AlPhA KaPpA DeLtA PhI

White Hat – For factual thinking. Brainstorming for known facts on an idea

Red Hat – For Emotional Thinking

Black Hat – For weaknesses in an idea

Yellow Hat - For Optimistic/ Positive thinking on an idea

Blue Hat – For Thinking of an idea from an organizational perspective

Green Hat – For thinking on innovations possible, on a existing idea.

Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats is a rare book, providing insights on how to structure discussions. de Bono is an erudite thinker himself and his novel idea of the thinking hats should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following him. I have read one book of his before and though not path-breaking; the book gave me insights of the man behind it.

de Bono appears as a suave management expert, who understands the complexity and simplicity of the brain more than anyone. He emphasizes on logical thinking and exhorts us to think of possibilities to existing certainties. This unique view of him makes more compelling to read his works.

On the book, it’s not like any other book you might have read on group discussions. It does not tell you what to talk or even how to talk. It tells you how to think and how different you can think.

One phrase caught my attention while reading the book. The phrase is “Sensitizing your brain”. It made for interesting reading. de Bono says that if you sensitize your mind towards, i.e. actively and explicitly tell it what to do it does it correctly. In other words, the brain is willing to learn, the only think it needs is a constant input. I tried doing this by telling myself what I had to do and the brain keeps following it.

Let me explain. I have a really hard time waking up, especially if it’s early. One night I told myself, I am going to get up early the next and did not set the alarm. I told my brain to kick start its work the moment it had enough rest. And wonders..! I got up at 4 A.M the next day feeling fresh and without the alarm. The next thing I tried was that, I started to count the number of steps I walk to reach the cafeteria for lunch. I did this while walking to the cafeteria, and while returning I was subconsciously counting the number of steps!

Mr. Bono does have some interesting points. Do share with the readers if you have experienced similar things.

His looks have made everyone in Hollywood go green with jealousy. Brad Pitt recently revealed the secret behind his ever-green looks – 3 cups of green tea everyday for the past 6 years.

Tea is a healthier drink than coffee and green tea just adds to this. It is rich in anti-oxidants which help in breaking down complex carbo-hydrates. That’s why 3 cups of it everyday makes your face look young. It breaks down all the carbs that otherwise get accumulated in the body. This is turn causes ageing and especially loosening of the skin and gives you that old man look that you always dread.

Tea is consumed in several forms by people across the world. Conventional tea, as we know it is still the most popular. Organic tea, or what the Chinese call as Crimson Tea is also good to keep you young. In countries like Mongolia, organic tea leaves were used as a form of currency till the 19th century! Black Tea (tea consumed without sugar, just like black coffee) is also popular – more so, because of diabetics who can’t keep themselves off a glass of tea.

Coffee and Tea never go hand in hand. Avid drinkers of tea, vow never to bring coffee near their lips. Some people who are specialists in the tasting different flavors of tea are completely forbid to taste coffee. Their taste buds would reportedly get harmed beyond correction, is the reason. Surely tea and the tea industry is a truly unique one.

Internet gaming is serious business. Its popularity among users is really high. Any goof up on the site, can leave several thousand gamers disappointed. None of the internet games can compare in popularity with the War of Worldcraft games. It has a staggering 11 million subscribers who pay regularly and play the game to their heart’s content.

I stumbled upon this site . Its perhaps the best if you want to an easy online subscription to play World Of Warcraft games. Wow cd keys come at $2 9.99 for a monthly subscription, it’s a great deal. Using one of such subscriptions, you can even subscribe to any of the War of Warcraft offerings.

And the best part is that there is no waiting time at all. You can buy wow cd key on the internet. Once you are done with the payment, your credentials will reach your inbox in seconds. So no more waiting in queues or crowding at your local game store. Wow cd key helps you save time, so that you can play more.

I love it when my day begins by waking up on the right side of my bed and switching off the alarm before falls of the wooden rack. This routine of mine has never changed for the past several years. And what’s interesting here, is that the wooden rack and bed haven’t changed too.

