With unemployment at 9.4% and rising, it’s a buyer’s market for employers that are hiring. But many employers are bypassing the jobless to target those still working, reasoning that these survivors are the top performers.

“If they’re employed in today’s economy, they have to be first string,” says Ryan Ross, a partner with Kaye/Bassman International Corp., an executive recruiting firm in Dallas. Mr. Ross says more clients recently have indicated that they would prefer to fill positions with “passive candidates” who are working elsewhere and not actively seeking a job.

The bias extends from front-line workers to senior managers. Charlie Wilgus, managing partner of executive search for Lucas Group, based in Atlanta, says a manufacturing client looking for a division president recently refused to consider a former divisional president at Newell Rubbermaid Inc. whose department had been eliminated. The client doesn’t want candidates who have been laid off, Mr. Wilgus says.

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White Chocolate GrillBobby Fitzgerald prefers to hire the already employed even though he gets two dozen or more unsolicited résumés each day at his White Chocolate Grill.Employers’ preference for the employed adds another hurdle for those who have been laid off. Job seekers frequently are competing with dozens of other applicants for the few available positions.

Bobby Fitzgerald, a partner in five restaurants in three states, says these days he gets two dozen or more unsolicited résumés each day at one of his Phoenix restaurants, the White Chocolate Grill. But Mr. Fitzgerald says his top candidates, for jobs ranging from servers to management, usually are people who are employed elsewhere. He currently has 50 openings across his five restaurants and has told recruiters to bring in only people who are working.

Mr. Fitzgerald has long practiced “guerrilla recruiting.” Even with so many applicants available, he still sends managers to other restaurants with instructions to approach staffers who seem to be strong performers.

Mr. Fitzgerald’s preference for the employed can be time-consuming and expensive. He recently spent three weeks courting a restaurant manager in Birmingham, Ala., for a management post. Mr. Fitzgerald flew the candidate to Phoenix for an interview and a “realistic job preview,” but the candidate chose not to relocate and declined the job offer. “There are a lot of applicants between Phoenix and Birmingham who would have gladly taken the job,” says Mr. Fitzgerald.

While the tactic doesn’t work very often, Mr. Fitzgerald says it lets people know he is hiring. “We are always looking for the very best of the industry, which happens to be people who are still employed,” he says. “The overflow of applicants hasn’t made it easier to hire at all.”

Even when employers are successful, recruiting the employed can cost money. Tim Donohue, senior account manager of Infinity Consulting Solutions, an executive-search firm specializing in finance-related industries, based in New York, says candidates who are wooed away from other jobs typically demand a higher salary than the unemployed, who tend to be more open to negotiation.

Nonetheless, many employers consider the employed more valuable and worth the extra effort. Health-care management-consulting firm Beacon Partners Inc., Weymouth, Mass., has openings for 10 technology-consulting and senior project-management positions. Chief Executive Ralph Fargnoli is looking first for people who are still working. “If they’re still employed that means they have some significant value,” Mr. Fargnoli says.

Beacon, with about 145 employees, targets candidates at conferences, presentations and other gatherings. “We attend industry events and approach the speaker or attendees to see if they’re happy at their job and whether they see a career path at their current employer,” says Mr. Fargnoli. Recently, Mr. Fargnoli successfully recruited a chief information officer of a hospital health system for a vice president role at Beacon after meeting the person at conferences.

The targets aren’t always eager to jump ship. “We’re seeing candidates afraid to move because they don’t want to be the last one in, first one out,” says Jaimie Lynn Craig, an executive recruiter with Premier Staffing in San Francisco. She says many executive-level candidates are seeking guarantees and severance provisions in case their new jobs fall through. Messrs. Fargnoli and Fitzgerald say the employees they approach are more risk-averse, given the shaky economy.

When employers post jobs, they often are flooded with applicants, many of whom aren’t good matches for the position. Kristi Robinson, vice president of talent acquisition at Express Scripts Inc., says applications at the St. Louis pharmacy-benefit manager are up 80% from last year, but many candidates are either over- or underqualified. By targeting people who are currently employed in comparable positions, the firm can bypass candidates who aren’t perfect matches.

Ms. Robinson is looking to fill more than 100 positions, from operations and sales to finance. She says Express Scripts is targeting passive candidates through networking and referrals, and expects them to account for about half of new hires this year, similar to last year.

Job seekers sense the trend. A recent online survey conducted by Infinity Consulting Solutions of 417 job hunters in the New York area found that 59% agreed or strongly agreed that employers gave preference to candidates that are currently employed.

However, there are still jobs to be had if you can calm an employer’s biggest worry about out-of-work applicants: that your termination was the result of poor performance.

Arming yourself with strong letters of recommendation from your previous employer, stating that you were laid off for economic reasons and that you are “eligible for rehire,” can help your case, says Mr. Ross of Kaye/Bassman. If you can’t obtain formal letters, get references from senior-level employees at your prior company, he says.

Being flexible on your salary or title also goes a long way, says Mr. Donohue of Infinity Consulting.

And if you lost your job when your department was eliminated, make sure to tell prospective employers; that will be considered more benign than selective layoffs, says Mr. Donohue. “If they got rid of half the team and you’re on the losing half, their antennas are up,” he says.

