What I Thought.... What I Read...

Bangalore Road show - traffic videos with youtube annotations

2008-07-24T20:31:00.000+05:30

Recently Google had included annotations features in YouTube. It is a cool feature to express the context in the video...

World population day

2008-07-11T20:12:00.000+05:30

World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people.

The world population on the 21th anniversary of Five Billion Day, July 11, 2008, was estimated to have been 6,681,418,341 (as of now when i write this entry - from here)

Today UN calls all countries for more family planning. In a report marking World Population Day, the UN estimates that the number of people on the planet will grow from 6.7bn to 9.2bn by the year 2050. That means greater demand for food, water and fuel. Such growth is unsustainable, the UN says, as climate change degrades arable land and reduces water supplies.

The hard truth is, the UN adds, the world does not even want so many new people. More than 200 million women, many in the developing world, do not have access to contraceptives.

Where are we going? How are we going to manage this??

Images from http://www.worldometers.info/population/

Google's new iGoogle - Experimental features

2008-07-11T17:41:00.000+05:30

Today when i was using iGoogle, suddenly the presentation format got changed. I was wondering.. Then I came to know that Google is experimenting with several new features on iGoogle. Some of the features..

Left navigation

With the navigation now available on the left-hand side of the page, you can get to all your gadgets with one click. The left navigation contains a list of all your gadgets and tabs.

Canvas view gadgets

Sometimes you want to focus on a single gadget on iGoogle. Now canvas views or full page views are available for some of our most popular gadgets. You can get to the canvas view of a gadget by doing the following:

* Click its title in the left navigation.
* Click the Maximize button in the gadget titlebar.

Chat on iGoogle

Now you can chat with all your friends in iGoogle without having to download any extra software. If your friends are signed into Gmail, Google Talk, or an experimental iGoogle homepage at the same time as you, you'll see their screennames listed on the left navigation.

Check out here for more information...

HealthMap - Global disease alert map

2008-07-11T14:15:00.000+05:30

Recently I came across this nice site called http://healthmap.org/en. It seems to be good. It gets disease alerts from different news services and present them on the world map. You can zoom into see the alerts in a particular location.

This is really helpful, when you plan for your vacation you can check the possible disease alerts in that place

Unofficial Google Command line interface

2008-07-09T22:23:00.000+05:30

Goosh.org hosted a command line interface to Google! It is like unix shell like interface. Using this you can access most of the google services (search for web, image, map (places), video, news, feeds, site specific searches and translate etc). It is pretty cool!! "help" or "ls" command gives the list of features supported. And you can clean up your webpage using clear command!! nice to see see all these without any advertisement.

Bangalore EPIC Special Campaign 2008

2008-07-06T15:43:00.000+05:30

Bangalore EPIC Special Compaign 2008 - For issue of elector photo identity card.
7th July to 31st August!!

- This campaign will enable every elector to get an EPIC.
- EPIC Campaign schedule in designated locations will be announced by the District Election Officers and Electoral Registration Officers
- The Electors whose names are already in the Electoral Roll, but EPIC not yet issued should appear for photograph in the designated locations for issue of EPIC.
- For inclusion of name in the Electoral Roll and for issue of Photo Identity Card fill up Form-6, submit the completed form to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer/ Assistant Electoral Registration Officer under acknowledgment.
- If EPIC is already issued and there is correction in the Electoral Roll and EPIC, fill up Form-8 and submit the completed form to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer / Assistant Electoral Registration Officer under acknowledgment.

Forms can be downloaded from www.ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in

Check here for contact numbers of ERO (Electoral Registration Officers). You can call them to get the schedule in your area.

http://stg1.kar.nic.in/eci/ERO_BUD.pdf

http://stg1.kar.nic.in/eci/ERO_BBMP.pdf

UPDATE on 21st July 2008:
Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) will be distributed in the following areas between 8.30 am and 6.30 pm. Looks like this schedule is for the next three days till 23rd July. For details, call 41757550.

KR Puram: Government model school; RR Nagar: St Clariton school; Mahalakshmi Layout: BBMP engineering ward office; Malleswaram: Chandrodaya english school; Hebbal: Little Angel Public School; Pulakeshi Nagar: Alphonse high school; Sarvagna Nagar: Maruthi Vidyalaya; CV Raman Nagar: Government model Tamil primary school; Shivajinagar: Islamiya-Madarasa-e-Niswan high school; Shanthinagar: Shanthi Nikethan nursery and primary school; Gandhinagar: Mahila Vidyalaya; Rajajinagar: BBMP engineering ward office; Govindaraja Nagar: Standard English nursery and primary school; Vijayanagar: Corporation ward office; Chamarajpet: Corporation Nursery School; Chickpet: City Central library; Basavanagudi: Corporation ward office; Padmanabhnagar: Webster middle and high school; BTM Layout: Francis institute of primary school; Jayanagar: VET High School; Bommannahalli: GHPS, Rotary Nagar.
Bangalore Urban
Yelahanka: GLPS, Kodigetrumalapura; MEC High School, Yelahanka New Town, Govt Urdu Model School, GHPS Kachohalli and Sondekoppa. Byatarayanapura: Govt Urdu Primary School, Bellahalli; Tanisandra: St Philomina English School; Doddabommasandra: GKVK Hostel. Yeshwantpur: GLPS, Ganapathi Halli; Nammura GHPS Thigalarapalya New Building; Nammura GHPS, Byadarahalli; GLPS, Pattanagere, Jnanabhodini higher primary school, Dubasipalya, Kengeri Education Society, Junior college, Kengeri, GHPS, Huluvenahalli. Dasarahalli: Sri Gururaghavendra Kannada lower primary school and parents society, Rajagopala Nagar.
Bangalore South: GHPS, Chandra Nagar, Kumaraswami Layout 2nd Stage; GHPS, Vittasandra; Dayananda boys and girls high school, Vaishnavi Layout; Uttarahalli, GKPS, Subhash Nagar; Government lower primary school, Thirupalya; Rammanohar Lohia law college, Gottigere; Modern school, Konanakunte.
Anekal: Government higher primary school, Huskur; government higher primary school, Chandapura; government higher primary school, Kithiganahalli; government new model primary schhol, government higher primary school, Arenuru; government primary school, Dommasandra; government higher primary school, Iggalur; government lower primary school, Maranayakanahalli.

Deccan Skylimo: Helicopter shuttle service launched in bangalore

2008-07-03T20:50:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaDeccan Aviation on Tuesday launched its helicopter shuttle service between the new international airport here and select destinations in the city. The new service "Deccan Skylimo" opening on Wednesday will have a bell 206 jet ranger helicopter, the company said in a release here.

Deccan Skylimo will begin operations from BIAL to Electronic City, Whitefield and HAL airport in Bangalore. The charter service offerred convenient timings and regular frequency, it said adding the first service will start at 0630 hours and the last drop to BIAL will be at 1800 hours daily.

The fare for these helicopter charters is in the range of Rs. 4800 to Rs. 5800 per person per trip.

Women Harassment: How to register complaint?

2008-07-02T20:21:00.000+05:30

The Complaints and Counseling Cell of the commission processes all the complaints whether received orally, written or suo moto under Section 10 of the NCW Act.

The complaints received relate to domestic violence, harassment, dowry, torture, desertion, bigamy, rape, refusal to register FIR, cruelty by husband, deprivation, gender discrimination and sexual harassment at work place.

The complaints are dealt with as below :-

* Investigations by the police are expedited and monitored.
* The matters are brought to the notice of various state authorities to facilitate action.
* Family disputes are resolved or compromised through counseling.
* As per the 1997 Supreme Court Judgment on Sexual Harassment at Workplace, ( Vishakha Vs. State of Rajasthan ) every employer is required to provide for effective complaints procedures and remedies including award of compensation to women victims. In sexual harassment complaints, the concerned organisation is urged to expedite cases and the disposal is monitored.
* For serious crimes, the Commission constitutes an Inquiry Committee which makes spot enquiries, examines witnesses, collects evidence and submits
the report with recommendations. The implementation of the report is monitored by the NCW.
The Commission has powers to summon the accused, witnesses and records to facilitate inquiry.

The State Commissions, the NGOs and other experts are involved in these efforts.

Cases falling under following categories are ordinarily not entertained by the Commission.

* Complaints illegible or vague, anonymous or pseudonymous; or
* The Complaint relates to civil dispute between the parties such as contractual rights obligations and the like;
* The Complaint relates to service matters not involving any deprivation of women's rights;
* The Complaint relates to labour/industrial disputes not involving any deprivation of womens rights:
* Matter is sub judice before a Court/Tribunal;
* The Commission shall not inquire into any matter which is pending before a State Commission or any other Commission duly constituted under any law for the time being in force.
* Matter already decided by the Commission

Visit http://ncw.nic.in/ncwcomplaint1/complaintentry.asp to file the complaint.

Nokia to take full control of Symbian - Will it hurt Google??

2008-06-24T22:45:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaNokia, the world’s largest mobile maker, has stepped up the pressure on Apple and Google, the US technology companies, after offering on Tuesday to buy Symbian, which makes operating systems for so-called smart mobile phones.

The Finnish company wants to acquire the 52 per cent of Symbian that it does not already own for around $410m and then offer Symbian’s software for free use as an operating system for mobile phone handsets.

The move means that Symbian’s software will compete directly with operating systems used by Research In Motion, maker of the Blackberry, Apple, maker of the iPhone, and Microsoft. The proposed Symbian deal also comes ahead of the release of Google’s own Android operating system later this year.

The deal is significant because smart phones will provide the next battleground in the development of the mobile phone industry.

Read this story here

Nokia says no plans to cut staff after Symbian buy...

Dasavatharam - Vishnu Vs Kamal comparision

2008-06-24T13:54:00.000+05:30

Last few days, there were many mails flooding about relating chaos theory and butterfly effect in kamal hassan 's dasavatharam movie. This is the recent one...

Recently i received this forward mail. It is really interesting!

