Vinayak Chaturthi

Yesterday, I along with my 2 company mates (Prashant and Konda) had a great Vinayak chaturthi darshan. We have planned to visit Sidhi Vinayak temple at Dadar. As per our planning, we started early morning and the traveling was nearly one and half-hours from our place of stay (and that too in the early morning 6 am). We reached the temple at 8 am but could not enter the temple premises, as there was a long queue. We had to wait in that long queue for our darshan, which simulated a mini Tirupathi experience. After nearly a 2-hour wait, we had the darshan of Ganesh bhagwan. The darshan was very short because the security-in-charges forced/requested people to move fast to facilitate darshan for all the devotees. An inevitable situation! . Now you know why I said it as a mini Tirupathi experience. After all, sizeable Mumbai population was there that day waiting for Ganapathi Baba's darshan.

We could see the Star, Zee, Sahara TV personnel busily preparing for their 10 sec archive to be featured during the TV news of their respective TV Channels. Contrary to what we see in the channels, these professional were all tensed and were practicing the sentences like small kids preparing their nursery rhymes. Reality is altogether different from what we see in Television.

After the Darshan, we had plenty of time at our disposal. So we thought of visiting the Maha Lakshmi temple, another happening place at Mumbai. The divine darshan of Devi Ma brought a great satisfaction to our spiritual minds. The temple is situated at the banks of the sea. Though we could not experience the freshness and energy of the sea waves (the temple authorities have built a very strong fence to enable only a "See sea experience"), the very sight of the sea itself has instantly refreshed our memories. Thousands of chloromint at one chew ;)

Then we did a little shopping and finally returned back to our guesthouse. The time was 7:00 pm. There was a Ganesh Bajan happening at adjacent apartments. Oh boy. I can’t ask for anymore. The bajan session was a perfect culmination to the days’ activities. It was really a great Ganesh Chaturthi festival and will definitely be an experience to remember. :)

Google Search

Getting information from the net is easy. But is it all that RELEVANT? Searching Google is definitely an art especially if you are aware about the basics of search features. Gone are those days where people used to sit before green color Unix consoles to hack the corporate servers. Now with Google search, getting information is very easy. Hey… I am not discussing hacking here, just searching using Google. But it can get credit card numbers, passwords, etc. You will have to ensure your safety so that you won’t fall trap to these features.

Remember Google caches the website particulars in its own site. So that way even if you remove information from your corporate site, Google’s cached site will always display the information. If I sound Greek and Latin, you must definitely educate yourself by visiting the site: www.johnny.ihackstuff.com

You would find a presentation on Google hacking that essentially uses advanced Google search techniques. These techniques can be used to get those hidden documents, which has been evading our search criteria.
For beginners, this link would be of some use:
http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html

Google Vs Microsoft

Here is my take on this interesting topic. I have analysed the situation by taking a neutral stand. I dont have any strong liking or disliking on any of these companies ;)

Google at Present

Google has morphed into a software company and is emerging as a major threat to Microsoft's dominance. Google’s software can be used with any Internet browser to search the web and desktop. Google brands like Gmail, Picassa, Blogger are leaders in email, photo editing, blogging respectively. Moreover they are also free. Google can emerge ultimate software leader with innovations like local-area search complete with maps and satellite photos, ways to search inside a video file, and search designed for cellphones.

Google’s Aggressive Business Activities

Google is inheriting operating system features too, like desktop search. Google's desktop search can locate any program, document, photo, music file, or e-mail on a computer. Google can extend this feature and can build its own operating system or office application like “Google Office”.

Many Microsofties has joined Google creating panic for Microsoft’s management.

Google has innovated online advertising. Its automated system gathers information regarding user's search request and then delivers discrete matching ads alongside the results.

Microsoft’s decision to build Google Killer (SWOT Analysis)

Strengths
1. Windows operating system is the major strength to Microsoft. It can produce superior software applications that function well with its OS.
2. Microsoft has plenty of money to buy the rights to information and content; it also owns powerful digital-rights-management software, which helps copyright holders control who uses their products and how often.

Weakness
1. The effort has taken longer, cost more money, and exposed more big-company problems at Microsoft than anyone imagined.
2. No matter what innovations Microsoft do, Google and Yahoo seem to do better.
3. There's no quick and easy way to lure away Google's online advertisers.

Opportunities
1. Targeted online advertising has indeed become a gold mine. Still in its infancy, it's one of the hottest sectors in high tech, a $5-billion-a-year market growing at some 40% annually.
2. Possibility of integrating search into future versions of Windows and Office

Threats

1. Google’s successful desktop search can trigger many such innovations and can even lead to the creation of Google’s own version of Office applications like Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc.
2. Any attempt to bundle search with Microsoft products will probably be scrutinized by antitrust regulators. Microsoft cannot undercut the price of Google software to suit its copyright operating system, as Google is already free.