A Book About Business Strategy

Here's an interesting business article I came across. It talks about strategies to break away from the competition. It doesn't get it to very much detail but it does enough to make me want to read the book the author is promoting - "Breakout Strategy: Meeting the Challenge of Double Digit Growth" by Sydney Finkelstein, Charles Harvey, and Thomas Lawton.

Site: BusinessWeek
Title: Planning a Breakout

Tuck management prof Sydney Finkelstein talks about his new book on how to leave your competitors in the dust

I Want A New TV

I'm planning on buying a spanking new TV sometime this year and I was talking to CJG earlier this week (or was it last week?) about how I know nothing about TVs. He was gracious enough to give me a run down on the technologies which was a really useful since I'm the kind of person that likes to do a little research before buying anything new. And then today I came across this slide-show on the making of a Plasma TV. Pretty interesting stuff.

Feed: BusinessWeek Online -- Technology & Science
Title: Slide Show: The Making of a Plasma TV

If you're one of the many people replacing an unwieldy tube-based TV with plasma technology, you'll want to see what goes on behind the screen

A Change In Career

I don't usually have a lot to say about my personal life but today was the first day I started in my new job. Same company but I no longer work as a Software Developer - I'm a Project Manager now!

It's been over a week since I've known and it took a lot of self discipline to not let that one out. If someone had asked me 3 months ago about being a PM, I probably would have laughed it off but here I am in my new position.

There were a couple of key moments that made me realize that being a PM is what I want to do. Firstly, a certain PM at work planted the seed in my head and then my manager brought it up to me in the same week. They both thought I would make an excellent PM based on the work I was doing (feature-leading but focusing more on the project management activities).

Clearly I liked the project management aspect and the customer-facing role but I also enjoyed the uniqueness of everyday and not knowing what issues I would have to deal with next. I thrived on the chaos. I asked myself - "Would I really want to go back to being a code monkey if I'm no longer a feature lead?" I couldn't see myself doing it so that's how I knew that I needed to jump at the PM opportunity.

In-Car Gadgetry

There are a couple of cool concepts discussed in the following article:

1. The ability to view empty parking spots from your dashboard. I'm not sure if there's a huge benefit here because you could still end up driving over to the spot only to find someone else beat you there.
   
   
2. Pumping tunes at the gas station. Pretty nifty but I'm sure they're not going to have my collection of favourite Hindi songs - not so much use to me.

Site: BBC News
Title: In-car technology drives forward

BBC Click's Ian Hardy looks at the latest motoring technology available in the United States.

NFL Conference Championship Playoff Games

The weekend is upon us and that means at least 6 more hours spent glued to the TV. This weekend they fight it out for the NFC and AFC championships. Here are my picks:

New Orleans at Chicago - Didn't I already mention that Drew Brees is the best QB in the league and Rex Grossman isn't that special?? If Seattle can trouble Chicago (see last week's results) then the Saints definitely can take the win: New Orleans Saints

New England at Indianapolis - I still wasn't impressed with the Colts last weekend and I think the stat line on Peyton Manning in the playoffs this year is something like 1 TD pass and 4 or 5 turnovers. That's awful! New England on the other hand continues to impress me. Sure they got a couple of lucky breaks against the Chargers last weekend but they made the most of their opportunities: New England Patriots

Updated: Movies I Want To Watch List

I intend to watch a movie every weekend but for some reason it just doesn't happen. Actually the some reason being that I head to Toronto way too often! I think I've been to Toronto 5 out of the last 6 weekends and will be heading back there tomorrow and then again next weekend too.

In any case, since I decided to spend the Friday between the walls of my cozy apartment I managed to cross off another movie off my list. I just watched Superman Returns and it was definitely entertaining but it didn't quite live up to Spiderman 2 or Batman Begins. It left behind a desire for a good fight at the end. It's still one of the better movies I've watched in the last couple of months though.

Superman Returns (2006)
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Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest (2006)

NFL Divisional Playoff Games

With both the Rambling Geek and Kimota94 posting playoff predictions for the weekend, I thought I would throw mine in the mix too.

I didn't publish my predictions from last weekend but if you're willing to take my word for it, I'm 3-1 (my picks were Colts, Seahawks, Pats, Giants).

Moving on to this weekend:

Indianapolis at Baltimore - This one's the toughest one to pick for me. I don't think too highly of either team right now so I'm just going to pick the team I want to win: Indianapolis Colts

Philadelphia at New Orleans - This one's a no brainer. Drew Brees has been the best QB this season and will demolish the Eagles: New Orleans Saints

Seattle at Chicago - Another no brainer. I believed the Seahawks would get their act together the second half of the season but they didn't. I don't think Rex Grossman is all that special but he'll have no trouble overcoming Seattle: Chicago Bears

New England at San Diego - This is the best match-up of the weekend but it's an easy one to pick for me. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots have proven themselves over and over again in the playoffs. Phillip Rivers is good but having to face the Patriots in his first trip to the playoffs is asking a bit much: New England Patriots

Updated: Bollywood Movies I Want to Watch

I got around to watching 3 Hindi movies over the Christmas break! One was on my list, one was by popular demand and one was a classic from 1982 that happened to be on TV.

Angoor (1982)
Baabul (2006)
Dhoom 2 (2006)

Blogging Bullies

Most people would probably agree that bullies are only a problem in high school but it would appear sometimes you just can't get rid of them!

I came to my little corner of the Internet, made my own little personal blog where I could post to a few times a month to create my little collection of favourite articles. It appears the world of blogging is ruled by the bullies though - "Blog or have your blog be taken over by comments!!".

And just like dealing with the classic school bullies, I only have 2 options:

1. Take the abuse and pretend like the problem doesn't exist
2. Prove my worth by beating the bullies at their own game

Considering option 2 would require me to post 8 times a day, I'll stick to option 1 thank you!