Source: WSJ

June 25, 2009 was a pretty extra ordinary day that shocked everyone worldwide. Search engine’s Google, Yahoo and Bing assured people of their accuracy and scalability in providing current news. Wikipedia grappled with the unexpected surge of interest in the day’s breaking news.

Google witnessed a surge of searches about Jackson ranging from “michael jackson died” to “michael jackson hoax”. Google must’ve thought it was under attack seeing the rush of such severe traffic. The spikes in searches provoked Google news to show an interstitial error page for about 25 minutes

Google reported that they saw the largest ever mobile search spike ever. The hotness of the news was termed “Volcanic” by Google Trends.

Yahoo also had a record breaker with 16.5 million hits topping the previous record of 15.1 million set last election day.

Social networks and community websites such as Wikipedia took precautionary measures in the event that the news turned out to be a hoax. The page was protected from editing to prevent the article from going back and forth until the story was verified.

Twitter was a hotbed of Jackson related searching and conversation. Co-founder Biz Stone reported that there were nearly 5,000 Jackson related tweets per minute on Thursday afteroon. “We saw an instant doubling of tweets per second the moment the story broke. This particular news about the passing of such a global icon is the biggest jump in tweets per second since the U.S. presidential election.”

Interestingly, the new kid on the block, Bing had a rather disappointing show put up. The results showed Michael Jackson photos while news links were at the bottom of the search results page.

Any marketing gigs in the midst of all this? Damn right yeah! And its none other than the very same new kid, Bing!

A joint effort from Bing and NBC surrounding the service launch got them putting up advertisements on top of taxis of a goodbye message. Done by Show Media, specializing in this form of advertising, the text-with a picture from Jackson’s “Thriller” album reads: “We will miss you Michael”.

The idea behind it would have been to get the fans to Bing him up! Well they certainly weren’t ready for the surge of searches!

When we talk about today’s financial crisis, we unanimously agree that the root cause is “greed”. But the take aways from such situations are the very lessons that have come our way in previous recessions such as the Great Depression of 1929 which all started with the stock market crash.

So what are the Lessons ?

The 20s were fuelled by an unprecedented number of Americans gambling on WallStreet – not bankers and traders, but everyday Americans. Why? Because of something known as “Margin”. You could buy stock on credit, purchasing a $1000 worth of shares with just $100 down. Once the stock went up which it usually did upto 1929, you could sell it at a huge profit and pay off the credit. So money was made as long as the market kept going.

Eventually, stocks went down. There was a mass “magin call” – time to pay up for the stock you bought for 10% down. But no one had the cash to pay up for such a huge loss. Thus the margin call accelerated the collapse of the market and the banks that funded all that buying. When the banks began tightening under the weight of all the unpaid debt, people anxiously started bucking out their money.I’m sure this is something we’ve been witnessing even to this day. Eventually banks began falling and left millions of people broke. What arose out of the crisis was the FDIC, insuring individual deposits up to $100,000 in all commercial banks.

Whats all this got to do with today’s financial crisis?

Houses became investments instead of places to live and were bought on margin. People bought a house or two or three or more for 10% down or less. Now that rings a bell! You could buy a million dollar house with just $100,000 and guess what, they’d even let you borrow that money! What came out of all this was that people turned out to be enormously rich by buying pre-construction assets and sold them even before completion. The profit of course didn’t go waste, it was further used to buy larger properties. The “greed” kept going on.

At some point which was inevitable, the prices of homes sky rocketed, which although seemed like a good thing at first because of the easy availability of money, backfired. The banks started offering “exotic” loans with little or no money which meant you could buy anything by just paying the interest. Talk about having free lunches! In fact, people were opting for Adjustable Rate Mortgages even when the rates where on an all time low of less than 5% for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. The “greed” kept going on.

Now, everyone wanted his share of the pie, so eventually the banks decided to go easy on the loan approval rules. Behold the ’sub primers’! If you don’t have enough income or have got many defaults on your card, no fear the banks are here! You’ll probably just have to pay higher interest rate 5 years down the line.The incentive for these banks were that the sub prime market seemed profitable because of these higher rates. Again the “greed” kept going on.

When the average American started reaping profits and started smoking their Cuban cigars, the investment bankers (the not so fortunate people of today) wanted a piece of this action and so started dismantling their mortgages and repackaging them into De..wait for it.. wait for it.. “Derivatives”.(I’ve been watching a bit too many ‘How I met your mother’ episodes). Investors felt they could rely on this tried and tested, brick and mortar based housing domain. The “greed” just keeps adding up.

And just like that everything came to a standstill; the prices jst stood still, it didn’t drop nor rise.People started getting worried! No, not about losing their houses, but their profits, the ones they earned over a couple of years. As a result, plenty of homes were out on the market, enough to disrupt the demand supply with more buyer power. Yes, the “greed” kept adding up.

Of course, it would be foolish to think that anything would be in an equilibrium when external factors play a high hand and that too factors such as greed. The home prices dropped like an anchor. It was a mayhem. More “For Sale” signs started sprouting up than the greenery as home owners tried to sell the roof over their heads before prices hit the basement. What’s more interesting is that the timing could not be worse. Yes, it was time for those Adjustable Rate Mortgages to have a peak in interest rates because most of them reached their 5 year point. Neither could the property be bought at the new rates nor could it be sold. A perfect deadlock. And we all know what caused it; “greed“.

So there we have it, our economic downturn.

