Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C's and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar died today, September 6th 2007. He was 71. He was known as the "King of the High C's" for the ease with which he tossed off difficult top notes. In fact, it was his ability to hit nine glorious high C's in quick succession that first turned him into an international superstar singing Tonio's aria "Ah! Mes amis," in Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" at the Met in 1972.

While many other people will write much longer pieces about him, I will write little because we have Pavarotti's voice to continue to influence and entertain generations to come. I haven't heard all , but I’ve heard enough to know that the world will be a lesser place without the amazing voice of Luciano Pavarotti. Rest in peace...Maestro!

 Luciano Pavarotti Official Website: http://www.lucianopavarotti.com/

Looks like reality hitting you. To me coming up with new ideas is actually the hardest part of blogging. For a while, the ideas and words flow. You can barely keep up with them after a while. So over time, energy and enthusiasm wanes and the ideas begin to dry up. 

I stumbled across a fascinating collection of creative idea generators. Blogging resource such as  Performancing.com has put together ten different posting ideas for when your brain decides to take a quick vacation. Idea Generation Methods, lists dozens of methods to stimulate the brainstorming process to get you thinking about a new idea and how to bring it to fruition.

Conclusion: Consider blogging a fun, open minded, open source activity. Blog is not like writing for a magazine. You do not need to write articles here. Take it easy, do not race for it, but be loyal to your readers and share with them what you think is worth their attention. Enjoy blogging.

Do you have any good blog brainstorming ideas?

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations — to boldly go where no man has gone before."

The classic Star Trek features the adventures of the Constitution-class U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 dispatched by the Earth-based Starfleet Command to explore the galaxy. I have been an ardent viewer of this serial on television (a total of three seasons). Mesmerizing exploits of Captain Kirk and his stalwart crew are legendary, facing bizarre situations with tremendous stakes, and managing to solve them with ingenuity, courage and passion. Whether their adventure involved confronting shapeshifting monsters, planet-eating behemoths, noncorporeal entities who feed off fear, highly evolved beings who feel compelled to pass judgment, or fellow humans gone astray, the Enterprise crew remained true to their values and steadfast in their determination to press forward into the unknown.

The "five-year mission" lasted only three years in Earth TV time. But the legacy of those three years of Star Trek gave the world a phenomenon unmatched in the history of television. My favorites were Captain Kirk, his half-Vulcan first officer Commander Spock , chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, opinionated and passionate chief medical officer, Dr. Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy.

As a tribute to this legenday actor, a rocket (on April 28th 2007) carried the cremated remains of James Montgomery Doohan was lifted and achieved space. The rocket reached an apogee (maximum altitude) of 72.7 miles. The launch took place out of Spaceport America in New Mexico, near White Sands Missile Range, and was arranged by Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, a subsidiary of Space Services Inc. John Meredyth Lucas, an original series writer/director/producer who died in 2002, was also part of the mission.

This flight was an "Earth-Return" mission, meaning the payload containing the ashes of the deceased was intended to achieve an altitude of about 70 miles — reaching a weightless environment — and then arc back down and parachute safely to Earth for recovery.

If you have been envious about the pay-slips of senior executives, then think again.

Times of India, leading English Daily reports that Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in South Korea emerged as the highest paid in the Asia-Pacific region, while their Indian counterparts were the lowest paid. The survey which covered 2,300 companies, was conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Happy Birthday!

Today, we are celebrating three years of Sun employee blogging! 10% of Sun's employees have been sharing their opinions and ideas with the world.

I have been blogging since last year. Though I may not have the readership of some of the more well known bloggers, it's a wonderful feeling when some folks do read my blog entries and even comment on them (when I blogged about International Women's Day).

Happy Third Birthday, blogs.sun.com!

Crestock (a stock photography company) is giving you the chance to win three great cameras including the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II Digital SLR Camera, Leica D-LUX 3 , and a Nikon D40x  (bundled with Adoble Photoshop CS3).

There are three rounds, each with a different theme, and you can contribute one photo for each round. Sign-up and submission is completely free and without commitment. Winners will be selected 50% through a public vote and 50% through judges.

Round 1 is now open for submissions: the topic is "The Meaning of Life" and the prize is a Leica D-Lux 3.

Get full details on the competition, themes, prizes, and deadlines at The Crestock Photography Contest 2007 and get shooting some pictures!

May 7, the day before the 2007 JavaOne Conference, the NetBeans Software Team is hosting a FREE companion event at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, California.

