Thoughts coupled with facts - Rank 1 [active blog]

Calendar 2012

2012-01-02T14:51:00.001+05:30

2012 has ended, it has been a great year, managed to get some cool sightings and photographs on the herpetology front, my first tiger sighting at 8 – 10 feet away from me, a big getty sale and the new year promises a lot. A collection of my best photographs from 2011 have made it into a calendar for 2012. If you want to buy a copy at printing cost please drop me a mail or a tweet or call me.

Calendar 2012

Wish you a Happy & Prosperous New Year 2012

Cheers,

Monish

New Year 2012

2011-12-31T15:01:00.001+05:30

The story of the Christmas Plum Cake & the XMas Tree

2011-12-31T14:58:00.001+05:30

One of the last few posts of 2011.

The story of the Christmas Plum Cake & the XMas Tree. The Christmas Plum Cake is a.k.a Christmas Rum Cake as I love it overflowing with rum, something on the lines of the liquor filled chocolates.

A Photo Essay on the making of a Christmas Plum Cake and the XMas Tree.

Few sample photographs here – the entire story / photo essay here -

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/12/story-of-christmas-plum-cake-xmas-tree.html

The entire story / photo essay here -

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/12/story-of-christmas-plum-cake-xmas-tree.html

Bangalore Ration Card Online Registration

2011-11-19T10:45:00.001+05:30

Bangalore government has launched the online registration (subject to verification and approval later) for ration cards, it was launched today (my guess).

If you have a ration card, it will help

Ø To obtain a LPG gas connection from the government vendors.

Ø As a Address proof

Process

1) Go to http://ahara.kar.nic.in/ and click on the ‘Click here to apply for new ration card’

2) A 3-4 page form opens up, try filling it up using IE, even if you choose English some fields are in Kannada, use the translate to English feature in Chrome.

3) Some drop downs in Kannada don’t get translated even after using the Chrome feature, for them use http://translate.google.com/ and finally submit it and you can save the acknowledgement that gets generated at the end.

Let’s get the early mover advantage.

Hope it helps.

Monish

ps: Copyright of the pictures belong to the respective owners / websites

pInk cIty & a few hours

2011-10-02T15:08:00.001+05:30

Spend a few hours in Jaipur, here is a short photo essay.

Here is the entire link, http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/10/pink-city.html

It is October 2nd today -

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Agumbe - Rainforest Rendezvous Recurs II

2011-09-16T12:18:00.001+05:30

Completed my annual pilgrimage tour to Agumbe rainforest, here is the link to the photo essay.

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/09/agumbe-rainforest-rendezvous-recurs-ii.html

Would love to hear your comments and critique.

Sample Photographs

Cheers, Monish

Contradictory proverbs:

2011-08-01T11:32:00.001+05:30

Credit to Srikant from my TM Club who compiled this list for one of our TM Sessions.

Contradictory proverbs:

· If at first you don't succeed, try, try again
Don't beat your head against a brick wall

· Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Out of sight, out of mind

· You're never too old to learn
you can't teach an old dog new trick

· Don't judge a book by its cover
Clothes make the man

· Birds of a feather flock together
Opposites attract

· The pen is mightier than the sword
Actions speak louder than words

· The squeaking wheel gets the grease
Silence is golden

· Many hands make light work
Too many cooks spoil the broth

· It's better to be safe than sorry
Nothing ventured, nothing gained

And my mom added to the list :)

Practice makes a man perfect but all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

I call these Indianisms

2011-08-01T11:30:00.001+05:30

A forwarded email on the various Indianisms that we use…

"Do one thing ... take this piece of chalk ..."

We are a unique species, aren’t we? Not humans. Indians, I mean. No other race speaks or spells like we do.

Take greetings for example.

A friendly clerk asking me for my name is apt to start a conversation with, “What is your good name?” As if I hold that sort of information close to my heart and only divulge my evil pseudonym. Bizarre.

I call these Indianisms.

Which got me thinking about a compilation, a greatest hits of the most hilarious Indianisms out there. And here they are. The most common ones, and my favorites among them.

1. 'Passing out'

When you complete your studies at an educational institution, you graduate from that institution.

You do not "pass out" from that institution.

To "pass out" refers to losing consciousness, like after you get too drunk, though I’m not sure how we managed to connect graduating and intoxication.

Oh wait … of course, poor grades throughout the year could lead to a sudden elation on hearing you’ve passed all of your exams, which could lead to you actually "passing out," but this is rare at best.

2. 'Kindly revert'

One common mistake we make is using the word revert to mean reply or respond.

Revert means "to return to a former state."

I can’t help thinking of a sarcastic answer every time this comes up.

“Please revert at the earliest.”

“Sure, I’ll set my biological clock to regress evolutionarily to my original primitive hydrocarbon state at 1 p.m. today."

3. 'Years back'

If it happened in the past, it happened years ago, not "years back."

Given how common this phrase is, I’m guessing the first person who switched "ago" for "back" probably did it years back. See what I mean?

And speaking of "back," asking someone to use the backside entrance sounds so wrong.

“So when did you buy this car?”

“Oh, years back.”

“Cool, can you open the backside? I’d like to get a load in.”

4. 'Doing the needful'

Try to avoid using the phrase "do the needful." It went out of style decades ago, about the time the British left.

Using it today indicates you are a dinosaur, a dinosaur with bad grammar.

You may use the phrase humorously, to poke fun at such archaic speech, or other dinosaurs.

“Will you do the needful?”

“Of course, and I’ll send you a telegram to let you know it's done too.”

5. 'Discuss about'

“What shall we discuss about today?”

“Let’s discuss about politics. We need a fault-ridden topic to mirror our bad grammar.”

You don't "discuss about" something; you just discuss things.

The word "discuss" means to "talk about". There is no reason to insert the word "about" after "discuss."

That would be like saying "talk about about." Which "brings about" me to my next peeve.

6. 'Order for'

"Hey, let’s order for a pizza."

"Sure, and why not raid a library while we’re about it.”

When you order something, you "order" it, you do not "order for" it.

Who knows when or why we began placing random prepositions after verbs?

Perhaps somewhere in our history someone lost a little faith in the "doing" word and added "for" to make sure their order would reach them. They must have been pretty hungry.

7. 'Do one thing'

When someone approaches you with a query, and your reply begins with the phrase "do one thing," you're doing it wrong.

"Do one thing" is a phrase that does not make sense.

It is an Indianism. It is only understood in India. It is not proper English. It is irritating.

There are better ways to begin a reply. And worst of all, any person who starts a sentence with "do one thing" invariably ends up giving you at least five things to do.

“My computer keeps getting hung.”

“Do one thing. Clear your history. Delete your cookies. Defrag your hardrive. Run a virus check. Restart your computer... .”

8. 'Out of station'

“Sorry I can’t talk right now, I’m out of station.”

“What a coincidence, Vijay, I’m in a station right now.”

Another blast from the past, this one, and also, extremely outdated.

What's wrong with "out of town" or "not in Mumbai" or my favorite "I'm not here"?

9. The big sleep

"I’m going to bed now, sleep is coming."

"OK, say hi to it for me."

While a fan of anthropomorphism, I do have my limits. "Sleep is coming" is taking things a bit too far.

Your life isn’t a poem. You don’t have to give body cycles their own personalities.

10. 'Prepone'

“Let’s prepone the meeting from 11 a.m. to 10 a.m.”

Because the opposite of postpone just has to be prepone, right?

"Prepone" is probably the most famous Indianism of all time; one that I’m proud of, and that I actually support as a new entry to all English dictionaries.

Because it makes sense. Because it fills a gap. Because we need it. We’re Indians, damn it. Students of chaos theory.

We don’t have the time to say silly things like "could you please bring the meeting forward."

Prepone it is.

There are many more pure grammatical "gems" in what we call Indian English. Perhaps in time I’ll list some more. And perhaps in the near future, we’ll get better at English.

Till then, kindly adjust.

Jungle Lodges Features Monish Matthias

2011-07-11T15:11:00.001+05:30

Lucky to have Jungle Lodges feature me in their blog and showcase few photographs shot in Bandipur during April this year 2011.

Article - 1

http://www.junglelodges.blogspot.com/2011/07/bandipur-unplanned-getaway-1.html

Article - 2

http://www.junglelodges.blogspot.com/2011/07/bandipur-unplanned-getaway-2.html

The original article with videos on my blog

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/bandipur-unplanned-getaway.html

Have a look and do share your comments,

Cheers,

Monish

Biligiriranga Hills a.k.a BR Hills – 2 Wild Days

2011-07-01T12:27:00.001+05:30

Superb sightings and a peaceful trip to BR Hills, read the journal and view the photographs and videos on my blog.

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/07/biligiriranga-hills-aka-br-hills-2-wild.html

Some samplers of what you can expect :)

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/07/biligiriranga-hills-aka-br-hills-2-wild.html

Bandipur - An Unplanned Getaway

2011-05-31T19:57:00.000+05:30

Had been to Bandipur National Reserve last month and spend the weekend at JLR. Bandipur the land of tigers and other majestic animals.

Here is the entire trip report with photographs and videos, made a video of a Streak Throated Woodpecker Courtship.

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/bandipur-unplanned-getaway.html

Comments and critique are more than welcome.

m.m

[Educational Field Research] If you are a parent or a teacher we just need 5 minutes of your time.

2011-03-14T10:02:00.001+05:30

A few friends are doing a market research for a potential start up, please help.

Can you please fill this up if you are a parent or teacher and forward it on to all your friends.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From:
To:
Sent: Mon, 14 March, 2011 9:25:40
Subject: [Educational Field Research] If you are a parent or a teacher we just need 5 minutes of your time.

Mark Twain once said I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Sir Ken Robinson always maintained that education in many ways dislocates many children from their natural talent.

We need your help for a market survey that's being done to evaluate the quality of field/educational trips conducted by schools for their respective students. We assure you that your five minutes spent here will be well spent towards a goxd change in this area. We thereby request you to fill in the details of your child's excursion trips organized by your child's school. If you have another child please don't think twice open the link again and provide the additional inputs, the more information the merrier.

You could fill this form if you are a parent or if you are a teacher.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop. Mark Twain

Please ask your child if they would like to share what they missed, or what would they have loved to have.

We have already taken 30 seconds of your time, please click on the link below and provide your valuable information (please remember the more you tell us the more you will help us).
Market_Survey_Form_Link
or
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dC1TcjNhSmhUdVU0Ykltc1BsUUtpWlE6MQ#gid=0

PS: Please remember to forward this to all your friends who are either parents or teachers, the more information we have the more effective our analysis can be.

Trust us your few minutes can make a lot of difference in the way your Child sees this World.

Warm Regards,
Market Research Team
(EEE - Educative Exploratory Excursions)

Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read. Someone once said of him: "He doesn't wear socks and forgets to cut his hair. Could be mentally retarded."

Snakes, A Love Story

2011-02-17T12:19:00.002+05:30

Recently had been to a 3 day Herpetology Workshop with Gerry Martin, loved it.

Do visit the link for the trip report and the entire set of photographs – here

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/02/snakes-love-story.html

Naja Naja / Spectacled Cobra

m.m

National Geographic Daily Dozen - Agumbe Vine Snake

2011-02-13T19:08:00.004+05:30

What Exactly is the Nat Geo's - The Daily Dozen?
The explanation on their website says - "Check back weekdays to see the editor's selections. From the Daily Dozen, a selection of photos will be published monthly in National Geographic magazine."

I am sure there are tons of photographs that are submitted everyday under the 'your shot' category and the great editorial team goes through the photographs and have a dozen photographs finalized for each week of the month. I am really glad they selected a photograph of mine shot in August 2010 in Agumbe, very close to the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS), it is a Green Vine Snake - Oxybelis fulgidus.

This photograph featured in the daily dozen of National Geographic for the week -3 of January 2010
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/daily-dozen

So as I share the photograph I thought I must share a few facts collected from several sources on the web and offline.

> A vine snake is a reptile it is about 1.5-2 meters.
> A vine snake is a remarkably slender snake. It is almost the skinniest snake in the world.
> They lie amid the branches of forest trees, and are almost indistinguishable from the abundant creepers and vines.
> They have sharp rear fangs with mild venom. They are slow moving predators, but in the morning they are very active they snack mainly lizards (sometimes baby 'tiny' birds which are alone in the nest).
> Only two species of green snake exist, known commonly as the rough and the smooth green snake. Five subspecies of green snakes exist, and all are distinguishable by their characteristic bright green color that allows them to easily blend into grass and other vegetation, protecting them from predators and even human detection.
> They track prey using their tongues to detect scents of prey and can even capture prey flying through the air. Green snakes of both species hunt during daylight hours and rest at night.
> A vine snake can extend half of its body into midair when crossing a branch.
> Snake’s scales are made up of something called Keratin, which is the same thing that our fingernails are made from.
> Vine snakes are remarkable because they appear to have binocular vision.
>The green vine snake stays high on trees and looks down to the ground. When a mouse, lizard or nest is found the snake follows the prey a short distance and smells it carefully. If the snake is content with it, it bites into the head and lifts the prey 20–40 cm from the ground. With this the snakes prevents the prey from using its physical strength.
> The vine snake has two larger teeth at the back of its mouth; these teeth permit the toxic saliva to penetrate the wounds and to immobilize the prey. Then it is rapidly swallowed. Once the prey is completely in the snakes body, the vine snake searches for a resting place, usually in the highest point of a tree.
> They usually concentrate on a slow moving prey and concentrate on it for as much as 10 - 20 minutes and keep coming lower to the ground towards its prey and suddenly strikes and gets its prey.

Myth: Vine Snakes are commonly found. It is greatly feared and almost always killed when seen. In many areas, it is unwisely believed that Vine Snakes will nip at a person’s eyes and peck them out. In fact when I around 12 - 14 years and I was in my native place Nagercoil a district in Southern India, my cousins and me saw a green vine snake and instantly few people told me to shield my eyes and move away as they would nip at our eyes, I believed it and moved away, now I can only smile at the myth.

The shots:

m.m

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/02/national-geographic-daily-dozen-agumbe.html

PS: Watch out for my article on the herpetology workshop by Gerry Martin with pictures of several kinds of Snakes.

Furs Fins And Feathers Agumbe Article

2011-01-11T10:44:00.003+05:30

Very happy to say that few pictures from my Agumbe Rainforest Expedition with Amogh has been published in the Magazine -'Furs Fins & Feathers' January 2011 Edition. Few quotes attributed to me are also present. Attaching the scanned version of the article, hope you like it.

PDF Document

The Link of the pdf download is here

The entire Agumbe Rainforest Trip Report with pictures and video is here

m.m

Generosity Grace & 2011

2011-01-03T12:27:00.002+05:30

Just encountered a small incident and wanted to share it with you all,

I went and bought an Elaneer-neer version - tender coconut with no coconut version, the vendor was sitting by the road side with a towel on his head to protect himself from the surprisingly scorching heat of Bangalore. He cut one and accidentally spilled a little juice out maybe 20%, I wasn't perturbed and I started drinking the juice. He quickly started cutting another small tender coconut and I noticed that I was the only guy there, he offered it to me and I asked him WHY? he said Sir, by mistake I spilled the juice from the first one and hence cut the second one for you. I was pleasantly surprised by his extremely cultured behavior, by his superior customer engagement skills or must I say as in Management parlance Customer Delight, by his generosity (from a man whose margins are in numbers of coconut inventory held / sold), by his grace. Maybe like in the book alchemist, these are all hidden messages for all of us to grab, adopt, learn & use.

