Moving Ramses

The Ramesses II status in Central cairo is getting a move. Since the status was in the middle of the city, it was getting corroded with the atmospheric pollution, so the civic authorities decided to move it.


Related resources:

• USA Today news
  
• Google Earth KML file

Wifi in Daramshala

Google is going out and wifi'ng the town of Mountain View ... old news.

But, a group of nerds and tibetan monks are getting people networked in the town of Dharamshala. Wired has this news item on them, including the monkey proofing they have to work on !

Life is a Network.

Kabootar

Sometimes , one comes across unexpected sights. Yesterday went to Koti to buy a couple of tech books. Its like old delhi - reminded me of nai sadak, but set in the main road of chandni chowk. Full of small bookshops and chai shops. Traffic at its worst. Pedestrians rushing across roads without an ounce of respect for their life. And our 3-wheeler guy driving like he was going to overtake Rossi (yeah, i did not go there on my bike. I rather go in an auto to such place). There, I came across an unexpected sight - a kabootar khaana. Its been ages since I have seen it - and it brought back childhood memories of when my granddad used to have a house in old delhi - and the evening skies were filled with the pigeons flying.

There's so much in life - we cant take anything for granted.

DCE does me proud Again !

DCE team was the only indian team from India to participate in an international competition on Ariel Robotics Competition. They made an UAV which got a Most Innovative design prize.

Way to go guys !!! Proud to be a DCEite !

Links :

• Competition Website
• UAVI ( The website of the mean machine)
• DCE (my college website)
• DCE team flies high in US ( News post on Hindustan Times)

ps : Now I wish that i had done something consturctive when I was there instead of whiling away the time sleeping in classes ! Mebbe something to do with the new campus.

Aliens use Firefox !

Aliens use Firefox ! Honest !

You see, for years crop circles have been made by alien spaceship (that's what they tell us). This year these circles have been sighted again ! This time they are in the shape of the firefox Logo. Its a clear message - even aliens use Firefox.

So, if you are still stuck with age old browser, now with this irrefutible proof, you should get firefox a.s.a.p. !

More pics of the crop circles, and the website of the aliens !

What if Microsoft packaged the iPod ?

iPods are a craze now. Everyone wants one. Even if they never ever fill up the device to its capacity, they want it. Its a cult out there.

One of the first things you notice about the iPod is that it is very chic and yet portraye very simply.

But... oh what if Microsoft marketting got their hands on it ?

This video is what would happen to the packaging if they did. BTW, its supposed to have been created by guys in Microsoft as a parody ;-)

Take care of your heart.

Here was a chat, arranged by WIPRO for its employees, with Dr.Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya (Heart Specialist). The transcript of the chat is given below:

---

Qn: What are the five thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart?

Ans:
1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
2. Exercise - Half an hour's walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?

Ans: No

Qn: It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?

Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?

Ans: Yes

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?

Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart?

Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints

Qn: You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so?

Ans: Mother Theresa, who was my patient.

Qn: Can people with low blood pressure suffer heart diseases?

Ans: Extremely rare

Qn: Does cholesterol accumulates right from an early age (I'm currently only 22) or do you have to worry about it only after you are above 30 years of age?

Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.

Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart?

Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body's enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines?

Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.

Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?

Ans: Yoga helps.

Qn: Which is the best and worst food for the heart?

Ans: Best food is fruits worst are oil.

Qn: Which oil is better - gingili, groundnut, sunflower, saffola, olive?

Ans: All oils are bad; the so-called best oil company has the largest marketing budget.

Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there any specific test?

Ans: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.

Qn: How different was it in treating Noor Fatima, the little kid from Pakistan ?

Ans: It was extremely difficult, Because of the media attention. As far as the medical treatment
is concerned, she is like any other child with a complex heart problem.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?

Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position, put an aspirin tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a coronary care unit since the maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?

Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.

Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.

Ans: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Also, sedentary lifestyles, smoking,junk food, lack of exercise in a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.

Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?

Ans: Yes.

Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child. Is it true?

Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer as a child

Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart? What precautions would you recommend?

Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock.

Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short / long term)?

Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?

Ans : No.

Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?

Ans : No.

Qn: How would you define junk food?

Ans : Fried food like Kentucky, McDonalds, samosas, and even masala dosas.

Qn: You mentioned that Indians are three times more vulnerable. What is the reason for this, as Europeans and Americans also eat a lot of junk food?

Ans : Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately, Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease.

Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?

Ans : No.

Qn: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded emails on this)?

Ans : Yes. Lie down comfortably and put an aspirin tablet of any description under the tongue and ask someone to take you to the nearest coronary care unit without any delay and do not wait for the ambulance since most of the time, the ambulance does not turn up.

Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low hemoglobin count lead to heart problems?

Ans : No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity.

Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the stairs in the house, work as a substitute for exercise?

Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and even the act of getting out of the chair and going to another chair and sitting helps a lot.

Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?

Ans : Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.

Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation?

Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time. Control cholesterol, BP, weight.

Qn: Are people working on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift workers?

Ans : No.

Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?

Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks?

Ans : No.

Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women?

Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?

Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for a health checkup if you are past the age of 30 for at least once in two yrs. And work very hardand Enjoy urLife...

Are you Vista Ready ?

Microsoft's latest OS is going to be up and ready by Mar 06 Oct 06 Jan 07. Lots of nice screenshots are doing the rounds of the net. Non-techie people getting the screenshots are going all ga-ga over it. They tell me - vibhu, you worked on Vista ? Does it not look great !

Sorry to put a dampner on you folks, but most of you will not be able to even run the great looking interface on your system.

Shocked?

Let me explain it. The Aero interface as it is called is a graphics intensive user interface. That means that without a dedicated graphics card (like the ones from Nvidia or ATI), you will not be able to see the great looking trancparencies. And that is not all, to be able to do anything more than just playing minesweeper, you will need to upgrade your system. So, if you are looking at upgrading your comp - and can wait for 6-10 months, I suggest you wait and see what is required for the next version of windows. As for now, the current requirements are :

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero2.
• 128 MB of graphics memory.
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

Since we all know that windows barely runs on the specifications given by Microsoft , and since most of us will be at least using Microsoft office, I would bump up the requirements to (believe me , I was using a AMD 64 with 1GB of ram and it was still slow) :

• GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 2 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero2.
• 256 MB of graphics memory. (pref 512MB if you are into gaming)
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

Now a few notes :

• 128 MB of graphics memory means that the graphics card ( in the point before that) should have 128 MB of memory in it . This is not the RAM of the computer. Typically these cards cost around 10k INR.
• 15GB of free space is needed to install Vista. It comes to around 5-10GB space used after install.
• Internet access is needed for the WGA - Windows Genuine Advantage. In other words it lets Microsoft know if you are using a pirated copy or not. How it does is that it contacts the microsoft servers (without telling you) and will block you from using the system if your credentials are not in their white list. It has nothing to do with Advantage for you if you are using a pirated copy. So, with the next release, Microsoft hopes that it will cut down on piracy.
• One biggest problem with Vista is that it requires activation. so, if you do not have a net connection, you will not be able to use it. In india, most computer users dont have a net connection, and if you dont, then I would suggest that you dont get Vista. And this activation is needed everytime you change the hardware configuration of your system - like say adding a DVD drive.

Its a nightmare.

But, since I have been working on Linux and opensource for sometime, you may call me biased about microsoft. So, I think it relevant that I provide links , some of which are from long time users of Microsoft software ( I was also taken aback by the frustration in these posts).

• Microsoft Drops The Ball on Internet Explorer 7 Standards Compliance
• Is Windows Vista Ready

No. God, no. Today's Windows Vista builds are a study in frustration, and trust me, I use the darn thing day in and day out, and I've seen what happens when you subject yourself to it wholeheartedly. I think I've mentioned the phrase "I could hear the screams" on the SuperSite before. My wife said that to me one day, and she was referring to the sound of me barking some primeval curse at my desktop PC as it succumbed to Vista's stupid slowdowns, crashes, and hang ups for the umpteenth time

• IE 7.0 Technical Changes Leave Web Developers, Users in the Lurch

My advice is simple: Boycott IE. It's a cancer on the Web that must be stopped. IE isn't secure and isn't standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable both for end users and Web content creators.

• Microsoft's sacred cash cow

A former Microsoftie says addiction to Windows revenue, mediocre products, and missed opportunities could doom Seattle's most successful company.

Personally, I am only gonna move to vista when the office computers move there. Till then ... viva le linux !

Pst ! Wanna win some cool cool mobile devices ?

This is official. Its from my company, and we have set up a couple of 15 min surveys. If you take part in this - you will get an opportunity to win some of the coolest devices around.

The Prizes :

• Treo 700p
• The coolest palm device around.
  
• Motorola Q
• Slim is IN ! This device is the slimmest smartphone device around.
  
• Nokia E Series
• Its a Nokia smartphone. Can't be seen without one!

So, what do you need to do ?

Not much. Spend sometime filling up the survey below. Each would take about 15 mins.

• The mobile professional survey
• If you work within IT please take the IT survey
  

The results of the study will help us and other industry partners to improve our service towards mobile users and increase overall satisfaction..

As appreciation of your input you will be entered into a drawing to win one of the new hot new handhelds: (Treo 700p, Motorola Q and Nokia E-series) all with Good messaging. Please complete the survey before July 31th 2006.

Best Of Luck !

Bombay, Zara Bachke

I got the following as a forward, about the spirit of Mumbai. Instead of forwarding it again and again, I thought I might just put it up on this blog . Forward this article or the link all you like.

Rude city? You bet, says Mumbaikar Jerry Pinto in defence of a metropolis too busy to mind its manners but always ready to help when trouble comes.

Reader's Digest, which interests itself in these things, tells us that Mumbai is the rudest city in the world. This is also the magazine that carried a story saying that global warming might be good for us.

I swear, they did this in May, when my cousins in Nagpur were reporting that the city was burning up at 52 degrees centigrade.

I come not to praise Mumbai, however. I come to ask whether the Reader's Digest editors really mean it when they say that New York is the politest city in the world? What is it to be polite? In London, a terribly polite city by my experience, a young woman refused to lend her scarf to be used as a tourniquet when a man was stabbed on the bus. He bled to death. I am sure, the young woman said, "I'm sorry but it's an expensive scarf." The person who asked for the scarf probably said, "Right. Cheers." Meanwhile, the blood pulsed on from the dying man's neck.

In Mumbai, my mother once was forced to go to a public hospital with a torn-up leg. In front of her, the poor waited in the way that the poor wait, endlessly, patiently, quietly. When she joined the line, they all assessed their need, assessed hers and stepped out of the way wordlessly. She went to the top of the line, protesting quietly all the way. She did not bleed to death. Perhaps, she even forgot to thank all those people. Perhaps, they did not expect to be thanked.

But since no one seems to have bothered about definitions, let's dump them too. Perhaps it is polite to be a city like New York where all the shop assistants say thank you and please and the doormen are ready to open the door for you but there are 55,000 violent crimes a year. And that represents a 10-year low. Perhaps Mumbai with its 122 murders in six months must be significantly ruder but less lethal.

But are we rude?

" My dominant image for Mumbai. I'm standing outside Mahalaxmi railway station, it starts to rain. A man comes out with an umbrella and starts to walk away. He notices another man getting wet, he pauses, and in an unspoken way invites him under the umbrella. Then they see me, and I get under as well. That's Bombay. Three men sharing an umbrella, all getting wet. There's less space under the umbrella now — too many people, too little infrastructure, but people are still sharing it. "

Sudhir Mishra
Filmmaker

Yes, we are rude. We are almost always rude. Cities are always rude. We are the only city in the country. Delhi is a bunch of villages held together by the politics of power and some nice roads. Chennai is a self-satisfied town which wants to be known for its culture. Bangalore looked like it might well grow up to be a city but now that it's got the opportunity to do it, it's choking itself to death. Calcutta had its moment of glory in the 19th century when they built lots of mansions and factories and set up the kind of intellectual atmosphere of a Cambridge debating society. Then they lost it, the Bangla babus and settled into making funny kurtas for their men to wear and selling Bankuda horses to the rest of the country.

Yes, we are rude. We don't have time for that. We're too busy dragging the rest of you into some semblance of wealth. We're too busy earning the money that runs the country. We're too busy paying for the Delhi and Kolkata Metros. We're too busy earning the money to pay the 75 percent of the income tax paid by the country. In Kolkata, they don't earn money. In Bangalore, they know how to hide it cyberwise. In Delhi, everyone's a farmer with agricultural income that's tax free.

" I think of Mumbai as a very cold but sensuous woman — it all depends on how you warm her up. In this city every kindness begets more kindness. Delhi's eyes literally undress you. Mumbai sees you first as a person then a woman. People do tend to keep their distance here, but if you try and do something nice, a sudden sensitive humanness peeps out. It's hardship city — it gets by on humour. "

Sarayu Srivastava
Writer

Land-starved Mumbai? The 14 million of us, we dream of the kind of space that young couples have in Delhi. We'd like a barsati too. We won't get it. But we'll work hard at it. The shop assistant who doesn't thank you probably goes home to his 'side business' and puts in another two or three hours. This could be anything from making papads to selling insurance to giving private tuition. It leaves him with very little time or inclination to say thank you.

But when trouble comes, he will do what he can. In the cataclysmic floods of last year, the average person did what the government could not. They threw open their homes. They left the security of dry land and waded into the water to rescue children. They formed human chains to take people off the buses. They made tea and snacks and gave it to people. Contrast that to the way Americans behaved when Hurricane Katrina struck. People went on the rampage. They shot at each other, even at their rescuers. They assaulted each other. They looted abandoned homes. In Mumbai, no violence was reported. No violence happened. Ask me, I walked home. Ask my sister, she walked home too. Together, we covered a distance of 30 kilometres that day and we only saw people helping each other, people offering support and solidarity.

