WordList Software

I have created a word list application. It contains a list of approximately 4800 words. Words automatically get recorded in a sqlite db file, as and when accessed.
Revision list is based on date index.

Salient Features:
It contains a list of 4800 words.
It contains three tabs (Learn, History and Preview).
Words automatically get added to the list once browsed.
Word history is maintained on day basis.
Words can be accessed based on index.
Words can be revised by selecting a list for a particular day.

Here is the link for download http://grewordlist.googlecode.com/files/wordList.air

It requires adobe air runtime http://get.adobe.com/air/

Screen Shots.

Microsoft patents 'Page Up' and 'Page Down'

So Microsoft in news again for being awarded new patent for 'Page Up' and 'Page Down'.
An article on zdnet contains details about the patent awarded to them.
Linux guys, another patent infringement case brewing up. :)

Robo-Ratatouille

A video appeared on SCIAM about a robot controlled by bundles of brain cells taken from lab rats. Days are not far when similar robots using human neurons will become a reality.

This reminds me of a test devised by Alan Turing, called the Turing Test.



The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a machine's ability to demonstrate intelligence.

According to the Turing test: a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which try to appear human; if the judge cannot reliably tell which is which, then the machine is said to pass the test. (Wikipedia)


I really wonder how Mr. Turing would have reacted to these recent developments. This Robo-Rat will further strengthen his argument about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine consciousness. His main argument was about whether a machine could be considered conscious. If a machine is developed based on similar approach having an advanced control system based on human neurons and if a human is unable to differentiate it from another human, then it will pass the Turing Test.

Artificial Intelligence efforts invested in 70s didn't fructify mainly because the scientists failed to understand the complex human brain systems and operations, which they tried to replicate using artificial neurons. The current approach of building over a already complex biological neuron network would be much easier and fruitful then to start from the very basic cell level.

I hope these efforts are channeled towards productive development of these artificial machines with intelligence and emotions. That day Turing Test will become a reality and will no more be just a subject of academic interest.

Disclaimer : Image copyright belongs to the respective owner.

Cows Tend to Face North-South

Strange but true as reported by the SCIAM, and also by the telegraph.
It even got slashdotted.

So, for your next expedition, don't forget to take the mooing pal along with you and sing the song.

Moo all the way and back home safe.
Moo for a glass of milk.
Moo for directions whenever lost.
Moo for one and for all.
Moo is the way for lost traveler.

Moooooooooo... :)

Disclaimer: Image copyright belongs the the respective owner.

The iPhone you've been waiting for

Finally, the price and launch date have been announced for the much awaited iPhone 3G.
I got a mail today from Vodafone with the price quote and release date.

"The iPhone 3G will be available in India from August 22, 2008.
It will be available in 8GB & 16GB models, priced at Rs 31,000 and Rs 36,100 respectively."

The same iPhone in US comes at a price of $199 for 8GB & $299 for 16GB. These phones have been subsidized by AT&T in US and they compensate for the subsidy through the monthly rental plans with a contract for two year period. Telcos in India claim that the phone call per minute charges in US is around 25 cents whereas in India it's 2 cents. So, it was clear from the day one that iPhones in India won't be subsidized considering the low cost margin for telcos.

The iPhone 3G is ready for 3G network, which can provide ubiquitous broadband speed network for internet and other value services. We need to wait until next year to benefit from the features of this phone as it will take at least year for 3G network to become operational in India.

I thought of doing an analysis on alternatives available in the market.

Before starting the analysis, I would suggest you to ask yourself three questions mentioned below:

First question which comes to my mind is "Why do we need an iPhone ?" .... easy answer .... "awesomeness quotient is very high, and high will power is required to ignore such product".

Next is "Are you willing to sacrifice features owing to its awesomeness ?" ... again a trivial answer ... "We are Apple fans, don't try to brainwash us with those extra features available in other junk boxes.

Final question "Are you aware that there are other alternatives available at the same price ?" ... "who cares"... :)...

Well if you have answered all these questions correctly then you are destined to own an iPhone and I would suggest you to not to read this blog any further. All I can say is RDF(Reality Distortion Field) has engulfed another human.

Alternatives available are "Nokia N96", "Android/HTC dream phone", "HTC touch/windows mobile" etc. in the smart phone segment.

Again if you looking for something which has a better awesomeness quotient, then I regret to tell you that there are none.

