I tweet from 5 different twitter accounts, and to help reduce the confusion and allow people to figure out which ones to follow, here is the "Ultimate Guide to Navin Kabra's Twitter Accounts" (soon to be made into a major motion picture):
@ngkabra: This account is used for general interesting information from around the web. Often it is about psychology, economy, funny stuff, India, etc. Most non-techies should follow this one. @_navin: This is for technology tweets. Programming. Computer Science. Python. Maths and Statistics. Only geeks may venture here. @ngkx: This is for general conversation. Restaurants I liked. What my kids are up to. Silly remarks. IM replacement. Only likely to be interesting for people who know me personally (and sometimes not interesting to even them!) @punetech: This is the "official" twitter handle of http://punetech.com. All about technology in Pune – and nothing else. All techies in Pune are required by law to follow this. @punetechlive: This is for live-tweeting tech events in Pune. During an event we often tweet 20 to 50 times in an hour, and that is too much stuff to foist on to regular readers of @punetech who might not be interested in the event. Live-tweeting of any event from this account is _always_ preceded with a tweet on the main @punetech account announcing that live-tweeting is going to commence. So, particularly discerning readers can start following @punetechlive just for events that they find interesting and unfollow when they are not interested in that event. Why? Why all this segregation and complexity? Basically, because I believe that twittering is not about what I want to say – rather it is about what my followers want to hear. I doubt that the seven hundred people who follow @ngkabra for interesting articles around the web, e.g. the people in Atlanta, or Portland, would really be interested my review of the @grubshup restaurant on Canal Road, Pune. Nor do the doctors and accountants following me have any interest in python debugging techniques. And, the evidence appears to show that this segregation is working well. A quick analysis of the followers of these different accounts shows that the overlap between the various accounts is rather low, indicating that people are selectively following only some of my accounts. But maybe I should find out the list of people following all my accounts and give them a prize of some sort!Author: navin
Positive psychology exercises improve students’ outlook & behavior in school
This article, reports that making school students go through positive psychology exercises helps them get a better impression of school in general, improves their behavior in classroom, and a bunch of other good stuff.
For example, one exercise in the positive psychology asked students to list 3 good things that happened to them each day for a week – then the follow-up questions asked what the event meant to them and what can increase the likelihood of this happening again (kind of connecting the dots for the students).
… The net result: positive thinking and resiliency training improved students' school outlook and engagement, improved classroom behavior and cooperation, resulted in more self-control, and more empathy. Not bad!
That's not all – think about this:
See full article. (Via: http://twitter.com/sandygautam)students who believed that intelligence was a fixed entity were more likely to show no improvement in their math achievement from 7th to 8th grade, more likely to withdraw or cheat, and less likely to demonstrate mastery-reactions to setbacks. Not surprisingly, the students who believed intelligence could be 'grown' – were more likely to persevere, show resiliency behaviors to setbacks, and improve performance.
Pune builders resorting to fake comment postings
Because I get a lot of spam comments on my website (http://punetech.com), I have enabled moderation of comments. Which means that comments by first-timers will be held in the moderation queue until I've approved them. I get notification by email whenever a comment is waiting for approval.
I opened my mailbox today to find the following two comments in moderation on one of the posts on the http://punetech.com website. Please take a look.——-Author : Patil G. (IP: 121.247.252.84 , 121.247.252.84.dynamic.pune.vsnl.net.in)
Approve it: http://punetech.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=mac&c=7646
E-mail : sayaglobal@yahoo.co.in
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=121.247.252.84
Comment:
I recently visited a Residential Project at Sus, Pune called AAROHI by Tierth Developers, which is being designed by a big group of IT Professionals from various IT companies like Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Persistant, Cap Gemini etc. Its a very beautifully crafted projects with many 2 & 3 BR Flats, Row Houses & Bungalows with a superb Club House & Swimming Pool with almost all he games facilities. I thought evry IT professional must know about that. !
Delete it: http://punetech.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=cdc&c=7646
Spam it: http://punetech.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=cdc&dt=spam&c=7646
Author : Anand Shrivastava (IP: 121.247.252.84 , 121.247.252.84.dynamic.pune.vsnl.net.in)
Approve it: http://punetech.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=mac&c=7647
E-mail : sanaish4@yahoo.com
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=121.247.252.84
Comment:
Well Mr. Patil, thanks for the info. Pl tell me How is the project located from Hinjewadi ? Pl mention the distances if possible. Our group is searching this kind of Project since last 6 months but we are unable to locate a good Project dedicated for IT Professsionals and one who is having Club House with all most all the sports facilities, as stated by you. Pl also state whether there is any School nearby that project? Thanks.
Delete it: http://punetech.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=cdc&c=7647
Spam it: http://punetech.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=cdc&dt=spam&c=7647
Notice anything strange?
Points to be noted:
- Both comments are still in the moderation queue. Specifically, the first comment has not been approved yet. Which means that there is no way "Anand Shrivastava" could have seen "Mr. Patil's" comment.
- Also, they are posted from the same IP address.
I did not realize that the situation of Pune builders has become so desperate that they have to resort to astroturfing to get people interested.
I googled a bit, and found that they appear to do this in other places too. See for example the four or five comments at this link. In anycase, the Aarohi project by Tierth Developers hires unscrupulous people. Not a good sign.