after thought : Bus stop and the Stranger

Hour 4 : 3:30 am

Weird night and weird stranger, if there was anything I was expecting to go awry, it was running out of my iPod batteries. The latter happened and I was left with no option than to talk with this woman. But when lifted her face to give me that look, which explained me a little of all 'hmm's'. The soft light of the solitary lamppost fell on her side, her forehead, cheeks, shoulders. I noticed for first time that she had waist length hair, her face was an perfect oval, and it was meant not be forgotten, those little dark eyes shone, which were I guess had small hint of tears, her lips were closed tightly, as if preventing something bad to come out of that mouth. I could notice that her lips were actually quivering, was it cold or was that some emotion, I couldn't had guessed it anyway. With such light profile on her, I could make out that she was in her early 20's. Still her sentence was hanging in air, when she returned back to her work, admiring the ground.
After a few seconds I realized that I have been I was actually given no answer, Honestly I was captured and mesmerized by her, her narrow, wet, eyes. Was something disturbing me? I wasnt yet certain about it if there was anything. I took another long drag from the cigarette, and resumed my work on smoke. Actually I was little angry, little though, why did she shout on me, anyway, its none of my business.

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after thought : Bus stop and the Stranger

Hour 4 : 3:00am

Nervous or scared it was hard to categories those feeling. I however as such don’t believe in ghost, but damn she wasn’t moving a bit, how can a person appear suddenly and not move at all? This was the main question right now. However when I reached for my pocket for smoke I sensed she moved, yes she moved, I could bet on it now, she’s human perhaps. So need of paying attention to her. From my past experience I have experienced that girls wanted attention, and once you give them that, it acts like drugs, they crave for more and more form you. Here out on road, I didn’t want to be seller of drugs. So walked a few paces ahead to light my cigarette. Suddenly I heard a very soft voice, almost a whisper, “Don’t go far, please” I wanted to say “what’s your problem” instead I simply replied “Why? Anything bothering you?” thought this was the perfect start for conversation, but she didn’t reply. She again immersed herself in eternal search of something at her feet. Now thinking of that situation I think I should have asked her about what was she exactly doing looking down so hard.

But I was filled with hate and arrogance; I still don’t know why I hated her and what for? For being company in that lonely night or for spooking me. Not knowing the answer I stood there lighting my 3^rd cigarette, it felt awesome. If you ask a smoker when id the best time to smoke, he will say, after you tummy if full and you have to do nothing. Same condition was mine, my tummy was full of ladoo’s plus I had to do nothing except stand there. After taking two long drags I again watched from corner of my eye, waiting her to say something. I was good at starting conversation with girls in college, what’s with her? After putting my cigarette out I realized it’s growing colder. The second most tiresome job I feel in the world is getting something out of your bag, especially when the bag is packed by your mom, and first is getting up in winter morning. I totally hate it. It took me full 2 mins and meeting with the box, pants, 3/4ths and finally jacket. As I was straightening myself I noticed that she was already looking down after adjusting her shawl. I wondered if I was still dreaming.

I wanted to start converstation with her, so said, "Today is unusually cold na?" all i could get out her was a little 'hmm' I continued my effort "So where are heading to?" not moving her gaze sh said "I dont know"

At that moment I thought not again some philosophical babe out here, and asked her what did that mean. and the answer was given to me full faced with those narrow black eyes. "I dont know" This was the first time in history I had seen her face. This was truly a historic moment for me as I was expecting that I wont get to see her face at all.

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Tech : Hacking History

Top Five (5) Best White Hat Hackers:

Hackers that use their hacking skills for good are referred to as "white hat" hackers. Often referred to as Ethical Hackers, these non-criminal hackers are hired by companies to examine and test the integrity of their systems. Other white hat hackers, operate without company permission by bending but not breaking the laws and int progress have created some very cool features. This article examines and selects the Five Best Non-Criminal Hackers and the innovations and technologies that they have developed:

1. Stephen Wozniak

Nicknamed Woz, he is often referred to as the other Steve of Apple. Wozniak and Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple Computer. Woz started his hacking making blue boxes, which are devices that bypass telephone switching mechanisms enabling users to make free long distance calls. Woz and Jobs sold these blue boxes to their classmates in college and even used a blue box to call the Pope while pretending to be Henry Kissinger.

Wozniak dropped out of college and invented the compute that made him famous. Jobs had the idea to sell the computer as a fully assembled PC board. The idea was conceived and developed in Jobs garage. Wozniak and Jobs sold the first 100 of the Apple I to a local dealer for $666.66 each.

Woz currently focuses on philanthropy and no longer works full time for Apple. "Wozniak 'adopted' the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment."




2. Tim Berners-Lee

Berners-Lee is credited with being the inventor of the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee has been honored with numerous recognitions incuding the Millennium Technology Prize.

Berners-Lee was first caught hacking access codes with a friend while a student at Oxford University. He was then banned from the University computers.

Berners-Lee realized that hypertext could be joined with the Internet. Berners-Lee recounts how he put them together: "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and – ta-da! – the World Wide Web."

Since his creation of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT. The W3C describes itself as "an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff and the public work together to develop Web standards." Berners-Lee's World Wide Web idea, as well as standards from the W3C, is distributed freely with no patent or royalties due.



3. Linus Torvalds

Torvalds fathered Linux, the very popular Unix-based operating system. He calls himself "an engineer," and has said that his aspirations are simple, "I just want to have fun making the best damn operating system I can."

Torvalds got his start in computers with a Commodore VIC-20, an 8-bit home computer. He then moved on to a Sinclair QL. Wikipedia reports that he modified the Sinclair "extensively, especially its operating system." Specifically, Torvalds hacks included "an assembler and a text editor…as well as a few games."

Torvalds created the Linux kernel in 1991, using the Minix operating system as inspiration. He started with a task switcher in Intel 80386 assembly and a terminal driver. After that, he put out a call for others to contribute code, which they did. Currently, only about 2 percent of the current Linux kernel is written by Torvalds himself. The success of this public invitation to contribute code for Linux is touted as one of the most prominent examples of free/open source software.

Currently, Torvalds serves as the Linux ringleader, coordinating the code that volunteer programmers contribute to the kernel. He has had an asteroid named after him and received honorary doctorates from Stockholm University and University of Helsinki. He was also featured in Time Magazine's "60 Years of Heroes."



4. Richard Stallman

Stallman's fame derives from the GNU Project, which he founded to develop a free operating system. For this, he's known as the father of free software. His "Serious Bio" asserts, "Non-free software keeps users divided and helpless, forbidden to share it and unable to change it. A free operating system is essential for people to be able to use computers in freedom."

Stallman, who prefers to be called rms, got his start hacking at MIT. He worked as a "staff hacker" on the Emacs project and others. He was a critic of restricted computer access in the lab. When a password system was installed, Stallman broke it down, resetting passwords to null strings, then sent users messages informing them of the removal of the password system.

Stallman's crusade for free software started with a printer. At the MIT lab, he and other hackers were allowed to modify code on printers so that they sent convenient alert messages. However, a new printer came along – one that they were not allowed to modify. It was located away from the lab and the absence of the alerts presented an inconvenience. It was at this point that he was "convinced…of the ethical need to require free software." With this inspiration, he began work on GNU. Stallman wrote an essay, "The GNU Project," in which he recalls choosing to work on an operating system because it's a foundation, "the crucial software to use a computer." At this time, the GNU/Linux version of the operating system uses the Linux kernel started by Torvalds. GNU is distributed under "copyleft," a method that employs copyright law to allow users to use, modify, copy and distribute the software.

Stallman's life continues to revolve around the promotion of free software. He works against movements like Digital Rights Management (or as he prefers, Digital Restrictions Management) through organizations like Free Software Foundation and League for Programming Freedom. He has received extensive recognition for his work, including awards, fellowships and four honorary doctorates.




5. Tsutomu Shimomura

Shimomura reached fame in an unfortunate manner: he was hacked by Kevin Mitnick. Following this personal attack, he made it his cause to help the FBI capture him.

Shimomura's work to catch Mitnick is commendable, but he is not without his own dark side. Author Bruce Sterling recalls: "He pulls out this AT&T cellphone, pulls it out of the shrinkwrap, finger-hacks it, and starts monitoring phone calls going up and down Capitol Hill while an FBI agent is standing at his shoulder, listening to him."

