CEOs are making headlines everywhere... Steve Jobs resigns from Apple and is chalking out a plan for the future of Apple, Larry Page is busy strategizing Google's next aggressive move. In the meanwhile, we are also seeing some finger pointing at CEO's, of which the prominent ones are the sacking of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and the huge criticism of HP CEO Apotheker.

We have seen the media post-mortem the failures in Yahoo and HP and point out  mistakes in the company's strategy that leads to certain failures...and worse attributing it to the CEO. What bothers me more is the constant criticism by journalists and the tech-bloggers alike regarding how the company made a bad decision in selecting so-and-so person as the CEO. There are frequent out-bursts about how this person was from a totally different business and could not have done justice in this line of business, etc..


Here is an excerpt from the article on Carol Bartz

"First reaction: what exactly does Autodesk have to do with a consumer-focused Internet company like Yahoo? Bartz certainly sounds like she has a long history of running a big company – Autodesk has more than 7,000 employees and $2 billion in annual revenue – but what expertise and vision does she have that’s relevant to one of the world’s biggest Web companies, in desperate need of re-inventing itself?"

and one on Apotheker

"The thing is, Apotheker’s relevant experience was serving as CEO of SAP. What’s SAP? SAP is an enterprise software and consulting company. Honestly, we all should have seen this coming. You don’t bring in an enterprise consulting guy to turn around a PC and device maker. You bring in an enterprise consulting guy to turn a PC and device maker into an enterprise consulting company."

The problem addressed in both the above articles is about failure of a CEO who is new to that particular business.
Does this mean that a CEO who is familiar with the business fare well? Maybe. But this requirement fairly diminshes the scope of electing a new CEO.

The classic guidelines for electing a CEO has been mostly past performance and personality - vision, aggressiveness, enthusiasm, dynamism, strategizing, leadership, integrity, etc etc.

I think that this specific requirement of "familiarity with the line of business" is a gamble.It may work or it may not. Does the aggressive tech industry which is dynamically changing causing this move where we can't afford a new CEO(new to the industry) to settle down and bring in slow changes? or is this just a short window view of the big picture?

Since one cannot drag and drop a link on iPad, one cannot easily add the Google Reader's 'Note in Reader' bookmarklet to the browser(in my case, Safari).

One method is to get the JavaScript of the bookmarklet from your desktop PC, mail it to yourself and use it in your iPad browser.

But for lazy people like me, here's a quicker method.
1. Open the browser and bookmark any random page and name it as 'Note in Reader'.
2. Now open the Bookmarks section and go to 'Edit Bookmarks'. Click on the 'Note in Reader' bookmark that was saved in the first step.
3. Clear the existent script and paste the below script

javascript:if%20(typeof(_IS_MULTILOGIN_ENABLED)=='undefined')%7Bvar%20_IS_MULTILOGIN_ENABLED=false%7D;var%20b=document.body;var%20GR________bookmarklet_domain='http://www.google.com';if(b&&!document.xmlVersion)%7Bvoid(z=document.createElement('script'));void(z.src='http://www.google.com/reader/ui/link-bookmarklet.js');void(b.appendChild(z));%7Delse%7B%7D

as shown in the image below

Ever since I decided to buy an iPad,I was worried that the non-availability of Flash on apple devices may cause problems while web browsing, especially since that was one of the main reasons for me buying the device in the first place! But after enquiring with people already using apple tablet devices, I was rest assured that it is not a major problem, rather it sometimes helps by preventing viewing of some irritating ads!

But i didn't have to wait long to stumble across a site built on flash! and look at the error message by Adobe below -


"Thanks for trying to access Flash Player. Unfortunately it is not available for your device because of restrictions that Apple has put in place. Click here to see a wide array of the latest smartphones and tablets that do support Adobe's Flash Player.

Copyright © 2011 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved."

I found this to be hilarious and aimed outright at Apple! Especially the section that asks us to view the list of other devices! Is it not apparent that all the other available devices do support Flash?




Doesn't every other tablet, other than Apple devices support Flash?..

The British royal family is in the news again, but this time for a good reason of Prince William's wedding!

As a kid, i was always fond of Princess Diana... the elegant classy beauty... So also the media was in total awe of her and followed her everywhere.... whether it was some land-mine relief camp in Africa that she visited or some other high society event in England...they made sure that she was in the news.. Hence one couldn't just ignore her.So much to say that i had written in all the slam books that i found Diana to be the 'Most beautiful woman'( no denying it though....)

Prince William has definitely received some of his mother's 'beauty' genes. Across my child-hood he was one of the first 'crush'es... His wedding this week marks a transition and not to forget, reminds me of how 'old' we are getting! (Oh!) Really?!


And, wishing William & Kate a very happy wedded life! May they get to be the King & Queen soon! :) [ No, i don't wish anything happen to Queen Elizabeth and oh ya right, there's Camilla in line too! :) ]

PS - Getting too many markers about getting old of-late.... :(

Audi is the new BMW....

BMW is the new Merc....

and Merc???

March brings with it not only the summers, but also the much dreaded exams into perspective. Exam brings with it difficulties not only to the people writing them, but also to their families too! Daily routines get temporarily modified for sometime. The TV, movie-watching gets the much needed rest, the radio is seldom switched on, attendance in family functions see a decline and the like-wise.

I'm currently experiencing similar exam related routine changes, thanks to my cousins! and i end up enquiring some issues related to it. Recently i learnt that students can use simple calculator to solve numericals in Physics, but one still needs to use Clark's table in tuitions! To achieve what? I don't know...(is it a test of time management? Maybe)

Physics involves numericals that involve quite some amount of calculations. When i studied Physics in 2nd PU, we used to solve the numericals by the use of Clark's tables. I didn't understand then and don't understand now as to why do obsolete methods need to be used as and when we have advanced further in a particular field. Clark's tables was used in ancient times because of the non-availability of a computing device aka the calculator. Now, after the calculator is in wide-spread use, why should one be using a Clark's table to solve numericals?

People who have attachment towards the old methods argue that it is expected of every student to learn the usage of these methods. But to achieve what end? when one has absolutely no usage of it any further, why fill the neurons with redundant data?

I don't know if the concerned committee has even given a thought to it. But i don't see any value addition in using Clark's tables.(I know that one may point out many such redundancies, if we may call it, that exist in our education system, but this is one of it). Rather, the time consumed in learning the methods of usage and solving problems by looking up at those tables could have been put to a productive use... Would it be?

I'm back with one of my auto related experiences :)
This was in the aftermath of the change in auto fares, all the meters have to be re-calibrated.One morning in an auto having an electronic meter with old calibration

Me:Innu haLe meter ide. Yaavaga change maadthira?
      [The meter is of old calibration. When are you going to get it modified?]

Auto driver: Ondu RTO alli dinakke 6 auto-meter maatra change madodu. Adakke tumba nidhana aagtide. Adhbere yeradu saavira rupaayi kottu change madasbeku madam!
      [6 autos are calibrated in each RTO per day. Hence the process of re-calibration is taking up lot of time. Also, it costs around 2k to get it re-calibrated! ]

Me: Ashtondu duddu yaake?
     [ Why does it have to cost that much?]

Auto driver: Maamuli meter na entu nooru rupaayalle madkodthare. Aadre electronic meter alli IC ella change madbekalla, adakke yeradu saavira rupaayi!!
    [ The older meters can get re-calibrated at only a hundred bucks. Since the electronics meters have IC's in them, it costs more!! ]