Amar Zumkhawala's Blog

Road Runner Download Speeds

2009-11-03T12:23:00.001-05:00

If you've ever wondered about Time Warner Cable's Road Runner download speeds, and the difference between the speed levels they offer, here is some information. I used speedtest.net with different levels of Time Warner's Road Runner's internet service offerings to learn about my internet connectivity.

I've started watching NetFlix movies over the internet now and am more sensitive to waiting to download media. Generally speaking I am just emailing or web browsing or downloading podcasts.

The results:

Test	Road Runner Basic (2MB)	Road Runner Standard with PowerBoost (7MB)
5MB mp3	4 sec	3 sec
35MB video clip	27 sec	16 sec
800MB movie	10 min	6 min
Download speed	10.62 Mb/s	17.87 Mb/s
Upload speed	.49 Mb/s	.49 Mb/s

Road Runner Basic - Up To 2MB Download Speed

Road Runner Standard with PowerBoost - Up To 7MB Download Speed

Enhancing a picture, sans Photoshop

2009-10-29T23:00:00.008-04:00

Web browsers often have special features that only they support. While all browser such as Internet Explore, Firefox, and Safari have to work with web standards, each can offer special extensions usable by webpage designers that work when the webpage is viewed with a specific web browser.

Apple's Safari is one of several browsers that use the open source software WebKit to process and display web page content. A WebKit enabled browser can allow a website to have content that utilizes advanced features that have not yet made it into all web browsers as a standard, to make the web page more visually interesting.

There are many advanced features in WebKit. Some of more visually interesting abilities are to enhance images in a web page without having to manipulate the image in photoshop. For example, you can add a reflection or a mask. Apple details many possibilities with Safari 4 and images on its website. If you are not viewing this web page with Safari 4, I have added what the examples of what the image would look if you were, created in Photoshop.

Let's take a photo of mine showing the Guggenheim museum in New York City.

We can add a reflection to it...

(Safari 4)

img src="Guggenheim.jpg" style="-webkit-box-reflect: below 3px -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, from(transparent), color-stop(0.5, transparent), to(white)) 0 0 0 0 stretch stretch;"

(For other browsers, resulting image after modification in Photoshop)

Or we can make a fuzzy border...

(Safari 4)

img src="Guggenheim.jpg" style="-webkit-mask-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, from(rgb(0, 0, 0)), to(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)));"

(For other browsers, resulting image after modification in Photoshop)

Nike Human Race, Buckeyes

2009-10-24T18:00:00.020-04:00

Nike sponsored a set of 10K races, held in cities across the world, called the "Nike Human Race." Columbus, Ohio was chosen, and the race was held on Ohio State University's campus. About 3,500 people raced in Columbus. World wide, runners from over ninty nine countries participated.

Every race participnt wore the same shirt, a free Nike dri-fit shirt given by Nike. The shirt had the runners number on it, in place of the traditional bib attached with safety pins. There were no RFIDs given out - in fact - there were no clocks on our course! Runners were permitted to report their times to Nike, and the top times are listed on Nike's website.

The race was more about participation than time taken to complete the course. You could chose to run a 5K or a 10K - the race course split at mile 2.5.

The total number of miles for all Buckeyes participating was tallied up and compared to University of Southern California runners, which also held the Nike race on their campus.

I took a few photos during the "The Human Race 10K" on Ohio State University's campus. The starting line was at Hagerty Hall on College Road.

Crowd gathering at starting line.

Photo of starting line.

The 5K/10K course split.

The finish line!

A Digital MBA

2009-10-23T16:31:00.004-04:00

The majority of my course readings for my MBA classes are case studies or articles published by Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford, or Darden. Traditionally, Fisher professors create course packets for their courses which students purchase in hard copy from the university printer UniPrint here on Ohio State's campus. We are charged a copyright fee for each article or case, as well as a sizable printing fee when we purchase from UniPrint.

In the interest of creating my own digital library of what I read, I've started purchasing electronic versions of my course reading. The benefit of digital that appeals to me most is that, post MBA, I will have my course material on my laptop, easily accessible and searchable without any special software.

