Apparently. Esthetic. Probably. Cool.

Simulated Learning Environment using Augmented Reality

2011-10-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

Creating simulations uptil now was just about arranging the right learning content after the current one based on the input of the user or at the max it probably could go upto showing a 3D environments. Perhaps that was the best way we eLearning guys could visualize the learners learning in a simulated environment. But is that really it? Well, perhaps not. I found this video over here and when I showed this to my team, they thought I peeped into the future but minutes later, we were close building a simple basic example of Augmented Reality.

Yeah, post-that as a technology person, I feel Augmented Reality is the future of simulated learning environments. Watch this video to get a load of simulations using Augmented Reality.

Google+ is now open for all. So will there be a dramatic shift of masses from FB to Google+?

2011-09-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

Google has attempted to do this circus before, and none of it succeeded. On top of all, Facebook has recently launched their new upgrade(Subscription and Lists) that is better than the USP of G+ i.e. Circles. Though, G+ brought it first FB just bettered it and released it just in time when Google + was made open for the public. This strategic move has diverted the attention of the existing masses of FB(that was more vulnerable to go on G+ to find something new) in exploring the new features of FB more than checking out what G+ is all about. Looking at all of this its certainly not going to be a cakewalk for G+. Probably market penetration for G+ is going to take some good time. Also, since past couple of releases Google has been in the news for all the wrong reasons so certain amount(negligible but still considerable amount) of 'back of the mind' hesitation for signing up for a new Google product can probably be there. Another advantage for FB is probably that Google opened up the API's just last week...as in minutes before it opened up for public so there ain't a lot of games and applications as compared to FB(as I write) and that will make G+ weigh less than FB anyway. Over the period of time, if Google keeps focused on G+ there are fair chances it may come shoulder to shoulder with FB, but a dramatic shift probably is out of question for atleast a season or two.

Google+: Google's new Wave?

2011-07-15T01:57:00.000-07:00

Have been trying Google+ since past couple of weeks, and I must say that I don't foresee it as a possible threat to Facebook anywhere. (Wonder what Mark Zuckerberg is doing on Google+?) It probably might be a worthy competitor for Twitter instead, but for me I think twitter is more of like a plain vanilla flavour of Google+… No non-sense anywhere. I can follow any random guy on Twitter and that is what Google+ allows me to do(Yeah, if I have the permission). Google+ has a "Facebook Wall" inspired layout but it’s really hard to navigate(and understand) the rest of the functions too.

Well Google’s radically different attempt at interactive messaging known as Google Wave failed just because people could not figure out what it was or how to use it. It was too scary unfamiliar and the fear of messing things up on a social network always haunted ones mind as his social image was at stakes. Oh yes, as compared to that, Plus plays it a lot safer and seems to be more of a derivative of the usual social media tools (Facebook, Twitter). After spending a lot of time on plus I think probably I do understand what exactly Google+ is for and one thing is for sure, it probably may not turn out to be as popular marketing platform as that of the facebook but it is certainly going to be a popular platform because its Google(I have seen Orkut too but this looks different). Have not yet heard about the Developer API's or applications in Google+ but may be in the next couple of months Google might come out with a Bang! Just bumped into this funny GIF image(Click on it to view the animation) and I think it’s a little bit of over estimation. Facebook is still powerful!

Click on the image if the animation fails to start

3G: Advantage India!

2011-04-29T02:47:00.000-07:00

Slowly and steadily, the picture of the Indian Telecommunication Industry is changing day by day. With pigeons and flying carpets just like those in Indian stories and movies, India has definitely come a long way with the introduction of 3G for message communication. Just recently 3G networks set its foot in India and Indians are up with excitement with what this miraculous technology can do for them. This technical article discusses what 3G is and articulates the benefits that you can experience using a 3G network/spectrum.

Before we start, let us understand what exactly a spectrum is. Wikipidea® describes Spectrum as "A spectrum (plural spectra or spectrums[1]) is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum". Simplified way, it means collection of values representing a specific order. Going closer, in context of the article, Radio spectrum is what we are going to look into and it refers to a range of radio frequencies. The bandwidth of this radio spectrum like any other spectrum is the difference between the upper and lower frequencies of the signal.

So what exactly is 3G?

3G, like the name suggests, is the third generation technology. Before we get any further with ‘what that is’, let us take a look at the dots that were joined to come over to this boulevard. It all started off with 1G, i.e the first Generation technology that introduced wireless telephone technology for mobile communication. 1G was totally analog unlike 2G. 2G, i.e the Second generation on the other hand was completely digital. Though both were quite similar, 2G had the capability of encoding voice to digital signals where as with 1G the voice was just modulated to a higher frequency so that it would be out of reach of ham/home radios. Since 2G was digital, enhanced data services could be a part of it. Along with a greater privacy, 2G also contributed in efficient data transfer and this generation actually could manage introducing less expensive equipments. SMS and GPRS hence were introduced in this generation. In 2001 finally 3G was introduced. 3G used completely different frequencies from 2G hence the hardware was different. An obvious question now would be, ‘So if it was introduced back in 2001, why is India getting a taste of 3G after 9-10 years whereas the world now is celebrating the release of 4G already?’. The reason is simple. The enormous cost of additional spectrum license fees delayed 3G for India. 3G brings with it high data transfer speed and even the more high privacy as compared to 2G.

What will you need to access 3G?

There are two primary things that you would need to access 3G. First of all you need to have a 3G enabled phone. Well, now most of the phones that get manufactured are 3G enabled but the cheapest and ‘not so compromised on quality’ of them all should cost around 3-4K. The second thing you would need is obviously a service provider. Well, Vodafone Zoozoo ad’s already talk about 3G and so does Abhishek Bacchan. Almost all the service providers are upgrading their networks to support 3G. As of now the rates in India are way too costly but over the period of time they are bound to get slashed and reasonable.

Few of the top 3G phones and approximate prices in India.

From style point of view

1. iPhone 3G’s:

* 16GB – 40,500.Rs.

* 32 GB – 45,000.Rs.

2. Nokia N8: 23,000.Rs.

3. Samsung Omnia: 26,000.Rs

From economy point of view:

1. Nokia 2730: 4200.Rs.

2. Nokia C5: 7600.Rs.

3. Spice G-6500: 6000.Rs.

Sheer combination of Style and Economy:

1. Samsung DUOS: 12,300.Rs.

2. Sony Ericsson Zylo: 10,000.Rs.

3. Blackberry Curve 9300 : 13,700.Rs.

Overall winner: Blackberry Curve 9300.

Some Apps’ to watch for with 3G around:

Following is a list of applications that can help you become more productive with a 3G network.

1. Remote App’s: Control your music players like iTunes and other players with your 3G enabled phones.

2. Score App’s: Stay updated with the latest scores second-second.

3. Watch steaming movies on phone: 3G is just like high speed broadband hence you can watch movies on your phone while on the go.

Some additional benefits of 3G:

1. Mobile Internet: Mobile Internet experience with a 3G handset will have the benefits like: Fast connections, reasonably priced access plans (Over the time), light weight browser compatibility and push services

2. Mobile Music: EV-DO is a part of 3G initiative. It stands for Evolution Data-Optimize and using this you would be able to hear crystal clear streaming music, right on your handset.

3. Social Networking: Stay connected with your friends, contacts and family 24x7 using Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut.. etc.

4. Mobile Advertising: With exceptional reach, Mobile advertising is bound to get a different exposure with 3G. This will include 3G-Push emails and other advertising mechanism with mobiles.

5. Mobile Commerce: 3G is faster and secure than 2G and hence mobile commerce would also be faster and secure with 3G.

It is believed that when India goes 3G, there will be less Network Congestion but in most of the cases where 3G was introduced there was frequent network congestion's and 3G was held as the main culprit. In any case with faster data transfers 3G is going to bring in a faster and better tomorrow. The power is in the hands of some of the key decision makers including the Government of India and the Service Provider so as to slash the rate’s in a way that will benefit the country.

Suspenseful ad! What is Vodafone/Zoozoo ad upto?

2011-02-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday one of my friend’s status messages read "Hmm…What good are Zoozoo ads with subtitles. No fun!!!". It seems that this time Vodafone has a different strategy for advertisement with Zoozoo’s. It probably wants to focus more on the ad-brand rather than the cute characters that stole the lime-light last Cricket season. Well, certainly the 'curiosity' factor of these type of suspenseful ad's is expected to be high and they are intended to gain high attention but certainly awkward during the 40 second break in-between of a bowling over or wicket of a very exciting match.

A year back, Vodafone’s media strategy to air these ads during IPL(somewhat)worked for the brand but the downside was that the characters were always a bigger story than the actual brand. It’s hard to digest but the audience has a minimal capacity to understand features while the characters take away the limelight with their cuteness and novelness. Realizing the same fact Vodafone now has the ads in a suspenseful manner to discover the brand offerings rather than just hammer them out one after the other like Vodafone did last year.

