The New American Dollar Bill ...

Someone sent me this

imprint of the American Dollar Bill. Looking at the current economic situation and bailouts, it looks painfully funny!

(Disclaimer: I make no claims about this image. I am just using it for the sake of sharing the fun part of it. It is not an attempt to draw more readership to this post.)

Books on Mathematics (Free)

While browsing the Internet, I found this list to act as a ready reckoner for myself and others who find my blog post (unlikely phenomenon). Thanks to the person who compiled this list.

Giving a real chance to environment friendly life-style ...

Somehow, I have a feeling that unless I switch to a life-style that minimally stresses the environment, I am not making the best use of my lifetime here. But surprisingly, and somewhat unfortunately, the real information, the real exemplary lives that demonstrate how to go about it are hard to find. This is the situation in the Bay Area, California. Frustration grips me.

I am looking for real people and advice that will set me on this path. I know my blog is not necessarily the best way to reach out (who reads my pointless ramblings, anyway :) ), but I have started trying out various avenues in my Quest.

I am sure one of the necessary (but not sufficient) things to do here is keeping your needs in check. I am prepared to do that. But how can I make a difference? Also, I am up for evolution, not revolution and I am (painfully) aware that I need to be patient as we soon will be 9 Billion people and any progress is going to be slow (and slower).

But I am becoming more and more melancholy every time I (have to) use/buy bottled water after a grueling cricket match, plastic merchandise at a social gathering, diapers and so on.

I am hopeful that humankind will prevail. We have taken millions (literally) of years to get here. We can't be wiped out clean because of environmental imbalance. But the future is murky. The life expectancy has improved a lot and that is likely to pose difficult problems.

Let me live the phrase "Charity begins at home". Can you help?

Google's Mail Search and Intelligence ...

Google's attempt to do the GMail search and present the reader with relevant ideas from the Web is commendable, but frankly, the problem is rather too complex to solve well.

I clicked on the "Spam" Folder on GMail UI and a prominent hyperlink on the page showed me:

Spam Hashbrown Bake or Spam Casserole ! 

:-)

OnStartups and Life ...

I read Dharmesh Shah's thoughtful posts at onstartups.com. I really like how he makes you think and encourages you to start something of your own. It is obvious that he does not necessarily make it sound simple (contrary to popular belief), but he surely makes the case in simple terms.

Maybe it brings the missing element (the courage) out of me, someday!

And why should I think what I do must change the world or how it operates? That's hard, probably and is the forte of the legends. I need to do simple things one at a time, for my own sake, to recognize the importance of failure in life. Ultimately, success is, like someone has said, ability to go from one failure to another, without any loss of enthusiasm.

To conclude, I understand Sydney Harris' quote:

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is the regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable!

Now only if I realized it!

GMail and sent mail ...

I don't get it. One of the most important requirements from my e-mail client is the facility to preserve e-mails that I send. I may want to delete a conversation (as GMail calls it), but that does not mean I want to get rid of what I wrote as part of that conversation.

Well, in today's GMail UI, it is not evident how I can satisfy this (basic) requirement as a user. To elaborate the point:

1. I send an e-mail or get an e-mail from someone.
2. I start the conversation and after 4 rounds of send-receive, I decide to delete the conversation from my Inbox.
3. Later, I want to know what I wrote as part of my responses. Naturally, I click on Sent Mail folder and to my dismay, I find no trace of the same.

Now, there could be something missing and there could be responses like "Why delete? We have gigabytes of data storage." or "Undelete it from the Trash" etc.

But that's not the point. The point is, a normal expectation from "Sent Mail" is just redefined by GMail and to my surprise, this is not a bug in GMail? I am sorry if I am missing something, but without a doubt, how I can satisfy the above is not at all evident on GMail UI.

Weird!

The thing is ... is that ...

Let's do a poll. Have have heard of such a strange arrangement of words --

The thing is ... is that ... she does not know.

?

(Note that this is a pattern and it manifests itself in several other contexts and situations).

I get irritated when I listen to such a statement. It happens in a face-to-face conversation. The speaker probably chooses to do something like this mainly to appear fluent. But I have seen this pattern in the statements made by people whose mother tongue is English.

Two new punctuation marks ...

I have now seen so many pages on the web with the basic :)s and :(s and their good/bad variations that I think at least the English Language should consider having these:

• :) - implies mischief, happiness, light-hearted mood etc.
• :( - implies being dejected, sorrow etc.

as standard punctuation marks in print.

What say?

:)

- Kedar

Man and Computer, IBM 1965 ...

This is one of the finest videos I have watched. It's a bit dated, but the principles that emerge out of this are still valid.

"A video (released from the reserves of the Computer History Museum on their YouTube channel) for which everything seems to have been done right" 

That's is how I'd like to describe this video. It tells you what the machine is all about in a succinct manner, but more importantly, it tells you what it is not, in an effective manner!

Its running time is little over 22 minutes. But it is well worth your time. 

Please do watch and share.

Life ...

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream!

(In the text that follows, you might be caught cryptically between "life" and (game of) "Life", but that's life).

Life is one of the most brilliant things I have enjoyed.

Imagine that Life began infinite years ago with an initial state and a generation of cells. Life then progresses through its unfathomable journey with a set of simple rules. Here they are:

• A cell is represented by a square in a grid that extends infinitely in both directions on a 2-D plane.
• Life begins with an initial generation wherein certain cells are live and others are dead.
• A live cell is identified by marking its square, a dead cell is identified by leaving it empty.
• Life transitions from a given generation to the next by following simple rules that are based on number of cells in the eight cells neighboring each cell :
  1. Death by Overcrowding: If a live cell is neighbored by 4 to 8 live cells, it dies.
  2. Death by Loneliness: If a live cell is neighbored by 0 or 1 live cell it dies.
  3. Survival: If a live cell is surrounded by 2 or 3 cells, it survives.
  4. Birth: If a dead cell (or cell that was never born) is surrounded by 3 cells, it is reborn (or born).
  5. You apply the rules and mark a cell as live or dead before marking it as such.

Results of applying these simple rules to a generation that started with 3 live cells (imagine that the grid is infinite) are shown below (B: Birth, D: Death, S: Survival).


And the pattern alternates for many many more generations to come!

Just like in real life, Life generates interesting patterns based on these rules and initial generation and can go on forever. Thanks to John Conway for introducing us to this fascinatingly abstract game.

Byron sent this to me, thanks a ton, Byron!

See here for a nice description and a "Java Applet" demo of Life.

Wow!

Impressive Steve Jobs ...

I think the only way you can succeed in life is by being a maniac. Steve Paul Jobs is one.

Please spend 15 minutes of your time watching the attached video. It's well worth your time. Don't get carried away, but this is one of the most impressive speeches.



Thanks to Youtube and in my eyes, this is the strength of Youtube and that's why Google bought them for $1.6B. I will write about that later.

Timeless Mumbai ...

This photograph is one of my all-time-favorites. It captures the "timelessness" of the city of Mumbai perfectly well.

[Taken from Flickr.]

Helping End the World Hunger ...

I thought FreeRice is doing a commendable job in this. We should contribute and benefit others while getting benefited ourselves. Check it out ...

Do Software Companies Really Care for Users of Their Software?

I am being very careful about this post. It is definitely not an outburst of a bad day at work or bad experience with a software (e.g. Word Processor) I use .

Whatever you are told by the executives of a (software) company, it should be taken with a grain of salt. All companies have to make money.

But the user of their software has to be at the center of their strategy, i.e. their day-today operations. It is obviously required that companies come up with interesting schemes and support the user in a paid manner, but the (hapless) user has to be at the center of all of that.

It is not easy, however. You need to have empathy and practical intelligence, both. This combination is very rare. Usability of software is its number one quality and anything done to improve that should be done all the time. Usability, interestingly, rarely challenges the stability of the software.

Vishy Anand is the undisputed world champion ...

This is one of the happiest days of my life.

Vishy Anand became the undisputed World Chess Champion today. He achieved this feat in Mexico City in the world championship tournament with formidable opponents like Kramnik, Gelfand, Leko, Svidler, Aronian, Morozevich and Grischuk.