Freebies for the first 400 attendees. Register Now!

April 23, is the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare. This day  is also observed as World Book Day (organised by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright). The Day was first celebrated in 1995. Main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. World Book Day in the UK and Ireland takes place on 1st March every year.  Most other countries hold World Book Day on 23rd April every year.

Many thoughts come to my mind, especially with respect to reading of books. Why read and what to read.  Virginia Woolf in 'The Second Common Reader', discusses how one should read a book—“One person should take no advice about reading from another. You should follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusion". If there is anything that stands out from Virginia Woolf's pages more than another, it is that the author experienced enjoyment with every line she wrote. The book provides an evidence of her affection for words and sentences; paragraphs are put together and pages builded with a warmth of interest in the process which is rarely found.

Annie S Swan, novelist of  the 1900s, says “Books have occupied so important and conspicuous a place in my life that it is almost impertinent, even superfluous to talk about them—like dissecting one’s best friends….. In my youth, our hunger for books was never satisfied. Given no alternative, most of us would rather have books than furniture in our houses.”

I feel that it is important to introduce young minds to the world of books. It is also essential for every home to have some books which help children understand using them ( an atlas, a dictionary, and an encyclopedia are essential). Success in school starts with reading. Becoming a reader involves the development of important skills, including learning to:

• use language in conversation
• listen and respond to stories read aloud
• recognize and name the letters of the alphabet
• listen to the sounds of spoken language
• connect sounds to letters to figure out the "code" of reading
• read often so that recognizing words becomes easy and automatic
• learn and use new words
• understand what is read

 Tips on how to give your child a good start in reading.

1. Talk to your infant and toddler to help your child learn to speak and understand the meaning of words. Point to objects that are near and describe them as you play and do daily activities together. Having a large vocabulary gives a child a great start when he enters school.
2. Read to your baby every day starting at six months of age. Reading and playing with books is a wonderful way to spend special time with your baby. Hearing words over and over helps them become familiar with them. Reading to your baby is one of the best ways to help them learn.
3. Use sounds, songs, gestures and words that rhyme to help your baby learn about language and its many uses. Babies need to hear language from a human being. Television is just noise to a baby.
4. Point out the printed words in your home and other places you take your child such as the grocery store. Spend as much time listening to your child as you do talking to your child.
5. Take children's books and writing materials with you whenever you leave home. This gives your child fun activities to entertain and occupy while traveling and going to the doctor's office or other appointments.
6. Create a quiet, special place in your home for your child to read, write and draw. Keep books and other reading materials where your child can easily reach them.
7. Help your child see that reading is important. Set a good example for your child by reading books, newspapers and magazines.
8. Limit the amount and type of television you and your child watch. Better yet, turn off the television and spend more time cuddling and reading books with your child. The time and attention you give your child has many benefits beyond helping them be ready for success in school.
9. Share conversations with your child over meal times and other times you are together. Children learn words more easily when they hear them spoken often. Introduce new and interesting words at every opportunity.
10. Read together every day. Spend time talking about stories, pictures, and words.
11. Read from a variety of children's books, including fairy tales, song books, poems, and information books.

I strongly feel that one should form an early habit of reading; just like a normal diet for nourishment of body, there should be an everlasting interest in reading worthy of printed page.

Trivia: World Book Day survey results of top ten books we can't live without

The Mirror has reported that Pride and Prejudice has been voted the book the nation cannot live without. A survey to mark World Book Day 2007 showed 20% of those surveyed would put Jane Austen's classic at number 1. Classic works also dominated the rest of the chart. 

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984 - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Read Mirror, 1 March 2007 edition, to view the top 50 books you cannot live without.

..that the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a son, Franz Xavier Wolfgang Mozart, who was a noted composer himself?
...that according to the Guinness Book of World Records, Queen albums have spent more time on the UK album charts than those of any other musical act?
...that The Beatles were pelted with rotten fruit during their Memphis concert on August 20, 1966?
...that "Lady Marmalade" was a 1975 #1 hit single recorded by LaBelle for the Epic Records label?
...that Jimi Hendrix has a son who is also a musician?
...that Jully Black is a Canadian R&B singer best-known for her Top 40 hit "Rally’n"?
...that Russian composer Boris Sobinov was abducted from the Berlin American Zone by the NKVD and condemned to ten years in prison in the Soviet Union?

