Monday, October 20, 2008

Wife of a software professional

Life of a software professional is extremely busy throughout the career. Guys work full day and overnight for better future. I used to say a line whenever some technology discussion happens, "To retain the same position, you need to run extremely fast."

An yearly routine of working hard becomes a habit of people like us, and it becomes punishment for the wife. Since when I married (November 27th, 2008), I hardly sit with my wife any evening after my work until I sleep. She never complains me about the same. Even when I don't work, I sit on computer for browsing new technology innovations, reading news on Apple, Google, Linux etc... definitely no sick Microsoft. I do PHP and Cocoa programming even if I don't have to read anything.

My wife, Aman, is very sweet, caring and understanding with me on my routine, I always realize that I should give her time, but I am unable to help myself because of my this (bad?) habit. I and Aman, now are blessed with a lovely son, named Nishkaran, so she have a reason for keeping her busy when I am not with her.

Dr. Stephen Reiss, one of my friends and a world traveler, given me a suggestion that taking one year leave after 10 years of hard work is a lot better than 1 day off every week.

I figured the same story plays at each software person's home. For better income than other industries, software people become more money oriented and raised their dreams to buy the world one day, so they have to leave the good times with family.

I am definitely trying to become a better husband day after day until I can take her to the year long holiday tour.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

First experience with wine

I don't drink too much and never experiment new liqueurs to check new tastes etc. I love Teachers, Jack Daniel's, Johnnie Walker, VAT 69 and one of the most favorite Indian brand Malt Whisky Blender's Pride. I hardly drink any other than these.

Last month my friend, Steve from America, was here in India for a trip. He is a wine educator for over 30 yrs and have tasted 10000+ wines till now. I had my first wine tasted on 9/21/2008 when he and Jan (her life-mate) visited us for a dinner get together. It was a white wine by Grover's (one of premium Indian wine brands) and a very nice experience tasting and learning how to drink wine, and that too from a genius of industry.

Since then its been 5 chances so far I drunk wine at various places of different brands, and started encouraging friends to leave high alcoholic drink and replace your likings with wine. I feel I am now become a better liker of wine over beer, whisky or scotch. On the other hand, I am also convinced with the benefits of wine over any other liqueur type.

Check out some of the most recent studies that boast the health benefits of wine:

Overall Health Benefits:
  • Anti-aging effects in red grape skins
Lung Health Benefits:
  • Improved lung function from antioxidants in white wine
Heart Health Benefits:
  • Coronary heart disease reduced
  • Healthier blood vessels in elderly
Ulcer Prevention:
  • Ulcer-causing bacteria reduced
Cancer Prevention:
  • Cancer cells killed by protein in red grape skins
Stroke Prevention:
  • Arteries kept clean by polyphenols in red grape skins
Women’s Health Benefits:
  • Decreased ovarian cancer risk
  • Stronger bones
  • Lower risk of stroke
Men’s Health Benefits:
  • Lower risk of heart attack for men with high blood pressure
Making wine is a huge chemistry (painful subject?) of Acid, Sulphite and Grapes, and there are 1000s of methods to make it by different people at different locations worldwide. I hope if I could do it anytime, but I'll be thrown behind bars if I do it, so I wish there should be no dry day.

I just can't tell the reason, but I like red wine a bit more now. ;-)

That's another session of red wine, a day before they were leaving us.

Social Networking - A death of Privacy

We can very easily find a person on the internet now. Every single person who knows to operate computers, is a member of any one of popular social networking websites; such as facebook.com, orkut.com, myspace.com, linkedin.com, myheritage.com and hundreds of more.

I lost my some of friends over a decade back after my college, and recently I caught them on one of social network platform and it took me to the alert mode that I am traceable by the persons even whom I don't know. I can easily see who is talking to whom? doing what? his whereabouts etc. In last 10 years, society phenomena is entirely changed. Everything is 'e' now; e-commerce, e-mail, e-banking, e-talk, e-dating, e-work etc. I am worried technology is growing every hour (day-by-day phrase is outdated now), where it will be after 10 years?

Well, this is an endless debate, we just can't stop major players fighting technology battle, and launching such platforms to capture majority of users. We have no other option than to register with their system to find out best-to-use platform and upload our information for others to view and capture.

Solving the Digital Maturity Puzzle: Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

In today’s competitive landscape, many businesses understand the importance of achieving digital maturity, yet they often struggle with how ...