Yep... that's right... the 10Ks were a piece 'o cake this time 'round. I finished in about 55 mins and it seemed like I could keep going... :)
The only downside, all the running cost me 4 lbs... so now, no running for atleast a week, just hogging and weights!
Monday, April 10, 2006
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
A very special post !
This is a very special post...
... isn't it?
... Don't you see it?
... oh,well... what makes this post so special....?
It's TIME STAMP... get it? :-)
** clue: write the time in hours.minutes followed by the date in mm.dd.yy format.... !
... isn't it?
... Don't you see it?
... oh,well... what makes this post so special....?
It's TIME STAMP... get it? :-)
** clue: write the time in hours.minutes followed by the date in mm.dd.yy format.... !
Monday, April 03, 2006
Is All fools day really a fools day in ALL??
I somehow let this one pass by (remember my blogs mission statement? :))... but luckily one of my friends brought it up..
What started the april fools day tradition?
Some research reveals that the origins of this bizzare day may have more to do with a change in the calendar, than anything else:
The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. Prior to that year, the new year was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25. The celebration culminated on April 1. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved to January 1.
However, communications being what they were in the days when news traveled by foot, many people did not receive the news for several years. Others, the more obstinate crowd, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. These backward folk were labeled as "fools" by the general populace. They were subject to some ridicule, and were often sent on "fools errands" or were made the butt of other practical jokes.
This harassment evolved, over time, into a tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French. April Fool's Day thus developed into an international fun fest, so to speak, with different nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families.
In Scotland, for example, April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called Taily Day. The origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance.
Mexico's counterpart of April Fool's Day is actually observed on December 28. Originally, the day was a sad remembrance of the slaughter of the innocent children by King Herod. It eventually evolved into a lighter commemoration involving pranks and trickery.
Pranks performed on April Fool's Day range from the simple, (such as saying, "Your shoe's untied!), to the elaborate. Setting a roommate's alarm clock back an hour is a common gag. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, "April Fool!"
Practical jokes are a common practice on April Fool's Day. Sometimes, elaborate practical jokes are played on friends or relatives that last the entire day. The news media even gets involved. For instance, a British short film once shown on April Fool's Day was a fairly detailed documentary about "spaghetti farmers" and how they harvest their crop from the spaghetti trees.
April Fool's Day is a "for-fun-only" observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take their "significant other" out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It's simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April Fool!
What started the april fools day tradition?
Some research reveals that the origins of this bizzare day may have more to do with a change in the calendar, than anything else:
The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. Prior to that year, the new year was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25. The celebration culminated on April 1. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved to January 1.
However, communications being what they were in the days when news traveled by foot, many people did not receive the news for several years. Others, the more obstinate crowd, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. These backward folk were labeled as "fools" by the general populace. They were subject to some ridicule, and were often sent on "fools errands" or were made the butt of other practical jokes.
This harassment evolved, over time, into a tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French. April Fool's Day thus developed into an international fun fest, so to speak, with different nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families.
In Scotland, for example, April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called Taily Day. The origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance.
Mexico's counterpart of April Fool's Day is actually observed on December 28. Originally, the day was a sad remembrance of the slaughter of the innocent children by King Herod. It eventually evolved into a lighter commemoration involving pranks and trickery.
Pranks performed on April Fool's Day range from the simple, (such as saying, "Your shoe's untied!), to the elaborate. Setting a roommate's alarm clock back an hour is a common gag. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, "April Fool!"
Practical jokes are a common practice on April Fool's Day. Sometimes, elaborate practical jokes are played on friends or relatives that last the entire day. The news media even gets involved. For instance, a British short film once shown on April Fool's Day was a fairly detailed documentary about "spaghetti farmers" and how they harvest their crop from the spaghetti trees.
April Fool's Day is a "for-fun-only" observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take their "significant other" out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It's simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April Fool!
Friday, March 31, 2006
10 days to 10Ks!
10 more days to my 10K/ 6mi run in Santa Barbara! I am seriously hoping to better my time over last year (1hr and 16 mins). Now that I think about it, that wasn't bad for a run without any training at all.
This time around, I've been a little more disciplined, been running regularly for about a month now. I ran a 5 miles on Wed and 3 today... the plan is to peak this sunday by doing 6 miles and then "taper off" over next week, with no running at all on Thursday/ Friday, to accumulate strength for the main event next Saturday... I just hope I can keep my average pace close to 6.5 so I can complete under an hr this time!
