Wednesday, June 28, 2006

A Mobile PCO

These wireless fixed line phones done by Reliance and Tata Indicom can be used by differently-abled people to provide a mobile Public Call Office (PCO). Though Mobile has become really popular there are people who still use PCO and having these in a Park or on a busy mall on a vehicle will provide greater flexibility.

Knock…Knock…Knock… Anybody listening ?

Vadivelu did this in one movie with Mobile Phones but these would be cheaper than that.

Check what they have done in Nairobi - RocketBoom

On a different note i have a Friend of mine who is a very differently abled person and if anybody can give him freelance work that he can do from home it would be great. He is a very good artist and can use the computer to design graphics. So keep him in mind and if something comes your way please do post a comment and I will contact you with his details. Cheers!!!

nh Barbizon Palace

After Nearly 2 Weeks at the Company corporate apartment I have moved into the hotel as of today. A Nice hotel in the central of Amsterdam bang opposite the Central Station and that works out very nicely for me to get to the office . Check it out here at nh-Hotels.com.

Planning to join the gym from tomorrow. A nice small one in the hotel, funny that they charge for everything in this Hotel and it gets irritating !!!

More updates soon. See some photos I clicked at Picasa-Web-Albums.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Babel Fish

Being in a Non English Speaking country really drives you up the wall. The hoardings are written in Dutch the sites for the transportation links are in Dutch.

What do you do if something like this comes up on the screen.

“Vertrekpunt en bestemming liggen op vijf minuten lopen van elkaar.”

I would use Babel Fish a Translation service provided by AltaVista. So what does this Translate to – Any Ideas ?

BTW – I was searching for a laundry near the place where I stay

A New +1 number

Since the time my Dad and Mom went with my sister to the US I am having serious problems getting in touch with them since it is expensive for my sister to dial out to the UK or Netherlands. Taking calls in the Blackberry was working out very expensive for the company and I did not want them to start moaning about the costs.

Then came Skype and everything changed.

I have now got my own Personal Permanent Number in the US of A. +1
(510) 931-6468

This is a new service offered by Skype called Skype-IN and it is awesome. My Sister needs to dial that local number above and my computer rings and I can pick up the call and talk to her. She gets changed local rates and I get charged £7 for 3 Months which is quite cheap.

They also provide this service in other countries but unfortunately not in India. Our DOT really needs to do some fast planning if they want to stay ahead in this race.

They have one for Australia which I am planning to take so that my younger one who is in Sydney also benefits.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Google Web Albums

Another Nice tool from Google. Picasa Web Albums. This is similar to Flickr and Yahoo Photos but a tad better in features. You need to see it to believe it.

See my Album at – [http://picasaweb.google.com/IyerTalks]

My Saturday at Amsterdam

It was not a bad day. Started my day with Discussion Questions - had to get that out of the way. Started at around 1400 Hrs to roam the streets of Amsterdam, have come here a few times in past and have seen and heard a bit of Amsterdam so was just trying to make myself busy and look important with my Nikon D50 around my neck.

I am staying at the Corporate Apartment of my company here for 2 weeks before I get booted into a hotel.


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This is the photo of a church right next to the apartment.


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This is a canal. All of Amsterdam is between these canals and it is a Very nice to see people going around in these canals. The (in)famous red-light district is right on the banks of these canals.


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The DAM Square in Amsterdam. This where lot of social events occur and I am just behind this place. Madame Tussads is on this Square.


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What are they doing here any ideas ?

Worlds Top Richest People.

Was having this discussion with my friend and thought will post this here. This is the World’s top 12 (Why 12 – No Idea).

Here is the List from - Click

New Picture (3)

Friday, June 16, 2006

Here at Amsterdam

I have come into Amsterdam as of yesterday. Uneventful journey and into the office. Managed to Lug My 30 Kgs suitcase up the curvy stairs at the apartment I am staying in now. The Apartment is empty for two weeks and I felt it would be better to stay in apartment so if somebody wants to visit Amsterdam they can hole in here with me.

Will post some photos shortly.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Tanglish For You

This is too good – Check it out.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

A Spreadsheet on Your Browser


How does that sound. No Downloads – No Controls to Install – All you need is a browser and you have a basic Spreadsheet. You can upload XLS files and even save them.

