Need a job in the ad. agency?

If you are a client servicing executive or sheer marketing /research executive with 2+ years of experience and would like to work for a MNC client in an advertising agency..look no further, drop me a mail [narain at gmail dot com]. I gurantee you a challanging opportunity in one of the finest agencies in chennai, whom i regularly work with.
Required: 2 Client Executives

If you are a right brain oriented, fast writing copywriter, you too stand a fair chance here. They are also in need of good copywriters. do write with your curriculam vitae to the above mentioned Email ID.
Required: 1 Copywriter

Requirement Urgent.

Light reading Standard Web design Links & the hype of Internet Explorer 7

Russ's Post on some general light reading for this month. Courtesy: Russ, Maxdesign, Australia

And Jeffrey said, "To Hell"

And the four year old original... To Hell With Bad Browsers

Screenfont - All about fonts for captions and subtitles

Fight over 'forms' clouds future of Net applications

Browser speed comparisons

Bulleted Lists: Multi-Layered Fudge

Root element: html

Discussing CSS Management and Optimization

Applied CSS Management and Optimization

Doctype Grid

Understanding Color and Accessibility

Designers toolbox


And finally, for those who may have missed the hype - IE7 - the news and
some reactions...

1. http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/02/15/373104.aspx
2. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/feb05/02-15RSA05KeynotePR.asp
3. http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/02/15.html#a9441
4. http://www.ensight.org/archives/2005/02/16/ie7s-feature-list/
5. http://www.digital-web.com/news/2005/02/misinformation_about_the_ie7_announcement/
6. http://dean.edwards.name/weblog/2005/02/ie8/
7. http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2005/02/15/ie7/
8. http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2005/02/explorer_7.html
9. http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/007564.html
10. http://www.saila.com/columns/lcky/?2005_02_13_archive.shtml#lcky200502151457
11. http://annevankesteren.nl/archives/2005/02/ie7-problems

50 Years - Revolution Vs. Democracy

This article is from Business world magazine in India. In one of the expert column, well known author Kamini Banga ( Wife of Mr. Vindi Banga - The Super Boss at HLL) analyses the impact of change in India & China. She is a well-known consumer & brand consultant and managing director of Dimenstions Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.

This text is from Businessworld Magazine all content & information owned by them only. I am featuring it here as an information ref. only.

Fifty years of revolution vs fifty years of democracy

"So much has been written about China that I am wondering what I can say that will be different. I had first been there in 1996 -- in Guangzhou after a two-hour train journey from Hong Kong. When we disembarked, there were unfriendly, gun-toting cops everywhere. I stood in a long queue, and the immigration officer spent a good quarter of an hour looking at my passport.

The station looked straight out of George Orwell’s 1984, or just as I had imagined it. It was certainly very different from Hong Kong where I had just spent two days. Already Guangzhou had skyscrapers disappearing into the clouds, departmental stores with imported brands. It was impressive, but did I see today reflected somewhere? Perhaps not. I was conducting a workshop among young Chinese professionals then. It was done with the help of an interpreter. I took twice as long and when it came to translating neuro linguistic programming, I just gave up.

On my recent visit to Beijing, I walked into a spanking airport, the immigration officer smiled, took 45 seconds to clear me and my baggage was there before I reached the baggage claim area.

In a manner of speaking, both China and India were born around fifty years ago. One went through a revolution for its genesis and the other won its independence after 250 years of colonisation. One took the road to communism and the other to being a socialist democracy. The revolution and one-party rule have resulted in the economy growing at 9 odd per cent. But the democratic route is not too far behind with 6 odd per cent.

As one lands in Beijing you can see the 9 per cent-odd growth in the economy all around you.

In Shanghai, it hits you even more -- with state-of-the-art infrastructure. It is an architect’s delight and an urban planner’s dream with flyovers and freeways, not that they can prevent traffic choking the streets. While China’s place under the sun cannot be doubted even by the worst of sceptics, India’s growth rate is not that far behind. However landing in Mumbai or in one of the major cities, that does not become so obvious. On the contrary, lack of infrastructure, slums and poor housing makes one wonder if the figures are right. So what accounts for the growth in India? Perhaps those millions of entrepreneurs making up 55 per cent of the service sector. They certainly add up to make the country good, but great?

