HyperBird

Great Falls VA

2011-11-13T20:21:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since the last post isn't it.

Diwali with handmade Diyas

2009-10-19T16:57:00.003-05:00

This year we celebrated Diwali with hand made "Diya"s. Rupali made them in her pottery class and we painted them together at home with acrylic colors. The results are pretty damn good. Happy Diwali!!

Italy - Rome | Naples | Turin | Venice | Florence

2009-07-19T22:57:00.005-05:00

Hot paninis for breakfast, pizzas for lunch and pasta for dinner, tiramisu and flans for the dessert and lots of Gelatos to fill in the time between meals! All this for 18 days and you still manage to lose weight - call it the magic of Italy. Though the cities are small, every church has a story and every intersection has a place in history. Miles are trodden with map in one hand and dripping Gelatos in other before you realize its night and your dogs are barking. Here are some moments we managed to capture without dripping too much Gelatos on my SLR.

Italy Rome Venice Vatican Florence Siena

I Was There! - Obama Inauguration 2009

2009-01-20T20:54:00.002-05:00

Hurray! We made it.

After 5 and half hours of eternal wait in security line we finally made it to the Inauguration Day parade just in time. We saw President Obama and Vice-President Biden in person.

President Obama Approaching our location

President Obama Waving to the crowd

Vice-President Biden Waving

Ironically our entry point, where we waited to get through the security, was on the 10th street - right betwen the Ford's Theater (where Lincoln was shot) and a house where he died.

And there were some people with genuine agenda..

I have one of those signs.

and here is something from the rest of the parade. Around 70% of the spectators left after seeing President Obama and Vice-President Biden.

Obama Presidential Inauguration 2009

Acadia National Park, Maine

2008-11-13T10:47:00.007-05:00

Apparently a normal human eye has a capacity to discern about 10 million shades of different colors and all of those shades are on display at an exhibition named Acadia national park. Especially during the fall… when mountains flaunt their resplendent greenish-orange coats decorated with streaks of vibrant red treetops... read more..

View Pictures of Acadia National Park

Beauty lies in the Panoramic eyes... [Some more..]

2008-09-07T21:06:00.004-05:00

Some more from panoramic series.

New York : as viewed from New Jersey

New York: as viewed from Water Taxi

New York: as viewed from the 86th floor of the Empire State building

New York

Beauty lies in the Panoramic eyes...

2008-08-28T15:22:00.004-05:00

No photoshop technique works better than stitching some average photographs into a panorama:

Great Falls National Park

Arlington Cemetery

Great Falls Virginia Arlington Cemetery

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.

' Diarios de Motocicleta ' and 'Swades'

2005-04-24T12:53:00.000-05:00

'Diarios de Motocicleta' is one of the best movies I have seen recently. It's the journey of two Argentine friends on a motorcycle across the South American continent. The journey and the horrible plight of people they met inspired one of them - Che Guevara, who later became a Marxist revolutionary - to work on the idea of united South America. I liked the movie not only for the story but also for the beautiful places the duo visited in South America. It makes me nostalgic about the places I have never seen. The duo lived my dream of visiting places like Patagonia, Andes Mountain Range, Machu picchu, Nazca and Amazon rain forests. I have spent almost a year in Colombia, but did not visit the places like Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta which are at par with those shown in the movie. This movie makes me feel stupid about the missed opportunities.

It also reminds me of a recently released movie 'Swades', may be because it has a similar theme: Love for motherland. But there are some peculiar similarities like Motorcycle travel, beautiful landscapes and depiction of real people with their tragic lives, that make me question the source of inspiration for ‘Swades’. The most noticeable similarity is how the lead actor's yearning for people is portrayed though the slideshow of stills at the end of the movie. I won’t be surprised to learn that 'Swades' was inspired by 'Motorcycle Diaries'. That being said, I find both the movies great and are sure to end up in my DVD collection next to the titles like Schindler's list.

Awesome ad-blocking extension for Firefox

2005-03-11T17:21:00.000-05:00

This is by far the most useful extension I found for Firefox. Unfortunately, I discovered it pretty late (I have surrendered to cluttering ads). It's called Adblocker and it works perfectly. Just when Popup blockers were perfected, those sneaky ads had found new way to annoy users.. Flash layovers. AdBlock takes care of flash layovers too. It simply blocks the contents from the customizable list of sites. The best thing about this list is I can use wildcards and Regular expressions.
In case you are too lazy to add sites to that list, here is a ready made list. And if you still don't believe me, check yourself. First Image is without AdBlock installed from www.calvinandhobbes.com...

