sijith.com - Towards life success, one inch at a time

Never look back and never giving up!

2009-02-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

The game is not yet over. You have enough opportunity left before the final whistle. (Anonymous)

Let me share someone's life history with you. This was a man who failed in business at the age of 21; was defeated in a legislative race at age 22; failed again in business at age 24; overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26; had a nervous breakdown at age 27; lost a congressional 53 of 279 race at age 34; lost a senatorial race at age 45; failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47; lost a senatorial race at age 49; and was elected president of the United States at age 52.This man was Abraham Lincoln.

One day a partially deaf four year old kid came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, "Your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school." His mother read the note and answered, "My Tommy is not stupid to learn, I will teach him myself." And that Tommy grew up to be the great inventors history has ever seen. Thomas Edison. He had only three months of formal schooling and he was partially deaf.

Colonel Sanders, man behind KFC, at age 65, with a beat-up car and a $100 check from Social Security, realized he had to do something. He remembered his mother's recipe and went out selling. How many doors did he have to knock on before he got his first order?.

These people could have quit. But they didn’t. They took the defeat as a challenge to conquer. To them, defeat was a detour and not a dead end, and this made them one among the people who reshaped history.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of life you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into the flames of achievement.

All success stories are stories of great failures. The only difference is that every time they failed, they bounced back. This is called failing forward, rather than backward. You learn and move forward. Learn from your failure and keep moving.

Thomas Edison failed approximately 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb. How many of us quit after three tries, ten tries, a hundred tries, and then we say we tried as hard as we could?

Setbacks are inevitable in life. A setback can act as a driving force and also teach us humility. In grief you will find courage and faith to overcome the setback. We need to learn to become victors, not victims. Fear and doubt short circuit the mind.
Ask yourself after every setback: What did I learn from this experience? What should I do to make sure this doesn’t repeat again? Only then will you be able to turn a stumbling block into a stepping stone.

Disappointments will cross your path in the future. Every day brings its share of challenges. Still, we can choose to enjoy each day as it comes, purposing not to dwell on the things we can't change. As our attitude towards life changes, we identify the opportunities left in front of us. This Hope re-ignites in our hearts, and we begin to dream again.

In the darkest of your life, see the tiniest spark of light rays. Kindle them. If you decide to give up, you have decided to fail. If you decided to fail, there is nothing more disastrous than that.

Sometimes everything turns upside down. Bad things happen to good people.
We cannot choose our parents or the circumstances of our birth. What do we do from here; cry or take the ball and run? That is a choice we have to make.

Between stimulus and response is our greatest power -- the freedom to choose. This takes me to the habit of “be proactive”. It says that as human beings,
we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.

Look at the word responsibility -- "response-ability" -- the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

Success is not measured by how high we go up in life but by how many times we bounce back when we fall down. It is this bounce back ability that determines success.
To deal with a setback the right way, take a step back and look at the situation objectively. You are probably feeling hurt, worried, upset and maybe confused. Most likely, a swarm of emotions is flying around in your head. Try to put these aside so you can seriously ponder the problem you are facing.

People who have overcome obstacles are more secure than those who have never faced them. We all have problems and we feel discouraged some time. Most people get disappointed; but winners don't get disheartened. The answer is perseverance.
An English proverb says, "A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner." Everything is difficult before it becomes easy. We cannot run away from our problems. Only losers
quit and give up.

Success is a journey through thorns. Path is not filled with roses to you. You have humps ahead of you. Your car may get break down. Gas gets over. You seem to get totally lost on the way. Winners never give up. They take it as a challenge.

The game is still going. You are still in the team. Time is running. Plenty of opportunity left before that final whistle ends the entire show.

Remember: BEHIND EVERY SUCCESS STORY, THERE IS A STORY OF A FAILURE. BUT FOR WINNERS, FAILURE IS ONLY A STAGE BEFORE SUCCESS”

Do You Record Your Life Memories ?

2009-02-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

How exciting is to record the cherished memories of my life and may be many years later, I would flip through those pages to view the precious moments I spent with my friends and family, and all those who came and walked through my life.

The day I jumped out with joy. The day when I went exhausted. The day when I felt emotionally lost. Cried because of the unexpected. A wonderful way to play my life back as a movie and see all the silly and crazy things I did in my life. All the wonderful people I met in my life. All the excitement I went through in this great journey called "life".

We video record or take photographs of important occasions of our life. How about recording every detail of our life day by day in some kind of storage medium? How many of us have the habit of spending a few minutes daily to "diarize" our day.

I started this habit when I was studying in tenth grade. The thing which started just as a fun later became a passion for me. Now I keep record of how I did well in my life. What things I did which I shouldn’t have done. All the glorious memories and events in my life are being recorded.

If you have not yet started, then you are probably missing all those fun and excitement of recording your life. It gives us a chance to record the days you felt extremely delighted and happy. It gives chance to retrospect our own life.

He held the book towards his chest. He knew it is the most precious possession he has in the whole world. "Tom, Today is your daughters marriage and I see tears in your eyes." Nothing John. I am alright." "No. I am sure there is something. Can I look at that book you are holding to your heart". "Sure John, here it is". "John, I cant believe my eyes Tom."

"You are right John, today is my daughters marriage. The book you hold in your hand is a witness to my life. I just had a flash back on my life and I really felt those missing moments. It has the day when I first went to school holding my fathers fingers. My mom looked at me and I could see the tears of happiness in her eyes. I never knew I was opening a new chapter in my life, but I don't know john, I just cried. I came back to my house eyes reddened with tears. How can I forget my first day at school? This book will never make me forget it.

It has the day when new friends came to my life giving me new meaning to friendship and love. Days of happiness and days of sorrow one after another creating new entry to my book as the day passed. I joined college and moved to another city. I left most of my belonging behind, but took this book with me, giving it a chance to witness my yet another phase of my life. The fun filled days in college was sometime disturbed by the sour memories I had to go through in the campus. Exams, assignments and other academic works, not to mention the games and fun filled activities. All the daily events and memories took a place in this book.

My graduation from college, a workaholic life in search of a successful career, then my marriage, our first daughter Lisa, and now her marriage. All those life memories were recording as it is in this book and I can replay them life a video.
Today I completed 50 years of my life john. The glorious 50 years. All my life is written down in this book. I really miss everyone john. I don’t know. Replaying my precious moments of my life gave me an intense feel of happiness and the tears you saw in my eyes is the result of that.

How much time you spend, how often you write, the medium of the journal are all personal choice. One method may be perfectly applicable to one but may not be applicable to another. We can allocate a minimum of 2-5 minutes (i.e. 0.2% of time we have in a day) every day, any time, preferably early morning to record the previous day/ or at night to record current day.

There are a few important things to be considered in order to effectively cultivate this habit.

One, we need to religiously allow our-self regular writing times. Many people like to write in the morning when they first awaken. For someone who keeps a dream journal or a creative journal, this is a wonderful idea as it starts out your day by awakening your mind. A few others like to write at the evening before going to bed,
and this time, you reflect your day in one page.

Two, Write because you want to write and not because you have to. Don’t allow diary writing to become an obligation or chore. Let the need to write naturally flow from your heart. If you miss a day, accept that. In my case, if I miss a day because of some pending works or schedules, I write it together with my next day journal or decide to leave that day altogether (especially if nothing worth full or important happened that day).

Three, your journal listen to you what ever you say to it. Remember you feel so dejected about something, and you get a person who just sits in front and do nothing other than just listen, then you will start opening all your issues and feelings to this person. Your diary doesn’t talk to you, but it listens. Listens to everything you say. Once you get started, your journal will become one of your good friends — one who is always available and has the time to listen attentively.

Four, do not lie to yourself. Be honest. You may feel Happy, Great, Mad, Bad, Sad, depressing, confusing, embarrassing, frustrating, heart breaking, disgusting, lonely, shocking or rewarding. What ever you feel, reflect them in your words. You are talking to your best friend and you need to be honest to it right!!

Nowadays my diary is password protected. Instead of writing in a diary, I feel more comfortable to type and store them online. I use www.penzu.com for my journal writing. In this way, I don’t need to carry them with me wherever I go and I don’t have the trouble of someone “unknowingly” reading my journal. We have lots and lots of web sites offering free diary writing space.

Don’t Say YES when you want to say NO

2009-02-02T13:42:00.000-08:00

Many of us would have had the dilemma to let down a request to do something you honestly don’t have any time to do it. The request might have come from your friend, colleague, neighbor, or a relative. Even if you don’t have time to do them, you are not willing to say a NO, but by saying so, you feel you are letting them down.

