Mobile Developer Summit 2010 : Prototyping SMS/Voice Services

Last week, I was at Nimhans, Bangalore talking on Prototyping SMS & Voice services to the audience of Mobile Developer Summit 2010. Here are the slides + photos from the event.

Usability & Prototyping – WebApps2010

So… Here are my slides from my talk on Usability & Prototyping at WebApps2010 organized by SiliconIndia in Bangalore on 15th May.

The talk went well and the audience were pretty responsive and involving. I managed to finish my talk within the time limit. Nice experience on the whole.

Lakshya Paadhai – Vedio

I simply love this song!!! My favorite from 2009.

Prototyping Experiences

Here are the slides of my talk at Adobe Dev Summit 2009 – Chennai & Hyderabad on Rapid Prototyping.

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people who were interested in the science of Prototyping. The industry and the community has always regarded Prototyping as an optional phase in the idea-to-market process. While many other industries like mobile, automobile, mechanical have embraced Prototyping long ago, the software world still seem to be a bit reluctant in realizing the advantage and relevance of this science. Looks like more and more people are waking up …. The audience seem to be growing larger and larger with every talk I do on this subject and thats a good sign …

Dislaimer: Some slides in the above PPT have been re-used in multiple talks to people of USiD 2009, NID – Bangalore, IIT-Kanpur Tech Tour.

So much for ‘namma’ bangaluru

I truly regret to have faced such a situation in Bangalore; which has been my home for the past 8 long years. I know the roads of Bangalore more than what I know of Kolkata; my native. To encounter such an incident in BTM Layout(the so called POSH RESIDENTIAL AREA) where we have been staying for the past 4 years; left me dumbfounded.

On Sunday March 1st 2009, I had been to St. John’s Hospital in the morning. I WAS NOT WELL. I am stressing on it as to remind that I wasnt drunk nor had been to pub etc; so hopefully no controversies on that. I was with my HUSBAND. The hospital OPD was unfortunately closed so we were returning home. My husband had to withdraw cash so as he was waiting in the queue, I was waiting in the roadside parking lot in my kinetic flyte. Suddenly a Tata Innova which was standing beside me started backing without any honk nor any warning signal that it was backing. Before I could react the car was on me. I could not move as I was on my bike. It kept on coming back as he was talking over phone and couldnt hear me asking him to stop. At last, the others on the road asked him to stop backing. By that time I was already badly hurt as my bike had fallen on my leg and I couldnt get up unless he stopped his car.
My husband came to my rescue and he told them that they should have honked or looked back before backing the car. Two rowdies or I dont know who (dressed in white shirt and white pant with RED TIKA; typically looked like some political goons; but I have no clue who they were) came and started blasting Souvik(my hubby). I went there and they started abusing me in Telugu. Unfortunately I understand Telugu(thanks to Oxford) and I could understand what exactly were they saying. I retaliated and all of a blue moon they suddenly gave one punch to Souvik and then blows started on both of us with around 20 – 25 onlookers. To my surprise nobody out there supported us inspite of knowing that they were wrong and seeing us getting beaten. They felt hitting me a girl wasnt wrong but me protesting (when I was the person concerned who actually got affected) as a severe sin. Ultimately after receiving several blows in the middle of the street at around “10 AM IN THE MORNING”; we literally had to run away as the crowd said that it was a great mistake on our part to protest against them as they are BIG SHOTS(dont know how). So we felt wise to run for our lives as just the two of us couldnt have done much. Just to remind our residence and all our friends’ place was just 2 – 3 min away from the place of this incident.

I dont want justice as I know it will not happen. I couldnt note down the car’s no. It wasnt a situation where I had the liberty to do so. I just want people to know and thus create the awareness as to the state of Bangalore. I really love this place as this is where I grew up from an adolescent to an adult. But I never thought in my wildest nightmares that such a thing could ever happen in such a situation.

No comments. Just sad…

Threat emails to IT Cos in Bangalore

Not sure how true this information is…

Bangalore, India

Terrorists are trying to create havoc in the silicon valley of the east, A series of threat emails were received by the top Bangalore based IT companies Infosys and Wipro. The other four company names are not available. TCS the top Indian company also has presence in Bangalore.

Bangalore home to world’s top IT companies including Microsoft,IBM,Google is a heavily crowded city, this threat mails ahead of first full week of of Newyear could disrupt day to day life in the city.

Six prominent IT companies in Bangalore, including Infosys and Wipro, have received e-mails threatening to blow up their buildings, a top police officer said on Sunday.

Joint Commissioner of Police B Gopal Hosur said in Bangalore that the companies received e-mails threatening to blow up their establishments two days ago and immediately informed the police.

The police have already begun investigations, he said, but did not divulge further details.

[ source: here ]

Phoonk @ BIAL

Ok. This is quiet old news. This is what happens when I leave some posts in draft for a long time.

Rumours of a ‘ghost’ take off at BIAL
Hemanth C S | ENS – 29 Sep 2008 05:11:00 AM IST

BANGALORE: After capacity constraints, connectivity hurdles and criticism from all and sundry over shabby infrastructure, there is now a problem quite without precedent at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA).

Rumours have been doing the rounds for the past week that airport staff have been seeing ghosts on the runway. The description of the ghost has been varied: its gender, attire and features all change, depending on who sees it. A few claim that the ghost is a woman in a white saree, while others say the mysterious creature is headless.

A Kingfisher employee who works at the Cargo section told to this website’s newspaper that the ghost, a woman in a white saree with her hair flying loose, has been wandering on the runway. He said this saree-clad ghost had disrupted flight movements. “A pilot of an international carrier had to abort landing after spotting a ‘woman’ with outstretched hands in the middle of the runway. Finally, after two failed attempts, when the ‘woman’ did not move from the runway, the pilot could only land in his third attempt,” he said.

What made Hindus angry in Karnataka

Interesting post. The author is a Christian and seems to be looking at both the sides of the story. I wish we had more such level headed people in the society. We need more such people and less of those controversy whoring bastards/bitches at the media (pardon my language. I have no other words for the joke, these new age journalists have made of my country and its values).

WAS born in a Catholic family. My uncle was a priest, a wonderful man of warmth and compassion and I spent most my early years in Catholic boarding schools. When I was young I wanted to become a missionary and to ‘convert’ pagans in Asia. What I was taught by priests was that Hindus worship false gods and they needed to be brought back to the True Word by Jesus Christ.

Then of course, I came to India and discovered that actually Hindus, far from being the heathens, as had been portrayed in Europe, not only believed God’s diversity, the wonderful concept of avatar, but had given refuge to all persecuted minorities of the world, whether the Syrian Christians, the Parsis, the Jews (India is the only country in the world where Jews were not persecuted), the Armenians, or today the Tibetans.

I am also aghast at the one-sided coverage by the Indian media of the Christian- Hindu problem: blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus in Varanasi, Delhi, Mumbai train blasts, Jaipur, etc. Yet, neither Manmohan Singh nor Sonia Gandhi have pronounced once the word ‘Islamic terrorism.’ But when furious Hindus, tired of being made fun of, of witnessing their brothers and sisters converted by financials traps, of seeing a 84-year-old swami and his Mataji brutally murdered, of reading blasphemy about their Gods, vent their anger against churches, many of them makeshifts, the Indian government goes after the soft target which the Hindus are.

The same thing applies to the United States: they never warned Muslim organisations in India about the killing of Hindus, but when dollars are used to buy new converts and it angers the majority community of India,Washington has the arrogance to issue a warning, and Manmohan Singh does not have the pride to tell the US to mind its own business.Neither the Indian press nor the western correspondents bothered to write about what made Hindus angry in Karnataka: Newlife, one important westernfunded missionary centre ( http://www.newlifevoice.org), began making conversions in and around Mangalore by accosting poor people in market areas, or in bus stands, befriending them and then taking them to churches to introduce them to the father.

Upon introduction they were paid Rs 2,500 per person and then taken to the Velankanni shrine, in Tamil Nadu, where they would get another Rs. 3,000.When they finally converted to Christianity by changing the name, they got an incentive of Rs 10,000 onwards.Newlife would then give them instructions to abandon wearing tilak on forehead, not to visit and offer prayers at the Hindu temples, replacing the photos and idols of Hindu gods and goddesses with a Cross, etc.But what really angered local Hindus was when Newlife went one step further and published a book in Kannada — Satya Darshini — which was widely distributed by its missionaries. Here below is the translation of some of the most abusive passages: “Urvashi — the daughter of Lord Vishnu — is a prostitute.Vashistha is the son of this prostitute.He in turn married his own Mother. Such a degraded person is the Guru of the Hindu God Rama. (page 48).

When Krishna himself is wallowing in darkness of hell, how can he enlighten others? Since Krishna himself is a shady character, there is a need for us to liberate his misled followers (page 50). It was Brahma himself who kidnapped Sita.“Since Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were themselves victims of lust, it is a sin to consider them as Gods. (page 39).When the Trinity of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) are consumed by lust and anger, how can they liberate others? The projection of them as Gods is nothing but a joke. (page 39). God, please liberate the sinful people of India who are worshipping False Gods. (Page 39).” When blasphemy and much worse is brought against the most sacred Hindu Gods, Hindus are supposed to take it meekly as sheep and let themselves be converted to a foreign religion! There are more than 4,000 foreign Christian missionaries involved in conversion activities across different states.In Tripura, there were no Christians at the time of independence.

