beobachter

Is the iPad worth "killing"?

2010-02-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

There is an article today in one of India's leading dailies about the famed iPad "killer" from India. It is commendable that the product comes from a startup founded by 6 youngsters with the average age of 24; that all of them barring the MBA are from premier education institutes of India; that they took the bold step into the realm of hardware products which is not India's forte; that their innovative offering "Adam" uses half the battery life as the iPad and probably has the same ratio for the price as well. All excellent stuff.; kudos for the effort and for making India proud.

But after all the fanfare subsides and one really thinks about it, this question does come to mind; Is the iPad really worth killing?

I mean since the day it was launched we have seen numerous tweets, blogs, you-name-its about how it is nothing more than iPhone on steroids, it has no useful function, etc etc. The only saving grace for the iPad is the price range of $500 - $800. Which makes it attractive enough to add the list "things-I-dont-need-but-have-to-buy". But seriously is it worthwhile to put efforts into killing something that is already dead?

GM Diet: Day 4

2009-03-04T06:11:00.000-08:00

Today is the day for 6 - 8 bananas and 3 glasses of milk. But that aint happening. A banana is well known to be a whole meal by itself. That got me thinking; I am a vegetarian, therefore surely, this diet is NOT drastically different from what I eat everyday anyway. Add to that the fact that never in my life have I eaten 8 bananas in a single day. It just dint add up and so this was the last day of the diet. I ditched the schedule and got back to my regular routine.

Lessons learnt:

1. Think things thru before you jump onto the wagon :-)

Obervations:

1. By no means do I propose that this diet is entirely ineffective. It perhaps is very helpful for people with the following dietary patterns:

a) Diets high in fat (oil, butter, ghee/clarified butter)

b) Over eaters. People who satisfy the craving rather than the hunger.

c) Possibly diets heavily inclined to meats and completely devoid of vegetables.

2. This might also help those people who have extremely sedentary lifestyles. Veggies and fruits will added minimal calories. So even if they dont lose any weight at least they wont gain any.

3. Lastly even though this will give you an intial boost in weight reduction, it is a tough one to sustain. Therefore use the boost and bring about an essential change in your lifestyle that would get you on your way to your weight loss gain. It needs a patient and sustained effort.

Good luck. Lets see if I can follow observation #3. My current goal is to beat my brother in Kgs lost by the end of march :-)

GM Diet: Day 3

2009-03-04T06:05:00.001-08:00

Started the day with a medium sized baked potato for breakfast. Flavour with a little low fat butter, salt and pepper.

Followed that up with some apples and stir fried veggies. Since this was a monday, work helped in keeping my mind of my notional diet. Notional because I was eating everything that I normally do except my daily helping of carbs.

Today I threw in 45 mins of cardio for good measure (about 530 calories as per the treadmill).

Before the workout, I had a weigh in just to boost my morale. I weighed in a kilo (2.2 lbs) lesser than what I had started out with.

So far so good.

GM Diet: Day 2

2009-03-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

After a night spent dreaming of vada pav, I woke up to day 2; the only veggies day. Have them raw or cooked as you will. Its a much easier day to get thru, at least for me. But no matter how many veggies you stuff yourself with, nothing can beat the satisfaction of being full that carbs give.

Nothing eventful happened on the day on the nutrition front. No noticeable weight loss either :-)

Tomorrow will be day 3 a mix of veggies and fruit.

GM Diet: Day 1

2009-03-01T05:23:00.000-08:00

The first day was a really tough one and possibly the toughest of all the 7 to get through, at least for me. It was only fruits day and thats what made it long and difficult to get through. However, my wife's company and constant encouragement helped me finish half a watermelon, 2 pears, 2 apples, half a papaya and one orange. Doesnt seem like much for a regular fruit eater but for me it was the most herculean task given my dislike for raw natural produce.
It seemed very filling for an hour or two every time I had a serving of fruit, but soon hunger took over again and there was another plate of washed, cut and peeled fruit. Its rather easy to follow a diet if you have a wife who slogs in the kitchen just so that you can palatte the food you most dislike. I must stress that had it not been for my wife, I would have probably stopped the diet in the 7th minute rather than on the 7th day. Kudos to her.
It was a relief to get into bed at the end of the day, which meant I wouldnt have to have any more fruits. It also meant that there were only 6 more days to go and hopefully a first step towards some positive weight loss results.

How soon can you move on?

2008-12-11T05:39:00.000-08:00

One morning as you sit in your cube tickling the keys of your keyboard, a security guy comes in and cleans out the cube next to yours. Next comes the the facilities guy, picks up the hardware, loads it on his cart and off he goes. The cube is clean, the guy who sat there jobless and you clueless. Thats pretty much what happened few "normal" days ago. What happened next was worse. There were thoughts of why was he asked to leave, is it over, are you next, so on and so forth, until finally around 4ish a meeting is called by the higher ups and there is a little relief all around that this round of chopping is over. You escaped it; whether narrowly or not does not matter.

Then the plight of the guy who is no longer your cube neighbour starts to dawn upon you. And as you put yourself in his place, there is an uneasiness in the pit of your stomach and the general sense of depression. The tension before 4 was better than the depression after. Mails from a lot of whos who expressing regrets, ensuring you that this is for the best and asking you to move on. You do move on in the sense that you dont brood or sit with a droopy face and you do continue working, but really is it so easy to move on just yet?

Feeling proud: We'r N-abled !!

2008-09-07T00:10:00.001-07:00

Whether we will create 5000 direct and 15000 indirect jobs in the US or not, whether my choice pick of Nuclear ancillary industry stocks do well or not, whether we have a power-outage less future or not, we are well on our way and I am damned proud of it!!!

Yes the N-deal is almost in our pockets and there are thumping announcements of this news. I can truly say that this is the first time I just felt amazing after reading some really great news about my country first thing in the morning!!

It was just a generally happy and uplifiting feeling and perhaps there are no words to really describe it but I encourage all to share it.

My wife was a little amused by this and asked me how does it impact us if at all. Perhaps an answer to this one in my next post.

Jai Hind!!!

Earn money for doing nothing

2008-07-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

This is a service provided by a mobile advert company called mginger.
All you need to do really is click on http://www.mGinger.com/index.jsp?inviteId=208686
Then register your mobile, specify your preferences and watch the money roll in.
You will get promotional SMS, calls and emails, which you may or may not read. But you will also get money for each of these just for receiving them. Great I say.
So go ahead and register away.

Crap!! The new gas screwed us!!

2008-07-14T04:09:00.000-07:00

We are all aware of global warming and its contributing factors. And we all hope that everyone else is doing their "little bit" to save the earth. Our bit is hoping others are doing theirs. Fair enough, a lot has been said about the power of prayer.
Anyway, pray as may, we'r screwed at least that is exactly what a new study will have us believe.
We have a new green house gas called NF3 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/LCDs_accelerate_Warming_/articleshow/3222215.cms

If you read this article, you cannot help but wonder; what would we do against a gas that cannot be removed from the environment naturally.
As far as CO2 goes, we can plant trees, use less fossil fuels, yada yada yada and hope that eventually all of the 2 saplings we planted will make the air pure for all 347 members of our "near and dear" facebook/orkut family and friends community. Optimistic, maybe; realistic ...

Now, the few things I found interesting in this study are:
1. This gas comes from the use of new technology LCD screens which till now were our answer to the old CRT energy monsters. Are we taking a step back?
2. All electronics majors are eventually going to be selling only LCD displays if they dont already do. My point is proven by the fact that you dont have sales people urging you to buy CRT monitors.
3. Obviously, since LCDs are cheaper they will sell more and what makes them cheap is the cheaper still process of producing NF3 which it seems is the "life gas" of the LCD panels.
4. NF3 has an impact of 17000 times that of CO2.

All said, this is one bad ass gas.

Now we take a step back and go to the first line of the article. We notice, this is a "recent study", there is no link to the study, the people who studied or anything conclusive for that matter.

Global warming is real, but we do need to think are we really smothering the Earth with gases or with studies about gases?

Grandma's therapy; it works

2008-07-09T01:51:00.000-07:00

Try this only if the big toe on each of your feet was the same size to being with (the disclaimers will explain what that means).

Few days back I had a round of indigestion for no apparent reason. I hadn't eaten anything disagreeable and the water came for safe sources only. After about a day of thinking I came up with no plausible explanation for why it might have happened. At this point I decided to try my Grandma's nuska (medical trick is the best explanation). It goes something like this:
1. Sit on a hard flat surface(the floor would do just fine) with your back straight and legs stretched out in front of you.
2. Bring your feet together and compare the sizes of your big toes.
3. If they aren't the same size, give a slight tug to the shorter one till it is the same size as the other one.
Thats it!! It worked well for me and later I realized that extra effort at the gym may have been the culprit by causing something in the stomach to get stretched more than it should've.

Disclaimers:
1. There is no proven medical study on this, but it works for me.
2. It is useless to keep pulling the shorter big toe if it was cut short by some accident or otherwise did not come to realize its full growth potential in the first place.

Hilarious; Not mine got it from someplace

2008-07-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

मराठी लोकांची हिंदी:

पहलि बार पोहने गया तो क्या हुआ मालुम?
पहिले पानी मे शिरा, फिर पोहा और बाद मे बुडा!!

घाई करो भैया नही तो बस जायेगी, और हमारी पंचाईत होयेगी!!

सरबत मे लिंबु पिळा क्या!!

इतना महाग कैसे रे तेरे यहा, वो कोपरेका भैया तो स्वस्त देता है!!

कंदा काट के, चिर के मस्त ओम्लेट बनाने का और उपर से थोडा कोथिंबिर भुरभुरानेका!!

अरे बाबा गाडी सावली मे लगा!!

ए भाय, मेदुवडा शेपरेट ला, साम्बार मे बूडा के मत लाना!!

केस एकदम बारीक कापो भैया!!

खाओ पोटभर खाओ लाजो मत!!

धावते धावते गिर्‍या तो काडकन हात का हाड मोड्या

Turn ons: Sarcasm

2008-07-01T04:37:00.000-07:00

On browsing thru the orkut profile of most of my friends, acquaintances, friends of friends and so on, I often notice that sarcasm supposedly turns people on. And these are the very same people who will make caustic remarks if you use a little sarcastic humor on them. Do they not understand what sarcasm means or are they in the dark about what "turn ons" imply. It could be an unending debate on whether we share the same perception of sarcasm or is my brand a little too strong for them.
I'm also a little confused as to the type of turn on it is. If a guy is sarcastic with another guy (assume neither is gay), how does it turn on the recipient? The same for girls. And what is it supposed to imply to a general reader of the profile. If he/she leaves you a sarcastic scrap will you be miffed or turned on?
Then there is the brood that says it is turned on by flirting and the about me reads "If you don't know me please don't scrap". So is this like flirting self-help group where you cant participate if you don't enroll first?
The list goes on. But esentially, you get the point. Think before you tell people what turns you on.

Scary weight loss place

2008-06-27T02:45:00.000-07:00

So every time I start going to the gym with renewed dreams of losing weight, the thought that comes to mind is ... how long before it comes true.
Not this time though. This time I walked in with the knowledge that its not gonna be easy, it will take time and patience is the virtue to focus on. So I looked around; there were these buff instructors and chiseled regulars and these really hard working (I mean 5 miles a day types) packing 250 lbs or more. Hold on. 250 lbs or more? Double checked. I was right. So now the thought that comes to mind is ... if these guys, after working so hard cant, what makes me think I can.
For those reading this and familiar with my old adage ... why take the trouble to climb up the hill, when eventually you need to come down anyway :D

Solar Energy for community development

2008-06-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

So there are a few social entrepreneurs who are doing their bit for the community as they earn a living for themselves. Case in particular being SELCO which operates in Karnataka, India and there is another one in Mumbai I think. This post is basically intended at anyone who wants to intern at SELCO. Its a good idea. This company has won the Ashden Award in 2007 and a host of other national awards for their work in CSR.