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Gaurav Sikka › Likes
There is nothing as pathetic as people who buy Netbooks and then gripe about the keyboards.
Gaurav Sikka liked this
PSDs. Thats whats choking my mailbox. Designers have this very bad habit of mailing PSDs as if they own the bloody internet.
Gaurav Sikka liked this
A primer on Hinduism
Andy Bold, Deepak Prakash, Anthony Citrano and 14 other people liked this
Hinduism didn't start off as a religion. It was merely the name given to the way of life of the people who settled on the banks of the river Sindhu in ancient times. Later in history, the Arabs pronounced Sindhu as Hindu and India came to be known as Hindustan. The name India came when certain other races pronounced Sindhu as Indu.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
Hinduism doesn't require one to believe in God. Faith in the absolute is merely an option. There are entire sects inside Hinduism that bunk the concept of God and call the Vedas a load of bullshit. They are as much part of Hinduism as the Gita, the Upanishads, or any other revered books.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
Hinduism accepts all religions as true. A Hindu is encouraged to acquaint himself or herself with all faiths he comes across. Hindu holy books preach that no matter who you are and no matter where you are, you are working your way towards God in your own way.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
Interesting Vijay, I didn't know all this, especially the first point !
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
Hinduism is often erroneously equated with paganism. In reality, Hindus believe in one God. The Vedas call him "Ka" (meaning 'what'). It is said that Ka is formless and incomprehensible. The many gods in Hindu myth are all aspects of him. There are all manner of gods, goddesses and deities in Hinduism - each representing some aspect or other of the universe.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
There is no such thing as heresy in Hinduism. Simply because there are no set rules for anything. Hindu holy books often contradict each other, mainly because these have been added to and rewritten in the course of the history of India. Hinduism accepts and embraces such diversity of opinion.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
i didn't know about that first point either. interesting. points 2 - 4 are what resonate with me most about hinduism. i remember studying some of the basic tenets in college and it just clicked for me. been searching for some spiritual sustenance lately. a visit to my local temple may be what i need.
- tiffany
Wonderful. Fascinating.
- Jen (SquirrelGirl)
The story of "Ka" --- is that true? I didn't know that... but I've always believed in the first point --- it is not a religion, but a way of life. No one person deciding all the "rules" and stuff.... giving people freedom of thought and diversity. Though I believe that is why it never "grew" all over the world like Islam or other religions have. People want a rulebook since it simplifies things for them. Just some of my thoughts..
- Siddharth
There is a school of aethism in Hinduism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Varun Mahajan
A Hindu has two things to take care of in this world. His Dharma, and his Karma. Dharma, loosely translated is "what one ought to do". Karma is what one ends up doing. A life is well-lived if one's Dharma coincides as much as possible with one's Karma. Dharma doesn't imply 'religion'. Your Dharma is different from mine, and mine from everyone else's. The simplest way of explaining it would perhaps be equating your Dharma with your nature. The basic message is, "follow your heart".
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
I believe another thing about Hinduism is that you can't convert into it --- right? No other religion has this property. No one can help you convert to this religion. I don't believe this is the case in any of the other religions..
- Siddharth
How does this get turned on its head and become militant Hinduism? The kind that leads people to persecute couples for outward public displays of affection or even to massacre Muslims? I'm not being flip here, this is a serious question.
- Alex Scoble
I'm wondering which are the sects that debunk the Vedas. From what I learned, all orthodox (aasti) sects accept the Vedas as unchallengable, whereas unorthodox (naasti) sects like Buddhism and Jainism remain outside the pail since they do not accept the authority of the Veda. Could you comment on this?
- howard shippin
@Siddarth: You can convert to Hinduism. It is done by getting a bath with Ganga-Jal( water from river Ganges, which is considered holy in Hinduism)
- Varun Mahajan
@Howard: I don't have my resources handy, but there is a name I am missing. It came into prominence quite some time ago (medieval times) and lost ground as time passed.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
@Varun @Siddharth Technically the question of conversion is pointless since Hinduism is not a religion in the strictest sense of the word. In any case, going by the Gita, everyone is already a Hindu, so where does the question about converting come in? :)
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
@Alex: Now-a-days Hinduism is considered a religion and not a 'way of life'. Also some Hindu fundamentalists fear the Muslim's perceived geometric growth of population . Or if I think of it, Hindu militancy is somewhat similar to KKK of early 20th century USA.
- Varun Mahajan
@Alex: I don't have the answer.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
@Vijayendra : technically you are true, but now-a-days, you have a ceremony for this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Varun Mahajan
@Vijayendra: I will also like you to add content about the caste system in Hinduism.
- Varun Mahajan
Also sounds like Sikhism, in that it is not a religion but a way of life ? But then, if people tend to form religions around programming languages, technologies, companies, brands - what's to stop them from forming a cult around a "way of life" ?
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
@Ahsan Nothing to stop them from doing so. Sikhism was born out of Hinduism for a certain need. So was Buddhism and Jainism. Not to exert copyright, but they all exist inside the fold of Hinduism.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
The ancients forgot to implement the "convertoHinduism()" API. Shuddhikaran tried to do it, but I think it wasn't a great success. I'm glad :)
- Siddharth
@Ahsan: Sikhism was an offshoot of Hinduism. It started as a warrior saint cult(like Templar Knights of Christanity), but now is considered as a different religion.
- Varun Mahajan
@Siddarth: I LOLed on that
- Varun Mahajan
I don't think that people mean the same thing when they use religion as a term. Almost anything that is said about it loses its validity due to the range and scope of the different religions. Christianity is faith based, Judaism is law-based, Islam is based on submission to the will of God, Buddhism is not based at all upon belief in God, Jainism is atheistic. Confucianism is based on...
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- howard shippin
A note on the caste system -- As I said, Hinduism started off as a way of life. Societies were structured on the lines of castes. There were priests, warriors, merchants and the lower castes (those that did social service). These divisions were misused during medieval times by the priests and turned into rock solid barriers that kept people from entering supposedly higher professions....
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- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
@varun - would you say that Sikhism started as an attempt to bridge between Hinduism and Islam, and later became a warrior cult due to the necessity to defend against religious persecution?
- howard shippin
@Howard: Very much true. But sad, because, if you think of it, "Do we need religion?"
- Varun Mahajan
@Howard: Law of the universe. Bingo! That defines Hinduism.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
@varun - what's the movie where John Denver says to God "But why did you choose me? I don't belong to any religion? and God says, "Neither do I!" I don't know if we need religion, but I think there's a lot to be learned from it.
- howard shippin
@Howard: Actually Guru Nanak Dev(first Guru of Sikhs) started a sort of reformist movement within Hinduism. And it did try to bridge the gap between Hindus and Muslims. But till that time, it was still part of Hinduism. The shift to warrior sainthood happened with Guru Gobind Singh, who founded Khalsa Panth( loosely translated as society of pure people), and it was official start of...
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- Varun Mahajan
@Varun: Satnam! I guess if Guru Nanak had succeeded we might have one less problem! I had long conversations with Sikkhs on my way to Valley of Flowers (and Hemkunt) last summer, and even ended up sharing a bed with one on the way back since the road was blocked and all the hotels were full. It's new to me though, that Hindus and Sikhs can be blood brothers.
- howard shippin
@Howard: During the Gobind Singh wars, the eldest son of a Hindu family used to be sent to war. He was the Sikh in the family. To this day, Punjab has mona Punjabis (Sikhs who gave up their hair and the warrior way of life). They fall back into Hinduism as a default.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
@Howard: Read the second pharagraph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Varun Mahajan
@Vijayendra: Very true
- Varun Mahajan
@Varun: (the Wikipedia article) - Complex, wonderful, full of paradox, like everything else in your country.
- howard shippin
@Howard: I currently working in UK. Now I feel that anyone in a particular culture is never aware of its' paradoxes. And it bewilders the people outside that culture. Like UK, where the democracy started, still has the monarchy, though it may just be ceremonial. Or USA, world's richest democracy, but it does not select the president through direct vote. Or China: World's biggest communist country and world's 3rd largest market economy.
- Varun Mahajan
@Varun Here's a metaphor. When you are inside a crowd, you have no idea which way it is going. You are shoved about and pushed around and learn to live with it. To someone sitting in a high balcony somewhere, your state may appear funny or odd or scary. He can see which way your crowd is going.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
It is hard for us to understand very basic things about our culture, religion and society due to the conditioning to which we have been exposed. Cultural memes. It can be helpful to step outside all these. This is the value of living away from all that you grew up with. I think that in Hinduism, a sannyasi (renunciate) was expected to live away from his own town, break connection with family, for a number of years. That's the reason.
- howard shippin
@Vijayendra and @Howard: Very true.
- Varun Mahajan
Great discussion going on here. I wanted to add my two cents on the formation of caste system: as Vijayendra wrote, they were based on the profession one followed and it was a time where the number of 'career paths', so to speak, were not as numerous and varied. And the caste system ensured that the progeny would continue to do the same job as his/her (her is not necessary, considering...
