Our little Robot

Yesterday we got our iRobot Roomba Sage that we bought from Woot. At first we were doubtful on whether he can clean well on carpets, but not anymore. After the initial 3 hr charge, I set him up at the center of the living room and pressed the clean button. He sits there for about 10 seconds [I think observing the area] and then he started spiraling. After sometime, he zoomed to one corner and we can’t detect a pattern but we can say, he was trying to cover every inch he could and he did. At one time he went inside the tables [our apartment is a very complicated place ;-)] and was desperately trying to come out but he can’t, then he stopped. I thought, ok it’s time to pull him out, but after 5 seconds he starts up turns himself exactly to the opening and comes out, that was impressing. Time flew by as we watched him clean and clean and clean for about 1 ½ hrs, after that he switched himself off at one corner of the apartment playing a melodious tune stating that he is done cleaning. Ideally he should return to his base to charge himself, but as I found out later it was my mistake as the base should be mostly in the visible part of the room [I kept it in a less visible place]. If you have no clue about what I’m talking about, go watch this video of his kind, working.

later…

An Inconvenient Truth [Global Warming]

I recently watched the movie (documentary?) An Inconvenient Truth. It’s all about Al Gore explaining the world, what is happening due to Global warming and what would happen if there aren’t any steps taken to counteract them. The movie is full of facts [apart from the boring Al Gore losing the election and stuff] which I don’t say is exaggerated, but put in a dramatic way to make more impact on the audience. Speaking of audience, I think no average Joe would go for this movie unless he is a follower of Al Gore or already he knows about Global warming and wants to expand his/her facts knowledge [I fall in the later category!]. I think this kind of information should reach public more freely rather than buying a movie ticket. [I understand, the director, the producer and of course the host needs money :-)]

Ok, now about the actual message in this documentary, Global warming, I don’t think anybody can deny that, but what are the steps are taken to counteract it? And what we as a person living in this planet Earth is doing to save mother Earth? These questions are to be given thought of. One of the main reason for Global warming is the alarmingly increasing rate of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere. And this is the resultant of us consuming more and more of the Earth’s non-renewable energy sources like coal, petroleum, etc. Our consumption rate increases with the increase of human population on the face of earth. So what can we do about it? Some of the things we can do…

• Replace your incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL). Fluorescent bulbs are more efficient and energy savy. And if you’re in the area serviced by Puget Sound Electricity (PSE), PSE gives discount for purchasing CFL bulbs. [you can find the discount coupons attached to the CFL bulbs in the store, I found it in Fred Meyers]
  
• Lower your thermostat a degree or below your normal setting and feel the new comfort of chillness. Use warm clothes to keep you comfortable instead of relying on electricity. Weather proof your living place such that the heat is contained.
  
• Always buy appliances certified with Energy Star.
  
• Sign-up for green energy from your power company. If your power company is PSE, you can do it here. [Funny, they mention the free coffee more than the benefits to the environment in the promo video?!]
  
• Drive a smart car and stop wasting all those gasoline. [I want to buy a hybrid or a totally runs-on-renewable-energy-source car, but is it available at affordable prices?]
  
• And lots more…you can find a big list here.
  

Thanks for my friends Ashish Java and Ashwini Varma for persuading and funding us to watch this movie

Let’s save mother Earth!
later…

zune

[zune]
I blogged about a iPod/PSP Killer way long here, and today Microsoft confirms it. The new player(?) Zune. Can hardly wait what Zune is capable of :)

later...

Adding feeds to live.com

Windows Live [www.live.com] also serves up a portable feed reader apart from being a search portal. Click on to add my blog's feed to your live page.

later...

Windows Live - 5 and counting

In this world of everlasting cough-Google-cough Betas, Windows Live is targeting its services out of Beta. Yesterday Windows Live Expo got out of Beta making the count to five joing the other Windows Live services... Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Favorites, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Custom Domains

later...

Package Tracking thru MSN Search

It's uber cool! Try this on MSN Search with the search words as "[Carrier name FedEx, DHL, UPS, etc] [Tracking number]", it gives you a direct link to the tracking info at the respective carriers site. Heck, it even recognizes FedEx and UPS tracking numbers [special format], so I don't need to specify the carrier name in the search field, only the tracking number. Awesome!

[Note: This works only on the MSN Search and not on the Windows Live Search yet!]

later...

Infosys - Chennai - Dasham

10 years, from a small building in Santhome to a big campus in Sholinganallur and one of the largest campus in the world at Mahindra City...Wow!



hats off to the creators!

later...

Microsoft Phonetic Input Tool

[source]

This is an awesome tool for people who like to type in mails, IM, etc in their own Indian language, but not to learn the complex keyboard layout. I've been using this tool for a very long time and now it is in public beta. It is very intuitive and easy to integrate into the normal applications. Did I mention, it supports 13 Indic languages, excerpt from the source...

Microsoft Phonetic Input Tool beta provides an intuitive method for users to input text in 13 Indic languages namely Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Sanskrit, Assamese, Oriya and Konkani using standard QWERTY keyboard. The main features of the Phonetic Input Tool are

• Users can type text in English the way it sounds in native Language. The input text automatically appears in the native Language. This tool is very useful for bilingual/multilingual users who normally type using English Keyboard and would like to write messages / documents in their native language by typing in English.


• This tool uses phonetic schemes for transliterating the text. Phonetic scheme for each supported language is available with the download of the tool in online help.


• Reverse Transliteration feature of this tool converts the transliterated text back into English text to see what the typed message sounds like before sending it. This is additional benefit for users who speak a particular language but don’t know the script of the language to write in it.


• This tool also allows cross transliteration which is conversion of text transliterated into a language into other languages supported by the tool. This is word to word conversion of the native language text based on sound into another language.


• The phonetic tool also supports conversion of text to Unicode Escape characters, HTML numeric character Reference and HTML Encoding.


• A simple drop down list enables convenient switching between the languages.


• It works with all Unicode-aware applications including MS Office, Hotmail, Instant Messengers, and Notepad etc. This phonetic Input Tool takes away the complexity of communicating in multiple languages through various Windows applications.


• Microsoft Phonetic Input Tool eliminates the need for native language keyboard to communicate in native language.


• This Phonetic Input Tool works on Windows XP and VISTA platforms.

later...