Modern furniture is every bit of early man’s dream. They are shaped to perfection, with the right curves, polished with eco-friendly polish and designed to make your life easy. It has been a truly remarkable evolution and it has stood the test of time. I can’t think of any other innovation that has managed to withstand the vagaries of man’s changing tastes, for as long as art with wood has been able to. Beginning with wood sculpted to make sitting easier, and then moving to beds to sleep ( I am guessing the trend in evolution here), furniture has come a loon, long way. Bedroom furniture is the most popular among middle-class American families. It gives them space and comfort that solve several practical problems inside the room!

Trends emerging from several studies point to a drastic re haul in innovation and furniture for the future will truly sound like what they mean. Take a look at the picture to understand what I mean! This is what you will see in any contemporary furniture store. Is it just superb photography or truly great design? It’s your guess, but I am inclined to think that furniture in the future may never be like how we know it.

News hungry media barons are working around the clock to make news and deliver them to easily distracted viewers. This is a good and a bad trend that we are witnessing in today’s world.

On the positive side, news is readily available to anyone at a glance. Large sized captions and and even larger pictures are hard to miss. Sensationalized news essentially means that the news is interpreted and published for the reader. This is a break from the past where news was simply a report and not an opinion on it. For viewers who agree with a newspaper or a magazine’s view point this is easiest and quickest way to get access to news. In other words, the media is simply catering to that group of readers or viewers. The supply meets demand and that is good economics.

On the other negative side, for the other group of viewers there is only a biased opinion to look at and this does not give the whole picture. These people prefer news to be simply what it was meant for and not opinionated. The larger issue is that the truth behind a story is lost in the process of commercializing it and fear that the media publishes what is news worthy and not what is news, looms large. Men who control the media become powerful and this leads to compromises on ethical values and rise in nepotism.

After looking at both sides of the issue, it would be a fair conclusion to say that media is guilty of sensationalizing news for benefits, commercial and personal. This trend can be dangerous and may eventually affect the media. If the reader does not agree with the opinions and simply wishes to stop subscribing to it, it is a loss that the media could do without.

E-commerce is very much in vogue these days. A lot of new companies are mushrooming around the world, pinning their hopes on this market. Their strategy is simple. Promote your site actively on sites generating traffic and get customers to take a look at your offerings. Once you have your customers, they will leave a big bag full of goods, because on-line shopping is easier than manual shopping.

Popular items include chariots de golf, gift items, toys, cds and books. Some times even tables and cushions, or tablier de cuisine, as the French would say it, are popular. If you are an entrepreneur, an e-commerce site would be your best bet.

For many, this trend may seem like the dot-com boom, but the similarity ends there.

Thomas Freidman’s The World is Flat made the case for globalisation, rewriting the rules of competition by focusing on Silicon Valley entrepreneurs such as PV Kannan, co-founder and CEO, 24/7 Customer, who set up the first BPO outsourcing operations in India.

In an interview, the California-based entrepreneur shed light on how his firm helps companies deal with customers in the age of Twitter. According to him, companies can use predictive sales software based on advanced mathematical models with online chat to convert people trawling through websites into serious buyers. Excerpts:

Companies are sifting through gobs of digital data that customers feed networks while working, chatting and shopping online to build businesses. How does 24/7 Customer use data and mathematical models to help customers increase sales?

On any given day, big companies receive millions of hits on their websites and the conversions are still fairly low. Visitors come for different purposes, to buy products, or get answers about a purchased product. Can we predict the intention of a visitor to a website? That is the layer that we are peeling with data and mathematical models.

We see a message in a click. If a customer spends two minutes looking at a luxury watch or life insurance rates and lives in a rich neighbourhood or zip code, it signifies something. 24/7 Customer is also working on predictive customer service, doing data modelling on customer behaviour, so firms know the issues a customer is likely to have, say, within the first 72 hours of purchasing a product.