The customer experience I want, as an MBA, with course material is the following:

Easily order and purchase case or article on a website at student rate
Instantly download to my computer
Be able to highlight and comment the pdf using my pdf reader software (Preview)

If required, print document out, as some professors do not prefer student laptops in class

Keep on my hard drive forever and my desktop search engine can access and index the document contents

It has not been a pleasant experience going digital, and I am not near this desired customer experience.

Buying from Harvard Publishing has been close - I can acquire an unlocked pdf, which I am allowed to comment on and print, and my Mac OS X search software Spotlight can access the document contents. Some imperfections, though, as the Harvard website does not allow a la carte purchasing at a student rate - a professor must register the course with Harvard, select the material, and require all items be purchased. This "all or none" is a bummer, since an article or two sometimes overlaps with other courses and I pay twice. Academic rate purchase must also be setup by the professor for the class, so I am dependent on his or her's whim. I often end up paying the full rate for cases because of this.

Buying from Darden Publishing is a nightmare. No academic rate, you get a locked pdf which Spotlight can't access, you have to use Adobe Reader, no comments or highlighting can be done, and you have to be connected on the internet in order to unlock the document every time you want to read it! Much to improve, here.

Daily Photo, #27

2009-07-19T21:56:00.012-04:00

Daily photo for Sunday, July 19th, 2009

Built in 1886 and architected by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the Statue of Liberty is a famous American cultural monument. On a boat tour around Manhattan, I caught a snap during sunset. Made of pure copper, the statue is green, and its semblance is derived from the Roman goddess Libertas, the Goddess of Freedom. It is 111 feet tall; to get to the top of the crown, you can walk 154 steps up, today. For many immigrants who arrived by boat to the United States, the statue was the first American thing they saw as their floated into NY. Today it is preserved by a private foundation and by U.S. Government National Park Service. The island the statue resides on is referred to as Liberty Island or Ellis Island.

Why this for the Daily Photo? Classic American icon.

Daily Photo, #26

2009-07-18T21:35:00.001-04:00

Photo for Saturday, July 18th, 2009

The American Museum of Natural History, founded in 1896, is one of New York's best museums, especially for kids, in my opinion. The museum has many long standing exhibits showing artifacts from past cultures and a tremendous amount of information and history on animals, plants, and human civilization. This diorama of African Monkeys is an example of what you will see, along with fossils, and live animal specimens. I also saw special exhibits showing only this summer on frogs, the movie "Journey to the Stars," and giant mammals. The visuals in the movie were amazing.

Why this for the Daily Photo? One of my more favorite movies is "Night at the Museum" (2006) with Ben Stiller, had several scenes where monkeys tried to steal his keys, this reminded me of that movie. Run!

Daily Photo, #25

2009-07-17T21:21:00.001-04:00

Photo for Friday, July 17th, 2009

Trump International Hotel and Tower at Columbus Circle. Donald Trump own dozens of properties here in NYC, many bearing his name. This property bears his name, though is owned by GE, oddly - so he doesn't necessarily own it if it has his name; his stake in this building is valued at $12M. Trump, a celebrity in the eighties for his wealth and panach, he become less iconic after the tech boom and dot com billionaires took front and center. Through his TV show "The Apprentice," he became more relevant again to pop culture, though the show's popularity has died down, of late.

Why this for the Daily Photo? Trump is easily one of the most famous living New Yorkers.

Daily Photo, #24

2009-07-16T20:55:00.010-04:00

Photo for Thursday, July 16th, 2009

New York City is home to a world famous music institution, The Juilliard School. On the way to a movie, I walked by the Alice Tully Hall, at night, a concert venue and part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The list of notable alumni from Juilliard has several household names such as Yo Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Itzhak Perlman, and Skipper Dan. If you, as a listener, appreciate classical music or have dabbled in it, chances are you have come across music from an artist who has studied here. Young, ambitious kids studying violin or piano, dreaming of playing Carnegie Hall, often aim for admission to the school; though, not every famous musician has studied here. Most pop stars never consider attending.

Why this for the Daily Photo? This school is just too famous and iconic in the music world.

Daily Photo, #23

2009-07-15T23:46:00.007-04:00

Photo for Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Kid Cudi, an American hip hop artist from Cleveland, Ohio, sold out the Nokia Theater on Wednesday, treating his fans to a five songs, including his worldwide hit single "Day 'n' Nite." I've noticed a trend of artists performing on stage with giant LED screens behind them, as shown here. Often animated graphics or visual treats, many which will remind you of screen savers for your computer, and are complemented with lighting of similar color, are shown. Here, everything is colored green.

Why this for the Daily Photo? Photograph the trend of LEDs at concerts.

Importing a webpage table into a Spreadsheet

2009-07-15T18:12:00.000-04:00

I came across a webpage which listed New York City as the 8th most expensive city to live in, worldwide. This is up from 22nd last year, with the rise attributed to the stronger US Dollar. Los Angeles was 23rd, Miami was 45th and Chicago was 50th.

I wanted to map top fifty cities, world wide, to get a visual feel for where they were located. I'll walk you through an example with the 2009 top fifty most expensive cities webpage on Mercer's website. Here's a screen shot of what the webpage looks like:

The first step is create a new Google Spreadsheet. Next, you must setup the spreadsheet to import data from this webpage. Now, you don't need to save the web page from Mercer's website to your computer; just tell the spreadsheet to import the data from the URL of the webpage by setting cell A1 to the following formula:

=ImportHtml("http://www.mercer.com/summary.htm?idContent=1311145","table",4)

Here's what the imported table looks like in a spreadsheet. Using the ImportHtml() function creates a live connection between the webpage and the spreadsheet. If the data goes away from the webpage, it will no longer show up in the spreadsheet. Every time you open the spreadsheet the data gets imported again.

From here you can do as you please; Google Spreadsheet's allows you to export the spreadsheet to a CSV or a Microsoft Excel file. One fun new tool is Google Fusion, which allows you to visualize data in tables. Fusion allows you to use an excel spreadsheet from your computer or a online spreadsheet. I imported my spreadsheet above into a Google Fusion Table here, from which I generated a map, accomplishing my goal.

Visually, we can easily see that most of the top fifty 2009 expensive places to live are located in Europe.

Daily Photo, #22

2009-07-14T23:36:00.001-04:00

Photo for Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

The New York Philharmonic is one of the oldest orchestra's in the world, established in 1842 by a group of musicians led by Ureli Correli Hill. The orchestra has conducted over 14,000 concerts lifetime, more than any other, to date. Here, they put on a concert for the citizens of New York City, in the city's famous Central Park. Concertgoers came out in droves, many bringing wine, cheese, and other items to enjoy at the free outdoor concert. The crowd of 80,000 stretched very far back, so speakers were placed throughout the park to pump sound to those out of earshot of the musicians.

Why this for the Daily Photo? I have never attended a public concert on this scale.

Daily Photo, #21

2009-07-13T23:00:00.001-04:00

Photo for Monday, July 13th, 2009

James Surls, an American artist, has created several sculptures which are on display throughout Park Avenue, a famous street in New York City. I snapped a photo of his "Walking Molecular Flower" artwork, daringly standing in the middle of the road, fearless of on coming traffic. Friends always tell me to go play in traffic, and well, I did.

Why this for the Daily Photo? It was the first artwork on Park that I noticed in a series of sculptures on display on the avenue.

Howcast Understands New York City

2009-07-13T05:26:00.000-04:00

As a recent migrant to New York City, I've been unabashed about appearing as a newbie to the city. I take photos and ask for directions without any embarrassment. After a few days here, though, my mission has changed from exploration to blending in. Co-workers and friends offer sound advice, but I always check the web too to see what pro's say. I came across a relatively new website name Howcast which had a humorous video on the topic of pretending to be a New Yorker:

After watching, I can now fake my way into being from the city; I understand why "Houston" is pronounced "How-stun" and NOT "Hyoo-stun" and will dress in all black. This video explains why I ate dinner a few nights back surrounded by families with kids instead of adults - now I will only eat restaurants after 9pm.

