Prakash Advani's Blog

The excellent Mozilla Firefox browser now had more than 500 million downloads! Thats excellent news and is perhaps the most popular open source application even more than Linux!

Join the celebrations:

In honor of the 500 million download mark we’re celebrating by raising 500,000,000 grains of rice in one day to help feed the world’s poor. Since we have reached the milestone, it is time to flock to freerice.com and attempt to push the days total over 1/2 billion. This is just a foreshadow to where one day Firefox will be. Food for thought, uh, better yet, Food for Lives; if we reach 500 million grains of rice, that’s a direct contribution in feeding 25,000 people for one day! Donate now, http://freerice.com

Now if only all the Indian sites can be Firefox compatible:

Related posts:

Firefox tweaks

Firefox now has 25% browser market share

Protecting yourself from phishing sites

Another reason to use Mozilla Firefox as the browser.

Freedom from Ads

Nice article:

15 Ways to Declutter your mind.

“What we focus on, we empower and enlarge. Good multiplies when focused upon. Negativity multiplies when focused upon. The choice is ours: Which do we want more of?”

Read this very good article.

For all those who rely on Wikipedia for all their information 🙂

See more.

From PC World.

As Vista continues to limp toward wider adoption, Linux will make major inroads into the enterprise, as well as in government IT. At the same time, the leaner OS will become a more attractive option for home users and in consumer electronics.

Few things are more irritating than having to deal with a format that is incompatible with what you need it to do. It doesn’t matter if it’s a media file, document, or shoe size; it’s just plain frustrating. To make your life easier, check out this list of 101 tools that will allow you to convert just about anything.

Read More.

Now you can save tons of money by setting up your own Home phone system using a PC, Linux, Skype and some off the shelf hardware. You can put an Old PC to some good use!

Read More.

“India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.”

– Mark Twain

See earlier posts

Mark Twain on India

Mark Twain’s Quote on reading

Mark Twain’s quote

Carnegie Mellon University has announced a $300 robot designed to easily enable people to create super-high-resolution panoramic pictures.

See some sample photos.

“There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won’t go.

For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds… I had been seeing the world in black & white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.”

Keith Bellows, VP – National Geographic Society

Came across this excellent article on How the Mind Affects Your Happiness. Must read if you want to be Happy, who doesn’t?

Be Happy 🙂

Related earlier post: The happiest man in the world?

From a Rough Guide to India:

“It is impossible not to be astonished by India. Nowhere on Earth does humanity present itself in such a dizzying, creative burst of cultures and religions, races and tongues. Enriched by successive waves of migration and marauders from distant lands, every one of them left an indelible imprint which was absorbed into the Indian way of life. Every aspect of the country presents itself on a massive, exaggerated scale, worthy in comparison only to the superlative mountains that overshadow it. It is this variety which provides a breathtaking ensemble for experiences that is uniquely Indian. Perhaps the only thing more difficult than to be indifferent to India would be to describe or understand India completely. There are perhaps very few nations in the world with the enormous variety that India has to offer. Modern day India represents the largest democracy in the world with a seamless picture of unity in diversity unparalleled anywhere else.”

One more reason to use Linux, if you aren’t already.

From a CNet article.

“Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users’ knowledge, even when the users have turned off auto-updates.”

Wow. Updating Windows without your being aware of it? And after telling it not to? That’s what spyware does. It’s what the bad guys do. And now, it’s what Microsoft does.

There’s a saying in the computer security field that if a bad guy gets physical access to your computer, it’s not your computer anymore. If Microsoft can silently update Windows against our will, whose computer is it?

“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”

– Albert Einstein

The more I read Mark Twain’s Quotes, the more I like him.. here another one of his on India.

“So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by
man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the
sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten,
nothing overlooked.”

–Mark Twain

Mark Twain on India

Mark Twain’s Quote on reading

Mark Twain’s quote

This is the most impressive resume I have seen.