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- Hari Menon
Varun, Godel's Incompleteness theorem states that you can only know the true nature of a system from outside it.
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
@Ahsan: Thanks. I never thought of this connection. Thanks
- Varun Mahajan
Very interesting discussion. A non-Hindu friend of mine recently questioned about polytheism in hinduism. I tried to answer that each 'God' is a functional part of the Para Brahman. Similar to the sales dept of a company does the actual sale, and the manufacturing dept, the actual production; Lord Shiva is the 'destructive and clensing' part of the brahmam, and Lord Brahma is the creative part. Am I right in identifying like that?
- Mahesh Aravind
You are right. Each god is an idea, an aspect or a part of the universe. None of them are good or evil, though they may contradict each other.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
Vijay/Mahesh, I've always had the impression that God Abstractions in Hinduism was similar to the Greek Gods: Zeus, god of love, god of war. Am I right ?
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
You are right Ahsan. A lot of Aryanic races share similar myths and gods. The difference being is that the Hindu pantheon is backed up by theology and belief in one God. Though I know very little about ancient Greek ideas of God.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
Ah, I see. This was an educational thread.
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
You are right Ahsan. But on a hilarious note, Hindus have 330 million gods, which means before approximately second half of 20th century, there were more gods than the Hindu people being supervised by them ;)
- Varun Mahajan
Varun/Ahsan: The 330 million figure is proverbial in my opinion. It roots from the Vedas. A disciple asks a guru how many gods there are and he says 330 million. The disciple asks again and he says 33. He asks again and he says 3 (the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva). The disciple asks again and the guru says there is only 1 God. Lesson being you will find God if you do not stop asking.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
@Vijayendra, there is a distinction between God(Bhagwan) and god(Devta). In Hinduism, God is 1, but gods are many. Almost like a prime minister with a huge cabinet
- Varun Mahajan
Varun: True. But there is also the freedom to treat your patron devta as God if you want to, hence the dialogue. It's a matter of what satisfies you. If a devta is your thing, go ahead. If you want more, head to the absolute.
- Vijayendra (V-Mo) Mohanty
Five Presidents - http://www.chicagotribune.com/media...
americanm, Tom Stocky, Rajiv Doshi and 49 other people liked this
Doesn't it kinda freak anyone else out that Jimmy Carter is the only ex-president who was in office prior to 1980 who's still alive?
- Helen Sventitsky
This is a wonderful pic. Carter looks like a lolly-pop dude who wandered in. Clinton looks like he was wheeled in and has no clue where he is (someone dressed him nice though). Bush the younger seems happy to be allowed to stay up late. Obama and Bush the elder seem to be old buddies who just cashed out on some several-year-old scheme. I must seek a hi-res version!
- J Irving
Nope. Jimmy gave 'em all a dirt nap!
- ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift
This disappoints me. It was such a fantastic and rare opportunity for a memorable, once-in-a-career photograph...but all the pictures I've seen of it kind of suck. I don't think you can blame the photographer, though. I suspect that none of those men really had the time to hang around posing for thirty minutes while the photographer tried to capture the best light and stuff. (Also, I...
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- James (@willia4)
Someone needs to add some thought bubbles to this photo.
- Mike Doeff
James, not every picture needs to evaluated from a photographer's perspective - though I get what you are saying. Sometimes you see more if we pay attention to the actual content :). Not being snarky, just an observation because I have been guilty of the same quite often.
- Kamath (नमः)
Two of the four who've already served were only in for one term (Carter & Bush Sr.). We'll see how Obama fares!
- Shawn Farner
Kamath - True. Not every picture does. But something like five living presidents deserves a little bit of care from the photographer, imho. But I'm sure those five living presidents wanted him to leave so they could get lunch. ;) So I'm not blaming him (or her; I haven't found the photo credit)
- James (@willia4)
Four Presidents and a President Elect ;)
- Ben Jackson
from twhirl
Ben - "Five Presidents" is close enough for government work.
- James (@willia4)
There wasn't "the photographer;" there were a dozen or more photographers, which is why the presidents were looking in different directions.
- Glen, Bespectacled Elder
Obama rocks the best suit!
- .LAG liked that
Glenn - I see. Well, that explains it then. Still a shame.
- James (@willia4)
They should do a bank job. They dont even need masks...
- Pete Gilbert
@James As a government empluyee, I find that offensive ;)
- Ben Jackson
from twhirl
@Pete Hilarious
- Christopher Sacca
I like two of them...
- orionstarr
ugh hate the drapes; did Carter really wear a brown suit??; LAG U R right Obama has the best suit, with hon mention 2 GW Sr. and finally do grown men really roll their foot like that when standing up???
