cogito εrgo sum.

Void in mobile computing.

2011-02-14T17:59:00.005+05:30

I consider Nokia and Microsoft teaming as beginning of the end for Nokia and also for a good mobile computing front. Nokia should have gone the meego way. They still havent announced the end of meego. But I wonder if meego would gain any more force, considering they are already lagging behind in the effort.

What is even more scary is that I am loosing out of options in the mobile computing front!

I certainly dont want to give money to arrogant apple for their overpriced and crippled devices.
I dont want to fall into the traps of google owning me, by getting into Android.
Blackberry has not impressed me enough for personal mobile computing.
I have many reasons for not accepting Windows mobile platform at the moment.
Symbian has become a joke now.

Meego was my only option to look forward. And that is also under threat due to Microsoft-Nokia partnership. I still love my Maemo powered N900. I just wish something good comes up before that needs a replacement.

On a side note, Intel has been losing out on many fronts, as mobile procs overtook PC procs. The new love from Apple using intel chips wasnt enough. Microsoft added to their injury by announcing mainstream support for mips platform in their future OS. Also there are many people like me who love AMD procs for their cost efficiency on PC.

Now is the time for intel to jump into Mobile bandwagon with a killer processor and a Meego.
Intel are you listening ?

rajesh

Man(nar) Madhan(agopal) Ambu(jakshi)

2010-12-29T15:14:00.006+05:30

I liked it.
Warning: Spoilers present below...

Lot of kamalhassan stuff, if you have seen his movies, the way i see those. Cant believe thats Ramesh Aravind ! Madhavan's characterization was made unnatural towards the end. Not good. Urvashi dint get a chance to show her timing in comedy. Sangeetha does her job in "the matrimony was bad, but the alimony is good". May be Sangeetha and Urvashi's role should've been exchanged. Trish looks fresh. Usha Utup is a surprise. Kids do it well. Kamal could do this role in his sleep. Some typical crazymohan dialogues and aal maarattam climax. If you are not that types, you will feel the drag.

Songs are ok. People wowing Neelavanam song havent seen coldplay scientist. The controversial poetry was removed, but one can make out where it fits.

Europe is beautiful. Evoked memories of my trip to Venice.

Some entries like the opening fight or the bull taming you see in the posters can be excused because there are no other forceful masala. The driver character was unnecessary as if srilankan tamil had to be brought in. A typical film would have brought ex-hubby of priya in the climax.

[spoiler]
I really liked the scene where Mannar forgives Ambu. But there weren't enough justification on why he would love her. It was like indha vayasaanavana paathu Trisha vey ok sollitta, Madhavanum venam nu sollittan, french kaariyum poita, idha vitta padathula vera character illa, appo ivalaye love pannalam. Similarly why would Madhan love Deepa, just because...
[/spoiler]

Ending wasn't convincing at all. Definitely not expected from K.S.Ravikumar, Kamalhassan, crazy mohan.

Dialogues on truth and honesty are good. But unlike Anbe sivam where though kamal and madhavan disagreed, their characterization were justified, thats not the case here.

This is nowhere near the top list of kamal-crazy combination. But I liked it, except for the end.

past, present and the extensions...

2010-12-27T17:39:00.005+05:30

The music in my car stereo resumed after I hung up the call that I was attending in a solar powered bluetooth speakerphone.

I was driving my father back from a place where he performed his yearly rites to his deceased father.

We were listening to some song through FM, transmitted from my mobile phone which downloaded it to a microSD card smaller than my nail, through wifi on my 1Mbps broadband.

He was mentioning how my grandfather would not have accepted some of the things about the ritual that day, on which he had no option today.

The dot in my mobile updating sincerely with the help of 5 of those GPS satellites, as we moved through the map it was downloading through a slow GPRS connection.

He then reiterated what he already told me several times, "I have seen both worlds - a life without any device that needs electricity and the world I see today. I dont think there was ever a human lifeperiod or there will ever be one with such a massive change to human life."

Impressed by the touch interface, as he took my phone it changed its orientation from landscape to portrait, while he continued, "My contemporaries have witnessed it all. We are the luckiest."

I argue with him whenever he says something superlatively, "Oh they havent witnessed a live lifelike 3D holographic video of a person or a car you fly without a driver".

He was getting closer to what Charles Duell dint say, "That would not be as much amazing the first time as it did flying an aeroplane or a remote controlled toy car or seeing you live on a webcam from USA. They are only extensions of what we see today".

What say you?

what a buy !

2010-05-11T10:43:00.002+05:30

PMC Sierra buys adaptec RAID (thats pretty much everything) for $34M.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9FK4TL81.htm

What a price !!
Adaptec would have got a few more dollars if they bid themselves on ebay !

Not many people know how much AMI sold its RAID to LSI several years ago ;)

Rest in Peace - MJ

2009-06-26T11:06:00.002+05:30

I dont like my blog to look like an obituary column, but I will take one more exception for you, MJ.
Its sad to see how money killed you. But I hope you will get the much needed peace now.

I just listened to "who is it?", one of my fav tracks.

RIP - MC

2008-11-06T10:07:00.002+05:30

Michael Crichton is no more. For all the intellectual nourishment he provided, I thought I would take a moment to pay him a little respect.

I have a great admiration for his expertise on varied subjects and his story telling skills. I am amazed at his capabilities to present complex things in simple terms. Many times I have felt our opinions match, but I couldnt possibly put them in words convincingly. (Nor do I have an audience for such thoughts!). Be it a virtual thought world, non-linearity or how media and politics can play with belief and truth, he will remain in my memories and will be missed.

I cherish the moments spent with your writings; Thanks MC.

rajesh

Satyanā Prayogo athvā Ātmakathā

2008-01-30T12:19:00.000+05:30

This play-Harishchandra- captured my heart. I could never be tired of seeing it. But how often should I be permitted to go? It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number. 'Why should not all be truthful like Harishchandra?' was the question I asked myself day and night. To follow truth and to go through all the ordeals Harishchandra went through was the one ideal it inspired in me. I literally believed in the story of Harishchandra. The thought of it all often made me weep. My commonsense tells me today that Harishchandra could not have been a historical character.
-M.K.Gandhi in his autobiography.

¿ dn sʇɐɥʍ 'ssǝnƃ

2007-09-10T12:06:00.000+05:30

˙pɹıǝʍ

¿ pǝʇɐʇoɹ ǝɹɐ sllɐq ǝʎǝ ʎɯ ǝlqıssod ǝq ʇı plnoɔ ˙ʇɥƃıɹ ƃuıpuɐʇs ʇou ɯɐ ı ɹo ʇɥƃıɐɹʇs ʇou sı ɹoʇıuoɯ ʎɯ ɹǝɥʇıǝ ˙uʍop ǝpısdn sʞool plɹoʍ ǝloɥʍ ǝɥʇ ˙ʍou ǝlıɥʍ ɐ uǝǝq sʇı

iamalive

2007-02-01T15:30:00.000+05:30

Happy π day to you !

2006-03-14T13:00:00.000+05:30

Mar 14 is celebrated as Pi Day (at 1:59AM) by Pi enthusiasts around the world. The beauty of pi cannot be expressed in words, but only in equations.

I dont find rationality in celebrating days like "mother's day", "father's day", "onnu vitta brother's day", etc. But I am 'irrationally' inclined towards celebrating Pi day, for my love towards the number is 'real' and 'transcendental'.

Pi is just inevitable. Its divine even for atheist scientists. There cannot be an advanced civilisation in the world that doesnt know about pi (or its factors). Its cosmic and yet down to earth. It is perfect, yet random. Its so addictive to explore until you would feel you know everything about it and yet doesnt know about it! Be it a continued fraction or a generating function, its so symmetric. Yet so unpredictable in base 10. It just exists as an absolute beauty.

You are just there,
existing everywhere,
concealed to those who arent aware.
I can go round and around,
but i cannot miss you.
My sweetie pi.

Happy Pi day to all.

Edit:
Some pi music for your ears here

comment...

2006-01-29T19:51:00.000+05:30

He met her in a typical 'ponnu parthal' ceremony of arranged marriage and they instantly agreed.

About a week later, she asked him, "what did you notice when you first saw my photo?". He realised he is already in trouble on hearing the question. He remembered what his li'l sister told him when he answered the same question...
"Ada thu...
Idellam oru comment...
Unna ellam inda vishayathula en annannu sollikkave enakku romba kashtama irukku.......
Aalayum munjiyayum paaaru!!!!!!!" and it continued $*^!@#^.

He swallowed and cautiously said "well you may not like it".
/pause/
"its ok I dont mind, you can tell me if you wish".
/pause/
"I already got lot of scolding for that. You may regret it too".
/pause/
"Is that too bad? Then I dont want to hear. you told that to someone?"
/pause/
"I hadnt thought its bad. Thats what i noticed first."
/pause/
"oh. parava illa. tell me."
/pause/
"sonna kochukka kudadhu."
/pause/
"hmm..adhu sonna dhana theriyum."
/pause/
"sari. na sollala."
/pause/
/pause/
again him..."apram enna?"
"who scolded you for that comment?"
"en thangai".
"enna sonna?"
"ada thoo. idhellam oru comment nu sonna".
"enna comment?"
/pause/
"avasiyam venuma?"
"avasiyam venum"
"sari. na avaluku anuppina maila forward panren."
"seekram anuppunga. bye".
"bye". Hung up the phone.

He searched in sent items and forwarded.
Call from her again!
"hello"
"hi"
"idhu dhana commentu?"
"uh-huh"
"rommmbbba nalla irukku"
"eh".
"adhu epdi..."
"I already told you..."
"hmm... thats ok. I am speechless. Is this how you comment?"
"I dint give any comment initially. My sis insisted that I should tell her what i noticed first".
"rommmbbba nalla irukku. your expertise in comment."
"I am just being honest."
"adha unga blog la ye podunga."

dheiriyathai varavazhichundu andha photo la mudhalla notice panninadhoda mattum illama, adha solliyum vecha thappukkaga.... andha comment inge...

(Aandava!! idha padichuttu innum evlo peru thitta porangalo...)

"Picture was taken using Fuji Finepix6900 with a shutter speed of 1/4 sec(ISO-100) and aperture setting of F/2.8. No exposure compensation. camera uses a pattern metering mode. Internal flash of the camera was not used. Focal length is 13mm."

Do you read me ?

2005-11-16T19:26:00.000+05:30

Reading habit has reduced a lot among the school children these days, thanks to the computers. Learning through multimedia is definitely easy and fun. Reference books are too good to have in a computer because it is easy to search and cross refer. But for a plain book, I havent seen any software/hardware that is as convenient as a paperback that you can carry anywhere around the house and read. Moreover I feel that to learn the basics, computer is not as effective as reading a book.

A good understanding on a subject is acheived only when you ponder about it. A multimedia presentation may be clear to understand. But if things are so clear and there is so less to think about it, you understand only what is presented, but you may not be able view/express it in a different way. Paper book gives an opportunity to ponder about what you read thus providing a scope for a better understanding than what is actually presented in a book! For the same reason, I usually suggest kids to read books that are not their prescribed text books. I have seen teachers who totally misrepresent the text books. What the kids learn from a text book is what the teachers explain and not what they are supposed to learn!

I bought 'Intelligence' by Osho in bangalore book festival. This book also shares my opinion on how the educational institutions in india makes pupil less intelligent.Though I also studied in the same educational setup, the books I read helped me in identifying the weaknesses of the system and keep away from it. I could no longer see some of the excellent books for kids from the Mir Publishers in the market. Nevertheless, good books still exist! Unfortunately for today's kids, computer overtakes the books. Parents are happy with kids learning what is being taught, unaware that the kids are loosing their ability to think independently.

Edit : Check this link

kora bungalow

2005-11-09T15:12:00.000+05:30

Many greedy landlords and builders in bangalore dont care about approval for buildings. Earlier I was looking to buy a flat in bangalore. But I find that many get approval for some plan and construct a totally different building. What really pisses me off is the their justification.
"You cannot buy a house with everything in order as per plan".
"Everybody does that".
"Nobody will buy if I construct as per actual plan".
"They will not approve the plan if I send the actual plan, thats why we get approval for different plan".

I sincerely wished that every of those building should be penalised. I am really happy to see that some buildings in koramangala are being demolished for violations and more to come. I really dont feel pity for those who cry. Surprisingly one of the building destroyed belongs to one of the petitioners! Even now many such people dont accept their mistakes and instead get angry at the petitioners, court and authorities. Those are the people who need to be eliminated. I wish that this sends some signal to the future builders to follow the procedures.

Illegalities is in each and every part of constructing a building. They also receive part of money as cash and register the building for a lesser value. Things dont just stop there. There are many incidents where people with politicial powers, threaten the lives of the family of poor farmers/landlords and forcefully 'buy' their land. The government should enforce very strict rules in land related transactions and finance ministry should concentrate more in enforcing legality in transactions.

so sue me IIPM, shame on you.

2005-10-16T22:25:00.000+05:30

I never had a good opinion about IIPM. Now they have gone to the extent of curbing free speech in india. What kind of educational institution is the one that goes against the constitutional rights ? I would love to see such institutions loose their self-proclaimed fame.

I would strongly recommend NOT TO TAKE any course in IIPM to any of my friends.

To all the existing (and ex-IIPM) students:
You have paid several lakhs to IIPM based on their false advertisements. Instead of protesting against IIPM, if you target the persons who actually provide you enough details about their cheating, it actually allows the cheaters to survive. Fight it out with IIPM for the sake of goodness.

Now for those who dont know the story...
Jam, a magazine published reports on the false claims of IIPM run by the self proclaimed guru and fraudster arindham choudhary. This was blogged by Gaurav, and others. They were issued legal notices through email(!) for several crores by IIPM. IIPM students/supporters tried other childish techniques like fake blogs and threatening to burn IBM laptops because the blogger is an IBM employee. I cant believe IIPM could make the students SOOO DUMB !!!! Gaurav then quitted IBM on his own.

read about the whole story here.
Support the blogger's freedom of speech

Take time to go through the links.
ABHOR IIPM, TEACH ARINDHAM A LESSON.

out of focussed...

2005-10-13T20:10:00.000+05:30

My instant messenger window in the right corner shows few people online. Geographically seperated, its been long since I met many of my friends in my messenger list. But their online presence still makes me feel good about their nearness that I can chat with them. I havent realised the falseness of the icon until now.

One of my friend at work met with a motorbike accident two days ago in a highway.Within minutes someone stole his purse. Later a kind-heart found him and called up his home from his mobile and waited till their arrival. They took him to a big hospital in the nearest town (Hosur) which was equipped well enough to give 'polio drops' for children. They decided to take him to the nearest city (bangalore). But the ambulance there would not start. After opting other choices they managed to get him to a government hospital(nimhans) which also specializes trauma in bangalore. It was equipped to take some scans and tests. The doctor said the condition is critical due to internal bleeding in brain. But they arent equipped to treat him and the environment was clean enough to bring multiple diseases to a person who came there with a single complaint.

It was at this stage I came to know about the accident and rushed to the place avoiding all the potholes in the road. Meanwhile more of my friends have reached the place. We decided to move him to a hospital with ventilator bed. After some phone calls we found only a few hospitals are ready with them (some asked affordability before saying availability.) We took the ambulance from Nimhans to another private hospital. I followed in my bike only to find that the ambulance dint have working siren lights. In one place a person was chatting in his mobile phone in his car in the middle of the road without moving despite the honks from all sides. I squeezed my way to reach his vehicle and tell him that he is blocking an ambulance. After some starting trouble he moved the car. I have less complaints to make about that private hospital to which we went. But he died anyway the next day. I dont even want to mention about the involvement of police while taking the body.

The accidents in india are all just combinations that arise out of several malfunctions. Not just some rare coincidences. If a person is not helped by friends, he doesnt get any service. Lot of people try to make money in the crisis and even if they do, the service they provide is hardly adequate.

Senthil is still shown online in my messenger from a machine that he dint log off. I would rather see him off than realise that all the icons I see are not persons but just icons. I deleted him from my contact list with a sigh. My desktop looks blurred and out of focussed.

2005-10-03T17:37:00.000+05:30

YOU MUST BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD
- M.K.Gandhi

Oil price hike is good !

2005-09-22T14:20:00.000+05:30

I welcome the oil price hike on a broader view!
This will give way to Hybrid cars and better technologies that are less dependent on depletable natural resource. Also when the oil requirements come down, some of the less courteous 'Oil producing countries' will become more courteous!

It is surprising to see the indian market going bullish inspite of the rising oil price! Its also worth reading this article in down to earth. Unfortunately, the indian (automobile) industries are too narrow minded that they dont spend money in R&D. Indian industries always want to win more money without loosing a paise. If they spend money for researches in solar and alternative energies, it would be worth their investment. Government should also provide benefits to encourage such expenditures. There is a battery operated car Reva which do not enjoy any tax benefits from government. Hence the cost of such cars are as high as a small car with petrol engine. This two seater car is ideal for city travel. It can speed upto 60 kmph and can travel upto 80 km in full charge. If this is promoted it would give way for better technology and probably battery recharge centers in the palce of petrol bunks! But reva currently enjoy good export business and they might probably think its more money than 'current' indian market!

More Blogs

2005-09-21T00:15:00.000+05:30

Previously, I have been using bBlog which has convenient methods to catalogue my posts based on content. Since such facility is not available in blogger, I created different blogs for different subjects as you can see in my sidebar Blog Themes. Feel free to visit them. I am looking for suggestions/hacks may be using an RSS aggregator to aggregate all those blogs in one page. I tried Feedburner as seen in the bottom of this blog. But I am not all that happy.

'annoy'ans of medieval europe

2005-09-19T18:16:00.000+05:30

I went along the romantic road (?!) of germany and visited an old town named Rothenburg. It has the typicalities to be called itself a medieval town. There is also criminal museum here about maintaining law and order in medieval europe. Few things i infered from there...
* I was surprised to find a high number of japanese population here!
* Some punishments were biased towards stronger people
* Some punishments were superstitious.
* Medieval europeans were good in calligraphy. I dont know why that art has faded now even with the advent of computers.
* Some punishments for school children mentioned in the museum are still popular in indian schools.
* The laws were somewhat partial towards males.
* Ridiculing was one of the punishments not seen nowadays.
* Some punishments were funny. (Tickling convict's leg after locking!)
* Torture methods were used to bring out the truth!
* Needless to mention, some punishments were cruel (iron maiden)

The european anniyan would give the following death sentences for the respective crimes:
Murder - Wheeling (running a sharp edged wheel several times)
Manslaughter - Beheading
child murder - drowning
Arson - Burning
(major) Theft - Hanging
counterfeiting - boiling or fire death
witchery - burning
Bigamy, treason, blashphemy and heresy were also punishable by death depending upon the severity.

How to float a party for dummies...

2005-09-15T19:22:00.000+05:30

Recently captain floated a party in Madurai in a la-tamil fashion. Here are some tips for the future party floaters.

Pre-requisites :
You should have enough money from the schools, colleges or hospitals that you run.You should be related to the film industry in one way or more. For atleast one year before floating the party, your work in film should strongly condemn the ruling party's mistakes and mention that they will end soon.

Choose a party name that is jumbled out of dravida, makkal, munnetra, murpokku, jananayaga, valarchi, akila indhiya, desiya, anna, mgr, (periyar, kamarajar), iyakkam, kazhagam. Try to make it hard, but make sure you dont use the same name as another party ! Explain all the words in the party name except 'dravida'. Some choices are 'Akila indiya mgr makkal valarchi dravidar iyakkam', 'Anna munnetra jananayaga dravida desiya kazhagam', 'Makkal periyar murpoku dravidar marumalarchi kootam'. Obviously you need to get those names abbreviated for the sake of simplicity and confusing others. If you are creative, you can jumble those letters and have a different abbreviation !

Your flag must have black and red stripes with a strip of the color of your underwear that you usually buy. Its good to have the same coloured towel for your shoulder. Order huge amount of dhothis for party people with this flag coloured border. This would be funded by an industrialist who would want to set up a leather, sugar or any other stinking factory near drinking water pond in a village, when you get elected.

Convene a meet in a huge ground near the place where you were born and bring people from all over. Nowadays this is done by contractors who have access to the common pool of people whose only source of income for food is by attending such meetings. Choose few very dumb people to be around you always and let them elect you as the party leader which you should accept humbly.

Now what you would really speak in the meeting isnt that tough. There are standard templates available. You should think about things that would make villagers lazy, that would make women quarrelsome, that would make government employees corrupt and that would decrease the overall efficiency of any system. You should propose such systems as benefits for villagers, women and common man.

Mention very strongly about your dislike on caste discrimination and propose ideas that would enable only the unqualified people of lower caste to make a system fail. By this method, you prevent the unqualified people of upper caste from failing a system! Never mind, if lot of well qualified people are affected. The intention is only to fail a system and uplift the lower caste. The only loophole to this technique is from the qualified people in lower caste who could set the system right. But its a compromise that you make and the risk that you take.

Talk about your tolerance towards any language and how you would like to be peaceful with all your neighbouring states if they listen to what you say. Suggest a massively huge money eating plan that is less value for more money, but insist on the little value that it provides.

Last but not least, remember all the leaders who died. Mention their name with all their titles. Display whatever photos you have taken along with them. Talk about the 'popular things' they did and mention that you will follow their footsteps to do such 'useful things'. Say things that still makes india proud (inspite of people like you)and dont forget that despite your try they continue to do their good.

Salzburg

2005-09-14T17:57:00.000+05:30

I visited the old town of salzburg, Austria which got its name from its salt mine. There are so many things that are worth saying about this small town. But I cant possibly say it better than the two brilliant movies. If you havent seen these movies, rent/buy this movie and watch them leisurely.
1) Sound of Music, a classial musical film that won 5 oscars
2) Amadeus, a film that is loosely based on Mozart that won 8 oscars

If you couldnt watch the movie immediately, atleast get the songs from these movie and listen to them first. But dont forget to watch the movie later. If you have seen this movie long ago, see it again !

And think of this... I actually went to many places shown in those movies and remembered not only the scenes but also the music associated with them!

back to blogging

2005-09-13T23:16:00.000+05:30

I am back to blogging. My blog server got into lot of troubles in the past few weeks. This time instead of running a blog server, i chose to use a blog service provider and I am back.