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Friday 28 December 2012

My Mindmap



These behaviors are briefly outlined below:

1)Stepping Outside of Comfort Zone

Ashwin is constantly stepping outside his comfort zone into new industries to face unique challenges that test his discipline, expertise and resolve.

2)Facing Problems Head-on

When problems arise, Ashwin tackles them immediately and aggressively, making sure that small problems don’t become big headaches.

3)Open to Change
Ashwin is constantly open to changing his perspectives, viewpoints and approach to any situation if he feels that it will help him attain his goals and objectives in a much more effective and efficient manner.

4)Making Every Second Count

Ashwin is very aware that every moment that goes by is an opportunity to do things better, to improve a process or to take the next step towards a bigger objective. He therefore makes every second count by mixing business with pleasure.

5)Hunting for New Opportunities

Ashwin is always on the lookout for new opportunities and ideas that will enable him to gain an advantage over his competitors.

6)Asking Questions

Ashwin is constantly asking solution focused questions that clarify his thinking and help him overcome the challenges that confront him on a daily basis.

7)Enjoys Living Life to Fullest

Ashwin is constantly seeking out new exciting endeavors, adventures and experiences. He believes that life must always be lived to its fullest potential.

8)Having Fun

Ashwin turns everything into a game where having fun is on top of his agenda. For this very reason he enjoys mixing work with pleasure and has successfully created an easy-going and fun-loving culture at Virgin.

9)Meeting New People

Ashwin is a passionate networker. He enjoys meeting new people, discussing new opportunities, and building mutually rewarding relationships with others.


10)Enjoys Working

Because Ashwin mixes his work with things that bring him pleasure, this lifts his spirits and strengthens his motivation to work for extended hours throughout the day and night.



11)Takes Calculated Risks

Ashwin takes calculated risks in life. He understands where the boundaries lie, and is therefore careful not to over-extend his personal and professional capabilities and capacity to move intelligently through periods of emotional turmoil.

12)Takes Time to Read and Learn

Ashwin fully understands that lessons are often learned through mistakes and experience. However, he acknowledged that lessons can also be experienced within the pages of a book. And it is these book-experiences that save him an ample amount of time, energy and money, that he would normally spend learning in the real world.

13)Takes Time to Catnap and Daydream
In order to re-energize his body and mind, Ashwin takes catnaps throughout the day. He also undertakes periods of daydreaming about his passions, which invigorates his creative mind and strengthens the flow of new ideas.
14)Takes Time to Think
Ashwin sets time aside to create new ideas, plan it and think about creative solutions to pressing problems..
Believes that everything is negotiable.
Alongside values we have beliefs.
Beliefs are the building blocks of our daily decisions, behaviors and actions. They will essentially determine the actions that we take, or refrain from taking when faced with obstacles or challenges.
Ashwin’s beliefs have been shaped and molded as a result of a lifetime of unique experience. These beliefs have strengthened his resolve and made him into the man we know today.

Here is a list of some of the beliefs that have shaped Ashwin’s personality:

Believes that anything is possible.
Believes that rules are made to be broken.
Believes that business is a fun and creative way of life.
Believes in developing people.
Believes in leading from the front.
Believes in action over hope.
Believes in being polite and honest.
Believes in doing no harm.
Believes in building teams.
Believes in integrity.
Believes in respect.
Believes in trust.
Believes in controlling one’s own personal destiny.




Monday 24 December 2012

Invention-Innovation


5 Awesome Inventions That Never Made It


With all of our great technology, we often forget about all of the great inventions of the past that never made it into production. It’s interesting to imagine a world in which some of these inventions had in fact succeeded. Many of the great inventors who created the things we use every day also created a lot of other things that never made it into the public eye. Here are some of those things.

1. Thomas Edison’s Metal Book

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Thomas Edison did more in his lifetime than just invent a lightbulb. He was the very man who thought of a lot of great ideas that could have changed the world for good. One of those ideas was an idea for a book that would weigh less than a pound and yet contain over 40,000 pages. These books could have been produced for less than $1.25, and would’ve been far more durable than paper books. His vision was to accomplish this with sheets of Nickel less than 1/20,000 of an inch thick which are extremely cheap and readily available. They are also far more durable than paper and waste substantially less. Other than the strangeness of the idea, there’s no real reason why these never made it into production. If these books made it into production, you could carry 200 books, 200 pages long, in one hand very easily.

2. E.C. Hanson’s Automobile Phone

Edison carphone
E.C. Hanson was a man who pioneered the concept of the sulfone. The problem was, his invention called for small telephone poles on the front of and back of the car, with a high voltage electric wire strung between them. Essentially, his idea was to put the cell phone towers on the cars, rather than in the phone. Obviously, the technology did not exist yet to make antennas small enough to fit inside of a phone. Needless to say, his idea never took off, but modern cell phones are built on technologies descended from his ideas.

3. The Tele-newspaper

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Long, long before the Internet and computers were invented, in 1928, an architect by the name of R.A. Duncan visualized how news should work in the future. The way Mr. Duncan envisioned the future of news was a black and white TV mounted to a wall, that would carry channels that only showed text-based news, laid out like a newspaper. He thought each newspaper would have a channel, and you could read all the newspapers on your wall-mounted black and white TV from the comfort of your own home. Little did he know, that he was dreaming about the Internet. Of course, his ideas never got implemented, but the concepts behind them would eventually become the way we consume news today.

