Karthik Vijayakumar

Decision to go the Galaxy Note way...

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:12:00 +0000

It's been 1.5 years since I bought my Samsung Wave 8500 mobile phone in India. That was a time when the Android started to get popular and the iPhone remained something I thought was an expensive proposition for a mobile phone. I started to notice that Samsung was starting to do great stuff in the mobile space and decided to bite the bullet and put my money on Samsung's Bada OS. I knew there wasn't much of apps in the Samsung Bada store. I'm glad to have made that decision as I've discovered the quality and attention to detail that Samsung has seemingly been after.

Today, the mobile market is far mature than what it was, and I decided to make a change. Though a long time Nokia user (before the Wave took over!), I've not considered Nokia this time due to various reasons. The two brands I've been contemplating over are Apple and Samsung. Having had no other Apple product other than the 2nd generation iPod and iPod shuffle, I've always craved for an iPhone and the Mac. But the price of the iPhone seemed extremely prohibitive for me, given the discoveries I made.

To put things straight, I settled in for the Samsung Galaxy Note which I also got at a decent 16% discounted rate on one of the online deals site! I was contemplating between the iPhone 4S that got released recently and the Samsung Galaxy S2. I wasn't too inclined with the S2 either because it was already getting a year old (since its release). This is about the time when my eyes caught the newly released Samsung Galaxy Note.

But the real challenge I had in going in for an Android based mobile was the fear of the device not being compatible with Android 4.0, better known as the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). Thankfully the next morning (Dec-20th), I saw this update on Samsung's blog that ICS was going to be made officially available on a lot of Samsung devices that included the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy Note!

That solved my problem of choice between Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy devices. But the next to confuse me was the choice between Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy Note. After pouring over the technical specifications and reading a lot, I got convinced with the Samsung Galaxy Note. Here are three reasons why I chose the Galaxy Note over S2 -

I've been eyeing (on and off) at the Wacom Bamboos for quiet a long time now, and felt the Samsung Galaxy Note had at least some features of the Wacom tablets (and hope it will have more apps that will aid to it becoming more complete)
Being a very heavy user of phones for talking and also for micro-blogging (Twitter and Facebook specially) and more, I found the 2,500mAh battery and the 1.4 Ghz processor was just perfect for this purpose
I love phones that offer me good real estate for typing and viewing. Being a user of Treo 650, Nokia E90 in the past, I don't mind the size as log as it meets my primary needs

I was crazily eyeing the iPhone 4S for the Siri digital assistant feature and of course the new A5 chipset (which is really good!). And, I was constantly having the nagging itch to throw away all my "R&D" to the trash and order the Apple iPhone 4S, only until I came to know of Vlingo. This software is Siri's peer and seems to be doing a better job of a digital assistant than what Siri does! And, Vlingo is free! Hard to believe? Watch these videos for yourself -

Siri vs Vlingo - Part I

Siri vs Vlingo - Part II

Siri vs Vlingo - Part III

Vlingo has been acquired by Nuance, and this was made public on Dec-20th (the same day Samsung gave the news of ICS being available for its Galaxy devices!). Not sure if this is just co-incidence or something else. I'm just glad to have learnt all of this and thought it will be useful for many others who are contemplating between the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Share your thoughts and feedback too. As always, Stay Inspired and Stay Tuned!

Identity - Online - Offline (Part I)

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:54:00 +0000

Internet dawned upon me quiet late as compared to the generation today - who are born into the internet. But ever since I was into the net, I have increasingly had this feeling of being lost in a crowd. I know you must be wondering why - read on, let me explain this...

The first encounter with the internet (the unknown) was about 13 years back (yes, that's all its been!). We got the first computer at home which boasted of running a Pentium II processor with 32MB (!!) RAM and 4GB (!!!) Hard Disk Drive. We had a dial-up modem from ZyXel which allowed me to connect to the internet at 32Kbps (!!!!). Alright, this is just to give you a perspective of the time in which I did what I'm going to explain.

I connected to the internet by double-clicking a picture (later learnt it was called an icon) using a mouse. The minute I did this, I could hear some crazy sounds from the modem that was apparently trying to connect to this World Wide Web! I suddenly saw a small balloon on the bottom right side of my screen that said Your Computer is now Connected to the Internet. It was an achievement for me! For a person who did not even understand how to use Windows '95, this was an achievement - Connected to the Worldwide Web through a Window!

