Me, trash talking (moved to rajitss.com/blog)

This blog has moved to...

2008-09-01T12:34:00.001-07:00

This blog has now been moved to rajitss.com/blog/. I'll no longer be posting here, so do use the new url.

The bubble video

2008-05-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, all you need is a video like this to put the whole Internet bubble buzz into prospective.

Enjoy...

Killer shopping cart

2008-03-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

Capitalism, move over...

2008-03-12T02:39:00.000-07:00

One day, I read a review (or more like a summary) about this book, "Capitalism as if the World matters".

Then a few days later, I stumbled upon a TED Talk, by Howard Rheingold on Way-new collaboration (not the best I've seen, but the guy has a point).

That reminded me of this dude, Albert Bartlett, and his presentation.

All this got me thinking....

Did it do the same for you?

Interesting Facts

2008-02-23T03:29:00.000-08:00

Some random, interesting fact from somewhere on the web....

More people die cause of falling coconuts than sharks.
It would cost each Indian Re.1/mo to overhaul the countries Justice system [Source].
There are more insects in just one square mile of fertile soil than there are human beings on the entire planet!
10% of all the humans who have ever lived are alive in the world right now.
A solar panel array covering an area of 100 by 100 miles in the US Mojave Desert would produce enough electricity to replace all the coal fired power plants in America.
The not-so humble mosquito wins this award hands down. Mosquitoes transmitting countless diseases kill more animals - including humans - than any other animal (or plant) on Earth.

1 step in the right direction

2008-02-23T02:48:00.000-08:00

Way to go Ann Arbor!!!

How to survive a sinking car

2008-01-13T12:40:00.000-08:00

Well, in short, the answer is to be patient. Now see why...

Diving Pics & Videos

2007-11-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

Just recently I did some scuba diving in Indonesia. Having invested in a small underwater housing for my digi cam, I took a bunch of pictures and videos on most dives. Considering it was the first time I've attempted this (and I'm no professional either), most of the pictures and videos came out pretty crappy. I did some post-processing on a few images, but, unfortunately they just don't look 1/10th as good as they do in reality.

You can see the rest of the videos here, and pictures here.

The speed of thought

2007-10-17T16:35:00.001-07:00

Thing in India appear to move at the speed of thought.

Lets meet, make something happen. If not, in my next meeting I'm going to use this data and make something else happen.

There's no time to waste...

Your life, mined

2007-10-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

(as in data mined)

With the availability of numerous software tools and services on the internet, there is so much we can learn about ourselves. Its getting easier to track what we've done, what web sites we've visited and who we've emailed/IM etc.

Here are a few services that already gather information about our online/offline activity:

Google Search Web History - Google know what all your search for. And now they share this data with you, unlike any other search engine out there.
RescueTime - Tracks what apps you're using. Allows you to tag apps by activity etc.
All the data is uploaded to a website which allows you to view the data in different reports. Of course there are alternatives to this, like TimeSnapper, which do the same, but don't rely on any web services/sites to provide you the same data.
Email searches/organization - Of course Gmail is the front runner here, but a few other notable applications are LookOut, which got acquired by Microsoft a few years ago ( I believe the technology behind this got integrated into the larger Windows Search ecosystem). Another company, Xonabi, is rumored to get acquired by Microsoft, for their nifty Outlook plug-in which put a whole new spin on how your managed your email from Outlook. I'd recommend checking out their demo video.
RSS Feeds/Podcasts your subscribe to.
Outlook/GCal/GTD apps like RTM or other electronic calendar equivalents.
Our cell phone call logs.
You Firefox/IE browser history.
Social bookmarks - Digg/delicious/stumbleupon etc.
Credit card /Bank spending/saving habits.
Facebook /Orkut/MySpace/(and other social networks) - What's been happening in your social life. Who are your friends, when you added them etc.
LinkedIn - What been happening in your professional life.
Blogs - What you write about.
Your Pictures - Stored locally, or on Facebook, Flickr, SmugMug etc.
Your Videos - Stored locally or on YouTube and its likes.
Documents you've worked on (ie: OfficeDocs, pdfs etc) Lots of this info can be gotten from your OS.
43Things - What you want to do/accomplish in life.
43Place - Places you wanna visit.
And many more, that got missed in this list.

So that said, what's next on the horizon:

Car tracker - The technology already exists. LoJack sells this service as an anti-theft or theft recovery system. But imagine if the GPS in your car can log where all you've been. At the end of the year, your car sends you an email, which reports habits like you usually do groceries on Mon nights for about 30 mins, and that instead of stopping for gas on Fri evenings, you'd save $10/mo if you bought gas Tue morning.
Your cell phone + LBS (Location Based Services) - Tracks where all you've been through-out the day. I bet the Feds already do this tho.

The real kicker, or should I say "Killer Stalker App" - A mashup of all these data sources, which can build a model for your behavioral patterns, by doing some data mining on all there data sources. Spooky huh....

The Delhi Metro

2007-10-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

I finally got a chance to ride the Delhi Metro over the weekend.
Overall I was pretty impressed with what I saw and experienced. Here are a few of the highlights:

The underground entrances seems rather spacious, and at well planned distances from each other.
There is ample security at each entrance. However, I could foresee a long delay during rush hours.
Once inside the Delhi Metro complex there are numerous ticketing counters. I didn't however see any automated ticket purchase counters.
The fares are pretty reasonable, considering I paid Rs.11 (approx $.28) from CP (Rajiv Chawk) to Pragiti Maidan. (Note: This is a one way ticket. You get a token which u need to return at the exit and if you've overshoot your destination the exit station will not open, or so I was told).
The platforms seem huge. And clean! I guess when you have to cater to such a large population that can be expected.
The metro trains seem to run only a few minutes apart. Again, I'm not sure if this was cause I was there over the weekend. Then again, being the weekend I would expect it to run less frequently, so in all likelihood they run at the same frequency if not higher.
The insides of the train a very clean. They have seats on the side facing inwards and the rest is standing area.

You can find more pictures at here.

My only concerns with the metro is how well it will scale in the years to come. I guess only time will tell....

Folding@Home update

2007-08-12T01:19:00.000-07:00

I didn't know that the Sony PS3 ran Folding@home when idle. Also noticed that the official Sony blog has been keeping track of this on their blog.

Corporate America and the greater good

2007-06-17T13:45:00.001-07:00

Quarter after quarter it seems like all that Wall Street cares about are earnings, profits, stock prices and the likes. This inevitably forces companies to focus all their energy on doing just that. Better profits, better stock price (generally speaking) and so on. But how do these companies contribute to "the greater good"? Some do so in numerous ways. Giving millions in charity, adopting greener, eco-friendly policies, and other ways I'm not even aware of. Now that's superb. Funding charities all over the world for different causes it vital to the survival of these charities. Lowering carbon emissions is critical to the survival of our planet and the countless ecosystems it supports.

But every now and then they do something a little different. They use some of their strengths, or core competencies, to contribute to this greater good in other ways. This sometimes is more valuable that the monetary contributions itself. Why? Simply cause they drive innovations and change the landscape just enough to make a difference. Something money alone couldn't do.

Here are a few examples that jumped out at me:

1) Microsoft sharing source code with AIDS researchers. Sure they're doing this to promote their software products, but if something good comes out of it then that's amazing. I have no idea how revolutionary this is. But the point is at least they're showing some leadership and using their expertise to contribute to a know global problem.

2) The American Express Members Project. What a novel idea! Basically, AmEx contributes $1 for each AmEx card holder that registers on their website, up to $5M. Registered members propose projects that will do some good to our world. Members then vote and ultimately one idea gets chosen and the $5M is used to fund it.
The way I see it AmEx has used their marketing muscle to benefit itself and the community (be local or global). I would love to see them fund more projects and have other companies sponsor other ideas. After all, people do have some cool ideas, why should it be limited to just 1 project.

Like I mentioned , these are just two examples that I've noticed. I'm sure (and certainly hope) they're countless others. Let me know if you know of other such initiatives. I'd love to hear about them.

Scuba photos

2007-06-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

One of my buddies in my last scuba class took some pretty cool photos with his underwater cam. (Click here to check em out.)

The pics were taken at an underwater marine reserve just off of Tacoma. The wolf-eel that you see in the last few pics literally swam right in front of me. I could see it almost full length as it came out of its hiding spot. Pretty amazing! But by the team I got others to see it, it shy-ed away back into the rocks. Sometime a picture can't capture everything. (And I know thank-goodness).

I can blog in Hindi? शाबाश blogspot!

2007-06-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

यह बहुत कूल चीज़ है। में अब हिंदी में ब्लोग कर सकता हु। शाबाश blogspot!

चल्लो, अब आप जो यह पर रहे तो में अप्पना बरी में एक छोटा सा सीक्रेट बताता हु। जब में छोटा था मएरा हिंदी बहुत बुरा था। एक बार हिंदी के फ़ाइनल exam के लीया मेहेने बहुत पड़ा। मेरे को यकीन था के में पास हो जौअगो, पर ultimately मेरे को ज़रो आया। ई वाज़ devastated।

Anyways as you can see I'm still scared by it. But at least I'm trying to make an effort. Well now that I've discovered this cool feature in blogspot, I'll try and use it more often, at least to improve my Hindi.