If you knew the real dasavatharams of Lord Vishnu and their characters you can appreciate the script more.

Starting with the best adapted role:

1. Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan
Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent’s men are drugged at P. Vasu’s.. sounds familiar???

2. Balarama avatar - Balarama naidu
This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.

3. Mathsya avatar - Ranagaraja nambi
nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. what more clue do you want?

4. Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti
During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue. Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.

5. Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan
remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.

6. Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher
Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER… Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around. I have to check if he kills 21 people though.

7. Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi
first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher.. Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?

8. Rama avatar - Avatar Singh
Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.

9. Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy
As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

10. Koorma avatar - Bush
This is the most loose adaptation I couldn’t clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom… May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise…

We’ve Got Water On Mars, Let’s Find Life!

2008-06-23T22:38:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaMars phoenix lander found water ice on Mars...

Billions of dollars just to get an ice cube???

Check out this video..

Cricket - Asia Cup 2008 Schedule

2008-06-23T22:20:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaCricket season again... Asia cup starts tomorrow...
Group A
Sri Lanka
Bangaladesh
United Arab Emirates

Group B
India
Pakistan
Hong Kong

Live telecast in TV: ESPN and Star Sports

The schedule for the Asia Cup 2008 is as under :

Tue 24th June
Group A - Bangladesh v United Arab Emirates
Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Tue 24th June
Group B - Pakistan v Hong Kong
National Stadium, Karachi
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Wed 25th June
Group A - Bangladesh v Sri Lanka
Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Time : 15:00 IST, 10:00 GMT

Wed 25th June
Group B - Hong Kong v India
National Stadium, Karachi
Time : 15:00 IST, 10:00 GMT

Thu 26th June
Group A - Sri Lanka v United Arab Emirates
Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
Time : 15:00 IST, 10:00 GMT

Thu 26th June
Group B - India v Pakistan
National Stadium, Karachi
Time : 15:00 IST, 10:00 GMT

Sat 28th June
TBC v TBC
National Stadium, Karachi
A2 v B2
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Sun 29th June
TBC v TBC
National Stadium, Karachi
A1 v B1
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Mon 30th June
TBC v TBC
National Stadium, Karachi
A1 v A2
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Wed 2nd July
TBC v TBC
National Stadium, Karachi
B1 v B2
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Thu 3nd July
TBC v TBC
National Stadium, Karachi
A1 v B2
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Fri 4nd July
TBC v TBC
National Stadium, Karachi
A2 v B1
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Sun 6nd July
Final - TBC v TBC
National Stadium, Karachi
Time : 16:00 IST, 11:00 GMT

Dasavatharam FAQs - Chaos Theory and Butterfly Effect

2008-06-20T23:21:00.000+05:30

Kamal Haasan's ten roles in Dasavaratham

Rangaraja Nambi (12th century Vaishnavite -- Buddha avatar??)
Govindarajan Ramaswamy (bio technologist - Rama avatar??)
George Bush (US President)
Avtaar Singh (Punjabi singer)
Christian Fletcher (US ex-CIA officer)
Shinghen Narahasi (a Japanese martial arts expert - narasimha avatar??)
Krishnaveni (95-year-old, mentally retarted woman - Vamana avatar??)
Vincent Poovaraagan (a Dalit neglected by the society due to their caste - Krishna avatar?)
Kalifullah Mukhtaar (8 feet tall innocent muslim - Kalki avatar??)
Balram Naidu (Telugu intelligence officer - Parasuram avatar??)

Here is the excellent explanation about Chaos theory and Butterfly Effect and ofcourse Dasavatharam - From a forwarded message -

FOR THOSE WHO LOVED Dasavatharam AND ALSO FOR THOSE WHO CUDNT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT!!!!!!!!!!

Too many doubts about correlation of the movie, Chaos theory and Butterfly Effect have come into Picture….!!!

The movie clearly states about Chaos Theory and Butterfly Effect [Kamal says it in his Speech in the Movie ]

The concept of “CHAOS THEORY” and “BUTTERFLY EFFECT”, by itself is a complex concept, which mainly highlights the happening of huge unimaginable things because of least probable things…!!!!

Dasavatharam although deals with these concept, but does not necessarily confuse anyone with it,,,, As i said earlier, its mainly “YOU”… that plays a factor in how the movie gets along with “YOU”.

You have got to be Case 1 or Case 2 as i have said earlier in this entry,,, No use being Half Baked…..!!!!

To just brief about these Concepts,

Q: What is Chaotic System ?
A: Basically a chaotic system is one wherein long term predictions are impossible.Like for example,if I push a car, I know that it is going to move and it will continue to do so if I go on pushing it on and on.However,in a chaotic system,this situation cannot be predicted over a long period of time.
Weather for example is a chaotic system.No matter how good your instruments are,you simply cannot predict the weather with 100% accuracy over a long term basis and forecast it.

Q: What is the Butterfly Effect ?Matsyavatara
A: It is the most important component of a chaotic system.Basically,small perturbations results in amplifications which completely destroys the original nature of the system and makes prediction impossible.
If a butterfly flaps its wings in Africa,it could result in a cyclone in USA.(Mark the word COULD).A highly dumbed down explanation of the butterfly effect is in the film Anniyan,where Vikram’s sister dies because a liquor shop owner sells liquor on a dry day.

Q: OK, how does Dasavatharam incorporate it ?
A: In essence,Dasavatharam talks about 8 characters who are inconsequential as such,but are integrated in a larger picture.Without Bush,the plane would have been called back.Without Shinghen, Govind would be dead.Without the tsunami,the world would have been destroyed.Even Krishnaveni Patti plays a very important role.If she had not put the vial in the idol,maybe Govind would have recovered it then and there and a powerful weapon would have been unleashed.The very fact that it went into the idol meant that it was being accelerated to its destiny.Without Kaifulla Khan, Govind would have never escaped;the list simply goes on.

Q:OK,so does the film talk about theism or atheism?
A:Neither.It talks about how humans drive the destiny of the world.

The idol that is drowned in the sea along with Rangarajan in 12th century by Chozha king results in a fault being developed at the bottom of the ocean and creates tremors more than 800 years later. These tremors result in the Tsunami. This again is a classic case of Butterfly Effect wherein a seemingly inconsequential event (the drowning of the idol) saves Tamil Nadu from being wiped off the face of the earth.

The 1st scene is perfectly connected to the climax, remember what Kamal says in the first scene, that he will not say “Om Nama Shivaya” , but Asin tells him to chant it , but still Kamal refuses , ( in this kamal in his story tries to tell that ) Nambi believes in his god more than anything, but Asin feels “Its ok if we change the god or chant other god’s name, its life thats most important.” Now if u see the climax its JUST OPPOSITE…. Kamal doesn’t believe in god much and values lives of people the most…. but Asin deeply believes in god and that too this dialogue comes when both Asin and Kamal’s hand is on the god which came from the sea , and it also means that they are getting united from the place they departed hundreds of years back ( Kamal and Asin).The connection between the 1st scene and the climax in the movie shows the generation circle combined with supernatural powers of GOD and destiny…..!!!

If you watch it closely u can also find another actor who has done double action other than Asin and Kamal.
Asin’s father Sahasranamam [12th Century], in the beginning he says to Nambi “Panchatchira manthirathai sollitu vaango mappillai” and at the End [After tsunami] he says “Avar enna jathiyo inga vaanga paati “.
Another Eg. of Chaos Theory and circle of life.

JUST IMAGINE THE CHAOS THEORY IN A TAMIL FILM ??
WILL ANYONE HAVE THE GUTS TO HANDLE THIS KIND OF A SUBJECT IN A TAMIL FILM?

ONLY KAMAL HAS THE GUTS…. U ROCK!!

FURTHER————-

Nambi explanation

Okay, this is slightly outside the chaotic system driving the film as a whole. From what I could gather he says that this story is about ideologies like God,the madness surrounding such ideologies and decides to tell the story of the Shaivite-Vaishnavite conflict to show how people go crazy in the name of God as an example.

As a loose end,it gets tied up in the end,when the Ranganathar idol is thrown out of the sea due to the tsunami which highlights the cyclic nature of life.Actually the Nambi character highlights both Chaos and Karma which I explained.That is the brilliance of this film,there is so much to see and understand.

Another explanation(and this is slightly far fetched— as explained earlier) is that Govind is in fact the reincaranation of Nambi. As Nambi he couldn’t protect God and died in the name of God.In order to fulfill his Karma,he is reincarnated as Govind Ramasamy who ultimately saves the world from destruction.The idol in the end somewhat hints to this theory; his story began with the idol and it ends with the idol.
As far as the connection with Nambi character and events in 12th Century goes…
The connection is based on the “Butterfly effect “.

When Govind and Andal goes to the bury the idol in the sands, Andal will stumble on a particular stone couple of times…This is the same stone as the one from 12th Century hen Kothai rips her Thaali and flings it at Kulothunga Chozan…it will end up hanging on the stone. So, the implied message here is Andal is Kothai reborn in the 21s century.

During the encounter with Santhana Bharathi in the sand quarry, it is repeat of the incident from 12th century. Instead of Kulothunga Chozhan, it is the Sand Mafia which tries to inflict damage on the land.

This movie is a brilliant juxtaposition of independent characters whose paths cross, if only briefly, which is stunning example of Chaos Theory.

The idol that is drowned in the sea along with Rangarajan in 12th century by Chozha king results in a fault being developed at the bottom of the ocean and creates tremors more than 800 years later. These tremors result in the Tsunami. This again is a classic case of Butterfly Effect wherein a seemingly inconcsequential event (the drowing of the idol) saves Tamil Nadu from being wiped out off the face of the earth.

But actually kamal has not left anything for our imagination… Explanation struck the right chord, Kamal does tell to Asin in a dialogue that idol which gets sunken back then gets struck between the tectonic plates under the sea and causes tsunami…
Many people missed this dialogue i guess. Kamal’s accent was so very perfect Tamil, that many people missed it…. Being perfect Is a Problem by Itself !!! :)

Although the explanation is a least possible theory, that is what “Chaos Theory” And “Butterfly Effect” are all about.

Its not just the statue that caused the tsunami, but it just started a large chain of effects which kept multiplying exponentially and finally lead to it after 800 years….!!

Why just say this concept is perfectly illogical… it is possible… thats what i have been explaining all the while !!!

The story line is that things going wrong are made to be right which involves many people and countries knowingly or unknowingly.

Knowingly:

-Bush, Manmohan Singh, Govindh, Fletcher, Balaram Naidu, Mallika Sherawath.

Unknowingly:

-Nambi’s drowning to death with the heavy statue causes simple changes to the seabed that causes a devastating tsunami 800 years later [According to Chaos theory it is possible.... although it is least probable... It is possible.. so nothing TOTALLY WRONG About it ]
-Poovaragan(actually saved kamal unknowingly—when poovaragan enters kamal and asin were caught by those manal kollayargal.There poovaragan distracts the gang helping kamal to escape),
- Avatar Singh(gave way to Fletcher to escape in the airport unknowingly),
- Japanese(saved govind from fletcher, he knows he is saving but he doesnt know about the play and was there only for revenge),
- Kallifulla and family(saved govind unknowingly)……..
-Vincent is a dalit leader of a lower caste( the so called ) but saved an Iyengar Girl ……and at the end becomes the son of the Iyengar Paati !!
- If Shingen Narahashi’s sister was not killed, Fletcher could have killed govind and used the virus for wrong purpose..

This is based on Chaos Theory..!!!!!

Check out this article which talks about 10 avatars of kamal in Dasavatharam.

--

Mobile Internet Usage : Male Vs Female

2008-06-20T15:32:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaA survey commissioned by Opera claims that it is mostly men who use the internet from their mobile phone.

More than 83% of men use their mobiles to browse, in comparison to 16% of women. In India the vast majority of Opera Mini users are male (~97%) and between 18 and 27 years old (~76%).

The report is based on findings from the top 10 countries who use Opera Mini, including UK, Russia, Indonesia, China, US, India, South Africa, Ukraine, Germany and Poland

The report is available at http://www.opera.com/mobile_report/2008/05/

As per this survey, Top 10 sites in India (# of unique users)
India

1. google.com
2. orkut.com
3. yahoo.com
4. gmail.com
5. rediff.com
6. youtube.com
7. gamejump.com
8. wikipedia.org
9. information.com
10. my.opera.com

BMTC Bangalore Airport Transfer Shuttle Service Booking Launches on VIA

2008-06-17T09:47:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaYou can now book Airport Transfer to/from Bangalore Airport on BMTC Vayu Vajra (Volvo) Bus on viaworld.in.

BMTC(Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) is launching Volvo (Vayu Vajra) services every one hour to the Airport and from the Airport to Bangalore City. VIA is the only exclusive seller of BMTC Airport Transfers in India. Steps to Book tickets.

1. Login to www.viaworld.in
2. Select Buses and Select Airport Transfers in the Search Box (Currently we are also providing transfer from Delhi Airport to Punjab on Indo Canadian Transport Buses)
3. Select Bangalore International Airport as source or if booking to Airport select the Source as the nearest pick up point in the city.
4. Search for Buses for the date of travel.
5. Select the Bus from the list of buses shown. You can also see pickup points and fares.
6. Select the Seat of your Choice.
7. Use your VISA/Mastercard Credit Card to make the payment confirm the transfer.
8. Print the voucher.

Important Instructions
1. Please carry the print-out of the Voucher to the Pickup point and present it to the Conductor while Boarding the Bus.
2. In case you get delayed at the airport or to reach the pick up point and miss the bus, the same ticket shall be valid for up to 3 hours so that he can board the next subsequent bus. The seat though is not guaranteed while boarding the next bus.
3. Tickets are non-cancellable and non-refundable

BUS TARIFF:
A.C. Vayu Varja : Four flat Fares of Rs. 200/-, 150/-, 100/-, 80/- .
Non A.C. Suvarna/P.Vahini : Three Flat Fares of Rs. 100/-, Rs. 80/- & Rs. 50/-

Fares
AIRPORT-1 : HEBBAL TO BIAL
Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL Rs. 80

AIRPORT-2: M.C.T.C. TO BIAL
a. MCTC Vijayanagar - BIAL to BIAL - Rs. 150
b. Rajajinagar Malleshwaram Bus to BIAL - Rs. 100
Stn. Bashyam circle (Sadahivanagar)
Mekhri Circle
C. Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL - Rs. 80AIRPORT-

3 : JEEVANBHIMANAGAR TO BIAL
a. Jeevanbhimanagar to BIAL - Rs. 150
Indiranagar Police Stn. Halasoor Bus Stop
b. Taj Residency to BIAL - Rs. 100
Indian Express J C Nagar/Dooradarshan Mekhri Circle
c. Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL - Rs. 80

AIRPORT-4 : HAL OLD AIRPORT TO BIAL
a. HAL Old Airport to BIAL - Rs. 150
Hotel Leela Palace/ Royal Orchid Indiranagar Police Stn.
b. Halasoor Lake to BIAL - Rs. 100
J C Nagar Mekhri Circle
c. Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL - Rs. 80

AIRPORT-5: J.P.NAGAR 6TH PHASE TO BIAL
a. J P Nagar 6th Phase to BIAL - Rs. 150
Jayanagar 4th block
b. Shanthinagar Bus Station to BIAL - Rs. 100
Bangalore club/ Richmond Circle
Basaveshwara Circle/L.H
Hotel Le meridian/ Hotel Windsor Manor
Mekhri Circle
c. Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL - Rs. 80

AIRPORT-6 : WHITE FIELD POST OFFICE TO BIAL
a. White field Post Office to BIAL - Rs. 150
Hope Form
ITPL
b. K.R.Puram Railway Station to BIAL - Rs. 100
Kalyanagar
c. Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL - Rs. 80

AIRPORT-7 : KORAMANGALA TO BIAL
a. Koramangala to BIAL - Rs. 150
Forum Mall/ Madivala Checkpost
b.Shanthinagar Bus Station to BIAL - Rs. 100
Bangalore club/ Richmond Circle
Indian Express
J C Nagar/Doordarshan Mekhri Circle
c. Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL - Rs. 80

AIRPORT-8 : ELECTRONIC CITY TO BIAL
a. Electronic city to BIAL - Rs. 200
Bommanahalli
b. Central Silk Board to BIAL - Rs. 150
Agara Jn. Of Sarjapura Road
Accenture/Intel
Marathahalli Bridge
c. K.R.Puram Railway Station to BIAL - Rs. 100
Kalyanagar
d. Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL - Rs. 80

AIRPORT 9 : KEMPEGOWDA BUS STATION /KSRTC BUS STAND/RAILWAY STATION TO BIAL
a.Kempegowda Bus Station/ to BIAL - Rs. 100
KSRTC Bus Stand,
Railway Station
b.Hotel Grand Ashoka to BIAL - Rs. 80
Hotel Windsor Manor
Mekhri circle
c. Hebbal Kogilu Cross/Yelahanka to BIAL - Rs. 80

Commissions and Service ChargeA Service Charge of Rs. 5 shall be charged extra over and above the price of ticket.
Customer Support
1. For any queries, you can further call us at 080-41431000 or email us at buses@viaworld.in

For more information about BMTC services visit here

Mobile Search - Nokia Vs Google Vs Nuance T9 Nav

2008-06-16T22:43:00.000+05:30

Today i came to know about the new mobile search application T9 Nav from Nuance. I already have Nokia Search and Google Search on my mobile.

T9 Nav runs as a daemon and when you type in in the home menu, it gets activated and gives the search results. It looks good. It supports contacts,settings, media files, bookmarks, applications, calendar entries. It is still in beta. I tried it for some keywords. It looks good! But I like Nokia search.

Nokia Search is very good. It combines local mobile search and internet search also. And it supports SMS, email messages and files along with other contents supported by T9 Nav. The look and feel of Nokia search application is very good.

Google will launch their Google Mobile (similar to Google Desktop) soon. But they launched Google search - their internet search client. It is also good. We don't need to start the browser and navigate to the Google to search for something. Instead when you press the edit key, Google Search gets activated and you can directly google!! It is not supporting the browser configuration - always opens the default browser. we cannot change the default browser to Opera Browser..

All are good! I will continue to use Nokia Search and Google Search. T9 Nav ?? letz see their next release...and ofcourse i am waiting for Google Mobile :)

World Blood Donor's Day

2008-06-14T23:31:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaToday (June 14th) is World Blood Donor's Day! Donate blood today!!

Benefits for the donor:

Reduces risk of heart problems.
Stimulates generation of red blood cells
Prevents accumulation of iron.
Check your Blood Pressure, temperature, hemoglobin and pulse rate every time you give blood. Also collect your blood reports after donation.
Each time you donate blood you can save up to 4 lives!!!

Benefits for the Recipient:

Replaces blood lost during injury.
Replaces blood lost during surgery.
Helps patients with diseases like Hemophilia.
Raises Hemoglobin levels in patients with chronic ailments like cancer, anemia, kidney disease etc.

Bangalore International Airport - Funny cartoons

2008-06-14T13:13:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

I saw the set of funny cartoons about BIAL - Bangalore International Airport. Enjoy!

A chat with Dr.Devi Shetty , Narayana Hrudayalaya ( Heart Specialist) Bangalore

2008-06-12T16:05:00.000+05:30

I received the transcript of the Chat with Dr.Devi Shetty , Narayana Hrudayalaya ( Heart Specialist) Bangalore.

Here it is...

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart ?

Ans:
1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
2. Exercise - Half an hour's walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?

Ans: No

Qn: It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person
gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?

Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?

Ans: Yes

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?
Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart?

Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints .

Qn: You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so?

Ans: Mother Theresa , who was my patient.

Qn: Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?

