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

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.

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

Funny Shayari

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 !!!

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)

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

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

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.

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

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

Titanic song (Celine Dion) remake in Orkut

Every time in my Orkut

I see you. I scrap you.

That is how I know you go on.



Far across the Scrap Book

And testimonials between us

You have come to show yourself " single".

Near, far, wherever you are

I believe that the friends list does go on



Once more you logged on

And you're here in my scrap book

And my scrap book will go on and on



Testimonials can touch us one time

And last for sometime

And never let go till we're friends

Love was when I saw your friends list

One true time I hold to

In my life I'll surely view her/his profile

Near, far, wherever you are

I believe that the friends list does go on



Once more you logged on

And you're here in my scrap book

And my scrap book will go on and on

There is some amazing profile that will not go away



You're here, there's so much to fear,

And I know that my friend will know I checked her/him out

We'll stay forever this way

You are safe in my friends list

And my friends list go on and on

Ballmer: Linux users owe Microsoft

In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions,
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux
operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property.



FUD at its creative best...





Link: Computerworld - Ballmer: Linux users owe Microsoft

Paramount, 20th Century Fox embrace BitTorrent

BitTorrent is going places !! Now major entertainment companies are embracing it.

Good start ...



Link: Paramount, 20th Century Fox embrace BitTorrent

PS3 Nike shoes for $5,000

$5000 for a pair of shoes !! If any further proof was necessary that some humans are crazy, this is it ..



Link: PS3 Nike shoes for $5,000

Expiring e-mail addresses

Snippet from the CNET site:

--- Start Snippet ---

I'm sure you're as sick of spam as I am. Much of it comes from sites that require people to provide e-mail addresses to sign up. Those registrations result in unwanted e-mail from those sites as well as any others that your e-mail address gets passed on to.

There's a new Web site designed to solve this problem. Called 10 Minute Mail, it generates fresh e-mail addresses for people that expire after 10 minutes, or longer if the user requests that. You can use it to sign up for a service and then forget about it.

--- End Snippet ---

Link: Expiring e-mail addresses News.blog CNET News.com

Firefox gone wild

Firefox gone wild

What happens if you install all the Firefox extensions that you possibly can?

Link: Firefox gone wild (PNG Image, 1229x632 pixels)

1 year later, face transplant woman can smile

Isabelle Dinoire, from Amiens, France, received a face transplant via a graft from a brain-dead donor after being mauled by her dog.



One year on, her surgeon Bernard Devauchelle said she continued to make excellent progress and that he had plans to carry out more operations.



Full story: BBC NEWS | Health | Face transplant woman can smile

STD codes of Indian Cities (Telephone area codes)

I modified the title less someone mistakes it for something else (Indians have so many types of STD that they actually have codes for them??? :-D )



Telephone Area codes for Indian cities : STD codes of Indian Cities

Live Satellite channels

A site that has a few live Satellite channels. One Hindi channel too ..



Link: http://tv.sirfparvez.com/