When time permitted, I watched some of his games live (online). It was such a feast! Especially the game against Morozevich had brilliancy prize written all over it. It's remarkable to experience the tension in watching these games live (some may wonder how).

After departure of Gary Kasparov from professional chess world, we wanted a player who could fill that void. Of course both Kramnik and Topalov are capable, but Vishy edges them with his tenacity and longevity promise. Novelties have been his forte for several years. I won't say I like his blitz style while playing classical time control chess games, but that does make him the maverick he is. That brings him the Oscar Awards he has amassed.

He was always there, but not quite. I remember his 1996 loss against Gary Kasparov. Today, he wiped out all of that and at the age of 38, he achieved this crowning glory. I am happy not only because I am a fellow Indian, but also because he was able to overcome those little (very little?) inaccuracies stopping him from getting there. For past almost two years, he seemed to be working on it -- to convert minimal advantage into a full point and to save a game in a must-save situation. I think he is a different player now and has been able to make those subtle modifications. At that level, this is very difficult. First, the numero uno of the Chess world, and now the undisputed champion of it -- Priceless!

Hats off!

Interesting Advertisement ...

Commercials, errr... advertising campaign banners are often very informative and educative. The attached (click to enlarge) is one example of such eye-opening banners. I definitely know few friends who will appreciate this! (All rights about the image are reserved by Rajasthan Patrika. I am not claiming any credit here).

Sending Money to India via ICICI Bank ...

This is a quick recipe that is intended to help me more than anyone else :)

If you want to send money to India, there are few options.

1. The best is to draw a demand draft from (e.g.) State Bank of India in the name of the beneficiary. Banks need cashier's checks to be deposited to them so that they can draw the demand draft in Indian Rupees. I have used this several times. The advantage is that you get the best exchange rate. The only caveat is you need someone trustworthy (e.g. yourself) to carry the demand draft to India and hand it over to the beneficiary.
2. ACH transfers, money2India programs work great, but I think exchange rates are a bit dicey. So, I usually avoid them.
3. The last one is wire transfer. The following procedure is only for transferring from local bank in the USA to ICICI Bank in India.
1. Get all the details of the beneficiary (name, address, phone number in India, ICICI Bank account number). Keep them handy.
2. Local bank will ask you to fill in a form. Always do the wire transfer from USA to USA. That is, there are intermediate banks that are affiliated to ICICI Bank. These banks are all over the world. You need to know the exact details of those banks. For example, for the US, here is the information:
1. Intermediary Bank SWIFT Code: CHAUS33XXX
2. Intermediary Bank Name: JP Morgan Chase, New York. A more complete list for other countries is here.
3. Intermediary Bank Routing Number: FED ABA 021000021.
4. Intermediary Bank Account Number: 400808595. (The idea is that your local bank transfers the money to Chase Manhattan in this account and then it's transferred to your beneficiary's ICICI account in India. It is absolutely important that you transfer the money to this Intermediary. That saves you money as it is a domestic wire transfer for your local bank in the USA.
   
3. Provide the details of the ICICI Bank.
1. Name of the bank: ICICI Bank, with address. All the locations of ICICI Bank are available here -- https://infinity.icicibank.co.in/web/services/jsp/Locateus.jsp -- click on "Branches" and find it yourself.
   
2. SWIFT Code: ICICINBBXXX (This is for their Mumbai Branch). I will fill in the details for other branches. Note: Please ask your beneficiaries to go to their ICICI Bank Branch and get the SWIFT code for that Branch or for the main branch in that city.
   

That's it, you are done.

Problem with displaying devnagari characters in Firefox on Mac.

This post is to demonstrate the problem with Firefox (Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4) on Mac OS X (10.4.10).

I have a simple HTML page with my name using the UTF-8 character encoding. This name is expressed in the Devanagari Script. This is how Firefox displays this on my Mac.






The same HTML page is displayed as expected in Safari on the same Mac.


The actual HTML page is as follows:

<html>
<title> Testing Devanagari on Mac/Firefox </title>


<h2>
My Name: केदार म्हसवडे

</h2>

</html>

FireFox's generic message on sites that could not be contacted ...

This is how it looks ...

Failed Extension on FireFox 2.0.0.4 ...

Here is how it looks ...