Ans: Extremely rare

Qn: Does cholesterol accumulates right from an early age
(I'm currently only 22) or do you have to worry about it only after you are above 30 years of age?

Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.

Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart ?

Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body's enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines?

Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.

Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?

Ans: Yoga helps.

Qn: Which is the best and worst food for the heart?

Ans: Fruits and vegetables are the best and the worst is oil.

Qn: Which oil is better - groundnut, sunflower, olive?

Ans: All oils are bad .

Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there any specific test?

Ans: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?

Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position , place an aspirin tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a coronary care unit since the maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?

Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.

Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.

Ans: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Also, edentary lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.

Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?

Ans: Yes.

Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child. Is it true?

Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer as a child

Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart ? What precautions would you recommend?

Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock.

Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short / long term)?

Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?

Ans : No.

Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?

Ans : No.

Qn: How would you define junk food?

Ans : Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds , samosas, and even masala dosas.

Qn: You mentioned that Indians are three times more vulnerable. What is the reason for this, as Europeans and Americans also eat a lot of junk food?

Ans: Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately, Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease.

Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?

Ans : No.

Qn: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded emails on this)?

Ans : Yes. Lie down comfortably and put an aspirin tablet of any description under the tongue and ask someone to take you to the nearest coronary care unit without any delay and do not wait for the ambulance since most of the time, the ambulance does not turn up.

Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low hemoglobin count lead to heart problems?

Ans : No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity.

Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the stairs in the house, work as a substitute for exercise?

Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and even the act of getting out of the chair and going to another chair and sitting helps a lot.

Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?

Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.

Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation?

Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time , Control cholesterol, BP, weight.

Qn: Are people working on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift workers?

Ans : No.

Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?

Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to
reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks?

Ans : No.

Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women?

Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?

Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for health checkup s if you are past the age of 30 ( once in six months recommended) ...

How to survive a heart attack when alone...

2008-06-12T16:02:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaSince many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who Begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing conscious.

However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously.

A deep breath should be taken before each cough, the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest.

A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives.

Don't ever think that you are not prone to heart attack if your age is less than 25 or 30. Nowadays due to the change in the life style, heart attack is found among people of all age groups.

YouTube Annotations

2008-06-11T10:07:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaYouTube added a new feature for video creators: annotations. "Video Annotations are a new way for you to add interactive commentary to your videos. Use them to add background information about the video, create stories with multiple possibilities (viewers click to choose the next scene) or link to related YouTube videos, channels, or search results from within a video."

You can add annotations by going to the list of uploaded videos and clicking on "Edit annotations" or by visiting one of your videos while you are logged in. There are three types of annotations that can be added while playing the video: speech bubbles, notes and spotlights

List of LPG filling stations in India

2008-06-10T14:44:00.000+05:30

List of LPG filling stations in India is here This list is compiled by Team Raghav LPG for general public use.

World Environment Day - Pledge

2008-06-05T18:13:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaWhat does the future hold for us?
Smog filled skies and poison cars,
And broken land with useless dust
And nature’s beauty behind bars.
Can I ever show my children,
(If they ever come my way)
The beauty of a sunset
At the ending of the day?
Can I walk into a forest,
And surround myself with trees,
Yet know that it will remain,
For me to visit as I please.
I know that I can today
Do all the things I’ve said,
But when today is yesterday,
Will all these things be dead?

-- From the Pachamama

Most people want to improve the quality of their lives. This means having a clean, decent, safe home and locality in which to live and raise a family. But this quality of life is often threatened as a result of our very own actions (or inaction).

The choices we make and the products we buy test our commitment to maintain a healthy environment for us and our loved ones. So, let’s Stop…Think…and Act Responsibly; for each responsible choice made by one, improves quality of life for all.

June 5 is World Environment Day. It could be like any other day in the calendar, unless you choose to mark it and make it significant.

You can do this by making a pledge.

Eco-Pledge

I shall switch off all electric gadgets when not in use.

I shall plant as many trees as I can.
I shall try to grow my own food in whatever little space I have.
I shall not keep the tap open when not in use.
I shall ensure all leaking pipes and fixtures are fixed.
I shall recycle, reduce and reuse as much as I can.
I shall segregate and dispose waste as wisely as possible.

I shall use car pooling system whenever I can.
I shall prefer walking or cycling to reach short distances.
I shall opt for public transportation, where ever possible, instead of cars.
I shall buy household articles, gadgets and food items for sheer necessity.
I shall try to substitute the usual cooked meal with uncooked natural diet.
I shall desist buying packed, frozen and stored food items.
I shall buy locally available products instead of imported ones.
I shall not use lighting that consumes too much energy.

The threat to our environment is immediate and the effects are already being felt. Let's commit ourselves to shoulder the responsibility to save mother earth.

Fuel cost up - Air travel gets costlier in India

2008-06-03T13:08:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaJet Airways, Kingfisher and Deccan, along with Air India are amongst the major air-carriers who have already effected a hike in fuel surcharge.

With the increase, a passenger will be charged Rs 2,250 as fuel surcharge for a distance up to 750 kms, and Rs 2,900 for beyond 750 kms.

Karunanidhi's birthday gift - Idli, dosa to cost cheaper in Tamilnadu

2008-06-03T13:04:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaIf you love eating idli, dosa, vada and pongal -- then you have a reason to smile. These food items will be cheaper by 10 to 15 per cent from today in Tamil Nadu.

This is Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's birthday gift to the people of the state!!. He turned 85 on Tuesday.

Restaurants across the state have reduced prices of the popular delicacies on the occasion.

The rates of meals would also be reduced.

IPL final: Rajasthan Royals won on the last ball

2008-06-02T16:02:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaRajasthan Royals won the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) title with élan after being tagged as underdogs prior to the start of the highly-acclaimed tournament.

Rajasthan Royals defeats Chennai Super Kings in a nail biting finish.

So finally the climax is over - Rajasthan proved that they are the team of DLF IPL T20. They played well throughout the series and did maintain their form till the last ball of the tournament. With the semifinals being one sided matches, the final was a terrific finish with match evenly poised till the last ball.

It was Yousuf Pathan (IPL Finals Man of the Match) who did it for Rajasthan Royals in the final - both with the bat and with the ball. His partnership with to be man of the series Shane Watson was the most critical part of the Rajasthan Royals innings. Shane Warne did played his bit in scoring a crucial boundary and taking good singles in the last over.

This is first time that luck didn't go in Dhoni's way - generally he has the reputation of winning close matches. But the way IPL Cricket made its impact in its first season - the close final was the best way to wrap up things.

So Rajasthan royals will be the proud team to lift the DLF IPL Trophy.

The winners took the purse of $1.2 million and a glittering DLF IPL trophy while the runners-up had to content with $600,000.

Dasavathaaram will be released on June 11, 2008

2008-06-01T14:09:00.000+05:30

Kamal Hassan's Dasavathaaram overcomes legal hassles The Madras High Court has dismissed the two petitions against Dasavathaaram which claimed that the film contained some scenes that offended Hindus. Following this, producer Oscar Ravichandran has declared that the film will be released on June 13, 2008 instead of June 6, 2008.

DLF-IPL trophy Looks great!

2008-05-31T23:58:00.000+05:30

The IPL Trophy, which has a player in gold leafing, holding a bat adjacent to a map of the country with the names of the IPL teams engraved in it and symbolised by eight rubies, was crafted by 14 artisans, said chief designer Mona

Wi-Fi Detector Shirt

2008-05-31T23:42:00.000+05:30

ThinkGeek is selling a really cool Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt with a graphic that produces an glowing animation showing the signal strength of local wi-fi networks.

* Glowing animated shirt dynamically displays the current wi-fi signal strength.
* Shows signal strength for 802.11b or 802.11g

Chennai Beats Mohali and moving to Finale

2008-05-31T23:37:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaChennai Super Kings romped into the final of the Indian Premier League, thrashing Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets in the second semi-final.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team advanced to Sunday's summit clash with the Rajasthan Royals after a determined and disciplined effort saw them past Kings XI with some ease.

Phoenix Lander Arrives at Mars - Animated Illustration

2008-05-30T12:03:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaCheck out the cool animation of Phoenix Lander Arrives at Mars here

AirLift - Bangalore New Airport To Any where in Bangalore @ Rs300

2008-05-29T17:29:00.000+05:30

Came to know about this airport transfer service...it would be good for bangalore people...

Here is what they say...

We are starting a Airport Transfer Service for Bangalore. Since the New airport is far from the city and we feel that Airport Transfers will become very expensive for the Passengers and there will be a definite problem to commute to and from the New Airport. We are introducing our service to make airport Transfers less expensive and still provide the required luxury while taking customers to and from the airport. We will pick up the customers from the Airlift pickup points and drop them to the airport and vice versa bring them to the city from the airport.

Unique features of the Airlift Vehicle

· Airlift will be 6 seat air conditioned Toyota Innova. Individual Bucket seats for all 5 passengers.

· Airlift will have a LCD screen on each passenger seat for personalized entertainment system, these screens will show 5 channels with different contents.

· Airlift has ample overhead covered and secured luggage space.

· Airlift will be Wi-Fi enabled for passengers to browse the internet on the screens and as well as with their laptops.

· Airlift will be driven by our Auto Pilots who will be in uniform and well trained to communicate and present themselves to the customers.

· Airlift will also be tracked by GPS system to ensure efficient on time services and tracking every vehicle to make sure of complete security of passengers.

Airlift is being designed to provide complete comfort and help the passenger to use their commuting time productively.

Pricing: We feel that the Normal City Cab from or to the Airport will cost about 750/- to 1000/- one way. Our service has been priced at Rs. 300/- one way and moreover Return journey for to and from the airport will be Rs. 450/- per person. That is nearly 70% saving on the Airport Transfers vis-à-vis a regular City Cab.

How to avail the service:
Book Tickets online on our website www.airliftonline.com through Credit or Debit Card.
Pickup the Prepaid Coupons in any of the Retail Stores and call 9845047788 to make a booking or use the same on www.airliftonline.com

Support:
SMS AIRLIFT to 54545. Our support team will get in touch with you ASAP.
Call our 24/7 call center number 98450 47788 .

