ELCOT Student Laptop / Desktop Schemes

Good news finally for all students of schools and colleges of Tamilnadu (state) India. ELCOT (Electronic Corporation of Tamilnadu Limited) has announced "Student Laptop Scheme" that sells laptops with decent configuration with reasonably cheaper price when compared to the Indian market. All of the are preloaded with Suse Linux (yeppee its from Novell) and many other open source software bundles like Open office, Mozilla, GIMP, Postgres and more. This is good news for the student community where they can save nearly 10,000/- when compared to market price.

• Intel Core duo T2300 @ 1.66Ghz(Intel Core Duo Processor / 1.66 Ghz Clock Speed with 2 MB L2 Cache running at 667 Mhz FSB.)
• LCD : 15 XGA
• Chipset : Intel 945GM
• 1 GB DDR II Memory
• 120GB HDD
• Opticals : DVD+/-RW
• FSB : 667Mhz
• Gfx : Intel GMA 950
• HDDs : 120 GB
• bla bla bla accessories
  

This cost Rs 31,250.00 which is very attractive.

They also offer Desktops, Laser Printer, Projectors, Digital cameras at a cheap price when compared to market. Thanks for the Tamilnadu government to taking such initiatives. Rush for your piece, FCFS basic. Students, are you planning for a Sony Viao, DELL Vostro? then think again. :)

Sankar earlier wrote on ELCOT adopting Suse Linux and cost containment for it.

Graduate Studies

Recently I have been more nocturnal. Just because more loved souls across the globe. They are either for their official travel or their Graduate studies. Here is a remarkable work by Jagan. Jagan did his Bachelors from Tech. Now doing his PhD from UCLA. He has drafted a document on the Graduate Admission procedure. Read it if you are more interested.

Heart in my Mouth (Ind vs Pak)

Dramatic Beginning
For the match as well as for me. Sehwag did not pass the fitness test, but more surprising was Dinesh Karthik was not in, instead Yusuf Pathan took the spot. For me, started from my office around 5pm. My access card did not work and there was surprisingly heavy traffic in Hosur road, due to a road block. Applying my driving skills reached silkboard. We(myself & Natraj) are almost in no-mans land now, 100's of vehicles standing still on both sides. Natraj's mobile says "India won the toss and elected to bat". I cannot hold it anymore, we literally lifted the bike across the road divider and took ORR to reach Koramangala. As soon as I reach my destination, I can hear a huge roar. I knew I should have been a six. The excitement was already in air.

Malik's thinking hat
By the time I reached, India were one down. But then Gambir played a sensible knock by hitting constant boundries. I was in my old PG, where a crowd of young aggressive supporters were seated in the room. Pakistan captain was intelligent and he wanted to use his 5th bowler soon. So made a radical move in bringing in Hafeez to bowl. This paid off, India found the boundaries hard to come. Finally we paid for this frustration by some poor shots from both Dhoni and Yuvraj.

Sensible Gambir
Finally it was on Gambir & Rohit Sharma to lift India's score to a decent total. But still Pak was always on the top by restricting India game play. My friends started to become geeks in statistics and probability. But they always over predicted. From their initial estimation of 200 with 12+ runs/over they settled to less than 150 :).

Devastating Imran Nazir
For the break, we guys went for a snack bite. By the time we have planned to return to watch the next innings, we hear a huge huge roar. We knew something was happening and started to gallop back(sorry about that burger santy). Yes Pakistan has lost a wicket for a superb ball from RP Singh. Next over was Sreesanth. He is one player who gets all praises and next ball gets all the curse. We were hoping for a good over from him. But first ball in, bang rockets to the boundary line. Huuus start to come out. Next ball, wack sails across for a six. Next ball, six again. It was pin drop silence, we could hear the fan running. No one wanted to comment. By the end of the 2nd over, few felt the match was out of our hands. Nazir was hitting all he could, he was rushing for a quick finish.