Despite the numbers and obvious successes, there are some details that make me think hard about the wonder that is China.

Where has the past gone
In the two cities I visited, the past has truly gone. To see the Chinese way of life, one would have to visit perhaps the provinces or Hong Kong or Taiwan or even one of the other South East Asian countries with Chinese diaspora. Maybe, Chinese authorities have not realised that tourists from all over the world come as much to see The Forbidden City, as they do to see a country hungry and in a hurry to grow. When we visited the famed palace, it had all the appearance of a derelict heritage site. We had James Bond booming through the headphones guiding us through the labyrinthine bastion of the Iron Curtain. Nothing could have been more ironic than a British icon showing off the treasures of the converted.

Embracing change
Our young guide was called Anita Zhang. She explained that her Chinese name was Yanyi, but since most westerners had difficulty with Chinese names it was seen practical to adopt a Christian one. This was interesting because one can understand this change amongst immigrants to western countries, but to do it on your own turf smacked of colossal confidence and an attitude of can-do-will-do to get there. I thought of good old Warden Road becoming Bhulabhai Desai Road and Victoria Terminus changing to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Were we making it a point of reminding ourselves and the world of our heritage or just getting stuck in irrelevant details?

All (wo)men are equal
Mao believed “Women hold up half the sky” and his biggest legacy has been an equal participation of women in the workforce. China scores there while the rest of the world operates with half of their potential workforce with women voluntarily or otherwise staying away from work and involving themselves with home and children. During Mao’s time, the blue Chinese jackets and blue pants was ubiquitous for men and women alike. The same spirit prevails even today.

The speed and scale
In Shanghai, we heard stories of how Shanghai looked so different only three years ago. We went for a hutong tour -- small alleyways and courtyard houses, a thing of the past. One such hutong has been preserved for tourists next to The Forbidden City and will soon be razed. These are, as the name suggests, rooms built around a courtyard much like what we saw in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Infrastructure, manufacturing facilities are built to take care of the coming years. The international Pudong airport in Shanghai belies description in terms of scale. But when we boarded our flight, it was pretty much empty. So were the highways that we took to get out of Beijing. And it is not all hard work and no play. Shanghai is rocking -- all young people joining the workforce today want to be in China. And this is really not stretching it. Shanghai has become the new London, Paris and Manhattan combined. That is where the centre of gravity of the world will be, and a walk down Xin Tian Di at night will tell you why. Foreigners love Shanghai.

Faking it
What can you say about a country that prides itself in making the best fakes, and is getting better and better at it. Hopefully, they will not need to make fakes any more with Chinese companies buying global companies and brand names, IBM being a case in point.

Citizen versus consumer
The young lady taking me around worked in a large multinational company with her husband working in an equally large global IT company. They had just bought their new 1500 sq.ft flat and done it up. The flat cost about Rs 75 lakh and had been taken on mortgage. They had a brand new car. People are happy, she told me -- new flats, cars, refrigerators, cell phones, etc. Their salaries were multiples of 20-30 what their parents earned. Could there be a repeat of Tiananmen Square? She looked shocked when I suggested it. Moral of the story: people as consumers are far happier than people as citizens making up vote banks.

Finally, China is second only to the US in Olympics medal tally. They seemed to have found the golden mean of State intervention with consumer-driven economy. "

I will post my opinions on this in few days.

Pakistan will be a "failed" state by 2015 - Report from CIA

I'm sure many of you must've read it but i just found it interesting....

NEW DELHI: Pakistan will be a "failed" state by 2015 as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanisation and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons, premier US intelligence agencies have said in an assessment report.


Forecasting a "Yugoslavia-like fate" for Pakistan, the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a jointly prepared Global Futures Assessment Report have said "by year 2015 Pakistan would be a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and complete Talibanisation".

"Pakistan will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive policies, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction," said the report quoted by former Pakistan High Commissioner to United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hasan in an article in the ' South Asia Tribune '.