You feel GUILTY already, and you haven't even responded yet! So you say, "Sure," even though doing so is going to put you under tremendous stress and PRESSURE. You know that you will probably end up resenting this activity, and maybe even ducking some of your responsibilities because your heart's just not in it, but you go ahead and agree anyway

Following are the thoughts which cause us to say a YES to those requests. (1) I may disappoint others. (2) I’ll have to deal with others’ reactions. (3) I might create conflict. (4) People won’t like me. (5) I may lose my job. (6) Its just easier to say yes.

No matter how busy you are, we dutifully take more and more tasks. One of the biggest blocks we may have is the want to please others than to please the self. Think about that. The reason you say yes is often because you don’t want someone else to think badly of you.

We are afraid to tell people "NO"? For some reason, we have been taught that "no" is DISRESPECTFUL -- and even insulting. We seem to value other people's time more than our own -- feeling that we need to bend over backward to accommodate others, even if it inconveniences us. When you tell someone "no," you are really saying that you understand and accept your own LIMITS, and you value your time and priorities and aren't willing to take away from the truly important things in your life. A little selfishness is necessary, if you want to maintain a balanced and sane life!

So how do you say "NO" without insulting the other person, feeling consumed with guilt, or hurting your own credibility? We need to find a way to say "no" without dragging up all of those HIDDEN FEARS -- they'll think I'm lazy or selfish, that I have no career drive, that I'm not ambitious, that I have no concern for other people.

As I have mentioned in my previous article, we do have a set of priorities, tasks and goals. We have prepared our mission statement. We have taken pain to identify and write down our priorities. If these priorities are not met, then we are responsible for it. Not our friends or anyone. We all live a social life and we can’t live independent. Letting down others request could lead to a situation whether other let down our requests too. That is perfectly fine, since we both have identified the importance of time.

There are a few more things to be noted here. We all honestly want to do help, and thus a NO should only come if you feel it will affect your priorities and you will get overburdened. Let us consider Mr. X. He is not a person who has well defined priorities nor does he manage his time effectively. When one of his friends gives him a help request, he suddenly becomes too busy. He has many things to finish and he let down his friend’s request. There is a big difference between a fake “NO” and a genuine “NO”.

Helping mentality is always a good habit and something which everyone needs to develop.

Here comes a question – When to say NO and how to say NO ? Following are the time when we have the right to say a NO. If posed with a request, and any of the below points are matched, then go ahead and say a polite NO.

(1) When your priorities do not go along with the request. (2) When the person can do it themselves. (3) When it’s against your values and judgments. (4) If you would feel bad doing it. (5) If it would hurt you or someone else. (6) If the demand is inappropriate. (7) If you just don’t want to do it. (8) If the request is inconsiderate to you or others.

The next step is to learn the various varieties of “No” and the appropriate context to use them.

1. The Direct No – “No, I can’t help you in this task.” This simple phrase can be used any time you lack the time or the will to do something.

2. The Reflecting No – In this softer version, you acknowledge the content and feeling of the request. “I know you’ve been counting on me to help in this task, but I just can’t do it today.”

3. The Reasoned No – Give a brief and genuine reason for refusing, without opening up negotiations. “No, I can’t take up this project. I have two big projects due in March.”

4. The Broken Record No – This is used when someone is trying to wear you down by begging, flattery, or trying to sweeten the pot. It can be hard to ignore the whining, but it’s possible. It goes something like this: “I know I can do it, but I must decline it for the moment.”

5. The Pain Now or Pain Later No – This is one of the kindest things you can say if you really don’t think you have the time to do something. “I’m not sure how things will shape up with my schedule, so I’d rather say, “No,” today than have to disappoint you later, when it will be harder to find someone else.”

6. The No Sandwich – In this one, you recognize the value of the relationship, refuse the request, and thank them for asking. “I know this project is really important to you, but I just can’t see a way I can do it right now. I do appreciate your asking me.”

7. The Yes If No – This is the negotiator’s "no." You state the conditions under which you can meet the request. “Yes, I can help you with the project, but only after Sept 24 and you agree to make me the project lead.”

8. The Sleeping No – “I’ll let you know tomorrow, after I’ve had time to think.” Thinking about the request overnight will remind you that this is your decision. You may actually decide to say, “Yes.” (Courtesy: www.hodu.com)

Make sure you fully understand requests before you agree to anything. I know this is a hard one. Sometimes wanting to help can be your worst enemy and you’ll agree to something before you truly understand how it’s going to effect your time. Try and get all the facts before you start adding tasks and projects.

For any one seriously interested in mastering this habit, I suggest two books to them. How To Say No Without Feeling Guilty, by Patty Breitman and “Don't Say Yes When You Want to Say No: Making Life Right When It Feels All Wrong”, by Herbert Fensterheim and Jean Baer.

“No” is a generous thing to do. It frees us from making insincere commitments, and it ensures we commit to things we can put our hearts into. We don’t say “No” to everything; we say “Yes” to the things that matter.

Truly inspirational Video

2009-01-16T23:40:00.001-08:00

Truly inspirational video

2009-01-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

Luck Or Hard Work - Which One Determines Life Success?

2009-01-14T19:48:00.001-08:00

I have been thinking about this question since a long time. How much percentage luck and how much percentage hard work play in our life success? I am sure that at any point of your life, you would have looked at a person and said "How lucky He/She is. I wish I was like him/her".

In order to understand this topic better, I began to read various personality development books and started talking with people regarding this. This article is about what I learned from them and what conclusion I had come upon.

A one sentence answer to our question is given in the book, the monk who sold his Ferrari, "What is luck, my friend?" Julian replied kindly. "It is nothing more than the marriage of preparation with opportunity." As we see, Preparation plays a vital important role in life success. When opportunity comes to a person who is prepared, he can take the opportunity. This is what Julian Mantle considers as luck. So if the luck knocks an unprepared mind, there is a high probability that he missed the opportunity and hence misses his luck.

When posed this question to my friend Shyam, he told me "Life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny. When a person is determined to succeed in his life, the whole world wants him to win. Lady Luck is greedy. It supports success. It goes with those who do hard work. The nature silently prays for the person who does hard work and lady luck can't ignore him for long. A better word for Luck is opportunity. A person, who wants to learn more, who wants to accomplish something great in life, who focuses on only realizing his dreams, is bound to succeed and the right opportunity will definitely knock his door."

If a person believes only in luck, he just buys lottery tickets. He just waits. He will always be like that gambler in Las Vegas, staying at the roulette wheel. But if u do hard work, and luck comes, u never miss that luck.

Arun Vijay, put the answer in this way "You need to do had work without believing in luck. If you do hard work, and luck doesn't come your way, you don't need to worry since you have only believed in hard work and not luck. Hard work includes ability and skills. You should have right attitude to make this happen. If you wish to fly, and you do hard work day and night without working on to acquiring the necessary skills required flying, it is almost guaranteed that luck will be reluctant to come to your foot step".

It is truth that there might be many people who got success just of sheer luck. But since exceptions are not rules, I personally believe that we should not take these people as our role model since they took a bit of short cut to reach success. Short cut don't always lead a person to success.

What I understand on this topic is that, we are supposed to do our home work without depending on the luck factor. We should not be like a person who buys a lottery tickets and waits till luck blesses him. He may end up spending his life on this. We have to take advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as it's doing to help us. This is called the principle of favorability or beginner's luck.

If you are a student, we can do our best to concentrate on our studies and do as much hard work as we can. If you are an employee, give your best to your job. If you have a dream to follow, start immediately on it. Luck waits for no one. Before it comes, be prepared for it.

One Personal and One Professional Goal For 2009

2009-01-14T19:47:00.000-08:00

Good bye 2008. It is over and it is gone. Only what we did in this year remain, as a witness for this great year that have slipped away from us. The year which made us jump with joy, made us take crucial step's and decisions of our life and spent a life we always wished to live. Lot of happiness and achievements, and it is time to tell a fair well good bye to 2008, and whole heartedly welcome 2009 to our life.

Welcome 2009. As fresh as it could be. A new year to go for our life ambitions. Life passions. A new year to see our dreams being fulfilled. A new year to achieve the impossible. A new year to bring out the best out of us, and make it the best life we ever had in our life.

Life Resolution New Year resolution is part of our rituals for January 1. However, study shows that 95% of those who make new year resolution fail to keep them up for more than 2-3 weeks. Today I want to ask you not to keep a New Year resolution, but a Life Resolution. We are going to pick 2 Life Goals for 2009 - one from our personal life and one from our professional life, and go through a life journey to achieve them. This is the first installment of power article's in sijith.com and the whole 2009 will be dedicated to article's in achieving these life goals we are going to set today.

