SAST Wingees

This and That

It has been a long time since I contributed anything to this blog, and New Year is as a good a time as any. Here it goes –

• Fond farewell to Shane Warne and Glen McGrath. Both retiring at the top of their game and more importantly on their own terms.
• Things that I have been forced to look up on the internet or learn based on my daughter’s constant barrage of questions –
  • Difference between a moth and butterfly
  • Is Penguin a bird or mammal
  • How many mammals lay eggs?
  • What is a starfish made of?

Of course, for almost all of them Wikipedia is the source of answer. Came across this interesting site while searching for origins of the word “tutu”. This site also as interesting information about the word.

• My DISH network receiver is broken and I have been waiting for a new one to arrive for the past 10 days. This has forced me to read more books and spend more “quality” time with my daughter.
• Just finished reading Moneyball which has been generously referred more than once in “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense”. Moneyball is about how the Oakland Athletics baseball team is able to succeed as a small budget/small market team against the bigger budget teams. Very interesting read, and though it is about a baseball team, it is more about data – importance of collecting the right set of data and coming up with the right set of formulas to analyze them to make scientifically sound judgments. It is also about how not to get caught with historical perspectives just because that is the way things were always done or seems like it should be done.
• Talking about collecting data and putting them to good use, watched Kinsey recently. Dr. Kinsey in order to understand human sexual behavior, started collecting data in unorthodox ways, and this was around 1947, a time when any talk about sex was taboo.
• Other movies I watched recently –
  • Groomsmen – Movie about 30 something’s getting together for one of their buddy’s marriage. Proves that a decent movie could be made for 3 million dollars. Watch the bonus feature with commentary by Ed Burns were he describes the optimizations used to control the budget of the movie
  • Monster House – A good kid’s movie with great CGI. However, unlike traditional CG movies that primarily has animal(s) as the central character, this one has computer generated humans playing that role. Day is not far away when actors will not be needed to make movies L
  • Pirates of the Carribean – Dead Man’s Chest – Not as good as Part One, but still “savvy” enough only due to Johnny Depp.
• After a lot of research and time on the internet (which only leaves you more confused), bought my first DSLR – Olympus E-500 that comes with 2 zuiko lenses. Very excited about this purchase and who knows – I may even post a few photographs.

Happy 2007!!

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Star Gazing

For the first time on this blog, a piece of fiction – a short story written by Priya Raju. Read on.

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The students of Grade 2 were clearing out when Mr. Mansur entered the class room. “Boys & Girls – I’m taking you on Friday night to the Planetarium. Get these permission slips signed by your parents tomorrow”.

A general hubbub ensued. We are going to the Planetarium, We are going to the Planetarium! We are going to the Planetarium!! We are going to the Planetarium!!! Nobody was really sure what a Planetarium was, but it had an interesting name – it sort of rolled on your tongue.

Mr. Mansur raised a hand & the kids became quiet. Cindy raised a plaintive hand & asked him, “Sir, please Sir. Are there any monsters in this Planetarium?” Arun loudly sniggered – Girls were such scaredy cats. Aloud he said, “Cindy, you are stupid. Sir, please Sir. Can we get Cotton Candy there?”

Mr. Mansur laughed aloud & said, “No children. We’ll watch stars & planets in the Planetarium”. Oh. That didn’t sound too exciting. “We’ll get a special telescope. You can see the stars & planets real close”. Ok, this sounded better – definitely, some possibilities. “I’ll even let you operate the telescopes”. Hoo-ha, hoo-ha, hoo-ha, hoo-ha!! This was very, very thrilling.

Arun couldn’t think of anything else that evening. Why, there were only 2 more days. He went to the apartment complex where he lived with his parents & elder brother.

His elder brother, a 7^th grader, looked smug as usual & Arun decided that he won’t tell him anything about the trip. Nothing at all & wild horses couldn’t drag it from him. “Brother, do you know Mr. Mansur is taking us to the Planetarium on Friday?” John looked at Arun condescendingly & said, “That’s nice. Do you know that stars are made of big balls of hot gas?” Arun became indignant – gas indeed! Why, he must think I’m a fool. “John – the only gas here is the one you make after eating beans”. John returned with crushing dignity to his books.

After dinner that day, Arun looked at the sky. What the – there were no stars. They had gone somewhere. Clearly, this was bad. The next day, he told Mr. Mansur, “Sir, there are no stars left in the sky”. Bad, bad, bad – Gee, they had probably fallen down from the sky. They fell right into the gutters. The one-eyed cat in the school ate them. Binu started sobbing & a few others followed suit. Mr. Mansur told them, “We live in the city. Because of light pollution we can’t see the stars. You can see them from the Planetarium.” At this reassurance, they cheered up.

Friday evening & the kids couldn’t control themselves. Some of the boys danced on the table & chanted the refrain, “Innikku[1] – Planetarium, Innikku – Planetarium”. Ms. Singh, the Principal, walked in & looked shocked. She was easily shocked. The kids piped down, afraid that THE plan might be scrapped.

The Planetarium was on a hill & it was pitch-dark when they arrived. They silently made for the telescopes. Binu squeaked suddenly, “I can hear the stars!” There was a buzz of agreement – the stars were indeed making some sound. Must be the noise made by their incessant twinkling. Mr. Mansur told them, “Those are just crickets in the woods. And now, the telescope is pointing to the Venus.”

Soon, a mug of hot chocolate was served. They covered themselves with thick blankets & listened to Mr. Mansur saying cool stuff about various stars & planets. Mars was Red. Saturn had a ring. The Great Bear was not really a bear.

A very dreamy Arun walked into the living room that night. “I love star gazing & telescopes”, he announced to his parents solemnly. Immediately, a-meaningful-glance passed between his parents.

“I’m glad you are taking an interest in your plans, Arun”, said his dad happily. “Perhaps you’d like to take up Astronomy, son”, said his mom. “But really, you need to improve your scores in Math. They are abysmal & you certainly can’t get into a good institute if you don’t improve. Perhaps I can enroll you into some special classes & I’ll take you the Math Olympiad”. Arun looked perplexed.

“That’s silly, Rosie”, said his dad. “My son will become an astronaut. I won’t permit him to become a geek like your father. Arun – we have to work on your stamina & physique. You need to focus on energy building. Now, I know an excellent after-school tennis program”. His mother looked miffed. “Really, Ravi – why do you have to drag my dad into this? After all, it is for Arun to decide”

Both his parents looked expectantly at him. He thought that he had to say something – they wanted him to. But his mind had gone blank.

“I want to go to the bathroom”, he said. His mother sighed & said, “Wash your hands after use”.

[1] Tamil word meaning “Today”.

Apple is now a consumer electronics company – it was predicted here first

The blogosphere is reverberating from Apple’s Richter 8.0 scale launch of the iPhone featuring OS X. The smallest Windows PC is still too big to come even close to the iPhone. OQO ULPC, Sony ULPC, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and the myriad Windows Smartphones – watch out.  Interestingly Apple Computer became Apple Inc. signifying its metamorphosis into a consumer electronics company.  Sibu alerted me to the fact that he had predicted that Apple will become a consumer electronics company. Well done Sibu! I hate to be pointing this out to dear Stevie, but arch rival Dell Computer became Dell Corp long ago – er, something like 3.5 years ago.

Electric 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers at last

Given that the average speeds in the cities in India (including big cities like Chennai) rarely crosses 25 KMPH (or 15.6 MPH), have often wondered why we don’t have electric motorbikes and auto-rickshaws (3-wheelers). This sector has been languishing with some niche players selling a few units here and there. It definitely needed someone with deep pockets to take this technology to the mainstream. At last, Hero Cycles (possibly one of the world’s largest bicycle manufacturers) are entering the e-vehicles market with some attractively priced offerings. Hope these sell like hot cakes and bring down the pollution somewhat and control the spiralling petroleum import bill. Read on
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=150835

Eden Besant Nagar is Excellent, But

We’ve eaten at Eden Besant Nagar twice and Eden Chetpet once. The food has been uniformly delectable all the 3 times. We loved the Kele Ke Parsinde – an unique dish made of raw bananas and the Multi Grain Roti (Indian Flat Bread). Don’t miss them. But Eden suffers from poor service. If you are meeting a long-lost friend, this is the best place to go. It typically takes 45 minutes for them to serve the appetizers. Don’t even ask about the main course. Eden Besantnagar also suffers from a serious mosquito infestation problem. Why couldn’t they put one of them mosquito repellents? We pointed it out to the attendants and they didn’t seem to care. They were also actively promoting their newest Annanagar branch. Overall, if you can tolerate the service you can enjoy some good food.