Related Posts:

• Apple’s Steve Jobs is CEO of the decade
• Fake Steve Jobs revealed
• Roasting in PayPal and RBI Hell… Again!
• McKinsey Quarterly goes free, to phase out Premium Membership
• BSNL Broadband sucks!

I remember watching this series as a kid on Sunday mornings when it aired on the telly.. as well as from some video cassettes that some friends had. Yeah yeah, video cassettes..

The series itself was different, hilarious and entertaining for us as kids.. especially Arnold’s signature line – “What’choo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”

Thanks for the memories, Gary.. R.I.P.

Related Posts:

• RIP Steve Jobs
• Castle
• Dr.Udai Pareek is no more
• An interview with Ram Charan
• Apple’s Steve Jobs is CEO of the decade

I first came across his name when I was at Symbiosis and his books were listed as recommended reading during our course. I managed to read some of them, mostly concerning Organization Development and also on Training, like

Training for Organizational Transformation: Part 1: For Policy-Makers and Change Managers

Training for Organizational Transformation: Part 2: Trainers, Consultants and Principals

Training Instruments In Hrd & Od

Understanding Organizational behaviour

Some of his books were truly the definitive word on that subject, and a few of them were even out of stock when we got this reading list. The college library wasn’t much help either, because these books were issued to someone and there was a long waiting list.

Eventually, I did manage to find these books, and it was the good old bookshop / raddi depot by the roadside that came to the rescue, especially those on Tilak Road and FC Road.

R.I.P Dr.Pareek, and may you rest in peace. You will be missed by the HR community.

Related Posts:

• Apple’s Steve Jobs is CEO of the decade
• HR Manager defrauds Deutsche Bank
• Jet does a volte face, takes back all 1,900 employees
• Variable Pay at TCS – victim of financial crisis
• Financial crisis casts shadow over IIM placements

Related Posts:

• RIP Steve Jobs
• Gary Coleman R.I.P
• Dr.Udai Pareek is no more
• Apple’s Steve Jobs is CEO of the decade
• Google mentor Rajeev Motwani is no more

The report also said, “It’s often noted that he’s a showman, a born salesman, a magician who creates a famed reality-distortion field, a tyrannical perfectionist. It’s totally accurate, of course, and the descriptions contribute to his legend.”

Jobs co-founded Apple and then faced the ignominy of being ousted from his own company in 1985 after disagreements with then CEO John Sculley and the Apple board.

He bought Pixar from George Lucas in 1986 and churned out movies like Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and WALL-E, the latter four winning Oscars for Best Animated Feature Film. Twenty years later, he sold Pixar to Disney for $7.5 billion, making him Disney’s largest shareholder.

Meanwhile, after returning to the helm at Apple in 1997, he blazed a trail that few can match, steering Apple to the top position in three separate industries: music, movies, and mobile phones, bringing us products like iTunes, iPod, Apple TV and the iPhone, besides redefining the iMac and MacBook. It took him several years to get the company back in shape, including a brush with bankruptcy. Apple now has close to 34,000 employees and is valued at over $170 billion.

It all seems a day’s work for a man who has survived pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant !!

The report suggests that Apple’s inevitable future after Jobs will be strong, because he has recruited people who have been “trained to think like Steve.” Incidentally, I happened to read a PC World article (Could Steve Jobs, “CEO of the Decade,” Run Your Company? ) that shed a slightly different perspective on this issue. Do check it out.

Here’s also a pretty nice graphic that shows an interactive timeline highlighting some of Jobs’ hits and misses over the past decade. Click on it and then move the Apple to scroll.

Related Posts:

• RIP Steve Jobs
• Dr.Udai Pareek is no more
• Fake Steve Jobs revealed
• Kiran Karnik to step down as NASSCOM head
• Gary Coleman R.I.P

An IIT-Kanpur alumnus and a Stanford University professor who was a mentor to Google co-founders Brin and Page, he died when he accidentally drowned in his swimming pool. He didn’t know how to swim. He was only 47 and probably at the peak of his academic and professional life at this point of time.

In a condolence Brin posted on his blog, he said ”In addition to being a brilliant computer scientist, Rajeev was a very kind and amicable person and his door was always open. No matter what was going on with my life or work, I could always stop by his office for an interesting conversation and a friendly smile. Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it.”

