There's a new website Swine Flu India, to keep track of all news and alerts about the swine flu virus in India. The website contains detailed information about each city and its spread, precautions and prevention.
posted by Arun @ 7:29 AM
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My parents have been bugging me to get married for over 6 years now. They feel marriage is the ultimate thing in life. Without it, we all are doomed. I managed to "run away" from home to escape the mental torture. I personally feel, marriage can wait and it's not important. If being a man, I had to undergo so much, imagine a girl. I have seen a number of girls being married off by parents just to "wash away" their hands from the responsibility. They don't even bother to find out how the man will take care of their daughter, whether she will be happy. In fact, she is never asked. She just has to agree to the man they see!
Look at the consequences: A woman killed her one-year-old son by throwing him into the Bhadra river from a moving train, before killing herself by jumping into the river.
The girl (too young to be called a woman) Akshatha (21) of Sigehatti old town and her baby Darshan Pande. The train was moving from Bangalore to Shimoga. The seriously injured child was admitted to a private hospital, where he breathed his last. The cause for the extreme step were not yet known.
Now, who can be blamed for a 21 year old girl taking such an extreme step? It must have been a really horrible time for her to take such a drastic action. Still parents will not change, they hate to have girl children and when they have them, they want to get rid of them as soon as possible, even if it means marrying them off to criminals!
posted by Arun @ 6:10 AM
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I have observed a number of street fights between neighbors on the roads on India. It seems strange when we behave worse than animals. People are seen physically hurting each other. Does anger go up so high that we forget we are supposed to be "cultured humans"? I find it sad we are living in a country where we do not respect each other nor are we considerate towards others. We just do not behave like civilized people. More about this in another post.
For the moment, I felt it very sad to read about a tiny tot being a victim of such a mindless thing. Read below:
A four-month-old baby boy was today killed when two neighbors quarreled with each other on a petty issue here. The incident occurred at Gopabandhupur area in rural India. During a quarrel one Bihari Sahoo who tried to hit his neighbour Abda Khatun in a fit of anger, however, missed his target and the blow landed instead on the four-month-old baby Abda was carrying in her arms. Unnerved at the happening, Sahoo himself rushed the injured baby to the Ispat General Hospital where the doctors declared it as brought dead.
Will this person live in peace his entire life? I guess he will, people do not have a conscience these days. They never feel guilty. There's no point anyway, the little one's life is not going to come back. Well, will people learn and not do such things. No, they won't, they will continue. This thing called anger "controls" people, they do not know what they are doing. They become drunkards!
posted by Arun @ 6:02 AM
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Finally in India we have the "DTH Revolution". It's not new. It has been in existance for over a year now with Zee's Dish TV and Doordarshan's DTH. However Zee had been concentrating on areas where cable TV was not available - the rural areas. That has been corrected now.
DTH means Direct To Home. You can receive television channels directly from a satellite to your TV. No more hassels of cables and the cablewalas. These guys had a monopoly and their service was pathetic. Competition will teach them a good lesson.
DTH has been in existance in other countries for a long time now. I have seen how Sky operates in the UK and have been very impressed. There are so many features and the quality of the signals are crystal clear.
Now we have 2 choices, the Tata-Sky alliance or the Zee Dish TV. What you must considerr is the price and the availability of channels. While there can be no exclusive channes as per TRAI, the operator can opt out of broadcasting certain channels. Tata-Sky does not broadcast Zee channels while Dish TV gives you all channels including Sony, Star and Zee of course. Prices are competitive and in face may be cheaper than what is existing.
TRAI has set the limit on pricing of each pay channel. It is expected that the maximum retail price for every pay channel will be likely capped between Rs 3 and Rs 5. Further, all pay-channels, including movie, sports, or entertainment will be priced alike. However, TRAI will not intervene in bouquet pricing.
However the major deterrant will be the initial fee to be paid for the set-top-box. This can cost you up to Rs. 3000. It will worth switching over to DTH especially for the quality of service, signals and price. Plus there will be a number of value added services like Internet and pay-per-view.
Welcome to the next level in television entertainment. BTW, I do not have a TV at home (I think it's a waste of time)
posted by Arun @ 10:11 AM
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Much has been talked about the new Microsoft's portable music player Zune even before it's release. Much of it has been street talk though. Microsoft is mum of the features of Zune.
Firstly, though Zune does feature a circle navigation interface, it is not a touch-sensitive click-wheel like the one featured in an iPod; rather, there are four buttons situated around the circle and a center button to click and select. This is similar to all the Windows Mobile editions. A button to the left of the center circle enables users to access the main menu, two buttons in the circle enable scrolling, and the button to the circle’s right allows users to play and pause selections, iLounge reports. There is also a hold switch on the top of the device, similar to the switch found on Apple’s iPods. I wonder how users will control the volume. I hate devices that require me to click to reduce or increase volume. I like the rotary controls. Yes the iPod's control is a touch sensitive (and patented I guess). But rotary controls are part of most music players these days, not touch sensitive though.
Zune displays the first letter of the artist, song or video title the user is currently on at the right side of its screen — this is a unique feature unlike any within an iPod. However, the speed of scrolling depends on how long the user holds a finger down on the center button. The user interface and menus overall are similar to that of Windows Media Center 2005.
Another feature unique to Zune is a magnetic clip on its rear side designed to hold earphones.
Apple’s newer iPods can display album art when songs are playing, and Microsoft built similar functionality into Zune; However Zune has a larger screen making it easy for users to see more information stretching across its full width. An information bar sits at the bottom of the screen while content is playing, and a battery-status icon is also featured. I have also observed a phone icon. It is unlikely that the decive will also have a mobile phone option.
Zune also features a built-in FM radio tuner that can pick up North American, European and Japanese programming. I have also seen pictures with Sirius logos on the screen.
Reports on Microsoft’s Zune hinted at Wi-Fi capabilities that would allow users to buy and transfer music wirelessly. These features have yet to be confirmed.
A bit bigger than a 30GB iPod, Zune features a slightly larger screen for improved viewing of video content, and it’s made of semi-transparent plastic.
The big question: Regardless of all the hype, can Microsoft’s Zune really give Apple’s uber-popular iPod a run for its money?
Zune’s user interface will be only a small part of the motivating factors to buy a Zune. People see Apple as being a “cool” company. Microsoft does not share that image. The iPod has added to Apple's image as a innovative and stylish company.
posted by Arun @ 8:14 AM
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Everyone's eagerly awaiting for the release of Microsoft's new "iPod Killer", Zune. Eagerly not to get their hands on it, but to see how the competition will change the marketplace.
Microsoft is coming up with a slew of features in Zune. Please not that at this time most of these features could be guesses and speculation (at the time of writing this blog - 28th August 2006)
WiFi capability: Zune users will be able to share music between via Wi-Fi. I wonder if you can actually transfer files to other users. I guess you can broadcast songs, not transfer. So you can become a DJ, however your audience will be limited to 4.
Capacity: 30GB or 60GB hard-drive devices will be released first.
Media supported: Zune can play both audio and video, there is no doubt that WMV and WMA will be supported. Remember WMA could be DRM protected and therefore you will not be able to copy files from your device to another, nor can you make a CD of the songs.
Music: The screen appears the album's cover when music be played.
Video size: 3.5-inch bigger than video iPod's 2.5-inch.
Color: Zune should be available in three colors, white, black and brown.
Preloaded audio and video content: The video coming with Zune is "30 Seconds to Mars", the best rock video at this year’s MTV VMAs!
PlaysForSure: The service and device will not be PlaysForSure compliant, meaning you will not be able to use your Zune player with Napster or Vongo, for example. This will be an entirely new system. Microsoft will continue to support and develop for their PlaysForSure initiative, but all things PlaysForSure are handled by two entirely separate division that will not have any crossover.
Zune Live: Zune players will also be offered on a subscription basis access to the Microsoft Music library currently code named Alexandria. The MSN music service is called Zune Live and will incorporate Microsofts vision for a community of music fans very similar to what they have now with the Xbox Live.
Zune Processor: The Zune comes with a 400 Mhz DPS processor. This is a super fast processor with gaming capabilities. The processor will most likely be produced by Portal Player chips.
posted by Arun @ 7:45 AM
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Zune Pricing!
Everyone is quite eager to know how the supposedly called "iPod killer" Zune will look like, how will it be priced, what features it would have, etc. I'm not sure whether the name "iPod Killer" can be given to this product right now. iPod has attained a cult status. It has become the de-facto for a mobile music player.
Many do not find Microsoft as fancy as Apple. Apprantely, Toshiba will be making the hardware for Zune. Wonder what happened to all the other vendors - Samsung, HP, Creative? Guess the too would join the band wagon once this thing kicks off.
However, I have been hearing that the price of Zune will be around $299 with a lot of freebies. We already knew the Zune was going to come in a triad of colors, but we didn't have much of any idea as to the price they were going to stick you for. Common sense would dictate it would be at or slightly below what the iPod is asking for their device -- but not above -- and if TWiCE is correct with their information, the Zune will run for an on-par $299. It has also been reported that Zune won't allow for music purchases on the go, which kind of flies in the face of that whole "connected entertainment" thing, as well as the idea of putting WiFi in a portable, so we're looking at it somewhat skeptically for the time being.
posted by Arun @ 7:35 AM
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The pricing of the upcoming Windows version Vista was available all over the web today. I have been using a pirated copy of Windows all my life (secret, don't tell anyone about it). I was feeling quite guilty about it, especially after I started selling my own software. I have decided to buy a legal copy of Windows and instead of buying XP, I thought it would be a good idea to wait for Vista. It's just around the corner, always.
There are 5 versions of Vista - Home Basic, Home Premium, Vista Business, Professional and Ultimate. Knowing me I want Ultimate, who would not. Guess what the price of the normal version (not the upgrade) costs around $400. Now that's what I paid for the entire PC. Is Microsoft justified pricing their products so high? Especially a product that sells huge volumes. I belive their margins on Windows is close to 87%.
They use all the profits they generate on Windows to fund and subsidize their other products. Think about it, an entire XBox console with the OS costs just about $249. So that's where my money's going! I should think twice about buying a legal copy.
On the other hand, having a pirated copy is getting increasingly difficult. Gone are the days of Windows 2000 and 98, when you installed it with a pirated key and forgot about it. Never connected to the Internet. Today, we NEED to connect to the Net, at least for patches and Microsoft can easily track a pirated copy and deny any updates. In the worst case, they can even disable the OS, that's a speculation anyway (right now)
However, the price of the entire range of Vista ranges from $199 to $399 for the full version and $100 to $260 for an upgrade.
Here's the pricing for the full version/upgrade for 4 versions:
Windows Vista Ultimate $349/$199
Windows Vista Business $269/179
Windows Vista Home Premium $239/$139
Windows Vista Home Basic $199/$99
Note that these are guesses only, the actual pricing is not yet released by Microsoft officially. Some discounts will probably be available in the retail channel. OEM prices will, of course, be significantly lower. And I expect Microsoft to offer some enticing promotions when Windows Vista ships to encourage early adoption.
posted by Arun @ 7:11 AM
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There have been a number of websites and P2P programs which allow you to download music for free. However, most of them are illegal. The legal ones charge you per download. Not all who charge are legal, you must check before you download.
The good nows is that now fans will be able to "legally" download songs free for the first time from a major provider - after the world's biggest record company Unicersal Music announced its tracks are to be made available on a website funded by advertising. The name of the website is SpiralFrog.com. Call it Spiral Frog.
I just tried opening the website www.spiralfrog.com, it gives me a message saying coming soon. This is as on August 30th. The service is scheduled to begin sometime in December 2006 in North America. The company plans to launch in Europe in the first quarter of 2007.
Universal Music, home to acts such as U2 , the Scissor Sisters, Texas, Gwen Stefani and Shania Twain, has given its backing to an online-start up called SpiralFrog. The New York-based firm plans to offer songs for free download and pay the record label through money raised from advertising. The tie-up with Universal adds a potential 300,000 tracks to its library.
What is interesting to watch will be the competition with iTunes. The format of the songs on SpiralFrog will be in Microsoft's WMA format, which does not play on the iPod! Now it will be interesting to watch how the music player's market changes. If Spiral Frog is successful, iPods will take a hit and the other brands will get some market share. Wonder what iPod fanatics will have to say about this.
SpiralFrog uses the WMA format because users will not be able to swap songs with other net surfers because of a technology called digital rights management. Devised by Microsoft, the system effectively ties music tracks to the machine they are downloaded to and makes them unplayable on other computers. SpiralFrog users will also not be able to burn their downloads to CD.
A report released last month by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) revealed there were still 40 illegal downloads for every legal one. The voracious appetite for downloads was further illustrated by a prediction from the IFPI that 60 million MP3 players will be sold globally this year.
Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling. However it would be interesting to see whether SpiralFrog's business model will make them the kind of money they expect. Many online businesses including Microsoft are depending on advertising to generate revenues. Will the online advertising spend be good enough to generate profits to all these companies? We have yet to see what limitations might be imposed on the SpriralFrog service and I suspect users may well combine it with illegal file-swapping services.
Napster, the file-sharing service that pioneered the boom in illegal song swapping before turning itself into a legal company, is also trialling the concept of adverts for music. A new version of Napster allows consumers to listen to up to five tracks free while they view advertising.
posted by Arun @ 4:05 AM
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We have been hearing about the "Free Energy" news by a company called Steorn. Is this a Hoax or real? Steorn Ltd. is a company based in Ireland that claims to have developed a "free energy technology". In August 2006 Steorn placed a full-page advertisement in "The Economist", issuing a challenge to scientists to review their invention, which appears to be a perpetual motion machine. Steorn's technology is patent pending (patent number WO 2006/035419 (2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-27
The company director McCarthy says "We have to fight public opinion, we have to fight the scientific community and we have to fight the energy industry. We couldn't pick a worse battleground."
The more I think about this I am of two minds:
1. These guys really do think they've succeeded in breaking the laws of thermodynamics.
2. Recall that Steorn is a former e-business company that saw its market vanish during the dot.com bust. It stands to reason that Steorn has re-tooled as a Web marketing company, and is using the "free energy" promotion as a platform to show future clients how it can leverage print advertising and a slick Web site to promote their products and ideas. If so, it's a pretty brilliant strategy.
The more I think of it, I think it's only a hoax. At this time, when energy prices are going higher and higher, Steorn couldn't have picked a better time to try what they are trying. Deep in my heart, I hope these guys have really done something smart. It will surely help our "little" earth. Even terrorism may stop!
But honestly, what modern physics has to say about the math is very simple, energy-in=energy-out. There's no overtly complex maths involved for calculating magnetic repulsion and attraction forces... You simply find the constants and divide them by the square of the distance... As for equations on the "interaction of magnetic fields" Steorn has been vague enough that no one really knows exactly what they're talking about...
I have this strange feeling, it will all end up as a famous "Steorn Hoax", or "Storn Hoax"!
If you consider that people have attempted to create a 'Perpetual Motion Machine' and always have failed. Most of the time the people showing one of them had working rigs etcetc. Every single time they have been shown to be a fraud.
From that angle it is EXTREMELY unlikely that steorn has stumbled upon a true working one, especially since it violates the basic understanding we have of energy (Which, granted, is not very much), namely, the conservation of it.
I hope it is not a measurement error, fraud or anything, and genuine. But I am very sceptical.
posted by Arun @ 11:09 AM
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I guess it stresses everyone who is not working in the field they are interested in. However these days people are under undue stress to perform better and put in more hours. On top of that people have loans which makes taking bold decisions (read quitting) even more difficult.
In Bangalore’s ICT (Information and Communication Technology) industry, 50 per cent employees (1.5 lakh) are women and most are unable to balance work and family, according to a study.
The burn-out stress syndrome is luring these women into smoking and drinking. It's true, most of my friends (who are girls) have taken to smoking assuming it would destress them. I don't know how effective that would be. I'm not a smoker and drinking alcohol seldom helps. I never get stresses, so I can't say! :)
A presentation on “Women in call centres: New Threats and Prospects”, by S Y Surendra Kumar of the Department of Political Science, Bangalore University focussed on how incidents of molestation, attempt to rape and acid attacks haunt women. All this adds to the extra pressure and stress.
The findings included somatization, paranoid, phobic anxiety, anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, obsessive-compulsive and psychotism. According to the study, 40 per cent of the employees in the BPO industry are women. And the worst part, these women don't even know that they may be sufferring from these symptoms.
In another study conducted by Ms Sheetal Gai and Dr Sudha Bhogle from the Department of Psychology about “Stress and its correlates in women working in the IT sector,” not one woman reported good quality of life. The stress response included getting upset over small things, frustrated, irritable, anger, difficulty to relax, bodily aches and pains and disturbed sleep.
posted by Arun @ 5:25 AM
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A new cafe opened in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) names "Hitler's Cross" is making stories. Thanks to the protests regarding it's name. The proprietors of Hitler's Cross surely never dreamt they could have got this kind of publicity when they named their restaurant after the Fuhrer.
The controversy regarding the restaurant's name has acquired an international dimension after news agencies like the BBC and Reuters flashed the story across the world.
There is considerable anger over the eatery's name in Israel and even in Germany, after people had learnt of the eatery's name through the Internet.
Zonshine said he would send letters to the authorities in Navi Mumbai and Mumbai asking for the restaurant's name to be changed and that letters would also be sent to top officials of the German and American consulates.
This is what one German had to say "I remember as a child I never saw my grandfather and grandmother because they were killed in the Nazi concentration camps. In fact, a lot of my relatives met the same fate."
I wonder why people have to take such things personally. If it is not against the law, what is your problem? You don't like it, don't go there. Stop trying to make the world behave the way YOU want it to. People have their own thoughts and actions. Let them do what they want as long as it is within the law and it does not physically harm anyone. People seem to have a lot of time, protesting, writing letters to express their dissatisfaction. Why don't they concentrate on their own stuff and forget what others are doing. There is the government and the law to take care of such things.
posted by Arun @ 5:14 AM
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I have been hearing strange stories of old people marrying younger ones. Recently it was about a 82 year old Chinese marrying a 28 year old woman. Now I hear a 75 year old man marries a 13 year old minor girl. Is there no law in this land?
Obviously the girl does not know what (and is not mature) she is doing. Her mother was supposedly upset, but however since the girl was "in love" with this old man, she finally agreed. And despite opposition from her family a 13-year-old girl in a Bihar village married her 75-year-old “heartthrob”.
Asir Ansari, father and grandfather to many, married Raveena Begum in Purnea, a village in India.
“The nikah (Islamic ritual of marriage) was solemnised a few days ago and as per customs the girl will shortly move into the groom’s house,” Nasir Miyan of the same village said.
Ansari insists that he did not force the girl to marry him. “We fell in love and decided to marry,” he said. He also claimed that his bride is not a minor.
Similarly, Raveena Begum claims that it was her decision to marry Ansari. “I don’t care about what people say,” she said. Is she mature enough to say that? Does she understand what will happen to her in a few years when this old man dies?
Finally, does this man have any conscience to do such a thing for a small girl for his personal pleasure? How can someone be so heartless to spoil a little girls life? Where is the law to stop such things? These stupid politicians, do they care? They will never oppose such things which will "eat away their vote bank". God Save the young child.
posted by Arun @ 5:06 AM
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Recently, I came across the story of a 82 year old Chinese man marrying a 28 year old woman. I was shocked. I know it's not so uncommon, however. What was going on inside the woman's head? What was her actual reason behind marrying such an old man, who for sure will not live for at most 5-10 years more?
Is it just love, that's fine. But well, how is it possible for someone to love another with such a big age difference? What does one expect from love? Romance, Liveliness, Fun, Energy, Togetherness, and so many things. Will this girl get all this?
Anyway, as they say, Love is blind. I have seen people do even crazier things in love. I surely hope that the real reason behind this marriage is Love. Just for information the man is Chen-ning Yang, a Chinese American Nobel laureate of physics. Must surely be having lots of money! ;)
The girl Weng Fan, worked as an interpreter at a seminar and happened to receive and serve Yang during meetings. Yang was deeply impressed by Weng's considerate character, savvy and excellent command of English. Wen was then a freshman of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. The two reestablished contact in this February and then fell in love with each other.
Yang called this thee "final blessing from God", obviously! :)
posted by Arun @ 6:39 AM
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