Today is a very very special day for both of us; me and my sweetie.
Why? Because we confirmed that my sweetie is pregnant. WOW!
When I went to collect the test results the lab technician said "Congrats! The test is positive. Your wife is pregnant!" And I couldn't stop grinning!
When I came back to the car, Lush kept on asking me What? But I couldn't tell anything, I was just grining. I had tears in my eyes. I finally told her "Your pregnant!"
Boy was that good news or what! She had tears in her eyes, and so did I. We were so happy!
SO now, my wify is officially pregnant! We are so exited and so happy, we dont know what to do next!
I love you sweetie. You are going to give me the best present ever! A Kid!
Monday, July 25, 2005
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
QuickMBA: Short Articles
QuickMBA: Accounting, Business Law, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Management, Marketing, Operations, Statistics, Strategy
I don't think these articles will help an MBA at all. Cos these are very brief and just gives you an introduction or a summary to the topics discussed. But to be fair, I think they provide good entry points to many topics and acts as refreshers for those like me, who have studied for an MBA but is not using all that you have learned in your day to day life.
I enjoyed reading up the economic stuff. It's after a long time that I read any economy related stuff, after the MBA exam on economics! But what got me there was the article on Steven Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people.
Happy reading all you folks!
I don't think these articles will help an MBA at all. Cos these are very brief and just gives you an introduction or a summary to the topics discussed. But to be fair, I think they provide good entry points to many topics and acts as refreshers for those like me, who have studied for an MBA but is not using all that you have learned in your day to day life.
I enjoyed reading up the economic stuff. It's after a long time that I read any economy related stuff, after the MBA exam on economics! But what got me there was the article on Steven Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people.
Happy reading all you folks!
Friday, July 15, 2005
BrowserCaps and other Browser Testing/Detection Resources
BrowserCaps and other Browser Testing/Detection Resources:
If, like me, you have been struggling with FireFox not rendering your ASP.NET pages the way you have designed them, and if they seem to be working perfectly in IE, then you may be scratching your head trying to figure out what the heck is wrong.
Well, I dunno if the problem is with .NET or FireFox, but it seems the problem is that .NET considers FireFox to be a downlevel browser. It could be because the signature of FIreFox is not identifiable by .NET, since FireFox was not around when .NET saw the light of the day.
But whatever the reasons are, the good news is, because of the flexibility of .NET, you can fix this from .NET. So you don't have to wait till FireFox fixes it, you can do it yourself. Well if you are wondering how to do it, then read Rob (@slingfive) Eberhardt's BrowserCaps and other Browser Testing/Detection Resources:. He tells you what you need to do.
Good luck.
If, like me, you have been struggling with FireFox not rendering your ASP.NET pages the way you have designed them, and if they seem to be working perfectly in IE, then you may be scratching your head trying to figure out what the heck is wrong.
Well, I dunno if the problem is with .NET or FireFox, but it seems the problem is that .NET considers FireFox to be a downlevel browser. It could be because the signature of FIreFox is not identifiable by .NET, since FireFox was not around when .NET saw the light of the day.
But whatever the reasons are, the good news is, because of the flexibility of .NET, you can fix this from .NET. So you don't have to wait till FireFox fixes it, you can do it yourself. Well if you are wondering how to do it, then read Rob (@slingfive) Eberhardt's BrowserCaps and other Browser Testing/Detection Resources:. He tells you what you need to do.
Good luck.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Happy Anniversary Malli & Shiyara
It's my brothers' 1st wedding anniversary! It's been a year and within that year he has already become a father of twin girls! Life is moving pretty fast!
Happy anniversary Bro!
Happy anniversary Bro!
Managing Scope Creep
I am sure every project manager has faced this problem at least once. When a project is in progress, the clients discover new ways of doing things, discover better to have things, or they discover the things that they missed or forgot to mention.
I have been experiencing these kinds of scope creeps from my clients time to time. As the project reaches it's end, before they have to sign off they discover things they must have in order to go live, but forgot to mention in the outset. Obviously these are things that I did not anticipate or budgeted for.
I try to stick to the original project scope as much as possible. But at times in order to strengthen the relationship with the client and with the view of retaining him/her for the long term or just as a favour if he has been a good client, I accommodate a few, provided they are not major work.
But a more professional and realistic approach that I have adopted is to explain to them the gravity of these new requirements and to explain to them the that I have not estimated for these work. But I don't totally let them down. I do offer to tackle these tasks as a separate project.