I realize this ain't a major marathon, but I am trying to attack it with the same planning that goes into training for a real marathon!
Okay, that said, I have just enough time to upload a new pic on my other blog... hmm... wassit gonna be today... wassit gonna be :)
This time around, I've been a little more disciplined, been running regularly for about a month now. I ran a 5 miles on Wed and 3 today... the plan is to peak this sunday by doing 6 miles and then "taper off" over next week, with no running at all on Thursday/ Friday, to accumulate strength for the main event next Saturday... I just hope I can keep my average pace close to 6.5 so I can complete under an hr this time!
I realize this ain't a major marathon, but I am trying to attack it with the same planning that goes into training for a real marathon!
Okay, that said, I have just enough time to upload a new pic on my other blog... hmm... wassit gonna be today... wassit gonna be :)
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Idea for a new feature on Blogger
I was surfing through some blogs that I got to through some comments posted by other bloggers on mine. This seemed like a way to find new and interesting blogs (interesting because, more often than not, poeple who comment on your blog tend to have similar interests as you).
If you have used orkut (another online community oriented portal owned by Google) you probably know that as you browse profiles of people, Orkut keeps track of the shortest path from you to the person, whose profile you are looking at. In Orkut, each member maintains a list of friends and when you look at a profile the "trails" are formed by looking at various paths (through friend lists) connecting the two profiles in question.
Now, although blogger does not have the concept of a friends list, we do have comments from other bloggers, and so I wonder if it might be possible to introduce a similar way of providing a "trail of comments" wherever possible? That way, when you reach a blog (and you are logged in) you know what all different paths you have taken to get there in the past...
If you have used orkut (another online community oriented portal owned by Google) you probably know that as you browse profiles of people, Orkut keeps track of the shortest path from you to the person, whose profile you are looking at. In Orkut, each member maintains a list of friends and when you look at a profile the "trails" are formed by looking at various paths (through friend lists) connecting the two profiles in question.
Now, although blogger does not have the concept of a friends list, we do have comments from other bloggers, and so I wonder if it might be possible to introduce a similar way of providing a "trail of comments" wherever possible? That way, when you reach a blog (and you are logged in) you know what all different paths you have taken to get there in the past...
Thursday, March 23, 2006
My new (second) Blog.... More show, less talk :)
The idea to float a new blog came up as I was cleaning up my personal laptop and drifted into browsing through my photo collection. Most of the pics I have now were taken in the last (almost 4) few years, since I moved to the US. And, since I lived in Los Angeles for the first 2, in Santa Barbara for the next one and half and now I am in San Diego, most of the pictures are of places in the California. So, anyways, I thought why not pick out some interesting ones and share them with the world and (hopefully) get some people travelling... hiking... running... going out...
I called it "I've beeen places" and named the url AnilsOutdoorzy.blogspot.com (link on the right side bar)
Welp... that's that... hope you like 'em!
I called it "I've beeen places" and named the url AnilsOutdoorzy.blogspot.com (link on the right side bar)
Welp... that's that... hope you like 'em!
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Bogus Post on Google News
Found this article on InformationWeek..
"...A 16-year-old Google fan was able to get a bogus press release announcing his hiring by the search engine on Google News, and the distributor of the release has been removed as a source for the automated news service, Google said Wednesday..."
"...The release, which has been removed from I-Newswire and Google News, said the boy had been hired to work on security flaws in Google's Web mail service Gmail, according to a blog posting from StepForth Placement Inc., a consulting service for getting higher listings on search engine results. The announcement, which was attributed to Google co-founder and president Larry Page, also said the teen-ager would work from his New Jersey home and his earnings would be placed in a bank account for his education...."
Read more here
This seems to point somewhat similar flaws I found with the search engines news service and mentioned in an earlier blog post titled "Is Google Letting me (us) down? ".
"...A 16-year-old Google fan was able to get a bogus press release announcing his hiring by the search engine on Google News, and the distributor of the release has been removed as a source for the automated news service, Google said Wednesday..."