Over the weekend, I was trying to organize my home library. It was time consuming and frustrating. I wished to get hold of some electronic library management system which would ease my work. As I could not organize the entire collection at one go, I decided to split this work over few more weekends.

While surfing the net to plan for our next family gateaway, I found a free web service GURU LIB which would organize your home library. WoW! What luck! The website says that you can catalog  books, DVDs, music CDs, games, and software online using a virtual book shelf. 

GuruLib can access over 530 public libraries around the world to collect cataloging information about hard to find books, movie, music, games and software. If your local library support Z39.50 protocol, GuruLib can search for books in your local library. You can also rate the books and write your reviews. Share your review with others and they can comment on your review. 

Here's what I liked about this service, GuruLib helps you to keep track of the books that others have borrowed from you. It informs you through email when the book has to be returned or is due. For all whose age is catching up on them, this reminder service is a boon.

Home Library Management service is just a click away.

Duchess is a networking group for female Java developers. This group is based in the Netherlands, but every Java-coding girl can join. This group organizes IRL meetings every couple of months in the Netherlands.

Note: To join this group, you have to be a girl who can code Java. While signing up, ensure to provide a a short description in your request of who you are, where you're from, etc.

Girls! Join and meet other women-programmers - Network - Share - Grow!

 Acknowlegement: Would like to thank Sandy Belknap for her blog entry about this group.

 

Ever since I started blogging, I was curious to know how many Sun employees blog on blogs.sun.com

Linda Skrocki, Sr. Program Manager of sun.com's content management system, answered my question through her blog entry .

WoW! 10% (3,432) of our employees blog on blogs.sun.com

 

 

India's leading IT trainer NIIT has tied up with Sun Microsystems India Ltd to offer specialized training to students and software professionals in the open source computing through Sun Solaris training programs. NIIT will offer specialized training to students and software professionals in the open source computing through Sun Solaris training programs.

Read more about this strategic initiative: ZeeNews | India PRWire | Andhra Cafe | The Hindu | CIOL

Yes! It's International Women's Day (March 8th). A universal day for all women around the world to celebrate. It endows them with a sense of honor, dignity and self respect for being the person that they are. This day marks a celebration of the economic, social, cultural and political achievements made by women over the years.

In India, women have been tormented and subjugated throughout all times and ages. Indian women have fought their way through exploitation, harassment, and have managed to secure their rights in the public domain. In spite of continuing exploitation and injustice against women both in the domestic and work sector today, several milestones have been achieved in terms of education, freedom of choice and liberty, equality etc.With growing literacy and financial independence women in India feel more empowered today to assert their right to a life of dignity and self worth.

Women in India have, through history, been the victims of a cruel paradox. On the one hand, woman power is celebrated as Shakti - the source of all energy, the life force of the cosmos. Yet, in actual social practice, an oppressive dependence was encouraged as the social norm. Independence of both thought and action were frowned upon, indeed, even prohibited on pain of punishment and ostracisation. Of course, there were exceptional women. They are celebrated in myth and legend, in saga and history, in verse, in music and dance. But the very exceptionally of these women underlines the unfortunate condition of the vast majority of womanhood.

 Indeed a woman’s essence lies in her innate ability to care, love and sacrifice for the other. She plays an all-enveloping character of a mother, daughter, wife and sister as a friend, nurturer, guide and partner from time to time. Emotional and vulnerable, sometimes erratic, sometimes serene, she displays a wonderful range of emotions from being patient to being extremely courageous in times of crisis.

Today’s woman is a blend of traditional values and contemporary style. She is a storehouse of incredible force and brings colors to life. A sublime image of warmth and indomitable strength, she’s someone to be respected, and cherished.

Happy Women's Day to all women around the world!

Tomorrow, March 8^th is International Women's Day, a day that's recognized by the United Nations.

IWD is celebrated mostly outside of the US, more and more US companies (including Sun!)  are recognizing IWD as part of their diversity & inclusion activities.  Google even changes the logo on their website in honor of IWD!

In many countries, women are given time off from work on March 8 and are lavished with gifts and flowers --  it's very similar to Mother's Day in the US, but recognizes all women, not just the moms.

Sun's Employee Resource Network (ERN) for Women has a number of activities going on throughout March (which is also Women's History Month in the US, Australia and other countries).

This March, we are highlighting Sun's activities on our Group Blog (http://blogs.sun.com/women). We are also sharing infomation about prominent women who have made contributions to the computer industry.