Doing this gives me a slight advantage. Firstly, I am very clear about what needs to be done and can make a better assessment of the work required and hence can give the client an accurate estimate on time and cost. Because by that time I have already analyzed the problem and and devised a solution as well. Also, since the solution is already in my mind I can provide the solution pretty fast. Thirdly, I get a steady stream of projects. From the point of view of the client, they are also comfortable with working with me because I have already impressed them with my prior work!
From a marketing point of view also, I think my strategy is helpful because I am building long term relationships with my clients. As the saying goes it's more profitable to retain a client than to find a new one. The trick is client satisfaction without too much of a cost to you!
I have been experiencing these kinds of scope creeps from my clients time to time. As the project reaches it's end, before they have to sign off they discover things they must have in order to go live, but forgot to mention in the outset. Obviously these are things that I did not anticipate or budgeted for.
I try to stick to the original project scope as much as possible. But at times in order to strengthen the relationship with the client and with the view of retaining him/her for the long term or just as a favour if he has been a good client, I accommodate a few, provided they are not major work.
But a more professional and realistic approach that I have adopted is to explain to them the gravity of these new requirements and to explain to them the that I have not estimated for these work. But I don't totally let them down. I do offer to tackle these tasks as a separate project.
Doing this gives me a slight advantage. Firstly, I am very clear about what needs to be done and can make a better assessment of the work required and hence can give the client an accurate estimate on time and cost. Because by that time I have already analyzed the problem and and devised a solution as well. Also, since the solution is already in my mind I can provide the solution pretty fast. Thirdly, I get a steady stream of projects. From the point of view of the client, they are also comfortable with working with me because I have already impressed them with my prior work!
From a marketing point of view also, I think my strategy is helpful because I am building long term relationships with my clients. As the saying goes it's more profitable to retain a client than to find a new one. The trick is client satisfaction without too much of a cost to you!
Working across time zones
I am feeling quite good today. Cos I managed to finish one project on time and the client accepted my work without even a wink of the eye. It was a good project and he was a good client. I'd really love to work for you again Ramon.
And I had to chat up two other clients because we were having serious communication gaps. The gaps were created mainly due to the time zone differences. When I work they are not and when they do I am not. So I send them a mail asking for a clarification or explaining something I have done and I end up getting an answer the next day and my response goes to them the next day etc. So I decided to get things moving faster, so I had to stay up and chat them up.
They were productive sessions. Clarified and agreed upon almost all the things that were pending at hand. So today I did what I promised I'd do and sent them the stuff. Now tonight I have to chat to them again to see their response. Unless I don't get that done tonight, I'll only be able to catch them on Monday evening. Cant wait that long, cos my deadlines are nearing.
The only thing bad about client interactions that go late into the night is that does not digest well with my wifee! She hates it when I have to stay up to work cos she misses cuddling upto me! Well, that's something I'll have to find a way to balance. Can't disappoint her at any cost!
And I had to chat up two other clients because we were having serious communication gaps. The gaps were created mainly due to the time zone differences. When I work they are not and when they do I am not. So I send them a mail asking for a clarification or explaining something I have done and I end up getting an answer the next day and my response goes to them the next day etc. So I decided to get things moving faster, so I had to stay up and chat them up.
They were productive sessions. Clarified and agreed upon almost all the things that were pending at hand. So today I did what I promised I'd do and sent them the stuff. Now tonight I have to chat to them again to see their response. Unless I don't get that done tonight, I'll only be able to catch them on Monday evening. Cant wait that long, cos my deadlines are nearing.
The only thing bad about client interactions that go late into the night is that does not digest well with my wifee! She hates it when I have to stay up to work cos she misses cuddling upto me! Well, that's something I'll have to find a way to balance. Can't disappoint her at any cost!
Thursday, July 07, 2005
How to Become an Early Riser
Getting up early has been a bit of a tricky issue for me and my wife. We always set the alarm for pretty early in the morning and usually end up continuing to sleep past the alarm.
And accidentally I came across this blog post on the webHow to Become an Early Riser. It's a pretty interesting article and by the looks of it has become very popular as well. The comments will vouch for that.
While you are on the subject, read Steve's follow-up article How to Become an Early Riser - Part II.
I am going to try and put in to practice what Steve says. And I am going to persist.
And check out Steve's blog while you are at it. Seems a pretty interesting guy!
And accidentally I came across this blog post on the webHow to Become an Early Riser. It's a pretty interesting article and by the looks of it has become very popular as well. The comments will vouch for that.
While you are on the subject, read Steve's follow-up article How to Become an Early Riser - Part II.
I am going to try and put in to practice what Steve says. And I am going to persist.
And check out Steve's blog while you are at it. Seems a pretty interesting guy!
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