ESADE Business School Commencement Speech by Steve Blank

http://steveblank.com/2014/03/31/esade-business-school-commencement-speech-2/

Abu Dhabi City Tour

If you are in for a one day city tour of Abu Dhabi, be prepared to pass by some amazing architectures including the Royal Palaces (remember, not to click any pictures). Also, do not forget to pay attention to the greenery around you and you might just feel that this desert city is more green than your 'Green City'.

Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque is the first mosque in UAE to allow females inside. The Mosque has a beautiful architecture with few astonishing world records to its name.It is the largest mosque in UAE.

Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque - Abu Dhabi

Interiors - Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque	Interiors - Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque
Interiors - Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque	Interiors - Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque
Interiors - Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque	Interiors - Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque

More than 40,000 people can simultaneously pray here. It's main prayer hall is known to have the largest one-piece man made carpet.

Carpet in the Main Hall - Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque

The chandeliers in the main prayer hall are made up of real ruby and sapphires and the main chandelier is one of the largest chandeliers inside a mosque.

A Chandelier in Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque

Prime Chandelier in Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque

Other interesting places in Abu Dhabi are Marina Mall, Heritage Village, Corniche and Ferrari World in addition to various marvelous architectures near which you can pass by.

Abu Dhabi's skyline from Corniche!

Coin-shaped building

Ferrari World

Desert Safari in Sharjah

On the way to Sharjah, the side views are eye-catching.

Red and clean desert sand in Sharjah is a delight to watch and drive on .

There are several desert camps to facilitate rest and entertainment for guests opting for Desert Safari in Sharjah. Most of these camps offer several leisure activities to their guests such as Camel Ride, Heena (Mehendi) Painting for women, Belle Dance and Arabian Folk Dance Performances.

If you know basic driving, driving a quadbike or car in the desert can be a rewarding experience.

Paying attention to the surrounding sometimes really pays off. Else, who expects to sight beautiful peacock and peahens in a desert :)

Short Trip to Chennai

If you are a wild life enthusiast, Chennai Snake Park can be worth your time.
Although the park cannot be termed as big but it has a good variety of species including snakes, turtles, crocodiles, alligators, camouflages, etc.

A specimen rack at Chennai Snake Park

A snake leaving its cover in one of the chambers

A sea snake at Chennai Snake Park

A turtle at Chennai Snake Park

Spread over multiple floors of the same building are eight forms of Goddess Lakshmi in AshtaLakshmi Temple. The main temple has very narrow staircases and passages but pretty large balconies and terraces that provide an awesome view of the sea behind it.

Sea-view from one of the balconies at Ashtalakshmi Temple

If you love to watch sea, Marina Beach in Chennai is for you. Marina Beach has a long sea-facing road which offers ample space for visitors to sit and enjoy the sea view. Chennai also has a lighthouse to boast of by which you can pass by while driving.

Short Trip to Madurai

The name of Madurai mostly resonates with Meenakshi Temple. But not many people know that Madurai also has a beautiful Lord Kartikay Temple.

A model of Lord Kartikay Temple at display

Lord Karthikay in his chariot for general darshan

Thirumalai Nayak Palace in Madurai can also be a place of interest for you if you like exploring archelogocial sites. Although the palace isn't too maintained, as is the case for various Archaelogocial sites in India, but the designs on its ceilings are worth a view. And if you are fond of pigeons, you can find a lot of them there.

A ceiling at Nayak Palace

A verandah ceiling at Nayak Palace

If you are travelling to Madurai by air on a window seat and paying attention to view outside, you might chance upon to view clouds raining above the sea while you are flying above the clouds. ;)

Unbabel : An online translation service

Unbabel Launches A Human-Edited Machine Translation Service To Help Businesses Go Global, Localize Customer Support

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/23/unbabel-launches-a-human-edited-machine-translation-service-to-help-businesses-go-global-and-localize-customer-support/?ncid=rss 

Rising Trend of House Husbands and Their Working Wives : Should Read

http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/rising-trend-house-husbands-working-wives-054715268.html

Elections, Right to Vote and Disability : An Analysis and Insight

The Guidelines on Manifestos, a part of the Election Commission's Code of Conduct for this year's general elections, do not contain any mandates to make manifestos accessible to persons with disabilities. It is up to individual parties to do so, and it was due to the efforts of the Tamil Nadu Differently Abled Federation that the Aam Aadmi Party was the first party in India to release a manifesto in Braille.

As a matter of fact, a recent study by the Centre for Internet and Society revealed that only two election-related websites - of the BJP and the DMK - had zero accessibility errors, and that the Election Commission of India website itself had over 64 known accessibility errors.

https://in.news.yahoo.com/for-persons-with-disabilities--elections-continue-to-be-one-giant-nightmare-073204826.html

Vadodra Central Bus Station

Doesn't look like an Indian Bus Stand.
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/photos-this-is-perhaps-the-most-beautiful-bus-station-in-india-slideshow/ 

It's never too late :)

(http://image-store.slidesharecdn.com/dc1202de-ade3-11e3-b064-12313d03353b-large.png)

Hazards of Being a Medical Practitioner in India

An insight into the lives of doctors, usually the bearers of mob angers and frustrations and high-headed small politicians.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/why-indian-doctors-fear-for-their-lives-043955469.html 

LinkedIn’s New Small-Business Site

http://blog.intuit.com/marketing/linkedins-new-small-business-site-what-you-need-to-know/

99 Things for Identity Theft

Watch the video for an introduction.
http://robertsiciliano.com/identity-theft-book/

What if the missing Malaysia plane is never found? : Food for Thought

The plane must be somewhere. But the same can be said for Amelia Earhart's.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/missing-malaysia-plane-never-found-182603607--finance.html