What you can find on Howcast

Howcast is a video sharing site focused on instructional videos. Howcast makes videos and allows users to upload videos. Howcast videos have a consistent style: they start off listing what you will need, go through a series of listed steps, and end with a fun fact. Most of the videos go for humor. The company produces many videos on a range of topics such as sports to technology to dating.

Howcast video categories

Howcast is Youtube one better by allowing the video editor to add "steps" throughout the video that can easily be chosen, with the video starting to play at that point, making the website look and slightly different than Youtube.

Daily Photo, #20

2009-07-12T20:00:00.007-04:00

Photo for Sunday, July 12th, 2009

On Columbia University's campus for a dinner event, I strolled through the main walkway to see some of the buildings at this very old Ivy League university. When I went to photograph the library, shown here, out of nowhere came Spider-Man, jumping from the rooftop! A few other onlookers were surprised, too. Peter Parker, in the movie Spiderman II, studied physics at Columbia and is based out of New York City, according to Marvel comics. Looks like he was just visiting his alum for the weekend. Should he be spending Sunday evenings as quality time with Ms. Spider-Woman?

Why this for the Daily Photo? It's Spidy!

Daily Photo, #19

2009-07-11T23:42:00.002-04:00

Daily photo for Saturday, July 11th, 2009

The South Asian Journalist Association, SAJA, held its 15th annual convention this weekend, here in NYC at the CUNY School of Journalism building. The conference sessions, featuring panelists in the news industry, were eye openers; I've seen print from the retail side, never the journalists side. Journalists talk at length about Twitter, I've found. Twitter is changing how people get news, for example, the Hudson plane crash was photographed by a Twitter user before any news outlets got there. SAJA is a non-profit organization is mission is to facilitate news written, produced, and managed by South Asians. Its website has several resources, even some advice for non-profits and how manage public relations and write press releases.

Why this for the Daily Photo? The colors in this photo were vivid, with orange, blue, tan, and black and white; more for the technical aspects than the photo subject.

Daily Photo, #18

2009-07-10T23:26:00.001-04:00

Daily photo for Friday, July 10th, 2009

Spotted shrimp, found in an aquarium at the entrance to Golden Taste Restaurant in NYC's Chinatown. These guys, moving around with their ten legs, were not too appetizing to me, as I prefer not to see my food alive before I consume it. Many restaurants in Chinatown had fish, lobsters, and other critters visible to customers, who can pick which ones they want for dinner. You can argue that its the best way to serve fresh food. Americans eat 1B pounds of shrimp, annually, and they are good for year health and heart - a .3 oz shrimp packs in .27 grams of healthy omega-three fatty acids. (source)

Why this for the Daily Photo? I haven't seen food in fish tanks at restaurants in a while.

Daily Photo, #17

2009-07-09T23:13:00.012-04:00

Daily photo for Thursday, July 9th, 2009

New York City has ongoing construction and maintenance projects on is streets. It's estimated that NYC spends $21B per annum. Big Budget! What I have not seen elsewhere in other cities, large or small budgets, are tall orange barrels, such as this, used as smoke stacks. There were several around the streets today on 59th Ave near the park, most all of which were tagged with graffiti. This barrel is at least 4x larger than the ones used on highways often seen in Ohio, such as around north I-275 recently.

Why this for the Daily Photo? Even the orange barrels are bigger here in this city!

Daily Photo, #16

2009-07-08T23:39:00.001-04:00

Photo for Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

New York City, with real estate precious, has many smaller stores and marts on it city blocks instead of supermarkets. We came across a small grocery store that specializes in Indian spices called Dual Speciality in the East Village neighborhood. Unfortunately, you can't smell the place just by looking at the photo, but it is a wonderful place to step into because of the effect the spices' aroma have on you. For me, it reminded me homes where Indian food is cooked. It can be a kinesthetic experience too, as you can walk around, pick up packed bags of, say, Paprika, and examine them with your senses.

Why this for the Daily Photo? Great experience walking in the store. Also, this store's tiny size but prominent promotion of its online store reminded me of IBM commercials where tiny Jelly store in England sold around the world.