Now comes the interesting part - I opened Internet Explorer and typed the only address I knew at that time www.yahoo.com. I thought Yahoo.com was owned by the great Indian actor Shammi Kapoor, as he had a song where he shouts "Yahoo", and I was a big fan of the singer Md.Rafi. Alright, sorry about that...got a little nostalgic when trying to recall my stupidity.

That was the first time I ever saw a web page. Having used the computer to try out Pascal, C and play Pacman, seeing so many colors on the screen was like magic! I'd heard from some of my friends who had Windows and the Internet at home that they had an email address of their own. In a rather natural involuntary action, I clicked on the Email link on the web page and pop came up another web page that asked me to create an email account!

Having had zero knowledge about the internet, I thought an email address was something that can be changed as I please. When I searched for karthik as the username, I did not get it. Instead it gave me various suggestions and one such was karthik_v19. I was wondering why it gave me this as a suggestion and later realized it picked my age (19). I then made this big assumption that perhaps, these email thingies are valid for one year and that I'll need to change as I get older!! I chose karthik_v20, thinking I could do away with the first change as I was completing 20 in just a few months :-)

This is when my quest (and wonder) about my identity started. More in my next article. Till then, keep thinking and share your story - I'm sure every one of us had a dumb experience like this back in those days!

Keep sharing, Stay Tuned and Stay Inspired!

[Image Source: Buzzom.com]

Steve Jobs - On to make a Happier Heaven...

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:46:00 +0000

In Hinduism we believe Lord Brahma is the creator of the world

But for technologists and the product fraternity, You are the Brahma.

You created products which work flawlessly, just like Brahma created mankind

Your presence brought goosebumps in people around

Your words brought in the "Ah Ah" moment in several millions of people

Your confidence gave people confidence

Your products shook up the market and drove competition back to design boards

And now, Your absence has brought tears in our eyes and sadness in our lives

We know You are on a journey of creating better experiences for everyone

We know even heaven wanted Macs, iPods, iPhones and iPads

Steve, we know You've continued your journey to make heaven a better place!

Rest in peace, my friend. We'll miss You.

Born into Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:02:00 +0000

There was a time when parents took pictures of their newborn kid(s) and also family pictures with the newborn(s) to put them on their family living room. With the advancement of the internet and with people jumping onto Facebook (I choose to use this instead of "Social Network") faster than ever, these living room pictures have found their way to the "walls" on Facebook.

Kids today, have their Facebook profiles from the very minute they are born - even before their birth certificates are made! Parents are becoming social media experts and their kids -

Celebrities - getting "Liked" from minute zero. Children today, are "Born into Facebook".

Is this good or bad? I wish to leave that to you. Do share your views though!

I Love Madras - It's My City!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:21:00 +0000

And finally, I'm writing my 4th (that's right, "fourth") post in this year! I've indeed been writing very sporadically on my blog these days and I'm here to share something more on what's been cooking behind the scenes. Curious? Read on...

It all started two years back when, after getting wedded, I brought my wife to this place where I live - Chennai. Every weekend, I was on the lookout for places to take her to. And, needless to say, she ended up Googling for information! Strangely enough, my wife had an extremely tough time finding the information she needed. After checking with more people who were living in Chennai and who had moved into the city, we realized that it was not just us, but many more who happened to face the same challenge!

It was December 2010 when I gave a serious thought on this topic and decided to do something about it - something that will help me and my wife and many others get readily actionable information about Chennai. I started putting down the base framework for what you see today as ILoveMadras.Com.

I opened up this website on July 7th 2011 and it's been open on a Beta basis since then. So that explains my sporadic presence on Water Droplets! Do write to me and let me know your feedback on I Love Madras. Should you be interested in contributing to ILoveMadras.Com, do write to me. Do visit the ILoveMadras Fan Page on Facebook to be a part of a growing community!

Till I see you next (shortly!), do Stay Tuned and Stay Inspired!

Hypocritical Indian News Media - A Menace

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:55:00 +0000

Today's Times of India (TOI) newspaper's Chennai edition's Page-3 comes across as one of the highly disturbing printed news pages to read anytime. What you see on the right is the page-3 of TOI paper on 16-April 2011. Before you continue to read any further, please take a few seconds to give yourself time for some inferences.

