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John Gomes

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Perspectives through my viewfinder...

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own.
June 24

Installing the Apple Wireless Keyboard on Windows

Adding the Apple Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard on Microsoft Windows

  1. Connect a (wired) USB mouse and keyboard.
  2. In windows, open the Control Panels and select Bluetooth Devices.
  3. Make sure your Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard is on.
  4. Click the Devices Tab.
  5. Click the Add... button.
  6. When the "Welcome to the Add Bluetooth Device Wizard" window appears, select the "My device is set up and ready to be found" checkbox, then click Next.
  7. Locate the keyboard in the list the Wizard provides, then click Next.
  8. Connect by letting Windows provide a passkey -- the option is "Choose a passkey for me" -- then click Next.

    Important: Do not use a blank or empty passkey! Windows XP will pair with the keyboard, but the keyboard will not work.

When the process has completed successfully, you will see this message: "The Bluetooth device was successfully connected...". You should now be able to use your keyboard.

October 09

[Photos] 2005 Europe Trip 1

"Insomnia is my greatest inspiration" - Jon Stewart.
 
So true! Staying up last evening, I was finally uploaded the photos from the 2005 Eurorail trip. Tom and I went on a backpacking trip to the tri-nations of France, Austria and Germany.
 
 
Enjoy and feel free to send comments.
August 11

[Academy of Management] Proposal for Chartered Strategy Analyst

After a long pause, I received an email from David Turnipseed the Chair for the Practice Theme Committee at AOM. I have been an exec of the Practice Theme Committee for a while and noted that 'industry' participation in AOM was relatively minimal. I tried brainstorming ideas and had a very constructive discussion with Vikas Sharma about a possibility of a Chartered Strategic Analyst program. I followed up with David Turnipseed at AOM. He sounded very interested an wanted to propose the idea to the other committee members and chairs.

Today, I had just a few minutes over lunch to chalk the proposal followed by a discussion with David over phone.  David is going to present the proposal at the Annual General Meeting of the AOM in Atlanta this weekend. The following is an excerpt of the executive summary.
- John

Proposal for Chartered Strategy Analyst
Objectives
The AOM is a revered organization in the academia but its existence is relatively unknown in the industry. It is essential for AOM to extend its awareness in the industry and encourage active industry participation. AOM needs to provide opportunities and avenues for the industry to collaborate and contribute. This proposal aims at providing a structured program to facilitate active industry participation

Proposal
To encourage industry participation a program – Chartered Strategy Analyst program – could be offered by AOM, that would provide a structured training and development plan for middle and high level managers. The program could focus on a pre-determined course work emphasizing on management and strategic studies followed by a set of standardized examination. The high standard of the examination could be used to qualify only a selected fraction of the candidates for the Chartered Strategy Analyst title. The program could include courses on management practices, aspect of strategy, business decision making etc.

To obtain the charter the program could require the candidates to work on a management/strategy related project, preferably from their current experience. The candidates could be required to document their project. An archive of past submissions could also act as an useful reference for future research or academic work.

Much like the Chartered Engineering by The Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK) and the Chartered Financial Analyst program by the CFA Institute, the program could set the industry standard for management best practices. If deployed properly, it could be the benchmark for the industry to select managers and business strategists.

The program could not only help expand the awareness of AOM but also act as a platform for the industry to bring industry expertise in AOM through the project work (described above as a part of the certification program).

Structure of the Program:
§ Provide a structured coursework for industry participants to follow
§ Provide standardized examination to qualify candidates. AOM to manage the exclusivity of the program by allowing only a certain fraction to qualify.
§ Include project (involving real life management experience) to qualify for the charter.
§ Require qualified candidates to maintain AOM membership

Much like CEng and CFA listed above, candidates should be required to maintain AOM membership if they decide to continue using the CSA title.

Benefits to the Industry
§ Professional recognition and industry standards to evaluate business analyst and strategists
§ Encourage trusted professional relationship
§ Personal development
§ Leverage the academic knowledge base for industry best practices

Benefits to AOM
§ Larger industry participation and extend AOM awareness in the industry
§ Facilitate symbiotic research on management best practices and validate them in the industry
§ Develop a knowledge base of real life cases of management issue through the project aspect of Chartered Strategy Analyst

Conclusion
Such a program could help AOM expand its awareness in the industry and provide a channel for the industry to actively contribute to the progress of AOM.
 
