Lighter moments!

A stranger was seated next to a little girl on the airplane when the stranger turned to her and said, 'Let's talk. I've heard that flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.'

The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and said to the stranger, 'What would you like to talk about?'
'Oh, I don't know,' said the stranger. 'How about nuclear power?' and he smiles.

'OK, ' she said. 'That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass -Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?'

 

The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence, thinks about it and says, 'Hmmm, I have no idea.'

To which the little girl replies, 'Do you really feel qualified to discuss nuclear power when you don't know shit?

Livingsocial Vs Groupon

Can anyone predict the future of these companies? Is LivingSocial going to buy out Groupon or is it going to be the other way round? At the rate at which LivingSocial is growing, I guess it is going to become a monopoly. So my question here is, "How and why did LivingSocial decide to pursue an idea that groupon was already monetizing?" I understand LivingSocial was established earlier than Groupon was, but LivingSocial's first deal came out sometime in 2009 while Groupon was already around (~ for a year). What differentiators does LivingSocial have? How different is their business model?


I would love to hear what each one of you thinks about this! There is no right or wrong answer, Life is all about varying perspectives!!!

Food tips - Feel free to add more to the list!

-  If you want to prolong the life of milk, add a pinch of salt to the gallon as soon as you buy it.

- All about Eggs ( Lower your egg into fresh cold water)

• If it stays at the bottom - it is fresh.
• If it is at an angle at the bottom - it is still fresh and good to eat.
• If it stands on its pointed end at the bottom  - it is still safe to eat but best used for baking and making hard-cooked eggs.
• If it floats - it is stale and best discarded.

The final test: To make sure the egg is not spoiled, break it into a clean bowl and check to make sure it doesn't have a bad odor or appearance.

- Add a pinch of salt to whipping cream to make it whip more quickly.

- If you want to ripen a mango, put it in a paper bag with a ripe banana and leave it overnight (Do not refrigerate). 

- Let raw potatoes stand in cold water for at least half an hour before frying to improve the crispness of french-fried potatoes. 

- For thin slices of meat, partly freeze the meat and it will slice easily.

-  For tearless Onion chopping, leave the onion in the freezer for 10 minutes and then cut it up.

-  To squeeze a lemon out completely, boil it in hot water for 20-30 seconds or microwave it for 15-20 seconds.

-  To peel cloves of garlic easily, microwave them for about 15-20 seconds. They will peel like never before!

-  If you heat pesto sauce, the basil will burn and make the sauce taste bitter.

-  To keep celery fresh, wrap it in aluminum foil and leave it in the refrigerator. 

-  Add a little bit of olive oil to the flour before mixing it into dough. This will prevent the flour from sticking.

-  For better tasting Orange Juice, add the juice of one lemon to it. 

Lipoplasty

Mankind has made tons of technological advances - Rockets, Cloning, Wireless, Electricity, Holographic tele-presence and what not. Sadly, all of these scientific inventions come with apocalyptic side effects. I agree and understand it is now almost impractical of me to say one can live without a cellphone or without internet. Well, I cannot! But Liposuction? Why would someone subject himself/herself to this traumatic procedure? Liposuction seems like an 'Uber' cool process that can get one in good shape. But trust me, it isn't as cool as it sounds.
1. The person undergoing this operation will lose a lot of blood and hence must be healthy enough to withstand the procedure and must also be able to recuperate at a decent pace.
2. The time for the operation is a few hours while the time to recover is anywhere between 3-8 weeks (or more!).
3.Lipoplasty is atrociously expensive! It starts at $7000 and can go upto a few tens of thousands of dollars depending on the amount of fat you want gone.
4. More Women than men opt for this procedure, mainly because they want to look and feel good. They almost ignore the consequences and believe and hope it will be a one time thing (until they go back again!).
5. When women start gaining all the fat back, they get into depression and are soon back at the surgeon's office.

A lot of us think if we get a lipoplasty done, we will probably be able to stay in "Shape" for the rest of our lives. Well that is not true. Liposuction does reduce the fat content in one's body but does not improve metabolism or increase cardiac rate. So, in due course, it is quite likely for one to gain back all the lost fat. Also, 4 in 10 cases have medical complications after the surgery.

What do we pay in exchange for looking decently fit for a limited period of time? Trust me, Money is least of our concerns! This process entails a lot of medical complications, depression, ill health and medication for the rest of our lives. So my friends, the next time when someone mocks at you for being FAT, hit the gym or simply tell them you are in shape - After all Round is also a shape!

What are some factors that impact data/deliverable quality?

Although a lot of things have changed over the years, some fundamental processes/methodologies have remained unchanged! In fact, as a result of the rapid changing environment, the need to adhere to these processes has increased manifold. Most of us assume, delivering our tasks within the stipulated deadline  is all that matters. I believe there is much more than merely minding our business!
1. Maintain a strong work ethic.
2. Collaborate with the team and work on setting reasonable deadlines - Most of us agree on any ridiculous    deadline set by our superiors. Why do we do this? Are we scared our superiors might think we are not competent enough? Will we lose our jobs? It is important for us to voice our opinion. This will help us balance work and personal life!
3. Document everything you do -  More graphical, less theory!
4. Design effective review processes - It is always nice to get a different perspective!
5. Encourage knowledge sharing and cross-functional training sessions.



Most importantly: Remember everyone is smart, unique and as important as you are!

P.S. Thanks to VRR for suggesting this topic. @VRR, i know this is not exactly what we discussed, but is along those lines

Motivation

What motivates you? A great video!
http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/2010/06/surprising-truth-what-motivates-us/comment-page-1/#comment-54212

Microsoft and Skype

Do you believe Microsoft is doing the right thing by buying out Skype? Is it a strategic move? If yes, I am trying to understand how??? Skype is not doing great, it is not going to be a big value add IMO.

Entrepreneurs!!

What is your definition of an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs!!

What differentiates regular people from Entrepreneurs? Don't we have great ideas? Are we not smart enough? Neither! What then tells entrepreneurs apart? It is their willingness to "Implement" and their courage to "fail" until they succeed. That is something we lack. We are quite complacent with our cliched 9-5 jobs. We constantly talk about becoming like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, but do we take any steps to get there?

 If we continue to dream and not do anything, we will remain "Regular people", who talk about being entrepreneurs in their blogs and on social sites (Well yeah, that is what i am doing). Dream, Implement and Achieve!

P.S. Do not use this as an excuse and sleep longer hours just because you want to Dream. Dream essentially means having a vision and not dreaming actually! Clarifying just in case!

Microsoft office

How to create a powerful power point presentation? Suggestions? Mine has way too many words and I sleep half way through my own presentation. Over the years I have realized that the work we do is only 10% of the whole deal! Showcasing the work in beautiful presentations, bragging about it and marketing it using a zillion jargons, is actually the tougher part and accounts to 90% of the mission!

CRYSTAL REPORTS

Is it possible to have dynamic column headers? If yes, tried and tested method please!

C# .Net, ASP

Drop Down List:

Is it possible to make BOLD or Italicize only ONE value in a dropdown list? For instance, I have 20 values and want to make the first value BOLD. Is that doable?

Come lets start sharing!!!

There's Google, Wikipedia and innumerous other websites that suggest a zillion methods to solve one issue at hand. Which of these solutions do we instantly trust and choose to pursue? Tough question to answer? Exactly - I have decided to use this blog as a knowledge base where all my friends can post issues they have faced along with solutions they personally trust. Please make sure you specify the genre, the question and the solution. Feel free to post decent stuff ranging from technical to fashion, from cookery to travel to deals to whatever you deem useful. Let us get Sharing!!!!