No Blogging for a while

For almost two months I have not posted any thing.
I was thinking on some projects.

But sure enough some things of interest managed to do.
I had a old laptop. Old means almost 6 years old. It
is a pentium with 256MB of RAM and 40 GB of HDD. But yes
there is wifi. I had purchased this laptop when I was in
Malaysia. Brand is no brand. It looks like a Taiwanese Brand.

So did not know what to do with it? Tried OpenSolaris with
a bit of tweaking but it refused to go beyond the live cd.
Reason, not enough resources. Tried Ubuntu 10.04, but some
how it failed to get in all the drivers.

Finally managed to make it work with ubuntu 09.04. It has
gone with 0 issues. Works fine.

What do I use it for?

Currently I have downloaded the GNU compilers for C. So good
for doing some old stuff.

T20 World Cup

We are out of T20 World Cup.

It is so pathetic that we are not able to reach the top 8.

We have an IPL. We play so much cricket yet somehow are not able to reach the Top 8.

I think some of the reasons are as follows.

- you don’t see the players motivation to win. I am sure in IPL itself they would have plenty of money, got a lot of name and fame. So the driving force is missing.

- Too much of cricket is killing the sport. It is more of a commercial rather than sport.

We played three games and lost all three.

 

What happens next?

There will be press conferences. People will blame each other. News papers will print, what they understand and what they like. And the game, people behind it, players all remains the same.

Alas………….

Kavi Sammelan in Singapore

Tommorow there is a Hasya Kavi Sammelan in Singapore. Sh.Surendra Sharma will be coming. Any one interested please see this site. http://www.charkula.com/

Google Street View

This is how my house looks like.

View Larger Map

Interesting Video

THE BEAST FILE: GOOGLE from Hungry Beast on Vimeo.

Eden Gardens : India is back at No.1

India return SA with the same coin by defeating them with an Innings and 54 runs to spare. In my previous post I wrote that it is not win or loss but the margin that counts.

In this test, Indians came out hard on SA, knowing that a loss would bring them to No.2 in tests. It is good to rise in rankings in your home country, but to come down is definitely not encouraging.

 

Any way this has been a encouraging news this week after all the sad news of loss of life of Jawans and Villagers in naxal hit violence.

Just like cricket in all aspects of life, we need confidence.

Nagpur Test. What a defeat.

South Africa Beat India in the Cricket test at Nagpur by an innings and 6 runs.

It is not the matter of win or loss, each game has it. It is the margin that counts.

1. South Africa had just two bats men who scored almost all the runs.

2. India had 22 players who could not score that many runs.

3. And we have the best batting line up. :(

4. No comments by the players after the loss.

5. We lost in four days on a batting pitch.

So let us rethink next time on cricket and our players who cannot deliver when it is needed most.

Oracle completes SUN Acquisition.

Jan 27th 2010.

Oracle completed the acquisition of SUN.

We need to see in future how Oracle goes around deciding on the vast technology and portfolio resources that are with SUN. Which products are prioritized, which products are going to be dropped, which will be re-bundled. It will be difficult to satisfy everyone, customers, employees and itself. The next few months will be news for the technical prints and journals around, speculating and analyzing.

 

But somewhere deep in heart you feel that if a giant like Sun, that drove technology for so many years, not being there gives you the sense of how technology companies are so un sure. What about the small companies? You are everything today and nothing the next day. An important lesson to be learnt. University scientists create technology and the universities are there long after the scientists have left. Scientists in the Companies create technologies and the companies are long gone before the Scientists leave.

         

Wish you a happy 2010

Wish all of you a happy 2010

My hopes for the new year.

1. There are some decent movies in this year. 2009 was pathetically hopeless.
2. Movie actors do something meaningful rather than promoting themselves on TV.
3. Quality of TV soaps is at 1 on a rating from 1 to 10 (worst to best). Hope it
comes to 3.
4. Technology adoption in Indian universities improves.
5. Prices of essential commodities come down to 2000 levels.
6. Politicians need to prove they are honest.

Vivek Kalla. The Singer.

Here is a clip that I got from Gopal Ranga. It is the singer Vivek Kalla. I knew that he is an expert Hardware Engineer. Did not know that he sings so well too. I am yet to get information on when and where this was recorded. But it is simply nice.

For those in Malaysia

Any one interested in attending the Geeta Jayanti Celebrations at Geeta Ashram should take advantage of the 18 day celebrations going on in the Geeta Ashram temple.

Please read. Do attend and make it a huge success.

 

GEETA ASHRAM MALAYSIA

Lot. 6 Lorong Utara B, Off Jalan Utara

46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor D.E.

Tel/Fax no: 603 – 79564267 Website: www.geetamalaysia.org

4^th November 2009

TO: ALL DEVOTEES

GEETA JAYANTHI CELEBRATIONS

11^th to 28^th November 2009

We have great pleasure in inviting you to participate in our annual Geeta Jayanthi celebrations at our Ashram. Beginning with the 1^st chapter of the Bhagavad Geeta on 11^th November, one chapter a day (in serial order), will be recited and explained ending with chapter 18 on 28^th November, Geeta Jayanti day.

Our daily program during this period will be as follows:-

7.00p.m. - Bhajans / Aarti

7.30p.m. - Guru Vandana

Recitation of Chapter 12

Recitation of Chapter of the Day

Geeta Aarti

Welcome Address by Host

8.00p.m. - Discourse on Chapter of the day, either

a) In English for 30 minutes followed by

Hindi discourse by Panditji for 15 minutes;

OR b) Full commentary in Hindi for 45 minutes

with simultaneous translation in English

8.45p.m. - Concluding Bhajan, Announcements, Aarti

9.00p.m. - Prashad, Preeti Bhojan (dinner)

Please come with family and friends to participate in this special event. The divine blessings thereof will surely embrace, purify and charge the human spirit from within.

JAI SHRI KRISHNA!

The Management Committee

GEETA ASHRAM MALAYSIA

Happy Diwali

This has been a belated Diwali, but then everything is running late now a days. So are the wishes.

Times Higher Education – Top 100 Universities.

This year 2009’s top 100 universities has been listed.

India finds no mention in the list. Where are we? Why do we not feature in the top 100. Two of Singapore Universities find a place. For a small country like Singapore, this is a huge achievement. None of the other South Asian Countries have a mention.

National University of Singapore is at 30th place.

Nanyang Technological University is at 73. Great work Singapore.

See the full list here.

Floods in Andhra

The floods in Andhra have been massive. Reading news reports gives only a partial glimpse of the scene. I was trying to see some photos of places that I have seen 15-25 years ago. Those were calmer times. I had been in Vijayawada as a small kid during the massive cyclone of 1977.  After that I think this should be the big thing there.

I have posted some photos.

This is Prakasam Barrage. With all gates photos. This is an internet photo download. I am not sure from where.

Gandhi Jayanti

2nd Oct is the birth day of Gandhiji. He was born in the year 1869 in Porbandar. Gujarat has produced a wide array of brilliant people in India. Gandhiji wrote a book called My Experiments with Truth. It can be read from here. All should read it. Gandhiji lived truth. We all think truth as a verb. Something that has to be practiced. What happens when you practice something? Imagine 10+20 operation. We instantly know it is 30. We don't calculate. Because when you do something so many times over and over again, it starts to become natural. Gandhiji practiced truth so much that truth started to follow him. Instead of he telling the truth, what he told became the truth.

Operating Systems

Every time we think of operating systems, Windows, Linux and UNIX quickly come to mind. There are many more out there. I am talking about OS at the desktop level. Mostly home and small business users. Not about the enterprise.

There are two schools of thought. One are ok with Windows, others are not. Those who are not can also be classified to two groups. One who wants everything on Linux. They want the OS and applications all on Linux. This potentially means rewriting applications or finding equivalents. Getting accustomed to the user interface etc.

The other are those who like the windows interface, but are looking for alternative to windows OS. A new OS that looks like windows, can run all windows applications unchanged. ReactOS is one that addresses this category of people. There is FreeDOS as well but that tries to replace MS-DOS. Now some of you might think, MS-DOS? But let me tell you, lots of applications like Cash Registers, Inventory applications still run on MS-DOS. For these people FreeDOS is a boon. Not for the home users. No one will replace his/her XP with FreeDOS. But ReactOS is different. It is aiming to replace XP/2003. Just replace the OS. All applications will just run normally.

Do read more about ReactOS. As mentioned on the site, OS is still in alpha. (there is plenty of time).

Vijayadashmi or Dusserah

Vijayadashmi or Dusserah is a festival celebrated on the 10th day of Ashvin month of the Hindu calendar. There are three days in the Hindu calendar that are termed auspicious. One is Vijayadashmi, other is 1st day of Chaitra and 1st day of Kartika.

During this day large effigies of Ravan, Kumbhakarn and Meghnath are constructed in Ramlila grounds across India. Rama, Sita and Laxman arrive. Rama fires the arrow (with flames). The effigies get burnt. They are filled with crackers. In my childhood we used to wait for this day.

Happy Dusserah to everyone.

Navratri (19-27 Sept 2009)

Wishing all a happy Navratri. Last year at Jodhpur there was a tragedy. Hope this year it goes smooth. Hope the God's are happy. This year their need is more. Economic recession needs to end. Though people are talking of "green shoots", hope they become trees and are not plastic ones.

US Open 2009 - Women - Kim Clijsters

The Belgian as made a record of sorts. She retired, delivered a baby, got a Wild card and then won the tournament. She is humble and talented. Two things that usually don't go together. It is a great news that so many self claimed "Sports Specialists" could not predict this.

Salute you.

Babaji

Many years ago I read the book "Autobiography of a Yogi" written by Paramhansa Yogananda. I read both the English as well as the Hindi version. There is a mention in the book of Shri Mahavtar Babaji.

From the past few days I have got renewed interest in Babaji. So just to make people aware of this creation I am entering this blog.