In that note may I wish you all a healthy wealthy prosperous successful joy filled active new year 2011. May we all be generous and filled with grace in all activities that we do.

m.m

IIMB-GMITE-2010

2010-12-22T10:20:00.004+05:30

I am one of those guys who grew up with the notion that good pieces of literature / write ups are rare and it takes a full moon with streaks of light, free flow of liquor, few acres of green well manicured lawns and finally the winds playing the notes of Mozart. With this notion I have been whiling away time without writing about my one year well spent at IIMB. Publishing few decent shots of IIMB has been delayed a lot due to this laziness well masked behind such conjured notions.

A few years back I applied for this executive management program from IIMB called GMITE - General Management Program for IT Executives with full knowledge that I wasn’t passing the experience criteria. I was just wishfully praying that the selection committee get temporary blindness while going over the experience column on my application, but nothing like that happened and my application was rejected. This program is almost similar to an eMBA or executive MBA. The next year again I threw in the application form sitting at a customer location in Godalming, UK and nothing did materialize. The third year not due to any particular interest but more of a habit I dusted & modified my Statement of Purpose and my Job Profile and filled the application form and sent it across. I remember it was Christmas season and I was in Chennai, the year was 2009. I was checking my mails on the mobile browser and voila I had made it through the selection list. Shock & Surprise were the initial reactions followed by joy, happiness and then finally followed by checking my bank balance for the fee aspect. I was sure I was going to be one of the youngest members of the class at around 4+ years of total experience. Told the happy news to my better half, family & friends and was waiting for the first class to begin in January. Went to IIMB to pay the first term fees and was amazed to see the HUGE (make no mistake H U G E) campus, green (really green), beautiful architecture and bang on the ever crowded Bannerghatta Road. First day was orientation, group photograph, and an awesome session on psychology, human mind & the brain, the session was taken by a qualified doctor from UK. Moral of the session other than lots of amazing facts and informative anecdotes was the fact that the brain can take what ever is thrown to it and hence please learn all the subjects that were to follow in the two semesters. A polite and informative way of getting the point across.

The class was a mix of people with varied experience, starting from 3++ to 20+ years of experience. There was representation from about 40+ companies in our batch.

Following were the major subjects that were part of the program:

Course Map (courtesy Sharath)

Most of the subjects were core for business, management & career growth. We struggled to understand few aspects of core subjects from the Finance & Economics domain and had to put in quite a bit of effort.

Companies (courtesy Sharath)

Now just looking at this map of companies, you can visualize what kind of perspective, knowledge and experience the group brings to the table during discussions, informal chats and table topics. Mind blowing array of unique work cultures, best practices etc.

Every Friday my day started at around 6 early morning to wake up, get ready, check the time table and pack my bag and get to college. Breakfast was at college combined with discussions with friends on the week that went by and the class ahead. We also caught up on several interesting discussions on the entrepreneurial aspirations of many and yes, about the assignments as well. Classes began at 8.00 am and the professors would start their wonderful delivery of the subject. The beauty of such top notch colleges stem from none other than the professors and the students. The professors were unbelievably awesome and yes we students were decent too (hope so :P). It was tough during the initial few weeks to get used to sitting long hours at one place and listening to lectures, it was like we were revisiting school after gaining some experience. We also used to have some eventful discussions moderated by the Profs. Then slowly the assignments started, few assignments used to take up weekends and threw my travel schedules out of the window. After class we used to be treated to some soulful food, it was some kind of penance from the college for the day long sessions. After that I used to leave to office.It was quite strange to reach office at 3.00 pm as it was the time people generally leave on Fridays. I used to walk into office amidst a few weird glares from people.

Eventually May came and my birthday went without a big bang as it was also exam time, nights became short, coffee became stronger and my eyes widened. I somehow managed to do decently well in all my papers. A week or two was our holiday break a.k.a summer vacation. We were back to campus and the same schedule started and before we realized we had hit upon the electives. I chose Strategic Marketing and Business Intelligence and had fun. The Final week was hellish and had few friends compare it to the Army Hell Week. We had classes in the morning and exams in the late evening. I travelled around 400 kms in one week, my day used to start at 5:30, used to get ready and reach college and we used to have class from 8 -5 and then exams from 5:30 - 7:30 -- 8:30 and by the time I reached home it used to be 10 and then study for a few hours for the next exam and sleep. Whoa it was fanatical but I really loved and lived up to the challenge.

Last few weeks, a bunch of like minded photographers got together and walked around campus clicking, shooting, and capturing anything that moved & stood still - almost everything. We couldn’t do too much justice to the great campus of IIMB. Anyways I am sharing the pictures below; please do share your comments and critique.

I call this set the

‘Battle between Light & Darkness’
‘The Dance of Light & Shadow’

All the pictures and the video have been shot with a 5 year old P&S Canon S3 IS camera. Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
Monish

Places around Bangalore

2010-12-16T16:17:00.005+05:30

What to do in Bangalore?

What places to visit near Bangalore?

Day trips near Bangalore?

Driving short trips near and around Bangalore?

Several friends usually ask for details relating to outings, day trips, driving short hauls etc, and I had got this attachment as a forward and decided this might be helpful to all.

Download Link

Enjoy the beautiful places, be a clean and responsible traveler, leave the place as you found it.

Source: Internet Forward

m.m

What is your identity?

2010-11-08T14:31:00.002+05:30

What is your identity?

This was a real incident narrated by the HOD of TTS -TamilNadu Theological Seminary - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamilnadu_Theological_Seminary during a sermon at Memorial Church, Whitefield. I found it quite thought provoking and decide to narrate it as a first person account (as if narrated by him).

TTS - HOD: We were staying in Switzerland. We didn't have the midnight service during new year, hence we used to gather in Germany to celebrate, party and welcome the new year. We were a large set of Indians and we were united and felt proud to be identified as Indians - the people belonging to a rising power nation. We used to have a air among us and used to walk with our collars almost out. We used to have fun during these parties and we really bonded well among ourselves. We also unanimously identified ourselves as Indians and felt good about it. Our identity was solely Indian.

However an incident was to happen to change our identity.

A major set of us were to return back to India and we started packing, shopping etc and getting ready to get back home. We all arrived at Frankfurt Airport and we had a Frankfurt - Chennai flight to catch. This is where I noticed a strange pattern emerging out. Everyone in the line started sticking to a particular set of people and slowly sub groups started getting formed. Each sub group was of a particular language, people speaking Hindi stood together, people speaking Tamil stood together, people speaking Malayalam stood together, people speaking Telugu stood together, people speaking Kannada stood together and many more sub groups. This was surprising as in the years before we didn't even know what was the language spoken by others. Slowly every one started taking a new identity - an identity of region, an identity of language.

Throughout the flight it was the same story, the sub groups stuck to each other within the group. We arrived at Chennai and a new pattern started emerging - example the Tamil group was into two groups the Chennai Group and the Group traveling to Madurai, the Kannada group was into two groups the Bangalore Group and the Group traveling to Mangalore. Slowly every one started taking a new identity - an identity of Cities, an identity of Towns.

Eventually we cleared security and had to depart to our respective destinations and ahoy I can identify a new pattern emerging - example the Bangalore group was into two - three groups the Whitefield Group and the Frazer Town Group and the South Bangalore Group. Slowly but surely and definitely every one was taking a new identity - an identity of Areas, an identity of Locations.

Thus this identity that we all identify ourselves are often self imposed, self proclaimed and are always changeable to our convenience. Hence don't be rigid on your identity and have an open identity based out of an open mind.

m.m

Make My Trip - Services Management - An IIMB Casestudy

2010-11-03T16:22:00.002+05:30

A case study prepared by us for a module under the guidance of IIMB Professor Mr. Ashok D. The subject was services marketing.

MakeMyTrip-IIMBCasestudy

Would love your comments and views.

m.m

Blog Action Day – 2010 : Fight for H2O is on!

2010-10-11T10:12:00.002+05:30

October 15 is the day, participate and be part of the change…

http://blogactionday.change.org/register is the link to register your blog and participation.

Couldn't get my creative juices in full speed hence decided to participate by at least posting some water pictures to understand the importance of water.

Agumbe Rainforest Expedition

2010-09-01T16:27:00.003+05:30

Recently went on a photographic expedition to Agumbe Rainforest with Amogavarsha. The entire article and the entire set of pictures and videos can be accessed in the below link.

Comment and critique most welcome.

The link for the article + pictures + videos - Agumbe Rainforest.

m.m

A Bug Called Shutterbug - 2

2010-08-12T10:42:00.002+05:30

Here is the second attempt at making a book, but this time it is a flip book.

Do visit the below link to view the latest book and please provide your comments, critique and feedback.

A Bug Called Shutterbug – 2
Author – Monish Matthias
Type – FlipBook
Pages - 20
Category – Abstract, People, Wildlife, Nature
Date – 10 August 2010

Link to view (best viewed in firefox) the entire book - A Bug Called Shutterbug - 2

If you are using IE - use this link.

The Book download as a PDF can be found here.

PS: The first book link is here.

m.m

Java in 16 days

2010-07-21T10:00:00.005+05:30

Learn Java, Basics of J2EE, Open Source Frameworks etc in under 16 days. A free tutorial with links to good content from Sun Java and with to do exercise.

We (Nagarajan and me) prepared a curriculum for interns fresh from college, freshers and people taking up JAVA as a new programming language.

It is a 16 day learning exercise broken down into smaller chunks of contents to read and understand and a small to do exercise at the end of each learning content.

The link to access the document is here - Java learning Curriculum.

It is similar to a Java tutorial for freshers.

m.m

Coorg / Madikeri Trip

2010-07-17T12:58:00.002+05:30

Have published the pictures and journal of my 3 day trip.

Here is the complete run down and album -
http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2010/07/coorg-madikeri.html

Would love comment and critique.

A small sample of the entire album (3 out of 30+)

m.m

Java File Loading in Web Application

2010-07-13T15:45:00.003+05:30

Different applications, different technologies, different designs, different packaging, different servers, different developers... Everything is different in web applications the loading of files becomes really difficult.

So how does one load files (with relative path / with absolute path) in the project structure in their java code within web applications.

1) Get the real path of the file from ServletContext or HttpServletRequest
ServletContext sc = (ServletContext)context;
sc.getRealPath("temp.txt");

or

HttpServletRequest hsrTemp = (HttpServletRequest)context;
hsrTemp.getRealPath("temp.txt");

2) Try with context path
HttpServletRequest hsrTemp = (HttpServletRequest)context;
File fileTemp = new File(hsrTemp.getContextPath()+"/resources/temp.txt");

3) Input stream - file in classes folder
InputStream inpStrTemp = this.getClass().getResourceAsStream("temp.txt");

4) resource url - file in classes folder
URL urlTemp = this.getClass().getResource("temp.txt");

5) Try this one.....................the magic one :) (all four above failed for me, this worked and yes I wrote it on my own ...)

URL currentClassFolder = TestClass.class.getResource(""); //this gives you the package reference of the test class
String pathFromUrl = currentClassFolder.getPath(); //this gives the actual path
String finalPath = pathFromUrl.substring(0,pathFromUrl.indexOf("WEB-INF/classes/com/test/web/")); //navigate to where ever you want to
finalPath = finalPath.replaceAll("% 20", " "); //command prompt doesn't like % 20'

Hope it helps, if it does - do leave a comment!

m.m

Netgear Wifi + Nortel VPN Issues?

2010-07-12T17:13:00.005+05:30

I was troubled by the long list of issues that I was facing when I used to connect via VPN through wifi, the connection used to be refused and the office help desk would ask me to seek help from the ISP and vice versa.

Finally one day (a week back), I sat down tried to break my head over it and solved it under 2 hours. Quite pleased with the effort.

Issue: Nortel VPN not connecting via wifi router (netgear in my case) but connects via LAN (directly to the modem)

What I did:

You can access your Modem's application as follows
Link - http://192.168.1.1/
Username / password - admin / password (usually but if it doesn't work search in the net for the right one)

Wifi Router
Netgear router
Link - http://www.routerlogin.net
or
http://10.0.0.1/
Username / password - admin / password (usually but if it doesn't work search in the net for the right one) [for the virgin media provided wifi router it is virgin/password]

For the VPN to work

Add port triggering for the following ports 50, 80, 500, 4500, 1701, 1723 under both the Wifi and modem's application.
And then Navigate to the wan setup under the wifi router's application and
check the Disable SPI Firewall.

Restart the modem and your system and connect to VPN and voila you connect and if it works drop a comment :)

m.m

Hassled by Traffic & Their Guardians!

2010-06-19T18:11:00.003+05:30

Every commuter yes the same citizen of India (Consumer is king???) has a daily dose of hassle commuting from East Bangalore - the silicon hub of Bangalore a.k.a Whitefield side to South Bangalore. Adding to the irritation is the honking noise, the dust pollution from the construction debris. If it is the English / British tradition to never let a conversation end without referring to the weather, we @ Bangalore never end a day without quoting the great trouble that we face in the form of traffic jams.

Trapped like a bee

Last two day's the traffic jam's have behaved decently but not their guardians, the nice trendy guys with their blackberries and ever itching fingers to print out a ticket for some violation or the other. These guardians wear the color of peace - white neat uniforms but are hellbent upon creating violence by booking each one they meet under some section or the other. Yes the world is competitive and they have their monthly targets as well!!

Case 1 - Friday
Every commuter knows Bellandur, Agara, SILKBOARD (minimum 15 - 30 minutes) have regular bottlenecks so what does one do?? drive at a decent speed where ever the road is free and where one can drive freely, basically this is common sense. I followed the same logic and was driving at a decent speed on the outer ring road near the More - Mega store, EMC2 office, suddenly I was flagged off the road by an army of traffic cops say about 6 - 8 cops, I went for about 300 metres (though I was so far away didn't have the smallest temptation of running away due to the respect for cops), stopped, parked my bike and got of. A nice young junior cop came and spoke to me in crisp English and asked me why I was cruising at a place where the speed limit was 50 KMs. I asked out of sheer surprise 50 KMs / hr in a 6 lane road with two service roads which makes it almost an 8 lane road. He said yes sir this is a BBMP blah blah blah, I went to the senior person and asked him boss this is unfair etc. etc.. but I am sensible enough to understand a 'stupid' rule has been broken and I cough up RS 300 and get the receipt.

Pros
1) Not once was corruption evident with the young police force.
2) Professional equipment to print the ticket and receipt system.

Cons + questions from few fellow commuters
1) Another commuter who was held up asked the cop "What are you doing in such vacant roads when we really need your clearly over sized team in places where we suffer everyday from traffic jams" - He got no reply - sad!
2) Another commuter asked - "What is your target for today, and what is your monthly target?" - The answer was a blank and fallen face - very sad!
3) My question is - "When you fine us for over speeding, CAN WE FINE YOU & YOUR DEPT FOR under-speeding caused every day in many long stretches? Our average speed would be a mere 0 - 10 kms/hr.
4) Need to have some limits.. one guy was 5 KM over the limit and was fined, anyone heard of something called common sense??

Case 2 - Saturday
Was happily house hunting in Whitefield. Near the hope farm circle (while coming from ITPL), wanted to take the 'U' turn. Apparently there is a board there says no 'U' turn allowed. I turned my indicator to turn and stood there, there were many cops there again beaming their blackberries proudly. [Lets remember that if I wanted to break a rule, I wouldn't dare to do it in front of cops, thats common sense] This junior cop, a slightly aged gentleman from the other side calls me to come, I was wondering why? At this point I was only standing in the intersection and had not violated any rule in the rule book, he calls me so I gently move to the other side and he says you have violated the U turn rule. I completely lost my cool and now lost all my respect for these cops. If he was genuine he would have told me there is no U turn - (i.e) when I was standing at the intersection wondering where I need to go. He called me to the other side, made me violate a rule and fined me. I got off my vehicle went to the senior cop and explained that I am from South Bangalore and not familiar with the routes in this part of town and that the other cop made me violate the rule by calling rather ordering me to cross the road. I spoke in what ever Kannada I knew and filled the gaps with Tamil, Hindi and English. I explained my issue, he was hellbent upon typing in his new blackberry, I started losing my cool, people around the place noticed how these guys were cheating me. I told them in a clear loud voice that they were cheating me and committing something very wrong. But I guess it was equivalent to the effect of rain falling on a fat buffalo. He printed a slip, I paid the fine, threw the sheet down in disgust and walked away clearly ashamed of the apathy that these guys exhibit. As I start my vehicle I can hear him speaking in the local language saying "The next time you meet policemen, talk less" YES RIGHT, next time I will fold my hands, greet you with a namastey, serve some snacks and juice and then stay bowed and speak to you, cause you have the so called "powers". The cop's name is "Rajanna" near Hope Farm Circle. If you haven't guessed I was fuming at the end of all this and made it very clear to the senior guy that I wasn't amused or happy by the whole experience.

Pros
1) NONE what so ever

Cons + questions from few fellow commuters
1) Stupidity
2) Lack of common sense
3) Misuse of power
4) Cheating
5) Can't speak or understand English
6) Not to help or educate the common man / citizen

Anyways at the end I do agree there are tons of awesome cops who make our life simply great, hats off to you guys and a big thank you.

m.m

Is there a correlation?

2010-06-18T12:35:00.003+05:30

Don't know if this is the effect of reading "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything". It is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner.

Case 1 - I have noticed this general scenario in India which includes me as well - Save more, Spend less - Save more for a happy future even if it means being Frugal now. The quote 'Save for a Rainy Day' is so commonly used in most of the households.

Case 2 - I have noticed many friends & other people (am guilty as well) - while eating a good meal we keep our favorite dish say fried chicken or a sweet dish for eating it at the end of the meal, we finish all the relatively ordinary dishes and then leisurely eat the relatively superior or tastier or favored dish.

Are case 1 & case 2 related? Do they have any vague correlation?

If I were to become the rogue economist and get into the shoes of Levitt or Dubner, I would say the following.

Analysis of Case 1 - yes the mindset in few countries are heavily biased over saving and not spending, it means you forgo certain pleasures of life at the peak of your health & early age and keep saving up for the future when you might not be able to utilize it to the maximum possible fun & happiness.

Analysis of Case 2 - yes the mindset in few countries are heavily biased over saving your best assets and not wasting / spending / using it rashly (or fast) [almost works on a principle of conservative rationing], it means you forgo tasting the best dish when you were really hungry (& could eat more) and keeping it for later times thinking you can enjoy it leisurely but the reality is by then your stomach is quite full and you end up just stuffing yourself and not relishing it.

Now do you get the correlation? There is a strong invisible mindset within most of us which influences most of our actions. Conclusion: The two cases have been proved to have a link.

"I always feel sorry for people who think more about a rainy day ahead than sunshine today." - Rae Foley

m.m

Attrition Management - An IIMB Casestudy

2010-05-08T11:11:00.004+05:30

Attrition Management & Analysis

A case study prepared by us for a module under the guidance of IIMB Professor Mr. Narendra Agarwal. It also contains details of a live survey collected among a diverse audience across the IT sector.

Exciting Contents Inside the PPT
Abstract
Basic Definitions
Pictorial Definition
Case Study Definition
Introduction
Organization Chart
Scenario
Scenario Analysis
Summary of the ‘Live Industry Survey’
Snapshot of ‘Live Industry Survey’
Decipher data from the ‘Live Industry Survey’
Comments from the Participants of the Survey
Charts and Diagrams
Survey Result Analysis
Closing Note

The Link – PPT

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B5tFapIDbb_gYTEwMzM3YjktZTUzYy00NzU5LWFjMzgtMGE3OGQ3ZTBlM2Jk&hl=en

Would love your comments and views.

m.m

My learning's on KM

2010-05-05T14:09:00.002+05:30

My learning's from the Assignment Creating An Organizational Culture for Knowledge Management at IIMB are as follows,

1) Learn't from the article on how to create a culture and environment conducive for Knowledge Sharing.
2) Also learn't the importance & power of Knowledge Management where available knowledge is sieved and reused.
3) Understood the role of Knowledge Management in increasing productivity and the power of harnessing the implicit and explicit knowledge within the organization.
4) Before the assignment I didn't see Knowledge Management in a bigger picture, I was seeing it in bits and pieces and as mere applications.
5) After the assignment I am able to appreciate that the various modules / applications of Knowledge Management co exist and works harmoniously as the spokes of a wheel and that each are needed for smooth running of the Knowledge Management Initiative.
6) Apart from the 90, 270, 360, 720 feedback systems, the real need is to have open loop feedback systems and not closed loop feedback systems.
7) Also learnt that the Knowledge Management must evolve as fast as technology advances like having e-learning systems, wiki, discussion threads etc.
8) Also learnt good usable content management systems need to be in place for people to use them effectively.
9) Also learnt the difference between Proactive learning and Adaptive learning.
10) Understood Knowledge Management is the collection of processes that promotes the creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge. Learnt this from the article by Brian (Bo)Newman.

11) Understood creating a KM culture or environment means - creation of supportive organizational structures, facilitation of organizational members, putting IT-instruments with emphasis on teamwork and diffusion of knowledge (as e.g. groupware) into place. Learnt this from the article by Thomas Bertels.
12) Knowledge has started been treated as a resource by itself.
13) Learnt about the following sub modules Knowledge Analysis (KA), Knowledge Planning (KP), Knowledge Technology (KT), Computer Supported Work Systems (CSWS).
14) Knowledge management complements and enhances other organizational initiatives such as total quality management (TQM), business process re-engineering (BPR) and organizational learning, providing a new and urgent focus to sustain competitive position.
15) KM is used to serve customers well and to remain in business companies must: reduce their cycle times, operate with minimum fixed assets and overhead (people, inventory and facilities), shorten product development time, improve customer service, empower employees, innovate and deliver high quality products, enhance flexibility and adaption, capture information, create knowledge, share and learn. KM proves as a framework promoting all these initiatives.
16) KM implementation should not be blind, it should be - Develop and monitor the value proposition, Secure top management commitment, sponsorship, and leadership, Create business unit knowledge sharing performance measures, Develop an implementation and migration strategy, Define knowledge sharing processes, Define knowledge sharing roles and responsibilities, Define requirements for involvement, Create and implement a communication plan,Develop and deliver a training program, Address incentive issues, Develop proper user support, Model system design on work processes, Investigate traditional methods as well as emerging technologies, Establish a standardised knowledge management architecture, Define operations standards.
17) Knowledge Communities or COP - Communities of practice are very useful.
18) The barriers of KM are Mindset, Concepts breathing life, Operational issues, Incentive based issues.

m.m

Rock Agama - Part 2

2010-05-01T22:09:00.003+05:30

My interest in this species started off a few months back when I was walking near a empty plot in JP Nagar 7th Phase, I spotted the colorful male and a few days later spotted the beautiful black and white female. This pair remained elusive for a couple of weeks and finally I could spot them and photograph them.

I usually commute to office via Kannakapura road and then through the Thurahalli range. Once while returning back home, I decided to take a deviation away from my usual route to do a bit of birding. In this route suddenly I saw a couple of lizards and rock agama’s basking in the sun.

For more read here - http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2010/05/rock-agama-part-2.html

A snapshot of pictures, the complete 2 - 3 weeks of tracking is in the above link.

m.m

React or Respond ?

2010-04-28T11:38:00.004+05:30

I don't know if this is a reaction or a response to the forwarded email that I got today.

The email content screamed - "An intelligent person responds; a fool reacts." Now it was my turn to check if I was a fool, if I react or respond.

English Meaning
React: Show a response or a reaction to something;Act against or in opposition to
Respond: Show a response or a reaction to something;React verbally;Respond favorably or as hoped

When the meaning is so very similar in fact they are synonyms what is the main difference, the key lies right above in their meanings.

Do take note of the key words against & favorably - this is the key differentiator between the two words.

React means you are against something and you are giving out something not favorable to the other party. Well when I think of myself I can relate to myself reacting many a times and responding many a times. I react when I get offended, when I am upset, when I am hurt. I respond when I am normal, when I am happy, when things are going smooth. I would say it is human nature to align oneself towards this behavior. Can't term one as a fool or intelligent. But having said that am sure a more stable and mature individual will have a very high percentage of response rates rather than react back rates.

Anyways here is the forwarded mail, decent read, read and learn. [Click to look at the bigger, clear image]

I guess I choose to respond and not react.

Cheers,

m.m

A Wonderful Read

2010-04-13T10:07:00.001+05:30

Managing without Managers by Ricardo Semler from HBR.

Wonderful read don't miss it, - http://www.schneede.se/assets/files/Ricardo_Semler.pdf

m.m

Types of Innovation & Org Structures

2010-04-11T13:01:00.002+05:30

Some pointers from The Ambidextrous Organization by Charles A & Michael L T – HBR

Some examples discussed – Kodak, Boeing, USAToday.com, Ciba Vision.

Types of Innovation

1) Incremental Innovations – Small improvements in existing Products and Operations.

2) Architectural Innovations – Technological or Process advances to fundamentally change a component of element of the business.

3) Discontinuous Innovations – Radical advances / breakthroughs that my change / alter the basis for competition in an industry.

Team / Org Structures

1) Functional Designs – Integrate project teams into the existing org and mgt structure. Ex – mfg, sales and R&D reports to a GM.

2) Cross functional teams – Operate within the established org but outside the existing mgt structure. Ex – mfg, sales and R&D reports to a GM, but a separate unit called emerging business cuts across mfg and r&d report to the respective unit.

3) Unsupported teams – are setup outside the established org and mgt structure. Ex – mfg, sales and R&D reports to a GM, but a separate unit called emerging business also reports to the GM.

4) Ambidextrous Organizations – Establish project teams that are structurally independent units each having its own processes, structures, cultures but are integrated into the existing mgt structure. Ex – mfg, sales and R&D reports to a GM under the division existing business, but a separate unit called emerging business which also has mfg, sales and R&D reports to the GM.

The difference in many are the path that they choose,

1) Exploitative Business

2) Exploratory Business

Their difference would lie in the factors – Strategic intent, Critical tasks, Competencies, Structure, Controls, Rewards, Culture, Leadership roles.

m.m

Types of degree feedback

2010-04-10T13:44:00.002+05:30

I have till date only heard of the 360 degree feedback.

The types of feedback are

1) 90 Degree Feedback – Collect data only from the leadership team of the division.

2) 360 Degree Feedback - Collect data not only from the leadership team of the division but also from multiple groups and multiple levels.

3) 720 Degree Feedback - Collect data not only from the leadership team of the division but also from multiple groups and multiple levels and the difference being data is collected from the external agency, customers etc.

m.m

Capitalizing On Capabilities - pointers

2010-04-10T13:30:00.002+05:30

Capitalizing On Capabilities by Dave Ulrich & Norm Smallwood from the HBR spotlight.

The article speaks of the most admired companies like GE, Starbucks, Microsoft etc but a layman doesn’t know what transpires behind the screen, the number of leaders, their structure to success etc…

I will try listing some key points

* All specific organizational capabilities are called key intangible assets. They are difficult to measure. [That is why there is a clear difference in evaluation of startups in the same space, some might be generating more revenue but valued lower as the other has some great leaders and potential – Ex – Delta vs. JetBlue]

* In a unit these 4 are the main factors, Individuals Competence, Individuals Leadership, Organizations core competencies and Organizations capabilities (includes DNA, culture and personality).

The main 11 traits that are looked for are

1) Talent – Competent employees have the skills for today's and tomorrows business. The functions here are buy – acquire new talent, build – develop existing talent, borrow – get talent through networks and leaders, bounce – remove poor performers and bind – retain the best talent. The must is that good employees must get the best.

2) Speed – How fast can the company adapt to new opportunities and existing changes in the environment, ROTI – return on time invested index must be maintained and used.

3) Shared mindset and coherent brand identity – Get a consensus from your employees and customers on what they want to remember you as. Example – ask them what are the top three things they want to remember the company as? Good companies are in the range of 80 – 90 %

4) Accountability – Performance accountability needs to be firm and in place. Instead of giving an average of 3 – 4 % across the board ensure you give 0 – 12 % depending on the performance and the work done.

5) Collaboration – A organization needs to collaborate across projects, divisions, units etc.It also promotes huge savings.

6) Learning – Benchmarking, experimentation, competence acquisition, and continuous improvement are key factors. Also letting go of old practices and adopting new ones are important.

7) Leadership – The pride for a organization must come from the number of leaders / CEO’s they create and the number of back up leaders that they have. Example: Ex McKinsey employees take pride from the no of CEO’s they create from their alumni.19 former GE stars added a collective 24.5 $ billion to their organizations after joining.

8) Customer Connectivity – As usually one would like to have 20% of customer account for 80 % of profits, the ability to connect with the customer is valued very much.

9) Strategic unity – The three levels are Intellectual, Behavioral and Procedural.

10) Innovation – It excites employees, delights customers and gives confidence to investors.

11) Efficiency – It is the easiest capability to track.

Capabilities Audit – can be done by running through the 11 pointers in each unit, or the business as a whole. The PDF link provides detailed information on how to complete the audit.

Maximizing your capabilities

For the complete article go through the following link.

http://info.psu.edu.sa/psu/fnm/asalleh/Capabilities.pdf

m.m

Startup Saturday March 13 2010

2010-03-17T20:46:00.002+05:30

Attended the startup Saturday in IIMB on March 13th 2010. Got to see a demo from Just Books and Ookull.

Also got to attend a presentation on "5 things that a seed / angel investor is looking for in your venture" by Indus from themorpheus.

The five points are

1) Team
2) Market size
3) Product and POC
4) Secret sauce (the wow factor)
5) Growth path and exit (from a VC / angel investor perspective)

http://www.slideshare.net/indus/5-things-a-seed-stage-investor-is-looking-for-in-your-venture

The applications are open for this year till March 25th 2010.

m.m

My first photography journal - Rock Agama

2010-03-17T20:35:00.001+05:30

From my photography website journal
http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2010/03/rock-agama.html

An agama is any one of the various small, long-tailed, insect-eating lizards of the genus Agama. Agamas originally lived in forest and bush across Africa, but have since adapted to live in villages and compounds where their habitat has been cleared. They live inside the thatch of huts and other small spaces, emerging only to feed. If caught out in the open, agamas are able to run quickly on their hind legs to reach shelter. Most agamas are polygamous. Males may hold six or more females in their territory for breeding. During courtship, the male bobs his head to impress the female. Occasionally, females initiate courtship by offering their hindquarters to the male and then running until he is able to catch up. The breeding season is typically March-May with eggs being laid in June-September during the season after the rains. Eggs are laid in clutches of up to twelve.

Courtesy & more info

The most interesting fact is many people keep these as pets as well (am sure not in India).

Males of the African species reach over a foot (30 cm) long and sport bright orange, blue and brown colors. Sexual success determines the intensity of colors. For the prize of a harem of females, males fight one another sideways blows of their tails. The winners are always startlingly bright but the defeated males turn out a dull grey, similar to the females. Many of the actions of males fighting are also seen during male mating behavior. When a female first approaches a male will bob his head and show his bright throat, as he does when first challenged by a male. If the female is receptive the pair move closer together and mate. Females lay between 3 and 10 eggs. Changes in color also occur if the male is stressed or threatened. A color usually not visible might be flashed by some species, such as the African agama which turns to face an intruder and opens its mouth to expose the brilliant orange inside. More info

Basking occurs mainly in the morning between ten and noon (a good time for photography I shot it at 1:30), agama is a sit and wait predator. The agama that I spotted was about two compounds away from my house in South Bangalore, I spotted the bright and flashy male and also the almost black, white and brown female. I ran back home to get the camera and I shot a few pictures of the male but before I could get a few shots of the female, she disappeared. The informal names are Peninsular Rock Agama and South Indian Rock Agama, the real name is Psammophilus dorsalis. I have also heard that the Blanford's Rock Agama Psammophilus blanfordanus is found in India (Bihar, Orissa, Central Provinces, Eastern Ghats, Travancore south to Trivandrum) - Hope I can get a good glimpse of the female as well.

Also this is my first journal entry. Thanks to Kalyan Varma for helping me to identify this species.

Time for some pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/4437012417/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/4436997545/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/4437772508/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/4436995615/

m.m

Compost your kitchen wastes at home and produce free manure

2010-03-09T11:35:00.002+05:30

The title could have been “be a miser and make your own manure”.

I am one of those vague self proclaimed naturalists, green activist asking people at home and outside to switch lights and fans off when they are not needed even if it’s for a mini macro nano second. I ensure CFL’s are used instead of bulbs and tube lights, even at the cost of reading in dim light (kidding there are real bright cfl’s). I ensure I give the dirty stare to drivers of polluting vehicles at the cost of them looking back at me with the same look that they would give to a stray dog. That’s the risk of belonging to the rare pedigree of these self proclaimed saintly beings. Before I forget I also relocate many earthworms that get their gps bearings wrong and enter the concrete jungle called human civilization, I will soon try to break the no of centuries that Sachin has hit in his international career.

I see the kitchen wastes going to the bin every day and my ‘sleeping inner do good’ component wakes up and says I will make sure I am going to reduce global warming. My rationale behind that statement was not that I will stop cows worldwide from belching or f**ting, but that these vegetable wastes would end up in a landfill, decompose and release CH₄ (methane if CH₄ isn’t methane please scream at the educational system: watch 3 idiots movie) and increase the temperature. I go searching for a container for making compost and end up buying a bucket with a lid (thanks goodness for the lid). I come and ask the head of the kitchen a.k.a my wife to keep a separate bag and fill it with the cooking, vegetable and edible waste regularly and in return I get this look which in plain English means “oh no not again, you and your crazy antics when will you ever stop doing all this and bothering others”. Then slowly my bucket starts getting filled up but also with that complaints start flowing from my neighbors that the smell is too good and needs to be relocated immediately (so that others can get lucky and experience the heavenly smell). Strangely the dogs in my neighborhood have been avoiding roaming anywhere close to the vicinity and even if they have the guts to get close they have this curious look not knowing what’s wrong (guys didn’t I surprise you for all the peeing that you do on the gate post/pillar). Time for the James Bond secret arsenal - the lid, close it with such ferocity that the buckets vibrates exactly two times - odour under control operation back on track. Now I wait and wait for more than 4-5 weeks see that the waste is very slowly disintegrating into unrecognizable forms which is good but is giving out too much water, time for the internet and google “how to make compost at home” and the search returns 3,210,000 pages enough to last a life time’s of good read.

There are two types of aeration that is needed, one open and one closed, you will need closed ones for home waste due to the smell that is generated. The excess water that is generated can be absorbed by shredding newspaper into small bits and throwing them into the bucket. You can also add some excess soil, mud of sand to aid in the entire process. And if you have access to saw dust it is very good for absorbing water.

Did all of this and finally attended a green stall and bought something called compost accelerator (http://www.dailydump.org/ ) which accelerates the entire process.
Now I wait patiently for the waste to turn into a sludgy compost and then start using it in my garden and get some nice tasty organic pesticide free veggies.

Till then it is Monish signing off and planning for my next green project. Any tips and advice is not welcomed but free manure …YES!

Some useful links
What? http://www.dailydump.org/composting
Why? http://www.dailydump.org/why
How? http://www.dailydump.org/how

m.m

Static Code Analysis Tool – Find Bugs Tutorial

2010-03-04T12:05:00.008+05:30

A quick two minute tutorial with sample code to get you started on Static Code Analysis Tool – Find Bugs.

What is it?

FindBugs is an open source program created by William Pugh which looks for bugs in Java code. It uses static analysis to identify hundreds of different potential types of errors in Java programs. FindBugs operates on Java bytecode,rather than source code. The software is distributed as a stand-alone GUI application. There are also plug-ins available for Eclipse, Netbeans, and IntelliJ IDEA

Official Website?

http://findbugs.sourceforge.net/

How to Install the Eclipse Plugin?

http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse/

Demo & FAQ?

http://findbugs.sourceforge.net/demo.html / http://findbugs.sourceforge.net/FAQ.html

How does it work and how to use it?

a) After you install the eclipse plugin, restart eclipse.

b) Go to Window –> Show view –> other and select the find bug options available.

c) Open – perspective – Findbugs [Window –> open perspective–> findbugs]

c) Create a potential test class (with some obvious issues) like the following,

d) Initiate the find bugs by doing the following.

e) Now the errors get listed based on Project – Type – Package – Class – Priority – Category – Error – Location

f) Now you try to correct them :)

Final Verdict – I am able to find several small but nevertheless ISSUES in existing code, so I would say it is a must use tool and yes it is free WHY NOT?

m.m

ITALY – Solo Traveler

2010-02-28T13:33:00.003+05:30

Period: November – December 2008 (7 days)

Solo traveler traveled through Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice & Burano Islands.

Italy pictures are out...critique and comments would help...

www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/

www.captivecaptures.blogspot.com/

m.m

JAVA Writer

2010-02-01T16:54:00.005+05:30

Feels nice to have a couple of my technical articles featured on JAVA Beat website.

http://www.javabeat.net/authors/Monish/

http://www.javabeat.net/tips/193-javalangoutofmemoryerror-permgen-space.html

http://www.javabeat.net/tips/192-javalangoutofmemoryerror-java-heap-space.html

Do add some feedback if you like the articles.

Update 8/2/10 - http://www.javabeat.net/tips/194-job-schedulers-unix.html

Update 5/3/10 - http://www.javabeat.net/tips/195-static-code-analysis-tool-firebugs.html (it is actually findbugs and not firebugs)

m.m

House boats in Gods Own Country

2010-01-30T15:05:00.003+05:30

Kerala is better known as gods own country.

The search for a house boat is tough, add to it the several 100's of google search results the equation just got tougher, add to it the several different branding that each company promotes their offering with the equation seems to be getting out of hand, add to it the facilities provided by different companies, add to it the various reviews on the net and you would had gifted yourself a big problem that most of the super computers would find hard to crack.

Coming to the search of house boats, I am going to add my experiences booking a house boat and am yet to experience the final outcome. Infact my study has ticked off a few travel agencies in kerala and my cubicle mate even went to the extent of saying that I could take this up as a PHd Study.

Usual timing
Pick up 12 in the morning and drop 9 on the next day

Routes
I was looking at the Alleppy, Kumarakom routes.

What I learnt
People say Kumarakom - Kumarakom route has wide lakes( breadth) so you would be in the middle of the lake just seeing vast shorelines lined with coconut trees.
Kumarakom - Alleppey - You would see the vast shorelines in the day time and the narrow shores and canals by the night or by the morning.
Hence I decided to do the Alleppey - Kumarakom - see the narrow canals and pass through villages by the morning and then land up in Kumarakom next day morning. Am sure the sunrise would be cool in the vast shorelines.

Rating of boats by the Government
1) Platinum or green
2) Gold
3) Silver

Rating of boats by Boat companies
1) Premium / Super Deluxe / AC 24 hrs
2) Deluxe / AC Night time
3) Normal / Non AC

If you are going with a family category 2 from each group would be good, if you are friends and don't mind slightly lower luxury go for 3).

Common Facilities
1) 2-3 Men (cook, pilot and one maybe for security)
2) Attached toilets
3) Lunch - Non veg
4) Evening tiffin and Tea
5) Dinner - Non veg
6) Breakfast

Types and capacity of boats
1) 1 Bed room smallest
2) 1-5 bedroom range

Usual modus operandi
They pick you up at say Alleppey at 12 then lunch shortly and then they set sail, you can ask them to stop at places of interest and then around 5 - 5: 30 they set anchor and start to park their boat close to the shore (the government of Kerala doesn't allow tourist activity in the waters after 6 so that the tourist activity doesn't affect the fishermen). You can go around and then get back. Dinner is served...time to sleep....wake up for a beautiful sunrise...breakfast....travel and get off at Kumarakom.

Best Rates to Expect - (for a 1 bedroom house boat)
1) Premium / Super Deluxe / AC 24 hrs - 8000 - 15000 INR
2) Deluxe / AC Night time - 5500 - 8000 INR
3) Normal / Non AC - 4000 - 5000 INR

Few companies (disclaimer am not promoting any of these companies, please choose at your own risk)
Reference site
http://www.karmakerala.com/kerala-hotels/kerala-houseboats/houseboat-companies.html

http://www.pulickattil.com/packages.html
8500/- per night for Alleppey- Alleppey. ( A/c will be switch on 7pm to 6am only)
For Kumarrakom - alleppey charging extra Rs.500/- on the above rate.

http://www.riverandcountry.com/
one bedroom Dlx Ac houseboat for Kumarakom - Alleppey overnight cruise during February will be Rs.8,000.00

http://www.welcomecruise.com

http://www.peacockholidays.com
AC Gold Star Houseboat (01 Bed Room) : Rs.7000 /Couple (they use http://www.cheravallyhouseboats.com)

http://www.kumarakomhouseboat.com
15000

http://www.rainbowcruises.in
Rate : A/C Deluxe – Alleppey - Alleppey: Rs. 8000 + 2.58 % service tax = 8206/- nett
A/C Premium: Rs. 9500 + 2.58 % service tax = 9745/- nett
Non A/C Deluxe: Rs. 6500 + 2.58 % service tax = 6668/- nett

http://somahouseboats.com

http://www.cghearth.com/spice_coast_cruises/index.htm#
The per day rate will be Rs. 21650/- per night

http://www.evergreen-kerala.com
Rs.7, 000/- Net. It is a golden category House Boat conforming to the specifications of Tourism Department. It is a Deluxe AC, Golden Category one.

http://www.guardianhouseboat.com/index.html
Type of booking; 01Bed A/C House Boat House Boat Cost ; 6000/

http://www.lakelandscruise.com - 1
Super luxury(Equivalent to GOLD) Rs.12500/-
Luxury Rs.10500/-
Deluxe Rs.8500/- (two months early booking got me this for a rate of 6.5)

http://www.lakeslagoons.com

http://www.chrisoncruise.com
6000

http://www.marvelcruise.com/

http://www.keralahouseboatvoyages.com/index.html

http://www.atdcalleppey.com/index.html
One is a/c deluxe Houseboat The rate will be Rs.9000 + 15 % tax we can offer a special rate Rs.6500/-
Another one is Premium Category Houseboat The rate will be Rs 13,000 + 15 % tax We can offer a special rate Rs.10,000/-

http://www.cheravallyhouseboats.com
7000

Nanni Houseboats
A/c silver category houseboat: 9500 ( A/c works only during the night )
A/C gold category houseboat : 11500 ( A/C works full time )

Desiretours
5800 ac deluxe boat

Green Palace
Net rate : Rs. 9000.00

INDRAPRASTHAM CRUISE
Our best Reta one bed room A/c house boat Rs 6000/-with all meals deluxe boat.

My recommendations (based on my interactions by email and their official correspondences and websites and reviews from the net) (again disclaimer - pls check for yourself, am not responsible for anything)
1) http://www.lakelandscruise.com
2) http://www.kumarakomhouseboat.com
3) http://www.peacockholidays.com

Kerala is a lovely place to visit, here are some Wayanad Pictures.

PS: All this research for my visit to Kottayam during Naveen's Wedding, happy wedding mate and cheers for a great married life ahead.

m.m

My Dream Campaigns

2010-01-30T14:34:00.002+05:30

I have had a few revolutionary campaigns brewing up in my mind rather I could say in my heart.

"Campaigns are successful even if they can get a few people read the entire idea" - mm

RR Campaign - RETURN the RUBBISH

How many of us have seen people from buses, car's, auto's throw trash or rubbish outside and just move on. And when you overtake them and look inside you will see that they are stylish, educated (yet moronic) (if you strain your nostrils you can smell their cheap perfume / deo)

This campaign aims to return the rubbish back to them, out comes a cup from the window, pick it up and hand it over to them...trust me you would have just reformed a habitual offender.

VV Campaign - VOICE to the VIOLATOR

How many of us have seen vehicle owners show utter disregard to the traffic rules, they look around to spot if there are cops and then vroom speed away with little regard to the traffic lights and people either crossing or vehicles coming dutifully obeying the rules. Again here there is a healthy competition between the literate and illiterate.

This campaign aims to honk your horn or raise your voice when ever you see someone trying to violate the rules... this treatment takes a time to treat the offender, but be the catalyst to start this chain reaction.

And yes there is a saying "Be the change that you want to see in others"

Hope we from the blogosphere can get these campaigns see the light of the day and make life peaceful for fellow human beings.

Be the guiding light / guiding force!

m.m

Art of Seeing - The Magical Light

2010-01-30T10:46:00.002+05:30

HESARAGHATTA WORKSHOP

Art of Seeing - The Magical Light with Mahesh Bhat.

Wide barren grasslands, sun blazing away, huge birds of prey, 8 photographers pounding the 300 acre land. A result of the 2 day workshop with Mahesh Bhat at Hesaraghatta.

Please click on the picture or link below.

link

Would love to have your comment and critique.

m.m

Photographic Expedition

2010-01-18T22:03:00.005+05:30

Recently had been on a 4 day wildlife workshop with Kalyan Varma, here is my meager collection. Though I wanted to write a minute by minute scale up of the entire expedition, I figured out that it was going to be a tough job recreating the fun, joy & excitement that we had during the 4 days hence I decided that the pictures were self explanatory.

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2010/01/rainforest-expedition.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/collections/72157623089758457/

Comment and critique would be great.

m.m

List of sightings and calls as identified by Dr Muthu from our team.

My sightings and clear identification stood at a record number 70 (all put together)

Valparai Rain forest expedition 8 – 11 january 2010

Birds List

1. Thickbilled Flowerpecker

2. Chloropsis

3. Whitebrowed bulbul

4. Purple rumped Sunbird

5. Block Drongo

6. Whitebellied drongo

7. Greater Coucal

8. Brahminy Kite

9. Osprey

10. Common Flameback Woodpecker

11. Yellow browed Bulbul

12. Common Iora

13. White Cheeked Bulbul

14. Common tailorbird

15. Scarlet Minivet

16. RedWhiskered bulbul

17. Green Bee eater

18. Red rumped swallow

19. Pacific swallow

20. Jungle babbler

21. Oriental honey Buzzard

22. Grey Wagtail

23. Pied bushchat

24. Common Mynah

25. Ruby throated bulbul

26. Long tailed Shrike

27. Hill Mynah

28. Mountain Imperial pigeon

29. Black Bulbul

30. Great Hornbill

31. Jungle mynah

32. Spotted dove

33. Golden oriole

34. Magpie robin

35. Chestnut tailed starling

36. Black shouldered Kite

37. Indian Roller

38. Jungle crow

39. House sparrow

40. Common crow

41. Streak throated woodpecker male & female

42. Brown shrike

43. Shikra

44. Malabar parakeet

45. Rufous babbler

46. White bellied tree pie

47. Fairy blue bird

48. Pond heron

49. Little egret

50. Little cormorant

51. Asian Paradise flycatcher

52. Grey tit

53. Rufous tree pie

54. Small minivet

55. Brown cheeked fulvetta

56. House swift

57. Crested tree swift

58. Crested serpent eagle

59. Plain flower pecker

60. Plum headed parakeet.

61. White breasted waterhen

62. Red vented bulbul

63. Puff throated babbler (Call)

64. Pied kingfisher

65. Crimson fronted barbet

66. Grey breasted prinia

67. Palebilled flowerpecker

68. Black eagle

69. Malabar Trogon

70. Lesser fish eagle (? Grey headed fish eagle)

71. White breasted Kingfisher

72. Small blue kingfisher

73. Rufous woodpecker

74. Scimitar babbler

75. Cattle Egret

76. Kestrel

77. Scops Owl ( Call)

78. Jungle owlet ( Call)

79. Malabar Grey Hornbill

80. Racket tailed drongo

81. Clamorous reed warbler

82. Ashy Prinia

83. Blyth’s reed warbler

84. Booted warbler

85. Malabar whistling thrush

86. Grey Jungle fowl

87. Oriental white eye

88. Black and orange flycatcher

89. Falcon?

90. Nuthatch?

91. White bellied shortwing

92. Leaf warbler

93. Nilgiri Pipit

94. Blue rock thrush

95. Black lored tit

96. Red spur fowl ( Call )

97. Gray headed canary flycatcher

98. Wynad laughing thrush (call)

99. Gray breasted laughing thrush

100. Emerald dove

101. Indian pitta

102. Hoopoe

103. Blue bearded bee eater

104. Desert wheatear

105. Vernal hanging parrot

106. Dark fronted babbler

107. Purple sunbird

108. Speckled piculet

109. Crimson backed sunbird

Mammals List

1. Malabar giant squirrel

2. Jungle striped squirrel

3. Wild boar

4. Brown mongoose

5. Striped mongoose

6. Barking deer

7. Mouse deer

8. Brown palm civet

9. Large brown Flying squirrel

10. Asian Elephant

11. Common langur

12. Nilgiri Langur

13. Lion Tailed Macaque

14. Bonnet Macaque

15. Nilgiri tahr

16. Bat ( Species not idied)

17. Small Indian civet (camera trap)

18. Gaur

19. Porcupine ( camera trap)

20. Hare

Dragon flies and Damsel flies

1. Stream ruby

2. Stream glory

3. Clear winged Forest glory

4. Saffron faced blue dart

5. Black stream Glider

6. Crimson Marsh glider

7. Asian slim

8. Green marsh hawk

BUTTERFLIES

Only those that came to my mind

( List incomplete as not recorded )

1. Chestnut sailor

2. Malabar rose

3. Peacock

4. Greater orange tip

5. Red disc

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space

2010-01-05T11:50:00.005+05:30

We encountered the dreaded java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space error

What does it means - Permgen Space is the space where the class files are all loaded for the first time and there after they are loaded or referenced from there. This error means there is a hell lot of duplicate classes being loaded and not all are being unloaded. These duplicate class instances are cluttering the permgen space and resulting in this error. One expects only only class instance of a java file. This is basically a memory leak.

Temporary Solution -
'start tag' jvmarg value="-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC" 'end tag'
'start tag' jvmarg value="-XX:+CMSPermGenSweepingEnabled" 'end tag'
'start tag' jvmarg value="-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled" 'end tag'
- These allow perm gen sweeping and allows class unloading, I guess it works really well when there is no memory leak but low perm gen space allocated, so when there is a space deficiency it automatically unloads few classes and then reloads them when needs. Yes there will be a performance issue but am sure not many will notice it.
'start tag' jvmarg value="-XX:PermSize=256M" 'end tag'
'start tag' jvmarg value="-XX:MaxPermSize=512M" 'end tag'
- you can keep increasing this value between 128 - 512 or more but this will only delay the time after which the error is thrown.

Tools - Few tools that I used for analysing this issue
a) MAT - Eclipse Memory Analyser Tool (Also recommended - has some great features to zero in on the suspect / culprit)
b) IBM Heap Analyser
c) JConsole
d) Yourkit - trial version for 14 days (you better solve your issue within 14 days :)) [Highly recommended - it allows monitoring and a hell lot of features]
e) JMAP

Analysis & Solution -
There are two ways of going about this, you would never programmatically create duplicate classes and load them into the permgen, so the only few options are
First Way
1) Are you using different classloaders or custom classloaders to load few classes? If yes there are cases that same classes are loaded often because of different classloader instances. Check you own code.
Second Way
1) Analyse the various frameworks that you are using, check in particular if you in your code or these frameworks use dynamic proxying, which means creating proxy classes at run time for loosely coupling the classes - http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/reflection/proxy.html
PS: A tip - check if any framework uses CGLIB, in my case it was this.

Approach 1
1) I used jmap on the unix machine and got the heap reproduced in a file called heap.bin.
2) Then open the heap.bin using the free tool IBM Heap Analyser (ha36.jar Let me know if you need it) or MAT or Yourkit.
3) Now you can view different details of the heap, like duplicate class, which objects is being created in large number or objects based on size etc.
4) Now go to class instances and search for duplicate classes or sort the classes by name and then go through the list.
5) You should be able to see at some point few duplicate classes being loaded and they would have different extension
example- Class ABC you can see Class ABC, Class ABC$$EnchancerByCGLIB$$9a6119f_32$$FastClassByCGLIB$$123456, Class ABC$$EnchancerByCGLIB$$9a6119f_33$$FastClassByCGLIB$$123453, Class ABC$$EnchancerByCGLIB$$9a6119f_34$$FastClassByCGLIB$$123454, Class ABC$$EnchancerByCGLIB$$9a6119f_35$$FastClassByCGLIB$$123455 etc etc
6) Now you know this class is being created by CGLIB / dynamic proxying and because they are all different classes all together they will be surely kept in the perm gen adding to the clutter and the error.

Approach 2
1) Yourkit attaches to the live running application - the process is given in their site.
2) Monitor the live application and keep checking the permgen and number of classes loaded and unloaded - if the classes loaded keeps increasing even after a threshold we know we are in trouble (jconsole also can be used to see the classes loaded and unloaded)
3) In your kit keep checking the class instances and search for duplicate classes or sort the classes by name and then go through the list.
4) You should be able to see at some point few duplicate classes being loaded and they would have different extension
example- Class ABC you can see Class ABC, Class ABC$$EnchancerByCGLIB$$9a6119f_32$$FastClassByCGLIB$$123456, Class ABC$$EnchancerByCGLIB$$9a6119f_33$$FastClassByCGLIB$$123453, Class ABC$$EnchancerByCGLIB$$9a6119f_34$$FastClassByCGLIB$$123454, Class ABC$$EnchancerByCGLIB$$9a6119f_35$$FastClassByCGLIB$$123455 etc etc
5) Now you know this class is being created by CGLIB / dynamic proxying and because they are all different classes all together they will be surely kept in the perm gen adding to the clutter and the error.
6) This list will only keep increasing as time flies / more requests are being processed.

Solution -
1) Now check which version of the framework you are using and check any recorded bug against it - I was using cglib-nodep-2.1_3.jar and it seems to have a weak reference to all the classes that it creates causing this clutter. I then had to upgrade Spring to spring 2.5.6.SEC01, Hibernate and CGLIB to their production stable releases.
2) After this fix / upgrade I took regular imprints / monitored it live and found there were no more duplicate classes being created.
2.1) Another way is to take regular heap imprints and you would see that there is pattern say heap1 = 10 MB, heap2 = 50 MB, heap3 = 100 MB, heap4 = 80 MB, Heap5 ~= 80 MB.
In the case of the error prone application / memory leak plagued application the pattern would be heap1 = 10 MB, heap2 = 50 MB, heap3 = 100 MB, heap4 = 120 MB, Heap5 = 140 MB....

PS: Jconsole can be used to see the heap growth, perm gen growth, class loading, class loading etc at run time. All the graphs can have peaks and downs but must even out in due course, if they keep going north then you know for sure you are going to have trouble.

Few More
jmap -permstat 18254 > permstats_2.txt
jmap -histo:live 18254 > histo_live.txt
jmap -histo 18254 > histo.txt
-XX:-TraceClassLoading Trace loading of classes.
-XX:-TraceClassLoadingPreorder Trace all classes loaded in order referenced (not loaded). (Introduced in 1.4.2.)
-XX:-TraceClassResolution Trace constant pool resolutions. (Introduced in 1.4.2.)
-XX:-TraceClassUnloading Trace unloading of classes.

m.m

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space

2010-01-05T11:38:00.005+05:30

We encountered the dreaded java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space error.
How often do we hit this error and look in bewilderment.

What does it means - Means there is a hell lot of objects being created and not all are being marked for GC. These stray objects are cluttering the heap space and resulting in this error. This is basically a memory leak.

Temporary Solution - start tag jvmarg value="-Xmx892M" end tag- you can keep increasing this value between 256 - 1024 or more but this will only delay the time after which the error is thrown.

Tools - Few tools that I used for analysing this issue
a) jmap -heap:format=b 12345 (unix)
b) jps - for pid in windows
c) jmap -dump:format=b,file=heap.bin 12345 (windows)
d) IBM Heap Analyser
e) JConsole

Analysis & Solution -
1) I used jmap on the unix machine and got the heap reproduced in a file called heap.bin.
2) Then open the heap.bin using the free tool IBM Heap Analyser (ha36.jar). Let me know if you need it.
3) Now you can view different details of the heap, like duplicate class, which objects is being created in large number or objects based on size etc.
4) Now there is a option to get the leak suspects, it would list a few leak suspects - it would surely list few open source frameworks like Active MQ, Hibernate etc which means you will have to upgrade these to the latest production release from the framework providers.
5) Concentrate on any leak suspect either on your classes or your packages or on any java's Class used a lot in your class.
6) I was able to find a wrongly declared and used variable related to threadpoolexecutor which was causing a lot of hanging objects. (key is to find the link between a leak suspect and the way it is related to your code)
7) After fixing this I took regular heap imprints and analysed them and found that the leak suspect was missing.
8) After this fix my application starting running for almost double the time but I soon hit the dreaded java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space, about which I shall write in the next post.
8.1) Another way of seeing the success of your fix is to take regular heap imprints and you would see that there is pattern say heap1 = 10 MB, heap2 = 50 MB, heap3 = 100 MB, heap4 = 80 MB, Heap5 ~= 80 MB.
In the case of the error prone application / memory leak plagued application the pattern would be heap1 = 10 MB, heap2 = 50 MB, heap3 = 100 MB, heap4 = 120 MB, Heap5 = 140 MB....

PS: Jconsole can be used to see the heap growth, perm gen growth, class loading, class loading etc at run time. All the graphs can have peaks and downs but must even out in due course, if they keep going north then you know for sure you are going to have trouble.

Few more
jmap -permstat 12345 > permstats_2.txt
jmap -histo:live 12345 > histo_live.txt
jmap -histo 12345 > histo.txt
-XX:-TraceClassLoading Trace loading of classes.
-XX:-TraceClassLoadingPreorder Trace all classes loaded in order referenced (not loaded). (Introduced in 1.4.2.)
-XX:-TraceClassResolution Trace constant pool resolutions. (Introduced in 1.4.2.)
-XX:-TraceClassUnloading Trace unloading of classes.

m.m

HappY new Year twenty ten

2010-01-01T10:16:00.003+05:30

Amidst prayers, crackers, well wishers and songs, 2010 entered our lives smoothly...

Wish you all a Gala, Great and Grand new year 2010. Let the new year bring in all the great things that you have wishes for.

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan

People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas. ~ Author Unknown

Pictures of 2009 | Photographic Portal

m.m

Biking to Chennai

2009-12-28T11:21:00.004+05:30

Finally biked all the way to Chennai and back on my Thunderbird.

Distance covered (to & fro) - 720 KMs
Where - Bangalore - Chennai - Bangalore
Time taken - 10 Hrs 5 Minutes
Average highway speed - 75
Top speed - 100 (Going to Chennai) , 110 (Coming back to Bangalore) [ps: didn't want to push my bike to this speed but a avenger bike tried overtaking and that got me going.]
Pro's - Good fun, high speed, scenic sections, great highways (part of the golden quadrilateral)
Con's - Sore butt

Things to do
1) Get your bike serviced or checked for long distance riding. (Bullet garages do a long distance service / check), especially brakes needs to be tuned.
2) Fill your tank with fuel.
3) Get your tyre's filled with optimal pressure - I was ok with 23 / 33 (front / back) but even this was a bit bumpy for city bumps, but on the highways it was smooth riding.
4) Get nylon rope and not cotton rope, I was thinking that cotton rope is better than nylon rope and I used nylon rope while going to Chennai and cotton rope while coming back. With cotton rope I had to tie my bags 2 times and adjust them 4-5 times.

Few questions
1) What do I do if I get a puncture on the highway?
I was also very scared if I will get a puncture and few things that I read and did are
a) Don't drive towards the edge of the road - the sweeping action of fast cars and trucks push the nails and other sharp items towards the corners of the road.
b) Don't do offroad driving - try your best to park your bike on the road itself and not on unknown muddy patches.
c) Keep noting puncture shops - as soon as you notice a puncture shop, register the odo reading in your mind. This way you know for sure how far you are from a puncture store.
PS: Ppl suggest to carry spare tubes but my assumption was anyways I will go to a town and get a guy to repair the Tyre so why bother. So you would have a hitch a ride and get the guy to come to your bike (note where you have parked your bike - landmarks) .

