SEARCH n DESTROY!

This one is not related to 'George Bush-Iraq'. Instead, it scrutinizes the Next Big Thing in the dotcom rivalry: Google Vs. Microsoft.

Google is a rival unlike any Gates has faced in a long time. In previous battles, Microsoft always had a powerful trump card: Control over the Windows operating system. That meant that when consumers bought a PC, Microsoft had a powerful say in which products and services they saw first. It had pricing power and distribution power over competitors. Because of that, its applications didn't have to be superior to those of the competitors-just roughly equal. Windows wasn't better than the Macintosh; Word didn't improve on WordPerfect, or Excel on Lotus. Even Explorer was only as good as Netscape. Microsoft genius was integrating them seamlessly to make them easy for customers to default to, and then using its marketing,distribution, and pricing clout. It won by attacking competitor's business models, not their technology.

Microsoft's array of weapons has so far proved next to useless against Google. For one thing, any attempt to bundle search with its products will probably be scrutinized by antitrust regulators. Meanwhile, you no longer need a PC to use Google. It works fine from a Treo, a BlackBerry, a cellphone, a television, an Apple, or a Linux computer, any device with some kind of keyboard and Internet access. Nor can Microsoft undercut the price of Google software as it did with Netscape, Google is already free. There's no quick and easy way to lure away Google's online advertisers either. They pay based on the price of a keyword in a search and on how many times users click on the ad, but Google doesn't control that, it's set by auction. Says a former Microsoft executive: "Microsoft can play its old game to compete with Linux and Apple. It has to play Google's game to compete with Google."

Now lets look at what Gates has got in his arsenal. Google may be hugely profitable and a Wall Street darling, but it is also a young company, largely controlled by its founders and dealing with the unavoidable pains of torrid growth. Oddsmakers would say the likelihood of its stumbling is high. and no one is better at outlasting the competition than Gates. Certainly the search game is still in its infancy. Only a fraction of the content available online is actually searchable. For instance, even subscribers can't search current and archived issues of the Wall Street Journal or most other publications with a search engine; you have to go to the publication's site. This suggests that the search engine that can get the world to list premium content or its platform will have a leg up on the competition. Microsoft has plenty of money to buy the rights to such content; it also owns powerful digital-rights-management software, which helps copyright holders control who uses their products and how often. Those should be advantages in negotiations with companies worried about losing control of copyrighted text, music, and video on the Net.

Another advantage for Gates & Co. is that search engines are still technologically primitive. They can't understand context. For example; if you type "chip", they can't tell whether you are looking for a snack food or high-tech equipment. As a result all the big search engines are scrambling to find ways to make search more personalized. The thinking is that the more a search engine knows about who is searching, the more accurate the results will be. Both Google and Microsoft have the foundations of such a product in its desktop-search software, which can tell what you have on your hard drive. Perhaps Microsoft, because it understands Windows better than any other company, will be able to offer faster, more accurate searches.

It would be far to early to arrive at a concensus, as to who would emerge as a winner in this War.
Rest assured, its gonna get very fierce in due course and ya, there shall be fireworks.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

People do it everyday, they talk to themselves... they see themselves as they'd like to be, but they lack the courage, to just go for it. Sarah was 11. She wanted to become a dentist. What kinda 11 year old wants to become a dentist. But atleast she had dream and maybe someday she'll be a dentist. What about you? Did you always want to become a computer professional. I didn't. I still can't remember that unfortunate moment or day, I decided that I would be wasting 8-18 hours a day sitting in front of something that can only interpret 0 and 1, for the rest of my life.

I dont believe in destiny, yet somehow I have evolved into this pitiful creature, that wants to leave everything at the whim of destiny. When did I become so obnoxious. Again, I dont recall. And its all hitting me now, on a friday afternoon, when I am sitting at my desk, waiting for the small hand of the clock to hit 6. Speaking of which, its Friday today, I hope I'll convince my friends to have Pizza.

A wise man once said, Everything has a purpose. But I guess I am an exception. I mean, tomorrow if I go berserk and somehow manage to escape from this mundane life, would that hinder any purpose? Ok, my family and friends would grieve for a while, 1 month max. Yes, 1 month, believe me, no one is mourned more than that. Its like an universal, unwritten law. After that everything would be normal, except for the occasional tear in my mom's eye or the awkward silence during conversations that are related to me. But beyond that, I dont think anyone would be even remotely affected. See, I dont serve any substantial purpose. Its high time that I start preparing for the MBA entrance test and get into a premier MBA institute. Then I can be the manager in some multinational corp. There, I have my purpose now. Do I? Nope. I am one of those 2 million managers that are churned out every year. Anyone could take that job and maybe do a better job. D@mn! how hard is it to get a purpose for my existence. It cant be that tough to get a worthwhile purpose. May be I need a liberator, a liberator who can realign my perception. Enter, girlfriend. Who am I kidding, girlfriends are anything but liberators.