If you are one of those who wants to use iPhone as a MID(Mobile Internet Device) then probably there are others which you can bank on to provide better experience.

I believe market in coming years will be more mobile centric than today. With ubiquitous network and high speed internet, it will lead to an era of MIDs.

Here is a video depicting futuristic world of MIDs.



This experience is something which none of these smart phones can provide.
Only thing missing for these MIDs is the ubiquitous internet network in India at a cheaper rate.
So, once the network is ready, these devices will have a bigger audience to cater to.

Other alternatives include Eee PC from ASUS (cute little laptop) with 7 hours of battery life.

I feel MIDs are the way forward. With a larger screen size and processing power, they will provide a mobile internet experience like never before and much better when compared to the costly smart phones.

Damn these rumor mills, We need to start all over again - Apple Developers

Apple products have a huge fan following, and these people are willing to any thing to be the first to become a proud owner of Apple gizmos. I recently came across an article where an Apple fan discussed his predicament as to whether to change his house to have a better signal reception on iPhone. There are many other crazy reports all over the Internet.

The very beginning or foundation which led to the development of the iPhone is stated to be on the basis of rumor mills. I pity all the Apple developers who must be hating these RMS (Rumor Mills) as these RMS excite Apple's messiah (Steve Jobs) and ultimately makes all these developers to work round the clock to make these rumors a reality. These RMS don't just come up with story but also a picture of how the new gizmo will look like. So this puts further pressure on design engineers to make something which looks better than the ones made by these RMS.

I recently came across a blog about iPhone Nano. So another one from RMS, this is for the iPhone lovers who cannot afford the high pricey one (without any contact). This new stuff is called iPhone nano and its for the people who will be contented with owning a stripped down iPhone. Along with the photo, this time RMS have also given the stipulated time of its release.

So all I can say is God help these developers, as by now Jobs would have already seen these articles. All the best to all those working in Cupertino for the new prototype. I hope to see something new this December :).

Disclaimer: Image copyright belongs to the respective owner.

Blinded by the awesomeness.

Have you come across anything which has the power to make you go blind owing to its sheer awesomeness. I don't know about you. But I am waiting for one which has got its grip on the whole world with its hilarious content and awesomeness.

yes you have guessed it right ... its Kung fu Panda
I am awaiting its release in theaters in India (though it has already been released else where on 4Th June). Going by the reviews on Internet, it has got its awesomeness quotient pretty high.

Okay, the storyline goes something like this. PO (black) is a Panda who dreams of becoming a kung fu warrior and join the elite group of famous five (tiger, monkey, mantis, viper & crane), though he is the son of a noodle & soup vendor. And no his dad is not a panda (possibly adopted son), but a duck (at least looks like). Then the panda achieves what he dreamt of and movie ends on a happy note (I wont put in anymore content, though I have already read the spoilers).

Big, fat & lazy panda tries his hand over kung fu ( which colloquially alludes to any individual accomplishment or cultivated skill obtained by long and hard work. (Wikipedia ). Though the marriage of these two extremes seems impossible, this is something which makes animation movies unique. They throw light over new perspectives and way beyond the imagination. probably this is why children love animation movies. It resonates with the unbound imaginative sphere they live in.

As expected DreamWorks animation studio has done its job of high definition video rendering and infused life into the characters to the extent possible.

So, cut down your schedule out of mindless comedies being produced these days by Bollywood Inc. and gear up for the Panda & co. for 90 minutes of entertainment you have never had before.
Till then be contented with the appetizers, so get a glimpse (teasers/ trailers) at http://kungfupanda.com/.

Save Rs. 3. Pre-register for iphone 3G with Vodafone online

Vodafone has come up with two options to pre-register for iphone 3G.
One option is to use SMS facility to send "IPHONE" as sms to 56789 using vodafone mobile. Another is to register online @ "http://www.vodafone.in/existingusers/iphone/pages/preregister-iPhone.aspx"
Though the first option is widely advertised in today's "Times of India" newspaper.

There was no mention of the other alternative.
So, save Rs. 3 by registering online and by not sending sms to 56789.

Algorithm to find the social quotient

Oh my god! we missed some arrows ....

Bangalore Transport (Silk Board Problem & Solution)

Problem to Solve


Solution

Why Elephants can't dance.

(Are you a Geek & do you dream of working for a software MNC? Think again !)

Confessions of a friend of mine who chased his dream of working for the best software MNC and who finally achieved it.