2) How far are puncture shops?
I noticed the following,
Closest shops - 2 Kms apart from each other.
Not so close - 30 Kms apart from each other.
Bangalore - Krishnagiri doesn't have many puncture shops but from Krishnagiri to Sriperumpudur there are loads of shops.

3) What do I do if my bike breaks down?
ans) Well nothing can be done if it is real trouble - Clutch you can do some makeshift arrangement, accelerator you can pull manually but otherwise you will have to get a mechanic from the nearest town. For bullet vehicles there is a garage atBangalore, Krishnagiri, one at Vellore and next at Chennai. The royal enfield website has the details http://www.royalenfield.com/.

Route taken
- Bangalore South - Silk Board - 7.2 Kms- Hosur - 34- Krishnagiri - 72- Bargur - 17- vaniyambadi - 37- ambur - 17- pallikonda - 28- Vellore - 25 (230)- Ranipet - 28 (258)- Sriperumbudur - 73 (331)- Chennai City - 37 (368)
Same way while getting back.

PS: Ambur and Vaniyambadi are very famous for Biriyani so one could stop here for lunch / food.

Time taken with different average speeds
368 / 60 = 6.1 + 20 minutes (break / food)
368 / 70 = 5.3 + 20 minutes
368 / 75 = 5 + 20 minutes
368 / 80 = 4.6 + 20 minutes

Things to take
Helmet, gloves, backpack, bag, jacket,water bottle, cash, mech no's, bike papers, chocolates. Coolers / Shades are a MUST as the roads are shiny and tough to drive without them. I have a Vega helmet with a inbuilt shades.

Things to be aware off
a) Always don't follow a speeding car or bus - give atleast 50 feet distance.
b) If two or more vehicles are slowing down in the middle of the highway DON'T overtake them it means there is some trouble or a animal is crossing the road.
c) Give yourself and the vehicle a small break every 60 minutes (I gave a break every 90 minutes)
d) Don't race - remember - you are a marathon runner and not a 100 meter sprint runner.

Verdict - Must do - if not now WHEN?

m.m

Century Stand

2009-12-21T11:53:00.010+05:30

Read the article in bigger print.

http://www.captivecaptures.blogspot.com/

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/

m.m
100 and counting

Running / Cycling Related ...

2009-11-17T14:36:00.005+05:30

Will try my best to keep updating this post with events (mostly close to Bangalore)...

2010

Upcoming events,
http://sunfeastworld10k.indiatimes.com/ - March 23rd - 2010
http://marathon.auroville.com/ - Feb 14 - 2010
http://www.goamarathon.in/ - March 07 - 2010
http://www.thehigh.in/

2009

Upcoming events,
Benguluru Walkathon - December 5th 2009
http://www.feetonthestreet.in/
http://www.toimidnightmarathon.in/home.html

Past events,
http://sunfeastworld10k.indiatimes.com/
http://www.kaveritrailmarathon.com/
http://www.vydehiandmallyaheart10k.com/
http://bsaherculescyclothon.in.com/
http://inside.nikeplus.in/ / http://inside.nikeplus.in/racedetails.php
http://www.bangaloreultra.com/
http://www.hyderabad10k.com/

m.m
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2009/08/running-marathon.html

Learning's From an ANT

2009-10-21T12:00:00.003+05:30

Learning's From an ANT

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.
Lao Tzu

“Whenever I see an old lady slip and fall on a wet sidewalk, my first instinct is to laugh. But then I think, what if I was an ant, and she fell on me. Then it wouldn't seem quite so funny.”
Jack Handy

“Though your enemy is the size of an ant, regard him as an elephant”
Danish Proverb

Black ants or carpenter ants are found in plenty where ever there is a hint of rotting wood or gaps in wooden structures.

Never stop dreaming. Follow the omens.
Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist.

Every grain of sand in this universe has a story to tell.

Every grain of sand in this universe has a experience to share.

Similarly I was recently sitting in my favorite news paper reading spot and observing the never ending energy of black ants. They were scurrying around running here and there, they were looking more busy than any manager I have met. An anomaly or a parallel thread started getting created in my mind, I started relating their actions to the actions of a six sensed human.

1) Ants greet every ant – DO WE?

I saw many ants greet each other or which ever ant crossed by, it was neither a gossip session nor were they in a un-conference mode, it was more like a handshake but in this case they shook their antennae or rubbed their antennae against each other.

How many of us greet fellow human beings on a daily basis be it a known colleague or a unknown human? I have seen people drop their head down to avoid conversation / to avoid eye contact. May be we must greet each other whenever appropriate and spread goodwill.

Scientific Reason: Ants can not converse they will communicate with each other with the chemical secretion called pheromones. When two ants meet they will secrete pheromones on the land so that other ants will follow the trail, some time tentacles(antennae) are used as visionary and auditory sensors depends upon the breed.

An forager ant that finds food marks a trail on the way back to the colony; this trail is followed by other ants, these ants then reinforce the trail when they head back with food to the colony. When the food source is exhausted, no new trails are marked by returning ants and the scent slowly dissipates. This behavior helps ants deal with changes in their environment. For instance, when an established path to a food source is blocked by an obstacle, the foragers leave the path to explore new routes. If an ant is successful, it leaves a new trail marking the shortest route on its return. Successful trails are followed by more ants, reinforcing better routes and gradually finding the best path.

Ants use pheromones for more than just making trails. A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from further away. Several ant species even use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves. MORE

2) Ants carry every dead ant back – DO WE?

If an ant met a watery grave or was unfortunate to be showered with love by a slipper, its body was taken care by members of their tribe. I saw several dead ant bodies being transported from the accident spot, the dead body was moved to several locations and meetings were held over the dead bodies similar to a postmortem in human terms. Then in 5 - 10 minutes you will see the ant body missing.

I was surprised to see the level of responsibility and care taking abilities in a small ant – caring for another ant. How many of us stop to help people involved in an accident and hurt. How many of us in the advanced stages of humanization take a undertakers job. May be we must care for the injured, hurt and the unable whenever a chance comes our way.

Scientific Reason: In addition to defense against predators, ants need to protect their colonies from pathogens. Some worker ants maintain the hygiene of the colony and their activities include undertaking or necrophory, the disposal of dead nest-mates.Oleic acid has been identified as the compound released from dead ants that triggers necrophoric behavior.

A few (like Atta) have special chambers for this, but most carry the dead nest mates a short distance away from the nest entrance and deposit them in "refuse" piles. Corpse removal possibly evolved as a way of avoiding such fungal or perhaps bacterial invasions of the colony.

And in some cases, the ants bring the dead ants back and home to eat, because they're rich in protein. But I think that's specific to the one type of ant, rather than general ant behavior.

Picture credits 1 2 3

m.m

Signs of the Times

2009-10-20T11:24:00.002+05:30

Jetty translates to underwear in colloquial Tamil language.
Intended usage - Bathing in your undergarments is prohibited.
Don't have a bathe after drinking Liqur (liquor) :)
Spotted in a small village in TN.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruparappu

Thiruparappu is a panchayat town in Kanniyakumari district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is known for its waterfalls, and for an ancient Shiva temple, which is one of the twelve temples visited in the annual Shivalaya ottam pilgrimage.

Pictures

m.m

Climate Change - Blog Action Day

2009-10-15T21:13:00.001+05:30

BLOG ACTION DAY

Cometh the time and cometh the blog post...

An early Emperor of the Xia Dynasty in China about 4,000 years ago said
'A picture speaks a thousand words'

On these lines I decided to post pictures that closely represent the state of the
climate rise in our mother planet.

Earth - 100's of years before

Earth - Current State

Earth - In a few decades

Red Hot Earth

Lets join hands to save mother Earth

A finger is enough to switch a light off

www.blogactionday.org

m.m

Tips for buying a good running shoe

2009-09-29T15:31:00.004+05:30

Can you please provide some tips / help on aspects to watch out / look out for while choosing a good running shoe.

Please post them as your comments.

Links

http://www.therunningbug.co.uk/ArticleDetails.aspx?Title=Choosing+the+Right+Running+Shoes

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/info/index.jsp?categoryId=222919

http://www.ineed2know.org/products/running-shoes.htm

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=44541&sc=3406

http://www.fleetfeetbonneylake.com/10-tips-buying-running-shoes

http://running.about.com/od/shoesapparelandgear/ht/runningshoe.htm

http://www.realbuzz.com/articles/top-10-tips-on-buying-running-shoes/

Shoe Finder
http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/shoelabshoefinder/

What is LIFE?

2009-09-15T15:35:00.004+05:30

Received this picture as a forward today, yes it may strike a chord to many, but don't worry there are many people who are being wise and this won't apply to them at all....

My 2 cents were if one could successfully define what is life? then there is no purpose left for that person to live anymore as he knows it all and there is no meaning to life and he has become super human.

In this same context loved a quote and a tagline,

Dr. Salim Ali, the famous ornithologist, had said, “Man does not live by bread alone. Just look at the people who have no hobbies and spend all their time solely in earning a living. After fifty when they retire from official chair-warming, they don’t know what to do with all the time in their hands and just spend it watching the clock! If they cultivated a hobby like bird watching – it is very healthy because you have to be out of doors to watch birds – they would have lived longer to enjoy their pension.”

Read this at Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, close to Mysore - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganthittu_Bird_Sanctuary

Loved the tagline of a company - The Fuller Life - 'One life. Do more'

Yes the forward can be viewed with various perspectives, optimism, pessimism well I choose the former.

Cheers to LIFE

Your comments please.

m.m

The extra mile...

2009-08-31T15:15:00.005+05:30

I am still wondering if the service provided by my favorite GSM provider - Airtel was an act of going the extra mile in customer support / satisfaction or going the extra mile in senseless activities.

Call from customer care (CC): Hallo may I speak to M?
M: Yes this is M.
CC: This is regarding your complaint that you have registered at the customer care.
M: (scratching my head), now which complaint was this, tariff change? service activation? DND?...(anyways) YES tell me.
CC: Now is your connection and network coverage issue proper?
M: (I was surprised that they proactively cover everyone's network and in a hurry check my tower signal bar on the phone and see that it is ready to burst out of the phone) Yes it is fine. What was my complaint regarding?
CC: Sir, you have complained about your network coverage in ABC area.
M: uhhhhhhhhh? hmmmm? Are you serious?
CC: Yes sir.
M: Yes the network coverage is long gone, but I want to tell you something, this was a complaint given in the mid of 2007 and you are calling me regarding this a cool 2 years later. (Anyways thanks for remembering)
CC: Sorry for the inconvenience, is there anything else that you would to know from us.
M: No
CC: If you have any query please call 1234455 to get your queries answered, thank you and have a good day sir.
M: Wish you too a good day.
click....

Makes me wonder if they are doing a great job in resolving all issues or are they having some ancient process / systems thats making their good intent to serve people go wrong. Are they losing on money, time, customer good will and above all are they barking on the wrong tree???

Can we apply Business Process Management (BPM) here?
ps: Yes I just finished a training program on BPM.

m.m

Joy of Reading

2009-08-27T10:12:00.002+05:30

I was misled in life by my teachers.

Is this a big statement to make with Dr Radhakrishnan’s birthday coming up next month? In my case the entire blame lies with the teachers who made merry by messing up with the usage of the words read and study, this humongous error made me shy away at every instance of the word study or read.

Later in life when I could distinguish between right and write I also knew that the word read was not associated to the social evil – study.

That’s when I started the ’famous’ art of reading with the famous five and was ‘secretly’ reading the secret seven, then had a ‘hard’ time graduating to the hardy boys, didn’t know if mills & boon was a ‘boon or bane’ and now finally into biographies miles away from ‘biology’. The joy of reading increased when I realized that I neither needed to be in Sydney to read works of Sidney Sheldon nor be frost bitten to read works of Robert Frost.

I would be lying if I say that I float in milk colored clouds, surrounded by cute looking angels, and the sound of waterfalls in the background when I read, but the truth is I really get so engrossed by many books that I usually enact many of the characters and scenes in my mind and might end up with an Oscar nomination one moony morning.

To add to a saying of Mahatma Gandhi - Live as if you would die tomorrow learn as if you would live forever and read as if you would carry the wealth of knowledge to your next birth.

m.m

Running a marathon:

2009-08-21T11:19:00.002+05:30

Why does Marathon always sound like ‘marra’-thon as in hindi, dead in the queen’s language and the ending pronunciation sound like mara-‘thorn’, a thorn in my sole/soul.

For the ones who have gone through the vice of running marrathorns lap after lap month after month, how do you motivate yourself to train when others drive Bentleys and builds palaces in sand with soft melodious background music of snoring. For the ones falling under the ‘L’ category (lazy, lucky & latter) don’t despair you are better off, bigger assets around the midriff, bigger healthcare bills & of course longer lifespan of your shoe soles.

Amateur marrathorners might have been unlucky to be dragged into the sport by some over passionate runner who covers distances like an auto ferrying passengers. But it is a blessing in disguise once you are hooked, running acts like a drug; it makes you yearn for more and in stronger dosages.

A runner’s best friend is the thump thump footstep sound that accompanies him throughout the grueling distance just that the intensity of the sound is inversely proportional to the distance (longer the distance covered softer the thump). A good runner’s thump is equivalent to a Royal Enfield bikes thump.

A runner’s worst enemy is thoughts of the cozy position on the couch with a coke, fries and a nice action movie on HBO. These thoughts are like mirages that float around the circumference of one’s mind especially when the mind is exhausted and wants to start spreading positive thoughts.

“Run as if your life depended on it, in fact it does so do run” - MM

Link: http://runnersforlife.com/

Disclaimer: I am neither an ultra marathon runner nor a health freak; all I am is a bad writer trying my luck for fame or rather a few nice comments.

m.m

Flower Enthusiast or Macro Photographer

2009-08-07T12:04:00.005+05:30

Does it matter if you are a flower enthusiast or a macro maniac sorry I meant macro photographer??? The place to be is The Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bangalore.

The flower show revolving around the Independence day celebrations in India has started. It is really worth a visit, but remember people travel from far to see this show so there will be a crowd. Try being there at around 8:30 and get into the glass house at 9;00 when it opens. If you go early you will be lucky to see all the butterflies having their morning snack - nectar and flowers in full bloom and not many to disturb your angles and your macro's.

PS: Will post my 2009 pictures soon.

Lalbagh-2009

My Lalbagh Set - 2007
My Photostream

For more history, address and details on Lalbagh,
http://www.horticulture.kar.nic.in/lalbagh.htm

News Articles
TOI
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/37928.htm
DH

m.m

Job Schedulers - UNIX

2009-08-07T11:34:00.006+05:30

We might have worked on various Job Scheduling Frameworks, one of the famous one that comes to our mind is Quartz. Yes quartz is a cool frameworks which has advanced error handling, job scheduling and various other great feature. Recently while trying to create a scheduling task for a task in UNIX I decided to check out the inbuilt job scheduling component - crontab, instead of setting up a java application and scheduling it using quartz. There is also a command like a timer at which a script can be run - at , but this feature doesn't enable scheduling and is good for a run once command.

