Women and Technology go hand in hand (?)

Ashwati, a normal teenage girl, Rahul, another normal teenage boy, and an I-phone!
 What possible conversation can they be having?

“I-phone sucks!” Ashwati yelled at Rahul who was flaunting his dad’s new I-phone!

“You are just jealous! And plus what would you know about I-phones”, said Rahul.

Whatever happened after this left Rahul awestruck! “How in the world do you know so much about technology? You are a girl!” Rahul exclaimed. After Rahul questioned her knowledge about technology, Ashwati, a not so geeky, but a completely techie girl, went on and on about the features and interface and all other technical details about the phone, something which was supposed to be an absolutely alien topic to her (or for that matter to any girl).

“First of all, I read a lot of technical stuff and second of all, being a girl has nothing to do with knowing or not-knowing technology”, snapped Ashwati.

And she is right! Gone are the days when Men used to roll their eyes when their women didn’t know how to operate the remote or type a message on the cell phones… Gone are those days when women were associated only to fashion; and gone are the days when Football and technology were men’s fortes! Women are no less, they not only enjoy these two ‘men’s sports’, but many women are also being counted among the top techies.

Here is listing a few names and their achievements-

Rashmi Sinha, the cofounder and CEO of SlideShare, is the psychology PhD turned Web designer and community expert. She created the vibrant social hub around -- of all things -- the PowerPoint deck. Launched with less than $50,000, SlideShare now has a million registered users, plus a partnership with LinkedIn.

Caterina Fake, the cofounder of Flickr, not only co-founded photo-sharing behemoth Flickr but also sold it to Yahoo for a reported $35 million. Now everyone is buzzing about her next project, something called Hunch, which is in stealth mode.

Sandy Jen and Elaine Wherry co-founders of Meebo, often cited as the Web's fastest growing IM tool. It lets some 40 million users yap over any IM network and in a variety of settings; new partnerships with Hearst and Universal Music point to an even chattier future.

Helen Grenier (iRobot)
Grenier has done more than anyone to bring the power of robots to the U.S. military. Though she resigned as chair in October, Grenier remains on the board of iRobot, and her stair-climbing, video-shooting PackBot has already made the soldiers safer.

Susan Landau of Sun Microsystems is a leading researcher and expert on wiretapping, computer encryption, and security issues.

There are these and many more women, who not only are on par with men, but also ahead in some aspects. Not that we should be having a gender war here, but just so you know, if you are a boy and next time you are planning to show a girl how dumb she is about a certain technology, beware, she might be the future founder of the competition for your I-phone.

Money always Makes News

NEWS FLASHES:
“Earthquake Rocks Japan”
“Almost 1000 people killed”
“Tsunami warnings issued to New Zealand, Indonesia, Hawaii, Chile, Australia…”

When one part of the world was rocking with the earthquake tremors and peoples’ lives were being swept away, there was a whole other world unfolding… Where in one part, people were busy praying for their loved ones and others were praying for just about everyone, out of humanity, there was another part of the world where a whole lot of people who had a different prayer in their hearts.

When the entire world was praying for Japan to recover, one of friend’s Facebook status updates read- Japanese earthquake crashed everything..!! but still market was okay okay... my todays gain is 2.40 Rs. only... hahaha:D
2day commodity also was damn volatile and risky...cudnt do nything!!:(((
And that shook me! The moment I realized what his prayer was, I realized, that after all, all melts down to money!

At the time when the markets closed, Japan’s Nikkei, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, China’s Shanghai Composite, India’s Sensex and Australia’s ASX declined between 0.8% and 1.2%. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex closed at 18,174.09, lower by 153.89 points or 0.84% from the previous close. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended at 5,445.45, down 48.95 points or 0.89%. It was the biggest earthquake which rocked Japan in almost 140 years, leading to the danger of Tsunamis in the neighboring countries. But where people were losing lives and their lifetime’s earnings in Japan, people all over the world were also losing money.

Even the Libya crisis, sent shockwaves in the entire world- not just because of the uprising, but also because of the effect it was having on the world financial markets. Oil prices have been shooting upwards ever since Libya has been falling apart.

It is always like that, every disaster- natural or man-made, ultimately boils down to Money! How much property is lost, how much money will be put in to restoring the city, how much money will have to be given to the victims… everything boils down to money. No matter what- Money Always Makes News! Something to think about…!

Rationalising Corruption (?)

Why does anyone indulge in corruption in the first place? Greed. That is the one word which comes to our minds when we talk about corruption and corrupt people. But often there are other reasons or rationales which people give for such acts- helplessness being one, and security for the future being the other. But no justification is sufficient for a wrong doing.

Now, this year’s budget is not an event to rejoice about. In the wake of so many scams, India has faced a severe financial setback. The money that can be useful for the development of the country is going directly in these corrupt peoples’ pockets. In fact, India is said to have made as much as a $40 billion loss in the 2G scam alone. But when the concentration is all on these major scams (thanks to the media and the people involved, of course!), we are forgetting the corruption taking place on a day to day basis. Even though these incidents are smaller, and result in lesser financial losses, compared to the $40 billion at least, they are nevertheless shameful and bad for the country’s overall financial health. And anything that starts as a small fraud, may sooner or later take a gigantic form, as corruption is like a disease. Here is a small anecdote to help you understand why it is a disease.

Have you all come across any honest corrupt person? Isn’t it funny? Two opposing ideas- honesty and corruption in the same line! Well recently I had the privilege of meeting one such saint (at least he is honest). On a trip to Hyderabad, where the means of transport that I chose to go about was rickshaws (cheapest…or that’s what I had thought). I decided to take a rickshaw to go to Ramoji film city, as it was not that far away from the place where I was staying.

The rickshaw driver said, “Madam, 250 rupaiya hoga (it will take Rs.250 to go there).” I was stunned at what he said, ‘coz the hotel manager had told me that it will take just about Rs.50 to 55 for the same distance.

My aunt, (a very funny and a fun loving person) immediately asked him, “Aamir Khan ka Ad nahi dekha? Tourist logon ko lootna nahi chahiye, unka swagat karna chahiye (Haven’t you seen Aamir khan’s ad? You shouldn’t take advantage of the tourists, you must welcome them).

To that, he said, “Madam mujhe teen betiyan hai, teeno ki shaadi karvani hai, ek beta bhi hai (I have three daughters and I have to get them married; I also have a son).”

“Toh kya humse lootoge (So you will take extra money from us for that)? Meter se lo gadi (Take the rickshaw by the meter),” I said.

He flatly refused to take us as per the meter. He also told that everyone here does the same thing. “Mera ek flat hai, jo maine 14000 rupaiyon mein liya tha, ab uski kimat 60 lakh rupaiye ho gayi hai. Par woh mere bete ki shaadi ke liye rakha hai. Paisa paisa jod ke liya tha who ghar, ab betiyon ke liye bhi jama karma hai paisa (I have a flat which I had bought for Rs.14000 and now its price has gone to 60lakh rupees. But that is kept aside for my son’s marriage. I took a lot of efforts to buy that flat, now I have to do something for my daughters as well).

My aunt immediately asked him, “Toh fir ekbaar bahchon ki shaadi hone ke baad to nahi lutoge na (So once your kids get married, then you won’t take extra money from the passengers right)?”

“Uske baad toh aadat ho jayega na Madam, (Till that time it will have become a habit)…” he responded with brutal honesty.

So, like I said, no matter how small or big the form of corruption is, it should neither be ignored nor encouraged, no matter what. ‘Coz once corrupt, always a corrupt!