Taiwan Visa - As easy as it can get

You can get Taiwan Visa in visa Exempt category if you are an Indian and hold a valid US visa. For details view - Taiwan Visa Exempt Entry.

The steps are simple:

1. Go to this website - https://nas.immigration.gov.tw/nase/

2. Select your desired Language and click "Next"

3. Fill up the required details:

    a. Pass port details - Number & Expiry date

    b. US Visa details - US Visa number (this is the 8 digit number printed in red. It is not the control number) & visa expiry date

4. Other basic details like your date of birth etc.

And you are done. Take a print out and land in Taiwan.

This visa is valid till 1 month after the date of application. What do you do if  you want to extend the visa/get visa for some other date? Well you need to be patient and apply for visa one week before expiry as mentioned above and you will get the renewed visa. Please note, if you re nenter details before one week from original expiry date, it will treat it as correction entry and the original expiry date will remain unchanged.

Check for Attachment and Empty Subject Line in MS Outlook

Hi,

By mistake, many of us send out emails without a subject or forget attaching when we should have. Following is the code which will help you check for both of these. It is very simple and straightforward. All you need to do is follow the following steps:

1. Open outlook and press Alt + F11. This will open the Microsoft Visual Basic editor.

2. On the left side you would see Project Pane. Click on Project 1 > Microsoft Office Outlook > This Outlook Session.

3. On the right side just copy paste the following VBA code and then press Ctrl + S to save the code and you are done:

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)

Dim strSubject As String

strSubject = Item.Subject

If Len(Trim(strSubject)) = 0 Then

Prompt$ = "Subject is Empty are you sure you want to send the Mail?"

If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Check for Subject") = vbNo Then

Cancel = True

End If

End If

If InStr(1, Item.Body, "attach", vbTextCompare) > 0 Then

Prompt$ = "Seems you have forgotten to attach a document. Do you want to send an email anyways?"

If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Check for Attachment") = vbNo Then

Cancel = True

End If

End If

End Sub

Ramta Jogi :)

Last six months have been pretty fast and hectic. Thanks to the nature of my work have been to many places in somewhat short time. Been to all the following places:

1. Amsterdam
2. Rotterdam
3. Utrecht
4. NY
5. NJ
6. Houston
7. Chicago
8. Traverse City
9. BattleCreek
10. Singapore

The airport transits if you may :)

1. Atlanta,US
2. Vienna, Austria
   
3. London, UK
   
4. Frankfurt, Germany
   
5. Grand Rapids, US
   

I like it

View Larger Map

Funny Quotes and One liners - II

1. Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
   
2. He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.
   
3. I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
   
4. I'm spending a year dead for tax reasons.
   
5. I like getting married, but I don't like being married.
   
6. Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you.
   
7. Smack your child every day. If you don't know why - he does.
   
8. The difference between playing the stock market and the horses is that one of the horses must win.
9. The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
10. The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.
11. Algebra was easy for the Romans because "X" was always 10.

Funny Quotes and One liners

Funny one liners and quotes have always attracted my attention. I enjoy them a lot. The ones in the top drawer are those which take a second to understand and then u look back and enjoy the kick. So here is the list of some which I like most. I have taken the liberty to rip them off the status messages of frens and various websites. It will be updated most regularly. So keep watching the space.

1. All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
2. Money can't buy you love but it significantly increases your bargaining position.
3. We could all take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
4. My work is like rocket science.. It speeds up with fire up my ass.
5. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
6. Money doesn't make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.
7. You don't know a woman till you've met her in court.
   
8. My wife is a sex object - every time I ask for sex, she objects.
9. Man has will, but woman has her way.
10. A girl phoned me the other day and said ... Come on over, there's nobody home. I went over. Nobody was home.
11. My first experience with oral contraception - I asked a girl to go to bed with me, she said 'no'.
12. Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.
13. I think the hardest part about claiming a black hole is figuring out where to stick the flag.
14. When two hearts race, both win.
15. We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don't know.
16. Honesty is the key to a relationship. If you can fake that, you're in.
17. If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either.
18. Time is a great healer, but a terrible beautician.
19. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
    
20. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
    
21. Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?
22. I just got lost in thought, and it was unfamiliar territory.
23. Xerox and Wurlitzer will merge to market reproductive organs.
    
24. Gargling is a good way to see if your throat leaks.
25. Love at first sight - saves time.
    

Spirit called Cricket

If cricket is religion, Sachin is God and India is Centre of the Universe. The world of cricket revolves around India. Current controversy Down Under was one of the rare occassions (which are now becoming frequent) when Indian players carried their huddle beyond the playground and stuck with their team mate Bhajji. The BCCI supported them and we saw how bitchy Australians were made to obey like a tame dog. Thanks to the financial considerations. If Indians called off the series the CA(Cricket Australia) stood to loss $60 millions, thanks to the financial muscle of CI(Cricket India). The invincible Australians in a way accepted the dominance of India in the world of cricket.

