People constantly keep listening to Music, Video, Radio on the move. With the advent of media mobile phones and iPod-everywhere phenomenon, listening to audio via Headphones on the move has increased. Infact it has become habit to many people who travel to office by Bus, Trains, Tubes and even Car. In Chennai, every time I stop at the traffic signals I see almost 40% of the people with headphones / earphones on the move.

Yes, it is good to listen refreshing music or favorite albums or news. But did many of them realized that by using headphones regularly, they are actually doing more harm to their ears than the Global Pollution? One of our team-mate who used to listen music for more than 4 hours a days is now suffering with pain. Scanning revealed that the nerves joining the ear drum has weakened. Lucky, that he can still hear. He is under treatment and is not using cellphones, desk phones and even stopped listening to any sounds at all. Stuffs ample cotton in his ears now !

Studies show that ear-phones tend to heat up the ear canal and thus the harm starts slowly. Listening for 1 or 2 hours max is recommended. Anything more than this duration will definitely pave way for future troubles. Another team member informed me that his doctor advised him to avoid cheap headphones and settle for Professional grade headphones, that too for 1 hour listening. Cheap headphones are not tuned properly to match sensitiveness of ear drums, and thus tend to create hearing problems soon. So next time, when you want to listen music through headphones, invest in buying a professional make, and make sure you use them for 1 hour per day and not more than that.

- Rajesh

Here comes Pongal - The festival of Harvest from 13 Jan 2010 to 16 Jan 2010.

Our warm Pongal wishes to everyone!

- Team Zoho CRM

Here's a wish, specially for you

And hoping sincerely, it really comes true

May lights, sweets and everything bright,

Ignite a start, with evil destroyed,

Let the festive spirit grip your souls,

With joy, prosperity and happiness untold..!!

WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY DIWALI..!!

warm regards,
Team Zoho CRM

There were a couple of posts in our internal blog discussing the effects of driving fast. 

Do you think by driving fast, you prove that you are a great driver?
Do you think those who drivers fast are actually rash drivers?
Do you think if one has the control over his senses, can he become a good one though he drives fast?
Do you drive fast, just for the kick of it?

So many discussions and even there was a post about youtube videos whose subject deals with fast driving. The discussions pointed out that people consider those who drive fast as "rash" drivers generally. And there are drivers who have fine senses that help them drive fast and avoid accidents at the same time. I guess that is a gift only a few possess.

Generally speaking, the major root cause of accidents is SPEEDING. Even if you drive with complete control with all your senses awake, accidents may happen from external sources. In India, with the advent of world class express highways driving has become a pleasure as well as risky in few cases. I've seen some nuts who drive zig-zag inside a convoy scaring others and risking everyone's life. And some drive slow in a speed lane, thus blocking other vehicles coming behind. I usually drive to my home town which is 7 hours from Chennai, in my compact hatchback - Suzuki Alto. It is pretty basic with a 47 bhp petrol motor. In certain terms, the motor is just intended for city driving. But it can reach about 100kmph safely and pushing a bit further it reaches 120kmph. Beyond that, the car becomes unsteady. I've driven my car in all sort of speeds. Once I tried a 110kmph constant speed, then a 80kmph speed, and then a varying 60-80kmph speed. The results were good. During the 110kmph drive, my vision became narrower and whole body was very alert. There was thrill, and at the same time I had to be very cautious about zebra crossers and 2 wheeler nuts. The 60-80kmph was more of a lazy drive which created a back-ache because of long drive hours. The constant 80kmph gave me no super-duper thrills, yet it did not cause much discomfort. I was relaxed, had better control and wider visibility.

A good driver has the ability to drive a vehicle in such a way making the passengers feel safe. He also possess the art of comfort driving. This means no sudden braking, no sharp turns, no thrusts and very calculative driving that doesn't make the passengers move from the seat. It takes time and patience to develop such a skill.

Do not drive fast always, but only when it is required so. Keep improving your driving skills such that it makes people love to travel with you happily!

- Rajesh Sundaram

The next thing we are working on the UI front is - unified visuals in detailed view for all themes. This unified visuals will help in more readability and reduce page clutter.  Additionally we are analyzing the User management module in Zoho CRM. Our focus is to simplify the subscription purchase and managing users in the CRM system. Will post more details later. :-)

- Rajesh

 Time to show a preview of the small visual update for all detailed views in all modules. To improve readability and maintain a "clear" visual we removed all colors. The group headers will be "BOLD" and black in color. The labels will be in Gray and "Required fields" will be in BOLD Gray. We are evaluating this design and hopefully this should get through in a week or so.

- Rajesh