There are 1,20,000 today, a 90 per cent increase since 1991. The figures are even more striking in Arunachal Pradesh, where there were only 1,710 Christians in 1961, but 1.2 million today, as well as 780 churches! In Andhra Pradesh, churches are coming up every day in far-flung villages and there was even an attempt to set up one near Tirupati.Christians throughout the ages have strived on the concept of persecution and as a brought up Catholic, I remember feeling bad about all those martyred saints of Christianity. Christians in India like to say that they are only two per cent and can do no harm. But it is a sham: in the Tamil Nadu coastal belt from Chennai to Kanyakumari, there must be now 10 per cent Christians posttsunami and the same may be true in other parts of south India.

My heart goes out to Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa who took a courageous stand against unethical Christian conversions, but is now under pressure from the Centre.The BJP, having learnt from bitter experience that the Congress has no qualm in invoking President’s rule under fallacious pretexts in states which are ruled by non-Congress governments is in a quandary: it must show some action against militant Hindu groups while remaining true to itself.

This is why Yeddyurappa took some action against Hindu groups while saying that his government will not tolerate forcible conversions and will take stringent action against missionaries involved in conversions.And ultimately, the blame must fall on Hindus: they are 800 million in India, the overwhelming majority; they have the brains, they have the money and they have the power. But either their intellectual and political class sides with the minorities, out of fear, inferiority complex imbedded by the British or just sheer crass political opportunism, or the bigger mass is indifferent inert, selfish, un-civic conscious.

Every Hindu is the inheritor of the only surviving spiritual knowledge which at the moment is under a concerted attack by Christian missionaries, Americanisation, Marxism and Islamic fundamentalism.

[ author email: authfgautier@rediffmail.com | source: What made Hindus angry ]

Cash in on power of getting Bangalored

During a visit to the US, I watched a televized presidential debate and was quite taken in by Barack Obama’s call to strengthen the focus on education because , in a globalized world, kids there will compete with those from Beijing and Bangalore. A statement that acknowledges Bangalore’s intellectual power.

A couple of years ago, the ‘Getting Bangalored’ phenomenon shook the corporate world. As the world’s software powerhouse, the city came to be regarded as a force that could revolutionize the way organizations worked. This wasn’t just about jobs moving from the developed world to Bangalore, but about the city becoming the face of resurgent India.

This once-sleepy town usurped the ‘dream destination for job seekers ‘ tag from other cities. But Bangalore could lose this tag, simply because it has to try harder to keep pace with its own phenomenal growth. We are in a city which could redefine India, and, with a little correction , be a picture of innovation.

Chandrayan, India’s historic moon mission

Wow! So, India is finally joining the ‘men-who-touched-the-moon’ club!! This is great news. It’s sad that we are not landing any human on the moon. I was really hoping to see the Indian flag flying there alongside the American flag. Hmmm… I guess, I will have to wait for few more decades before that happens. Anyway, its a good thing that we are finally sending out the mission to moon. Also, landing a rover on the surface instad of a human seems to be the ‘cool’ thing for space engineers …

All the best to the folks @ ISRO and VSSC. The whole nation is praying and wishing for a grand successs of this historic mission….

Some details about the mission

Chandrayan, India’s historic moon mission, will be launched between October 22 and October 26. Director of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Satellite Centre Dr T K Alex and Project Director of the Chandrayan-I mission Dr Anna Durai informed media persons at Bengaluru on Thursday that the exact date for the launch has not been fixed, but the window period is between October 22 and 26.

Chandrayan will land a rover on the moon
Dr Alex added that the main objective of this mission was to understand the origin of the moon. Apart from conducting tests on the surface of the moon, the mission also intends to conduct tests on the poles of the moon. Scientists are planning to land a rover on the moon to carry out chemical analysis of the lunar surface.

Chandrayan technology ten times better than other nations
Chandrayan, which is being launched at a total cost of Rs 386 crore, is also scheduled to carry 11 payloads, which would include those from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Sweden, Japan, Germany and Bulgaria. Dr Alex further pointed out that the technology used for the Chandrayan mission is ten times better than other countries. Moreover, ISRO excels in remote sensing and imaging and hence the moon can be photographed from a close range of five metres from the ground.

The spacecraft undergoes crucial tests
The mission aims to cover the entire moon and gather as much information as possible. Currently, Chandrayan is going through crucial tests in Bengaluru. It still has to undergo the vibration and acoustic tests. The spacecraft will be subject to heavy vibration first and then the sound of four jet planes will be put together to check its endurance.

Chandrayan will not land on moon
However, Chandrayan will not land on the moon due to technical difficulties. The spacecraft would hover around the moon, said the ISRO team working on the moon mission. Chandrayan could provide important leads on the possibility of human habitation on the moon, said Dr Anna Durai.

ISRO recently established a 32-meter diameter antenna at Byalalu near Bengaluru to provide tracking and command support for Chandrayaan-I. The antenna and associated systems are the first steps in building the Indian Deep Space Network, which is vital for facilitating a two-way radio communication link between the spacecraft and the earth.