A big bold article title on this page reads "Woman posts porn profile of sis on net". Right below this, in a contoured box titled "Bay Watch", there is a picture of a non-Indian girl (perhaps a tourist?) in a bikini having fun in the Marina beach with her two friends. The picture also shows a man (appears to be a local Chennai-ite) wearing a lungi (a local dress worn in India) lying down and relaxing, appearing to be watching this girl and her friends. Any idea what the caption to this picture reads? Here is what it reads as -

SUMMER DELIGHT: The Marina beach got some added colour on Friday afternoon when a group of young foreigners couldnt resist the temptation of the sun,sand and surf. Little did they know that swimming here is a dangerous pastime, but then there were many on the shore who kept an eye as they took a splash

What kind of news reporting is this? In a country that claims to be democratic and that is friendly to its tourists (remember the Athithi Devo Bhavah campaign?), news media use tourists to gain news readers' attention? I'm extremely saddened by this very fact that such news agencies publish articles in the way TOI has done in today's Chennai edition. The Layout Design Rules that many (or any!) printed and online offline / content publisher follow seems to be well used by this news agency today.

In my opinion, there are two major impacts of this page -

It gives the reader a picture to relate to the big bold article on the top (go with Layout Design Rules)
It unnecessarily calls people's attention to something the non-Indian girl was doing - casually enjoying on the beach side
It instills the hidden message in the readers' mind that people in Chennai will ogle at you if you are dressed in a bikini. Mind you, even foreigners are readers of TOI!
Readers will tend to continue to consider this as reality, while the reality is that people at the beach would've not even bothered to see this girl

The same paper that once fiercely covered the murder of a British girl in Goa, is now picturing a bikini-clad foreigner on Page-3. How does the media agency claim to support the Athithi Devo Bhavah campaign?

Lets first accept the fact that India is undergoing a lot of change, internally and externally. The country is set on an agenda to redefine its image and position in the global landscape - as a tourist friendly and people friendly destination. I agree - the reality is a little different, but I also will want to point out that there is also an effort to change. While there are a few characters in the streets of Chennai who ogle at women, this is not what a national printed news agency should highlight and portray!

Remember, Perception is Reality!

The reality can change if you can continuously drive towards creating a better perception of the city and the country. Please do not mix glamor and news, especially at the cost of innocent citizens of the world.

I really appreciate your thoughts and comments.

Blogging – A History?

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:12:00 +0000

The internet has continued to evolve at an extremely fast pace from the day it was born to date. The notion of collaboration was given a different meaning the day internet was born. Collaboration has, since then, been re-defined with the advancement of technologies in the web space, and we have increasingly started to live in a time-warp.

Before the internet era, the printed media was a dominating medium for sharing of news and related buzz. With the advent of internet and web-media, news and the associated buzz started to change and got better. But again, this didn’t give readers a way to participate in the process – there again came a need to have a collaborative medium to share news and exchange views. A web diary, more often known as a web log, was one of the first forms of blog that came to be used.

With the arrival of Web2.0, the whole notion of blogging took a new turn, and today the internet is a proof to the magnitude of impact blogs have had on the growth of online collaborative content. But if you have consciously noticed the internet trend since the last 3 to 4 years, there has been a change; a change that has considerably reduced the number of blog posts.

What has happened to the bloggers? Where are they? Has blogging died? Or, have bloggers disappeared? No, not at all! Bloggers are very much alive and so are their blogs. It’s just the Twitter-effect that has taken these bloggers into a whole new world of micro-blogging. So, what’s this new Twitter and how has this been different from a Blog?

Well, technology apart, they are the same – the time windows in which they help people collaborate only differs! While a blogger would wait for his / her readers to read articles and comment, a tweeter would send his mini-blogs to his followers’ and solicit instant feedback and participation. Because of this, there has been a dramatic increase in the frequency at which people participate and hence the buzz. Interesting? Read more…

If you’ve noticed, collaboration has been the key aspect of all these technologies, and the evolution of collaboration from internet chat rooms, to internet forums to, web logs, to blogs to tweets has purely been from a timescale perspective. So, does that mean, blogs are dead? If so, what will happen to the zillions of bytes of data that bloggers have created?