Let us pick the best two goals for 2009 that would make 2009 the best year for us ever.

One important point here: You commit one thing to me. "I am going to allocate a weekly quota for these goals and commit that I will not take any other personal/professional goal, unless my primary goal quota is complete."

Question ? What if I have two goals in each category.

Answer: It is perfectly fine to have two or more goals for each category. BUT, you should make one of them as primary for each category, and other's as secondary. You are going to work towards the secondary goals, only if your weekly quota for these goals is achieved.

Personal goal 2009:

I want you to do an exercise here. Take a paper/pen. Write down one personal goal that if you achieve will totally change the way you live. It could be something as small as mending a broken relationship, or could be something big, say changing your dietary habit or come out of a bad habit or improving your financial life or learning a foreign language. Just one goal - not more nor less. Just one personal goal, that could change your life and turn your dream into a reality. This goal could be also a spiritual goal or any goal that would improve your inner/personal life.

Now that you have this ONE personal goal written down, I want you to do the second step.

Write down 5 steps that if you do one at a time, you will achieve the above goal. Let me explain you with an example.

Imagine your goal is: "To learn a new foreign language".

So here is how, I would break down the goal into 5 steps. (For each person, the steps would be different. Identifying what works for YOU is the most important part here).

Sub Goal 1: Join an institute teaching this foreign language.

Sub Goal 2: Decide on a syllabus for 2009 that if I complete them, would reach my target.

Sub Goal 3: Buy/Get the required books/resources that I am going to use for this goal.

Sub Goal 4: Decide how much hours/time I am going to spent every week for this goal.

Sub Goal 5: Commit to stick with my goal and constantly check my goal progress.

Professional goal 2009:

Now let us come to a professional goal. This is a goal that would make a real real positive impact on your professional life. This is THAT goal if you achieve, would change your professional career life, and achieve what you always dreamt in your life in your career.

I want you to write this down. How you are going to achieve them is not important here. What you want to achieve is important here.

Here is an example of a professional goal:

"I improve my communication and interpersonal skills"

Sub Goal 1: Join a toastmaster's club and start a public speaking course.

Sub Goal 2: Work with a professional mentor to identify the area's of improvement.

Sub Goal 3: Spent sometime every day for exercise. Join yoga classes or a gym.

Sub Goal 4: If you look to become a manager, work towards achieving managerial skills/qualification. Like improving relationships, increasing personal contacts, etc.

Sub Goal 5: Proactively invest time in one project that would make a difference and help me towards my life goals. (This is a quadrant 2 activity and we will cover about four quadrants of time management in one of the future article).

The above goal/sub goals is just shown for an example. You can choose them based what you want in your life, and how best you want to use 2009. Here is a criteria for choosing your goals : "It is the ONE goal that would change my life, make 2009 the best year ever I had, and take me closer to achieve my life dreams."

Let's can take our time, and work towards our goals. Let us bring out the best out of us. Let us go for to achieve the impossible and get want you dreamt in your life. Believe me, you are in the process of changing your life, and changing the life of people's aroundyou, and let us be excited that we are in the process to make 2009 the best year ever we had in our life.

Wish you all the best and New Year greetings to all the readers.

Luck Or Hard Work: Which One Determines life success

2008-04-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

Working Hard to Make Our Dream a Reality

2008-01-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

We all have dreams. How nice would it be if that dream comes true. But it comes only with hard work and patience. Read this article to find how it feels when your dream come true.

Seven Ways to improve your reading habits

2008-01-31T08:07:00.000-08:00

All of us have "tons" of book to read. All these books give you immense knowledge. Students have textbooks to read. But if you don't have a good reading habits, you will end your life without reading those good books. Read this post to know about the 7 technique to improve your reading habit. It really works !!!!

Recording your life memories

2008-01-31T08:02:00.001-08:00

Every day in our life is a memorable day. Many good things. Many bad things. Achievements. Happiness. Sorrow. Success. If we record all the things in our life, later a time, we can read our life like a video. Read this article to know about the tips for diary writing (I write diary and it is really fun).

Let us make this summer a real memorable one

2008-01-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

We are going to have a vacation. We are planning to take a break from our frustrated life. Have a quick recap of important personality development activities and how my readers implemented that in their life.

Is sucide answer to life's problems ?

2008-01-31T07:58:00.000-08:00

People think suicide is the solution for their problem. But it is just beginning of all the problems. Your loved one's cant afford to lose. If you are someone who want to suicide or have a friend who want to commit suicide, then this is the article you cant afford to miss.

Heart of Rose technique to improve mind power

2008-01-31T07:57:00.001-08:00

You feel your mind is getting distracted when you start doing any activity. This is because of lack of mind concentration and it can be solved. Read this ancient method of improving mind power and change your life today.

Each day as a fresh start and an opportunity to excel

2008-01-31T07:56:00.000-08:00

Most people wait for Dec 31 to make resolutions for the new year. But believe that, you day is a new year and an opportunity to excel. Read this post to know how to make each day an excellent opportunity to excel.

Dont say YES when you want to say NO

2008-01-31T07:54:00.000-08:00

We tend to YES to requests we dont want and then regret that we have lots of work load. Learn the techniques of telling NO when you actually want to say NO.

Live,Love,Lean and Leave a legacy Part II

2008-01-31T07:53:00.001-08:00

We usually dont see the Diamonds under our feet and go out in search of them. Read this second part of the series "Live, Love, Learn, and Learn a legacy".

You don't know what you have until it's gone

2007-11-14T14:23:00.000-08:00

We have many blessings. We don't appreciate it unless it is gone away from our life.

The Mind- an Extraordinary Garden

2007-11-13T20:20:00.000-08:00

Live , Love , Learn and Leave a Legacy Part I

2007-11-13T19:55:00.000-08:00

Opposite of success is not failure, it’s quitting

2007-10-03T11:21:00.001-07:00

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

2007-10-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well done is better than Well Said

2007-10-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

Time - The Most Precious Commodity

2007-09-09T17:29:00.002-07:00

Never look back and never giving up!

2007-09-09T17:27:00.001-07:00

Have you prepared your personal life mission statement?

2007-09-09T17:26:00.002-07:00

Mission Statement 1:

To be the person who speaks for the one who cannot, to listen for the one who cannot hear, see for the one without sight, and have the ability
To have my deeds match my words through the grace of God
To be the person my parents look to pride and say, “This is my son”
To say thanks to God in some way, every day
Listen twice as much as I speak.
Remember the people involved.
Seek and merit divine help.

Mission Statement 2:

To remain humble throughout my life
To succeed first at home, then the rest
To believe in treating all people with kindness and respect
To achieve a position of respect and knowledge, to utilize that position to help others
Plan tomorrow's work today.
Finally, to go through life with a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eye

Mission Statement 3:

Have a positive and encouraging attitude.
Be orderly in person and in work.
I will keep promises and honor commitments.
I will attain success in such a big way that other say, I wish I was him
To live and let live, to learn and teach, to give and receive, to love and be loved, to understand and be understood
Be worthy of the respect and admiration of my family, friends, and business associates.

A personal mission statement is the statement of your life. The statement which reflects your values. The document which reflects what you want to achieve in this life. What you wish to achieve before you leave.

As Frankl said “We don’t need to invent our mission. We just detect them. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it “

Many of us wants to do something in their life but don’t know what exactly to do. This affects the over all goal setting since you cannot hit a target which you cannot see.

Each of us needs to identify our mission statement and once they are identified, they become the road map of our life.

Personally speaking, creating a mission statement had a big impact in my life. The whole direction of my life changed. I started feeling intense happiness in my work and actions, since I now know that each action counts towards achieving my life mission. I constantly renew my mission statement either to rewrite them to reflect my new insights, or to see how I well am progressing towards my mission statement. This I say has helped me to better reorganize my time to make sure I don’t allow the truly important activities of my life to get lost in the busy activities of my days.

A mission statement is not something you write overnight. It takes deep introspection, careful analysis and often many rewrites to produce it in final form. It may take you several weeks or even months before you feel really comfortable with it, before you feel it is a complete and concise expression of your innermost values and directions. Even then, you will want to review it regularly and make minor changes as the years bring additional insights or changing circumstances. But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.

