Toastmasters Videos!

Hi Friends,
I've been upto something lately.. Toastmasters.
Managed to get some videos up on youtube after lots of conversions n editing.. here's 2 of them!
Pls comment, and if you're on youtube, pls go to the original URL and rate the videos!

This is my 5th speech, the Illusion of Reality:



And this one's from our Installation ceremony.. when I was appointed VP membership of my club:



To know more about my club, check out:
http://jpkutoastmasters.bravehost.com/

What's toastmasters?? Find out on:
http://www.toastmasters.org/

Harry Potter - The Musical!

All Harry Potter fans out there, there's a new play just uploaded on Youtube

MUCH better than the movies, rib-ticklingly awesome...

Harry Potter - The Musical !!
These people had starred in the movies, then they wouldn't have been so oppressive! Amazing humour, and all the harry potter quips rolled into one! This was a one-show play done free of cost, that will never be done again... fortunately it was taped and now it's rocking the internet!
Note: listen with headphones on or with really loud speakers.

http://www.youtube.com/user/StarKidPotter

It's right now the 2nd-most subscribed youtube channel this week... Let's make it number 1! Subscribe and start watching right away!

Gujju + Punjabi wedding!

Jigar Pathak's Wedding 13-14 June 2009

HOW TO use Google Maps on your cell without internet connection

Google Maps is a terrific application. It gets even more awesome when you have it on your cellphone.
However, there's a catch... internet connection is a must. And, since it's all images, Google Maps is a pretty high volume app, continuously downloading some 100 kbs of data for everytime we move on the map! They do have a cache size but it's pathetically small, and invariably we need to dload when we move the map from A to B.

I thought there's no other way, until I came across this free mobile app: Mobile GMaps.
It's made by somebody else, open source, free, and it has truly empowered me by freeing me from my oppressively priced mobile net connection, and giving me the entire detailed road map of NCR region right on my cell phone!!

Do YOU want this on yours?? Well, of course you do! Here's how:

Help a cause-Let's invest socially! www.rangde.org

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime"

Charity.... doesn't work. Why? Because, you make the receivers of charity dependent on it. That's the reverse of independence. Noble as the intentions are, it's a one-time event where you lose money and the receiver doesn't get sustained support. To truly empower the lower sections of society, we have to do something to make them independent. And charity isn't the answer here.

http://rangde.org/rangde.htm
Instead, it would be better to make a small investment for social cause... we get the money back as this is not charity, but social investment in small-time entrepreneurs. Little as rs.500 also makes a huge difference. You can register yourself, and put in some amt using ur debit card. (I used hdfc netsafe.. it makes a virtual prepaid debit card with limited amt that's one-time use only... safety first)

We get the money back after about 1 yr . So what the heck, put in rs.500 at least, you're going to get it back anyways and you'll have made a big difference in someone's life as well!
 
So far they've had 100% rate of return, which is far better than most stocks today. It's based on a micro-credit system that was pioneered Bangladesh and won a Nobel prize for the enormous scale of upliftment it brought about in that country. These guys are trying to replicate that success here in india, over an online platform that instantly connects people with spare cash to hundreds of small time entrepreneurs who need the capital and will return that money once their business gets started. It circumvents the high interest rate borrowing system that is based in greed and is responsible for the present worldwide recession. Instead this platform promotes a nobler way of doing business by making maximum use of the wealth already available in society and generating more, without anybody's loss.

Ps:- pls "support" Harsh Thakkar from TCS Gurgaon who introduced us to this initiative and is running a 10K marathon for it this May 31st in Bangalore. See his blog, http://uniqideas.wordpress.com for details.
When you're making the investment on rangde, you'll see a Support button; click that and select Harsh from the dropdown and then proceed with your investment.

Cooliris

This one's the icing on the cake for all Firefox lovers... Now browse through image searches, photo albums, even youtube in total ISHTYLE!! Check out the Cooliris Add-on which converts a placid webpage into a 3D wall of pictures and videos!
The picture here is a cooliris view of one of my photo albums in picasa.

Poem about thin people

Friends, Healthy Dames, Lend me your fat,
For I am too thin and that's a fact!

My body disposes of every nutrition thrown at it
I've been called Skeletor and sometimes I really look like it

All those great-looking body-hugging tees, they melt my heart
Though if I put one on, I certainly won't look the part!

I can't feel my hands and feet in winters cold
While upon me many times my shirt will fold

When I stuff in more food to balance my BMI,
The signs aren't good, like floating interest on an EMI

My system suddenly reacts, disposes of the excess mass.
In forms of solids, liquids and, well, even Gas!

While most humans can stay afloat in water high enough to gulp air,
My Low-Vol, HD physique makes me sink like a wreck in the seas of despair.

My bones are always knocking about in the auto, bus or on the bike,
And don't make me go horseback or I shall jab the creature like a spike!

And coming back to clothes, O, you don't know the agony..
With all the cool clothes on, I'd look just like an exhibit of anatomy..
Not a jeans will fit well, either too baggy or not going under the knee.
Even a shirt with the right length of sleeves has a torso wide enough for two of me

What to do, 't was God's wish for me to be alag from the rest,
While the rest pray to shed it, I pray for just a little more, then I'd look my best!

