the celebration surrounding India and Pakistan’s 60th year of independence from Britain,” the BBC said. Interestingly, where French, Spaniards, Italians and Danes thought India topped in poverty on the planet, their Eastern counterparts Singaporeans, Japanese and Hong Kong nationals thought India to be a modern nation, high on development and technology.

From a news snippet on Yahoo!.

persons getting fired for not sucking up to the boss! wow! no wonder they are able to strive at 10% annual growth!

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese woman is suing her former employer after falling victim to the company policy of firing staff who contradict their boss three times, local media reported on Thursday.

HWA-1 Enterprise Co Ltd, a light industrial manufacturer based in China‘s southeastern port city of Xiamen, sacked a woman surnamed Ni for refusing to pay fines she incurred for talking back to superiors, Xinhua news agency said, citing a local newspaper.

The company’s policy held that a “first contradiction of superiors” would incur a fine of 30 yuan ($4), a second would incur 100 yuan, and a third would warrant dismissal, the agency said.

Ni incurred a 30 yuan fine after taking umbrage with her factory supervisor for reprimanding her for not filling in a form.

“The factory head told me that, according to company rules, no matter whether management is right or wrong, employees are not allowed to contradict them and must obey,” Xinhua quoted Ni as saying.

Ni was then threatened with a 100 yuan fine for refusing to pay the first fine, and was sacked after she threatened to report her supervisor to the company’s human resource’s department.

The factory’s supervisor, surnamed Cao, said it was his legal right to sack Ni.

“The company can terminate the contract of employees who seriously breach labor discipline or the company’s rules,” Xinhua quoted Cao as saying.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070906/od_nm/china_company_sacking_odd_dc;_ylt=AgdIsul78_lmeXDnfsQZ2hEuQE4F

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine.

An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised “technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries,” meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline.

By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 50 miles of gasoline-free commute. And the popular hybrids on the road today still depend heavily on fossil fuels.

“It’s a paradigm shift,” said Ian Clifford, chief executive of Toronto-based ZENN Motor Co., which has licensed EEStor’s invention. “The Achilles’ heel to the electric car industry has been energy storage. By all rights, this would make internal combustion engines unnecessary.”

Clifford’s company bought rights to EEStor’s technology in August 2005 and expects EEStor to start shipping the battery replacement later this year for use in ZENN Motor’s short-range, low-speed vehicles.

The technology also could help invigorate the renewable-energy sector by providing efficient, lightning-fast storage for solar power, or, on a small scale, a flash-charge for cell phones and laptops.

Skeptics, though, fear the claims stretch the bounds of existing technology to the point of alchemy.

“We’ve been trying to make this type of thing for 20 years and no one has been able to do it,” said Robert Hebner, director of the University of Texas Center for Electromechanics. “Depending on who you believe, they’re at or beyond the limit of what is possible.”

EEStor’s secret ingredient is a material sandwiched between thousands of wafer-thin metal sheets, like a series of foil-and-paper gum wrappers stacked on top of each other. Charged particles stick to the metal sheets and move quickly across EEStor’s proprietary material.

The result is an ultracapacitor, a battery-like device that stores and releases energy quickly.

Batteries rely on chemical reactions to store energy but can take hours to charge and release energy. The simplest capacitors found in computers and radios hold less energy but can charge or discharge instantly. Ultracapacitors take the best of both, stacking capacitors to increase capacity while maintaining the speed of simple capacitors.

Hebner said vehicles require bursts of energy to accelerate, a task better suited for capacitors than batteries.

“The idea of getting rid of the batteries and putting in capacitors is to get more power back and get it back faster,” Hebner said.

But he said nothing close to EEStor’s claim exists today.

For years, EEStor has tried to fly beneath the radar in the competitive industry for alternative energy, content with a phone-book listing and a handful of cryptic press releases.

Yet the speculation and skepticism have continued, fueled by the company’s original assertion of making batteries obsolete – a claim that still resonates loudly for a company that rarely speaks, including declining an interview with The Associated Press.

The deal with ZENN Motor and a $3 million investment by the venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which made big-payoff early bets on companies like Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., hint that EEStor may be on the edge of a breakthrough technology, a “game changer” as Clifford put it.

ZENN Motor’s public reports show that it so far has invested $3.8 million in and has promised another $1.2 million if the ultracapacitor company meets a third-party testing standard and then delivers a product.

Clifford said his company consulted experts and did a “tremendous amount of due diligence” on EEStor’s innovation.

EEStor’s founders have a track record. Richard D. Weir and Carl Nelson worked on disk-storage technology at IBM Corp. in the 1990s before forming EEStor in 2001. The two have acquired dozens of patents over two decades.

Neil Dikeman of Jane Capital Partners, an investor in clean technologies, said the nearly $7 million investment in EEStor pales compared with other energy storage endeavors, where investment has averaged $50 million to $100 million.

Yet curiosity is unusually high, Dikeman said, thanks to the investment by a prominent venture capital group and EEStor’s secretive nature.

“The EEStor claims are around a process that would be quite revolutionary if they can make it work,” Dikeman said.

Previous attempts to improve ultracapacitors have focused on improving the metal sheets by increasing the surface area where charges can attach.

EEStor is instead creating better nonconductive material for use between the metal sheets, using a chemical compound called barium titanate. The question is whether the company can mass-produce it.

ZENN Motor pays EEStor for passing milestones in the production process, and chemical researchers say the strength and functionality of this material is the only thing standing between EEStor and the holy grail of energy-storage technology.

Joseph Perry and the other researchers he oversees at Georgia Tech have used the same material to double the amount of energy a capacitor can hold. Perry says EEstor seems to be claiming an improvement of more than 400-fold, yet increasing a capacitor’s retention ability often results in decreased strength of the materials.

“They’re not saying a lot about how they’re making these things,” Perry said. “With these materials (described in the patent), that is a challenging process to carry out in a defect-free fashion.”

Perry is not alone in his doubts. An ultracapacitor industry leader, Maxwell Technologies Inc., has kept a wary eye on EEStor’s claims and offers a laundry list of things that could go wrong.

Among other things, the ultracapacitors described in EEStor’s patent operate at extremely high voltage, 10 times greater than those Maxwell manufactures, and won’t work with regular wall outlets, said Maxwell spokesman Mike Sund. He said capacitors could crack while bouncing down the road, or slowly discharge after a dayslong stint in the airport parking lot, leaving the driver stranded.

Until EEStor produces a final product, Perry said he joins energy professionals and enthusiasts alike in waiting to see if the company can own up to its six-word promise and banish the battery to recycling bins around the world.

“I am skeptical but I’d be very happy to be proved wrong,” Perry said.

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/N/NO_MORE_BATTERIES?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT