Ganesh Blog

iPhone blog post

2009-12-08T16:55:00.000-05:00

This is test blog post from my phone.

Speed limits

2008-12-29T23:51:00.003-05:00

I always thought why not restrict cars to only under 70 mph. You get a ticket if you go higher anyways and it is dangerous, so why allow the car to run at speeds over 70 mph? It's now happening in the UK. They are thinking of installing devices that will slow the car down to the allowed limit on any particular street. That is cool and been a long time coming.

Remote finders

2008-12-28T07:40:00.004-05:00

My digital photo frames idea came true (almost, they are yet to play videos). I wish the same with this one. I wish remote controls have built-in radio-frequency finders in them. With a click of a button next to the TV, the remote starts beeping whereever it is. Phones already have them, why not do it with remotes. It will come in handy in times when the remote has suddenly gone missing!

Hindu pooja audio

2008-09-03T21:51:00.004-04:00

This was an interesting find. Raaga hosts audio content for Upakarma and Vinayaka Chaturthi Pooja.

Google 411

2008-08-27T00:06:00.005-04:00

I recently found this amazing free service, Goog-411. It is like carrying google around with you everywhere. Just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411). I don't have mobile internet and use this 1-800 number to find locations while I am outside. Previously it was costing me $2/call for the regular 411 service. With a combination of Goog-411 and a GPS system, you can be sure you never get lost. You don't necessarily have to connect to the location and talk to someone. The voice detection software allows you to get the location address by selecting the detail option.

Marta!

2008-08-22T18:25:00.003-04:00

The coolest female foot baller I have ever seen, Marta Vieira da Silva. See her goals...it's magic.

How little we have travelled

2008-08-22T00:33:00.006-04:00

I often talk about how little we have travelled in space. The most we did (physically) is to reach the outer rings of our solar system with the Voyager spacecrafts. The spacecrafts are currently in the termination shock region of our solar system. Our Sun is one among the billions of stars in the milky way galaxy. They are billions of such galaxies in the universe. It will take quite a long time just to reach the next star let alone the next galaxy. Most of our research comes from telescopes that reach out to far reaching galaxies and get us great pictures. I find the prviate space program very interesting. I look forward to the space tourism launching next year. May be some day I will get to travel to the space. :)

Beer statistics

2008-08-18T18:26:00.005-04:00

I was at the grocery store looking at an aisle full of beers from all over the world. And I needed to pick one. I thought it would be cool if they had an electronic display (next to aisle or at various locations similar to the Price checker) to show which beer sold the most (this year, this month, all time etc. like Youtube does). The display would be touch screen based that can be expanded to see additional information. I can then try out the top 10 sellers and end up with the one that I prefer. You can replace the beer example with any other product and see how it would be really helpful. When are we going to get Web 2.0 in the real world?

Dasavatharam and human evolution

2008-08-14T22:20:00.015-04:00

This is a followup to my previous couple of posts. I had stumbled onto a post about the ten incarnations of Vishnu and how it relates to the human evolution. The post shows how the ten incarnations of Vishnu may relate to the various stages of the human evolution, starting with a fish, then a amphibian, and then ape etc. Here is the list:

Matsya Avatar (Fish) - Life started in the water.
Kurma Avatar (Tortoise) - Amphibious - Life moved from water to the land. (See Ichthyostega and Missing link videos).
Varaha Avatar (Boar) - Complete animal - Adapted to live on land.
Narasimha Avatar (Half ape) - Transformation from animal to ape.
Vamana avatar (Dwarf) - Transformation from ape to human, developed intelligence.
Parasurama avatar (Forest dweller) - Humans developed stone tools.
Rama avatar (Hunter) - Humans used superior weapons, bows and arrows, created villages.
Balarama avatar (Farmer) - Humans started agriculture.
Krishna avatar (Businessman) - Domestication of animals and development of economy.
Kalki avatar - Yet to arrive. He may bring the end of the world. It could be a virus.

It was interesting to put these two topics together. I have come to believe that religions use metaphors to explain complicated things. For example, Rahu and Ketu are used to represent the Lunar nodes (See Rahu and Ketu–The Invisible Planets).

Evolution and natural selection

2008-08-12T22:30:00.001-04:00

I am starting to like the subject of biology again. I had chosen computers over it at school. Learning about evolution by natural selection has opened up my eyes in more ways than any other thing I had ever learnt. And this man, Richard Dawkins, gets all the credit for it. If you want to learn more, watch the videos on this page, The Genius of Charles Darwin: Presented by Richard Dawkins.

Concept of Time in Hinduism

2008-07-31T22:45:00.001-04:00

I am posting after a long break. I stumbled onto this post, Hindu Concept of the Beginning and End of Universe, that has a informative video by Carl Sagan. Many Hindus believe Brahma is immortal and is part of the Trinity (with Vishnu and Shiva). But there is an alternate view that Brahma lives for 100 years, gets destroyed and created again by Vishnu to create a new universe. This is fascinating stuff since no other religion has such a far reaching measurement of time as Hinduism does.

Indian Idol 3?

2007-01-23T21:21:00.000-05:00

I watched Karunya and Monali Thakur sing at a TASC function in Los Angles last year. Until then I was not aware of a Indian version of the Idol. I checked out the Indian Idol website and was hooked. I was looking forward to following the next season.

So, I wanted to find out when the next season of Indian Idol starts? The official website has no information about it. I expected them to have some information about auditions on their home-page. Nothing. The site has not been updated since the Idol 2 ended. Many have been desperately looking for audition information for Idol 3. I am hoping someone will know.

Chennai street maps on Google

2006-12-27T10:38:00.000-05:00

I learnt this from Teakada. Finally a street level map of Chennai and it is pretty cool. I hope we will get directions soon.

From rags to riches

2006-09-06T12:05:00.000-04:00

I found this story interesting, The inspiring rags-to-riches tale of Sarathbabu.