Time For Founders School : For Budding Entrepreneurs

Amazing insights.
Why large company tantrums like Accounting, Sales, Waterfall model do not work for startups.

http://steveblank.com/2014/01/28/time-for-founders-school/

Google Drive Phishing Scam

This one uses a fake Google Drive landing page to get your Gmail address and password, cyber security company Symantec's official blog reported last Thursday. You're meant to think that the documents you'll be viewing are on Google Docs and that you need to sign in to see them. Remember, though, it's all a scam.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/18/gmail-scam-phishing_n_4986510.html

Business Model is not the same as Revenue Model : An Informational Read

http://therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/business-model-vs-revenue-model

Implications of Climate Change: A nice writeup

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2014/02/18/279189378/trees-on-the-move-as-temperature-zones-shift-3-8-feet-a-day

Learning weather science from animals

http://www.npr.org/blogs/theprotojournalist/2014/02/15/276480990/what-we-might-learn-from-snoring-weather-cats

This is a true hunger strike!

A giant isopod didn't eat for consecutive five years. Over time, the animal learned how to seem to appease its human keepers by moving its mouth and front legs around the food pretending to eat. In the end, it never actually took a bite.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2014/02/22/280249001/i-wont-eat-you-cant-make-me-and-they-couldnt

Advice For Eating Well On A Tight Budget, From A Mom Who's Been There

She's now teaching low-income families how to choose and cook healthy produce. She's a culinary educator and SNAP outreach coordinator with the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, a nonprofit group dedicated to creating a more equitable local food system in the Washington, D.C., area.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/13/289594815/former-wic-mom-brings-produce-and-cooking-skills-to-dc-s-food-deserts

Rail, Radio And Booze: A Look At Montreal Jazz History

For Jazz lovers.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2014/02/22/280764414/rail-radio-and-booze-a-look-at-montreal-jazz-history

The Internet Will Be Everywhere In 2025, For Better Or Worse

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/03/11/288695332/the-internet-will-be-everywhere-in-2025-for-better-or-worse

An American made ship is the mandate

But if you want send cargo by ship, there's a law that the ship has to be American made.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/03/12/289116345/episode-524-me-and-mr-jones

How To Build Habits In A Multi-Device World: An Informational Read

A useful insight into how to develop products for user engagement and adaptation with true stories of how known brands are leveraging it.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/08/how-to-build-habits-in-a-multi-device-world/?ncid=rss

Policewomen in India : A must read

http://in.news.yahoo.com/why-no-one-wants-policewomen-in-latehar-065157178.html

http://in.news.yahoo.com/ladies--can-they-do-it--can-they-be-officers-061524184.html

http://in.news.yahoo.com/is-the-indian-policewoman-a--showpiece--104421387.html

Design for Failure on AWS: An informational read

http://harish11g.blogspot.ro/2012/06/aws-high-availability-outage.html

DigitalGlobe offers Crowdsource Search for Malaysia Flight 370

A Colorado satellite imaging company is launching an effort to crowdsource the search, asking the public for help analyzing high-resolution images for any sign of the missing airliner.

he images being gathered will be made available for free to the public on a website called Tomnod. Anyone can click on the link and begin searching the images, tagging anything that looks suspicious.

DigitalGlobe will use a computer algorithm to determine whether users start tagging certain regions more than others.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/03/crowdsourcing-the-search-for-malaysia-flight-370/

Indian Railway offers Premium Trains for Festive Season.

With demand for train tickets soaring as Holi gets nearer, the railways have decided to run two superfast premium special express trains on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Jammu Tawi sectors.

2AC ticket that costs Rs 2,495 could go up to over Rs 7,000 or could shoot up even further when booked at the last minute.

The Delhi-Mumbai train comprise four AC 2 Tier and 10 AC 3 Tier coaches. The Delhi-Jammu Tawi train comprise two AC 2 Tier, four AC 3 Tier, nine sleeper class and two second-class-cumluggage van coaches.

The trains will originate and terminate at New Delhi and Mumbai Central/Jammu Tawi stations, respectively.

Tickets for the premium trains can be booked only through the IRCTC website and no waitlisted tickets will be issued. The advance reservation period will be shorter, which is a maximum of 15 days.

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/train-ticket-prices-take-off-like-airfares-054042087.html

ROIKOI to quickly quantify a person

ROIKOI is a very simple concept. At its core, it is a leaderboard that anonymously rates people you know based on one single criterion — “Would I hire this person at a job and work with them.”
Its intention is to create a very simple and clear leaderboard for an underserved community — a community of introverts.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/09/roi-koi-launches-leaderboards-for-professionals/?ncid=rss

Why vs How on Quitting Smoking

A new study has found that advertisements that give a reason to smokers to quit are more successful in terms of persuasion than messages that explain how to go about it.
http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report-reasons-to-quit-smoking-more-persuasive-than-the-process-to-quit-report-1968238

Success is a continuous journey

Too good and too true! Success is not a one-way trip.

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_success_is_a_continuous_journey

Adapting Smartphones for making eye care more accessible

"The adapters make it easy for anyone with minimal training to take a picture of the eye and share it securely with other health practitioners or store it in the patient's electronic record,"

"Adapting smartphones for the eye has the potential to revolutionise the delivery of eye care especially in the developing world where opthalmologists are few and far between,"

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/personal-tech/computing/Smartphone-is-your-new-eye-doctor/articleshow/31669171.cms

Startups and Science: An Intimate Connection :)

It's really motivating, especially for Engineers!
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/09/bill-nye-startups-and-science/?ncid=rss

Vintage Telephones: Some old memories

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/a-history-of-vintage-push-button-phones-1393998716-slideshow/