Idle/Random/whatever Thoughts of a Demented/Idle/Whatever Mind

In case you are intrigued by the words, 'current thoughts' well I don't know anyone who has changed their thinking more in the last decade on various different things than me. I think it will be changing as things do and as I evolve as a person. So that's me right now. Starting up on my own venture has been on my mind for a long long time. But it has not really taken any real shape till now. My mom still jokes that I wanted to start adda.com while in school. You know it never started. I had ever since thought of different things but never made them into real life. Closest I ever got was to get a prototype built and showcase it but then again never pushed it. Of late I realise that I have a very crucial element missing which leaves me directionless after some time. I don't have a clear goal and mission for myself while building anything. The only goal at times is to build something. Guess builder culture is ingrained in me. So I gave myself some time to think about ...

Mobiles are something which we now take for granted to call anyone. I remember the days when I thought who the heck will pay  Rs300+ rental and then Rs16 /min for receiving or making calls as airtime charges. Obviously the call charges were separate. Who thought that things will reach this far that at Rs175 rentals, you would get 300 mins calling free. Its truly amazing. Another thought that I had not very long back actually was that I had written on how my mobile should look like here . There were a few people who thought that its entirely impossible to achieve what I was wanting. But then today there was this story on CNET that talked about Toshiba coming out with an amazingly fast 1GHz smartphone. Well, I am not surprised by it. But what I am surprised at is that it runs the crappy Windows Mobile. It sure could have done better with Android or Symbian. Windows Mobile, duh. Dude I would need multi-touch, just to make sure I can give the three finger salute of Ctrl+Alt+Del. S...

Well there has been a lot hoola hoo over the recent releases of Firefox and Opera. But here are certain things that still suck and would like them to be removed. 1. Better plugins and make them such that they dont hang that tab or window. 2. Download accelerator be integrated in the download manager of the browser itself. Hardly makes sense keeping them dumb. 3. Super fast start is not possible for various technical reasons but a preloader program would definitely be kind of must have. 4. Get more screen real estate to the page and make rest of the things like toolbar, menubar and optionally even status bar visible on a need basis like the playbar in video players in full screen mode. 5. Subscribing to an RSS feed to Google Reader or iGoogle is  a dumb two step process now. Google Reader or iGoogle be made two different options. 6. Tabs must have a 3D effect or something really cool. Switching like pages is so yesterday. 7. Make download dialog unobtrusive. Make it so...

There has been much said about Firefox3, good and bad. People have stayed away from the beta and RC builds because the real power of Firefox, the extensions is not there yet. But still I got hooked to it since its Beta 3 release, which I found was more or less stable. So heres my fav feature list in no particular order. I actually love all of them. 1. The new location of the Home Button.    I think this is something which is one of the most normal thing to be done. But some product manager probably of the first browser wanted it that way or the dev said that if you want it someplace else, then more time is needed. Since then everyone has been putting that home button next to Refresh. Seems stupid now, doesn't it.  2. Most Visited Button. True of late what I do most of the time is that I visit the same pages. Its not all that often that I need to find new stuff or am bombarded with links. So this most visited button is just cool. 3. Smart bookmarks - Tagging, mos...

Well I have heard enough of microblogging. I dirtied my hands with pownce and then later with twitter. Pownce as I found was more of spam than anything else. On twitter there are so many interesting people, sharing some good ideas and links. But of late its been inundated with chat messages. I think thats one thing that sucks on twitter. You just get inundated with so much of ignorable chat that you want to remove it. Anyways thats a different story. Now what I am trying to do is start up with a twitter account called stupidquestions . What is going to posted on it is, well stupid questions. Some crappy questions and I expect people to come up with some good/smart answers. Now I am not going to read whatever the followers or people I am following are posting. But what I will be doing is that I will respond to all messages for stupidquestions(All messages which start with @stupidquestions). Hoping to get something good going . Do let me know what you think about this experiment of m...

Well this is an idea that I would like to share with all so that my dream can be realized. So here is the idea. Now that we have mobiles with GPS we should make use of it. So now you have this messenger which would update your position in your IM every time you move over 100m or something. I am assuming that either the GPS now or sooner will be accurate to something like few meters. So when you have some of your friends around, you know that they are. Cool dont u think? Here are options to make it happen. 1. Send update about the location to all/selected your buddies. Pro: Simple and effective Cons: No Privacy and your exact location is known to all. 2. Server gets updates and it pings you about friends close to you Pro: Agains simple and effective Cons: Requires server services. You location data is on a central server and this is a possible privacy risk. 3. Each person broadcasts a location to all his friends which is nearly correct. Now this nearly is something deb...