"...The release, which has been removed from I-Newswire and Google News, said the boy had been hired to work on security flaws in Google's Web mail service Gmail, according to a blog posting from StepForth Placement Inc., a consulting service for getting higher listings on search engine results. The announcement, which was attributed to Google co-founder and president Larry Page, also said the teen-ager would work from his New Jersey home and his earnings would be placed in a bank account for his education...."
Read more here
This seems to point somewhat similar flaws I found with the search engines news service and mentioned in an earlier blog post titled "Is Google Letting me (us) down? ".
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Moto MING SmartPhone
Just released today and features Intel's Xscale Architecture.
Motorola's "MING" Smartphone
But what I liked the most of all is the naming, which reflects the device's charecteristics in Chinese! In general, I think Moto's Idea of naming its mobile devices with more user friendly 4 lettered words is a great idea.. I mean what would you be more likely to remember RAZR, SLVR (pronounced Sliver and NOT Silver) or A900, C183?
Oh, BTW the RAZR's are back in action , after a short disruption:
am
PS: I know this blog is meant to be about ideas, but I can't help throwing in some Moto PDA (public display of affection) from time to time
Motorola's "MING" Smartphone
But what I liked the most of all is the naming, which reflects the device's charecteristics in Chinese! In general, I think Moto's Idea of naming its mobile devices with more user friendly 4 lettered words is a great idea.. I mean what would you be more likely to remember RAZR, SLVR (pronounced Sliver and NOT Silver) or A900, C183?
Oh, BTW the RAZR's are back in action , after a short disruption:
am
PS: I know this blog is meant to be about ideas, but I can't help throwing in some Moto PDA (public display of affection) from time to time
Sunday, March 12, 2006
The "Omlette Master"
I think I have reached a point in my life where I can confidently say that I have mastered the art of Omlette Making (you could throw in a "healthy" and a "vegetarian" in there, if you will). It took a while (a few years to be precise) but I'm glad I am finally there :P
So, without further do, here it is:
Ingredients:
1/2 small onion (1/4th if big)
1/2 small tomato (the firmer the better)
coupla green chillies (smallest Jalapeneos you can find in Alby's)
1/4th green bell pepper (optional)
1/4th orange bell pepper (optional)
ginger paste (optional)
3-4 teaspoons of olive oil (butter if, I'm bad)
2-3 eggs.
Salt and Pepper to taste
grated chese (if, I'm bad)
*Optional: may be dropped with no loss of functionality and little loss of taste.
**I'm bad indicates you are a fitness freak like me and would prefer not to use it.
Recipe:
1. Chop onion into REALLY small pieces (cubes). Do same with bell peppers and tomato.
2. Chop green chillies into thin rings.
3. Pour few drops olive oil in an average size saucepan. Heat a little.
4. Add onions, green chillies and ginger paste saute for 1-2 mins.
4. Then add tomatoes, bell peppers and saute. Squeeze lime.
5. After a few mins, collect all that in a plate and place aside.
6. Beat two eggs really well (the more forthy, the better).
7. Take a little olive oil (butter if, I'm bad) in a sauce pan (I use the same one as before) and spread it around. Heat for a few mins, then turn heat very low.
8. Add beaten eggs, and cook on low. Close the sauce pan with a cover (this is THE KEY, allows the top side of the omlette to be STEAM COOKED, as well).
9. open the cover and add the sauted veggies in the center of the omlette. Add grated cheese on top (if, I'm bad).
10. Fold the omlette in a three fold (fold from two ends, so that they meet in the middle.
11. cook on low flame with cover for a couple more minutes.
12. Enjoy with ketchup, or a mixture of ketchup and mustard!!
Shorter Cut:
1. Drop all optional items
2. Dont fry veggies separately. Just add them raw to beaten eggs.
3. But remember to cook on low flame with cover.
4. Turn omlette around, after cooking one side for about 3-4 mins.
So, without further do, here it is:
Ingredients:
1/2 small onion (1/4th if big)
1/2 small tomato (the firmer the better)
coupla green chillies (smallest Jalapeneos you can find in Alby's)
1/4th green bell pepper (optional)
1/4th orange bell pepper (optional)
ginger paste (optional)
3-4 teaspoons of olive oil (butter if, I'm bad)
2-3 eggs.
Salt and Pepper to taste
grated chese (if, I'm bad)
*Optional: may be dropped with no loss of functionality and little loss of taste.