4. Magic Lantern Talkies

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In October of 1937, a New York City marketing firm devised a way to make a 15 minute slide presentation that would present itself, complete with synchronized audio tracks. What this company had done was invent the PowerPoint presentation and the TV commercial, rolled up into one. The problem was, it cost about $1500 per presentation to make these things, which amounts to about $23,000 in today’s money. I’m sure you can imagine what your boss would say to you if you told him you needed to make a PowerPoint presentation and it would only cost the company $23,000!

5. Newspaper by Radio

Newspaper Radio
The radio newspaper was a 1939 predecessor of things like fax machines and laser printers, combined with the idea of a newspaper. The idea was that a radio transmission would carry the entire newspaper to a large box in your home, which would then print the entire newspaper, one line at a time, from a very large reel of paper. The newspaper, when finally printed, would be about 9 feet long, and could then be folded or cut to size. It would take about 15 minutes per page to download and print them. Of course, this seemed incredibly fast to the people of the 1930s. Of course, today we have things like RSS and blogs that give us the news instantly in endless quantities, without all the paper waste and delays. We can only imagine what the people of the 1930s would think if they saw a modern-day smartphone with things like The radio newspaper was a 1939 predecessor of things like fax machines and laser printers, combined with the idea of a newspaper. The idea was that a radio transmission would carry the entire newspaper to a large box in your home, which would then print the entire newspaper, one line at a time, from a very large reel of paper. The newspaper, when finally printed, would be about 9 feet long, and could then be folded or cut to size. It would take about 15 minutes per page to download and print them. Of course, this seemed incredibly fast to the people of the 1930s. Of course, today we have things like RSS and blogs that give us the news instantly in endless quantities, without all the paper waste and delays. We can only imagine what the people of the 1930s would think if they saw a modern-day smartphone with things like Twitter and Google Reader!

Why Mind Mapping Works - The Proof Is Here!


Radiant Thinking
colours graphics
So why do Mind Maps work? Can't I just stick to my lists and my conventional tried and tested techniques?
In a Mind Map, information is structured in a way that mirrors exactly how the brain functions - in a radiant rather than linear manner. A Mind Map literally 'maps' out your thoughts, using associations, connections and triggers to stimulate further ideas. They extract your ideas from your head into something visible and structured. iMindMap retains this ideas-generating radial process with unique organic branch drawing.
Research shows that the brain likes to work on the basis of association and it will connect every idea, memory or piece of information to tens, hundreds and even thousands of other ideas and concepts.i
While it may sound like a new idea or concept, the origin of mind mapping goes back centuries in time. Mind maps are a graphical method of description to facilitate thinking and memory.
mind maps, mindmaps
It has been seen as long ago as the 3rd century, when Porphyry of Tyros graphically visualized concepts put forth by Aristotle. Over the ensuing centuries, many philosophers and thinkers freely used graphic recording of thoughts, concepts and knowledge for purposes of analysis, study and memorization. By the mid 1900's, the theory behind mind mapping was greatly refined and being taught in schools and in the business arena. One noted British psychologist, Tony Buzan, was credited with bringing the ideas of mind maps into the business realm to enhance creative thinking, during the 1960s.
Using such pictorial representations to record knowledge has been useful over the centuries in many creative areas, especially for learning and brainstorming. The graphic representations assist memory capability through the use of right brain visual thinking and wide open problem solving. Educators, psychologists, engineers, writers, business managers and others have enjoyed the freedom and range of thought that mind maps allow.
Mind map showing a sample agenda

Why Mind Maps?

Mind maps are a graphic description and visual layout of ideas, thoughts, and words that are all related to one central keyword. Providing a base for creative problem solving and brainstorming that is useful to individuals and groups. The freedom and creativity of mind mapping over other methods of dissecting thoughts or ideas allows for faster problem solving and a wider range of creative thoughts. The combination of words plus visuals like lines, colors, symbols and putting everything down graphically aids creative right-brain thinking and memorability.

Uses of Mind Maps



   
Notes. Whenever information is being taken in, mind maps help organize it into a form that is easily assimilated by the brain and easily remembered. They can be used for noting anything -- books, lectures, meetings, interviews, phone conversations.




Recall. Whenever information is being retrieved from memory, mind maps allow ideas to be quickly noted as they occur, in an organized manner. There's no need to form sentences and write them out in full. They serve as quick and efficient means of review and so keep recall at a high level.
Creativity. Whenever you want to encourage creativity, mind maps liberate the mind from linear thinking, allowing new ideas to flow more rapidly. Think of every item in a mind map as the center of another mind map.
Problem solving. Whenever you are confronted by a problem -- professional or personal -- mind maps help you see all the issues and how they relate to each other. They also help others quickly get an overview of how you see different aspects of the situation, and their relative importance.

Planning. Whenever you are planning something, mind maps help you get all the relevant information down in one place and organize it easily. They can be used for planning any piece of writing from a letter to a screenplay to a book (I use a master map for the whole book, and a detailed sub-map for each chapter), or for planning a meeting, a day or a vacation.
Presentations. Whenever I speak I prepare a mind map for myself of the topic and its flow. This not only helps me organize the ideas coherently; the visual nature of the map means that I can read the whole thing in my head as I talk, without ever having to look at a sheet of paper.


Do schools kill Creativity?


He has spoken twice at TED. The first time was in 2006. TED was a very different event then. It was a private conference for about 1,200 people. After the event, the talks were packaged in a box set of DVDs and sent just to the attendees. he gave a talk called "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" A few months later, Chris Anderson, the curator of TED, called to say they were planning to put a few talks on their website as an experiment and asked if they could include mine. The timing was perfect. Social media was beginning to take shape and the insatiable appetite for YouTube and short videos was about to emerge. The experiment was an instant success and has turned TED into a global cultural phenomenon. There are now several hundred talks on the website and the number of downloads has passed one billion.


I'm surprised and delighted to say that his first talk remains the most viewed of all TEDTalks so far. It's been downloaded well over 20 million times from all platforms in over 150 countries and continues to be downloaded about 10,000 times a day from the TED site alone. Admittedly that doesn't compare with "Gangnam Style" with its 800 million downloads but it's still a lot for a 20 minute talk on education. Because it's constantly shown at large and small conferences, workshops and meetings around the world, the number of viewers is certainly much higher than the download figure and may well be over 200 million people.
In the past six years, he has had countless emails and tweets from young people who've shown it to their parents and teachers; from teachers, who've shown it to their students and their principals; from parents who've shared it with their kids, and from leaders who've shown it to their whole organizations. Why is this talk so popular and what's the significance of its popularity?
People and organizations everywhere can see that current systems of education are failing to meet the challenges we now all face and they're working furiously to create alternatives.
- Sir Ken Robinson
There are two main themes in the talk. First, we're all born with deep natural capacities for creativity and systems of mass education tend to suppress them. Second, it is increasingly urgent to cultivate these capacities -- for personal, economic and cultural reasons -- and to rethink the dominant approaches to education to make sure that we do. One reason the talk has traveled so far is that these themes resonate so deeply with people at a personal level. he hear constantly from people around the world who feel marginalized by their own education, who want to thank me for helping them to understand why that may be and that they're not alone. In the talk, he mentioned a book he was writing about the need to find our true talents and how often people are pushed away from them. The responses he get show that this is a common experience that's deeply felt and ultimately resented. (Incidentally, he said in the talk that the book is called Epiphany. he later changed the title to The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. It was too late to change the reference in the talk, which has since done wonders to promote sales of books called Epiphany... )

A second reason for the impact of the talk is that people and organizations everywhere can see that current systems of education are failing to meet the challenges we now all face and they're working furiously to create alternatives. In many countries, they're doing this in the face of national policies and cultural attitudes that seem locked in past. The dominant systems of education are based on three principles -- or assumptions at least -- that are exactly opposite to how human lives are actually lived. Apart from that, they're fine. First, they promote standardization and a narrow view of intelligence when human talents are diverse and personal. Second, they promote compliance when cultural progress and achievement depend on the cultivation of imagination and creativity. Third, they are linear and rigid when the course of each human life, including yours, is organic and largely unpredictable. As the rate of change continues to accelerate, building new forms of education on these alternative principles is not a romantic whimsy: it's essential to personal fulfillment and to the sustainability of the world we are now creating.

To some extent, his first talk has been a rallying point for a different conversation about education and he is delighted that it has. It's a conversation that's become more and not less urgent in the last six years and TED has been a powerful force in taking it forward. In 2010, he gave his second talk at TED, which was called "Bring on the Learning Revolution", based on his book Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. By then there were hundreds of TED and TEDx talks online and many that give powerful examples of new styles of education. Many others explore the nature of creativity and how emerging technologies can extend our creative abilities and can transform teaching and learning at the same time. 
Educators everywhere now use TEDTalks as resources to open up and inform debate about the nature of education and to develop their own practices in new directions. It's a great testament to TED that it has become not only a way of advocating change in education but also one of the most effective ways of bringing it about.

Indus Valley Civilization , Creative Genius.

The discovery of statues, figurines of men and women in terracotta, stone and metal indicate that people of the area were great artists and sculptors.
Sculpture

Sculpture in Stone: Among the stone images found in Harappa two male statues are noteworthy. One of them is artistically decorated while the other is kept naked. The first statue is that of a yogi, draped in a shawl worn over the left shoulder and under the right arm. His beard is well-kept and his eyes are half-closed. The other figure is a torso of a human male. It is beautiful piece of sculpture made of red stone. The head and arms of the figure were carved separately and socketed into holes drilled on the torso.

Sculpture in Metal: The Harappan artists knew the art of bronze casting. They used the special lost wax process in which the wax figures were covered with a coating of clay. Then the wax was melted by heating and the hollow mould thus created was filled with molten metal which took the original shape of the object. A figure of a female naked dancer was found at Mohen-jo-daro. Necklaces adorn her breast. One of her arms is fully covered with bangles made of bone or ivory. Her eyes are large, nose is flat and the lips are pendulous. Her hair is braided and her head is slightly thrown back. Her limbs suggest graceful lines. Besides the figurine, bronze figures of a buffalo and a humped bull are very artistically designed.

Sculpture in Terracotta: The Indus Valley people practiced sculpture in terracotta. The teracota figure of the Mother Goddess was discovered in Mohen-jo-daro. The figure, with a punched nose and artistic ornamentation laid on the body and pressed on the figure, shows the Mother Goddess as the symbol of fertility and prosperity.

Pottery and Painting: Pottery found in large quantities shows that with the potter's wheel the craftsman produced pottery of various artistic shapes. The special clay for this purpose was baked and the different designs on pots were painted. Figures of birds, animals and men were depicted on the pots. Paintings on the pots show, that these men were equally good at painting. 
Sculpture in Stone: Among the stone images found in Harappa two male statues are noteworthy. One of them is artistically decorated while the other is kept naked. The first statue is that of a yogi, draped in a shawl worn over the left shoulder and under the right arm. His beard is well-kept and his eyes are half-closed. The other figure is a torso of a human male. It is beautiful piece of sculpture made of red stone. The head and arms of the figure were carved separately and socketed into holes drilled on the torso.
Sculpture in Metal: The Harappan artists knew the art of bronze casting. They used the special lost wax process in which the wax figures were covered with a coating of clay. Then the wax was melted by heating and the hollow mould thus created was filled with molten metal which took the original shape of the object. A figure of a female naked dancer was found at Mohen-jo-daro. Necklaces adorn her breast. One of her arms is fully covered with bangles made of bone or ivory. Her eyes are large, nose is flat and the lips are pendulous. Her hair is braided and her head is slightly thrown back. Her limbs suggest graceful lines. Besides the figurine, bronze figures of a buffalo and a humped bull are very artistically designed.

Sculpture in Terracotta: The Indus Valley people practiced sculpture in terracotta. The teracota figure of the Mother Goddess was discovered in Mohen-jo-daro. The figure, with a punched nose and artistic ornamentation laid on the body and pressed on the figure, shows the Mother Goddess as the symbol of fertility and prosperity.

Pottery and Painting: Pottery found in large quantities shows that with the potter's wheel the craftsman produced pottery of various artistic shapes. The special clay for this purpose was baked and the different designs on pots were painted. Figures of birds, animals and men were depicted on the pots. Paintings on the pots show, that these men were equally good at painting. 
Sculpture in Metal: The Harappan artists knew the art of bronze casting. They used the special lost wax process in which the wax figures were covered with a coating of clay. Then the wax was melted by heating and the hollow mould thus created was filled with molten metal which took the original shape of the object. A figure of a female naked dancer was found at Mohen-jo-daro. Necklaces adorn her breast. One of her arms is fully covered with bangles made of bone or ivory. Her eyes are large, nose is flat and the lips are pendulous. Her hair is braided and her head is slightly thrown back. Her limbs suggest graceful lines. Besides the figurine, bronze figures of a buffalo and a humped bull are very artistically designed.
Sculpture in Terracotta: The Indus Valley people practiced sculpture in terracotta. The teracota figure of the Mother Goddess was discovered in Mohen-jo-daro. The figure, with a punched nose and artistic ornamentation laid on the body and pressed on the figure, shows the Mother Goddess as the symbol of fertility and prosperity.

Pottery and Painting: Pottery found in large quantities shows that with the potter's wheel the craftsman produced pottery of various artistic shapes. The special clay for this purpose was baked and the different designs on pots were painted. Figures of birds, animals and men were depicted on the pots. Paintings on the pots show, that these men were equally good at painting. 
Sculpture in Terracotta: The Indus Valley people practiced sculpture in terracotta. The teracota figure of the Mother Goddess was discovered in Mohen-jo-daro. The figure, with a punched nose and artistic ornamentation laid on the body and pressed on the figure, shows the Mother Goddess as the symbol of fertility and prosperity.
Pottery and Painting: Pottery found in large quantities shows that with the potter's wheel the craftsman produced pottery of various artistic shapes. The special clay for this purpose was baked and the different designs on pots were painted. Figures of birds, animals and men were depicted on the pots. Paintings on the pots show, that these men were equally good at painting. 
Pottery and Painting: Pottery found in large quantities shows that with the potter's wheel the craftsman produced pottery of various artistic shapes. The special clay for this purpose was baked and the different designs on pots were painted. Figures of birds, animals and men were depicted on the pots. Paintings on the pots show, that these men were equally good at painting. 
Script
The writing was generally from left to right, but in some cases it was in the opposite direction i.e., right to left in the first line and left to right in the second. The Indus Valley script resembles the script of the ancient Mesopotamian people. Dr. S.R. Rao in his research work Decipherment of the Indus Script holds that the Indus Valley people used the phonetic script and in the late Harappan period the script evolved itself towards and alphabetic pattern. He says that numerals were shown by corresponding numbers of independent vertical lines. However, the Indus script remains to be a puzzle to the historians and thus the riches of this civilization remain unrevealed until this script is interpreted.
The writing was generally from left to right, but in some cases it was in the opposite direction i.e., right to left in the first line and left to right in the second. The Indus Valley script resembles the script of the ancient Mesopotamian people. Dr. S.R. Rao in his research work Decipherment of the Indus Script holds that the Indus Valley people used the phonetic script and in the late Harappan period the script evolved itself towards and alphabetic pattern. He says that numerals were shown by corresponding numbers of independent vertical lines. However, the Indus script remains to be a puzzle to the historians and thus the riches of this civilization remain unrevealed until this script is interpreted.
The seals even have an inscription of a sort of pictorial writing. Most of the seals have a knob at the back through which runs a hole. It is said that these seals were used by different associations or merchants for stamping purposes. They were also worn round the neck or the arm.
The seals even have an inscription of a sort of pictorial writing. Most of the seals have a knob at the back through which runs a hole. It is said that these seals were used by different associations or merchants for stamping purposes. They were also worn round the neck or the arm.
Seals
The seals show the culture and civilization of the Indus Valley people. In particular, they indicate:
  1. Dresses, ornaments, hair-styles of people.
  1. Skill of artists and sculptors.
  1. Trade contacts and commercial relations.
  1. Religious beliefs.
  1. Script.
Important Seals:
The Pashupati Seal: This seal depicts a yogi, probably Lord Shiva. A pair of horns crown his head. He is surrounded by a rhino, a buffalo, an elephant and a tiger. Under his throne are two deer. This seal shows that Shiva was worshipped and he was considered as the Lord of animals (Pashupati).
The Unicorn Seal: The unicorn is a mythological animal. This seal shows that at a very early stage of civilization, humans had produced many creations of imagination in the shape of bird and animal motifs that survived in later art.
The Bull Seal: This seal depicts a humped bull of great vigour. The figure shows the artistic skill and a good knowledge of animal anatomy. 
mainly in stone, metal and terra-cotta. The famous bust of the bearded man, and the male torso are examples of such work. The Indus Valley Civilization had also made great advances in metal sculptures using a fascinating technique to make sculptures out of bronze. The process was known as the lost wax process. In this process the sculptures were first made out of wax. A layer of clay was then put over this wax, and the sculpture was then heated. This resulted in the melting of the wax, leaving behind a hollow mould. Molten metal was then poured into this mould. After cooling the clay was removed, and a metal sculpture remained. A beautiful example of such work, is the naked dancing girl found at Mohenjo-Daro. She is covered with jewellery, wearing several necklaces and bangles. Bronze figures of buffalos and the humped bull have also been found. The Indus Valley Civilization also made several sculptures out of terra-cotta, a fine example being a figure of the Mother Goddess. It shows the Mother Goddess as a mark of fertility and prosperity. The Indus Valley Civilization had also developed skills in pottery and painting. They used a special type of clay, which was baked. Once the pot was made, the painters would paint beautiful designs, the theme being birds, animals and men. The quality ofThe Unicorn Seal: This is based on a fictional animal that the Indus Valley Civilization people had conjured up. It is an example of early fictional art.The figure has been made well, a proof of the fine artistic skills acquired by the people of that time.mainly in stone, metal and terra-cotta. The famous bust of the bearded man, and the male torso are examples of such work. The Indus Valley Civilization had also made great advances in metal sculptures using a fascinating technique to make sculptures out of bronze. The process was known as the lost wax process. In this process the sculptures were first made out of wax. A layer of clay was then put over this wax, and the sculpture was then heated. This resulted in the melting of the wax, leaving behind a hollow mould. Molten metal was then poured into this mould. After cooling the clay was removed, and a metal sculpture remained. A beautiful example of such work, is the naked dancing girl found at Mohenjo-Daro. She is covered with jewellery, wearing several necklaces and bangles. Bronze figures of buffalos and the humped bull have also been found. The Indus Valley Civilization also made several sculptures out of terra-cotta, a fine example being a figure of the Mother Goddess. It shows the Mother Goddess as a mark of fertility and prosperity. The Indus Valley Civilization had also developed skills in pottery and painting. They used a special type of clay, which was baked. Once the pot was made, the painters would paint beautiful designs, the theme being birds, animals and men. The quality ofThe Unicorn Seal: This is based on a fictional animal that the Indus Valley Civilization people had conjured up. It is an example of early fictional art.




The Indus Valley people had some knowledge of the art of writing, though in a rudimentary way. No regular documents on stone or baked clay tablets have been found but the numerous seals, representing unicorns and bulls and other objects give us the idea that the people had a language of their own. Some historians are of the view that the script found on the seals are similar to the ones used in Egypt, Sumeria and other countries of Western Asia. The script is pictographic, but still remains un-deciphered though there are nearly four hundred signs.



The most interesting part of the discovery relates to the seals-more than 2000 in number, made of soapstone, terracotta and copper. The seals give us useful information about the civilization of Indus valley. Some seals have human or animal figures on them. Most of the seals have the figures of real animals while a few bear the figure of mythical animals. The seals are rectangular, circular or even cylindrical in shape.





The Pashupati Seal: This seal depicts what is probably the modern Hindu God, Shiv. Lord Shiv is surrounded by various animals like the rhino, the buffalo, the elephant and the

The Pashupati Seal: This seal depicts what is probably the modern Hindu God, Shiv. Lord Shiv is surrounded by various animals like the rhino, the buffalo, the elephant and the


