dibya’s blogosphere

Making a sale can be exciting. You and your staff may be tempted into pushing products for the sake of making a sale. However, the savvy shoppers frequenting boutiques today are not down for a push. They can generally tell when you’re trying to sell them something that they may not need. The push itself can turn them off from ever wanting to shop at your store again. The returns and complaints could end up costing you more than you made from the product in the first place.

Learning how to work with your customers, instead of against them, can help you to create the bonds of trust that are needed to maintain a client/customer relationship. Think about why people come into your store. They may be there to browse, get their creative juices flowing, or they could be there looking for a specific product. The first thing that you should do is to put yourself into their shoes.

Let’s say you walk into an interesting boutique for the first time. How would you like to be treated? You’re looking around, appreciating an item here and there, all while soaking in the atmosphere and getting your footing. Do you really want someone to be in your face asking you a lot of questions, rattling off ten different specials, or wanting to walk around and shop with you while pushing every product? Of course not, who would?

The first thing you should do is let your customers start to get a feel for the store. Keep an eye out, just in case they are searching for something in particular and need assistance. After they’ve looked around a bit, you may then choose to make contact. People shop at boutiques for personalized service, not good sales skills.

Make sure that you are honest when you recommend products. It’s okay to say so if you think that a certain product will not work for them. People appreciate honesty above and beyond anything else, especially when it comes to their decisions on whether or not to spend money.

One way to keep a “hands off” approach to your customer service is to set up the store in a way that is informative, non-intrusive, and easy to manage alone. Slatwall panels are useful for this, because slatwall displays put all of your merchandise in easy view. You can use mannequin forms and other slatwall accessories to show the customer what you would normally have to tell them. Using and creative displays can help get most of the work done for you, so that you can respect your customers’ space and time. You’ll be amazed at how much customers respond to personalized service as opposed to “in your face” sales approaches.

When your passion and perhaps your livelihood is the creation of quality videos for people’s events, you probably have some heroes. Martin Scorsese is somewhat of an icon because he is known for his stylistic videography in his movies. Now, you don’t necessary need as much style as a Scorsese gets in movies that win him academy awards. But such professionals who are both precise and very good at their work and creative in how they get their shots are an inspiration to the rest of us.

So how can you go about becoming your own version of “Scorsese” in reaching higher standards of professionalism in the video you do for your customers or friends? Well, sometimes you just have to go back to basics

When you go on a shoot, think of yourself like you are going on an assignment into a war zone. Of course, hopefully, nobody will be firing guns at you. But like a battle, you have to be totally prepared going in. There is no calling “cut” if you are filming your son’s first baseball game. You will get it or not on the first take so your equipment has to be ready and you have to be ready. So think through some of your pre-shoot preparations for the big day.

Inspect, clean, repair and test your equipment the night before. Make sure you have any support materials such as batteries, lights for your flash or if you use a lamp to accentuate indoor shots. And think through the various ways your equipment may have to support you and how you can support it?

What if something needs electricity but is too far from the outlet? Bring extension cords. What if you need more electricity, then plugs are handy? Bring power strips. What if have extension cords where people will walk? Bring duct tape. What if you have to get that duct tape up fast? Bring a good knife or cutting blade. It pays to play these situations out in your mind and be prepared as you go to battle.

Framing a shot so it looks good in the final cut takes some talent and skill to get what you want where you need it to happen. If the scene is very active, like a sporting event, you need to be able to move, set, shoot and break down and do it again and again all day long.

That means your equipment has to be light and self contained but you need to be armed to swap things out on your feet. A well prepared supplies bag that you can get into, swap out a lens, a battery or other needs on the fly is essential to being that mobile. And you have to know your equipment so well that you can literally lock and load in seconds so important shots don’t leave you behind. Some practice with your camera, tripod, lights, supply bags and anything else you have to have for such mobility will pay off big time during the shoot.

You may have cringed when you saw the word tripod but get used to it. Don’t cut corners on this “accessory.” The tripod should be as flexible as your body so you can drop it for a ground shot and have it up and set quickly each time you need to reposition. But despite the bother this might cause, the tripod alone may make your shots 100% more professional.

