Never trust your phone. Never, never trust your phone. In fact, never ever trust your phone.

Everyday when I get out of the gym I call up Shruti and we have a little conversation as I walk back home. Last night dad sent me a missed call and I thought that he wanted me back for some reason, so I hurried home and sent Shruti a love note, and a message that I will talk to her later. My phone is this gizmo from LG which saves the number from the last received SMS and you can just click on a couple of buttons to make it send a message back to that number. I always use this facility, as it saves me a lot of time.

Later that night when I checked my phone at about 10.32 I saw a message on my phone "I am waiting sweethard" (this is the way it was spelt). I didn't check the number then and I thought it must have been Shruti's message so I called her up. She hadn't sent the message!

Uh? I was a little confused here... Who else was calling me a sweethard? I checked the number-- it was a reliance phone, with an odd STD code...

Oink! Even more mysterious. When did I acquire a small town 'sweethard' that I didn't know of?

After a little more brain-racking I called up the number and bingo! the phone was picked up by Mr. Rakesh Jain, Rajasthan, Beawar (Jaisalmer). He wants to deal in my companies products. Apparently I didn't realize that my 'automattic' phone had saved his number in the SMS reply function (he had earlier sent me a SMS enquiring about something) and my love note + the 'I'll call you later' note was sent to him instead of Shruti. Cool! I did an embarrassed 'Err.. Sorry.. Umm..' routine and hung off while he was still laughing.

Well, Mr. Rakesh Jain had his little trip on me, and I and Shruti had a good laugh (more Shruti than me).

I was a little red in face for some minutes, but then it was all good fun!

Heh... :)

I got a funny life here folks.

It's here again. The new year. 2005 - the 25th year of my existence.

Usually I welcome a new year with open arms, celebrating in its arrival like most people do. Oh I don't do anything special, just sit around doing what I usually do, but the feeling's there.

This year however I did something different, I questioned the utility of a new year. Okay I know most guys are going to think I am a sad little freak who should get his head examined cause we all should use every occasion we get to celebrate. Yeah, I agree.

I could have done that. Sure! Why not?

But this time I thought of a better idea. I thought of timelessness.

New year for me is a symbol of passing time. The number represents a lot, the amount of time that I've existed, and in a very perverted sort of a way, the amount of time that I will exist. I thought about that for a bit. Maybe that's why time is so important for us human beings. Cause we're so limited by time. It's always slipping out of our hands.

Look at a rock, a tree, the existence. It doesn't celebrate a new year. Not just because it's not sentient, but also because it's timeless. Seconds, minutes, hours, even years have no meaning for the existence. Every moment is a start of a new era, so why should it celebrate, or maybe it does celebrate; it celebrates every second that it exists-- just different from our way.

But we know that we live, and in that realization has come the knowledge that we will die. Time is slipping away in a steady stream, and even though we pretend that we don't know or don't care it's etched in stone in the subconcious mind, and that's what propels us to be like us. We celebrate the passing of time, marking it with events, occasions, finding reasons to celebrate, cause eventually there will be no more celebration, just a lot of nothingness. So here we are, trying to make the best of our existence in whatever time we get.

Then I thought about Nirvana. I don't know why, but the chain of thoughts led there.

'Nirvana' is a funny word, I am an Indian, I should know its meaning, but I can't define it. Does it mean freedom? Freedom from all wordly ties, from death and from birth? No, it should mean more than that, and why not? I can't accept even for a moment that the purpose with which we are born is annihilation of our souls, if at all it is so then why be born at all? It's a very complicated world to make just so that we could kill ourselves and be free of birth and death.

I would like to make Nirvana mean something different. Why not a state of constancy? A state in which there are no waves anywhere. All is quite and peaceful, no events, no tasks, no disquiet. Total and absolute peace. Maybe not even thought to disturb the calm. Just realisation of the existence and calmness in it. A unity with the universe. No more questions.

Yes, I would like that very much. But isn't it too much to ask for, for one man?

Maybe someday, someone in the future will have what our generations didn't.