For once in my entire life I wanted to see a page with flash layover for above images and the Murphy's law kicked in.. I could not find a single web page with flash layover (of course I tried with Adblock disabled you insensitive clod). I had to update this entry after three days. :-))

Gaali-Galoch

2005-02-28T17:13:00.000-05:00

If you are a real Desi, you would bookmark the following links. I use many of these words indifferently in my daily conversations with other Desi friends despite knowing their meanings. But still when I see them presented in nice tabular format with detailed description, I can't help reading all of them again and again.
This site has a lot of annoying popup windows, so be patient... and it may have some offensive content too.

and finally if you want the universal collection of Gaali-Galoch (Abusive words)..
http://www.insultmonger.com/swearing/index.htm

Ophidiophobia ?

2005-02-24T10:47:00.000-05:00

This month's National Geographic Magazine has an article on brain and emotions, like 'fear'. According to it some fears are hardcoded into our genes. But those fears are realized only when we watch somebody experience it. Read this article for more details. In short - if people around you aren't scared of snake, good chance that you won't be either. To prove this point they have given the picture of an infant resting in the coils of python.

Till this moment I was sure, that the photo was a photoshop manipulation, although I know that National Geographic rarely puts computer manipulated images in magazines unless it is for too obvious reasons. It turned out that the picture is not manipulated anyway. There is a video of this photoshoot on the site. Most of the parents won't be comfortable doing this photoshoot with their baby, in spite of knowing that it's a trained snake; which kind of proves the point about hardcoded fears. This picture is indeed worth thousands of words.

Updates..

2005-02-21T19:36:00.000-05:00

Found some really insane things which I was looking for when I wrote this Blog.
Somebody finally did come up with real life Smart Cart. Now I wonder what I am going to do with ridiculous amount, I will receive in royalties, for my idea. ;-)

Valentines day special analysis...

2005-02-14T11:43:00.000-05:00

Just received this from one of my friends via email. I don't know who the original author is, but thanks for this hilarious comparison...

Love marriage	Arranged Marriage
Resembles procedural programming language. We have some set functions like flirting, going to movies together, making long conversations on phone and then try to fit all functions to the candidate we like.	Similar to object oriented programming approach. We first fix the candidate and then try to implement functions on her. The functions are added to supplement the main program. The functions can be added or deleted.
It is a throwaway type of prototype as client requirements rises with time thus it is a dynamic system and difficult to maintain.	Requirements are well defined so use of waterfall model is possible
Family system hangs because hardware (called parents) is not responding.	Compatible with hardware (Parents).
You are the project leader so u are responsible for implementation and execution of PROJECT- married life.	You are a team member under project leader (parents) so they are responsible for successful execution of project Married life.
Client expectations include exciting feature as spouse cooking food, washing clothes etc.	All these features are covered in the SRS as required features.
Acceptance test possible you can try before you Buy.	Product is sold on an as is where is basis. Product once sold will not be taken back!
Love Marriage is like Windows, beautiful n seductive.... Yet one never knows when it will crash....	Arranged Marriage is like Unix... boring n colorless... still extremely reliable n robust.

Tsunami God

2005-02-11T16:47:00.000-05:00

Recent deadly tsunamis unearthed ancient relics (stonehouse and two granite lions) on the beach of Mahabalipuram (India). This archeological treasure was buried for centuries into the sands which protected it from superstitous people. Now that is out in open, it is very likely to be worshipped by people as the trails of (tsunami??) God. It won't take much time for stories about tsunami God to propagate the populace and that may turn this priceless relic into a holy temple filled with disgusting priests

Archaeological Society of India needs to take really quick and clever steps towards preserving this archeological find. Otherwise it will also join the list of hundreds of ancient Indian sites destroyed by selfish and pathetic priests. It would be good idea and may probably cause least resistant to secure the site for further excavation while tsunami recovery is on the way. It won't be entirely feasible to make it an isolated archeological site, because if the relics were turned into a temple it may lift the living standards of surrounding villages due the flood of tourists and may speed up the tsunami recovery. But an honest attempt to keep this site holy and clean would rip more benefits for sure.

Humor in Maps

2005-01-27T13:49:00.000-05:00

I love mappoint.com directions and the software too. It gives me quick access to any map in North America and directions to it. But as with any software it comes with glitches, and sometimes gives very strange directions. This news from cnet.com about the quickest route between two Norwegian cities points to the winner of such directions. The straight line distance between those cities can not be more than 300 miles. But as per the directions suggested by mappoint it is more than 1800 miles and passes thru Sweden, Germany, Uk and get this ... 'North Sea'. I hope the driver's don't forget to pack the necessary gear to cross 'North Sea'.
Mappoint is not the only site with sense of humor; MapQuest has its own way to make it interesting. As per the direction suggested by mapquest to the nearest metro station for my house, there are three immediate left turns instead of an obvious right turn. And we followed those directions like a moron, because we wanted to reach there on time.
I have personally never experienced any driving blunders from Yahoo maps, but couple of times it had my friends doubt their sense of directions.

New Look

2005-01-23T23:58:00.000-05:00

Hmmmm... hope I won't get bored with this new look of blog in couple of months. Have been designing it since last month. Generally I get bored with new designs while I'm creating it. Same with this one too. I was also stuck at getting the heights of two floating DIVs equal , finally decided to go for tables. May be I'll update the layout with pure DIVs in future. Still many more updates to come. In case anybody is wondering, the old layout looked like this:

Bullshit Bingo !!

2005-01-20T19:10:00.000-05:00

This game of Bullshit Bingo is hilarious. This is exactly what I want to do during those meetings when your employer tries to convince you why working over the weekend is good. On several occasions in my life I just wanted to shout some crap on the top of my voice in the middle of crowded place. This includes occasions like long boring meetings, lectures in school, lunch with relatives, weddings and formal luncheons.

I always have this irresistible urge to do something strange and stupid during serious occasions. For example pour a glass full of water into your colleague's shirt- pocket while having formal lunch. Fortunately I could successfully get out of 'Giggle Loop' and save myself from big embarrassment. Here are some the things I wish someday the 'Society' will let me do, till then just imagine the fun we can have ..

In an crowded elevator after doors are closed, loudly ask the person next to you if the snake in his bag is poisonous.
Walk into a birthday party. Cut the cake yourself and eat it. Once you are done throw the rest of the cake in dustbin and walk out.
Disassemble your cubicle as shown in 'Office Space' when your boss is talking to you. Ask him to repeat whatever he said because you were busy.
This one is my favorite and had been suggested and tried by my friend: Wear any normal headphones. Do not plug its other end into the output of your iPod, instead open a book and start moving it over the lines. Pretend as if you can 'listen' to those lines. This one works too well in occasions like wedding where there are lots of dumb people around. Let me know if any of you have better and (ofsourse) harmless ideas. I can at least collect them.

By the way I have already tried that 'Pouring water ... pocket' thing but no body minded that because we were at Clearwater beach (Tampa, Florida) and it wasn't the formal lunch.

Drunk Blog

2005-01-01T01:29:00.000-05:00

First time blogging when I'm completely drunk. I'm realy high on Dos Equis, Margarita and raw tequila. Feels good. It's already 30 minutes in 2005. In a good mood to start new year. Took some snaps as well, will upload them later.
Lots of plans for new year. New resolutions!! . maaan.. I'm really Drunk..
It's not possible for me to type properly.
so.. Happy New Year !!.
PS: Just decided to write everybody's names whoever is present here. So here they are Mridula, mohita, Amit, Sunita, Prasad, Prashant (outside on India Call), raghu and Amit's Mom.

Run Asimo run ...

2004-12-29T13:52:00.000-05:00

Honda's Asimo looks pretty funny while running. It looks like a stunt-man, wearing a robot costume, acting for some hollywood movie. The noise of hinges and joints makes it more dramatic. Making a robot run could very well be a major milestone in the development of human like robots. Honda's scientist simulated a lot of complex functions of human brain to make it run at 3km/hr. Asimo's site mentions some of the problems (like balancing of torso and absorbing impact) that have been overcome successfully.

I remember some of my classmates from bachelor's class were working on a project, the sole purpose of which was to move a robotic hand in certain direction. They were working on it for almost 6 months and it was a very complex task (so they told us). Don't remember if they succeeded, but it gives some idea how complex it must be to build fully functional robot.

Great work Honda !! ok .. now make him somersault :-)

Pittsburgh...

2004-12-28T14:40:00.000-05:00

I spent last sunday in Pittsburg. We left on Sat eve and came back on Sun eve. My roommate and his friends, who just finished bachelors, wanted to see Carnegie Mellon University and balaji Temple. The directions for Balaji temple taken from internet left us wandering in unknown streets for almost an hour.
This city has a very strange landscape. Amazingly, in spite of having so many bridges and complicated streets, we didn't get lost in downtown.
It was also a nice place to test my digital camera (Canon S1 IS). The panoramic view of downtown came out really nice. I couldn't take the night shots though. Pittsburg is more beautiful at night, especially when seen from Mt. Washington (?). I had seen it in the night around two years ago, but didn't have a good camera at that time. This summer I'm surely making another trip to Pittsburgh for panoramic shots at night. And I guess one more in the fall too. Alleghany mountain range looks just amazing with those vibrant orange shades of fall.

Yahoo Messenger .. :-)

2004-12-14T18:18:00.000-05:00

Generally when I take a break from work I open the Yahoo messenger window and start chatting with somebody. Recently my yahoo messenger window looked like this.

It never ever happened to me before and was really strange. I have totally 116 friends in msgr from all over the world. Anytime I logged into Yahoo messenger some one or other is online. When I saw nobody was appearing online, I realized its significance in my day to day life.

In past yahoo messenger was the only tool that kept me in touch with most of my friends. Not that I chat with all 116 of them everyday. There are so many with whom I haven't talked in years. There is a very good chance I may not talk to them in my entire life. But just the fact that I can send them a message which they will see in day or two, makes me feel I'm in touch with them forever. Sometimes such lost souls come online and take me back in time. Every ID in messenger has some very pleasant memory attached to it. I wish there was an extra field in 'contacts details' dialog just for that.

Cooking and getting up early in the morning!

2004-11-01T20:58:00.000-05:00

Cooking is overrated and I mean it. A Lot of my friends get a lunch-box to work. I'm from India and so are most of my friends. They prefer Indian food, some of them are vegetarian. They can't stand the fast-food. I like to spark off a debate "how cooking is overrated". The conversation always ends with the conclusion that I don't cook because I'm lazy.

I totally disagree with that. Granted that I'm lazy :-) But that's not the reason why I don't cook. I'm not a huge fan of food. I like to eat whenever I'm hungry and when I'm hungry I try to grab anything edible within my reach. I like little variety but I don't like to experiment with new dishes unless a lot of people recommend it to me. Whenever I move to new place or workplace, I choose some of the nearby restaurants, than decide upon certain dishes and stick to them forever. This has been my lunch routine for last 3 or more years and I don't have any problem with that.

I never cooked in my life. Well... that's not entirely true. I try to cook once in a while but I felt it's not worth my time and effort and I surely don’t enjoy cooking.

One more thing I find overrated is “Waking up early in the morning”. A lot of people I know get up early in the morning. They just can't sleep more than certain number of hours. I could never understand this kind of 'habit'. For some of them I just assume they pretend it.

I had a verbal argument with one of my friend last weekend. She was trying to convince me how getting up early is good for health. And I, being tremendous fan of sleep, knocked off each of her arguments with some silly reason. After a while she got furious and then I realized that she was serious about that whole conversation.

That’s not the only case when people have objected my habit. What amuses me more is that, most of them do nothing worthwhile with that extra time. But still they give me some lame scientific reason why I should get up early. I don't totally preclude the consequences of being lazy. But I exercise three days a week and regularly wake up at 6:30 am on weekdays. I also have a very high metabolism. Only on weekends I sleep for continuous 12-13 hours. And I'm not worried about it, I totally enjoy my sleep.
.. as Calvin once said "I would like sleeping more if I were awake to enjoy it".

User Friendly software??

2004-09-07T12:36:00.000-05:00

Let me warn you beforehand that I mainly program using Microsoft technologies and tools. So my comments and conclusions may not apply to the whole software universe as such.

I love open-source and believe me I'm tremendous fan of Commercial (read Microsoft) software too. Commercial software is my choice when I need a software that can guess the most common settings preferred by me, allows me to do most of the work with just one mouse click, does not force advance options and last but not least - absolutely no command line stuff. I prefer Open source tools when I want to control and customize the behavior of the software as per my needs.