Titled 'Will Pakistan Army invade Balochistan as per the NIC-CIA Plan', the former senior diplomat said "in the context of Balochistan, one would like to refer to the 2015 NIC report. It forecast a Yugoslavia-like fate for Pakistan.

"The military operation that has been put in motion there would further distance the Baloch people from rest of the country. That perhaps is the (NIC-CIA) Plan," Hasan said.

"Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. In a climate of continuing domestic turmoil, the Central government's control probably will be reduced to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi," the former diplomat quoted the NIC-CIA report as saying.

Expressing apprehension, Hasan asked, "are our military rulers working on a similar agenda or something that has been laid out for them in the various assessment reports over the years by the National Intelligence Council in joint collaboration with CIA?"

His article comes in the backdrop of growing violence between the Balochis and the Pakistani security forces stationed in the gas-rich province.

The recent moves by the security forces to evict all residents within a 15-km radius of the Pakistan's biggest Sui gas plant and the decision to create a cantonment near it has given a fillip to the anti-Islamabad insurgent activities of Balochi groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army, reports said.

The reports said Pakistan was taking the "most drastic step yet" in its bid to crush a deadly tribal rebellion by forcibly evicting all residents from around 500 dwellings within 15 kilometres of the country's biggest Sui gasfield.

The Army says such a step would prevent further attacks and protect residents from the devastating consequences of a major explosion, the reports said.

How Invisible are you online?

Searching for a project online, I was struck at an article on How invisible the web is actually? Tracing the article backwards I landedup in a companion website of a book. It then just strikes me, today WWW is like a metropolitan and you hang out on certain places and you know a few other places. But you never worried or cared about the dusty lanes & dead end streets. Sometime, you get worthwhile stuffs on these locations. Some of the best known artists of the world were came from here. Though it looks like an anology, it is somewhat true in its nature. Irrespective of our every innovation, still bring back the humanness in everything we do.

have a look at the invisible web

Point of View from Avenue A - Razorfish

Going thru' this week's InfoDesign newsletter dragged me to one of world's biggest interactive agency's website - AvenueA-RazorFish. Interesting thoughts ( I like their inputs on Creating Personas, Metadata based website, Marketing to Teens ) put forth by an excellant team.

MSN Search's Blog

It's interesting to note that after a successful launch of their search website, MSN has initiated a blog to provide information about their search operations and related activities. Have a look at msnsearch's WebLog

