Solar Fidelity

The internet revolution has galvanised the world and is being billed as the great leveler between the developed and the developing nations. However, its reach continues to be limited to the urban and semi-urban sections in India due to issues of cost and availability of connectivity and electricity.

An nonprofit organization is to start a pilot project for cheap, solar-powered Wi-Fi network in three schools in Uttar Pradesh, where one of the schools has a cable connection.

Each node in this Wi-Fi network consists of a battery-powered router and a solar panel to charge the battery. The nodes are mounted on rooftops, and the network's Wi-Fi signals are transferred over a grid using a wireless network standard known as 802.11b/g.

The solution also has an elegant degradation system that would function under variable weather conditions depending on the charge level of the battery and the amount of incoming sunlight. The users are split into categories, with everyone initially able to connect. If the power level drops a bit, certain groups are cut off, leaving access only to specific school grades or teachers. When even less power is available, the system limits their bandwidth--users can send e-mails, for example, but not watch videos online. Finally, the hours of operation can be restricted to the opening hours of the school. All this is managed through a simple Web-based interface.

If successful, this standardized, relatively inexpensive and simple to deploy networking solution can revolutionise education by bringing internet access to schools and remote villages.

Details here

Survivor

December 1992:
Communal riots broke out in Mumbai after the demolition on the Babri Masjid on December 6.

I was at Nagpada on December 7, one of the most sensitive areas in Mumbai. Yet... I survived.

March 1993:
A series of bombings struck Mumbai's stock exchange along with trains, hotels and gas stations in the city, killing 257 people and wounding more than 1,100.

I was at home recuperating from illness. I survived.

December 2001:
Militants attacked India's Parliament in New Delhi, leaving 14 people, including several gunmen, dead.

I had come on a vacation from Delhi to Mumbai. I survived.

August 2003:
Two taxis packed with explosives blew up outside a Mumbai tourist attraction and a busy market, killing 52 and wounding more than 100.

I had gone back to Delhi after my vacation in Mumbai. I survived.

July 2006: Seven bomb blasts on Mumbai trains killed more than 140 people and wounded hundreds more.

I was on the road not on rail. I survived.


For how long can we ride our luck?

Meri Jung

Came across a friends fascinating blog and then eventually was led to take the Jung Typology Test.

According to the Jung - Myers-Briggs typology people can be classified using four criteria:
Extroversion - Introversion
Sensing - Intuition
Thinking - Feeling
Judging - Perceiving

Different combinations of the criteria determine a type. For example I turned out to be ENTJ - Extroverted Intuitive Thinking Judging. Precisely, it said I am:

* slightly expressed extrovert
* slightly expressed intuitive personality
* slightly expressed thinking personality
* moderately expressed judging personality

It then proceeds to give a pretty detailed description the typology and that made for some interesting reading and ego boosting.

ENTJ type description by D.Keirsey
ENTJ type description by J. Butt

So far so good... here comes the party-pooper. It says I share my personality with Jim Carrey... scary!

Reservation and Conversion - Conreservation

Two issues that are rocking the parliament and the nation these days are - The Reservation Bill and the Anti-Conversion Bill.

Here is a raam-baan solution for the addressing both issues of reservations (affirmative action for socially, economically and educationally backward classes) and religious conversions (prohibits conversion by force, fraud or allurement)... Its called Reverse Reservation or Conreservation.

The idea is that instead of reserving 50% of seats for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes (SC/ST/OBC)... 50% of those students who get the seats should convert to SC/ST/OBC.

I know this sounds radical it first, but give it a few minutes and let it seep down. The heart of the matter is inequality... and this policy will ensure that over the long term, all Indians are equal.

The selection
So how do u select the 50% who will convert... because everyone would want to be in that 50% to be on the safer side?

As always, it will be the bottom of the meritious pack who will bear. The last 50% who get in will have to convert.

The policy is, "if you want to get in, top the merit list... else convert". Every college would publish 2 lists. The first list would be of the top 50% students who dont have to convert and the second list of the bottom 50% students who would have to convert to SC/ST/OBC to get admission.

This could throw up intersting scenarios - an upper caste candidate might get into Civil engineering on merit but to get into the Computer stream he would have to convert.

Link to conversion and equality
This would also preserve (or in a way reinforce) the freedom of conversion. Over the years, a bulk of of the Indian population will be SC/ST/OBC obviating the need for reservations and ensuring equality.

Extend policy to jobs
This policy could be extended to job reservations too. 50% of employees would need to be SC/ST/OBC... either by birth or through conversion. The issue here would be how do you select the 50% that need to convert to get or keep the job? Performance analysis?? What do you think?