Typically the learning curve with commercial software is less steep than their open-source counterparts. And I think this is one of the reasons why Windows products are so successful even though some of them are over-priced. Take Visual Source Safe for example. I have been using VSS since long, and there were times when I felt like banging my head against my desk for the stupid error messages. VSS is surely not enterprise grade software; there are much better open-source software tools like 'CVS' and 'SubVersion'. I use CVS for my personal stuff (TortoiseCVS is my favorite tool), but convincing Windows developers to use these tools is a challenge. The learning curve for CVS is much steeper. Windows developers unlike others do not like to execute commands in black DOS window. Also the GUI for CVS on win32 is not quite 'appealing'.

Recently I tried NullSoft Install System. It took me a while to figure out how to use it. I have been mostly using 'Wise Installer' which provides pretty straight forward functionality. A few mouse clicks and a simple installation is ready. I'm sure once I learn more about NullSoft scripts it would be my favorite. But once again how many developers will be ready to learn one more type of scripting language?

Consider the case of Internet Explorer. IE is one of the most criticized piece of software in the history. Recent release of SP2 for windows XP claims to have fixed a lot of glitches, that haunted IE users and in turn Microsoft, for ages. But despite so many problems the percentage reduction in number of IE users is not that significant. Most of these converts turned to Mozilla firefox instead of Netscape (including me:-) ). IE is still the most widely used browser. The success of IE can be partly attributed to the highly tolerant HTML parser and proprietary JavaScript properties which made client side validations very efficient. In my last two T&M projects the client finally decided to make IE as a standard browser because Netscape did not allow certain client side validations.

Some might argue that commercial software assumes the end users to be completely novice while designing the software. But that strategy works, doesn't it? Commercial softwares bank on the fact that the end users are ready to accept software with some bugs as long as the software is easy to use. Open-Source softwares are mostly evolved out of small tools, they offer flexibility and efficiency at the cost of ease of use. When I say ease of use it includes everything from Initial installation, setup to the maintenance, upgrade and compatibility with established softwares. End users are lazy when it comes to learning something new, be it a programmer or a person behind checkout counter. I know a lot of people who get impressed with the features of some open-source tools but they are reluctant to use them when they come across the fact that they have to learn something new.

'User friendly' is the term which changes it's meaning with kind of user you are dealing with. For Open source community it may mean the 'open'ness of the software. For Apple users it may include the aesthetic aspects of not only the software but also the hardware running it as well. For most of the people it means ease of use, flat learning curve and good support.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who would argue that these comments apply only to the Microsoft world. Agreed.. But doesn't it represent a significant end user base?

Real Smart Cart!

2004-08-23T21:52:00.000-05:00

I find Self Checkout counters in Superstores most annoying, although I use them frequently 'coz I don't want to stand in the long queues. The stupid Computer describes an item just scanned and says "Move ur Bananas to the belt" . Arghhhhhhhhh.. Why can’t it just say "Bananas.. 3 Lbs" or whatever the unit is. Or Better yet.. Just display it on the screen.. Whoever is going to use that counter is guaranteed to be literate.

I have an idea to skip this conventional stupid self checkout process and do it the most efficient way. Just add a Bar code scanner to the Shopping cart. So every time customer picks the item from the shelf he can scan it on the spot while putting it into the cart. Connect the cart to the store computer via wireless connection or better yet let the cart have removable memory media(hmmmmm.. I wonder if I can steal it for my Camera??). When a customer wants to check out he can just “Dock the Cart” to the counter ( or put the Memory media in to the checkout reader). The computer will instantly display the list of items in his Cart. ..Pay off and done.

If we want to go more hi-tech then have RFIDs with every Item. Put some kind of RFID sensor in the Shopping cart so that customer doesn't even have to scan the bar code. Shopping cart will collect the items and also keep the list of RFIDs of items it is holding and when it is "Docked" to the checkout counter . voilaaaa.. the list is ready .. zoooom!!

Some nerds can also prepare the list of items they want to buy from the super store on their Pocket PCs or Palmtops. They can get the Item codes from Superstore website or some software provided by store When they come to the store just communicate with store and .. zoooom. u have the map of the store showing where each item is located. Collect and mark all the items u can locate. Go to the checkout counter press "sync button" and u r done.

Hmmmmm. ... now I need to think about some strategy to save those smart carts from being tampered with.