Roller coster ride

2006-09-06T11:45:00.000-04:00

When I heard this story on NPR this morning, it stuck me hard. I quote, Leroy Sievers, "And no one else, as much as they want to, as much as they may need to, no one else can really ride along with you. They can watch; they can be supportive. But when you're up there on top of the ride, looking down on that huge drop in front of you, you're the only one in the car". I lost my mother due to cancer earlier this year. I fully understood what he meant.

I recently learnt that a 2 year old named Nirali is going through the same ordeal. It is a lot of suffering for a little one to go through. I hope she finds a match soon. I have heard younger ones have a greater chance to fight it...I just hope that it is true in her case.

Tea is good for you

2006-08-24T11:56:00.000-04:00

I just found out that drinking tea is healthy. That is good news to me. I had quit coffee sometime ago. I am drinking around three cups of tea a day.

Jill Carroll tells her story

2006-08-23T17:04:00.000-04:00

I stumbled across this link while reading Yahoo News! She was held captive for 82 days in Iraq.

Few things (family tree, backup et al)

2006-08-19T06:53:00.000-04:00

I have a few things to write about. So here goes:

1. Tribalpages: I have setup my family tree here. You can check out a sample family tree of the British royal family. After I added photos to each person, the views got really interesting. It acts like a address book too. I suggest you give it a try.

2. External hard-disk: I once heard on Leo Laporte's radio show, the importance on having a backup solution at home. I recently got to implement one at home. My digital videos and pictures collection absolutely needed it. The question was "What if my system crashes and I lose everything?". The company built external hard-disk solutions have smaller hard disks and high prices. I had a friend of mine suggest how I can build one myself (Thanks Suresh). I went to Micro Center and got a internal IDE hard drive for a cost of $120 ($60 mail-in rebate). I then bought a hard disk drive casing for $25. For a final cost $85, I had a 200GB external hard disk solution. Setting up the casing was pretty easy, just put in the hard disk and connect the cables. It works like a USB flash drive. You get a new drive letter and it is simple copy and paste operation to backup the files.

3. Name search: If someone knows your name, wants to find out where you are and what you are up to, what do they do? I was thinking, they would do a Google search. But Google search results are random and not a ideal way to do this. If you don't have a online presence (homepage etc), you will never show up. The next option is to use a website that has tons of members. Yahoo is one such. I have now updated my profile so that I show up on a search like that on members.yahoo.com. There is a check box on the profile that has to be checked so that it shows up on a search like this. Now the question is, who is going to bother search for me? :)

4. Free postal service to India: Free online postal service is one that provides a e-mail to paper post service to reach people in India without e-mail access. Alcacrity housing in Chennai once had a service like this. Now that site is down. I went searching and found a list of websites providing this service. Indianservice is one that stood-out in the list. Has anyone tried it?

5. Yahoo Answers and Ask: If you have not check these yet, you should. Ask has an XML feed.

6. Definitions: Did you know Google can be used as a online-dictionary?

Getting paid for writing on Wikipedia

2006-08-11T00:06:00.000-04:00

Companies are starting to see value in having presence on Wikipedia. Now someone has started a business based on it. MyWikiBiz.com gets paid helping companies setup their articles on Wikipedia. Here is one of the company's contributions. Now that's a novel idea.

Israel and Palestine

2006-08-09T00:14:00.000-04:00

The Israel-Lebonan war is all over the news these days. I have a particular interest in Middle east history, Israel in particular. Ever wonder how Israel ended up in the middle of bunch of Arab states. BBC News has a detailed history of the conflict and a portal on Middle east crisis. BBC remains my primary source of news online. And NPR on the radio.

I'm back

2006-08-08T00:06:00.000-04:00

A post from me after a long break. I had been at Wikipedia all this time. It's great to be back. Hopefully should start posting like before. This week, I managed to create my Yahoo! 360 page. I wonder what makes MySpace so popular. Y360 has many of the same social networking features. It may be because MS was the first one on the block.

Indian pulse export ban

2006-07-08T22:20:00.000-04:00

I am one of those hit by the pulse export ban by the Government. Today we went to Artesia to stock up on the pulses. The prices were hiked up ($8 for a 4lb pack, used to be $4) and there was restriction of 2 packs per customer. The stores say it would be another six months before new stocks come in. Just learnt that the ban will be extended until March 31, 2007. How are we to make sambar any more?

Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole Earth!

2006-06-26T19:45:00.000-04:00

Here is a awesome website that I found recently. It lets you search for any city in the world and lets you zoom in and find your home (if you are lucky). I was not lucky because a thick white cloud covered our place. Tagging important places is such great feature. Go ahead and tag on.

To start, click the Wikimapia menu option on the top right hand corner and search for a city.

India vs West Indies cricket update

2006-05-23T15:47:00.001-04:00

If you are having trouble finding the audio cricket commentary links from my previous post, this site is still hosting them.

India vs West Indies cricket

2006-05-18T18:01:00.001-04:00

If you live outside India, you can listen to unofficial India v West Indies cricket commentary here and here.

If you are having trouble finding the links read this update.

Is it worth drinking juice from concentrate?

2006-04-21T13:26:00.000-04:00

I just confirmed it (have heard a lot of people say) today that juices from cocentrate (and pasteurized) are zero in nutrition. I was thinking that I was drinking healthy.

Source: Food Science: about juices

Lazybase

2006-04-18T16:19:00.000-04:00

Ever heard of Lazybase!? It has a lot of potential in the lines of wiki, blog collaborations. Here is a sample.

The story of a little coffee plant

2006-04-06T19:19:00.000-04:00

Listen to this story. It will make you smile.

Link: NPR : The Little Coffee Plant that Wouldn't Die

Sify Scorecard

2006-04-03T16:03:00.000-04:00

Sify has done a great job with their scorecard. They have linked videos to all the sixers, fours and the fall of wickets. Coool stuff! Check it out
here.