Until then let's continue having a Happy new year... after year... after year.

I buy 'Down To Earth' when I can from the corner bookstall. It's a militant environment protection magazine run by the Society of Environmental Communication and edited by Sunita Narain (Coke-Pesticide fame).

I read an article in it called 'A pill a day.' This article was about how a drug can help save AIDS patients. The context was a trial conducted on African children suffering from AIDS.

Read this passage below :-

"Some of the children were given the antibiotic co-trimoxazole prophylaxis; others were given a dummy drug. After about 19 months, more than 40 per cent of the kids given the dummy drug died, but only 10 per cent of the children taking co-trimoxazole prophylaxis met with the same fate."

Notice anything wrong with the passage above? Read it again.

See that! The world CHILDREN, and DUMMY DRUGS in the same sentence! Hello we are talking CHILDREN here! Not Hamsters! How can they be so brutal, giving children a DUMMY DRUG instead of the real thing, then waiting for 19 MONTHS during which 40 PER CENT!!! of them died!

I don't believe it. Scientific experiments? Giving placebos to children suffering from a terminal disease? Oh cool, we're making a lot of progress in here. We've learnt to kill all empathy.

There was a photograph of a toddler in her mama's arms, and a nurse getting ready to inject her. I wonder if it was the DUMMY DRUG that was going to the injected and if the child ended up in the 40 PER CENT DEAD!

Sick! Sick! SICK!!!

Why couldn't they give all of the children the 'co-trimoxazole prophylaxis' and compare it with past data. Or compare this with the data available elsewhere where this drug was not used. How dare they give PEOPLE placebos when they know that the PERSON is heading for DEATH! Is this research? Is this progress in medicine? Or is this brutal murder of children?

Who sanctioned this research? Did they think that those who read the results would be so lost being ecstatic that the medicine helps AIDS patient live longer that they won't pay attention to the children who died?

Oh! I forgot. These are the days of the Taliban, and the WTC, and Iraq, and COLLATERAL DAMAGE. It's just a logical extension of the policy of our world leaders. "Look at the big purpose, and sweep the COLLATERAL DAMAGE (read deaths) under the carpet.

I don't blame you Mr. President of USA.

On the other side:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2079264/
About 500,000 iraqis may become "Collateral damage" in the war on Iraq.

Some music where you didn't think it'd be....

http://devilducky.com

I can feel my head swimming.
Swim. Swim. Swim.

I don't know where it's heading.
Head. Head. Head.

I just hope it finds a deserted island.
Search. Search. Search.

Yesterday I was walking my dog Rocky at about 8 PM in the night. It was dark all around and the street lights so far apart from each other weren't making it much brighter. I was walking oblivious to the people around me, telling my dog to behave as I walked, suddenly I saw a dark shadow leap out of the opposite end of the road and charge at us.

It was Jimmy, the huge alsatian of the 'gutka' manufacturer guy who lives in my block. Before I realized what was happening that dog was already scuffling with Rocky and in another two seconds he had bitten down hard on Rocky's neck.

My poor little Rocky was trying his best to free himself from the offender, but as the other dog already had him by the neck, no amount of his turning or toppling could allow him to break free, specially because Jimmy is almost twice as big as Rocky himself.

Now those who have seen Rocky (he's an alsatian of a fair build himself) can imagine how big that dog must be. Those guys keep him locked in a cage, and feed him meat regularly, so he's not only big, but also very vicious.

The person who was walking Jimmy tried to free the dogs by holding his dog by his neck and pulling him away, at the same time I was pulling away Rocky. It was hard because the dogs are big and strong and were resisting with all their strength.

Just as we had begun to achieve some success I realised that it was a very bad strategy as Jimmy had his teeth buried firmly into Rocky's neck and as we were pulling them apart I could see the loose flesh in Rocky's neck stretch out in his jaw. That's what made me mad, the realisation that my dog was REALLY getting hurt in there. If we had continued pulling them away from each other Jimmy would walk away with a fair chunk of Rocky's neck in his jaw.