No, Blogs Are Not Dead! Twitter has not killed the blogosphere. Twitter was the new medium that helped bloggers create the buzz and connect to people. While twitter allows bloggers to share ideas and thoughts in chunks of 140 characters, blogs will continue to offer them the space to open their thoughts and ideas without any limitations. Blogs and Tweets go perfectly hand in hand, and I’m sure bloggers will agree with me here.

When are you blogging next?

Keep Blogging! Keep Tweeting! Keep Buzzing and Stay Inspired!

Image Source: Internet

The Semantic Web - An Introductory Video

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:50:00 +0000

Having worked on semantic programming for a few years now, I've often been asked to explain the concept to customers, friends, relatives (yes, relatives!), business partners. Here is a video that explains this really well. See and enjoy the animated video that explains the Semantic Web!

IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 06:12:00 +0000

Here is a good info-graphic of how Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Product-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service.

Source: CIO Research Center. Thanks to @sureshsambandam for tweeting this.

The Ubuntu Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 16:42:00 +0000

Disclaimer – This post will use some technical terms related to operating systems.

Having eyed at Ubuntu for quiet sometime, I finally gave it a shot this weekend. I must admit – If I were given an option to choose an operating system other than the Mac, I would pick Ubuntu. That said, I thought it would be worthwhile documenting some of my experiences trying to install Ubuntu in this post.

I tried installing Ubuntu to co-exist with Windows XP. The laptop was a Compaq nx 7300 and it was Ubuntu 10.10 that I was trying to install. To put things blunt – the co-existence on this laptop was not a peaceful one.

I downloaded the Ubuntu installer from the official download page and burned the image on a CD. I went with the plain vanilla installation of Ubuntu, to reside side-by-side Windows XP SP3. Everything went on successful as expected.

Then came the problem when I rebooted my system with Windows XP. After loading Windows XP, I thought of trying rebooting to start Ubuntu. And…..the monster stepped in – The screen was black, with the following message being displayed –

no module name found
Aborted. Press any key to exit.

This is when my Googling spree began. And, thanks to the Ubuntu CD and this link on Recovering Ubuntu After Installing Windows, I managed to see some color return to the laptop screen. Yes, this helped me find my way back into Windows. But, unfortunately this happiness did not last long – it was only till I restarted my laptop from Windows XP.

Later, on more Googling, I came to read that Ubuntu is best compatible with the Dell and Lenovo makes. I haven’t verified this though. A little more of Googling suggested to uninstall the HP Backup & Recovery and HP Protect tools. I tried doing this, but in vain. After a lot of trying (spent over 3 hours), I had to give up. I ended up uninstalling Ubuntu from the laptop.

To do the uninstall of Ubuntu, I followed the instructions from this link. I preferred this approach as this does not require us to have a Windows bootable CD. For ease of operation, I’m reproducing what was give in this website below –

Download mbfix from here.
Extract all files in mbrfix.zip to C:\.
Open Command Prompt (start->run-> type cmd -> OK).
Type cd \ and press enter.
Then type mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr /yes and press enter.
Now you can delete Ubuntu partitions (/, swap etc) using Easeus Partition manager or Windows Disk Management or other partition editor.
Restart your PC.

My message for the non-technical readers – If you are planning to try Ubuntu on your laptop, and if its going to run side-by-side Windows, please get someone technical with you. It’s not as simple (“yet”) as its mentioned in the Ubuntu website.

And, my message for the techies out there – Should you have solved this problem (specifically with HP laptops), please do let m (and the world) know…if possible through a comment on this post.

That’s all I had for this post. Till I get back next time, have a great week. Stay Inspired!

The Common Sense Approach To Process Improvement

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:28:00 +0000

This is an outcome of a discussion I was in yesterday; a discussion that I would classify as one of the most interesting discussions in my recent past. It all started with just one statement one of the people made in the room –

I’ve been wanting to do a certification in LEAN and Six Sigma as I feel that will help me bring about a lot of improvements in the way my team and my organization works.

