Kshana

Day One - Morning: Stanley Park Stanley park is the largest urban park in North America, larger than New York's Central Park. Of course, you can't cover 1000+ Acres in a day so focus on the highlights, which a route called the SeaWall - a trail on the edge of the Park and the ocean.  We started from our hotel at around 10:45 AM - walked ~25m and then rented a bike from Spokes, which is at the entrance of Stanley park. I highly recommend renting a bike - it's fun, healthy and you are riding with a lot of locals along the trail. You do have the option of local loop bus that has a pickup and drop-off service at different spots along the route. Here are some details that will be helpful if you decide to rent a bike This is specific to Spokes since that's where we rented from, but I did notice there were many bike rental places around the park. $7.52 / Hour for my bike (this was the cheapest option). $9.50 / Hour for my wife's mountain bike. We needed to ren...

In this Six part series - I'll outline specific itinerary  details of our trip to Vancouver in two days. The goal is to cover the highlights of this beautiful city if you have only two days to visit it. Without further ado, let's begin ... Arrive in Vancouver Vancouver is confident, beautiful and distinctive. It has a fresh, clean, skyscraper studded city look with a scenic, natural backdrop. It is chareteristically unique and well worth a visit. One of the most striking thing about Vancouver is it's sprarky newness which stands out against the wild western frontier. I was intially planning on skipping Vancouver and instead visiting Whistler but I am glad I did not. You'll be glad to, to have visited this amazing city. Pre-Work Book your accommodations (I recommend central Downtown). Plan your trip details from the Airport to your Accommodations. If arriving late, also have plans ready for next day. I booked my hotel through Priceline (details here) f...

Kindle readers (the monochrome, e-ink variety) are very popular for reading books for various reasons but did you know you can also read web-articles and PDF files on your Kindle. There is a  'Send to Kindle' Chrome extension  by Amazon which allows you to very easily send readable web-pages to your Kindle. This reduces the stress that a monitor can cause and allows you to read in a form-factor focused on reading. Further - you are able to send PDF annual reports to your Kindle. To do that: Use a registered email address to send to your Kindle Email address (you can find it in your Kindle settings).  Send and Add 'Convert' to the Subject line. Attach your PDF to the email. This does tend to not convert tables very well so keep that in mind. Hope that helps and Happy Holidays!

The tech focused websites and blogs are abuzz with what little Google's Nexus One phone has brought to the smartphone table. Every other story talks about bad customer service due to the email/forum only support model. In my opinion, this is quintessentially Google and how they operate. They are new to the Cell phone hardware game. They have started simple, and Nexus One is a table stakes phone, letting Google sit on the Smart phone table game. They likely know this. As data driven as they are, what they want to know is what will data tell them once they enter and start playing the game. Of course, they have changed a few variables (simple buying experience , change in support model). But only a few, so that it effects can be satisfactorily measured. They will grow organically from here, quickly responding to what data tells them the markets need. This is where they excel, in being good at measuring response and nimble and quick in responding, changing and evolving. It will be ...

Our overall experience in getting an Italian Tourist visa with the Italian consulate in Philadelphia was fairly smooth and quick. My wife received the visa in a couple of days. Following is a list of what we took with us for the visa application: Visa application form The applicable visa fees. I paid in cash( exact change is preferable) but they do accept money orders as well. A letter from her employer stating her employment status, her salary and that she has been approved for the vacation time period in question. Bank statements. This is required to prove that you are financially able to take care of yourself when in Italy. I took electronic statements from my bank's website and that was sufficient. Medical insurance. This is to prove that you will have medical insurance when in Italy. My wife's medical insurance provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield, confirmed that they would provide coverage when outside of U.S.A., however they dragged their feet on sending a signed letter stat...

Landed at Narita airport in Japan. Took a bus service into Tokyo. The airport is about 90 minutes from the city, very similar to the idea of having an airport for Mumbai in Navi Mumbai. My impressions were as follows, in no particular order. Tokyo is very clean even when compared to cities in developed countries. The cars and taxis are all very new, I haven't seen an older looking car yet. Especially the taxis, they all seem to be freshly painted. Ofcourse, when they charge ¥710 as the starting fare, they are more likely going to be able to afford it. The buildings have a unique proportion and construction i.e. makes you feel like they are toy building even though they may be 4-5 storeys. A unique sense of culture. For example, when most shopkeepers gave me cash back, they put it in a wooden box/plate and then put the box in front of me. People are extremely polite, humble and helpful. Most of the time I people smiling. I caught myself wondering if Japanese people ever get angr...

There is, seemingly, a difference between the meaning over supporting the war. So let me be clear here. Supporting the war or not in no way implies support and pride, or lack there of, for our troops. I believe all of us, as Americans, support our troops and do no wish to put them in harm's way unless absolutely necessary. Similarly, we hope the best for the innocent Iraqi civilians and do not wish to put them in harm's way. However, each of candidate has a distinctly different position on the rationale behind going into Iraq in the first place. Also very important is what they believe or claim about their plans for future deployment of our troops. John McCain supported going into Iraq from the very begining. He also does support staying in Iraq. His comment about staying in Iraq for a 100 years might have been exaggerated by the media pundits but it did indicate his hawkish stand on our Iraq stay. Barack Obama did not support going into Iraq. He supports "responsible wit...