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When somebody talks about ‘Thinking outside the box’, I remember those stories read in the forwarded mails. The first one, the idea flashed from an operator in a Japanese company another one a smart move by the Russian astronauts.


Once in a Japanese soap factory they had problem with their packaging, they were receiving complaints from finished product section about some of the packets were empty without soap inside, they called for a technical meeting to solve this problem, so many suggestion poured in, like installing sensors, x rays machines, scales etc., but they received a simple and economical suggestion from an operator, he recommended to fix a fan near the conveyor, when the air blows on the boxes the empty packets will be pushed aside, what a cost effective idea is nt it?


Another interesting story about the astronauts, once American space agency were seriously discussing about the invention of a pen that can work in space, because of zero gravity, the ink pen didn’t work in the space, Americans spend millions of dollars on research and invented a pen, but Russians thought in smart way and they just used pencil which served the purpose, I hope you have noticed Aamir quotes the same incident in the beginning segment of the movie Three Idiots.

Another mail recently I have received from my friend about luck, we come across many luckiest people and wonder why only few people are lucky and others not, even though many reasons said, I admire the reason mentioned in that particular message, we miss lot of opportunities lurking or hiding within reachable distance which is very much destined for us, but we always look for something very far and ignore the near ones.

These incidents show us the idea can be simple, from a lay person but they are valuable and also we have to concentrate on the solution not the process, when we conceptualize the end result, we can simplify the process. We should always think ‘outside the box’, at work or personal tasks, instead of following mundane, just try out something innovative, maybe that’s where your luck is lurking.

Good Luck!!
Note : The stories might be fictious -:)

According to a study performed by Printer.com, an independent printer comparison site, printing in Century Gothic font rather than Arial can consume 30% less ink and help reduce costs.

In addition to Century Gothic font (size 11 - saves 30%), other Microsoft standard fonts that use less ink are: Times New Roman (size 12 - saves 28%), Calibri (size 11 - saves 23%), and Verdana (size 11 – saves 8%).

Simply by choosing a more eco-friendly font, such as Century Gothic, organizations can reduce waste and help trim the bottom line… Did you realize you can actually cut printing costs just by choosing another font? Even with everyone looking for new ways to save money, it’s doubtful most people have considered the font they use for letters, reports, and notices, but you can actually save 31% on your ink cartridge costs just by picking the right font.

Printer.com recently put this notion to the test using two popular printers. The Canon Pixma MP 210 was picked to simulate the printing of private users while the Brother HL-2140 laser printer was used to test business use. Both printers were left at their default settings (600 by 600 dpi). Changing only the font resulted in saving between $20 and $80 per year.

Arial, reigning as the most popular font, was used as the “zero” measurement, against which nine other fonts were tested. The clear winner was Century Gothic, which returned 31% savings in both printers. For the average private user, printing approximately 25 pages per week, this will easily generate a net reduction of $20 in a year. A business-user, printing approximately 250 pages per week, could save $80. If your organization uses multiple printers, you can save hundreds of dollars per year doing nothing more than picking a more economical font.

Century Gothic is a modern font that comes standard with MS Windows. Surprisingly, it even beat Eco-font which was specifically designed with efficiency and cost in mind. For those who require a more “traditional” look, Times New Roman provides a good balance between style and savings.

Source:http://blog.printer.com/2009/04/printing-costs-does-font-choice-make-a-difference/

Category: | 9 Comments

Historical





Our house is located in the 'Old Airport Area'. Until 1980 it was the busiest Airport in the Kingdom, now the new airport is located 25 kms away from the city. The archaelogical department maintains the sign boards and few buildings. This board is in the entrance of a road nearby, still 'Arrivals' and 'Departures' are readable.








Hysterical



This is a signboard of key duplicating shop, iron box.......means 'Safe'? -:)




Category: , | 12 Comments

It was a great visit to Dubai last week to attend the Balanced Scorecard Forum 2010. I was so privileged to meet management icons Dr. David Norton and Dr. Robert Kaplan. They shared their philosophical thoughts on the concept which they derived during 1990s, but the wonder is, it is still capable of making marvelous changes in organizations. Harvard Business Review claims that the concept is the most effective tool in the 75 years of its publishing history. The traditional method to measure the performance was based merely on financial factors, but the balance scorecard recommends the inclusion of other main perspectives like people, internal process, customers and finance. All these perspectives should align with the company's strategic goals.

Most of the reputed companies already implemented this approach, and representatives from those companies shared their journey towards achieving the desired results. A great experience.

As far as Dubai is concerned, it is nice place to live, cost of house and transport are comparatively high, but worth it. Just to experience the new metro service i paid 12 Dhs and travelled through 4 stations, quite nice. One of the many advantages of this place is that you can manage with English and it is user friendly.