One of our business units, 24/7 Innovation Labs, has created models that enable real-time prediction of customer behaviour. It used statisticians to develop advanced mathematical models to predict how visitors to the Adobe Systems website would shop.

They mined data on website traffic, product average order value and online behaviour, which helped to create models that predict who will need assistance, when they will need assistance and then trigger an intervention with a chat for those customers that need help. It offers a way of converting browsers into buyers. Adobe has been using SalesNextT for a year with great results.

We have 14 customers, who use what we call our modelling software; some of those clients also use our online and call centre services.

It is labelled the next-generation gadget, which will bridge the gap between smart phones and laptops. The iPad, a sleek, 9.7-inch touch-screen tablet launched in San Francisco on Wednesday, is Apple’s biggest bet on a new product since the iPhone.

According to Apple distributors in India, the granite tile gadget will be available in the country by March or April and cost the same as in the US — $500 (Rs 23, 000) plus 16 percent tax, taking the price to about Rs 27, 000 for the 16GB version. Higher-capacity models will sell for $599 (Rs 28, 000) and $699 (Rs 32, 500), excluding taxes.

“We will start getting shipments in three weeks,” said an official with an Apple distributor in India. But shop owners at Heera Panna are already fielding calls from potential buyers. “We have received about 10 calls inquiring about the product. We expect the iPad’s sales to soar once it is available,” said Shailesh Jain of Saba Collections.

Manish Bhasin, owner of Jain Shaab, said, “People usually like to get their hands on the gadget in the first few days and some are even willing to pay double the price.”

Water with high levels of calcium and magnesium is termed “hard water”. Groundwater is usually hard water since it contains dissolved minerals from the soil and rock it passes through before reaching your well. Hard water poses problems to home appliances and household chores. The calcium and magnesium in the water deposit and form scale in household plumbing and appliances. As well, the minerals in the hard water reduce the effectiveness of household soaps and detergents. As a result, more cleansing product is needed, scum is formed from the reaction of soap with calcium and magnesium, and clothing that goes through the laundry loses some of its brightness to the scum.

To solve the problems caused by hard water, water softeners are often used. Most of these use some form of salt. Water softeners remove calcium and magnesium from the water by ion exchange with sodium. Sodium chloride, or table salt, is added to the water softener to provide the source of sodium ions. Check out water softeners for more info …

Followed by the negative feedback from the first set of viewers, the vulgarity shown by Reema in Selvaraghavan’s Magnum opus “Aayirathil Oruvan”  is now re-edited to make it suite for all class of audience.

Reema  expected Aayiraththil Oruvan as  a break in her career but the scenes related to her skin show especially at Kohler faucet was now removed, so the ravishing Reema is upset.

Without accepting any other offer for nearly two years Remma has completed this mega movie, but all her time and energy is now considered as futile.

When we asked selva about this, the veteran director says its not in his hands once the film was released,  its all up to the hands of distributors.

It is really a sad news that will sure hurt the creators like selva and bold reema who has put such an effort for this historical fantasy movie.

She is always hot and always busy scorching the screen. And I always wonder how on earth does she manage to look  like so ravishingly hot, always?

To keep a guy like Brad Pitt going crazy for you, takes a lot of work. And she does follow her beauty regime religiously. She needs to take care of her hair, eyes, skin and figure. But I think her face says more about her beauty than the rest of her body. Her hazy eyes are no match to anyone in Hollywood. Her acne products must be doing a really good job for her. I have never seen her with acne or age spots.

She is no 19 year old! That makes her beauty even more unique. Word has it that she follows a regular exercise routine and does a lot of yoga as well. Her skin care products must also be beyond any ones imagination. They keep her young and sexy.

Boy, she  must have done her work outs as a kid. That’s what you are thinking right? Well, she didn’t have the perfect childhood. By he own admission, her growing up years were troublesome and not comfortable. Truly remarkable that she has sorted out her issues and buried her past. Anglina Jolie keeps getting hot by the passing year.