Video Frames

2006-01-06T18:06:00.000-05:00

How about creating photo frames that play video. We can call them "Video frames". It can have two modes, a continuous play mode, or a manual play by clicking a play button somewhere on the frame. They should have some kind of storage device that could store a small clip.

You could do the same with photo albums that have video pages, small clips that are attached to the page.

Tom Cruise's Minority Report had a device that would play 3D video. That would be cool!

Chennai Trip

2005-12-10T00:29:00.000-05:00

I had recently been to Chennai. It had been 4 years since my last visit. I have uploaded some snaps from the trip.

Bio-piracy - Indians hit back!

2005-12-07T16:42:00.000-05:00

It is about time. I have long awaited this. I am just hoping they make this database available for everyone to read for free. There is wealth of knowledge in Vedas that needs to get out. Hopefully Ayurvedha is just a start. There is plently more left to do.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India hits back in 'bio-piracy' battle

I can't believe they tried to patent Yoga asanas. Pathetic!

Delhi Blasts

2005-11-02T16:43:00.000-05:00

A black ribbon (via Aswin) to protest the attacks on innocent victims in Delhi...

And a story of a real-life hero in the midst of it. And Sougata laments on how MSM has moved on.

Anil gets married

2005-11-02T13:54:00.000-05:00

Anil, a blogger and Sixapart CEO, got married. He has posted about it on his blog. I am a regular reader of his blog. Couple of quotes from his post.

The defining trait of marriage in these contexts is that the commitment comes first. It doesn't occur to most people to get upset that they don't get to choose their siblings; You just love your brother or sister, or you try to, and you fight sometimes and you disagree, and then you get over it, and that's what family is about. And in some ways, marriage can be like that, too. There's a liberation in knowing you don't have an easy out: You know you're going to make it work, and you're not going to give up.

.....

So one of the great things about having had the perspective of another culture's look at marriage was realizing that there's a freedom in knowing you can always count on the commitment as a framework that you work within. The absence of that immutable commitment was the thing I most lamented and was dismayed by in so many of the marriages I saw growing up.

Perfectly said!

(via Desipundit)

Real time flight tracking

2005-11-01T11:51:00.000-05:00

My mother got on a flight to India yesterday. I was looking for flight tracker and found this and this. It's cool they have it real time. The flight is right now on the way to Taipei.

Vedic Calendar

2005-11-01T11:48:00.000-05:00

Follow up to previous post, if you wish to download the vedic calendar (panchangam) in US/International time zones, visit here.

Find your birth star

2005-11-01T11:43:00.000-05:00

I tried looking up the birth star and rashi for most of my friends here. It worked accurate to the minute. Check it out here.

IIPM vs Bloggers

2005-10-13T15:28:00.000-04:00

I have been following with interest the IIPM vs bloggers story. Excellent coverage by Desipundit. It all started with this post by Gaurav based on this story by JAM Magazine. It is great bloggers are taking up social issues and standing by what they say. Very gutsy! I just wanted to make a point by linking to the posts. Lot has been said else where. I support Gaurav, Rashmi and Varna on this issue. They have a right to have an opinion.

I feel there should be an indepedent inquiry (by the Education ministry may be) on this and come out with the real facts. Thanks Kiruba for the buttons.

Child Safety in India

2005-10-12T12:47:00.000-04:00

I have planned a vacation to Chennai this November. I will be traveling with my 1 year old kid this time. What worries me most is that child safety in India is not taken as seriously as here in United States. My questions are, do all cars come equipped with seat belts on the back seat? Can I rent a car seat for a couple of weeks? Or is it just me the over-cautious parent?

Here is a nicely written Hindu Newspaper article on this (check the travel safety section). The article does mention that car seats need to be used, but does not guide me in any particular direction. Need your input.

Comment Spam

2005-10-10T16:52:00.000-04:00

I am seeing a lot of comment spam in the last week. Very annoying. Anyone having the same problem? I removed the blogger hack and reset back to Blogger comments. I noticed Blogger comments has a verification feature before the comment is posted. Hopefully the spam will stop.

Google Reader

2005-10-10T02:47:00.000-04:00

Giving a Google Reader a try! The keyboard shortcuts are really going to help. I like the full page display for each post.

Thanks to the bloglines's export feature, I was able to get all my subscriptions into the Reader.

Nursery Rhymes

2005-10-04T22:46:00.000-04:00

I was looking for nursery rhyme videos to play for my 10 month old son. I found this one. Great work with Macromedia and has plenty of rhymes. The website host, Miriam Seshadri says she got the idea when her little girl was going nuts seeing for another kid's website, bookawala.com. Dads, check this one out and save yourself some googling! :)

eHow

2005-09-23T19:36:00.000-04:00

I recommend a visit to eHow. The site is a how-to manual on various topics. They also have wikiHow where anyone can edit the website and add information.

For example, How to Check Brake Fluid in your car.

PBS Frontline Archive

2005-07-06T11:29:00.000-04:00

I like watching the PBS stations (Public Broadcasting Stations).

Recently I found a video archive of a program called Frontline at their website. The quality of the program and the journalists is top-notch. If you like investigative journalism, you will love this. Check them out here.

Google sightseeing

2005-04-26T04:52:00.000-04:00

A follow-up to my previous post. Here is a cool collection of locations around the United States. They call it Google Sightseeing.

I live here

2005-04-26T03:33:00.000-04:00

I am pretty impressed with Google Maps lately. I like the way the map and satellite views sync with each other real-time. Here is a related BBC article.

With help from Google, I was able to map my home and my office commute.

This is where I live. The complex with two tennis courts and the swimming pool (the blue patch in the middle).

My daily commute to the office. It takes me about 10 minutes.

I'm back

2005-04-26T03:07:00.000-04:00

Just posting to kick myself back to writing.

New earth quake

2005-03-28T12:06:00.000-05:00

CNN.com is reporting about an earthquake measuring 8.2 off the Indonesian coast on the same fault line as the earth quake that caused December tsunami.

Will this generate a new tsunami?

