Thought Garage

Wow!!! Mangalyaan, the spacecraft on a voyage to Mars has been successfully blasted off.  Superb.  Hoping to see spectacular and ground breaking results from the ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission .  Pictures from ISRO

How long will it take to multiply these two numbers ? 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 It just took 28 seconds for Shakuntala Devi and earned her a record in the Guinness Book Of Records.  A child prodigy with unbelievable power to calculate will remain an inspiration to so many.  She died earlier this year. Google’s doodle today honors Shakuntala Devi , known to the world as the ‘Human Computer’, on her 84th birthday. RIP.

Mangalyaan, the aptly named spacecraft will take off on Tuesday on a 11 month voyage to Mars, from Sriharikota. No matter what happens tomorrow, it will remain a big day for India. Image Source : BBC Hope and wish for a very successful launch and fruitful voyage.

If you already have Vonage or planning on signing up, you may be better off dumping it as there are now much better alternatives. Read on. Vonage was touted as a pioneer for commercial VOIP phone service back in 2005 when I first signed up for the service.  The excitement of a killer and industry disrupting VOIP service evaporated very soon. The  quality never measured up to the ‘carrier’ quality. I disconnected in a couple of months due to voice quality issues. And what happened when I tried to disconnect was yet another totally frustrating customer service story, “ Vonage – expecting good customer service is stupid ”. When Vonage announced unlimited international calling to India (and few other select countries), I hesitated due to my earlier experience. A few months later, we needed a landline phone and I did little research to shop for a better one. At that time, Vonage proved to be a better option for a landline phone that would also double to be able to call anybody in...

Scoring a zero will still entitle you to get an Engineering seat, with fees fully paid by the government, in Andhra Pradesh, India. If you belong to a certain caste group. (SC/ST) Hmm! In Andhra Pradesh, you can get zero in an entrance exam, but still get a place in the state's engineering colleges in the reserved quota.

Its a love affair. I guess its fair to call it a love affair. Unreasonable. Blind. And mad. "No gold, no wedding," is a saying in India, indicating the importance of gold to Indian culture and tradition. Byron Pitts reports on India's obsession with gold.

Technology changes fast. But infrastructure, probably take a life time for many parts of India. Beauty is life goes on with the best we have. via 65899947@N08@Flickr

Its a tradition for some, a game for others. via 44325598@N00@Flickr

Here is a PDF copy of the Lokpal Bill submitted in Loksabha. via PRS

"Europe has been the largest solar energy market for years, but it has ceded some of the spotlight this year to India as India becomes a new frontier for American manufacturers." -  India: The Next Solar Frontier - Forbes

It is most probably surprise you to know that for a full decade, Gandhi and Nehru got almost equal attention from the world of books. Between 1960 and 1970, based on number of times their names were mentioned, they both score about the same for about a decade. While Nehru went down-under, Gandhi remains at those levels even now. Gandhi & Nehru in the world of Books Can't believe, try yourself here . Tongue in cheek ? I guess so.

In many ways, India can only catch up with China in economic growth if China slows down. There may be other areas, where China is catching up with India precisely for that reason. One of those yardsticks is how many times it is mentioned in various books. Thanks to Google Books NGram Viewer, we can compare China and India based on how many they are mentioned in various books. View at Google's Ngram Viewer   Most probably this is not an intended use of the Ngram viewer or may not be accurate, but aligns with my earlier thoughts on how India can catchup with China in economy, so can't be an outlier :-)).

Aptech promises Job ready in 75 days { java or .NET } ?? Really? via 89861183@N00@Flickr

This year almost all Ganesh Idols hide one otherwise quite visible features of Lord Ganapati (or Ganesh with love), the big tummy. Seems he went on seriously strict diet since last year . And even the pose is quite different, more of a relaxing on a lounge style.

By any and every measure, the whole Jan Lokpal and/or Anna Hazare movement against corruption has been phenomenal. Tremendous response and discussions all over. Do not know what triggered so many people to come out and support in their own ways. I am not sure even today, everybody really understand the whole issue and what this bill is practically capable of. Some don't know what it is all about. Some understood a little. A whole majority of people are yet to read the bill.   via  78638509@N00@Flickr However, the movement as it is, some thing of huge importance, we need to think about. The bill may take a while to come into existence and actively enforced. But if we can leverage the rage and support of general public, we may be able to do something immediate and that make a difference in common man's life. May be, we can encourage more participation in other civic issues, enlist greater participation in politics in general. May be we can start focus groups to resear...

via 41599774@N00 @ Flickr

Its funny. We watch this and see how foolish it would be to be part of the crowd that believes in. And yet, the religion, the biggest trick of all, lives on world wide. So rational and reasonable for a moment and yet so gullible for a life time.

Below is an excerpt of some thoughts shared on a different discussion on the fight against corruption and argument that Anna's bill doesn't change a thing because most people are corrupt and we need a social transformation rather. The argument further goes to say that Anna should instead focus on educating people to elect honest representatives to solve the issue at its root.  I do not say we shouldn't try to fix the root cause, but we should be practical and consider the approach based on where we are now. Corruption in India is like a cancer evolved over generations. It would be a better and quite practical solution to do a surgery and use chemicals and medicine (even though they all have quite serious side effects). Fixing the root cause really mean reversing the evolution (social and systematic) and kind of irreversible (or impractical). We can start over after the surgery, for sure, and take steps for a grass roots approach. But grass roots approach alone is li...

Can you start a business if you are on H1B ? And Can that business sponsor your H1B and hire you as an employee ? Yes and Yes.  Under the previous interpretations of CIS rules, a highly skilled worker who is legally in the United States on an H-1B visa could start a company but could not work for it. CIS updated the H1-B guidelines to “clarify” that business owners on H1-B visas could work for their own companies, provided that they work full time for the company and are treated like an employee. For example, the company could have a board that is able to hire, fire, pay, supervise or otherwise control the worker like they would any other staff member. Source : On Immigration, a step in the right direction, Vivek Wadhwa Its really wonderful news and clarification to both questions. Even though many people knew that they could start a business while on H1B, its always a rather gray area with too many interpretations.

Arvind Kejriwal @ IIT Chennai explaining the Jan Lokpal Bill, background, history of the movement and clarifying so many frivolous objections raised by the Government. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4