Sidharth's Daily Muses!

Get on the right plane!



With the long weekend approaching I am sure many of us are traveling.I always had the impression that when they scan your boarding pass at the gate, they actually check if you have a confirmed seat on that flight but it doesnt look like they do that.All they probably check for is whether you have a confirmed ticket with that airline.

This incident on JetBlue is just one of the many incidents where passengers have been allowed to get on the wrong flight.Infact, one of my colleagues at work got onto a wrong flight not so long ago.But,he was lucky since somebody else turned up on the aircraft with the same seat number and he realized his folly.

So if all airlines actually do it this way, heres a way to use the rule to our advantage for a change.Payback for the $$ we spend for checked-in baggage,snacks,soda etc. these days not to mention the insanely high flight prices.

Buy a ticket for Atlanta but board the plane to California! If the flight isnt full and no on else has been assigned to your seat, you might be able to pull it off! :)

Sure sign of a recession!



Starbucks is closing 600 stores all across the US and will be laying of all the temp and permanent employees who work there!

Now,if that isnt a sign of recession in the US, I dont know what is! :)

But I really am curious to find out where these stores are since all the Starbucks in my area or for that matter in the cities that I travel to frequently are crowded ALL THE TIME! People usually sit there for hours sipping their $5 coffees and complaining about the $4 gas prices...

iPhone SDK



If you havent downloaded and played around with the iPhone SDK for building apps, you are really missing something!

It is really simple to use and building custom apps is very easy if you are willing to invest 4-6 hours first learning how things work.And who knows....if you build something that people actually want to buy, you can make some $$ out of it.The split with Apple is 70/30 if I am not wrong.

Happy App Building!

Chevron CEO Interview



The CEO of Chevron speaks out about the high gas prices and the record profits of the oil companies.Boy,this guy really needs to be in politics! :)

A Wimbledon full of upsets!



The headcount only keeps increasing - Djokovic,Ivanovic,Sharapova, Roddick, Bartoli, Kirilenko, Ferrer...

All signs are now pointing to a Federer-Nadal and believe it or not a Serena-Venus womens final! Well, lets just hope there are no more upsets on the way and we get to see some wonderful tennis the next 9 days!

Where the hell is Matt?

Matt Harding is at it again! Only this time in HD and all...

Treasure Hunt



Growing up,there was no show I looked forward to more than Treasure Hunt which used to come on Sunday Mornings.Remember Anneka Rice? :)

For those who have not seen Treasure Hunt,it was a show where a team of two contestants in a studio had to use a library of (deliberately relevant) maps and reference materials to solve up to five clues, and communicating instructions via a radio link to a skyrunner(Anneka) who had the use of a helicopter.The contestants were given the first clue for free, the solving of which would lead to the location of the second clue and so on until a trinket or other significant object was found by solving the final clue. The contestants won a higher cash prize each time they solved a clue correctly and this was all done "against the clock".

Thanks to the wonder of Youtube,I found some videos that brought back some amazing memories of Treasure Hunt! Enjoy!

Its Wimbledon time!



...And this year is probably going to be the most exciting in a long long time! Federer and Djokovic are in the same half of the draw and will potentially meet in the semifinals.

Federer will probably meet rising French star Gael Monfils in the 3rd round whom he beat in the French Open semifinals and either 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt or Fernando Gonzalez in the fourth round which definitely will not be a walk in the park. Federer's projected quarterfinal opponent is Spain's fifth-seeded David Ferrer and his semifinal opponent should he get through all this will be Djokovic.

Djokovic needs to get through Marat Safin in the 2nd round and David Nalbandian in the quarterfinals before meeting Federer.Nadal on the other hand has a relatively easy run up to the finals via a semifinals matchup against Davydenko or Roddick.

Though Federer's best days seem to be behind him, I still project a Federer-Nadal Final with Nadal winning in 4! :)

The Power of the Television!



I just got done with my basic manual at Toastmasters and started on the more specialized manuals.Am doing a manual called "Communicating on Television" which is supposed to help people improve their communication skills on television.My first speech from the manual is to deliver a viewpoint as a TV news host and I thought what better viewpoint to present than the importance of Television as an instrument of communication especially since we lost one of the heroes of television journalism this week,Tim Russert.

Went back to Edward R Murrow's famous 1958 speech at the RTNDA convention in Chicago and picked up snippets to use in my speech.What is shocking is that a speech delivered 50 years ago holds so true even today!!

Here it is:

Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, they will find from our time recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of the 3 major networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m. During these daily peak viewing periods, television projects to us a view of the world altered by influences like politics and money far removed from what is reality.

For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced. Not only are we being removed from reality, information being supplied to us has become lesser and lesser as the days go on. In order to see this, we only need to go backward a few years. To the time when singing commercials were not allowed on news reports, when there was no middle commercial in a 15-minute news report, when television was rather proud, alert and fast. I recently asked a network official, "Why this great rash of five-minute news reports (which also include three commercials in them)?" He replied, "Because that seems to be the only thing we can sell."

History will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge, and retribution will not limp in catching up with us.

We are to a large extent an imitative society. Even if one network would undertake to delivering unbiased news about world affairs unaffected by political, national and network influences and tell to us the truth and nothing but the truth, this would pass on to every other network; and there might ensue a most exciting adventure and exposure to ideas and the bringing of reality into the homes of the nation.

To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: What have we got to lose? Because even if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse the society, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate and yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

There is an old saying "When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during the battle”

Good Night and Good Luck!

Abandoned USSR



There are probably more abandoned buildings,industrial plants,schools,army bases,towns and even big cities in the former USSR than in any other country.The once mighty country's fragile skeletons were exposed after the fall of communism and the country slowly started to deteriorate.

Here are some of the best sites detailing abandoned places in the former USSR.

Web Urbanist USSR - Part 1
Web Urbanist USSR - Part 2
Abandoned RU
English Russia