HyperBird

Just to creep you out

2008-03-20T22:33:00.004-05:00

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

2008-03-17T17:16:00.005-05:00

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

2008-02-10T16:43:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-11T14:42:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-28T01:39:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-18T11:31:00.000-05:00

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.

Just when it reached 123456 miles..

2007-03-24T17:46:00.000-05:00

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

Winter Blossom

2007-02-27T00:04:00.000-05:00

Speech and Handwriting Recognition .. How I hate thee!

2007-02-07T16:12:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-05T17:30:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-10-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-10-09T21:25:00.000-05:00

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

Previous Random Flights

2006-08-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-07-14T20:16:00.000-05:00

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

2006-07-02T20:00:00.000-05:00

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

Perverts! are we??

2006-05-11T14:59:00.000-05:00

We Indians are perverts! yep that's true! You want the proof? It is now statistically proven that Indians are much ahead of rest of the world, when it comes to searching for "sex". Look at the Google trends: Out of top 5 cities that search for "Sex", 3 are located in India.

In case these trends are overcome by more pervert cities, take a look at this original statistics.

Sakura 2006

2006-04-04T19:46:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the snaps from Cherry Blossom 2006. I agree ... colors did not come out at par with the digital SLR photography quality, but look at the bright side.. 4 mile walk is always a good exercise ;-)

Fifth snap depicts a layer of cherry flower petals over tidal basin waves.
Last snap is manipulated in Gimp.

Oh they got that city too...

2006-03-02T12:47:00.000-05:00

If you live in Bombay, Delhi, Madras or in Lucknow; what country would you say you are in?
India? .. correct! and United States of America? That's correct too!
I found these 4 cities in US map while playing with Google maps and Windows Live Local.

I guess British Colonists were too lazy to think of new names for the cities located on the opposite sides of the globe.

Here are the Links to the actual maps.

Bombay and Delhi (New York, USA)
http://maps.google.com/?ll=43.564472,-74.185181&spn=3.20403,5.811768

Madras (Oregon, USA)
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.637579,-121.134924&spn=0.393317,0.950317

Lucknow (South Carolina, USA)
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=34.294296~-80.332251&style=r&lvl=14

"Yo" sign :-))

2006-01-22T23:16:00.000-05:00

With apologies to Gandhi followers... here is how the YO sign came into existence!!

.. thanks Anupam for the forwarded email :-))

New Hampshire - Autumn Hues

2005-10-11T00:54:00.000-05:00

Purpose of the Journey: To catch the glimpses of vibrant autumn hues.

Instructions: Begin your journey from Washington DC at 4pm Friday evening. Drive for 13 hrs in a stretch with couple of food and gas breaks. Make sure it’s raining heavily throughout the day and night. Add patches of dense fog to the last four hours of your travel. Finally reach your destination at around 4:30 am in the morning and search for the exact location of the motel for another half an hour.

Immediate aftereffects: Extreme fatigue, headache.

Was it worth it? : Of course!!

Eh? : Here..... make a collage out of these pieces and name it “White Mountain National Forest”. Isn't it worth 13hrs of fatigue????

The perfect research work!

2005-08-22T23:32:00.000-05:00

There is a research project with proven and perfected results readily available for adoption in you own work (and call it yours) with absolutely no royalties. The project has been running for millions of years, and its failed experiments were grossly catastrophic. But the techniques perfected over such a long time are so fascinating that adoption of the same is guaranteed to make us rich. So what’s the catch? We have to just understand this research work.

It’s called “The Evolution” and till date we could not comprehend the functionality of lot of its masterpieces.

I have come across plenty of articles, that collectively presented an increasing trend among researchers around the world to understand natures way of doing certain things.

Take our 'Brain' for example. We have been implementing Artificial intelligence in various systems for couple of decades now. But the implementation never deviated (to resemble natural intelligence) from its standard data structures manipulation routines. Recently my roommate recommended me a book called "On Intelligence". I haven't read it yet, but from the summary he provided: the book presents a whole new way to implement AI:- Nature's way.

Here are some more examples of researches taking us more close to the nature:

Researchers are looking into the extreme maneuvering capabilities of insects to turn the next generation flying machines into the versatile beasts. CIA unsuccessfully tried it once. :-)
Our Future cars may change there colors with a touch of button using the technology adopted from butterfly wings.
Remember miracle healing springs from Mythology? We can have them in our backyard squirting Super Water.

Just waiting to hear somebody out there working on flipping wings for A747!

Update 1: I was searching for the article I read long back about automobile paint simulating Butterfly effect and found this nice compilation of Natures’ ideas on Wired.com, which kinda dwarfs my entry here.

Update 2: Another ubiquitous invention stolen directly from nature’s labs: Velcro.

