The Moon is too Far, Let's Move to the Cloud!

I have been told many times that my head is in clouds. My answer to that is, Yes! Because that is where I want to keep my customer-related data so I can keep my organization clear and focussed on innovation.

I usually have two word answer to the life-long pursuit of cutting cost and focusing on innovation, the Cloud. Software as a Service (SaaS), running applications on the Cloud, can offer more benefits than simply allowing one organization to save hardware and software costs. You cannot miss the obvious benefits, including reduced cost, increased storage, working in a highly automated environment with more flexibility and more mobility. However, I believe the biggest benefit for any organization is focusing on innovation, rather than focusing on cutting the costs associated with buying and maintaining software and hardware.

Salesforce.com, leader in CRM solutions has been helping thousands of organizations manage every aspect of their business online. Appirio offers accelerating enterprise adoption of the Cloud to their customers.

Are you living up to your true potential or finding excuses?

Are you living your true potential or trying to cover it up with the logic that your mind offers you? It is normal for many people to say “I have a good job; it offers me flexibility and paid vacation”. I ask, is that enough? Is having paid vacation and freedom to come to work within 15 or 20 minutes around 9am worth sacrificing your potential to be better than your current state?

What is that keeps us grounded at our current job that we hardly leap for something better? Of course I’m not saying don’t be thankful to what we have and start to be greedy. However, unless we fully understand what keeps us grounded at our current job, we will not understand how to leap forward for something that might be waiting for us our entire life.

China is waking up now, and we have a decision to make

Title: People, it is time to help the US economy now!

This post is in response to the news / article AP (Associated Press) posted and is available on Yahoo’s Finance page. The title is “Companies brace for end of cheap made-in-China era”. URL: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Companies-brace-for-end-of-apf-2437567795.html?x=0

For years the American people have blamed big businesses such as Wal-Mart to hire Chinese cheap labor, which forces the Chinese people to work in unhealthy conditions, and had little or no knowledge about labor laws. Chinese are now standing up for their rights, and according to the AP, are demanding better working conditions and better wages. So, is that good? The answer to this question depends on who is asking.

Causing harm to those who can’t speak up

Topic: Sea of Oil

According to the wikipedia, the word “Humans” commonly refers to the species Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man"). Based on this definition, I believe there are only handful of “humans” around us, and rest are not worth calling by this title. However, for this post, let us assume we all are knowing man. We so called humans have tendency to speak up when we believe something is against our rights, and we stand up for our freedom. We humans practice our first amendment, freedom of speech, and most of us even practice second amendment, right to keep and bear arms. We use this to protect our rights / freedom. We humans can walk hundreds of miles to White House and protest when we don’t like what our president is doing, but what about those who can’t speak, write, or use weapons to protect their freedom? Who is to blame of when those who can’t speak up lose their freedom? I believe humans are very close to paying a huge price.

Copycats have been gaining strategic edge

Topic: Being a copycat is not an easy task

Who would think that being a copycat is a good thing, but that is exactly what Oded Shenkar of Ohio State University believes about being a copycat. Apple, many companies in China, Walmart, and Ryanair Airline are among those who successfully copied other innovations and gained the strategic edge. I have to give credit to Harvard Business Review and Oded Shenkar for making this research available to public. If you are interested in buying the book, please visit the Amazon store: http://astore.amazon.com/sharwhatcomet-20/detail/1422126730 or click on the book image / link above.

Eulogy for Mohammad Waheed

Topic: A eulogy for me

My wife Ann wrote this eulogy for me while working on one of her class project.

Today I am celebrating someone who celebrates me every day, my husband Mohammad. I met him three years ago at my parent’s house in Albany. Second time when I saw him, May 2007, we were getting engaged and soon after August 2007, we got married, a typical Muslim marriage. Between our engagement and wedding, I used to talk to Mohammad on the phone and my landlady would ask me that when will I introduce her to the comedian who makes me laugh for hours. And he still does make me laugh. Three years may seem like a very short time to know someone truly but Mohammad is pure and visible like a raindrop. He is a great listener. He has power to bring tears to my eyes either by making me laugh so hard on his humorous jokes or by just a thought of him not being next to me. He supports me by which I mean sit next to me when I work on my school assignments, research papers, quizzes etc.

Spending weekend in Montreal, QC

Topic: Memorial Day Weekend

It was my fourth time in Montreal, but felt like the first. I was happy to be back in Montreal this time with my wife. We stayed on Rue St. Hubert and walked to the old Montreal via Rue Saint Jacques. We spent almost the entire day in old Montreal before having dinner at Maharaja on Rue René Lévesque.

Understanding Muslim Behavior 101

Topic: Understanding teaching methods that transform a civilized society into an uncivilized society

The purpose of this post is not to convince anyone to respect Islam or to look at Islam as a peaceful religion. I cannot do that right now, because most Muslims of today are not living examples of peace the religion teaches. The only purpose I have for this post is to explain what is happening to most of the Muslims in the third-world country and why they are working very hard to destroy a society. Most Muslims today are spreading negativity among themselves and to whoever comes in contact with them. Gandhi said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Well, if we are spreading hate and negativity, we cannot see positive change in the world we live in. Buddha said, “All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?”

Teaching children respect

Topic: Circle of respect

Rather than mentioning which religion or which book emphasizes on respecting others and especially teaching kids to respect, we are just going to talk about a new way to teach respect to our kids. We know by now that kids learn from us, and they learn more by observing than be told to do so. Kids do adapt their parent’s behavior when they grow up, and that should be warning to all parents out there. If you behave in a way that you never want your kids to behave, then change your behavior rather than telling them you don’t behave the way I do. They will not listen to you; you are the example they are going to follow.

7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise

Topic: Norwegian Pearl Freestyle Cruising

Dates: Feb 20, 2010 to Feb 27, 2010

Prior to going to this cruise, I have read many positive and negative reviews on many websites including http://www.cruisecritic.com. However, after coming back from spending almost 8 days on NCL Pearl, I have to disagree to almost all of the negative reviews. We take vacation to get away from our daily busy life. Some people like to bitch more when they are on vacation. Maybe cruising is not for those people who simply like to bitch rather than enjoy their time off from their jobs.