Knowing your gear and being prepared are the two top commandments of producing high quality professional video. It may not make you a “Scorsese,” but it will take you a long way in that direction in the improvement you will see in your work.

Up to a few weeks back we knew only of a handful of processes to harness the immense sources of energy transmitted on to the earth surface. All forms of energy except perhaps nuclear energy, originated from the sun. (Sun it self is a huge nuclear reactor, come to think of it!) We have been converting this radiant energy to a form usable in a traditional application. But since time immemorial the most efficient conversion process has been photosynthesis by plant life.

However much tried we have not been able so far to duplicate this seemingly simple chemical process.

However the latest news coming out from the Swiss and US solar researchers labs is that a new process has been developed which uses Water, Carbon dioxide and solar energy, to duplicate photosynthesis in a way (though not exact). As you know Hydrogen is the most efficient combustible fuel known to man but hitherto has not been able to produce or store safely and economically. Though not an exact copy of photosynthesis, the new process at least to a certain extend mimic it and provide high energy fuel of Hydrogen along with Carbon monoxide as end products.

The Hydrogen is expected to be used in fuel cells or as Syngas along with the Carbon Monoxide produced.

Every day, we all consume electric energy, whether through the use of handy MP3 players, laptops, stereo systems, televisions or massive home heating and air conditioning systems. We all need and consume power, yet most of us have never considered making “homemade electricity.”

Can you build your own electric generator? Is that even possible? Yes. But before we look into the “hows” and “whys”, let’s talk about electricity.

Electricity is a form of energy just like heat and light. Naturally occurring electric sources, however, are hard to find, and most only produce very little power. Take for example the static electricity that makes your arm hair stand up in an air-conditioned room. Fortunately, one basic law about energy is that it can be converted from one form to another. Therefore, our electric energy is just a product of converting any energy source to electricity. And because of that, we can miniaturize electric power generation.

The most common way to produce homemade electricity is through the use of a solar panel. Solar panels consist of photovoltaic cells, or in simple terms, light energy to electricity converters. Light rays from the sun activate the photovoltaic cells which produce voltage. The voltage produced from each cell is relatively small. Because of this, cells are either connected in series or parallel in order to produce the desired voltage level. Of course, solar panels have drawbacks. First is that they are very expensive to buy. Secondly, they have a low efficiency rating compared to other electric generators. So if you plan to produce your homemade electricity using solar panels, just prepare your wallet.

Another common way to produce homemade electricity is to convert wind to electricity. A wind generator is used for this method. Basically, a wind generator is a dynamo (the general name for any motor or generator) connected to a turbine that is rotated by the force of the wind. The turbine collects the wind energy, while the dynamo converts the mechanical force of the wind to electricity. As stated above, a dynamo is a general term for a motor. If a dynamo converts electrical energy to mechanical energy, it is a motor. If it converts mechanical energy to electricity, it is a generator. Compared to solar panels, wind generators provide a relatively higher efficiency. However, the wind turbine must be oriented where the wind is strongest for better electric production.

Both solar panels and wind generators will not produce electricity if there is no sunlight and wind respectively. Storing their generated energy in a battery is one solution to this problem. Care must be properly observed when using batteries, especially those with high “mAh” ratings. When short-circuited, they can produce fatal levels of current.

There are several viable options for creating your own homemade electricity. It is just a matter of a little research, a little trial-and-error, and of course a little patience before you can generate practical amounts of electric energy. Just remember to take safety precautions when dealing with electricity. You don’t want to fry your Ipod, or worse – fry yourself!

With gas prices rising, looking for ways to save on gas can become a top priority. Increasing the fuel mileage that your car gets can be done by making a few changes to how you use your vehicle and how you take care of it.

- Make sure that you are maintaining and caring for your vehicle regularly. The oil should be changed on time, tune ups done occasionally and other auto parts checked. These all effect gas consumption when they are off or the timing on any of them are bad.

- Check your tires. This can be one of the fastest ways to increase gas consumption is through under inflated tires. Make sure they are inflated correctly and have been rotated as well.

- Keep your car clean on the outside as well. Cleaning your vehicle and even applying a coat of wax is increasing the fuel mileage in the car. Anything that will cut down on wind resistance will help.

