Saturday, December 13, 2008

Blood Moves on..

kuchh kar guzarne ko
To do something worthwhile
khoon chala khoon chala
Blood moves on.. blood moves on.


aankhon ke sheeshe mein
In the pupil of the eyes
utarne ko khoon chala
To get into, blood moves on (To leave a mark..bloood moves on)
badan se tapak kar
Having dropped from the body
zameen se lipat kar
Embracing the soil
galiyon se, raston se, ubhar kar
Through narrow streets, through roads, it emerged
umad kar
taking curves,Growing in size (like a raging river)
naye rang bharne ko
To fill with new begining of colours
khoon chala khoon chala
Blood moves on.. blood moves on


khuli-si chhot lekar
Carrying an open injury
badi-si tees lekar
Carrying a big cry it oozed
ahista ahista
Slowly slowly
sawaalon ki ungli
While The (pointed) finger of questions
jawaabon ki mutthi
Got the fist (showing strength) of answers
sang lekar
Carrying with it
Khoon chala
Blood Moves on...
kuchh kar guzarne ko
T0 do something worthwhile
khoon chala khoon chala
Blood Moves on.. blood moves on..
aankhon ke sheeshe mein
In the pupil of the eyes
utarne ko khoon chala
To get into, blood moves on..(To leave a mark..bloood moves on)
badan se tapak kar
Having dropped from the body
zameen se lipat kar
Embracing the soil
galiyon se, raston se, ubhar kar
Through narrow streets, through roads, it emerged
umad kar
taking curves,Growing in size (like a raging river)
naye rang bharne ko
To fill with new begining of colours
khoon chala khoon chala
Blood Moves on.. blood Moves on..
khoon chala
Blood Moves on..


( English Transaltion of khoon chala khoon chala...from the movie Rang De Basanti.)

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Awakening


Vultures were flying high
Watching their prey with piercing eye
They came silently to the lonely shore,
Seeking for blood and much more


They do man-slaughter for their selfish cause
as they move ahead. blood leaps on the walls


Within minutes they turned everything in to graveyard
Half a man, half a beast...they are worried least


It was not a war zone...
But in between that bloody street…India was lying alone
Shot in the heart, bleeding without a hope
No one to help, no one to guide...even there is no place to hide


But then came a bold and hardy few,
And they brought an unknown wave
Thanks to those Commando crew,
And I knew they were high and brave

Now is the time for awakening
We need to act beyond just talking

Enemy is at our home
We need to wakeup before they make it another burning Rome

Enough is enough. It’s not the time for crying or struggling
It’s the time for awakening
We need to hit back the enemy with such a force
Even we shouldn't give time for them to remorse.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Angelina jolie Explains OSPF !!




Recently i caught up with Lady Lara Croft Angelina Jolie .This Tomb Raider star is truly amazing , not only she is known as the most sexiest women on this earth even she has one of the best brains..she knows in and out of the Networking Technology...Woaho!!!




Here, She explains about OSPF technology developed by John T. Moy and the Internet Engineering Task Force in 1988 which reverse engineered from an alien spacecraft now widely used in routers across the world which is very intelligent and very dangerous too. It is a social creature that can recognize neighboring OSPF enabled routers and it will initiate a dialog with it’s neighbors.

Me : Hey ,Angelina, wassup...thanks for coming here ...i heard that you are a networking geek ... could you please give us little bit gyaan about OSPF ??

Angelina: Hey, Ranjan ...well, lemme share some knowledge about OSPF with you...here we go!..


In the first phase,Once OSPF routers have communicated with their neighbors by saying Hello to each other , they begin to organize themselves into a Social hierarchy with other routers occupying roles as President, Vice-president and others. This is called “forming adjacencies”.

In the next phase the OSPF routers will send broadcast message to all other OSPF enabled routers. we call it as “Flooding Link State Advertisements”. Once this occurs, every router knows what the entire Social Hirearchy looks like. each and every router will known other routers designation and the place where they situated, each one of this will have a map of the entire hierarchy of the society known as “link state database”. Now they have knowledge of each other, soon they will each run their Shortest Path First algorithm and they will posses enough intelligence to rule the world of networks !!....kinda a powerful community from the future ready to dominate the entire world...isn't it ??