Then I did something I didn't realise I could do. I sat down, caught Jimmy's upper jaw in my right hand, lower jaw in my left hand and pulled them apart with all my strength.

Now if you're have beeb with dogs you may have an understanding of how strong their jaws are. I had to exert the limits of my strength to open his mouth so that Rocky could free himself. I could feel his teeth, his tongue and his saliva on my hand, but I kept pulling. As soon as Rocky was free I jumped away and got nothing but two minor scratches in my right hand from his teeth. I think I hurt the bone of my left hand's thumb too because there's a slight pain in it today.

By then I was positively mad with fury, so mad that I was shaking. For the next 10 seconds I yelled at the top of my voice at Jimmy's owner. He was walking that huge vicious dog without a leash on him, and that's why the entire incident happened. I am sure that if I wasn't afraid that Jimmy would attack Rocky again (the guy was holding him tightly), I would have attempted to beat that person up right then.

As soon as I got Rocky home, I went to that guy's home and yelled at him some more. I don't think he's going to walk his dog without a leash for a long time now. Alsatians are huge dogs, and his is very huge, people can't run such risks.

Well, the ordeal didnt't stop there. Since I had put my hand in the dog's mouth and my skin had split, there was a potential risk of rabies. I had to go to my doctor and get two shots, one for tetanus, and the other for rabies. I am going to have to take two more shots for rabies.

In all it was an exciting affair, a little risky, but I felt nice that I didn't get afraid of the big dog and had the guts to do something for my little Rocky who I love so. :)

Oh, Rocky was quite shooken up for a while, but he has no lasting injuries, his thick fur protected him. Two hours later he was lapping at a big meal heartily.

Causes
Homocystinuria is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. This means that it occurs when a child inherits two defective genesÂ?one from each parent."

Source
http://www.healthfinder.gov/hg/files/?id=11776

Homocystinuria is a recessive disorder

"In recessive disorders, the condition does not appear unless a person inherits the same defective gene for the same trait from each parent. If an individual receives one normal gene and one gene for the disease, the person will be a carrier for the disease but usually will not show symptoms. "
Source
http://www.bchealthguide.org/kbase/nord/nord463.htm
(quickly press the stop button on your browser otherwise the page will re-direct you to some other page)

BOTH Parents must be carriers

"An abnormal gene on one of the autosomal chromosomes (one of the first 22 "non-sex" chromosomes) from each parent is required to cause the disease. People with only one abnormal gene in the gene pair are called carriers, but since the gene is recessive they do not exhibit the disease.

In other words, the normal gene of the pair can supply the function of the gene so that the abnormal gene is described as acting in a recessive manner. BOTH parents must be carriers in order for a child to have symptoms of the disease; a child who inherits the gene from one parent will be a carrier."

-- I have not capitalized both, the website has.


Source
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002052.htm


What are the chances that my kids will have a genetic disease?

"For an autosomal recessive disorder, two unaffected people who each carry one copy of the mutated gene (carriers) have a 25-percent chance with each pregnancy of having a child affected by the disorder. There is a 75-percent chance with each pregnancy that a child will be unaffected (illustration)."
(Notice TWO carriers)
Source:
http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/info=inheritance/show/risk_assessment;jsessionid=92F456DAEFCCF3BF00FE90233B003210

Homocystiene risk!

"Offspring of a proband whose partner is a carrier have a 50% chance of being affected and a 50% chance of being carriers."
(Emphasis on the word partner)

Source
http://www.genetests.org/query?dz=homocystinuria

I am not intended to be out of the gene pool

"Because homocystinuria is treatable, affected individuals who have the benefit of effective treatment are physically and intellectually normal and can reproduce. "
(This is an in-depth technical review for doctors)

Source
http://www.genetests.org/query?dz=homocystinuria

Homocystine does not happen DURING pregnancy

"Newborn infants appear normal, and early symptoms, if present at all, are vague and may occur as mildly delayed development or failure to thrive. Increasing visual problems may lead to diagnosis of this condition when the child, on examination, is discovered to have dislocated lenses and nearsightedness."