In general, if the graph of ‘Audience involvement in advertisement’ is plotted against the ‘India’s chances of winning’ that should ideally look something close to the graph shown below.

Though honestly nobody would prefer advertisements in-between any match this graph just plots the probable curve of audience involvement in advertisements once ad comes infront of you. But the case of suspenseful advertisements though probably can be a bit different. The same graph can be plotted as shown below.

People would certainly be involved at a greater percentage if the advertisement creates a suspense.

In this particular case though, Zoozoo’s were talk of the town because the advertisement was creatively done with exceptionally cute characters. The cute characters too were very cleverly done. There were (young/old)male Zoozoo's along with female Zoozoo's and kid Zoozoo’s thus creating a connection with all the age groups and genders. The advertisement was in white and black with a hint of the Vodafone red only to be used as props, emphasizing on the story. These characters inturn had a funny story to narrate the intention of Vodafone but without any narration or sounds other than actions, squeaks and mummers from Zoozoo’s. The Vodafone logo appeared separately only after the advertisement in a bold red background. Unfortunately a lot of people by that time(Vodafone showed the banner) probably kept busy recollecting the funny incident that happened with their cute Zoozoo’s. Hence the banner got ignored and hence did the brand.

All in all definitely a suspenseful ad with Zoozoo is a ‘kind of’ a strategic move that Vodafone has tried to experiment with. Keeping the sound track intact as it was earlier, they seem to have just added an element of suspense assisted with subtitles for audience only to understand the suspense. Usually with a suspenseful ad you somewhere feel that the commercial leads you right to the climax and then kind of leaves you hanging. It works best if these ad’s leave you with a message that if you want to know what happens next you will have to watch the World Cup Match to see the end of the commercial. Though it would work most of the times, there is a high chance that the advertisement might work better if the suspense is emotional and more involving than an imaginary character(Zoozoo) creating suspense about another imaginary character(alien). Even if Vodafone fails, they will just get rid of Zoozoo’s and create something more involving.

Anyway, what according to you might work best for Zoozoo's to create suspense?

The best download speed that I ever ever ever got!

2010-09-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

Guess what! I got an awesome download speed of 20.35 mbps. Its 13 times better than my previous internet service provider. I remember downloading at a lightning speed of 10-12 mbps from US... but this speed is like stuu much!

Dagdusheth Ganpati

2010-09-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

Ganesha Chaturthi also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi is the Hindu festival of Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, who is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees in the duration of this festival. It is the birthday of Lord Ganesha who is widely worshiped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune.

Following is the photo of the richest Ganesh idol by the name Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati in Pune that was taken on Sept 16, 2010 during the Ganesh festival.

Tomato Halwa (Pudding)

2010-08-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

When we talk is about desserts, one name that undoubtedly comes into every person's mind is the traditional Tomato halwa prepared on every home in almost all the festivals. On the occasion of most of the festivals/carnivals, Tomato Halwa is an unavoidable part of the menu. When served hot, the Tomato Halwa tastes wonderful. It is simply the prefect sweet dish to be relished post dinner. Not only its delicious, it’s also fulfilling and nutritious with about 8 grams of proteins, 50.3gram carbohydrates and 1.9 grams of fat. Making Tomato Halwa is not a very difficult task in terms of process; it requires a little more time and patience than any other halwa. Even if you are in love with this mouth watering dish, here is the recipe…

Tomato Halwa Recipe

Ingredients
1 kg Tomatoes
1 litre Milk
1 teaspoon Cardamom seeds
3/4 cup Water
3 tablespoons Ghee
2 tablespoons Raisins
2 tablespoons Almonds
2 tablespoons Pistachios
450 grams Sugar

Method
Wash and grate the Tomatoes. Soak the raisins in water for 30 minutes. Blanch and shred the nuts.Put the water to boil, when it starts boiling add the grated Tomatos. Cook for 5-7 minutes.
Add the milk. Cook on a low flame for 1 hour stirring occasionally.
Add sugar, mix well and cook till the sugar has dissolved and all the milk has been absorbed.
Add ghee and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add the slightly crushed cardamoms and the raisins.
Mix well. Remove from heat and arrange in a serving dish. Garnish with almonds and pistachios. Serve cold, hot or at room temperature.

Sunshine!

2010-03-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

This is my first blogpost from my iPod. Well what is so diferent about this post? I am going to be an uncle shortly. Hard to imagine that I would officially be an uncle so here I am, sitting in the lobby of the hospital that would be pointed out from google earth some day to point the place she was born. I just know it from the inside that it's going to be a girl and I am going to pamper her to limits. She is already very lucky enough to be born in the city having the worlds best weather apart from having the world best uncle. Well, Today is just perfectly bright and sunny outside so personally I would prefer calling her 'sunshine'. What a lovely name right? One of my best friends prefers calling one of my good friends by that name. I don't mind telling you guys thats the place from where I have picked up this name. Thanks bimlees.

Flash in Google Wave! Finally a dream comes true.

2010-03-12T16:47:00.000-08:00

Today, post the announcement of 'Google Wave Extensions' over here, something made me realize that probably this may be a good news for the eLearning folks. Well, I know this was bound to happen one day but probably this is just the beginning. Google Wave probably may have more surprises for us.

Integration of Flash SWF OR HTML pages with Wave would have probably been on the Google's agenda but till date Wave was missing all the action without the Flash support. The yes/no gadget was the only known way of easily integrating an activity on Wave but post today's announcement of the iFrame extension, watch out for more surprises.

I was able to integrate a Flash movie right inside my Wave. Technically this is probably what the eLearning folks were waiting for. Flash is still not everything, there is more. But since they have support for HTML, this can pretty much be used to embed your whole course right inside your Wave where you can add your audience/students and they can put their comments right below the topmost Wave showing your course. Tracking (probably) would also be possible as this extension prefers loading the HTML from a remote server.

Coming back to where I was. Well, I was able to integrate a Raptivity interactivity in Google Wave using the iFrame extension as I specified earlier.
This is how pretty it looks.

The interactivity shown in this image is one of my favorite interactivity's from Raptivity that you can try here. Ping me if you want to experience this Wave. (Yes, certainly you would need a wave account for doing that.)

The 'Next Level'

2010-03-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

Pranav Mistry from MIT, probably a year back at TED announced a device called as the "Sixth Sense" which he described as a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around with digital information and lets one use the natural hand gestures to interact with that information. Quite a mouthful! Well, like every time Microsoft seems to have got inspired from that and has teamed up with brains from the Mellon University for "Skinput".
Check out this video.

But somewhere earlier there are chances that probably Pranav might have got inspired from Microsoft Surface. Looks like a 'chicken first or the egg' kind of exercise here.
Sometimes I feel that had it not been Apple we would have still seen a mouse-less world. Obviously it is not about who did it, its about who brought mouse into production and proclaimed it as an invention. Post Apple's invention of converting a pointing device concept into reality, the popularity/usability/acceptability of other such inputs has never been widely accepted but probably the first mouse was officially invented in the 1960! Since then have the most genuinely genius brains failed to think of the next level of pointing devices? Come to think of it, you still are making use of a mouse while reading this post and the best part is that its 2010! 40 less for a century. It was Apple again that showed the world a multi-touch screen possibility with their iPhones and now they have come out with iPads. Why are we so hopelessly dependent on pointing devices with hardware? In fact why can it not be neural? Same goes for display. Monitors have been the display units since quite some time. Why can't humans ~~innovate~~ invent something more than a pointing device and a display unit for the next level? May be it can be a chip implanted in some part of the body that sends electric signals to the brain. Merely closing eyes would help in browsing Google for instance. Just like what they have shown in "The Matrix".

Following is a conversation from "The matrix"
Trinity and Neo have just killed a 1000 odd people and now they find this deserted chopper in front of them.
Neo: "Do you know how to fly this thing?"
Trinity: "Not yet"
Trinity pulls out her phone and calls up the operator.
Trinity: "Tank, I need a program to fly B190 helicopter"
Operator: "One moment!"
The operator goes through his collection, picks out a disk and slips it in a drive.
Trinity closes her eyes for a moment.... and they fly off with the chopper!

Would this be reality one day? Probably the world is waiting for "The one" person to crack this code? Well, I read it somewhere that the visually impaired people can have a chip implanted in their eyes to correct their vision.
Guess this is pretty much on the same lines... Has to be given a different perspective.

iPad Killer: First look of Notion Ink's Adam tablet

2010-02-18T01:01:00.000-08:00

If branded properly this device/concept can make iPad look outdated.

g-speak spatial operating environment

2010-02-17T06:06:00.000-08:00

The era of real gestural input and output is now here.

Link http://oblong.com/

Sticky Notes: Strikethrough/Strikeout shortcut

2010-02-09T02:11:00.000-08:00

The "Sticky Notes" that come with Windows7 happens to be a very good application. With this you can keep a track of your task list by scribbling stuff on it. Its just like the 3M Post-it notes that you usually use in office.

Well, since the font formating capabilities of these notes was not very impressive I was just wondering if there is an alternative to strikethrough/strikeout a scribbled line from the note... and guess what! It does have a shortcut... Just like Ctrl+b is for Bold and Ctrl+i is for itallic, Ctrl+t is for Strikethrough/Strikeout.

Survey: Phone wishes

2010-02-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

This survey is hosted for Shanu. He wanted me to create a survey for one of his concepts that he is planning to launch shortly. Please feel free to pass this link to your friends as well. That would help him a lot.
Yeah! He is certainly open for all sorts of criticisms and suggestions.

Well the story goes as follows:

He is doing a survey for finding out the acceptability of a "Phone wishes"/Phonogram system. This system will help people wish each other through meaningful, musical and melodious poems that will be recited by well-deserving artists.

This will not only help in seeking employment for talented professionals but it will also encourage people to promote the 'paperless-greener' way of wishing.

Click Here to go to the survey page

Thanks in advance guys.

First blog post for 2010

2010-01-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

Oh! My! God!

The year to blog post ratio that I have been having lately certainly shows that there is a drastic drop in the number of blog posts. Back in 2007 it was the highest I guess and 2009 was the lowest. I wonder why!

Was it that I kept busy all the time? Probably yes, just stepped into a new role... or maybe my internet connection might have been responsible... Sometimes I get great speed( I am using a well reviewed connection called as BSNL EVDO which is supposedly 3G) that is encouraging to write up a blog post but sometimes it actually pains to pay for a connection that is half alive. Vicinity to the tower makes a difference and you got to do all sorts of weird stuff to get a proper signal.

Well, anyway I just want to be as frequent as possible in writing blog posts. (Hopefully I won't get reprimanded for breaching my companies lately designed policy for writing blog posts. I do respect that.) I have been following a lot of people lately and mann... they have some flair for writing. 

All said, lets start of this new year by wishing you a whole new year of happiness, excitement, opportunities ,..,etc in your lives. I know it’s almost end of Jan and its late... but still sweet. 

Loading Raptivity SWF files with Adobe Connect

2009-12-13T02:03:00.000-08:00

One of the folks on Raptivity Community asked how to load a Raptivity SWF file in Adobe Connect Pro. Following post shows how to do that.

I have not attached any files and please don't ask me to attach any file. Just follow the steps and everything should be taken care of.

1. Upload your SWF file to any web server. One of the free servers can be Google Sites. Copy the complete path of your SWF. Lets say the path is http://yourserver/yourswfToLoad.swf.

2. Create a SWF file. (Any blank swf file)

3. Now load your movie inside this new SWF you just created by inserting the following script on Frame 1 of your newly created SWF.

//Create an empty MovieClip and use the MovieClipLoader to load your SWFinto it.

var container:MovieClip = createEmptyMovieClip("container", getNextHighestDepth());
container._lockroot = true;
var mcLoader:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();
mcLoader.addListener(this);
mcLoader.loadClip("http://yourserver/yourswfToLoad.swf",container);

function onLoadInit(mc:MovieClip) {
_level0.mainMC.m_room.scaleArea.m_pods.module2.m_thePod.m_imgSwfLoader.m_swfHolder.swf_mc.innerClip._lockroot = true;
}

4. Once done use this file with Adobe Connect.

This resolution can work out for loading any type of SWF files that use _root terminology for accessing the movie content.

NOTE: When your SWF's are on external sites, there's a chance you may need a cross domain policy (basically a crossdomain.xml file) on each of the sites you are trying to load content from. Flash player has security built in that restricts loading content from other sites without this policy in place.

Grievance

2009-10-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

He was just brilliant... but I may not admit... coz I don't flatter, coz thats just not me.
Did us proud and just added weight to our confidence...but I may not admit... coz I don't want to send wrong signals.
I probably am living a part of someone elses dream?... maybe! coz as of now lifes like Eklavya to me but...he's got no clue that he is 'one of' the Drona.
Deep inside I wish to wish him luck but I may not... coz he's already got a load.
Time has come to try mine.

Una paloma blanca...

2009-06-12T03:47:00.000-07:00

When the sun shines on the mountain
And the night is on the run
It's a new day, it's a new way
And I fly up to the sun,
I can fell the morning sunlight
I can smell the new born haze
I can hear God's voice calling
For my golden sky like gray

Una paloma blanca
I'm just a bird in the sky
Una paloma blanca
Over the mountains I fly
No one can take my freedom away

Once I had my share of losing
Once they locked me on a chain
Yes, they tried to break my powers
Oh, I still can feel the pain

Una paloma blanca
I'm just a bird in the sky
Una paloma blanca
Over the mountains I fly
No one can take my freedom away

Yes, no one can take my freedom away...

Tea Time!

2008-11-10T16:08:00.001-08:00

Tea - In the morning? - Yeah, Divya makes it and wakes me up...and I forget to drink that.
Tea - In between movie interval? - No I am good.
Tea - In the mid morning? - No. Have work to do. Can't afford to spend time.
Tea - Evening? Still piled up! You guys go ahead.
Tea - In the late evening? No. I'd rather go for coffee. Have to put in some extra tonight.
Tea - When you are in the US? - Anything for a good cup of tea!
You never get to know the importance of a good cup of tea unless you are kept away from that. Janhavi gave me a Tea bag today, its a good subtitute but still... I have one more good reason to miss my country.

Harman and Hritik

2008-07-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

... both of you look like Rakesh Roshan...

Kudos to you Rakesh!

Slow Motion!!!

2008-07-02T04:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever observed the prime time soap operas on any channel!! One thing very evidently visible with each of them is the SHooooooooooooooooMMM effect(for showing trechery, lust, mistrust and happYness) and the other thing is that... they all are in slow motion... Mannn!! They roll a 10 mins recording over a stretch of 30 mins!! Mynnd blaawinnn!!

Scooty Miss Teen (DIVAS) India... Booo hoooooo show!

2008-05-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

11 pretty ugly girls
These girls probably might be coming from all around India, and Ranvijay made a JATT girl realize that she is JATT and "JAAT HUMESHA JEETATE hai"... another honest effort to divide the country and earn money through SMS.

1 beautiful sexy host with an English accent... more English than the British people…
Ranvijay is her boy friend and she’s got looks matching with that of Lisa Ray. Cute and Sexy... but a real compromise on IQ.... NO AND I AM NOT GAME FOR HER.

A stupid set of foolish questions
For finding the “bottom two females” everyone else in the group asks their favorite "push outside" girl silly questions like
"Why do you keep your room unclean?"
"Why do you dry your clothes in the bathroom?"
"Why do you act like a guy"
And then the real booh hooh show starts.

A hell lota tears...
The tear is the after effect of the silly stupid questions and it gets followed by a even the more stupid kind of a vote out. A total feminish vote out.
The end part is even the more hilarious.
The 'bottom two' females are asked to sit on two Scooty's and are given a key to it. On the count of three, they are supposed to switch it on and the camera focuses on them in a SHOOOOOOOM SHOOOOOOOOOOOM manner just like that of the Ekta Kappooor soaps.... One of the Scooty's side stand signal goes off “TWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK” and that means the female responsible for this irritating noise is voted in! HAHAHAHA!! Whadagame!

Thats it! The Scooty Miss Teen India... the boo hooo show...

One piece of advice!
Apart from that, people who are going to buy TVS Scooty's, kindly verify with the dealer if the Scooty you are purchasing is 1st hand, coz the show has got a hell lota non-registered Scooty's , kya pata aapki Scooty bhi ek celebrity ho? But still probably you might not want to buy a 2nd hand Scooty for the price of new, infact don't buy Scooty at all, it might make you a lauging stock... I remember TATA Sumo prices went down once because they were used for ferrying guests at a very cute politicians son's wedding… that too without registration.

Wassup youngistan?

2008-05-12T04:55:00.001-07:00

Recently these MTV guys have started this awesome show Wassup youngistan... the voice of young India in a very unusual, unmanly and probably unseen time slot...i.e 8:30 A.M to 9 A.M....They have got almost everything, as in a very good concept along with very good VJ's like Ayushmann but honestly what they really dont have is... a good time slot. Come on "Wassup" guys! What you guys offer is "awesome" stuff for the "awesome" public... but I lay bets that not much of this "awsome" public would be awake in your air time. Come to think of it, do you remember getting up anytime before 8 A.M and sitting up in front of the television for your favourite show as soon as you get up? Come on guys, take a break!
What are you guys upto hunn?

