Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

If you thought cartoons were there only to make you laugh, then think again. The cartoon auction organ ised by the Blue Cross of Hyderabad on Saturday night raised about Rs 3 lakhs, half of which will go to save endangered olive ridley turtles in Orissa, People were ready to shell out Rs 5,000 to Rs 11,000 for the cartoons. Cartoons are often conceived as both humorous and deeply serious. Combining both fictional and non-fictional elements, cartoons have been used to comment on and critique various issues. The theme was mobile communication, and the cartoons illustrated how we are increasingly becoming dependent on such modes of communications as the cellphone and the Internet. The cartoon by Shyam Mohan, the president of indianink.org, a website dedicated to cartoons and cartoonists, depicted a dancing couple in each others’ arms, but using cellphones for communication. Despite scepticism on how cartoons would do in an auction, Mr Mohan was confident that the show would be a success.

Sreesanth provided a moment of comic drama before the innings ended. After Nel advanced threateningly down the pitch after a bouncer, Sreesanth hammered the next ball for a straight six and ran down the pitch twirling his bat to taunt the South African fast bowler.

UMTS Forum, an international body that promotes uptake of UMTS technology for the roll out of 3G mobile telephony is planning to write a letter to telecom department asking it to reject the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or Trai’s recommendations on the auction of 3G spectrum. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) chairman Jean-Pierre Bienaime said that the Indian government should avoid the auction of the 3G spectrum and the high base price recommended by Trai. “Government should prevent the initial investors from being overburdened and instead of auction government should follow the path of entry price with beauty contest,” Mr Bienaime told this newspaper. Mr Bienaime said that the bad example of auction of 3G spectrum followed in the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands resulted in high price of 3G spectrum and this jeopardised the profitability of 3G telephony. “Instead government should follow the example of France where the midd

Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston want to do a Friends reunion. The two actresses, who played Monica Gellar and Rachel Green in the hit US show, have been talking about shooting a one-off special and are hoping they can convince the rest of the cast to agree. Cox told the website Access Hollywood, “We talk about it because we love each other and we hang out all the time. I’m just saying that I’m not opposed to it. Jennifer said she’s not opposed to it. When we say ‘reunion’, I mean, do a little thanksgiving episode. It sounds like fun.” Although Cox and Aniston are keen on a reunion, the Scream star isn’t sure if the rest of the cast, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc will be so enthusiastic. Cox added, “It’s a lot of different people to get into the room, so I think the chances of it happening are slim. But Jennifer and I would surely eat some turkey together.”

A Japanese firm unveiled a miniature portable keyboard that helps the blind take notes by listening to sounds of the characters they punch in. The battery-operated keyboard — which weighs 500 grams and includes an MP3 player — keeps the data on memory so it can be transferred to a computer. Created by three researchers at the Yazaki electronics company, the keyboard differs from other devices as it does not rely on Braille script and can be used without being attached to a computer. The user presses combinations of buttons to type in characters either in Japanese, Chinese or Roman script, which are spoken by the 50-by10 cm machine.

When the video-sharing site YouTube.com was sold to Google, many of its users worried that corporate ownership would restrict the con tent of its videos. But now one of YouTube’s partners is changing the ways that users comment on those videos. YouTube, which is host to many official CBS video clips under an October licensing agreement with the network, has changed its layout for some of the Web pages with CBS videos. Most YouTube videos are embedded on Web pages that allow viewers to read user comments, with some of them listed directly below the video. These comments can range from the coherent (“That was hilarious.”) to the, er, less-so (“omg lol!”) to the profane. The comments on many of the videos posted by CBS have now been moved to a separate page; instead of sample comments underneath the videos, a link to “view all comments” takes users to a separate Web page where they can read comments. CBS began moving and filtering comments on some videos shortly after announcing its lice

It’s not uncommon to find youngsters applying for customer service and BPO jobs for quick pocket money, as the field ensures a lot of monetary benefits without having to go in for specialisation. However, not all of them who apply get the job. “I had a lot of friends who were working at BPOs after college. I thought this was an easy way to make money. But none of them bothered to tell me that there would be at least half a dozen rounds of interviews and interactions before I got the job. All that they said was, ‘It’s very easy. You needn’t prepare.’ I followed their advice and didn’t qualify. I messed up the HR round and also didn’t do too well at the essay writing part,” says Advait Bhanu, an 18year-old degree first year student from New Science College. Advait wouldn’t have done so badly had he given a little thought to preparation. One of the main reasons why students don’t land these jobs is because of lack of preparation. Says Pradeep Manohar, chief recruiting officer, Ace Computi