A snippet of Big Data

"The role of technology in the travel domain is dramatically evolving and it’s ripe for disruption. The customer of an airline company is also the customer of a cab company, a hotel, a telecom service provider, a food & beverage company, an apparel company, a luggage company, a financial services company, an electronics retailer, an entertainment company and the list goes on. So many businesses trying to be relevant to the same traveler and the traveler having so much to choose from. All this in real time via the mobile internet.
Enter the world of ‘Big Data’."

I found the above words in a job post on hasgeek.com

Recent kamasutratization of adds

Have u seen the adds lately? No, you are right. They are not selling condoms. The inverter add? I am sure you all have bursted out laughing on the adoption agency thing after the guy jumps just as the power gets cut. You know what I am talking about. I remember Cadbury's had come out with a similar one. The girl is completely consumed by licking her fingers with her boy friend hanging around there. And yeah, I don't even need to mention Katrina Kaif selling maaza with her ecstacy.

Somebody please save us from these horrendous axe effect genre of unwanted oomph play thrown around for selling products. I hope ParleG doesn't get caught up and ruin their legacy product on 'sex sells but whose buying?' bandwagon.

Kalidasa — the earliest interaction designer :)

He had thought of cloud messaging then itself!! :P
Even today we're still far from seeing Cloud Computing revolutionize our daily tasks..

Bureaucracy

I really want to add an exclamation mark after the title 'Bureaucracy' but the damn word is such that it doesn't go with such a punctuation. It is there in all our lives at the back, sometime at the front. It is rock solid and seems like it was there since eternity and nothing can be done about it. THIS PROTOCOL whatever little small thing that you'll follow ranging from say buying a ticket when you travel in a bus to withdrawing money in a bank to buying a book in a shop. Its been a call made from a leader's position in a society and the society abides by it by all means. To be illustrative, I'll take the example of something like a social security number or our own, Unique Identity Number. You all know what it is, right? One day it might just be the reason you'll have food. Say you forget your number; Sorry dear, no number -- no dinner.

This bureaucracy, I was never comfortable with it. As a child and now as an adult. But it is a time tested formula for harmonious existence of community. It is probably there because there aren't any alternatives for it! And seriously with all the revolutions we are facing or being a part of; like the information technology and humanized or human centered process that seems to have took off in this millennium, CAN'T WE HUMANS, WE - THE FOREFRONT OF NATURE'S DESIGN AND MANIFESTATION, can't we figure out a better paradigm in place of this bureaucracy??

All I see, the result of this age old probably redundant (yes, i'm daring to call it :) ) system, is vast consumption of media like the paper. Paper which has patterns on it, like text, symbols and seals, all of it ending up in a Bureau!!

Data or Data Sets which define reality, facts,numbers, references, IDs, etc. that keep adding to the ocean we can call 'Bureau + crazy', led me to think
"okay, what is the advantage of it?"
It is definitely, as now, is what's making the world go around. The question that followed was "Whats bureaucracy causing?"
Solution >> 'We are creating boundaries of varied thickness, varied strengths and cut off lines', 'This is my place and that's yours', 'I wan't you to stay right there Mr.'

Okay, now that I've ranted so much about this bug that got into my mind. I shall go on share with you where this frenzy took me..

take a look here : http://homepages.iitb.ac.in/~ananthacp/sharing.swf

Make sure you have the latest flash player. Do let me know what you think because its an idea as old as a decade or more. I dont see it up anywhere. Its quite simple. Anyone can conjure up with such a change. A change that will melt down a small extent -- this Self rigidifying society we have today (It calls itself the Urban environment). The system, public and private entities we have in out cities, town, villages all work to stay discrete and make discrete. They don't fill up gaps in our world but tend to add to them. Nothing mixes here and there. I believe, once it does start mixing, will it make more sense to all facets of our living. The existence of bureaucracy will definitely taste sweeter then.

Why the phrase Horn ok please?

Socha he kya kabhi  . . .

The popular 'Horn OK Please' seen on almost all trucks in India bears its roots in the second world war where the trucks were run on kerosene engines.Kerosene being highly unstable in nature would cause the trucks to explode at the slightest accident.Hence a warning would be painted on the back saying 'Horn Please,On Kerosene'.Gradually this became a norm and is still seen on most trucks even today.

The origin of this phrase is unknown. Also, there is no official significance with respect to Indian traffic regulations. No rules in India mandate or suggest the use of such a 'slogan' on a vehicle. Still tens of thousands of vehicles are decorated with the phrase Horn OK please. This is also reflection that majority of countrymen (for being politically correct I will use countrymen of this generation) are more of effort driven than result oriented. :) :D

As per typical Indian culture a request is also considered as an umbrage so to make the request more polite they have added "OK" (which literally means I am OK you are OK or okey-dokey ).

P.S. - majority of this content was pulled out of wiki. Next time I promise, will be my own.

Human beings have become turtles!

Its a funny thing to look at all the working & studying population of cities today. Its very uneasy to leave the shelter and go out for food gathering  : ) or what ever it is they intend to do, without their backpacks!
Now you tell me, DONT THEY LOOK LIKE TURTLES ?

With the Laptops becoming a common thing nowadays this turtle culture is here to stay.

:)

Ananthz

Swarm Robotics @ Techfest 2010

 

The two Robos we deviced for ANTZ , (an International Swarm Robotics Competition) at I.I.T. Bombay Techfest 2010. This one's "Amar" and the other is "Prem" :)

We had a robust team of two desineers (engineer + designer) and two programmers who made heaven & earth meet in getting this team of Robos to interact with each other to do a task in the arena of the competition. The task was to displace boxes kept on a White grid on Black ground from initial random location to final marked destinations in the shortest time.