What?
In the UNIX / Linux environment, it is possible to asynchronously execute tasks at any desired time of the day.

How?
It spawn's a new shell at the scheduled time and runs the job. cron starts itself at boot time and never stops until the machine is shutdown. This is maintained by the cron clock daemon.
cron is slaved to the system clock and awakens at one minute intervals to start scheduled jobs / jobs.

Process?
cron reads text files called cron tables. cron table maintenance is accomplished with the crontab command. A cron table file is ordinary ASCII text and consists of one or more lines specifying what is to be executed and when.

Commands?
crontab -e and crontab -l are most often used, the former to create or edit a cron table and the latter to display it. On most systems, crontab -e will automatically start the vi text editor and if a cron table already exists, load it into vi. Upon saving and exiting from vi, the new or revised file will be submitted to cron, overwriting the existing cron table.

Syntax?

min hour day mon dow command #comment

Permitted Values
min 0-59
hour 0-23
day 1-31
mon 1-12
dow 0-6 (Sunday = 0)

Values are cumulative, cron understands an asterisk (*) to mean all legal values for the field where it is used, and also understands numeric ranges.

Example
crontab -l

30 * * * * /export/home/user/example/DeleteOldTmpFiles.sh
This means this sh file will run every 30th minute of a hour every day, every month of the year.

Credit: http://aplawrence.com/Basics/bbcronbasics.html
Summary and few pointers have been taken from the above site and the above site is a very good tutorial site.

Issues
1) If vi doesn’t start check if the .profile file of the user contains the following
export VISUAL=vi
export EDITOR=v
2) If the cron job doesn’t start check if your username is in the cron deny file – check this link for more details - http://www.tech-faq.com/create-cron-job.shtml
3) If everything seems right and still your cron job doesn't run check if your script file has executable rights
ls -altr filename
if it is not there you will have to add this in your .profile of your user or create a new .profile file
chmod u+x /export/home/user/example/DeleteOldTmpFiles.sh

Useful Links
http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab.htm

m.m

SVN vs CVS

2009-08-07T11:28:00.003+05:30

Why is every one adopting SVN / Subversion over CVS?

Is SVN / Subversion winning over CVS?

Find out more at the following links.

Detailed Notes
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn.forcvs.html

Comparison Details
http://www.pushok.com/soft_svn_vscvs.php
http://momentarypause.blogspot.com/2007/01/subversion-vs-cvs.html
http://versioncontrolblog.com/comparison/CVS/Subversion/index.html

m.m

Clouds, by the light of the moon - Extract

2009-06-29T13:02:00.002+05:30

Lucky to have my cloud picture chosen as the cloud of the month in http://cloudappreciationsociety.org.

Here is the extract -->
There aren’t many images of clouds at night on the society gallery. Perhaps this is because the low light conditions present challenges for digital photography. Perhaps it is because cloudspotters like to go to bed early. Whatever the reason, we think that it is a shame, as the right sort of clouds lit by a full Moon is a sight of great beauty.

The high, streaked ice-crystal clouds, such as Cirrus, look glorious in the moonlight. Thin enough to let the light through with ease, they seem even more delicate and lace-like with a dark backdrop than they do during the day. But the best night clouds have to be Altocumulus – particularly those with gaps between their clumps, a variety known as ‘perlucidus’. If the Altocumulus layer is not too thick, the clumps of cloud develop a striking silvery glow, which is interspersed with inky rivers of the starry sky beyond.

And sometimes, as in these night-time clouds over Bangalore, India, the droplets of the Altocumulus cloud can diffract the moonlight to produce a fragmented ring of reddish colours, around a blue-white disc of light, which is known as a ‘corona’. As different clouds drift in the wind across the face of the Moon, these colours jump nearer or further from it, shifting position depending on the size of the cloud droplets.

Nothing beats a clear starry night when the Moon is less than full. But when it is shining at its brightest, the drifting schools of iridescent, silvery clouds are enough to make even astronomers, usually frustrated by the obstacle of clouds, put down their telescopes and admire the spectacle.

http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/may-09/

m.I.m

A fruitful association

2009-06-27T20:11:00.006+05:30

After 5 years and 7 months a friend of mine has decided to take some time off from active service and enter into a retirement mode.

This friend of mine has served me in days of sunshine, in days of rain etc etc. This friend of mine has fallen off the first floor and yet made sure I didn't have to take it to the doctor. This friend of mine has undergone pacemaker surgery of its battery twice yet served me well while several of its breed have failed owners in less than 3 years. This friend of mine was born in China and was given as a gift from my dad and was held in special esteem because multimedia in days were never in the bloodline. As I grant retirement to my friend, I have asked him to help in countries where my new friend might not work...Last few months deafness and dumbness was troubling my friend.

My great stats of my friend - lifetime till date - 1603 hours, 12 minutes 04 seconds
Here are few pictures of my friend.

m.I.m

Best Bowling Average @ FCC

2009-05-09T23:02:00.003+05:30

It has been a pleasure playing league cricket in the UK with FCC club and here is some early stats,

m.I.m

Camera basic tips

2009-04-16T21:17:00.003+05:30

A friend had posed a question asking for basic tips for choosing a camera...

Buying a camera, thinking of the type that you want, here are few pointers...

I am going to suggest only digital camera's...

I would say there are 4 clear divisions

1) Top end professional camera’s – VERY EXPensive

2) Entry / mid level professional camera’s (DSLR – Digital SLR) – slightly expensive

3) Almost entry level professional camera but in point and shoot – Not too expensive

4) Normal point and shoot camera – Affordable

For starters or amateur photographers I would say 1) and 4) can be ruled out, now you need to focus between 2) and 3) –

Advantages in 2)
a) Excellent quality
b) Very good for learning technicalities in photography
c) Good speed

Disadvantages in 2)
a) Expensive
b) Lenses needed to be carried for mid range, close range and for zoom. Each lens can be expensive.

Things to look out for
a) Very good lenses
b) Mega pixel
c) Image stabilization
d) Manual Mode features
e) Weight of the body – how easy is it to handle/carry.
f) Power / battery consumption

Advantages in 3)
a) The latest ones produce very (very) good quality shots.
b) Can be quite good for learning technicalities in photography
c) Superb zoom modes are available in latest ones

Disadvantages in 3)
a) Speed is slightly lower when compared to SLR’s (very minimal and not noticeable usually)

Things to look out for
a) OPTICAL Zoom (not digital)
b) Mega pixel
c) Image stabilization
d) Manual Mode features
e) Ability to attach external lenses
f) Power / battery consumption

My personal choice of brands is

1) Canon
2) Nikon
3) Sony

Reference sites
1) http://www.dpreview.com/
2) http://www.flickr.com/cameras/

Though I use a 3) [canon s3 IS – for the last 3 yrs] now I am almost ready for a jump to 2) (but the cost is stopping me)

Hope this info helps, if you have more doubts or specific questions do post them...

http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2009/02/photography-quotes.html

Cameras are like pens, it’s the hands that hold them that really matter. - MiM

My Pictures

m.I.m

The Art of Praying

2009-04-04T20:43:00.006+05:30

While Father Andrew gave me a book on prayer and discovering the art of praying I didn’t guess it would open a very different perspective within me.

If ever you get your hands on the book ‘Discoveries in Prayer’ by Malachy Hanratty try reading it.

Many of us are quite faithful to our own religious faith and if asked to name a few more religions would be able to match a child’s IQ in naming a few.

The internet gives staggering figures; there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and many smaller ones which could amount to about 4200 (yes four thousand two hundred) divisions. Every single one has their own practices, own merits and things they could improve on. Can you for a minute think of what is common in all the groups?

PRAYER.

Yes prayer is a common thread running across several religious practices.

Each one of us would have prayed at one point in life. Can you try explaining what Prayer is?

….

Most likely you would have said, speaking to God, asking God for things, wishing for things to happen etc…

How about this explanation?

Prayer is speaking to God, asking God for things, wishing for things to happen and GOD LISTENING TO ME [MH]. Doesn’t the last bit add so much more relevance to the praying that we have been doing?

The next great idea in the book says if ever you want to start being happy / start praying start appreciating the small things in your daily life. It is called the ‘The Good Things Prayer’ – every evening / night when you pray just reflect on the small / big good things that have happened during the day [MH]. Malachy goes on to give some examples of good things,

a) The joy of meeting someone unexpected, whom you like a lot.

b) The delight of receiving a long awaited letter

c) The happiness of doing something successfully (like baking a cake, clearing a test, giving a good presentation etc)

d) The relief over a worrisome problem solved etc.

e) A refreshing walk.

f) Feeling patient towards other and caring for others.

g) Doing a good thing for the society / planet.

The real aim is that the more we recognize the good things, the more we appreciate God’s deep care of us in daily life and as a result we feel closer to God [MH].

Some constraints are

1) Sparing a fixed time say 5 minutes every day for this prayer.

2) Feeling distracted during the 5 minutes.

3) The negatives creeping in instead of the good factors of the day. Only will power and time will slowly ensure you see the positives ahead of the negative.

4) When a negative creeps in, turn to God and ask – Show me a good thing.

Also one needs to understand that prayers needn’t be super fast solutions, God could be biding his time planning for a longer term, more surer solution which you could experience a few periods later.

Use of mantra’s or specific terms as practiced by several groups could be instrumental in attaining the right frame of mind and getting closer to God [MH].

Malachy also gives a valid pointer in being concrete and clear in your prayers, example instead of asking for God to give you patience ask God for giving you patience say in tomorrow important business meeting. This ensures when you get that granted it is easier for us to recognize it and be thankful to God for granting it.

Another superb pointer is ‘dressing up’ you might be in a grumpy / angry mood but during prayer you act as if nothing has happened, remember God knows better than that. So be honest and true.

Another valuable pointer given by Malachy is that he has seen several pray for change to happen in others, say God please change xx’s attitude but the right way is God please change xx’s attitude but please start with me. This feels more like a reflection and acceptance.

Other factors in prayer are praying for all you loved ones, relatives, friends, the world, for nature, for what not, the list can just be endless and it purely depends on ones time.

I feel the best pointer in the book is when he talks about the relation between forgiveness and prayer, and defines what forgiveness means,

How would we define forgiveness?

Forgiveness means deliberately trying to return to the relationship that existed before the injury and forcing ourselves to imagine that it hasn’t happened. [MH]

Malachy gives a very beautiful definition – We must understand it as fully recognizing fully that it did happen but in spite of that injury we now want to make a whole new relationship with the person who injured me. I really felt it was such a wonderful and strong perspective to forgiving a person.

Hope this short snippet added value. Well it did a bit to me.

Wishing you all good luck and happiness.

m.I.m

Acknowledgement / Disclaimer: Many snippets are taken from the book Discoveries in Prayer by Malachy Hanratty denoted by [MH]. The other points are purely personal views and might not be agreeable to all.

Superma(ze)rkets!

2009-03-30T13:45:00.001+05:30

Supermarkets or Suaible Mazes…

I really don’t know if it is happening only to me or to others as well. I feel lost, my head spins, and my eyes flicker, my feet waver, and my hands wander to every possible shelf, feel quite giddy and finally end up with a heavy basket and a lighter bank account.

I am not being mugged, am not on drugs, am not on a joy / thrill ride, I am in a supermarket. Of late be it in grocery supermarkets or clothing super stores, I am feeling lost, seeing so many things arranged all around you (almost all over you), in different packages, different colours, different prices. The products, their packaging, their arrangement seem to scream at you, seem to order you to pick them up. Is this a new kind of marketing where they psychologically try to pressurize the shopper to buy things which might be really not needed or is it the age of the ultimate shopper – beware and be aware. I was thinking maybe it is just to do with the shopping supermarket but yesterday when I walked into a cloth super store, I noticed they do don’t have clear exits, you wander and wander among their lines for a long time, each type of a product is spread over 4 – 5 sections, making you walk across other lines as well and makes you / forces you to have a look at all their other lines as well. Their arrangement makes you feel dizzy and may be force you to pick up things that were put into your mind. Yes seeing the crowds and their heavy bags at these stores make me feel that they are succeeding, recession could bring out new techniques and I don’t know if I have witnessed one of the first.

Beware and be aware.

m.I.m

Earth Hour

2009-03-26T15:17:00.004+05:30

http://www.earthhour.org

Let's help by turning off lights at 8:30 PM local time in your country on 28th March. Save energy and reap the benefits as you go ahead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Hour
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2006/06/do-or-die-prevail-or-peris_115079256161362406.html

Update: I barely managed to spend 30 minutes without the lights on. I spend the time in darkness by practicing dark photography. More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/

m.I.m

The day...

2009-02-04T23:04:00.003+05:30

The day UK became a skiing destination, the day UK became another Switzerland ....

1st - 4th Feb 2009.

One of my pictures on MSN site...

For more visit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/

http://news.uk.msn.com/in-pictures/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=13602828

http://news.uk.msn.com/in-pictures/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=13602828&imageindex=22

m.I.m

Photography Quotes...

2009-02-02T00:11:00.004+05:30

Some sayings on photography...

Without photography the memories fade faster - MiM

Cameras are like pens, it’s the hands that hold them that really matter. - MiM

Without photography the memories fade faster - MiM

Photography gives freedom to all the trapped souls - MiM

Photography is an extension of the dreams that we see with our eyes. - MiM

Photography empowers you, for taking a shot you don't need to get approval from your boss - MiM

Photographers are like rattlesnakes, all you hear is click – click - click - MiM

Photography is a complex algorithm each shot is a culmination of efforts between the eye, the mind, the brain and the finger. - MiM

Photography is the nemesis to the oblivion that we show to the environment around us. - MiM

Have a look at my book...

BOOK DETAILS

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/542361

m.I.m

Book? Author? Publishing?

2009-01-19T02:25:00.007+05:30

Yeah, I am now an author of a book created and published by me with the help of blurb. It is a photography book, for which I have toiled a bit lately.

You can have a preview of the book and if you like it please do buy a copy.

The title: A bug called shutterbug
Subtitle: Biological eye vs. mechanical lens the war begins...

BOOK DETAILS

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/542361

A bug called S...

Biological Eye vs....

By Monish Matthias

Book Preview

m.I.m

the inner beat...

2009-01-14T02:37:00.031+05:30

The inner beat…

My journey to few countries in Europe in October 2008.

Europe had always remained a dream destination for me especially after reading Enid Blyton books when I was young, watching several movies filmed in London and Paris. Switzerland was completely out of my vision in the near future, only Roger Federer used to remind me of this place by his fascinating stroke play. I got lucky to come to the UK on an assignment for a short duration and after coming so close to many European countries, it’s a huge disappointment if you don’t get to visit your dream places. With all these thoughts running in my mind I started to search for some good tour agencies to get me going on a trip and that’s when I found out about Star tours, they were having a tour called the panoramic Europe a 5 day trip covering major destinations of Switzerland and France (Paris) and a little bit of Germany and Belgium. Hmm not at all bad for the price they quoted and the biggest bonus was that the Visa arrangement was taken care by them for a certain affordable fee and Indian food served on all days for lunch and dinner, who would want to miss nice Indian food after having cooked and toiled in the kitchen for the past few months trying to conjure some dish and appreciate it myself on a daily basis.
http://www.startours.co.uk/

The days started running quite fast since the day the tour was booked, lists were getting drawn left right and center, things to do, things to take, time to leave, things to book etc…This was a coach tour with around 2500 – 3000 km’s to be done in 5 days pretty much of road burning and seat warming to be done. As the day neared my excitement shot up like a thermometer exposed to the hot Chennai weather. The shopping was all completed a few days before departure, the taxi was booked for 4 am October 1st and rechecked once again much to the drivers irritation.