Banks gave ultimatums to pay up or face foreclosure time. Many lost their only homes, the ones they could only afford. But you know the saying, there’s always some good that comes out of anything. Yes there was an innovation, the innovative “jingle mail” . People just dropped their keys into the mailbox and walked off!

Suddenly those derivates didn’t seem so great. Our great Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (hence referred to as the BROs) and other banks couldn’t sell & raise enough money from those mortgages to cover the inflated loan and huge home equity lines. 3/5 top investment banks either shut shop or were bought over.

This is where the BROs  came into the frame of things; to create liquidity. Banks gave loans on mortgages which were fixed assets which inturn was sold to the BROs to infuse fresh capital to generate more loans.

But when the BROs gave up buying those mortgages, it disrupted the cycle and reduced liquidity in the market causing a credit crunch; the financial equivalent of visiting starbucks only to realize that they are out of coffee!

The lesson: Don’t mess with things you can’t afford to lose especially if its your home!

With the recession hanging over our heads, the questions popping in our heads are what are the job prospects available and how much of a job security do we really have? Well if you haven’t heard yet, the situation is bound to loom around for another quarter or so. So what are the numerous number of people out in the job market going to do. The hard bound ruling on H1B visa’s which may seem as a curse actually turns out to be a blessing for India, because the crux of intelligence who were the key drivers behind major organizations and responsible for over 33% of all patents filed are thinking of heading back home and joining large corporates back in India or starting up their own ventures.

Now the next question is whether this is the right time to start a new venture. Well here are my 5 cents on it.. well actually, my 6 reasons on why this is the right time to start your dream company or something close .

Well first off, its a really difficult time for companies trying to woo venture capitalists to provide fund during such a crisis. But wait, this just means that it is not an ideal time to start a firm requiring lot of start-up capital to launch itself. But, small Internet and technology-based companies are a whole different story. In fact, a recession is just the right time to incubate a small company ! So here’s those 6 wonderful reasons :

1. Recession forces the founders to be prudent: When an entrepreneur starts a company without much initial funding, it’s an excellent discipline for such an early-stage company. By being frugal, entrepreneurs tend to be more creative and adopt healthy deliberation on expenditures. And the obvious outcome; founders pay more close attention to cash flow, budgets and balance sheets.

2. Recessions make businesses and businessmen tougher: Although an economic crisis or recession may be the right time to start a venture, it definitely isn’t the easiest. Facing such challenges, brings out such traits and qualities which make a true entrepreneur, namely guts, problem-solving, strength and perseverance.

3. Startups get a prime mover advantage: If you have a great idea, it’s only business sense to start right away because it give you the competitive advantage over others and any hardships in the way will surely pay off. The reasoning is pretty simple; by the time the economy is back on its feet, your venture will be that much into its life and that much closer to being ready to raise capital (VCs will surely fund at that time when they’ve been sitting on their cash for quite some time owing to the recession).

4.  Recessions are a cause for entrepreneurs to introspect their ideas: During a recession, entrepreneurs will definitely be posed with very valid questions on the worthiness of their idea. A great team or a lot of money could lend the appearance of success, but if it is not built on quality ideas, it will backfire in the long run. The various questions that entrepreneurs will ponder over are the product/service value creation to customers during the current recession and later boom, the market sustainability during the recession owing to cost cutting and the ability to finance operations without VC funding. Eventually, what’s left is a rock solid, fool-proof B-plan.

5. The timing couldn’t be more perfect: If you plan your business right, you could emerge out of the recession during the growth phase of your business. Thereby you would save a lot of money on advertising and marketing because of the reduced market rates during the recessionary period.

6. True entrepreneurs sprout of a recession: True entrepreneurs are creative thought leaders who are willing to take risks to make a legendary mark in business. During a recession, jobs are in jeopardy, everyone is anxious about job security and wouldn’t want to quit their jobs to join a start up. But the ones who do will be truly committed. Thus the founder will have a truly committed team who truly loves their job and are willing to go with the added risks.

3 take Aways

1. We should not take the pretensions of financiers seriously. “A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.” Not for him, then, was the notion of “efficient markets”.

2. The economy cannot be analyzed in the same way as an individual business. For an individual company, it makes sense to cut costs. If the world tries to do so, it will merely shrink demand. An individual may not spend all his income. But the world must do so.

3. One should not treat the economy as a morality tale. In the 1930s, two opposing ideological visions were on offer: the Austrian; and the socialist. The Austrians – Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek – argued that a purging of the excesses of the 1920s was required. Socialists argued that socialism needed to replace failed capitalism, outright. These views were grounded in alternative secular religions: the former in the view that individual self-seeking behavior guaranteed a stable economic order; the latter in the idea that the identical motivation could lead only to exploitation, instability and crisis.

Markets are neither infallible or dispensable. They are indeed the underpinnings of a productive economy and individual freedom. But of course, they can also go seriously awry and so must be managed with care. The election of Mr Obama surely reflects a desire for just such pragmatism. Neither Ron Paul, the libertarian, nor Ralph Nader, on the left, got anywhere. So the task for this new administration is to lead the US and the world towards a pragmatic resolution of the global economic crisis we all now confront.

The urgent task is to return the world economy to health.

