Friday, December 22, 2006

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Poem: Recipe for Kindness

Recipe for Kindness


Fold two hands together

And express a dash of sorrow

Marinate it overnight

And work on it tomorrow.


Chop one grudge in tiny pieces

Add several cups of love

Dredge with a large sized smile

Mix with the ingredients above.


Dissolve the hate within you,

By doing a good deed,

Cut in and help your friend

If he should be in need.


Stir in laughter, love and kindness

From the heart it has to come,

Toss with genuine forgiveness

And give your neighbour some.


The amount of people served

Will depend on you,

It can serve the whole wide world,

If you really want it to.



Author Unknown

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Blogger for Word

Blog from inside Microsoft Word. A plugin that is really easy to use. Recommended.



Note: For some reason, it does not work when Microsoft Outlook is running AND Outlook has Word configured as the default editor. So you have to either

  1. Close Outlook when you want to blog from within Word. OR

  2. Choose another editor other than Word as default for Outlook.
Other than this problem, it works great.





Link: Blogger: Download Blogger for Word

Expanding tables

Fletcher Capstan tables (Expanding tables)


Fantastic tables that expand when rotated to double its original seating capacity, but still remains circular. Made out of wood.



Existing tables can seat six persons when small, and twelve or more when expanded, but there are other design possibilities.



Go see it: DB Fletcher Furniture Design

Does Hospitality Have to Be So Wasteful?


A thought provoking article in NYT.

Link: Does Hospitality Have to Be So Wasteful? - New York Times

You have problems?


Got this email ... very nice!!

Don't worry if you have problems! Which is easy to say until you are in the midst of a really big one, I know. But the only people I am aware of who don't have troubles are gathered in little neighbourhoods. Most cities and villages have at least one. We call them cemeteries. If you're breathing, you have difficulties. It's the way of life. And believe it or not, most of your problems may actually be good for you!

Let me explain.

Maybe you have seen the Great Barrier Reef , stretching some 1,800 miles from New Guinea to Australia . Tour guides regularly take visitors to view the reef. On one tour, the guide was asked an interesting question. "I notice that the lagoon side of the reef looks pale and lifeless, while the ocean side is vibrant and colourful," a traveller observed. "Why is this?"

The guide gave an interesting answer: "The coral around the lagoon side is in still water, with no challenge for its survival. It dies early. The coral on the ocean side is constantly being tested by wind, waves, and storms -- surges of power. It has to fight for survival every day of its life. As it is challenged and tested it changes and adapts. It grows healthy. It grows strong. And it reproduces."

Then he added this telling note: "That's the way it is with every living organism." That's how it is with people. Challenged and tested, we come alive! Like coral pounded by the sea, we grow. Physical demands can cause us to grow stronger. Mental and emotional stress can produce tough-mindedness and resiliency. Spiritual testing can produce strength of character and faithfulness.

So, you have problems -- no problem! Just tell yourself, "There I grow again; stronger and powerful!"

China's white dolphin called extinct after 20 million years

Man's shameless behavior on this planet claims yet another victim.

A species that survived for 20 million years has died. Guess who is responsible?



Link: China's white dolphin called extinct after 20 million years - CNN.com

Nuckin' Futs – Awesome JibJab video

A H I L A R I O U S video from JibJab !! Go see it ..



Link: Nuckin' Futs – A JibJab Year in Review - 2006

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Mars Rover video

Amazing!! No words can describe it. Go see..



Link: dailyvideo - Mars Rover

Nissan Pivo: Amazing concept car



Check this out:

  1. No blind spots
  2. The cabin of the car turns around 360 degrees !! So no problems while parking



Link: hubertheller - Nissan Pivo



Sunday, December 10, 2006

A nice joke that I happened to come upon.
Reproduced from the site : EE versus CS

Electrical Engineering vs. Computer Science

Once upon a time, in a kingdom not far from here, a king summoned two of his advisors for a test. He showed them both a shiny metal box with two slots in the top, a control knob, and a lever. "What do you think this is?"

One advisor, an engineer, answered first. "It is a toaster," he said. The king asked, "How would you design an embedded computer for it?" The engineer replied, "Using a four-bit microcontroller, I would write a simple program that reads the darkness knob and quantizes its position to one of 16 shades of darkness, from snow white to coal black. The program would use that darkness level as the index to a 16-element table of initial timer values. Then it would turn on the heating elements and start the timer with the initial value selected from the table. At the end of the time delay, it would turn off the heat and pop up the toast. Come back next week, and I'll show you a working prototype."

The second advisor, a computer scientist, immediately recognized the danger of such short-sighted thinking. He said, "Toasters don't just turn bread into toast, they are also used to warm frozen waffles. What you see before you is really a breakfast food cooker. As the subjects of your kingdom become more sophisticated, they will demand more capabilities. They will need a breakfast food cooker that can also cook sausage, fry bacon, and make scrambled eggs. A toaster that only makes toast will soon be obsolete. If we don't look to the future, we will have to completely redesign the toaster in just a few years."

"With this in mind, we can formulate a more intelligent solution to the problem. First, create a class of breakfast foods. Specialize this class into subclasses: grains, pork, and poultry. The specialization process should be repeated with grains divided into toast, muffins, pancakes, and waffles; pork divided into sausage, links, and bacon; and poultry divided into scrambled eggs, hard- boiled eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs, and various omelet classes."

"The ham and cheese omelet class is worth special attention because it must inherit characteristics from the pork, dairy, and poultry classes. Thus, we see that the problem cannot be properly solved without multiple inheritance. At run time, the program must create the proper object and send a message to the object that says, 'Cook yourself.' The semantics of this message depend, of course, on the kind of object, so they have a different meaning to a piece of toast than to scrambled eggs."


"Reviewing the process so far, we see that the analysis phase has revealed that the primary requirement is to cook any kind of breakfast food. In the design phase, we have discovered some derived requirements. Specifically, we need an object-oriented language with multiple inheritance. Of course, users don't want the eggs to get cold while the bacon is frying, so concurrent processing is required, too."

"We must not forget the user interface. The lever that lowers the food lacks versatility, and the darkness knob is confusing. Users won't buy the product unless it has a user-friendly, graphical interface. When the breakfast cooker is plugged in, users should see a cowboy boot on the screen. Users click on it, and the message 'Booting UNIX v.8.3' appears on the screen. (UNIX 8.3 should be out by the time the product gets to the market.) Users can pull down a menu and click on the foods they want to cook."

"Having made the wise decision of specifying the software first in the design phase, all that remains is to pick an adequate hardware platform for the implementation phase. An Intel 80386 with 8MB of memory, a 30MB hard disk, and a VGA monitor should be sufficient. If you select a multitasking, object oriented language that supports multiple inheritance and has a built-in GUI, writing the program will be a snap. (Imagine the difficulty we would have had if we had foolishly allowed a hardware-first design strategy to lock us into a four-bit microcontroller!)."


The king wisely had the computer scientist beheaded, and they all lived happily ever after.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

The US ZIPScribble Map

-- Start SNIPPET ---



What would happen if you were to connect all the ZIP codes in the US in
ascending order? Is there a system behind the assignment of ZIP codes?
Are they organized in a grid? The result is surprising and much more
interesting than expected.



-- End SNIPPET ---



Link: The US ZIPScribble Map | EagerEyes.org

The Japanese Super Safe Wii Safety Manual (and its parody)

If you want to design a safety manual for your product, the ultimate one comes from the Japanese. They have covered almost all the scenarios that one can think of as far as "Don't do this!!" kind of advice is concerned. Definitely worth a look ...



Link: The Japanese Super Safe Wii Safety Manual - Kotaku









And can people resist poking fun at this? This site has a parody of pages that are "missing" from the manual.



Parody link: The missing pages

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Funny Shayari


Aaj thodi shayari ho jaaye ...