Damm you Ashutosh!

2008-05-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

"Damm you Ashutosh for voting Prabjot out.".... this is what Divya said last Satuday after watching the vote out...err... sorry, usage of the elimination power done by Ashutosh. Well, what I'd say is, Ashu's done the right thing. Ok, there probably might be two reasons for doing that. Firstly, he wanted to break the unity between Sonal and Prabjot. He could have never done that without eliminating Prabjot out. Sonal is really like ymmm, I know and Ashu is real game for her!! and she just tries to show her dimple everywhere with a angel overcoat, but, only Ashu is really sensible enough to know that "Its not about winning the game but its only about winning the game".
Nihal on the other side played very safe the other day by saying "Ashu, terko pata hai tujhe kisne vote kiya hai aur kisko vote out karna hai" (I don't know if they are in love or something but certainly Ashutosh loves being Nihals Katputli.)What Nihal said too made a lot of sense, as in 3 of the five power transfer recommendation votes went in for Ashutosh. Now that was a real majority. As in Ashutosh himself casted a vote amongst the remaining two that he did not get and only one that was remaining went for Sonal... Ankita(Simran) would never voted for Sonal, Prabjot never likes Ashu, so that was it. He knew who did not vote for him and he killed her off the show "awww! damm you Ashutosh"....
Apart from that for the most s*xy Roadie ever(Ankita), Ranvijay was not able to express it over the show but I'd say, "MIND JOB YAAR". As in she was given a chance to Vote any Roadie out of the show, but for that she would have to pay a Karizma as a price... costly right? As in she was pretty sure that if she votes out Sonal, next Ashu and Prabjot would have voted her out. If she would have voted out Prabjot, Sonal would have avenged the voteout.So all in all though it seemed like a gamble it was actually not. She had a win-win situation at her end. Yesteday she got voted out, but she left with a Brand New Karizma just like Ranvijay said. And Nihal, it was still a great job dude! Voting out Ankita was like a mind job... I knew you'd vote her out because this was the last vote out and secondly she out performs you at every task... Good you did not dig your own grave by voting out Sonal. Had you done that there would have been a problem of your survival... Anyway, I know whats going to happen next, Ashutosh is going to be the ultimate Roadie 5.0... Thats just because Sonal can never do a task impressively (unless thats dancing for getting immune) and Nihal does not have the balls to do any task.
Congratulations Ashutosh! Good game!

How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood?

2008-04-01T04:35:00.000-07:00

Ciny Alex, my college friend, sent me this very sensible article! Go ahead you too will agree with it.

Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on what's important. David J. Pollay explains his story in this way….

Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened. I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches!

The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean…he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

"Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally.. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did."

I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore."

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Believe that everything happens for a reason. Never let the garbage truck run over you…

"Wat an idea sirji" to "Garv se kaho, Hello!"

2008-03-31T02:02:00.000-07:00

Advertising gurus usually try their best to stay away from controversial and social happenings like caste and religion, but innovation seems to have brough a twist in the plan by bringing the new ‘What an idea, Sirji!’ ad of Idea cellular. It draws attention to the equalizing power of mobile technology – how by subscribing to this network everyone can have a unique identity, abandoning traditional jati based identity, that for centuries has divided communities and spread disharmony. Thanks to the hypothetical idea from the Idea network now people may belive that the village will no longer be divided along caste lines and will go for the same series cell numbers, thus stick to the same network also there will be no hierarchy, no domination, no violence. There will be peace everywhere. What an idea sirji!!

But as to every action there is an equal an opposite reaction. Airtel has now tried to follow the same suite by modifying one of the famous Hindu punch line as "Garv se kaho, Hello!"
What’s the big idea? Start a war for your subscriptions to grow?

Not so Flashy!

2008-03-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

Follow this link and roll on the floor...

This video shows how to install SilverLight on your machine.. the only problem I see is that, to view this video you need to have silverlight already installed on your machine... I just wonder how anyone can think so creatively...

Ok. This is what you need to install silverlight.

Lets still keep a watch on this year old technology that probably was not able to prove its metal. I guess, big authoring tool players will shortly come out with new authoring tools for people to widely make use of this technology and only then will this technology flourish.

Until then lets keep our fingers crossed... and by the way, by now everyone probably just knows what to fall on, if Adobe gets naughty about their Flash Player.

Vista! Eptiome of Innovation.

2008-02-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

From a Blue Ocean to a Pink Ocean

2008-02-24T00:02:00.000-08:00

TATA unveiled the world's cheapest car at the Auto show in Delhi a few days back; 'TATA nano' the ""most"" economical car an Indian could ever get. It was definitely the crave for innovation and their blue ocean strategy that has made this a reality. But while gearing up for an uncontested market space actually the words ""most economical"" of their ad campaigns were way far enough but somehow they ended up doing a big mistake. And the consequence of that big mistake surely is going to be disastrous. Everything was going just fine until they launched the car, but why on earth did they ever think of comparing Nano with the good old India’s favorite entry segment car, i.e the Maruti 800 (Frontie, as her pet name goes). As for me this was the most insensible, dumb, foolish, moronic thing that TATA's would have ever done. They should have never compared Nano with some other small car. Now, this not only has become an advantage for Maruti but also has become a self check-mate for TATA's. Now here is probably what is happening.
Until today, Nobody ever heard a Pepsi-Coke like competition going on between the TATA's and the Marutis. Over in the hatchback segment Maruti Swift had its own edge while as TATA's Indica was doing good business too, but everyone knows where it makes business (The height was when they created a new Indica with the name "Indi-cab"). Now it seems like the Maruti guys have taken a good cognizance of the "Car comparing" mistake that TATA's did and they have come up with a all new ad all over the Radio as well as TV. They have started advertising Alto as the real contender for Indica with a punch line as "Taxi ko karo tata" which actually means "Say good bye to Taxi" but there is an intended pun which means "Refer to TATA as a Taxi". That might prove to be a real blot for all TATA products. Everyone that enters for the first time in the TATA showroom will constantly get an Echo which will bring the cheap dedicated passenger carrier car impression for all TATA product range. And believe it or not, going in for TATA car is going to be a compromise henceforth if you hear this ad.
On the other side, 800 sales might be headed for a deadly drop. Hence Maruti has "increased" the price of their best selling car. Confused? Quite natural.. as probably their logic says that people who want to go in for the India's favorite Maruti car will still go for the same Maruti car no matter at what price it is placed and people who are waiting for a cheap car to roll on roads will always wait and will never buy the Maruti unless they get an impression of Maruti is a little better than compromise. Hence once the worlds cheapest car arrives on the road, Maruti will make their car price a little cheaper too.
But in all it looks like TATA has ended up mixing Red color with their Blue ocean.....i.e Pink ocean... so much for a silly mistake.

"Looks" like Web 2.0!

2008-02-23T03:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was chatting with Sarah, who happens to be my so called chat buddy from the States. While we were just in between of a breezy chat this gal went up like... "Waaaaaw, check it out mate! This is so kewwl! Look how amazing this page looks, its got this mouse over effect when I roll my mouse over these flowers...its simply amzinnn, must be Web 2.0 AJAX, right?

Hello! There is definitely some confusion about Ajax, and in particular Web2.0. What you are seeing right now through Ajax is what the Flash guys were probably doing back during the world war. As a Technical Lead, yes I have fought AJAX based Web2.0 as any new dumb buzzword that comes around. I have to admit, there is definitely something in Web2.0. However, in my opinion, it’s got nothing to do with the technology as such. The effect that people like Sarah have been admiring is just a mere UI magic with the help of JS, and this certainly has been around for a long time and yet now it looks like people are realizing that Web2.0 is here and that is through the AJAX? Of all the languages AJAX!!! Gimme a break! In reality Flash gave you the same functionality ages back, and how come you call AJAX as web 2.0 now? Actually saying Flash introduced this buzzword "Web2.0".

But certainly AJAX is not Web2.0. It was right there back during the World War you see. But its like a ritual for the web that any new technology quickly becomes so pervasive that it's sometimes becomes hard enough to remember what things were like before it came to existence. Same is the case with Ajax, it actually is nothing but the same old shoes polished, wrapped up, kept in closet, forgot for a while and later remembered when the idiots over the fashion ramp started wearing the same looking shoes and you got that mistaken as the latest trend. AJAX as Web 2.0? Gimme a break. I actually freak out when I hear something like that.

Nothings changed, not even the usage. Ajax was actually present during the first big stretch of browser innovation, Netscape added a feature known as LiveScript, which allowed people to put small scripts in web pages so that they could continue to do things after you'd downloaded them. One early example was the Netscape form system, which would tell you if you'd entered an invalid value for a field as soon as you entered it, instead of after you tried to submit the form to the server. So later this happening LiveScript became JavaScript and grew more powerful, leading to a technique known as DHTML, which was typically used to make things fly around the screen and change around in response to user input like Sarah for her roll overs. “Neighbors” of Netscape surely did envy the popularity and the monopolistic strategies of the rich and famous provoked them to treat it as a taboo and that made the fall of the dynasty. Doing anything serious with Dynamic HTML actually started becoming more painful. People started dropping DHTML.

Slowly slowly things started getting monotonous with the same ol'HTML pages with nothing 'buzzy' and 'jazzy' to go about. At a certain point people accidentally collided with the DHTML functionality again and shortly thereafter the bubble finally burst and web development crashed. Not, however, before Microsoft added a little-known function call named XMLHttpRequest to IE5. Mozilla quickly followed the suit and, while nobody to the best of my knowledge used it, the function resided right there but completely idle with nobody taking the right advantage. XMLHttpRequest allowed the JavaScript inside web pages to do something that the people always wanted to do before, that is feed the ever hungry client from the server. JavaScript inside web pages talking to the outside world was like a dream come true. Google was apparently the first to realize the gravity of this change and with Gmail, they actually built applications that took advantage of this to provide a user interface that was much more like a web application. With Gmail, the application continuously asks the server if there's new email. If there is, then it live updates the page, it doesn't make you download a new one. And Google Maps lets you drag a map around and, as you do so, automatically downloads the parts of it you want to look at inline, without making you wait for a whole new page to download. Now that’s fantastic and if you see, what Google did was, it just wore the shoes you wrapped up long time ago, well probably a little cobbled version though.

Let me explain how I personally feel about the AJAX Web2.0 hype. It’s exactly like those shoes that google is wearing today Flash was wearing that ages ago and you too know Flash wears them since ages. Flash Player has penetrated at least 90% of the web market but great stalwarts never realized that. True, Flash can now connect to databases and do remoting for years. Flash pulls data dynamically and displays it on the fly, today you admire google videos and youtube, and thats just because Flash can even stream stuff coming straight from the server right to your face. Flash can also let users fill forms and push that to a database, make tricks with it and login the user. All done before, with no reload of your page. Flash also does animations and fade in/out or zoom effects in a much more elegant fashion. If you want to really see that, take a look at the newly introduced Social Networking Pod by Harbingers as "FlockPod" This is what they call it and I have a sample on my page right here. Just click on the handcuff like image below.

"NOTE: Click and drag on the POD top to move about the pod over the page"

They actually update the debate posts, poll results and do lots of things with this compact and fancy looking blue bubble. The best part is the integration part. Just a one line of code on any page makes you take an advantage of this bubbly application. Web2.0 made easy. FlockPod! Hatts off to you. Now if you ask me I’ll say that’s real Web 2.0. Actually applications like FlockPod should be the de'facto for Web 2.0.

And honestly Web 2.0 is nothing but just another mind opener, it’s a break through where a few people have realized that simplicity, consistency and a certain way of doing things were definitely improving the user experience. Its more of like a transformation of web Pages into web Applications. Actually Web2.0 has nothing to do with “hey look, this glitters when the I go entering the wrong data”. No. And actually saying that might as well bring a WAAWW! expression for a Biology scientist. Its just the traditional usage of JavaScript function! Don’t try to fool the world.

Joke of the day!

2008-02-13T23:26:00.001-08:00

Donno from where I got this image... but I guess I thought it was worth uploading.

FlockPod!

2008-02-08T04:43:00.000-08:00

So what if I had to remove the template of my site! No problem! This tools really worth it!! People are talking too much about this new Social-interaction tool for eLearning(I guess so)... so I just wanted to see if I can make one for my blog...

Urekaa!! Click on the icon once for a Space Age pod to open! Damnn coool stuff... Ok. You can create polls, have debate, mark your links and do a hell lotsa things... mann... this tools gonna shrink the size of world...
Ok. As me how I did it... vishaladsool@gmail.com.

And thanks A TON Shamaila for showing me how to do it. :)

Mac vs Vista - Stuuu good.

2008-01-18T01:22:00.000-08:00

and look at Vistas answer to Mac

Advertisement Idea -II - Fiat Palio Stile

2008-01-04T04:20:00.000-08:00

A baby sleeping licking his lips. Camera stills exactly on his face. Everything other than his face is barely visible. You can hear his lip lick... ‘smlick smilicckk’ as he licks his lips calmly with a small head shake.... and slowly the camera zooms out and it feels as if the baby is sitting on a couch... a big couch accompanied by his mother and brother...(which apparently is the Palio's rear seat) and when the camera zooms out yet further, you realize that there is his father who is actually driving him... and further when the camera moves out of the car... you realize that the car is actually a part of a race derby... way ahead of the other cars yet on the race track....
And a sharp bassy voice mumbles... Stile from Fiat Palio… ‘Silent’…. ‘yet violent’.

Advertisement Idea - Fiat Palio Stile

2007-12-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

A scenic looking wild, untamed, green, utter lush looking grass fields having knee length grass blades shining with typical tropical sun on top..Birds chirping merrily... Everything looks just like still life and suddenly you hear the furrrrrrrr flaps of the bird wings move by and the grass moves as if a storm has badly hit the field...the camera then slides back at 45 degrees of elevation.... and you see a blazing red Fiat Palio Stile zoom on the road.
A hard voice then says....
"Palio Stile from Fiat.... 'silent'..... yet violent"
and after a short while suddenly life returns back to normal once again after the car leaves the scene...

Disclaimer!

2007-12-30T06:39:00.000-08:00

The other day Divya(my beloved wife) asked me... "What would you be if you were not a Software Engineer back at Harbingers?"
My quick response was "an advertisement guru?"... yeah I know its not exactly any piece of cake for any jackO but why not give it a try, right?... So I'll try to be one on my own blog... which I presume, not many visit so not many will have any objections or obligations. So all the things that I do on my blog... consider them completely foolish yet copyrighted © and please forgive me if your product is getting advertised here in a way you don’t want it to happen. Do let me know if you have any concerns, comments or suggestions…
In case if want to Alt+F4 anything do let me know and I’ll pull it off from here as quickly as possible.

Map to Maratha Mandir

2007-12-06T01:48:00.000-08:00

This is the map to Maratha mandir... Click on that to see a full size view.

US Zip Codes

2007-11-21T23:11:00.000-08:00

Visit this site... Zip Codes. If you go on typing single digits like 1, 2, 3, 4... it lists down all the states one by one. Once you make it double digts like 11, 12, 13... 21, 22, 23... you'll see the particular areas getting higlighted.... and so on it lists down to the minutest detail. After trying a few combinations you'd probably understand the whole Zip code christning thing in US... its really awsomee!! Firangis are so damnn rational thinkers yaar!

By the way... the above application that Ben Fry has made is made in Flash! Hail Macromedia... cheers Adobe!

Travelling with stile.. the perfect style

2007-10-03T01:46:00.000-07:00

She looks hot, gorgerous and can run like a wild beast delivering you the perfect edge against all her compititors... Its like almost 2 months since I own this car and I really remember going in for a Palio was a big good decision and initially it really felt like gambling.... Most of the times I heard some noises in my head constantly whispering "SWIFT, UVA, SWIFT, Getz" but I completely ignored all of those and went in for this car.
Right since my childhood, I never wanted to be somebody who is always in the box, instead I always nurtured my dream of becoming someone who is just out of the box and I kept on doing things the harder and different way. The catch is that not always did I succeed. But in this case I sure did.
Maruti swift would have been a common mans decision... just becuase somebody says its funky does not necessarily mean its got to be funky. I used my own senses and took a couple of days out to evaluate every possible option that I had.

Honestly, I dint even consider the Fiat anywhere in this competition. I started off with the peppy swift and went down to MyCar (wakad). Took a test ride and got impressed. Was quite determined for going in for a Swift at that time. After that on my way back I stopped at the Global Port - Pashankar auto. The one an only chevy vendor in town. I actually wanted to ride their new eye blinking small car but eventually I thought it probably might drive me crazy coz of my clostrophobic nature... too small for me to fit in. Actually its a Dawoo Matiz remake,with the same chasis, almost the same same engine(a little bit powerful) and the same (crazy) looks. The other thing that chevy had in stock for me was the UVA. UVA...great car, perfect name but... it does not feel like a chevy from inside. Something somewhere actually told me that this is big a compromise for a car as pricy as a sedan. Even for a tachometer or a rear defogger if you have to go in for the topmost model which comes at around 5.5L on road, its really not worth it. Though my company was enlisted for a huge discount I could not go in for this car.

