How much brand cost?

See full report.

Simpsons in get an Apple Store

As you may known I very like The Simpsons. Recently, I have found this movie. Check this out. It's very funny. :)



[http://www.didigetthingsdone.com/2008/12/01/the-simpsons-get-an-apple-store/]

The most expensive traffic accident

10. Bugatti EB110 ($500 000)
9. Pagani Zonda C12 S ($650 000)
8. Mercedes Benz SL 300 ($750 000)
7. Jaguar XJ220 ($1 000 000)
6. McLaren F1 ($1 250 000)
5. Ferrari Enzo ($1 300 000)
4. Bugatti Veyron ($1 600 000)
3. 1959 Ferrari 250 GT TDF ($1 650 000)
2. Ferrari 250 GT Spyder ($10 000 000)
1. Ferrari 250 GTO ($28 500 000)

 [http://www.wreckedexotics.com/]

Mercer reported about cost of living in the world

Cost of living top 5 ranking cities by region

Top 5 cities - Asia Pacific	Top 5 cities - Americas	Top 5 cities - Europe, Middle East & Africa
Tokyo, Japan (2nd) Seoul, South Korea (5th) Hong Kong, China (6th) Osaka, Japan (11th) Singapore, Singapore (13th) The lowest ranking city in Asia was was Karachi, Pakistan (141st)	New York City, US (22nd) São Paulo, Brazil (25th) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (31st) Toronto, Canada (54th) Los Angeles, US (55th) The lowest ranking city in the Americas was Asunción, Paraguay (143rd)	Moscow, Russia (1st) London, UK (3rd) Oslo, Norway (4th) Copenhagen, Denmark (7th) Geneva, Switzerland (8th) The lowest ranking city from Europe, Middle East & Africa was Johannesburg, South Africa (140th)

Rank March 2008	Rank March 2007	City	Country	Cost of living Index March 2008	Cost of living Index March 2007
1	1	Moscow	Russia	142.4	134.4
2	4	Tokyo	Japan	127.0	122.1
3	2	London	UK	125.0	126.3
4	10	Oslo	Norway	118.3	105.8
5	3	Seoul	South Korea	117.7	122.4
6	5	Hong Kong	China	117.6	119.4
7	6	Copenhagen	Denmark	117.2	110.2
8	7	Geneva	Switzerland	115.8	109.8
9	9	Zurich	Switzerland	112.7	107.6
10	11	Milan	Italy	111.3	104.4
11	8	Osaka	Japan	110.0	108.4
12	13	Paris	France	109.4	101.4
13	14	Singapore	Singapore	109.1	100.4
14	17	Tel Aviv	Israel	105.0	97.7
15	21	Sydney	Australia	104.1	94.9
16	16	Dublin	Ireland	103.9	99.6
16	18	Rome	Italy	103.9	97.6
18	12	St. Petersburg	Russia	103.1	103.0
19	19	Vienna	Austria	102.3	96.9
20	20	Beijing	China	101.9	95.9
21	22	Helsinki	Finland	101.1	93.3
22	15	New York City	US	100.0	100.0
23	38	Istanbul	Turkey	99.4	87.7
24	26	Shanghai	China	98.3	92.1
25	25	Amsterdam	Netherlands	97.0	92.2
25	29	Athens	Greece	97.0	90.6
25	62	São Paulo	Brazil	97.0	82.8
28	26	Madrid	Spain	96.7	92.1
29	49	Prague	Czech Rep.	96.0	85.6
30	37	Lagos	Nigeria	95.9	88.0
31	31	Barcelona	Spain	95.2	89.2
31	64	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	95.2	82.5
31	23	Stockholm	Sweden	95.2	93.1
34	24	Douala	Cameroon	95.1	92.9
35	67	Warsaw	Poland	95.0	82.4
36	64	Melbourne	Australia	94.2	82.5
37	39	Munich	Germany	93.1	87.6
38	45	Berlin	Germany	93.0	85.9
39	44	Brussels	Belgium	92.9	86.5
40	40	Frankfurt	Germany	92.5	87.4
41	33	Dakar	Senegal	92.2	89.0
42	28	Kiev	Ukraine	91.7	91.4
43	43	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	91.3	87.0
44	30	Almaty	Kazakhstan	90.7	89.6
45	31	Bratislava	Slovakia	90.6	89.2
46	45	Düsseldorf	Germany	90.4	85.9
46	72	Riga	Latvia	90.4	81.5
48	52	Mumbai	India	90.3	84.9
49	59	Zagreb	Croatia	90.0	83.5
50	57	Hamburg	Germany	89.9	84.2

Organize your things by means of google calendar

I believe everyone already has own calendar both for work and for life. However, I'll focus on Google Calendar.  

Why am I considering this calendar?

• it's free 
• accessible from everywhere
  
• integrated with other Google products
• can be use with Microsoft outlook and other web-clients
• and the main benefit is to send SMS when event occurred.
• update and receive information about agenda for current or next day
  

I chose this calendar because of last points. It's very usefull. Just try it.

Links:

• Google Calendar
• How to set up SMS sending 

P.S. Please let me know if you have any questions

Animation pastime. Wall-e

First time I saw trailer a half of year ago and at once eager to see it. Today I did it. You know It's one of most beautiful animation I saw. I had a huge amount of pleasure. Highly recommended. It's interesting how much money they earn? :) (Showing room was overcrowded)

The third dimension to pictures

Just serf Internet and found interesting pictures. It's gif animation trickery but looks good. Check this out!

[source]

Google's solution is much cheaper

"Apparently the NSW Department for Education is deciding to do away with MS Outlook and instead adopt the Gmail account for its 1.3 million school students. SMS Management and Technology will implement the new Gmail System along with Google and Telstra, under a 3-year deal worth $9.5 million over three years, with a two year extension option. In comparison, the earlier MicroSoft deal was installed by Unisys under a contract worth $33 million over 3 years, but extended by another 3 years. It was built in 2003, but actually reached the student during 2007."

[source]

As we can examine Google solution much cheaper and I guess more flexible. On my current work, I have similar problem. My email box is 40Mb in size. It's inconvenient I always clean my email box.

Vacation. Croatia and Slovenia and Italy

Recently, I said about rest in our life and next week I'll do first big step. I'll have a vacation for next two weeks and want to visit three contries.

The plan will be following:

Croatia, Pula

Slovenia, KoperItaly, Venice

I hope it's excellent trip...

P.S. Of course, I'll write impressions about it later.

Book I'm reading now. The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do.

Name: The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do
Authors: Ken Blanchard, Mark Miller
ISBN: 1-57675-289-5

Description: In The Secret, Debbie, a struggling leader finds herself about to lose her job due to poor performance. In a desperate attempt to save her career, she enrolls in a new mentoring program offered by her company. Much to her surprise, Debbie finds her mentor is the president of the company (Jeff Brown).

Debbie decides that all she needs is the answer to one question, "What is the secret of great leaders?" She is convinced that if Jeff will tell her, she can apply the secret in her leadership.

Over the next 18 months Jeff explains to Debbie that the secret is rooted in an attitude. He tells her that she must be willing to become a serving leader rather than a self-serving leader. The secret is that all great leaders serve.

After Debbie learns the secret she still doesn’t know what to do next. Jeff explains that great leaders serve in at least five ways. They…

• See and shape the future
• Engage and develop others
• Reinvent continuously
• Value results and relationships
• Embody the values

The story unfolds as Debbie learns and applies each of these imperatives with her team. As a result, Debbie’s team goes from worst to first. They become the highest performing team within the company.

In the end, Debbie understood that all the changes and improvements were the result of the choices she made as a leader. She realized that to SERVE is a choice. Debbie decided once and for all, she would no longer be a self-serving leader, she would be a serving leader!

The Secret answers the question, "What do I need to do to be a great leader?" Books on leadership abound, and most of them emphasize one or another of the ideas explored here. But only The Secret pulls all of the five essential concepts together into a coherent plan for achieving leadership success. The core idea, based on the authors' years of experience and drawn from examples of the best leaders, is that leadership comes from service. The five ways in which leaders can succeed through service are seeing and shaping the future; engaging and developing others; reinventing continuously; valuing results and relationships; and embodying the values. Each strategy is explained in detail, with exercises and tips for integrating them into the leadership matrix. The Secret is not dry dogma; the authors show their ideas at work by following the example of a struggling leader who enrolls in a mentoring program at her company. It traces her progress in understanding and applying these concepts, and her subsequent transformation into a respected and effective leader.

[http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/1576752895.html]

Video. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Today is good day for cinema and I wanted to see some special film. I chose "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Just viewed it and you know I have ambiguous impression. In general, I like it and advise it. This film forced me to think.

No more words... :) Just look it and share impressions with me.

P.S. You can also look over film review here.

Acrobat.com. Easy way to create and share PDF files.

Adobe company added new on line features:

• Adobe Buzzword - on line web-editor
• Adobe ConnectNow - on line communication
• Create PDF files - creating files on line
• Share PDF files - storing files up to 5 GB and share it

Please check it out at acrobat.com.

P.S. Also Adobe announced new Acrobat 9.

Funny video

:)

Outbrain. New feature for your blog.

A few days ago, I was thinking about how to add rating of my posts. I check internet and find out OUTBRAIN feature. It integrates ratings and personalized recommendations, quickly and free. Their widgets support Blogger.com, TypePad, WordPress (installed version only), Drupal and others.

Just check it out for every my post at the end.

Google Sites. Creating and sharing a group websites.

I guess, it's not a secret that google havs ambitious plan to conquer each area. Phone, Hosting and so on.

Anyway, I'm ardent fan of company that produce new free efficient services. Google is such one. Today, I found out Google has new service.

Immediately, I serf the web and found google blog announced about new service "google sites" - http://sites.google.com/. It's obviously, the main purpose is to create group sites. It can be comparable to wiki engine.
Previously, they announced "google pages" - http://pages.google.com/. Functionality is not vast.

Lets have a look on google sites :) I create a simple one http://sites.google.com/site/polusok/

I assume it's direct concurrent of wiki engine :)

Sister cities of Bangalore

I'm dealing with Bangalore's colleagues and wanted to find out time difference between Kiev and Bangalore. The time difference is 2h30m but it's main thing I'd like to tell. :)

I've noticed interesting thing about sister cities of Bangalore while looking thru wikipedia page. Well, check it out :)

Wikipedia:

Sister Cities

• Minsk, Belarus. ^[97]
• San Francisco, California, United States. ^[98]
• Cleveland, Ohio, United States. ^[99]

How are these cities related to Bangolore :)?

How to crack a safe in 5 minutes

I've surfed on google video and found an interesting video Safecracking. Jeff is a seven-Time World Safecracking Champion and can take down a bank vault in 5 minutes, 19 seconds. It's amazing. Check it out.

15 survival tips for new IT managers

I guess everyone in IT area set some goals for himself. In common, it's a management direction. I'm not exclusion and trying to get following knowledge. Just found good article for beginner in management. So, the move from a technical job to managing an IT department requires a variety of new skills.


Tips for developing your management skills:
1. Read the One Minute Manager series of books by Ken Blanchard
A one-minute manager is someone who gets good results without taking much time, according to Blanchard. Apply his three easy steps to management and situational leadership.

2.Learn the internal politics of your organization
Network with peer and upper managers. Ask their advice. Managers usually like to help other managers.

3. Find and understand your own weaknesses as soon as possible
Remember, you're allowed to take training, too, so make sure you do.

4. Develop your budgeting skills
Learn to manage an IT budget down to the last penny. You want to be able to clearly show the business where money can be saved.

Tips to improve your communication with executive staff
5. Don't take day-to-day problems to your boss
Instead, take recurring issues and optional solutions to the problem. Then, ask which approach your boss would recommend.

6. Try to keep project work and support work separate
It's a lot easier to justify bringing in extra staff members for a new project, as long as their salaries are included in the cost of implementing the project. Don't allow your staff to be pulled in both directions.

7. Record and report everything
Require your team to fill out timesheets so you can show where resource time is spent and back it up with data. This will aid in any arguments for extra resources and will keep you current on what the team is doing. It will also make writing your monthly reports to executive staff members easier.

8. Know your role in the event of a disaster
If you're faced with a disaster, remember that your team's job is to get the systems back in place. Ensure you have good disaster and recovery plans for mission-critical systems and leave the business recovery to others.

Tips for motivating your team, negotiating politics
9. Don't get buried in support obligations
If you have no formal help desk protocol and find that you're getting swamped with help calls, create a centralized help desk. Outsource this function if necessary. If you go this route, you should create service level agreements (SLAs) that outline your complete services.

10. Set boundaries for your team
Invest your time in enabling your staff to succeed and fend off any counterproductive requests from other departments as much as possible.

11. Learn Monkey Management
When employees come looking for help, be sure to send them away with the next action. Don't take on your employees' workload, because you'll have enough to do.

12. Perform staff appraisals at least once or twice a year
Provide staff members with clear objectives and then help them reach their goals.

13. Hold regular team meetings
This is difficult because of constant deadlines and because everyone always seems too busy. If absolutely necessary, have lunch meetings, but be sure to provide the sandwiches.

14. Don't forget recreation and rewards
Treat your team to a meal out at least once per quarter. If you control the budget, you can manage the cost.

15. Recognize that the sum capability of your staff is your team's maximum output
Just because you have high standards, don't expect your team members to hold the same values. Praise and encourage them in their areas of strength and provide good training for their areas of weakness.

Original article here.

Top-Manager's salary survey for Russia by Antal International Russia

Just read one article about salary survey on CNews and must say that top-managers in Russia have a good salary. Please check it out below.

Average month salary for top-manager in Russia (thousand RUB)
	Russian Company	Foreign Company
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)	600	500
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)	375	350
Chief Information Officer (CIO)	250	225
Director of Sales	275	225
HR Director	300	275

Top 100 Most Influential Technology Vendors for 2008

I found an interesting list of top 100 vendors of 2008. It's obvious but anyway look through, set goals and achieve it :)

List:

1. Microsoft          35. i2                    69. Xerox
2. Oracle             36. EDS                   70. Front Range
3. SAP                37. QAD                   71. Internec
4. IBM                38. Ariba                 72. Manugistics
5. Cisco              39. CA                    73. Palm
6. Hewlett Packard    40. Epicor                74. Unisys
7. Dell               41. Juniper               75. Yahoo!
8. Salesforce.com     42. Sprint/Nextel         76. 3com
9. EMC                43. Tata Consulting       77. ABB
10. Sun Microsystems  44. ADP                   78. CANON
11. Google            45. Fujitsu               79. Capgemini
12. RIM (Blackberry)  46. Intuit                80. Informatica
13. Siemens           47. Manhattan Associates  81. Interwoven
14. Adobe             48. Novell                82. McKesson
15. AT&T              49. Red Prairie           83. Mincom
16. Apple             50. SunGard               84. Mitel
17. Sage              51. Telstra               85. Netsuite
18. Infor             52. BMC                   86. Omniture
19. Nortel            53. BT                    87. Progress
20. Avaya             54. CSC                   88. Rackspace
21. Red Hat           55. Skype                 89. SPSS
22. Motorola          56. Infosys               90. Syntel
23. Verizon Wireless  57. NetApp                91. Teradata
24. Dassault          58. Symantec              92. T-Mobile
25. Accenture         59. Huawei                93. Toshiba
26. Sony Ericsson     60. IFS                   94. Websense
27. Alcatel - Lucent  61. Microstrategy         95. Servigistics
28. AutoDesk          62. Aruba                 96. Genesys
29. Intel             63. CDW                   97. Logility
30. SAS               64. Concur                98. Kronos
31. Citrix            65. Exact                 99. Rockwell Automation
32. Nokia             66. Hitachi              100. Checkpoint Systems
33. PTC               67. Qlikview
34. Lawson            68. Vonage

Original survey here.