Once they have ran the SPF algorithm...they will find the shortest path to each other no matter what part of the world other router resides in .They will connect each other within the fraction of second!!!

These OSPF routers act as a true team. Each is aware of the entire network. These OSPF routers are bit broad minded and they don't limit themselves to Metrics like hop counts or bandwidth and delay. As a collective force, any router can route any IP packet to any corner on your planet. And they depend on metric known as “cost” for routing.


OSPF behaves differently on different types of networks. Networks can be classified as Broadcast Multi Access such as Ethernet, Non Broadcast Multi Access such as ATM and finally Point to Point such as a frame relay circuit between two sites.


Me : Wow...you know so much about Networking..well , i heard that OSPF is a Link state protocol could you please let me know what is this all about Link state protocol.

Angelina :Ha ha..sure Ranjan, All the routing protocols are divided in to two categories , One is Distance Vector and other one is Link State. and Combined of these two types called Hybrid ,like EIGRP.

Distance vector protocols periodically exchange their routing tables with their neighbor routers. This is known as “routing by rumor” because routers are advertising routes to networks that they are not directly connected to. Distance vector protocols are very easy on a routers CPU but as more routers are added to a network, the exchanging of entire routing tables can use up valuable bandwidth...that is why we have the second one..Link State protocol :-)

Link state protocols monitor the links they have with adjacent routers by using a “hello protocol” to test the status of their links to their neighbors. Link state protocols only advertise their directly connected networks and their active links. Every link state router captures these link state advertisements and pieces these together and create a topology of the entire network or area..then it will run a specified algorithms to decide what will be the best way to route the packets to the remote networsk .Link state protocols are very quite as they only transmit small hello packets and only transmit link state advertisements when an actual change in the network topology has occured. Link state protocols are more CPU intensive, especially when a router is performing the complex “Shortest Path First” calculation based on Dijkstra alogoritm . is the way our OSPF works !...



Me: ohhh!!...that's cool ....i have heard about Areas in OSPF...is that related to Area 51, the place where most alien ships were sighted ??.


Angelina: Heh..he..he ..Ranjan, you are funny...Well,its not about Area 51 ..There OSPF networks divided in to small segments called Areas.In a given area all OSPF routers are aware of each other and all the links between each router in their territory or area. Every OSPF network must have an area known as zero.

for Other OSPF areas are you can number them as “area 2" or “area 3" but all areas must be directly connected to area 0. Area 0 is the backbone area which connects other areas together and carries only inter-area traffic between areas. All the areas under a common administration known as an Autonomous System. OSPF is an Interior Gateway Protocol and is used to route between areas in a common autonomous system but routing between autonomous systems must be handled by an Exterior Gateway Protocol such as BGP.


Me:Angelina, i am really impressed with your knowledge ..in a nutshell, OSPF is just like a Evolution of super artificial intelligent community...isn't it ??.

Angelina :Exactly!!...As an process of evolution it has to go through five stages ;
  1. Form Adjacencies With Neighbors.
  2. Elect a Leader and a Vice Leader.
  3. Discovering Routes.
  4. Determine Which Routes to Use.
  5. Maintain Routing Information.

Thats it !!.


Me : Cool..Thanks Angelina...for providing all the information would like to know advanced OSPF in detail from you on some other time ..its pleasure speaking with you .

Angelina:Sure Ranjan, we will discuss in detail about the Hello Packet and The way OSPF Election will be held ...its really interesting ...But, for now i am in hurry ...Brad is waiting for me... need to go ..Will meet you again in some nice restaurant for candle light dinner ...Take care, bbye.

Me:Oh!!!!! really!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



***********************To be continued*********************************


Saturday, August 16, 2008

Vande Mataram - Reinvented















Mother, I salute thee!

Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Green fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.

Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.

Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When swords flash out in seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Thou who saves, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foe drove
Back from plain and sea
And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nerves the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.

Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,


In thy soul, with jeweled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Loveliest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!

(English translation of the original poem )

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Roo-ba-roo...


Hindi Lyrics

English translation

aye saala

O cool

abhi abhi

Just now

huaa yaqeen

I got convinced

ki aag hai

that there is fire

mujh mein kahi

somewhere within me

hui subaah

Dawn arrived

main chal gaya

I walked ahead

suraj ko main

The sun I

nigal gaya

swallowed down

roo-ba-roo

Face-to-face

roshni (2) hai

There is light (meaning: finally I see the light)

jo gumshuda

That (as good as/almost) lost

sa khwaab tha

The dream that was

voh mil gaya

That has been found

voh khil gaya

that has blossomed

woh loha tha

That was iron

pighal gaya

It’s melted

Kheencha kheencha

Stretching stretching

machal gaya

Is jumping with joy

sitaar mein

Into sitar

badal gaya

It has turned

roo-ba-roo

Face-to-face

roshni (2) hai

There is light

(dhuaan chhataa khula gagan mera

The smoke has moved away, my sky has opened up

nayi dagar naya safar mera

It’s a new road, a new journey of mine

jo ban sake tu hamsafar mera

If you can become my co-traveller (companion) in this journey

nazar mila zara) - 2

Let your eyes face mine (meaning: Join me)

aandhiyon se jhagad rahi hai lau meri

The flame within me is fighting with storms

ab mashaalon si badh rahi hai lau meri

Now the flame within me is growing in size like torches do

naamo nishaan

Any remnants (name or mark)

rahe na rahe

Remain or not

ye kaaravaan

This caravan

rahe na rahe

Remains or not

ujaale mein

The lights I have

pee gaya

Gulped down

roshan huaa

I’ve lit up

jee gaya

I’ve started living

kyon sehte rahein?

Why should we go on tolerating?

roo-ba-roo roshni (2) hai

Face-to-face there is light (or I’m facing light)

dhuaan chhataa khula gagan mera

The smoke has moved away, my sky has opened up

nayi dagar naya safar mera

It’s a new road, a new journey of mine

jo ban sake tu hamsafar mera

If you can become my co-traveller (companion) in this journey

nazar mila zara

Let your eyes face mine (meaning: Join me)

roo-ba-roo roshni (2) hai

Face-to-face there is light (or I’m facing light)

aye saala

O cool

Be a Bumblebee !!












"According to the theory of aerodynamics, as may be readily demonstrated through wind tunnel experiments, the bumblebee is unable to fly. This is because the size, weight, and shape of his body in relation to the total wingspread make flying impossible. But the bumblebee, being ignorant of those scientific truths goes ahead and flies anyway and makes a little honey every day."

Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Guy who smiled at death!!

Just imagine this hypothetical situation :

If you woke up one morning discovering that you are suffering from a deadly disease without cure and it would kill you within months...then what would be your reaction ??


No doubt, Most of us would slip into a deep depression ... will be busy in counting the remaining days under the shadow of fear and pain .

But there is an exception to every rule ....this guy was not afraid that he is gonna die within months instead wanted his legacy to be that he died empty.he wanted to ensure that all his love, ideas, energy, creativity had been used up so that he had no regrets...wonderful !!

Well...its all about an exceptional story about Randy Paush,a computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Randy was told last August (2007) ,that his pancreatic cancer had spread and he had just three to six months to live.


Instead of Getting in to depression...he thought different...This dying man decided to taught the world how to live..he is not like most people, though. In September 2007, this computer science expert delivered a remarkable lecture to students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh...and rest is the history.


On July 25, Randy Pausch died of Pancreatic Cancer. But his a hour-long speech ,popularly known as the "The Last Lecture"has since changed many lives, touched millions of people across the world and still inspiring the entire mankind .

Just checkout these some Excerpts from Dr. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture:


" Remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. ..."

"Loyalty is a two-way street."

"Never give up."

"You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being earnest. I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term."

"Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself."

" Get a feedback loop and listen to it. ... Anybody can get chewed out. It's the rare person who says, oh my god, you were right. ... When people give you feedback, cherish it and use it."