**I'm bad indicates you are a fitness freak like me and would prefer not to use it.
Recipe:
1. Chop onion into REALLY small pieces (cubes). Do same with bell peppers and tomato.
2. Chop green chillies into thin rings.
3. Pour few drops olive oil in an average size saucepan. Heat a little.
4. Add onions, green chillies and ginger paste saute for 1-2 mins.
4. Then add tomatoes, bell peppers and saute. Squeeze lime.
5. After a few mins, collect all that in a plate and place aside.
6. Beat two eggs really well (the more forthy, the better).
7. Take a little olive oil (butter if, I'm bad) in a sauce pan (I use the same one as before) and spread it around. Heat for a few mins, then turn heat very low.
8. Add beaten eggs, and cook on low. Close the sauce pan with a cover (this is THE KEY, allows the top side of the omlette to be STEAM COOKED, as well).
9. open the cover and add the sauted veggies in the center of the omlette. Add grated cheese on top (if, I'm bad).
10. Fold the omlette in a three fold (fold from two ends, so that they meet in the middle.
11. cook on low flame with cover for a couple more minutes.
12. Enjoy with ketchup, or a mixture of ketchup and mustard!!
Shorter Cut:
1. Drop all optional items
2. Dont fry veggies separately. Just add them raw to beaten eggs.
3. But remember to cook on low flame with cover.
4. Turn omlette around, after cooking one side for about 3-4 mins.
Monday, March 06, 2006
ENGINEERS MAKE THE WORLD
We Celebrated NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK TODAY (Albeit a lil late :P)
http://www.eweek.org/
We had a nice "Ice-Cream Social" at Lunch, today!... Yummmm :)
I had the Haagen-Dazs Dark Chocolate Bar ... and it wasn't a random choice:
Dark Chocolate is Healthy Chocolate - Source WebMD
-am
http://www.eweek.org/
We had a nice "Ice-Cream Social" at Lunch, today!... Yummmm :)
I had the Haagen-Dazs Dark Chocolate Bar ... and it wasn't a random choice:
Dark Chocolate is Healthy Chocolate - Source WebMD
-am
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Is Google letting me (us) down?
I use google all the time, I mean like atleast 20-30 times a day at the minimum, and I do remember that there was a time (somewhere in the past, 4-5 years ago) when things were a little different. I wasn't as reliant on search engines for information (not sure if it was less dependence on the web or the fact that India was still playing catch up with the broadband revolution, leaving me poking along with my 28.8 kbps dial-up modem) but, when I did try to find information "out there" it usually was through a portal called Yahoo!. Now, I am not sure when this switch to a different search engine happened, but I was convinced it was for the best. But, lately, I have been getting some strong indications, that maybe I should consider reverting back?!!
Well, it all started a few weeks ago. I like to keep up with any news/ releases/ blogs about Motorola and so I have this automatic news alert setup with Google News (I think I have had this for about a year now), that sends me an alert whenever it finds a few news articles relating to Motorola (or, to be more specific, articles with occurances of the word "Motorola in them). So, anyway in one of these alerts a few weeks ago, I learnt that Motorola had been awarded the National Medal of Technology by president Bush. I was happy to be notified real fast and automatically, but I wasn't very happy with that particular article (was very terse and lacked photographs) and so I decided to go look for more articles on the same topic "out-there". Snap, CTRL-T on firefox, enter goo (and ofcourse it was on the history list). I enter the phrase "motorola bush award" and I expect to see the Motorola News releases page" in the first few links (if not the very first), but to my surprise I didn't find anything relevant in the whole first page of search results. I figured it was too early to be looking for public articles on the topic (it probably had to do with my strong reliance on google, and that it can never be wrong) and went back to my business. I tried back a few hours later only to be disappointed again. This time, I thought why not give my old pal Yahoo a shot and I was amazed to see Motorola News center page show up as the very first link!
Second instance. This mornings (Saturday, Mar 4th) Motorola news alert had this article in it. The article is titled "Apple and Motorola launch iPod Phone hybrid". I was excited for a moment, thinking that Motorola and Apple finally settled things and decided to bring out a "True iTunes phone with more than 100 songs" (actually, this prompted my previous post as well ;)). All that excitement quickly turned into disappontment when I realized this was an article about the ROKR and that too the very first version of the phone released in Sep '05). I was really surprised why such an old article showed up in the search. Now, I do understand, that this could be because the article was published late and so the website (ilikemusic.com) is the one to blame.
