Rangoli Competition 2009

October 15th, 2009 § 4

Wow! What an event and what a competition!

Finally the day arrived when we had to show our talents with the colors!

Rangoli competition 2009 was by far one of the most happening event Digicorp has done so far!

Definition of Rangoli From Wikipedia:

Rangoli is one of the most popular art forms in India. It is a form of sandpainting decoration that uses finely ground white powder and colours, and is used commonly outside homes in India.

The term rangoli is derived from words rang (colour) and aavalli (’coloured creepers’ or ‘row of colours’).

We wanted to have some fun before the Diwali holidays and we did just that in this competition. There were 16 teams consisting of 4-5 persons and almost all teams having one female participant who leads the team.

The theme given for Rangoli was “Shades of Life” and few teams came up with some brilliant stuff. They were given choice of six colors which they were supposed to use in Rangoli.

The tempo started building up from the morning and people started looking at Google for the solution (as expected!). Many came up with the original design also and congratulations to all of them.

To cut the long story short check out some of the Rangolis people came up with.

Here is the slideshow of all the photographs with description in some of them. Don’t forget to check them out.

Do let us know your comments about this wonderful event. Can’t wait to have it next year.

Navratri Celebrations at Digicorp

October 1st, 2009 § 5

At Digicorp we celebrate each and every festival with great enthusiasm and Navratri is no exception to that.

Navratri is the longest dance festival in the world which is celebrated every year in India.

From wikipedia:

“The word Navaratri literally means nine nights in Sanskrit; Nava meaning Nine and Ratri meaning nights. During these nine nights and ten days, nine forms of Shakti/Devi are worshipped.”

We are proud of all the Digicorpians who participated with great enthusiasm in this event and made it a success. I was thrilled to see the energy levels amongst the dancers. On this day they proved that they can not only code, design or test but they can dance also.

Movie of the Month – “The Pink Panther II”

August 31st, 2009 § 2

We at Digicorp love Steve Martin. 3 out 4 movies we have seen so far in the Movie of the Month event are of him.

This Saturday we saw “The Pink Panther II” and believe me it was hilarious. (Especially when you see it for the second time :) )

Movie of the month at Digicorp - The Pink Panther II

Movie of the month at Digicorp - The Pink Panther II

Steve Martin is one gem of an actor and Aishwarya Rai is one beautiful actress. ;)

My favorite scene of the movie:

Andy Garica: Vicenzo Roccara Squarcialupi Brancaleone (introducing himself by saying his full name in Italian)
Steve Martin (at the next second): and your name?

ha ha ha….

It was a pleasant end of the month because of the movie and I am already thinking about the next month’s movie. This is becoming addiction for me it seems!

I hope all the Digicorpians are loving it too!

Please share your experience by leaving comments! Sharing is fun :)

Movie of the Month – “Cheaper by the Dozen”

July 27th, 2009 § 3

Finally it was last Saturday of the month and it was time for Movie of the Month :)

After the comedy of “The Pink Panther” show and thrilling experience of “The Ghosts and The Darkness” this time we had “Cheaper by the Dozen“  – a super comedy starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt.

cheaper-by-the-dozen-(2003)

cheaper-by-the-dozen-(2003)

We have 2 Steve Martin movies out of 3 now! Yes I am big fan of him. (We have to see Cheaper by the Dozen – II and The Pink Panther – II :) now)

Everybody enjoyed the movie to the fullest and I am already looking forward to the next movie of the month. I am sure everyone agrees!

In fact we have already started getting suggestion for the next movie. One is “CRASH” and other is “Resident Evil – III”. Thanks for the suggestions Aditya and Nachiket. Keep them coming.

The Ghost and The Darkness!

June 28th, 2009 § 9

The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)ff696

Movie of the month: The Ghost and The Darkness

Excellent excellent movie based on the true story of “Man-eaters of Tsavo“. Thrilling and sometimes scary also.

I hope all enjoyed this thriller after comedy of  The Pink Panther show :)

oDesk site of the month contest

June 8th, 2009 § 1

oDesk site of the month contest is here and we are excited about this one in particular. Why? because one of the site which we designed and developed from scratch is there in the contention.

The site is “i.was.there” and it is an excellent site for music lovers. Check out the site and vote for it below if you think it is worth it. You can rate live music and do many more things here.

best web developer

After you click on the badge above, click on “Vote Now” button to see the list of the sites in contention. Find “i.was.there” from the list (it has black logo with white text) and click on “Vote Now”.

Looking forward to your vote :)

“The Pink Panther” show

June 3rd, 2009 § 12

Yeah! it was the first time but it did happen. We organized our first ever inhouse movie show and guess what! we had lots and lots of fun.

The Pink Panther

The Pink Panther

As the title suggests movie was “The Pink Panther” and it was my choice by the way. Those of you who have seen the movie know how “Fuunny” it is! and those of you who have not, you should just go and watch that movie first after reading this post :)

Well the start of the event was equally wonderful when Nachiket took the stage and introduced “Digicorp Manifesto 2009-10″ to everyone. It provides brief idea about our vision for Digicorp for the year 2009-10. I have attached the presentation here.

After that the movie started and everyone enjoyed it from the first scene of the movie.

But the icing on the cake was “Dry Paneer Manchurian”, “Cutlet” and “Pepsi” which were sponsored by Kuntal. Basically the smart guy merged his birthday party (which was due) here. Anyways it was good to have it while watching the movie and not on the terrace. :)

Those of you who are jealous can choose to become even more by watching the photographs below ;)

We are planning to make this a regular affair and have one movie show at least once a month. What say? any other ideas to make work more fun?

SQL Server Energy Event with Rushabh Mehta – May 20, 2009

June 3rd, 2009 § 0

The much-awaited SQL Server Energy Event was successfully held on May 20, 2009 in Ahmedabad. It was jointly organized by Digicorp - a vibrant outsourcing company, Gandhinagar SQL Server User Group (President Pinal Dave – SQL MVP) and Ahmedabad SQL Server User Group (President Jacob Sebastian – SQL MVP). This vibrant event was one of the most interactive, remarkable and enriching events of this year in Ahmedabad. Several factors make this event unique. The main attraction of this outstanding event was Rushabh Mehta (SolidQ Mentor – SQL MVP), an eminent expert in the field of Business Intelligence. Technical session from a legend like Rushabh was an opportunity of a lifetime for SQL Enthusiasts in Gujarat. He absolutely mesmerized the participants with his talk and made the event memorable and a runaway success! Further, the event created networking opportunities between user group members. Organizing such a large event in a very short duration is very arduous and challenging, but I must thank the host of the meeting Digicorp for promptly arranging all the necessary logistics. Directors of Digicorp were applauded for their continuous help to User Group. The event was followed up with delicious Indian delicacies.

Rushabh Mehta is a familiar name in SQL Server community and his expertise in the domain of Business Intelligence is commendable. He is a Mentor for Solid Quality Mentors’ global Business Intelligence division, based in USA. He also holds the position of the Managing Director for Solid Quality India Pvt. Ltd. Rushabh has been vigorously working with Microsoft SQL Server platform since 1998. He has been designing and developing large-scale BI systems since 2001, including predictive-analysis systems, healthcare solutions and a multi-terabyte financial decision support system.

We had expected a huge number of people to show up at the event; however, we had made limited arrangements. We had requested the participants to register in advance to get a guaranteed seat. The session commenced with Introduction to SQL Server Energy Event. I gave introduction in my characteristic humorous style and enlivened the event atmosphere. Everybody rolled into laughter when I started introducing Rushabh using images. The introduction ended on a funny note with some of the most hilarious photographs of Rushabh. If you had attended the session you would know what I am talking about. I believe that attending a session physically is far more helpful! It’s actually the whole experience that makes an event special and memorable!

After a short introduction, Rushabh Mehta started his presentation on Navigating through a turbulent economy with Microsoft Business Intelligence, which is a very useful topic in the current economic scenario. Rushabh in his unique interactive style sprinkled with humor kept  the audience engaged throughout his presentation. In the initial minutes of his talk, he brought everybody’s attention to the global problem of recession. Then he directed his talk to the key concepts of Business Intelligence. There were so many things Rushabh covered; however, one thing that was highly appreciated was “Demo of Gemini.” After the demo was over, questions and answers started to flow and it lasted for another hour. Everybody was so curious and wanted to learn from Rushabh as much as possible within the limited timeframe. Jacob Sebastian gave the final thank you note. We distributed nearly 30 gifts (T-Shirts, Pen, Books, Hats, to name a few.) during presentation. This time all the participants received something. The very much in demand SQL Server Cheet Sheet was the most popular item at this event. You can now download it from here.

This event was not recorded and is not available online. Please keep on reading this blog and user goup website for similar events like this. We hope Rushabh visits us again very soon and gives us another outstanding session. Please read my previous article for complete profile of Rushabh and the abstract of  his session.

I had requested Rushabh to do session in my user group when we met last time in USA. Last but not the least, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Rushabh: “Thanks Rushabh for keeping your promise!”

Abhishek (Digicorp), Rushabh (SolidQ), Pinal (SQLAuthority)

Abhishek (Digicorp), Rushabh (SolidQ), Pinal (SQLAuthority)

Introduction by Pinal Dave

Rushabh Mehta in Action

Rushabh Mehta in Action

Part Audience

Part Audience

MVP discussing BI

MVPs discussing BI

MVP - Pinal, Rushabh, Jacob

MVP – Pinal, Rushabh, Jacob

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Seminar on .NET Framework and Silverlight Basics

May 12th, 2009 § 1

Few days back we were invited to give a 1.5 hours seminar on .NET Framework fundamentals and Silverlight basics in Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University.

Virat who is a project manager and Dhruval who is a very bright and enthusiastic developer of our .NET team grabbed the opportunity thrown at them.

They had to prepare a presentation in very short time but I must say they did wonderful job.

I was also part of the audience and I was enlightened to learn few details about the .NET Framework 3.5 and Silverlight. 

We thank PDPU for this opportunity and look forward to have such interactions in future. The audience was wonderful and we had fun!

Presentation is embedded here:

Photographs are as below:

virat-and-dhruval-explaining-linq

employees-of-deendayal-university

virat-and-dhruval-explaining-fundamentals-of-net-framework

employees-of-deendayal-university-1

DCL-II Final Match

April 9th, 2009 § 0

After much excitement and uncertainty we have arrived at the teams who will play in Final tomorrow of DCL – II (it is not an official version ;) ).

We have Tigers vs Panthers in Final tomorrow. If you are wondering how this happened check below calculation.

1) Lions v Tigers

Lions
91 -14 (6.5) Lions (+0.0714)
Tigers
90 – 14 (6.4286) Tigers(-0.0714)

2) Tigers vs Panthers

Tigers
89 – 14 (6.3571) Tigers (+1.5984)
Panthers
67 – 14 (4.7587) Panthers (-1.5984)

3) Panthers vs Lions

Panthers
88 – 12 (7.3333) Panthers (+1.119)
Lions
87 – 14 (6.2143) Lions (-1.119)

So final NRR is as below

Lions -1.0476
Panthers -0.4794
Tigers +1.527

I know my team members Lions are sad because of this bizarre calculation of NRR but that’s the way it is. We have to accept with sportsman spirit and lets cheer up for Tigers or Panther tomorrow.

Hoping to see you all at 6:45 AM tomorrow ;) Don’t miss the thrilling match between these 2 wonderful teams.