" Show gratitude."

" Don't complain. Just work harder."

" Be good at something, it makes you valuable."

"Find the best in everybody. ... No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side; just keep waiting, it will come out."

"And be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity. "

Thanks to you tube ..i found a video of his "Last Lecture", its worth watching ...There are life lessons for all of us.

Link : http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo&eurl=http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/


and in case, if you are interested in downloading transcript of his last lecture [.pdf]...please follow the below link ;

Link :http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf

Well ...and another guy inspired all of us with his wonderful thoughts is Steve jobs , please check with previous post named "'You've got to find what you love Jobs says.." in this blog.

And its nice to know that so many people liked my blog ...i got a good response from all of my friends in Bangalore,UK,Germany and Korea...Thanks a lot for that :-).Woha...my blog is going international.


And One of my friend asked me about the video of the Standford Commencement address by Steve Jobs..Here we go,i fund this one in you tube too.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA


I personally feel that these Two great forces of nature came to earth to gave us the great lessons about "Positive Thinking"...and each one is powerful and thought provoking in their own way.:-)

Friday, July 25, 2008

Tackling Terrorism....

Plot :


On
June 27th 1976, a mixed group of German and Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France Airbus A300 which was traveling from TelAviv to Paris via Athens.




The plane was diverted to Entebbe Airport in Uganda, after a refueling stop in Benghazi, Libya. Over the next few days, many of the hostages were released, but over 100 Israeli and Jewish passengers remained in the hands of the hijackers.


At Entebbe Airport in Uganda where three additional terrorists joined the hijackers. Uganda's President, Idi Amin, was sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and his military forces were deployed effectively in support of the terrorists.

The terrorists demanded the release of 40 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as well as others held in France, Germany, Switzerland and Kenya. They threatened to begin killing hostages on July 1st if their demands were not met. In the meantime, the terrorists held the hostages in the transit hall at Entebbe Airport. The terrorists did eventually release just over half of the passengers, keeping those whom they believed to be Israeli or Jewish.

On July 1st, the Israeli government offered to negotiate with the hijackers in order extend the deadline to July 4th. Simultaneously, preparations were being made for a rescue mission.


On July 4th, Israeli special forces launched a daring mission to rescue the hostages...

Plan:

It was decided that the mission would be carried out by commandos of Sayeret Matkal, an elite special forces unit, carried in C-130 Hercules aircraft, and accompanied by a Boeing 707 to be used for medical and communications support. As a ruse to approach the airport buildings, one Hercules would carry a black Mercedes and Land Rovers, which would be used to trick the Ugandan guards into believing that Idi Amin or another high-ranking official was visiting the airport. Since no suitable black Mercedes was available in Israel, a differently-colored Mercedes car was apparently borrowed from an Israeli civilian and spray-painted, on the understanding that it would be returned in its original color.


Rescue:

Four Israeli C-130 Hercules aircraft were loaded with the rescue force and their vehicles, just before dawn on Saturday July 3rd. Additionally, medical staff were loaded on board an Israeli Air Force Boeing 707.

The aircraft took-off at around 1pm, but did not receive the final authorization to go ahead from the Israeli cabinet until the C-130s were refueled in the air, just to the South of the Sinai peninsula.

The medical-support Boeing 707 headed for Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. The C-130s headed directly for Entebbe without the assistance of ground control, and despite some stormy weather on the way, landed at 23:01, just one minute behind schedule,

As the C-130s touched down, the rear cargo door was already open to allow fast unloading. While the aircraft was still moving, some commandos rolled out and placed emergency beacons, just in case the runway lights were turned off.

A black Mercedes and Land Rover vehicles which were on board one of the C-130 Hercules were first unloaded. In an attempt to fool any Ugandan guards, these vehicles were driven towards the terminal building at high-speed, in a similar way to that done by Idi Amin. Two sentries who knew that Idi Amin had recently purchased a white Mercedes ordered the vehicles to stop, but they were immediately shot dead by the Israeli commandos who then entered the airport terminal building itself.