Shimomura out-hacked Mitnick to bring him down. Shortly after finding out about the intrusion, he rallied a team and got to work finding Mitnick. Using Mitnick's cell phone, they tracked him near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The article, "SDSC Computer Experts Help FBI Capture Computer Terrorist" recounts how Shimomura pinpointed Mitnick's location. Armed with a technician from the phone company, Shimomura "used a cellular frequency direction-finding antenna hooked up to a laptop to narrow the search to an apartment complex." Mitnick was arrested shortly thereafter. Following the pursuit, Shimomura wrote a book about the incident with journalist John Markoff, which was later turned into a movie.

after thought - I, Me and Myself

Recently I met Me and Myself. Nice guys they were, but when they left, the left me confusing.
I was just sitting besides window, when outside I saw Me, he was calling me down. But as usual I was too lazy to move. So I called him up. Its been long time since I have seen Me. He rang my doorbell as if he was controlling his pee for a long time and he wanted relief. As soon as I opened the door, he simple burst in and said "what man! where are you, long time no see huh?" to this simple question I couldn't answer. I don't know what I have been doing and where I was going too? So kept my trademark silence and gave him my traditional haggard look. I replied "Man, I'm fed up with my life."
Me was shocked and shouted at me "what? you want to become monk or want to commit suicide?"
I smiled and replied "Damn you! you only want to kill me, that's all" I was kidding of course, Me has been my best friend for a long time, just I didn't had time to see Me. He was as usual full of energy and full of crazy ideas. When I was a kid, no one could actually believe that who stole Guava, commonly known as Amrood. Neither we knew, because we both did the same. Doing mischief in classroom was our daily chore. And when caught I and Me were called.
This made me remember of my another friends Myself, haven't seen him lately as well, but hes cool with that.
Me shook me and brought back to real world. I asked him "what about you, what are you doing these days."
His answer was plain and simple "Dude, what do you think, was alone and bored as well since you left me."
I said smiling "why? you had a huge friends circle, wheres everyone? or you too want to become a monk like me?"
when he saw me laughing then he was furious "Don't you know, they don't care about Me, they just want to have fun, dude and tired as well sometimes, am not a joker, who make people laugh everytime they meet me."
I was really surprised by Me, he was so different today.
I said him that we must call Myself, its been long since we all sat together. Me was bubbly again as ever.
After 5 rings Myself picked up my call, I said "don't you keep you cellphone near you?"
Myself replied "whats the fuss about, whats troubling you? and why are you venting out on me? is Me there?"
I was surprised by knowing that this guy still knows me very well, Myself not only guess my frame of mind but also detected that Me was there.
I wanted to escape this question as I didn't had and answer yet, so simply asked Myself to come over for a chat, he was ready anytime.
Since me arrived he has been scratching his head like hes in deep thought, and when i asked him what he was thinking, Me said "there is this problem with my PC man, its troubling me a lot, am fed up with this computer."
and I thought that he was thinking something deep.
Fortunately before I had to answer Me Myself came over.
he chose to sit on sofa, unlike ME and I who prefer bed, after-all its the most comfortable thing in world
Myself came and sat with his hands folded looking over the top of his glasses, as waiting for me to start.
Myself has been a perfect philosopher for me, he took me in and out of problem with an ease.
After Me and Myself shared there answers about how they were and the most common answer came out that they were fine.
"So, you looked ruffled?" Myself asked me, "Yeah, I am little troubled, troubled by the fact that why are we alive?"
Me jumped back " what do you mean why we are alive? don't you want to live?"
I said "yeah man, but why, what are we supposed to do? just breathe? just eat? just sleep and stay awake? what am supposed to do here?"
Me again argued "what man, have fun, why are you so worried?"
I snapped back "have fun, at cost of my mental peace? I'm fed up actually."
Me started to say something but Myself intervened he spoke slowly "what is actually bothering you, i know its not life, but there is certainly something else."
"duh!" I said "if not life then what else remains dude? anyway to tell you I'm fed up of this Hippocratic world, people say something, do something, want something, get nothing, one boy loving 3 girls and those 3 girls loving 3 each and a girl, whats happening? where is the love and compassion and friendship and trust?"
to this Me started singing "where is the looove..where issss the looove"
I and Myself gave him a stern look.
I continued "Why Im expected to be more mature and not fool around and have to understand what people are saying, why i cant be like others who dont think and just live, aimlessly and somebody please remove these thoughts from my head"
Myself replied, strangly with half smile "Yaar, first of all sit down dont run in room ,you will bump into something" I listend to him and found a corner of my own bed with was largely occupied by Me. Myself continued " see what you are telling about being frustrated for being expected to be more mature and understanding the thought and talks of other people and in return they dont understand you, right? if you know that you are matured then why make fuss out of it, why not be happy about the fact that you have an upper hand than anyone else.OK. and about love, listen buddy there is always negative with positive." Me interrupted "yea right, good girls come with high prices, they are expensive ." Myself almost didnt hear he continued "listen man, you have seen today's life style, you dont even get time for peeing, how come you will able to give or take or create or make love you anyone in the world. plus they golden age of love has already lost somewhere with industrial revolution." Me got interested and asked Myself that how was love related to industrial revolution, the idea was absurd ofcourse but quite cool.
Myself looked amused, he always was when he knew something what we didnt. he replied "tell me why did you study so much? to get a good job right? what is a good job, certainly the one which pays you more, and why do you want to earn more, because things have goon costly, and you tell me(pointing at Me) why things have become costly?"
Me meekly said "industrial revolution?"
"No" replied Myself "the wars actually and industrial revolution initiated wars, this relation might look absurd and really really long but makes sense, isnt it."
I needed time to let Myself's theory to sink in.
after a long silence, Myself understood that it was hard for us to relate everything directly to our personal life.
he said "Ok, lets go from other direction, our lifestyle has become such that we need to do that tobe part of system, so actually we have to do wrong things to be a part of wrong society." Myself's hopeful eyes were on us hoping that we understood atleast some part.
completely fed up and dejected he said " look at Me, tell me Me you have girlfriend right? do you love her? means really are you in love with her?"
Me was taken aback with suddenness and sincerity of the question. I f he was with someone else he would had lied, but we were his best buddies so he said "No man, just tp. just now felt the truth when you asked"
"see" Myself continued without wasting the moment "this is what i wanted to point out that today we do things which actually we dont want to but loo at Me he has a gf who he doesnt even love, then whats the point of having a gf?","because everyone now has a gf or bf and these terms and titles are more like a medal or prize you have won, they are like conquest, but there is no real love between them, there might be but that probability is very very and extremely low as compared to what is just going as tp's"
I understood his point now but wanted to ask him on more thing and i did "so why we are doing this, if everyone knows that they are wrong and they are doing wrong why are they still doing so?"
Myself pointed at Me and said " he will give that answer, he knows more about that, ask him why did he admit in front of us that he doesn't love her gf"
Me meekly and slowly replied "dude, people will laugh at me, saying that im crazy and spending so much on her just for tp and stuff."
Myself broke into full smile from half smile "exactly, the fear of admitting that you are wrong makes you do wrong things, you know you dont love that particular person still either be under her thumbs or be a person boasting that you finally conquered her. But this is sick. and it the truth"
I said "man, this is so not good, we are almost degraded, this means we actually love nothing and nobody, we are just born to reproduce that's all?"
Myself came near bed, and kept his gaze out of window "unfortunately yes, today we are just a part of well planned fuck, thats all, sorry for the harshness of language but thats what we are and thats what we will be doing."

.........
we sat looking out of window I, Me and Myself, Its being long time we have been together, and we just sat there.....
you must them too...Me and Myself....find them and call them home sometime


credit to a blogger on wordpress whos idea i adapted

after thought - Bus stop and the Stranger

Hour 3 : 2:00

The memories of college and the days spent there was like fresh air to my mind. I liked remembering the days in college when we had nothing to worry about and no one to boss around. But then college was over and I don’t know how but everything pointed to only one thing that my vacations are over, soon I would have to join my office. The same office which brought nightmares to me. I had a boss who knew nothing of the company, I had the marketing head who knew only about types of pens and there uses, one of which was drawing mustaches and beard on newspaper. But there were a few good things as well, like being out with friends and say that you are working to your mom, who is waiting because some uncle and aunties have arrived with there respective daughters. Sometimes I think, don’t these guys have any work or what. Once such day uncle and auntie caught me at home. I just had woken up as earlier night I had night shift, fortunately I came brushed my teeth had a bath then slept, so only my hair was ruffled, my brother said I was looking like Einstein minus mustache at that very moment. And later I fond out the truth behind there visit, they came to “see” me.

Suddenly I heard a grumbling sound, seemed far, but shook me. I took another such sound effect to realize that I was feeling hungry. I looked at my watch, it said 1:30. Gosh! I had dinner at 8, just to be sure that I reach in time, and now am stranded fucking here. I tried to forget it, and started kicking bag, in return bag kicked me. And the age old saying about me came true that my brain was in toes, how the hell could I have forgotten about the laddoo’s. I was more than happy, immediately pulled out the packet, which gave me another packet, I pulled it out again, it gave me some newspaper, ripping it off I found a steel circular box. And after much struggling finally I got it open. The smell was enough to increase my hunger two fold, quickly grabbing one, I stuffed in my mouth, and already had the other ready to load.

After eating 5 laddoo’s I was content (Who said human beings cannot be content?). Took my water bottle, looking towards the opposite side of road started to gulp it. While my mechanism was getting refueled I continued to watch those beautiful stars. The thought again came to me that I was alone. Keeping bottle stuck to my mouth I turned to other side of road, looking for any signs of bus to arrive, however it was too early. By the time my thirst was over, the bottle was half empty as well. Disappointingly I cap my bottle down and turn only to get the biggest shock that night, and which made me to loose whatever water I was left with.

A lady was standing in saree was standing near the route table bowing her head low, as if trying to search something in that loose soil. She wore cream or maybe white it was with some dark border on it. She was not moving, I tried to look at her and figure out if she was real and alive. I can still bet that I couldn’t see her breathing. Maybe I was dreaming or the extra ghee in laddoo’s were working quickly.

Whatever it was I became a little nervous for it.

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after thought - Bus stop and the Stranger

Hour 2 : 12:45

I managed to pass my first one hour of life on bus stand alone. Now there was another hour to kill. So i decided to kill time by killing my eyes by looking at the route table or so called time table of bus. Starting from the top coming to bottom, I kept reading each and every line twice in moonlight, but didn't succeed, finally I took out my gifted lighter. This is always kept hidden from everyone in house. Once if it was discovered then the whole clan would now that I smoked. Thinking of which I pulled from packet as well. My favorite brand, pulling put one and sticking it at corner of my mouth, like any other Bollywood hero would do, lighting it up and taking the longest drag of my day. Wow it felt relaxing. So with the flickering light of flame I tried for the third time to read that time table, first line - not mine, second line -not mine, third line -not mine, fourth line - not mine, by this time I was getting a feeling that Im standing on wrong place at wrong hour, fifth line - there it is, Oh no! no way! this cant be it.
My bus was at 5 in morning and what the fuck was time now, 12:30! This cant be it. What will I do till 5? And i have only 6 smokes left. Damn, puffing out long bellow of smoke I sat on stone nearby. Thinking about what will I do when I will be in Mumbai, when i reach there after 14 days. That I will finally meet my friends and have some fun, go for some tour, somewhere north or south. Which reminded me that I was already on. Which sadly enough reminded me that I was on my own for next 5 hours.
Dissapointed, I stubbed out my smoke finally. I wanted to lie down somewhere, this was the common effect of smoke after I smoked.
Nevertheless I tried to shake off the effect of loneliness of the environment and to think about something good.
Something good, I could think was, last meet with my old pal, before he went to join his job and me to my journey (damn! this why everything come to this journey). Sameer was my friend from college, where we both graduated together. We did everything together, except what other people might think of first. We stared smoking together, studies together, swam together, ragged together, for the first time got drunk together and he cried. We were so infamous that whenever we were spotted together, people knew, either we were going to swimming pool or for smoke.
But he was way better than myself in every field, this didn't mean that i envied him or admired him, we had some mutual understanding. He was good at studies so I was good at computers, he was better at swimming and so I was good at pataoing girls, or flirting in English.
But he had a record of 100% rate in pataoing girls. If ever he did make any contact with any girl, for certain she was going to fall for him genuinely. And he was very determined that it was not his aim actually, whereas me, I too wanted to stay out of this lafda and was not as good as him here too, I am happy for this thing.
After-all life doesn't go as you wanted it to go.

to be continued
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after thought - Bus stop and the Stranger

Hour 1 : 11:30pm

man, this bag is really heavy, i said to myself. i was traveling from Delhi to Kanpur for the first time, via bus. Which I always wanted to avoid. I have been bad experience with these bus, bus drivers, bus conductors and there passengers. But anyway, no i had no choice. And why the hell mom had to give me those extra ghee ladoo's which were now extra weight on me, damn!
As usual i had reached late on bus stop, and was finally guessing after looking the 5th time that i was late. However it was just 5 mins hardly i arrived. Its very surprising that when you are alone and stranded in place like this. This thought attracted me to look around me, I only first concentrated on the darkness first. Now after paying a little attention I found that this place had a weird setting, firstly there was no roof, I wondered where might people go when it might rain, another me answered back, "arre, don't worry bout them, they will have there umbrella's na."
I also had this strange another me in me, which was like encyclopedia, and had answers to every question of mine.
ignoring him, i went ahead to look carefully at the stop. There was a very rusty sign board on which was written "Bu.. S.o." looked like some name in Chinese dish. A little down was a seat, or remains of the seat, only the metal frame was the remains, on which only kids could sit. Beside the fact that I was tired standing I knew the limitation of that bench as well, So i didn't try to disturb its balance.
Moving further I found for what I was searching, the Route Table. The table which would tell my fortune that when will my torture end.
But fate was against me today, First my car broke down half way the bus stop, second why did the other car had to speed and splash mud and cow dung on me, the, why the hell its so dark, couldn't they put a night lamp up here?
Now it was becoming even harder to pass time. So since no was nearby, I could bring out my hidden talent, of singing. I knew, very clearly that I was worst singer, but whose listening anyway. The intro was soft, slowly picking up to the mid portion of song, volume grew higher with pitch. I was now so enjoying myself that I even tried to bring those musical instruments out me. I tried to get the best out of me. Finally the song ended. And the environment again went dead. After a long time I felt the chill of being alone in this place. That was the first time i every thought, that i was the lone person standing here, in eternal wait of the bus which might come or might not. It was also the first time I hoped that I had some company.

to be continued

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Novelette - Trouble from another state

I changed my sleeping position for the tenth time. I wanted to sleep, but felt more alert than anytime in office. Forget it he only wants to provke you, I said to myself again. Go to sleep now! - I scolded myself.
The funny thing about sleep is you can't instruct it to happen. Your mind knows the facts and repeats them to you - it is late, only five hours when you have to wake yo again, you need the rest. your mind also has a million options on what it can think about; the stars in the clear moonless sky, the beautiful flowers at Nungambakkam flower shop, the smell of incense on Ananya's house, your best birthday party. There are positive thoughts somewhere in people's head all the time. But somehow, even one negative thought will crowd then out. Maybe its an evolutionary mechanism so we can focus on the problem at hand rather than rejoice in all things wonderful. But it makes life a bitch, as good as memories have to make space for the next pain in the neck item. And what does one gain by loosing sleep? I hope our genes mutate ASAP so we can evolve out of this.



-Act3 : Chennai (P:157)
- 2 States
- Chetan Bhagat


just wanted to point out why human only give so importance to sad parts and tragedies :P

The Looking Glass

Smart Internet search will be able to do with a mobile device in the NEAR future
A mobile device with Touch screen, built in camera, scanner, WiFi, google map (hopefully google earth), google search, image search…

Like this way, when you can see a building through it, it gives you the image search result right on the spot.

Choose a building and touch a floor and it tells you more details of the building. You can use it when you want to know a car model, an insect name, what kind of food is served at a restaurant and how much, who built a bridge, etc. etc.

It's got a scanner built in.


so you can use it this way when you want to check the meaning of a word in the newspaper, book, magazine, etc. It would be much easier to read a real book. You can use the dictionary, wikipedia, thesaurus and anything else available on the web. What do you think.



Indoor guide:Works in a building, airport, station, hospital, etc.


Automatic simultaneous translation: here Latin to English.




Search keyword: Helpful when you want to find out a word from a lot of text in newspaper/book.


Nutrition: This kind of function would be helpful for health freaks..




Getting data of a weather forecast, maybe this might be possible.





well after all that...how about leaving some valuable comments :)
thanx in advance

