Buying Digital Camera Guide for Dummies

One more guide telling you all about what a digital camera is, what mega pixels are how the digital camera is different from the film camera so on and so forth. No, I am not going to talk of all this. If you have landed up at this post (out of millions and millions), you are pretty much sure that you need a digital camera. If you are looking out for a one line answer that this camera is the best, go and buy it, you are mistaken. You may very well go to numerous other sites which offer the comparisons. Over time I have seen many friends and colleagues ask me on which camera to buy, which is good (they compare two different segments) and so on. This guide tries to bring out the practical aspects to be considered while buying a camera. Mind you this article is written with an average Indian context, it may not apply for others.

Before, I proceed further if you want some good tutorial on Digital Cameras have a look at photo.net. There is another article at the same site on What camera to buy? You can check out a some tips here. A configurable comparison of the camera, prices based on their features is available here. Now is the time for you to make a choice, if you are a serious photographer, this post is not for you, if you need a camera just to capture those golden moments carry on.

Before proceeding ahead, please decide you need a camera and not a hand-cam. I am no expert in hand-cams and you would do better to ask someone else. I will take on one feature at a time, what I feel are important in the order of importance.

1) What kind of a human are you?
You lead a very peaceful life, and you need to capture those languid moments of life.
You are a party freak, and want all those nice girls in your album.
You are a back packer who hitch hikes at the word go.
You are an eternal romanticist with family and kids.

What the hell does this to do with buying a camera?
The answer to the above is very important. For example if you are the second type, you might need a ultra thin, large display, huge life camera. In the third case you might need a rugged, compact, dependable, huge storage and store pics in multiple formats, conserve power etc. The other two categories, you need to decide for your self. And I will help you deal with it as we go ahead. This guide is for any body who has no plans of turning pro.!!

2) What is your budget?
You are son of Ambani. (The world is yours, if your dad agrees)
You are like me, who has to slog for his daily bread. (hmm.. <20k)
You are a parasite who nourishes on someone else's blood.(<10k)

First decide how much you are willing to shell out, with a stretch limit. There is no limit that you can shell out on these gadgets, so know your limits. Also mind you, the budget should include not just the cost of the camera but also of all the accessories needed. (These days cameras need more accessories than mallika sherawat.)

3)How will you use the photos?
You will frame the photos in your hall.
You will blowup the photos for a present.
You will share it on Orkut.
Which photos??

Depending on what use you will put the photos to decide the mega pixels you need. In my opinion most of you just want to share them with friends and family. In that case a 5MP is good enough. It is sufficient for a 6x4 print.

If you have come this far, you have made the major decisions. Now there are a few things that everyone irrespective of where they fall need to take care. I will go about just as above, but its not according to the importance, all are equally important.

1) The battery is the most important part of a digital camera. Don't for one in which you can put aa cells, even if rechargeable. They just will not do. Go for lithium ion based or ni-cd based. They are compact easy to handle and generally last longer and mostly come with the charger or have an in circuit charging capability. Check the weight of the camera with and without the battery.

2) An extension to the above, see to it that the manufacture specifications specify the no, of shots/length of time the battery will last. The higher the better.

3) How many photos do you need? These days the camera comes with a laughable 16Mb internal memory. My cell phone is better in this regard. Make sure you it supports at least one of the formats, CF or SD. Ensure that you can add how much ever more memory you want.

4) Adding on to the third point. What all formats does your camera support, jpg, bmp, raw etc. This helps you to have some simple trade offs in quantity without a large trade off in quality. Ok Ok purists out there don't scorn at me, remember this is a practical guide for dummies.

5) What is the optical zoom? Every sales man talks about zoom (very cleverly hides the word digital). So make sure you know what the optical zoom, and don't carried away to be talked into that optical and digital zoom are same. 3x is bare minimum, and 5x will be great for our purpose. Though no harm in going for more, except a hole in the pocket.

6) How do you download the photos to your PC? It should have a USB connection. Many cameras have firewire (not as pre-levant as USB). Make sure you have the USB or at least an USB adaptor.

7) The screen is an important part of the camera, ensure it has good contrast, configurable time after which it switches off.

Screen all the cameras in the market based on the above criteria, I am sure you will left with hardly 0ne or two. This the time when you will be in a dilemma like I was some time back. At this point it's unto you, I have done my job of helping you find the Camera for you.

All the best shopping and yo! happy clicking.

A dig at Working for Google

Working at Google is the dream of so many many tehcies. Google is seen by many as the company to work for. All of you know what Google offers to someone working with them. All the food, fat pay checks, excellent work atmosphere and so on and on. If you want more details have a look at the coverage by CNN on the 100 best companies to work for. Not surprisingly Google was number one. Check out the links at the end of the post for more juice.

