Jeelz Space

The world will never be the same - at least for me. Took me a while to let the dust settle in, and to realize the press conference and the emails that I saw on Thursday were really real. The man responsible for changing the world, to what it is today, is talking about transition plans from the company he created from scratch. Did he choke while ending his talk and introducing Ballmer? I can't believe he said all that till the end with a broad smile. Bill Gates is to Software what Einstein is to Physics. We can't imagine Einstein having had said he will work on Physics part time can we? But then again, this is Bill Gates we are talking about - he is one of a kind - he does the right thing. Software means more to me than Physics - explains why I still have to pinch myself to actually make me believe this is all real.

Where ever you are reading this blog from, I can say with 93% certainty that you are reading it on the software that Microsoft created. For me Microsoft is much more than just a software company that I work for - its a way of life, everything that you do, you impact millions of people, changing the world is a habit at Microsoft. The 70,000 of us worldwide, are inspired to do that only by the *xtra larger than life* leadership. Anybody who has had even a glimpse of the passion and aggression expressed in our annual company meetings and global briefings knows Microsoft isn't to be taken lightly; this isn't just a company, its probably 1 point less than being a religion. No matter how humble Gates was being during the press conference on Thursday in saying that his contribution to the hot new products Microsoft comes out with is over estimated - Well Mr. Gates every employee in your company can do that cause he/she is inspired by you, its not *just* your technical talent, its just the person that you are that inspires everything we do.

Being successful is probably the easy part - what is difficult is not to let success get to your head - not to let the success we've had in the past to change us, not to let that change then cause us not to be successful in the future. Gates has been an inspiration and an icon for me in this respect. Being humble when being the worlds richest man I'm sure isn't easy. I still recall from late 2005 in my second meeting with Gates, a colleague of mine asked (the most asked question) how is it being the worlds richest man? Gates giggled - and then the reply he gave was almost identical to what he said this Thursday, with wealth comes responsibility and he feels responsible on how he spends his wealth and that he has to give back to society the wealth the society has given him in the right areas which is health and education. No one can replace Gates at Microsoft - he will be very dearly missed. I'm sure he will continue to stand by us and continue to inspire the teams at Microsoft even after two years to head out and "Change the world, in ways, it needs to be changed".

In the era of the dotcom boom - I remember seeing an advertisement of a company called 3rd agenda. The advertisement carried the justification for the company's name - Gods 1st Agenda was to create the world, 2nd to send his messengers to spread religion and this company was entrusted with the 3rd agenda which was to evangelize technology. At that time, way back in the year 2000, I was amused but nothing else by the wit. Today it comes back to me. I'm a religious person, have strong belief in god and his prophets, I also believe that there will no more prophets. Maybe technology was really next on Gods agenda, maybe we really are witnessing the execution of the 3rd Agenda. Nothing has changed in the past 30 years as much as Technology and Gates was at the center and was responsible for most of this change.

Though it’s very difficult for me to accept the fact that Gates will no longer be our Cheif Software Architect but for the nobel cause that Gates will be devoting his time to two years from now, my respect for Gates has only grown many folds.

Friday morning saw the dawn of a whole new era, a whole new Microsoft, a whole new world. The leadership that gates is handing over the flag to is strong, young, energetic, inspired, aggresive and passionate about changing the world in just the same way that Gates was 31 years ago. Hello *New* World. Microsoft's leadership might have changed but not its source of inspiration - which has only got stronger, with which we will build better products that out customers can derive more value from, With Gates still as our Chairman we will continue to, in Gates's words, “change the world, in ways, it needs to be changed”.

Centrifugal force is a term that is used to express that if an object is being swung around on a string the object seems to be pulling on the string. In actual fact the person holding the string is doing the pulling.

When the object picks up speed, then if no force is exerted the object will continue in a straight line. To make the object deviate from that straight line a force must be exerted.

Having seen a close friend of mine go through a break up recently, I found close resemblance with centrifugal force and being in (and out) of love. Once the object tied to the string picks up speed, the force exerted by the object is tremendous, the person holding the string feels that they are pulling the piece together, whereas from the object perspective the object seems to be doing the pulling.