The immediate shorter term challenge is to retain aggregate demand, as Keynes would have recommended. This will put more pressure on the bankers for loans. It’s evident that most of the pressure will be on the US as the Europeans, Japanese and even the Chinese are too inert. Although the decreased spending of households is expected to last for a few more years, a big effort must be made to purge the balance sheet of households and the financial system.

The long term challenge is get the global demand rebounding to a proper balance. It’s foolish to expect deficit countries to spend away into bankrupty, while well to do countries condemn as profligacy the spending from which their exporters benefit so much.

It is also essential to construct a new system of global financial regulation and an approach to monetary policy that curbs credit booms and asset bubbles. There seems to be no clear answer to this problem, but recognition of the frailness of the system would be a fair start.

We are faced with a dichotomy of choices: to deal with the challenges co-operatively and pragmatically or let ideological blinkers and selfishness blind us. The focus should be on preserving an open and reasonably stable world economy that offers opportunity to much of humanity as possible. It’s not that we haven’t done this so far, but we must do better.

The biggest lesson of crisis would be as Oscar Wilde would have it ‘In Economics, The truth is rarely pure and never simple’.

Surely, we’ll all heard of the booming IT sector and how it has enabled businesses. But what does it take to manage an IT business and what is IT management (ITM) all about?

IT Management is a combination of two branches of study, information technology and management. Information technology deals with the management of collection of systems, infrastructure and information that resides on them. Management on the other hand deals with the management of information technologies as a business function.

Here are a list of top 12 ITM tools, tips and strategies:

1. Prepare for budget cuts. With worries about a recession looming, upper management will be looking for places to save money. IT training, security, and infrastructure expansion or upgrades will be on the chopping block. So will new hires. You can prepare for this eventuality by building a solid ROI (return on investment) case for every line item in your budget, from backup power supplies to virtualization.

2. Consolidate as much as you can. Easier management, lower TCO (total cost of ownership), energy efficiency and improved use of resources are just a few reasons to pursue virtualization and other strategies to consolidate your IT assets. Now is the time to look at converting and consolidating those legacy systems that were last in line. Dual- core processors and SANs (storage area networks) are other tools you can use to consolidate resources. Centralizing operations in datacenters can yield additional savings and efficiencies.

3. Work on NAC (Network Access Control). It’s vital to keep remote workers from infecting the corporate network with viruses. It’s also important to make sure authorized visitors don’t have access to confidential assets. Individual workers should only have access to the applications they need to do their job. But it can be difficult to cut through the many different standards and products that can do these jobs. Cisco Systems Inc. and The TCG (Trusted Computing Group) both have working NAC frameworks and point solutions. Microsoft’s Network Access Protection framework won’t arrive until Windows Server 2008 ships.

4. Look for green computing solutions. This may well be the year your CEO asks what you’re doing to help reduce the company’s carbon emissions. Information and communications technology accounts for about 2 percent of global carbon-dioxide emissions. PCs and monitors account for 39 percent of that, followed by servers at 23 percent and fixed-line telecom at 15 percent. Centralized power management, higher server use and other measures can save money while helping save the environment.

5. Remember: Data leaks from the inside are gaining as much notoriety as hacker break-ins. http://www.itsecurity.com/features/more-secure-firewall-012207/ State and federal laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may require your company to invest in additional security and training for employees and contractors who handle customer data. It’s time to review how your data is moved from site to site and make sure it doesn’t end up in the backseat of an intern’s car.

6. Learn all you can about Web 2.0 apps — and how they can make your employees and suppliers more productive. User-centric collaboration tools, ad hoc working groups, wikis and other Web 2.0 techniques enable workers to adapt and come together to solve problems faster than traditional, centrally developed applications. The time you save could be your own. However, make sure you’re up-to-date with any security risks from newfangled social-networking technologies.

7. Be aware that solid-state storage is gaining momentum, with a number of vendors offering it in enterprise-class capacities. Solid-state drives are more reliable, run cooler, consume less power and perform much faster than traditional disk drives. The cost is still significantly higher than disks, but not as much as you might think. EMC Corp. has recently announced its plans to introduce an optional line of solid-state memory devices to replace disk drives in some of its high-end Symmetrix storage arrays. The cost is estimated to be only 10 percent more than disks.

8. Use open-source software when appropriate. Open source is free, at best, and gives you control over the source code of your application. What you do with that control depends on the in-house programming resources at your disposal and your need for technical support. User-supported open-source technology is fine for highly skilled users. Commercial open-source applications are supported by consultants who charge for their services.

9. Outsource your datacenter operations to a professional service firm. The advantages of turning over application and data management to qualified specialists often outweigh the loss of control over these IT assets. Off-site datacenters offer better protection of hardware and data resources than many businesses can afford. Their security procedures comply with state and federal laws and regulations. And the cost of outsourcing datacenter operations is often lower than keeping it in-house.

10. Take a look at 802.11n offerings from vendors. Sure, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has yet to finalize this 300 Mbps wireless data standard. But all of the major enterprise WLAN vendors — Cisco Systems, Trapeze Networks, Aruba Networks Inc. and so on — have released access points and client devices that comply with Draft 2 of the 802.11n standard. The Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 140 controllers, routers, access points, adapters and cards as compliant with Draft 2. You don’t have to worry about them complying with the final draft.

11. Consider iSCSI as a better storage transport technology than the incumbent Fibre Channel. Since iSCSI runs over plain old Ethernet, you don’t need a separate Fibre Channel network or specialized IT staffers. It’s also less expensive to set up and easier to run.