We're all screwed one way or the other, do you get the gist
Heck, at least you don't have to see a child's fingers encircle your wrist!

Recent news events: what if we connect the dots?

Have you seen the movie, "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004)?

It includes a part where some choppers flying in the UK suddenly get caught up in an extreme drop in temperatures, get iced, and drop out of the sky.
The film was a total work of fiction which drew heavily upon prevailing scientific opinion, but was criticized for over-the-top predictions. The main criticisms from scientists was the time-scale. They said all these things were not possible in the short span of hours the movie shows, and that the extent wouldn't be so exaggerated.

Nature may be a little more imaginative.

'Ice build-up' on crashed plane http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7889764.stm

"The crew of a plane that crashed in New York state killing 50 people noticed "significant ice build-up" on its wings before it crashed, investigators say.

Analysis of data recorders recovered from the scene shows the plane made a series of severe pitches and rolls seconds before plunging into a house. "

HOW TO use torrents

Hi ppl,
This post is dedicated to my sis who now has to utilise our broadband connection at home without my expertise (ahem!)....
If you already know all about torrents, then kindly move on ;)

TORRENTS FOR DUMMIES (lol!!)

About bit torrent: It's a new way to share files over the net anonymously.
What's it used for: Movies, Softwares, entire seasons of your favourite TV series, etc. Basically anything that's popular with over 100 ppl & above 50MB in size.

HOW TO Download Youtube Videos - a dummy's guide

Edit : See this article, it's got a better way:
http://nikhilsheth.blogspot.in/2012/06/using-bytubed-in-firefox-to-download.html

Hi ppl!
This one's dedicated to everyone who has wished they could somehow save those great videos they saw in youtube, dailymotion, metacafe, etc to their comp so they could watch it again & again without wasting bandwidth or having to wait so long for it to load the next time. Too many people have told me that it's impossible to save youtube videos. Really? let's find out...

DOWNLOADING YOUTUBE VIDEOS FOR DUMMIES

There's 2 ways to do this: 1)Copy-paste , 2)Use a firefox extension

Mass Face tagging on Picasa web albums!

Face Recognition Comes to Picasa Web Albums Much Before Windows Live Gallery from Digital Inspiration

Having trouble with docx, xlsx files?

So many people are having this problem in office nowadays: the latest Office 2007 saves in their new formats by default; we mail it without seeing the extension. Then where we need it the most, voila! The file's not recognised by the older version of Office!

Following websites can help you out... upload the office-2007 file and get it converted to the regular old one immediately. But caution for confidential info

Excel sheets: convert .xlsx to .xls: www.sheetconvert.com
Word docs: convert .docx to .doc: www.docx2doc.com/converters/docx-to-doc
Powerpoint: Sorry, didn't find anything online for that!

But in case you can install this on the target machine, there's a 27.5MB compatibility pack released by Microsoft:

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

There is another way to recover at least the textual content from .pptx files... mail the file as an attachment to your Gmail account, then view as HTML. You won't get any of the images or animations or sounds, though. But in an extreme case this should be enough to rebuild your presentation.
Source of this idea:
Convert docx and other Office 2007 files to HTML with Gmail from Digital Inspiration

Arthur C Clarke

Hi ppl, sorry if u may find this post a bit long-winded, but i owe this one.. One of my most respected idols passed away recently. His "Odyssey" novels, and other short stories opened my mind to a world that's wondrous & very much within our reach, his ideas and philosophies were instrumental in giving me such an optimistic view of our world, not of what has been but of what can be. Here's a little obituary i've compiled for him..
A line from 2001 - A Space Odyssey, about space exploration:

"After ten thousand years, man had at last found something as exciting as war."

Amen to that!

Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90.
some excerpts from the article:
Sir Arthur's detailed descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems inspired millions of readers.
When asked why he never patented his idea for communication satellites, he said: "I did not get a patent because I never thought it will happen in my lifetime."
In the 1940s, he maintained man would reach the moon by the year 2000, an idea dismissed at the time.
He was the author of more than 100 fiction and non-fiction books, and his writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction a human and practical face. He collaborated on the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey with the film's director Stanley Kubrick.

another link: Tributes by readers on bbc.com

Childhoods End was the first book I read of his, just before leaving secondary school. Then I got my hands on Rendezvous with Rama and I was hooked. The further books, Rama 2, Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed were pardon the pun "out of this world". Arthur had had a way of transporting you into his books; you too were living his dream. Those are the best i've ever read. I've said for years that they should make a film /films out of the Rama books. Maybe now's the time? RIP Arthur, job done.
Kevin Seurre, Croydon

I'll remember him for his predictions on future technology, his cracking good stories and the fact that his novels give you a sense of belief that everything will probably turn out OK for the human race in the long run.
Marc Whiteley

Arthur C Clarke, should be remembered not only as one of the greats of British Science Fiction, but also as a visionary who's imagination foresaw the modern world, and in doing so stimulated people to become science professionals.
The world is a lesser place with out him.
Tony Shaw, Langdale

Sir Arthur's dreams and visions greatly influenced my life, He humbled me on many occasion, a dreamer as vast as the Universe's he wrote of. I've read many of his stories short and long and still have many to enjoy, His works of the unknown, the simplicity and complications, the good and evils, the uglyness the beautys of our race our world and many others constantly brings me joy and even enlightenment. What he saw in his mind and dreams I am gratefull for him sharing,Thank you.To the stars Sir
Shawn, Essex

As a young boy growing up in the depressed Britian of the 1970's, Arthur C. Clarke's book "Islands in the Sky" opened my eyes to an amazing and very possible future. Although the book was written in 1952 it's themes resonated with me then in the Apollo era and even now its future has not yet been fully realised. For me the exploration of space and the deeper understanding of the Universe is one of mankinds greatest achievements. Some great SF to pass the time whilst reality catches is a bonus!
Steven Ridley, New York

Arthur C Clarke: predictions Another good read!
Arthur C. Clarke Quotes

"I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about."

HOW TO remove Viruses or worms from ANY USB drive

Hi guys, wow it's been long since my last post.. lots of things have happened.. joined a job, and now i'm posted in Gurgaon near Delhi.
Well, this post is of a technical nature, so let's jump right to it.

How many of you have ever experienced this: You use your USB/portable drive in a net-cafe, office, school or even your friend's place, and voila! It catches a virus, which subsequently spreads to every computer that USB drive goes in. It's a severe problem.. and it's becoming the norm now.. almost every net-cafe you go to (at least the 1s i've seen in pune, hyderabad & gurgaon) will infect your USB drive. People keep saying "it's got a virus, and my antivirus is helpless against it".

But here's a heads-up: It's NOT a virus. It's actually a parasitic but relatively harmless worm (yes, we're still talking about computer programs here.. i hope no med-student stumbles across this page!). What's the difference? read on...

Viruses infect OTHER files, like html and .doc files. With security measures stepped up over the last decade, they're all but extinct now. Worms, on the other hand, are stand-alone .exe programs which a victim needs to explicitly RUN, ie, double-click it, etc. The worm will betray its presence by its .exe extension. There's new ones popping up all over the place, so naturally all antiviruses can't keep up. Plus, these guys that spread thru USB, don't do actual damage to your system, which is why it doesn't always ring the alarm bells.

Still, it's dangerous.. some of them open up ports that can let a hacker in, others may reroute your browser.. Hey I don't know what these worm-makers are up to, or how exactly they install themselves onto every netcafe I visit, But I know how to STOP them in their tracks. I've removed these viruses manually from over a hundred USB-drives by now, without using any sophisticated paid-subscription antivirus or removal tools, etc. All it takes is a little restraint.. from double-clicking yourself into a mess. Read on..

OK, now here's a troubling fact: many versions of this virus (it's a worm! oh, what the heck..) are not detected by some popular free antiviruses like mine. But that doesn't mean you should junk the otherwise excellent freeware and go chain yourself to a paid version. Follow these steps and show those troublemakers that humans aren't always the weakest link in a security chain.

1. Do this step BEFORE inserting the USB. This involves a little system tweaking, but there's no chance of any damage. Open My Computer. In the menu, go to Tools>Folder Options, then hit the View tab. Under Advanced settings,
1.1. Choose "Show hidden files & folders"
1.2. Check OFF "Hide extensions for known file types"
1.3. Check OFF "Hide protected operating system files" (and just say yes to the warning-dialog)

Ok, now you have a completely transparent system. Any virus(worm) you see will betray itself with its .exe extension at the end.

2. Insert the USB Drive. While inserting the drive, press & hold Shift key for atleast 10 seconds. That'll override the autorun process.

3. Open My Computer. On the flash-drive's icon, instead of double-clicking, Right-Click and Open or better yet Explore (avoid the "auto(0)" like options at all costs, that would install the virus onto your system). This will open the USB drive like an ordinary folder, without activating the virus.

4. Search & destroy the following things:

4.1. Autorun.inf : You can open this file in notepad first without risk.. it'll show u how it operates the virus. Delete this file & all such files in any subsequent folders.

4.2. RECYCLER or RECLYCLED folder: Hard drives have these, they're the Recylce Bin's depository, and usually hidden. But USB drives do not need these. They're the ones holding the main virus file. delete them. ignore any warnings.

4.3. folder-iconed .exe files: Some viruses don't make these in your USB drive, but others do. And believe me, it's a pain. Going into the folders, you may notice a .exe file having the icon of a folder, and the same name as the container folder, or some other file. Here the trick is revealed: if we hadn't done step 1, the .exe extension wouldn't have been seen, we would've thought it's just another folder. If you can't check off the "known file types" (refer 1.2) for some reason, then click "Folders" on the toolbar to see the folder-tree. there you'll see that the viruses are absent.. , Delete ALL such exe files. A quick way of doing it would be to Search for all .exe files in the USB and deleting them off in 1 go.

HOW TO Downgrade your Laptop from Vista to XP Professional - Part One

I recently bought a HP Compaq Presario V6450EE that came pre-loaded with Vista. Right now, i think Vista can be best compared with an affair with a hot mistress : it may look simply jaw-dropping great, but it's damn hard to get things done with it, and at the end of the day you find out its loyalty lies not with you but with its former billionaire master.

That said, i naturally had to 'downgrade' it to XP Professional, whose cd i fortunately still had. Now, 'downgrading' doesn't really exist in microsoft's lingo, and it's up to us real computer-users to stuff it down their throats and show them their place. As u'd expect, there's several hassles on the way. U could lose your laptop and even your hair over it. I scoured the net for this, but nearly everywhere there were accounts of the hassles involved. Still, for me there was no other option: it was either XP, or sheer hell with vista which is Sooo slow even with a 1GB RAM.

PART ONE: INSTALLING XP
First thing all new laptop-buyers will notice is this: no OS-restore cd like the good old times, and secondly, only one hard disk, with D: drive being a backup. Like i was gonna keep my precious star trek collection on the same drive as vista, yeah right! Needing to create multiple partitions was one of the reasons i decided to format this vista thingy. Now, here's a highly technical series of steps, get back to me if u don't understand some of it.

HOW TO Downgrade your Laptop from Vista to XP Professional - Part Two

..continued from "HOW TO Downgrade your Laptop from Vista to XP Professional - Part One"...

May 2013 Update: Seems some of the links listed below are broken. Go to http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&os=228&product=3177516&sw_lang=& to download all the drivers for this family of laptops (Presario V6000 series)

Ah.. we've finally managed to sneak XP into a system pre-installed with vista. And now the microsoft guys come back with a vengeance.. in the form of missing drivers. This is where the REAL problems start... locating all the myriad drivers that your laptop needs. I scoured the net for such walk-throughs, and failed.. almost everyone has managed to falter over here. Someone couldn't get the sound to work, others couldn't fix the screen, the list goes on. By lots of trial-and-error, after about 3 days & 300 mbs of downloaded drivers, i was finally able to get all the drivers required by my laptop. Most are specific components needing a particular type of driver available only with the laptop-manufacturer. So, this Part 2 is brand-specific: since i own a HP Compaq Presario, the drivers mentioned below are hp-specific. But even if you own a different brand, read through this to get an idea of what stuff you need to gather before the big downgrade.

HP Laptop: Compaq Presario V6450 / V6xxx XP Drivers
These are the drivers that hp SHOULD be giving in a cd or something alongwith every laptop. If you wipe-out your laptop's hard disk (vista makes that necessary!) and install XP professional, These are most of the drivers you'll be needing to install to get your system started. And just to make things interesting, HP doesn't list these in most laptops' driver-downloads page, nor does it give the exact names of its internal devices like network cards or card readers.

Before we start, A few things to remember: during drivers-installation, if the 'Found New harware Wizard' pops up anytime, just ignore it completely! If it lasts till after the driver's installation, just hit cancel.
And almost every driver you install will require for windows to be restarted. Do it, don't whine. Remove any boot cd from your drive (which will be there if you just installed XP!) And when downloading the setup files from the net, put in the driver's name in the Save As box, otherwise you'll get confused which file is for what. (since they're all named like SPxxxx.exe)

About Jainism

Lots of friends have asked me about being a Jain and i admit i haven't been able to get through to most of them. Most just hear about our strict vegetarianism, and sign off with that. I've always wanted to show how it's more than that.. how there's something deeper and more divine to Jainism than just being vegetarian. I myself don't know many of the scriptures and meanings. Fortunately, TOI's Speaking Tree has published an article about Jainism today... For those who wanna know what Jainism is really about, read ahead!

Celebrate Forgiveness: Kshamavani Divas

Shugan C Jain

Kshamavani Parva celebrates forgiveness as a way to a life of love, friendship, peace and harmony. When you forgive, you stop feeling resentful; there is no more indignation or anger against another for a perceived offence, difference or mistake; there is no clamour for punishment. It means the end of violence.
Jains classify forgiveness as: gifted by the one who forgives, earned by the one seeking it, and natural as a part of our divine nature. Forgiveness can be earned by request or prayer, pratikramana or confession and penitence, and prayascitta or willingness to suffer consequences.
Natural forgiveness, on the other hand, is automatic and effortless as it emanates from pure soul or paramatma, illustrating the dictum that to err is human, to forgive is divine.
Mahavira said we should forgive our own soul first. To forgive others is a practical application of this supreme forgiveness. It is the path of spiritual purification. Mahavira said: “The one whom you hurt or kill is you. All souls are equal and similar and have the same nature and qualities”. Ahimsa Paramo Dharma. Anger begets more anger and forgiveness and love beget more forgiveness and love. Forgiveness benefits both the forgiver and the forgiven.
Jain seers advise: “It is my bad karmas yielding results now even though i have not caused harm to him. So i must perform penance. I am the doer of my karmas and the enjoyer of their results”. It is the weak who give in to anger. The daily duties of all Jains include pratikramana and prayascitta. Every year, the month of Bhadra is considered holy and the last 18 days of the month are observed as either Paryusana or Das Laksan Parva.
On the last day, Kshamavani Divas, the resounding theme is: “Miccha me dukkadam” — “We ask forgiveness for any harm we may have caused you, by thought, word, or action, knowingly or unknowingly”; “Khamemi savve jiva” — “I grant forgiveness to all living beings”; “Savve jiva khamanatu me” — “May all living beings grant me forgiveness”; “Metti me savve bhuyesu” — “My friendship is with all living beings” and “Vairam majham na kenai” — “My enemy is totally non-existent”.
In Buddhism, forgiveness is seen as a practice to prevent harmful emotions from causing havoc on one’s mental well-being: “In contemplating the law of karma, we realise that it is not a matter of seeking revenge but of practising metta or loving kindness, mudita, upekkha and karuna to avoid generating resentment, and then seek forgiveness. If we haven’t forgiven, we keep creating an identity around our pain, and that is what is reborn. That is what suffers”.
Jesus Christ, when being crucified prayed to God to forgive his tormentors as they “know not what they do”. The concept of confession and seeking absolution, and ending prayers by seeking forgiveness and the Lord’s blessings are applications of the principle of forgiveness.
In Islam, Allah is described as “the most forgiving”. Jews observe a Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Just prior to Yom Kippur, Jews will ask forgiveness of those they have wronged during the year. Mahatma Gandhi forgave his assassin even as he was dying. His practice of non-violence and satyagraha is based on the principle of forgiveness.
Those who forgive are happier and healthier than those who are resentful, say studies. Forgiveness is part of ahimsa; it helps us overcome anger and hatred.
The writer is founder-director, International School for Jain Studies, New Delhi.