Novelette : Maximum City

Seventy-five per cent of the country is below the age o twenty five. Sunil is representative of this group-a generation that expects something better than their parents had. If they don't get it, they will be angry. And no family, no country, can withstand the anger. and no family of its young.
It is an exact and precise hell, the life of an unemployed young man in India. For eighteen years you have been brought up as a son; you have been given the best of what your father can afford. In the household, you eat first, then your father, the your mother, the your sister. If there is only so much money in the household your father will do with half cigarettes, your mother wont buy her new sari and your sister will stay home, but you will be sent to school. So when you reach the age of eighteen, you know your worshiped family's expectation behind you. You dare not turn around. You know what is expected of you; you have been witness to all petty humiliation they have suffered to get you to this place, You need to deliver. Your sister is getting married, your mother is sick, and your father will retire next year. It's up to; you carry a heavy burden of guilt from your childhood for having heedlessly taking the best of everything. So when you go out your matriculation certificate or your BA and find there are no jobs. The big companies have stopped hiring or leaving the city altogether, and the small companies with hire only relatives of the people already working, and you family is in Raigad or Bihar and has no influence here-you will look for other ways of making money.
You will look for other ways of assuring your family that their investment wasn't lost, you can take beatings, you can take rejections, but you cant face your family if you don't do your duty as the son. Go out in the morning and come back at night or go out at night come back in daytime if you have to, but take care of the family. You owe it to them, bringing; its your Dharma.



- Powertoni(77-78)
- Maximum City by Suketu mehta

Absurd - Disappearing socks and the supermarket

Tim Harford: a columnist with the Financial Times and also the best-selling author of The Undercover Economist, The Logic of Life and now the Dear Undercover Economist



I stopped wearing socks because I used to keep losing one part of the pair. Why do socks disappear?

Socks disappear. So forget the socks. The problem is when you lose a sock, you basically lose two socks, because they are matching pairs. We need to look at the Industrial Revolution here. One of the main advantages of the Industrial Revolution was something called interchangeable parts. So when a part of the machine breaks down you throw out the broken part, you slot in the new part and the machine starts working again. You don't have to throw away the whole machine. So you need to apply the theory of interchangeable parts to your socks. And make sure all your socks are the same. So if you lose one sock, fine you lose one sock, but you haven't got all this problem of matching odd socks. And when you lose a sock, you only lose one sock, and you don't lose a pair of socks. So that is my advice. You need to just go out there and buy two dozen pairs of identical black socks. And look (points towards his identical black socks). In my suitcase, there are four more identical black socks. At home I have another twenty identical black socks. Every now on then I go and buy more socks from the same shop. I am frightened that one day they will stop making these socks. But, so far, so good.



I am looking for 'the one'. Is she out there?

I will answer this question using my favorite piece of economics research, which is about speed dating. In a speed date, you have got maybe 20 men, 20 women, 20 tables, 20 candles, 20 large glasses of beer and 20 large glasses of wine, because everyone's going to need a drink.
Each man meets a woman for three minutes. They talk to the women for three minutes, which, of course, is a mistake. They should be listening. But they talk. At the end of the date, they move on and they talk to other women. You get to meet everybody at a speed date. Now, a couple of economists — Michele Belot and Marco Franscesconi — have got hold of data on thousands and thousands of speed dates. And also questionnaires that people filled in about their height, weight, income, education etc. All information that we have never had in the past. And we found a lot of fun stuff. Women like tall, rich, well-educated men. Men like slim, educated women who do not smoke. These things were not surprises.


So what were?

One thing that is a surprise is that on a speed date, where all the guys are attractive or rich, you might think that a women might propose more dates because more people meet her standards. That isn't what happens. What happens is that the woman immediately raises her standards, thinking, "Hey I never realised that the speed dating market was so great!" She raises her standards, and proposes very few dates. Conversely, a speed dating evening where all the guys are short, and they were all smokers, not educated, not rich, you might expect that the woman might not propose any date. But instead, the Bridget Jones part of the brain kicks in. She thinks, "I never realised that the dating market was so tough. I have got to propose some dates." And so she lowers her standards.
I know that what I am saying sounds very sexist. But men acted exactly the same way. They raised or lowered their standards depending on the attractiveness of the pool in front.
So what does that mean for the question you have asked? It means that anybody can be 'the one', you just have to compare them with the right people. This is because we don't have fixed standards, that there is this one person, who is the right person for us. Basically, we are moving our standards up and down all the time depending on what is available.
By the way, if you are ever going on a speed date, make sure you take short, ugly friends with you. It's going to increase your chances.


How do I get hold of the shortest queue in the supermarket?

What I suggest is that unless you have the time to really specialist in studying supermarket queues and trying to be smarter than someone else, just get into the queue and don't worry. And, by the way, probably it won't be the fastest one, because you have one queue on this side, one queue on that side, so two to one, you will have a queue next to you that is faster. But that's life. Sometimes we economists have to take a Zen attitude and that's one of those times.



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