If you have not attempted to write a personal mission statement, then do this exercise. Visualize your eightieth birthday or your fiftieth wedding anniversary. Try to imagine a wonderful celebration where a friend, loved ones, and associates from all walks of your life come to honor you. See these individuals in your mind’s eye, one by one, to pay tribute to you. Assume they represent roles you are now filling in life – as a student, parent, teacher, manager, or community servant. What would these people say? What qualities of character would you will be remembered for? What outstanding contribution would they mention about you?

In my first article, we discussed that our actual goals and values needs to be written down and there is a big effect on that in your mind and soul. By creating a personal mission statement, you actually do this. We are beginning our life by keeping our end in mind. You would have noticed that the mission statements which I mentioned at the start of the article are not To-List, but they are something which you carry with you throughout your life and they are the statement truly reflecting your values and insights.

Writing or reviewing a mission statement changes you because it forces you to think through your priorities deeply, carefully, and to align your behavior with your beliefs. As you do, other people begin to sense that you're not being driven by everything that happens to you. You have a sense of mission about what you're trying to do and you are excited about it.

There is a web site which I had used to create a personal mission statement.
http://www.franklincovey.com/fc/library_and_resources/mission_statement_builder

Check out this site. It is an excellent place to start building your life mission statement. The mission statement builder wizard they have take you through step by step of identifying the true values of your life and then framing a well organized mission statement and this I believe, is a great place to begin and have your well written well organized life mission statement ready to change your life.

Each day as a fresh start and an excellent opportunity to excel

2007-09-09T17:26:00.001-07:00

When will you consider yourself successful?

2007-09-09T17:25:00.001-07:00

Do we still remember those who helped us in life?

2007-09-09T17:24:00.001-07:00

Last week I was talking with one of my friend and he said to me. “Hey sijith, you have not called me for past 2 or 3 months, looks like you are very busy now days.” Even though he said this for fun, those words really took me on. It imposed me to think. How true. We have become so busy that we have forgotten those behind our success and the busy life we now enjoy. We don’t remember about those childhood friends who used to be with us always, who laughed when we laughed and cried when we cried. We don’t remember about those who gave us tips on how to learn and how to achieve success. We don’t remember about those who opened us the doors of opportunities and paved way to our success. We have completely forgotten them. Don’t know where they are, how they live. We only have our BUSY work to care.
Another incident also made me conscious of this. I called one of my old friends and when I was about to end the call, he said “Thanks for calling sijith”. I understood that getting in touch with your friends and relatives is something which will make them happy and something which makes us different from others.
Let me ask you this “List a few teachers who aided your journey through school”, “Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time”, “Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special”. Once the list is made, pick out those names that you call often or meet them often. I did this and found that I have only a very few names in my list. This exercise made me aware that unfortunately I am also among those who forget the people involved in our life success, and now I want to change.
Remembering the people involved is something we really lack in our life. Once we are settled in our life, we don’t care to think about those people without whose help, you would not be in the position we enjoy right now. Do you people think we should honor the hand extended to us during our life. Just imagine the immense happiness and sense of recognition they would get to hear our voice again. It may be a small thing for us, but this is really a big thing for them.
Life is a roller coaster life. We know that we are interdependent and can’t go forward without help and support from others. How small the help we get or how large the help we get, they have come to us at the time of a difficult situation, giving the necessary guidance and support towards achieving our dreams and goals. These people have been away from our life for a while now and I think it is time for us to bring them back. Take a letter pad and write few sentences and post them. Buy a greeting card and wish them. Take your cell phone and give them a call. Or start your car and ride to their home.
We all are preparing for the spring and summer breaks. We are in the middle of our final exams and submitting all our assignments and are eagerly looking forward for the holydays. We have lots of plans for the vacation. Why can we have one more plan? Make a list of all those people who have played both minor and major roles in our life and just give them a call, or give them a visit. I am sure this is something you can do very easily, but see the difference you make in others life. What ever we do to reinitiate the broken link between us and them, it is definitely going to open new doors of friendships, love and relationships in our life. I wish all my readers a happy spring break.

Apple iPhone

2007-08-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

well, after all the media hypes, iPhone is available to public. iPhone has till date got good welcome from the customers.

The iPhone is a multimedia and Internet-enabled quad-band GSM EDGE-supported mobile phone designed and sold by Apple Inc.

The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and a multimedia player, in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail.
It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. User input is accomplished via a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons.

But the price of the phone is still high : $500. and the carrier is only AT&T (There was a recent report that one hacking guy has found a way to use iPhone with other carriers as well).

PC world conducted a stress test on the iphone phone and it was very interesting to watch it

http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html

There are some nice and cool articles in PC world which discusses more on the features of iphone and give some good review on it

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134515/article.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134516/article.html

enjoy!!!1

My university reopened after the summer break

2007-08-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

Hi all, my school reopened back after the summer break.

I feel really great to meet my friends and have my nice time in the college.....My university, univeristy of new haven, connecticut, has introduced lots of new innovative initiatives and this i am sure would be very helpful to the students....

There are many freshman in the school. I think they should be settled by now....

i am also keenly looking for my coming semester....

A small history of python language

2007-08-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hi...since i am now working on python language, i thought i will learn a bit on the history of python language...

Python was designed by Guido van Rossum in 1991 (I recently read in an article that Guido is currently hired by google. Dont know when google will see my resume :) . Python was designed around a philosophy which emphasizes readability and the importance of programmer effort over computer effort. This is really true. I felt this when I did the development in python.

The language has lots of rich features. Python has similarities to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, Smalltalk, and Tcl.

Wikipedia has an excellent coverage of this programming language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29

If you feel that python is not being used much and it is a waste to study this language, then beware... google is mainly running on c++, java and python. So now I think you all will be a bit more motivated to learn python language...

good...that is nice....so i wish u all good luck...

i will keep writing on python ...stay tuned

World of python programming language

2007-08-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

I am now doing my summer internship in a company called ASML. It is a nice experience to me to work in a company with lot of good technical people. My assignment here is on python programming language. I haven't learned this language before. So I was a bit curious and quite interested on my new assignment.

Python turned out to be a very strong programming languages. Lots of good features. The data structures in python is excellent. Passing of variables and objects were very nice. I recently learned that google mainly uses C++, java and python for majority of their programming.
With this I got convinced that python is such a strong programming language.

Internship is going fine. Doing programming using Python and Tkinter. Good experience for me. Looking forward to complete the assignment in the best way possible to me

IT world - the world of magic

2007-05-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hi, I was busy for some time due to my exams and now I am back.

Lots of things happening in the IT industry. Fight between google and microsoft (google offcourse leading the show). Last week, I was going through a book on developing application using GWT (Google window toolkit). GWT was announced by google in the javaOne conference held last year. I was virtually thrilled to complete the development using this tool kit.

You write the java code and GWT takes all the the pain to convert them to muti-browser compatible ajax code. Cool right.

Last night, I was trying to run the GWT application in the apache tomcat server running in my Red hat fedora 6 OS running in my laptop. I had some troubles getting it done, but it was a reallu nice experience. I would be posting the issues you can anticipate while doing this configuration and how to solve them.

OK then...get ready.. to learn and to share

Sijith

Yahoo! Bridges email, IM Divide

2007-02-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

According to reports, Yahoo! has blended its free email and Instant Messaging (IM) services, thus making it simpler for users to chat online from any computer connected to the Internet. The company said that starting yesterday and continuing over the coming months, Yahoo! will activate this feature for users of the new version of Yahoo! Mail, which is in beta phase but available to all users of the service.

In a statement, John Kremer, Vice President, Yahoo! Mail, said that they are bringing the fun of instant messaging into the e-mail experience. It is about bringing to the masses choices on how they communicate. They are hopefully bridging the gap between email users and IM users, as there is still a chunk of Yahoo! Mail users who are not using IM.

According to Yahoo!, the new feature alerts Yahoo! Mail beta users if their contacts are logged on to Yahoo! Messenger and gives them the option of starting a text chat session from within the mail interface. And if the user is composing an email message but wants to chat instead, Yahoo! Mail can take the text and paste it into the text chat window. Similarly, the chat session can be automatically imported to an email message form.

First Look: Apple's iPhone - a Revelation

2007-01-12T17:11:00.000-08:00

Apple's steve jobs introduced the most awaited iPhone in the MacWorld conference. The entire world is looking forward for this product. After the magical success of iPod, there is a very much excitement in the industry to see what steve jobs and his team is up with.

Well, one of the editors of the foxnews was able to get hands on experience on iPhone piece and he is excited on the product.

let us look what he has to say us on the product.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243395,00.html

2006 at a glance

2006-12-31T15:42:00.000-08:00

Hi all

We saw a lot of IT trends and products in 2006. Google obvioiusly lead the game with apple following with their iPod music success.

