The disposable academic

One thing many PhD students have in common is dissatisfaction. Some describe their work as “slave labour”. Seven-day weeks, ten-hour days, low pay and uncertain prospects are widespread. You know you are a graduate student, goes one quip, when your office is better decorated than your home and you have a favourite flavour of instant noodle. “It isn’t graduate school itself that is discouraging,” says one student, who confesses to rather enjoying the hunt for free pizza. “What’s discouraging is realising the end point has been yanked out of reach.”

More....

http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?story_id=17723223

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

a great talk.\\

Future of IP (Intellectual property) and patent in Open Source World

Patent system created around a century before is already outdated. In today's world of Social communities and collaborative working it is very difficult to define the origin of an "Idea". It is true that intellectual property had created a capital investment revolution but at the same time it also create Grid Lock Economy. Michael Heller had identified this in his book very nicely. The IP system is mainly based on western and capital culture. The only main beneficiary for this system is capital not the individuals contributing to it. As new cultures will start taking strong position like Chinees and Indian, it will be difficult to hold this status quo for long time.

The benefits for the humanity will be huge if it is possible to deprecate IP system.

Nobel Prize honors super-strong, super-thin carbon

NEW YORK, (AP) --

It is the thinnest and strongest material known to mankind — no thicker than a single atom and 100 times tougher than steel. Could graphene be the next plastic? Maybe so, says one of two scientists who won a Nobel Prize on Tuesday for isolating and studying it.

Faster computers, lighter airplanes, transparent touch screens — the list of potential uses runs on. Some scientists say we can't even imagine what kinds of products might be possible with the substance, which hides in ordinary pencil lead and first was extracted using a piece of Scotch tape.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/10/05/international/i025338D19.DTL#ixzz11em8am7S

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene

Facebook identity management service

There are a lot of different consumer websites now offering login via facebook identity. Could be a good idea to have a single login but at the same time lose your personal data to facebook.

Skype offer internet over WLAN

Pay for internet view Skype account. This was experience on a BTOpenzone WLAN access point in UK.

Some interesting news 2

ROADMs Get Ready to Go Off-Grid
Finisar Corp. (Nasdaq: FNSR) has been able to flexibly control the wavelength assignments in its wavelength-selective switch (WSS) all along. But as of yesterday, the technology got a cool name: Flexgrid. more.....

Finisar news announcement

Netflix lets its staff take as much holiday as they want, whenever they want – and it works

At Netflix, the vacation policy is audaciously simple and simply audacious. Salaried employees can take as much time off as they'd like, whenever they want to take it. Nobody – not employees themselves, not managers – tracks vacation days.

So the company scrapped its formal plan. Today, Netflix's roughly 600 salaried employees can vacation any time they desire for as long as they want – provided that their managers know where they are and that their work is covered.

The same goes for expenses. Employees typically don't need to get approval to spend money on entertainment, travel, or gifts. Instead, the guidance is simpler: act in Netflix's best interest. It sounds delightfully adult. And it is - in every regard. People who don't produce are shown the door. "Adequate performance," the company says, "gets a generous severance package."

More...

Interesting Slide deck about corporate culture
Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture

Huawei describes smart memory chip

Very interesting news about new work on Network Processor.

Huawei Technologies discussed work on a first-generation smart memory that will pack 32 Mbytes of IBM embedded DRAM on a 45nm chip consuming 60W. It will include an array of packet processing elements to drive data rates at rates up to 100 Gbits/second and achieve at least 250 million memory accesses per second. more.....

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4206434/Huawei-smart-memory-chip

The End of Management

Very interesting article and i agree completely.

Business guru Peter Drucker called management "the most important innovation of the 20th century." It was well-justified praise. Techniques for running large corporations, pioneered by men like Alfred Sloan of General Motors and refined at a bevy of elite business schools, helped fuel a century of unprecedented global prosperity.

But can this great 20th century innovation survive and thrive in the 21st? Evidence suggests: Probably not. "Modern" management is nearing its existential moment. more.....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439723695579664.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read