I went near Burj Khalifa- it's amazing. i was so excited to see the city from the top. unfortunately they have closed for a few days. Then visited the adjoining Dubai Mall, grabbed the guide from information counter- thousands of shops scattered around, guess you need a full day to roam around!! Had nice spicy chicken and rice at Nandos Restaurant at ground level!! Yummy...

i guess this is the right time to visit, most of the hotels have reduced their prices drastically, guys check out!!

Emotions - We face it in our everyday life, affect us in all directions and in different modes, the below message is forwarded by my friend, i am glad to share with my blog friends:

Life is like an unsolved puzzle. No one can define what life is because it is a very complex thing.
Life is something that makes you happy and proud at times and makes you feel so low at times that you say to yourself, "Why was I born?" But whatever it is, it is real fun.

In Life, in every moment, something new happens; something that you never expected, something that you were waiting from a long while to happen and something you were expecting to happen. It is a combination of happiness, sorrow, joy, love, anger, enjoyment, loneliness, fear, excitement and many other emotions.

The definition of the word life can't be completed without using the word emotions. Some people work in emotions whereas others work with emotions. So it's very important to understand how people are using their emotions.

If they are letting emotions get control over them, then they'll be dragged by others and situations all the time. But, if he is controlling his emotions in a proper way, then no one will ever have control over him.

The way a person uses his emotions is what we call attitude.

Someone has correctly said, "Your attitude determines your altitude in life". Attitude, as I already defined, is the way an individual uses his emotions and directly related to the psyche of a person.

Some people use their emotions in a positive way and some people do it in a negative sense.

When people use emotions in a positive way we call it positive attitude and when they use it in a negative way we call it negative attitude.

It's up to an individual to decide how he uses his emotions. Which way will you decide ?
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Picture source : http://www.miamism.com/wp-content/uploads//m/blogs/miamism/emotions_small.jpg

Category: | 13 Comments



If you live in a big city, this scenario is all too familiar: Traffic is bad. You're late for work. And, of course, the parking garage is now full. So you're forced to parallel park on the street. You finally find a spot between two hulking SUVs, but it looks pretty tight. Do you go for it or move on? Not to worry;
geometry can save you. Run a simple calculation and — voila! — you'll know just what to do.Ignore the car that's sneaking into your space as you do the calculation. You'll need a few pieces of information:

Your car's turning radius, r

The distance between the front and rear wheels, l

The distance from your front wheel to the corner of the front bumper, k

The width of the car you're trying to park behind, w

Simon Blackburn, Professor of Mathematics, at the University of London,

worked out a formula for the perfect parking, reminds our good school days,

Blackburn's formula does this by sketching the arc of your car's turning capability into a full circle, then using the center of the circle to create the right-angle triangles Pythagoras loved.That's a lot of work just to tell you if you have enough space for an easy park. And it doesn't tell you how to do the parking. That's something you have to learn by doing, which is how most people figure out whether they have enough space to park in the first place.

Mathematics gives you a way of understanding in detail what people have learned to do simply by practice and expertise," he says."In fact, when we practice something, be it on the athletic field or in an automobile, we are becoming very good mathematicians at doing a particular kind of operation, but usually we don't call it mathematics — and we certainly don't give people a pass on the math test because they can park their car."

How To Park Perfectly









Source: The Geometry of Perfect Parking by Simon R. Blackburn

Credit: Alyson Hurt, NPR

Category: | 22 Comments



Creeping closer inch by inch, 900 feet above the mighty Colorado River, the two sides of a $160 million bridge at the Hoover Dam slowly take shape. The bridge will carry a new section of US Route 93 past the bottleneck of the old road which can be seen twisting and winding around and across the dam itself. When complete, it will provide a new link between the states of Nevada and Arizona . In an incredible feat of engineering, the road will be supported on the two massive concrete arches which jut out of the rock face..

The arches are made up of 53 individual sections each 24 feet long which have been cast on-site and are being lifted into place using an improvised high-wire crane strung between temporary steel pylons.


The arches will eventually measure more than 1,000 feet across. At the moment, the structure looks like a traditional suspension bridge. But once the arches are complete, the suspending cables on each side will be removed. Extra vertical columns will then be installed on the arches to carry the road.

The bridge has become known as the Hoover Dam bypass, although it is officially called the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, after a former governor of Nevada and an American Football player from Arizona who joined the US Army and was killed in Afghanistan.

Work on the bridge started in 2005 and should finish by end of this year. An estimated 17,000 cars and trucks will cross it every day.

The dam was started in 1931 and used enough concrete to build a road from New York to San Francisco. The stretch of water it created, Lake Mead, is 110 miles long and took six years to fill. The original road was opened at the same time as the famous dam in 1936. More photos below.

An extra note: The top of the white band of rock in Lake Mead is the old waterline prior to the drought and development in the Las Vegas area. It is over 100 feet above the current water level.






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