Soon enough the room witnessed some decent knowledge sharing; LEAN, Kaizen, Six Sigma and someone also brought in Agile. Quiet keen on listening to what each one had to say, I kept my views for the end. Then came my chance, when one of them asked if I had used any of these at work or elsewhere. I thought for a moment and said –

Yes, I’ve used all of this at different points in time – both, at work and back at home. And to my mind, all of this is no rocket science but sheer COMMON SENSE.

What happened later in the room was a different story. But I thought of sharing this with the world too, rather than letting the intense discussion and the outcome die within the four walls of the room we were in; hence this post.

While the human being is the most magnificent creation of the Creator, we tend to lose the sheen and the gloss as we grow up. If you have ever tried observing a child for over a period in time (anywhere from a few tens of minutes to hours together), you would perhaps get the clue.

A child learns to see, assimilate, recognize, differentiate things from a world it is introduced to. It has never been told what is going to happen when it opens its eyes for the first time. It never knows what the images that it sees really mean. Over time, the child learns – it understands who its parents are, and what its supposed to do when it needs attention.

A newborn child is introduced to a large process called life. It isn’t aware of what it’s supposed to do, until things start happening. As this newborn child starts to see more of the process every second, every minute and every day, it starts to do things better and slowly starts participating in the process. Observing that the mother would feed when it cries, it starts to understand that crying is a sign to get food. This also helps the mother as she would get to understand her child’s language, thereby improving the small process of feeding.

Did the child use a tool? Or was the child aware of the LEANs, Six Sigmas or the Agiles of the world? Never! It was nothing by a Creator-given tool called Common Sense. Breaking down larger problems into smaller indivisible units, listening before talking, observing the process before participating, are the fundamentals of any of these modern age tools.

That said, I have great respect for these tools for whatever they are worth, as they do make an attempt to massage our brains and make them work the way they are meant to work – Like how it did when we were a kid!

If you would agree with this, but wondered how you can consciously start practicing this, here is a tip to get started –

The next time you wanted to improve a process or do anything, just ask yourself these six questions –

Who? Who was involved?
What? What happened (what's the story)?
Where? Where did it take place?
When? When did it take place?
Why? Why did it happen?
How? How did it happen?

This reminds me of a lovely poem from one of my favorite poets of all time – Rudyard Kipling. These are the lines from his poem “The Elephants Child” where he tries to etch the above six questions quiet well into literature books. Here is how it goes –

I Keep six honest serving-men:
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Why and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five.
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men:
But different folk have different views:
I know a person small--
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes--
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

There is a story of “The Elephants Child” accompanying this poem. If you are curious, you can find it here (or just Google for “The Elephants Child”). Below is an animated cartoon of this story too (just in case you are running short on time). For my RSS feed readers, here is the link to the video.

If you haven't done yet, try showing this to your kid too. I bet it's going to be worthwhile!

Hope this was a useful read! Keep your comments / mails coming in as usual. Till I get back next time, Stay Inspired! Stay Tuned!

PS: Phew! I just realized this was long one. My apologies folks - couldn't manage to keep it any shorter :)

In Search Of An Animation Specialist?

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:02:00 +0000

For folks who are looking for an animation specialist for any of your company or other needs, here is something interesting. The below video is done by one of my friend’s sibling. If you are not on the lookout for an animation specialist, this would atleast serve as a good entertaining animated video!

For my RSS feed subscribers, here is a link to the video. Stay Tuned!

PS: Incidentally, Oct 28th is celebrated worldwide as the International Animation Day. More information here and here.

Agile Development Explained

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:31:00 +0000

Here is something interesting for the techies out there. I was doing some reading on Agile development practices, and bumped into this nice cartoon.

Till I get back with my next post, have a wonderful time!

Inception Architecture

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:42:00 +0000

I recently bumped into this very well executed picture by Rick Slusher (@theslush). I personally believe in this concept (of Inception) and found this picture really interesting as it got me thinking. So here it is, to get you thinking on the lines of Inception.

Keep Thinking! Keep Discovering!