The First Innovation Camp or iCamp Bangalore for short happened in Bangalore on 23rd Feb 2008 at Mindtree Consultings office at Banashankari. Here is how it unfurled to me. 09:30hrs := Registered and I am in 10:00hrs := I am in the room for intro of Barcamp Concept, given by Murali. Some rules etc. A lot less ppl compared to my expectations and NO WI-FI to connect to :-( 10:13hrs := Henry Jacob start with design driven development. Surely its true for IT Industry, Innovate or Die. (SCO, Sybase etc are examples of that) Some interesting concept for Design Foundation,  Games and Cube. Key points Innovate to hasten, eliminate jobs,  A god system should eliminate existing tasks, speed up tasks, save money, time and make ppl fall in love. Hot discussion on whats innovation and what design is on. I believe he was going on a good track and like many other presentations at Barcamp this too got lost somewhere. 10:40hrs := now we come to some conclusion. Basically it is clear ...

Well as I have been observing Camps happening all the time. Its like they are happening dime a dozen. We had Barcamp Bangalore. DCamp Bangalore was introduced later. Kamp was one more even to add to the list. Then suddenly some techies join forces for Devcamp . Now I see iCamp (Innovation Camp) in sight. Cool stuff happening. But then isn't it a little too much. Actually to come to think of it. Most of those are in their first inning. I wish they go into their centennial editions. Infact India need more of these camps. The camp phenomenon has hit the Kashmir Valley too. So the fever is finally catching on. I really loved the discussion at Devcamp which talked about a lot things. Most make no sense to me but some did. I am sure there were other who took home more than what I did. I heard there is this OSSCamp which also happens regularly in Delhi atleast. So its clear that Barcamp fever has gripped India big time. So what next. Well next step is converting this mo...

I just read this amazing research which says Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money Here is the story on Wired . Le me quote the article "It was a small surprise," said Pieter van Baal, an economist at the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who led the study. "But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then you cost the health system more." Some more interesting lines "Lung cancer is a cheap disease to treat because people don't survive very long," van Baal said. "But if they are old enough to get Alzheimer's one day, they may survive longer and cost more." The ultimate suggestion "We are not recommending that governments stop trying to prevent obesity," van Baal said. "But they should do it for the right reasons." Stupid fellow. He was surprised. What the hell. Well if you are a smoker or an obese you defini...

For sometime now I had been hearing of the (supposedly) joke which says that It's not true that married men live longer than single men, it only seems longer. But then now some real smart researchers have found out that  "Fights with spouse can help you live long" . Now this proves one of the many things. Married men or single men, both fight equally. Some men are single because they continuously fight with their girlfriend. Hence actually both live equally long and frustrating lives. Married men are almost always at the receiving end of the fight. Hence they are actually not fighting. Hence liable to die as early as single men. But then let me quote Johnny Carson "Married men live longer than single men. But married men are a lot more willing to die." What do you think about it

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has come out with the status paper on broadband speeds . It unlike other government agencies does not show lethargy of the ultimate kind. But still the paper leaves a lot of things unanswered. Though I have mailed to the authorities as indicated in the paper, but I suggest more people do so to build a stronger case. Here are my points 1. The definition of minimum speed must be changed radically. It should not be 'the last mile' speed, but a function of the the bandwidth the ISP has reserved for each of the 'always on' broadband connection. This is adviced because its seen in common parlance that ISPs provide actual download speeds with are considerably lower than what is expected. http://speedtest.net does  a good test of it. TRAI should also spell out fines for faltering in providing this service since most places its seems do it at will. 2. Speed provided does not depend on usage. The fact remains that the internet charges fo...

Can the impact of your actions rippling into the future be considered an immortal soul? Well actually isn't that whats supposed to be meant when we say some great soul is still with us. When you believe in something, least little thing that you need is some proof. So please excuse, this is no question at all. PS: This continues as a series of questions posed as explained here . Other related posts are: http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/10/those-8-questions-question-6.html http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/10/those-8-questions-question-5.html http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/10/those-8-questions-question-4.html http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/10/those-8-questions-question-3.html http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/10/are-humans-product-of-skilled-or.html http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/10/if-you-suspected-you-were-deluded-how.html

I remember the day this thing happened. I was a kid at that time. When I heard of the Babri Masjid being demolished, some how my first reaction was not that of fear or disappointment but that of happiness. That feeling came to me instinctively. As a kid I did things on instinct and not with any logic or thought. It was more so because I had seen the video of the then video cassette based news channels Newtrack and Eyewitness. They were of the brutal killing of several innocent men, women and children during the first attempt a couple of years ago in 1990. I felt that something has been done to attack the system back which killed several innocents. It was a defeat for the Mulayam Singh who had then sided with the muslims and had done a massacre of Hindus in 1990. But now fifteen years later I feel different. There is remorse over killing of so many hindus as well as demolition of the mosque. But what's the way forward. You can get into an infinite loop of destroying and rebuilding...