Celebrate Yahoo! birthday

2005-03-02T16:43:00.000-05:00

If you have not already done it, go get it. Yahoo! is celebrating by giving away a free 2oz scoup of Baskin and Robins icecream today. Visit here for more details.

Feel good stories from India

2005-02-28T19:31:00.000-05:00

This morning one of my friends sent me this website, GoodNewsIndia after reading about it at Chakra's blog. Found it interesting.

It is maintained by a 63 year old man, DV Sridharan. Rediff has a good post about him.

The diary on the website was an interesting read. Truly Inspiring effort.

I subscribed to the e-mail alerts for new stories. I feel good already for linking it. :)

Bug-me-not

2005-02-24T11:27:00.000-05:00

These guys can help you by-pass compulsory registration on websites.

NASA Exam a hoax?

2005-02-23T12:16:00.000-05:00

In a bizarre twist to the Saurabh Singh story that I had written about (MSM (stands for Mainstream Media) also did), people are starting to doubt (via BBC) whether such an exam exists. They report that our President Kalam had never written such an exam nor did Kalpana Chawla. Rediff was the first to post the doubts about this exam.

Free Mojtaba and Arash day!

2005-02-22T10:12:00.000-05:00

Check out these links,

Hidden Talent

2005-02-21T17:23:00.000-05:00

I read this BBC article about an Indian village boy, Saurabh Singh topping the NASA ISD exam. ISD stands for International Scientist Discovery program. Impressive! Only two other Indians have cleared the exam. One was our President Abdul Kalam in 1960 (came in 7th) and other was Kalpana Chavla in 1988 (came in 21st).

It is talent like this and this that is being robbed by politicians who think people have given them a contract to rule.

Ringo

2005-02-18T16:58:00.000-05:00

Been long since I posted. Here is one.

I got a Ringo request from one of my friends and I registered. In the past similar requests annoyed me. Ringo was a phone number and address book service, so didn't bother me much.

I wonder why Yahoo did not do this. They already maintain address books and it would have been very easy for them to enable this.

Ringo is run by Monster folks. I am not sure when it launched, but its features are very basic. Let me list the drawbacks,

1) No sorting: Atleast they could have sorted it alphabatically.
2) No categories
3) No export feature
4) No search: I cannot believe they could miss a search feature.

These are just a few. I e-mailed them with the above requests. I hope they read the e-mails.

My Feeds

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

I spent hours getting my blogline feeds setup up right. I have more than 100 feeds setup. Visit here if you care to look at or like to export the feeds.

Txt2Blog

2005-02-04T11:18:00.000-05:00

So, I checked out CSFTxt and got some ideas. CSFTxt is a txt2blog posting website. Anyone with a SMS or e-mail access can post to this website.

Try this. Send an SMS or e-mail to fadereu.csftxt@blogger.com. You must instantly see your message on the website. Your name will not get posted. It is an anonymous posting. Check my message for example.

I thought this is great, this lets any number of people post live information from the ground to a website. It is not limited by the members of the blog any more.

So, I thought how about using this to tackle issues like corruption. What if people started posting information on persons accepting bribes, their name, company and address. A quick SMS at the Transport department office for example, about a corrupt official. Will it not get visibility? Citizen vigilante. Just a thought....

Not a surprise, the website is already getting spammed. Volunteers will have to come in to catch the spammers and spambots. It can be done.

Bloglines Update

2005-02-04T10:28:00.000-05:00

I followed some advise and went back to check Bloglines. I found the problem was to do with all the blogs being in a sub-folder. So I moved all the blogs as "top-level" blogs and it started working. For now it's a truce. :)

Bigzoo alternative

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

Bigzoo had been serving us with good quality, cheap long distance service for the past few years. They have discontinued the service on January 31, 2005 giving economic reasons.

If you are one of those who use Bigzoo and are looking for a replacement/alternative, you can try OneSuite. The site looks pretty similar to Bigzoo, they have the same pinskip options. I guess both of them use the same backend software.

If you register using the following link, we both get 20 free mins.

https://www.onesuite.com/052217788/suitetreat

And thanks in advance if you do. :)

Ivan Noble

2005-02-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

I woke up to this sad news. Ivan Noble, a BBC journalist, died of cancer, that he had been fighting for the last two years. He was writing an account of his brain tumor treatment in a tumor diary on the BBC website. His story is truly inspirational. He will live on in the hearts and minds of millions of readers like me. I feel like I have lost a close friend of mine.

In one post he writes about the tsunami,

"Everyone should have known the tsunami was coming. Next time they must. I do not know if science will uncover enough about my cancer to slide the dial just far enough for me. But we have the technology that could have warned millions about the quake. Next time people must be given a chance."

In his last post he writes,

"I will end with a plea. I still have no idea why I ended up with a cancer, but plenty of other cancer patients know what made them ill.

If two or three people stop smoking as a result of anything I have ever written then the one of them who would have got cancer will live and all my scribblings will have been worthwhile."

He also writes,

"I have not been defeated."

and he was not.

MSN Search

2005-02-01T09:54:00.000-05:00

Microsoft has released its new search engine. Check out here. I think it looks kinda cool. The layout and looks have g-o-o-g-l-e written all over them. The have put more colors in. They have a desktop search tool too.

I MSNed myself and did not find me. They better index me fast or they are losing me. :)

They are in too late in the game. I am going to wait-and-see if they can catch up with Google.

Naluvedapathy Story

2005-01-28T12:45:00.000-05:00

I just read how a village, Naluvedapathy, in Tamil Nadu was saved from the brunt of Tsunami (via). Two years ago, they had planted around 60,000 eucalyptus and casuarina trees to appease the rain-gods. On Dec 26, these trees slowed down the pace of the waters and saved thousands of lives.

Being a nature lover, this story really make me happy.

IndiBloggies 2004

2005-01-26T00:30:00.000-05:00

Awards are out. Kiruba has won Life-time achievement. Congrats Kribs!

