No: 18

Recession is finally doing good

I wonder if I really predicted this economic slowdown when I wrote about an alternate profession. Well, for now, I still do what I do best.

Its close to nice months since Lehman Brothers filled bankruptcy and some signs of recovery started to surface. But still we got a long marathon to run before things are stable again. This economic slowdown had its ill effects of many losing their source of income and sigh note when you talk to your friends who have been stuck up with this. But some good signs have really started to show up, in terms of the alternate profession each one is opting for!

IT is no more a preferred job by all!

• Tamilnadu Public Service commission exam Group1 had record number of applicants to write the preliminary exam this year.
• Union Public Service Commission exam UPSE has been a talk among many now a days.
• I saw my roomies talk about ISRO and DRDO. It would be the highest profiled technical job in the Country. A recent test by ISRO had a record turn around of students.
• There has been call for various levels of officers in Bank like Central Bank, Indian Bank, State Bank of India etc. Many students who are recent college graduates have opted and joined as probationary officers in the recent recruitment.
• Interestingly many have started to go for higher studies. Instead of sitting at home, they are equipping themselves more in this slump period.
• Railway exams for a post in Indian railways is also in demand.
• I even find my friends wating to try their hand in cinematography!

All said and done, we are hoping people do not return back to IT under the impression that they can make more money in small time. Well that would only reduce the quality! Happy Coding!!!

Is he?

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Photosynth Love

I came across Microsoft Surface and Photosynth here. A Microsoft product that impressed me in recent times. Photosynth is a brain child from Noah Snavely (UW), Steve Seitz (UW), and Richard Szeliski (Microsoft Research). Thank You Genius! You ppl are awesome. It's capability is to create a 3D visual of 2D images while giving a very rich and smooth interface. The awesome thing is that it does everything auto magically. Just one click. I knew it was from Microsoft Labs, never really kept track of when it graduated as a public software.

So I decided upon a project on this a month back and started preparing. Educated myself on the do's and dont's of creating a synth. Some basics like the "Rule of 3" and covering the corners, etc. I decided to start with a living room in my Bangalore home. Fixed my tripod in the center of my room and started shooting. It really looked funny for my roomies to see me coming from work and doing this crazy photo shoot in the night. Then uploaded the photos to Photosynth site (you would need live ID to Login and Silver light installed to render). Then the cloud servers sitting in Redmond started chewing my images and gave me an output that blew me off.. :)

This is what I got! Explore this messy room.




I say it again, "I love this product." Thanks to the Photosynth team.

P.S. You would need Microsoft Silverlight to view the embedded.

Crossdressers - A head ache in Bangalore traffic signal

Unless you are inside a car with the window up, there is no escape from the cross dressers in Bangalore traffic signal. They demand money! No coins and change any more. They start only at Rs 10. They are respected in the society (at least they are not looked like a show piece..) and now this respect and space is taken to advantage. 

If you are on a two wheeler or an auto rickshaw stopped in a signal, you are bound to give money. Else, they start touching and annoying you. Once myself and my friend were returning from a morning drive. It was a signal near Hebbal that we noticed two cross dressers collecting money. So we took a 5 rupee coin in hand to give it to them. One of them came and got it. Soon after the other one too came, asking for money. We said we already gave it to the other one. She replied, "I don't know her. You give money to me." WTH. "No", said my friend in a stern voice. She replied, "If you won't giving money, I will kiss you." (WTF) We gave more money! There is no escape route.

Doesn't the law prevent them from annoying us? Is there something that could be done? 

Productivity Metrics

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Cross Posted from Google India Blog

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