Lamha lamha waqt guzar jayega,
Saat pheron ke sath koi apko bhand jaeja,

Aabhi bhi waqt hai kisi se affair kar lo ,
Kya pata kal kaun cartoon apko saup diya jayega!!

Shah jahan ne Taj Mahal ki har dewar ko dekha,

Har menar ko dekha,

Har kaleen ko dakha,

Har khidki ko dekha


or bola....


Maa kasam, bohut kharcha ho gaya hai!!

Ishq Ke School Mein Naya Mahole Tayyar Ho Gaya

Class Ki Teacher Ko Pappu Se Pyar Ho gaya

Yeh Sun Ker Sari Class Ka DIl Udass Ho Gaya

Sari Class Fail Aur Pappu Pas Ho Gaya!!

Chori Chori Yeh Aana Jana Chhorh Do
Chupke Chupke Yon Nazar Milana Chhorh Do

Kisi Din Bohat Pito Gay Unse Tum
Yeh Masjidon Se Jootay Churana Chhorh Do!!

Maine Kaha Dilruba

Usne kaha Paise Dikha.

Maine Kaha Paise Nahi

Usne kaha kaise Nahi??

Maine Kaha Mehangayi Hai..
Usne Kaha-Ja Tu mera Bhai Hai !!!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Aurora / Meteor Shower Images

Images of the aurora borealis. Quite a collection.



Link: Aurora / Meteor Shower Images

The post-it pad that looks like an Onion

Those Japanese again - inventing new things every day. I want this one !!



Link: Tokyomango: The post-it pad that looks like an Onion.

Do Not Call List (for India)


-- START snippet --

Get disconnected from the world of perky telemarketers and wallow in the
lap of a luxurious disturbance-free day. Just sign up the Do Not Disturb
Registries of banks to disengage..

-- END snippet --

Table copied from the site:

A Few Clicks Away  
Bank Website No. of clicks1
ICICI Bank www.icicibank.com 1
SBI www.sbicard.com 1
BoB Cards www.bobcards.com 1
Citibank www.citibank.co.in 1
HDFC Bank www.hdfcbank.com 1
StanChartered www.standardchartered.co.in 1
HSBC www.hsbc.co.in 1
ABN Amro www.abnamro.co.in 1
UTI Bank www.utibank.com 2
Bank of India www.bankofindia.com 1
1To reach DNCR



Link: outlookmoney.com: Ring in peace, say no to unsolicited banking calls

Monday, December 04, 2006

The World’s Most High-Tech Urinal

Urinal's are going high-tech !!

This one is underground during the day and comes out at night for peeing purposes. No doors - so no vandalism possible !!



Link: The World’s Most High-Tech Urinal « John Chow dot Com

Some Shayari


Today I feel poetic - so here is some shayari ...



Jo shaks tum se pehle yahan takht nasheen tha

Usko bhi khuda hone pe, itna hi yaqeen tha

(takht nasheen --> ruler)

-- Habib Jalib

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bagair jane pahechane ikrar na kijiye,

Muskura kar dilo ko bekar na kijiye,

Phool bhi de jate hai zakham gahere kabhi kabhi,

Har phul par yun aaitbar na kijiye...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jaam pe jaam peene se kya fayeda,

Raat guzri to utar jayegi,

Kisi ki aankhon se peeyo khuda ki kasam,

Umr saari nashe mein guzar jayegi.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pyar ne ye kaisa tohfa de diya

Mujhko gumo ne pathar bana diya

Teri yaadon main hi kat gayi ye umar

Kehta raha tujhe kab ka bhula diya

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wada na karo agar tum nibha na sako,

Chaho na usko jise tum pa na sako,

Dost to duniya me bahot hote hai,

Par ek khas rakho jiske bina tum muskura na sako.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, December 01, 2006

How to Buy Nothing

All of us at one point or the other, have bought something that we really did not need. This list tells you ways and means of cutting down on spending unnecessarily in shops/malls. All of the suggestions may not be to your liking, but the overall philosophy is good.



Link: How to Buy Nothing - WikiHow