The Indus Valley Civilization had developed skills in pottery, painting and sculpture amongst others. Sculpture appeared to have made great advancements based on the various artifacts that have been found. The Indus Valley Civilization made sculptures 
painting on these pots show that the Indus Valley Civilization had some talented artists.
The Indus Valley Civilization is famous for the enigmatic seals that were discovered at the various cities. These seals usually had some animal or human engraved on them along with a script at the bottom which has not been deciphered as yet. The seals were apparently used by merchants in trade, as a means of identifying their goods. The Indus Valley Civilization had flourishing trade relations with various parts of Asia, and the large number of unique seals discovered indicates that there was a large trading community. Some of the important seals, which had been found frequently are:
tiger. He wears a crown of horns on his head. He is believed to have been considered by the Indus Valley Civilization people as the lord of the animals.
The Bull Seal: The Bull seal, shows a humped bull displaying a strong and energetic bull. 
The Indus Valley Civilization had developed skills in pottery, painting and sculpture amongst others. Sculpture appeared to have made great advancements based on the various artifacts that have been found. The Indus Valley Civilization made sculptures
painting on these pots show that the Indus Valley Civilization had some talented artists.
The Indus Valley Civilization is famous for the enigmatic seals that were discovered at the various cities. These seals usually had some animal or human engraved on them along with a script at the bottom which has not been deciphered as yet. The seals were apparently used by merchants in trade, as a means of identifying their goods. The Indus Valley Civilization had flourishing trade relations with various parts of Asia, and the large number of unique seals discovered indicates that there was a large trading community. Some of the important seals, which had been found frequently are:
tiger. He wears a crown of horns on his head. He is believed to have been considered by the Indus Valley Civilization people as the lord of the animals.

The Bull Seal: The Bull seal, shows a humped bull displaying a strong and energetic bull. The figure has been made well, a proof of the fine artistic skills acquired by the people of that time.

What kind of Environment would Enable you to Become a Creative person?





You are in a creative environment when
A creative environment is one where people feel comfortable in expressing their ideas and where constructive support is given in the development and analysis of those ideas.
  • Your ideas are listened to and investigated before being judged.
  • You feel appreciated when you suggest new ideas.
  • You can suggest solutions to other groups without feeling like you are intruding.

  • Your manager spends time with you and explains the reasons and politics behind projects.
  • You are given the freedom to do your work in your own way.
  • You are not observed or judged all the time.
  • You do not have to pass all of your messages through your manager.
  • Experimental methods are encouraged.

  • You feel comfortable talking with anyone in your organization (top managers included).
  • You feel comfortable talking to your subordinates without having to order them about.
  • There is someone that will listen to your ideas.
  • The generation of good ideas is rewarded, verbally or otherwise.
  • You are treated with respect and as someone who can contribute to the organization.
  • You are appreciated for what you do.
  • You are appreciated for who you are


How do you start creating this environment?

Of course, you say, this sounds great, but how can I create such an environment? The answer is simple (and nothing new!): do to others what you would like done to yourself. You will find that if you give creative space to other people, they will give you space to be creative back.





  • You need to stop criticizing or prejudging other people's ideas and should actually encourage people to share them with you.
  • It's your job to help people turn their unformed ideas into reality by giving encouragement and suggestions and by asking helpful questions.
  • You must never steal their ideas or pretend they are your own or people will stop sharing their ideas with you.


  • You must be bold and ask people for their ideas even if you appear slightly foolish for asking and even if you have a valid suggestion yourself. If you do not use their ideas, explain why not but remember to thank them anyway.
  • Seeking opinions builds respect and confidence. It also builds a creative environment.
  • "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." 

Empowering your Creative Side

Often times I’ll read or hear about people questioning their artistic skills. When doubting yourself and putting down your talents it’s all the more difficult to pick back up and understand your true creative nature. There are no specific “creative types” aside from those who build it inside their mind.


Society tends to lump these folks together, although there’s a lot more in common than creative thinking. Processing information naturally allows for the ebb and flow of new ideas. It comes with practice and letting your mind wander freely, followed by marking these abstract ideas and manifesting their presence artistically.
Minato, Tokyo at nightfall
Sounds pretty convoluted I know. But it’s not actually difficult once you can push beyond the initial stages of discomfort. Accept all of the strange or awkward feelings as these are normal with any new process. And no matter what anybody assumes, money is not intrinsically a motivator! Keep true with your inner motives and study design to better yourself.

Developing Personality

Once you spend time training your mindset there’s almost nothing beyond your reach. Persistence andflexibility are two traits rooted into the creative types. When you are persistent and dedicated at following through on a project, you can be sure something will get done.
Similarly flexibility allows your creative side to push boundaries and move things about. This non-ordinary ideology makes for a very powerful state of being. When first building a small website wireframe or icon set you will progress quicker by boldly judging yourself and making changes. Projects are often lacking in smaller details and may require a few drafts before you’re happy.
Yuru Inspires website footer - http://yuruinspires.com/index.php/blog/
Understand these traits and allow yourself to accept them in your daily workflow. If possible, take some time to slow down and appreciate the process of creation for each project. When you are building ideas in Photoshop it may be useful saving a few separate files to come back and compare. Alternative methods allow for greater choice – exactly what the wandering creative is longing for.
At the end of the day it’s passion that will keep you pushing forward. When dealing with stressful projects and looming deadlines it may become stressful. Understand that your work environment is very sensitive to emotions. Approaching each project in a calm and loving attitude will make for a more open and compassionate experience.

Check your Biological Clock

In the freelancer’s lodge, the debate over working nights or days seems to fluctuate in opinions. I find many offices and corporate entities enjoy rising early and spending the later portions of the afternoon grinding away in front of their computer screens. Likewise the team atmosphere seems to bring about a new energy when working under sunlight.
working at night - desk laptop
However many freelancers working alone or with smaller groups tend to enjoy the later hours during nightfall. This alters your thought patterns and creativity in many ways since your environment isn’t changing as much. This contrasts to early dawn and later afternoon when the sun is traveling through the sky above and displacing shadows.
It’s not required you fully understand how your rhythms function, but you should spend some time figuring out a routine which feels comfortable. Different people will enjoy working through the night as it’s more quiet and less prone to external distractions. Unfortunately it can dampen the mood if you truly enjoy the sunlight and daily society.

