Speeches Triggering your mind

Recently I watched two videos. One is by Steve Jobs:
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

The other is by Randy Pausch:
Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams


Both of them are real-life stories. Both illustrates their very own approach towards life. Let me know what crosses your mind after you watch them.

Managing People Managing You

A wonderful insight for those are overwhelmed by changing priorities at work place. Especially if you have multiple stake-holder are 'customers'. The video discussed role-set theory used in sociology.

Do you want insert a YouTube video into a presentation?

Recently I came across with a need to use a video available in Youtube in a presentation. Googling the need resulted in breaking down the tasks into:

1. Saving a YouTube video into .flv (Flash Live video) format
2. Converting it into more common video format (WMV)
3. Embedding in Presentation (Powerpoint)

I used Download helper to accomplish step 1, though you can use many online services. I recently learnt about WinFF which is wonderful converter that converts the FLV files to WMV, though I tried VLC player to perform the same. Downside of VLC player is that you will have a garbage at the starting frame.

You could embed the WMV as an object or link it as your need be.

Alternative to the first two steps is to go directly here.

Simplify your regular reading habit

Are you a person who regularly read news from different sites, blogs and news providers? You can save time in opening multiple sites for reading using a less known free service from Google.

The best part I like is, it can track the reading discipline for every site or blog using the cool feature called 'Trends' . Watch this video for simple explanation of this service and take control of reading time.

Managing your online presence

How many times had you searched your name or email id in Google to find out your online presence? If you have never did so, probably it is a good time to try now. I am sure you would find many interesting and surprising results.

Incidentally, I came across another search tool which claims to perform a deep-web search. It seems to be performing a pretty decent search in selected social networking sites. Try it today and see for yourself what traces you have left on internet.

Now what?. How about doing a regular check on what happens to your online presence? It doesn't matter whether you are shocked or felt good about the search results.

I am sure you would not say no to a free service that performs a regular search on your name or email id and returns to you. 'Google alerts' is such a handy service . Watch a short video on how you can turn 'Google alerts' into a Virtual research assistant as well as online presence monitor.

நீண்ட நாள் ஆசை - Writing in Tamil

ஒரு சிறிய முயற்சி - தமிழ்ல !

பல blog-ல தமிழ்ல எழுதி இருக்கிறத பார்க்கிற போது ஒரே ஆச்சரியமா இருக்கும்ங்க. அதுவும், எப்போதெல்லாம் அறுசுவை.காம் வலைதளத்த பார்கிறேனோ, அப்போது எல்லாம் அந்த ஆசை அதிகரிக்கும்ங்க.

சரி! எப்பவாச்சும், நாமளும் ஒரு நாள் தமிழ்ல, web-ல எழுதுவோம்னு, வருஷ கணக்கா பட்ட ஆசை, இந்த post- உடன், 2009-ல நிறைவேறிடுச்சு.

தமிழ்ல, எழுதி , வாசிக்கிறதே ஒரு தனிசுகம்தான். நீங்க என்ன நினைக்கறீங்க?

Greeting Someone

While I take this opportunity to wish you all an Happy Pongal (Harvest Festival), it just occurred to me to make a quick reference check at what it really mean by 'Greeting' or 'Greet someone'. To my surprise, it defines greeting as a

way for human beings to intentionally communicate awareness of each other's presence, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other.

Now, to greet someone, is a day-to-day affair. In fact, an interesting statisitic points out that 7% of employees leave their managers because they didn’t say good morning. Quite amazing isn't it? Have a nice day ya...

Happy New year 2009