Pathan steadies the Chariot
Well, India definitely need some good overs. Sreesanth bowled well then. Pakistan lost wickets on one end. But Nazir was going at the bowling on the other end. Now Nazir was the target both to Indian cricket team as well as its fans. Sreesanth bowls a slower ball to Younis khan, flicking it to mid wicket starts for a run. Nazir struggles due to his cramp and fails to get into the crease. We just waited for the first reply, just after that the celebrations began in the room. Everybody were punching the air, clasping hands and were charged up. I can still remember for Afridi's wicket, once the ball went high up in the air. We literally jumped into the TV screen to see what happened. Within a flash 5-6 guys came near the screen. Its was all happening, Afridi is gone and celebrations start again.

Adding spice
We had a neat spell from Pathan, taking some crucial wickets. Pak needed 54 runs from 24 balls. Misbah-ul-Haq, lifts bajji for 2 consecutive six. Next over Sreesanth to Tanvir SIX again. 3 balls 18 runs have gone. SIX again. We started losing hope, looking each other perplexed. Few were telling "get his wicket, get his wicket", but were not ready to hear them too. Tension in the air was so high.

One last time
It has come down to the wire, we keep our fingers crossed that Bajji should not bowl the last over. Dhoni decides to go with Joginder Sharma. First ball, way out side the off stump. Heck, a series of *&^%$ I can hear, as vadivel says, "Total family damage". :) Once the SIX in the 2nd ball has gone, we almost decided its lost now. You can't recover from here. Pak just need 6 to win from 4 balls. Everyone hold their nerve, hands clasped we sit. 3rd ball, Joginder Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq he move to his right and tries a chip towards fine leg, the camera man follows the ball. As the ball descends down there comes Sreesanth in the frame. Its a catch and India win. It was like the roof coming down and the next few seconds was 'Alice in Wonderland'. Hugging, Jumping, Screaming, Laughing, Crying and doing all mad things. India have one the T20 inaugural world cup. I wish I had a heart attack. (Goose bumped, as I write this)

What
Whats he talking in presentation ceremony? I know it, you know it. Lets not discuss further.

Ramp Up
I was not a big fan of Twenty-Twenty cricket. Just because, I initially felt this disrespectful part of the game for bowlers. Day by day rules change in favor of batsman. But then finally understood that T20 is a bowlers paradise than a batsman. This inaugural world cup is to be recorded as the best tournament ever played. After England winning the Ashes, this is the next best time I had enjoyed cricket. This world cup had every thing, Bowl out, Six Sixes, stunning catches, Nerve racking finishes to games. As far as India is concerned, it was a good find for the bowling lineup in terms of RP Singh and Pathan making a successful comeback. Dhoni proved to accepting his new job. But, this was a small step for him. He has a long tough road ahead. Indians have improved a lot in the field with stunning saves, catches, run outs. Esp in batsmans point of view, they were really quick and good between the wickets. This form of game has reached a larger audience. Even my mom has watched the entire match. But will it kill the longer form of game? My view, definitely not. One day cricket still has its own charm.

Signing off.
Have a shout, comment it.

Status

My recent status msg was this, "Action speaks louder than words, So don try it with your status msg". Messengers are one such application second to our email clients, that we use extensively. Having status msg in those messengers are the latest pass time of young software engineers. That too esp gmail, Even I'm addicted to it. Not to put one, but to read one. Every time I pass my chat windows, I quickly scan the contacts if something is new. Some reasons I can think of why ppl have status msg

• Greetings from Good Morning, Birthday wishes.
• Notify on the new things they have got.
• Tease someone!
• Most interesting would be abstract messages that are intended to someone!
• At times people even exchange words with their status msg. :)
• Selling their blog url (inc me)
• Noolu vidradhu :)
  

Have fun! (Below is a shock wave flash object. If you can't see it, configure accordingly or click here)

Disclaimer: This post was pun intended. If any snapshot is not to be shown they can write to me!