Calamari anyone?

2007-06-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

After seeing this ad on TV, I really wanna buy an iPhone (despite being a WiMo fan). Man, did they nail show-casing the scenario.

Vista & "Folding@Home"-esq screensavers

2007-06-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

My previous post got me thinking. Why wasn't Folding@Home a default screen saver for Windows Vista? Man, that would be really cool. By default, all Vista machines running folds. Wow.

So, I've email some friends of mine (who worked on Vista) to see if they know if this idea was ever floated. And what happened if it was. Lets see what the outcome is. I may not be able to share it cause of legal reasons*, but either ways I'll let you know.

And if the idea was never floated, I'll get a few execs to at least know about the idea (using Thinkweek ).

* = After all, I don't a sit-down with Microsoft lawyers.

A Multiverse

2007-06-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

Even wonder why there's only one universe? Why not 2, 3 or infinite "verses"? Maybe we really live in a multiverse.

Folding@Home

2007-06-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

What a genius idea! Finally the unused and under-used PC's are being to some good use.

If you don't know what the Folding@Home project is about, here's my low-down: You download a little application from the internet. It runs all the time your computer is on. When you're not doing anything taxing on the PC, or not doing anything at all, it uses your computer to do some crazy math to calculate folding patterns of proteins (among other things of that sorts). This data helps researchers understand why diseases occur and how to cure them. (If what I said doesn't make sense, read the formal Wikipedia entry.)

Matter of fact, I just have it running all the time now, especially when I'm surfing. Come on, I don't need a dual core processor to open a web page and check my email. My cell phone (a WiMo phone) can do that easily enuf. So, since I'm burning that electricity, I might as well do something useful, in an unselfish way. At least thats the way I see it. You can check out my contribution stat here.

I used to run Seti@Home when I was in college. Probably more so cause it looked cool as a screen saver. But my gripe about using that now is that there is no good that has come of out of the data they crunched. Yes, the concept and implementation was incubated and developed by the Seti@Home guys. Damn, they should get a Nobel prize just for that. Now lets have other projects make some use of this concept, just like Folding@Home.

That all said, I would recommend you install this app and run it yourself.

Its in small ways like this, that we (and you) can make the world a better place.

Games of the Gods

2007-05-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

What if all the Gods were sitting around getting bored? Imagine them getting together to play a little game, just to keep them busy. In the spirit of doing something they decided to have a competition. Create a universe. Create a completely unique universe full of its own solar systems, planets, life forms, and intelligence. Could our existence and universe be a product of that? And if so, what would the other universes be like?

But then, along the same lines, there is another possibility. What if they decided to collaborate and create a whole set of creatrues, where the bigger/better of each, knew of the existence of those lower/smaller than it, but didn't know anything larger exists. Because if they do, imagine yourself as an ant. You would never ever be able to comprehend that a human world exists and even begin to understand its entire complexity. So if in this Game of the Gods, what if we are the ants? What if ??

What defines us

2006-12-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

From one of my favourite movies, Batman Begins:

"Its not who we are, but what we do that defines us".

Its time to start defining myself again.

The Fountain

2006-12-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

(I wrote this blog entry in Dec 2006, but forgot to post it until now)

I just finished reading a very interesting article about this movie, "The Fountain". There were two things that caught my attention: Firstly, in the movie all the special effects are not really done with CGI (Computer effects etc). Instead, its done using, microzoom-photography. For instance, they took a picture of a drop of water with curry powder and magnified it thousands of times and used that to depict traveling thru space. Very interesting. The 2nd reason, is that this is really a movie about a man dealing with idea of mortality. Someone very close to me, was struggling with something related to this, so I've suggested they watch the movie, even thought I haven't seen it myself. So, I look forward to seeing this sometimes this week.

Here's a link to the trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thefountain/trailer1/large.html
Here's a link to the article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/outsider.html

(An update) I watched the movie about 2 weeks after making this posting. I have to say I wasn't too impressed with it. I guess sometimes the idea/concept just seems more attractive than the implementation.

Quote: On life

2006-11-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

Here's another quote that jumped out at me.

"One's involvement in others people's lives gives us numerous small opportunities for importance."

(From: Kiran Desia's, Inheritance of Loss)

Quote: On Love (2)

2006-11-19T20:04:00.000-08:00

"Love is the ache, the anticipation, the retreat, everything around it, but the emotion itself."
(From: The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai).

Quote: On love

2006-11-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting quote that I came across.

"What we understand most profoundly, we love."
(From: The living sea documentary)