- Take anything that is not needed out of your car. The heavier your vehicle is, the worse the gas consumption becomes. Keep your car as light as possible and remove all unnecessary items from your vehicle. This includes roof racks that are not being used, tool boxes and anything else that has been stored under and behind seats, in the trunk and in other storage compartments.

- Consider switching to radial tires. Depending on the vehicle you have, the age and the miles it already gets, switching to radial tires may help to reduce the gas consumption. Switching to radial tires is increasing the fuel mileage and it may be an option.

- If you own a newer vehicle and the engine is designed for high grade gas, then use it. It will improve gas consumption only in newer cars. If your vehicle is older or the engine is not designed for it, then there is no reason to waste the money on it.

- When driving on the highway, at high speeds, use the air conditioning. Opening the windows or sun roof will create substantial drag at these speeds. Keeping the windows closed at these speeds creates a more aerodynamic vehicle and will increasing the gas mileage.

- At slower speeds and in town drive, do roll down the windows. Shut the air conditioning off at these times whenever possible. These slow speeds will not make any difference if the windows are open. The air conditioning uses a lot of energy and will decrease the miles on your car.

- If you have cruise control, only use it on flat surfaces when driving. The constant speed is increasing the fuel mileage. Shut the cruise control off when driving on bumpy and uneven roads. The cruise control will change constantly and decrease gas mileage.

- Remember that you do have over drive gears to use. Improving the fuel can be done by actually using these when driving on the freeway or other highways. There is an additional gear there for a reason, so make sure to use it.

- Reduce your speed whenever possible. Keeping the car at a speed of 65 miles per hour will deliver better gas mileage, then driving at 75 miles per hour or more. The difference in gas consumption is huge with this minor change in speed. Whenever it is possible, reduce the speed and save the gas.

- Stop and go traffic will use a lot of gas. Whenever you can avoid heavy in town driving and stop and go lights. Choose the highway whenever possible or another route that has less traffic.

BANGALORE: At 4 pm on Thursday, computers fell silent at the steel & glass Electronic City campus of Infosys Technologies as 20,000-odd employees logged out and headed to the convention hall, to hear Nandan Nilekani, their co-founder and co-chairman, who is leaving to lead the national ID project. He logs into his new job next week in New Delhi.

For HR head and director Mohandas Pai, it was Nilekani’s elephantine memory and his great networking abilities that were amazing. Also, “If Narayana Murthy is to be convinced, only Nandan can do it. How he does it, no one knows,’’ he said.

Applications of nanotechnology in medicine currently being developed involve employing nano-particles to deliver drugs, heat, light or other substances to specific cells in the human body. Engineering particles to be used in this way allows detection and/or treatment of diseases or injuries within the targeted cells, thereby minimizing the damage to healthy cells in the body.

The longer range future of nanotechnology in medicine is referred to as nanomedicine. This involves the use of manufactured nano-robots to make repairs at the cellular level. Read more about this on our Nanomedicine page.

Nanotechnology in Medicine: Current  Applications

While most applications of nanotechnology in medicine are still under development nanocrystalline silver is already being used as a antimicrobial agent in the treatment of wounds.

MUMBAI— To drive Tata Motors Ltd.’s tiny new Nano is to consider all the things you thought you needed in life but really don’t.

The $2,200 (U.S.) car was built for frugality but it’s no cheap drive. Engineers stripped away everything they could. What’s left is a nice little car, surprisingly roomy inside and fun to shift, if a bit slow on the uptake.

The starting design point for the car was price. Ratan Tata, chairman of the sprawling Tata group of companies, has said the price actually came from a journalist, who asked him at a 2003 auto show to put a price tag on the ultracheap car he hoped to build for millions of Indian families who curl themselves four at a time on motorbikes and zoom precariously around the nation’s expanding network of roads.

The answer – 100,000 rupees, or about $2,000 at today’s exchange rates – was the starting point for the Nano’s engineers.

Thus was born a philosophical experiment, six years and 20 billion rupees ($396-million) in the making: How much can you take away and still have a car?

“The real secret to the car is weight,” said David Hudson, a British engineer at Tata Motors. “Because if you control weight everything else follows. Lightweight cars need lightweight brakes and lightweight engines.”

