One-third of my life infront of a screen???

Adults are exposed to an average of 8.5 hours per day in front of screens.  And we are not just talking telly here.  Or your computer screen.  We are talking both the screens and others - such as your mobile phones, GPS, Nintendos.....

In a interesting survey (published in March 2009), a leading media research group shadowed 350 subjects, collecting over 952 days of behavioural study.  Interestingly, the behaviour is identical for almost any age group (which proves why kids watch 15+ programme and parents watch cartoons!).  When subjects were asked to recall their behaviours, people underestimated the amount of time they spent by substantial amount (25%).

That's a whopping one-third of my life!  Hmm!  Set me wondering!

Salaam Halaal closes for new business

Salaam Halaal - the first Islamic Insurance company in the UK today closed for new business after failing to raise enough capital.

Last July Principal Insurance Holding had created a history by opening the first ethical insurance company in the UK.  Salaam Insurance sold Halaal form of insurance which was Shariah-compliant.  Simply put, the company used first principles of insurance, coupled it with Quoranic guidelines (no interest, risk or speculation) to launch the new business.

The business had the right operating model, but wrong timing.  I'm sure we have not seen the end of Takaful in the UK.

More details on the closure are available here.

A bottle a day...

And now its official! Drinking alcohol regularly can cut down the risk of heart disease in men by almost a third!  And the blessed people of Spain are the proof!  (Reminder to myself: get a villa in Spain ASAP!).

And those who drank between 3 - 11 shots of vodka (or equivalent) a day had 50% less chance of heart diseases!

Unfortunately, it does not work the same for women. 

Read the full details here.  But before that, can you pass the bottle please?

The 5 Worst Books Of The Decade - Times Online

The 5 Worst Books Of The Decade - Times Online

And now, as we approach the end of this decade, the lists have started coming out. For one, finding The Da Vinci Code in this list shocked me. I wonder about the literary taste of the reviewer!

When outsourcers outsource....

When outsourcing companies start outsourcing themselves, what do you call it?  Hmm!

I was intrigued to read a news item about Wipro outsourcing Indian worload to Egypt.  The reason given by the Joint CEO is to correct the utilisation capacity across geographies.  Zawya.com views it as a sign of globalisation of Indian ITES companies.

Just before the recession, ITES companies were expanding globally - Egypt, South America, Near East - being most favoured locations. Once the growth rate came down (during recession), ITES players have been hard pressed to sustain their costs.  Business losses have resulted in wider job losses, repatriation of employees and severe cost containment at home.

I wonder the driver for this move and the future impact it will have on the price-list.  It is because there are not sufficient skill-sets available in Bangalore to carry on the work?  Or is it because the planned business (for Egypt) did not materialise?  Either case, it is bound to have adverse effect on the quality of work delivered to the client and costs.

ITES companies have enjoyed playing the price game.  While the volumes were good, no one complained.  It took one economic crisis to rock the boat.  I wonder if it is time for the buyers of outsourcing services to beware and revisit their risk plans.

Are you caring enough?

Came across this wonderful post on Tom's website...

Teddy Roosevelt said, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."


So, how do you know you are caring enough?  Do a self-assessment on your level of caring by thinking through these nine questions:

1. Are you REALLY listening when they are talking OR are you thinking about what you will say next?
2. Do you care for them OR do you care about their opinion of you?
3. Do you usually call them when you want something from them or when you think you can offer something of value to them?
4. Are they in your "network" or are you both in each other's "networks?"
5. Do you leave them impressed with you OR do you make them feel good about themselves?
6. What do you see when you see people?
7. If time is money, they are making an investment by spending their time (money) with you. How are you ensuring that they are getting the right return-on-investment for this interaction (ROII)?
8. Are you treating them the way you want them to treat you?
9. Are they REALLY better off because you are in their life?

If you want to read the full blog, click here.

Who's that sexy swine?

Oh, OK.  I'm not talking about me.  I was merely quoting the eight pigs who admired themselves in the mirror.

Accorging to a study, pigs have joined the list of animals (elephants, dolphins, some species of parrots, some primates and, of course humans) who are able to learn what a mirror image represents and use it to obtain information.  Young pigs were seen to me moving about in a pen while 'admiring' their image.

