The sun had already set and, it was really dark, I was cruising through sheets of water: excitedly -I barely see anything outside.
From the 'cockpit', I see - rather feel - them: a zillion biggish drops from the heavens come bang on my windshield now, and explode into a thousand pieces. I feel as if I were inside a warm drum, and realise even drums can sing lullabies. Ah, well, my vision clear for a moment, just after my dutiful wiper shoved 'em aside, but in vain. It was pouring down .. on and on.. I take a deep breath, and look at the lovely vista ahead of me: The trees on both sides of the road bend down heavily and sway. May be they want to kiss the earth delightedly. Well lit facades of shops pass by, shimmering neon lights leave wavy glowing trails. A deafening sound follows a thunderbolt. I say "wow, Luv it..". despite for all that. I feel safe inside my warm cozy car, smoothly moving ahead, together with other slowly moving cars.
* * * *
I was on my way to pick my sis up from the railway station - and I thoroughly enjoyed my driving that night. I *love* driving in the rain!
(I dont know what made me write it, but it was fun :) )
Wednesday 5 August, 2009
Sunday 2 August, 2009
Pains of a commoner
"Aaargh! man, make your own policies - But, can you? "
It all started the other day, when I was smitten by the thought of going broadband. Pop! up came the word 'mobility', first, to my mind - and mobility in its true sense, you know - no more tethering to a funny box, I need freedom. Fine, that's it, and?
It all started the other day, when I was smitten by the thought of going broadband. Pop! up came the word 'mobility', first, to my mind - and mobility in its true sense, you know - no more tethering to a funny box, I need freedom. Fine, that's it, and?
Well, It should've good coverage, and a fair 'downloading speed'(yikes!) also. (am no birdbrain who would get convinced by those adverts boasting a whopping 3.1 MBps, but found practically I get around 1 - wow, even that's great! Cool.) I love GBs of cool stuffs - call it watching stuffs over the youtube, or downloading all those crazy things. And then, I have a camera that goes 'ratatat' at every li'l thing it thinks cool (and it does consider too :D) and soon a pile of photos will plead me for more life - well, that means I need a fair upload power too. I call up the marketing guys; manage to arrange a few live demos at my place, thumb through the funny tariff sheets (Oh, a permutation and combination of different cheating strategies, if you ask me , hehe - never mind - no way out!). And Finally I give the order to one of the two shortlisted Indian giants.
And then - only then - did I really take a good look at the lovely little thing:
The gadget went by the name Photon Plus - cool - and was looking sexy and handy. I started reading the story written on its body- good, good, but, wait... Aaargh - you see that? To my great despair, it was a Huwaei make. Even both of the Indian giants - The Reliance as well as the TATA Indicom- use Huwaei Technologies, or the alternative is ZTE.(Another Chinese make). Uh, all spy machines!
Huwaei, is, the much dreaded Chinese military's own baby, originally. (Sorry, in case any of you happen to work for that company). The Indian intelligence wing, RAW, had recently declined a BSNL business deal with Huwaei on the very same grounds, (and gave it to Ericsson and ) (June 2009) for laying telecom lines along the western side of our country, (though much of the south's lines are still fed by the Huwaei technologies). (That GSM expansion deal was the single largest telecom contract ever: at 30, 000 crore INR). Huwaei is not given any major participation in the US market, by a wary government there, but UK did - lavishly- and will soon pay for its shortsighted decision (like me, boohoo). The recent 'ghostnet episode' has made people loath the clandestine Chinese government's unethical policies. And still, in India, we are giving our people the very s(h)ame dangerous piece of an artwork, nicely painted. Even if we, Indians, make a personal policy on this, we don't have any options 'cos our govt hasn't done anything in this niche market..! Every other vendor is giving you the same make: 'cos it comes you at cheaper bucks: Off the people, Buy the people, 'Fore' you people!!
My remarks are all on the policy the Chinese govt has - no way related to the people there.
Monday 10 September, 2007
GoogleOS and Some Rumors
Back from lunch, I felt a bit sleepy in my chair. Now my eyes fall on the Google's webpage in my system. Oh, Define Omnipresent - That is Google. Okay, whatever. It has a link 'More Google Products'. I click. I see a couple of great good softwares there.
Hey wait, did someone tell me about an OS, Google is said to be brewing in their labs? Is Google all set for locking horns with Microsoft? Rumour has it, that, it is, even for Google's denial of any such move. But if you check out the array of softwares available under the 'More Google Products' banner - like the web based Notebook, or the web based Calendar ..The Google Docs and Spreadsheets are to name a few... Well, Google is growing a handful of tools, components of a future web-based-OS in their labs, and can even go in the direction Microsoft did, years ago. People see this growing 'webtop' as a step towards the GoogleOS. I dont mean this is a complete take on Microsoft, if u care, but rather a hint towards that. Well, lets keep our mouths shut, ...wait and see.
(Ooops! I too, have spread the rumour ;) )
Wanna fly over your home and wave at your mom ? No Kidding!! Google will let you do that!
see http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/08/flight_simulator_mod.html
That was an easter egg from the (creative) google engineers.
A useful initiative from Google : http://code.google.com/edu/
Hey wait, did someone tell me about an OS, Google is said to be brewing in their labs? Is Google all set for locking horns with Microsoft? Rumour has it, that, it is, even for Google's denial of any such move. But if you check out the array of softwares available under the 'More Google Products' banner - like the web based Notebook, or the web based Calendar ..The Google Docs and Spreadsheets are to name a few... Well, Google is growing a handful of tools, components of a future web-based-OS in their labs, and can even go in the direction Microsoft did, years ago. People see this growing 'webtop' as a step towards the GoogleOS. I dont mean this is a complete take on Microsoft, if u care, but rather a hint towards that. Well, lets keep our mouths shut, ...wait and see.
(Ooops! I too, have spread the rumour ;) )
Wanna fly over your home and wave at your mom ? No Kidding!! Google will let you do that!
see http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/08/flight_simulator_mod.html
That was an easter egg from the (creative) google engineers.
A useful initiative from Google : http://code.google.com/edu/
Monday 3 September, 2007
A Dynamic World
"It is quite odd..", I told myself.
I never used to like the idea of indulging in any office related activity back at home - I would rather listen to a song, or play with my camera. But, things were different and I proved myself wrong when I started reading the book 'The World is flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. It draws a beautiful account of globalization, and analyzes it. Back at home, I would plunge into the book, at times even chose a page at random and would start to read from there. It has it all : The different factors of the current day globalization, excerpts from his interviews with great Indian or other brains like Nandan Nilekani, Jaythirth Rao.. and so on. Now I read on outsourcing, one of the many tributaries to Globalization.
It wasnt quite long before I began to realize with a queer sense of self-content that the book has begun to influence the way I perceive the world : When I read the newspapers, or watch my telly, my mind will immediately pick patterns of outsourcing everywhere : In the cryogenic engine of the recent GSLV F04 rocket, which is imported all the way from Russia .. or the news on Sri Lankan software Industry... I would say outsourcing is an opportunistic business approach, with all its dark and bright shades of positives and negatives. Take the case of the The bourgeoning Sri Lankan software Industry : As Indian rupee is gaining strength against dollars, (41 Rupees a dollar, 2nd Sept 2007), the Sri Lankan Rupee has plunged into an all time low of 114 S.L rupees for a dollar. That gives the hard-nosed, and 'opportunistic' buisiness minds to regard the island state as a cheaper alternartive to bangalore or hyderabad, but mind you, it might be a short term phenomenon. (The money the Sri Lankan software industry ekes out is pretty less than what Infosys churns out in a single quarter. (Source : The Hindu, Sept 2nd, 2007)) The wind of globalization blows around with unpredictable dynamics; unpredictable in its direction, but based on an almost predictable and tangible potential difference.
(Am I inpired by the news of the world's oldest blogger, a Spaniard by name Maria Amelia Lopez, who is in her 90's? May be true; May be not.)
Tailpiece :
The Russian made cryogenic engine of GSLV F04 rocket, as luck would have it, caused some snags, making the satellite a bit odd placed in its trajectory. Hence the satellite had to correct its trajectory by its own fuel, which again will cause the satellite to live a little bit lesser, than what otherwise it would have.
I never used to like the idea of indulging in any office related activity back at home - I would rather listen to a song, or play with my camera. But, things were different and I proved myself wrong when I started reading the book 'The World is flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. It draws a beautiful account of globalization, and analyzes it. Back at home, I would plunge into the book, at times even chose a page at random and would start to read from there. It has it all : The different factors of the current day globalization, excerpts from his interviews with great Indian or other brains like Nandan Nilekani, Jaythirth Rao.. and so on. Now I read on outsourcing, one of the many tributaries to Globalization.
It wasnt quite long before I began to realize with a queer sense of self-content that the book has begun to influence the way I perceive the world : When I read the newspapers, or watch my telly, my mind will immediately pick patterns of outsourcing everywhere : In the cryogenic engine of the recent GSLV F04 rocket, which is imported all the way from Russia .. or the news on Sri Lankan software Industry... I would say outsourcing is an opportunistic business approach, with all its dark and bright shades of positives and negatives. Take the case of the The bourgeoning Sri Lankan software Industry : As Indian rupee is gaining strength against dollars, (41 Rupees a dollar, 2nd Sept 2007), the Sri Lankan Rupee has plunged into an all time low of 114 S.L rupees for a dollar. That gives the hard-nosed, and 'opportunistic' buisiness minds to regard the island state as a cheaper alternartive to bangalore or hyderabad, but mind you, it might be a short term phenomenon. (The money the Sri Lankan software industry ekes out is pretty less than what Infosys churns out in a single quarter. (Source : The Hindu, Sept 2nd, 2007)) The wind of globalization blows around with unpredictable dynamics; unpredictable in its direction, but based on an almost predictable and tangible potential difference.
(Am I inpired by the news of the world's oldest blogger, a Spaniard by name Maria Amelia Lopez, who is in her 90's? May be true; May be not.)
Tailpiece :
The Russian made cryogenic engine of GSLV F04 rocket, as luck would have it, caused some snags, making the satellite a bit odd placed in its trajectory. Hence the satellite had to correct its trajectory by its own fuel, which again will cause the satellite to live a little bit lesser, than what otherwise it would have.
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