I know it isn’t fair to have a blog and allow it to decay without posting for a long time. But, I’m not able to spend enough time updating blogs, so I’ll have to let some go. Sadly, this one gets the axe. I’m not going to delete it and anyone can make free use of whatever is present here. There will be no more posts on this blog

With a heavy heart, it’s time to bid adios. Thanks a lot, my dear friends! I really enjoyed each one of your thoughtful comments! I value our friendship and will keep in touch with you by different means. Thank you, WordPress, for the amazing blogging platform you’ve created! Wish you all good luck, great health, prosperity and eternal happiness!

Adieu, mes amis!

The worthless Indian media has been projecting it as India’s answer to the OLPC XO, the student laptop that was expected to cost $100, but ended up costing double that amount. The cheapest laptop at the moment is Jointech’s J-PRO JL7100 Mini Laptop that costs $99. So how could a device be developed for one-tenth of that price?

The “laptop” was unveiled today at Venkateswara University in Tirupathi, in the presence of ministers and government officials. Did it live up to the promise of being the world’s cheapest laptop? Here is a picture of the “laptop”:

The $10 “laptop”, Sakshat…

As it turns out, it is neither a laptop nor does it cost 10 USD! The device is rumoured to cost around 1000 INR (20 USD/16 EUR) at the moment, but a lot of “finetuning” and mass production should see the price drop to $10.

Details are sketchy, but the device is supposed to measure 10″ x 5″ and reportedly has 2 GB of memory, Ethernet and WiFi connectivity, USB port and consume very little power. It can be connected to another computer or a printer. As can be seen in the picture, the device seems to have a tiny display.

What’s clear though, is that the $10 laptop is not a “laptop” by any stretch of the imagination! It seems to be a storage device with a tiny integrated display and some connectivity features. The government wants to distribute it to schools to enable students to download e-books and journals from its education portal. It has reportedly made deals with some textbook publishers for the content, some of it for free.

For the Indian media which has been projecting the device as India’s answer to low cost laptops and claiming that the device would usher in a revolution by bridging the “digital divide”, the unveiling of the “laptop” must have come as a rude shock! Well, that’s how useless the mainstream media in India really is. They don’t have a clue of what’s going on and keep dishing out sheer nonsense. For those who believed that this could be another ultra low cost product from India that has the potential to be a resounding success after the Tata Nano, the “laptop” turned out to be a damp squib! The officials had no answer when they were asked why the device was being touted as a laptop when it was not one.      :-x

For now, the technology joke of the year can be awarded jointly to two of India’s worst institutions, the government bureaucracy and the mainstream media!!!    

The Word of God on a pen drive . . .

Image: http://blog.pcnews.ro

At a conference in the Vatican, Catholic bishops argued that the written word was not sufficient and have called for the Holy Bible to be spread using the internet, CDs, DVDs and even iPods. According to an official statement from the Vatican, “The voice of the Divine Word must resonate over the radio, on Internet channels with virtual distribution (and by) CDs, DVDs and iPods, and on television and cinema screens.”

Watch a short video about listening to the Word of God . . .

(If the video does not load, you can watch it here.)

While the Holy See has always been quick to adopt new technologies like the internet to keep pace with the changing times, it still clings on to some outdated beliefs and practices that have no place in the modern world

Here are a few screenshots: (Click on the images for a larger view.)

Opera 9.60 in தமிழ் (Tamil) with a non-standard skin . . .

To change the language: Tools—>Preferences—>Language or Ctrl+F12—>Language . . .

This is how my blog looks on the coolest browser on Earth . . .

Google India automatically appears in தமிழ்! . . .

View webpages in தமிழ்! . . .

Besides this, Opera 9.60 has some great new features. Check them out here.

Having realised the potential of the Indian market, Opera has decided to glocalise. Opera 9.60 is also available with the user interface in Telugu and Hindi. User interfaces in the other national languages of India will follow.

இது நம்ம (This is our) Opera!

Three cheers for Opera 9.60!!!

Related post:

The browser wars

A brilliant Moon ring . . .

Image: http://flickr.com/photos/spiralstares
Photographer: Spiralstares (taken with a Canon PowerShot S200 on January 19, 2005)

Since it was the first time I was observing such a ring, I searched for information about Moon rings and this is what I found:

The ring around the Moon is caused by the refraction of moonlight (which of course is reflected sunlight) from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. The shape of the ice crystals results in a focusing of the light into a ring. Since the ice crystals typically have the same shape, namely a hexagonal shape, the Moon ring is almost always the same size. The six-sided ice crystals refract, or bend, light in the same manner that a camera lens bends light. The ring has a diameter of 22° , and sometimes, if one is lucky, it is also possible to detect a second ring with a diameter of 44°. Thin high cirrus clouds lofting at 20,000 feet or more contain tiny ice crystals that originate from the freezing of super cooled water droplets. These crystals behave like jewels refracting and reflecting in different directions.

There are some interesting beliefs about Moon rings. Folklore has it that a ring around the Moon signifies that bad weather is coming, and in many cases this may be true. So how can rings around the Moon be a predictor of weather to come? The ice crystals that cover the halo signify high altitude, thin cirrus clouds that normally precede a warm front by one or two days. Typically, a warm front will be associated with a low pressure system which is commonly referred to as a storm. Some even believe that the number of stars within a Moon ring indicate the number days before bad weather will arrive. Read more about Moon rings and other moonlight effects on this site.

Have you ever observed this natural phenomenon?

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Felis silvestris silvestris is a shy creature but is a born hunter like other cats . . .

Image: www.animalpicturesarchive.com

The European wildcat is a native of Europe that has been roaming the forests of the continent long before domestic cats were brought to Europe from North Africa. It looks very similar to the domesticated cat though they are not closely related. Their tails can most easily differentiate the two species: the stockier wildcat has got bushier hair there and more clearly defined dark rings. Mice serve as their main source of food. The German state of Rheinland-Pfalz is home to over half the estimated German wildcat population (between 3000 to 5000). Apart from Germany, the European wildcat survives in the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkans, Spain and France.

German and Spanish researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Doñana Biological Station of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, OEKO-LOG field research and the Biological Station in Euskirchen have developed a model to identify the natural habitats of these cats and possible corridors to help isolated populations to mingle. The research was done by fitting radio-transmitters to twelve wildcats.

The wildcat is known to be a shy creature. The team discovered that they try to keep a safe distance from human settlements. Within a radius of one kilometre from human settlements, they were difficult to find. In the case of isolated human dwellings and roads, they try to maintain a safe distance of two hundred metres. This protects it from humans and their dogs and from being killed by motor vehicles and also prevents interbreeding with domesticated cats.

A project called “rescue network wildcat” was started by BUND (the League for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany). Their mission is to develop a network comprising of corridors of some 20,000 kilometres over the coming years – the equivalent of half of the German Federal highway network.

With these efforts, the wildcats are being helped to return to areas which were once the home of their ancestors. Many more projects like this are needed throughout the world for members of the genus Felidae if we don’t want future generations to be left with only domestic cats.