A standard policy for use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the public sector was the need of the hour, as proposed by experts at a two-day South India workshop on ”Software Principles for the Public Sector, with focus on Public Education” here on Monday.

After a detailed discussion with mesothelioma lawyer the workshop is expected to yield a set of guiding principles for policy on software for the public sector.

Suggestions rolled out from various participants who had traveled to the City from the neighbouring states to standardise the framework on Open Software for educational purposes on day one.

Simultaneously, concerns were raised on Content Policy for the purpose of education in ICT in South India. Challenging the political will and influence generated by proprietary software, government officials from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh appealed for a detailed clause on safeguarding officials implementing the ICT programmes at the school level.

Recently on few occasions many have noticed Aamir Khan did not taste even a single gulp of alcohol.  The reason behind is that Aamir has turned Mr. Perfectionist not only in films but also in real life too. According to the latest buzz  Aamir has  decided to give up smoking and drinking for the rest of his life.

Aamir said, “The next time I invite you home, I will treat you with beer, but I will drink nimbu paani.” When asked the bollywood maestro for  the  reason for quitting alcohol and smoking he says, “I just felt like doing it from within. There is no specific reason. Yaar I have put on 10 kilos in recent months. Also, sometimes, I tended to overdo the drinking bit. And I hate it when I feel unhealthy. Therefore, I just decided that I wanted to quit alcohol for life. As for electric cigarette, I was never a regular smoker. But I have decided to give it up too.”

However it is really a great news that celebrities like aamir has taken a good resolution which may in turn kindle some of his fans to follow the way as their inspirational leader does. Hats off Aamir

While I had not been invited to Apple’s preview event for its much-awaited tablet (as it was rumoured to be), I locked myself in a room that night waiting for the videos of the product preview to be available on the Internet. While the videos took some time to appear, a number of people kept updating the world (through Internet) by providing minute-by-minute update of how the iPad really looked and what one can do with it. By the time I hit the bed, I had a fairly good idea and a visual impression of what the device looked like.

I haven’t had the opportunity to play with the so called Symbol LS2208 gadget yet, but having formed a reasonably good idea of what it’s all about, I am taking a shot at what the future of it would look like; and especially, what would be the impact in the Indian marketplace.

At the risk of repetition, Apple’s iPad is a class-leading device simply because it’s a device which has created a class of its own rather than being just another addition to a popular category. Yet again, Apple has done what many other companies would not dare—create a product and concept that is completely out-of-the-box, extraordinarily innovative, daringly positioned and, this time, even aggressively priced. In Steve Jobs’ words, iPad sits somewhere between an iPhone (smartphone) and a laptop.

The iPad follows Apple’s philosophy of simplicity, innovation and intuitive operations.

Undoubtedly, iPad generates a high degree of enthusiasm and has the usual Apple ‘wow’ factor, but at the end of the day, it disappoints techies a bit because it seems like a bigger iPhone, but one that doesn’t have a phone.

Apple has unveiled a number of features of the product. Some of these include:

E-books: This is one of the key features and sets iPad apart from other electronic book reading devices like eBook Reader (eg Kindle), smartphones and laptops. Apple takes the e-book experience to the next level with iBook. The iPad’s full colour display and intuitive interface work well for rich content. In comparison, many other e-book readers use grayscale e-ink technology. The latter is known to be easy on the eyes and more suitable for long reads, but I would give huge credit to Apple for having created a great eBook reading application on a very user-friendly device (form factor) with excellent battery life. Moreover, unlike many eBook Readers, iPad uses an open ePub e-book format. Apple has also announced iBook online store. iPad users can connect and download e-books of their choice directly.