Ok, enough with purpose, lets look at something different. Advertising, it has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate, so we can buy sh!t we don't need. We are the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

When will you learn, you are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not the khakis you wear. The way I see it, you are nothing, nada, zilch! The sooner you accept it, the closer you get to Nirvana.

Perpetual Deja Vu

Beep. Beep. Beep. That was the alarm of my cellfone. Unfortunately, it never serves the purpose. Its the stupid sunlight that does it. Whats more disturbing than having sunlight all over your face at 7:30 am? This is how my remarkable day starts.

I am a newborn in the ever expanding IT industry. Its the usual 9 to 6 routine for me. The moolah is good and lets face it, I kinda enjoy the work too. But hey! its not like I meet Beyonce everyday at work, hence the gloomy face every morning.
Office is a warehouse, refurbished into a corporate workplace. Surrounded by a Soap Factory, the feeling of being besieged by chemicals takes over as soon as you step out of the front door. Not to forget the flyers saying 'Caution', 'Danger', etc. which further heighten the thrill. I ain't complaining. In fact, I somehow feel the surrounding is contributing to the increased productivity of our Delivery Unit(DU).

Inside the facility, it’s a closely knit beehive. We are a big family of 100+ striving towards a single goal, keep the project going. And we are getting exceedingly efficient at it. The project is with us till eternity now. The workload is quite bearable, we get a decent bonus, parties and outings have ultrasonic frequency. All in all, its pretty overwhelming. Life's Good.

Its like an unwritten law, the first place to go after you reach office is the Cafeteria. By the time you are done with breakfast and discussing the match last night, the small hand of the watch reaches 10. The next big hurdle is getting into the Client VPN. Believe me, it might be easier to log into a CIA database than to enter our Client's network. If you have an average memory, you might actually have to maintain a file that contains the list of innumerable pass codes, required to log onto various networks and databases. So once you are done sweating over the Login process you are required to take a much needed break. And whats better than listening to some music for a break.

One of the most important tasks of an IT professional is checking e-mails. E-mails are the single-point source for News, entertainment, scores, eye-candy and ya, sometimes Project related matter too. But office hours are not just a bed of roses. There is a very high probability that you might have to actually work on some issue. You are assigned to an issue and finally when you are done cursing the villain who raised the issue, its already time for lunch. The chances that you meet the villain at lunch are also very high, since the cafeteria is smaller than a box.

Post-lunch is the time when you have to work on the issue, but you have the two most soporific hinderances; the food in your tummy and the workload of the issue at hand. Somehow you manage to decipher the issue and the sense of accomplishment makes you ecstatic. Time to enjoy the accomplishment with your friends over a cup of coffee....or 3 cups maybe. The coffee gets rid of the sleep but what about the desire to work. Its almost 5:00, how can any normal person work after 5:00? But the issue is still not resolved! Where there is a will, there is a way. Here, the way out is called 'Transition Document'. Just send a mail to the onsite team, transitioning the residue work. Even though you are absolutely sure that it would be transitioned back to you tomorrow (without any further development), still, the optimistic voice inside you ignores this fact. Unless you have meeting with the onsite team, you are done for the day. There you go, wasn't that difficult, was it?

That was my normal weekday schedule. In a nutshell, my daily activities are not as dull as the US Marines serving in Iraq and not as colorful as Richard Branson's life.

A Season of Faith's Perfection

Think of something great you had achieved by the time you were 17. Like, watched Die Hard 47 times, gulped 15 boiled eggs in 20 minutes, co-founded the 'I love Steffi Graff' fan-club. No? Not even one of the above? How pathetic are you? Hold on, dont quit on me. I was just kiddin'.

Lets begin with the article now. This article, is dedicated the teenage sensation, the blonde bombshell from Russia, the cutie who begins every other interview answer of hers with "you know" - the one and only Maria Sharapova.
This eye-candy caught my eye back in 2003. It was the first round of Australian open and altough she had lost, she had the crowd drooling and shouting for more. And did I mention those legs. The famous 'Nicole Kidman - legs' were completely wiped out from my memory after the match.

