Pictures from DayTrip to Sedona & Jerome, AZ

iStudio

Taken at Changi airport, singapore

Singapore Again!

A day well spent in the lively city of Singapore. The entire city was on a holiday today. Few pictures from my point-n-shoot cybershot.

For my baby

i dreamt

of a beautiful morning

a bright new day

tasting tears

with a smiling face

a little angel

came my way

held my hand

and said

'papa, lets play'

her sparkling eyes

had so much to say

I felt her love

and joy within me

7 may 2011

Shalin Jain

I've become a father, a new phase begins

Akanksha & Me have become parents today of this little angel. One of those happiest moment that brings tears in your eyes. My gut feel feel months ago about *her* arrival: http://shalinjain.com/wishlist

Inspired by people: Starting up, being focused & staying inspired

I have to admit this, whatever I have done in last 10 years for Tenmiles has been hugely inspired by people around me. I gave up on education soon after I joined College. I did enough to secure my degree and did everything to be surrounded by great minds.

Gautam Jain of Conceptworld was a huge inspiration to let me start a company at 18. Srinivas ramanathan of Eginnovations gave me early insights into building complex technology products. KS Sreeram, founder of Clay programming language, helped me turn my dreams into action plans and was largely instrumental in convincing me to stay-put with products.

And now, Swarna Rethas, who recently completed 7 years at Tenmiles makes me realize yet again in the power of people. Being backed by great people simply multiplies the strength of any company. There is no better metric that can excite you to remain in business and love the work you do everyday. It is an inspirational milestone and couldn't do without letting the world know about it.

Beautiful You

I wrote this little poem for my wife few weeks ago. We are extremely excited to become parents in a few months.

Beautiful You

In your eyes

in your smile

I see the reflections

of our unborn child

I love everyday

that goes by

thinking of our little angel

and the beautiful you.

Unboxing Macbook Air 13" (India)

PIctures of Unboxing Macbook Air 13" - Bought mine from Imagine Store, Chennai.
Side view of the box pack which sports the small apple logo. Like Macbook Pro packaging there is no name of the device on the top of the box. Just a picture (and it speaks!).

That's where the name is. Less is more.

Now, that's a beauty. Placed on a fairly thick black tray that has the Adapter and Installer media.

The small plastic flap lets you pull it and take out the macbook. Very simplistic and thoughtful design.

Under it, Guide, Installer and the adapter.

The power cord placed in the side. Add the cord to the adapter and it becomes a fairly long.

The reinstall drive and the quick start guide labelled Hello.

Sure, the Macbook Air is known for it's slimness - so lets stack it up along with iPad and see.

The thickest edge of the Air is slightly thicker than the iPad.

But's it's amazingly thinner on the other end.

This Macbook Air is a 13' model, that much more bigger than the iPad.

We'll time machine back from my Macbook Pro and then using the Migration Assistant to get it all into the Air was simple and hassle free. A lot of time saved and ready to be used immediately.

Go, get an MBA

Nine years go, soon after I finished my under-graduation, my parents told me : "Go, get an MBA."

Today, I told them your son's got a deserving MBA (read: MacBook AIR). And you need no CAT to get it, rather they ship a big wild cat. Designed in California and mass produced in China. They gave me a smile and asked me if it was something better than an iPad. (They really think iPad is the most fun and friendly device they have used. They don't need me around to help them with it).

My parents sure have moved on. They realize that everyone don't need an MBA to prove themselves and apple makes really user-friendly stuff that's worth the money.

Macbook Air is my third mac in last 6-7 years. Macs have really helped me focus on work, keep my employees happy and completely eliminate an IT specialist whose feed reader would be full of security updates and virus alerts.

Although, from pure tech specs perspective moving on from a heavy duty Macbook Pro to Macbook Air with lower specs sounds more like a downgrade. Lesser HDD, RAM, CPU and Screen size. But it still feels like a decent upgrade. Here is why:

It's lost all the flab. Really light weight and ultra thin. It's now a big feature for me - because I travel more often. I took little over 20 flights in 2010 and am likely to travel more often in 2011.
There is no CD Drive and Ethernet port. And yes, I don't need them. They are not a must have. Less is more.
HDD size is a clear downgrade but performance of Flash Storage is way superior.
Screen-size is smaller but not the resolution. 1440 x 900 at 13" is sure great. For screen-size, I loved my 12" PowerBook.

I am assuming that the soon to be announced new Macbook Pros are gonna be even more meaner machines but sure without Air's form factor. MacBook Air is easy to choose when you have been there, done that. When less is more.

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary in pictures

It was one of those rare days when I woke up at 3:55am without an alarm, all excited to head to Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary. This bird sanctuary had been on my list of drive away day-trip from Chennai. And today was the day.
Planned by our friends at Tachyon Technologies, 14 of us headed out in 3 cars to the Sanctuary (and a bike!). About 80kms from Chennai with really good highway to drive on. We were there at 6am and that really is the best time to be there. Nov - March being the best months.
My photography gear - D90 and a 85mm prime lens - was sure not the gear for the location. But can't keep the shutter bug off me. Here are some of pictures from the roll: