Life Of Navin

Random Musings, Random Bullshit.

kc

This Nokia Phone is Trash.......Seriously!!

Nokia has decided to try their hand at a green phone (eh..... this is getting boring huh??).

Although this is still a concept design, I guess the fact that they are trying their hand at it even is a good sign (especially in these globally warm days).

But here's the twist.... This phone doesn't promise safe disposal or eco-friendly usage. Here's the "green" part. The phone’s outer shell is created from old metal cans through a process of upcycling. The gaskets and the backing for the numeric keypad are made from car tires, while all the plastic components are made of recycled PET bottles. Oh yeah... so now you know where your recycled Coke bottle and that Dunlop you'd given away goes!!

Here's what it'll look like:


Although the look of it is quite a bit different from the rest on the market ( accept it, its UGLY!!), the small size would likely make it a bit more of a sought after item. Sadly Nokia don’t seem to be taking this beyond concept stage. Hmmmm.... Here's what I have to say about this:

Nokia Nokia give us this phone, Clean up our planet No plastic, only stone
Nokia Nokia Give us this cell, coz if we wait any longer we'll all be going to hell!! -- Navin (in a poetic mood)

The Desi Flying Saucer!!

OK, after the Chinese did it, did you actually think that us Indians would be far behind?? Of course not!! After the post in which I wrote about the Chinese version of the flying saucer, an Indian scientist in the US has come up with his own version of the mystical vehicle.

Subrata Roy, a professor at the University of Florida, has applied for a patent for his design of a circular, spinning aircraft. The vehicle dubbed WEAV, short for Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle supposedly offers several advantages over most other spacecraft prototypes.

Here are some of its features:
  • It can hover and take off vertically
  • It is remarkably reliable (mainly because it has no moving parts)
  • The design is partially hollow and continuously curved (This improves lift and control)
Roy has, in the past worked in the U.S. Air Force-funded plasma research to develop the propulsion system devoid of typical aircraft parts such as propellers and engines.

Here is how it works (I don't really blame you if you don't get it): Electrodes lining the vehicle’s surface ionize the surrounding air. This creates plasma on the vehicle’s exterior. An electrical current sent through this plasma generates a force that not only produces the necessary lift and momentum. It also stabilizes the vehicle in windy conditions.

Roy envisions the craft to be used for surveillance as well as in other atmospheres, such as that of Saturn’s moon Titan, whose high air density and low gravity would be favorable to saucer flight.

A problem pointed out however is that the plasma necessary to fly will obstruct wave transmission used for communicating with a remote source like another plane/ the control tower.

Hehehe..... Us humans are definitely getting smarter, Plasma powered aircrafts, I don't think it'll be a long time before we come up with the question which fits the answer "42" (Read this for more details)

Of course the risk is huge, but so is the payoff. If successful, we will have an aircraft, a saucer and a helicopter all in one embodiment --Subrata Roy

Now Thats A Wedding Cake!!



This has to be the awesomest geek wedding cake ever!! It was a Flickr user's wedding cake, and it seems to have everything in the Mario world represented nicely. It’s got Toad, Yoshi, Piranha plants, mushrooms, even the Chain Chomp guy. The castle on a planet was inspired from Super Mario Galaxy. The cake was created by Beth from Let Them Eat Cake in California.

Ever wondered why people never divorce with such style?? They should. You’re getting the hell away from each other after all which, according to me, is cause to celebrate!! Marry with a Mario cake and divorce with a Zelda cake, that’s what I say. Or how about a Tetris cake, that can be thrown at each other.

Pure fun huh?? Go Geeks!!

Infosys Says-" Mobile Holograms by 2010"

Desi Tech Giants Infosys has done it again!! Now they have been granted the patent to produce holographic mobile handsets capable of projecting, capturing, and sending 3D images.

In a press release, they have claimed that by 2010, the patented devices will be capable of beaming 3D films, games, and virtual goods into our laps.

These cellphones will capture and send 3D snapshots of the surrounding world, helping accident investigators, teachers, and doctors work remotely by instantly relaying realistic depictions of car damage, injuries, medical scans, or educational aids.

The device will work on a revolutionary technique with a powerful on-board processor building a series of 2D shots,from a secondary device like from a digital camera, and then convert these into 3D holograms using algorithms called Fourier transforms to artificially generate the extra third dimension. I'll write about Fourier Transforms ( if possible) in the coming week!!