Logon to our website www.airliftonline.com for any queries

Washable Computer - The importance of washing your computer

2008-05-28T12:24:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaI came across a clinical assistant product - MedTab. It is a thin client and can be used to view the EMR/EHR records of a patient. I was surprised to see that this device/gadget is washable.

I read the following from their website. It is good.

Several scientific journals (sited below) have reported on incidents of infectious organisms being isolated from computer keyboards used in patient care areas. Other articles have connected contaminated computer keyboards to infected patients. Some medical professionals recommend disinfecting keyboards daily, when visibly soiled, or when leaving an ICU room. The MedTab can help reduce patient infections by minimizing the need to share computers, and by eliminating the keyboard (which may be seldom disinfected). The MedTab has no open holes, ports or cracks for organisms to hide. It is easy to wipe clean and disinfect.

Quick Facts about Healthcare Acquired Infections

There are more than two million healthcare acquired infections each year that result in more than 90,000 deaths. (Journal of Epidemiology and Centers for Disease Control and Infections)

In Pennsylvania alone, healthcare acquired infections in 2004 cost the health system more than two billion dollars. (Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council)

Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, April, 2006

Bacterial Contamination of Keyboards: Efficacy and Functional Impact of Disinfectants. Rutala WA, White MS, Gergen MF, Weber DJ

"Computers are ubiquitous in the healthcare setting and have been shown to be contaminated with potentially pathogenic microorganisms."

"Therefore, we agree with other investigators who have recommended that routine disinfection be performed on computer keyboards that are used in patient care areas. Computers in these areas should be disinfected daily and when visibly soiled."

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Sep.-Oct. 2002

Basic Microbiologic and Infection Control Information to Reduce the Potential Transmission of Pathogens to Patients via Computer Hardware. Alice N. Neely, PhD and Dean F. Sittig, PhD

"Recent articles have indicated that computer hardware, just as other medical equipment, may act as a reservoir for microorganisms and contribute to the transfer of pathogens to patients.."

"Therefore, anyone (such as a staff member) or anything (such as a portable computer) that contacts anything in the patient�s room should be considered to be contaminated and needs to be disinfected before leaving the (ICU) room."

American Journal of Infection Control, 2000

Computer Keyboards and Faucet Handles as Reservoirs of Nosocomial Pathogens in the Intensive Care Unit. Bures S, Fishbain JT, Uyehara CFT, et al.

"...MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) causing clinical infection in two of the ICU patients was identical to the MRSA isolated from the keyboards, thereby establishing a direct connection between the infected patients and the computers."

Clinical Infectious Disease, November 1999

Computer Keyboards as Reservoirs for Acinetobacter baumannii in a Burn Hospital. Neely AN, Maley MP, Warden GD..

"...findings strongly suggest a link between contaminated computer keyboards and colonization in this group of patients."

Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, June 1998

Swabbing Computers in Search of Nosocomial Bacteria. Isaacs D, Daley A, Dalton D, et al

"...Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas, both of which are capable of causing serious infections in burn patients, were found on the computer terminals."

Agra police ban cycles near Taj Mahal

2008-05-28T09:48:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

I read this news in NDTV. Following the use of bi-cycles in various terror attacks across the country, more recently in Jaipur, the Agra police has banned parking of cycles near the Taj Mahal.

I don't know how this will help to control the terror attacks. Instead of looking at the permanent solution, they are going for the short term useless solution. In other words, whenever a problem occurs they jump in and do something and affect the people. They have to look out for the solution proactively.

IPL: Semi Finals Schedule

2008-05-28T00:00:00.000+05:30

Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils, 1st Semi-Final, Friday
Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai

Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings, 2nd Semi-Final, Saturday
Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai

IPL: Chennai Super Kings beat Chargers to reach semi-finals

2008-05-27T23:56:00.000+05:30

Chennai Super Kings beat Deccan Chargers by seven wickets to book a semi-final berth in the Indian Premier League.

Centre may impose cess to bail out oil firms

2008-05-27T16:26:00.000+05:30

By ANI

New Delhi, May 27 (ANI): A cess or surcharge on income tax and corporate tax may be the next option with the Central Government to bail out oil firms reeling under high global oil prices.

Earlier, a proposal by the Petroleum Ministry to raise petrol price by Rs 10 a litre, diesel by Rs 5 per litre and that of LPG by Rs 50 per had not gone down well with the UPA Government.

The new proposal comes after Finance Minister P Chidambaram's reluctance to slash duties on crude oil and petroleum products unless alternate source of revenues were identified.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora met Chidambaram today but could not convince him of the urgency to cut import and excise duties to avoid the Rs 2,00,000 crore revenue loss expected on petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene this fiscal.

BPCL and HPCL can buy crude oil only till July while Indian Oil can afford imports till September. The three firms face huge liquidity crisis as they fail to recover full value of the products sold.

"We don't want to see scarcity of petroleum products particularly kerosene and LPG," Deora said. "Oil companies are in a precarious state and we need urgently find solutions." He informed that some proposals were discussed but "nothing has been agreed."

Sources said a cess or surcharge on income and corporate tax similar to one levied after the Kargil war, may be on the cards to balance the cut in customs duty on crude oil to zero from 5 per cent and an excise duty cut on petrol and diesel. (ANI)

Yediyurappa may take oath as Karnataka chief minister Wednesday

2008-05-27T00:44:00.000+05:30

The Bharatiya Janata Party ministry led by B.S. Yediyurappa is likely to be sworn in Wednesday, party sources said Sunday.

The election process has to be completed by Wednesday May 28 according to the schedule drawn up by the election commission.

Yediyurappa will be formally elected leader of the BJP legislature party Monday. He and other state leaders will leave for Delhi for talks with party central leaders after staking claim to form the government.

All top BJP leaders like L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who had campaigned vigorously and Arun Jaitely, in charge of party affairs in Karnataka and many others are likely to witness the swearing in ceremony.

In November last year when Yediyurappa was sworn in as chief minister all these leaders as well as chief ministers of other BJP-ruled states were present.

On Sunday evening state leaders met at Yediyurappa’s residence to discuss ministry formation and steps to be taken for stability of the government as it will have only a slender majority of four or five seats in the 225-member (including one nominated member) house.

BJP has won 110 seats, Congress 80, JD-S 28 and the remaining six have been taken by independent candidates.

Karnataka Election Results -

2008-05-27T00:41:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipediakarnataka election, karnataka elections 2008, karnataka assembly election results live, karnataka poll results

The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is inching towards becoming the single largest party in Karnataka. BJP is closely followed by the Congress. JD(S)-touted as the kingmaker party-is trailing.

According to the latest results/reports, the BJP has won 4 seats and is leading in 102. The Congress has won 1 seat and is ahead in 68 seats and the JD(S) in 41. According to the early election results tends, the BJP is ahead of the Congress in Central Karnataka, coastal Karnataka and Bangalore.

For the latest Karnataka Elections result you can log on to here to get the results and trends

New Bangalore airport handles 331 flights on launch day

2008-05-27T00:38:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaBangalore: The newly launched Bengaluru International Airport said it handled 341 air traffic movements, including 172 arrivals and 159 departures on Saturday. This was a phenomenal achievement given that it was the inaugural day of the launch of commercial operations.

"It was business as usual on Day 1. Though a weekend, we have been well prepared to handle the heavy traffic from the new airport. The air traffic control guided about 100 aircraft in landing and take off during the first 24 hours of commencing the operations," a spokesperson of the airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) said.

The Rs 2,500-crore airport at Devanahalli, located about 40 km from Bangalore, launched operations in the early hours of Saturday, thanks to a Election Commission imposed moratorium on operations in place because of the ongoing State elections in Karnataka. India's flag carrier, Air India, had the privilege to fly out the first aircraft - to Singapore - 15 minutes past Friday midnight (00.15 IST).

The city's old HAL airport, located in the city, simultaneously closed operations.

"The first 18 hours of day one operations have been satisfactory in comparison to other such transitions the world over. Teething problems apart, the operational take-off has been smooth. The glitches will be tackled within a week," BIAL said in a statement later.

Source: domain-b.com

Bangalore Road Show - Road sign

2008-05-24T22:39:00.000+05:30

Most of them won't care about the No U Turn signal in the bilekahalli signal in Bannerghatta Road. Look at this photo. How two wheelers and an auto trying to take left on a busy traffic. You can see this any day any time in this place..Ofcourse this is one example....you can see many such place...

Reliance Mart Coming to Bannerghatta Road...

2008-05-24T22:20:00.000+05:30

Reliance bought a convention hall (kalyana mandapam) located in Arekere signal, bannerghatta road and converted it to a mall. It is ready to open in few days. It will be a threat to the other players in this area - FoodDays, .more (fabmall), nilgiris and Food World.

First FoodNet was running their business nicely in this area and when fabmall was started it took good business. But when foodworld started their branch, FoodNet and .more (fabmall) lost their business.

Hope this competition will give benefit to the consumers!

Thanks to ELCIA

2008-05-19T20:13:00.000+05:30

Last week, ELCIA (Electronics City Industries' Association) started to help the people commute from Bannerghatta Road to Electronics City. They've arranged some securities to manage the traffic in many junctions from Bannerghatta Road to Electronics City.

Tonight around 7:30pm, I noticed that they are doing a great job! They are not allowing the heavy vehicles to take this village road from Bannerghatta Road.

Thanks to ELCIA!!

Route from Electronics City - Bannerghatta Road - Kanakpura Road

View Larger Map
I've captured this GPS log few months back...

Startup City - Platform to connect with the start-ups

2008-05-15T19:24:00.000+05:30

I was thinking that we don't have a platform to promote startups and know about startups. Thought of building a company like TechCrunch and VentureBeat. Recently came to know about this event in bangalore and registered for this event. Waiting to connect to people and know more about the startups.

startup city
May 24, 2008 Nimhans Convention Center, Bangalore.