12. Explore two-factor identity authentication. With more enterprise applications running on the Web and phishing a rising threat to security defenses, the old username/password method of authentication just isn’t enough anymore. Tougher legislation is mandating higher security, and more two-factor authentication solutions are coming into the market. They don’t all involve esoteric technologies like retina scanners, either. Secure Computing Corp., for instance, has a platform that generates single-use passwords for workstations and mobile devices. Another company, Passfaces Corp., asks users to identify a predetermined face among several displayed on-screen — simple and effective.

references: itmanagement.com

How fast does it take for you to eat fast food? Well stop thinking, because McDonald’s has found the answer ! Burger giant McDonald’s, is making customers finish their food within 45 minutes or face a charge of £125!! Talk about enforcement.

Motorists who care to linger over their McMeals for any longer at some drive-throughs are receiving demands from a private company that manages car parks for the burger chain.

If they do not pay, the fee rises steadily and customers are threatened with court action and approached by bailiffs. A spokeswoman for McDonald’s said the 45-minute restrictions had been introduced at about 40 restaurants because car parks were being abused. She said signs explaining the policy were displayed and leaflets given out. So bottom line is get fat fast !!

Bad planning and cheap approaches

I’m sittin @ my cubicle, embarkin on my tryst with blogging. I wonder on what to blog about and voila..my thoughts drift into the ever bothering question..atleast to me..”WHY A CUBICLE?”. Where did a cubicle come from? So here I go.. let this be my first blog.

CAUTION: What you are about to read will certainly make interesting reading to people who are absolutely jobless and to others, its their much needed relaxation from the madness of daily life.

Cubicle

A cubicle is a small area set off by walls for special use, such as a place to work, to shower, or with a toilet.

A cubicle, cubicle desk or office cubicle is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions, generally five to six feet high. It is partially or entirely open on one side to allow access. Horizontal work surfaces are usually suspended from the partitions, as is shelving, overhead storage, and other amenities.

Origin

The term cubicle comes from the Latin cubiculum, for bed chamber. It was used in English as early as the 15th century. It eventually came to be used for small chambers of all sorts, and for small rooms or study spaces with partitions which do not reach to the ceiling.

Like the older carrel desk, a cubicle seeks to give a degree of privacy to the user while taking up minimal space in a large or medium sized room. Like the modular desk of the mid-20th century, it is composed of modular elements that can be arranged in various ways with standard hardware or custom fasteners, depending on the design. Installation is generally performed by professionals, although some cubicles allow configuration changes to be performed by users without specific training. Cubicles are highly configurable, allowing for a variety of elements such as work surfaces, overhead bins, drawers, and the like to be installed, depending on the individual user’s needs.

Some sources attribute the introduction of the cubicle desk to the computer chip manufacturer Intel Inc. during the 1960s. Its creation is generally attributed to Robert Propst, a designer from Colorado who worked for Herman Miller Inc., a major manufacturer of office furniture. It was based on a 1965 prototype and named the Action Office, made up of modular units with an open plan, an entirely novel system for the time.

An office filled with cubicles is sometimes called a cube farm. Although humorous, the phrase usually has negative connotations. Cube farms are often found in high-tech companies, but they also crop up in the insurance industry and other service-related fields. Many cube farms were built during the dotcom boom.

The cubicle desk is a much reviled and often mocked piece of office furniture in large part because of the expectations it invokes but rarely fulfills. An array of cubicle desks gives more peace and quiet to its users than if they were all working in an open office with no partitions, as is the case with many newsrooms and some other kinds of offices. However, promoters of cubicle desks often present them as magic ingredients which can make noise levels and other distractions fall to zero in any office after their installation.

South view of a cubicle

As a result of this, scant attention is paid, most of the time, to the design and correct installation of specially designed baffled ceilings, acoustic floor coverings, staggered corridors and tactically placed enclosed meeting rooms. Without a global approach to all these elements, the cubicle desk offers only a limited form of visual privacy and no sonic protection whatsoever, since traditional suspended ceiling tiles are insufficient to prevent noise conduction in very large office spaces, despite their being sold as “acoustic” tiles. This global approach is lacking in most installations done in large companies or large government bureaucracies.

North view of a cubicle

More recent academic studies have noted the disadvantages that the cubicle desk has brought to American corporate culture. While effectively reducing the amount of noise and distractions in the office environment, the cubicle has also produced a negative effect in the reduced amount of person-to-person communication among office workers. This unexpected result of cubicle installations has led to declines in company-specific corporate cultures, declines in morale, and production delays. Notably, productivity declines due to cubicle desks have become a recent concern in new office designs.

The versatile cubicle walls

On the positive side the cubicle desk offers an occasion for customization by its users which is not comparable to other desk forms, past or present. The secret is that it can transform all of the walls surrounding the white-collar worker into productive work surfaces, or nooks for personal expression. Because all of the walls are within grasp or reach all of the time, and because many of them offer holes and hooks for hanging small shelves, bulletin boards or other accessories, elements which were once placed only on the horizontal surface of the desktop can be moved to the vertical surfaces all around. While the makers of cubicle desks usually employ proprietary standards for their fasteners and accessory hooks, this has not stopped the makers of small-scale desktop accessories from producing and marketing myriads of pen holders, magazine racks, and other items which are made to fit the most popular brands of cubicle desk partitions.

