Randy Pausch is no more, here is his last lecture,
And his personal webpage
http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/
Something more to learn
Go Kiss The World
The second book from Subroto Bagchi, "Go Kiss The World" was released couple of days ago. The book is very motivating with lots of life lessons from Bagchi Sir. Here is his interview available on MindTree website.
The book is an autobiography, author grown up in rural background of India finally ending up Co-founder of MindTree. Subroto Bagchi started his career as clerk in govt. office in orissa, today a high profile entrepreneur of MNC company, a remarkable journey.
Future of Internet
Internet!, The technological innovation of this century that is changing the human civilization/culture like no other technology has done before. A lot of discussion has been going on about future of Internet. Web 2.0 is gearing up to revolutionize the world of Software once again. With web2.0 all the future PC application might be Web based. We don't have a burden to install a bulky PC software, instead buy a subscription for a Web Application and use it from anywhere in the world. The Google is already heading in this way, the age old mighties Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc. are all available from Google as online applications. Create your document online, edit them online, share them online, and SAVE them online. So your future documents will be on some unknown remote server, under safe(!)custody of service provider.
Another one discussion is amount of data that is flooding through Internet, through Video sharing portals like Youtube, MySpace, Online music portals like last.fm, etc.. Is Internet really designed for all this! Most experts speculate that Internet will collapse by itself one day!.
"As the flood of data across the internet continues to increase, there are those that say sometime soon it is going to collapse under its own weight. But that is what they said last year "
-BBC Click
The evolution of social networking websites, file sharing networks,..
The above are just few out of complex web of problems. This weeks Click broadcasted two such interviews from experts, on future of Internet. I list them down here.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7466014.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7477498.stm
Rewriting windows from scratch
Welcome Midori, next generation Windows written from scratch! Yes, Microsoft is developing a new operating system behind the screen code named 'Midori', as various sources are quoting.
WiFi in Automobile
Alas, A new application for WiFi is unfolding. Its WiFi in car dashboard. Ford, Lincoln and Mercury have already rolled out these in their 2008 models. This week Chrysler also announced the roll out of the same in its Jeep and some new cars. The technology uses 3G connectivity with Microsoft Sync. The local WiFi in an automobile enables broadband, bluetooth access. On the move Internet access, VOIP calls, E-Mail all embedded in Car dashboard or from your mobile.
3G in India just opening up, currently Airtel and Reliance provide 3G services.
British and their contribution to India
This weekend I had an opportunity to visit the Bijapur as part of my friends marriage. I got an opportunity to visit the historical monuments of Bijapur dating back to Adil Shahi in 1500-1700AD. I visited Ibrahim Rauza with a guide. The guide explained the measures taken by British to protect the monument, like erected supporting pillars to weakned pillars.
It is not my first experiance when I have visited the ancient indian sites, I see lot of care has been taken by British to save the heritage(Ex:Pattadakal, Aihole). Here we cannot ignore the interest shown by British government in discovering the Indian history, protecting and publising it to world and their investement to Indian infrastucture development, railways.
Here are some data on Indian railways tracks laiddown during British era and post Bristish era.
| Year | 1853 | 1900 | 1950 | 2008 |
| Total Rail tracks(kms) | 34 | 51,647 | 53,596 | 63,028 |
R.S Rangutta notes in his book the british investemnt in Indian Railways was ₤75 million by 1875 alone.
India had no complete hitsory of its own, untill British historians digged the past India and created a clear picture of Ancient India. The discovery of Buddhisim, Aryans etc. were all major contributions from British. British publicized there discoveries to whole world but mildly twisted it in their favour.
Firefox 3.0
Firefox 3.0 is now availble for download
It has already downloaded by now 16595390 times!!
The application is pretty fast performing better than IE7.
Security researchers have already reported 3 major vulnerabilities in Firefox 3
- Arbitrary code execution vulnerability
http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2008/06/18/vulnerability-in-mozilla-firefox-30 - Boundery condition error
- Mailing lsit disclosure vulnerability
Adios Windows XP
Time has finally come, it looks almost certain, XP era is ending. Various sources quoating the microsoft is planning to stop the sales of Windows XP from June 30. Fans and users of XP have created an online petition signed by more than 200,000 people in an effort to save XP beyond 30th. Stage now all set for Vista, either take the mircrosoft to new heights or create a hole in big ship.
Goodby grand old XP.
5 IT skills that won't boost your salary
Yup!, Its a report by a magazine
- Plain old HTML. AJAX or Web 2.0 is HOT!!
- Legacy programming languages. Nobody wants C or Cobol but C# is on demand
- NetWare
- Non-IP network
- PC tech support
Batterystatus Indicator for Windows mobile
Cell broadcast is a feature in GSM networks where in the operator broadcasts various information on different channels. Channel no. 50 is one such which is free and contains some usefull information like, the GSM cell to which your mobile is connected, sometimes weather reports, political news, tariff changes etc. The content varies from operator to operator. Some location based profile manager softwares have come up using this free service instead of GPS.
People who are already owning the Nokia mobile are well aware of this feature. Windows mobile has this feature but doesnot have facility to display the cell information on My Today screen. I was searching for one such application and finally met with good success.
BatteryStatus
The name doesnot really reflect the features it supports. It is an application available for free, working very well with dozens of good features :-). Written by a PhD student Chi Tai, it is available for download here http://www.chi-tai.info/cs_batterystatus_xda_neo_wm5_im_cs.htm
RanBaxy
Yup a heart weakening news today morning. Daiichi snaps up Ranbaxy for $4.6 bn.
Ranbaxy is one such Indian company which started here as distributor of Pharmaceuticals for Japanees company, and turned out to be Pharmaceutical manufacturer. Later the company ramped up to global scales. Ranbaxy was an iconic company as far as India pharmaceutical industry is concerned. Today it no more an Indian company. The debt company owned is stated to be primary cause for the promoters stake sale. Recently the company was in its high time of profits. And aquired some foreign companies.
The debt owned by Indian companies are one reasons for this kind of sell out. To grow globally Indian companies are aquiring foreign business in a spree mode, inturn increasing there debt balance. Only time will tell how many Ranbaxy stories will to wrap out.
Microsoft Photosynth
Microsoft is ready with new software, looks to be innovative.
Its a new photo management? or sharing? or effects creation software?
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/view.html?collection=sanmarco/index1.sxs&st=coll
Here are some cool features
- Enables you to view the photo in 3D environment it is captured
- Good zooming ability!
- Good quality of picture display
Product is in beta phase, There is no possibility to share personal photos as of now, will have to see if this is supported after release.
Cool App
Car Pooling
The Petrol heat is rising, so the carpooling in India.
But yet it isn't much popular, Couple of days ago traffic police in Bangalore have joined hands with carpooling websites to promote the car pooling.
Car pooling has potential to grow, and ease Bangalore traffic. I cant imgine the Bangalore traffic when Tata Nano is on roads.
Electronics city alone hosts more than 60,000 people, A major portion of these people own there own cars for commuting . A bunch of websites promoting this pooling have come up
etc..
Here the IT companies can take initiative in promoting the CAR pooling by providing the pool search service inside there organisation wesite.
Now its ESO
After ITO and BPO it is speculated by NASSCOM that Indian IT industry moves towards Engineering Service Outsourcing.
Here is description of what is ESO from NASSCOM
"Finally, important differences between engineering services and other kinds of
outsourcing services means that India’s engineering ecosystem will have much
less margin for error in meeting client demands. Although ESO has some
similarities to BPO and ITO, it is also much more specialized work. Simply
increasing the raw number of engineers that can be thrown at a problem
won’t be enough. An aeronautics engineer, for example, has a different
kind of expertise than an automotive engineer, and neither of them would be any
use in designing a utility plant. As a result, vendors must develop programs
around the needs of particular sectors, and planners will have to correctly
anticipate what kinds of expertise will be needed most— and what kind of talent
can be developed to take on the tasks—five, 10, and possibly even more years
into the future."
ESO market is expected to be $1 Trillion globally by 2020
"Right now, approximately 35,000 engineers work in engineering services. By
2020, India could need as many as 250,000 to truly reach its potential in terms
of market share."