(These is for infants who suffer from REAL HOMOCYSTINURIA when both parents have the same recessive gene)
Source

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001199.htm

Both parents must be carriers of Homocystinuria

"Homocystinuria is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait, which means that the child must inherit the defective gene from both parents to be seriously affected."

Source
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001199.htm


A child with at least one normal parent can't get HOMOCYSTINURIA

"Homocystinuria is an autosomal recessive disorder. This means that each parent has one abnormal gene on chromosome 21 and one normal gene on chromosome 21. Because each parent has one normal gene, they themselves do not have homocystinuria. However, when the child receives one abnormal gene from the mother and one abnormal gene from the father, the child has two affected genes on chromosome 21."

Source
http://www.madisonsfoundation.org/content/3/1/display.asp?did=272


How do people inherit Homocystinuria

How do people inherit homocystinuria?
This condition is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, which means two copies of the gene must be altered for a person to be affected by the disorder. Most often, the parents of a child with an autosomal recessive disorder are not affected but are carriers of one copy of the altered gene.

Source
http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition=homocystinuria


Homocystinuria is an Autosomal Recessive Disorder

"An autosomal recessive disorder ?is caused by abnormalities in both members of a pair of genes.? (21) Both parents may ?carry a single dose of the gene on one chromosome? but ?have a normal gene on the other chromosome, which prevents the appearance of the disease in the carrier parent.? (22) A child must get one abnormal gene from each parent in order to be afffected by the disease. (23) Examples of autosomal recessive disorders are phenylketonuria (PKU), an error of metabolism which can result in mental retardation, growth disturbance, and eczema if not treated with a special diet (24); Tay-Sachs disease, which causes progressive deterioration (viz., paralysis, dementia, blindness) and eventual death in early childhood, usually before four years of age (25); cystic fibrosis, in which a high-protein viscous material interferes with the normal functioning of glands throughout the body, especially the lungs, pancreas, and sweat glands (26); and sickle-cell anemia, a blood disorder which may involve chronic anemia, impairment of growth and development, leg ulcers, and painful crises caused by the obstruction of small blood vessels (27). Parents who are both carriers of an autosomal recessive disorder have a 25% risk of producing an offspring affected by the disease and a 50% risk of producing normal-appearing carriers. (28) "

Source
http://www.loras.edu/~CatholicHE/Arch/Sexuality/Genetic_dis_comment.html

Disorder -3

Can adults with homocystinuria pass the disorder on to their children?

"Because homocystinuria requires a carrier or recessive gene from each parent, the only way a person with homocystinuria can have an affected child is to have children with a carrier or another person with the disorder."

Source:
http://www.vanhosp.bc.ca/html/wellness_amdc_findout_homocystinuria_how.html


Disorder -2

"In homocystinuria, there is a problem with the genes that give information on how the body breaks down protein. The disorder is caused by getting two copies of the faulty gene that gives the wrong instructions. One copy comes from the mother and one comes from the father. If the child inherits only one copy of the gene, they are a carrier for homocystinuria but are not affected."

Source:
http://www.vanhosp.bc.ca/html/wellness_amdc_findout_homocystinuria_how.html

Disorder - 1

"Homocystinuria is thought to be inherited as an autosomal recessive genetic trait, which means the gene defect is unknowingly passed down from generation to generation. This faulty gene only emerges when two carriers have children together and pass it to their offspring. For each pregnancy of two such carriers, there is a 25% chance that the child will be born with the disease and a 50% chance the child will be a carrier for the gene defect.

Studies conducted since 1979 show that 1 of every 200,000 live births in the Unite States will have Homocystinuria. Prevalence in Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia is approximately is 1 in 82,000 live births."

Source
http://www.savebabies.org/diseasedescriptions/homocystinuria.php

Nothing gives you more will to live than the realisation that death is impending.

When I am old and nobody needs me anymore, I will go far away to a quiet distant town. I'll buy a cottage there with a garden in front of it, and there I will live with my woman, and my books and my Internet... And we will quietly wait for time to catch up.