Keeping the car a lean 600 kilograms also cut down on the cost of raw materials and boosted its fuel efficiency, Mr. Hudson said.

The Nano gets 23.6 kilometres per litre.

The car retails for a third less than the cheapest car currently on the Indian market, the Maruti 800.

Keeping costs down required going back to basics. Like doors. How many do you really need?

Market research showed that people used the rear right door just 5 per cent of the time, Mr. Hudson said. Why not get rid of it?

Mr. Tata quashed that idea, insisting on four doors because he didn’t want the Nano to look weird, Mr. Hudson said.

The dashboard is an expanse of smooth grey emptiness.

The base model has only a speedometer, an odometer, and a fuel gauge. There is no cup holder, glove box, or clock. Don’t even think “GPS.”

The Nano has as few moving parts as possible. There is only one windshield wiper, one wing mirror, and the headrests aren’t adjustable. The dinner-plate sized wheels have three bolts rather than four. There are no air bags, which aren’t mandated in India. The trunk doesn’t open. There are four gears, plus reverse, not five.

Anything that can do two jobs does. The crossbar for the front seats, for example, also reinforces the car against side impact.

The upholstery in the basic model is a grey vinyl, which you may think you’ve seen before on a public bus somewhere. The two higher end models, which come with air conditioning, have basic cloth trim. There is no carpet and the floor mats are black rubber.

For a car 3.1 metres long, 1.5 metres wide, and 1.7 metres high, the interior feels surprisingly roomy. A man about six feet tall – like, say, Ratan Tata – can sit comfortably in the car.

Mr. Hudson, who is himself six feet tall, said he took a two-day, 900 kilometre trip in the Nano with three colleagues. “It’s very comfortable,” he said, adding: “All the way back I was in the rear seat of the car and I could still walk when I got out.”

Engineers pushed the wheels out to the corners and tucked the two-cylinder, 624cc all-aluminum engine under the back seats to make extra room inside.

Tata Motors says the car emits 12 per cent less carbon dioxide than two-wheelers made in India.

The Nano performs admirably well – especially for a car that costs as much as my father, who lives in suburban L.A., paid for the entertainment system in his GMC Acadia.

On Mumbai’s streets you don’t really feel small in the tumult of auto rickshaws, cows, and ancient black and yellow taxis.

It has a sweet little horn and bounces over Mumbai’s rough roads with more resilience than the average taxi cab.

Push the car above its maximum speed of 105 km an hour and a treacherous array of lights starts flashing on the dash. But it’s quite hard to get to that speed in Mumbai traffic. We were nearly there when a herd of goats spilled across the highway. (The brakes in the Nano are more than adequate.) The biggest flaw is pick-up. Try to pass someone as an overloaded goods carrier bears down on you from the opposite direction, honking its giant horn, and you’ll wish the Nano could go from zero to 60 km an hour in less than eight seconds.

Indians seem proud of the car. Truck drivers looked down on us, bemused. People smiled and waved. A clutch of schoolboys on bicycles called out: “Hey, Nano!”

The Nano is a lean car for lean times, and the global downturn has emboldened Mr. Tata’s export ambitions.

But the answer to the question of how much you can take away from a vehicle and still have a car is not the same the world over.

The Nano was built for poor Indians, who have no concept of a car. Their reference points are motorbikes, tractors, and carts.

Not so in the United States and Europe. Tata Motors is planning more kitted-out versions of the Nano for American and European consumers, who have fatter tastes, tougher safety regulations, and sometimes have to handle icy roads and fast superhighways.

Mr. Tata said the U.S. model would probably be a three-door version targeted at young people and could be ready for launch in about three years. The Nano Europa is set to launch in 2011.

International Business Machines affirmed its full-year profit outlook on Thursday and forecast growth in its services business in the first quarter, in contrast to many technology companies that have scaled back expectations.Related

Shares of I.B.M. rose 3.7 percent, after the chief financial officer, Mark Loughridge, said at a Goldman Sachs technology conference that January’s results were consistent with the company’s forecast for at least $9.20 in earnings a share for 2009.

The affirmed forecast comes a week after a rival, the Hewlett-Packard Company, cut its full-year outlook on weak sales of printers and personal computers.