You can find this year's winners here.

On-the-go Digital

2005-01-21T23:57:00.000-05:00

I bought a Gemini key chain digital camera at Frys for $20. Even though the resolution is pretty low (352 x 288), it works out as a easy-on-the-go camera. Sized the palm of a hand, it comes with a CD (software/webcam/driver) and a USB cable. Runs on a standard AAA battery. Has a in-built memory upto 2MB; can hold upto 20 good resolution snaps. After the limit is reached, the pictures have to be downloaded to a PC and cleared up. No flash, but pictures come out okay in bright light.

It is a CIF resolution camera. New term I learnt with the purchase. Here is a picture I took from my office window on the fourth floor. It is the actual size.

Makes a good gift idea!

Disabling Drag-and-drop?

2005-01-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

Can anyone please tell me how to disable drag-and-drop (folders and files) on Windows Explorer? It is very annoying.

Googling did not yeild anything. Except, I found that there is way to disable start menu drop-and-drop. You can find that article here.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2005-01-18T22:40:00.000-05:00

Internet has opened up so much information for ordinary (/lazy) people like me. One such great resource is the Wikipedia. It has a wealth of information about so many things and it is amazing that all the content was contributed by the millions of visitors themselves. And all the information is provided free-of-charge to the public. The site runs on private donations and is free from advertisements.

Interesting Fact: Since it is totally volunteer contributed effort, Wikipedia rewards hard-workers with Barnstar medals.

Wikis like blogs are helping non-professionals get involved in publishing content onto the internet. I look forward to personal wikis (personal blogs that can be edited by anyone); like a merger of both worlds. Stuart Henshall blogged about this (via Dina).

Wikipedia is maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation. They also maintain other wiki-sites such as Wikinews, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikisource and the Wikimedia Commons.

Price Alerts

2005-01-18T11:44:00.000-05:00

This morning I thought I struck on a novel idea for a e-commerce website. A website that alerts you when you a product (that you are interested in) hits a price mark. As always, there is someone else who has already been there and done that. I searched and found PriceGrabber has it. Grr... You have to create a profile with them and it will let you create price alerts. I setup an account with them and wished the Konica Minolta D31 hits a $100 mark. I hope it does. :) I recently bought a Canon A95. It is a bit bulky. I want a pocket sized camera that I can take with me everywhere. Quality does not matter. I can settle for 2MP or a 3MP.

Blogger's Spell check

2005-01-14T11:55:00.000-05:00

I was spell checking my previous post about Hyugens. Blogger's spell check tool tells me "blog" is spelled incorrect and should be replaced by "bloc". I thought that was funny coming from a blogging application. It also advises me to use "flogging" instead of "blogging". :)

Hyugens has landed

2005-01-14T11:36:00.000-05:00

I have been closing watching JPL's activities in the last year. I was really excited when the rovers landed on Mars. I stayed up all night to watch the NASA TV broadcast of the landing. Now another great news from the same people, Hyugens has landed. Hyugens has taken seven years to reach the Titan (a moon of Saturn). It was attached to the Cassini spacecraft that arrived at Saturn in July 2004.

Here is what Professor Southwood told the BBC.

"We're doing something today which will last for centuries. It's not my name that matters it's what we're doing," said Professor Southwood.

"You have to take risks, otherwise, nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Pasadena, where the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is located is close to my place. I should visit there sometime and blog about it.

Comments Hack

2005-01-14T02:39:00.000-05:00

I implemented the comments hack today. I think it works great. Leave a comment. :)

Trackbacks

2005-01-13T02:11:00.000-05:00

One of my blog visitors pointed the lack of a trackback feature on this site. I added the Haloscan trackback feature today. I did not want Haloscan to take over my commenting system. I just added the trackback portion of the HTML code.

Bad Taste

2005-01-12T20:06:00.000-05:00

Indiatimes has an article about how an Indian Call Center employee was abused by a Phily radio station host. The whole conversation was in bad taste. This coming from a respectable radio station part of the broadcasting company Clear Channel. I am irked that the hosts were just suspended for just a day.

The audio file of the converstation can be downloaded here.

Bloglines

2005-01-12T00:57:00.000-05:00

I got myself a Bloglines account. Sometime back, I had written about how to automatically check changes in other blogs. The problem with that was when I change computers (home vs office vs laptop), I was not able to centrally manage my blog list. That is where a bloglines account will help. It will keep all the blogs I read at one place accessible to all computers. I think it can highlight the blogs that have been recently updated and even list them (only) on the homepage.

Blogger Hacks

2005-01-11T22:23:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting site I found (via). I like the comments idea. I should give it a thought before I implement.

Categories in Blogger

2005-01-07T13:45:00.000-05:00

BTW, when will Blogger come up with a post category option? My last post would gone into the "To Do" category. I could have put them together.

Blogger people, are you listening? please, please, please :)

To do

2005-01-07T13:38:00.000-05:00

My to-do lists right now,

* Learn Spanish - Got a CD Book. Yet to kick off full-swing.
* Learn Ruby on Rails - Recently heard of it.
* Become Wikipedian - Recently I got to see more of how Wiki works.
* Listen to BBC regularly - I used to listen to a lot of BBC when I was at school (like 10 years ago). Have to get back to that habit. Did you know they do not have a SW Broadcast in North America. They are available only on the Internet.

Technology put to good use

2005-01-07T12:24:00.000-05:00

Here is a BBC article about how technology could be put to good use to save lives. Kudos to all the people behind this idea especially Taran Rampersad.

Text messages aid disaster recovery

Bridging the Digital Divide

2005-01-05T02:33:00.000-05:00

Here is a must read article,

The Tsunami as a Wake-Up Call to Bridging the Digital Divide
by Andy Carvin

How to upload pictures to your blog?

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

When I started blogging, I was wondering how people add pictures to the blog. Blogger does not store any files. This morning I had one of friends (Vijay, welcome to blogger) ask about it and so this post.