At Stanford, Motwani founded the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS), from which he mentored many start-ups and was a major catalyst in the Silicon Valley eco-system.

R.I.P, Rajeev.

Related Posts:

• RIP Steve Jobs
• Playing with Google’s bag of tricks
• Gary Coleman R.I.P
• Google’s Pac-Man logo marks a return to blogging
• Dr.Udai Pareek is no more

The Strand was a treasure trove and I used to frequent the place a lot, quite often just in the hope of finding a book I’d long wanted to own or even just browse around. Mr.Shanbag of course was always helpful and would even suggest books or authors similar to one’s interest. I remember asking him for the unabridged version of “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, which my Mom was keen to read, having seen that book once, many years ago. Unfortunately, this book was not available at the Strand, and Mr.Shanbag was quite vexed about that.

For a moment, it seemed difficult to comprehend he was no more, and I recall meeting him over a decade ago, when I was staying in Mumbai. I was always on the look out for book stores and especially those where I didn’t have someone always hovering around me. No doubt such people try to be helpful, but once in a book store, I prefer being left alone to explore all there is on offer.

Related Posts:

• MAD Orders – ordering food late night in Mumbai made easy
• Rickshawale – Autorickshaw on call in Mumbai
• A Comic on NR Narayana Murthy
• The Story of My Assassins – Book reading by Tarun Tejpal
• Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference – Free Download

Struggling internet giant of yore, Yahoo! has named Carol Bartz, chairman and former CEO of Autodesk as successor to Jerry Yang, who stepped down a couple of months ago.

Carol Bartz was Autodesk CEO from 1992 to 2006, and has huge experience in software and hardware, but not too much in the Internet world.

Carol Bartz has previously worked at Sun Microsystems and is on the board of Cisco and Intel.

Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock, said,

“Ms. Bartz is the exact combination of seasoned technology executive and savvy leader that the board was looking for, and we are thrilled to have attracted such a world-class talent to Yahoo. She is admired in the Valley as well as on Wall Street for her deep management expertise, strong customer orientation, excellent people skills, and firm understanding of the challenges facing our industry. She is exactly what Yahoo! needs to get back on a path toward achieving its full potential.”

Update: She is to receive compensation to the tune of $19 million in the first year, in addition to bonus and stock options, according to a regulatory filing by Yahoo!. 

Related Posts:

• Jerry Yang steps down as CEO of Yahoo!
• The Internet: Past, Present & Future, comScore turns 10
• Yahoo acquires 30% stake in Call Ezee
• Yahoo! in tie-up with Idea and MTNL
• Yahoo says Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Google

A six year veteran who built and managed Google’s mobile business worldwide besides being Sr. Director of Product Management with responsibility for product development in the APAC region, Nishar is joining LinkedIn as Vice President-Products, and expected to begin in his new role from January ’09.  His colleagues at Google called him an “unsung hero”.

The 40 year old Nishar is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and the University of Illinois.

Here is the official blurb from LinkedIn regarding his new appointment.

Related Posts:

• LinkedIn gets $22 million funding, announces LinkedIn Applications
• Social Media sites getting overloaded?
• Facebook poaches Sheryl Sandberg from Google
• Google, Facebook and Plaxo join Data Portability Workgroup
• Chatting on orkut

When I read stories about JFK’s assassination as a youngster, it really had me hooked, though of course, at the time I wasn’t aware about the political climate of the time or his other shenanigans and ‘sexploits’ !!

I even tried to get my hands on as many books as I could that dealt with this slice of history, and one of them, a book by Dr.Crenshaw, called JFK Conspiracy of Silence was pretty interesting as it had autopsy photos. Quite thought provoking, and it also raised several questions about the killing as well as Lyndon Johnson’s role during the aftermath.

Just happened to browse through it again today… it’s been 45 years now, and the mystery continues !!

Related Posts:

• Obama gets Nobel Peace Prize – Surprised?
• Carla’s tryst with “Keratoconus”
• No time for blogging
• 500 cops and 50 hrs – All this to kill one dacoit
• How intolerant can we get?