Secured Restrooms

2005-08-19T07:10:00.000-05:00

Does anybody else find restrooms locks ridiculous? I don't understand the rational behind securing the restrooms in office buildings. Who are we securing it from and to secure what? Is human waste so important that we need electronic locks with crazy number combinations to guard it? Or is it because we don't want outsiders to use our facilities? For cryin out loud they can't access it anyways, all the building entrances are already well guarded... remember?? I would rather have Building management spend that extra amount on toilet doors that extend all the way to the restroom floors. Do you know how awkward it is when your stupid colleague loudly confirms that it's actually you using the facility?

I wish such restrooms at least have something that can actually be guarded, like these high tech Japanese Toilets. And if we are so paranoid about security why not take it to the next level. Spend extra money on providing role based security:-) Something like:

Guest users can only do certain actions.
No two users of opposite sex can access the facility at the same time.
If any user forgets to flush it should be considered an act of access violation and his access rights need to be removed.
Frequent users can get some benefits like "Priority seats" or upgrades.

I hope some day somebody at World Toilet Organization (I can't believe it actually exists!) will give a serious thought to it.

Anecdote: The restrooms at my previous workplace had 3 digit key for a lock that had five numbers (buttons) on it. As usual I forgot it when it was much needed. Figuring out the code wasn't so complex as the digits (buttons), corresponding to the key combination, had signs of excessive use (1, 2 and 3). Possibly how many "difficult" combinations could be there? Just five: 132, 213, 231, 321, 312. I tried 312 randomly and it worked. My luck does favor me under certain "extreme" situations :-))

Also I found something much needed and truly innovative for America: Great Johns.

4th of July fireworks thru my new SLR

2005-07-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

I’m now a proud owner of a digital SLR and there couldn't be a better photo op than 4th of July fireworks in DC to test it. I bought a digital SLR three weeks back: Canon Digital Rebel XT, $950 a pop. Totally I paid $1144 with accessories and service plan.

The Independence Day fireworks is one my favorite photo ops. No matter how you click the picture it always looks nice. This time I wanted to cover the DC fireworks from Lincoln Memorial to get the nice images of reflecting pool. Unfortunately I reached DC 10 mins after the fireworks started, so didn't have time to find a better place. So I just advanced through the crowd to get enough space for my tripod and started clicking the pictures in auto mode. As with my previous cameras, I was expecting each shot to take around 3 to 5 seconds. But it was mere 0.5 to 2.5 seconds for each shot and I could click more pictures than I thought before. Buying an SLR does pay off in such situations. Here are couple of those snaps. I'll create a gallery over the weekend (if I get up before 2pm)

Getting back home from DC after fireworks turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. Nearest metro stations were flooded with people. I had to walk down to next metro station (six blocks away) and it was indeed a good decision. Next time I'm getting to DC an hour or so before the fireworks starts. And yes... I need to buy a better tripod. I mean look at all those shaky fire flakes, they all look like giggly worms instead of fine streaks of light.

XP N and WINAMP

2005-06-16T18:27:00.000-05:00

First it was called 'Windows XP reduced media edition'. The brilliant minds at EU thought Microsoft is still fooling people with clever product name, so they forced the name change again and now it is called 'Windows XP N'. No Windows media player bundled with it. As of now none of the OEM suppliers have plans of shipping PCs with XP N preinstalled. And why would they? EU allowed MS to sell both the versions at the same price. Who would ever buy something with less features for the same price?

But now that Windows is free of its proprietary media player consumers have choice of selecting better media players from 'third party suppliers'! Yeah... Right. So which third party products are being speculated to take over the market? RealPlayer and QuickTime? Last time I tried downloading free version of Real player it took a while for me to locate the link for 'Free Basic player' on their website. After installing the player, it doesn't even let me see the main window unless I provide my contact information. It also has a 'feature' called 'Message Service' that periodically pops up some contents from Real.com that I never ever requested. Apple has whole different approach about selling their premium version of media player. The QuickTime player really irritates me. Every time I open it, a stupid dialog box appears asking me if I want to go for the 'QuickTime Pro' version. Do these marketing strategies ever work?

The only other media player I would like to install on my machine is Winamp. It has all the features I want and plays all of the open media formats with nice supports for pluggins, skins and visualizations. Winamp rocks when compared to ugly interfaces and irritating behavior of QuickTime and Real player. EU's victory over Microsoft will not hurt their monopoly for long time to come. What it will surely provide is the time tested proof of really how crappy these bigshot media players are.

May, the 23rd

2005-05-23T12:43:00.000-05:00

Ever wondered why May 23rd is such an important day, here you go...

Napoleon was crowned King of Italy in 1805.
Wright brothers were granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine" in 1906.
The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, The Karnival Kid, was released (1929).
Official announcement of the Java programming language(1995). Java turned 10 today.
And of course - the most significant event ever- I was born on this day :-)

this is how I looked way back ..........

and this is me as of today.

Today in history:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/23/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_23