Floor of cubicles

Note that it is also possible to create a cubicle-filled office environment without the use of cubicle desks by combining traditional free-standing desk forms like the pedestal desk with special types of free-standing partitions. This kind of environment is often part of a general office landscaping effort which was popularized in the 1950s and the 1960s in Germany and the United Kingdom.So do I enjoy working in a cubicle?? Well, lemme put it this way.. I wouldn’t mind having my own office space with a view. But yea.. currently where I’m seated.. i’ve got a very good view [;)]

Eid Mubarak!!

This year is a wonderful and joyous year. For one, it starts off with Eid today. There is another very special thing about this year, which is the fact that this year will have 3 days of Eid in total. This happens only once every 33 years in the Gregorian Calendar. This is because the Islamic religious days are observed using the Islamic Calendar.

I’ve been getting lots of greetings today along with mails asking me what Eid is all about. So I’ll be trying to jot down details of Eid in my blog. Well, it has to be done sometime!
Muslims all over the world, celebrate 2 days of Eid in a year, namely Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha. Okey, you don’t expect me to get you all the details on my own do you? Some of the contents you see below are mine and most of them are from Wikipedia.

Eid ul-Fitr

Eid ul-Fitr, often abbreviated as simply Eid, is an Islamic holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. Fitr means “to break” and therefore symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period and of all evil habits. On the day of the celebration, a typical Muslim family gets up very early and attends special prayers held only for the occasion in big mosques, in large open areas, stadiums or arenas. The festivities and merriment start after the prayers with visits to the homes of friends and relatives and thanking the Creator for all blessings. Eid is a time to come together as a community and to renew friendship and family ties. This is a time for peace for all Muslims in the world to devote to prayers and mutual well-being. 

It is a joyous occasion with important religious significance. Happiness is observed at attaining spiritual uplift after a month of fasting. Muslims dress in holiday attire. After attending the special congregational prayer in the morning, worshippers greet and embrace each other in a spirit of peace, love, and brotherhood. Visiting friends and relatives is common.

For Muslims, Eid ul-Fitr is a joyful celebration of the achievement of enhanced piety. It is a day of forgiveness, moral victory and peace, of congregation, fellowship, brotherhood and unity. Muslims are not only celebrating the end of fasting, but thanking their God for the help and strength that they believe he gave them throughout the previous month to help them practice self-control.
Common greetings during this three-day festival are the Arabic greeting “Eid mubarak”, “Eid saeed” or its Urdu variation “Eid mubarak ho!” which, loosely translated, means “Happy Eid!”

History

The first Eid was celebrated in 624 CE by the prophet Muhammad with his friends and relatives after the victory of the Battle of Badr.

Timing

The holiday follows the month of Ramadan, falling on the first day of Shawwal (the tenth month in the Islamic calendar). As with all months in the Islamic calendar, it begins with the sighting of the new moon. For this reason there may be regional differences in the exact date of Eid, with some Muslims fasting for 29 days and some for 30 days.

Eid ul-Fitr commemorates the end of the month of Ramadan. Fasting is forbidden on this day as it marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan. A Muslim is encouraged to rise early and partake of some dates or a light, sweet snack, significant because for the past 30 days they have abstained from all food and drink from dawn till dusk. It may come as a surprise to many non-Muslims, but many people feel a sense of loss or sadness at the passing of Ramadan.

Traditions and Practices

Muslims are encouraged to dress in their best clothes, new if possible, and to attend a special Eid prayer that is performed in congregation at mosques or open areas like fields, squares etc. Before the prayer the congregation recites the Takbir:

Allahu akbaru, Allahu akbaru
la illaha ila Allah,
wa Allahu akbar, Allahu akbaru
wa lillah hilhamd

God is Greatest, God is Greatest
There is no deity but [the One] God
God is Greatest, God is Greatest
and to Him goes all praise

The Takbir is recited after confirmation that the moon of Shawwal is sighted on the eve of the last day of Ramadan. It continues until the start of the Eid prayer. Before the Eid prayer begins every Muslim (man, women or child) must pay Zakat al Fitr, an alms for the month of Ramadan. This equates to about 2 kg of a basic foodstuff (wheat, barley, dates, raisins, etc.), or its cash equivalent, and is (typically) collected at the mosque. This is distributed by the mosque to needy local Muslims prior to the start of the Eid prayer. It can be given anytime during the month of Ramadan and is often given early, so the recipient can utilise it for Eid purchases. This is distinct to Zakat based on their wealth which must be paid to a worthy charity. This is calculated at 2.5% of their wealth.

The Eid prayer (salah) is followed by the khutba (sermon) and then a prayer (dua’) asking for forgiveness, mercy and help for the plight of Muslims across the world. It is then customary to embrace the persons sitting on either side of you as well as your relatives, friends and acquaintances.

Children are normally given gifts or money. Women (particularly relations) are normally given special gifts by their loved ones. Eid is also the time for reconciliations. Feuds or disputes, especially between family members, are often settled on Eid.