Well its an interesting topic to research on. Though I am not doing any kind of Ph.D on it but still I feel I have had enough of such experiences to believe that I am able enough to talk about it. More so because I am a keen observer. I am always observing who is visiting my site for example. I have explained this theory to a lot of my friends. Interestingly never has anyone come up with a counter argument. Anyways lets get to the point. There is some smart guy(Me) who has formed the law of stupidity which goes as follows.    Everyone is stupid. Smartness is actually just absence of stupidity Stupidity is proportional to hair length.   First Law basically says is that "Stupidity is ubiquous". This means that stupidity is everywhere. Each one of us is stupid to some extent. Each one of us will act stupid in one situation or the other. Take me for example, I will act totally stupid when I am t...

5th November(instead of 8th because of Diwali) was celebrated as World Usability Day. Bangalore was not untouched by the phenomenon, though it would rather had been a major thing. But clearly with over 120(My guess) it was not ignorable event. Long time since the usability aspects have been ignored by the technologists. iPhone and iPod have clearly shown the way. They were nothing radical in concept but they infact radically changed the usability part of the respective equipments. I must add here that I was late for the event. But none the less I did have the opportunity to hear Mr MP Ranjan on Designing. His take on the Design for the user and design in various fields. Pretty much the whole talk is online at his blog http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/ . But it was real experience to hear it from the horse's mouth. Next Sarit from HFI presented the findings of usability test of Indian Railways Online reservation site at http://www.irctc.co.in/ . Ironically it was the awarde...

I today got this amazing story to read from the master of 'office humor', Scott Adams . Usually he would write the stuff in a very discrete and sarcastic way. But today he missed the bigger point. So here is that point for u. There are two ingeniously stupid researchers who have come up with something interesting. This actually is worth the igNobel or "No Balls" if not the Nobel Prize. Research 1 says that Happiness = success. Research 2 says that Sadness = productivity. Now if I say that both researchers are earnestly true then I can form some real good mathematical equations. Sadness = No Happiness. Since Happiness = success, Sadness = No success. Hmmm now is the fun, as Sadness = Productivity , we can say that, Productivity = No Success Now effectively, No Productivity = Success. This clearly proves that harder you work, less successful you would be and your appraisal will reflect that. So for more success work less. If you have worked hard ...

The dictionary defines "faith" as belief without evidence. It defines "stupidity" as unreasoned thinking. Is faith without evidence a form of unreasoned thinking? Seems so very obvious isn't it. But if you tell the same in case of Ram Setu, well it seems all too obvious. But amazingly this was the very thing I was trying oppose . I had talked about how important is faith for every Indian. So whats wrong with it. Well faith whatsoever it may be is something which you believe in and has not been disproved. Its not just a belief without evidence rather its a belief with no contradicting evidence or unexplained phenomenon justified by some means. Your faith in those changes as soon as you find a logical or scientific explanation. The planetary positions and sun being center of the solar system were explained differently before Galileo came up with the proof, that was faith. Yes at times when people start believing in faith without any logic or reas...

Is consciousness anything more than a continual process of imagining, acting, observing the impact of the action, and imagining again with new information? The above statement to anyone would seem like the most correct at first glance. It would seem the most rational statement. But consciousness is being able to obverse whatever is happening around. Thats all. A person who is kind of disabled is also conscious. He knows what is happening around. He would do nothing but be conscious none the less. Funnily any person lost in his ego does the some action but can you really call him conscious. Well actually not because he is lost in his own parallel reality. By the time the ego starts taking the backstage, he would rather want to see his parallel world than the real world. So what is consciousness? I believe consciousness does not involve the step of imagining or acting. Its just observing is consciousness. If you can feel and understand the situation then its enough f...

Would an omnipotent being need to think in the way that people understand it? Or is thinking unnecessary for a timeless, indestructible being whose preferences are the same as reality? If we say that its true then God is just another human. Well personification of God is there in almost all religions of the world. In a sense we actually reduce the complexity of being God just enough so that we can make some sense out of Him. But then the big question still there is that is reason for human life a conscious effort or is it merely a coincidence of right things being there at the right places. Its really interesting to think about possibilities and not concretely prove anything. Thats the thing that many people around the world, not just in India, are exploiting to make people believe that they have the sole ownership on the right way of life and God is with them. But then my next question is that, if God is with you then why are you still suffering and why you still ne...

I think you guys must have had a real good experience searching on Google. No wonder they have a very good algorithm but then that too us susceptible to spam so you cant really have 100% reliability on that. That was the question that made me think that googlrithm is more complex than what it seems. And yesterday night I got that light from my thinking bulb. At first when Google introduced Google Sitemaps and Google Analytics. No one would have suspected it to have any consequences on search. But now I realize that the assumption is perhaps wrong. So heres my hypothesis on how Google makes it happen. Well every webmaster now by default goes to Google Sitemaps to get his site in the list. The webmaster would get information like his indexed pages, when his page was indexed and what searches picked up his pages and at what rank. It also records for which searches his site was visited. Great now you know who visited your site for what result. But then Google also knows. From here Google...