Satyagraha In Burma!

How many times have you heard people saying that satyagraha & non-violence can't work in today's world? A little-known country in east asia is about to put that contention to the test!

The centuries-old wisdom of Buddhism has pitted itself against one of the most brutal military rulers on the planet. They are taking on a heavily armed ruthless army with literally nothing but prayers. Thousands of protesters - buddhist monks, who are highly revered & respected for their benevolence & peaceful way of life both in Burma and abroad - are being intimidated, arrested, and brutally beaten up with rifle butts while you read this. And still all the protests till date remain peaceful & non-violent, reminding one of the golden days of India's struggle for freedom.
As citizens of not just our country but of humanity, it becomes our duty to know what's happening and spread the word. That may be the only way to prevent the Burmese massacre of 1988 from happening again.

Our leaders in India have called this an 'internal affair' and don't wanna talk about it when they should actually be at the forefront to bring the dictatorship to see common sense. Remember, once upon a time India's struggle for independence had been termed an 'internal affair' of the British Empire. How ironical that today Britain itself is calling for action against the military rulers of Burma/Myanmar when the world's biggest democracy is keeping its mouth shut while peaceful protesters die! It makes me feel there are more true Indians on Burma's streets than there are in our parliament.

Please step out of sports hysteria and find out what's going on behind the front pages!
see & read these latest articles:
Burma protests: Your pictures
Burma monasteries in night raids
Accounts from inside Burma
Burma cyber-dissidents crack censorship

And see this one too on Avaaz.org (an online petition being sent directly to political leaders)

Get aware of the real news, the stuff that matters. Forward this mail. Blog this issue. Make our leaders sit up & take notice. And let's finally make good use of the Internet!


Quotes from eyewitnesses, as told to the BBC:

Now the military junta is reducing the internet connection bandwidth and we have to wait for a long time to see a page. Security forces block the route of demonstrations. Yesterday night, the junta announced to people in Rangoon and Mandalay not to leave their houses 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM. I think if the junta decides, they will cut off communication such as internet and telephone lines so that no information can be leaked to the outside world. David, Rangoon

At about 10 o'clock the riot police blocked the road, but the monks pushed through the blockade and climbed the Shwedagon pagoda from the eastern side. After eating there, they came down from the pagoda about noon, in a line. At that point they were rounded up and charged with batons by the police. The monks responded merely by reciting prayers. People fled from the scene and it was mainly women who were targeted and beaten. The mob was dispersed and some people were arrested. Near the eastern stairway, tear gas was used to disperse the crowd. The monks - together with monks from Thingangyun - are said to march towards downtown. About thirty monks were badly hurt and hospitalised. Anonymous eyewitness, Rangoon

At 13:00 a silent and orderly line of several thousand monks has passed at the bottom of the street where my office is located. Not a sound from them, a calm and determined march. Traffic blocks up, buses and taxis open their doors, people stream out and go towards the marchers at an unusually quick pace. People just leave their cars at the side of the road. At the same time, while the sun is burning down, there are huge dark-grey clouds in the sky and loud thunder cracks over their heads. Win, Rangoon

Peace Dividend

This Article was published in today's Times of India, on the occasion of International Peace Day.
written by Sheena Sobti, a student of class XI, DPS, R K Puram, New Delhi.

We stand at a crossroads today, witnessing the greatest technological advancements of all time, and yet at the risk of losing all we have built over the centuries. This selfimposed threat comes from rising unrest and chaos in our world. It is ironic that in an age considered more sophisticated than all the preceding world orders, we are simplistic enough to overlook what was given prime importance even in the ancient world — peace. And we are in grave danger of paying an unimaginable price for this neglect. No development can be sustainable in the lack of peace — be it peace without, or peace within. The scourge of war and social tension can take an indescribable toll on material and moral wealth. Strife is an impediment not only to the prosperity of nations, but also for the overall advancement of individuals. The very religions that were founded to bring us closer to peace are now being misused for just the opposite reasons. Terrorism has reared its ugly head and looms large over all modern nations. Communalism imperils the unity and integrity of each country, and insignificant issues are raked up and made the bone of contention between faiths. Racism encourages separatism and liberation movements, which are prolonged for years and involve unnecessary bloodshed.
It is indeed paradoxical that in this age of globalisation, when the world is nothing but a global village and information technology has made boundaries of state and nation a non-entity, we continue to restrict ourselves to barriers of nationality, caste, creed or race. The shackles of discord can only be broken if each and every one of us rises to the occasion and recognises, as John F Kennedy rightly said, that “mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind”. If there is to be peace on earth, it must begin within us. Religious and political leaders are at an immensely influential position to bring about world peace. The former can do so by highlighting the universality of each creed, the latter by merging nations into one complete family. Peace is a journey of a thousand miles, and it must be taken one step at a time. Let us begin with our own little step, and see what a world of difference that makes.

When a teenager shows more wisdom in thought than our experienced leaders do in action, we should sit up and take notice. Let's do away with the seniority concept in politics, because after all a 'seasoned politician' is just another loser, incapable of changing himself or the system.

Mobile-to-mobile calls: the ultimate future of mobile telephony?

Our modern-day cell phones are more limited than walkie-talkies made over 40 yrs ago! Don't believe that? read on..
Consider these situations and locations: Bhuj in the Gujarat earthquake, regions around south Asia after the december-04 tsunami, Mumbai and rural maharashtra in the 2005 floods. There were people trapped & in need of food, medical attention at out-of-sight locations in all these situations, many of them had working cell-phones with them, but most couldn't call for help as the nearest cell phone towers were knocked out, there was no network coverage. Now, imagine this: what if all these people had, instead of the latest cell phones, a 30-yr-old walkie-talkie, ? This may not have all the hi-fi features, but at least you could contact anyone receiving the same frequency in a very wide area, with minimal battery power used! To be able to contact a far-away rescue team, giving them the exact location and number of survivors, could have really saved several lives. But how is it, that today's modern cell phones, with all their advanced technology, can't get you out of such a life-or-death situation when a 40 yr-old relic could have?

This is an unfortunate result of some bad telecom planning.. in the interest of keeping constant revenues, telecom infrastucture makes you completely dependent on the network and subsequently on a small bunch of fallible communication towers. Now, every cell phone out there surely has the basic technology required to communicate with other radio devices some kms away. Imagine this: in the event of a disaster, if people's cell phones could communicate with each other instead of depending on a network and relay messages effectively to the rescue teams. Even if there was only one working cell phone at every 1 km distance, relaying messages could mean connectivity with the most remote of areas! The potential benefits in times of crisis are so vast that you'd think why this hasn't been already applied, after all it would be the natural next step in communications after the walkie-talkie.

Unfortunately, with a business climate worldwide wanting to earn revenue on telecom, the phone-to-phone idea was given a silent burial. It's perfect capitalistic sense: by shackling the phones in the most complex of protocols, authorisation and authentication, the mobile communication towers would be the point of passing and hence of revenue. Imagine a normal everyday situation: two people sitting in adjoining buildings, just a wall apart, and they can't contact each other because the network coverage is low. Wouldn't it be much simpler if the two cell phones could just search for and communicate with each other? Thankfully some companies are waking up to the glaring hole in common sense.. read this news article from bbc.co.uk:

Mobile system promises free calls

As expected there's stiff opposition, without any foresight towards the above mentioned problems whatsoever, from service providers who know that with the revival of such basic techniques for communication, their revenues will surely dwindle. Just as well.. it's already ridiculous that we pay so much for services in an industry that's almost wholly automated! The service providers are literally reaping a harvest from their high revenues for sms's.. a service that's charged pretty disproportionate to its actual cost of operation. And since there's few employees, the major wealth goes to the few owners instead of the local populace. A capitalist's dream indeed!

Right now they're actually fighting tooth and nail for regulations (read: shackles) against VOIP which basically lets one make almost free phone calls anywhere using the internet, and popular free peer-to-peer applications like skype. Let's hope they don't win over the general interests of the people. I believe the next communication revolution is going to include the inevitable fall of revenues of major service providers with the proliferation of unit-to-unit communication. With the technology for effective peer-to-peer mobile communication ready, let's hope we get to see truly free phone calls in a few years!

BARF Compression: holy grail or goose chase?

I was surfing a community in orkut and came across this poll about BARF compression.. Followed the link to a nice blog and from there to http://cs.fit.edu/~mmahoney/compression/barf.html

It's apparently a new open-source compression which can reduce any file by at least one byte. Taking that recursively, it's theoretically possible to reduce any file, no matter how big, to 1 or even 0 bytes. I was amazed at the possibilities that this 1-byte compression can have..( Imagine 700mb-movies fitting in a byte!) and downloaded barf.exe and got started right away. 10 minutes on I realized the secret.. I'm sorry to say this, mate, but it's a TRICK! Like any magic trick, the missing bytes have been stored somewhere else discretely.

Let me explain how I found out:
1. same as other guys who've tried, i took a new notepad file, a.txt, wrote abcdefg in it.
2. compressed it 4 times. I noticed how the filename got appended by an extension everytime. When it truly compressed larger files it was just a .x , but once the reduce-by-1-byte game begins, 3-letter extensions come in. That raised my doubts, that there might be some pattern to the so-called random extension..
3. i renamed the last extension of the compressed file (which now read only "efg" in notepad) by changing the digit in it. And then resumed the decompression back to 7 bytes, to the original a.txt filename.
4. Now the a.txt file which read "abcdefg" before has become "abcHefg"! how did 'd' get replaced by 'H' ??
5. It's becoz i changed one extension mid-way thru, and IT was storing the missing byte, and thus the original data was altered!