When finally either the string breaks or the person lets go of the string, the object breaks free and continues in a straight line. The energy at that point in time is note worthy, people do amazing things in anything they throw themselves into; could be work, could be a "passion" they always wanted to pursue. Some get into a rebound relationship :). Its like a planet rotating around a star, its centrifugal force that keeps the planet spinning around the star, once the star breaks through this force (theoretically), it moves at a great speed and can go far, unless it falls into the gravitational force of yet another star.

*I've quoted the definition of Centrifugal force from wikipedia

Was privileged enough to meet up with Bill Mitchell this week. For those who do not know who Bill is - He's the guy who can be known as the father of Pocket PC and ActiveSync. It was under him that the Pocket PC project was initiated in 1993. He currently is the Corporate Vice President for the Windows Mobile Platforms Division at Microsoft.

Bill has an awesome vision for the Tablet PC - he is the only guy so far who could convince that even I who cant read my own handwriting and who has almost forgotten to write very much needs a Tablet PC. He got me thinking no matter how geeky we become - how much we type more than write - we still do use a pen, not always to write though, I see developers in the cafeteria always scribbling on a paper napkin, drawing (uml?? :-) ) diagrams. Imagine if you could scribble on a tablet instead? Convert it into an image and email it for review? The Tablet platform defn. has a lot of potential in the future.

I've always been a Need for Speed fan - a common characteristic in this series of games which now is a part of many other driving games is that you start off with some basic cars and race tracks - you play well on them and win points to unlock other tracks.

I wonder if god has something like this in store for us too. It’s an amazingly beautiful world he has built for us - It amazes me every time I look down my microscope, I’m amazed every time I look at the moon, I’m amazed every time I hear the waves, I'm amazed they way the air taste's on those beaches, I'm amazed at how beautiful a rose can smell, but what amazes me even more is the fact that god's given us only 5 senses to perceive such a beautiful world! Such a beautiful brain in each one of our heads, but it only makes sense out from what these 5 senses tell it -

Or is there more for us to be unlocked? Intrigues me....

I'll let it boggle your mind and end with this wonderful quote...

"I not only think we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think that Mother Nature wants us to." - Willard Gatlin

- Jeelz

I kinda believe that life is full of choices, we choose what to do, some of us are cautious with the choices we make and hold ourselves responsible for the outcomes - some of us dont,  They simply need someone to blame it all on. I guess even actions are so very much controlled  by the options a person has - We at all times maybe consciously or unconsciously weigh the  choices we have and choose to do what we hold the closest to our hearts. I kinda like to use this philosophy of mine to use it as a backdoor to read a persons mind - though I may not be right always, but ones actions, the choices the person makes, make it so obvious as to how much something which could be as minimal as a teeny weenie gift to a friendship means to that person. Am I totally off the mark? or u think likewise??

- Jeelz

In a recent auction for employees a dinner with the Chief Architect of the worlds most hi tech company went for a pretty unbelievable hefty sum (the whole purpose of the auction was to raise charity ofcourse!). However, I was just wondering how much would we be willing to pay for an appointment with the architect of the universe? somebody who is responsible for the conceptualization, design, dev and testin from every li'l red blood cell to the dark deep space spanning eternity? I get super excited at the thought that I could probably create a backup of my life's record and run it thru a simulation and check alternates like what might have had happened if I didn’t choose to do engineering, what and where would i be today? What if Einstein was never born? And imagine having the resources to understand the working and alternatives and design considerations that were made during the creation of the universe - I would say its worth dying for!! :-)

Nope I’m not in a super depression and not that I’m heading right away for a bottle of sleepin pills!! ;-) Well it’s just that the thought of meeting up with the being that created us and everything around us - excites me!! Now, what will a person who's never used a computer speak of if he ever wins a dinner with Bill Gates .... he of course wouldn't value it much except maybe having the privilege of meeting the richest man on the planet - how boring, don’t want to be that sortta person - so i guess to prepare for this meeting with the super architect of the univ - we should want to live our lives and see it to the fullest, discovery mysteries that puzzle us - and make that special meeting worth "dying" for, when ever we eventually have to!

- Jeelz

Yada... Yada... Yada... My very own MSN Space - looking forward to postin' info on life and my encounters with it ... anything technical - goes here... http://blogs.msdn.com/mjeelani

Jeelz