Saturday 18 August 2012

Steroids


A steroid is a type of organic compound with a cycloalkane group or in layman terms, with a lot of Carbon atoms and the compound resembles some of the naturally produced hormones and thereby driving the body system. From dietary Cholesterol to the hormones testostrone and estradiol can be classified as Steroids. Hundreds of distinct steroids are found in plants, animals, and fungi.
Steroids can be broadly categorized under two heads:
  • Anabolic Steroids -are drugs that mimic the effects of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone in the body. They increase protein synthesis within cells, which results in the buildup of cellular tissue (anabolism), especially in muscles. This was isolated and synthesized in the 1930s, and is used in treating chronic wasting conditions, such as cancer and AIDS. It is said that the gains in muscular strength achieved through high-intensity exercise and proper diet can be additionally increased by the use of AAS in some individuals.
    Long term use of the Anabolic drug results in many adverse health risks such as harmful changes in cholesterol levels, acne, high BP,liver damage, dangerous changes in the structure of the left ventricle of the heart, hormone imbalances.
  • Corticoids -are a class of chemicals that includes steroid hormones naturally produced in the adrenal cortex of vertebrates and analogues of these hormones that are synthesized in laboratories.These are used to treat a variety of diseases ranging from brain tumors to skin diseases.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Windows Azure


Not the conventional topic of interest this is, but a slightly different one. Most of you might not be familiar with this word, and probably not aware if windows has launched such a thing. Yes windows has and has been used all over the world for more than 2 years.
Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform used to build, deploy and manage application through a global network. It is mainly used by industries all over the world, to improve their services with clients. Citations and Case studies given in their site. so you can say, windows Azure is Microsoft’s application platform for public cloud. Windows Azure can be used to build a web application that runs and stores its data in Microsoft datacenters. It can connect on-premises applications with each other or to map between different sets of identity information. The latest version of windows Azure was launched on June 2012. You can compare it with the  apple I-cloud. It uses an operating system named Azure to run its resources. You can program and deploy web applications in .NET, Java, Python and Node.js languages.
Aer Lingus (a company in Ireland) is using Azure to create an interactive web application that integrates route maps with their reservation and booking process.
HR Locker provider of HR solutions to small- to medium-size companies, was built on the Azure platform.
The features offered by the new windows Azure are:
  • Websites allows developers to build sites using ASP.NET, PHP or Node.js and can be deployed using FTP, Git or TFS.
  • Virtual Machines lets developers migrate applications and infrastructure without changing existing code. Can run both Windows Server and Linux virtual machines.
  • Cloud-Services - Microsoft’s Platform as a Service (PaaS) environment that is used to create scalable applications and services. Supports multi-tier scenarios and automated deployments.
  • Data Management- SQL Database, formerly known as SQL Azure Database, works to to create, scale and extend applications into the cloud using Microsoft SQL Server technology. Integrates with Active Directory and System Center and Hadoop.
  • Media Services - A PaaS offering that can be used for encoding, content protection, streaming and/or analytics.
For those who are interested in reading more about it please do visit : http://www.windowsazure.com

Saturday 11 August 2012

Google Doodles


Google's Doodles, not a new concept but been there since 1998, when the Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo at the ‘Burning Man’ fest to indicate their attendance there. That’s how the concept originated. It took two more years for the doodles to become more popular and over the years different doodles were created for anniversaries and birthdays of famous persons, e.g. On the 96th birthday of guitarist Les Paul, wee could strum the strings on our homepage. Doodles have made the fact searching more fun and enthusiastic.
I never thought I would spend more than seconds in the Google’s simple and blank page, over the past few days I spent more than an hour trying to better my score and brag about it via Google+ or post in fb, competing with my friends.. The idea of doodles, reflecting the major events at London Olympics is a really brilliant move. It makes me feel I am a part of the Olympics even though on a large scale. Shooting at the hoops, canoeing or playing the 110m hurdles previous week made my direction keys and spacebar really exhausting, but that isn’t going to stop me from playing the doodles.
Addictive it is on a larger scale, but the true victory of the doodles, I think is because, of the lucid structure and we don’t require to download anything or accept a long list of terms and conditions. Also it loads fast with the Google homepage, I think the programmers at Googleplex or lets simply call them doodlers, then again I will be avoiding the masses that play the doodles with such passion, please don’t feel offended you all. the Doodlers at Googleplex require appreciation with the ideas they come up with.
If you have a doodle Idea, then you can send them as well to : proposals@google.com .

hurdles doodle: http://www.google.com/doodles/hurdles-2012
canoe doodle: http://www.google.com/doodles/slalom-canoe-2012

sayonara from Ricky!!
halloween doodle
diwali doodle 

Monday 6 August 2012

Friendship Day


Initially created and popularized by the greeting card industry In the 1930s, it has always been the business. The first sunday in the month of August is selected as the day. In 1998, Mrs.Annan, announced Winnie the pooh as the official ambassador of friendship day. Today friendship day has grown from the greeting card industry to a large business hype.
From my point of view, Friendship day is nothing more than a day created to exploit the youth and their crazy friendship attitude. People used to buy cards and gift them in the old days, but now the story has changed. Playing movies with friendship themes to attract the young viewers. Social media is the once who exploit the speciality of theses days now. when you consider the statistics, the rate of users at theses time ( on this day ) is a lot more than the usual days. people rushing to update their statuses and sharing and uploading would create a crazy atmosphere. Also the online stores are particularly cunning to make exclusive offers and special products for the youth. Their profit is really a fortune, but that’s another topic to blog.
How relevent is the friendship day in modern times? I would say we are living in a fast word, speed is very important factor, we would get frustrated if our mobile is a little slugggish. friendship at many levels has shrunk to mere “hi”,“bye “, the development of “wassap”ism all contributing. We should take time to appreciate and spend time with our friends, As college-rs we get a lot more time and we know these will the best times we are going to have. But out of the campus, how good are we at maintaining these levels of intimacies ?? That’s when such special days come to as a boon, a little rain to the hot and shivelled desertish life of ours..
My Quote about the day is “I don’t particularly celebrate a day as friendship day, cos every moment with my friends is a special day for me”
Leaving a lot more for you all the think about, and wishing a very best Friendship day .. Adios.

                                 

Wednesday 1 August 2012

The Myths Surrounding ‘Group Discussions’