If Earth were a real live person...

Look around us... The sky, earth, trees, dust, water... We live in a complicated world. So complicated, so huge, so vast, with so many forces working together that we can never hope to understand it. If even one of these forces went into imbalance it'd destroy the world, or at least change it beyond comprehension. This world of ours...It's beautiful, but what if it was also alive?

Why can't it be alive? Why can't the land, water, air and everything else be part of a big living organism... Revelling in its existence and its life, just like we do. What if the planets lived, and so did the stars? What if the entire universe was one BIG living person? What if life is so very around us... present in every bit of sand, right in front of us, and we never know it. Why can't simply existing be equal to living? Look at a rock. It's there, so why can't it be alive. It's there, you can touch it, you can feel it. Why should it eat food, and respire and do all those silly things that we term necessary for a living organism?

Look at the world around us, isn't it beautiful? Doesn't it take care of itself? Why can't every little shred of the planet be alive?

The nature is complicated, so complicated that it'd be a long, distant time in the future before we will grasp the 'true reality.' We run around our labs waving our hands in the air and shooting arrows in the air... Blindly making guesses... Sometimes near truth, and sometimes so far

What is life for us? Eating, moving and breathing? Are we so sure we truly understand life?

The universe is so big.... So complicated, so many forces .... What if life itself was a manifestation of the universe. Created just so that it could prove that it exists, for what good would be the existence of the universe were there no one to know it.

Life is interesting, but nature is even more interesting still, because that's where all life sprung from. And tell me...

What can give birth to life, but life itself?

The world lives, just as I do.

You scored as Upper middle Class. Your determination have soared you this high, yet not high enough to enjoy the luxuries of the upper class. Your most valued posession is your country club membership which is kept framed in the office. Upper middle Class 92% Middle Class 67% Luxurious Upper Class 50% alternative 46% Lower Class 38% What Social Status are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Okay... here's some breaking news.

12 years ago my brother felt numbness in his hands for a few days, and then got a stroke (temporary paralysis of limbs, and not due to epilepsy), and then blanked out for a day. It turns out he had a genetic disease 'Homocystinuria'. It basically inflates your risk for cardio-vascular and cerebro-vascular diseases. That is, you can get a heart-attack or a stroke, whichever comes first. Technically this can give me a heart-attack, or can cause paralysis at any given point of time, without a warning.

Some days ago my dad felt persisting numbness in his limbs and got himself checked out. Indeed, in his body Homocystine levels are 29 mu-mol/L, 3 times that of a normal person. Urine shows homocystine is 'weakly positive'. Since this is a genetic disease my folks got me checked too on the advice of the doctor. In my body the homocystine levels are 48 mu-mol/L, five times that of a normal person, urine shows homocystine is 'positive'.

This 'homocystinuria' is caused by the build-up of an amino acid called 'Homocystine' in the body. In normal people this hormone is either filtered out of the body or synthisized into other substances with the help of folate and vitamin b6, b12. In our bodies this does not get synthesized easily.

So basically if I wish to live long, I am going to have to control my dietary intake.

-- No non-veg (i am already a vegetarian)
-- No sweets (I dont' like sweets much anyway)
-- No rich food (I don't like rich-food either)
-- Eat more of green veggies cause they have the food supplements you need (That's what I love to eat).
-- Be fit (I excercise regularly in a gym)

Plus I am supposed to take three tablets everyday for the rest of my life
-- Aspirin (prevents blood clotting, a risk enhanced by homocystinuria)
-- Folate supplement
-- Vitamin B6 and B12 supplements

Umm... I just wish they gave this medication in candy instead of these ugly pills, specially since I am going to have to see them everyday for a long time...

The weird thing is even though my homocystine levels are higher than my dad, I've never had any form of homocystine related problem in 24 years of my life. Am I just plain lucky? Or my lifestyle gives me an edge? I think both...