Its interesting to trace the evolution of Indian cricket in recent years. From losers who would snatch defeat form the jaws of victory today Indians are world champions in the most agressive form of cricket - T20. And they have been very consistent with it. One can easily find a correlation between the socio economic condition in India and the metamorphosis of Indian cricket. Gone are the days of Hindu rate of growth. Gone are the days of hopelessness which gripped the Indian youth. Today's Indian youth lives right in the heart of cynosure of world's eyes. He knows he is respected as an Indian as the world takes notice of its growing economy. The Indian youth now resembles the Indian Tiger. This is clearly reflected in the attitude of the youth in the Indian cricket team. Sehwag, Ishant Sharma, Yuvraj, Gambhir, Uthappa name them and they easily come out as aggresive, self confident and world defying individual which is exactly the way Indian feel now. Be it Tata Corus takeover or dominance of Indian Billionaires in the Forbes list, it is this attitude for victory and confidence that defines India.

It will take more than sledging and wrong umpiring decision to tame this Tiger. You need to be a lion do that. Unfortunately it doesnot seem to exist in world today. With $1 Billion in kitty before the show even began, Indian cricket has arrived. Watch out world. Here we are to rule.

Another one on the same lines -> Men in white

Railing

Spring and Summer Spent For Others,
While Fall Days Lead To My Wintertime.

Firestone's Liberia Crisis

| View | Upload your own

T20 - an Architechtural Innovation

Soporific, easy going and devoid of continuous ROB(rush of blood) factor. Difficult of imagine a popular game with these characteristics in the world. Cricket was a game which exhibited all the above mentioned characterstics, while managing to be the extremely popular in some parts of the world.

T20 changed all that. Cricket is now exciting, agile and full of ROB. This format is sure to take cricket to a newer level as it will surely find takers in countries like US, EU and elsewhere where investing 7 hrs for one ODI was just asking for too much. The overall sustenance of Excitement throughout the innings of the game is one thing which is new for many Indian sports fan who have been fed on usual doses of long cricket matches.

T20 is a perfect example of how architechtural innovation can uproot a long standing institution. The essence of an architectural innovation is the reconfiguration of an established system to link together existing components in a new way. In the past we have seen how architechtural innnovation has changed the rules of the game of business. A classic example is Xerox, who had to reinvent itself to meet the threat from Japan's Ricoh and Canon Xerox used to lease huge photocopiers ,which were extremely cosly to buy,to its clients and had a huge sales force to sell the lease to its customers. Ricoh and Canon made small copiers which were cheaper and hence could be bought easily by customers. Over 15years the market share of US copiers fell from 80% to 13%. Ricoh and Canon simply made small changes in the technology to create smaller copiers. Nothing radical as such, still a huge impact.

T20 has done a similar thing to cricket. While the play remains essentially the same, format has been changed which has made it such an exciting game to watch.

Inspite of restricted scope, cricket is probably the most technology intensive sport. Use of high frame rate cameras, using technology to take decisions, use of hawk eye etc. has indeed lended a charm to the game. This will go down very well with the audience in the developed country.Hope T20 cricket worldcup 2020 sees 32 participating teams.

Obscure Units of measurement

Found this interesting post on wired....

Gou (180 milliliters — better known as a rice cup for an electric cooker), pack year (cigarette consumption based on one pack a day for a year), nibble (typically four bits of binary code, or half a byte), score (20 of something), hand (4 inches of horse height), twip (1/20 of a typesetting point), thrave (24 sheaves of wheat), shake (10 nanoseconds), mickey (ratio of computer mouse movement to onscreen cursor movement), jansky (strength of radio signals from space), butt (two hogsheads, or about 126 gallons, of booze), smoot (a measure of length developed by some MIT students, equal to 5 feet, 7 inches — the height of one Oliver R. Smoot).

URL -> http://www.wired.com/culture/education/magazine/15-09/st_units

Barcamp Mumbai 2

Its Crazy. Its Super-Charged. And above all its Geeky. No Fancy Food, No Session Pre-scheduling, No Cushioned Chairs, No Publicity, No Chief Guests, No VIPs, No Special Treatments, No Entry Fees ....Basically everything thats not a feature of a regular conferences.

Welcome to the Silicon Valley phenomenon - Barcamp - The Un-Conference. Barcamps are the meeting grounds for the techies and entrepreneurs alike, where they share their whacky ideas about latest technology, business plans, crazy tech etc. Barcamp has gradually become a centre for innovation and entrepreneurship.

BarCamp does not have any predefined slots or speakers. Anyone can be a speaker and bitch about anything by registering on the spot.

Bar Camp Mumbai 2 or BCM2 is being hosted by Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay on 13th Oct 2007.

If you have a story to tell, a few cribs to share or if you just want to look around for a few crazy people like you be there. I promise you it will be an experience to remember.

Please confirm your participation by adding your name to the participant table at BCM2 wiki (Use edit page button)


Links - ToI - Review of Indian Unconferences

White Beauty

Taken at the DMAS,Manali garden

Orange riot

Thats top view of my kissan orange juice bottle !!

Nite Time beauty

Nite time view outside my room...

(do see the enlarged one)

THE CONE!!!

The Cone in front of my hostel

Bangalore sunset

I captured two sunsets from my house's terrace.

Fireball

Hide and Seek

Ahemdabad Trip

We went to Ahemdabad for the STFC project that a few guys from SJMSOM, IIT Bombay are doing. This was a tour intended to familiarise ourselves with the working of STFC factory and rural distribution. Here are some pics from the tour.

Time flew by!!

Macro of a flower in STFC garden

I love the effect of one blurred and the other focussed leaf

The expression on the face of the kid is priceless!

Hiranandani Travail

Fountain at one of the junctions at Hiranandani

A Mobile fruit shop at Hiranandani

Guess whts this

My lovely tooth paste