Daily Photo, #15

2009-07-07T23:50:00.000-04:00

Photo for Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

The China Youth Corps (CYC) Wind Orchestra is touring the United States and stopped by the IBM building at 590 Madison Ave to play during the lunch hour in the atrium within the building. This kids were very professional and sounded great to my classical music layman ear. The orchestra played compositions created in Asia such as the Taiwanese folk song "Spring Breeze from Taiwan" (youtube) or "Happy Sailing March" by Yeh Shu Han. The second, and final stop of their tour, believe it or not, is Cincinnati, Ohio on July 11th!? Why a famous city like NY and then a smaller midwestern town like Cincy, I am unsure.

Why this for the Daily Photo? I'm always grateful when artists play in public spaces and in turn I'm giving them recognition and praise on my website.

Daily Photo, #14

2009-07-06T23:15:00.001-04:00

Photo for Monday, July 6th, 2009

The steps of mountains near Machu Picchu in Peru. Getting to Machu Picchu by foot on the Inca Trail can take you through beautiful landscapes and vast views of the valleys near the ancient site. The dirt trail is traversed by thousands each year and is very safe and accessible.

Why this for the Daily Photo? This photo, taken in 2005, is a memory from one of my more favorite vacations.

Daily Photo, #13

2009-07-05T13:14:00.005-04:00

Photo for Sunday, July 5th, 2009

Swiss tennis player Roger Federer takes his fifteenth grand slam victory, winning the Wimbledon gentleman's singles championship in a 4 hour 16 minute match over American Andy Roderick. Here he is photographed contemplating the next point during the fifth set, which lasted 95 minutes. We watched the match, which was played in London, England, on television, live.

Why this for the Daily Photo? This match made sports history, as no other tennis player has won fifteen grand slam tournaments, surpassing retired American Pete Sampras.

Daily Photo, #12

2009-07-04T22:00:00.001-04:00

Photo for Saturday, July 4th, 2009

Independence day came and went and I didn't get a chance to see any fireworks. I did, however, come across this sari. Sari's a traditional dresses women from south asia, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan wear. Sari's are ancient, originating back in 2800 B.C.; many women wear the dress differently depending on the region of India they are from. When I research different styles of wearing sari's, in fact, I found dozens of different stylish ways. I believe this style is the "reverse gujurati style," draped on the left shoulder instead of the right.

Why this for the Daily Photo? What caught my eye with this sari is that it has little waves symbol on it. I call this the "wifi sari" since the symbols look like the wifi symbol on Mac OS X.

Daily Photo, #11

2009-07-03T23:00:00.000-04:00

Photo for Friday, July 3rd, 2009

A very warm summer evening outing right next to a pond means mosquitoes! This tiki torch kept them at bay, burning off Citronella oil. Tiki torches originally came from South Pacific wislands. Now common backyard decorations, they were popularized in America during the 1950's by soldiers who returned home from WWII wanted to create an environment similar to that they experienced on islands.

Why this for the Daily Photo? A great summer evening outdoor party always has a tiki torch!

Daily Photo, #10

2009-07-02T23:00:00.004-04:00

Photo for Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Entrance to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The store is a tourist attraction now, with many tourists mingling outside snapping photos, though plenty of the visitors were happy Apple customers interested in buying products. Inside, there place is packed! Some customers even brought their pets along and walked them around show room. The glass cube is a very unusual architecture for a retail store. Within the store, which is below the cube, you can find most of the products Apple sells to consumers - iPods, iPhones, Macs, and software. Apple has a 360˚ panoramic view available, too.

Why this for the Daily Photo? The unique, innovative architecture for a store on Fifth Avenue is eye catching.

Daily Photo, #9

2009-07-01T19:10:00.001-04:00

Photo for Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece "Wheat Field with Cypresses" painted in 1889, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. One of my most favorite impressionist paintings because of the vivid colors, a scene of nature, and the swirls.

Why this for the Daily Photo? Just too many amazing masterpieces on display at the Met, had to pick one.