Getz is another contender in the market that really has the urge to get but since thats a Hyundai and I was driving a Hyundai earlier only I could understand the problems of being a Hyundain. Silencer replacement is quite common thing that you require when you drive this car off city roads... not because of the quality of roads but because bad quality fuel does its part while playing with this baby. Suspension is a bit stiff too. Overall its a cheap to own and costly to maintain car.

Then I turned my eyes over the much talked about Indica XETA. Ride quality - amazing, pickup - great, accessories- splendid (including a bluetooth hands free). All packed up at a price much cheaper than its best contenders in that class... but who would want to buy Indica - the most cheapest car? (for the heck of driving/owning a car or what?) Also who would want to buy a car that looks like a cab? yeah, if you really want to go for this wait and watch... Indica is coming up with a new model shortly. so wait... it would be worth it.

In the same showroom I saw this baby parked up. Rosy red gleaming beauty with the "I can be wild" sports tag, a 100 BHP engine and alloy wheels with sports peddals... and I actually fell in love with her once I took this babe for a spin...

Just a day or two later I got my hands over this car and today I am one of the proud owners of a Palio Sport. Above are some of its pictures.

Mouse Clicker

2007-09-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Came accross this fetabulous game. Thought of hosting it over here. Give it a try... Try to beat my score of 1368.

Finally Passed!

2007-09-13T02:29:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you ever got the same feeling you used to get on your results day back in school? Well, I got one right today when I was at the post office waiting to check if my passport had come there or not. My wait for the Passport took some real ugly turns and I feel quite light from the bottom now. And when I say light from the bottom I really mean light from the bottom, and that's not a figure of speech! my purse feels much lighter than it used to be before applying for a passport.

It all began 25 days back, when I went to the police station for the address verification. I was lighter by 300 there itself. The gentleman over there made me go up and down my house which I believe was unnecessary. Though its just 4 kms from there, yet I felt it was a sheer waste of my otherwise indefatigable energy just to get some documents that even the passport department never asked me to produce. In the process, he also convinced me that he was doing a big favor by accepting my bank account statement for 6 months whereas in reality atleast 1 year bank statement is what was required. 15 days after that I went down to the Passport Office only to stand in a queue that was moving slower than the slowest tortoise in the universe. I made friends with a lot of people standing with me for those three long hours. They made me believe that I was not the only one who had applied for a passport nor was I the only one with “Urgency.” When I finally went inside the officer's room, he very politely asked me "Did you come in the morning?" and I replied him in the negative. The very next moment I was out of the office with my heart touching the dusty floors that get stamped by millions of people daily. While dragging myself out from that office, I came out to the parking lot where in helplessly I tried to get an eye over the notice boards for timings to visit the Passport Officer. To the worst of my horror, I found out that they work only between 10 to 12:30. As in so much for these 2.5 hours, right? One small Office smaller than a bathroom with a waiting place smaller than public school corridors and queues bigger than double the population of China. Now that's some good equation. So much for the Passport Department! Anyway, the next day I made it a point to reach the office at sharp 9 so as to have an edge over other being an early bird. So exactly at 9, I bolted by Pulsar at the main stand right in front of the Office, but unfortunately the queue already had got a lot of early birdies chirping to tell me that you are not the only person being a little smart. Again the double China population queue, again those small corridors and again the small offices and my big fat head! I was waiting for my turn to get through and I not only met intruders but also did I see the rest of the people in the queue bashing them in a language which probably would make my ears pull down the auto-shutter if they had one. Finally I got through after a three hours of wait. I met the PO again and showed him my receipt which was handed over to me by my agent. I guessed he was not in a good mood then and he asked me to go to the Public Relation Officer with an Outward Number from the Commissioners Office. And when it comes to the Commissioners Officer it comes to Police, and when it comes to the Police they mean a lot to the citizens. They themselves have built such a HUMBLE image in front of the entire world that nothing (else) can cause any (more) harm to it. As I entered the cube where the signboard showed Passport Department, I went inside and saw an officer over there. I enquired which would be the best desk to get my outward number for my passport. He guided me to another table and that guy guided me to yet another table and the last point where I was guided informed me that they have stopped issuing Outward numbers to public... yet very decently he asked me to wait outside. I was like waiting outside and getting a feeling of my destiny getting being up for heads or tails where in only I could be the coin. Anyways that guy wanted to make me feel lighter as well and had humble intentions (apparently) of making me lighter by 3000 which I later bargained for 1500. I begged Mercy... I tried to emotionally get hold of him by saying that I did my studies from earn and learn scheme and later was a gold-medalist as well. But the bloke just had one point... "If you are what you say you are, then in any case you'll be going outside and you are a s/w engineer... so it hardly makes a difference, right..." I actually felt like telling him "Yes, I am going there just for your 3000, what else can take me there?" What do they have in that department?? Stone-heart people!!... As in I would have myself cried over my story if I thought about that but that bloke!! Arrrrrghh!! After that, a new day, a new queue, a new officer, the same story with a small twist. I had the outward number now but my papers had not reached the office. Waahaahaaw! So much for the 1500. I went back to the commissioner's office only to find out that the guy was on leave for the week and hence to get the things done I couldn't help getting lighter by a "Gandhi's" weight… (That's what they call it).

Anyway, back to the passport office.. the guy in the new cube was a bit funny.He made me come down to his office for a couple of times and every time I submitted the same application again and again... I scribbled my signature on all the applications (Good that I kept the photocopies of the urgency application). Every time I had to convince him about the importance of the passport for my career. Finally, he called me up on Friday evening at four. As well dressed as I could be with some positive hopes, I went decently to his office only to find his peon rubbing tobacco on his big fat hand with one leg on the waiting bench and with an empty cube inside. I asked him about "Sir" and he said he already left for the day. I somehow knew that was going to happen, but I had decided that this time I would bring my passport with me, no matter what. I sat down next to him, and told him another emotional story, I was also ready to become lighter... and guess what! It worked!! He asked me to follow him to a not-so-public place and showed me the officer. I went to him. He saw me and greeted me with a big smile which actually gave me the freaks! Today he had ample of time to listen to my story, and while he was listening to my story he gave me a receipt book and asked me to fill it up for a small donation. I had only 250 bucks in my wallet. I asked him if hundred would do, and he said no, it starts from 1000, is what he said but since I look different even 500 would do. Not a big deal as in this 500 still sounded a bit decent to me as compared to my earlier encounters.

So it happened and finally they dispatched my passport. Today in the morning as I told you I went to the post office and found out that my passport had come over. They handed over the passport to me and asked me to give me some chai-pani. 50 bucks would have been just fine for the guy who walks to my place for delivering the passport. But this time I myself gave him a hundred bucks. So much for my paasport and my happiness which knew no bounds.

Who said its not easy getting a passport in India? It's as easy as it can be... Look at me, I am feeling so damn light as if I'll fly...

NOTE: This post does not encourage bribery.
This post does not challenge the working of any system.
This post may not contain any authenticated information.
This post may not contain the publisher's personal

(sp. thanks to the beautiful Medha for giving this article the final touch)

The Lucky Ali Poll

2007-09-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

Me and Vikram had a small argument today over Lucky Ali's voice. Guys please spare a minute in casting your vote. Thanks in advance.

Letter to Hathway...Where are we going with this kind of service?

2007-05-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

Respected Authority…
First of all I really wish to appreciate the service that you are providing when it comes to the cable network. Unfortunately I can’t say the same thing when it comes down to the internet service because of the following things.
My internet is not working consistently since the past week. I have paid my bills and expect the service against the same. I did call up the call centre and it did solve my problem in 24hours (which I feel is too long wait time) Yet again the problem persisted the next day. I again called up the call centre and they solved my problem again in another 12 hours. Now the problem has reproduced. That’s a big problem.
I tried to call up the call centre but of all the technical help lines that Hathway has specified on its bill, only one seems to work. That too was busy since yesterday night 1 AM to atleast 3 AM. After that I tried again in the morning and still I couldn’t get through till 10:30 AM. I wonder if it was off the hook unless.
You serve the United States with the same Call Centre.
There are millions of people like me who are facing problems.
I tired just a while ago and some call centre assistant at Hathway helped me loose my temper. I just wonder from where you get your guys recruited from.
Anyways I have a 256KBPS line at my place yet the download speed sucks big time. I stay in the building where your control room is. Expected good results because of this advantage. But seems some things are just not falling at their proper places.
The lady who calls me up for telling me that your technicians were over my place in my absence has been informed a couple of times by me to pre-inform me about their arrival so as for me to go back to my place as I stay alone, but I believe some people just don’t seem to understand. And yes, please make her learn some good phone etiquettes so as for you people to get consistent business in the area (which I doubt you would be getting with this kind of service).
Please help me resolving my problems as promptly as Mukesh Tambe sends pending billing reminders and see to it that does not reproduce again. Also since I have not used even a bit of my quota I hope my appeal of carrying forward my prepaid balance would be treated positively.
My cell number is 9822111619. Should you have any doubts or queries please do let me know. By the way, I too am saving a copy of this mail. I really don’t know if I am going to recommend Hathway in the near future to anybody.