Video and music: The iPad makes up for a great video experience due to its large screen and high resolution. The WiFi and 3G connectivity can support live streaming content. iPad can also connect with external speakers over WiFi and provide rich multimedia experience. Again, iPad has done an excellent job of creating a good form factor and very convenient video viewing experience. iPad carries on the music playing legacy from iPod. You can use iTunes to manage the music collection. The iPad does not support USB/Flash drives. This limits the multimedia storage capabilities of the device.

Web surfing: The iPad’s sharp display and wide screen make for an engrossing Web surfing experience. The multitouch screen provides an intuitive interface. However, iPad does not handle multiple windows/tabs well. The text input is handled by an on-screen keyboard that works well for short lengths. As with the iPhone, the iPad does not support Adobe Flash. This implies that content from many websites may not be displayed in the same way, as one would enjoy on a laptop. In my view, it would be a great experience to surf websites where one has to read a lot of content (eg news sites), but for usual Web surfing wherein one hops across a number of sites in multi-windows/tabs, it may not be as good.

Gaming: With a bigger processor and large form factor, iPad is well suited for portable gaming. Most of the games designed for iPhone will work on the iPad. However, one must keep in mind that iPad may not be a great substitute for your usual gaming console, which has greater processing power, accelerated graphics rendering and specialised gaming input devices.

Productivity suite: Apple has released iWorks productivity suite on iPad. It has three components: Notes, Pages and Numbers (with similar features as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word & Excel). These have been redesigned to take advantage of iPad’s multi- touch capabilities. Initial previews of iWorks on iPad are very impressive. However, on-screen keyboard is not well suited for large word processing requirements. iPad can connect with external (physical) keyboard, but the manoeuvrability of the setup becomes limited.

Applications: As we learn, all the iPhone apps will work on the iPad. Developers are expected to start leveraging the more advanced features and computer power to develop a wider set of applications. Users can download new applications from the App store with minimal effort. However, iPad does not support multitasking, which would limit its use as a personal compute device.

The writer is an executive director with KPMG’s IT advisory practice. These are his personal views

Their seniors had to really sweat it out to get placed. But this year things look much brighter for IIT Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) students, according to the institute’s placement office.

“Out of a total batch strength of 1,340, more than 600 students have already got placed. The placement session will continue till April-May. So trend wise we are much better positioned this time than last year. We are confident that we will be able to place all our students  by the end of the placement session,” SK Srivastava, chairperson and professor-in-charge of placements, IIT-KGP, said here on Wednesday.

The previous batch was not so lucky. Around 90 percent of the 1,200 students had got placed because of the global meltdown and resultant downturn in the job market. In 2008, all the 1,400 students had been placed. While in 2008, 160 companies had turned up at IIT-KGP, close to 190 companies visited IIT-KGP campus for the batch of 2009.

Srivastava said that more than 100 companies from across sectors (core sector, manufacturing, marketing, IT, financial services and banking) have already recruited from IIT-KGP. The placement started in December. IIT-KGP expects around 200 companies to visit the campus this time.

Firms that have already hired  from IIT-KGP include Barclays, Yahoo, IBM, Infy, JP Morgan, Oracle, ITC, GE, Essar, NTPC, to mention a few, Srivastava said.

The highest salary offered so far for best resumes at IIT-KGP has already matched last two year’s highest offers, which was Rs 22 lakh. And there are quite a few offers more or less in the same range. The highest offer this time had come from Barclays, Singapore, Srivastava said.

With still four months to go, the highest offer would move up substantially, and so would the average the salary offer the institute hopes. Last year, the average salary package offer dropped to Rs 6 lakh from Rs 7.44 lakh in the previous year

I came across an interesting book today, called “Good to Great”. The title caught my eye and the chapter titles kept me hooked. I chose to read this book simply because the title caught my eye. “Good to Great” explains or rather chronicles why most companies stagnate at the level of being good and how a few make the leap and become truly great.

