I read a new book - The Design of Everyday Things

18th, October, 2010

Recently I read the book The Design of Everyday Things written by Donald Norman. It is a must read book for those who are in design of small embedded gadgets or smart systems. He emphasises, the role of common sense in design. Small book (about 300 page) and easy to read, read it if possible.

Chetan Bhagat at Symbiosis

Speech by Chetan Bhagat at Symbiosis ...must read...

Hey guys,

I liked it so I am sharing it.I hope you all will like it too. "Don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful.

Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order. There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions."

"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up?

It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices........." :)

"Don't be serious, be sincere."!!

Source: http://tech-nikk.blogspot.com/2009/12/speech-by-chetan-bhagat-at-symbiosis.html 

10-10-10-10-10-10

9th October, 10

10-10-10-10-10-10 ----------- 10th October, 10

We met 9-9-9-9-9-9 last year. And it will be repeating for other numbers.

Are they really special days? Certainly. They are special days for those who wants to play on the ignorance of illiterate people (ofcourse few educated also logic less sometimes).

Few people won't believe the number 8, and considers as unlucky number due to its decreasing sequence when we add digits of its multiples (8, 16, 24, 32, ...72, 80, 88, .... so on). But for China it is lucky number, Olympic games started on 8th, August 2008 is an example.

I don't think the nature created such numbers which will harm living organs on the Earth. It is just the hype created by the pseudo intelligent people. Every number has its own priority and importance in the number system. Believe in yourself.

ప్చ్! కొందరంతె!

Why some persons are so stupid? Why, many are reluctant to change? May be, it depends on the circumstances in which the they put up.


I have come across few stories. The below one collected from Telugu daily Eenadu. If a person not willing to accept change these kind of stories will be repeating more and more. "Women are equally making their mark well" (A quote from Swades movie).

We should know every one have personal harmony, when other people (who ever may it be!) tries to destroy it, consequences will be like below story,

Knowledge is Power

Is knowledge a power? Yes, definitely. But when?

Gaining knowledge is power, only when we utilize it. We can see many people will opt for different kinds of degree, because they sound well. The sequence will be like, Degree, PG, Ph.D ... so on, and finally will land up completely irrelevant work domain.

Perhaps software industry is multi disciplinary oriented due to needs of computing every where. We should opt career by choice, not by chance. After all, we spend half a life in work, ensure it is compelling by passion than need.

Some one said, "I want to know what I want when I want it", and a personality development trainer did some research and concluded that "most successful people knows what they want when they want, they are clear on the ways to reach their goals". It not only fill their monetary requirements, above all they are contented.

Be contented in want you are doing.

Know Thyself

26, Sep 2010.
How much time are we spending for ourself? We don't need hours to spend, just few min... However small it may be! Let it be spending with family members or friends, reading a book, watching good movie, enjoying the nature, .... Be contented. 

Nurture Intelligence

20th, Sep, 2010.
Recently I bought a small puzzles book "Nurture Intelligence" written by Yandamoori Veerendranath. This small book contains about 250 puzzles of 9 different categories. Low cost and fun book, worth to read. Enjoy reading this than counting on chit-chat.

The Family and The Nation

Recently I read the book "The Family And The Nation" by Kalam and 

Mahapragya. I felt, it worth reading.

Today, I step into sapna book house, and happed to see lots of books on Kalam's name. I think the publishers are making business based on Kalam name.

However, being citizen of this country try to read as many articles as possible from Kalam. They shape your thoughts well towards the destiny what you wanted to be.

Arts and distraction

7^th September, 2010

These days most of the commercial TV channels are telecasting dance, music related programs with hype. It is unfortunate to see kids also brought into the programs. Of-course dance also an art, but should be not life. We can see some dancer’s statements “I born for dance”, “dance is my life”… bla… bla… Nothing wrong if you “enjoy” in dancing, but it should not cause disturbance in other activities during childhood.

When HRC ordered “no children to be performed in the dance programs”, most of the parents were reluctant. May be the kind of “charishma” attracting them. But how many of these artists are really leading the life the way they want?

Education is mandatory for every kid. Arts also important, that doesn’t mean education can be neglected while learning arts. Only future can answer these persons.

Just see following links for “what I mean by perfection in art”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUaCU1fAYw4

After above thought ignited, I removed my TV connection, and scolded by my mother :). Because she was addicted to serials, and I was addicted to "Dhee" dance program.

Back to Gym

20th, August, 2010.

Four months after, I stepped into gym. Each gym friends felt I left the company. I was lost the sync to gym after my sister's marriage. Earlier I was regular about two years.

Body is badly... paining. Now I took resolution not miss a single day.

Am I right?

20^th, August 2010

Am I right?

Yes, because why I am. If I know that I am wrong, I would have corrected myself. I will not know that I am wrong till I know I am wrong. Confusing, infact I too!

Every one of us thinks that we are correct. We won’t know we have to change till we change (‘we’ – I mean ‘our thoughts’). Let us take an example. Say, two people are arguing, they will continue till one wins (note that discussion is different from argument). They will realize they won the argument and lost everything when they realized. Unfortunately, we can see these arguments between a couple and mostly the male wins (I have seen such quarrels in my village). If we can think from other’s perspective the argument would turn into discussion, and above all, both will be contented.

What ever we might have thought 10 years ago, may not be seems to be correct now. So, if it takes 10 long years for small change, what extent we live our ‘unique life’. World is moving much faster than us. I believe no one perfect in this nature, time will answer all. Think before preaching a word. It may spoil our great value in other’s opinion, especially when talking with dears.

Every person has self respect, recognize it. Thanks to my brother.

Active Time

18^th August, 2010

I put up in village during my childhood. I am staying in cities from past 14 years. Though every life style has its pros and cons, I am concerned about active time that a person cares in city.

I recently moved to new campus called Orion near Intel office due to team relocation (Earlier it was 5 min walk from my room J). Past few days I observed the cab taking more than an hour both to and fro. For my case it is optimum when I compare people who are traveling more than 4 hrs per day.

Assuming spending 2 hrs (up and down) per day in journey, per month it is about 40 hrs. Wow! One week of active time that we used to spend in office, gone just as journey. It means we will be wasting about ¼ of month on every month. Per year how much, and entire career??? Where we are? All this wastage is Active Time, one can do something useful.

No one cares… Every one wants hail to city. We will only recognize time value in emergency. Unknowingly we rush in every activity. But it is how city life is.

Is there any solution? Simple. Society won’t change, but we can . Read something (don’t make it habit, reading during journey is not suggested), listen to ethical stories or some technical speeches, think an algorithm, many… may be public is much smarter.

People Whom I Admire – Kalam

17^th August, 2010
About 4 laks years ago a person respected a fictitious promise made by his father and went to forests for 14 years. He was none other than Lord Rama who became lord to almost one billion people. That is the kind of respect Rama had at his father Dhasaratha.

We can find such Ramas even in these days. The story collected from a tabloid of regional language. Dr. Kalam is one such person. Read the book Wings of Fire to understand Kalam’s childhood environment. Just read on…

A Sound Mind in A Sound Body

31^st, July, 2010

Health is wealth (ఆరోగ్యమే (aarOgyamae) మహభాగ్యం (mahabhaagyam)), we read this during childhood. But how many of us care it?

I heard three stories among the people whom I am aware. All three were suffered from kidney deceases due to lack of sufficient intake of water. These three people are working as software engineers. Is it really required to sacrifice health under the name of advanced development (so called digital revolution engineers)? No one can replace ‘peace of mind’ and good health, most of us won’t recognize their importance till they become irreversible.

Take plenty of pure water… drink atleast 0.5 liter water every morning. I habituated this almost from past 10 years. First time it will be difficult to take water on fasting. Once habituated it will be a vain (addiction). Ensure to consume 2 liter of water during work time. Daily small workout keeps us active and healthy. More over we have to be away from junk food (self control).