- R. Ferguson
No purple tie?
- orionstarr
you know, the other thing that strikes me about this pic: they're all part of the same club. dig, if you will, this picture, but with hillary in it. change?...my *ss! .LOLz
- .LAG liked that
Is it bad that Jr looks older than Sr?
- xero
Helen: Well, that was almost 30 years ago. And until the recent spate of 40 something presidents, most of them where a lot older when first elected.
- Kevin Pedraja
Bush Sr.: "Westside!"
- Steve Weis
Cool collection. Is it the A-list?
- Håkan Dahlström
@J Irving - haha
- krist80
Actually Obama's pants look a tad too long. It is supposed to be a simple break at the shoe. Bush Jr has quite a bit of fabric there. Maybe Bush the Younger forgot his belt. Clinton's suit looks like it is off the rack at Macys or something lame. Carter is wearing brown shoes. Thought they taught him differently at the Naval Academy. But who am I to talk, wearing yesterday's sweats and a some giant Tigger slippers.
- Andrew Leyden
@xero i imagine jr has been through a lot the past 8 years. he's probably ready for a vodka and coke pretty badly right about now.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
@ANDREW: you're right, obama's pants break, just a smidge too much, but a brutha can rock that. If you look at his left hand, he's got no cuff showing there, so i'm scaling back my original sartorial accolades, but he's still the best-dressed of the bunch. carter, probably the kindest, most genuine human of them all, is the worst dressed: sack suit, pants too long, coat sleeves too long, poor color choice. he looks "country." .LOLz
- .LAG liked that
@LAG Just noticed the cuff thing. Also noticed what looks like a watch. Is Obama left-handed?
- Andrew Leyden
Should we be concerned that arguably the most powerful people in the free world all have issues with dressing themselves?
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
@Jason It's Washington which is notoriously plain in the fashion department. I think we should only be concerned if their wives are still dressing them.
- Andrew Leyden
hey now, if my wife wants to dress (or undress) me I'll let her. ;)
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
I think Sr has the best jacket (except for the shoulders), but Obama is wearing it the best. Carter looks horrible, and Clinton's jacket is far too long.
- xero
The Democrats wore red ties and the Republicans wore blue ties. And then Obama had to go and break the rules.
- Shawn Farner
It's kind of like a barbershop quintet.
- Nine
@shawn because they're all supposed to be playing for the same team, not playing for their individual parties.
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
Obame is secretly a Repube?
- Dave Winer
@ANDREW: obama is left-handed: watch him drain this 3-point shot! http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- .LAG liked that
Think Design Blog - Free WordPress Theme - Versatility Lite | Think Design - http://thinkdesignblog.com/free-wo...
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Gaurav Sikka liked this
Collection of Newspaper Front Pages from Obama's win - http://obama2008.s3.amazonaws.com/headlin...
fshamsi, Michael Muller, Roger Chen and 13 other people liked this
here are some of the funny ones.
- Jess Lee
from Bookmarklet
The only US paper I could find that didn't cover the election at all was the Mississippi Press, which to its credit *did* cover a local Halloween costume contest very thoroughly. http://www.newseum.org/todaysf...
- Doug Beeferman
@Doug: I don't see anything there...
- Jess Lee
HOW TO: Market a Web Company in a Down Economy [Video] - http://mashable.com/2008...
Michael R. Bernstein, Andrew Badera and Gaurav Sikka liked this
Must see TV from @garyvee
- Ryan Kuder
from Bookmarklet
Tracy Ruggles, Gaurav Sikka, Tommy Williams and 9 other people liked this
Robert Scoble's 10 Favorite Tech Experts on FriendFeed - http://www.fastcompany.com/article...
MVB (Curmudgeon of FF), MG Siegler, Steven Perez and 13 other people liked this
Don't really understand how Arrington could be designated "on FriendFeed". He never participates -- just broadcasts. Others at least participate in the conversation. I would question how he could make your list at all let alone at number 1.
- Brian Sullivan
Of interest, none of the links work, as they are embedded with fastcompany.com followed by HTTP.
- Louis Gray
@Brian: I guess this is a list of top tech people who happen to have accounts on FriendFeed (so you can follow that they read), as opposed to top tech people who actively participate on FF. Although some of the people on his list are very active here like Louis, Duncan, and MG Siegler.
- Jess Lee
Maybe one of the "tech experts" knows some HTML..? ;-)
- Sprague D
Jess -- maybe Robert's post should be titled "Robert Scoble's 10 Favorite Tech Experts who happen to have accounts on FriendFeed" ?