The PC is dead, long live the tablet - A Deep Insight.






With features like LTE connectivity, ultra-high-resolution displays, and laptop-like processing power, tablets have made their way into tens of millions of homes, and they've done it seemingly overnight. But despite popularity that borders on ubiquity and specs that edge them ever closer to desktops, it's a rare house where a tablet has replaced a full-fledged computer. Why is that? Why haven't more people scrapped their PCs for the sleeker, cheaper tablets?
The simplest answer is that tablets aren't yet designed to take on their bigger cousins. Others suggest the newness of slates is partially to blame, but considering how they've outsold PCs recently, frankly, that's crap. If they had the chops, they'd rule the roost in many households. Their low cost and extreme convenience would see to that. So what's missing? What would it take for tablets to graduate from their supporting roles and assume starring ones. To my mind, three things.
PC vs Android Sales

More feedback

Touchscreens come in countless shapes and sizes, but at the end of the day, they fall into two basic camps: those with multi-touch, and those without. Those without, like ATMs or the display in my 5-year-old car, feel clunky and antiquated. They're often a pain to deal with. The multi-touch variety, on the other hand, is a pleasure to interact with. The ability to swipe, pinch, zoom, and rotate content in an intuitive fashion has been nothing short of a game-changing, especially for tablets. Apple said it makes users feel as if they're "touching the Internet". That's a bit hyperbolic, but it's true that manipulating a well-sorted touchscreen is more intimate than any keyboard and mouse combination. But that's not to say there isn't room for improvement. Touchscreens lack two critical features.
The first is haptic feedback, and it's not a new concept. We've seen crude versions in the past, mostly in the form of phones that respond to user inputs with slight vibrations. But that only scratches the surface of what could and should be done with technology that's been largely brushed aside as a parlor trick. Imagine, for instance, playing Angry Birds and actually feeling the tension in the slingshot, or drawing with a stylus in Paper and forgetting that you're not handling a real pen or marking up real paper. 


Haptic feedback could even recreate the sensation of typing on a physical keyboard, and as any writer will tell you, that's critical to a decent word-processing experience. In short, it could add another dimension to tablets, one that's necessary to suspend users' disbelief and convince them that their synthetic experiences are as real and rewarding as their real-life counterparts.
Apple seems to grasp how valuable that is. Ahead of the new iPad's launch, rumors swirled that the company had paired up with Senseg, one of the foremost experts on haptic feedback. The rumor was fueled by Apple's cryptic (it turned out to be literal) hint that it had something that needed to be seen and touched, and while haptic feedback wasn't what it had in mind, patents have since emerged that reveal the company's interest in rolling out feedback technology on its iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches.

Tablets are a revolution, not evolution of the PC

Split Personality

While tablets pay homage to the PC - sometimes requiring manual inputting of data via physical or virtual keyboards, depending on the app being used - they differ in significant other ways. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has tried to tie the two worlds together, claiming that tablets, like PCs, are software centric, without acknowledging that the nature of that software has changed, and often dramatically

.

A split personality

The third hurdle tablets have to clear on their way to credibility is arguably the biggest: the watered-down experience. As far as tablets have come, and as many apps as developers have added to their growing arsenals, they still pale in comparison to the versatility of the average Mac or PC, mostly because they were conceived with the casualest of intentions. Now, I'm not suggesting they turn their backs on those roots and adopt cumbersome desktop operating systems. That would be about as effective as a shot in the foot for devices that pride themselves on user friendliness. And besides, it's been done, on the first tablets, and those weren't exactly success stories.
nokia lumia tablet What itll take for tablets to replace PCs
Rather, any tablet with a prayer of replacing a computer that's not covered in cobwebs needs to pull double duty; it needs to offer users the option of a bells-and-whistles operating system while preserving the simplicity that made it attractive in the first place. OnLive Desktop, an app that streams Windows 7 programs to Android and iOS slates, nearly delivers the missing half of that equation, but it's dependent on an Internet connection, and those aren't always available.


Android/Chromium OS vs Windows


 Microsoft's answer, on the other hand, won't come and go with tablets' connectivity. The company's upcoming Windows 8 tablets will greet users with a beautiful, mobile-friendly Metro UI, but when those users demand a more complete experience - when productivity's on the agenda, for example - the tablets will happily serve up Windows 7, too. And here's the takeaway: When Windows 8 tablets are docked, they'll function as full-featured laptops. I'd expound on the implications of that, but I think they're obvious.The rub
The beauty of this wish list is it isn't far-fetched. Each of these innovations is in the pipeline at some stage or another, and I'd wager they'll come together on a tablet in the not-too-distant future. But as capable as that device will be, with specs that are sure to satisfy all but the most demanding users, its inroads into PCs won't be automatic. Like laptops before it, it'll be up against two things: PCs, and the idea that it's nothing more than a luxury device.