The following are some sites that will host the pictures for you. And all of them are free.

Hello: A Blogger partnership.

Pros: One click picture post to your blog. Neat picture resize feature for large images. Easy to use.

Cons: Needs a client install. Does not give options to export HTML. Users with basic HTML knowledge need the export option for posting pictures in the middle of the text. No website image upload option.

Photobucket: This is what I currently use.

Pros: Upload feature on website. Image HTML export. Easy to use. Picture Resize options.

Cons: I can't think of any. biased? :)

Flickr: Have not used this. May be I will soon. And then write a review about it. But I have seen it used in other sites. It has a sleek feature called "Daily zeitgeist". You can see this in action on the Tsunami Help website where they use it to show missing people.

Blog Comments to E-mail

2005-01-05T01:20:00.000-05:00

Blogger has a neat feature that e-mails the comments entered in the blog. You can enable this option by entering an e-mail address in the Settings - Comments Tab.

Works like a charm!

2005 Calendars

2005-01-04T14:04:00.000-05:00

New year is in. If you would like to print some calendars, Microsoft has some neat templates.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT011371131033.aspx

Here is a quick link to the 2005 business calendar.

(requires Word or Excel on your machine)

Tsunami Donations

2005-01-03T20:29:00.000-05:00

I am a regular contributor to the World Food Programme. Generally we have no idea where our donations reach. Here is an exception (Kiruba's Weblog). Any donations done through Rupya.com are distributed through people like Kiruba. And it is great to have such visibility to the relief work. Pictures speak more than words.

Kiruba and Ganesh (not me, his last name is Siddhamali and he hosts Rupya.com), Good job guys! Keep up the good work.

The Hindu has written an article mentioning Kiruba and Rupya.com.

Tsunami Help Effort

2005-01-02T23:22:00.000-05:00

Posting less frequently here. For the last couple of days, I am involved in the Tsunami Help Effort at their blog and the wikinews site.

Happy New Year

2005-01-01T21:33:00.000-05:00

Tsunami has made this day a sad one. These babies (one of them named Tsunami) on Andaman give hope. Let us all start with hope, a hope that we get these people back to their normal lives as soon as possible.

Wish you a Happy New Year 2005!

Tsunami Help Wiki

2004-12-31T04:32:00.000-05:00

They have setup a wiki for the Tsnuami help effort. A wiki is a website where any visitor of the website can change its contents (with or without registering). You end up having millions of editors and lots of content. Their blog is getting messy with the content. Changing to the wiki was a good choice. I had used a wiki when I played a MMRPG (short form for massively multiplayer role playing game) called "Tale in the desert". It worked out perfectly for the gamers for sharing information (apart from the official gaming site). Tsunami bloggers, hope the wiki works out for you. They must give you guys a some kind of international award for your effort. I vote!

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Tsunami_Help

Tsunami Help Bloggers

2004-12-31T04:07:00.000-05:00

The bloggers at Tsunamihelp.blogspot.com are doing a great job in the disaster recovery co-ordination. BBC has taken notice in this article.

Good job guys...You are making a difference.

Finally legal

2004-12-31T00:17:00.000-05:00

After six years of waiting, we finally got our green card approvals today. We are permanent residents of the United States. It is a happy day!

Boy Wonders

2004-12-30T18:48:00.000-05:00

At times you hear about them on TV, and they amaze you with their intellect. Here are two of such kids that I admire and respect, one of whom has sadly passed away.

Mattie Stepanek: 13 year old Poet and peacemaker, Mattie wrote poems about peace and hope. His poems got published in a book called "Heartsongs". I admire him for his strength and will to live the life to its fullest. I watched his interviews by Larry King with awe. He could talk about so many things. But he still was regular kid who liked Disney Land and traveling. Sadly, he passed away on the morning of June 22, 2004. He had so much potential.

Here is one of his poems.

For our World
By Mattie J.T. Stepanek

We need to stop.
Just stop.
Stop for a moment
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else.
We need to be silent.
Just silent.
Silent for a moment
Before we forever lose
The blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts.
We need to notice.
Just notice.
Notice for a moment
Before the future slips away
Into ashes and dust of humility.
Stop, be silent, and notice
In so many ways, we are the same.
Our differences are unique treasures.
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept.
We need to be.
Just be.
Be for a moment Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,
Like children and lambs,
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful.
And now, let us pray,
Differently, yet together,
Before there is no earth, no life,
No chance for peace.

September 12, 2001
© Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek

Gregory Smith: Gregory is a 15 year old second year graduate at University of Virginia, a PhD in Mathematics. He started the International Youth Advocates. He says,

"You see, I have a vision. At a time when people are insecure about the future when hatred turns against the innocent. wouldn't it restore hope if children took it upon themselves to help other children. children bridging cultural, political and religious divides coming together in peace, speaking with one voice for freedom and justice and working for a future without fear and suffering. Children who have not learned to hate. Children who feel a connection with their world. Children who can define the ideal world where all have opportunity and then believe that it can happen. For the sake of all of us, we must make this happen. - Greg Smith"

Roshan's effort

2004-12-30T12:10:00.000-05:00

I saw 14 year old Roshan on TV talking to CNN this morning. He has started a website to collect donations to help Srilankan Tsunami victims. An effort by a young boy is worth mentioning. Here is his site,

HELP TSUNAMI VICTIMS OF SRI LANKA!!

You can contact him at (240)694-8889. If you live in Maryland, you can drop donations at,

14539 Cutstone Way
Silver Spring, Maryland, 20905

Checks can be mailed in favor of "HELP SRILANKA - A/C # 003925531431".

DSL is up again

2004-12-29T23:58:00.000-05:00

My home DSL is up again this evening. Big relief since I am off the next 4 days. I desperately need internet to get through them.

Humble Humidifier

2004-12-29T17:47:00.000-05:00

Our kid is a month and half old now. Until recently, He had been having stuffy nose and breathing problems. On a friend's (Thanks Ravi) advise, I got home a humidifier (cold air one). His breathing has gotten better now and this stuff really works.