The author Jim Collins has spent a staggering 5 years, doing research on the book. He presents hard numeric data to drive home his points. The author mentions a few well-known companies like Wells Fargo, GE, and a few others. Among the memorable number analysis that the books presents is the estimate that $1 investment in a company before it becomes successful, yields around $471. Compare this to the fact that the same investment in an ordinary/good company would yield $46 only.

Also, the chapter headings appear really catchy to those who already nurse a fire in their belly. “Level 5 Leadership” and “Good is the enemy of Bad” are a few that I can recollect.
Keep watching this space for more updates on this book. (I haven’t finished the book, but these words just made their way through my hand onto the keyboard).

It seems to be the season of affairs, as one sportsman after another is finding it hard to stop the skeletons from rolling out. It was Tiger Woods first and now, English football captain and Chelsea defender, John Terry.

Media reports have it that Terry is having an affair with Vanessa Perroncel, a French Swimwear model. Recently it was heard that terry have gifted many unique gifts for her. And that’s not all! Vanessa is the girl friend of Manchester City’s Defender Wayne Bridge. The issue spiraled when Terry was seen coming out of Vanessa’s home, with speculations already rife, it took this little incident to complicate things. As expected, both the concerned people have denied the link up and have claimed to be deeply hurt by these reports. Well, who would accept it?!

Wayne Bridge is also upset with the turn of events. To complicate matters even more, there have been calls to remove Terry from his captaincy responsibilities, after this incident. There have also been unconfirmed reports that the English football camp is divided at the moment, because of this issue!!

Not the best season to be a popular sportsman. I’m thinking of breaking my secrets to my girl now! Well, I play cricket!!

Intel Corporation and Micron Technology Inc announced the world’s first 25-nanometer (nm) NAND technology, which provides a more cost-effective path for increasing storage capacity in popular consumer gadgets like smartphones, home theater, personal music and media players (PMPs), as well as the new high-performance class of solid-state drives (SSDs).

NAND flash memory stores data and other media contained in consumer electronics products, retaining information even when the power is turned off, the company said in an announcement. The drive toward smaller NAND processes enables the continued development and introduction of new uses for the technology. Not only this the smallest NAND technology, it is also the smallest semiconductor technology in the world, Intel claims.

Manufactured by IM Flash Technologies (IMFT), Intel and Micron’s NAND flash joint venture, the 25nm process produces eight gigabytes (GB) of storage in a single NAND device, creating a high-capacity storage solution for today’s tiny consumer gadgets.

People say that the eyes are the door to a person’s heart. This makes it imperative to take care of your eyes. For those feeling the discomfort of traditional glasses, contact lenses offer perfect respite. But new advances keep happening in the contact lens technology world. Every passing day brings new developments that promise clearer vision at costs cheaper than yesterday’s. Latest contact lens technology will not only go light on your purse but will also give you safer vision.

New contact lens technology is much easier to use and reduce the irritation in your eye. http://www.clearlycontacts.net/ gets you the latest contact lenses. Look no further to relax your eye. 

Valentine’s Day is here and this is another chance to express your love. Some say it with flowers, some say it with letters, but girls really like it when you say it with gifts. Nothing speaks to your loved ones like a meaningful gift.

What do you do if your partner if the one who has almost everything, from books to toys to pets. How do you make this Feb 14th a day to remember. Well, gettingpersonal.co.uk has the perfect solution for you. From personalized calendars to personalized coffee mugs, you can truly express yourself through your unusual gifts. And that’s not it. Bored with mugs and rugs? Try an unusual gift, something like a handmade necklace or a jewellery box with your photo embossed on it. Something like this will re-kindle the fire in your relationship and set up for some cozy moments with your partner.

You can order any of these online or if you need help in choosing the perfect gift, then just dial to a customer care executive and you will be guided in making a smart choice. Gifts like this will never make your loved ones go in for an exchange. And will save you the blushes if your partner does not like it. The last thing you want your partner to do is to exchange your gifts for store credit. Make sure that never happens, and hey, stay unique!