P.S: If I would be given a chance to talk to some important guy down there at "Hathway Internet" it would be highly appreciated. Actually I am thinking up of writing a book on "how not to do business". May be he might be the best guy to talk to.

Regards,
Vishal Adsool.

FREAKIN HATHWAY INTERNET!!! GOD DAMMN!!! BULL SHIT!!!

2007-05-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Height of insanity towards customers...

None of the phone numbers that they have given on their site seem to be working.

The customer executives talk as if they are burdend to talk to us.

You can hear their loud laughs and stuff when a support call is in progress... the jokes are so funny that sometimes even the call assistants doesent hesitate in laughing out loud...

The feedback mail that I filled up on Hathways site was listed as spam!!!

Blaaady freakin Hathway!!

Stupid Ideaz!

2007-03-11T04:46:00.000-07:00

Idea Cellular won the International GSM Association award for Billing and Customer Care!!!

HAHAHAHA!!
Yeah I dont know about billing but certainly the customer care might really be worth it.... as in they hardly take any calls from any customers and they hang up when they wish to... They deserver an award for that.
What nansense!! Bikauuu!

Jago India Jago!

2007-03-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Jago India Jaggooo!!!
Following is the President of India DR. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's Speech sometimes back....

"Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T. Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours. YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.'YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India? Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr.Tinaikar, had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in heir glory and praise their system. Whe n New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money. Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians..... 'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY' Lets do what India needs from us. Forward this mail to each Indian for a change instead of sending Jokes or junk mails.
Thank you,
Dr. Abdul Kalaam (PRESIDENT OF INDIA) "

Don't disturb me now... I am kinda jolting a list of do's and dont's for this nation... are you???

Car Loan anyone???

2007-03-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

Going in for a car loan or a bike loan??... watch out for the games people play before you become the bait....
http://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/Advice_on_Auto_Loans-925047753.html
Its a tough tough tough mans world!!! the rest can barely survive... .... kudos MouthShut.com

Update:
Also see
http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=452033&confid=366

Magic of Thinking BIG

2007-03-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

Existing Pettily petty environment say lot of things.
It tells you, "whatever will be will always be", that you destiny is outside your control, that "fate" is in complete control. So forget those dreams, forget that finer home, forget that special college for the children, forget the better life. Be resigned. Lie down and wait to die!

Shushh!!! Raptivitys coming out with a new version!

2007-01-08T20:32:00.000-08:00

Waaahaahaaaaaaaw!! After making kewl and rockin "Interaction Models (IM)" (as they term it), Raptivity is again coming back with new and exciting stuff it seems....(shushhH!!)
175 IM's were really like WaaahaaHaaaaaaaaaw!! and more IM's would be like more WaaHaaaHaaaaaaaaw!!! what else do you require to convert the e from electronic Learning to e of exciting Learning... Raptivity sure is going to templatize life one day... I'd bet on that! Mann!! I am really inspired from this tool!
Well I am goin down to reserve my copy today.... maybe I'll get a better deal!

2006-12-03T04:02:00.000-08:00

Took a leisure walk on JM Road... One thing I realised, temme how many times do we really care to see whats the scene like above our heads while walking on streets infested by the haute things around? Snapped up this image on my way....

Realised that every walk in life may always give a perfect level of satisfaction as far as the environment around goes in harmony... Feels happy and satisfied with such harmony, but what really matters more is looking at life in every possible angle, maybe there might be something more that can give us more happiness. Well happiness is one thing that has not limits...

Anyways... me going to Mumbai today to recieve Vikrant!! Adios!

Conversation for this Nation! Part II

2006-11-30T23:03:00.000-08:00

Prajakta:
are ani maze baba mumbaila gele hote kaal... tithe te adakle... tyancha phone pan lagena khoop tension ale..mag ratri phone lagla .. he was fine mazya sis jade rahile ani aaj sakali ale..
my god!!
me:
I can imagine...Kay chalu aahe hya deshache yaaar...and kay honar aahe! :(
Prajakta:
yeah ... kahi khara nahi ahe ... :(.... but we cant do anything can we ... we cant change the mentality of the people...
me:
Some bloody mentality yaar...Actually the problem with our nation is that those who are wothless and workless are most of the time indulged in such activities.... and those who can actually stop all of this stuff from happening are working for good companies... Everyone takes everyother person for granted..."This aint my job..." is becoming like a punch line when it comes to social work... So yaar...Wanna leave this nation as soon as possible.
Prajakta:
are dont do that...dont run away... the future of our nation lies in our hands..atleast one good thing that we can do is stay here and work for our indian companies instead of working for the benefit of foreign companies .. And seriously Other nations want such things to happen in our country... they want to make our subcontinent unstable which is detrimental to our progress.......
me:
This is one really big never ending debatable amaing an wonderful topic... Shall talk to you in person for this.... :)
Prajakta:
yeah sure :)))....

and the conversation continues....

Dadas back in team!

2006-11-30T23:01:00.000-08:00

Me:
Dadas back in team..
Vikram:
oh yeah man !!!!!!!!!!!!
yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Me:
are you getting orgasms or something?
Vikram:
no

pata hai pakau PJ hai... but thats better than no post. :)

IP{ Conversation for the Nation!

2006-11-29T22:49:00.000-08:00

This was an IP conversation we had on on our local messanger at Harbinger today
Vikram:
////is that good news or bad news ??////

me:
//good... icicis making it big
Vikram:
//actually man !!!!
//but actually u knw what !!!
//govt. banking is smooth and very much reliable..
//there is not much help to the people if private banks take over a lot.
////certain areas like roads, electricity where the govt. only malfunctions shd be taken over by private sector !!!
//thats will make our nation progress
me:
you know what... somethings are very easy to visualize, but very hard to implement... as in an ideal nation or ideal town.... but when it comes to actual pouring money into for something... it really becomes a thirsty issue for a nation as courrupt as ours and as poor as ours... come to think of it who(as in which private body) would want to spend money over 1. A body as mismanaged as Corporations in Cities.. where doing the roads is Corporations job... 2. Who would want to share organization profit for such things... instead they'll better start(invest) over another project.... Nation? Who cares? What is this Nation doing for them? Everyone feels they are doing enough over taxes...But just incase still if they get down to do that, that would be just fantastic! Indias economy will shoot up like anything...
Vikram:
actually man !!!!!!!!

Forward!!

2006-08-03T02:26:00.000-07:00

I got this forwarded from somebody!!! Uncontrolabllyyyy humoroussss!!! Go thru it once... hatz off to the creator.

Ever wonder why….
why the sun
lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

why women can't put on mascara with
their mouth closed?

why you don't ever see the headline "Psychic Wins
Lottery"?

why "abbreviated" is such a long word?
why doctors call what
they do "practice"?

why you have to click on "Start" to stop Windows
98?

why lemon juice is made with artificial flavor, while dishwashingliquid
is made with real lemons?

why the man who invests all your money is called a
broker?

why there isn't mouse-flavored cat food?

who tastes dog food when
it has a "new & improved" flavor?

why they sterilize the needle for
lethal injections?

why they don't make the whole plane out of the material
usedfor the indestructible black box ?

why sheep don't shrink when it
rains?

why they are called apartments when they are all stuck together?

if con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

why they call the airport "the terminal" if flying is so safe?

In case you need further proof that the human race is doomed because of stupidity, here are some actual label instructions on consumer goods.
On a Sears hairdryer: Do not use
while sleeping. (darn, and that's the only time I have to work on my hair).

On a bag of Fritos: You could be a winner! No purchase necessary.

Details inside. (the shoplifter special?)

On a bar of Dial soap: "Directions:
Use like regular soap."(and that would be how???...)

On some Swanson frozen
dinners: "Serving suggestion: Defrost."(but, it's "just" a suggestion).

On Tesco's Tiramisu dessert (printed on bottom): "Do notturn upside down."
(well...duh, a bit late, huh)!

On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding: "Product
will be hotafter heating." (...and you thought????..)

On packaging for a
Rowenta iron: "Do not iron clothes onbody." (but wouldn't this save me more
time?)

On Boot's Children Cough Medicine:"Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication." (We could do a lot to reduce the rate of construction accidents if we could just get those 5-year-olds with head-colds off those forklifts.)

On Nytol Sleep Aid: "Warning: May cause
drowsiness."(and...I'm taking this because???.....)