My mom was a bit shocked when she saw the reports because since I am the healthiest dude in my family, she had predicted that I won't have this disorder. But this is not a surprise to any of us. It was a surprise to S, and she was quite upset... Well I talked to her for a long time last night. Told her there was nothing to worry about. But I still think my poor baby still fears for me... Honey... I am going to be fine, don't you worry.

Cheers!

Sometimes I think the existence is a big personal joke on me. Here I am, thrown into this huge vicious world, totally clueless as to what's the point behind everything struggling just to keep pace with the developments in my own professional sphere. There's hardly time to pause, think and reflect on the bigger issues, and I can't do a thing about it short of becoming a monk. The simple reason is that my profession demands total devotion. If I owned a store or an agency probably it'd have been easier, I'd have time between visitors, but no, I had to become a software developer. So boy... have fun with your tools and your equipment, all the fancy gadgets, cellphones, car, Internet, enjoy the plastic and the electricity, but the price you'll pay is to stare at a PC screen 12 hours+ each day writing cryptic code that doesn't make sense to anyone, and talking about loops and floops and all that crap... Discussing them so much that they soon become a part of your normal conversation, and people stare at you when you go 'lol' when you laugh... :) Excellent. A perfect nerd. :)

Saw a movie after a long time yesterday. On the TV! The movie was Tuxedo. It sucked and the director probably had a thing for the actresses' breasts because he made use of every possible opportunity to get some character in the movie to mention or notice them. Load of crap! Even Jackie Chan couldn't save it. No wonder it was a miserable flop. By the end of it I was so sick of movies that I couldn't push myself to watch the next film 'Swordfish' which had a great beginning incidentally, and probably a great act from John Travolta.

Heh...

Felt low all day yesterday... As if someone had grabbed my heart in a tight fist and was crushing it. What a way to lead a life. Today read some articles on self hypnosis and stared into concentric circles on a website for several minute repeating whatever that I need to hypnotise myself into believing... Didn't help much.

Well... I read on a blog. Person:"Why me god?" - God: "It's nothing personal son, your name just happened to crop up."

Umm... Hey big guy up there... You there? I think you need to change the programming of that 'random person destroyer' program of yours. It 'crops up' my name way to often.

Life goes on.... :) Wheee! da roller coasters.

I have officially migrated to my new notebook and now I am working from it. My dad absolutely refuses to let me access my desktop anymore so it seems that I am going to be stuck with this notebook for a while. Not that I am complaining, though the keyboard is small and because I have a habit of keeping my hand grounded while typing I touch the mouse-touchpad now and then and my cursor flies here and there. Overall working from this notebook is not a bad experience, but I will have to get used to the small footprint of the keyboard.

I have migrated just about everything from my desktop including my collection of Calvin cartoon strips (351!), but I forgot to migrate my favourite links and my klipfolio klips collection, two things I just can't live without.

But it's a great relief that my net connection is working and that I've been able to set up most of my programming stuff correctly. Maybe I won't be harrassed as much as usual when I change my computers this time.

Read a few reports on the net media recently questioning the security structure of FireFox. Weirdly enough some of the writers of these stories were the very same people who were working up a sweat on their asses touting the better security that FireFox offers when in comparison to Internet Explorer. Now they've artitles titled like 'Is FireFox better or untested' in which they seem to be talking in Microsoft's tone about FireFox albeit in a less emphatic way.

Is this an attempt to balance things out, to rationalise a reactionary review for FireFox or..

Ballmer said, "We don't know who developed FireFox," and "Why should these people be trusted more than Microsoft?"

In fact we do know who developed FireFox. That team worked on it in view of the public eye and everyone was invited to contribute their share. Furthermore open source ensures that anyone can check what's FireFox made of, but do we know who were the people working on IE and what functionalities they put in it?

And as for the second question, yes I think these people are more trusty than Microsoft. Because they are not a corporation which is compelled to earn a profit but a group of coders who love coding and are trying to make something good for the society.