An Inspiring Story

25^th July, 2010

An Inspiring Story – An EAMCET topper

Given below is collection of student story from local paper www.eenadu.net. He also secured good rank in GITAM entrance and few other engineering entrance exams. Read on… I will upload few more stories.

శ్రీమతి సుధామూర్తి

1^st June, 2010

A note from Smt. Sudha Murthy’s narration.

I would like to share an old story. I read an interview article in Eenadu weekly about Smt. Sudha Murthy, an Indian social worker and author of several short story books. She worked for Tata group during initial days of her career. She was one of key persons in establishing Indian pioneer Infosys, “a company driven by values and powered by engineers”. Few of her books translated to other regional languages in India.

She visited Russia long ago. A Russian who saw them smiled with a polite greeting. He recognized them as Indians and poses the same question to Smt. Sudha. It was obvious because of traditional Indian dressing followed by Smt. Sudha. She was proud for the unique reorganization of our culture.

A few moments later, she observed that a newly married couple praying at the statue of soldier. With unclear thought, she requested the Russian what the couple is doing. He replied, “They are honoring soldiers who scarified their life for the country on the eve of marriage day”. She felt proud about Russian culture.

So, every custom has its own beauty. It all depends on how we accept or reject it

A new Blog

Almost after two years, I started new blog. It is here.

I am a math and science geek. I like puzzle solving also. I believe it improves lateral thinking of various problem solving techniques. I also like to relate significance of mathematics to real life challenges. Most of the postings in the blog will be of kind having natural importance in day-to-day life. Some of the questions are colleted from various interviews. I encourage posting your answers as comments. I will not provide answers immediately to avoid biasing.

Welcome to my new blog.

Regards,

Ramana.

Perception or Acceptance!

The following mail message I received from one of colleague… read…

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983. From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied:

“The world over -- 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me’?”.

And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?'

Happiness keeps you Sweet

Trials keep you Strong

Sorrow keeps you Human

Failure keeps you humble and

Success keeps you glowing, but…

Only Faith & Attitude keeps you going...

People Whom I Admire – Sandeep Pandey

Sandeep Pandey, a winner of Ramon Magsaysay award in 2002, graduated from BHU, India and followed by Phd in Mechanical Engineering from UCB, USA. He is also one of the pioneers of RTI movement. He found Asha society for educating rural India.

More on http://www.ashanet.org/

A patent and Power Management in Small Gadgets

Can silly idea change the world? Certainly! There are many examples in the history. Here is a simple story. Don’t neglect basic mathematics and physics where ever you are…

It is a story of patent (Patent # 5280371, Directional Diffuser for a Liquid Crystal Display) made by an MNC. The same technology is now being used in smart systems. It was developed to minimize the scattered light from the source and to increase light rays directionality. However, the saving might be small percentage in case of large displays. On mobile displays the saving will be considerable.

Basis:

An aircraft (civil/military) will be equipped with the state-of-the-art electronics ranging from Flight Controls, Displays, Flight Management Systems, Servos, etc. All these systems needs high power generators, usually the aircraft engines will generate large power compared to small systems.

These display systems will be having CRT, LED or LCD based monitors. Except CRT, the other two requires less power, order of few tens of watt. Then why do we need to save small quantity of power (due to scattered light rays) in LCD display? We are engineers, be smart! J

An LED is active display that emits light on power (just remember, it will replace entire lighting systems in near future. The CFL technology is an alternative). Where as, an LCD is passive display, which requires external light source (backlight) for illumination. Based on viewing angle the light will be scattered to sides and vertical direction.

The idea here is to minimize the scattered light to sides, since the display is required only to the pilot. It was achieved using basic physics principles. We use convex lens to direct light on single point. How can it be made directional? (Hint: An array of convex lenses).

The same principle is used in mobile displays, PDAs, iPod, etc. The MNC licenses the technology to the required companies.

Have you heard about CAN, I²C and SPI protocols? These protocols are used in plenty of chips made every year. Need is base for them, yet, the “Need” not to be mother of invention always.