2006 saw the release of much delayed vista operating system and office 2007 from microsoft. Microsoft launched the live services pack with some good features, but I am not whether they were able to keep up with innovation sparkled by google.

I expect a very good competition ahead for the 2007 and I wish all my users a happy new 2007.

Sijith

GATES VS. GOOGLE Search and Destroy

2006-12-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

The fight between google and microsoft continues. Recently I read an interesting article on this, and I thought I would share them with you all. There has been talks that google be the next microsoft. The way google is moving forward gives the audience the same sign. That they are going to take on microsoft.

Last week I was watching a video of steve balmer being interviewed by ZDNet team. When he said his microsoft team is "innovating", the audience gave a big laugh. They know that when microsoft releases a product in 4 year, google does it each month.

Here is the article I read.

http://pipi68.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!7D93A15A5B18BFA!561.entry

Microsoft says it knows how to compete with Google

2006-12-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla., Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer explains to Gartner analysts Dave Cearley and Tom Pittman that the software giant plans to compete with Google in the search market by delivering more value and relevance to users.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/itlibrary/webcasts/0,39044504,39283307,00.htm

The Best Ajax-Based Apps

2006-12-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Today I was reading an article on top AJAX applications and I found it very interested.

Check the below link to browse the article

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarchives.jhtml?articleId=196603519

Sijith

Mozilla puts up alpha version of Firefox 3.0

2006-12-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

Mozilla fans still starry-eyed from the recent release of Firefox 2.0 can already get a glimpse at what the next version of the browser will look like, as an alpha version of Firefox 3.0 has recently been uploaded to Mozilla's public FTP server.

According to the Mozilla Wiki entry about Firefox 3, several enhancements are in developmentfor the successor to Firefox, which was released less than two months ago. One new feature planned to be in the new browser is called "places", which takes a new approach to bookmarks and page history. Reportedly, these items will be transitioned to the left side of the browser, sort of like Internet Explorer 7.

Microsoft Betas Book Search ready by tomorrow

2006-12-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

The Redmond, Wash.-based company announced that it will release the beta version of its Live Search Books application tomorrow.

This is an important part of the company's strategy to turn its Windows Live platform, which it just took out of beta in the last few days, into a hub of experiences that create customer loyalty, thereby driving incremental advertising revenue gains.

Currently, Live Book Search returns queries on books that are no longer protected by copyright.

Next year, it will include books that are currently under copyright protection as well.

That, Microsoft hopes, will make its users come back more often.

Leopard OS from Apple

2006-12-05T16:18:00.000-08:00

Apple is working on to release MAC OS X leopard operating system.

To know more on this OS, please visit the below web link

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/index.html

I am sure you all will enjoy the snapshots of this OS.

Google to end fee service for answering questions

2006-12-01T15:23:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Google is shutting down Google Answers, a service that lets users pose questions to a panel of researchers and pay for useful answers.

The service, about four years old, failed to gain much traction with users, especially when compared with a rival service offered by Yahoo, which is free.

Google Answers never generated much traffic or revenue for Google, said Danny Sullivan, editor of the online publication Search Engine Watch.

"Yahoo has an answers product that works," he said. Because Google Answers required users to pay, he said, it "could not have been that product." Sullivan noted that unlike Yahoo, Google had not promoted its service very much.

Microsoft Launches Vista

2006-11-30T15:49:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Today microsoft launched their much awaited operated system. Windows Vista .
It is since 5 years that microsoft has come up with another operating. Windows XP was their previous desktop OS.

Microsoft will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to market its new versions of windows and Office and plans to release more than 30 additional business products in the next year that piggyback on their technology, CEO Steve Ballmer said todayin New York.

For more details,

http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196600601

Symantec Vista security advances despite Patchguard

2006-11-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

Symantec has released a public beta of its Norton Internet Security 2007 and Norton AntiVirus 2007 suites for Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.

While the software supports both 32 and 64-bit versions of the operating system, Symantec stressed that it still requires access to Microsoft's Patchguard security technology that is built into the 64-bit version of the operating system.

Security vendors including McAfee and Symantec have been pressing Microsoft to cooperate and have lobbied the European Commission and Korean government to force the Redmond firm to open up its kernel.

The PatchGuard technology blocks access to the Vista kernel, blocking security technologies that rely on behavioural profiling as well as anti-tampering features that verify a system is running anti-virus software and a firewall.

Google sued by French moviemaker

2006-11-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

Hi all....

Google is being sued by French movemaker for copyright infrinchment.

Flach Film says that Google acted as a fully responsible publisher (rather than a passive host) when Google Video users streamed or downloaded the filmmaker’s documentary, "Le monde selon Bush" ("The World According to Bush").
The film, which is no longer available on the French Google Video site, had more than 43,000 views in a short period of time, Flach said. Google Video displays a tally of how many people have viewed each clip.

Sijith

Microsoft Unfazed by Google Office Threat

2006-11-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

One of the two new heads of Microsoft Corp.'s Office software team downplayed the threat from Google Inc.'s Web-based word processing and spreadsheet applications, saying they are unlikely to appeal to corporate customers.

Antoine Leblond, who became co-leader of the Office group in June, said Google was the latest in a long line of challengers to the Office software suite, which includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Outlook e-mail and PowerPoint presentations.

Microsoft will release the long-awaited Office upgrade to business customers next week along with its new Windows Vista operating system, which has been more than five years in the making. These products are the core of a broad product upgrade cycle aimed at restoring the software giant's growth.

Microsoft believes new web services will work in tandem with PC-installed software, a vision that differs from that of "software as a service" advocates, such as Salesforce.com and Google, who expect services delivered over the Web to eventually replace software that resides on local PCs.

Safari web browser

2006-11-22T18:54:00.001-08:00

Hi all..

Any one heard about safari web browser ? It is a web browser from apple which is available for download since a long time. Even though this was in the market for some times, I dont think this browser has taken the market, which is being dominated by Mozilla and IE.

You could download this for free and have a try on the software.. It could be downloaded from the url.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/safari.html

Ok then..bye for now

Sijith

Google file system

2006-11-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

Hi all...google has come up with a new file system called google file system. This is capable of
handling large 64 megablocks of data. Significantly, the file system was designed to assume that a failure, such as a failed disk or unplugged network cable, can happen at any time.

Google's PC servers, which number in the thousands, run a stripped-down version of Linux, which is based on the Red Hat distribution but is really just the operating system kernel modified for Google, he added.
Urs HoelzleVP of operationsand of engineering,Google

The company has also devised a system for handling massive amounts of data and returning rapid responses to queries. Google splits the Web into millions of pieces, or "shards" in Google tech speak, which are replicated in case of failure.

Microsoft to release Vista and office 2007 on Novemeber 30

2006-11-19T17:22:00.000-08:00

After years of development work and a last flurry of testing, Microsoft finalized windows vista last week.

On Thursday, Microsoft made the code for Vista available to subscribers of the MSDN and TechNet developer programs, a milestone that was noted on a number of Windows enthusiast sites.

The software maker plans to offer Vista and Office 2007 to volume license customers on November 30, while consumers will have to wait until Januaryfor the latest versions of Microsoft's flagship products.

Meanwhile, the company is giving free copies of Windows Vista to members of its technical beta program who filed at least one bug report during the testing of the operating system. The offer does not apply to technology enthusiasts who downloaded Vista as part of the broader Customer Preview Program.

Microsoft buys Firefox ?????

2006-11-18T10:29:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Did nt you people visit the below site. It is a parady site set up by some guys telling microsoft purchased firefix and now mozilla is under microsoft. (I think Redmond lawyers will be on its way to sue this web site designers.

http://www.msfirefox.com/

Anyway they have put it up in a nice way..

Really funny. Enjoy

Sijith

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft partner to help webmasters

2006-11-16T15:50:00.000-08:00

This was a surprise news. The competetors working together. That too Google,microsoft and yahoo. But it is true. They have decided to be partnered to simplify how webmasters and online publishers submit their sites' content for indexing in the companies' search engines.

A site map is a file that webmasters and publishers put on their sites to guide the search engines' automated Web crawlers in properly indexing their Web pages.
Site maps are particularly useful in highlighting to crawlers the dynamic Web content that is served up on the fly.

Crawlers generally index content contained in static Web pages without problems, but often they have difficulty with dynamic content, such as the one that is generated as a result of a search query.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will encourage other search engine operators, as well as makers of related software, like content management systems vendors, to support the protocol, they said.

The two sides of Bill Gates

2006-11-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

There were two Bill Gateses on stage Wednesday at Stanford University: the philanthropist, and the hypercompetitive Microsoft co-founder and chairman.