Seeing this trend a lot IC manufacturing facilities are queued up for setup in India, Biggies like Reliance, Videocon, MoserBaer are on list.
RahulDravid Scholarship
The Boy from Bangalore is once again in news.
He is providing 10 free scholarships for undergraduate students Adam smith college @ UK.
http://www.adamsmithcollege.ac.uk/student/finance/scholarships/rahuldravid
Gordon Brown the present prime minister of UK is the chancellor of the college.
The interesting thing about the college is its innovative studying programm and curriculum. Student can choose course of interest and get a degree of his interest at the end! You can be a master of Flower arrangement, plumbing etc..
GPS Receiver
Last couple of days I was lookin for a cheapest GPS receiver available in India.
The lowest I found costs Rs.5000/- from SatGuide a Indian startup company.
Looks to pretty good deal, but still I did some search on Taiwanis manufacturer like RoyalTek they are much cheaper.
I found the price of one such product around around ~$50(Rs 2000) voila...50% off!
This is one example out of many.
Can India be cheaper in manufacturing, against Taiwan and China?
Sysinternals
Hats off to these guys,
These guys did hacked the Windows kernal, found the source code organisation of kernal and developed lot of hacking tools for others.
Now SysInternals is taken over by Microsoft. So still old tools are available here
http://technet.microsoft.com/hi-in/sysinternals/default(en-us).aspx
Now they have started a live access to the tools
Just type \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\
The tools ProcessExp gives a better picture of running programms, like path of running executable, TCP/IP connections etc. check out similar geeky tools for hacky applications. The site provides info on lot of windows internals also
Spin menu
I have modified the spin menu Java script for web based menus
New improvements makes it automatic scrollable etc.
Check the working sample @ http://patil.netfirms.com
To use it in your site
Add the file http://vinay.welcome.googlepages.com/spinmenu.js
and below pasted java script code to your website
<script type="text/javascript" src="spinmenu.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
/*
3D Spin Menu- By Petre Stefan (http://www.eyecon.ro) w/ changes by JK
Visit JavaScript Kit (http://www.javascriptkit.com) for script
modified by Vinay Patil for automatic scrolling
Keep this notice intact!
*/
eye.isVertical = 0; //if it's vertical or horizontal [0|1]
eye.x = 600; // x offset from point of insertion on page
eye.y = 50; // y offset from point of insertion on page
eye.w = 150; // item's width
eye.h = 40; // height
eye.r = 100; // menu's radius
eye.v = 40; // velocity
eye.s = 8; // scale in space (for 3D effect)
eye.color = '#ffffff'; // normal text color
eye.colorover = '#ffffff'; // mouseover text color
eye.backgroundcolor = '#0000ff';//'#0099ff'; // normal background color
eye.backgroundcolorover = '#990000'; // mouseover background color
eye.bordercolor = '#000000'; //border color
eye.fontsize = 12; // font size
eye.fontfamily = 'Verdana'; //font family
if (document.getElementById){
document.write('')
eye.anchor=document.getElementById('spinanchor')
eye.spinmenu();
eye.x+=getposOffset(eye.anchor, "left") //relatively position it
eye.y+=getposOffset(eye.anchor, "top") //relatively position it
//menuitem: eye.spinmenuitem(text, link, target)
eye.spinmenuitem("Home","http://patil.netfirms.com");
eye.spinmenuitem("Photos","http://patil.netfirms.com");
eye.spinmenuitem("Source","http://patil.netfirms.com");
eye.spinmenuitem("Links","http://patil.netfirms.com");
eye.spinmenuitem("Web building tutorials","http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/");
eye.spinmenuclose();
}
</script>
A blog for tons of music
http://jensenbrazil.blogspot.com/
Startup City
Last week been to Startup City event held at NIMHANS auditorium by Smarttechie magazine.
The event featured a Seminars, interaction with VCs and eminent IT people.
There was an exhibition of startup IT companies in Bangalore.
More details can be found here
http://www.thesmarttechie.com/startupcity/
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