Just to creep you out

Here is something creepy that I missed in my last post. Do not forget to locate this colony of bugs underneath the hand-rest of one the staircases located within Fort Washington (see previous post).

Creepy

What Else to See - Washington DC - Fort Washington

Here is something you can visit if everything else in DC is seen. Fort Washington National Park. Canons are beautiful and so is their visitor center (painted yellow).

Closeup Canons in the main yard.. I guess the original ones from the main upper and lower level batteries.

Entrance platform lifting mechanism


Entrance of an under ground battery station



Upper level batteries where the Canons were located originally

What Else To See Washington DC Fort Washington

Straw theater

Little fun with straws.
Moments in the life of straws.

All images adjusted for contrast and background in gimp.

Family



Conspiracy



Bowling



Cemetary



Leader



Line up

Wedding Invitation

Dear All,
You are cordially invited to our Wedding ceremony on Nov 25th 2007 in India. Please click the invitation below.

thanks
Nitin and Rupali

Amazing Creativity - Qatar Airways Logo

I'm not sure if it is logo designer's amazing talent or I'm seeing things which are not there due to the travel boredom. Take a look at the Qatar Airways logo. It is a Goat (YES IT IS!). But if you you see it from another angle it looks like a bird either sitting on a branch or soaring up or diving down. Pretty cool eh?

Here is the original logo (a goat)



and here are the rotated versions (a bird)




Oh and by the way I'm writing this from Doha Airport, Qatar waiting for 14 hrs flight to Washington DC, so please excuse my over-imagination if any. And Yes- I manipulated these images using online image manipulator.. too much free time on hand.

George Washington Masonic Memorial

Nice memorial in Alexandria by Freemasons.

Here is the main view (click the title link for the aerial view):

George Washington - The first Grand Master:

Glass paintings:

Wall paintings:

King Street View from the top:

And .. of course the can of beer left by one of the workers that built the memorial. It's in the museum:

And yes, even if the notice near the entrance says 'private property', it is open to public and has parking near the memorial.

George Washington Freemasons Masonic Memorial

Just when it reached 123456 miles..

Somewhere in Ohio.... driving on I-70 West ... 17th March 2007 around 5 am early morning .. total miles reached 123456...

Winter Blossom

Speech and Handwriting Recognition .. How I hate thee!

I have come to the conclusion that advances in computer algorithms are working against me. Till date I used to dislike speech and handwriting recognition softwares because the underlying algorithms were in primitive stages and produced erroneous output. But with recent advances they have become much more reliable and are being adopted in mainstream consumer electronics.

Right there .. that is my problem - their adoption in consumer electronics.

My handwriting is not so good (alright... it is worst). "In the world of computers and keyboards who needs good handwriting!" has been my favorite argument since my school days to escape the stencil work and defend my bad handwriting. But the other day I came across Logitech Digital pen and I could see it sucking the air out of my arguments. With considerably flawless handwriting recognition algorithm embedded in it, this pen could very well replace keyboards for the purpose of taking notes in the class or jotting down meeting minutes. What am I supposed to do when everybody shows up with these intelligent pens? I can barely read my own handwriting. My smart phone acts like a retard when I scribble something on its screen. Our beloved keyboards must be saved.

Speech recognition is further screwing me over by taking the keyboard as far away from me as possible. Almost every GPS product now a days comes with interactive voice commands. Most call centers have implemented voice navigation for simple tasks. And about my speaking abilities: Let us just say that if it wasn't for people's ability to lip-read, I would have been ideal candidate for the scientists working on Autism cure.

Damn you algorithms!..

and I was thinking the skynet was a fictional computer network?

Faith based business strategies

Wired.com recently (OK! 2 months ago) ran an article about Web Vaastu. I was half way through that article and realized that the owner of this site has discovered a rare and higly profitable market niche. Most of the small business owners in India, I knew, were superstitious to some extent, which makes them perfect customers for these kind of services. And their faith in Vaastu Shastra guarantees their loyalty.

Faith based business strategies make life easier for entrepreneurs. The customer base is always well defined and is easily reachable. Marketing efforts are also pretty much simplified due to the mouth to mouth publicity. Most importantly the quality of services is not measured but is assumed to be great due to the involvement of faith. Profit margins are good because of the premium prices customers are ready to pay for such services.

Here are couple of the success stories of faith based business services/ strategies:

• Mecca Finder: Cellphones with compass that points to a Mecca.
• Ink Cartridges from monks: Ink cartridges manufactured by Cistercian(??) monks.
  

faith business strategies web vaastu mecca finder

Vermont .... Ehh!

Vermont really disappointed me. First of all we missed the fall peak by couple of days. The bad weather further screwed it up by staining and discoloring the remaining leaves. We did find some good bright red and orange patches on the mountains, but we had no idea how to reach there. So we roamed around a lot to find good colors. In conclusion New Hampshire is still above all the places for fall photography in my list.

Here are some pictures of fall colors in Vermont (which by the way has more motels than people).

..... And a Gorilla advertising some used Car Shop. I just think it is pretty amusing and of course effective way to advertise.

..... And of course the photographer :-))

Vermont Fall 2006 Foliage Autumn

Ironic you say.. eh?

For dimwits: It's a windows download progress box. I was downloading Linux. Take a look at the progress percentage!

Previous Random Flights

My camera is gathering dust and so am I. Coming September should bring some exciting photo-op. Till then here are some of my random clicks.

Canon Deers Light House Trail San Francisco

Salaam Bombay!

Desecration of statues and blasts! Is that all you could think of to divide us you cowardly bastards? How long will it take for your tiny rotten brain to absorb that Mumbai is not a city but it's our way of life. It's our religion. It's our culture. .. And NO! this religion wasn't forced on us with the promise of better afterlife by some bearded retard. We CHOSE it voluntarily to have more fulfilling life than you rats could expect only in your wildest dreams sleeping in sewage filled holes up there in north east across the border. What you misconstrue as our weakness - our patience, tolerance and resilience - are in fact our strengths and the reasons why we haven't scorched your asses yet. It's our love for humanity and civilization that makes us think rationally and not hinder our race for better life by going on all out war with you rotting weasels.

Whooosh.. I feel better now. After recent tragedy nothing else makes me more proud than to identify myself as a Mumbaiite. We have become more rational, more resilient and matured. The Maximum city did not cripple in the aftermath of blasts. The Local trains are overcrowded as usual. BEST Buses continue to race with auto rickshaws honking relentlessly. And Vada-Pav is still a part of commuter staple diet. The true spirit of being Mumbaiite remains unshattered.

My father is a more hardcore Mumbaiite than me. Nothing seems to deter him from commuting in 'Local Trains'. He was riding one of the targeted trains during 7/11 blasts and fortunately escaped with minor injuries. Last year he was stranded in a metro train for several hours when cloudbursts flooded Mumbai.

Mumbai Blasts bombay mumbai Maximum City

Victims of Extreme Creativity

One of my favorite past times is surfing AdsOfTheWorld.com, specially the print media ads section. It's a trove of awesome static visuals full of extreme creativity. Not sure if any of the moderators of this site is Indian, but Indian ads are getting mentioned more often (for the creativity and execution). Just like Bollywood movies, I guess, ad agencies in India are producing more world class ads than any other country. Only difference here is that unlike movies rest of the world doesn't mind watching and enjoying these ads.

Then there are times when these talented minds fall prey to the seduction of extreme creativity and sacrifice the usability and effectiveness of the ad for few more columns of appreciation. Unfortunately it happens more often when it comes to public awareness ads. Take a look at following ads.

First one is to stop Female feticide:

The problem (as I see) with it is that those who can interpret this ad are already educated and sensible enough not to commit any female feticide. It is the rural population that needs to be educated about this horrible crime. But such population wouldn't even get to see this ad in some of those expensive glamour magazines.

Second one is about the homeless street children:

In my opinion putting up the life size realistic pictures of begging street kids on the entrances of shopping malls is just a waste of money. People don't need these ads to make them aware about what they see in real life just outside those mall entrances. The change collection boxes marked for charity and placed at the checkout counters generate more help than these expensive outdoor ads.

Extreme Creativity, Advertisement