monsoon boy

2009-05-24T14:46:00.002+01:00

I typed this up a while ago and never posted, don't know why..! May be
I would know if I read it again - but I am busy today..! So, apologies
in advance!

We had another good reason to celebrate, so we decided to check out Eastern Sea Board.

So typical of me I left it till 3pm to reserve a table for the same
evening. The woman on phone started off stating they are really booked
out that night, and offered just two slots. One a decent slot and
another when A&Es starts filling up with drunks. We picked the
decent one, and strolled in just in time.

The restaurant is dimly lit around the entrance area, and as soon as
your eyes get used to the darkness, the controlled chaos wallops you
across the face. To the right there’s the main eating area where people
seems to be skinning their road kill, and to the left there’s drunken
people tripping over each bleeding from fist fights.

No, not really. It’s a bit noisy, but it’s manageable, unless you have
a headache, which I had. Anyway, the décor looked nice. Its has
semi-pub feel to it, but has a honest appearance too – may be it was a
tad bid cold, but may be that’s just the weather that evening. I not
the type of person who can take one glance at something and give public
seminars on what I saw, but we had plenty of time to take all this in
as we were left standing there for about three minutes. I won’t say we
were totally ignored intentionally, because most of the staff members
seems to be running in and out of the cash till to our left, holding
bits of paper and money, looking totally baffled by the technical
contraption in front of them, so I won’t blame them for failing to
notice us two indignant people by the door! Physiological Advantage
Easter Sea Board!

After another few more minutes of doing our best ‘sad doggy eyes’, they
did eventually took pity on us and guided us to a table near the drinks
counter side, and a warm and well spoken woman, who seems to run a lot
of the show there, came up to us and briefly apologized for the delay -
apparently they had a large birthday party dining going on and that is
keeping them on their toes. Explains the family road-kill feast that
was going on so.

I have to admit I am not as fit as I used to be (err, or when I used to
think I am), so I did find it rather tricky to get comfortable on those
high chairs – they had no footrests! We first got two single sheets
menus with an apology of printer running out of paper or something, and
within seconds, they found a few of those famous clipboard menus for
our reading pleasure!

We soon realised we are seated between two tables of old acquaintances.
I guess when the tables are close to the pub counter, people tend to
behave a bit like that too –they looked happy to meet, which they kept
reassuring every five minutes – no harm I suppose.. Except that now I
know where two of them work, that the woman to my left has a son who
moved to Australia and she is going to visit there and Toronto next
month to visit her daughter. Okay, lovely.. urgh.. Whatever! The only
plus side is that with the all the shouting around us, it wasn’t easy
to make ourselves heard to each other – which meant less talking –
which is not a bad thing I suppose since I was out there with my wife!

Wine list was nice, we picked some white, which turned out lovely and
mild, and not too expensive. They brought around some bread on
breadboard to the table – which was a class touch because it felt
really fresh and tasted pretty nice.

The starters arrived in good time, and it arrived well- read ‘a lot’.
Generous portion sizes seem to be their style at Eastern Sea Board.
Starter was yummy and left me half full, and the main dish (we had
picked steak) was perfect, and was nearly impossible to finish with the
generous massive side order portions. The food was well presented and
tasted lovely. We skipped dessert as we would have needed assistance to
help slide down from those highchairs..

On the side, we noticed we were being looked after by about three girls
– there were at least three attempts to take our order (one didn’t know
we just had our menus, the other got the order and the third didn’t
know we had ordered). And two attempts to get us order the dessert. And
three came around to see if we are all okay and if we need anything
else. I will never complain about too much care, but for their own
benefit, they might want to streamline this a bit – just the basics -
like assign a few tables to each, and have one senior person to get
feedback / build the rapport further etc.

Conclusion: Exactly opposite of my experience at Indus, which I
posted at the start of this thread (admittedly, that was a long time
ago). Tasty food, good quantity and not over-the-top prices (not cheap
either).

I still miss Lemongrass, but EasternSeaBoard does fill that gap – in their own way.

2009-05-24T14:41:00.002+01:00

(An old review I posted on boards, 28th May 2008)

A few weeks ago, we had a small good news to celebrate and thought we
would check out the new Indian restaurant in Bryanstown Manor.

It was mid-week, rang around 2pm to booked table for 8:30pm, which was
'no problem' and the girl on phone was pleasant to deal with.

We strolled in around 8:28pm (we live nearby ),
and the place looks funky. Not your traditional dark, candle-lit Indian
restaurant at all. The place is done up nice and bright, very
contemporary, yet colorful. Trendy looking tables and chairs, cutlery
etc. Slightly louder than your typical Indian restaurant, probably due
to open kitchen (you see them cook, flames etc) but mostly due to the
typical bollywood music in sync with an LCD tv on the left of the bar
area. Overall, its not a bad place to be, so far.

As soon as we got there, we were asked to take a seat at the bar area.
There is a certain lack of communication from now on. We didn't know if
we were to be served here (all the normal tables looked busy) or if we
are just being asked to wait (they didn't ask!). Five minutes later
someone gave us the main menu (!) - again, not sure whats happening
there! Another couple came thru the door and were taken to a table. A
few turned up for take-aways and they were asked to wait at the bar
area next to us as well. Now I am getting really uncomfortable...

Okay, here we go - some one came around and took us to our table - by
the window. Nice touch. All forgiven. I don't know much about wines,
but the list was, lets say, average. We went for a white Italian
between us - €35 or so. Probably not the best decision of the day, but
ah well, no one else to blame here. Oh quick comment on the table,
cutlery, wine glasses, plates - all top notch - loving it!

We ordered startes (selection platter, €15) between us, and own main
courses (can't remember - approx €20 each). Starter turned up in a
large square china - and my jaw literally hit the floor well, no, it
actually hit the above mentioned funky table - there were two small
pieces of sausage, one prawn, two small pieces of chicken and a small
piece of something that I couldn't recognize. Bit of a bummer then...!
I couldn't comment on the quality - because it just wasn't enough for a
good bite! Bit of of a disappointment there for €15. That kinda set the
tone for rest of the evening to be honest!

Main dish was brought out in good time. Again, same story with
quantity. Large round china and the curry was not more than about four
teaspoons in the middle of the plate. It tasted okay, I have had
better, but my main gripe was about the quantity. A 6 year old would
probably eat more than that!

At this stage I was starting to wonder if the dessert might impact my
credit history, so we got ourself Magnums from nearby Crossroads for
the walk back!

Whats good: Decor. Location.

Whats bad: Eh... pfft! Do I look like Geri Halliwell or something?

Would I go back? Of course ... (NOT!)

Conclusion: The only good thing about Indus is that Lemongrass is nearby!

I love Indian food and really wanted Indus to be a good restaurant and
I think they can be - brings the prices down, increase the quantity and
quality! And oh, just explains things better too, please! Thank you
very much!

The Importance of Timing

2008-05-13T10:45:00.003+01:00

A few months ago, on my way back from a neurologists appointment with someone, I had a brainwave (yeah, it still hurts...) that there should be a better tool out there to track and report the seizure activities, medicines, what could have prompted the seizure etc so that next visit to the neurologist one can be loaded with concise information of the condition and progress, rather than the typical expression "meh, it was.. err, about the same, slightly worse at times, but otherwise normal..".

I google'd for hours looking for a tool or website that does something remotely like that, but there was none. Another brain flash - here's something I should do. I should setup that site..! With this newfound passion and purpose, I registered www.brainwavetracker.com and a few days later I forgot all about it (typical me), and never got around to setup the website.

Now it seems someone else had a similar brain flash, and they, unlike me, actually did something about it - and here it is - www.seizuretracker.com.

Fair play and best wishes to them - and kick up the back side to me!

WebSphere application startup issue!

2007-08-08T12:48:00.001+01:00

WebSphere applications have this nasty habit of starting up all as soon as the application server has been started up. Its not a bad thing if your application has been working fine all along. But if you have just installed the application or have updated the build, and not sure if the application would startup in the first go itself, its probably a better idea to not to let the application startup automatically.

The rule of thumb seems to be that you leave a profile/server aside to handle the adminConsole, so that you will always have adminConsole, even if other applications fails to startup. However, in practice, most development / test WebSphere environments that I have come across has everything deployed to 'server1'. In this situation, the applications starting up automatically is even more dangerous as they can make even the adminConsole unavailable to you!

If you get stuck with the application bringing down adminConsole, solution is to stop the application from starting up automatically on server startup. To do this, you need to locate deployment.xml file in your WebSphere installation folder:


$drive/$WebSphereInstallation/profiles/myProfile/config/cells/myCell/applications/myApplication.ear/deployments/myApplicationName

Look for 'deployedObject' that is related to your application, and under it, locate 'targetMappings', and change 'enabled="true"' to 'enable="false"'.

eg: <targetMappings xmi:id="DeploymentTargetMapping_1147899429698" enable="false" target="ServerTarget_1147899429698"/>

Next time when you start the server, the offending application will not startup, giving you a chance to use adminConsole, and identify a fix.

thoughts...

2007-08-01T09:54:00.001+01:00

thoughts..., originally uploaded by chunangadan.

This is how I picture my mind when I am worried about something. The 'worry' just spreads from one part of the mind into other, in a very unpredictable shape and pattern and just slowly takes up the entire mind, and if it ever goes totally black, I guess I would stop thinking and drop dead like a log.

Just as well that I don't worry too much! I am too forgetful to remember an issue long enough to worry about it... hmm and did I mention how forgetful I am?

Each serves according to their strength

2007-08-01T09:48:00.001+01:00

nibbler, originally uploaded by chunangadan.

.. which seems to be the morale of the story behind those beautiful strips on his back!

Source: healingstory.org

Long ago in ancient India a ten-headed monster called Ravana the Rakshasa kidnapped a king’s beloved wife. The king was named Rama and his queen was named Sita. Everyone loved the king and queen because their hearts were pure. King Rama waged war on Ravana and set off to battle. The great king of monkeys, King Hanuman, led the army.

They traveled until they came to a vast sea that they would have to cross to reach Ravana’s kingdom. King Rama attempted to calm the raging ocean by shooting his magic arrows into the waves. But the King of the Sea rose up and said, "The seas can not be overcome by force, but only by building a strong bridge." So, King Rama ordered his monkeys to construct a stone bridge that could hold his entire invading army.

Monkey after monkey set to work carrying huge stones and enormous boulders to the seaside. Thousands of monkeys worked ceaselessly and King Rama was pleased. Then the king noticed that a small brown squirrel rushed up and down from the hills to the shore carrying little pebbles in her mouth. "What is that little creature doing?" he wondered.

The monkeys also saw the squirrel and grew angry. "Get out of our way," they screeched. "You are too small. You are not needed."

The little squirrel looked up and said, "I am helping to build the bridge to save Queen Sita." All the monkeys began to laugh. They held their sides and roared and hopped and mocked the little squirrel. "We have never heard anything so foolish in our entire lives," they said.

The squirrel answered, "I can not carry rocks or stones. I can only lift small pebbles, but that is what I can do to help. My heart weeps for Sita and I want to be of assistance."

The monkeys moved the squirrel away, but she continued to carry small pebbles and pile them up nearby. Finally, one monkey grew so irritated that he lifted the little animal and threw her into the air. The squirrel cried out, "Rama!" The king lifted his hand and caught the squirrel safely in his palm.

It was just at that moment that the monkeys realized they needed the little pebbles to place between the larger stones to keep the bridge from falling.

King Rama said to them, "Monkeys, never despise the weak or the deeds of those that are not as strong as you. Each serves according to his strength and capacities and each is needed to make this bridge." With three fingers, King Rama drew three lines down the squirrel’s back. "What truly matters is not the strength one has, but how great one’s love and devotion is." From that day forth squirrels have had three pale stripes on their rich brown furry backs—marks of the great King Rama. And that is how the strongest bridge across the sea was built.

Even if they are just rodents, Indian squirrels just adorable looking creatures!

Kerala birds..!

2007-08-01T09:28:00.001+01:00

The Pretty: Black-hooded Oriole, originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Real birds, not ""birds"" - since I started reading various Photography forums and stunning pictures of beautiful birds, I started noticed birds around where I live. There are stunning but limited number of species around here in Ireland.

However, during my last visit home, I was shocked by the close proximity and different types of bird calls and chirping that was going on around me! In next 60 minutes or so, I counted about a dozen different species of birds, all beautiful, some stunning, and some like this one - drop dead gorgeous!

Aparantly Black hooded Orioles are very desirable, expensive pets all over the world! Who knew?!

I am delighted with myself that I have finally, after ignoring them for three decades, have come around to be able to appreciate them! Better late, than never! :D

The Pope's children!

2007-07-27T23:52:00.001+01:00

The Pope's children!, originally uploaded by chunangadan.

I haven't read the book by that name, supposed to be a good one, about the new Ireland of Celtic Tiger boom economy of increased employment, soaring prices, new spending habits, changing priorities - live in general in the Ireland of the 21st century.

Anyway, the photo here is from Phoenix Park, 1752 acres of beautiful woodlands and park, right in the middle of Dublin. One of my favorite places in Dublin.

The large cross in the background is the Papal Cross where Pope John Paul II held a mass for over a million people in 1979. Remember, total population of Ireland around then was less than four million!

This photo has been shortlisted for Schmap Dublin guide. I have never heard of them before, no need to prepare my acceptance speech just yet!

2007-07-27T23:30:00.001+01:00

What the Bible left out..., originally uploaded by chunangadan.

.. . the full story of course! The church's lack of understanding of majestic sea creatures meant they decided to twist the tales to completely take them out!

Newly found ancient documents shows that the The three kings intially set off following the star, but soon, the sky went totally cloudy and they got lost in the vastness of the desert. Not like they had GPS sysems or anything, and the Camels where poorly trained as well! They then used their powers and sought the help of the supremely intelligent sharks to show them the way. This species of sharks could fly and they were later hunted down and exterminated by the armies supporting the Church as the Priory of Flying Sharks stood in the way of Church's version of the Bible stories.

Anyway, on a serious note, I am about two thirds into Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion, and I think he makes a lot of sense. Growing up in a relaxed yet Hindu family, I have to say, the Abrahamic religious ideas never appealed to me! I could never understand the idea of a 'God' person (Bruce Almighty-ish all knowing all seeing God guy). Over a period of time I was getting comfortable with the idea of God as 'collective goodness in the universe' (and evil the opposite), but Dawkins has thrown a spanner in that idea too. I think he calls my stand apologetic fence-sitters or something - grrr, well I have to agree, fence sitting is not same as opposing, and it probably is more close to supporting than opposing, blind religious rules by various interests, almost all of which is really are the reasons for most of the major conflicts in known human history, and present!

Coming back to 'The God Delusion', I find it a tough read. It started off with Mr. Dawkins making his position clear, and making sure that he sets your expectations straight - this is going to be a straight taking book with mild rhetoric tone. Read it if you like, or give it to someone else right now. I kept going of course, even if I don't agree with the rhetoric tone, I was curious about his side of the argument. So far, I agree with almost all of what he has to say! Not sure if I will be a 100% atheist by the time I put the book down, but I am sure I am more an atheist now than I was - was never a theist to start with, so it wasn't too difficult anyway!

A random point that I can recollect now (it sparked a 'Ahhaa' moment when I read it..)::

Human brain is programmed to survive - we more likely to mistake a shadow for a burglar, than a burglar for a shadow!

Verdict: Good read, if you have the time, interest and patience!

PS: A timely (almost) discussion on this topic over at Dilbert: The Atheist Who Thought He Was God.

The Sunny Coast!

2007-07-27T10:20:00.001+01:00

Spanish Sun!, originally uploaded by chunangadan.

.. or 'Costa Del Sol' in Spanish, the south coast of spain lives up to its reputation here!

Its sunny, even in the middle of winter, which is nothing new to someone from the tropics like myself, but living in Ireland where Sun is usually referred as 'the strange fireball in the sky', or one dry sunny day is the difference between 'average summer' to 'brilliant summer', a warm sunrise like this on a December morning is better than sliced bread, better than threesome on The Maltese Falcon!!

Costa Del Sol, with its fine weather, fine selection of restaurants that cater all kinds of food, with prices just fraction of whats common is UK and Ireland (Western Europe in general), the unstoppable mass migration of retired people from UK and Ireland to South of Spain has been going on for years now. The coasta is now so built up, tall, tasteless apartment complexes, beautiful but soul-less stree markets, shops and restaurants - its not Spain anymore - its more like a knock-off UK or Ireland, with good weather and cheap food and drinks! Property boom in UK & Ireland, cheap fares airlines Ryanair offering to get you there for less than your taxi fare to airport doesn't help the situation either!

Fuengirola, as seen from the sea here, probably has more English residents that Spanish.

Away from the proxy-Engerland, nearby town of Malaga has a lot of history to show off, The Alcazaba, the Moorish castle. But due to my own carelessness, I lost this memory card with about 300 shots! Well, an excuse to go back there again!! :D

2007-07-27T09:43:00.001+01:00

Jet d'Eau, originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Haven't been here since I bought a Canon 400D.

Jet d'Eau, familiar backdrop for the dancing couple of an average Bollywood movie in last few years. Apart from that sort of abuse, the place, Geneva, is as beautiful as anything else swiss. Life looks perfect around Lake Geneva - skiing all winter, water sports in summer, crystal clear water, fresh air, beautiful houses with green lawns and fantastic views to die for, snow capped matterhorn mountains in the distance, worlds best public transport, low tax, high average income, relaxed and healthy lifestyle, top class education system, universities, research and development jobs, finance and banking related jobs and a very stable, very matured economy!!

On the downside, accommodation is extremely expensive if you can find one at all, and it usually is an apartment. Eating out, insurance costs etc are a bit on the dear side.

Over many visits to Geneva, most striking thing that comes to mind is that I never saw a police car or a police officer around, which I think is a darn good sign of how things are! Especially considering the hotel is right next to the ""business"" or red light area of the town!

Tops my list desirable places to live. Just have to be careful to not to bump into Bachchans or Kapoors, thats all!

2006-09-22T09:55:00.000+01:00

True, true!!

When going gets tough...

2006-09-16T11:05:00.000+01:00

sunrise
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

.. the tough gets going; or so they say.

Its fairly tough with me at the moment personally, but if I toughen up and get going, that might hurt some others, which I don't want to. Now does that make me weak? I will think about it. For now, I am busy finding out and getting indulged in new distractions to keep me busy. My camera gets a lot of abuse lately. This one from this morning when I wandered out (very) early upto the nearby Bettystown beach.

2006-09-04T14:19:00.000+01:00

Java WebStart over HTTPS

Here's a small thing you need to know to get Java WebStart (JWS) to work over https connections.

If you try to launch a browser and start a JWS application over a https connection, it would prompt you to the standard security dialog and if you chose to trust the source, JWS still fails to launch the application.

Apparently this is because JWS is not very good at handling certificates. The work around is to add the certificate manually to the JWS keystore. Hereâ€™s how to go about it.

Step 1: To start with, you need to get hold of the certificate you want to put in to your JWS keystore. If you are using a self-signed certificate, you can export it out of your keystore as a .arm file etc.

Step 2: Locate the JRE your browser is using. If you are using Windows OS, you can do that using one of the following

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Java Plug-in Start > Program Files > Java Web Start

Usually, its under C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4xx

If you are in a *nix environment, I am not sure how to figure this out â€“ try â€ï¿½which javaâ€™ or â€ï¿½where is javaâ€™ in console. Or check you browser settings.

Step 3:Import certificate to the correct keystore.

Once you have located the JRE home that you browser is pointing to, there should be a folder called â€ï¿½javawsâ€™ and under that there is a keystore called â€ï¿½cacertsâ€™. This is the most misleading part â€“ Ignore that keystore because adding the certificate there does not work.

Instead, under JRE home, look for â€ï¿½lib\securityâ€™ and the â€ï¿½cacertsâ€™ keystore. If you import the certificate here, that should do the trick. You can use the following command to import a certificate into the keystore.

keytool â€“import â€“alias <enter an alias> -file <full path to the certificate file here> ?keystore cacerts â€“trustcacerts

Keytool will prompt for keystore password. Default is 'changeit'.

JWS should be able to see it from now on.

Some useful links:

Java Sketchbook: Digging into Java Web Start [java.net]
Java Web Start and Code Signing [dallaway.com]

2006-08-29T12:37:00.000+01:00

Sorry Doctor, but you have been infected!

Last week I was talking to someone I had just met. She's a doctor with a number of specialisations and seems to me that it's quite an achievement for her age – either late twenties or early thirties, I didn't ask!

She sure knew her stuff, and she knew she know her stuff, becuase soon we were discussing all sorts of things under the Sun and above the operation table – scary stuff like ebola viruses and even scarier things like oral hygiene etc!! I was soon reduced to a listener, though I am good at it, I couldn't let someone run all over me like that for ever! When she was about to take a very high-speed fly-by near the cancer research and grid computing, I noticed my chance, my last strand and I shamelessly held onto it for another ten minutes, well, okay, bit longer than that! Oh yes, the miracles of grid computing and how we all can contribute to making the world a better place tomorrow, with better medicines, less doctors to go on about things, that doctors usually go on about, and stuff like that! Brutal, I know, but I am allowed – I am an IT guy!

Anyway, long story short, may be she realised she should throw a bone my way to keep me from going hostile - she pulled this laptop out of her bag that she hadn't been able to use for a very long time! Apparently she is amused by the friendly strangers on her PC, personally guaranteeing a excellent value extension surgery to a penis which she didn’t have and extremely annoyed by the fact that she is extremely popular and considered as a friendly foreigner by everyone in Nigeria and most parts of Africa and South Asia, where people want to pay her a few millions of dollars as 'generous commission' that always seems to belong a dictator or rich general who died either in a plane crash or in a political unrest. She also seems to win lotto every time she opens the computer! Who could ever think one will get tired of all the good fortune!

She is not the only one though – almost every other person that I know who has a PC at home, connected to the Internet etc, seems to have similar stories to tell! Well then guys, I don't mind fixing all your PCs once. Or twice. Okay even third time for a pint. But next time when you see an offer to 'wipe your mortgage clean', do the following before you ask me out for a pint.

Install (and UPDATE and USE) these FREE software:

AVG Antivirus
Its free! Don’t forget to update the virus definitions and scan the whole PC once a week. http://www.grisoft.com

Spybot Search & Destroy
Its free! Don’t forget to update the spyware definitions and scan the whole PC once a week. http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox

Stop using Internet Explorer and use Firefox instead. Its better, relatively safer and its free. If you use Outlook, look into about Thunderbird as an alternative.

After all these, if you get yet another 'Hot Latina babes' popup in your screen (when you are not looking for 'Hot Latina babes' of course), let me know!

2006-07-08T22:02:00.000+01:00

Real Time Satellite Tracking

Space Shuttle Discovery, with seven astronauts on board, just flew past over me a minute ago. I didn't see it, because I don't have a telescope. Even if I bought one, I wouldn't know how to use it. Now, even if I learned that, I probably wouldn't remember to do get out and check the skies on the only day when the sky is clear here in Ireland - because it would be February 30th! But some informed brains have put together this site which does a nifty job with a familiar google worldmap and shows exactly where the satellites are!

You are into satellites for the free German sex-toys channel, or because you hope to peep into some alien chicks bedroom, anyways, they have some of the night sky misteries solved for you. The site automatically figures out your location (using IP2Location db - check their FAQ) too!

[n2yo.com] Space Shuttle Discovery

2006-06-26T09:24:00.000+01:00

Warren Buffet!

I am sure you have heard about him? Wealthy American business man, Warren Edward Buffet, with an estimated worth of around 44 billion dollars, second richest person in the world according to Forbes, is just after announcing that he is going to give away 85% of his fortune to various charity organisations!

My first reaction on this news was, well, is it really true? Apparently it is!

Is he really that rich? Well, apparently he is, and he didn't make it by printing green paper in his basement or by selling Columbian talcum powder either!

Was he born rich? Apparently not! He started off as an average American Joe, worked hard and lived the American dream!

Okay, is it the old age, has he gone a bit, Barney!?

Answer is a resounding no. Have a look at the wikipedia page on the guy. He was a good man all his life! He is known as "Oracle of Omaha" or the "Sage of Omaha". He still lives in a 30 thousand dollar house he bought back in 1958, and its now valued at half a million dollars, dare I say, me, Mr Nobody McHasNothing paid nearly that much for the pleasures of home ownership (part blame to the Irish house prices, but that's another topic on its on).

Wikipedia: Warren Buffet

Honestly, I am baffled why someone would do something like this, and at the same time, I am mighty impressed by Warren Buffet's kindness, compassion and courage! He, in my humble opinion, is as fit as anyone else to do major feet - like start a major religion, a new system or establish a nation etc. Well, when you think about it, who else thought America is a big too big..?

Living it!

2006-06-21T14:50:00.000+01:00

Living it!
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Ever since I moved into this house, almost a year now, there is this little ball shaped thing sitting in a small plastic cup on the kitchen windowsill - It looks more or less like a battered tennis ball with dry twigs sticking out of it, and me being extremely busy watching telly and devising new ways to take over the world, never got around to throwing it out.

Little did I know it had a mind of a ninja, and it was scheming up its own little rebellion its own corner of the world! One day, without any kind of warning what so ever, it just went BOOOM... well, BLOOOM to be more precise - it was as if it made up its mind about the meaning of life, universe and everything, which is 42 to us, and decided it had enough of the defensive thorns and stuff, and set out looking pretty and making everything around it look ugly, in a hurry!

Well, tell you what, no pun intended, but between those pricks, it has mind sharper than some world leaders, and I am not talking about Al Gore either!

Going beyond the beyond!

2006-06-19T16:07:00.000+01:00

Sunset over Lough Swilly

Heres a story for you and me!

While we seems to be forever stuck in a rat-race, to maintain a work-life balance, to earn what makes us feel better than our neighbour, heres a thought-provoking true story of a man, that will make you pause for a second and think how the miracle of human mind works; especially how it work in the face of that end-of-everything-feeling, the human equivalend of a an 'event horizon', from where there is no going back; and the amazing ways of how it mends itself - in the process, much of what we take for granted, or wish for is beeing proven not as important as you or I would think it is!

Long read, but consider yourself lucky if you can master it in a lifetime!

Link: An Interview with Michael Hutchison

View from Malin head, Country Donegal, Ireland.

2006-06-19T14:51:00.000+01:00

View from MalinHead, Country Donegal, Ireland.

Apparently, on a clear day, one could see Scotland from here, and the day was pretty good for Irish standards and, ah well, may be I lacked the imagination!!!

The cliffs on the other side really dramatic though and altogether a fantastic place to visit!

Fact: Haggis can kill you with a single peck!

2006-06-11T22:03:00.000+01:00

Ardgillan Castle

Ardgillan Castle, near Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, Republic of Ireland is a large country residence (build in 1738 by Rev. Robert Taylor (for more history check here).

These days, the castle and the ground is a fantastic picnic location for the thousands of residents of Dublin's popular commuter towns, Balbriggan, Skerries, and even Drogheda. I was test driving a brand new Opel Astra for the weekend, and the fantastic weather this morning give me an excellent opportunity to try some of the country roads around Drogheda, which eventually lead me to the magnificent Ardgillan Castle. Honestly, I was not prepared for it, and it was a brilliant surprise!

Just look at grand location of the castle â€“ overlooking the Irish sea, and acres of well maintained lawns, various kinds of flowers in the Victorian style garden, itâ€™s a fantastic place to spend a warm summer day!

The castle also does guided tours (thats for another day), and even have a 'tea room' - give you a unique chance to sit down and do something usual, everyday thing -like pouring a perfect cup of tea and dip a biscuit in it (as compared to walking around and ogling at things), and it gives you a chance to notice, and may be understand, how who ever lived here would have spend a few minute of their life here.

I am sure I will be back there soon!

2006-06-08T09:28:00.000+01:00

I have to confess, I am addicted to Futurama. Well thats just like any other self-confessed geek out there I guess!

Matt Groening and team has managed to pack in so much punch into scene after scene, its just sheer geek tv! I happened to watch a older version (I know all versions are old, they haven't restarted production yet), and the 'GodFellas' episode is where I got my latest spiritual high.

God: "Bender, being God isn't easy. If you do too much, people get dependent on you. And if you do nothing, they lose hope. You have to use a light touch, like a safecracker or a pickpocket."
Bender: "Or a guy who burns down a bar for the insurance money!"
God: "Yes, if you make it look like an electrical thing.
God: "Bender, When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

I found this place for Futurama lovers - Can't get enough of Futurama?.

1 out of 1! Thats 42 for pathetic non-binary carbon-based life forms!

2006-06-07T09:40:00.000+01:00

The Digital-Photography-School's blogs on tips and suggestions on general digital photography makes an interesting read every week.

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog

2006-06-06T11:16:00.000+01:00

A nostalgia inducing shot of a charukasela in a kolaya of a typical tharavadu.

This veranda, and these chairs have seen many generation growing up, moving out, visiting again after years, and the inevitable, mourning around it. The house itself is approximately 120 years old, and my father, who is now in his late sixties, has fond memories of growing up there. He has spend much of his free time sharing the same corner of the veranda, with six of his siblings and with anyone or anything that walks, flies or crawls in there seeking shelter from the scorching summer sun.

I have felt the wrath of that sun too, and the tranquillity of lying back on one of these chairs, and put your feet up, and watch the world outside standing almost still in the summer heat, even birds taking shelter under banana leaves, squirrels making a dash across the courtyard to pick up a freshly fallen mango, or a hen and a bunch of chicks enjoying a bit of loose mud in the shade, and how the mother hen gets frustrated with her hyperactive chicks running around and issues stern warnings to come back to under her wings, how the cows stands still as if they are dreaming, while almost mechanically munching away the fresh hay that one of the servants spread in front of them, how the dog or dogs curl up at the far corner of the veranda and sleep without a care for anything, but if a bird chirps unusually, hen sends a warning to the chicks or if a crow lands too close to the veranda, he somehow seems to know that and spring into action pacing around the courtyard, looking furious about whatever happened was not without his approval, but only to come back in minutes and to lie exactly where he was before and to slumber into another sleep with a sigh.... This goes on till I fall asleep, postman calls in, which is not often, or one of the elders calls me over to join for tea in the dining room, it would be almost four in the evening by then, and the sun a lot weaker, and the life back to its normal speed.

As you can probably tell, I do miss those days, the days when I could sit starring into a empty courtyard and no one would worry about my time, things to do, or my state of mind...

2006-06-06T11:08:00.000+01:00

Stunning Five Finger Strand, Inishowen, County Donegal, Ireland.

2006-06-06T11:01:00.000+01:00

Sunset over Lough Swilly, seen from Lisfannon heights.

2006-05-16T15:45:00.000+01:00

Grote Markt or Grand Place, Brussels is the central square in Brussles. Its smaller than I imagined from reading about it, but still very royal, very European! The gothic town hall is straight out of Doom or Unreal or some such fantasy game maps! Unreal, thats the word! Raspberry beer turned out to be quite nice - a beer version of Spanish sangria!

Manikin piss turned out to nothing but of a wee boy taking a piss, or may be Belgians taking a piss on tourists, you wouldn't miss much if you it a miss!

2006-05-16T15:37:00.000+01:00

Street vendors outside City2 shopping mall in Brussels, Belgium in Dec 2005.

2006-05-16T15:19:00.000+01:00

A mere 500 meters away is a busy main road, a very busy M1 (Dublin - Belfast motorway), but more like stepping a few decades back in to the past!

2006-05-16T15:08:00.000+01:00

Spring is here! Discovered this absolutely beautiful place on the south side of Boyne River - a place to get away from it all! :)

2006-05-16T15:06:00.000+01:00

Why would anyone think of these pretty dandelions weed!?

2006-02-23T16:15:00.000Z

stop the world, I am getting off!

2006-02-06T10:52:00.000Z

This is what we got when a Irish Red Setter hunk crossed with a very caring and elegant Golden Retriever! Eight month old, this energetic, adventurous girl is an absolute charmer with her manners and faster than a greyhound out in the beach – and a big toy by the fire for kids in the evening!

2006-02-03T18:18:00.000Z

tiny TROUBLE!

This serious looking guy is infact only about 14 inches long! He sure looks like he knows his reputation!

BenalMadena, Malaga, Costa Del Sol, Spain, December 2005

2006-02-03T18:10:00.000Z

Chinchu, our five-year-old mongrel girl acting timid and cute, but the truth is that she is the most hyper dog that I have ever had! If you try petting her, within seconds she turns the table and starts licking you and messing with you.

Home, 2006 January.

2005-12-18T10:55:00.000Z

Nano-Armor

An Israeli company has recently tested one of the most shock-resistant materials known to man. Five times stronger than steel and at least twice as strong as any impact-resistant material currently in use as protective gear, the new nano-based material is on its way to becoming the armor of the future.

Prof. Yan Qiu Zhu of the School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Nottingham, England, a sample of the ApNano material was subjected to severe shocks generated by a steel projectile traveling at velocities of up to 1.5 km/second. The material withstood the shock pressures generated by the impacts of up to 250 tons per square centimeter. This is approximately equivalent to dropping four diesel locomotives onto an area the size of one’s fingernail.

Amazing indeed. But I guess its easy to see where its all going! If you consider the other side of this development, we now need bigger guns, more of the unconventional kind - lazers, biological weapons, pulse guns etc.. The poor and hungry need to wait a bit longer, the world has more pressing matters to hanle today!

And Alfred Nobel thought dynamite would stop wars! Yeah Right!

http://www.isracast.com/tech_news/091205_tech.htm

2005-11-07T08:51:00.000Z

the 'hydrino' promise!

Guardian Unlimited: Fuel's paradise? Power source that turns physics on its head

In short, they are offering one of those miracle energy source here - produce energy (heat) from an abundant natural resource (water) with no major environmental impacts, and do it cheaper than ever!

And to do this, they have to prove the existing Quantum mechanics theories wrong!

GreenPeace USA's research director, Kert Davies: "Our stance is of cautious optimism".

I concur!

2005-07-06T11:08:00.000+01:00

Quote of the Day:

In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better.
- Ellen DeGeneres"

:)

2005-06-24T17:10:00.000+01:00

Google Sightseeing

Excellent collection of interesting google map / images from around the globe!

www.googlesightseeing.com

2005-05-30T14:20:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Only a pawn in its game

Hydra, latest Chess supercomputer is about to take on British No.1 and World No.7 Michael Adams, and some comments from the news somehow makes the hairs on back of my neck stand up - as if there is some unknown danger around – some otherwise dormant sense kicks in - survival instincts may be?

And even the most arrogant human opponent does not give you a running tally of how thoroughly it is beating you, while it is doing it. The machine takes no pleasure in trouncing you and can't even go for a pint afterwards.

Blunders are the best illustration of why machines have an edge over humans. A human can have a bad night's sleep, hear some bad news, or have too much to drink the night before, and suffer.

2005-05-30T14:04:00.000+01:00

Republic of Ireland Public holidays 2005

I am tired of searching for this list over and again, so here goes the list:

January 1 and January 3 (New Year)
March 17 (St Patrick's Day)
March 25 (Good Friday - bank holiday only)
March 28 (Easter Monday)
May 2 (in lieu of May Day)
June 6 (Spring Holiday)
August 1 (Summer Holiday)
October 31 (Hallowe'en)
December 25 (Christmas Day)
December 26 (St Stephen's Day)
December 27, 28

Luna

2005-05-17T13:32:00.000+01:00

Luna
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Another close-up of Luna, she just loves the attention, camera and everything!

2005-05-13T16:30:00.000+01:00

The Daily WTF

A daily dose of code with mustard and mayo for boring programmers who have forever lost the ability to imagine and think laterally!

if(!(false)) {
{
logger.debug("FATAL:" + " Highly amoooozing!!");
}
}

The Daily WTF

Squeaky Chase!

2005-05-10T09:45:00.000+01:00

DSC03690
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Ah, the fresh, crisp and sunny May a morning in Ireland, and Luna is canâ??t wait to start a game of squeaky chase!

2005-04-27T18:55:00.000+01:00

Whirlwinds on Mars

Damn, that place is.. err..dusty!!

2005-04-26T15:51:00.000+01:00

Pragmatic Automation

Aaah, what will I do without the good old CruiseControl!? Searching for CruiseControl resources, I came across this one, imagine this :: A green lava lamp busy doing what it normally does (heat up, random shapes and stuff) and all in a sudden, a scheduled cruisecontrol build breaks (someone did something sinister - checked in BAAADDD CODE??), and KABOOOOM, green's gone and a red alert is declared - a red lava lamp alerts the entire office (err, the room) about the potentially disastrous situation!

Brilliant idea!! :)

2005-04-21T19:07:00.000+01:00

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Global is good

Comment: Excellent read! I am posting the entire article in here so that I can read it later, long after Guardian have archived the page and fired the reporter! Sorry 'moral copyright cops'!!

Global is good

In his provocative new book, distinguished American commentator Thomas Friedman argues that digital technology and increasing globalisation have created a 'flat earth'. In this exclusive extract he unravels the dizzyingly complex supply chain behind his laptop - and argues that it will make the world a safer place

Thursday April 21, 2005
The Guardian

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Buy The World is Flat at the Guardian bookshop

Let me tell you a little bit about the computer I am writing this on. It's a Dell Inspiron 600m notebook, service tag number 9ZRJP41. As part of the research for my book, I visited the management team at Dell, near Austin, Texas. I shared with them the ideas in this book and in return I asked for one favour: I asked them to trace the entire global supply chain that produced my Dell notebook. Here is their report.

Article continues
My computer was conceived when I phoned Dell's 800 number on April 2 2004, and was connected to sales representative Mujteba Naqvi. He typed in both the type of notebook I ordered as well as the special features I wanted, along with my personal information, shipping address, billing address and credit card information. My credit card was verified by Dell through its work-flow connection with Visa, and my order was then released to Dell's production system. Dell has six factories around the world - in Limerick, Ireland; Xiamen, China; Eldorado do Sul, Brazil; Nashville, Tennessee; Austin, Texas; and Penang, Malaysia.

My order went out by email to the Dell notebook factory in Malaysia, where the parts for the computer were immediately ordered from the supplier logistics centres (SLCs) next to the Penang factory. Surrounding every Dell factory in the world are these supplier logistics centres, owned by the different suppliers of Dell parts. These SLCs are like staging areas.

If you are a Dell supplier anywhere in the world, your job is to keep your SLC full of your specific parts so they can constantly be trucked over to the Dell factory for just-in-time manufacturing. "In an average day, we sell 140,000 to 150,000 computers," explained Dick Hunter, one of Dell's three global production managers. "The orders come in over www.Dell.com or over the telephone. As soon as these orders come in, our suppliers know about it. They get a signal based on every component in the machine you ordered, so the supplier knows just what he has to deliver. If you are supplying power cords for desktops, you can see minute by minute how many power cords you are going to have to deliver."

Every two hours, the Dell factory in Penang sends an email to the various SLCs nearby, telling each one what parts and what quantities of those parts it wants delivered within the next 90 minutes - and not one minute later. Within 90 minutes, trucks from the various SLCs around Penang pull up to the Dell manufacturing plant and unload the parts needed for all those notebooks ordered in the last two hours. This goes on all day, every two hours. As soon as those parts arrive at the factory, it takes 30 minutes for Dell employees to unload the parts, register their barcodes, and put them into the bins for assembly. "We know where every part in every SLC is in the Dell system at all times," said Hunter.

So where did the parts for my notebook come from?

To begin with, he said, the notebook was co-designed in Austin, Texas, and in Taiwan by a team of Dell engineers and a team of Taiwanese notebook designers. It happened that when my notebook order hit the Dell factory in Penang, one part - the wireless card - was not available due to a quality-control issue, so the assembly of the notebook was delayed for a few days.

Then the truck full of good wireless cards arrived. On April 13, at 10.15am, a Dell Malaysia worker pulled the order slip that automatically popped up once all my parts had arrived from the SLCs at the Penang factory. Another Dell Malaysia employee then took out a "traveller" - a special carrying tote designed to hold and protect parts - and started plucking all the parts that went into my notebook.

Where did those parts come from? Dell uses multiple suppliers for most of the 30 key components that go into its notebooks. That way, if one supplier breaks down or cannot meet a surge in demand, Dell is not left in the lurch. So here are the key suppliers for my Inspiron 600m notebook: the Intel microprocessor came from an Intel factory either in the Philippines, Costa Rica, Malaysia or China. The memory came from a Korean-owned factory in Korea (Samsung), a Taiwanese-owned factory in Taiwan (Nanya), a German-owned factory in Germany (Infineon), or a Japanese-owned factory in Japan (Elpida). My graphics card was shipped from either a Taiwanese-owned factory in China (MSI) or a Chinese-run factory in China (Foxconn). The cooling fan came from a Taiwanese-owned factory in Taiwan (CCI or Auras). The motherboard came from either a Korean-owned factory in Shanghai (Samsung), a Taiwanese-owned factory in Shanghai (Quanta), or a Taiwanese-owned factory in Taiwan (Compal or Wistron). The keyboard came from either a Japanese-owned company in Tianjin, China (Alps), a Taiwanese-owned factory in Shenzen, China (Sunrex), or a Taiwanese-owned factory in Suzhou, China (Darfon). The LCD display was made in either South Korea (Samsung or LG Philips LCD), Japan (Toshiba or Sharp), or Taiwan (Chi Mei Optoelectronics, Hannstar Display, or AU Optronics). The wireless card came from either an American-owned factory in China (Agere) or Malaysia (Arrow), or a Taiwanese-owned factory in Taiwan (Askey or Gemtek) or China (USI). The modem was made by either a Taiwanese-owned company in China (Asustek or Liteon) or a Chinese-run company in China (Foxconn). The battery came from an American-owned factory in Malaysia (Motorola), a Japanese-owned factory in Mexico or Malaysia or China (Sanyo), or a South Korean or Taiwanese factory in either of those two countries (SDI or Simplo). The hard-disk drive was made by an American-owned factory in Singapore (Seagate), a Japanese-owned company in Thailand (Hitachi or Fujitsu), or a Japanese-owned factory in the Philippines (Toshiba). The CD/DVD drive came from a South Korean-owned company with factories in Indonesia and the Philippines (Samsung); a Japanese-owned factory in China or Malaysia (NEC); a Japanese-owned factory in Indonesia, China, or Malaysia (Teac); or a Japanese-owned factory in China (Sony).

The notebook carrying bag was made by either an Irish-owned company in China (Tenba) or an American-owned company in China (Targus, Samsonite or Pacific Design). The power adaptor was made by either a Thai-owned factory in Thailand (Delta) or a Taiwanese, Korean or American-owned factory in China (Liteon, Samsung or Mobility). The power cord was made by a British-owned company with factories in China, Malaysia and India (Volex). The removable memory stick was made by either an Israeli-owned company in Israel (M-System) or an American-owned company with a factory in Malaysia (Smart Modular).

This supply chain symphony - from my order over the phone to production to delivery to my house - is one of the wonders of what I have called the flat world.

"We have to do a lot of collaborating," said Hunter. "Michael [Dell] personally knows the CEOs of these companies, and we are constantly working with them on process improvements and real-time demand/supply balancing."

Demand shaping goes on constantly, said Hunter. What is "demand shaping"? It works like this: at 10am Austin time, Dell discovers that so many customers have ordered notebooks with 40-gigabyte hard drives since the morning, its supply chain will run short in two hours. That signal is automatically relayed to Dell's marketing department and to Dell.com and to all the Dell phone operators taking orders.

If you happen to call to place your Dell order at 10.30am, the Dell representative will say to you, "Tom, it's your lucky day! For the next hour we are offering 60-gigabyte hard drives with the notebook you want - for only $10 more than the 40-gig drive. And if you act now, Dell will throw in a carrying case along with your purchase, because we so value you as a customer." In an hour or two, using such promotions, Dell can reshape the demand for any part of any notebook or desktop to correspond with the projected supply in its global supply chain.

Picking up the story of my notebook, on April 13, at 11.29am, all the parts had been plucked from the just-in-time inventory bins in Penang, and the computer was assembled there by A Sathini, a team member "who manually screwed together all of the parts from kitting as well as the labels needed for Tom's system," said Dell in their production report to me. "The system was then sent down the conveyor to go to burn, where Tom's specified software was downloaded." Dell has huge server banks stocked with the latest in Microsoft, Norton Utilities, and other popular software applications, which are downloaded into each new computer according to the specific tastes of the customer.

"By 2.45pm, Tom's software had been successfully downloaded, and [was] manually moved to the boxing line. By 4.05pm, Tom's system [was] placed in protective foam and a shuttle box, with a label, which contains his order number, tracking code, system type, and shipping code. By 6.04pm, Tom's system had been loaded on a pallet with a specified manifest, which gives the Merge facility visibility to when the system will arrive, what pallet it will be on (out of 75+ pallets with 152 systems per pallet), and to what address Tom's system will ship. By 6.26pm, Tom's system left [the Dell factory] to head to the Penang, Malaysia airport."

Six days a week Dell charters a China Airlines 747 out of Taiwan and flies it from Penang to Nashville via Taipei. Each 747 leaves with 25,000 Dell notebooks that weigh altogether 110,000kg. It is the only 747 that ever lands in Nashville, except for Air Force One, when the president visits. "By April 15 2004, at 7.41am, Tom's system arrived at [Nashville] with other Dell systems from Penang and Limerick. By 11.58am, Tom's system [was] inserted into a larger box, which went down the boxing line to the specific external parts that Tom had ordered."

That was 13 days after I'd ordered it. Had there not been a parts delay in Malaysia when my order first arrived, the time between when I phoned in my purchase, when the notebook was assembled in Penang, and its arrival in Nashville would have been only four days. Hunter said the total supply chain for my computer, including suppliers of suppliers, involved about 400 companies in North America, Europe, and primarily Asia, but with 30 key players. Somehow, though, it all came together. My computer was delivered to Bethesda, outside Washington DC, on April 19 2004.

I am telling you the story of my notebook to tell a larger story of geopolitics in the flat world. To all the forces that are still holding back the flattening of the world, or could actually reverse the process, one has to add a more traditional threat, and that is an outbreak of a good, old-fashioned, world-shaking, economy-destroying war. It could be China deciding once and for all to eliminate Taiwan as an independent state; or North Korea, out of fear or insanity, using one of its nuclear weapons against South Korea or Japan; or Israel and a soon-to-be-nuclear Iran going at each other; or India and Pakistan finally nuking it out. These and other classic geopolitical conflicts could erupt at any time and either slow the flattening of the world or seriously unflatten it.

In an earlier book I argued that the extent to which countries tied their economies and futures to global integration and trade would act as a restraint on going to war with their neighbours. I first started thinking about this in the late 1990s, when, during my travels, I noticed that no two countries that both had McDonald's had ever fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's. (Border skirmishes and civil wars don't count, because McDonald's usually served both sides.) After confirming this with McDonald's, I offered what I called the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention. The Golden Arches Theory stipulated that when a country reached the level of economic development where it had a middle class big enough to support a network of McDonald's, it became a McDonald's country. And people in McDonald's countries didn't like to fight wars any more. They preferred to wait in line for burgers. While this was offered slightly tongue in cheek, the serious point I was trying to make was that as countries got woven into the fabric of global trade and rising living standards, which having a network of McDonald's franchises had come to symbolise, the cost of war for victor and vanquished became prohibitively high.

This McDonald's theory has held up pretty well, but now that almost every country has acquired a McDonald's, except the worst rogues such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, it seemed to me that this theory needed updating for the flat world. In that spirit, and again with tongue slightly in cheek, I offer the Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention, the essence of which is that the advent and spread of just-in-time global supply chains in the flat world are an even greater restraint on geopolitical adventurism than the more general rising standard of living that McDonald's symbolised.

The Dell Theory stipulates: no two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, such as Dell's, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply chain, because people embedded in major global supply chains don't want to fight old-time wars any more.

· If Wal-Mart was a country, it would now be China's eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada

· UPS ships 13.5 million packages a day - which means that at any given moment, 2% of the world's GDP is in the back of a UPS delivery truck

· When multinationals 'outsource' work to developing countries, they typically not only save 75% on wages, but also gain a 100% increase in productivity

· Advances in fibre optics will soon allow cables to carry 48 terabits of data per second - enough capacity to enable all the printed material in the world to be transmitted via a single cable in minutes

· One hundred and fifty years ago 90% of Americans worked in agriculture; today, the figure is about 3% (top right)

· Google now processes approximately 1 billion searches a day

· Last year, of the 2.8 million science degrees awarded around the world, 1.2 million were gained by Asian students in Asian universities

· UPS's fleet of 270 aircraft makes it the 11th largest airline in the world

· In China last year BScs in engineering represented 46% of all university degrees; in America, it was 5%

· eBay now has 105 million registered users from 190 countries, trading more than £35bn of goods annually

2005-04-19T19:07:00.000+01:00

AmazType

amaztype

You would have thought someone with such great imagination and talend would have come up with a name that’s a little bit more err, readable, likable and memorable? But great work nonetheless!

How about ZonePrint or something like that – anything but.. err what was their name again, I already forgotten it!!

2005-04-14T15:31:00.000+01:00

Extensible, Virtual Technology for Congestion Control

Abstract
The refinement of replication is a theoretical quandary. It is regularly a structured purpose but has ample historical precendence. In this position paper, we prove the refinement of context-free grammar, which embodies the robust principles of hardware and architecture. In order to overcome this quagmire, we validate that hierarchical databases and write-back caches are usually incompatible.

How is that for an 'abstract'? Well, if you actually read it, you will see its all a load of bol**x, in fact its machine generated. Clever eh?

Zoom your writing career with SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator!

http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/scigen/

This is Dilber principles in action! :)

2005-04-13T09:10:00.000+01:00

How To Write Unmaintainable Code

The introduction says it all: "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

How To Write Unmaintainable Code

Entertaining read about how to make your code entirely ‘unmaintainable’ or a very sarcastic way of saying what to look out for if you intend to write maintainable, easy to understand code!

I wish I could print these pages in A2 size sheets and paste them all over the machines, desks and bedrooms of some repeat offenders that I have the pleasure of working with!

2005-04-05T18:59:00.000+01:00

Yagoohoogle!

http://yagoohoogle.com/

So simple yet very amusing! How come no one think of this one before!!? Well, goes to show there are still one too many ideas out there, waiting to be discovered!

2005-04-04T16:22:00.000+01:00

Black holes are staples of science fiction and many think astronomers have observed them indirectly. But according to a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, these awesome breaches in space-time do not and indeed cannot exist.

Over the past few years, observations of the motions of galaxies have shown that some 70% the Universe seems to be composed of a strange 'dark energy' that is driving the Universe's accelerating expansion.

George Chapline thinks that the collapse of the massive stars, which was long believed to generate black holes, actually leads to the formation of stars that contain dark energy. "It's a near certainty that black holes don't exist," he claims.

Black holes are one of the most celebrated predictions of Einstein's general theory of relativity, which explains gravity as the warping of space-time caused by massive objects. The theory suggests that a sufficiently massive star, when it dies, will collapse under its own gravity to a single point.

But Einstein didn't believe in black holes, Chapline argues. "Unfortunately", he adds, "he couldn't articulate why." At the root of the problem is the other revolutionary theory of twentieth-century physics, which Einstein also helped to formulate: quantum mechanics.

Obligatory Homer Simpson Quote: The dark matter... mmmm.. mmmm... must.. eat...!

2005-03-20T17:15:00.000Z

Is it a bird? is it a plane? No, look, its a dead pixel!!

BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | Irish cinema 'set to go digital'

Ireland is set to become the world's first country to have digital film in every cinema.

All movie houses in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are to have their traditional 35mm film projectors replaced.

The Irish Film Board said it would lead to a "pretty amazing" picture quality for cinemagoers.

"It's pure digital projection and picture perfect quality," said the board's Moira Horgan.

It says the new digital technology will see an end to flickering and scratching associated with some old projectors.

Fantastic!! :)

2005-03-20T14:26:00.000Z

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Lab fireball 'may be black hole'

Sure it wasn't black and big enough though!

[QUOTE]
A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole, a physicist has said.

It was generated at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in New York, US, which smashes beams of gold nuclei together at near light speeds.

Horatiu Nastase says his calculations show that the core of the fireball has a striking similarity to a black hole.

His work has been published on the pre-print website arxiv.org and is reported in New Scientist magazine.

When the gold nuclei smash into each other they are broken down into particles called quarks and gluons.

These form a ball of plasma about 300 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. This fireball, which lasts just 10 million, billion, billionths of a second, can be detected because it absorbs jets of particles produced by the beam collisions.

But Nastase, of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, says there is something unusual about it.

Ten times as many jets were being absorbed by the fireball as were predicted by calculations.

The Brown researcher thinks the particles are disappearing into the fireball's core and reappearing as thermal radiation, just as matter is thought to fall into a black hole and come out as "Hawking" radiation.

However, even if the ball of plasma is a black hole, it is not thought to pose a threat. At these energies and distances, gravity is not the dominant force in a black hole.

The RHIC is sited at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
[/QUOTE]

2005-03-18T17:33:00.000Z

13 things that do not make sense!

NewScientist compilation of thirteen known things that do not make sense - like the placebo effect, the dark matter, dark energy, cold fusion etc!! Thought provoking!!!

NewScientist's 13 things that do not make sense!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:36:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

And the bikers on mighty Hondas and BMW cruisers finished off the parade with a lot of VRROOOM VRRROOOM, noise and glamour!

Good one!! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:35:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Perfect lineup, even at this age!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:34:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Irish take on Indians and Bollywood - quite impressive actually - well done lads, good job - Indian! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:31:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Irish take on Indians and Bollywood! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:31:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

The pheonix - just like Ireland, from the mass immigration to the states to Celtic Tiger (12% growth, 10 or so years) - neat!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:30:00.002Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:30:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

All the way from the USA

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:30:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

A tall one!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:29:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

He looks like he is being pulled by something or someone... oh, never mind!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:29:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

"Grumpy" alright!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:28:00.002Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Pigs R Us!! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:28:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Oh, there's green one too!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:28:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Oh, there's green one too!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:27:00.002Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Scary spider for the little people!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:27:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Nice one!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:27:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Guinness moos

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:26:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Guinness's was the most impressive and elaborate display at the parade, no surprises there then, eh? :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:26:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Still wearing the same shoe as last year, come on now Charlie, if you can't buy a new one, at least polish the one you have, will ya?

He is cool though, isn't he?

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:25:00.002Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Irish 5 point band from Columbia, I think!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:25:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Nice! This year, due to the newly installed Luas power cable, which the Parade organisers overlooked even after repeated warnings from Luas authorities, might explain why most of the floats are not too high, or flexy, balloon like blow up things!! Anyway, Good one!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:25:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Crowd liked them a lot! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:24:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:24:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:23:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Nicer!! Well, I guess!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:23:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Nicer!! Well, I guess!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:22:00.002Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Nice! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:22:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Play something new, will ya? (and they did! :) )

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:22:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Good one lads, Well Done!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:21:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Hurrrayyy!! Smoke, sounds, strips in air... smashing!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:20:00.002Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

This was the best thing ever... see the next photo for them in action!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:20:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

I am not sure what the message here was, it sure was impressive - pushing that thing all the way!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:20:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Nice colors!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:19:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

The flags - Irish, American, emm.. and err.. I meant to look them up in the internet!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:19:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

The flags - Irish, American, emm.. and err.. I meant to look them up in the internet!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:18:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

The bored horses pulling the fancy BlingBling needed some serious persuasion to step away from the limelight!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:18:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

And the chariot - bling bling!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:17:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

And the chariot - bling bling!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:17:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

It sure was a long walk, an the end is in sight - this bunch looks tired!

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:16:00.002Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

There they are!! Hurrray!!! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:16:00.001Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

There they are!! Hurrray!!! :)

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:16:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

After a long wait...

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005

2005-03-18T11:15:00.000Z

St. Patrick's Day Parade Pictures 2005
Originally uploaded by chunangadan.

Half a million, according to local media, is the number of people turned up to watch the St. Patrick'd day parade this year. It sure was crowded where I was standing!

2005-02-21T16:48:00.000Z

New Scientist Special Report on India

NewScientist believes that India will be the next knoledge superpower.

Sounds very provocative, especially if you are not Indian, more so if you are American, Pakistani or Chinese! But that doesn't matter, because your opinion is just as valid as mine, as NewScientist's. No one know future for sure, but I for one tend to agree with the article.

India has resources, drive and environment to promote itself as the the-knowledge-work-destination, backoffice-of-the-world etc, and now that multinational corporates are willing to pay Indian engineers to do the thinking (research and development) as well, things might turn out a lot different in next decade or so. Its only a matter of time before succesfull and rich Indian firms, inspired by the profit-figures of the multinationals model their business and target wider markets. There's no stopping Indian economic growth.

But on the other hand, that positive outlook doesn't mean Indian villages are going to be nice and pretty like a Swiss couterpart - the divide will remain large for many decades to come, and as with everything else the ancient Indian society will take their time to evolve.

Anywhooo, at the moment, its looking good, its looking really good for an average middle class Indian.

2005-02-21T12:14:00.000Z

A parent's primer to computer slang

Oversimplified as if kids are from some other planet and all parents are dummies who can do nothing better than a 9-5 paper-pushing or standing-around day-job!

1337$p34k z 0 7 7|-|47 |-|4Rd 2 734r|\| !!!!!!!

(translation for real dummies: leet speak is not that hard to learn!)

2005-02-21T10:29:00.000Z

Acer n30

I recently bought a Acer n30 PDA and here's a compilation of specifications, reviews, howto's, discussions and much more that I could find in the internet.

Official

* Acer n30
* Specifications
* Accessories