Group discussions, in short and popularly known as ‘GDs’, have become an important and effective measure of one’s potential in a social group which represent the work space in a shorter scale. Many companies and institutes are making group discussion as the first criteria for screening the candidates for face-to-face interviews. It plays a main role in selecting the best among the best. Two of the main reasons that Group discussions have received such huge importance is that, Communication and ability to take a discussion forward with a good composure/ temperament are two relevant soft skills that are must for managers or software testers (most essential). Making a good impression while speaking in meetings or interviews is the basic skill every professional should have.
 There is a considerable difference between public speaking and GD. In public speaking, the audience merely judges and passes a verdict on the speaker. Nobody in the audience competes with you. They listen to what the speaker says but do not compete with the speaker. They listen to what the speaker says, but do not discuss the subject with equal rights as does the speaker.  The group discussions consist of 10 to 12 members given maximum of 15 minutes and 2 minutes of preparation time. Be sure to list out the points that comes to your mind, cos sometimes at the end, the moderator might collect the papers for further evaluation. It is a good habit to note the additional points given by the other participants.  Two important attitude that the participants in GD must take up are:
  1. All participants in the group must accept responsibility for the smooth conduct of the group activities. This orientation means that each member takes on leadership responsibilities even though he is not entrusted any such a role. Instead of passively waiting for someone else to do what has to be done, everyone must actively seek and accept responsibility. In an effective group discussion, there are no absolute followers but different levels and kinds of leaderships and these leaderships keep fluctuating.
  2. Another important attitude is open-mindedness -the willingness of the candidate to consider a broad range of ideas and suggestions from others. He must be flexible and must be open to change. Instead of taking rigid stands on issues, the flexible member tries to adapt to the best interests of the group. This requires objectivity- in order to make unbiased, impartial judgments. This does not mean that you completely suppress your subjective and emotional reactions. You try to balance them with objective observations. This requires maintaining a proper perspective, that is, either becoming too involved in problems to maintain objectivity nor remaining too distant and uninvolved to be fully unaware of their nature. Finally the participant with the orientation of equality should not nourish notions of superiority and must realize that the fellow participants are equal to him/her in all aspects. You also get an opportunity of noticing and comparing the verbal ability, depth of knowledge, extent of ideas, logical reasoning and the convincing capacity of others and this should enable you to prepare yourself to match with them.
Skills Judged in a Group Discussion are:
  • How good you are at communication with others. .
  • How you behave and interact with group.
  • How open minded are you.
  • Your listening skill.
  • How you put forward your views.
  • Your leadership and decision making skills.
  • Your analysis skill and subject knowledge.
  • Problem solving and critical thinking skill.
  • Your attitude and confidence.
Do’s and Don’ts In a Group Discussion:  DO’s:
  • Starting the GD with a Valid point is a huge plus and a jump ahead. – it will clearly convey the moderator about the understanding of the topic and your knowledge.
  • Speak clearly – clear, be polite and respectful in making your statement.
  • Putting forward thought that are different from others vision. – sometimes you have a vision that maybe a little different from others thought. It is bad not to make the point , sometimes that maybe the winning point.
  • Maintain eye contact with the members of the group and take care in ignoring the moderator’s presence once the GD starts.
  • If the group has lost track from the topic, you should take responsibility in reminding them of the topic. This claims an extra bonus.
  • Listening to others in the group and adding to their points also will be noted by the moderator, cos not always you have to give a new point.
  • Maintain a good body language and posture, keep your hands on the desk and not for scratching or combing your hair.
  • Dress formally, as if you are in a conference.No fancy and funny dressing. You should be comfortable while speaking in group.
  • Listen to the moderator carefully when he dictates the rules.
  • Talk the most within the first 5 minutes of the discussion.
  • Allow other’s to speak or complete the point.
  • Be confident about what you say, and please smile.
  • Again, it is not about the amount of time you have spoken alone that you will be judged.
Don’ts:
  • Make genuine points and don’t keep repeating the point that you have stated once.
  • Don’t show any gestures at any members in the group.
  • Don’t keep suppressing the topic and show your pessimistic attitude, be flexible and make them known you have the vision to look from other perspectives.
  • Constantly objecting others and speaking pessimistically will block the smooth flow of discussion.
  • Initiating the gd with a bad point is a bad impression, so it is wise to keep mum, if the topic is not clear.
  • Do not pose a question at the others, cos you are giving an opportunity to make them present a point.
  • Do not try to dominate anyone. Keep positive body language. Show interest in discussion.
The examiners usually look for a very positive personality with varied potential. During the progress of any group discussion, there will be conflicting views and as a result, heated arguments. The winner has to reveal his positive personality traits and leadership abilities to gain approval for his ideas.Since the test is conducted without a leader, there are opportunities for the individuals who reveal leadership qualities to become group leaders. Seizing the opportunity, the aspirant should impress and influence the group. The ability to speak is the foremost of all. If one does not speak eloquently and fluently, one cannot create any impact and make his presence strongly felt. One must arouse other's interest by the power of expression. While talking there must be sense. Conveying all information in well-balanced sentences in a manner that reflects a good grasp of the subject will indicate sharp and analytical mind. The delivery should be smooth and catching. Important of all is the tone. It should reflect the humility of a very knowledgeable person. There will be interruptions and they should be borne with patience and a winning smile .It is the ability to hold the attention of group members which matters.
Do mail or comment if you have any queries,
Ricky Signing out!!!