The patent, which was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, allows Infy to squeeze complex 3D holographic images through the narrow pipes of existing communications networks by sending only the unprocessed data to be translated into the 3D hologram at the other end.

The global 3D screen market is forecast by the industry to grow to 8.1 million units by 2010.

Well I only hope that Infy is calculating time as per IST (Indian Standard Time) and not IST (Indian Stretchable Time)!!


Holographic handsets have the capability of enriching the user experience with an actual 3D experience and higher-quality images. This gives users a more realistic experience in areas like gaming, medicine, movies etc --Infosys representative

Yahoo Reziner - An Absolute Blast!!

In one of the best online gags that I have come across in the last few months, especially at this time, with Yahoo!'s top execs quitting, someone seems to be having some fun at Yahoo!'s expense.

Planning on quitting Yahoo!?? Simply visit the newly created site Yahoorezinr.com and fill up the "DIY Yahoo! Resignation Letter" which provides you options in the form of drop down menus and you're done. Yahoo! employees can expedite their resignation to Yahoo! Chief and Co-founder Jerry Yang with a host of "Mad Libs"-style pull-down menus.

For example, one sentence reads: "My last day here will be two weeks from today/ tomorrow/ the best day of my life you f@$#ing incompetent nincompoops" . All you have to do is select the most appropriate choices for your resignation letter. Then upon clicking submit, your default email editor opens up with the subject " Get bent a$$hat" and the to email id "JerryYang@Yahoo.com"

Some points in the letter are obvious hyperbole. In one of the menu options, the letter suggests that Yahoo doesn't understand how to run a taco truck, much less a $30 billion business. The rants may reach Yang himself, but that's unclear, too. The form letter is addressed to JerryYang @Yahoo.com which frankly I cannot confirm is Mr. Yang's id!!

Anyways, disgruntled employee or a competitor having a laugh at Yahoo!'s cost, this tool is a must try....Give it a go!!

QuikMaps Adds Functionality To Gmaps!!

Great news for GMaps fans!! You can now use a simple plugin to doodle on Google maps and share your doodles with friends with a single click!!

When Google launched the MyMaps feature last year, many people criticized the fact that you couldn't actually customise maps. For ex. to show someone in school the way to your home, or the way to that uber-cool club from your workplace. While google has done a great job adding a directory of special layers, the tools for creating your own maps have not seen that same advancement.

To answer that call Quikmaps, a third party tool that plugs into the Google Maps data, is a far simpler solution letting you simply doodle on the map. I doubted the power of this tool but once i started using it, I simply fell in love with it!! In most cases this plugin is a breeze to use and is much more understandable than Google's straight line tool The best part is that the results will scale when you zoom in and out. However you cannot measure the distance between two points using this plugin.

Map creations can be embedded, which you can see below, and can be shared via email or with a simple URL.



Go ahead....try it and I'm sure you'll never stop!!

A Planet-X Beyond Pluto??

A computer model has suggested that an icy, unknown world might exist in the distant reaches of our solar system beyond the orbit of Pluto!!

The hidden world is predicted to be much bigger than Pluto by on the model and its existance would satisfy the long-held hopes for a "Planet X" envisioned by scientists and sci-fi fans alike.

This Planet X could also explain unusual features of the Kuiper Belt, a region of space beyond Neptune littered with icy and rocky bodies.

The computer model was created by Lykawka and Tadashi Mukai, from the Kobe University. The Model has been described in a recent issue of Astrophysical Journal.

If this Planet X is confirmed, it would technically not be a planet, but a plutoid. Read This Older Post to understand why!! Under IAU definitions, the new world will be the largest known plutoid!!

The Kuiper belt has always wed astrophysicists with its myterious characteristics. For example Sedna, a rocky object located three times farther from the sun than Pluto. Sedna takes 12,000 years to travel once around the Sun, and its orbit ranges from 80 to 100 astronomical units (AU).

Obviously, now the question rises, can this planet X support life?? Well, frankly, at that distance, any surface water completely frozen. However a subsurface oceans (like those suspected to exist on some planetary moons) may exist.

We are still scratching the edges of that region of the solar system, and I expect many surprises await us with the future deeper surveys --Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute, Arizona.

Phoenix Says -" It Must Be Ice"!!

Nasa's Phoenix lander has unearthed compelling evidence of ice on Mars, the US space agency believes.

Chunks of a bright material found in a trench, informally known as Dodo-Goldilocks, dug by the craft, have disappeared over four Martian days, suggesting they have vapourised.

The dice-sized chunks were unearthed on the 20th day of its stay on Mars.Four days later when the trench was snapped again, some of the chunks had disappeared.

The finds almost completely agree with the hypotheses that water is locked up in a permafrost layer close to the martian surface.

"It must be ice," said Dr Peter Smith, Phoenix's principal investigator, who is based at the University of Arizona.

There had been some question whether the white material was salt as I had mentioned in this post.The sublimation test is confirmation that the substance is ice because salt doesn't sublime!!

While evidence of ice on Mars has been gathered before, part of Phoenix's mission is to search out evidence to support the idea that the polar region of the planet could be habitable.

Further confirmation of the ice theory came from another trench, known as Snow White 2.

These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice --Dr Peter Smith

Related Posts:

Phoenix Strikes "Something White"

Mars Orbiter To Phoenix- "Say Cheese"

Phoenix Has Landed

Phoenix Set To Land

Phoenix Strikes Something White!!

The Phoenix space rover has struck something white..... Is it ice?? Is it salt?? Whatever it is, it shows that substances do exist below the topsoil of Mars.... What exactly is it?? Only time will tell...

And you know where to come for all your updates......

Pictures of the "White Substance"


The substance could not be studied today as there was a small glitch in the flash memory of the probe....

In NASA's words: "NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission generated an unusually high volume of spacecraft housekeeping data on Tuesday causing the loss of some non-critical science data.Phoenix engineers are analyzing why this anomaly occurred. The science team is planning spacecraft activities for Thursday that will not rely on Phoenix storing science data overnight but will make use of multiple communication relays to gain extra data quantity"

Hopefully, all problems will be sorted out soon!!

Related Posts:

Mars Orbiter To Phoenix- "Say Cheese"

Phoenix Has Landed

Phoenix Set To Land

Protect Yourself From OTS Data Theft!!

This may seem amusing to some, but only victims of shoulder surfing or ‘over the shoulder’ (OTS) data theft know how destructive it can be. OTS data theft often leads to untraceable leakage of sensitive data like passwords, credit card numbers, phone-numbers etc. The problem is that in most cases, victims remains clueless about the stalker!!

To cope with this type of destructive data theft, Cell Savers have come up with Magi-Privacy™ screen - a thin, one-size-fits all type of coating to the screens of handheld devices due to which the screens would appear black when tilted, allowing only the user perfectly interact with the device!!

The screen has compatibility with almost all cell phone brands ranging from BlackBerry, HTC, LG and Motorola to Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and even Toshiba, to mention a few, and fits portable screen sizes of up to 4.5 inches. The Magi-Privacy screen can be pasted without any adhesives and can be stripped off without any residual remains.

It retails for £7.99 ($15.20 USD). Interested Indians can buy it online!!

Cell-Savers future plans include the addition of the Magi-Privacy Screen™ filter for use on computers and notebook screens and the Magi-Mirror Screen™ which converts the screen of mobile devices in to a portable compact mirror. Both the Magi-Mirror Screen™ and Magi-Privacy Screen™ function as tough screen protectors, protecting the handheld device screen from damage caused by scratches and preventing glare.

Stay Safe!!

UFO's Are Real.... Made In China!!

Oh yes, thats right... the Chinese may not be among the automobile producers on Earth, but outside our planet, Chinese automobiles are all the rage!! Space-crafts made in China are selling like hot cakes in the post-Magellanic region, not to mention the popularity of these space-crafts in the Andromeda galaxy....

OK, maybe this is a little exaggerated, just a little, but this may soon be true!! A Chinese company has developed a prototype UFO-like aircraft capable of flying at an altitude of around 1,000 meters with speed up to 80 Kmph!!

The disc-shaped craft, developed by Harbin Smart Special Aerocraft Co Ltd, is 1.2 meters in diameter and weighs 10 kilograms. It is pretty obviously unmanned and uses a single propeller. It can take off and land vertically and hover in the air.