While he spoke of prosperity not being a zero-sum game, he also espoused the need for Microsoft to outmaneuver rivals like Apple Computer, Google and Sony.

"We want to either be No. 1 or on our way to being number one," Gates said while speaking at the third annual TechNet Innovation Summit, hosted by a membership of technology CEOs.

Gates, whose comments came during a taped interview with TV host Charlie Rose, showed he hasn't lost any gusto for Microsoft's leadership in technology, despite having announced plans to relinquish his day-to-day role with the company by 2008 to concentrate on philanthropy.

For more on this, visit the site
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6135997.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed

Will Sun release OpenSolaris also under the GPL?

2006-11-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

After releasing Java under the open source GPL license yesterday, Sun's senior vice president of software, Rich Green, hinted that the company might make the source code of the company's UNIX operating system available under the GPL license as well.

The availability of OpenSolaris under the GPL license would facilitate the inclusion of Solaris source code in the Linux kernel, something that can't be done with the CDDL license currently used by OpenSolaris.

Although many were skeptical last time Schwartz expressed an interest in licensing Solaris under the GPL, Sun has earned back credibility with the recent release of Java, and I think that the community will probably give them the benefit of the doubt this time.

By releasing Solaris under the GPL, Sun could finally eliminate the barriers that currently prevent interchange of source code between Linux and Solaris.

Java to be released under the GPL

2006-11-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

Hi all..

There is a new from Sun today. They have agreed to release Java language under GPL licence. This means programmers would be able to use java language for free in their application.
The announcement just came after the much talked about Microsoft-Novel pact .

One point to note here is, Sun is releasing java under "classpath exception" license, which means
the developers are free to choose the licensing type of the programs developed by Java. Which means, they can use java for free, but can sell products developed using java, under any other license.

Sun said that this move is to increase the popularity of java among the developers community.

Sijith

Top 10 Ajax security holes (Things to look out before implementing Web2.0 apps with AJAX)

2006-11-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hi all...

So we are all interested to make web applications like gmail and google maps. We all know that the idea behind these sites is AJAX . But we have to consider some security issues while working on this and if the developer is not knowing them, itwould be difficult to maintain the secured site. Here is an article which talked about the security things to be considered when you design an AJAX enabled application.

This is a must read for all developers who will be working on AJAX enabled web development modules.

http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=956

Ok then...bye for now..
sijith

Yahoo to offer instant messaging inside yahoo mail

2006-11-11T15:21:00.000-08:00

That is a good news for yahoo messenger users. When the new version is completed, we would be able to do chatting using the browser right inside our mail windows (Similar to the way google does this). This is a major leap by them to keep with the innovation pace and to fight against their arch rival, Mr Google, who by any ways are attracting users to their email and other services.

I think this is a good move by yahoo in order for them to be in business.

For more details, read the below link

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=76924

Sijith

About Web2.0 global summit

2006-11-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hi all..

Hope you all know about the global Web 2.0 summit going on in US.

If you want to know more info on this, please go to the below zdnet link.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/topic/Web+2.0.html

sijith

How to send mail using java and .net

2006-11-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

Hi all..

Sending email is a very important part of any application. If the mail sending protocol is enabled in the server (This will be enabled by default when you buy the server) , we would be able to send mails to others using our program.

If you like to know how to send mail using java, click below. Here the 'send' method of the JavaMail API to send the mail.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/sample_code/tech/java
/jsps/ojsp/sendmail.html
http://www.jguru.com/faq/view.jsp?EID=1163

If you like to send mail using .net , then go to the below link. Here we create a MailMessage object and then call the send method in SmtpMail class to send the mail.

For VB : http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/SendMail.asp
For CS : http://www.codersource.net/csharp_sending_emails.aspx

And friends, I have a news today. Microsoft Corp. has upgraded its online mapping service to include three-dimensional tours of 15 U.S. cities, marking another step in its dogged pursuit of Internet search leader Google Inc.

Click the below link for more details on this news.
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Nov06/0,4670,MicrosoftMaps,00.html

Ok then...bye for now.
sijith

Do you want to work for google ?

2006-11-06T14:23:00.000-08:00

Ever dreamed of becoming into google team. Do you have the talents to get into
the growing software company of the time. Just see what they are looking for and then decide to have them with you. Just start now.

They are looking for :

People with broad knowledge and expertise in many different areas of computer science and mathematics.

People with world-class programming skills.

People with excellent communication and organizational skills.

People who are passionate about their work and are great colleagues.

People who enjoy working in a high-energy, unstructured environment on very small project teams.

People with diverse interests and skills.

For more info, please visit the below google url

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about.html

What is RSS feed

2006-11-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

RSS is a simple XML-based system that allows users to subscribe to their favorite websites. Using RSS, webmasters can put their content into a standardized format, which can be viewed and organized through RSS-aware software or automatically conveyed as new content on another website.

Creating an RSS feeder is explained in detail in this article from developer.com. Just try to create this and see how it works.

http://www.developer.com/db/article.php/3113931

And here is another article which talkes about how to create RSS feeds from vb.net 2005

http://www.developer.com/net/vb/article.php/3567141

Second Minor Firefox 2.0 Bug Found

2006-11-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

A second minor bug found in the Firefox 2.0 Web browser will be fixed, but users shouldn't encounter much of a problem in the mean time, a Mozilla official said today.

The browser will crash if it visits a Web page that been intentionally coded with JavaScript in such a way as to target the bug, said Tristan Nitot, director of European operations for Mozilla.

"It's very unlikely that anyone would have put a similar page on any ordinary Web site," so users shouldn't be affected, Nitot said.

The problem can't be used to steal data from a computer, he added.

10 aspects of developing secure website

2006-11-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

We all know that security is an important issue while developing application.
Especially when you develop e-commerce site. So here is an article which explains what are
the security issues to be considered while developing application.

I hope this help us in our application development.

http://www.developer.com/security/article.php/3589331

sijith

Microsoft in deal with Linux-maker Novell

2006-11-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

In a move that could signal the start of a new spirit of cooperation between Microsoft and the open-source software movement, the US software giant has agreed to a wide-ranging pact with Linux reseller Novell Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Under the pact Microsoft will offer sales support for Suse Linux, a version of the operating system sold by Novell, the report said.

What is Web 2.0

2006-11-01T12:14:00.000-08:00

Ok..there seems to be lot of news on the emerging of Web 2.0 and the end of Web 1.0. But what exactly is this Web 2.0 .

Web 2.0 refers to a supposed second- generation of internet based services such as social networking sites, wikis,communication tools — that let people collaborate and share information online in ways previously unavailable.

BeforeI go into more, let me give a quick comparison between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0

Web 1.0 Web 2.0

DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent
mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia
personal websites --> blogging
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization
page views --> cost per click
screen scraping --> web services
publishing --> participation
content management systems --> wikis
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness --> syndication

For info, please go to this web site

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Google buys wiki maker JotSpot

2006-10-31T18:21:00.000-08:00

Google bought a California firm called Jotspot which makes wikis.

Wikis let people share things online, the best example of the genre being Wikipedia.

Google didn't say how much it paid for Jotspot. I will keep you all updated with
the latest happenings for this.

http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-6131024.html

Open source foundation (OSF)

2006-10-30T18:21:00.000-08:00

Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials--typically, their source code.

Source code is available for free distrubution and we can make necessary changes.

Open source foundation is a foundation which helps to maintain an open source community and sell the idea of open source.

www.newsforge.com is a site which gives update open source news

For more information on open source, please check

http://www.developer.com/open/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

Want to know how things work ? Check check this site

2006-10-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Hi all..

Recently I came across a very good web site. It is called http://www.howstuffworks.com/

It teaches us how things work. A really good site. There is a section completely dedicated for
computers. Some of the topics covered are :

1. How Computer Viruses Work
2. How Bits and Bytes Work
3. How C Programming Works
4. How can a totally logical machine like a computer generate a random number?
5. How Chess Computers Work
6. How does the e-mail notification in my Web browser work?

You can subscribe for newsletters from them by giving our email id (I have already subscribed to this site and they send me the latest things in the site).

You all could try it. The information it contains is so good and vast.

Ok then..have a nice day..bye
sijith

Intel Core Duo processor on first place in PC world top 100 products of 2006

2006-10-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Didnt u people hear the news. PC world released the top 100 products of the year and the first position goes to Intel core duo (That will be a good news to the Intel team).

