The Magnet Blog

nirav March 12th, 2007

Are you a cricket fan? Do you challenge your friends about the match outcomes? We do that very much during the World Cup! So we setup a website to let you also do that! MainBhiBookie allows you to select lineup of three batsmen, three bowlers, man of the match and winning team. You then challenge your friends for selecting their lineup. Once the match is over, the system will calculate and award points. And you will come to know who amongst your friends won the challenge.

The site is launched today in beta mode, one day before the world cup begins. We are going to keep enhancing it as we go. I invite you to register and start playing! Let’s see who’s better!

By the way, there is no money involved in challenging your friends! There is no money you have to pay to the site either. You can be on the first page of MainBhiBookie if you are scoring better than others! And you can easily invite your friends to setup their own lineups and challenge with you!

Start by registering on Main Bhi Bookie!

• cricket , cricket , match , world , challenge , cup , lineup , prizes , and , Updates , the , you , win , who , General
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nirav March 5th, 2007

Was going through my pending stack of magazines this Sunday and made a lot of interesting observations.

RedHerring says India’s IT industry keeps booming, and revenues are expected to reach an ambitious $60 billion by 2010. Not just outsourced work, but even work from local Indian companies is increasing. But the biggest roadblock could come in the form of scarce talent.

As a matter of fact, Kiran Karnik (president of NASSCOM) says: “Most Indian engineers are not very articulate. We need to have finishing schools that train graduates for between three to six months in soft skills such as communication, in addition to honing of certain technology skills to get professionals up to speed with industry needs.

We have been thinking of starting such a program for quite long now. The Effective Programmer Workshop that we carried in Magnet was one such effort. The results of the workshop were amazing. Participants reported excellent impact in Confidence and Problem Solving skills. On average, all participants had very effective improvement in Programming skills, Project management and Integrity.

Here are some quotes on the results the workshop produced:

• My confidence level is so high that I can do anything.
• Time management & planning work
• Mind is free now
• I have learnt something which I never ever thought about!
• Being in integrity
• Different technique of software development

I am planning to do another Effective Programmer Workshop in Magnet, accommodating feedback from the first one. Does your organization have any programs like this?

And on another related note, Linux For You carried an article on Linux Certifications. Shankar Iyer of RedHat says that “Though it may seem that certification is not mandatory, the fact remains that certified professionals are preferred over others. India accounts for the most certified IT professionals the world over.” There are only a few certification options available for Linux. The article also mentions that the trend now is performance based testing, rather than simple multiple choice questions.

Looking around, there more certification options available for technologies other than Linux. There is certain amount of weight a certificate holds, what matters more is how the candidate performs in the test that the employer is giving, and the result of the interview.

Bottomline, it is a big problem to find the right talent at the right time. And then to train and retain.

We are trying to solve this problem. You will hear some announcements in a month.

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nirav March 3rd, 2007

Kartik sent me a link to these 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes. I have not seen such a great collection of WP themes so far. And this list fulfills my long standing wish to just see a list of best themes and select one for me. I have taken on the Fresh Compact theme for now! It’s quite fresh and lively. It breaks the Gallery integration, and related posts / most popular posts bits. I will get to that shortly, but I think it’s looking good.

If you are using WP, make sure you check this out!

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nirav February 27th, 2007

Alright, so Web 2.0 has been overused now, and you know about what it is. But there is a cool YouTube video that communicates it really well. Found it here, and like him, could not resist posting it up here.

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nirav February 27th, 2007

Close your eyes. Imagine you are in a lush green garden. And get present to the sensations you are experiencing with all different senses - vision, touch, smell, hearing, taste. Describe what you are seeing. How does the breeze feel on your hands? On your face? In your hair? How does it smell? What are the different voices and noises can you hear? Do you hear the birds chirp? The trickle of some water? And how would it taste if you put your tongue out? How does a berry taste that you picked up from an adjacent tree?

Put your palm on the table. And get present to the touch. The temperature, surface, edges, patterns.

Most of us use our senses in an automated way. We are aware of sights and sounds. But not the touch and smell of things around us. Getting in touch with your senses, is an access to opening up your mind. It’s a way to expand your thinking and mental reception.

Everytime I do an exercise to get present to my senses, I feel fulfilled and relaxed. I also get present to the world around me and can understand things better.

What’s your experience?

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