Eid ul-Fitr in Indonesia

In Indonesian the feast is named Hari Raya Idul Fitri. Hari Raya literally means Day of Celebration . Sometimes, there are different statements on when the day falls, especially between Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, because people use different techniques to determine it. Almost all of the people follows the government of Indonesia’s statement and such differences do not get in the way of people celebrating. This event is recognized as national holiday and starts a few days before Idul Fitri and lasts some days after it. Schools also have different schedule for the holiday as many Islamic schools usually make it a longer holiday.

Another Idul Fitri tradition in Indonesia is mudik that usually applies to urbanites who came to Jakarta from Java or other islands in Indonesia. Before Idul Fitri comes, people will go back to their hometowns where their relatives, sometimes including their parents, reside. This event often causes crowding in airports, seaports, and bus stations while some who are travelling by car are trapped in the traffic jam for hours. For little children, asking for money as well as forgiveness from relatives is common to motivate them. Many, especially in the cities, also use the term angpau for the money just like Chinese people do.

Eid ul-Fitr in the USA and Canada

American and Canadian Muslims in North America typically celebrate the day in a quiet way. Because the day depends on the sighting of the moon, observing families are often not aware that the next day will be Eid until the night before. Most check with members of the community to see if the moon has been sighted by anyone. Different methods for determining the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Shawwal are used in each particular community. Because the day is determined by the natural phenomenon of sighting the cresent moon, the East Coast may celebrate Eid on a different day than the West Coast.

To determine the day of Eid, the crescent moon must be sighted directly, although some people choose to base the sighting on scientific calculations. Typically, the end of Ramadan is announced accordingly via e-mail, postings on websites or chain phone calls to all members of a community. Usually working people make arrangements for a lighter work day on the days that may possibly be the Eid day. But many North American Muslims cannot take the whole day off. A typical Muslim family in the USA or Canada will wake up very early in the morning and have a small breakfast. Getting ready often consists of getting dressed in fancy clothing for those who are off all day, and work clothing for those who cannot have the day off.

Next the family will go to the nearest congregational prayer. The prayer may be held at the local mosque, hotel ballroom, arena or stadium. The prayer is often led by a lay person in the community who is respected because of his character and breadth of knowledge of Islam. Often these prayers are held in shifts. The first prayer at 7 am the second at 9 am and the third at 11 am. After prayers, the Muslims disperse. Some have to go to work, others have the day off and spend the time visiting friends and family. Many Muslim families have Eid ul Fitr open houses on that day. Muslim children who attend public school often take the day off and spend it with members of the family who are able to take the day off. The day is spent thanking the Creator for all our blessings.

Because North American Muslims come from all parts of the world, not any one particular food is served on that day. Muslims believe that all blessings come from God, but each family typically has a feast with foods of their particular heritage. For example, an Pakistani-American-Muslim family would have traditional South Asian food, whereas an African-American-Muslim family would have a roast with the sides and a Arab-American-Muslim family would have Arab cuisine. An intermarried, bicultural family would have food from both cultures on that day. Often a Muslim North American family will visit the homes of friends of many heritages on that day. A typical Muslim family might have an Asian breakfast, an Indian lunch and an Irish dinner all in one day.

Eid ul-Fitr in Malaysia and Singapore

In Malaysia and Singapore, Eid is also commonly known as Hari Raya Aidilfitri; Hari Raya literally means Day of Celebration. Muslims in Malaysia celebrate Eid like other Muslims throughout the world. The night before Eid will be filled with the takbiir which is held in the mosques or musollahs. Eid also witnesses a huge migratory pattern of the Muslims, from big metropolitan cities to rural areas. This is known as Balik Kampung — literally going back to home town to celebrate Eid with one’s parents.

It is customary for Malays to wear traditional Malay costumes on the Eid. The dress for men is called baju melayu while the women’s are known as baju kurung. In recent years, robes, adopted from Arabic tradition and culture, are added to the traditional attires for Eid. It is also common to see non-Malay muslims wear costumes of their culture.

Once the prayer is completed, it is also common for Muslims in Malaysia to visit the grave of their loved ones. During this visit, they will clean the grave, perform the recital of the Surah Yaa Sin and also perform the tahlil ceremony. All these are done in hope that their loved ones are blessed by Allah and they are spared from the punishment in the grave.

The rest of the day is spent visiting relatives, or serving visitors. Eid ul-Fitr is a very joyous day for children for this is the day where adults are extra generous. Children will be given token sums of money, also known as “duit raya” from their parents or elders.

Eid ul-Fitr in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

In Pakistan, celebration the night before Eid is called Chand Raat, or night of the moon. Women, especially young girls often paint each others’ hands with traditional mehndi (henna) and wear colorful bangles. One of the special dishes in India, Pakistan and Fiji is savayya, a dish of fine, toasted vermicelli noodles. Elder family members give eidi (small amount of money or gifts)to children. After attending the mosque in the early morning, family members and relatives visit eachother, attend many joyous parties, feasts, special carnivals and parks (with picnics, fireworks, etc.), and exchange gifts with eachother. In Pakistan and India, many bazaars, malls, and restaurants get crowded with people. Many people also like to decorate their homes with lights.

Eid ul-Fitr in Iran

In the predominately Shia culture of Iran, Eid is a highly personal event, and celebrations are often more muted. Typically, each Muslim family gives food to those in need. Often meat or ghorbani, which is an expensive food item in Iran, will be given by those in wealthier families to those who have less. Payment of fitra is obligatory for each Muslim. The tradition in many families holds that for each member of your household on the day of Eid, one person outside of your family needs to be fed. Many Iranian families have chelo kabab, which is skewered meat served with white rice, grilled tomatoes, herbs and yogurt on that day. Thanking God for all blessings is top on the list of activities for the day. The day is a national holiday. So most people spend the day at home or visiting family or going for outings in the areas around the big cities.