August 09

[Website] Updates

Last evening finally managed to squeeze some time to update my website. I have updated the contents to reflect more up to date information. Also, have added links to my online photo exhibition from the Climbing and the Travel section...
 
Yet to Do: I still need to update my resume and accolates section!
 
John
August 08

Finally got one of the European Patents approved!

 
This morning I received a notification from the HP's legal department stating that one of my old patent application has been awarded by the European Patent office. This was one of the old patents that I filed during my HP Wire days, some 4-5 years back. Yuhooo!!
 
Cheers,
John
 
P.S.: Attached is the Patent Certificate!
July 23

[Toastmasters] My Second Speech

Its been a while that I have posted anything. Meena keeps bugging me to add to the blog... I finally did my second CTM speech, so have something to talk about! It was a last minute preparation due to work overload, Economics mid terms and the Leadership Mentoring assignments. The speech went very well, even though I wasn't really prepared for it. I did manage to get the Best Speaker Award for the evening, though I thought the other speaker was quite good. The topic was to speak on something that I was familiar with in a convincing fashion. With background in computing and following the developments of computers since the Xaverian days, what else could have been more convincing for me to narrate than the history of computing itself. The Speech titled - 'From Abacus to Athelon' covered the brief history of one of mankind's greatest invention!
 
Following the speech, I was grateful and honored to have my speech evaluated by Anne Martin. She is one of the most experienced speakers in our club! I was so surprised to know her level of knowledge and indepth understanding of Indian Literature! Though she was not my official evaluator, she took the time to write an assessment. I hope I can rectify the limitations that I have in the subsequent speeches!
 
John
 

From Abacus to Athelon

It is difficult to imagine a life without computers. These days computers are everywhere; especially in the developed world. Some of us spend a major part of our work life sitting in front of the computer. Whether we like it or not, end up utilizing the computer either directly or indirectly. They come in different forms. On one end of the spectrum you have the huge servers that are hosted in server farms and on the other you have the handheld and the desktop computers. With the advancement of technology and miniaturization we have computers pervasive enough to be embedded in devices like television, VCRs and including cars.

The Question
So when was this computer invented? Who invented the computer? That is going to be the topic of my speech this evening. Good evening Mr. toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about the history and the birth of computers.

The Pre history
The Abacus is attributed as the first computer. The Chinese invented the Abacus around 300 BC. It includes a set of beads that were used to assist in mathematical computation. It significantly reduced the time to perform basic mathematical operations.

The History
Then for a long period, there were no progress in the field of Computers. in 1742 Charles Babbage from the UK worked on a mechanical computing instrument that used gears to compute. It essentially looked somewhat a hand counters, where numbered gears in the Unit position moved by ten counts before the gear in the tenth position moved by a single unit. It was a huge device that can still be seen in the British Museum in London. Because of this invention, he is called the father of the modern computing. Following his invention he prepared the design for a more complex Analytical Engine, however he was way ahead of his time, so was not able to implement it.

Modern Computing
Again there was a stagnancy in the development of computers until in approx the 1890s the US census processing prompted the development of an automated means to tabulate the census results. Dr Herman Hollerith worked on a machine using punched cards that helped the US Census office to capture the census data and process it automatically. He started the International computing and Tabulating Company which morphed over the years to form the International Business Machine, more commonly know as IBM.

With the advent the tabulating machine and its economic success, several individuals and institutions started working on computing device. The University of Pennsylvania devised the first electronic computer called the ENIAC (which stood for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). This was followed by Harvard's Mark I.

Along the same time frame, companies and academic institutions across the Atlantic also worked on competing inventions. The Mark I was designed in Manchester. The advent of war and the usefulness of the computer to break and encode enemy messages accelerated the growth of the computer.

Several large computers were funded and designed by the military on either side of the Atlantic. The next major step in computing came with the invention of the transistor by Bardeen, Brittain and Shockley in the 70s. This resulted in the miniaturization of the computer into the Mainframe and Mini Computers. Similar trends continued until the microprocessor was formed, which gave birth to the microcomputer in the 80s. The Time Magazine named the Microcomputer as the MAN OF THE YEAR in the year 1980.

With the advancement in the field of electronics resulted in further miniaturization and production optimization, due to which we have computers pervasive in a plethora of devices around us.

The Future
Where will this lead us, what does the future hold? It is not clear yet. Some tout developments like the nanotechnologies and bio engineering as the next breakthrough in computing. Though its almost impossible to predict the future. However, what is obvious is the fact that computers have drastically changed our lifestyle in the last century and if advancements are made in the same rate, we will be living in a world of science fiction very soon. Thank you.