That said, I still love the software from MS and prefer working on MS technology than open source... Hah! I think that nullifies just about everything I said above. :)

FireFox is stealing share from Internet Explorer at such a wicked rate that Microsoft CEO Steve Balmmer's already bald pate is getting bruised cause he can't stop trying to tear off his hair. In a recent media release he's threatening 'Asian' countries like Sinagpore and China if they use 'Open Source'

Reportedly he said that something to the effect of "There'll be somebody out there who will come to collect their due from the countries that are a part of the WTO." This was in reference to the alleged 298 patents that he says Linux violates. Big bull... really big bull, specially coming from a man who runs a company that's being slapped with anti-trust lawsuits right and left, and probably has more theft allegations filed against it than any other corporation.

Looks like Microsoft is really getting a panic attack due to the way things are moving in the open source community. The huge amount of development that's going into free development tools is speeding up their progress so much that the Microsoft's entire team of highly paid coders is struggling to compete.

I don't think a knee-jerk response is a good reaction from Microsoft, specially when the rest of the world isn't very happy with the way Microsoft is after Dollars. Maybe a more measured response, and a long-term strategy to improve business practices would be better. After all, open source can't be wished away.

Cyril Gupta has been given a new notebook by his generous dad. :)

It's a Samsung V25, 2.8Gig, P4.

Nice. One more tech-toy. :)

Heh, heh...

Are you aware of the change that's happening around you? Top, bottom, left, right and about, the world is becoming a more connected place. The newer means of faster, better and more potent communication have created a threat/opportunity that will CTRL+ALT+DEL the way the world businesses and economies function. In this world the four aces for a better financial future are held by the mightier brain. The trained brain which is filled with tech-tricks and focused on extracting the more out of technology, knowledge and on becoming the best in its field.

Let's talk about things in my context to begin with. I became a part of the workforce six years ago when I was 18. For the first 5 years (which is just about all of my career) I thought that my market was local (read India) markets. The only way I could see to earn my fortune was by making packaged software applications and selling them to Indian users through a network of computer dealers spread over India. It wasn't a bad idea and I have been doing reasonably well all along. However, there is a limit to growth and one can only achieve a certain amount of success in the field I am in due to several factors like pricing limits, margin troubles, distribution and above all piracy.

But since the beginning of the year things have taken a turn in a radically new direction. I could see signs of the change last year (which was still very late in my opinion) and from the beginning of this year the process of the re-invention begun. Business for me is no longer selling to Indian customers in India through the conventional channel of dealers. My traditional (is a 6 year old tech-business traditional?) has begun to tap online markets and now I sell my software to Indians living abroad as well as foreigners (with an interest in software made for India) through the Internet. Although the success I have achieved isn't phenomenol it's still resonable and I've not yet been able to put my entire range of solutions for display, only my main range. The bottom word is that the revenue has been growing constantly even if slowly, and people are hungry for more. I am limited not by my market but by my development capabilities.

There's an extension to this. I now watch the world markets more closely and my market has changed. I don't want to make software for India any longer, instead I search for niches and special markets which I can serve through my software. Niches, but big niches, niches that span the globe, and I find a new one every week. Again I am limited not by my market but my development capabilities.

And there's a third angle to it. The services angle. Around the beginning of this month I begun to tap the international market for service jobs (programming) and found a whole new market. The demand for intelligent suppliers is big, and I can't tap even a fraction of it. Again I am limited not by the market but by my development capabilities.

That's what I meant when I said that the mighty, the tech-trained brain holds the four aces in the new economy. He could be sitting in Ghana or Los-Angeles, working from his home or from a lavish office setup and still be earning mega-dollars all purely by the virtue of his brain and his knowledge. He could be a programmer like me, a consultant, a writer, or in any other knowledge oriented profession and he'd have the capability to reach out and draw as many dollars from the coffers of the world as his skills would allow. Again the market will not be limited by his physical boundaries, but by his capabilities.