I.B.M.’s fourth-quarter earnings, as well as its 2009 outlook, exceeded market expectations. The company has credited its relative strength to its expansion from hardware to higher-margin businesses like software and services.

Contract signings for business services have grown so far this year, Mr. Loughridge said.

“On a quarter-to-date basis, our long-term signings are up double digits, and we would expect signings to be up for the quarter on a year-to-year basis and double digits on long term. So I think we have a good hand,” he said.

Stock in I.B.M., which is based in Armonk, N.Y., rose $3.07, to $88.97 a share.

Nearly five thousand years back flourished India’s first major civilisation along the Indus River valley. The twin cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa now in Pakistan were ruled by priests and held the rudiments of Hinduism. These civilisations are known to possess a sophisticated lifestyle, a highly developed sense of aesthetics, an astonishing knowledge of town planning and an undecipherable script language. The Indus civilization at one point of time extended nearly a million square kilometres across the Indus river valley. It existed at the same time as the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Sumer but far outlasted them. Surviving for nearly a thousand years the Indus valley civilisation fell to tectonic upheavals in about 1700 BC, which caused a series of floods.
 
The coming of the Aryans around 1500 BC, gave the final blow to the collapsing Indus Valley civilisation. At the dawn of Vedic ages the Aryans came in from the North and spread through large parts of India bringing with them their culture and religious beliefs. The Four Vedas or the important books of Hinduism were compiled in this period.
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In 567 B.C. the founder of the Buddhist Religion Gautama Buddha was born. During this time lived Mahavira, who founded the Jain Religion. The Indian subcontinent is full of caves and monuments devoted to these religions and are worth a visit.

 
Two hundred years later, in the 4th century B.C., Emperor Ashoka, one of the greatest King of Indian history, led the Mauryan Empire to take over almost all of what is now modern India. This great leader embraced Buddhism and built the group of monuments at Sanchi (a UNESCO world heritage site). The Ashoka pillar at Sarnath has been adopted by India as its national emblem and the Dharma Chakra on the Ashoka Pillar adorns the National Flag.

 
They were followed by the Guptas in the north, while in the south part of India several different Hindu empires, the Cholas, the Pandyas and the Cheras spread and grew, trading with Europe and other parts of Asia till the end of the 1100s.

 
Christianinty entered India at about the same time from Europe. Legend has it that St. Thomas the Apostle arrived in India in 52 A.D. Even earlier than that people of the Jewish religion arrived on India’s shores.

 
In approximately the 7th century A.D. a group of Zoroastrians, or Parsees, landed in Gujarat and became a part of the large mix of religions in India today, each of which adds its important and distinctive flavour.

 
In the 15th century Guru Nanak laid the foundation of the Sikh religion in Punjab. 
In 1192, Mohammed of Ghori, a ruler from Afghanistan, came into India and captured several places in the north including Delhi. When he went home he left one of his generals in charge who became the first Sultan of Delhi. During this time Islam, was introduced into a major part of Northern India. It may be mentioned that even before that, just after the period of the prophet, Islam was brought to the western coast of India by Arab traders and flourished in what is now Kerala.

 
The Dehli Sultanate gradually took control of more and more of North India over the next 200 years, till Timur, who was called “Timur the Lame” or “Tamberlane” came from Turkey in 1398 to attack India. He and his army stole all the valuables that they could carry and left again, and after that the Delhi Sultanate was never so strong again. Soon the Mughals, who were from Iran, came in and took control of the north.

 
In the meantime south , in 1336, the Hindu Vijayanagar empire was set up and became very strong.

 
The Europeans – Portuguese, French, Dutch, Danish and British – started arriving in the early 1600s. All of them held territories in India and made friends and enemies among India’s rulers as they got more and more involved, with the Indian politics, but it was the British who eventually controlled most of India and finally made it one of their colonies.
India got its independence from Britain in 1947 after a long struggle led mostly by Mahatma Gandhi. In the process of becoming independent, India became, two countries instead of one. In the years since independence India has made huge progress and coped with great problems, and has developed its industry and its agriculture, and has maintained a system of government which makes it the largest democracy in the world.