A man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday, October 31, 2008

Online Rail Ticketing in India - Alternate Sites

IRCTC (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) is one of the largest e-commerce sites in India. For many years it has been the only site to book rail tickets online in India. However; the site remains very busy because of huge popularity and traffic. Today, my colleague Aamir told me about alternate ticket booking sites. It was good to know that IRCTC has decided to end their monopoly over railway ticketing.

IRCTC API was opened in July this year and as of now there are couple of alternate sites which can be used to book rail tickets online. This is a welcome change as we now have additional front end interfaces to access back end of railway booking system.

Thomas Cook (India) Limited can be used to book general and Tatkal tickets at an additional charge of Rs. 9/-. It has a simple interface and it shows availability of seats in a nice floating section on the booking page.

Cleartrip has a fast and easy interface.

I hope, other players like yatra, makemytrip and travelguru will soon start similar service.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Holiday Productivity...

I love Diwali holidays. Actually, I love everything about this festive season. The shopping, the decorations, the family/friends companionship and the participation in special traditions, were
fantastic! All in all I had great time and thoroughly enjoyed my four days holiday.

And so what did I do for productivity during holidays?

I tried out online encrypted and automatic backup service from Mozy. I used the free 2GB account and I am satisfied that I could backup my most critical data without any hassles.

Next, I invested some time in storing my contacts on KeepM. This is a very lightweight and simple tool. I now have a central place to export/refer all the contacts and more than that I have a backup for the rainy days, just in case.

What else? Ummmm..Yes, I found some cool podcast sites on The People's Choice Podcast Awards 2008.

And last but not the least, I enjoyed watching/listening many great speakers on Premiere Speakers Bureau. I am very happy to find this site. I think this is a great place to know, listen, watch and engage with some of the best speakers from every field.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Few Good Web Sites#1

Here is the first edition of a few good web applications and sites...

Get Satisfaction
Site Description - Get Satisfaction is a community that helps people to get the most from the products they use, and where companies are encouraged to get real with their customers.

GroupCard
Site Description - GroupCard is a tool that helps you to select a great design, invite signers, and manage the card to perfection. Group Card lets a group of people sign the card before sending, which works well for sharing a card with officemates, friends, or family members.

Giveaway of the Day
Site Description - Every day we offer for FREE licensed software you’d have to buy otherwise!

SeeToo
Description from the site - SeeToo is a web-based application that allows individuals to invite friends and family to watch home videos with them in real time.
Select a video file from your computer. Invite a buddy to watch the video with. Watch together.

Dabble DB
Site Description - Dabble DB helps you create online databases on the web. Instead of downloading an application, you upload your data and then build your own database application. Screenshot of a table view You can import existing data or just start from scratch.

Docstoc
Site Description - Find and share professional documents

Blinksale
Site Description - Blinksale is perfect for anyone who needs to invoice clients for services or products sold.

blist
Site Description - Create & Share Your Weblists With Drag-And-Drop Simplicity. Whether you use Excel or a database today, blist is the best choice for easily creating and sharing lists on the web.

Remember The Milk
Site Description - Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. We created Remember The Milk so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand. Remember The Milk makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience.

Jumpchart
Site Description - If you build websites for a living, you know that content organization and approval can be an overwhelming process.Unlike paper mock-ups, and tree shaped diagrams, with a Jumpchart preview, -clients just get it.

MeetingWizard
Site Description - Use MeetingWizard to arrange and schedule meetings and other events. As a productivity tool it makes the planning process easier and more effective.

ThinkFree
Site Description - View and edit documents and manage files with increased productivity

Tractis
Site Description - With Tractis you can create, negotiate and sign contracts, 100% online and guaranteed to be legally binding in the offline world.

SurveyMonkey
Site Description - SurveyMonkey has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily.

URL Spell Check
Site Description - Find spelling errors on your site

WebWait
Site Description - Use WebWait to benchmark your website or test the speed of your web connection.

TypeRacer
Site Description - Put your typing skills to the test with TypeRacer, which pits you against other players for the chance to win.

CouchSurfing
Site Description - CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit.

Hostesls
Site Description - Find any hostel, anywhere in the world.

oDesk
Site Description - Hire, Manage, and Pay remote contractors as if they were in your office.

amazonmechanicalturk
Site Description - Amazon Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for work that requires human intelligence. The Mechanical Turk service gives businesses access to a diverse, on-demand, scalable workforce and gives workers a selection of thousands of tasks to complete whenever it's convenient.

Writeboard
Site Description - Writeboards are sharable, web-based text documents that let you save every edit, roll back to any version, and easily compare changes. Use Writeboard to write solo or collaborate with others.

Connexions
Site Description - a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Personality Type

Dwayne Melancon has a very interesting post about the personality tendencies. It provides good overview of Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) model and links to free resources.

A couple of years back, I had taken similar test for my Insights Discovery profile when I joined my current company. The Insights System is built around the model of personality first identified by the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung.

I used the the free online assessments and I think, the results are good for self-understanding. We can identify the key areas for development and take action for growth personally and interpersonally.

Try these tools if you want to find out your personality type....

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Visit to local mall...

We went to local SRS mall for groceries on Sunday. As a prelude to the festival of Diwali, the mall was wearing a festive look with a variety of stalls, food, activities and entertainments.
Prachee, my daughter participated in the first dance event of the evening and won the prize - "The Jungle Book" (set of 8 DVD's). She went on to win the second dance event with a repeat performance and received a cash voucher. It was a great feeling to see her perform on stage and witness her ability to act on the spot without any preparation.

Prachee is 5 years old and all these years, I have been doing what any parent would do for their kids. But it was one of those moments when I got inspired by what she did, I felt that somewhere between the continuing demands & responsibilities of work and daily life I have lost the sense of being spontaneous and adventurous. I became aware of how I have been controlling, regulating and directing my life to achieve high level of success and how much of purposeful planing and persistence is really needed before taking action.
I need to question and discover that for myself.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Crisis...

Thanks Phil and Robert! I will review the tools suggested by you.

Global economic slowdown is dominating the media headlines. Amidst all the negative news, expert commentaries and interpretations, I found this interesting article from Fareed Zakaria where he talks about the importance of basics & discipline:

The Crisis's Silver Lining

Some optimistic thoughts How to Use Economic Downturn to Your Advantage

Another interesting initiative was taken by The AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) through a campaign for Financial Literacy:

Feed the Pig

What does this mean for India? Experts are saying that India will feel the heat but not be consumed by the fire. I am not a finance expert but I can see that it is not looking nice. New uncertainties have set in the minds of people. I think, there is a learning for all of us. Indians had started spending lustily without much worry about the future and focus on the self development.
What is the right way to think - spend less than you earn OR earn more than you spend? I like this mantra - EARN YOUR BREAD BEFORE YOU EAT IT. In my view, there is no need to put limit on future and the wealth building plans. We need to focus on fundamentals, self development and creativity to invent new ways of bringing abundance in life and society.

World is going to change and I believe there are bigger opportunities after every big crisis.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Remote Control, Screen Sharing, Working Together...Collaboration

Thanks Ranjan! Good to hear from you.
I was distracted from posting by sheer procrastination and indiscipline. I hope to keep updating my blog on a regular basis...

Here are a few remote control/access, screen sharing and collaboration tools......


















Slideshows...

Slideshare has launched this amazing widget called SlideShare Presentation Pack. This widget allows to display a collection of presentations on blog.
I am excited to put my favorites slideshows here...see bottom of the page.