On a Japanese food
processor: "Not to be used for the other use." (now, somebody out there, help me
on this. I'm a bit curious.)

On Sunsbury's peanuts: "Warning: contains
nuts."(talk about a news flash!)

Lifes like that!

2006-07-31T08:03:00.000-07:00

Lifes just like an MP3....
Increasing the Byte Rate increases the Quality...
For some Byte Rate might mean just Luxury...
but for some it means L O V E...
by the way... I have a very high quality MP3....
thanks to my byte rate... :)

Need more people like Prince.

2006-07-24T04:59:00.000-07:00

1 boy - 60 feet deep pit - Hundreds of Army Officials at rescue - Prayers from all over the world - from all the communities - Lime light for the boy - Funds announced by a NEWS channel for the boys total education - Government announces 2 Lakh compensation - CM visits the small but not so small pit - PM plans his visit - boy rescued after more than 48 hours - Celebrations everywhere - Anybody punished? - No - Why? - Media covering the Boys recovery, coz thats very much important to the nation - Culprit invisible(might be celebrating too) WHO CARES???the Boy got rescued nah! - 1000s of pot holes in City Roads - Millions and gillions of travellers - Lakhs and corores die coz of them - Anybody punished? - No - Why? - Medias not covering that - Why? - Coz that aint going to give them sms'es like they got for the Prince Story coverage - Come on now.... whos going to pray for death on a Pot Hole NOBODY!!! it happens only in India.

Hathway Cable Sucks!!!!

2006-05-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

This speed is what I get when I took a 256KBPs broadband from Hathway. 235 BYTES!!!!!!

These guys are THUGS!!! Dont Fall for them and their False Plans...

All their plans are Crap... and they lack professionalism... I wonder what kind of recuritment policy goes at Hathway!!

Visit Hathway

The story goes like...

Days ago I opted for Hathway and these guys promised me to lay the cable within 2 days and my billing started right after day one!! After 4 days some guys (not engineers) came over to my place to lay the cable... Minutes after that... came the people with a Modem... Motorols Surf Board.... And that to they never installed that then and their... They were gone in for good... and I had to install that myself.

Now what! It worked fine till one day and within the next 2 days some light started blinking(and there went down my internet) on the modem... After 2 days they replaced the modem.

Ohh! that was not a problem... So what would be the problem... So they replaced the cable... That dint work. So they took a direct connection from my Halls window which is 6 feet away from my PC... and spans the hall directly...

And though I can write this mail... the cable keeps bothering me all the time.

Hathway.... Please start runnin a good business.... Otherwise this kinda service is going to take you no where.

Class WannaBeHotFemales

2006-05-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hey! This is just a joke olrigh?... Myself and Vikram went down to the juice corner today and saw a girl flirting with her boyfriend(Supposebily)...
Couldnt reisit that and typed an interface which girls can implement to be Hot and happening!

Interface I_WannaB_A_Hot_Female
inherits Females.NoBrains
implements IFlirtInterface
implements ICanGoAnywhereWithYou
implements ITalkToAnyone
implements ICanChatTillYouDie
implements ICutYourPockets

public function SitHellCloseOnBikes
public function MakeBoysBegForLove
public function ShopTillBoysDrop
public function CarryMakeupBoxs
public function KeepCellPhoneBusy
public function NeverCook
public function DontDirectlySayNo
public function AskMomAndSayNo

THREAD SearchForANewBakra (constantly running)

End Interface

if you wish to then you can add more to it!!

The power of Love

2006-05-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

I love to make my dreams come true...
I live in reality to make desires....
My style is..... to achieve what I desire....
coz I can... only when she smiles...
and she always smiles when she sees me dreaming...
and That’s the power of love...

-- Vishal Adsool

Round Bottom Flas(h)k

2005-12-22T22:44:00.000-08:00

'Hesitant' is how s/w engineers become when they have to change their coding languge or are forced to do that coz they aint got an option. Everybody is resistant to changes... its quite human to do so. But coz of this change most of the times people miss their great oppourtunities to discover the boundries of their capabilities. And there is one such lingu which might make people switch onto their "No way I am not going to do that" mode, and thats ...the Macromedia Flash lingu. Well..."not so much flash" used people feel that there is not much to flash about flash but in real at least till date there is nothing in flash that does not flash coz flash is all about making a flash for the viewers. Wired sentence to read right? with really a lot of flash-flash everywhere. But as a matter of fact this sentence is not the only place where flash is hanging everywhere. Every second good site you surf has considrable amount of flash. Still Java and .NET people become hesitant to take that in hand. Using flash is more like using a Round Bottom Flask. You know that you can do all wonders using that, you can concentrate the appropriate energy at the appropriate place and become a wizard. But you really never tend to use that just because you feel it can never stand on its own on the table shelves coz of its round bottom shape. But thats not a fact. You have stands to keep that, aint you?Talk about XML support, talk about remoting, talk about garbage collection or even the understanding the finest protocol JAVA failed to understand or .NET never tried to copy from and you will find that there is almost everything in here. What it lacked once was just a good IDE. And surprizingly Flash 8 just proves to rectify what it lacked.Do you still think working in Flash is all about multimedia programming? No it aint like that...its more like making magic portions in the round bottom flas(h)k.

Roads to Pune

2005-08-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

"Every rose has a thorn" is a gellitic saying...it sure is..it sounds good.. shines...is marvelous!!!, however like people prefer an Alto to a Fronty these days just like that the saying has to be a little update as well.... to a new and a little catchy punchy saying like... "Every Road in Pune has a Thong"...surprized!!! ya but thats true. I'll expliain how. Just like behind every successful man there is a woman, people in Pune know that Behind every road there is a Fraud. The stupidious an brutious act of the illitrate and moronic people making their careers at the Pune Muncipal Corporation prevoke the tax-payers and well as the tax-savers to have an experience of roller-coasters as well as moon surfaced ride over the bumpy and pot-holish roads of Pune. I doubt if there is any pre-defined standard for making the roads and if there is then I doubt if there is an body to govern and inspect if everything is going round in the proper order or not. Come to think of it...How come only the J.M.road of Pune has got no ditches and Pot-Holes??... How?? its just because a German contruction company constructed that road for the Puneits in the late 80's and from then till now there has been almost no patchwork or Rework on that road. Why?? were there not Humans to Construct that road? or were they Aliens...well it was surely built by Aliens to
Poona and thats why they had a a mysterious characteristics.... a characteristic of Working honestly. Ask the PMC about the same and they will say that Roads are supposed to get damaged by only by bad weather and not by anything else. Well I'll say what do you call the insensible act of Digging the roads and Patching it...Bad weather??? Why cant the PMC have (Good)Engineers working for them so that their planning will make appropriate arrangements not only for the situations like bad weather but also where in a Pipe line has to be laid down or say Cabelling has to be done.In Sanskrit its said that "Vidwan sarwartwa Poojyatey"...(this means that Inteligence is honoured everywhere) but I would say not in PMC. Look at the work done by the Platinous Company of India... the Reliance....Their technology helped them not only to lay a Fiber-Optic network all over India but also to get a contract form Contries across the World.... So as such Aliens
are not really necessary even Gujjus can do. So why can the Reliance do such a good job and not the PMC. Funds??? Come on...Cut that crap. We know where most of the Funds go??? Not in the pockets...but in their thongs... coz Brave and Honest men prefer keeping money in their Pockets as the money they earn is always White money and ya... they prefer wearing Underwears to thongs unlike others. So I guess it can be rightly said that "Every Road in Pune has a Thong" except for the JM road. Come on PMC...start wearing Pocketless Jockey.

The Pan Walla Patten.

2005-08-01T04:45:00.000-07:00

Ever observed the Pan Walla carefully? He is actually the definition of a batch processing and a multi-tasking system.

Consider this Scenario:

Step 1: You place your request at the pan-walla for...say a 4 magai pan.
Step 2: He confirms your request.
Step 3: Starts making your pans.....by adding stuff to the bettle leaves....like Gulkand,Kaat, Limestone. by the order they are placed on the Big Round Golden plate.
Step 4: There comes another person and says that he wants 1 BlahBlah pan.
Step 5: He stop servicing your pans and started 1 pan from the scratch till they reach the same level.
Step 6: Again if another request comes then in that case if the earlier pans are almost done in that case he puts this request in buffer and continues with the earlier pans else he repeats steps 5 and 6 changing the values.

This thing can go in much deeper.... as in setting the values to be changed.... like controlling the max number of Pans to be prepared at a time. But if we take this as a pattern for Software development we will realize that we have already been using this pattern....The Batch Processing pattern.... and now that we know the panwalla pattern we can enhance that more by imagining the things properly with a panwallas holographic reference....like a circular que... Buffered request.

Guess what the panwalla just helped another s/w engineer.