Check here for more information.

Say no to plastic

2008-05-15T19:07:00.000+05:30

Every year, around 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. 500,000,000,000. Five hundred followed by nine zeros. That's a lot of bags. So many that over one million bags are being used every minute and they're damaging our environment.

Plastic bags are difficult and costly to recycle and most end up on landfill sites where they take around 300 years to photo degrade. They break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and waterways and enter the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them.

Our planet is becoming increasingly contaminated by our unnecessary use of plastic bags.

Each one of us contributes to the problem, Let’s now be willing to be part of the solution to it.

Two Simple Ways You Can Do That

1. Use Reusable Shopping Bags – Jute, Cloth …
2. Reuse A Plastic Bag – Take back that bag to the vendor, next time you visit; or else collect and return at regular intervals.

Our simple acts today, can make a BIG difference tomorrow !

Bangalore Poll - I did it!

2008-05-10T07:48:00.000+05:30

Oops...I did it..

Today morning we reached our polling station by 7am. We were redirected to other polling station. Just few people were standing in the queue. Overall it took less than 10 minutes to log my vote including waiting in the queue! The polling officer didn't check my identity card??

Helping victims of Cyclone Nargis

2008-05-09T01:48:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaNews reports have tallied more than 22,000 dead with another 41,000 missing due to the Cyclone Nargis.

You can support disaster relief if Myanmar at this link. In this page, you can donate to UNICEF or Direct Relief International.

For more information about this google initiative check
here

you can check out this link to track the path of cyclone Nargis.

Bangalore - Free Heart Surgery.

2008-05-06T23:03:00.000+05:30

An institute in bangalore, India performs any kind of heart surgery, free of cost.

Sri Sathya Sai Institute Higher medical Sciences, E.P.I.P. Area, Whitefield, Bangalore - 560 066, Karnataka, India.

Telephone: +91-80-28411500
Fax: +91-80-28411502
Email: adminblr at sssihms.org.in.

They perform free heart surgery for any patient, irrespective of financial status and age. Please pass this information on – it may save some lives.

You can contact Vijay from this hospital at 9845313431.

UFO seen in Mexico??

2008-05-04T21:01:00.000+05:30

In Mexico, the country's leading UFO expert claimed that a sensational sightings of a flying human above the skies of Mexico captured on video could be genuine. The mysterious woman-like figure wearing a cape , initially described as a witch or wizard, was caught on camera in 2006 as it hovered above mountains in Nuevo Leon city.

But now Mexico's leading UFO expert Anna Luisa Cid said that the sightings was genuine after carrying out her own investigations. The sighting had been corroborated by 40 witnesses and had been captured on fim by the Nuevo Leon UFO club.

Bangalore Election - Drop-box facility for EPIC dropped

2008-05-01T08:33:00.000+05:30

The drop-box facility for processing electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) has been withdrawn with immediate effect. The Election Commission made the announcement on Wednesday, barely 10 days away from the first phase of elections.

EPICs are not mandatory for voting. It is enough if the head of the family shows one of the several identity documents to the polling officials. “Even if one document is produced, the entire family will be allowed to vote.’’

Voters can call up 155212 to find out the location of their booths and other details. The line will be activated soon.

If you don’t have EPIC card, use one of the following;
Passport, driving licence, PAN card, government or public sector undertaking identity card, nationalized banks or post office passbook, Kissan passbook, education institution identity cards issued before October 1 2007, property register, ration card with photo, caste certificate, pension papers, freedom fighters identity card, gun license, handicapped certificate, ex-serviceman identity card, Sandhya Suraksha card, NREGA card or Yeshaswini card.

Congratulation to ISRO for the Perfect Ten!

2008-04-29T09:23:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaThe Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) added another feather to its cap on Monday by putting in orbit Cartosat-2A, the remote sensing satellite with the best-ever Indian imagery resolution offer of 0.8 metre.

The same PSLV-C9 launcher delivered nine other satellites — the experimental Indian Mini Satellite IMS-1 and eight tiny commercial satellites — into a 637-km near-Earth orbit.

Congratulation to ISRO!!

EarthCaller - Call any phone in USA for free

2008-04-27T12:48:00.000+05:30

earthcaller gives the way to make a call to any land line or mobile phones in USA. No need to install any application!! Just dial from a browser. I guess it is supported only for IE now. It is in beta. But it gives clarity voice service. No disturbances. Felt like using the normal phone to make the call.

Google Movies

2008-04-25T18:47:00.003+05:30

I came to know about the Google Movies service from a friend (link). It is cool. It gives all movies running on a selected city. If a movie is selected, it gives the list of theatres screening it. It is a easy and useful tool to plan for the weekend :)

I am wondering how Google build their database for this service. There is a standard that the movies will be changed only on Friday. This will make the life easier for Google - they can get their database updated weekly once. But how do they get it get for multiple cities. I noticed that this service seems to be available for tier-2 cities as well.

I guess Google will slowly integrate Google shopping/product with this movies service and introduce the online movie ticket booking. This may affect current online ticket booking service providers.

I was thinking about the olden days when I started to book online tickets in late ninetees. There was a online service providers called www.clicktickets.com. When I was in chennai, I used to use this service extensively. The guys in that company knew me very well. I used to watch most of the movies on the first week. Sometimes, i used to book bulk tickets (about 25) and watched movies with collegues and friends. Now there are many such service providers and but www.clicktickets.com is no more.

What all ways to make the life easier!!! The power of Google!!

Cool Technology - TV-GPS

2008-04-23T19:32:00.002+05:30

You would have seen that your GPS navigator not working when you drive near tall buildings. With the available GPS modules I could not add location information in the photos taken inside home or indoors. I was thinking that GPS cannot work indoor. There is a solution to overcome this problem. Rosum had integrated GPS and TV signals to solve this problem.

Rosum TV-GPS uses commercial broadcast TV signals to provide reliable positioning indoors and in urban environments. By combining TV signals with GPS signals, Rosum provides seamless indoor/outdoor coverage across all environments. That is cool!!

Check out this link for more information.

Bangalore Road Show Series 3

2008-04-22T23:05:00.000+05:30

This is not taken in some village. This video was shot in a busy bannerghatta road, near Meenakshi temple on a busy morning.

Bangalore Road Show Series 2

2008-04-22T22:50:00.000+05:30

On any working day morning, we can see buses parked on both sides of the narrow road making no way for the normal commuters. This road is located in Electronic City, Bangalore and these buses belong to Wipro. These bus owners think that the road is for them and they drive rashly.

I don't know when these drivers understand the problem of others on the road.

Bangalore Road Show Series 1

2008-04-22T22:32:00.000+05:30

I am seeing lot of funny and junk people on the road. Very few people are courteous towards fellow drivers. But, most of them do not bother about others on the road. They just want to get some way to squeeze in and make the traffic chaotic. They don't care about the pedestrians also. I want to share some of my road experiences here in this Bangalore Road Show series

Greener World Earth Day!

2008-04-22T22:16:00.000+05:30

On last world earth day, we planted this "flame of the forest" tree in our home along with couple of neem trees. Today after one year, this tree has grown nicely close to 8 feet. Neem trees are also growing nicely. Happy Earth Day! Let us plant more trees and save our world!

Get your Electoral Photo Identity Card from BangaloreOne Centres

2008-04-21T16:58:00.000+05:30

Search your name in Bangalore Electoral Rolls Bangalore Electoral Rolls .

Download EPIC application form Form-001 from www.bangalorevoterid.org

Drop the application form along with your Photo in any of the bangaloreOne centre listed below and collect the Electoral Photo Identity Card in next 48 hours from the same centre.

From Times Of India,

Finally, voters can get their Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) without the need to queue up in the heat. The election authorities will roll out the the drop box system — where applications for EPIC can be dropped and cards collected after two days — on Monday.
While the announcement was made, the BBMP and Bangalore Urban electoral officers were caught off-guard. For the past five days, election officers have been scrambling around to put the new system in place.
Following a number of complaints regarding distributiom of forms and facing up to citizens angry about some bloopers, the electoral authorities devised this alternative for distribution of EPICs. The voter ID cards can now be obtained within 48 hours without having to stand in a queue.
The forms can either be collected from BangaloreOne centres, or downloaded online. Afte filling up and attaching a passport size photograph, the form can be dropped at any of the drop boxes. EPICs can be collected in person after 48 hours.

How does the offline facility drop-box scheme work?

Fill the form - 001 available at EPIC and BangaloreOne centers. The forms could also be downloaded from the website www.bangalorevoterid.org. Along with the filled form, affix photo, undergo identity check by electoral officer and drop the form at the box or handover to the electoral officer. Collect EPIC in person after 48 hours.

BangaloreOne centres

Airport arrival gate Yeshwanthpur BMP complex,
Triveni road BDA ward office,
Nandini layout Near Mahalakshmi Ammanni College,
Quality and Assurance compound, BWSSB, 18th Cross, Malleswaram BDA Shopping complex,
RT Nagar E-1 Sub-division, No. 1, 9th Main Road, 3rd Stage, Tannery Road BDA shopping complex, first floor,
1st stage, 2nd block, HBR layout BDA shopping complex,
Indiranagar City central library,
East zone, 1st Main road,
RT Nagar Divyashree Chambers, first floor, Shanthinagar BMP ward number 24 office, behind Srirampuram police station, Bashyamnagar.
Rajajinagar BMP complex, first floor, 2nd block, Rajajinagar BDA shopping complex, first floor, 2nd stage, 3rd block, Nagarbhavi BDA shopping complex, MRCR (Magadi road - Chord Road) Vijayanagar BSNL office, first floor, A M road, Kalasipalya R V Teachers’s School premises,
Jayanagar BDA park, Anjaneyanagar, HBCS layout,
Banashankari 3rd stage BDA shopping complex, 2nd stage, Banashankari Bank Officer Colony, BTM 2nd stage,
Alcobanagar BMP complex, 9th Cross, 9th Main, 2nd Block, Jayanagar.
S6- Sub-division, ground floor, 14th cross, 1st phase, J P Nagar

Karnataka gets new breed of politicians - Lok Paritran

2008-04-17T19:13:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaI came to know from NDTV that Lok Paritran, a party formed by engineers and doctors will be contesting elections in Karnataka for the first time. I feel, this is very good. But I don't know how much support they will get from *people*.