What are you afraid of today ? - The long list of phobias

A

Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing.
Acarophobia- Fear of itching or of the insects that cause itching.
Acerophobia- Fear of sourness.
Achluophobia- Fear of darkness.
Acousticophobia- Fear of noise.
Acrophobia- Fear of heights.
Aerophobia- Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airbourne noxious substances.
Aeroacrophobia- Fear of open high places.
Aeronausiphobia- Fear of vomiting secondary to airsickness.
Agateophobia- Fear of insanity.
Agliophobia- Fear of pain.
Agoraphobia- Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Fear of leaving a safe place.
Agraphobia- Fear of sexual abuse.
Agrizoophobia- Fear of wild animals.
Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street.
Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects.
Ailurophobia- Fear of cats.
Albuminurophobia- Fear of kidney disease.
Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens.
Algophobia- Fear of pain.
Alliumphobia- Fear of garlic.
Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions.
Altophobia- Fear of heights.
Amathophobia- Fear of dust.
Amaxophobia- Fear of riding in a car.
Ambulophobia- Fear of walking.
Amnesiphobia- Fear of amnesia.
Amychophobia- Fear of scratches or being scratched.
Anablephobia- Fear of looking up.
Ancraophobia- Fear of wind. (Anemophobia)
Androphobia- Fear of men.
Anemophobia- Fear of air drafts or wind.(Ancraophobia)
Anginophobia- Fear of angina, choking or narrowness.
Anglophobia- Fear of England or English culture, etc.
Angrophobia - Fear of anger or of becoming angry.
Ankylophobia- Fear of immobility of a joint.
Anthrophobia or Anthophobia- Fear of flowers.
Anthropophobia- Fear of people or society.
Antlophobia- Fear of floods.
Anuptaphobia- Fear of staying single.
Apeirophobia- Fear of infinity.
Aphenphosmphobia- Fear of being touched. (Haphephobia)
Apiphobia- Fear of bees.
Apotemnophobia- Fear of persons with amputations.
Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Arachnephobia or Arachnophobia- Fear of spiders.
Arithmophobia- Fear of numbers.
Arrhenphobia- Fear of men.
Arsonphobia- Fear of fire.
Asthenophobia- Fear of fainting or weakness.
Astraphobia or Astrapophobia- Fear of thunder and lightning.(Ceraunophobia, Keraunophobia)
Astrophobia- Fear of stars or celestial space.
Asymmetriphobia- Fear of asymmetrical things.
Ataxiophobia- Fear of ataxia. (muscular incoordination)
Ataxophobia- Fear of disorder or untidiness.
Atelophobia- Fear of imperfection.
Atephobia- Fear of ruin or ruins.
Athazagoraphobia- Fear of being forgotton or ignored or forgetting.
Atomosophobia- Fear of atomic explosions.
Atychiphobia- Fear of failure.
Aulophobia- Fear of flutes.
Aurophobia- Fear of gold.
Auroraphobia- Fear of Northern lights.
Autodysomophobia- Fear of one that has a vile odor.
Automatonophobia- Fear of ventriloquist's dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues - anything that falsly represents a sentient being.
Automysophobia- Fear of being dirty.
Autophobia- Fear of being alone or of oneself.
Aviophobia or Aviatophobia- Fear of flying.

B

Bacillophobia- Fear of microbes.
Bacteriophobia- Fear of bacteria.
Ballistophobia- Fear of missiles or bullets.
Bolshephobia- Fear of Bolsheviks.
Barophobia- Fear of gravity.
Basophobia or Basiphobia- Inability to stand. Fear of walking or falling.
Bathmophobia- Fear of stairs or steep slopes.
Bathophobia- Fear of depth.
Batophobia- Fear of heights or being close to high buildings.
Batrachophobia- Fear of amphibians, such as frogs, newts, salamanders, etc.
Belonephobia- Fear of pins and needles. (Aichmophobia)
Bibliophobia- Fear of books.
Blennophobia- Fear of slime.
Bogyphobia- Fear of bogeys or the bogeyman.
Botanophobia- Fear of plants.
Bromidrosiphobia or Bromidrophobia- Fear of body smells.
Brontophobia- Fear of thunder and lightning.
Bufonophobia- Fear of toads

C

Cacophobia- Fear of ugliness.
Cainophobia or Cainotophobia- Fear of newness, novelty.
Caligynephobia- Fear of beautiful women.
Cancerophobia or Carcinophobia- Fear of cancer.
Cardiophobia- Fear of the heart.
Carnophobia- Fear of meat.
Catagelophobia- Fear of being ridiculed.
Catapedaphobia- Fear of jumping from high and low places.
Cathisophobia- Fear of sitting.
Catoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors.
Cenophobia or Centophobia- Fear of new things or ideas.
Ceraunophobia or Keraunophobia- Fear of thunder and lightning.(Astraphobia, Astrapophobia)
Chaetophobia- Fear of hair.
Cheimaphobia or Cheimatophobia- Fear of cold.(Frigophobia, Psychophobia)
Chemophobia- Fear of chemicals or working with chemicals.
Cherophobia- Fear of gaiety.
Chionophobia- Fear of snow.
Chiraptophobia- Fear of being touched.
Chirophobia- Fear of hands.
Cholerophobia- Fear of anger or the fear of cholera.
Chorophobia- Fear of dancing.
Chrometophobia or Chrematophobia- Fear of money.
Chromophobia or Chromatophobia- Fear of colors.
Chronophobia- Fear of time.
Chronomentrophobia- Fear of clocks.
Cibophobia- Fear of food.(Sitophobia, Sitiophobia)
Claustrophobia- Fear of confined spaces.
Cleithrophobia or Cleisiophobia- Fear of being locked in an enclosed place.
Cleptophobia- Fear of stealing.
Climacophobia- Fear of stairs, climbing, or of falling downstairs.
Clinophobia- Fear of going to bed.
Clithrophobia or Cleithrophobia- Fear of being enclosed.
Cnidophobia- Fear of stings.
Cometophobia- Fear of comets.
Coimetrophobia- Fear of cemeteries.
Coitophobia- Fear of coitus.
Contreltophobia- Fear of sexual abuse.
Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.
Coprophobia- Fear of feces.
Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns.
Counterphobia- The preference by a phobic for fearful situations.
Cremnophobia- Fear of precipices.
Cryophobia- Fear of extreme cold, ice or frost.
Crystallophobia- Fear of crystals or glass.
Cyberphobia- Fear of computers or working on a computer.
Cyclophobia- Fear of bicycles.
Cymophobia or Kymophobia- Fear of waves or wave like motions.
Cynophobia- Fear of dogs or rabies.
Cypridophobia or Cypriphobia or Cyprianophobia or Cyprinophobia - Fear of prostitutes or venereal disease.


