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June, 2009 Xbox “Project Natal” is that for real?Wow, this is really cool, Its just a demo for now and am waiting to get my hands on this. This is the latest of Microsoft’s Xbox Whole body motion-capture device. Also includes voice and face recognition and many other small things.
There are like tons of coverage for this.. Few I found nice are…. You can always bing it http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/microsoft-announces-motion-controller-for-xbox-360/ http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/microsofts-project-natal-demo-video-has-us-jumping-with-anticip/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/jun/01/xbox-natal-controller January, 2009 US Income Tax BurdenAs can be figured from the chart below, top 5% i.e. (AGI of 150K or more) are responsible for the 60% of the Income Tax generated. Event though they are responsible for only 37% of the total income.
source: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/CutYourTaxes/make-32k-youre-in-the-richer-50percent.aspx The new Obama administration thinks that they can squeeze some more out of the rich 5% people, good I say, I am not one of them. Sometimes less is good. February, 2008 India Leads in ClickFraudClickForensics.com released a report on ClickFraud(CF) for Q4 2007. It seems that the CF has increased year over year and quarter over quarter and is now 16.6%. Also CF on search engine content networks including Google's adsense and Yahoo's publisher network is staggering 28.3% for the Q4 2007 quarter up from 19.2 for the same quarter in 2006. The worst part of all this, is that India has the greatest number of CF originating from countries outside of North America.
ClickFraud high threat heat map(source:clickForensics.com) October, 2007 Money As debtA nice video, which explains using animation what money means and how it is created.
September, 2007 Xobni - revitalize your outlook emailAugust, 2007 Jim Gray "Lost at Sea Or Sailed Away"?
Jim Gray a technical fellow at Microsoft, responsible for starting the Microsoft San Francisco Research center. A specialist in database and transaction processing. He received the Prestigious ACM Turing award in 1998 for his contributions to database and transaction processing research. I can go ahead listing his never ending list of achievements, but its enough for now. Since January, 2007 there is no clue where Jim Gray disappeard. Some think his 40-foot fiberglass cruiser called Tenacious sank, while some don't rule out that jim actually sailed away. And I really hope its the later. One day he will come back and say well all this technology you couldn't still find me. A nice article in Wired about Jim Gray a legend in database, transactions, large scale data processing who is lost at sea since January'07. This article about the high tech rescue effort that went subsequently. I have been to couple of his talks and really enjoyed those talks and hope to hear from him soon. Some references to Jim Gray's research.. May, 2007 St Xavier's DaysThose old days, I finished my Diploma in Electronics and Radio Engineering here. This is probably the second best school, after my Master at USC. It was a nice experience. I won't rant on that but just few pictures from those days. These are scans of really old picture so please bear with me..
May, 2007 History Of ReligionI received this nice flash, about how the religions of the worlds have evolved over centuries. It covers worlds most dominant relgions Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism. The flash is about 90 Seconds long, enjoy!!!
Other Nice References:
If you need to know more, The following links are nice too
May, 2007 Enter Microsoft Live Labs PhotosynthA very exiciting way to view your photos on your computer...
Try Live Labs Photosynth http://labs.live.com/photosynth/
February, 2007 Customizing Your spaceThere are many insider ways of hacking Space.live.com, than that available from the Customize link at space.live.com.
Visit Hack MSN Spaces to find them all..
January, 2007 Finally: Embedding Videos into your Space blogFinally we can embed videos intoyour space blog, I have been wanting this for ever. Not that I have lots of videos that I want to show, but its sometimes nice to have a video with your blog. Now that I don't need the embed video gadget, I will probably remote that.
To start with, enjoy this nice song from a hindi movie
Great work spaces.live.com. Keep the good things comming.
January, 2007 IPTVRecently, I have gotton addicted to my computer so much so that I basically all my chores on the computer, including but not limited to
telephony (jajah.com, skype), IM ( MSN, Yahoo ), Bill pay stuff, Videos ( soapbox.msn.com, youtube, videos.msn.com), and lately, IPTV ( jumptv, vdc, hot-desi, live-tv-from-india, ). With so many choices and so progress in the digital TV arena, IPTV looks like a hot field. Hopefully, with a better cost benefits and the necessary political and infrastructure support IPTV might become a household thing.
What is IPTV?
Well its just TV using the internet. Unlike the more traditional Direct Tv dish or comcast cable, IPTV works with any internet service, dsl or cabel based ( dial up is not recommended ). And provides with lots of benefits of using a computer as your TV like for example automatic DVR capabilities, watching multiple channels simultaneously, etc.
Over the holidays, all my time was using my computer as my TV. We had subscribed to a service (bwcinema.com) which lets u watch Indian movies online. It was great. Also we got on various sites which provide streaming Satellite tv for most indian channels. I was alos able to find one for US based channels, but was not able to play with, since you have to buy some software and I was not very comfortable with that. I think its called free-statelite-tv.com ( If not look it up on live.com for free statelite tv). Let me know your experiences with this.
What are the blocking factors?
Well this might get some pressure from the various traditonal providers, or may be they will provide similar service as part of the internet deals. This remains to be seen. Another factor is the network bandwith this will consume if the IPTV does get popular, and will the current infrastructure be able to support this?
I will have to see how local channels will be made available through this service, how a schedule for channels be made available, to various time zones.
Costs?
I think this kind of service should most cost beneficial to the user, there is basically no infrastructure cost to the media provider, since internet is the medium, and everybody has that. The digital channels, it has advantages that the software provides the necessary feature sets. Example DVR would not cost additional. People already have multiple computers which would now convert into TV, where everybody would be able to watch channels of their choice.
Quality?
This is a big thing, if the IPTV does get popular, will the current infrastructure be good enough to support this strong bandwith needs? May be with more better techniques the current infrastructure might just suffice, well this needs to be seen.
Well, good luck IPTV then, you have one new supporter, hopefully there are many more.
December, 2006 Windows Live Service AgentToday, I got a chance to attend this presentation about Windows Live Service Agent, its a interesting technology. A system to talk with, When you ask question to the system, it responds immediately in a conversational language.
Several companies e.g. Comcast ( Ask Comcast ), Vonage, Cingular, xbox are using this as the first line of customer support. From what i have heard it works well.
Well, if you are feeling lonely, Windows Live Service agent can help, You can login into your MSN Messenger, add smarterChild@hotmail.com to your contact and start chatting....
Here are some of the response, I got chatting with the smarterchild (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarterchild).
Irfan Bondre says: hi- SmarterChild says: Hi again, irfan.Irfan Bondre says: Whats the weather like tomorrow...- SmarterChild says: Which would you like?1 What are the current weather conditions? 2 What is the weather forecast? Irfan Bondre says: 2- SmarterChild says: Weather forecast for Fremont, CA: Friday: Mostly cloudy. High 56F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Friday evening: Some clouds. Low 38F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Saturday: Partly cloudy early followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers later in the day. Thunder possible. High 54F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%. Saturday evening: Cloudy with a few showers. Low 38F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%. Sunday: Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 53F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Monday: Sunny (High:55 Low:35) Tuesday: Sunny (High:57 Low:36) Wednesday: Mostly Sunny (High:57 Low:38) Thursday: Partly Cloudy (High:59 Low:41) To get the current conditions for Fremont, CA, just type "weather." Irfan Bondre says: bye- SmarterChild says: Bye bye.
Interesting isn't Have fun. November, 2006 MS at USCAs I have taken up this new endeavor of blogging, I will mention briefly about my route to a MS at USC.
After my Bachelors degree, I started working a bit, It was not a very pleasant experience as my education didn't completely match the work I was involved in, nor did my education provide me with a foundation for particularly any task. At this time my elder brother was in US and my dear friend was planning on moving to US. There was like a small pressure from both of them to consider a MS. After a deep thought, I thought it would be a wonderful oppurtunity to miss.
The task of preparing for such a move is difficult. The GREs, TOEFLs, Paperwork, VISA and so many other nitty gritty things just consume you. I finally manage to get through most of them without any difficulty. I got admit into couple of schools, and USC was a simple choice. Beside being a good school, there were people I knew, isn't that comfortable.
Looking back, comming to US and doing my MS at USC was one of the best decisions in my life and it will have a profound impact on my career and my life. I cannot thank enough for all the help I got on doing that.
USC is a really cool school, ton of resources and good international crowd, your really feel at home. Most of the stuff that I did at USC was new to me, I tried to concentrate more on the networking aspect of Computer Science, even though my major was Electrical Engineering, I hardly did any course purely in EE. USC is an expensive School, I didn't want to spend lot of money on completing the pre-requiste for a computer Science Degree.
Has it hurt by doing so, I think it has a bit, there are so many aspect of computer science I have missed by doing a EE degree. A CS degree does provide a terrific foundation, which I have missed, and it is a little difficult at times grasping those CS concept. I do spend a lot of time these days trying to understand some of those, If I get an oppurtunity, I will probably try to finish a CS degree.
I am so glad, that I got this oppurtunity and would recommend anybody who can, should take up this path. November, 2006 Bye Bye Actuate!!!After almost 7 years working for Actuate, it’s time to say goodbyes. Overall, it has been a very pleasant experiences, and there is not much for me to complain about. It being my first regular job out of school, was a great learning experience. It provided me several challenging problems to expand my mind. Besides the fact that I got an opportunity to work with so many cool people, who have turned into very good friends. In other words, Cool Problems, Great Colleagues. Then why leave actuate, well I needed a change. Also I had a dream, and hoped that actuate would take me a long way in fulfilling that, yes it did succeed to a certain degree, but not to the extend I had hoped. Leaving Actuate was a very difficult decision, It did provide me with a sense of security and respect. I had refused several offers earlier to stay with Actuate. However, an Offer from one of the dream companies I have always wanted to work for, was like a wish come true. Hopefully, it will live up to my expectations. |
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