The infamous double slit experiment - redux

Ever wondered whether a photon is a wave or a particle, or both. Here is the double slit experiment that showed us what to think of light.

Are you Nomophobic ?

Does the idea of leaving home without your mobile scare you? Do you feel challenged about being disconnected? Are you the i-generation born with a mobile in your left pocket? As per a study conducted by YouGov in UK, Britishers were likely to be stressful without their mobile phones. Read on here

AT&T first to bring Microsoft Surface to stores this 17th April

AT&T all set to become the first company in the world to bring Microsoft Surface to a retail store next to you, giving customers the ability to explore their mobile worlds using touch and device recognition technology. Microsoft Surface is the first commercially available surface computer from Microsoft. Beginning April 17, customers can experience Microsoft Surface in select AT&T retail locations, including stores in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. Based on the success and learning from these initial pilot deployments, plans for further expansion across AT&T’s 2,200 U.S. retail stores will be determined. Read the MSFT press release here and the AT&T press article here

Move old mails to Gmail, for good

Have switched on to Gmail, or Google Mail (in some countries) and still go back to your old account to check your older e- mail accounts? Well, here is a guide to move your old mails to Gmail and let go of the older account, if you want to that is. Read on here...

Google docs goes offline

Yeah, I'm just waiting for this announcement to become real.

Google and Virgin's April Fool's day joke

From the Google blog here

For thousands of years,

the human race has spread out across the Earth, scaling mountains and plying the oceans, planting crops and building highways, raising skyscrapers and atmospheric CO2 levels, and observing, with tremendous and unflagging enthusiasm, the Biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply across our world's every last nook, cranny and subdivision.

An invitation.

Earth has issues, and it's time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.

The question is, do you want to join us?

Ever yearned to journey to the stars? You can learn how to become a Virgle Pioneer, test your Pioneering potential, or join the Mission Control community that will help develop the 100 Year Plan we've outlined here.

Pachyderm Self-Portrait

So have you ever seen a pachyderm paint a self portrait. Well, here is your chance. Incredible, really.

Quarks and Quantum Physics for Dunces

Heard of Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top and Bottom? Well they are the 6 types of Quarks that make up Protons and Neutrons. Ever wanted to know more about Quantum Mechanics and didn't know whom to ask? Well, here is one good place to start. This website, hosted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory explains it pretty good. Find out for yourselves here

Tintin Trilogy by Spielberg in the offing

Tintin, the famous reporter created by Herge' may be the latest muse of Spielberg who is contemplating making a trilogy on him. A south Londoner lad of 17 called Thomas Sanders may become a house hold name soon. He is slated to play Tintin in the series. Read on here

Death of the News Paper, writing on the wall

The internet is killing the traditional news paper business, and fast.

Trends in newspaper circulation and advertising is declining, - the rise of the Internet, which has made the daily newspaper look slow and unresponsive; the advent of Craigslist, which is wiping out classified advertising––have created a palpable sense of doom. Independent, publicly traded American newspapers have lost forty-two per cent of their market value in the past three years, according to the media entrepreneur Alan Mutter. Few corporations have been punished on Wall Street the way those who dare to invest in the newspaper business have. The McClatchy Company, which was the only company to bid on the Knight Ridder chain when, in 2005, it was put on the auction block, has surrendered more than eighty per cent of its stock value since making the $6.5-billion purchase. Lee Enterprises’ stock is down by three-quarters since it bought out the Pulitzer chain, the same year. Read more here on NewYorker.com

Matt Drudge, amazing number of hits

You have probably heard of Matt Drudge, he started as a one man online news portal and now has a small team, and makes a sizable amount each year from arm-chair news publishing. But what is amazing is the simplicity of his home page www.DrudgeReport.com and the amount of visits he gets. The number of clicks he gets are given below.

Amazing, isn't it??

14 y.o. Aishwarya Majmudar sings Albela Sajan

She's just 14 and in grade 8, and she sings this difficult song with much ease. Look at the praise she gets at the end of the rendition. 5 stars to the prodigy.

Pocket IE v/s Opera Mini

Tata Sons EKA, World's 4th fastest

Tata Sons assemble Asia's fastest Super computer and call it the EKA. Given above is the comparison chart of the first 4 fastest supercomps. Way to go Tata.

MBA, are you??

OK, in a lighter vein, are we getting our MBA's right???

Save the Planet. Some Earth duty here..

What's Your Green IQ?

Results for DrVx : Green Giant

Can one person make a big difference? Absolutely, and you're doing it! From separating your recyclables to carpooling, you're well on your way to having the green lifestyle all wrapped up (in recycled paper?). But there is room for improvement, you know. Good thing you have the drive and the initiative to keep seeking out more ways to make a difference! You're probably going to be the one to start a clean air initiative in your neighborhood or to install that new low-flow toilet. Can't you see it?


Of course you've still got a few big lifestyle changes to make before you can declare yourself perfectly green, but that's okay. Who doesn't love a little challenge? Keep making your life eco-friendly — the planet needs you!

What is your Green IQ ?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=greeniqogt&c=50652

Nokia Morph - Wonders of Nanotech.... drool

Buoy. Nokia and the Cambridge Nanoscience Center manage to put together a two piece mobile device that I would term as really revolutionary by several magnitudes. What with actual 3D context menu buttons, Nano Grass for solar charging, Morphing skin for wearability, and other features, it would be a real iPhone killer if released in the market. But it is only a concept yet.

The Big Bang explained, well kind of...

Need I say more. But I have a few unanswered questions:
1. If the Universe is about 100 Billion light years across and only 14 billion years old, would that not mean then that the Universe is expanding at a rate of 3.5 times the speed of Light. Wow, would that not mean that we can never see the other end of the universe, or even it's center. Bummer.

2. If the Universe was the size of a Neutron to begin with, what were we comparing the size to. Where was this neutron sized Universe sitting, or Floating if there is no such thing a space beyond it. Bummer again.

3. If the Universe is expanding, then where is it expanding into. Where does this Universe occupy this massive space.

4. Why would objects move away from us at a speed of distance squared. Aren't they supposed to slow down as they move further away. If the expansion is accelerating, then isn't it matter which is actually going to finally move faster than light. Bummer again.

5. When Universe was the size of a Neutron, what was it;s composition? Was it matter, with mass, or was it energy. If it was matter, (we are talking size, aren't we) then what kind of matter was it. If it was energy, then where does the question of size creep in?

??? Have lot more , but seriously....

English to L337 convertor

//
4R3 j00Z L3Ph7 5(R47(|-|1|\|9 \/\/0|\|D3R1|\|9 \/\/|-|@ j00R 933|< 733|\|493R 15 \/\/R171|\|9 1|\| 7|-|@ PhU|\||\|'/ L1|\|90. 7|-|475 (4LL3D 7|-|3 L337 0R L337 5P34|< U53D b'/ 7|-|3 933|<'/ |<1|\|D. 7|-|3 \/\/0RD (4/\/\3 PhR0/\/\ L337 4|\|D /\/\4|\|'/ 4 p30PL3 r U|\|4BL3 70 (0/\/\PR3|-|3|\|D \/\/|-|@ 17 /\/\34|\|5. |\|0 L0|\|93R. |-|3R3 15 4|\| 0|\|L1|\|3 3|\|9L15|-| 70 L337 7R4|\|5L470R. |\|0\/\/ j00Z (4|\| r34D j00R 733|\|493R5 /\/\41L5 4|\|D 3\/3|\| /\/\4|<3 53|\|53 0U7 0Ph 7|-|3/\/\. 4|\|D 1 d0|\|'7 /\/\34|\| pR'/1|\|9, bU7 7|-|3 0|\|35 7|-|3'/ \/\/R173 70 j00Z.
//
In English
Are you left scratching wondering what your geek teenager is writing in that funny lingo. Thats called the leet or L337 speak used by the geeky kind. The word came from elite and many a people are unable to comprehend what it means. No longer. Here is an online English to L337 translator. Now you can read your teenagers mails and even make sense out of them. And I don't mean prying, but the ones they write to you. Here is the converter..

Universe as consciousness !!

Thought provoking vid.

Forbes Billionaire List.

Bill Gates Slips 2 places. Warren Buffet takes lead. Ambani brothers add the most wealth last year ($ 22.9 Billion and $23.8 Billion respectively). And 4 Indians (circled) made it to the top 10 Forbes list. And Kamprad, the IKEA man, known for his bus rides to work and a frugal lifestyle, slips to 7th place after flirting with the first place for a while a few months back. A very volatile market and a very unstable list, but is MS losing their grip on the planet?
See the entire list on Forbes here

Peugeot wakes up to Sex Appeal, does a Jag

Peugeot, known for their flat and ho-hum body lines, seem to have finally woken up to some serious curves. Showcased at the Paris Auto Fair 2007, is the Peugeot 908 RC. Quite a stunner, though still a concept car and no known plans to go commercial. Either way, I dig these wheels...


and the cool interiors are as appealing..

BMW Demos Night Vision

BMW has released a video of BMW 7 Series Night Vision System with FIR (infrared) camera in front air dam. Video includes night driving scene with a jogger and a skater on the road. Infrared image is displayed on the on-board monitor. From here

Now how long will it take them car manufacturers to replace them wind-shields with such IR screens and make street lighting redundant. One of my *bright* ideas for fighting global warming.

GPS Rulez

I have now been using a GPS Navigation device for almost close to 10 months. I have tried Mapking for turn-by-turn directions GPS.run Trainer for navigation and track storage etc.

Here are a few features of Mapking that are cool. For one it is Mapking Mapking. It's not like some other brand of GPS software renamed for local markets.

You can see turn by turn directions like any other GPS software and you also keep getting speed warnings as per settings. You can switch from 3D mode to 2D mode and day- night mode as per your choice. Given above is a screen grab in Simulation mode [I was not really driving at 85 KMPH :) ]

Another good feature is it's fuzzy learning. How it works is that, if the software suggests a road on a particular route and you avoid it for your own reasons repeatedly over time, then Mapking lowers the weightage (marked W below) allotted to that road, and as time goes by (learning process) it will not suggest that road anymore. Cool. Many others out there don't have this feature. Good work Mapking..
And among many other good features, you can also add a POI (Point of Interest) by simply holding your stylus at any point on the map and adding it as 'my favorite' as shown below. You can name the favorites as per your choice and classify them under various categories for easy access later.

What Mapking could introduce though, is classifying favorites as per active maps. Like If I have a particular map as active, say Bangalore, then it should only show favorites for \Bangalore in the favorite list, and not all favorites from all the cities that I might have added. Also, it could cover larger city areas. They haven't covered outskirts of cities like you would want them to and these are some of the features on my wish list.....

And given below is a grab from Run.Gps Trainer. Quite a cool tool.
Needless to say, I wasn't really canoeing. But you can choose from many different types of activities and if you have entered your age and weight etc. honestly, it will show you calories burnt etc. You can choose what audio prompts it keeps spewing at chosen intervals and you need not have to look at the screen till your 'training' is through. A tad difficult while in a canoe with your PDA, unless you have one of them waterproof cases that I haven't. :(

Indiatimes email pimped up

Indiatimes mail in it's new Avatar. What with narrow and broadband versions and with a lot of goodies that they have christened Ziplets. And an infinite inbox, which presumably should mean that there is no limit to how much you store there. They are also running an expensive ad campaign on TV and other media. Looks like Indiatimes are finally taking their webmail seriously.