This Chinese New Year is the year of the rabbit : Not many people have turned up from the testing team from Hangzhou, and looks like I will have a relaxing week. Seems like the new year in China is a week long celebration.

We do not have such a vacation like that :-( Except for Diwali.

2 suns ...

Wow if our astronomers are to be believed, that would be an incredible event. Betelgeuse one of the real big stars is going to be blow up (or we see the event now) - it would be a Supernova. Here is a news report on Betelgeuse blowing up

This star is really gigantic and hence it would blast as a supernova....and then probably become a neutron star or a black hole. See the size comparison of Betelgeuse with Earth or even Sun here

But when it could blow up is a question : It could be million years from now ? Or as recent as 2012 ? If we are seeing it blow up in 2012 then it should have actually exploded in 1400s as it is 600 odd light years away and that light is reaching earth just now....

Nonetheless just wondering how can they predict life cycle of a star. A star can live for millions (or perhaps billions??) of years...Then how can we predict its lifecycle ? We might have advancements in astronomy for the past 100 years but that's just a fraction of time. They might be using some simulations/ theoretical models...

When you are testing Wireless Networking equipment, you can easily see testcases depicting scenarios like :

User travelling at 30kmph and he is doing an ftp application and he executes a "handover" (which would mean, one tower would handover its responsibilities of managing/ tracking this user to another tower because the user is going away from this cell) and the handover has to be successful and the ftp has to continue with an acceptable speed without disruption of service.

Back in 2006, I would have smirked : Good testcase....but, Ha! which moron would be doing an ftp while travelling. Probably this is valid in developed countries ...

But today in 2010, I found myself doing that - I remembered myself thinking aloud that day and I was so convinced that Wireless data services would not make a big impact to the life of people ! A real life Handover scenario (forget the testing and all that) ....Yes, I was downloading the "Angry Birds" application which is a popular game , sitting in the cab. The 2MB download started near my place and completed near Ghali Anjaneya Swamy temple which is like 5km away and there must have been at least 1 Handover....The download went through smoothly.

A http session is still a stateless protocol so all your web browsing may not have a real handover scenario but just a change in the serving cell....but an ftp session is a different story.

Which made me think about Vision. Some people can think 2 or three years down the lane. They have staunch beliefs that their ideas (be good or bad or useless) would come to light and people would use them. Vision is what a higher management team needs. They need to predict what will happen say in 2015 and then bring in the people who can execute their vision.

I know I may sound really like "??????" but it really pays for having a roadmap 5 years down the lane. True for corporations, True for Politics, Perhaps good to have for Personal Life as well...(I agree : Sometimes live for the moment works very well in life)

A mammoth idea

One Japanese professor has announced that he would go to Siberia and try to find the undamaged tissue of a mammoth or at least get some mammoth tissue from Russian scientists and clone a mammoth.

Sounds cooL enough...The technique of regenerating a mammoth is interesting to read but everything depends on what he is able to find.

I do not know, but somehow I do not like the idea of cloning....Remember Agent Smith ?

Also, do you remember the movie Omen-1. The son of the devil , Damien was born out of a wolf or some other creature. At that time, it sounded fearsome , but then that is what the science of cloning could do.

Sounding "Apocryphal" today ...heheh

No one killed Jessica

India is a country when one can easily lose hope because of the chaos, the grind. Most people continue to live this existence like sheep and some become tigers ruling the sheep and some become greedy dogs barking and snatching; Some are pigs - eat the filth and are despicable.

Can someone lose their life because of not serving drink ? Is the value of a drink as valuable as a life ? asks Vidya Balan's intrepretation of Sabrina Lal. It is a hard hitting depressing movie. Does not lose the tempo and really well done.

The music is FABULOUS. Amit Trivedi of Dev-D scores like a master in this movie. The songs are raw and they have the angst and dark depths required for this kind of the movie. One of the most promising music directors of the post Rahman era. Here is a sample of one of the songs : No one killed Jessica - Aetbaar.

The movie is a good one, it requires that kind of a mood to appreciate the movie - It tries to show what kind of role media can play in a democracy. Watch the trailer of No one Killed Jessica to understand the mood.

Interesting video : This is relevant to large corporations - Very true.

Mobile Number portability is coming to India

And as usual the Telephone Operators are fighting their asses out to lure away the customers. Now you might probably know the fiercest battleground of advertising is Telecom operators in India. They often come out with amazing ads.

But somehow, the Vodafone ads are a cut above the rest. They capture the eagerness and curiousity of a child in a fair "something special is happening here, i want to go there" very well.

Not sure who is the director ...The photographer...I dunno how they found that guy...You can tell a story abt him.... Check out this MNP ad from VDF

Here is an ad for MNP from Idea.

BUT APART from the ads, if you ask me about the VDF coverage, this is still a debatable point.

India has a booming Health Tourism Industry and this is reflected by the number of patients visiting India. However there is a strange case of politics happening in the field of medical research:

A superbug (an antibiotic resistant organism) has been named after New Delhi. It is being called "New Delhi superbug" - A name that hints that the origin of the organism is in Delhi, but Indian doctors say that's not the case.

Eminent doctors like Dr. Devi Shetty have spoken to the media that it is a case of tarnishing Indian Health Tourism.

Healthcare experts in India say the British are just worried because they are losing patients to hospitals here. “It’s a false alarm, I track infection and have not seen a single case in my hospital. Hospital-acquired infections are far more common in Britain and the West than in India,” said Dr Yatin Mehta, chairman, institute of critical care and anaesthesia, Medanta – The Medicity.

And the Journal () editor has also acknowledged the unfair naming.of the new delhi super bug.

Back to Monarchy

okies.. almost everyone knows this..but the statistics shown in this article on Indian politics turning into a family business is quite alarming..

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?269931

Not sure what the future of politics in the country is.. but it certainly doesn't seem to be encouraging.. in the future we will have "Shenshah e hindustan' rather than "prime minister of india" blah blah blah..

somehow when we were politically progressive we were economically backward, now when the economic engine is steaming well politics takes a backward step..

succession planning has successfully penetrated business, bollywood and politics.. the Defense force is the only salvation..

The office has been updated to the distant fairyland Manyata Tech Park.

Although the place is really damn good, I have to get used to this long journey YET AGAIN.

Hopefully I shall get used to this.