It's the third angle to this which is the threat and that angle is worldwide competition. As a professional I no longer compete with providers in my local town or even in my country but the entire world in both my businesses, be it service, or packaged software. I compete for revenue with people from USA, Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, UK, Romania. Name the biggest country and the smallest country on the map, and they're all filled with my competition. And this is the most important thing to think about. In this knowledge-run economy the four aces are held by the mightiest brain. The brain which knows the most, the brain which holds the most and the brain which can implement this knowledge the quickest. If you have that brain, you can get paid the best, you can command your price and get paid over and above it. But this is a very exclusive offer, only for THAT particular brain. If you're anything below THAT brain, you'll live in the margins, you'll still have a job but not the spectacular success which you have a very visible opportunity for.

This is where the challenge is. How much is one ready to sacrifice to meet this challenge? This worldwide competition to carve a living, this race for a better future? Will you work 16 hours a day? Will you learn new skills every day? Will you train yourself with a bestial hunger for knowledge? Will you give up everything and be consumed?

If not then you've already lost. Because in this tech-future, the mightiest brain holds all the aces. But who'll pay the price?

There's real money in outsourcing. Not only in those big enterprise-corporate-company jobs that huge companies like Wipro and Infosys do, but also on a much smaller scale.

This is a sector that big development houses can't touch. Outsourcing for small scale businesses exists. It's a real opportunity. I know because I've serviced them since the beginning of this month and I am going to do more of that.

I've made a kiosk application for a big video store in America, a small website for an author who writes books about alternative medicine, an app to show advertisements in a local mall, an add-in to automate the scanning tasks of a small design house, an application to warn the affiliates of a software seller of accrued commission...etc. And all of that since November 01 2004.

Most of these jobs are small, ranging from USD55 up to USD250, but they can be done in 1-2 days, sometimes even a matter of hours. But just imagine the huge volume of these opportunities that exists out there. Why in my mind the size of this market is not much lesser than the size of the corporate market if considered in its entirety. Servicing it however, is a completely different ballgame.

The buyers in this sector want personal touch, quick response and availability, so doring it in a corporate fashion is difficult. However the results are definitely positive. The customers that I've worked with-have built a relationship with me, and the result is repeat jobs, bigger than the last time. I am negotiating with a customer right now to do a job that will be worth about USD 1,700 if it comes through (and I will get to know in 2 days.)

I am thinking of ways right now how to tap this opportunity, how to reach these customers, and how to service them better. It's not just thought, it's action too. I've begun with taking up a website specially to showcase our outsourcing facilities where buyers can find details, see sample work, contact us, and even buy my services.

We will service all scales of jobs from USD 20 to USD 2,000 and above. The idea is not to let a single client pass you by, and I think I know how to do that.

Here are the sectors that we will operate in.

-- Graphic Designing (Logos, Letterheads, Corporate presentations, flyers, brochures)
-- Web designing
-- Animation & Multimedia - Flash & Director, Computer based Animation, etc.
-- Programming (Application & Automation) - VB, VB.Net, C#, ASP, ASP.Net, Javascript, PHP

All of the business will be web based, communication will be through Email, IM and Spyke possibly.

Some of my staff is already qualified to handle some of the jobs that I can source, and for other jobs I am going to recruit more people when my business grows.

I see a lot of opportunity here. Opportunity that might become an important add-on business for my company in forseeable future.

(I will report specific developments as they occur)

I downloaded the Eclipse development environment yesterday.

Eclipse is a FREE integrated development environment for just about everything. The environment works with several compilers and languages the most prominent of which is Java. However there's an Eclipse plugin for almost every language available, including C++ and C#.

On first look it looks very robust and has all the good features of a good Development IDE including intellisense (that's a Microsoft word). I think I am going to use more of it, specially since I am going to work with Java a little now.

I had read somewhere that Eclipse is slow. That's a lie, probably MS sponsored. I used Eclipse for a little while and it's definitely faster than Visual Studio. And the best thing is that there was NO installation of Eclipse. I could just unzip it to a folder and start using it, without all those DLLs and registry entries pollution my operating system.

I just hope there's a user manual or something to Eclipse which will give me a headstart with it.

For those of you who are involved with programming Eclipse might be old news but if you're not already using it, try it.