Sunday 9 December 2012

5 Things For And Against Creativity



The connotation of creativity is some goggle-eyed artist creating worlds with the tickling tips of his fingers — “Unicorns! Happy trees! Doodlebugs and space freighters!” — but that’s not what creativity is about at its core. Creativity is about problem solving. The monkey wants the ants in the hill and doesn’t know how to get them, so he breaks off a nearby stick and jams it in the anthill. Ten seconds later: delicious insect popsicle. Problems are an excellent motivator. Creativity needn’t trigger out of nowhere; it often activates when one is presented with a problem that needs an unexpected solution. Fiction requires this in spades: the author must solve problems he has created within the storyworld. Mmm. Delicious metanarrative conflictsicle.

5 Things that come to my mind, when i hear Creative

1)The Frankeinstein Monster Effect: The true power of creativity is gathering unlike things and glomming them together so that they function as one. For a storyteller, individual components needn’t be particularly original. The art is in the arrangement.




2)My bookshelves — comprising two full walls of my office — feature about 75% non-fiction, 25% fiction. Fiction does not generally inspire functional creativity. Reading fiction helps you to write fiction, yes, but over time you may find more creative value in gently shuffling your reading habits toward absorbing more non-fiction. Read broadly, widely, weirdly. Reading lots of non-fiction will expose you to a wide variety of those aforementioned “unlike things” and you’ll find this inspires more compelling arrangements than reading only fiction. A diet of fiction is regurgitory: it’s a Two Girls, One Cup version of the creative process. “I’ll poop in your mouth. Now you poop in my mouth.” Read a book about insects. Then read an article about the Hadron Collider. Then read about Shanghai in the 1930s. Your mind will find weird, glorious ways to cram these gears together in order to form a new machine.



3)Motes of Dust to Mammoth Star Clusters : Creativity lives on the page at all levels, micro to macro. From word choice to worldbuilding, from sentence construction to story arcs. But the creative process must still be subject to organization. Creativity is not raw, unrefined whimsy. You don’t just fountain golden streams of infinite possibility from all your gurgling orifices. It has to work together. Shit has to make sense. But even then creativity lives in the margins and gaps: when something doesn’t make sense, creative problem solving will help Make It So.

4)Tickling your Temporal lobes : You can stimulate creativity. No, I don’t know how you do it. It’s as personal as What Makes You Laugh or What Gets You Off. Is it listening to music? Reading poetry? Going to a bar and drinking with your buddies and talking about whatever barmy goofy fucking shit comes into your fool heads? Do you draw mind-maps or outlines or write dream journals or light up your perineum with a quick blast from a stun-gun (BZZT)? Only way to know is to try anything and everything. Now take off your pants. (BZZT.)

5) The Zero Mind : Some rare flowers bloom at night, and sometimes creativity blooms in a vacuum of stimulation rather than as a result of it. If we assume that creativity is a muscle (it’s not, shut up, just pretend), then tensing it all the time is not productive. Sometimes it must relax. Sometimes it must be allowed to rest. Mow the lawn. Take a shower. Go for a walk. Get a massage. You can even set your brain like a slow-cooker before you go to sleep. In the morning? HARVEST ALL THE DELICIOUS IDEA CHILI. *nom nom nom*



5 Things that are not anywhere Near Creative- A Perspective


1)The "Expert Syndrome." This is a big problem in the advertising and marketing field, where egos often balloon to the size of small planets. I suppose it takes a healthy ego to succeed in this business, but if you think you know everything there is to know, you're blustering more than thinking. And you'll inevitably make mistakes and miss opportunities. In direct marketing, this could be called the "Guru Syndrome," since we too often think that there is an inner circle of initiates who hold the dark, hidden secrets of success.

 
2)The "Novice Trap." This may be almost as bad as the Expert Syndrome. You don't know the basics. You don't have experience. Or you think you're too smart to spend time learning the basic formulas and rules of thumb. Needless to say, novices are quickly humbled in direct marketing. Of course, you can easily hide your ignorance. All you have to do is carry out sloppy tests and fudge the results. But this only works long-term if your business does not rely on direct marketing channels for most of its income. Many Fortune 500 companies are notorious for their novice approach to direct marketing while their sales charts soar with dollars from a direct sales force, retail sales, and other revenue streams. 

3)The "One Right Answer Disease." As a student in school, your teachers probably said they wanted you to think for yourself. However, come test time, you knew you'd better memorize the facts and give the "right" answers or your grade would suffer. This simplistic right and wrong orientation pervades our society and it's the very antithesis of creative thinking. Except for simple problems like 2 + 2 = 4, there's seldom just one right answer for anything. And in advertising, where just about everything is based on psychology, there's never just one right answer.

4)Trying to create and evaluate simultaneously. You can't drive a car in first and in reverse at the same time. Likewise, you shouldn't try to use different types of thinking simultaneously. Creating is generating new ideas, visualizing, looking ahead, considering the possibilities. Evaluation is analysis and judgment, which is picking apart ideas and sorting them out into piles of good and bad, useful and useless. Most people evaluate too soon and too often, and therefore create less.

5) Mistaking hunting for creating. There are two forms of creative imagination: Hunting and Changing. Hunting is finding something that already exists and applying it to your problem. Changing is modifying something you already have and transforming it into something new. Both are useful, but they are not the same. In direct marketing, hunting usually takes the form of what has been called "stealing smart," or copying the success of others to assure your own success. This is a safe approach, but very limiting. By sticking to what others do, you are forever trapped by the past. You will never have the chance to break out, stand on your own two feet, and make your business all that it can be.