Product recall - Dell systems + Sony battery

Not sure if everyone noticed the number of laptops that were going to be recalled by Dell due to an overheating battery (manufactured by Sony)
Now, I use a vaio and guess what ? When I run on battery - it almost scorches my lap !
Why would Sony use a different technology for Dell ? If it does use the same technology, why did it not recall the batteries on it's own machines ?

What am I missing ?


Thought for the day ...
I'm going to be designing a portable flash player when I have time. I think it would be good to carry presentations just as we would in a memory dangle...

Pune - Off road experience

I thought that Bangalore was the only place in India where people talked about driving on "what is left of the road". Today, I got a mail from a friend in Pune, who've said that he has been having a very good "off road experience".

He says that for the first time he is using his SUV effectively.

However, that is just I thought his way of consoling me in my distress. We cannot look at another city and take solace in the thought that we are not "worse off".

How about reviewing the technology in road building - do we need to provide for the following
- Some mode to retain camber and get water off the tarmac
- Maybe some ruling to channel water out ?
- How about a layer that absorbs water from the top and squirts in the side (some kind of sponge)
- Binder with old PVC bottle, recycled plastic etc ?

Hmmm... I need to think some more.

What did I learn today ?
Indra Nooyi has been made CEO of Pepsi.... way to go !

Making our roads last

Today, I'm going to reflect on how do we ensure that the roads built last a lifetime....however, before I start off on this - I'd like to narrate a story.

I spent some time in Zurich during the implementation of a project. It was fairly early in the project and therefore I had time that I could spend early / late evenings. My routine would be to walk around Zurich lake all the way from the Elektrowatt station (there used to be one near the Japanese garden) to the station (Hauptbahnhoff) and back....

During that time, I'd spent a few facinating hours just looking at road laying (either repair or re-pavement) along the path and even took long deviations to watch this.

All road works used to happen post 10 PM so that it did not impact the regular traffic. What was really striking was the attention to detail. I'd want the person driving the road-roller get off the machine - go on his / her knees and pat the tarmac to ensure it was layed properly !!!

How I wished our own people had the dignity of labour to do the same

Coming to the topic of making our roads last - I'm told that the biggest issue is that of water percolation.

Thought for the day :
Can we ensure that the camber is done right ? That would mean the water would get off the tarmac into the sides as step 1 ?

What ails Bangalore ? Is it only Infrastructure ?

Not sure how many spent the time to read this morning's TOI posting on Bangalore 2020... I, for one, am certainly going to spend more time on the details.

Few graphs caught my eye - one was - as obvious, to do with Infrastructure. What really got me started to think was that it seemed that 2 feelings were almost unanimous were that
a) Infrastructure almost being equivalent to roads
b) Transport seemed a subset of the road network problem

Is this an holistic approach ?

Let us try and analyse this - there are 2 / 3 basic issues.
1. Bangalore has zero public transport outside of road transport
2. Bangalore has NEVER been able to develop satellite cities with good connections (for those who want some history - the first I heard of the word was with Yelahanka)
3. Hub and spoke has never taken off
4. There is no concept of HOV (High occupancy vehicle) either with a special lane or privileges

Maybe it is as simple a solution as a hub and spoke with shared links ?
What options do we have ....

Inflatable concrete structures ? Cool...

Two chaps out in the UK have invented a new process for building. I think the concept is cool. You have pre-packaged kits (like tents) that has pockets of cement / compound / mixture.

One is supposed to choose the right spot, put in water and inflate the structure when wet. You allow it to dry / set and hey presto ! you have a concrete / cement set structure ...

Sounds cool.

I wonder if one can embed hooks for door / window etc ?

I guess the above post also covers what I learnt yesterday ?

Names - what if we followed all the characteristics ?

Over the weekend, I attended the traditional naming ceremony of a relative's child (known in Kannada as Namakarana). I'm usually not inclined to attending these (simply as there are too many such occasions usually and people take objection to attending one and missing an another). However, in this case, the process was special as the child was adopted. My respect to parents is always going to be higher for these cases. I think it takes courage and a certain level of broadmindedness not usually apparent in the society.

The key portion of the ceremony is when the father of the child gets the child to write on a plate with rice atleast 5 names. One for the week / month, one based on the scriptures, one for some ancestor in the family, one for god and then the "Vyavahara nama or business name" which will be the actual given name.

This is where my reflective nature kicked in.... What if I were to make a list of all the names and then put out the key characteristic of each name for the future ? Would that influence the individual ? How many of us know what was thought of for us as the name options ?

I personally feel that there is an influence - my own experience in highlighting the "Sun" is an example. American Indians (I've read) are named after key characteristics that they are expected to display. What if we did the same in India ?

I think this would work - unless there is a name that someone is not proud of ?
What would that be ?

What did I learn today ?
That the results of the 2001 census is being collated - take a look at the latest India today report on the education divide between muslim and other communities in India. Frankly, I'm still trying to think through what this means....shocking is a very light word. When will we learn that primary education is the foundation of progress ?

Anybody for getting a patent for a handkerchief ?

A few days ago, I subtly commented on the IPR manic. It is best explained when I take a piece of news (off CIOL) and you'll see what I mean...

BANGALORE: McAfee, Inc. today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office have granted the company U.S. Patent 7,069,330 entitled "Control of Interaction between Client Computer Applications and Network Resources."

It covers various structures, programs and processes for determining whether an application is authorized to access a network or network resource. This is accomplished by utilizing a policy for facilitating the decision as to whether an application is authorized or not.

Now, if you thought that the above was pretty obvious way in how one would implement a security policy, wait till you read the next paragraph !

According to a specific example of the patented technology, a network access request from an application may initially be detected. An application policy file or field may thus be utilized to determine if such application is authorized to access the network or network resource. In one of many possible embodiments, an access flag field may be used which contains data specifying whether the application is allowed access to the particular network entity.

Wow !. I'm now seriously contemplating on getting a patent for a handkerchief... the specific example would read as follows

A irritiation in the nostrils may be detected by the hair follicles or nerve endings and the standard piece of cloth may be utilized to wipe off goo. In one of many possible embodiments, a mongram or initial may be used as a flag which specifies whether the owner is allowed to access the particular human element.....

What next ?

Things I learnt today ?
I learnt that the Tommy Hilfinger / Oprah Winfrey spat on Indians is a hoax (pretty late learning I thought)

Indian achilles heel - Ingres for divide and rule ?

There are a few customs that seem common across the world - today, I read that the Japanese first couple are expecting a child and they just performed a ceremony for the safe birth in the 9th month of pregnancy (akin to the western baby showers ?)

There is an exact equivalent in India (in Karnataka - it is called Shreemantha) - which is performed only in odd months of pregnancy ...(why only odd is a topic for another post !)

Now, what is striking is that while there is so much of commonality (from even before birth), our attitude seems to be very different. As an example, we in the IT industry, face an a-typical problem. When a person goes onsite (out of India), then, the person becomes a lone warrior. All conquests are his own - all failures are that of the "Offshore team" !

So much so, I've heard of instances where the person (from the same team) goes onsite to be-little the effort of his / her own team-mates back home.

Is this only to do with taking credit ? Or are we as a nation pre-disposed to politicking and being taken advantage off by the lack of cohesiveness ?

Maybe there is something core to our system / values that allows a 3rd party to effectively implement the doctrine of "Divide and rule" ?

I wonder...

PS - He / She, His / Her are all interchangable and I'm not just being politically correct

What did I learn today ?
The synaptic trigger (transmittal) for reproduction in the virus for dengue fever and the like (Aegyptis Mosquito if you need reference) at a RNA level happens when the ends touch each other (I think of this as a centipede folding to form a circle upon touch).
So, my thought is - what if we think of a protein that comes in-between this "touch" - would we have a vaccine ?

Inatech : Random thoughts

Inatech : Random thoughts

Another thought when I tried to send an email to everyone - have you noticed how ";" and "," are not accepted in all email clients interchangably ?

I mean - how hard is it to build this in the logic as "de-limiter" ?

I wonder if there is any IPR that I'd violate ? Hmmm...

First Post

I've thought about getting into blogging for quite some time... and as usual - procrastination presides...

Then, this morning, I read words that I keep repeating myself "The primary job of a leader is to communicate" and that "Blogs may end up being the primary communciation / expression media in the future" and the decision was made. (Incidentally, the first quote was from the CEO of Sun as per the newspaper report).

One of the things that I'll endeavor to do is to post a new thought/ something that I learnt on a daily (or as close to daily as possible) basis.

What I expect others to do is join the discussion, debate and find the freedom to express their thoughts. Anyone can post !

So... welcome and please fasten your seatbelts (I for one, intend to clean my spectacles as a start).

What did I learn today ?
- A russian mathematician called Parelman has figured out the mathematical conjecture called Poincare Conjecture - in simple terms : you can squeeze a ball in the middle but not a doughnut - wow ! that really makes sense :-)