My friend (Alpha) is a geek to the core, who eats, drinks and thinks codes (ideal candidate to Matrix spaceship operator). He had grand plans of doing something new, something really cool and at the same time work for a software monolith.

Alpha started off his new job with a really cool application prototype which, considering his skill set, he was easily able to complete within the stipulated time period. This made him even more enthusiastic to do something cool, something really great, but he never knew what exactly it was.

During his college days, he used to come up with new stuff at a very rapid pace.He was at any stage involved with n number of projects in which others used to take undue advantage of his dedication. He never complained, rather completed all ,as this gave him the fuel he needed the most. It was the feeling of achievement which always kept him active.

Then he encountered reality, the monolith (MNC which he joined) started showing its true colors. All his plans of doing something cool, something new & cost effective were replaced by the new dictated work which involved unnecessary drudgery and mundane codes. Repetitive list of changes irked him the most, since he had to re implement the whole stuff due to improper design documents. All these led to time shortage and finally he had to put in after office hours to get the work done. His life became hell. Finally the project was finished on time.

This followed up with months of maintenance and bug fixing work. Since he is a perfectionist, there were no bugs in his code. So all he had was free time, unfortunately which he couldn't utilize. Since he was supposed to fix bugs and write test cases. So any innovation work would mean that he was not giving enough time to these mundane works. Even worse was to finish work before given time line, as either it would mean that he had given wrong time estimation and draw flak or he would be given other people's tasks. So, finishing work ahead of time became a punishment instead of fetching any reward.

So he did a statistical survey about how his friends were faring in other monoliths and start ups. After some analysis of the data he gathered through various surveys, he plotted all and observed the pattern.

Here is a set of such graphs with explanations.

1) Zeal vs Years of Experience.
This shows a sharp decline in zeal level to do something new for the organization. This is common across the monoliths (read large software organizations). The main reason behind this pattern (as mentioned by participants) was lack of acknowledgement as well as lack of direction for these innovations.


This differs sharply with those who joined start ups.


The zeal level leaped upwards and then it dropped after some years when the start up itself became a monolith.

So, its the red taping & valuing process over people which really brings down the zeal level.


2) Group Strength vs Effective working strength
Another pattern, clearly visible is the group strength. Since effectiveness of group is inversely proportional to the no of people working on it, as the no of people in a team increases, group effectiveness decreases. Since all start ups work with smaller group strengths, they are more effective in getting any work done.

Here blue indicates the number of people actually working in a group and yellow indicates passive employees.

Finally, fed up of all the red taping and bureaucracy, he has quit the monolith he dreamed of all his college days. Now he is happy with a start up of his own, where ideas are converted into implementations. He told me a very nice quote ... "here we work on real world problems in real time, whereas in monolith all I could do was to work on some imaginary problems with infinite time line".

Installing Ubuntu on windows partition using Wubi installer & windows virtual CD

Wubi allows installation of Ubuntu on windows partition without creating any external partition.
It installs Ubuntu as an application on windows and creates a boot menu option which can be used to run it natively on a hardware unlike VMWare installation.

NOTE: Wubi installer installs Ubuntu in a separate file on windows partition. This space is recovered once you uninstall the OS.

Steps:

Download Ubuntu Hardy iso image.
Download virtual CD software from Microsoft's website.
Double click the downloaded exe file and unzip it to a particular location.
Browse into the folder extracted now and double click VCdControlTool.exe

then click on "Driver Control" -> "Install Driver" & select VCDRom.sys

Then press the "start" button which is just below "install" button and press "OK".
Click on "Add Drive" button to create a virtual drive.

Note: If you face problem in driver installation then "copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder."
For more details check out readme.txt

Finally select newly created drive and click "Mount" button.
In the File Browse dialog select the Ubuntu iso image file which you downloaded earlier.

Now Right click on mounted ubuntu image and click "Auto Play"
It will launch a screen something similar to the one below.

Enter the necessary details and click "Install" button. This particular step may take some time depending upon the hardware on which it is being installed. Once the process is complete, it will show up a reboot screen



On reboot, you will see a screen similar to the one below.
Select Ubuntu using (UP-Down arrow keys) and then click enter.


Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) Beta's (April 24th - Final Release) default installer comes with Wubi, so it needn't be downloaded separately.
To install previous release versions of Ubuntu using Wubi, download Wubi and then install the OS from iso image using the same procedure.