Apple ipod nano got 4th place. Google earth is in 6th. Mozilla firefix 1.5 is on 12 the position.
Google search engine got 17th place while google desktop is on 47th rank. You tube is on 9th. meebo is on 65th rank.

I am surprised not to see google maps on the list while yahoo maps beta is in 56th position and Microsoft live local is on 39 .The map service from google using that cool AJAX technology is much better than yahoo and microsoft. But I should agree microsoft has also done a good job in microsoft maps in the http://local.live.com/

For the complete list please visit the below web site link.

http://pcworld.com/article/id,125706-page,13/article.html

ok then.bye for now
sijith

Oracle to have its Linux version

2006-10-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

That is a really surprising news to me. Oracle being a database vendor is going to have it own version of Linux. According to the news sources, Oracle is going to have its version from the Red Hat Linux binaries.

Oracle, the giant database company, says it's now going to take Red Hat's software, remove the logos, and sell it for a lower price. And it will keep doing it:

After this news, the stock prices of Red hat has come down. But from the Red Hat Linux side,
they commented that this move from oracle is good for the open source community as a whole.

For more reading, use the below links
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3640331
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6130071.html

sijith

Microsoft and Mozilla head to head with IE7 and Firefox 2.0

2006-10-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

Two competitors and in the ring again. Microsoft with their IE and mozilla with firefox 2.0.
Microsoft is inside the game with another web browser after a long wait. Without this release, firefox would have swiped away the growing browser market. Opera, and others are well beyond the popularity of firefox.

I have one more news .Starting on tuesday, you can create create subsets of the whole Google search engine, then do interesting things with them. In short, it's a way to carve off chunks of Google and customize them into a specialty search engine with a specific focus.

I created a sample one and it was lot of fun. wanna try for your self.then go to this link
http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

Ok then..bye for now
sijith

A nice video on what google is about and some plans and insight

2006-10-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hi all..

check out this video which talks about google and its future plans.
Really good one.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7137075178977335350&q=owner:ucberkeley+is141

By for now
Sijith

10 Programming Languages you should learn right NOW

2006-10-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all..welcome back...i hope you all find my blog site exciting and informative.

Today I just want to give a list of 10 programming languages which, according to eweek magazine,are bonus for developers to add to their resumes

1. PHP

An open-source, interpretive, server-side, cross-platform, HTML scripting language, especially well-suited for Web development as it can be embedded into HTML pages

2. C#

A general-purpose, compiled, object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft as part of its .NET initiative, it evolved from C and C++

3.AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

Though technically not a programming language, AJAX uses XHTML or HTML, JavaScript and XML to create interactive Web applications. Ever since Google Maps put AJAX, well, on the map, the requests for AJAX-knowledgeable pros went through the roof

4.JavaScript

Not to be confused with Java, JavaScript is a an object-oriented, scripting programming language that runs in the Web browser on the client side. It's smaller than Java, with a simplified set of commands, easier to code and doesn't have to be compiled.

5.Perl

Perl is an open-source, cross-platform, server-side interpretive programming language used extensively to process text through CGI programs.

6.C

"Learning C is crucial. Once you learn C, making the jump to Java or C# is fairly easy, because a lot of the syntax is common

7. Ruby and Ruby on Rails

Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented, open-source programming language; Ruby on Rails is an open-source Web application framework written in Ruby that closely follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture.

8. Java

An object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. Java is a "beautiful" language, it is central to the non-.Net programming experience.

9. Python

An interpreted, dynamically object-oriented, open-source programming language that utilizes automatic memory management.

10. VB.Net (Visual Basic .Net)

An object-oriented language implemented on Microsoft's .Net framework.Most argue that VB.Net is currently more popular than ever and one of the only "must-learns." "It is currently dominating in adoption and that is where all the work is," said Huckaby.

To read the entire eweek article, please use the link below

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2016415,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

First Computer Bug

2006-10-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

In 1945, Grace Murray Hopper was working on the Harvard University Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator (a primitive computer).

On the 9th of September, 1945, when the machine was experiencing problems, an investigation showed that there was a moth trapped between the points of Relay #70, in Panel F.

The operators removed the moth and affixed it to the log. (See the picture below.) The entry reads: "First actual case of bug being found."

The word went out that they had "debugged" the machine and the term "debugging a computer program" was born.

What you expect may not be what computers gives out

2006-10-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

We were discussing few of the assignment problems in our C class. Our instructor showed a simple printf statement.

int k = 1234567890;
printf("%5i",k);

He asked us what is the output for the above program. We all said the answer would be 12345, but we were told that the computer would print the entire numbers. (test this for yourself if you have any doubt). Computer didn't make any mistake here but we made the mistake of not knowing the correct functionality of %5i.

Even this had happened to me before where I assume this is the way it would work till I start coding. Once I start the coding process, a lot of new questions about my initial assumption would come, till I finally conclude I am wrong.

moral of the whole story is "Always try to test the assumptions before you conclude".

Another vista build from microsoft

2006-10-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has made available to the users another vista build. The build number 5808, looks like a fixes to the previous bugs reported in the previous RC2.

This was made available to participants in Microsoft's Technology Adoption Program (TAP) late on October 19.

Vista version Rc1 is available for download from microsoft site, but Rc2 is available only to MSDN , technet subscribers.

Microsoft has done pretty big investment on vista and we need to see how this product
will be able to catch the market.

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Programmers

2006-10-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

Hi...I hope you all have read the book "seven habits of highly effective people" by steven covey. It is a best seller classic book and a highly recommended one for self-improvement.

I was browsing the net today and found an article which says "seven habits of highly effective programmer'. After going through the article, I found them very practical and important to a software programmer. So here I give a summary of that article.

Habit1 :Understand Your Requirements

The first step in becoming an effective programmer is to ensure that you are spending your time wisely. And there is no greater waste of time than in working on something that is not useful or never shipped.

We need to have demonstrable system working as early as possible.
Once you have something working, don't just leave it as a "proof of concept". Let people play with it, see their reactions, and let this guide and prioritize your development.

Habit 2 :Keep It Real

Keep your software running in as close to a shipping state as possible. You never know when you'll have to demo the system, send out an evaluation copy, or even deliver ("OK, time to wrap things up!")

Use real data : If you just test with sample data, that big iceberg of real data out there is going to sink your program.
Use real builds : Remember the development build on your machine is not the real build.

Habit3: Understand Your Code

Life is full of wonderful mysteries, but your code is not the place for them. You don't have to know how your car works - if the engine starts making strange noises, you drop it off the mechanic. When it comes to your code, if you don't understand how it works, or doesn't work, no one will.

Code with style : Give proper intents and comments so that your code is readable.
The opposite of stylish programming is cut-and-paste. Grab some code from somewhere that is supposed to do something like what you want, tweak it until it sort of works, stir, repeat, and voila, you have the software equivalent of mystery meat.

Keep it clean: you should periodically inspect your code, sweep up accumulated hard-coded numbers, outdated comments, misleading function names, or you'll inevitably end up with uninhabitable code that's embarrassing to show anyone else

Habit4: Optimal Programming

People always talk about "optimization", but that isn't really a correct word. We're rarely shooting for the optimum - instead, we make improvements and tradeoffs to achieve good-enough performance. The main aim is to get the things done in less number of lines and less system overhead.

Habit5:Manage Thyself

We have to manage ourself to complete the program. We should have a good initial estimate on the task completion time and track our progress to make sure we are in the right direction.
Bugs may come and we may have to break our head to solve it(this is very natural), we should try our best to keep the deadline (even if we have to spend some sleepless nights).

Habit6:Continuous Education

This can be called "sharpening the saw". We know there are many articles and books available on latest things. We should always try to do the things in smarter way than just getting the result. This smartness comes by continuously educating ourself. Just about everything you need is on the Internet tutorials, discussion lists, and free softwares. All you need is the hardware and a broadband connection.

Habit7:R-E-S-P-E-C-T

We should have the respect of our peers and managers, at least in the technical capabilities to have the control of your work and influence over others.

Asking intelligent questions that enhance others' respect for you is a professional skill. A good question that exposes unresolved issues tells people that you know your stuff and you're sharp enough to catch all the implications. Asking for clarification about a specification shows you know how to find and read the spec and your ability to detect ambiguities.

Let everyone know that you read the documentation and googled the subject.

The above article is just a summary of the main article I found on net. For more reading please use the below link

http://www.technicat.com/writing/programming.html

bye for now
sijith

Google aquires you tube for $1.6 billion. waw !!!!!

2006-10-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Did u people hear the news. Google has aquired youtube for a massive $1.6 billion . The service is not quite two years old and already it's worth $1.6 billion (!)—or at least it is to Google.

