How are plug-in hybrids a great idea?

I just don't get it! If a plug-in hybrid, which runs partly on conventional fuel, and partly on electricity, needs to plug in to a regular electrical socket to charge its battery (or whatever it is that powers the electric motor), then it defeats the purpose of being environmental (or ecological) friendliness. How, you ask? Elementary, my dear Watson!

To charge the battery, you have to use electric power that's most likely generated from thermo-electric power stations that use coals. So, you're actually increasing the consumption of electric current that was produced in an environmentally unfriendly way to start with. I mean, you wouldn't have consumed the electricity that you would be had you never had an electric car in the first place, so my guess is that the extra electricity that you're drawing from the grid will nullify any decrease in the fumes that your car would be emitting. Or so I conjecture.

Am I missing something vital here? Fill me in please.

Resurrecting an MP3 player

I have this MP3 player purchased more than three years ago. It's made by a company called iRiver, and the model that I own is an H320, a hard-disk based player which can do the following:

Play MP3 and WMA (of course!) Play FM (hmmm) Record FM (hmmmmm) Record Voice with an inbuilt microphone (cool) Record through line-in (that's neat) A line-out jack (standard :-|) USB port () USB 1.1 host (now, that's something! It means that you can connect compliant, self-powered devices (that means almost all of them) directly to it and transfer files) Display text files Play video (AVI and a few other formats)

That's quite handy, don't you think? Thank you.

Anyway, this device was playing dead ever since I tried to connect it to my new laptop. That was nearly six months ago. I'd been meaning to open it up and see what the problem with the battery was (I'd assumed that the problem was with the battery), but since I didn't have a screwdriver of the right size, I left it for later. It was only when a friend asked for some songs from it that I realised that I had stored all my TNS collections in it! Now, I simply had to do something.

So, I went to a friendly neighbourhood computer shop and asked the technician to see if he could open the thing up, check up the battery and supply a replacement if he could. Making it clear that they didn't deal in batteries for anything other than laptops, he obliged nevertheless by opening it up. I decided to take it from there, and here's a picture-by-picture illustration of what happened.

This was how it looked before I pried it open.

This is what it looked like after opening the case. Notice the black edges? Nothing but insulation tape.

This is a part whose purpose I couldn't figure out, but going by the fact that there are wires connecting it to the body, I'd guess that it's the battery. It's wrapped around in insultation material.

The thing on the right looks like the hard-disk.

Notice the thin edge between the gaps in the blue material? It's actually the edge of the circuit board. The metal at the bottom is for the connecting screws to be seated.

The blue material is quite rubbery, and I think it's mainly for shock absorption.

At this stage, I decided to connect it to the PC once again; you know, just to see if things would be different now. And were they!

To my surprise, the thing started charging from the USB port, something it had stoutly refused to do in my earlier attempts at making it work. I gladly disconnected it from the PC, and hooked it up to the standalone charger, and now it's getting filled with juice quite contentedly.

So, while I really don't know why merely opening up the MP3 player should resolve the problem of it refusing to start up, it feels good to have my MP3 player back in action. Welcome back, iRiver, I missed my ARI and TNS collections among others :-)

Science in public service

Nigeria. What comes to your mind when you hear the name of that country? Email scams offering you a share in the many millions left behind by a dictator in return for a small favour? I used to think so too, until I came across the above article. Warms my heart to know that satellites in space don't help only those who are cartographically inclined, but also farmers and those who find medical help inaccessible.

Upgradable cellphone towers!

Years ago, when the phone line modem ruled supreme as far as Internet connections were concerned (yes, there was an era before broadband, as much as it may be difficult to believe for people weaned exclusively on broadband), I remember reading a news article reporting that a company - Motorola, if my memory serves me well - had come out with a software modem! The idea was strikingly novel. After all, the modem merely converts binary data to analog signals and back, and there's no technical reason why software couldn't do it. The brilliant idea, for all its potential - cost savings over the price of a modem, and upgradability to higher speeds immediately come to mind - didn't really kick off, and phone line modems continued to rule the roost until they were made more or less obsolete with the advent of its speedier cousins, the ADSL modem and the cable modem.

They say that there's no force on earth that's more powerful than the force of an idea whose time has come. I believe that the time has now come for the idea of software replacing the functions that were once the exclusive domain of hardware. This time, though, it's the radio component in cellphone towers that's finding its existence being challenged by the young upstart, the software radio! And come to think of it, it makes excellent sense too. I mean, how great is it to have your cellphone tower upgrade to the next greatest technological advance in radio communications technology.

Go Vanu!

Of Spam Mail, Forwards and People who send them

I think all of us universally agree that spam is usually a big nuisance. Not so universal in agreement will we be if we were to talk about mail that's not exactly spam but is irritating all the same though it's sent by friends and / or people we know. In fact, I would say that there's a small section of people among us who actually love those inane forwards we get many times. If we were to compare these forwards to those mails that are generally considered spam, there's one glaring difference: the spam mails are usually commercial in nature and are sent by people we don't even know existed (and probably wouldn't care to know either, come to think of it!), whereas the forwards are usually non-commercial in nature and.... Okay, okay, I'll stop beating around the bush and come straight to the point.

In my early days of using the Internet and email, I've sent some of these very same inane forwards and "please forward: small cell lung cancer patient needs help" kind of mails. I've also been guilty of sending mails with huge - really huge - attachments (mostly some funny pictures, or purportedly funny videos) to most of my friends, under the stupid assumption that they'd be as interested in whatever it was that had caught my attention then. There is this friend of mine who had made it very clear to me that such mails were not welcome. I thought, "Fair enough!" - th0ugh to say that I wasn't hurt would not be entirely true - and that was that. Well, that part of my Net career came to an end when my eyes were opened to the existence of something called spam. And I swear I haven't been guilty of similar e-behavioural lapses since.

However, sometimes when I come across something which I think is pretty interesting, I say so briefly (in a line or two) in an email, attach the link, and send it across to a good number of my friends. However, the same friend again lashed out at me - yes, you read it right - and in effect said to me: I had been told once not to send such mails once [she chose to ignore the fact that these mails were personal]; so, let this be the last time, or else!

I was hurt because though what I was sending was unwarranted information, some of the mails that I sent were actually quite relevant to her, or so I thought. I mean, since I was a friend, the least she could do was tell me - politely - that she didn't quite appreciate those kind of mails. Knowing myself, I would have probably gotten into a friendly argument with her, the key word there being "friendly." Well!

It would have ended there if nothing further had happened. This friend sends me mails on subjects that I'd told her quite clearly were of no interest to me at all. I was - and still am - more than annoyed at her double standards. To bite someone's head off, that too a friend who is as harmless as I am - ask any of my friends if you don't believe me :-) - about an email and then sending similar email to that same person!! It certainly takes all kinds to make this world!

Indian Traffic Rules

I have often vented (on my friends) my frustration and irritation at the way Indian motorists behave on the roads. Now, I've decided to step into the shoes of one such offender and look at the rules as they apply to him / her. Here's the list (I'm sure any "true Indian" can add more).

1. Ride where you please; you're paying road tax every year, and hence you've earned the right to do so! There are people who think that only a small portion of any road ought to be used while driving. How can you expect narrow-minded people to know any better?!
2. Practise precision driving by manoeuvering your vehicle into any available gap while waiting at a traffic signal. Can you believe that there are people who look at such behaviour despicable? Those morons think that nobody should indulge in actions which they're not capable of themselves. (Tip: if you move to the leftmost side, you'll usually find that you can make a racing start very easily)
3. Don't apologise if you accidentally brush against another vehicle. There are people who consider such acts to be the only decent thing to be done in such situations. As if it's going to make any difference!
4. Feel free to overtake the vehicle in front of you from any side. If people are going to stare at you, glare back!
5. The humble horn that's present in any vehicle is extremely versatile. Which other instrument can you use to express such varied emotions as anger, frustration, happiness, irritation, and even musical knowledge at times?

Have I missed something that's glaringly obvious? Enlighten me please!

Play on, Blogger

Google seems to be getting aggressive with their networks. By that, I didn't mean physical networks, even if they are true. What got my attention was this and this. While the latter is not such a big deal, the former is a clear indication of whom Google is going to target: Facebook. Don't believe me, or don't think it's possible? Well, this should help you.

Hmmm, let's see how things turn out a year from now.

Yet another kindred soul

Can't say that I agree with everything that this guy says, but he's more or less bang on target. This industry sucks! I hope I get out of it soon!

Update: Here's another article. Do you need more proof?

A Dog's life

Sometimes, just sometimes, you feel that there's another soul in the world who shares your views on certain topics. This is one of them.

Desperate measures

Desperate situations are sometimes useful: they help you focus on what's most important to you at the moment, and, aided by a sustained surge of adrenalin, help you achieve them. That's what I hope, at any rate!

Moments after I was informed, rather late I must add, that I have been "released" from my current project - a euphemistic way of saying "you're not wanted here, find another project" - my mind was a swirling pot of emotions. Anger, frustration and a little bit of uncertainty all came to the fore. I reflected on the chain of events that couldn't have ended in any way but this.