Office Suite - Battle Ground

Few years back, I used to hit the browsing center to get some materials data from internet for my Assignment or Packages (I know it might sound ironic, but still believe it). I need to do it quick and save money. But as soon I have opened multiple sites and try copying the contents to a word processor, so that I can save it as a single file! Baammm! You will get a prompt saying bla bla bla. The software would actually not work. Which will screw you up! I visioned those times, why can't I do this editing, processing online and save the file to my floppy. But now I can.

Yes its possible through online web applications like Google Docs, Zimbra, Writely, Zoho and more. I would say they are coolest online apps available on date. With the internet infrastructure they work like offline apps. Responsive, neat and more cool sharing options that you don find in offline apps. I mostly use Google Apps for the majority of the time. I like the latest addition of Google Presentation. I quickly created a presentation and published it here. Have a look at it.

Here are some of the points I infer:

• Offline Office applications are becoming bulkier and costlier for user to get and deploy.
  
• It is very evident that almost 80% of the offline apps users use only the basic options available in those spreadsheets, Word processors, etc,.
• Growth in Internet infracture has mode offline apps a step behind.
• Online apps are Free! :)
• Good tools for startups to save money.
  
• They are quick and contains most of the basic feature needed for a primitive user.
• Better sharing which is well explained in this Google video.
• Popular vendor are migrating their softwares to online clones. IMB made its Lotus Symphony free. Yahoo buys Zimbra. Microsoft brings Office live.

Now my vision would be a computer as a hardware device without a software preloaded on it. Let your operating system be online, switch on the machine and connect to your online space and work. Windows becomes Windows Online, SUSE Linux online why not even Google OS.

Yahoo Hackday - Bangalore

Yahoo hack day India is announced. It happens right here in Bangalore. This is the first external hack day in India I guess. So block your seats soon. If I get it right, I will meet you there.

Register here

Hello World சாம்பார்

Every time, I venture into a new language I try to print "Hello World". Thus here were are trying out our first "Hello World sambar". Here is our log.

Recipe: Hello World Sambar
Targeted Audience: Entering kitchen for first time for activities other than eating!
Distribution License: Creative Commons.

First and foremost you need to make sure you got all the necessary ingredients. Come on lets go for shopping! Few of the mandatory ingredients are Thoor dhall, Tamarind, Sambar Power (CBR or sakthi malsala and many other brands are available), 1 kind of vegetable like onions, brinjal, potato, drumstick (Preferably don go for lady'sfinger, since we are trying to avoid any kind of female intervention). Some tips here, don get into a departmental stone, rather get it at your nearest grocery store. Since large departmental are targeting families and they provide all in large quantities. Also for vegetables you get it where ever you find it. Since thinking of getting it nearest shop might be a flop!

Now lets start cooking. Remember we need to do parallel processing. First cook the dhall in a pressure cooker. In case you don have one no problem, you can still go ahead and cook it in electric cooker. Side by side chop a big onion into pieces. Wait wait wait don be in a hurry to start, then you will end up cutting your finger (like one of us) so since its your first time. Cut it slowly and carefully. Yes yes, you need to shed some tear for cutting this. Now add 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan and let it heat for few seconds and then add kaduku. Once that bursts out add those chopped onions in it and fry it for some time. Until the onions become golden brown. Vegetables can also be added in this. By this time dhall would have got cooked. Now add 4 cups of water in the pan, add 2 tea spoons of sambar power, salt, tamarind water, cooked dhall and vegetables into it. Stirr for few min and leave the stove in medium so that the mixture will boil for some time. By this time you should have stared to boil rice as well.

After 5 min, you will start to get the Aroma of Hello World Sambar. Once you feel that it has got the state just bring it down and pour it into a vessel and serve it hot.

Defects Found:
1) You might add less salt, no harm add a pitch of salt and let it boil a min more.
2) If you added more salt, add half cup more water and let it boil a min more.
3) If its more spicy, add a pitch of salt and water, let it boil few more min.
4) If you missed out to buy something. Just keep a junior with you, you wont feel the pressure.
5) Don ask help from your fellow class girls, they confuse you by saying 2 measurement.
6) More water, keep flame high and boil for few more min.

Post your comments and Feedback
(Kishore, Santy, Shrihari, Vijesh)