Sections of Anne's Feedback and suggestions
Anne Martin

Subject: Your Web Page and Speech
Dated: Sunday, July 23, 2006 7:54:50 AM

Hello John:  First of all, thank you for sending me your Web Page and Ice Breaker.  It was an adventure for me to read it - just as exciting as reading a new book from one of my favorite authors.  The content plus photographs were a delight!  Your experiences were amazing (education and travel and learning of other cultures) and I am somewhat envious of all you have accomplished in your young life.  I can visualize what life has in store for you when you have come this far already!!  Wow!
...
Your Speech itself was very well constructed.  It had a beginning, a middle and an end (from 300 BC in China to the present day and even into the future).  However, it's my feeling that the Speech contained too much information.  If you were giving this Speech to an audience of advanced computer intelligencia it would have been perfect but in this case you have to consider your audience and their expertise.  Our Toastmaster group is not mainly a computer literate group (including me) and they probably felt a little lost digesting so much information.  I'm not saying you should "dumb down" your Speech but to just consider your audience and what they can swallow in seven minutes.  

What might have helped is "props".  Perhaps an Abacus to hold up and maybe even demonstrate its use, a Punch Card to demonstrate the beginnings or even an enlarged photograph of the old computers that took up a whole room, and then maybe one of the miniaturized computers or devices.  (I loved your last line...."we will be living in a world of science fiction very soon.")  I realize my voicing this opinion is like telling Shakespeare how he should have written one of his plays but if you give this Speech again to a lay audience you might cut it shorter which will also give you more time to speak slower!

Now about your performance:  Let me compliment you on your delivery.  You have an excellent speaking voice - it was clear and well modulated and could be heard around the room.  Your knew your Speech by heart and I only saw you glance once at your script.  Excellent!  However, it was delivered at a fast pace because you had a lot of information to impart.  I know computers are near and dear to your heart but sometimes you just can't tell it all and a compromise has to be met to balance the delivery.

As Patrica did mention, you did hang on to the lectern.  I know this was just your second speech and you used the lectern as a crutch.  Try to use more hand gestures and in this case, the props would have helped.  As for coming forward in front of the lectern, this is really not too necessary in a second speech but try to work on this next time.  This will give you the opportunity to use your whole body in gesturing and moving and making more contact with the audience.  Your eye contact was perfect!  You didn't appear nervous (even if you were, you're a good actor!)  Your facial expressions were good - smiling - pleasant - good posture!

On the whole, John, it was an excellent presentation and I was honored to listen to you speak.  I sincerely look forward to your next Speech at Toastmasters!!

Email me if you have any questions about any of this evaluation.

Anne
July 12

[Travel] Taste of Chicago

I was in Chicago over the July 4th weekend visiting Meenakshi. We did a short single day overniter to Ann Arbor, Mi. Neat little university town! Like the coffee shops and the academic atmosphere!
 
Anyways, back in Chicago we did have some time to visit the Taste Of Chicago. Take a glimpse of our visit here:
 
 
Cheers,
John

[Climbing] Sahale Arm

Like the other years, I made my first annual trip to the North Cascades last weekend! The scenery was just stunning. Just spectacular! No words can ever describe the beauty of the place! No picture can ever do justice to the scenery. You have to be there in person to see it for yourself.
 
However, I have tried to capture some of the moments and the scenery here In Pictures.
 
 
I plan to revisit the Cascade Pass area again this year and hopefully will be able to get some high altitude photos! As usual, comments suggestions and recommedations are welcome!
 
Enjoy!
Cheers,
John
July 07

[Climb/Hike] Camp Muir - Mount Rainier

It was an excellent day. An early start helped me reach Camp Muir on time and enjoy the stunning morning scenery.
 
The photos can be viewed here:
 
June 09

Yosemite National Park

It was a great weekend at Yosemite NP. Blue skies, perfect temp, waterfalls gushing with water - just a day fantasized by photographers. Everything was perfect, save the mosquitoes.

After a late arrival on Saturday morning, we ended up sleeping on Saturday and missed the Half Dome Hike. Instead we ended up driving to the valley and then to the Glacier Point.

After a late start on Sunday, we did the Yosemite Falls Trail to the top of the Yosemite Falls.

The photos can be viewed at: http://www.johngomes.net/Photography/YosemiteValley2006

Enjoy!
John

 
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