Amazingly, it is environment friendly and uses methanol for fuel!!

The scientists at the HSSA Co Ltd, say that it took around 12 years and around $4 million to develop the aircraft which can be used for aerial photography, geological surveys and emergency illumination.


At the time of writing, no abnormal spacecraft sightings or abductions have been reported in China. Honest!! Hopefully we Indians will in on the act too. That way, we can perfect the Flying Saucer and give some payback to alien worlds!! Lets see how they respond to 'Saas-Bahu' serials......

Are You A Music Criminal?

Here's a question for you.... How many songs do you think an average teen has on his iPod?? And what percentage of those tracks are pirated?? A recent study has answered these questions and the results are shocking!!

The survey, conducted on iPod owners in the age group of 14-24, by the British Music Rights has shown that over 50% the average 1770 tracks on an MP3 player pirated ones.It also revealed that 95 % of teenagers and young people copy music in some way or the other.....Illegally!! This means that an average owner keeps £750 (Roughly Rs. 60000!!) worth of copied music on their iPods!!

Here are some statistics from the survey:
  • 58 % of the surveyed audience admitted having copied music from a friend’s hard drive to their own,
  • 63 % download music using P2P file sharing networks, and
  • 42 % allow P2P users to upload from their own computers.
WOW!!

However there was some relief for the legal music lobby:
  • 60 % of the surveyed audience said they would carry on buying original CDs.
  • 80 % of current P2P users said that they would be interested in a legal file-sharing service, and would even be willing to pay for downloading legal tracks.
I don't really know if this is the future is bright for the legal music industry or not!! What is more shocking, atleast for me is the fact that this survey was conducted in the UK, a country known for its openness to "legal- file sharing". What do you think Indian music enthusiasts will say?? I can bet that the amount of pirated music on "Indian" music players is far greater than their UK counterparts.....

71 thousand jobs are also lost every year due to music piracy. And with the advent of newer, better software with extended search capabilities like Vuze, it seems that this number will only rise over the next few years.
First and foremost, it is quite clear that this young and tech-savvy demographic is as crazy about and engaged with music as any previous generation. Contrary to popular belief, they are also prepared to pay for it too. But only if offered the services they want --Feargal Sharkey, BMR’s chief executive

Azureus Is Now Vuze!!

If you've heard P2P then you've most probably heard of Azureus, one of the most popular torrent client available. Now Azureus has changed its name to Vuze. Along with the name, Azureus has also filled up its trunk with some new and nifty social-networking features in its latest upgrade (version 3.1).

The name Vuze, has been adopted from the name of a desktop video player that was launched last year. The new client bundles the player and torrent-client together and binds them with some new features.

Vuze 3.1 features a search engine which users can use to spider across multiple torrent-tracking Web sites such as MiniNova, SuprNova or The Pirate Bay while looking for content.

Other new features included in Vuze 3.1 are the social networking features. These features let you share your favorite torrents directly with friends and create profiles. One grouse is that chatting haven't been introduced in this release. However Vuze has maintained itself Open-source.

Azureus has had a rough patch over the past few months, especially with the introduction of plug-ins that track statistics on ISP throttling behavior. It seems like the merge was one of the few options it had left. Being a Azureus user in the past, I felt pretty much at home with the new Vuze... However I can't really say how many Azureus users will readily jump to Vuze. Guess we'll just have to wait and watch.

Top 100 Engineering Institutes In India

Just a list I stumbled upon!! might help you if you've just completed your 10+2 or are planning to pursue your higher education in India..... please note, this list is not my personal opinion!!

RANK

Name of Institute

City

1

IIT Kanpur

Kanpur

2

IIT Kharagpur

Kharagpur

3

IIT Bombay

Mumbai

4

IIT Madras

Chennai

5

IIT Delhi

Delhi

6

BITS Pilani

Pilani

7

IIT Roorkee

Roorkee

8

IT-BHU

Varanasi

9

IIT-Guwahati

Guwahati

10

Coll. of Engg, Anna Univ.

Guindy

11

Jadavpur University , Faculty of Engg & Tech

Calcutta

12

Indian School of Mines

Dhanbad

13

NIT- W

Warangal

14

BIT, Mesra

Ranchi

15

NIT- Trichy

Trichy

16

Delhi College of Engg.