I recently purchased a nifty wall clock (for under $10) at Walmart that had a thermometer and a hygrometer. Now I can monitor the humidity level, turn the humidifier on/off based on it.

How earthquakes and tsunamis happen?

2004-12-29T17:41:00.000-05:00

BBC has two must-read articles about how earthquakes and tsunamis happen,

1) How Earthquakes happen?

2) Asia earthquake explained

Home DSL is down

2004-12-29T17:18:00.000-05:00

DSL at my home went down yesterday. I am writing this at the office. Tried all the things the ISP would normally suggest. Shutdown the computer, turn off the DSL modem and bring them up. Doesn't work.

I checked Verizon (local ISP) website for a contact number. There, I stumbled on this nifty little tool they have in the customer support section. It was called "Test my Verizon Online DSL line". You enter a telephone number and it runs a line test on your telephone number. It's pretty good and it said the result was failed.

I called up Verizon after that. The rep said this was a state-wide issue. It is getting addressed and they can give no time estimate. They think the weather had something do with it. It has been raining since yesterday.

Now I have to look out for free internet as temporary arrangement until the DSL is fixed. Hope Juno and Netzero are still around giving free internet. I previously had Bigzoo, but they are going out-of-shop from January. Do you have any suggestions for free internet (except AOL ...I hate them just for the junk CDs they send)?

Eyewitness Story

2004-12-27T17:28:00.000-05:00

Source: BBC

Eyewitness: Panic in Patong

Thousands of people have been e-mailing the BBC News website about horrific experiences as sea surges hit their homes and holiday retreats.

Troy Husum, a 28-year-old Canadian, was on holiday in Phuket, Thailand. He spoke of the devastation as the waves hit the town of Patong and how survivors are coping.

"I felt the quake first at about 0915.

I went out on my balcony in the hotel where I was staying - it was a beautifully calm day - and talked to others on their balconies. The quake felt very slight so we thought little of it.

About 45 minutes later, I noticed that water had receded from Patong Bay. We'd never seen it before and we could hear people on the beach talking about it. You could even see fish flopping around on the beach, which was unusual.

I noticed small kids and tourists walking to where the water had receded, curious as to why the water had gone.

Then I saw it - I noticed people craning their necks and looking out on the horizon. You could see a wall of water about three or four stories high.

I felt like I was watching a movie, it was completely surreal.

It wasn't moving very quickly, it took between four and five minutes until I saw it hit and in that time slowly people started to realise what was happening.

Most disturbing was I saw people literally disappear when the water hit... people were literally swept away

People were saying 'Oh God, what is that?' I thought I was dreaming.

After a few seconds the wave hit and smashed against the beach.

It was incredible, it actually bent the trees, washed everything away - at least 1,000 beach umbrellas were swept along as all the water surged through.

There is a line of cars where people park by the beach and hundreds of bikes, I saw them all picked up like toys and moved along.

Most disturbing was I saw people literally disappear when the water hit.

I saw a lot running, but there were people snoozing on the beach, I saw small children hit. People were literally swept away.

A lot of injuries occurred from people being hit by debris from cars, from bikes.

Running for safety

I thought I should get some pictures because I was staying on the fourth floor of my hotel, but other people on the balconies said we had to get on the roof.

I grabbed my equipment and ran outside into the hall. People were screaming "Go! Go!" I ran up the stairs and saw the water coming.

It flowed up to the third floor, you could see it in the stairwell, some people were completely wet.

We watched the chaos from the roof. The water had already started to recede as we got there.

The hardest part for survivors was actually when water receded - the undercurrent sucked people back into the ocean.

Bodies

The most frightening part was not the wave - it was the panic that ensued.

They are still pulling people out of the debris, one was a small Thai girl - she must have been there all night but she was still alive

There were car accidents, people were trying to escape as everyone was positive another wave was coming.

People - mainly local Thais - went up the roads to the mountain and slept up there for safety.

Within an hour I went back to the beach. I saw bodies. The rescue crews were panicking and there was not much control.

Bodies were pulled from the debris - most had clearly drowned. I also saw a number of fractures - one tourist had a very badly broken arm.

You could constantly hear helicopters - they flew up to about one kilometre out to sea to try to rescue people.

Last night most hotels allowed tourists to sleep for free in their lobbies or by the pool and there was still a lot of fear and misinformation about other waves.

Aftermath

This morning the cleanup started. All the foreigners are in disbelief, there are two or three feet of sand in all these devastated restaurants.

There are piles and piles of rubble deep inland - it looks like a bomb has gone off.

Some bars I went to the night before on the beach are completely gone,. All of the palm trees were flatted or removed. How is water capable of doing that?

They are carting out hundreds of cars and bikes and the streets are still covered with sand.

They really should have cordoned off the streets. There has been a little looting, some last night and today. I saw guys with televisions and computers.

There are people staggering around with injuries, I saw a girl with bandage on her head. Today there have also been sirens which have now died down.

They are still pulling people out of the debris. One was a small Thai girl - she must have been there all night but she was still alive."

What I dislike about American TV?

2004-12-26T10:17:00.000-05:00

The whole world is waking up to the earth quake story. BBC is as usual on the story on the internet and on TV. The American channels don't really care. No breaking news of any sort. Not CNN, CBS, NBC...I am not aware of what they are playing on CNN WORLD. What we get is the USA version. Still why wouldn't the USA version play this news? I think the sheer scale of this disaster warrants a breaking news story. I checked CNN out last night, they were playing the current news story, why some people have lost bags in US AIRWAYS. Timewarner and Adelphia (the local cable providers) are not customer-friendly. If you need to get CNN WORLD, You will have to get digital cable, get a bunch of useless channels and pay about $100/month. The basic set only costs $12/month. What will it take to get CNN WORLD in the basic set?

