Phone in shirt pocket? Must be an Indian

Phone in shirt pocket? Must be an Indian - Anand Parthasarathy ( THE HINDU)

Singapore: Six out of ten male owners of mobile phones worldwide, carry them in their trouser pockets — and the same proportion of women use a hand bag or purse. But there are interesting regional and cultural variations –— and the world biggest maker of mobiles has an entire team of anthropologists, sociologists and human behaviour experts to study how people around the world communicate with each other, so that the devices it makes can suit the tastes and trends in different geographies.

You carry your phone in a belt pouch? Then you can’t be Japanese. They just hate to be seen doing that. But older, less fashionable users in many countries can be still seen securing their phones that way. In Delhi 11 percent of phone carriers use a strap of some kind to secure their phones.

Three of ten men who use their pant pockets and half of all women who use a hand bag, tend to miss some calls because they can’t get their phones out fast enough. The men in some parts of India — mostly in the south, fare better. Why? Because they tend to use their shirt pocket to carry their phones and are therefore “faster on the draw.” And why the shirt pocket?, because they are probably wearing a dhoti or ‘mundu’ and have no other convenient receptacle! In fact the study team recommended that the message alert light should be placed on the top surface of the phone so that it will be seen more easily by such users.

Insights like these have emerged from regional studies conducted by the Finland-based Nokia’s human behavioural unit of its Design Team. Jan Chipchase, a member of the team who spoke to The Hindu on the sidelines of the compan y’s annual showcase of new products and technologies which concluded here on Wednesday, will be in Mumbai next week to lead its latest research exercise ... to understand how residents in shanty towns such as Dharavi, manage their communication needs and in what way a mobile phone maker can help them.

Nokia’s specially designed, ‘made for India,’ phones such as the N 1100, were created in response to lessons from such studies on the subcontinent, Mr. Chipchase said.

The phone, which had special dust proofing and came with a built-in torch, answered customer wish lists in India.

Nokia studies also revealed Indian customers’ urge to protect their phones from extra wear and tear — by enclosing them in plastic covers. In fact the company was surprised to see that even customers who paid premium prices to acquire ultra thin models then sacrificed the advantage by encasing the hand set in a thick case.

This also grew out of Indian inclination to trade the phone when they bought a better model --— rather than throwing or giving it away.

The need in fast growing, developing markets such as India for 2-3 users in a family to share a phone also prompted Nokia to introduce models such as the 12000 and 1208 with multiple address books.

What next? The behavioural team is looking ahead, 10 to 15 years from now, to try and second guess human trends.

Avoid Daily Investment Checking to Prevent Big Mistakes

Does watching cable or checking business news sites give you cold sweats as you ponder how your investments are doing? Are you logging into your financial site every day but still feel your money slipping away? Just ignore your money, J.D. at Get Rich Slowly says—stocks pay off in the long term, not day-to-day, and worrying about it is the easiest way to make a money-losing mistake:

' In Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, the authors note that it's dangerous to watch your investments every day. When you pay close attention, you tend to become emotionally invested in even small movements. You lose sight of the long-term and make decisions based on short-term events. Peek in every month or so, but don't constantly check your investments.'

Sound advice, and a good way to avoid letting money stress spill over into other areas of your life as well. For more reassurance that you can make money when the market sky looks grim, see what our readers recommend as recession-safe investments. How to Conquer Your Fear of Investing [Get Rich Slowly]

Presenteeism - Going to Work Sick...

Adam of Lifehacker, writes about Presenteeism, which is being in the office when you are sick.

' The problem with presenteeism: It’s making your coworkers sick and it may be costing your employer a lot of money. So why do people do it? … '

I’ve known of cases where the employee was admitted in the hospital, and all that the supervisor could think about when calling the employee was - “I heard you are sick. How long will you be? Or, do you think you can come for sometime and finish this work?”

Well, now what can one say to that?

Distinctive Profile of India 2020

Distinctive Profile of India 2020

A nice article by APJ in his website...

I visualize the following distinctive profile of India by the year 2020.
1. A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line.
2. A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.
3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in symphony.
4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination.
5. A Nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors.
6. A Nation where the best of health care is available to all.
7. A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free.
8. A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels alienated.
9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy and continues with a sustainable growth path.
10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its leadership through creative and effective leadership in Parliament, State Assemblies and other institutions of the State.

courtesy: http://www.abdulkalam.com/

Indian origin US scientist sees Tumors deep inside the body

It's a double joy for Indians as "Indian-origin" US scientists along with his team of US researchers has discovered a new technique that can further be useful in the cancer surgery more efficiently.

Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, the team leader of researchers and the professor of Radiology in Stanford University school of Medicine have developed a new technique that can magnify the tiny diminutive tumors by 1,000 times molecules deep inside the human body, which has paved the way for more efficiently cancer surgery.

Sanjiv and his team have used the ‘Raman Effect’ technique that has not been used so far in biological microscopic viewing but vastly used in other scientific researches. Raman Effect was invented by great Indian scientist Chandrashekhar Ventak Raman in 1920 for which he had won Noble prize in Physics.

According to Sanjiv, “Raman spectroscopy expands the available toolbox for the field of molecular imaging.” “This is an entirely new way of imaging living subjects, not based on anything previously used.”

Illustrating the Raman effect, the lead researcher Gambhir said that signals from Raman spectroscopy were stronger and longer-lived than other available methods, and the type of particles used in this method could transmit information about multiple types of molecular targets simultaneously.

Generally scientist can measure one or two things at a time from the current available techniques, but “With this, we can now likely see 10, 20, 30 things at once,” said Gambhir.

The researchers team of Stanford University School of Medicine had tested the system on mice through injecting them with various engineered Raman nanoparticles and then analysed the anesthetized mice under a special microscope where they were exposed to laser light.

The Scientist found that there were several nanoparticles tagged with the different pieces of proteins probing towards different tumor molecules.

Describing about the ‘Raman Effect’ Sam cited that Stanford researchers team has utilised this technique in the innovative way in which the light (laser) hits the object, roughly one in 10 million photons bouncing off the object’s molecules with an increase or decrease in energy is known as Raman scattering. This sort of scattering pattern is unique to each type of molecule and can be measured scientifically, which is also called as spectral fingerprint.

Gambhir has elaborated that this techniques has been developed from currently popular Positron Emission Tomography (PET) techniques that was discovered 20 or 30 years ago but could not be used in this field. Nowadays, PET has become a routine hospital imaging technique that uses radioactive molecules to generate a three-dimensional image of body biochemistry.

“Nobody understood the impact of PET then,” said Sanjiv while “Ten or fifteen years from now, people should appreciate the impact of this.” he indicated the relevance of this technique.

The researcher team of Stanford University is further studying the impact of Raman nanoparticles throughout the body over the course of several days before they are excreted. The team is also optimizing the particle size and dosage and its hazardous effects on the body.

Postdoctoral scholars Shay Keren, Cristina Zavaleta, Zhen Cheng, Adam de la Zerda, and Oliver Gheysens were among the team of Dr. Sanjiv for founding the way to make Raman spectroscopy a medical tool. The research has been published on March 31, 2008 in an advance online issue of the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” and funded by National Institutes for Health and Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.

Sources: Press Release of Stanford University, School of Medicine. For more information do visit http://med.stanford.edu/