M V Krishna Kumar, a candidate of Lok Paritran, who holds a masters degree from New York University. Great!

Seems like there are 10 candidates this time.

I've visited their website and seen their mission statement. It seems good.

Paritran literally means to end the cause of distress permanently. And Lok means 'People'. Thus "Lok Paritran" means "to emancipate the people permanently from the state of distress".
The Mission of Lok Paritran is to make Bharatvarsh a powerful and prosperous Nation and regain its rightful place in the world as the preceptor of the world (Jagadguru).

All the best Lok Paritran!!

Petrol Diesel - Price hike

2008-04-17T17:18:00.000+05:30

Recently I read this debatable analogy. It is funny.

Over the weekend, I filled up my car's fuel tank, and I thought diesel has become really expensive after the recent price hike.

But then I compared it with other common liquids and did some quick calculations, and I felt a little better.

To know why, see the results below - you'll be surprised at how outrageous some other prices are !

Diesel (regular) in Mumbai : Rs.36.08 per litre
Petrol (regular unleaded) in Mumbai : Rs.50.51 per litre
Coca Cola 330 ml can : Rs.20 = Rs.61 per litre
Dettol antiseptic 100 ml Rs.20 = Rs.200 per litre
Radiator coolant 500 ml Rs.160 = Rs.320 per litre
Pantene conditioner 400 ml Rs.165 = Rs.413 per litre
Medicinal mouthwash like Listerine 100 ml Rs.45 = Rs. 450 per litre
Red Bull 150 ml can : Rs.75 = Rs.500 per litre
Corex cough syrup 100 ml Rs.57 = Rs. 570 per litre
Evian water 500 ml Rs. 330 = Rs. 660 per litre
Rs. 500 for a litre of WATER???!!! And the buyers don't even know the source (Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)
Kores whiteout 15 ml Rs. 15 = Rs. 1000 per litre
Cup of coffee at any decent business hotel 150 ml Rs. 175 = Rs. 1167 per litre
Old Spice after shave lotion 100 ml Rs. 175 = Rs. 1750 per litre
Pure almond oil 25 ml Rs. 68 = Rs. 2720 per litre

And this is the REAL KICKER...
HP deskjet colour ink cartridge 21 ml Rs.1900 = Rs. 90476 per litre!!!

Now you know why computer printers are so cheap ? So they have you hooked for the ink !

So, the next time you're at the pump, don't curse our honorable Petroleum minister - just be glad your car doesn't run on cough syrup, after shave, coffee, or God forbid, printer ink !

Nokia Location Tagger

2008-04-13T20:57:00.004+05:30

Image via WikipediaGoogle's picasaweb provides support to add location information for the map. I am too lazy to add location information for all images. I used to give location information for the album level. When I came across this Location Tagger, I was amazed.

Today I downloaded it from Nokia's betalab website and installed it on my mobile. It requires the GPS support either from internal GPS module or through the bluetooth GPS receiver. GPS is not working in my N95 mobile. So, I've tried this with the bluetooth GPS receiver. I have to spend some time and see why internal GPS receiver is not working in my mobile. :(

I tried this from my home terrace. It did a good job by adding the tag in the EXIF file format (header?). N95 supports seeing the image on the map also.

After this, I've just uploaded this in picasaweb. It could recognize the header and display the location information correctly.

It seems like EXIF uses the existing image format JPEG, TIFF etc. An image has information about the camera, time, location etc. What next? Is it possible to add other environment like fragrance/smell? That would be helpful for the next generation entertainment (either image or video). How?? There may be some players in future which can understand this fragrance details from the header, and give the same fragrance when some one watches the media.

Tested Nokia Location Tagger from my home

Nokia N95 8GB

2008-04-13T20:33:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaFew days back my wife asked me to buy a new mobile for her. I've decided to give my great Nokia 6630 to my wife and buy a new mobile for me. So, i've started studying the latest mobiles. I wanna stick to Nokia phone.

My first mobile was Nokia 8250. I guess this was the first phone with infra red connectivity. But I've never seen it working when i tried to use it with the similar phones. Also this was the first phone with blue backlight. This phone was very good. I've used this phone for a long time.

After Nokia 8250, I've moved to Nokia 6630. I am still happy with this mobile. Now it is time to change this mobile.

I've shortlisted N82 and N95 8GB. After a detailed comparison, i've decided to go for N95 8GB and bought it yesterday.

Overall it is too good...

I liked these features...
- Big screen
- Camera
- Accelerometer (I can think of new applications)
- Wide range of applications

I am not very happy with the internal GPS. I've not seen it working yet. But when i tried my bluetooth GPS receiver with Nokia maps (pre installed application), it is too good.

I've started to explore N95 8GB. I will write more about this in my What I thought... What I Read blog.

Happy Tamil New Year

2008-04-13T20:26:00.000+05:30

Some time back, our tamilnadu CM Karunanidhi passed a bill changing the tamil new year from Chithirai 1 to Thai 1. But, i don't believe in changing the tamil new year!!

Wish you all a very happy new year!!

Rhythm Reloaded - Electronic Stethoscope

2008-04-09T23:19:00.005+05:30

Image via WikipediaA team of electrical and computer engineering students at Calvin College is designing a digital electronic stethoscope running uClinux as its operating system.

It does the following -
* Stream real-time audio from a wireless chestpiece
* Record high-quality audio data from a patient's body
* Store this audio data in a convenient format
* Use a USB interface to transfer the audio files to a computer
* Reduce the amount of ambient noise that a doctor hears
* Be simple, accurate, and easy to use!

Visit their website for more information.
I've liked this team name - "Rhythm Reloaded" also.

These kind of devices are required for the RPM - Remote Patient Monitoring solutions.

The team has prepared a nice presentation. It is good to see this presentation. Nice comparison about the list of OS considered.

uCLinux was selected by them from list list - uCLinux, No OS, FreeRTOS, eCos, GNU/Linux, Nucleus RTOS, uC/OS

I've seen the following listed as part of the challenges!!

Open source software != functional

I think, this is really true when we try to integrate open source software. We may not get the fully functional and stable version of softwares. *Some times* i feel choosing open source softwares may be overhead for a commercial solution.

Embedded Systems Conference India 2008 - Call for Abstracts

2008-04-09T23:12:00.002+05:30

Embedded Systems Conference India 2008

Nimhans Convention Center
October 14-17, 2008
Bangalore, India
This call for abstracts is open
Deadline to submit: May 14, 2008

Tracks:
Commercial and Open Source Operating Systems, including Linux
Debugging, Verification, and Test
DSP and Multimedia Programming and Applications
Hardware Design, including Programmable Logic
Multi-Core and Multi-Threaded Processing
Real-Time Development
Security
Software Development
Virtualization
Wired and Wireless Networking

More information available at this link

Its time to vote - Karnataka Election

2008-04-09T22:21:00.000+05:30

Image via WikipediaI've got my name included in the electoral rolls in Karnataka. Election dates are announced. I am going to register my vote for the first time in Karnataka on May 10th.
CEO's (CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER)E-governance is simply good. The electoral roll is available online for Karnataka. Similar site is available for Tamilnadu as well.

Over 40% of Karnataka's 4 crore voters fall in the 18-35 age bracket. Which is why political parties are wooing them. Congress and BJP parties are setting up call centres here. Very soon we can expect phone calls from party leaders (?) asking for the support. :)

Fetus influencing mother??

2008-03-27T23:18:00.010+05:30

My wife is carrying and she is in her second trimester now. I noticed some changes in her lifestyle during the first trimester.

- She is a vegetarian, but she started saying that she wants to eat non-vegetarian food, especially chicken.
- She never liked more spicy food, but she started eating more spicy food
- She started to stretch herself in the bed

All the above are actually my characteristics. I really don't know how she changed like this.

I just have a thought - when a fetus inherits the characteristics from the parents, why can't the mother who carries the fetus/baby for 9 months inherit the characteristics of the fetus? i.e. indirectly the characteristics of the father?

I googled and tried to confirm this...But could not find any information in the internet except this article

This article clearly says - Mothers undergo permanent changes during pregnancy, in which they “inherit” some characteristics of the child they carry and, through the child, also receive some characteristics of the father.

Any ideas??

First look at Zemanta

2008-03-27T22:56:00.004+05:30

Couple of weeks back I started writing blogs. It is very difficult to add links wherever required and also writing relevant tags.

Today I came across Zemanta (which has launched its alpha release today). It has developed a facility for blogs to suggest contextually relevant links, pictures, related content and tags using an internally developed semantic analysis engine. It also builds links to related stories.

I heard a lot about semantic web. Today I got a chance to experience the semantic web based application for the first time. It is GREAT!!

Zemanta doesn't support Opera which is my primary browser. It supports Firefox only. So I've installed Zemanta plugin in Firefox and start writing my blog. It was great. As soon as I've completed about 300 words, it has listed relevant tags, relevant links and relevant images.. I've just selected them. Then it has given the wonder. My blog looks good now.

Zemanta claims that they give these...

* Pleasure: it's fun to see your words paired with great links and pix
* Content: Pictures, Links, Articles and Tags
* Convenience: no more trolling the web for content for your posts
* Traffic: links to recent blog posts frequently result in return traffic

Yes. it is...thanks to Zemanta..

Google Android - First impression

2008-03-27T22:26:00.005+05:30

Source: WikipediaI thought of exploring Google android for a long time. Finally yesterday I've downloaded the Android platform.

First I've tried to download it using Opera browser. I was thinking that Opera's transfer is very good. But it got stuck in the middle of the downloading 79MB file. Then i had to switch to Firefox to download it.

