Thought Garage

Interesting campaign to create a technology dream for Girls.  Share the word and make sure you work with atleast one girl to encourage to go tech. 

The Girls Go Tech campaign aims to encourage girls to develop an early interest in math, science, and technology and, ultimately, maintain that interest to help ensure a more diverse, dynamic and productive workforce.

Girls Go Tech campaign! – TV Ads

–>GirlsGoTech Website

–>Adcouncil ’s Page

Wonderful talk by David Pogue, NYT Technology Columnist.

New York Times technology columnist David Pogue opens his talk with a rousing musical number about the trials of customer support, then launches into some sharp commentary on “The Software Upgrade Paradox” (“Improve a piece of software enough times, you eventually ruin it”). Next he takes on the worst interface design offenders, the causes of “Software Rage.” After a couple of trips back to the piano, Pogue moves to the success stories, offering examples of products that celebrate the power of simplicity.

Link to TED Talks Page

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that on April 12 it conducted the computer-generated random selection process to determine which H-1B petitions, subject to the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year 2008 (FY 2008), would continue to final processing. USCIS completed this determination ahead of the preliminary schedule noted on April 3, when it announced it had received enough petitions to meet the cap for FY 2008.

The 123,480 cap-subject petitions received on April 2 and 3 were labeled with unique numerical identifiers and selected randomly by computer. The chosen numerical identifiers were then transmitted to the appropriate service center for further processing.

Source: USCIS Announcement

Number 123,480 looks a lot better keeping in view initial estimates. A good 50% chance for each application to be selected. 

Update: 3rd May 2007 Hello friends, I understand your anxiety. But don’t loose your hope and/or temper yet. Please wait till you receive either your receipt or your petition itself before concluding anything about your application. It is true that USCIS mentioned every one would receive the receipt or the petition itself in 2 weeks, but it looks like it is taking time.

Mean time, some people are even receiving the approvals. So please wait till you receive something from USCIS before planning any changes in your career paths.

Update: 11th May 2007 By today, USCIS would have sent all receipts/rejected applications to all. Give a week or two to receive the communication. So with in a week or two you will have some kind of final confirmation. Congratulations for all those who got your applications accepted and some even got approved already.

For those who received an SRC number and waiting for the approval status you can check the status of your petition here:
https://egov.immigration.gov/cris/jsps/index.jsp
or You may call 1-800-375-5283.

As of April 9, USCIS has determined that approximately 119,193 of the H-1B petitions received on April 2 and 3 are subject to the FY 2008 congressionally mandated cap.

USCIS received on April 2 and 3 a total of approximately 12,989 cases requesting an exemption from the FY 2008 H-1B cap because they were filed on behalf of aliens holding a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution. USCIS can now announce that the cap of 20,000 on these exempt cases remains open and that USCIS will continue to monitor these filings.

Source: Link to Announcement

Having spent almost 4 years in Bangalore during the peak, I have seen it growing from Green to an outrageously polluted city. A 15 minutes enjoyable commute in 1999 grew to an alarming and smoking 1 hour 35 minutes by 2003 (at the time I finally left Bangalore).  Real estate prices outpaced the salary hikes of Software engineers by a multiple of 100s. Imagine the life of non-IT middle class natives of Bangalore.

Good in some aspect, the worst in some aspects, Bangalore has never paused growing. Here are some pics I received in an email that shows some of the picturesque spots of Bangalore. Atleast for a moment, we can forget about all worries and just enjoy being there.

(Click on pictures to view larger versions)

At the outset of Diwali Celebrations

Architectural Marvels : Iflex

Infosys Campus

TwinTowers

Trinity Tower

UBCity 

Stadium

My favorite hangout, Brigade Road

Bird’s eye view

MGRoad

State Assembly

High Court

ISKCON Temple

Malls

Technology Park

Send me an email to murali at inspions dot net. I will forward the email that actually have some more pictures.