When Israeli commandos entered the terminal building they shouted "Get down! Get down!" in both English and Hebrew. One hostage, Jean-Jacques Maimoni, who stood up was shot by the commandos who mistook him for a terrorist. Additionally, two other hostages, Pasko Cohen and Ida Borochovitch, were killed in the brief firefight. All the hijackers were killed, and the Israeli commandos suffered no casualties during their assault.

The Israelis then used armoured personal carriers, carried on the other C-130 Hercules, to secure the airport perimeter and other airport buildings. All the Hercules aircraft were refueled from Entebbe's own fuel tanks, using pumping equipment that the commandos had brought with them.

Before taking-off, to prevent any pursuit, the commandos destroyed 11 Ugandan Army Air Force MiG-17 fighters which were at the airport. The hostages were then loaded and the C-130 Hercules departed for Israel via Nairobi, Kenya. It was during the loading that the Israeli commandos suffered their only casualty: Lieutenant Colonel Yoni Netanyahu was killed by Ugandan gunfire. Out of 103 hostages, 3 had been killed, and 10 were wounded.

45 Ugandan soldiers were killed, and an unknown number wounded during the raid, as were 6 hijackers.

The raid is generally considered a great anti-terrorist success, especially in view of the tremendous logistical challenges which had been overcome, and the low casualties among both the hostages and commandos.



Chaim Herzog Israel's Ambassador to the UN from 1975-1978 in address to UN Security Council said "We come with a simple message to the Council: we are proud of what we have done because we have demonstrated to the world that a small country, in Israel's circumstances, with which the members of this Council are by now all too familiar, the dignity of man, human life and human freedom constitute the highest values. We are proud not only because we have saved the lives of over a hundred innocent people - men, women and children - but because of the significance of our act for the cause of human freedom. "


The mission struck a blow at international terrorism. "It resonated far and wide," Shomron later commented. "It showed that you could counter terrorism, and that it was worth cooperating to do so."

Nothing to say much ...just compare this one with the incident where Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacked on Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24, 1999, shortly after the aircraft entered Indian airspace at about 5:30 p.m. Indian Standard Time by five Pakistani nationals. The hijackers stabbed 25-year-old guy, who later died of his injuries.Ultimately, the plane landed in Kandahar in Afghanistan, where the hijackers agreed to release their hostages in exchange for the release of three Terrorists.

After negotiations between the India government and the hijackers, the hostages were freed eight days after the hijacking occurred.

On December 31, 1999, the freed hostages of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 were flown back to India on a special plane. The hijackers disappeared into Afghanistan in vehicle provided by Taliban before releasing a Taliban official they had taken hostage..and they masterminded future terror attacks on India and the rest of the world !!.

No doubt , as a nation we lack the vision and true daring leadership to counter the terrorism .. As a state we are too soft on terrorism and the way our media glorify the terrorists... Hence, there is no wonder the way 9 blasts rocked Bangalore killing two on Friday noon !!!.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

We are here...So...What's Next?!?




Recently i came across the slogan, "make a dent in the universe," that apparently is attributable to Apple's CEO Steve Jobs:




"We're here to make a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why even be here?...... We're creating a completely new consciousness, like an artist or a poet. That’s how you have to think of this. We're rewriting the history of human thought with what we're doing."



It even showed up in his commencement speech at Standford university:

"Remember to see each challenge and even conflict as an opportunity to learn and grow. Dare to be the different voice and embrace those different voices that might help you reach better decisions for the good of our society. "Make a dent in the universe"


Kinda cool and wonderful thought, isn't it ??...its all about leaving one's mark ...try to be different and trying to do something good and making a world a better place . :-)

Saturday, July 12, 2008

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says






This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005....very inspirational speech...read it out !!.








I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Think Different !!


Here's to the Crazy Ones!

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.



They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas & see a work of art?
Or, sit in silence & hear a song that's never been written?
Or, gaze at a red planet & see a laboratory on wheels?


While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

"Because the people who are crazy enough to think they
can change the world, are the ones who do." :-)