Jaisanthini World

For three decades, Rick Smolan—a former  Time, Life  and  National Geographic photographer—has taken global cultural snapshots through his Day in the Life  series of coffee table books that explore a time capsule of activity involving a country, discipline, or issue. The projects—produced by the New York-based Against All Odds Productions—which Smolan runs with wife and co-author, Jennifer Erwitt, and COO Katya Able, take around 18 months and involve upwards of 200 writers and photographers around the globe. Their latest book,  The Human Face of Big Data , out this week, takes a more encompassing approach to a topic than its predecessors. Tackling the idea of Big Data—mankind’s ability to collect, analyze, and act on an unprecedented amount of information in real time—the book uses photos, essays, and articles (including one by yours truly) to examine the phenomenon, and how individuals and companies are harnessing it for human benefit, while ...

About 20,000 colleges across the country would be soon connected through a video conferencing software which will enable students to attend lectures of well known faculties through online classes. The decision by the central government was followed by a meeting recently between Higher Education Secretary Ashok Thakur and 60 vice chancellors of colleges and universities from across the country to acquaint them about the software 'A-view'. The software has been developed by Kollam-based Amrita University under the National Mission on Education. The e-learning platform would help in conducting live distance education classes by enabling trainers and teachers to reach out to multiple remote classes and participants using the Internet. It would also address the shortage of highly-qualified and experienced teachers at institutes by providing all students and teachers access to the best teachers and trainers. The software would provide a platform for social collabor...

Cybercriminals and the mayhem they can cause have become the leading concern of security experts in cloud computing. That's the takeaway from the Cloud Security Alliance's latest poll on the top nine threats the industry faces.   Changes In Security Priorities The nonprofit's latest survey found a reshuffling of security priorities pointing to the growing danger posed by cyberattacks aimed at stealing corporate data. Data breaches and account hijackings that were in the middle of CSA's 2010 list of top threats rose to the number one and three spots, respectively, this year. At the same time, denial of service attacks made their debut as the fifth most worrisome threat. The CSA report is meant to give cloud service providers and their customers a snapshot of what experts see as the greatest dangers to storing data and conducting business with customers in the cloud. Fueling fears is a steady stream of break-ins at service providers and Web sites owned by b...

A self-proclaimed common man who created uncommon wealth for shareholders, employees and the founders got a warm farewell at the 30th annual general meeting of Infosys. N R Narayana Murthy on Saturday chaired the AGM for the last time as he hangs up his boots in August at Infosys — his “middle child”.  Addressing shareholders, among whom sat people with just 15 shares and those with lakhs, Murthy said: “I am an average person with many below-average attributes…. My little story should be a confidence-booster for every average person in the world (so) that he or she can make a difference, at least in a small way, to this world.” Such typical humility apart, what’s incontestable is the fact that Murthy will go down as the architect of one of the biggest wealth-creation stories inIndia. Infosys employees, through stock options, have benefited to the extent of Rs 50,000 crore as the company has distributed 27% of its equity among them. The dividend distributed among the sharehold...

Swami Vivekananda was a monk who at one time saw women as an obstacle. However on realising the highest truth he saw no distinction between sex and saw in women the presence of the Divine Mother. Swami Vivekananda worked effortlessly to try and uplift the plight of women, in particular Indian Women. These are a collection of his thoughts on women. Swami Vivekananda on Women “The soul has neither sex, nor caste nor imperfection.” “The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women.” ” There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved.” “Woman has suffered for aeons, and that has given her infinite patience and infinite preserverance.” “The idea of perfect womanhood is perfect independence.” “Soul has no sex, it is neither male nor female. It is only in the body that sex exists, and the man who desires to reach the spirit cannot at the same time hold sex distinctions. (CW ,V.4, P.176) It is very difficult to unders...

Several months back, after finishing an interview with Dr APJ Kalam, and just before leaving his Rajaji Marg residence he made me repeat these three words in a schoolteacher’s tone: perseverance, hard work and patience.This, he said, was alone the path to progress. Later, much later, I realised, that those were the very words he’s lived by all through his life. They are both philosophical and practical, quite like the world he grew up in as a boy in the island town of Rameswaram, in south India. His father, a humble boat owner, Jainulabdeen, was a devout Muslim and a close friend of the Rameswaram temple priest. Kalam was brought up in a multi-religious, tolerant society; one with a progressive outlook. His father often quoted from the Quran to make the young Kalam see the world without fear. He had seven siblings, and a doting mother who, at times, made chappatis for Kalam, while the others were given rice as Kalam’s day would start at four in the morning and end at 11 pm. His f...

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground. And started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it Because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless.But no mat...