Founded in in February 2005, YouTube is a consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. Every body in the industry had a watch on youtube. But google did the quick move. No one would have estimated the real worth of youtube , than google, the young innovative software giant.

In one sense, I should call google young because compared to other industry head, google was founded very recently.(1998). But I may be wrong, if i dont put the word Giant to it. This young company has now questioned the very survival of many peers of the field.

Steve Balmer said that they could create youtube site themself. But the point they didnt see is the community of users behind youtube. The site currently delivers more than 100 million video views every day with 65000 new video uploaded daily.

This wopping server space remembers me on the concept of server farm, a collection of reliable servers to save all these massive informations. Creation of server farm and the race of the IT giants to do this is really nice to watch. I will be covering this topic, in one of my future blogs.

Ajax - the new buzz word in IT

2006-10-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hi all

I hope you have tried google maps. If not then , it is a must try web site , www.maps.google.com.

These guys have really done a wonderfull job by coming up with such a site. It allows browsing of maps same as you do a PC software.

The main idea behind this is AJAX (Asynchronous java and Xml), which retrieves the data from the server without re loading the page. Ajax has now become a buzz word amoung software developers and it professionals.

The latest news on ajax is researchers at Brown University have created a new programming language for developing Web applications, known as Flapjax.

I also have done some coding on Ajax using .net platform. Microsoft has released "Atlas",which is a library to develop ajax type codes. www.http://atlas.asp.net.This runs in .net 2.0 platform. I had downloaded the library and tutorials in C# last week and it was a real fun to play with it.

I will be soon writing a technical article on the development of ajax enabled programs.

By the way, windows has also launched an ajax enabled map site, check out www.local.live.com
These guys also have a lot of hard work to complete this site (we can understand it by looking at the site). But as a review, I would rate google maps better than windows. But I am sure windows will be coming up with more interactive web sites like this.

As I said yesterday, the firefox browser 2.0 is now ready for download. You can download them from the below link

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0/releasenotes/

sijith

Firefox 2.0 getting ready for release

2006-10-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

At last, the much awaited firefox 2.0 version is now getting ready for public release.
Tomorrow we would be able to download the latest release candidate of firefox.

This release will be followed by release candidate 3 which will be represent final code for the long awaited 2.0 browser.

Firefox, a browser from mozilla, has captured about 15 % of the global browser market.
It is said that even though firefix 2.0 is yet to be released, work is in full swing for the development of version 3.0, whose expected date of release is late next year.

And I have one more news today. Microsoft has agreed to open the source code of vista kernal to antivirus companies like McCafee and Symmantic so that they can develop their softwares accordingly. This was announced today by Steve Balmer today. He also said that this move will increase the compliance with the European Commission's demands.

Patch guard feature to be shipped with 64 bit version of windows vista

2006-10-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

Microsoft always consider security breaching of their software a main problem and patch guard is a feature introduced by windows in their up coming windows vista operating system 64 bit version. This feature restrict program access to the operating system kernel, which is also called the heart of the operating system.

Security software vendors Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc. say the Patch Guard technology prevents the use of certain features in third-party tools that would make Windows safer from hackers. McAfee last week took out a full-page advertisement in London’s Financial Times newspaper and charged that Microsoft’s use of Patch Guard is anticompetitive behavior.

Microsoft, meanwhile, contends that the technology itself closes the 64-bit Windows kernel to unauthorized access.

Anyway this feature is now available to 64 bit versions only and not the normal 32 bit version available for desktop users.

Will google take on Microsoft ?

2006-10-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks, there is an heated discussion going on in the web community regarding whether microsoft will be able retain the title as the "leading software company". If you look at the history of microsoft ,we can find that they visioned the future and worked out to acheive it. Bill gates and paul allen know where they are heading to. The target was clear. And due to this they were able to take on the rivals IBM and began to lead the market.

The idea of softwares selling as a "BOX" is now coming down. It is now called "Software-service" , where the softwares are actually installed in remote systems (huge server machines) and the users just needs a browser to access those services. Users could save their docs in the server space provided by the companies and access them where ever they want. With the huge improvement in bandwidth speed and internet facilites, computers are now becoming as a terminal to the main computer network (Internet).

There are many rivals for microsoft , eg google, yahoo, apple, IBM,etc , but we all know that google is the main rival for microsoft. Bill gates and Ray Ozzie (Current chief software architect of microsoft) current issues memos which confirms the above fact.

But the fact to be considered is google was a company established in 1998 and within 8 years, there are now head to head with the worlds largest software company. The main success behind google is they know where they want to go. They want to give service free to users and get money from advertisers. This is like a Win-Win scenario.

They made their search engine the worlds best search engine. They come up with google earth, google maps, gmail ,google code search, and the recently launched docs and spread sheet. They are quickly adapting the Web 2.0 to all their applications and this is a good decision they made.

The recent aquiring of youtube.com makes the message more clear. If microsoft needs to remain on top , they have to quickly adapt and come up more innovative softwares which run as services and get the acceptance of the users. Windows live.com is a good initiative from them, but need to see how they will be able to carry it forward.

Welcome to sijith's blog space

2006-10-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hi all, welcome board to sijith's blog space

This is sijith salim here from United states . I did my graduation from India and reached US on sept 1st 2006.

I am a student of University of New Haven , Connecticut doing masters in computer science.

This blog will be mainly containing latest technology news and updated happening in the world.
We will talk about software companies, their latest products and ventures and the news on various new technologies being introduced in the IT world. Also Iwill discuss on latest webcasts and IT events happening in the world.

I hope this will be a nice experience for me and you all. I am available in the email id
sijith101@hotmail.com

Sijith

sijith.com - Towards life success, one inch at a time

Never look back and never giving up!

Do You Record Your Life Memories ?

Don’t Say YES when you want to say NO

Truly inspirational Video

Truly inspirational video

Luck Or Hard Work - Which One Determines Life Success?

One Personal and One Professional Goal For 2009

Luck Or Hard Work: Which One Determines life success

Working Hard to Make Our Dream a Reality

Seven Ways to improve your reading habits

Recording your life memories

Let us make this summer a real memorable one

Is sucide answer to life's problems ?

Heart of Rose technique to improve mind power

Each day as a fresh start and an opportunity to excel

Dont say YES when you want to say NO

Live,Love,Lean and Leave a legacy Part II

You don't know what you have until it's gone

The Mind- an Extraordinary Garden

Live , Love , Learn and Leave a Legacy Part I

Opposite of success is not failure, it’s quitting

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Well done is better than Well Said

Time - The Most Precious Commodity

Never look back and never giving up!

Have you prepared your personal life mission statement?

Each day as a fresh start and an excellent opportunity to excel

When will you consider yourself successful?

Do we still remember those who helped us in life?

Apple iPhone

My university reopened after the summer break

A small history of python language

World of python programming language

IT world - the world of magic

Yahoo! Bridges email, IM Divide

First Look: Apple's iPhone - a Revelation

Top Stories of 2006

2006 at a glance

GATES VS. GOOGLE Search and Destroy

Microsoft says it knows how to compete with Google

The Best Ajax-Based Apps

Mozilla puts up alpha version of Firefox 3.0

Microsoft Betas Book Search ready by tomorrow

Leopard OS from Apple

Google to end fee service for answering questions

Microsoft Launches Vista

Symantec Vista security advances despite Patchguard

Google sued by French moviemaker

Microsoft Unfazed by Google Office Threat

Safari web browser

Google file system

Microsoft to release Vista and office 2007 on Novemeber 30

Microsoft buys Firefox ?????

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft partner to help webmasters

The two sides of Bill Gates

Will Sun release OpenSolaris also under the GPL?

Java to be released under the GPL

Top 10 Ajax security holes (Things to look out before implementing Web2.0 apps with AJAX)

Yahoo to offer instant messaging inside yahoo mail

About Web2.0 global summit

How to send mail using java and .net

Do you want to work for google ?

What is RSS feed

Second Minor Firefox 2.0 Bug Found

10 aspects of developing secure website

Microsoft in deal with Linux-maker Novell

What is Web 2.0

Google buys wiki maker JotSpot

Open source foundation (OSF)

Want to know how things work ? Check check this site

Intel Core Duo processor on first place in PC world top 100 products of 2006

Oracle to have its Linux version

Microsoft and Mozilla head to head with IE7 and Firefox 2.0

A nice video on what google is about and some plans and insight

10 Programming Languages you should learn right NOW

First Computer Bug

What you expect may not be what computers gives out

Another vista build from microsoft

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Programmers