Enough of the rosy picture, plain common sense and a little understanding of human behavior makes me ask one question. How can it be all so rosy? Something must be going on which is not rosy as pictured. I am not wrong in asking that. Think of it, we all get to hear the highest salary offered in a IIM's or IIT's, does any one talk about the lowest? Not a soul.

Google is not different. It might be one of the best companies, but not without criticism. Check out this post by Peter Abilla . In here he talks of his experience of interviewing at Google and why he chose not to join them. The post that triggered this article is "Life at Google: The Microsoft perspective". It's an interesting piece supposedly based on experiences of a Microsoft->Google->Microsoft developer. On how to make other places as attractive as Google, the post says the following:

"Make the food in the café free. If an employee eats an average of $15 of food per day (the actual average at Google which is closer to $10) it would cost Microsoft $3,750 per year per employee to offer 3 meals a day. Instead of increasing starting salaries, switch to free food. Give everyone else half the merit increases we would have gotten AND ANNOUNCE THE FREE FOOD AT THE SAME TIME. For that quoted $10 average Google provides free soda, free organic drinks (odwalla, naked juice), breakfast, lunch, and dinner (most people only eat lunch), free sport drinks (vitamin water, etc.), and free snacks (trail mixes, nuts, chips, candy, gum, cereal, granola bars)."

We are not done yet, Google is losing the folks who started out with it in it's infancy, but who are now financially dependent (courtesy the Stock Options) to venture out on their own, or join other hot (Facebook !!) start ups. This link has more on the risk that Google faces.

One more reason that I got to hear, is about internal competition and how taxing it can get. Though I don't agree with this, since I believe that competition is good in all forms. I do have to relent that this is an issue which cannot be ruled out. The following link gives a good insights.

On a personal note, I met a person higher up in the Google hierarchy. I must tell you that these people are paranoid when is comes to confidentiality(I am not taking the name for that sake). Though she did not tell anything that was not available publicly, she kept reminding us on the need for confidentiality.

Does that mean all other companies are messiahs? It is not so. From my experience at two "big big" organisations, I feel the problems mentioned above are common across all biggies at the macro level (though the dynamics change at the micro level). Check this interesting post on hazards of working for big companies.

What do you have to say? What do you feel about the Google Work Place? What about your current company? Do you see something common? Let me know!

[rElated pOsts]
Intelliments
3.0 Cents Down

[lInks]:
Inside Goolge
Perks at Google
Working in GooglePlex

Life at Intel: A response to Life at Google: The Microsoft perspective
Life ar Google vs Microsoft: What about the rest of us?

There's God, There's Man, and There's Roger Federer

Fedelicious, that's how one of the banners held by a fan at the Australian Open 2007. It's not surprising, the popularity of one of the greatest players of tennis today, Roger Federer or Fed-ex or the champion, or numerous other names by which he is called. I will not get into the debate of whether he's the greatest tennis player of the open era, or closed era. He's a genius on the court, like an Einstein, an Edison, a Newton, a Schumacher, a Tiger Woods, a Maradona and host of others. I simply can't stop marveling at him,his brand of tennis, and his nerves.

Today was another display of the magnificence that we got used to for the past few years. Down two set points to Fernando Gonzalez, the nerves he displayed to come back into the set and win it were awe inspiring. The match which started of as coolly as the breezy conditions in Melbourne park, turned much placid as Federer took control of the match and went on to win the championship. It was 2hrs of magic, with both Fernando and Federer taking on each other at Rod Laver Arena. Taking nothing away from Fernando, who did every thing human to overcome the "Fed express", it was the master at his best.

10Grand slams in 4years and still going, I am sure he will add at least one more this year (It's good to lose sometimes ;) ) that is an awesome record. When I look at the statistics of some of the players like Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, yes Federer has some way to go, but I am sure he will surpass them one and all. Forget it even if he doesn't I don't care. What I have seen over the last few years, and what I am going to see in the next few years can never match any statistics. I am sure it is the same with millions of fans out there. Yes we want him to win at the end of the day, but what really matters is he keep playing this wonderful brand of tennis that is very much his own.

I truly believe Federer sees the tennis ball as a football in his mind. The way he comes up with some audacious shots, the way he returns some unimaginable stuff of his opponents, the way he ups his game to match the occasion, the way he managed to stay at the top, is simply amazing. And one thing is for sure, he is not a short term wonder (we have seen many in the past), he has risen through the ranks. Most of the players who fail to read him today, had their days in the past, it is just that Federer seems to have dawned the knowledge of wisdom. Just like Siddartha turned to Buddha under the Bodhi tree, Federer transformed into a force, now its time for the rest of the pack, to follow him.

As the title of the post goes, in tennis today, There's God, There's Men, and There's Roger Federer.

Warne and McGrath !!

Cricket, love it or hate it, watch it or ignore it but you can't take it away from the lives of Indians. And I am no different, though I don't prowess to say I am hard core cricket enthusiast I love this game and love to watch some of the players. This article is not a tribute to the greatness of the Warne and McGrath, two of the great players (there are no greatest!!) that the game has seen, but to relive those moments which play in my mind when I hear of them.

It was the 1996 world cup semifinal at Mohali. It was a day and night match. I watched the Australians settle for 207. Not a big score, and considering that Australia were not as formidable as they are today and West Indies were in much better shape than the are in the present. The score was 165/2 in about 32 overs, when the power went off, as is the custom in many Indian cities at the dawn of summer. I took off for my dinner in hope that West Indies will face Srilanka in the finals and restore themselves to the glory days of the past. With great difficulty I could tune in to the live commentary on AIR. It was Warne to Richardson and the score was 180 odd runs for 6 and we were into the forties. Unbelievable!!, from the jaws of victory, West Indies were snatching defeat. I was very confident that Richardson will see them through this without difficulty. I was wrong, the mercurial bowling from Warne was mind boggling. Listening to the commentary on the radio (a soul that was used to watching live action) was in it self a hair raising experience, and hearing to the commentators describe Warne's action on field is something I can never forget. It was simply marvelous. I have seen him bowl up teem number of times but that memory of the 1996 world cup semifinal is what Warne brings back .

The memories with McGrath are also from the World Cup, this time its the 2003 World Cup at Wanderers in South Africa. India received a thumping from Ponting and Australia posted a mammoth target of 340 for victory. Both the sides need a great start. Tendulkar who was in an ominous form throughout the tournament made his intentions clear with a boundary. Not one to be left behind McGrath struck back with his usual probing deliveries. It was a match of two greats, I was with a few hundred other students watching the match on the big screen in the college auditorium. The auditorium was roaring both and on and off screen. It was an electrifying atmosphere. McGrath was tracking back his run up after the fourth ball of the first over. In less a minute it was silence all around, it was deafening. The sticklers of the game may say it was not perfect, but it did achieve something. The line and length just outside the off stump, that he bowls so consistently, I many a times get carried away "isn't it simple", only to be brought back when I see all those who struggle to bowl a decent line and length.

These two bowlers, cricketers may not epitomize our image of greats, who are modest of their achievements, who are down to earth, in essence Gentleman. But, who cares, I don't they have lived their cricketing life on their terms and played a great part in a great era for Cricket as a whole and Australian Cricket in particular.

Its all in the Name

"Ramesh NLN", that was the name on one badge of one of my ex colleagues at Intel. "What does NLN stand for?", I asked him, perplexed that I have not heard of such a Last Name. "No Last Name", apt came his reply. I could do nothing but sigh.

Shakespeare quoted "What's in a name?", supporting himself by adding, "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". I don't deny a rose would smell as sweet even if it were to be called by an unpronounceable word "jshf" (Thank God nobody actually called it that.). But, I can't say the same about the human names, not atleast from my experience. A name is sufficient to tell a persons history and possibly trace his ancestry beyond imagination.

My interest in names and what a name conveys has a small story behind it. I was sixteen when I was with a friend of mine on a bus in the city of Hyderabad (India). Being as loud as I usually am, I was in deep conversation with my friend when a gentleman(referred to as G in the dialogue) asks "Meru Dravidula?" (Are you a dravidian). And the conversation goes as follows:
G: Medi East Godavara? (Are you from east godavari? ){A district in Andhra Pradesh}
Me: Yes
G: Amalapuram nuncha? (From Amalapuram?) {Another Place}
Me: Yes
G: Meeku Appanapalli lo yevara vunara (Do you know any one from Appanapalli?)
Me: Yes, my Grand Father.
That was the starting, in another five minutes and over ten questions he could exactly pinpoint my whole ancestry to my great great grand father, not only that he also managed to draw out a relationship of uncle and nephew between himself and me.
If you start wondering what made him ask that first question, it was his overhearing my last name.

This incident triggered my interest in names. It's already late in the night so I would not venture to write more on this, but will give some general observations.

1) In the North India, especially above Delhi people give their full name, and they take a lot of pride in giving their family name, eg. Prakash Singh Rawat (with an emphasis on Rawat).
2) The names that end in Mundra, Ajmera, agarwal, are mostly marwadi communities tracing back to Rajastan. (settled in parts all over India).

3)Last Names with Patel, Mehta, Zhaveri, etc. are Gujju's.

4) If a person just says his first name and initializes (Just mentions initial) his last name. He is from one of the four south Indian states.
i) If the name ends in a 'n' he's a tamilian.
ii) If the name has an 'e' where an 'a' is expected, definitely a mallu.
iii) If the last name is more than one initial, chances are of telugu origin.
iv) If the last name is either bangalore, mysore, bhatt, rai, or simply a name, its a kanadiga name.

5) Any name ending in kar is either a maharastrian or a bengali.
6) If you find a 'b' instead of 'v'. Roy, any kind of '+padyay', any kind of 'jee', 'orty' its bengali.
7) Some names are typically south India (though the trend is changing), srinivas and derivatives, padma, lata, etc.
8) The male and female first names are similar in punjabis, what distinguishes is the suffix sing and kaur respectively.

The above are just some snippets at what a name can tell about the person and his origins(I haven't even talked about outside India). May be some time later if I am triggered again, I will write more on this.
But be assured, any one can know a lot about you from your name, without even ever knowing you!.

For interesting links on names.

Behind the Name
Etymology of First Names
Etymology of Last Names
Sanskrit Names

Woh Kya Stud Hai

Looks like I am becoming a big fan of ROHIR BRIJNATH. Been writing blogs inspired by his articles for the second time in a row. That's something!!Looks like this guy writes article every Thursday in the sports column in The Hindu.

Now you must go through today's article of his, titled Greatness has no adequate explanation >>

Woods and Federer have almost made us believe the unthinkable, writes ROHIR BRIJNATH

# The matchless athlete has something we can't see, can't measure in a gym, can't calculate in a laboratory
# Sampras's secrets lay not in his wrists, or twitch fibre, but in the mind



WINNER ALL THE WAY: Tiger Woods flashes a smile after winning the PGA Championship on Sunday. — Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

The excellent athlete does not merely win, he goes further, he evokes disbelief. As Tiger Woods tramped across fairways at last week's PGA Championship, the reaction he elicited was familiar: How does he do that? No answer is ever forthcoming for such greatness has no adequate explanation, no how-to formula.

We can examine how much Tendulkar practices, and note Federer's sweet hand-to-eye coordination. We can calculate VO2 max and skin-fold. We can study tactics and decipher strategy. Yet we are still not completely enlightened.

Bewilderment

The matchless athlete has something we can't see, can't measure in a gym, can't calculate in a laboratory. He is fascinating but impenetrable, captivating but unfathomable, and this is part of his appeal. How can he summon the magical shot as if on command; why does he not blink when adversity confronts him? With reverence comes bewilderment.

How uncommon these athletes are is evident from our response to them. With the good athlete we ask, will he win? Of Woods and Federer we ask, will they fail? They have almost made us believe the unthinkable, that success in sport can be guaranteed.

Eleven times Woods has led going into the fourth (and final) round of a major championship, 11 times he has won. When he again had a share of the lead on the third evening at the PGA Championship, the tournament was considered more or less over. Even though there were 18 holes left to play! It was as if even his rivals had accepted victory was ordained and stepped back admiringly.

Being human

Like Tiger, Federer's opponents know he will stumble eventually, but you sense it is not because they are confident of beating him, but because they figure he is human and thus must lose one day. It is why praise of Andy Murray last week was deserved; it did not matter that Federer had a poor day, what mattered was that Murray was only the second man all year who actually believed he could beat Federer.

What is interesting is that it is not only us, the non-athlete, who cannot fathom genius. Neither can the average athlete. He may view greatness from closer up than us, across a net, or in a ring, but he is also disconnected from it. He knows there is something indefinably different to his outstanding rival, some quality beyond muscle, something which cannot be found with an extra 20 laps.

When Pete Sampras beat Greg Rusedski at the 2002 US Open, the sulky Brit insisted the American was too slow to win the next round, let alone the tournament. But a dazzling Sampras found a way to win the Open.

Irresistible argument

And Nirmal Shekar, in The Sportstar (September 21, 2002), put forward an irresistible argument that Rusedski and others who felt an ageing Sampras was beyond a Grand Slam title were judging him "within the ambit of their own knowledge and experience" which was limited. A player without a Grand Slam title (Rusedski) could only have limited understanding of the mental fortitude ( i.e. level of desire) of a man (then) with 13 (Sampras).

Wrote Shekar: "It takes a touch of greatness to peek into the soul of the sort of greatness symbolised by Sampras and see it for what it is, see it for what it is capable of, see it for its timeless quality and transcendental brilliance. Average men with average thought patterns like Rusedski's will never enjoy that privilege."

Sampras' secrets lay not in his wrists, or twitch fibre, but in the mind, where competitiveness brews and will is cultivated (and where Rusedski cannot look). Woods' opponents know the mysteries to his greatness lie not in his swing, or in his biceps, but somewhere in his head, a conspiracy of cells they cannot completely understand. So they must guess.

A top Australian golfer last week insisted, "Whatever the right frame of mind Tiger seems to find it when he needs it." Another Australian claimed: "He's far better than everyone at focusing." An American explained: "He doesn't make many mistakes." An Englishman even suggested, "He kind of wills the ball into the hole," as if Tiger owns some telekinetic power.

Like us, even these men who play with Tiger, are struggling to answer one of sports' most compelling questions. How in God's name does he do that?

-----
Now its not surprising that we find such cases in our daily life too. Some people whom we regard as Studs, for there sheer brilliance in handling things. Many times I am in awe of these people and wonder how they do things as they do.

I would take the case of a good friend of mine. This person originated from a very remote village in India, went on to secure an admission to one of the prestigious institutions in India IIT Kharagpur. The professors used to ask him why he joined there, not because he was bad, but as he was too good for that place. I have not seen any hardworking and sincere banda like him. Now if I thought that was it, I was in for apleasantt surprise.

I got to know this side of his, when I started sharing an apartment with him. It was his keen observing nature, his ability to multi task and excel, his ability to put endless hours, and ofcourse his sarcastic humor.

I have not seen someone as brilliant in the area of their work as this guy. May be I could not do justice to bring out his brilliance in the above few words. I would end this on a note that this is one guy to whom I bow.

Now If I have to go on listing out some of the beautiful brains that I have come across in the short span of my life, this space will not be sufficient. But, I should say something that in continuation to my earlier post on "In awe of the simple". The simplicity with which these people show there brilliance, there superiority, there command over the things they do is simply amazing.

When ever I feel worthless, I just sit back and think of these people. The acts of these people. And I get the needed inspiration to get back and do something big in my life, so that others see me in the same vein as I see these folks.

In Awe of The Simple

I just read an article in The Hindu, the article is titled "Taking a lesson in sporting awe">>

Taking a lesson in sporting awe

Sometimes it's good to halt for a moment, inhale athletes' brilliance, and marvel at what they do, writes Rohit Brijnath

Sometimes in all our instructions to Greg Chappell about who should bat where, and irritation over Tendulkar's perceived conservatism, and insistence that Federer motor to the net, we forget how to appreciate sport.

We're so busy having fun (i.e. berating, arguing, expecting), so captivated by winning and losing, that we occasionally fail to be amazed. Not by outrageous deeds, but by the smaller, everyday moments which actually are anything but routine.

Like a batsman defending a delivery, a minor composition in itself. Or the fine mix of reflex and decision-making while returning a serve. Or the footballers' sublime marriage of dexterity, control and judgment as he collapses a ball on his instep while running.

Do we ever wonder how extraordinarily difficult it is to just make the Top 100 of anything, to scuttle four paces and cleanly collect a ball that has come off Ponting's bat like a stone from David's slingshot, to hit a forehand onto a line a few inches thick from 30 metres away?

Need to remind ourselves

Of course it is unspoken in any discussion on fine athletes that they are gifted, but sometimes we need to remind ourselves of how much, how they operate on a frequency we have no comprehension of, how the simplest act is so utterly extraordinary.

When Brett Lee bowls, he propels the ball at a speed beyond our understanding; 150kmph is meaningless to us, we have no frame of reference.

From 22 yards, most people would not see the ball, would not register its course, before it arrives at their throat to complete an involuntary tracheotomy.

Yet in these fractions of a second, as our brain arrests, Dravid has seen, recognised and categorised the ball, sent a message to his hands, legs, body to arrange themselves, blending memory and reflex and anticipation and knowledge, and as his bat rises, and soft hands ensure the ball drops right down to his feet, here's what you and I think. Dammit. No run.

Athletes do the incredible every rally, every over, every round of golf, but we yawn. Tennis players will run, skid, hit, turn, run, yet in the midst of this athletic dance are still able to put the ball within inches of a line, shot after shot, and you know what we say. Bloody rallies are too long.

Sometimes all of us, garbed in cynicism, need a refresher course in awe. It is an education best found by attending practice sessions. Because to stand in almost whispering distance of an athlete is to quickly grasp his extraordinariness. And because we see sport not in the deceitful slow-motion speed of television, but in real time.

Wonder amplified

A colleague once lingered 15 feet away from a practising Sampras, both hypnotised and horrified by the velocity of tennis' greatest serve. It was a wonder amplified the next day, when Agassi stepped into that serve to hit winners. Who are these men?

In cricket stadia, it is fun to stand directly behind a net where, say, Zaheer Khan is bowling to Yuvraj Singh, and it is not uncommon to flinch and duck even when standing 10 feet away. Yet Yuvraj will step forward and almost carelessly dispatch the ball into the clouds. What has become routine is in fact breathtaking. It is an astonishing world out there.

As sporting lessons go, my most telling arrived over a decade ago, when the genial Ramesh Krishnan, and Leander Paes, in different years, agreed to the embarrassment of briefly rallying with me.

Friendly forehands from Paes came laced with a leaping topspin that, forget a response, was beyond my comprehension. Krishnan at one point gently snapped his wrist and by the time my brain suggested "move" the ball was past me.

Their speed, and accuracy, and spin, was astonishing. And these fellows weren't big hitters! Not even close.

Truth is, we may have used the same rackets, and the same balls, but they played a game I was not familiar with. And not just them. Out there, athletes, and not merely the outstanding ones but the middle-level practitioners, operate at a level, and with a beauty, which is staggering.

It's not going to stop us carping, and judging, and debating, because it's what we do. But sometimes it's good to halt for a moment, inhale their brilliance, and marvel at what they do.

--------
I put it here, not just for the sense that this article makes, but also for how true it is in other walks of life. Just think of that teacher whom we have always derided as being good for nothing, but how many of us can do atleast a tenth of what he or she did.

Think of the day when mother has just one off day at cooking, we immediately find fault with it. Do we ever consider at that moment, how many times in the past she cooked great, and how many times in the future she will cook absolutely delightful dishes. Not me, I haven't thought of all that.

Think of the waiter in the restaurant, when he spills that chutney on you. Do you ever consider the hundred times he's served absolutely to your taste, before cursing him for his folly?

How many times did we stop by to watch a supposedly insignificant creature lead its life?

Now, if I go on, there are many incidents in our life when we just don't appreciate the other persons skill, but just carp on a minor mistakes which may even be permissible under six sigma.

This article has come up as a wake up call to me. I myself do lot of things in the most imperfect manner. I feel good when someone sympathizes with me, and continue with a feel good factor.Also, when someone admonishes me for the same act, I get hurt somewhere deep down.

Now the question that troubles me is, why don't I apply the principle to others. Why do I tear apart people for small mistakes and never am in awe of the simple things that they do right time and again. Probably "Human Nature". But, from now on I will make a conscious attempt to be in awe of simple things in life. I wish you too will note this simple effort, and pardon me for all the mistakes in this post.

Weaving Magic

Ten days and more and no post. This is very much against at least one blog a week. Any way I do have a not so very valid reason, that I am away from net, for most of the time last week. And then I have these exams that are taking my time. Any way I thought let me take out the time to put my opinions on the happenings over the last few days.

Getting back to the title of the blog 'Weaving Magic', what else do you think I am referring to other than one religion that binds billions of humans across the world. Let me admit, I am no zealous fan of soccer, but then when I am witness to a miracle, i am no fool not to realize this.

I am talking about the match between Argentina and Serbia& Montenegro. It was pure magic. Until that day, I never realized the words of thousands of soccer fans on the magic on field. Today I was a mute witness, left speechless at the end of the 2hr long spectacle.

What should I talk of the 24 passes ending in goals, or the 571 or more passes that Argentina created in the span of 90 minutes. I just have no words. Since then I became a real fan of foot ball. See how one fellow blogger compare this to music.

So many matches, since that day and I tell you, I enjoyed the beauty of the game in all the matches I watched. Check out what Danny has to say about this world cup. This has been a fantastic world cup so far. Whoever wins, at the end of the day I rest with the knowledge that I have been witness to one of the greatest creation of man.

PS: For those of you who need some factual information on the Argentina - Serbia match please visit the links below.
Go here for Official Fifa Report.

For BBC report visit this.

Read what one author has to say about this match and Maradona

Pictures, that is what you are waiting for.

3.0 Cents Down -- Part 1

3.0 Cents Down

Down Down Up, Down Down Down Up, Down Down Down Down Up ... ...... ......... Wondering what this is? If you familiar to the electronics industry and follow the processor market closely, this pattern should be familiar to you. It does not strike a chord, then may be let me not put you through more ignominy. I am referring to the stock price pattern of the bellwether of the silicon manufacturers Intel.

Now Now, don’t look at me that way as if I have committed a blasphemous act. We have to accept the facts however hard they be. I am not here to track the stock of Intel, however I should accept that it was the primary inspiration for what is to follow in this piece of a few hundred words.

Before any further let us delve briefly into the history. Started in 1968 by three legends Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove as a memory manufacturer, Intel quickly changed gears to the design and development of the microprocessors. Being the pioneers in this space and with their business acumen, they became trend setters in an increasingly competitive industry. A look at the historical stock performance should ratify the previous statement. I was truly impressed with the way they built on a notorious FP bug to create a space, a brand called intel in the minds of consumer. Consider this does an average consumer care which company provides the chip inside its latest music system, its latest HDTV, or for that matter the ubiquitous cell phone and numerous other electronic items that we use daily. But, when it comes to microprocessors every body irrespective of his knowledge of computers has an opinion on which processor to use. Giving due credit where it is due, AMD owes Intel for creating a market in the mind of consumers for what we call “CPU”.

After the kick off of this successful campaign, Intel always lead the path with Pentium, then the Pentium MMX, then the GHz campaign. All the while laughing there way to the bank with over 90% of the market behind them. Then came the .dotcom burst and the industry went into the worst recessions of our times. But the picture at intel was different, there was a tenacious team in Israel which came up with a very power efficient entity when combined with couple of other entities gave a product which has changed the way people define computing. Not surprisingly this contributed to the bottom line and continues to do so.

The run after the bubble was simply brilliant in its own words. Is it truly so? I doubt, why do I do doubt? Look at the stock price. An all time high revenue could not interest the market to raise this one time , “apple in the eye”, to new levels. Any way with much ado and fanfare Intel entered into what it termed its next version Intel 3.0 a platform company. Now I stop here on the history and move on.

In spite of all the talk about the new brand image and the subsequent brand promise, the promise of the upcoming products doesn’t convince me of the rosy days ahead. Why I am not convinced forms the crux of the rest of this article. Let me first talk about the things that intel is doing that even I feel are right. And then I will put down my explanations on what will go wrong unless we at intel pull our socks and get back to the table (Please!! not the board room). Then I will also suggest a solution which I am sure are highly controversial, but keeping that we are in business to make money first, and then anything else, just give a thought to this.


The tenets of business requires it to keep itself relevant to the needs of its target market. When you feel bigger than the market, a day will come when you will be humbled, and made to bite the dust. Did we at intel lose sight of the market needs or did the market really expect something else?

In the processor market it is a tricky question to answer. Until the dawn of the new millenium this market was more or less like a monoploly, dominated by one company and its only other competitor lying low in slumber. Did customer really had a choice? Intel is a terrific opportunist, taking stock of the situation and there excellent capabilities to innovate in manufacturing, kept on launching new products, which were faster than the previous ones. Now there is nothing wrong with this, intel was doing the right things winning more and more customers.

Here we will digress a bit to understand the human dynamics of success. When one is hugely successful he will garner as many detractors as admirers. Same is the true with companies. As they grow successful you will find many resenting its offerings just because it is successful and nothing else.
Coming back, as we saw intel was doing very well. And success is not a sweet word if it makes you complacent.

If we had lose market share to our competitor This to the the architecture that intel is being raved about by the industry. Will it stand the market, only time will tell. One thing is for sure that it is better than the previous processors based on the P4 core.

Netburst architecture tauted as the architecture for the future not so long ago fell flat on the face. It is very common in an industry of this nature that we make mistakes, but what matters is how fast we learn from it.
Itanium referred to as the Itanic a la. Titanic is one of the biggest flops of the decade. I always believed that it has got the stuff in it to revolutionize the HPC. And intel is doing good by putting in moolah behind it.

Bangalore::Traffic Traffic!!

The oxford dictionary offers the following meaning for traffic:
• noun 1 vehicles moving on public roads. 2 the movement of ships or aircraft. 3 the commercial transportation of goods or passengers. 4 the messages or signals transmitted through a communications system. 5 the action of trading in something illegal.
• verb (trafficked, trafficking) deal or trade in something illegal.

Now which traffic am I alluding to in this article is anybodys guess considering that I am from Bangalore. Yes, you got that right, I refer to nothing else than the traffic in Bangalore. Without delving much into the problems that the traffic poses, as it’s a fact that Bangy. traffic doesn't offer anything other than problems. I move on to the solutions implemented, proposed and then leave the field open for all of you to chip in your Opinion.

One ways are a norm in the city. I should agree that in some places it has really helped in taming the beast of congestion. However, on most of the roads it has only moved the point of congestion and not cleared it. Another face of the above solution is no right, U turns. This did nothing but shift the congestion point (e.g., Air Port Road), and also increased the commuting distance. Flyovers were constructed for the heck of having them. I doubt how much planning has gone into their design. Silk Board flyover on Hosur road is a towering example. Domlur junction flyover which is in the making for eons, is another example, considering that it will be an eternity before one can see its impact. (But seeing the design convinces me that its going to be another silk board).

New roads to Whitefield, ITPL and other upcoming areas are as narrow as other roads in the city. I fail to understand what impedes them from going for wider roads than settle for just four lanes. One area where I can't comment is the planning that goes in the growth of the city. But if we bench mark other infrastructure projects, I have no doubts of their future.

The solutions for these that I am aware of, bringing more and more roads under the one way norm. I will not be surprised if one year from now, I need to travel 15km, to reach my office which is 1.5km from my home. (I travel 6km to reach my home which is 1.5 km from my office).More and more flyovers, considering how Bangalore was built and how much interest the present government shows in the city planning, I have a pretty picture of the city amidst rubble of flyovers, in the making.

Metro Rail is the next one down our throat. Though this is one good solution, this alone cannot solve the traffic problem. There should be a parallel plan to develop the feeders to the areas where the metro passes. This is something about which there is not much talk.

On an average a Bangalorean spends more than 7 minutes on road for every kilometer traveled. If nothing is done the next evolution of mankind is not far of, where we literally lead our lives on and off the road.

Sex and Us

Now now, there has been such a hue and cry over the MMS about which we all know. There were many views given by many so called experts about how the society is degrading and how the values have come down, how the west has influenced us, how the media has blown up a small issue. Here you have one more view from one more self proclaimed expert.

Leaving all that aside and coming back to the issue at hand, now what is the issue at hand?
Is the issue the Indian Media, since it has blown up a small issue? Shall we blame the kids involved? Or the mobile phones? Or MTV? To blame the Indian media would not be fair, as such an issue would have made news anywhere in the world. The question I have is cant we approach the issue without the blame game?

I would say that all that has happened is good and such an incident has been long overdue. I see many who are ready to mash me, but hold on, please let me proceed further. I would say that, we as a society are responsible for this. Not many may agree with me, but let me present my view.Sex is a taboo word in our lexicon, when ever we have to refer "that" we always refer "it" to as "that", "act" "it" or innumerable ways but the plain simple word 'sex'. Now we all will agree that sex is a gift of nature as any other thing, then why treat it as if it’s the evil of all the things in the world. The need for sex is as natural as the need for food, and other amenities, then why do we have this derogatory attitude towards sex.

There was this parent who was ranting about the decline in values, and stuff like that; I asked him what it that is exactly troubling him. It seems he is worried about his teenage daughter, what with all the things that are going around. I asked him one simple question, have you ever discussed this with your daughter. You should see the horror on his face as if i committed a blasphemy, "How can I talk this with my daughter?". This is how most of the parents react to my question. Tell me is it wrong to talk to our children about sex. Is it wrong if we discuss with them the "secret" behind their birth?

Where am I heading? What is connection between the MMS incident and what I am talking about? I am not trying to address the one incident that has spilled out but am addressing the larger issue of adolescent sex.

Children are much curious, inquisitive in nature; we all know that it’s next to impossible to bind them. By virtue of being humans we tend to explore the restricted. By treating sex as a taboo we are fueling the inquisitiveness of these young minds; we are responsible for making them explore more about sex. This process of exploration is what the kids in the video were a part of. Try answering this, how many parents do you know who discuss sex with their children. My parents never talked to me about that, and I know many of my friends parents never talked to them. When we friends talk about the issues on sex, it’s in hush - hush tone. And there are very few girls with whom I can discuss the topic of sex. This I have observed in people from all walks of life irrespective of education, social status, religious orientation etc.

Now is it the fault of the child if he is trying to find out about sex. Isn't the onus upon us to help them in this regard? There are some so called co-ed schools where boys and girls cannot talk. Whom are we shaping by such mindless rules? I have no doubt these children will have problems in handling the opposite sex in their future. I hear parents term this school as a good school. God save the world from the peeping toms that they produce.

The solution lies with us, the parents, teachers and elder siblings to educate the younger ones. Parents should take the responsibility of the educating the children by providing necessary material, by answering any/all queries that the child has. Rather than trying to curb the sexual freedom, empower them with the knowledge and let them be the best judge of whether they want to get involved in physical relationship at that age. This I am sure is much better than, they performing some clandestine acts which may harm them and others.

My only request before I end this piece is to remind you that knowledge is power and let the children be empowered with the knowledge about sex .