Eid ul-Fitr in the Gregorian Calendar

While Eid ul-Fitr is always on the same day of the Islamic calendar, the date on the Gregorian calendar varies from year to year, much like Easter, due to differences between the two calendars, since the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. Furthermore, the method used to determine when each Islamic month begins varies from country to country.
 

Next, let’s have a look at what’s happenning today. 

Eid ul-Adha

Eid ul-Adha occurs on the tenth day of the Islamic month of Dhul Hijja. It is one of two Eid festivals that Muslims celebrate. Eid ul-Adha is celebrated by Muslims worldwide as a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son for God.

The story behind Eid ul-Adha

Muslims believe that God revealed in a dream to Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Isma’il. Ibrahim and Isma’il set off to Mina for the sacrifice. As they went, the devil attempted to persuade Ibrahim to disobey God and not to sacrifice his beloved son. But Ibrahim stayed true to God, and drove the devil away. As Ibrahim prepared to sacrifice his son, God stopped him and gave him a sheep to sacrifice instead. The story is also a part of the other Abrahamic religions (see the Binding of Isaac).

Observing Eid ul-Adha

It is celebrated on the 10th day of the month of Dhul Hijja (ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic calendar, after Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. This happens to be approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadan.

While Eid ul-Fitr is considered to be three days, Eid ul-Adha is supposed to be four days. The first day is the primary holiday, on which men, women, and children are expected to dress in their finest clothing and perform prayer (Salah) in a large congregation. Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice domestic animals, usually sheep, as a symbol of Ibrahim’s sacrifice; this sacrifice is called “Qurbani.” The meat is distributed amongst their neighbors, relatives, and the poor and hungry. The charitable instincts of the Muslim community are demonstrated during Eid ul-Adha by the concerted effort to see that no impoverished Muslim is left without sacrificial food during this day. Coming immediately after the Day of Arafat (when Muhammad pronounced the final seal on the religion of Islam), Eid ul-Adha gives concrete realization to what the Muslim community ethic means in practice.

Other names for Eid ul-Adha

It is often referred to as the “Kurban Bayramı” (from Turkish) or “Sacrifice Feast”. Eid ul-Adha is also known as Hari Raya Haji/Qurban in Singapore and Malaysia , Hari Raya Idul Adha in Indonesia and Tabaski in West Africa. In Bangladesh it is commonly called Qurbani Eid, while in other parts of the Indian subcontinent it is known as Bakr-Id.

Eid ul-Adha in the Gregorian Calendar

While Eid ul-Adha is always on the same day of the Islamic calendar, the date on the Gregorian calendar varies from year to year since the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. Each year, Eid ul-Adha (like other Islamic holidays) falls on one of two different Gregorian dates in different parts of the world, due to the fact that the boundary of crescent visibility is different from the International date line. Furthermore, some countries follow the date in Saudi Arabia rather than the astronomically determined local calendar. 

Oh and by the way, we are celebrating Eid ul-Adha today !

Guessing what this is all about? Well how many times have you ever pondered over the question of what to do next? There comes a time in a person’s life where you just stand there gazing at the vast emptiness that is space and you find yourself asking the question of what you would like to do with your life. We encounter such a question during every phase of our life. During our teens, it was a matter of making a choice of profession. Now that most of us have jobs, you might be wondering WTH I’m talking about now. The question is whether to chill out having fun, enjoy the job you have or toil your Royal ### for some higher studies.

We all have heard the monotonous claims of our beloved parents who are in the midst of peer competition, preaching that B.Tech is a common man’s degree. Anyone who has gone through the process will disagree by putting their foot down and tell you that it was as hard as it can get. Anyhow, its not about pleasing your peers or living upto the expectations of those guys you have looked upto all this while. Thinking about it, I’ve done my engineering in a “wonderful” college..nothing against it totally, but I can imagine a better college atmosphere. I’m pretty nostalgic about the times I had in college though. I miss my buddies, bunking classes and simply chilling out. Ofcourse kudos to my college for thatz where I met my beloved. Anyhow not straying off from the topic, I’ve come to think that it’s high time I spread my wings for something beyond the present outlook. People are pursuing higher studies in MBA or MS. My first attempt at CAT 2 years ago was not bad, but unfortunately I was taken away by the fact that I had a job. Now that I’m in it, the never ending greediness of man has taken me away again. I don’t like the idea of being in this field for too long.

Now the biggest dilemma has come across my head…MBA/MS. From what I’ve understood, MS is a specialization and MBA can be a generalization. An MBA grad can switch fields and can work well across any domain unlike an MS grad. So come to think of it, MBA seems a good option. But again there’s the dreaded ordeal of studying something that is totally greek to a techhy person. Luckily there is a program provided by BU called MS-MBA which is a dual degree program. My IGAs (Information Gathering Agencies).. friends abroad are finding more details about it.

So guys, if you can put some light on this topic and help me solve this dilemma, god will bless your soul :-p. Seriously, just find out and let me know. Not bad for a second post huh. Will keep bloggin.