Shalin Jain's little red couch

Screenswift Ver3.00 Released

We officially released Screenswift ver3.00 last week. The product has turned out to become one of the most popular flash screensaver tool for Windows. The success of this product would have been impossible with out the support of my friends and co-workers.

I would like to thank:

Co-developer:
Gautam Jain - If there is no bug in the product its because gautam has been around (he is a bug himself).

Other Team Members:
Vinita Jain - She is often stuck with silly things but end result - perfect 10.
Pragya Jain - If I need some fine tuning to a vector image, she is always around.

Beta Testers and Critique:
Karthik (Vector Vibe), Suresh Jain (Stationery World), Ashwath Swami (College Friend), Anoop Jain (InfoSys), Kamil Ariff (EG Innovations), Willy (EG Innovations), Anil Baradia (InfoSys), Sandesh Aravind (Wipro), Dinesh (Friend), Pavan Kumar (NIIT), Kalyan Kumar (Fingertip Tech)

Special Thanks to:
My Parents and sister for their unconditional support.

Digital Illusion, Chennai
Asia Events, Singapore
Franzis' Publications, Germany

Scott Hamilton (Mexico), Veejay (UK), Preetam Rai (Singapore), Suman Kumar (Pune), N Kumar (Chennai), Serene tay (Singapore), Sumanth (Canada), Troy Bradley (Canada), Manesh Gosai (South Africa)

Karthik, for he came up with the name ScreenSWift for us. The product code name during development was Flash2Scr.

I hope I didn't forget to thank anyone, if I did do buzz me.

Important Links
Download the latest version of Screenswift: Click Here
Visit Tenmiles Website: Click Here

Honesty is my religion, I am God!

Saturday evening, a little jolly at work, I was having a casual chat my colleagues. We often talk about Americans vs Indians (in IT business). And guess what I keep telling them, Americans are good, they make good products, and they are intelligent and so on. They keep protesting it and we have good debate. I don't mean to prove Indians inferior. But hey! never underestimate anyone even u if know a good deal about them. Don't generalize. Just learn from their strengths.

Anyways, the debate couldn't get any far that day - we were hungry - I was dreaming of a pizza. "How about a pizza! - Vivek, you owe us a treat anyway". Vivek didn't have a problem but Ganesh wasn't for it. "Shalin, I have to go to the temple". I laughed. "Ganesh, don't ditch a pizza for the temple". Both of them starred at me. They probably didn't have anything to hit me with. I quickly added "Just Kidding, but tell me, why do you have to go to the temple?". "Shalin, I have go there 29 times, once a week, during this (some) period". I was amused with his reply "So you get a good girl if you go to that temple 29 times in a year, or you get a good hike or something else". Well bad guesses but he didn't have a good reply either. I wanted to pull his leg further. "And in how many temples is this offer running?" I better not mention their reaction but they soon bounced back to me with questions. "Shalin you don't go to temple, you don't believe in god or what" I was expecting these questions from them. Lot of people have asked me this before too. "Listen, I don't remember when I last visited a temple but I think I did visit one this year, I don't have anything against temple nor against any belief. I just don't go to temple, maybe because nobody at home asks (force) me to nor I feel it's necessary". The discussion slowly faded away. I wasn't very keen in discussing that at least at that point of time.

But I have always thought over it. Why don't I visit temple like most of them do. Why don't I "believe" in GOD and "Worship" them. And then the next thing on my mind is - why should I. I cannot digest the fact that people who don't pay their income tax visit temple. And by doing that they feel they are religious and social. Why do we have to pretend to be someone and why do we have to go to someplace to prove it.

I feel we should be responsible for what we do, probably "GOD" is nowhere but within ourselves. I think our conscience is GOD. If our conscience cannot allow us to do something that should help us draw a line. Honesty is not a Plug and Play device. It should be in our blood.

Maybe next time someone asks me if I believed in GOD. I should simply say: "Honesty is my religion, I am god"

SAVE: The Magic word

I just finished watching a movie (along with my parents). At home.

'Baghban', when literally translated means the gardener, is the story of Raj Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan), his wife Pooja (Hema Malini) and their four sons. It portrays the apathy of youth towards their elders. It also teaches the importance of family, life and our culture. We all were very impressed and touched by the movie. Round of applause for the Big B. The movie actually reminded me of a conversation I had with my dad few months ago.

ME: Dad, how much do you earn? (He is a CA practicing since last 25 years in Chennai - and he sure is great CA).
Dad: 40 thousand per month!
Me: WHAT! That’s all?
Dad: Yes, that’s all that I earn.
Me: You must be kidding, I earn a little more than you already.
[He agreed. I couldn't agree.]
Me: dad you have been working since over 25 years now, your income per month should be in lacs. [He laughed it out] - Why are you laughing?
Dad: Shalin, how much have you saved in last 2 years of your earning, forget all your capital investments, tell me how much?
Me: Cipher .... But dad I have invested it back in my business...
Dad: Whatever it is, first, you are able to earn 40k per month because we have given you the support and opportunities to get to this and the market today allows you to. We have saved all our life to make sure that you have a good backing for today and future, good education and resources. We have SAVED. You should learn when to spend, what to spend on and learn to save with how much ever you earn.

I was convinced about my ability to make money due to their support and love. But still not very sure about the saving concept. But trust me, now, everyday I am discovering a new definition to this MAGIC word “SAVE". Save at some point also means optimize. Save also means avoid wastage. I salute my dad for what he has thought me, and I really appreciate that he let me free to learn it myself. The movie also is a great inspiration for my tomorrow and life thereafter.

Worms in your chocolate? Try this...

Well, if you are worried about consuming worms when you actually intend to consume chocolate. Just try a sip of coke after every bite! If you love both these brands, you now know how well they compliment each other.

I have never been a cola drinker but I must admint I really prefer Cadbury over Amul chocolates. Although, I really don't enjoy supporting these MNC brands but often I give in when it comes to my taste. Why so? I think we all do. My cuzin would prefer Nestle Dahi instead of Amul 'coz Nestle is more creamier, it doesn't matter if it cost couple of rupees extra. I had a 2 hour debate with another friend of mine - why do we need Nestle to sell us Idli Mix!

I must someday compile a list of good Indian eatable items which we can consume everyday instead, so that we can support our industries and help them become global brands! Be Indian, Buy Indian!