Another feather in the cap for the Google team. Microsoft beware.

It is awesome. Read about it here on the Official Google Blog.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Three Rowdy Movies in Two Days


I have almost turned into a Rowdy, three movies in two days and all were rowdy movies.

The first one was Pudupettai a movie of Selvaraghavan the director who gave all the controversial movies like 7/G Rainbow Colony, Thuluvatho Illamai etc. The Movie is about the skinny hero (Dhanush) who is pushed by circumstances to become a rowdy or dada in Chennai Tamil and how he turns into a politician. The movie was not bad but I would not recommend it to below 21’s. The language is quite bad and the bloodshed is tremendous. Very Sensitive subject handled well.

The Second one was Thalainagaram by C. Sundar. He is also the hero of the movie and the whole movie again revolves around how a rowdy turns himself into a pious man after his friend dies. The movie in my opinion is better than Pudupettai and I would highly recommend it. Vadivelu has managed to give a good performance and is a good sideline to the movie.

The Third one is Kalinga – The worst among the three and I would steer clear from this movie any day. Not worth the time. No Review sorry !!!

BTW – Also saw PachaiKuthurai by Parthiban another usual Adult Rated Parthiban Flick I am not sure how anybody can ever think about a story line like this.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Review: X-MEN – The Last Stand


I have seen all the three parts now and no complains. An Excellent movie as the first two parts and the special effects were super duper. The Golden Gate Bridge being broken and turned around was the highlight of the movie. As the name suggests this is the final part and now the Mutants and Humans live in peace.

Love to own the DVD of the Trilogy when it gets released.

As usual – Cast :: Official Site :: Review :: London Show Timings.

My Ratings :: stars-blue-4-0

Reservations – Lessons to Learn

So the entire country is split into two on this reservation. I did give my humble opinion on this here. I am not sure how many people read it but I did not get any results for my poll expect my own I still feel this whole reservation malarkey is a waste of time and energy and it is just a spring board for the politicians of our beloved country.

There were a lot of mails floating around on this and I felt this was the best of the mails.

Here is the current % of reservation for all Tamil Nadu state higher education institutes and govt. services - BC- 46.14%, MBC- 17.43%, (Most Backward Castes) De-notified Communities 3.44%, SC- 19% ST- 1.04% The total comes to 87.05% (it is NOT just 69% as it is made out to be which is old number, MBC was the last category to get added). So, 69% people of the state were covered by reservation for 35 years (since the advent of Dravida Parties) and they still remain backward and want to retain reservations!! Not just that, they want the 27% in central govt. institutions also now - people are screaming in pro-reservation rallies in TN... Imagine the state of the 13% of the remaining innocents - the ones who were explicitly kept out of this reservation ring (mainly Brahmins plus a few semi-rich trading castes & some fringe communities who don’t have any political clout). Every other caste has managed to get themselves into the "reserved" category, either through caste based vote bank or through violent methods. There are frequent demands to move certain castes from BC into MBC. In spite of all this, you see the victimized and over-punished "none reserved" people of Tamil Nadu rising and shining, many a times becoming outstanding achievers, within the state and outside. This is because

a) The system makes them exert so hard even for survival, so they come out bright, like molten gold

b) Many institutes of learning are either in private hands (private high schools, engineering colleges) or with central government (IITs, IIMs), this has been a great boon.

The very fact that these 87% still want to cling on to the reservation shows how afraid and intimidated they are to compete with the tiny 13% (that is left out) if the reservations were removed!

What does this show? Instead of improving and developing people's competencies, these many years of reservations have made them so stagnant, incompetent, non-confident, selfish and fearful of their prospects under open competition.

Friday, June 02, 2006

After Nearly 2 Weeks.


I am back again after nearly two weeks of silence. The silence was attributed to my trip to India and then my university classes which took away 99% of all my time last week and part of this week. Will be more regular now and you should see more of my rants on my blog.

Just installed Office 2007 it looks cool and it even allows a Blog Posting from Microsoft Word. The UI is quite different and this is how it looks.

It is still in beta so if you are a novice user or don’t want to play around with your PC I would say don’t even go near it.

This post comes from Word 2007

 
 
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