This is what I got in mail from an IT consultant today. Read.

IT Consultant
Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the side of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt.The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre Cardin tie, gets out and asks the shepherd: "If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?" The shepherd looks at the young man, and then looks at the large flock of grazing sheep and replies: "Okay." The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to the mobile-fax, enters a NASA Webster, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with logarithms and pivot tables, then prints out a 150 page report on his high-tech mini-printer.

He turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep here."

The shepherd cheers, "That's correct, you can have your sheep." The young man makes his pick and puts it in the back of his Porsche. The shepherd looks at him and asks: "If I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?" The young man answers, "Yes, why not?" The shepherd says, "You are a n IT consultant." "How did you know?" asks the young man. "Very simple," answers the shepherd. "First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew, and third, you don't understand anything about my business... Now can I have my dog back?"

Cheers

Eid Mubarik

Another dimension added in centuries old custom of social communication! With the advent of computers and the Internet, electronic cards are becoming increasingly popular. No shopping for cards, no envelops, no licking of stamps, and no looking for the nearest post boxes. And you can send those with instructions to be opened on the exact date you want them to be seen. There are number of famous card web sits. They electronic cards are easy to send, in large number of designs to fit each and every one's choice and occasion and you can even edit them to suit your particular requirement. Are the people switching over to electronic cards? Can electronic cards ever replace the good old cards? Eid Mubarik to you all

Growing web-wise with weblogs? Read this!It's mine.

Microsoft offers $5M in rewards vs. virus writers - Nov. 5, 2003*

I feel it's more of a image building measure than a security amendment from Microsoft's end. Keeping in mind the Liberty vs Money battle of software hoarder and open source advocates, it's hard to purue hackers - the actual driving force of OS phenomenon. May be M$ can gauge some kids from the league but I still say Gates is not offering real money yet, ZD! Just read this again:

"This could totally backfire," said Richard Williams, strategist for Summit Analytic Partners, a research firm that focuses on software. "Virus writers are very much driven by the same motivation that makes people climb mountains. To put a bounty on their heads will just increase their notoriety and increase their ego."

On the side note: If you've hailed India's recent progress enough, try to look around, chances are you may find some small Island making waves in the IT ocean! BusinessWeek

Abbas Khan writes this in his book Din Mein Charagh

There is a statue in a square of Rotterdam downtown in Holland. This effigy has been carved out of stone.

It is a human looking up into the sky, trying to stop what is coming with his hands raised, and with a hole where his heart should be. Disproportionate, parts of the figure are not at the right places nor are seemingly fitting in the scheme of sculpture – neck is not exactly in the centre of the shoulders and is sticking out, elbows are at a little distance from arms. Similarly, legs, ankles, feet, stomach and chest all seem out of place. Seeing the sculpture from a distance gives an impression that it will wither away with the wind.

This Artwork was put on display in Rotterdam in 1951. Reflection of thoughts of sculptor Ossip Zadkine, thinkers of the city as well as the municipality, this statue was erected here after the World War II to commemorate bombing and burning down of the city.

What does it reveal? The statue reveals human inner conflict; Disorder in times of turmoil deep within.

i have a little something to say about PTCL and its services ... it happened abt a week ago when i was trying to get Ufone's headquarter's telephone number.... thinking highly of PTCL's somewhat newly established Call center... i decided to check out the services... (i knw... my mistake!) ...well i called 17... after only a few seconds wait... ( a first for me as far as 17 is concerned!) the operator on line #4 came online... well... instead of saying hello to me ... i heard the gracious gentleman talking to 'Nazia' (another operator i presumed) and was kind enough to ask'Nazia' why her eyes seemed so puffy... and i in the meanwhile waited for him to end his trivialities... after a lapse of one minute (which for a contact/call center is important) the gentleman asks me wht my trouble is... i quietly asked for ufone's number... i was asked to hold ... and while on HOLD... i heard the kind gentleman again asking 'Nazia' wht she had brought for lunch (the incident occured on Oct 27th)... and by accident the gentleman remembered (very gracious of him...i might add!) tht i was on Hold... he asked me wht my query was.... and then he asked his colleague to 'get' Ufone's number.... after another long wait i was told to call again in a few minutes... and the phone was then hung up....

So i called again.... this time the same fellow picked up the phone... i asked him again and this time told him i needed the number for an article... he then said there was a problem with the computer so i should call again.... the third time i called, a female operator on line # 1 picked up the phone... after i took the number, i complained abt the fellow i talked to before... and the reply i got was.... that i had the number NOW!!!

hmmm now this is wht i call great service! three cheers for PTCL!!

Right, while every one seems busy thinking, may be you need to know what Pico Iyer writes about why people travel. He says, “It (travelling) whirls you around, turns you upside down and make every thing you took for granted on its head.

We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again -- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more. The beauty of this whole process was best described, perhaps, before people even took to frequent flying, by George Santayana in his lapidary essay, "The Philosophy of Travel." We "need sometimes," the Harvard philosopher wrote, "to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment at no matter what."

Want to explore with me. Go visit this river of life here . . .

Customising in another context

During his visit to England, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817 - 1898), the modern Muslim educationists, writers and reformers was attending a formal dinner in his honour. As per their customs, the hosts served liquor in place of water, not realizing Muslims’ aversion to drinking. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan wanted water but resisted asking.

After the last course, a bowl of warm water was placed in front of every one for washing hands. Sir Syed thankfully drank that water. Others attendees saw this, exchanged meaningful looks and did the same as the guest of honour had done. They never wanted to embarrass the guest.