He was the new PM. Just one look at him was enough to fill me with foreboding: he was strikingly similar in appearance and manner to the PM in my previous project. As the days rolled by, I realised that the similarities didn't end there, that he behaved very much like him too. Bubbling with nervous energy, his speech sometimes sounding confused because his mind seemed to be racing ahead of his ability to vocalise his thoughts, always thinking about "the customer", not really keeping a tab on what the team members think about him and his seemingly desultory instructions...you know, just the usual symptoms of a bad manager who's extremely eager to prove himself to be worthful to the organization (and his boss, of course!). The kind of guy who quits a company only to join again after a couple of years, and who doesn't even feel that there could be anything wrong with that kind of mentality. I know the lot, yeah!

The way he expected his new team to jump headlong into areas that were as familiar to them as walking on land is to a fish was quite unnerving. And since he expected similar enthusiasm from me, I let him know directly that these were uncharted waters for me, and that I would like to get my feet wet before anything: in other words, I needed to be educated on the basics of the technology that he wanted us to be experts in. He seemed to listen but went on at his own rapid pace, surging forward with new tools, new topics for study everyday! I dropped anchor, so to say, and decided to move at my own convenient pace since he wasn't willing to listen to reason. And now I'm unceremoniously out of the project, his disingenuous and shameless "Oh, were you not aware of it?" notwithstanding.

Soon, though, I relapsed into my usual state of calmness, at least on the surface. (Actually, a few people describe it as coldness.) I realised that this is perhaps destiny's way of forcing my hand, and getting me off my butt! I remember something that I'd read on a card that was on one of my ex-managers' desks:

"Every morning in Africa a deer wakes up. It Knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.It knows it must run faster than the slowest deer or it will starve to death.

It doesn't matter if you are a lion or deer, when the sun comes up you'd better be running."

I guess it's kind of a wake-up call to me. And you bet I'm now awake! It's time, or so the Gods seem to be telling me, that I started pursuing my career dream in earnest.

P.S. I've not quit the job yet.

P.P.S. But it's going to be soon.

"Inconvenience Caused is Regretted"

The number of places that I find this particular phrase in is, to my supreme irritation, on the increase. Take, for example, the official mail that came in today at my workplace. The administration department regretted to inform us that, irrespective of the fact that it has started pouring cats and dogs, those of us who wished to commute in our four-wheelers should fend for themselves when it came to finding parking space for their vehicles.

What they were effectively trying to tell us, in other words, was, "Folks, we appreciate - although reluctantly - that you try to come to work for us even in the face of severely trying, and often impossible, road and weather conditions, but if you think we're going to lift a finger trying to help you park your vehicles safely, then we urge you to think again. We're not used to doing things like taking such spaces as may be available on lease in order to make your lives easier; no sir (or madam - we always like to be politically correct, and urge you to follow our example)! Besides, we're busy doing whatever it takes to make our top management's lives easier, not to mention fattening their already fat pay-cheques. You see, that's how we can score brownie points, not by such mindless and cost-incurring activities like replacing broken floorboards near your desks, faulty air conditioning systems that may freeze you or make you sweat, or highly uncomfortable chairs that may make your backs sore. (In case you're wondering, that's also why we require nothing less than two approvals - manual, no less - from your immediate manager, and from his immediate manager, for addition of RAM on your team's development PCs. You see, we know from past experiences that such "approval-seeking" behaviour will make you realise that you're fighting against powers that are infinitely more patient, more immune to negative feedback, and hopelessly more bureaucratic than your puny self ever imagined us capable of being)

"In fact, we'd like to bring to your attention that since we never asked nor encouraged you, by word or deed, to buy four-wheelers as opposed to fuel-efficient two-wheelers, it's entirely up to you to find, using your wit and other resources that may (or, what's more likely since you work for us, may not) be at your disposal, to butt other people's vehicles out of their parked spaces and park yours. Yes, we're conscious of the degradation of our ecology caused by these smoke-billowing, fuel-guzzling broad roadsters, and are doing our best to discourage further ruin of the environment by these beasties. We're sure you appreciate our concern for the greater good.

"Oh, and in case you thought we didn't, we deeply regret the inconvenience that this may cause you."

The way to a man's heart

....is through his stomach. Or that's what Bush seems to be indicating in this picture ;-)

Am happy India is out of the "world" cup

I'm very sure people will curse me for saying this, call me unpatriotic, and some other names perhaps, but here's an article by the Economic Times which tells you in no uncertain terms that this loss is very good for India. Now, don't you dare call me unpatriotic.

