Popularity or Talent shows: The new confusion.

On the Indian TV there are a lot of TV shows that linked with SMS and voting. There used to be one or two shows earlier, but now there are plenty. But somehow the Indian Audience, the TV industry etc is totally confused about the pattern.

There are two aspects of such shows. An actor or a couple performs. The Judges give some marks and comments. The public votes. Both don't match. Somehow based on the votes the candidate gets eliminated who gets less votes. So how to get back people who are eliminated. The magic wand is "wild card". 

Earlier days there used to be number of votes declared. Now a days that too is not there. So you really don't know whether number of votes were in hundreds, thousands or millions.

Overall something does not look correct in this format. First of all, if you are a judge in these shows, what are you judging? You see the same comments repeating. So why not have 5-6 points and show the marking. Secondly is assume there are 5-6 dances or songs on each episode. And a show runs for 20 weeks, 3 times a week, you are seeing 300 performances. Is there a learning coming out of this?

If you are a participant, it becomes do some dance and start the vote asking. Dial this number, or sms this number etc. What happened to the old winners. Were they able to launch their careers?

As audience it the most difficult part. You see one episode, miss a couple, see something here and there, and once in a while vote. Is it honest to the performer.

So then who votes? During the first Indian Idol, I voted a couple of times. After that never.

So this is total confusion. But then our TV shows rather than showing something meaningful, keep the audience involved in such shows. Will we get an Indian Playhouse disney, Cartoon network, Discover, History channel etc. Does not look like till my grand children become grand fathers.

What do you see?

Sometimes we have to lose focus to see things. In the 3d image below, you will have to lose focus. Don't focus your eyes but keep seeing the photo, and you will see a funnel. You may have to save this picture on your desktop and then see it.

चलॊ हम हिन्दी मै ब्लोग करे.

हमारी यह कोशिश रही बडे दिनो से कि कोइ ऐसा तरीका निकाले जिससे हिन्दी मै लिखा जाये. आखिर तरीका मिल ही गया.

सुरेश कुमार

Mouse.

We had the keyboard discussed now let us see the mouse. Mouse can be classified based on a few ways.

Connectivity.

Mouse can be connected to a PC using either COM (Serial), PS2, USB, Bluetooth, Infrared, Wireless. The famous ones are USB, as they are cheap and affordable. For me anything that is equivalent to a lunch cost is affordable. I have seen some Mouse which are priced $50 and above. Sheer waste of money, unless your application genuinely needs that dpi.

Keys.

Mouse can have anything from 1 key to 10 keys. One to four mouse wheels. But to be useful to 90% of the productive community worldwide the two button + one wheel is good enough, unless you are of the Apple type.

Size and Color.

Mouse use to come roughly the size of a squeezed tennis ball. With white as the only color. But today I have seen mouse the size of a small lemon to the large ones as big as a PDA. In fact they look more like a cat than a mouse. There are all colors and designs. It is a fashion statement.

Technology.

Mouse can be wheel type or laser type. The wheel type  were prevalent a lot during older days (a decade back). During my teaching days that time, a regular topic discussed in the meeting was how to save the mouse balls. :) The laser mouse is simple, efficient, accurate, and solved our meeting problem.

But then mouse was invented in 1968 by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute

So are you old or is the mouse older. For me I was born after the mouse was invented.

The Solitary Reaper : William Wordsworth

BEHOLD her, single in the field,
  Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
  Stop here, or gently pass!

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:

A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?

Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
  And battles long ago:

Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
  As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
  And o'er the sickle bending;—

I listen'd, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

History of Keyboards (layouts)

While lots has changed in the PC's and are still changing, the keyboard and its layout have remained the same for more than 100 years (and we hear that technology changes).

There are three keyboard layouts that are accepted universally, ofcourse the first being on almost all PC's

1. QWERTY layout.

2. DVORAK layout

3. MALT keyboard.

QWERTY layout was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes in 1873. DVORAK layout was invented by August Dvorak in the 1930, whereas MALT keyboard was devised by Lillian Malt.

QWERTY

DVORAK

MALT

Switching from QWERTY to DVORAK is a matter of going to control panel->keyboard->changing layout, for MALT keyboards you will need additional hardware. It is more "ergonomical".