There's a quicker way to see this.. If you have downloaded the barf compressor then use these steps to expose the trick
1. In the same folder as barf.exe, make any file a.txt, write "abcd" in it. (sans quotes)
2. Now rename it to "a.txt.x9o"
3. >barf d a.txt.x9o //on the command prompt
4. now the new "a.txt" has 1 more byte, and it reads japanese here on my pc..
5. still not had enough? Do >barf c a.txt //at the prompt again
6. I'll pay u big money if the output file from this compression isn't named "a.txt.x9o" and it doesn't contain your original data!

What this means: There's no bloody compression here, all it did was replace the first byte inside the file with a 3-letter extension (4, including the dot)! This way the file itself maybe compressed, but the computer's file-registry (or whatever they call it in the FAT/NTFS hard drives) has to carry 4 more bytes (there's a dot too) In short you're just passing along information between file & filename which is stored by the OS somewhere else. In the end the system's space occupied gets bigger, and this is purely useless transferring it thru internet.. The filename will itself take more time going thru than the original file!

So, sorry guys & taran in particular, but there's no miraculous way here to turn your 700mb movie into a 1-byte file.. if you try it, you're gonna end up with a file having.. (700x1024x1024 -1) extensions in it! your OS will commit suicide before that happens.. we know it can't allow filenames to go beyond a certain range.
The BARF will initially compress a file as best as it can & put a ".x" extension to it, but this is worse than other compressors. I tried it on a 9.36KB .csv file.. After 2 compressions with barf, the file had a .csv.x.x extension and weighed 7.10KB. But the same .csv , thru winrar, became only 3.63KB. Once you see the 3-letter extensions come instead of .x, you'll know it's just fooling with you!

Sign the Petition to stop the iraq war

I've recently signed an online petition launched by Avaaz.org -- some of the people partly behind the recent LiveEarth concerts worldwide. I've also posted a video made by them previously ("stop the clash of civilisations").
Please read this article on the current REAL situation in iraq, backed by real facts and not rhetoric

Iraq's humanitarian catastrophe: the facts and figures

And then sign an online petition here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/au_secours_iraq/
Just give your name & email addr, and trust me these are the good guys, u won't need to do any verification procedure or get any spams from them.

This crisis is too real to be ignored, and action needs to be taken without any thirst for revenge or pride, else we all risk committing the same mistakes the US administration did. Here's a quote from the email that Avaaz is sending to members :

Dear friends,

With hundreds of thousands killed, 4 million homeless, and massive ethnic cleansing, Iraq is not just a political disaster-- it is now the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world. But this week, incredibly, US President Bush and General Petraeus will claim their approach is working, and refuse to change their devastating course. It's time for the world to step in.

Over 100,000 of us have already signed the "NEW Plan" for Iraq – calling for a UN-brokered diplomatic solution and a full US withdrawal, but we need a major power to support the plan. Of all the world powers, France has led opposition to the war. It could be the strongest voice to call for international action as most world leaders converge on the UN next week for its annual summit.

Remember: the devil is always in the details! Don't shape your opinion based on a fact-less 30-second commentary you just saw on TV.. Those guys are just TRP-mongers. It's the 24-hr news channels that fooled americans into believing in their war in the first place. They're gonna say one thing one day and something totally different the next. The typed word is still the world's most authentic & credible form of news... read it in national & global newspapers and their websites (i recommend www.bbc.co.uk.. they show feedback by readers too on the same page).
Let's do our bit to make a difference, right now.

NASA going the wrong way: let's not follow them

I found this article in an online student journalism magazine from Boston : "SciTini". Here's the link:

NASA's Moon Shot is a Blank

If you read this post then make sure your read the article too.
It illustrates a very evident phenomenon seen in govt administrations all over the world nowadays: they seem to be dumbing down more than ever. Facts are being replaced by rhetoric, and detailed explanations are giving way to bulleted lists and points.

This is turning out as a serious crisis for NASA, whose decisions ought to be based more on scientific pursuit than rhetoric. Now, several of their critical scientific study projects are being shelved and the resources being diverted to simpler, though admittedly more 'exciting' projects like the manned mars mission. The devil, as always, lies in the details.
here's a quote from the link above:

Six earth science programs are set to be sacrificed this year: Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), Atmospheric Soundings from Geostationary Orbit (ASGO), Ocean Vector Winds (OVW), Landsat Data Continuity Bridge Mission, Glory, and the Wide Swatch Ocean Altimeter, measuring precipitation, temperature and water vapor, wind speed and direction near the ocean’s surface, land cover, solar irradiance, and sea level height, respectively. Together these missions would paint a highly detailed and in-depth look at many factors related to climate change that would be invaluable not only to climate science but to humanity at large.

Projects that would contribute so much to the common man right now are being sacrificed for less serious ones. The reason why not many people are getting alarmed is because now, more often than before we tend to skip the details. Someone who has no idea about any complex, scientific unmanned missions (and doesn't want to) will naturally choose the more expensive but simpler, more 'manly' (for want of a better word) manned mission. The problem is, that someone is sitting in the chair that controls the funding!