In no time it was July, time for Wimbledon and I had a new favorite this time. I had been looking for one since Hingis had the whole ankle thing going on. Even though Maria was an underdog, doubtful even to clear 2nd round, I still rooted for her. She did clear the 2nd round, in fact she reached the 4th round, where she was defeated by a fellow Russian. She had shown enough character to keep me rooting for her for the years to come. C'mon! who am I kidding, all I was impressed with, were her looks. She was this Hottie, who I felt was the perfect successor of Anna Kournikova. And like Anna, I was expecting Maria to be seen alongside some Latino amigo in two years.

Lets fast forward to tournament that proved me wrong. It was Wimbledon, 2004 and Maria was getting better by the hour. The stage was set for this teenager to make her point. I was always more interested in the women's matches for two reasons. The first is pretty obvious and the second being, Federer. That guy made Men's tennis so predictable. Although he wasnt at his peak, the scarcity of formidable opponents made his job easier. Not that I wanna take anything away from the current God of Tennis.

One match that I distinctly remember is the one against Daniela Hantuchova. Though it was a piece of cake for Maria, but watching these two angels play was sheer bliss. Maria sailed through to the semis with no real scare. But I wasn't expecting her to win against Davenport. I mean all credits to Maria for making it to the semis, but her opponents so far were 'Nobodys'. As expected, Maria lost the first set, that too 6-2. I wasn't expecting a comeback either. I mean, c'mon shes playing against the top seed, WTF do you expect?
To my surprise, the second set reached tie-breaker and Maria conquered the second set. Then there was no stopping her.......or me. Then and there I knew she could do it. And believe it, she took the third set 6-1. She was like 'Neo' from The Matrix, unaware of her real potential. Given the time, I knew she would come into her own.

It was D-Day. The enemy was the monstrous Serena Williams. Just one glance at her on the other side of the nets is enough to send jitters down the spine of novices. Was I asking too much of the Russian beauty. For the first time in the tournament, I thought, she looked fragile. And this was even before the match started. Even though Serena was not at her physical best, still she was threating enough. But all my demons were put to rest when Maria took the first set 6-1. It was like David ripping Goliath's heart out. It was awesome, ecstatic, euphoric....I am out of superlatives here. In the second round, Serena tried to make a comeback, but in vain. Maria had not only survived the Serena scare, she had walked all over her. There was a new kid on the block and she wasn't going to be the underdog no more.

Maria, In a Nutshell

'Namaste'. Being an Indian, I am supposed to hear that word too often. But in Mumbai hardly anyone uses it as a greeting. 'Hi' and 'Hello' had taken over long back. But, Maria makes it sure that I am greeted with a 'Namaste' atleast once everyday. Maria is a latina from Spain, thats like 5000 miles west of where I stay. Boy! is she loud.

I know her for more than a year now. We hardly talk. Maybe thats the secret of our friendship! Instant Messenger, the new age communication joyride, thats where we meet.

Maria works in the same organization as mine. Its a monster of an organization. But enough about that. We are hear to talk about Maria, the QTpie. She is the most adventurous and fun-loving girl I know. There is not a single weekend that she wastes on her couch, sipping coffee and watching TV. A complete travel freak, she has been roaming around entire western Europe since she got her passport. That should explain the graduation in Tourism. She knows all the islands in the Mediterranean and the Aegean by heart. She loves India, has travelled most of North and Eastern India. Too bad she missed Goa. Recently Mexico had to bear the brunt of her invasion. And, she didn't get me anything from there. I hate Mexico!!

We chat almost everyday, you may call it occupational hazard. Mostly the chatting sessions are related to work.......ok, I am a bad liar. Its hardly related to work. We discuss her travel stories, her grudge against our organization, future plans and what not, among other things. That doesn't mean she enjoys a light workload in office. Believe me, what Maria does is way beyond tiring and boring. That should explain the grudge against the company. And its not like she is making big bucks. Poor thing! I wonder how she manages her trips across Europe.

Another striking feature is her sense of humour. Chat with her for a while and you will know. She aint like other girls, you know, the ones who go bantering along and all you do is 'Hmmmm...'. You dont get bored while chatting with her, but theres a high possiblity that she might get bored of you.

It doesnt take much to put a smile across her face. The best example to support that - all she wanted for her birthday was a piece text describing her. I doubt if I have done justice to that. Also, its almost a month late. But hey! better late than never :-)