Today I had gone through the documents. Document is very good. I got a clear picture about the Anatomy about Android. It gives a good idea to start writing applications for Android.

After this i was playing with the Android emulator. It is simply great. I was going through the APIs demo. It supports wide varieties. Someone who has some idea can easily create their applications. Few problems are it didn't not support direct call to real phone, bluetooth etc. I think OpenMoko's emulator supports most of the hardware features also. That was really great.

Now the world is realising the need for the mobile platform and the business opportunities. But I feel proud that I've worked on this concept about eight years back. I was involved in developing the complete win32 emulation layer for a leading RTOS. It was very fun to support 256 priority levels using the available limited number of priority levels in Windows. And great fun to take control of Windows scheduler to implement the RTOS emulator. And fun to watch multiple RTOS instances running on the Windows NT system. But the sad part is that now both the RTOS and the mobile manufacturer are not in the market.

Source: Wikipedia

Now, I am using my Nokia 6630 and feel very much happy with it. When i get bored exploring this I might switch to Android based phone. It looks like the first Android based phone will be released in September by Samsung.

Modu - WOW!

2008-03-26T22:20:00.006+05:30

Last time when I saw the news about modu, I didn't give more important to this. In fact, that news article was not clear and didn't have much information about this Modu. I thought it is some slim mobile module and some vendors can make use of it to develop some innovative products.

Today I got a chance to visit their website, and got a WOW feeling. The concept is very good. In fact few months back, I had read a similar concept in Nokia's research area. But I could not fully visualize this at that time. Modu gives clear picture about this concept.

Modu can be fit into different jackets or mates. When a modu is connected to the mobile jacket, it will act as the mobile. When it is fit into GPS receiver jacket, it will act as the navigator.

All modus are the same – it’s the jackets and mates that change. This universal compatibility allows for sharing of modu jackets and mates, and even developing mates that have multiple modu slots.

some jackets - modu gaming console, music player, car infotainment, storage, photo viewer, video player etc.

It’s time to modu!

modu Teaser Revealed!

Modu cellphone system

Présentation du Modu

Raghuvaran passes away

2008-03-19T23:00:00.000+05:30

Today when i saw Raghuvaran's face in the TV news, i thought something happened to his. Yes, he has passed away this morning (March 19, 2008). I like his acting and the way he delivers the dialogues. This will be biggest loss for Tamil film industry. For the past few years, he was not seen in many movies.

Some of his movies that I've liked are Puriyatha Puthir, Manithan, Raja chinna Roja, attakasam, baatsha, Anjali, Muthalvan etc.

The World Cafe

2008-03-18T23:15:00.003+05:30

Last week i had a chance to attend a workshop on Risk Management. It was very great and more interactive. I had a nice time to identify risks using some practical games.

In this workshop, I was introduced to the wonderful conversational process called The World Cafe (TWC). If you can change the conversation, you can change the future.

The crisp info is that there will be five tables and each table will have 5 members. One person in each table will be treated as a host. His responsibility is to collate the discussion on the given topic. After timeout, the host will stay on the table and others will be moved to the next table. Now the host will invite new set of peoples and identify the new host. The old host will explain already discussed matters and the discussion will continue. This process will continue till each group has sit on all tables at least once.

At the end of this cycle, each table will have wonderful data collated. I think this process is a great process to get the opinions from the group of people in terms of preparing a proposal, or making some decision. I am seriously thinking of using this in the future.

Some info from http://www.theworldcafe.com/what.htm:

World Café as a conversational process based on a set of integrated design principles that reveal a deeper living network pattern through which we co-evolve our collective future.

As a conversational process, the World Café is an innovative yet simple methodology for hosting conversations about questions that matter. These conversations link and build on each other as people move between groups, cross-pollinate ideas, and discover new insights into the questions or issues that are most important in their life, work, or community. As a process, the World Café can evoke and make visible the collective intelligence of any group, thus increasing people’s capacity for effective action in pursuit of common aims.

The integrated design principles have been distilled over the years as a guide to intentionally harnessing the power of conversation for business and social value. When used in combination, they provide useful guidance for anyone seeking creative ways to foster authentic dialogue in which the goal is thinking together and creating actionable knowledge.

As a living network pattern, the World Café refers to a living network of conversations that is continually co-evolving as we explore questions that matter with our family, friends, colleagues, and community. The metaphor of the "World as Café" helps us notice these invisible webs of dialogue and personal relationships that enable us to learn, create shared purpose, and shape life-affirming futures together.

Monkey's request

2008-03-16T16:52:00.000+05:30

Seen this board in Azhakar Koil. Itz a good a request!

Good place to attend the call...

2008-03-16T16:43:00.000+05:30

in the middle of the road....

If you overtake from Left, Death will overtake from your right

2008-03-16T16:18:00.000+05:30

Recently I've seen this board in Brigade Road, Bangalore. It is good.

"If you overtake from Left, Death will overtake from your right"

Shepherd and an IT Consultant

2008-03-16T13:08:00.002+05:30

Recently I read a forward mail. I feel it is really true!!

Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the side of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt.
The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre Cardin tie, gets out and asks the Shepherd: If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?"

The shepherd looks at the young man, and then looks at the large flockof grazing sheep and replies: "Okay."

The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to the mobile-fax, enters a NASA Webster, scans the Ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with logarithms and pivot tables, then prints out a 150 page report on hishigh-tech mini-printer. He turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep here."

The shepherd cheers,"that's correct, you can have your sheep."

The young man makes his pick and puts it in the back of his Porsche. The shepherd looks at him and asks: "If I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?" The young man answers, "Yes, why not".

The shepherd says, "You are an IT consultant ".
How did you know?" asks the young man.

"Very simple," answers the shepherd. "First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew, and third, you don't understand anything about my business...
Now can I have my DOG back?"

Opera Rocks

2008-03-16T08:28:00.003+05:30

I have been using Opera Mini on mobile for more than two years. I was very much impressed by this browser on my mobile.

I never thought of trying this browser on the desktop. But three months back, i thought of giving a try . So I downloaded and started using it. This was really good. First i was impressed by the speed and the quick links. I am very much happy with the feeds feature. I don't need to go for a separate RSS viewer to read my feeds. Also it treats all feeds as a mail. So i can share the news/feeds just like forwarding mails.

Quick tabs, quick search also are very good features. Another good feature is the integrated mail client. I don't need to use any other tool to check mails. Everything is integrated. I can just open one browser, and do all what i want to do! great right..

I've heard that mouse gestures feature also is very good. But I am yet to get comfortable with this feature.

Last week, I've tried Opera Mobile on my mobile. It is too good. I can open multiple windows in my mobile and switch between those windows like browsing in desktop! It gives total web experience on my mobile. This is a commercial version. It will cost 22$ per license. It is a bit costly but worth to have it on mobile. May be i will consider buying it when i upgrade my mobile.

எனது முதல் BLOG

2008-03-15T23:45:00.000+05:30

நான் என்னுடைய BLOG ஆரம்பித்து ரொம்ப நாட்களாக என்ன எழுதுவது என்று தெரிய வில்லை. நான் சுஜாதாவின் எழுத்துக்களுக்கு ரசிகன். அவர் இறந்தது என்னை ரொம்ப பாதித்தது.

அவர் நடிகர் விவேக் அவர்களிடம் சொன்னது - "எதை யோசிசாலும் எழுதி வை! ஏன்னா ரொம்ப சிந்திக்கிறவன் மறந்து போயிடுவான்."
நான் எதை படித்த போது நானும் இதை பண்ணலாம் என்று தோன்றியது.

நானும் BLOG எழுத ஆரம்பித்து விட்டேன்.

Next Generation Calendar

2008-03-15T18:33:00.002+05:30

After so many calls and reminders today Faber's service guys visited my home for Chimney cleanup. They did a good job. They've cleaned our chimney nicely. Only problem with them is that they will not turn up as promised :) It has to be cleaned for every six months. I am very bad in remembering this and do it on time.

I was thinking about how people use to remember all these. I've seen people they use to mark it in their monthly calendar. But now i am hardly seeing the paper calendars (daily sheets, monthly sheets) in the current generation houses.

It would be good if we have a small digital calendar gadget. It should be capable of adding reminders and showing the calendar details. It should be able to sync with other gadgets (mobiles, laptops, PCs etc) at home. Also it can play some music to remind some events - it can play configurable music like happy birthday song for birthday events etc.

If it can tell daily horoscope too it can attract wide range of audiences :)

Anyway now we don't have this kind of device. So i've created a reminder for next cleanup in Google calendar. Google is doing good job in integrating natural languge processing in their Google calendar. Last time when i tried this feature, i was too impressed. Today i tried to create an event like "after 6 months chimney cleanup". But it could not understand this. it has created an event called "after chimney cleanup" for the 6 months duration. Then i had to manually update this event. Understanding natural language processing is not an easy task right!

BodyMaps A Human Atlas

2008-03-13T23:08:00.003+05:30

Last week, i came across a new website - http://www.bodymaps.org/. It is a very good website. It gives good idea about the human anatomy.

Search for a word and seek in audio player

2008-03-13T16:26:00.003+05:30

Yesterday I had a chance to attend the talk about "Next Generation Web". It was really good to know about the future of web - web 2.0, web 3.0, semantic web etc. I was thinking that it would be good to record the entire session in an audio format.

Later i was thinking about navigating the audio file, if the audio file's duration is for more than three hours it will be difficult to seek the interesting portion of the audio. The traditional way
of seeking like forward and backward may not be user friendly to the user. If i remember some
key word in the audio file, can i use this to seek to the place where this is discussed.

For example, in text reader (like browser, notepad) we use scroll bar to navigate to the page.
This is similar to using forward and backward in the audioplayer. In text reader, we use find to
reach the exact location the interested portion of text. it would be good if this feature is available
in the audioplayer also? don't you think so? i don't know whether it is available or not.
Let me spend some time to find it..

2005-11-24T12:37:00.000+05:30