Nevertheless, these occurances have prompted me to re-evaluate my search engine choice!! So much so, that I am seriously considering running comparison searches between Google and Yahoo! from time to time...
PS: And ofcourse, I understand, that at the bottom of it all, these guys (Yahoo, Google and the other gizillian search engines out there) provide us web search for FREE!
Well, it all started a few weeks ago. I like to keep up with any news/ releases/ blogs about Motorola and so I have this automatic news alert setup with Google News (I think I have had this for about a year now), that sends me an alert whenever it finds a few news articles relating to Motorola (or, to be more specific, articles with occurances of the word "Motorola in them). So, anyway in one of these alerts a few weeks ago, I learnt that Motorola had been awarded the National Medal of Technology by president Bush. I was happy to be notified real fast and automatically, but I wasn't very happy with that particular article (was very terse and lacked photographs) and so I decided to go look for more articles on the same topic "out-there". Snap, CTRL-T on firefox, enter goo (and ofcourse it was on the history list). I enter the phrase "motorola bush award" and I expect to see the Motorola News releases page" in the first few links (if not the very first), but to my surprise I didn't find anything relevant in the whole first page of search results. I figured it was too early to be looking for public articles on the topic (it probably had to do with my strong reliance on google, and that it can never be wrong) and went back to my business. I tried back a few hours later only to be disappointed again. This time, I thought why not give my old pal Yahoo a shot and I was amazed to see Motorola News center page show up as the very first link!
Second instance. This mornings (Saturday, Mar 4th) Motorola news alert had this article in it. The article is titled "Apple and Motorola launch iPod Phone hybrid". I was excited for a moment, thinking that Motorola and Apple finally settled things and decided to bring out a "True iTunes phone with more than 100 songs" (actually, this prompted my previous post as well ;)). All that excitement quickly turned into disappontment when I realized this was an article about the ROKR and that too the very first version of the phone released in Sep '05). I was really surprised why such an old article showed up in the search. Now, I do understand, that this could be because the article was published late and so the website (ilikemusic.com) is the one to blame.
Nevertheless, these occurances have prompted me to re-evaluate my search engine choice!! So much so, that I am seriously considering running comparison searches between Google and Yahoo! from time to time...
PS: And ofcourse, I understand, that at the bottom of it all, these guys (Yahoo, Google and the other gizillian search engines out there) provide us web search for FREE!
On Moto's SLVR and ROKR Phones...
I just couldn't help pass this up. I'm sure a lot of people must know about Motorola's two main iTunes supporting cell phones - the (earlier) ROKR and the (latest) SLVR L7. These are, no doubt, very cool phones and a we get to see a lot of reviews, articles and blogs about 'em. But, there are a couple things that upset me. A major portion of the articles written seem to criticize Motorola for setting the song limit on iTunes at a 100 songs. The original ROKR didn't take off as well as expected (atleast no where close to the super successful RAZR), and I think the reason for this was because, the iPod Nano and other iPod releases coincided with it and most people were expecting an iPod and in the process forgot that the ROKR was supposed to be a real good phone with many of the features that most current generation phones support and oh by the way, it also has iTunes. Instead, all the hype (surrounding the iPod releases and roumors of partnership between Motorola and Apple) ended up making people expect exactly the opposite of what was intended - people were expecting the ROKR to be a iPod that is also a phone... well, bad marketing you say? possible.
Even more upsetting than that are the comments being made about the SLVR. I think Moto did an EXCELLENT job with this phone, by bringing the super cool, ground breaking, iconic looks of the RAZR to ardent candy-bar phone fans (myself included!). Most articles I have read are all praises about the looks, the form factor and other advanced features of the phone. But, for some reason, a major proportion of articles can't help sneaking in the fact (usually at the end of the articles) that the phone (SLVR) still has the same 100 song limit. What upsets me, is that do these people ever stop to think that maybe this is because of a business agreement between Motorola and Apple? (Note: this is purely a common sense guess and i have no information to support it). I mean, think about it, why would Motorola be so stupid to put the same limit back in the SLVR, when in reality they have made so many other advances in technology (like USB charging, removable/ expandable memory cards)? Clearly if they could add more memory, allowing more songs couldn't have been much harder. So, maybe this is a restriction Apple imposed, after all (would you buy a iPod if your phone carried, say 500 iTunes and also did an excellent job as a phone?, I don't think so!). That said, it seems like the SLVR's ultra cool looks and affordable price are really doing the trick that the ROKR could not and the phone seems to be selling up to expectation.
Even more upsetting than that are the comments being made about the SLVR. I think Moto did an EXCELLENT job with this phone, by bringing the super cool, ground breaking, iconic looks of the RAZR to ardent candy-bar phone fans (myself included!). Most articles I have read are all praises about the looks, the form factor and other advanced features of the phone. But, for some reason, a major proportion of articles can't help sneaking in the fact (usually at the end of the articles) that the phone (SLVR) still has the same 100 song limit. What upsets me, is that do these people ever stop to think that maybe this is because of a business agreement between Motorola and Apple? (Note: this is purely a common sense guess and i have no information to support it). I mean, think about it, why would Motorola be so stupid to put the same limit back in the SLVR, when in reality they have made so many other advances in technology (like USB charging, removable/ expandable memory cards)? Clearly if they could add more memory, allowing more songs couldn't have been much harder. So, maybe this is a restriction Apple imposed, after all (would you buy a iPod if your phone carried, say 500 iTunes and also did an excellent job as a phone?, I don't think so!). That said, it seems like the SLVR's ultra cool looks and affordable price are really doing the trick that the ROKR could not and the phone seems to be selling up to expectation.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Idea for a "Projector-Laptop"
This one came up a couple of days ago during a presentation (involving a conventional Projector) at work, and applies a breakthrough technology (not yet deployed as products) to another area.
I came accross this article a while ago, reporting that Seimens Researchers have developed a cell phone with a built-in projector . This surely is a super cool invention that promises to make life a heck of a lot easier for those busy business guys constantly having to setup bulky projectors, and my hats off two the guys at Seimens. But, I was just wondering if this might be one of those scenarios where the value of an invention is increased by simple re-using the technology in a different application.
In short, if it is possible to integrate a projector with a cell phone without significantly increasing its size or sacrificing portability, couldn't the same be done for Laptops?. I think yes! (Listening laptop makers? Maybe whose names start with a "D" and have 2 "L's" ;)).
As always, please feel free to beat the crap out of me, on this one ;-)
I came accross this article a while ago, reporting that Seimens Researchers have developed a cell phone with a built-in projector . This surely is a super cool invention that promises to make life a heck of a lot easier for those busy business guys constantly having to setup bulky projectors, and my hats off two the guys at Seimens. But, I was just wondering if this might be one of those scenarios where the value of an invention is increased by simple re-using the technology in a different application.
In short, if it is possible to integrate a projector with a cell phone without significantly increasing its size or sacrificing portability, couldn't the same be done for Laptops?. I think yes! (Listening laptop makers? Maybe whose names start with a "D" and have 2 "L's" ;)).
As always, please feel free to beat the crap out of me, on this one ;-)
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
This time its for real
Yep... I hope to stick to my promise this time and resolve to try and post something new more frequently. For those interested in knowing, I've been preoccupied with way too many things over the last few months, but when all the dust settled (!) I had ended up in a new job ( one that I have always hoped to work as ) in the company I've always dreamt of working at and in the place I've always wanted to live in . This will be my second job outa school and allows me to apply as many of my skills as possible.
Well, enough of that, with all the basics in place, its time to get back to the more serious stuff :P(Notice, I've already changed my location information here from Santa Barbara to San Diego)
Wish me luck! :)
Well, enough of that, with all the basics in place, its time to get back to the more serious stuff :P(Notice, I've already changed my location information here from Santa Barbara to San Diego)
Wish me luck! :)
Friday, December 30, 2005
Aaaaaaand.... I'm back
Its 2:05 pm, PST on a very very rainy day. I am sitting at San Fransisco Airport, waiting for the boarding call for my flight back to Santa Barbara. I woke up at 5am this morning to catch my flight at 630 out of Portland (OR) Int't airport and made it into SFO on time by 8:10. I was scheduled to be on the 8:55am flight out to SB, which was cancelled and then the subsequent flight to SB has been delayed over and over and over again... I just heard the announcer say some like ".. Attention Santa Barbara passengers... you're flight is here and is CIRCLING THE AIRPORT..."
ROCK ON UNITED AIRLINES!!!!
Thanks to tmobile's wireless broadband service at SFO, I have enough time to ponder about the various things I have been neglecting (this blog) for some time now.
Thanks to everyone who read my blog and encouraged me to get back to being regular again... :)
-AM
ROCK ON UNITED AIRLINES!!!!
Thanks to tmobile's wireless broadband service at SFO, I have enough time to ponder about the various things I have been neglecting (this blog) for some time now.
Thanks to everyone who read my blog and encouraged me to get back to being regular again... :)
-AM
Sunday, June 12, 2005
A time to rest....
Phew.... I finally have a weekend of rest at home after almost 4 weeks/ weekends on non stop activity! So, what have I been upto? A WHOLE bunch of things. And thats my excuse for not being able to post anything new here for a month. So, to make up for that I plan to make the next two/ three posts about my "weekend adventures". Also, I plan to re-track the dates on the next three posts, so they will show up as earlier posts (May, 05)
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Hearst Castle
I spent this weekend (or atleast the whole of Sunday) visiting "Hearst Castle" . This was a very different and interesting experience, in comparison with the various places I have visited in the (nearly) 3 years that I have lived in the US/ California.
If you have some idea of the Geography of the United States, you probably know that Santa Barbara (the place I live at) is kinda in the central cost of California, about 100 miles N or Los Angeles. With that as a reference, Hearst Castle is located at a place called "San Simeon" about 150 miles N of SB, beyond San Luis Obispo.
Hearst castle was built by William Randolph Hearst , an extremely wealthy business tycoon in the publishing business. Hearst had a passion for collecting antiques and art from around the world (primarily Europe), which he developed while on a tour of Europe, as a kid, with his mother.
The tour of Hearst Castle is very well organized. The castle is located on a mountain and visitors drive to the base and park at the tourist center. Buses, drive tourists up a very scenic drive with beautiful views of the pacific ocean. The castle itself is so huge that there are about 4-5 different tours that visitors can choose from, each of which show about 20-25% of the whole castle.
The drive to Hearst Castle from Santa Barbara (or LA) is very beautiful too. The first 100 miles till San Luis Obispo are covered on the US-101 and the last 50 miles take you on a drive on the famout CA-1 (or better known as the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH). Its a drive just along the pacific ocean, with Vista points (points where you can pull over and enjoy the views before moving on) all along. Some of the cool places to look out for along the way include the famous "Morro Bay Big Rock" , which is this huge rock sticking out in the middle of the ocean, and the extremely beautiful pismo beach with its characteristicly long pier, extending into the ocean.
If you have some idea of the Geography of the United States, you probably know that Santa Barbara (the place I live at) is kinda in the central cost of California, about 100 miles N or Los Angeles. With that as a reference, Hearst Castle is located at a place called "San Simeon" about 150 miles N of SB, beyond San Luis Obispo.
Hearst castle was built by William Randolph Hearst , an extremely wealthy business tycoon in the publishing business. Hearst had a passion for collecting antiques and art from around the world (primarily Europe), which he developed while on a tour of Europe, as a kid, with his mother.
The tour of Hearst Castle is very well organized. The castle is located on a mountain and visitors drive to the base and park at the tourist center. Buses, drive tourists up a very scenic drive with beautiful views of the pacific ocean. The castle itself is so huge that there are about 4-5 different tours that visitors can choose from, each of which show about 20-25% of the whole castle.
The drive to Hearst Castle from Santa Barbara (or LA) is very beautiful too. The first 100 miles till San Luis Obispo are covered on the US-101 and the last 50 miles take you on a drive on the famout CA-1 (or better known as the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH). Its a drive just along the pacific ocean, with Vista points (points where you can pull over and enjoy the views before moving on) all along. Some of the cool places to look out for along the way include the famous "Morro Bay Big Rock" , which is this huge rock sticking out in the middle of the ocean, and the extremely beautiful pismo beach with its characteristicly long pier, extending into the ocean.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Crowdifornia...
Driving home from work this evening, I couldnt help take notice of a sticker on the back of a car stopped in front of me at a red signal. The sticker read:
I don't know if it was the fact that I've always held a strong belief that California, is the most beautiful state of "sunshine throughout the year", and the "L" in the Land of opportunities, if you will (and if you consider the US that, even now that is ;-) ).... or it was the simple reason that I cant get my mind off a catchy phrase or some creative writing when I see one, but I just had to type the words into google, while I caught up with my nightly surfing for the day.
So, it is interesting to note that California does have a serious population explosion problem. So much so, that this website reports the following statistics:
Quick Fact
California's population increased by 539,000 last year to total over 36.8 million. California's growth rate is higher than that of India.
(Sources: California Department of Finance, United Nations Population Division)
Some stuff to ponder about I guess.... so ponder away to glory :P
I don't know if it was the fact that I've always held a strong belief that California, is the most beautiful state of "sunshine throughout the year", and the "L" in the Land of opportunities, if you will (and if you consider the US that, even now that is ;-) ).... or it was the simple reason that I cant get my mind off a catchy phrase or some creative writing when I see one, but I just had to type the words into google, while I caught up with my nightly surfing for the day.
So, it is interesting to note that California does have a serious population explosion problem. So much so, that this website reports the following statistics:
Quick Fact
California's population increased by 539,000 last year to total over 36.8 million. California's growth rate is higher than that of India.
(Sources: California Department of Finance, United Nations Population Division)
Some stuff to ponder about I guess.... so ponder away to glory :P
Sunday, May 08, 2005
From skates to blades!
Its been a while since I scribbled away to glory.... 22 days to be precise, the longest I have gone without posting anything since I started this blog. Well, its been a pretty hectic few weeks with "product releases" and "deadlines" all over the place so I haven't had much time for anything besides the basic routine stuff and, more importantly, I havent been "observing" stuff (remember my blogs "mission statement" ? :P)
Hmm... well... its the end of the weekend and in keeping with my resolution to try my hand at something new from time to time, I decided to take a shot at ROLLER BLADING yesterday. I used to be a pretty avid roller skater when I was in high school (6th grade tp 10th grade to be precise). I am not sure if I gave it up because roller blading in India (thats where I spent the first 22 years of my life) has always been considered a kids hobby/ sport or because I simply got bored of it. Anyways, its been on my mind for a while to try out this distant cousin of the roller skate ;-). For those of you who are wondering what the difference is, essentially, they both have 4 wheels on each leg but in skates, the wheels are arranged in 2 parallel rows while blades have em all in one single row (kinda like ice skating)
So, before I knew it I and a buddy had spent almost 2 hours roller blading and covered nearly 10 miles on the beautiful Santa Barbara beach. And I enjoyed it so much that I decided to get myself my own pair of blades (I had rented blades for todays "trial run"). The best part was that I didn't suck at it as much as I thought I would. The only part that I thought was a little tricky (and that people had warned me about) was "braking". And this is one important difference between blades and skates - while traditional skates have brakes in the front, and on both legs, in roller blades there is only one brake provided on the rear end of the right leg. I haven't really gotten the hang of braking yet, but I realized that if you look ahead and adjust speed accordingly, you seldom need to use the break. But, I do plan to research into finding the right way!
Hmm... well... its the end of the weekend and in keeping with my resolution to try my hand at something new from time to time, I decided to take a shot at ROLLER BLADING yesterday. I used to be a pretty avid roller skater when I was in high school (6th grade tp 10th grade to be precise). I am not sure if I gave it up because roller blading in India (thats where I spent the first 22 years of my life) has always been considered a kids hobby/ sport or because I simply got bored of it. Anyways, its been on my mind for a while to try out this distant cousin of the roller skate ;-). For those of you who are wondering what the difference is, essentially, they both have 4 wheels on each leg but in skates, the wheels are arranged in 2 parallel rows while blades have em all in one single row (kinda like ice skating)
So, before I knew it I and a buddy had spent almost 2 hours roller blading and covered nearly 10 miles on the beautiful Santa Barbara beach. And I enjoyed it so much that I decided to get myself my own pair of blades (I had rented blades for todays "trial run"). The best part was that I didn't suck at it as much as I thought I would. The only part that I thought was a little tricky (and that people had warned me about) was "braking". And this is one important difference between blades and skates - while traditional skates have brakes in the front, and on both legs, in roller blades there is only one brake provided on the rear end of the right leg. I haven't really gotten the hang of braking yet, but I realized that if you look ahead and adjust speed accordingly, you seldom need to use the break. But, I do plan to research into finding the right way!
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