Ooops!!...i am getting tired in copy pasting it. Check the complete list of phobias here

Carly Fiorina - End of the HyPe

Carly Fiorina, the mark of the raise of the women power in the corporate jungle, has been shown the door. After successfully merged, Compaq with HP and created world's one among the biggest PC Peripheral company, Carly is sacked by the Board. Here is the News

It's really been a serious blow for women activists and other women groups, who associate Carly with the feminine power are in total awe.

" Carly Fiorina, who came to HP in 1999 from Lucent Technologies Inc., declined to elaborate on reasons for her abrupt departure, except to say: "While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision."

Sources within the company said the differences stemmed from the board's desire to distribute some of her day-to-day responsibilities to other executives as a way to enhance performance, the Wall Street Journal said Wednesday. "

Fast company had an interesting debate 3 years ago, when Carly was appointed, What if Carly were a Man? - Going back again to read that provides an interesting read.

There was also a contrasting view available in Customer Evangelists blog.

"In its coverage today of Carly Fiorina's departure from HP, the New York Times writes, "[Fiorina's] charisma and aggressive, top-down leadership style made her a highly visible personality..."

Let's hope Fiorina's firing signals the demise of "aggressive, top-down leadership" in organizations that rely on collaborative, bottom-up teamwork and integrated customer involvement in decision-making and growth. " - Perma Link

Irrespective of which ever the way you see her, she has proved what can be achieved within short span of time, being a women in the male dominated world (viz., Wall Street & HP Board)

All the best Carly!!

Google Maps

One more time to talk about Google. This time, this is on their supremacy in providing detailed accurate search across US.

Google maps is a system thru which you can go deep down on any locations in US. Although A9's Yellow Pages is doing a commendable job in getting photos of the desired location, Google maps provides you detailed street location and address finding. Before this, even for their location specific AdWords program Google utilised Mapquest to find the exact latitude. Now with this, mapquest's usage inside Google will slowly reduce. This is presently available only for US.

Thanks, atlast, i have an excuse for not optimising my office location, still will be available thru Google maps.

Google as OS

Marking for my future reference Weblogsky: Google as OS

Afro-American Migration Experience

If you are a fan of world history and keenly look in the aboriginal & native people's history worldwide, this is a treasure. Starting Feb 1, in US, it is called as the Black History Month. In addition, Afro-Americans (Blacks that's an insulting word to call them. Why you need to refer someone by their color?) are gifted with brilliant physic, terrific music sense and great are great athletes.

This is via the King of Webstandards Zeldman. In Motion: Afro-American Migration Experience is a joint production of NewYork Public Library'’s Digital Library Program and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

View the Website

19 mistakes for your Search Engine Ranking

This article from Axandra lists all 19 parts of our "19 common mistakes that prevent your Web site from showing up on search engines" series in a single article. Although i know the majority of the points, it's a very good reminder for some of the lesser known tips. Worth having a trip.

19 Mistakes for your SE ranking: