Favicon! Yippee!!

Wheeeeee!!!!! I successfully managed to add a favicon to my blog!!! I did it! I did it! I did it! I am very happy and excited too.

So the next time anyone opens my blog in firefox(works in chrome too, i guess), you can see a small green car next to my blog's url in the address bar. Yeah thats my favicon, its green(my fav color) and its a Volkwagon mini (one of my fav cars), and I call it "Herbie"!! :D

And I want to share that excitement with you!!

New Look :)

I have successfully explored and changed the look of my blog!! Hurrah!

I am impressed with myself.

Professor Lewin

People who have gone through four wonderful years studying under the Anna University, particularly in the self financing colleges will be familiar with the feeling of latent irritation that one goes through when one attends a class hour.  

But all teachers are not as bad or irritating.  Professor Walter Lewin used to teach physics at MIT,USA(I'm not 100 percent sure if he does even now).  His classes will first seem crazy, but at the end of the session, you can actually walk out of class and say "I did grasp something today".  

I have not attended any of these classes in person, but THANKS to MIT's open courseware and youtube, I have been able to view recorded videos of his sessions. 

Here is a video you must watch... These girls here are singing a song for their professor(Prof Lewin) pleading him to pass them in a test.

Watch and enjoy....

Keeping tab on too many things!!!

I have been working on a small project for over a month now and that has led me to browse the internet more than ever. Consequence: Numerous tabs running on a browser window, with all of them seeming to be important...

And today has been the crowning glory!! Right now I have some 29 tabs open over four browser windows!!!

Crazy me!

Virtual Tutors

I was stuck at one point today in my work, and I had lost all hopes of finishing that part of the code today. And that was when I found this person Mr. Peter Lavin on the internet who had put up this one line in his article

eval('$newarray = ' . var_export($array, true) . ';');

This one line really opened up things for me, and if all goes well I can finish all that I have set myself to do!!! Yippee!!
Here is the link to that page, for those of you looking for help:
http://hades.phparch.com/ceres/public/article/index.php/art::php5::magic_set_state_method

And hats off to all those people who make it a point to share their working knowledge by way of tutorials!!!!

A friend indeed

Well,  a friend of mine is leaving the city for joining his colleagues at his place of work.  And I just cannot say farewell.

Still my best wishes are and will always be with him... And I submit very humbly that some friendships make a lot of difference in your life.

CHROME??? not at all its PLATINUM!!!

Like a lot of other people I was pretty excited about the new browser from Google's stable. And I'm pretty impressed with it too!! They've named it "Chrome" but may be we could call it "Gold" or "Platinum" or may be just "Precious"! I know this is going a little too overboard, but any heavy internet surfer will know the importance of a browser that doesnt crash and that doesnt suffer from memory leaks.

So here I am all excited about this beauty that I affectionately call "Precious" ;)

P.s. I had blogged about Avant being good.... Well it is good even now, but turns out its more a skin over our darling(*sarcastic*) IE.  Avant's  system requirements is IE6.0!!! now how is that???  ok.. my rankings stand thus: 1. Chrome 2.Avant  and everything else is after this.

Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna

The following text is one version of the poem Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna supposed written by Ram Prasad Bismil

Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna Ab Hamare Dil Mein Hai
Dehkna Hai Zor Kitna Baajuen Qaatil Mein

Dekh Sakta Hai To Bhi Dekh Le Aye Aasmaan
Hausla Yeh Dekh Ke Qaatil Badi Mushkil Mein Hai

Sarfaroshi Sarfaroshi Sarfaroshi
Sarfaroshi Sarfaroshi Sarfaroshi
Sarfaroshi Sarfaroshi Sarfaroshi

Apne Hi Lahoo Se Likhenge Hum Apni Daastaan
Zaalimon Se Cheen Lenge Yeh Zameen Yeh Aasmaan
Sar Fire Jawan Hum To Maut Se Bhi Na Darre
Aansh Aye Desh Pe Yeh Kyon Gawara Hum Kare
Mulk Pe Qurbaan Ho Yeh Aarzoo Dil Dil Mein Hai

SarfaroshiSarfaroshi Ki Tamanna Ab Hamare Dil Mein Hai
Dehkna Hai Zor Kitna Baajuen Qaatil Mein Hai

There is something in this text that moves my heart deeply.

मैं ऐसी क्यों हूँ?

मैं ऐसी क्यों हूँ?
Some questions can probably never be answered. Like
Why do people feel like not doing work?
Why do people feel like postponing things even though there is every reason to finish it off at that moment?

Why is it that I feel I can't get my mind to attend to "it"?
Why does my mind wander into the gardens of Kimberland everytime I open my desktop to start the day's work?


I wonder.... and in the process set off to Kimberland yet again!

Probably these questions are not to be answered. For otherwise, they would no longer be questions, they would be answers now. Is that right? What do you think?

MRTS the ghost

Mass Rapid Transport System. MRTS.

Well after years and years of inching forward, something seems to have materialised for the Southern Railways. And yes, they have indeed been able to come up with a SYSTEM. And a TRANSPORT SYSTEM it is. And with effective travel time from Velachery to Mylapore being 18-20 mins, the system seems to be fairly RAPID. But is it really a MASS RTS? No way. Not yet.

And there are a number of reasons for this, ranging from non cooperation between administrative bodies to poor pace of execution of the project and so on. And I'm not going to point fingers at any of the organizations involved in the project. Cos enough has been written and spoken about in that manner.

The idea of developing such kind of an infrastructure has always attracted me, and I will definitely express my appreciation to the Railway authorities for coming up with such an idea of establishing alternative connectivity among the city's important localities in addition to the bus network. So I believe that this is a very good concept. But it is common knowledge that even the best of the product ideas or concepts fail to catch the fancy of the common man due to improper positioning and branding in the market. Same is the case with MRTS. For the system to be able to truly achieve MASS admiration, a little more has to be done for it to sell like hot cakes.


I've been travelling regularly between Velchary and Tirumailai for the past one week, and here are some of my observations:

1. The train services in themselves are good in themselves, with the frequency of services being 10min intervals from 7.30 to 10.00 in the morning and from 5 to 7.45 in the evening between trains, and 15-20 min gap during the other hours of the day.

2. The Railways have installed Automatic Ticket Vending Machines which work with smart cards, a really useful feature for a regular traveller. A lot of people haven't taken to the smart cards though.

3. Three OMR road stations: Thiruvanmiyur, Indra Nagar and Kasturibai Nagar are incomplete to the extent that you have iron girders sticking out and sand piles lying around even on the platform.

4. The three OMR road stations are not actually physically connected to their respective localities at all. Significant among these is the Indira Nagar Station which is separated from Indira Nagar by the canal. People from this area have to reach the station either through thiruvanmiyur/kasturibai nagar or through a small ultra narrow bridge located about half km away.

5. There are two to three Foot over bridges on the OMR, between Madhya Kailash and Tidel Park which are located almost corresponding to each of the three stations. Yet, the F-O-Bs are not connected to the stations. A passenger wanting to go to the other side has to climb down all the way from the station, walk up to the F-O-B and again climb up to go across.

6. The thiruvanmiyur station has (you wont believe it) two mezzanines in the ground floor itself, with not even the railway staff going around there. In the night, the station could as well seem like a 'Bhoot Bungalow'.

As a concept, this has not sold very well with the mass now. The contribution of a concept/product depends more on the packaging and positioning of the product than the product itself. In simple words, Glitter and Gimmicks are the most powerful contributors to the success of a new idea.

For a train service, a few of the "oomph" factors would be the ambience of the train, ambience of the station, proximity to the hub of the locality, connectivity with other forms of mass transport. Mass Public appeal is definitely a factor of these things. The Railways should probably look at it from these points of view. Otherwise, they will be running a near flop show inspite of having such a potentially popular service in hand.

Old story in a new version

I got this story as a mail recently. Thought of sharing it with all my readers!


Story of an ANT and A GRASSHOPPER

OLD STORY

-----------

The ANT works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The GRASSHOPPER thinks, the ANT is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.


Comes winter, the ANT is warm and well fed. The GRASSHOPPER has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

NEW STORY, INDIAN VERSION

-----------------------------

The ANT works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The GRASSHOPPER thinks, the ANT is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Comes winter, the shivering GRASSHOPPER calls up a PRESS CONFERENCE and demands to know why the ANT should be allowed to be warm and well fed, while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering GRASSHOPPER, next to a video of the ANT in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The world is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor GRASSHOPPER is allowed to suffer so!!

ARUNDHATI ROY, stages a demonstration in front of the ANT's house.

MEDHA PATKAR, goes on a fast along with other GRASSHOPPERS demanding that GRASSHOPPERS be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

MAYAWATI states this as 'injustice' done on MINORITIES.

UN & KOFI ANNAN, criticize the Indian government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the GRASSHOPPER.

The INTERNET is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the GRASSHOPPER(many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).

'BENGAL BANDH' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a JUDICIAL ENQUIRY.

CPM in immediately passes a law preventing ANTS from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ANTS and GRASSHOPPERS.

LALU PRASAD allocates one free coach to GRASSHOPPERS on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'GRASSHOPPER RATH'

Finally, the JUDICIAL COMMITTEE drafts the 'PREVENTION OF TERRORISM AGAINST GRASHOPPERS ACT' [ POTAGA ], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

ARJUN SINGH makes 'SPECIAL RESERVATION' for GRASSHOPPERS in Education Institutions and in Govt. Services.

The ANT is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taes, its home is confiscated by the GOVT. and handed over to the GRASSHOPPER in a cermony covered by NDTV.

ARUNDHATI ROY calls it 'A TRIUMPH OF JUSTICE'

LALU calls it 'SOCIALISTIC JUSTICE'

CPM calls it the 'REVOLUTIONARY RESURGENCE OF THE DOWNTRODDEN'

KOFFI ANNAN invites the GRASSHOPPER to address the UN General assembly.

.

.

.

.

.

.

MANY

.

.

.

YEARS

.

.

.

.

LATER

.

.

.

.

.

The ANT has since migrated to the US and set up a muti-billion dollar company in SILICON VALLEY, 100s of GRASSHOPPERS still die of starvation despite of reservation somewhere in India,

.

.

.

AND

.

.

.

As a result of loosing lot of hard working ANTS and feeding the GRASSHOPPERS,

.

.

.

.

INDIA IS STILL A DEVELOPING NATION.


WIYOATS? (as one of my friend says)

Mice in the league of Dinos? May be

The computer mouse set to die out in the next five years? Don’t bet on it! by ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes -- According to a sensationalist article by the BBC News, that lump of plastic that you have next to your keyboard will, over the next few years, go the way of the dinosaur and be replaced by revolutionary technologies such as touchscreens and facial recognition. I wouldn't bet on it ...

Space Suit this one??

This post is about a very interesting thing that I came across only today.

Picture this. You are an engineer aboard the International Space Station on an expedition. Suddenly you find that a few things that you were using have become out of order and are of no use to you any more. What would you do?? You got to do something about the trash right, can't keep collecting it.
Normally, people on the ISS would tell you to send the stuff down to the atmosphere so that it will get burnt down. So the next time you see a mound of dust lying over your furniture, it could well be the burnt up version of some old space equipment that some astronaut wasnt able to use anymore.

But, in 2005, a new initiative was taken. International Space Agencies decided to turn unusable space suits into satellites. Accordingly, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station(ARISS) fabricated, tested and delivered a ham radio system to the ISS team barely three weeks after the Space Agencies agreed on that idea. Then, after a series of tests and confirmation, Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev stuffed the specially designed hardware into an unusable Russian Orlan suit and hurled the suit out of the IS station in February 2006. Just like a lot of people throw the bhel puri plate out of their car window!!

The specialities of the SuitSat is that it contains what is fundamentally a transmitter and a reciever which work at FM frequencies(yes!!) of 145 MHz. Additionally, it contained a interface box for the crew aboard ISS to operate. It also contained a CD containing the voices of a number of students across the globe, to be broadcasted by SuitSat. Since this project was developed with the help of a huge number of students, a lot of students, children and common public were encouraged to tune into the frequency to listen to SuitSat. The initiative was a pretty good success with an overwhelming response from the public for the SuitSat.

The SuitSat has no fuel supply per se. It just floats around until it comes into the realm of our atmosphere when it gets burnt up.

The first version SuitSat, SuitSat1 was finally lauched in Feb 2006 and it has re entered the earth also. Efforts are on to develop hardware for SuitSat2, so that these automatons are made use of to the fullest extent possible.

Check this out: http://www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/Hamsats/Suitsat.html

Planning to leave

Times have changed.

Indeed.

These days, most people I live with are absolutely busy planning to "leave" from here. And I'm supposed to sit through all of it.

Or may be I should turn into a piece of wood.

No Fire in the Firefox!!!

When I first started using firefox browser last year, I was all excited about it. It satisfied two of my fundamental needs: 1. To be able to load pages quickly and 2. To be able to browse 6 to 7 websites at one time and having only one window open.

Then firefox3.0 happened. But the latest version has not been so good. All that Mr.browser has to say is error in loading page, try again. Mr.Browser cant even load Google!!!!!


So when I went back to browser hunting, I stumbled on one called Avant. I must tell you this browser is beautiful!!! I discovered that this browser has a whole lot of things that would make any heavy internet user go 'gaga' over it. The striking thing about this is that it is able to block the unwanted Flash Animations, Pictures, Sounds, and Videos which can save you up to 95% of your bandwidth. And its got a good collection of skins for those who love playing with colour. And it has the tabbed browsing too in addition to a set of mouse gestures!!!

A perfect Firefox alternative is finally here, I guess.

Lost my post :(

One of the posts got published with a back date, and when I tried to change its date, I lost it!!!! It got deleted.

Haunt

May your image always stay before my eyes
Oh! the husband of Rakhumani
Sweet is thy face,
Sweet is thy name
Fills me with love at all times
My Panduranga grant me this boon.....That you'll remain in my heart
Says Tuka, I ask for nothing else




All joy lies at your feet




Says Vatsala, this abhang of Tukaram haunts this self
May the haunt continue forever

3G

I'm an avid tech enthusiast, and I try to keep a track of the arrival of a number of technology solutions in India. In that respect, I have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the 3G services of the mobile telephony in India for a long time now. But with current political and economic tensions, and the absence of Dayanidhi Maran in the Ministry, I have little hopes that 3G will materialise anytime soon.


The attraction to 3G is because of these:
1. 3G is bigger, better and faster than 2G

2. 3G operates in a wider range of frequency spectrum.
So it will help ease the spectrum crunch faced by operators particularly in the metros. This way they will be able to sustain the aggressive growth that has taken place.

3. 3G has four to five times higher voice capacity, which means we can get far more cost effective voice services.
That could translate to cheaper call rates!! yippee!!

4. 3G will open up a whole new range of services and applications that can be handled through the mobile device. This in
turn will increase the span of the telecom industry, with new businesses that will feed these services.


The Indian mobile telephone industry is fast maturing, and will evolve into a lucrative 3G market. We need to get our act together and quickly usher in the new technology, before another new technology renders this one obsolete.

The important reason behind the 3G launch reaching a stalemate is the spectrum crunch in the domestic segment. So the government is trying to increase this range by turning to other users of the frequency spectrum: the defence forces and space research. The thrust is on the defence forces to vacate a part of their spectrum.

For 3G to become a success and to achieve extremely high rates of penetration, it will require the government to prioritise technological infrastructure development. And licensing fees will have to be reduced. Secondly, the allotment of the frequencies to the service providers will have to be handled properly, so that they pass on the benefit to the end customer. 3G services must be positioned, priced and marketed in such a way that they cater to the needs of the so called tier 2 cities and lower down. People from these areas are going to propel the country's growth in the days to come.

What do you think?

Inflation

There is so much humdrum going on about the price rise lately, I thought I would try and understand wht it is all actually about.


So here are my findings:

1. The latest inflation rate has been calculated to be 11.63% , up by a whopping 3% in the past three to four months from 8%.
2. The inflation rate is always calculated in hindsight, that is for the trading and businesses that have taken place a few weeks ago. So this latest figure is for the week beginning June 21
3. The inflation rate is the percentage change in the prices of goods and services. Basically i think it kinda indicates how much more money we pay for goods/services than their actual cost.

Then, what is it that drives this increase in the cost??

Well, The cost goes up because the cost of the input raw material goes up, which in turn goes up because a lot of the raw materials for a wide range of industries are imported. The fuel cost and the strength of the foreign currency involved drives the price of the raw material.

So it all boils down to the cost of the fuel which drives the price rise.

As we all know, the price of crude oil in the markets have risen to $144 a barrel, whereas it was not so bad just a few weeks ago. The sharp rise in the oil prices has been not so much because of corresponding increase in demand

Nor is it because the oil producing nations are asking for more money for the oil

It is primarily due to something called futures trading taking place in an unregualted manner. Futures trading is done by special traders called speculators. Speculators only speculate, that is they dont actually buy anything.

Futures trading is about betting your money on a particular good and fixing its price in advance. If the actual price at the later date reduces, then the producer of the commodity is insulated from it, and he gets the price agreed upon earlier. And the vice versa.

Speculation over specualtion has resulted in the current state of the oil prices. I wonder when this will "deflate". Because as long as it doesnt, my dreams of buying a Honda city shall be put on hold.

So long.

P.s. this post may not really enlighten you about the trading market, still it will give you a "clear" picture of the great confusion the market actually is :D

Isnt it a little late?

I have a small programme to present tomorrow, its 11.24 pm now. I haven't put more than a three lines onto paper.

The "hot" question

The company that I've been recruited into tentatively expects me to join them early next year in 2009. And as the word spreads around, there is the one HOT question thats started doing the rounds as well, "What will you do in the next six months?"

I really do appreciate the concern that people around have for me, but the range of their reactions is quite interesting. So much so, quite a few of my relatives jumped to decisions.."..... Learn to manage the house..."; ".... you're too relaxed about life...."; ".... what will you do here, come with me to xyz country..."

Acquaintances from college were like "... oh havent you joined a course yet?";"...... OMIGOSH!! look for some other job right away.....";


These are some reactions....
I just smiled at all of them. Strange are the ways in which people react to the same thing. And it does take so many people to make up the whole world, isnt it?

Silly power cuts and whimsical internet connections

The power supply in the city, particularly in and around velachery, medavakkam and tambaram has been worse than even the moodiest girlfriends(no offence to non singles!!) ever. And with the internet connection adding the icing to the cake, it has made it virtually impossible for me to post anything on my blog.

today, almost miraculously, i have been able to login into Blogger, so i thought it best to type something to make up for all the lost days.

anyway, past is past, So here I am. Back on my saddle.

Can you believe it?

Charles Babbage. It is common knowledge that this man came up with an idea of a machine, the design of which is supposedly the basis for all the computers that we see around us. But it was thought that Babbage could only come up with an idea, not something that could translate to a real life entity.

But not any more. This video is the proof.


If the video doesn't load, you can check out the video here: http://news.zdnet.com/2422-13568_22-199996.html
Way to go Mr. Doron Swade!!!!!

Finally!

After much hesitation and procrastination, I have finally setup my blog, a space for me in this wide web of information. A visit to my blog should probably save you the trouble of asking me the inevitable 'whats up?' question. Besides that, its going to be the place where I shall empty my mind. So dont be taken aback if you find dirty stuff here. I believe thats part of everyone's life.

So, here I am in all my glory.....
Vatsala