5 Things You Will Like To Try

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:50:00 +0000

Finally, I have decided to re-start my blogging! Like I did mention in my New Year Resolutions post in December 2009, this has been one thing I’ve wanted to get going regularly, but has always been limping. To begin with, I thought of telling you what I’ve been up to these days. Hmm…no..I’m not going to tell you about a magic potion concoction I’ve been working on….but on some things that I’ve discovered, seen, done and enjoyed. Here are five of them -

Flipkart.com – I’ve enjoyed this website the most. Bought more than about 5 books so far, and I’ve enjoyed the experience of buying a book the most with Flipkart. Here is what I’ve observed about their service – Neat packing, Prompt delivery, Zero Disappointments (they have almost every title!) and of course Nice Discounts! Kudos to the folks behind Flipkart – Keep up the good work!
Nintendo Wii – I’ve been lucky enough to get this as a “gift” from my wife :-D. But trust me, Wii can skin you! It offers a perfect combination of relaxation and exercise. I’ve played boxing, golf, tennis, bowling, car racing, base ball – all inside my home! I strongly recommend a Nintendo Wii to a treadmill!
Samsung Wave – This has been the best thing that happened to be in the recent past. I finally managed to do away with my Nokia E90 (something I’ve been really attached to for a long time) after 3 years. What I liked most about Samsung Wave is that it has all the features that an iPhone has, but better than an iPhone as it has a removable battery. If you are a Nokia user, you would have guessed why – yes, even if the phone hangs, you can still unplug and plug the battery back :-) . That apart, I’ve loved the ease of use of this cool thing from Samsung. There are a few glitches, but I can live with it at least for now.
Mute Swan – Oh yes, I’m sure you are stupefied with the name. It’s my wife’s blog, and the name is quiet contrary to the content you will find there. The author, as she mentions in the About me section of the blog, writes about her interests, activities and observations. I really like reading this blog, and I’m glad she started to write.
ILoveMadras.com – This is an experimental project that Vijetha and I started a few months ago. With Vijetha’s interest in designing, her background in media and communications, and my interest in creating a collaborative branding platform, we started this. To know more, go here. Should your interests be in line (or similar) to what we have, do write to me and we can talk.

There are a lot more to this list, and I’ll definitely talk about them in my following posts. I plan to write about gadgets in my blog – any suggestions on what aspect of a gadget I should try and focus on? Do write to me!

Till I get back, have fun and Stay Inspired!

Save the World. Save the Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:16:00 +0000

While the Industrial Revolution has transformed the world from the stone age to what we see today, it is important for the industries of the world to keep an eye on their practices and advancements.

Let us not have the Industrial Revolution take us back to the stone age!

Let's save the environment with safer industrial practices and standards. Let's make the world a safer place to live. Click here for a larger picture.

India's path to Literacy

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Caricature of Mr.Big Nose

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Save the Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:45:00 +0000

India - Path to Literacy

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:01:00 +0000

The first image that came to my mind when I thought of the above subject.

What does the subject make you think of? Just share the first thought that comes to your mind!

Sketching for Relaxation

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:02:00 +0000

Here is something I spent time on after a tiring day at a customer place. While I've done plenty of hand sketching and paintings, this is my first attempt to do the same using the computer (with just the mouse). And, I think I'm liking it.

I used a simple, yet powerful, tool called Paint.NET. This is an unfinished painting, as there is still a lot of work that needs to go in. Nevertheless I thought of sharing this as it's still OK to be viewed just on a computer :)

Would you like to take a shot at trying to guess what this sketch tries to convey?

A Cartoon

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:49:00 +0000

Creativity, Innovation and Organizations

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:32:00 +0000

Here is a very interesting video that gets you thinking on some of the fundamental understandings on incentives, organizations, innovation powered by mind boggling animation by RSA....Check out. For readers of my blog, do visit my blog to view the video.

Of Marketing Strategy and Indian Streets

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:18:00 +0000

This video got me thinking - Looking for a marketing or a sales guy? Don't go to the IIM's, go to the streets. You'll find better and experienced sellers in India's streets! Amazing young kid selling fans...he can speak Russian, Japanese, Chinese, German, Israeli, and the list just goes on.....kudos!

The Internet of Things

noreply@blogger.com (Karthik Vijayakumar) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 03:25:00 +0000

Here is a video of what Internet of Things really means. A very good one for the common man.

The use of technology to create wisdom from data is going to be changing the way systems work today. Wisdom comes from understanding patterns and interdepenencies in raw data. Keep thinking on these lines and create smarter solutions for a smarter planet!

Stay inspired and keep innovating!