- Brian Sullivan
It's Monday, Robert needed a post, and for hits, it has to be a post involving a list. Ergo, pick 10 people, one of whom has never, to the best of my knowledge, posted a single thing to FriendFeed that wasn't done by his bot, leave off all women (hello? Kara? Orli? Orli has participated more this week than Arrington has done in FF's entire existence), and once again, stirs the proverbial sh*t on FriendFeed. At some point, if people dont' come up with something to talk about on FriendFeed BESIDES politics...
- Cyndy
... and FriendFeed, the whole thing will just wink out of existence.
- Cyndy
Very useful matching of names to enterprises for those who don't know.
- Sean McBride
*wankwankwank* *waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaankwankwankwank* *wank*
- abacab
Um, what about Leo Laporte?
- Molly, New Ears :P
These are the people FriendFeed itself tells me I liked the most.
- Robert Scoble
Which person on the list has probably had the greatest impact on the Internet? Probably Dave Winer, with RSS.
- Sean McBride
I wanna believe that I m the 11th. : ))
- Erhan
+10 to Brian and Cyndy
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
Most probably I'm missing something (or I have a different definition for tech expert), but some of them have nothing to do with technology. Anyways, it is a good Monday post to generate traffic.
- Alex Popescu
Alex: which ones don't have anything to do with technology? Seems like a pretty safe soft-tech list. And let me add my generic feigned outrage thinly veiling my jealousy of not being on a top ten list here.
- Mark Trapp
@Mark You already made my top 10 FriendFeed list, what more could you ask for? :P http://www.sheysmith.com/2008...
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
Mark: IMO there is a big difference between being a tech expert and living around technology. I fail to see how a PR, social media, etc. person is a tech expert.
- Alex Popescu
Several of those people are very active on FriendFeed. Arrington shows up because so many people read TechCrunch. Mark Wilson, thanks for the mention, but I am not sure if my name can be mentioned in a top 10 list that includes some of those folks.
- Rob Diana
Not even going to bother looking at this list after the previous one that was completely without filter and a little ridiculous. Will probably feel the need to diss it because I will disagree when I have no right to - it's his favorite list and all power to him.
- Kamath (नमः)
I love web 2.0. It's the one era you can wake up and decide you're an expert in something, even if you have no real track record beforehand, or if you do and nobody knew about it/no recognizable proof, etc. :)
- Patricia
I'd suggest that no list of any topic of any length by any person will be agreeable to all. And don't let my PR/Marketing background fool you. I'm all tech, all day long. :-)
- Louis Gray
Patricia, come on over here and sit next to me. I won't for a second pretend that I could architect something like Facebook, but I have forgotten more about development than certain people ever knew. I'm waiting for a "return to basics" mentality to prevail.
- Cyndy
I'm declaring myself an expert on experts. :)
- Patricia
thanks for the love robert!
- MG Siegler
No surprises here, it's always the same people.
- Amit Morson
Not sure what the problem is the title of the article says "Robert Scoble's Favorite," so that's what it is, his favorites. It's kind of clear that his favorite may not be your favorite. And it's who he considers a tech authority, which my also come under a different definition and categorization than your own. Like Shey and Sarah, and oh so many others, just add your favorites in your own list, or even here.
- Lynne d Johnson
Lynne -- there is no problem that I can see. Robert writes posts so that others read, comment and discuss. I think that is what we are doing?
- Brian Sullivan
@Brian Sullivan - of course. It just seemed that people were taking this one quite personally.
- Lynne d Johnson
This. Fucking. Election. - http://thisfuckingelection.com/
LonelyBob, raphaeL, Duncan Riley and 11 other people liked this
This is awesome!! Phew, I read the whole thing!! Saw it earlier this morning and was really impressed with it, except they forgot 1 very key word - NUKULAR!!!
- Susan Beebe
Very cool.
- Phil Brown
from twhirl
Warren Buffett - Buy American. I Am. (NYTimes.com, Op-Ed Contributor) - http://www.nytimes.com/2008...
Felicia Yue, Vishy, Mitch Wagner and 10 other people liked this
"So ... I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities. Why? A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now."
- Dan Hsiao
from Bookmarklet
Having no money makes it easy to follow buffet's other advice - which is to invest a significant proportion of one's net worth in 'value' stocks.
- Robin Barooah
"You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy."
- j1m
@chris the article explicitly says up to 20 years. And that is only assuming the worst case scenario that this year marks the exact same historical pattern and government attitude towards the market. (post made from iPhone)
- paulm
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