These aside, my personal reasons for being elated about this are:

1. No sport, and certainly not cricket - which is played (in a meaningful way) by only a handful of countries - deserves this kind of mad, almost rabid, following, and certainly not the Indian cricket team which does nothing by way of achievement on the field. Most certainly not in a country where the average Indian is struggling to make ends meet whileas the cricketer earns a cool Rs.100k for a match irrespective of the result.
2. I lost my respect for the team, and my hatred was ready to burst, when they threatened to not play in the previous World Cup due to disagreement with the BCCI over payment! Now, I'm quite aware that this is the era of multi-million rupee deals, but certainly, the pride of playing for your country should mean something? To these players to whom money is everything, that's obviously not the case!
3. The Indian team does not seem to put its heart and soul into its efforts on the field, thus paving the way for teams like Bangladesh to beat us; for teams like NZ, WI, and almost any other team, to create records at our expense. This sucks!
4. Cricket is really a lazy man's game - besides the batsmen in the middle, the bowler and, to an extent, the wicketkeeper and the fielder to / past whom the ball is hit, the rest of the people can really cool their heels. Not my idea of active sports.
5. Then there's the pace of the game - among the slowest of all sports, though that dramatically changes when India is at the receiving end (as it usually is).
6. Cricket is only as much, if not less of, an international game as kabaddi is, even if the mighty US starts playing it. Or to put it another way, for all the reasons that the baseball "World Series" is played by the entire world, cricket is an international game.

Disclaimer:
a. Am not an armchair critic. That's because I'm a couch critic ;-)
b. Though I've never showed any recognisable aptitude for cricket ever, I've never really cared for it, preferring individual sports like tennis, table tennis and badminton instead.
c. And believe me, I know how it hurts when I lose. I don't think that can be said of all the members of our team - a few don't seem to mind it much. But what do I know, they may have been men inspired by Kipling's "If" where he exhorts us to treat success and failure as one and the same.
d. Hey, these reasons are personal - if you don't like them, tell me and I'll try to make you see my point of view.

Thank you Reliance

You might have heard about the old joke (PJ?) about one of our former Presidents 'Gnani' (why did they call him that? Was he such a wise man?) Zail Singh and how terrible his English was. Anyway, the joke goes that Indira Gandhi, the then PM, wanted to improve his English and so sent him to the US to be coached by the then President, Reagan. After a few months, she decided to check up on his progress. Imagine her surprise when, at the JFK airport, she's greeted by a smiling Reagan who says "aayiye, aayiye" (welcome, welcome in Hindi)!

Well, the context for the remembrance is the awful customer service experience with my service provider, Reliance. Whenever I call their customer care,
a. I have to listen to their awful music
b. I have to listen to the falsely cheerful, pre-recorded voice which promises to reward me for my patience if I wait for a few hundred more minutes!
c. I have to talk to one of their customer service executives whose English is so bad that I have picked up a lot of Hindi explaining my problems to them
d. Repeat c. until you puke

Federer and Sampras - two great champions

What can you say about these two supreme athletes and tennis champions? One of them was 19 and the other, exactly ten years his senior, but both of them in a league all their own. This is the one and only recorded match (as far as I know) between Pistol Pete and Fed Ex, but what a humdinger of a match! Though the clip only shows the highlights, it's not difficult to imagine the quality that these two geniuses brought to the game: one of them on his way out of the sport, and the other just finding his feet in the professional circuit, but already exhibiting signs of a rare blossom. It's ten-plus minutes of sublime, other-worldly tennis.

As I watched the clip, it struck me that the Master really came into his own while volleying (especially the overhead and the drop-/stop- volleys), whereas the Heir, though proving himself no slouch at volleying, was very much a master in his own right from the back of the court, often stranding his legendary opponent with the ferocity of his strokes. Alas, it's really difficult to say who was the better player that day!

Another Fed Ex masterclass moment; sit back and enjoy!

Going where no man has...

I've heard it said of the 1999 Wimbledon final match between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi - the match which Sampras won in straight sets - as being a display of Peerless Pete's virtuosity. Sadly, I never got to watch the match except some highlights. The same sad story continued today when I could only read reports of, not watch live, Roger Federer's demolition of Andy Roddick in straight sets at the 2007 Australian Open.

In 1999, Agassi claimed, after having lost the match, "He walked on water." I wonder what Roddick will have to say about his 83-minute annihilation. Consider this: just prior to the start of the tournament, Roddick had defeated Federer in an exhibition match; only a few months earlier, he'd held match point against Federer. Reports continued to keep pouring in about how much Andy had closed the gap between himself and Federer in the last one year after having Jimmy Connors as his coach. And then this! Andy said after the match, "It was frustrating. It sucked. It was terrible. Besides that, it was fine." I feel sorry for you Andy, but maybe you should consider going to Nadal and picking up a thing or two before he reaches your present despondent state.

Links:
An interesting, on-going comparison between the lives of two of tennis' greatest players. This is one for the bookmarks.
An emotional article by The Hindu's Nirmal Shekar in which he also lists his top-10 list of Sampras' victories.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday in advance SP! May your life be full of pleasant surprises; may the sounds of laughter always fill your life. God bless! Love.