EDUCATION /Qualification:

Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh,
1952; Stood first in MA (Economics), Panjab University, Chandigarh,
1954; Wright’s Prize for distinguished performance at St John’s
College, Cambridge, 1955 and 1957; Wrenbury scholar, University of
Cambridge, 1957; DPhil (Oxford), DLitt (Honoris Causa); PhD thesis on
India’s export competitiveness

OCCUPATION /Teaching Experience:

Professor (Senior lecturer, Economics, 1957-59; Reader, Economics,
1959-63; Professor, Economics, Panjab University, Chandigarh ,
1963-65;

Professor, International Trade, Delhi School of Economics,University of Delhi,
1969-71; Honorary professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University,New Delhi,
1976 and Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi,1996 and Civil Servant

Working Experience/ POSITIONS:

1971-72: Economic advisor, ministry of foreign trade

1972-76: Chief economic advisor, ministry of finance

1976-80: Director, Reserve Bank of India ; Director, Industrial
Development Bank of India ; Alternate governor for India , Board of
governors, Asian Development Bank; Alternate governor for India, Board
of governors, IBRD

November 1976 – April 1980: Secretary, ministry of finance (Department
of economic affairs); Member, finance, Atomic Energy Commission;
Member, finance, Space Commission

April 1980 – September 15, 1982 : Member-secretary, Planning Commission

1980-83: Chairman , India Committee of the Indo-Japan joint study
committee September 16, 1982 – January 14, 1985: Governor, Reserve
Bank of India

1982-85: Alternate Governor for India , Board of governors,
International Monetary Fund

1983-84: Member, economic advisory council to the Prime Minister

1985: President, Indian Economic Association

January 15, 1985 – July 31, 1987: Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission

August 1, 1987 – November 10, 1990: Secretary-general and
commissioner, south commission, Geneva

December 10, 1990 – March 14, 1991: Advisor to the Prime Minister on
economic affairs

March 15, 1991 – June 20, 1991: Chairman, UGC

June 21, 1991 – May 15, 1996: Union finance minister

October 1991: Elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam on Congress ticket

June 1995: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

1996 onwards: Member, Consultative Committee for the ministry of finance

August 1, 1996 – December 4, 1997: Chairman, Parliamentary standing
committee on commerce

March 21, 1998 onwards: Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha

June 5, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on finance

August 13, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on rules

Aug 1998-2001: Member, committee of privileges 2000 onwards: Member,
executive committee, Indian parliamentary group

June 2001: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

Aug 2001 onwards: Member, general purposes committee

BOOKS:

India’s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth
-Clarendon Press, Oxford University, 1964; also published a large
number of articles in various economic journals.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Adam Smith Prize, University of Cambridge , 1956

Padma Vibhushan, 1987

Euro money Award, Finance Minister of the Year, 1993;

Asia money Award, Finance Minister of the Year for Asia, 1993 and 1994

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:

1966: Economic Affairs Officer

1966-69: Chief, financing for trade section, UNCTAD

1972-74: Deputy for India in IMF Committee of Twenty on International
Monetary Reform

1977-79: Indian delegation to Aid-India Consortium Meetings

1980-82: Indo-Soviet joint planning group meeting

1982: Indo-Soviet monitoring group meeting

1993: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Cyprus 1993: Human
Rights World Conference, Vienna

RECREATION:

Gymkhana Club, New Delhi ; Life Member, India International Centre, New Delhi

Name: Dr Manmohan Singh

DOB: September 26, 1932

Place of Birth: Gah (West Punjab )

Father: S. Gurmukh Singh

Mother: Mrs Amrit Kaur

Married on: September 14, 1958

Wife: Mrs Gursharan Kaur

Children: Three daughters

The Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh seems to be the most qualified PM all over the world. Can’t imagine a politician being so qualified!

Want to get a quick view of the world economy without know anything about economics? Hans Rosling’s presentations are the best I have seen so far which explains economics in such a simple way.

See this one.

New insights on poverty and life around the world

See more of  Hans Rosling if you are interested.

“I have learned silence from the talkative; tolerance from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to those teachers.”

– Kahlil Gibran

I have always found Mark Twains quote highly motivating.. and this one is a nice one.

The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.

– Mark Twain

Happy Reading.

Mark Twain on India

Mark Twain’s quote

Meditation is the art of silencing the mind. When the mind is silent, concentration is increased and we experience inner peace in the midst of worldly turmoil. This elusive inner peace is what attracts so many people to meditation and is a quality everyone can benefit from.

Read More.

Related earlier related posts.

The happiest man in the world?

Meditation in the Work Space