Corporate America and the greater good

Quarter after quarter it seems like all that Wall Street cares about are earnings, profits, stock prices and the likes. This inevitably forces companies to focus all their energy on doing just that. Better profits, better stock price (generally speaking) and so on. But how do these companies contribute to "the greater good"? Some do so in numerous ways. Giving millions in charity, adopting greener, eco-friendly policies, and other ways I'm not even aware of. Now that's superb. Funding charities all over the world for different causes it vital to the survival of these charities. Lowering carbon emissions is critical to the survival of our planet and the countless ecosystems it supports.

But every now and then they do something a little different. They use some of their strengths, or core competencies, to contribute to this greater good in other ways. This sometimes is more valuable that the monetary contributions itself. Why? Simply cause they drive innovations and change the landscape just enough to make a difference. Something money alone couldn't do.

Here are a few examples that jumped out at me:

1) Microsoft sharing source code with AIDS researchers. Sure they're doing this to promote their software products, but if something good comes out of it then that's amazing. I have no idea how revolutionary this is. But the point is at least they're showing some leadership and using their expertise to contribute to a know global problem.

2) The American Express Members Project. What a novel idea! Basically, AmEx contributes $1 for each AmEx card holder that registers on their website, up to $5M. Registered members propose projects that will do some good to our world. Members then vote and ultimately one idea gets chosen and the $5M is used to fund it.
The way I see it AmEx has used their marketing muscle to benefit itself and the community (be local or global). I would love to see them fund more projects and have other companies sponsor other ideas. After all, people do have some cool ideas, why should it be limited to just 1 project.

Like I mentioned , these are just two examples that I've noticed. I'm sure (and certainly hope) they're countless others. Let me know if you know of other such initiatives. I'd love to hear about them.

Scuba photos

One of my buddies in my last scuba class took some pretty cool photos with his underwater cam. (Click here to check em out.)

The pics were taken at an underwater marine reserve just off of Tacoma. The wolf-eel that you see in the last few pics literally swam right in front of me. I could see it almost full length as it came out of its hiding spot. Pretty amazing! But by the team I got others to see it, it shy-ed away back into the rocks. Sometime a picture can't capture everything. (And I know thank-goodness).

I can blog in Hindi? शाबाश blogspot!

यह बहुत कूल चीज़ है। में अब हिंदी में ब्लोग कर सकता हु। शाबाश blogspot!

चल्लो, अब आप जो यह पर रहे तो में अप्पना बरी में एक छोटा सा सीक्रेट बताता हु। जब में छोटा था मएरा हिंदी बहुत बुरा था। एक बार हिंदी के फ़ाइनल exam के लीया मेहेने बहुत पड़ा। मेरे को यकीन था के में पास हो जौअगो, पर ultimately मेरे को ज़रो आया। ई वाज़ devastated।

Anyways as you can see I'm still scared by it. But at least I'm trying to make an effort. Well now that I've discovered this cool feature in blogspot, I'll try and use it more often, at least to improve my Hindi.

Calamari anyone?

After seeing this ad on TV, I really wanna buy an iPhone (despite being a WiMo fan). Man, did they nail show-casing the scenario.

Vista & "Folding@Home"-esq screensavers

My previous post got me thinking. Why wasn't Folding@Home a default screen saver for Windows Vista? Man, that would be really cool. By default, all Vista machines running folds. Wow.

So, I've email some friends of mine (who worked on Vista) to see if they know if this idea was ever floated. And what happened if it was. Lets see what the outcome is. I may not be able to share it cause of legal reasons*, but either ways I'll let you know.

And if the idea was never floated, I'll get a few execs to at least know about the idea (using Thinkweek ).


* = After all, I don't a sit-down with Microsoft lawyers.

A Multiverse

Even wonder why there's only one universe? Why not 2, 3 or infinite "verses"? Maybe we really live in a multiverse.

Folding@Home

What a genius idea! Finally the unused and under-used PC's are being to some good use.

If you don't know what the Folding@Home project is about, here's my low-down: You download a little application from the internet. It runs all the time your computer is on. When you're not doing anything taxing on the PC, or not doing anything at all, it uses your computer to do some crazy math to calculate folding patterns of proteins (among other things of that sorts). This data helps researchers understand why diseases occur and how to cure them. (If what I said doesn't make sense, read the formal Wikipedia entry.)

Matter of fact, I just have it running all the time now, especially when I'm surfing. Come on, I don't need a dual core processor to open a web page and check my email. My cell phone (a WiMo phone) can do that easily enuf. So, since I'm burning that electricity, I might as well do something useful, in an unselfish way. At least thats the way I see it. You can check out my contribution stat here.

I used to run Seti@Home when I was in college. Probably more so cause it looked cool as a screen saver. But my gripe about using that now is that there is no good that has come of out of the data they crunched. Yes, the concept and implementation was incubated and developed by the Seti@Home guys. Damn, they should get a Nobel prize just for that. Now lets have other projects make some use of this concept, just like Folding@Home.

That all said, I would recommend you install this app and run it yourself.

Its in small ways like this, that we (and you) can make the world a better place.