" My idea of Bombay? A waiter serving in the Taj — during the day he might be serving Bill Gates and he'll carry himself with aplomb, be as cosmopolitan as anyone. At night he'll be taking the train to Dharavi, return to his slum, put on his lungi and baniyan, help his old parents, help wash dishes, and watch TV. You can be everything at the same time in Bombay. It's like that old Sinatra song — if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. "

Milind Deora
Politician

One of the most compelling images in Suketu Mehta's essay which Naresh Fernandes and I included in our anthology, Bombay Meri Jaan: Writings on Mumbai (Penguin India, 2003) … but read on:

If you are late for work in Bombay, and reach the station just as the train is leaving the platform, you can run up to the packed compartments and you will find many hands stretching out to grab you on board, unfolding outward from the train like petals. As you run alongside you will be picked up, and some tiny space will be made for your feet on the edge of the open doorway. The rest is up to you; you will probably have to hang on the door frame with your fingertips, being careful not to lean out too far lest you get decapitated by a pole placed too close to the tracks. But consider what has happened. Your fellow passengers, already packed tighter than cattle are legally allowed to be, their shirts already drenched in sweat in the badly ventilated compartment, having stood like this for hours, retain an empathy for you, know that you boss might yell at you or cut your pay if you miss this train, and will make space where none exists, to take one more person with them. And at the moment of contact, they do not know if the hand that is reaching theirs belongs to a Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Brahmin or untouchable or whether you were born in the city or arrived only this morning or whether you live in Malabar Hill or Jogeshwari; whether you are from Bombay or Mumbai or New York. All they know is that you're trying to get to the city of gold, and that's enough. Come on board, they say. We'll adjust.

More links about the tragedy:

• Enough is Enough
• Light a Candle
  

And all the politicians can do is :

• SP trying to save muslim votebank

Dastardly Cowards

Update :

• List of dead and injured people

Yesterday there were 2 more terrorist attacks in India. One was in J&K , the other in Mumbai. Reportedly carried out by Jihadi's, these attacks show what kind of cowards these people are.



The Religion

Is Islam a violent religion ? Did Mohammed decree that his followers should kill other people ? Did the Koran talk about spilling the blood of innocents ? And yet these so called jihadis are doing everything that the founder of their religion did not decree. Mohammed was himself hounded by the Meccans - but did he retaliate by Killing their kids and wives ? No ! Then what religious fanaticism do these self proclaimed prophets follow ?

Some say its because muslims feel that the people who do not follow their relgion are infidels. But here's a translation of the Koran which states :

The Disbelievers

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
[109.1] Say: O unbelievers!
[109.2] I do not serve that which you serve,
[109.3] Nor do you serve Him Whom I serve:
[109.4] Nor am I going to serve that which you serve,
[109.5] Nor are you going to serve Him Whom I serve:
[109.6] You shall have your religion and I shall have my religion.

The Koran is tolerant. Then where do these dispicable people come from ? Who has given them the right to slaughter people in the name of the religion ? No, I do not believe these people are muslims. They have disowned thier own religion for delusions.

The Mumbaikars

I have deep respect for the mumbaikars. I think they should do away with any political party, mayors etc from their city. Cause the govt only keeps yapping and yapping and yapping. About how they will not let it happen next time. About how it was all the other party's fault. About how less funds they get from the centre. BUT they do not do anything about making life better.

And everytime, its only the mumbaikars who come to the aid of each other. Its always the mumbaikars who help people stranded in the rains. Its only the mumbaikars who help to take the blast victims to the hospitals. If mumbaikars are the only people who really put their foot forward and help each other out - who needs a govt whose only target seems to be to misuse the tax money.

I am sure , that if in a locality , all the tax payed is pooled and used to make the locality better - we will have much better cities than what the govt promises.

The Media Channels

Sometimes the media people make me sick. They revel in showing people crying , brused, bleeding and dead. Makes me wonder why ? Are they in cahoots with the terrorists that they are almost always at the site of a happening in a few minutes ( ya ya , they will talk about their response teams... but still the suspicion remains. After all, there are many unscrupulous people who would do anyting for their ratings - which translates to better pay).

I would like the media to showcase how the heroes in the people - not the whiners. I would like them to show how the people respond to the attacks and rebuild their lives and not how they are lamenting their faith.

For those who died, I do not know what to say. One part of me is angry that they got such a death. But another part of me - the philosphical part, thinks its not how they died that matters its how they lived.

For my Readers

For my readers, i would offer the suggestion - death is inevitable. You can die by many means. At the end - you die. Simple truth. And the only thing left is to live your life. So, live your life. Take risks. Dont life a safe life cause death can happen anywhere. You may life a very sheltered life and yet die young. Live your life the way you want to. Is there something you want to do - but are afraid to do so cause every one else says its dangerous - go with your heart. Travel around. Bungee Jump. Do anything - but do not live a safe life. Because when its your time to die - you will think - what have I done in life - and you will regret not doing so manythings.

One Life. Live It.