Debon-Air India

It wasn't my first trip to the US. In fact the fifth, and the third one in the last 12 months. But there were two things about this that left me a bit anxious. One, it was my first stay away from India after being engaged and two, I was traveling by Air India.

The first one is a topic of another discussion and I cant really discuss it at a public forum without prior bilateral approval. So I will stick to the second one.

It didn't strike me at first when the news trickled that we are shifting from our usual preferred airline, Delta Air, to Air India. It was only when people (most of whom were not traveling) ran upto me to me trying to console me that i realised the gravity of the situation. It seems Air India doesnt really have an enviable track record of safety. And the fact that there was another mishap the same day didn't help my confidence much.

After all efforts to have the flight rescheduled back to Delta had failed, i (and the rest of my co-travellers) embraced the fact that we had go through this ordeal.

It helps to have low expectations. It prepares you for the worst and it pleasantly surprises when those expectations are exceeded. The latter is what happened with me as i embarked on my maiden Air India flight from Mumbai to Chicago.

Infrastructure

Contradictory to what I was warned about, the aircraft was quite clean and the legroom wasn't any less that that of Delta or Northwest-KLM (the other carrier which has had the privilege of flying me to the US). The flight took off quite comfortably and confidently from Mumbai and apart from a couple of bounces, that can be attributed to the poor weather at Chicago, the landing was quite graceful. There were no personal entertainment sets on the Boeing from Mumbai to Chicago but they were in place on the journey back. The variety in entertainment though was not as varied as that in Delta or NW/KLM.

Staff

I was asked to expect to be greeted by ladies in sparkling saarees, an artificial smile and patchy makeup trying to hide the pain of the grand old age. Everything apart from the sparkling saarees turned out to be false.

From DespAir India to DebonAir India

To be continued...

Doodlings...

While chatting to a family friend today, I doodled something interesting. See if this makes any sense...

"Life is a constant struggle between aspirations and inclinations...." - Tejas Lagad (circa 2006)

Does it?

My betrothal invite...

Its a once-in-a-lifetime occasion... well, in our part of the world it usually is... and it demanded a special invite too. So here it is.

------------------------

When: 12 March 2006, 7.00 p.m.

Where: Sri Vile Parle Patidar Mandal, Sardar Patel Baug, Parleswar Mandir, Vileparle East, Mumbai - 400057. Phone - 26194564,26194565

Why:

Back in 04 AD, the Romans started a tradition of exchanging rings to be worn on the fourth finger of the left hand. The Romans believed this finger to be the "vena amoris" (vein of love), the vein that leads to the heart and so used it as some symbol of love and commitment between a man and a woman.

On the occasion of my betrothal with Dr Sonal Thakare, we plan to follow this succulent Roman tradition. And as we look forward to a life of caring, sharing and love, we request your presence on our engagement to share in the happiness.

See you there...

-tejas

PS: Those who miss out on this bash may miss out on an invite to my planned autumn wedding in Seychelles. And I plan to include a return air-ticket to Seychelles with the invite.

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The last line really worked ;-)

7 steps to success

STEP 1:

* Believe in the journey! Know that you can do it!
* Plan BIG: Recognize early that you can not get on top of or over the mountain if you can't even see it.
* Condition yourself to Become Evolution Focused - focusing on the evolution of your business at all times - will allow you continually move forward.

STEP 2:

* Research the marketplace.
* Understand who your customers really are by knowing how they communicate, what they want and where they go to get it.
* Watch, listen and survey wherever possible.
* Evaluate the competition - and exploit their weaknesses.

STEP 3:

* Create products according to your customers desires.
* Serve them - so they will serve you.

STEP 4:

* Communicate in their language.
* Emphasize features and benefits.

STEP 5:

* Let them know that you FINALLY have what they want!

STEP 6:

* Create a sense of urgency for it.

STEP 7:

* Ask for the order.

Synergy...

Came across an interesting piece on building partnerships... an excerpt.

2 plus 2 equals how many?

2 + 2 = 3

Overlap, duplication, waste; competition not partnership

2 + 2 = 4

Co-ordination, co-operation and collaboration produce efficient working

3 + 1 = 4

Not so good; More of what one partner wants, less what the other wants; unequal power, no difference overall

2 + 2 = 5

Synergy; joint working produces more effective working between partner organisations

2 + 2 = 6

Synergy plus leverage, as joint working generates extra special funding for the neighbourhood from a third party

2 + 2 = 7

Synergy plus leverage plus main programme bending, as the big organisations adjust their own programmes

2 + 2 = 8

Synergy plus leverage plus mainstreaming plus influence, as partnerships influence national policy

Sick of the blue screen?

M sure many of you will benefit from this... How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/041105-windows-crash.html

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