Is this Media playing its way or is it the people? I am going to list what CNN USA is currently playing in pacific time (whenever I get a chance).

12/25 6:15 PM: Earthquake and Tsunami strikes
12/26 7:15 AM: Inside Politics
12/26 7:35 AM: Inside Politics: Winners and Losers of 2004
12/26 8:15 AM: CNN Sunday: President heading for Texas
12/26 8:16 AM: CNN Sunday: Elections in Ukraine
12/26 8:20 AM: CNN Sunday: The Year in the news.
12/26 8:20 AM: CNN Sunday: Secret Santa.
12/26 7:00 PM: CNN USA verision is finally reporting about the earthquake and tsunami. It took them a whole 24 hours and 11000 dead people before they would actually take notice.
12/26 8:00 PM: Good God. CNN USA verison finally switched to broadcasting CNN WORLD and is covering the disaster.

Updates:

12/26 7:30 AM: NBC 4 morning news did give an update of the quake. Duration of the story was 30 secs.

PS: I have toned down a lot of words I would normally use. Can CNN sue me for being a critic? I have no idea. Anyways, since I am a immigrant here, better safe than sorry. Can I say "CNN (USA Version) sucks!"?

Earthquakes in South East Asia

2004-12-26T04:27:00.000-05:00

It looks really bad. It might take a few days before the toll of the quakes is known.

BBC: Asia reels from tides and tremors

They say this is 5th biggest earthquake of the century.

I pray for the all the affected. May God be with you.

Shivana Anand

2004-12-16T12:03:00.000-05:00

Shivana is the sweet little girl of friends of mine, Anand and Priya. Irvine World News has written an article about her and it was published today. She deserves all the attention. She amazes me with the all the stuff she can remember. When I call them up, She picks up the phone and says "Hello...This is Shivana...How are you?". She sings well too. She is just 2 years old.

Here is a excerpt from the article,

Live & learn

Shivana Anand can count to 100 and name all 50 states. And she’s 2 years old.

STORY, PHOTOS BY NAOMI ULICI IRVINE WORLD NEWS

Shivana Anand of Irvine knows her ABCs, just like any other toddler. She loves stickers and rivals the Energizer Bunny in energy.

But this dark-haired 2-year-old is unique.

She can count to 100 and name all 50 states, their capitals and the president. Add to that all the colors, shapes like hexagons and trapeziums, fruits, vegetables, a dozen or more animals and she can identify them.

.......

I would like to post the pictures from the article, but I am not sure about copyright issues. Please check the link to the article instead.

My new Digic

2004-12-12T12:59:00.000-05:00

Got myself a 5 megapixel Canon A95 digital camera from Dell.com. It arrived day-before yesterday. Got a deal from a Deals2Buy link, 15% off and a $30 coupon. My other option was a Sony DSC-V1. My friend advised not to go with Sony since it uses proprietary accessories. Also, I did not like the flip-flash, right where the left hand would rest. They have corrected this in DSC-W1.

Canon got a good review from CNet. I wanted a camera that gives quality pictures, smaller is size and was not pricey.

I got some accessories for it.

1. Dazzle Hi-Speed Universal 8-in-1 USB Digital Media Reader/Writer (from dell.com). Cool gadget. Creates a drive in Windows Explorer. You can read and write files into the CompactFlash card just like using a floppy drive. It is easier than connecting the camera directly to the computer.
2. Lexar 512MB CompactFlash Card (from buy.com). Camera came with a Canon 32MB card. I still need the bigger one to store more images.
3. Panasonic BQ-830 Battery Charger (from Cotsco Store). A95 runs on AA batteries. Made sense to buy a charger and use rechargeable AAs. Canon's charger is pricey.
4. Centrios Executive Camera Bag (From Circuit City Store).

The camera was put to good use yesterday on our kid's first visit to a temple (Venkateswara Temple at Malibu). Here is a snap that was taken yesterday,

Malibu Temple

When I was ready to post my pictures to the web, I found the size of the images was too big. It took like ages to upload one picture to Yahoo Album. Then I googled around to find how I can batch compress all the pictures. I found this interesting article about it. That helped me find this cool tool called EasyThumbnails. It asked for a folder that had the pictures and converted all of the pictures in it to a smaller size and put them in another folder. That's is all I asked for. And it is free.

Sreenath Tips

2004-12-08T16:27:00.000-05:00

While browsing I found Sreenath Sreenivasan's tips site. I still have to read through all the links (later in the evening). His main website is here.

Is my computer secure (enough)?

2004-12-08T11:54:00.000-05:00

Spy wares, Viruses, Hackers, Adware, Tracking cookies....the list is endless. Don't these people have better jobs?

All the above scare me...a little tech savvy guy ;). This question always bugs me...You would like everyone to get on the internet wagon...but how does one have a pleasant experience with all the above mentioned? This one is hard to explain to my mother, who wants get on to the internet to e-mail a few words to her son, without the windows or the internet going down. She is just learning to use the computer. I want to tell her, "It's not your fault". It amazes me that she can do e-mail and Yahoo chat (w/webcam) these days (all by herself, without any external help).

Here is what I did on my home computer.

1. Non-administrative user: I created a "guest" user that I use while I am browsing. When I need to install any programs, I use the Administrator logon.

2. Firewall: I got one from ZoneAlarm. It is pretty good and it auto updates. Free for personal use.

3. Anti-virus: I would like to use McAfee. But they want a yearly subscription for the Auto updates. I used them for 1 year. And I switched to AVG. I have to do a manual update. They frequently update the virus data files. Free for personal use.

4. WinPatrol: I got this from here. This one is a little puppy on my taskbar that watches changes in my registry and browsers. Free for personal use.

5. Adaware: I run this once in a while to check for spyware. Free for personal use.

6. FireFox: I use FireFox. Internet Explorer is so widely used, spywares generally target it. I use it for another reason that I explained in a previous post.

Now let me ask you, Is my computer secure (enough)? (:confused:)