With this series of events being witnessed at NASA which was once probably the most technically advanced organization in the world, i hope the space agencies elsewhere in europe, india, china, japan will learn and avoid the same follies. The 'race' to put a man on the moon and other planets will right now not do anything to predict the next big climate disaster. One manned mission can be replaced by many more unmanned projects, for the same financial & technical resources. And right now the world needs these projects more.

We desperately need much more intensive study of world climate on an enormous scale. It's ridiculous that even today an old man looking up at the sky can make the same weather prediction as our best met department's. And even after watching the horror of disaster movies like Deep Impact, it's a joke that humanity has yet to devise a credible defense strategy against any earth-threatening asteroid. Today we still wouldn't be able to fend off 6 out of 10 wayward and dangerous space bodies, for the simple reason that we haven't cared to chart all the moving objects in the solar system as of yet. It's not like we don't have the telescopes.. It's like standing blindfolded with a gun in your hand - you have the capability to destroy the threat but it's all useless since you don't know where it's coming from.

I hope that in coming years, instead of following the american bandwagon, the other space agencies in the world do more to address these more pressing issues. Today we have the technology and capability to unmask almost all the unpredictable things that affect us, and remove or minimize their effects on the citizenry. If only we don't let rhetoric and pride take precedence over common sense.

seeing this from orkut?

Hi! if you're an orkut friend of mine and are seeing these posts from inside orkut, then please click on the "view website" link on top! Else you probably won't see all the embedded slideshows, videos and photos that make up the posts here!

Gmax in Singapore

We went to this awesome ride in Singapore called Gmax.. you'll have to see the videos below to believe it!

1. Gmax, from the outside:


2.Gmax, from the inside:

Trip pics

Me and 4 other college-mates (sort of) got back from a trip around SE Asia last month. The detailed blog is long overdue, but let's start it with this: a picture slideshow (2 actually.. picasa won't allow more than 500 pics in an album)

Part 1: Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok



Part 2: Pattaya, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur

Stop the Clash of Civilizations

Watch this video!

Yawning too often? No cause for worry

This article is from today's Times of India, Pune, page 10. I hope my college professors read it too.

   Yawning too often? Don’t blame lack of sleep. It’s just your brain cooling down. Contrary to popular belief that has long associated yawning with sleepiness, tiredness, boredom and low oxygen levels in the blood, researchers from the University at Albany have found that yawning acts as a brain-cooling mechanism.
   The brain burns up to a third of the calories we consume, and as a consequence generates heat. According to researchers Andrew Gallup and Gordon Gallup, the brain operates more efficiently when cool and yawning enhances its functioning by increasing blood flow and drawing in cooler air.
   The researchers also suggest again contrary to popular view that yawning does not promote sleep but helps mitigate the need to sleep.
   Since yawning occurs when brain temperature rises, sending cool blood to the brain serves to maintain optimal levels of mental efficiency.The researchers have announced their findings in the journal ‘Evolutionary Psychology’.
   Reacting to the study, Dr H.N. Malik, professor of physiology at AIIMS, said, “Very few studies have been conducted on yawning and so very little is known about it. Till today, most people thought yawning was a prelude to sleep. But this study changes the theory on its head. It’s very interesting.”
   Psychologists had students watch videotapes of people yawning and counted the number of contagious yawns. In one experiment, they found that 50% of the people who were instructed to breathe normally or through their mouths yawned while watching other people yawn, while those told to breathe through their nose did not yawn at all.
   In another experiment, they found that subjects who held a cold pack to their forehead acted similarly to those who were instructed to breathe through their nose they, too, did not yawn, while those who held a warm pack or a room temperature pack to their forehead yawned normally.
   Evidence shows that blood vessels in the nasal cavity and face send cool blood to the brain, and by breathing through the nose or by cooling the forehead, the brain is cooled, eliminating the need to yawn.
   A yawn is a reflex of deep inhalation and exhalation. Pandiculation is the term for the act of stretching and yawning. Certain superstitions surround the act of yawning. The most common of these is the belief that it is necessary to cover one’s mouth when one is yawning in order to prevent one’s soul from escaping the body.
--Kounteya Sinha | TNN

the God within

This is an excerpt from an article by a certain bollywood actor. I found it in the Times Life section in today's Times of India, Pune. Something to think about!

"I do not believe in any external God and am equidistant from all gods. I believe the only God worth praying to is the one within us. I don't attach any figure or name to Him as I don't believe in any organised religion. The God within me is compassionate, kind and mature. The best qualities in us - honesty, sincerity or anything you feel good about, is what I call God. There's no point exalting God or singing paeans to Him. He's just there." -Rahul Bose

Beginnings

Greetings to all bloggers & readers! I've been reading about this (now not so)new form of self-expression, but only now (after finishing with college) have i found the time to get started on it! Well, here goes!
First: Own name removed. Why, well, i'm not going to be writing any autobiographies here, and what i post here has to more to do with everyone than myself. So there.
What you're gonna read here: Well, for starters i'm gonna be quoting whatever good, intriguing news article i can find in various places on the net. This stuff will always have something in it for the future: whether from technological or social point of view. I hope to get some good debate on various issues. I wanna make the reader think & question the current wisdom, and come up with positive alternatives to our bungling ways. We need perspectives from different sides of the spectrum to make that happen.
Well, let's get started then, shall we?