New Delhi

17

Punjab Engineering College

Chandigarh

18

NIT- K

Suratkal

19

Motilal Nehru National Inst. of Technology

Allahabad

20

Thapar Inst of Engineering & Technology

Patiala

21

Bengal Eng and Science University , Shibpur

Howrah

22

MANIT

Bhopal

23

PSG College of Technology

Coimbatore

24

IIIT

Hyderabad

25

Harcourt Butler Technological Institute

Kanpur

26

Malviya National Institute of Technology

Jaipur

27

VNIT

Nagpur

28

NIT- Kozhikode

Kozhikode

29

Dhirubhai Ambani IICT

Gandhinagar

30

Osmania Univ. College of Engineering

Hyderabad

31

College of Engineering , Andhra University

Vishakhapatnam

32

Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology

New Delhi

33

NIT- National Institute of Technology

Kurukshetra

34

NIT- National Institute of Technology

Rourkela

35

SVNIT

Surat

36

Govt. College of Engineering

Pune

37

Manipal Institute of Technology

Manipal

38

JNTU

Hyderabad

39

R.V. College of Engineering

Bangalore

40

NIT- Jamshedpur

Jamshedpur

41

University Visvesvaraya College of Engg.

Bangalore

42

VJTI

Mumbai

43

Vellore Institute of Technology

Vellore

44

Coimbatore Institute of Technology

Coimbatore

45

SSN College of Engineering

Chennai

46

IIIT

Allahabad

47

College of Engineering

Trivandrum

48

NIT Durgapur

Durgapur

49

SIT

Calcutta

50

Mumbai University Inst of Chemical Tech

Mumbai

51

Sardar Patel College of Engineering

Mumbai

52

P.E.S. Institute of Technology

Bangalore

53

Maharashtra Institute of Technology

Pune

54

Amrita Institute of Technology & Science

Coimbatore

55

National Institute of Engineering

Mysore

56

B.M.S. College of Engineering

Bangalore

57

Laxminarayan Institute Of Tech.

Nagpur

58

Nirma Institute of Technology

Ahmedabad

59

IIIT

Pune

60

Amity School of Engineering

Noida

61

JNTU

Kakinada

62

S.J. College of Engineering

Mysore

63

Chaitanya Bharathi Inst. of Technology

Hyderabad

64

IIIT

Bangalore

65

SRM Institute of Science and Technology

Chennai

66

SASTRA

Thanjavur

67

Bangalore Institute of Technology

Bangalore

68

The Technological Inst. of Textile & Sciences

Bhiwani

69

III

Gwalior

70

JNTU

Anantpur

71

M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology

Bangalore

72

Gitam

Vishakhapatnam

73

NIT- Hamirpur

Hamirpur

74

NIT- Jalandhar

Jalandhar

75

SV University Engineering College

Tirupati

76

NIT- Raipur

Raipur

77

Vasavi College of Engineering

Hyderabad

78

The ICFAI Inst of Science and Technology

Hyderabad

79

NIT- Patna

Patna

80

Cummins Colleges of Engg of Women

Pune

81

VIT

Pune

82

Shri Ramdeo Baba K.N. Engineering College

Nagpur

83

Muffakham Jah Engineering College

Hyderabad

84

Karunya Institute of Technology

Coimbatore

85

D.J. Sanghvi

Mumbai

86

Sathyabhama Engineering College

Chennai

87

Kongu Engineering College

Erode

88

Mepco Schlek Engineering College

Sivakasi

89

Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College

Ludhiana

90

Hindustan Inst of Engineering Technology

Chennai

91

SDM College of Engineering

Dharwad

92

R.V.R. & J.C. College Of Engg

Guntur

93

Jamia Millia Islamia

New Delhi

94

K.L. College of Engineering

Veddeswaram

95

Dharmsinh Desai Institute of Technology

Nadiad

96

S.G.S. Institute of Technology & Science

Indore

97

Jabalpur Engineering College

Jabalpur

98

Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering

Trivandrum

99

G.H. Patel College of Engg & Technology

Vallabh Vidyanagar

100

Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology

Bhubaneshwar


Do you agree with this list??

Prologue

Finally after all these years, here's to the beginning of what was there, what is there and hopefully what will remain!! So here are my thoughts & words -Online!!

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