The study also reported that pigs interacted with the mirror in various ways (of course, they did not comment on the size of their ears!).  At first the pigs studies their images and movements; some grunted at their images, and one banged the mirror so hard with its nose that it broke!  Obviously, he'd some exalted notions about being a pig!  (my comments!)

Next time, when you want to call a spade a spade (or actually a pig, a pig), please ensure if it had the priviledge of watching itself in a mirror!

Email is not dead!

In a recent BNET video feature Clara Shih of Hearsay Lab posed this question.  Her reasons:  300 million users on Facebook, another 60 mills on iPhone and Twitter and the use of SMS have reduced the value of email.

Watch her video here.

I wonder is Ms Shih has ever responded to a ITT or ever sent a business communications using Facebook and/or Twitter.  And if she has, I am more curious to know the response of the receipient.

Email is not dead.  And neither is fax. 

We are so quick to dismiss a tool based on our personal experience!

Google has launched an all-in-one dashboard that attempts to show you what they know about you.  And they have listed all the services that currently participate in creating this "dash board".  If you are a HEAVY goolge user (like me), I strongly recommend that you take a look on what's out there on you!

Saying that you are now able to see exactly what Google knows about you is a bit of an exaggeration, but some people feel it’s nice to see that Google is at least thinking about transparency.

As for me, it is not a comfortable thought for me on a wet monday morning.  While I welcome the transparency angle, I am also concerned about the privacy!

What do you think?

The mystery of missing town!

No, I am not using my blogs to promote my new 'whodunit' novel (as much I would like to do so!).  I was very intrigued to read this post on Google maps.  Just couple of weeks ago, Google's home page showed pictures of UFOs, generating some healthy criticism.  And now their Google maps team have done it again.

Time for some exorcism at Googleplex?

For full details on the mystery of misssing town read here !

The magic goes out of the "Magic Quadrants"

I believe there are many others like me who would swear by Gartner's Magic Quadrants.  Those small boxes made life so easy for us to convince our clients on the relative efficacy of systems and suppliers.

And now its legitimacy has been challenged.  ZL Technologies - a Florida based software vendor claims that the Magic Quadrants do not present a fair and accurate potrayal of the software market.  And they have a whole page dedicated to this law suit.  Apparantly it is attracting a lot of visits to the page (and to the company).

After reading through the ZLT's version, I decided to explore Gartner's site to read their side of the story.  Not surprising, nothing there!

Women will be heavier, shorter by 2049 !

And I am not joking.  This has come out of a Yale University research on natural selection from two recent generations of women.  Read the full details here.

Well the good news is that we are talking about the women weighing just a kg more and being two centimeters shorter.  But you need to check the site to read through the comments!

Go ahead.

Cyber Security is a shared responsibility

I heard President Obama who recently stated, cyber security is a shared responsibility.   And then I read a google blog on Cyber security.  We have talked to death about cyber security, but sincerely, how many of us follow it?   Here're three key points that all of us should know about cyber security:

What are the most important things that we all need to do to protect our computers and mobile devices?

You should have the same expectations when using the Internet as you would when exploring a city: you don't give your credit card to the person selling watches on the street just because you recognise the brand, you don't let your kids wander around by themselves and you don't give personal information unless you know who is getting it.  If an offer is "urgent" or seems too good to be true, take a step back and research the offer.  Add a password to your mobile phone, and browse cautiously on open WiFi networks as you would do while using a computer.

What are the most common misconceptions about cyber security?
many dangerous websites are not designed to be dangerous.  In fact, most of the sites that serve malware are innocent sites that have been compromised in one way or another.  Your computer isn't necessarily safe just because you're avoiding sites that contain adult materials or pirated software.  Use reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programmes, and keep your computer operating system and applications updated with the latest software versions.

How do I know if my computer or network has been compromised?
First, disconnect it from the Internet.  Take note of any slowness, and if you are not sure how to proceed, get someone with technical expertise to check your network logs for high traffic appearing during times when you're not using the computer.  When in doubt, contact a computer support expert.

Brilliant!  I was impressed with the simplicity of these answers.  Google has spent the month of October exploring cyber security and talking about it.  You can get more details at this blog..