October 1st (the previous year on October 1st I was in Wayanad, Kerala – beautiful place) (Oct 2nd is still special :)) came rather soon / started early, I woke up 3 am and got ready and waited for the taxi, the driver decided to take revenge for my repeated reminders by coming late by 20 minutes and didn’t he make me feel like a heart patient whose blood pressure was shooting up like a race car speedometer which had just won the pole position. I went and picked up my colleague and his family, Dinakar, Rajeshwari and their daughter Kavya. We reached Wembley Park at around 5:30 and were waiting for the bus with chattering teeth as the morning temperatures are quite stingy and stay low at 3-5 Degrees (nothing in comparison with the -4 degree as I write). The bus came and we settled down and I was busy battling my claustrophobic demons of a closed bus, I get hyper whenever I am caged up and the windows and doors are not in my control…anyways got settled down in a bit and started dreaming of the many places that were to present themselves to me. Another funny incident that happened was, in the morning when I just got out after having a bath, it was so cold that I started shivering for a few minutes and I tried something funny to stop it and I sprained my neck so for the first few days of the trip I was looking like a crane with a sprain.

We arrived at Dover for the ferry crossing to Calais, France; we got into the ship and got settled into seats. We were in for a rough crossing the channel waters were choppy and so the ship decided to play to the tunes of the water and we were tossed up, down and sideways and at this point I imagined the plight of the vegetables tossed about in a fancy salad prepared in restaurants. Many of us made slow, measured trips to the rest room to donate our breakfast by puking, with all our heads dizzy we were left wondering if it was better to be under the heater in office. Finally we spent an extra hour in the ship and reached Calais and our stomachs were literally growling ‘grrrr’ with the horrors of hunger exposed to it. After a 10 minute drive we reached a services area where we were to have the first lunch of the trip. The tour agency has a separate mobile kitchen which cooks on the move and gets to the planned services a few hours before us and serve a nice aromatic hot meal, we had a good vegetarian lunch and started our journey to Belgium, slowly people in the bus started opening up, many were software engineers or related to the IT sector, some were from other sectors as well, many with their parents. We reached Belgium after 3-4 hours of a sedate drive and were late to visit the Mini Europe center so we had to be content with visiting the Atomium center and a little bit of the town and then we moved on to the night stay in a town called Thionville in France, we got there passing through Luxembourg, Belgium. I checked into room number 404 in a hotel called Kyriad, pretty decent room. We were famished by this time and got to the eating center and gorged on a tasty prawn curry etc…Day 1 over!

Ferry Starts - Dover to Calais

Atomium Centre - Belgium

Day 2
When I went to sleep last night I wanted to make sure I wake up on time and don’t get left behind in a strange town, my brains were on a over drive to make sure I don’t over sleep, I was sleeping and I suddenly woke up and looked at my watch and the time was 8:30, shit we were supposed to leave at 7:45, ok they have left without me what do I do, I look out and see that it is still dark, I drink some water and again check my watch, please note this time I look at it the in the right direction and I find out that its only 2:00 am and am safe ufff a sigh of relief and back to bed….(if you look at the watch / clock turned upside down you will notice 8:30 corresponds to 2:00)

Woke up again on time and got ready and had a hearty breakfast of croissants, juice etc and we started from there to travel through Germany and more specifically the black forests and then by evening get into the borders of Switzerland. The highways matched all the good highways found all over Europe and we were travelling peacefully and after a few hours we stopped in the middle of the black forests of Germany and I must accept this place was filled with beauty. Black/brown trees with snow at the top, apparently black forest cake derives its name from this region that’s why the cake is brown in color and has white icing at the top. We then had lunch and then proceeded to a cuckoo clock making factory and we had a tour of the ways with which they make clocks and must say such an ancient art can still make you stand up and take note of the precision that the nimble hands of these craftsmen provide. I was lucky to see one of the earliest clocks ever made dating back to 1640 and after gazing for a few minutes at the over the budget cuckoo clocks which have a delivery for any place in the world and a service center in almost any part of the world. We stopped at Lake Titsee for a photo session and the other motive was to get every one to warm their legs. This was again a beautiful lake in a scenic location. We started from there to get into the Swiss border and we passed through a good part of South Germany which has a good number of maize fields. We were finally stopped at the Swiss border and our guide and driver left us sweating without the engine running for a good 20 minutes which left us all angrily muttering under our breath. We started to Rhine falls and reached soon, we again carried our cameras and then formed the queue to board the boat which takes you to the base of the Rhine falls and you can clamber upwards to a good view point. It was a 5 minute ride to the other side and we reached the vantage point to see the furious & swelled up waters of the Rhine falls flow defiantly not being bothered by the presence of so many tourists or by global warming. Again a few photos and we waited for the boat to return and a few minutes later we were back to the bus and all ready to go the next destination.

We travelled for a while and then stopped for some chow and had some yummy Chicken curry and ordered some Argentinean wine and then we checked into the hotel which was situated in a hill kind of slope and the bus could get us only half way and we had to walk the rest, I moved into the room 419 in the Hotel Terrace in the town of Engelberg. An interesting fact is that it has a population of c. 4,000, of which 600 are of foreign nationality (2007). On the way we had passed through the city Zurich and we saw the river Zurich. The rooms in this hotel were like a playground wide, spacious and comfortable. End of day 2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engelberg

Another Pose ...hmm - Germany AutoBahn's

In the middle of the Black Forests - Germany

Cuckoo Clocks

Rhine Falls - Switzerland

Rhine Falls - closer

Day 3
No midnight adventures like the previous night woke up and rubbed my eyes repeatedly as I was awestruck by the beauty that was seen from the window. The snow had just started that day for this season and the greenery from the previous season was still intact giving a combination of potent green and white art. Today was the big day as we were planning to go to the peak of mount Titlis a good 10000 feet high. Had a hearty continental breakfast and wore my thermals and got prepared for meeting the grail. After a 5 minute ride by bus we were at the base of the mount Titlis, where we were supposed to take the cable car to the peak. The last part of cable car way leads above the glacier Klein Titlis, and you could visit a glacier cave. Also this is where the world's first revolving cable car is present. With all this information we started the first cable car ride, we had to change at 2 stations and take 3 cable cars in total to reach the top of 3238 meters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titlis The views were spellbinding, the snow on the tips of the trees as seen from the first cable car gave way to trees almost covered completely with snow, and the change at the second station was smooth. We saw many cows or yaks in the high altitude braving the cold and munching away what ever could be seen above the snow cover. The last stage with the revolving cable car was fantastic, standing at one place you get to see all sides as the floor rotates slowly (there is a revolving restaurant in Chennai - Carnival Heights Revolving Restaurant). It was something which I had never seen, whiteness as pure as milk spread over the entire distance viewable by my eyes. We reached the top and the temperature was hovering between -11 to -15 degree temperature and I really pitied the cable car operator and the staff working at that height. The world’s highest bar was present there and we had a glimpse of the place, we went into the glacier cave and then started warming up for the real fun – the real glacier. We had to rent shoes and we walked like explorers on the poles visualizing a saga of discoveries and wandering. It was white and white and white and snow flakes showering us, I have never felt this good in the presence of water or it’s by products. I was playing there for about 30 minutes, drenching my camera in the process and then finally got back under human conditions. We started the ride back down and we were treated to denser snow fall. We then left Engelberg and proceeded to the town of Luzern / Lucerne. Due to its location on the shore of Lake Lucerne within sight of Mount Pilatus and Rigi in the Swiss Alps, Lucerne is traditionally considered as a good tourist destination. One of the city's famous landmarks is Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first built in the 14th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucerne
We visited the Bridge and the Lion Monument. Bertel Thorvaldsen's famous carving of a dying lion (the Lion Monument) is found in a small park just off Lowenplatz. The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the mob stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
After some souvenir shopping for Swiss knives in Swiss, we then moved to Interlaken http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlaken .
This is where the world famous the Jungfrau peak (4158m) and the nearby Jungfraujoch railway station (3450m) is present. I must accept that this is one of the most beautiful towns (in terms of scenic beauty) I have ever visited. Blue waters, beautiful trees, snow peaks, greenery in all sides, I could go on and on. We saw some adventure sports like Para gliding etc being practiced. We were roaming for an hour far away from the town center to see the real beauty of this small town and then crawled back to the town center to catch a look of the various shops present. We then started back to Engelberg and the entire bus members were playing dumb charades and antakshari – reminded me of school and college days, what I won’t give to return back to school days but of course minus the exams, punishment and my chemistry teacher. We had a nice Indian dinner with Italian wine and got back into the hotel packed and got ready for a few hours of sleep in Switzerland.
[Few things learnt in this trip] King / Emperor – Guess what’s the difference between a King and an Emperor? While many say a king is one who rules a kingdom and an Emperor is one who rules an empire. While that is partially right the main difference is King is usually elected by hereditary right, while an Emperor has won a war and taken over the ruler ship.

From the cable car - Engelberg

Snow tipped trees

Frozen

Me at the peak of Mt Titlis > 10,000 feet (-11 degrees)

View from the base of the cable cars

Me at Engelberg

The view near the Interlaken railway Station

Scenic Beauty - Interlaken

Adventure Sports at Interlaken

Beauty after life

Lion Monument - Luzern

Day 4

Got up, got ready, had breakfast, moved luggage to the bus. Today was the longest drive from Switzerland to Paris – they were hoping to make it less than 7 hours. Pretty boring, was looking out of the window most of time, reading the book Zillij by Ameena Hussein a Sri Lankan author. My best savior was the kid Kavya; she used to amuse me with her knowledge, playfulness, energy, innocence and what not…time used to fly while playing with her. We stopped at a service for lunch and then again resumed my sleep. I have a vague habit, when I am in any moving object I get the notion that someone is rocking me to sleep and I blissfully doze. As we got closer to Paris everyone started bickering over every tall building, every telephone / TV tower to be the Eiffel Tower and we did get a proper view when we got off for the very important cruise on the River Seine. The 2 hour cruise starts almost at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and moves on to cover almost most of the cities important places and goes under all the important bridges.

We were screaming and running around the boat looking at different scenes of the French life around us. We finally got off and were treated to good scenes of the sunset and the Eiffel Tower standing tall giving an additional aura to the great sunset. We got back to the Novotis hotel had a wash and a good chicken roast dinner and were off at 10 PM. where??? For a night tour of Paris, Paris the city of lights in night is bound to impress the tourist in you and not the environmentalist in you. Every building small or big, every lane crowded or empty was dazzling with lights. I heard that the EU was moving a ban on lighting of many building and the Eiffel Tower in the night after a certain time as several hundred thousands of Euros are spent every day on the electricity charges. We witnessed the Eiffel Tower in full glory in blue lights.
The places that we got to see during the boat cruise and during the night tour are the Opera house, the Arc of Triumph, Concorde Square, Parliament buildings, Sean de alleys (the magnetic street with people at all times), the tunnel where Diana met her sad end, the back entrance of the hotel from where Diana left, Old England hotel (the place where Lakshmi Mittal has one of the worlds most expensive marriage of his daughter), Louvre museum, Notre Dame, the royal hospital built with gold and a few of more buildings.

Paris the eternal city of lights where people don’t sleep seems so true only when you are standing right there with them. At 23:00 – 1:30 in the night you see all the bars, eat outs are having long queues for people getting in, the streets are crowded like in India with party goers, people just walking around meeting friends and what not…The true spirit of Paris.
[Few things learnt in this trip] Roads – If you see the roads and by lanes of Paris you would see that the structures are perfect and a small little curve would be accentuated well by the buildings in that curve, when you look ahead for a fair distance the stretch would be visible with no blind turns. Napoleon III took an active interest in the architecture and construction and was very strict in enforcing good quality.
http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/architecture/Haussmanns-Architectural-Paris.html
And we returned by 1:30 AM early morning, with fluttering eye lids and memories of vivid lights, busy streets of Paris, wonderful lanes, rash drivers, beautiful architecture, people full of energy and life.

[Few things learnt in this trip] Church / Cathedral / Chapel / Basilica / Abbey– What is the difference?

A cathedral is the chief church of a diocese in which the bishop has his throne.

Basilica has an architectural sense (St Peters Basilica, Vatican City, Rome). The pope can declare a particular church as a basilica.

"Chapel" - A place of worship that has its own altar. The word itself is associated with the idea of relics, since it is drawn from the idea that St. Martin divided his cape (chapelle) in half and left half with a beggar.

"Church" A place for public (especially Christian) worship.

Abbey - A church associated with a monastery or convent.

The first encounter - Paris

The majestic bridges - Paris

Notre Dame Cathedral

Standing Tall

Sunset

Lights on - Showtime

Opera House

Day 5

Yes 4 days of my wonderful vacation have vanished, have made stronger vows of returning back to Paris on my own. We got ready and went to the magnificent structure of the Eiffel tower, we were going to conquer the tower and get to the topmost floor of the structure. The tower is the icon of Paris, it is an iron structure, the tallest standing building of Paris, the most visited paid monument in the world, 1,063 ft high. It was built for a world fair to be demolished later but as it supported and worked as a good communication tower it was left to stand. They use 50 -60 tonne’s of paint every year to keep the structure rust free. The top of the tower moves up to 7 cm’s when there is a heavy wind blowing. Upon the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. Another interesting story was that novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the tower — supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower

[Few things learnt in this trip] Picnic – The origin of picnic is from a French word pique-nique- for more details click here http://word-powers.blogspot.com/2007/08/word-powers-friday-fiesta.html

Coming to day 5 we stood at the base of the tower clicking away pictures, and to our sorrow we discovered the top most floor was closed due to the reason that the wind was so strong up there and could blow people off. So we had to contend ourselves with a visit to the second highest floor. We had to squeeze ourselves in an ancient OTIS lift which to my discomfort has been there from the past century. I was praying that the lift doesn’t decide in my presence to make a call to the mechanics. Hopefully we got up in quick time and had great views of the city and that’s when you realize that the Paris is indeed built with great precision and planned well – the roads and lanes are well cut and the city presents itself as being very organized. After clicking away to glory to the discomfort to my S3 IS camera we started our descent via the great steps of the tower 340 steps to the second level and 328 steps to the first level. We then went around the city center and then started our journey back home after 5 days of touring places, we got back to Calais and crossed the ocean which was in a better mood and did make us run to the rest room often. We reached East Ham at 9:30 and caught a series of tube, train and taxi and got home by 12:30 – 1:00 to end a fantastic, fascinating and fantabulous holiday. Though I had to wake up at 6:00 the next day and get to office by 8:00 and make up for my absence, nothing can beat the effort and the trip. Have a look at the pictures below.

The Main Foundation

The Welled Planned City of Paris - 1

The Welled Planned City of Paris - 2

The View from the first level of Eiffel

For more pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/

m.I.m

Few more on MSN Contribute

2009-01-08T16:28:00.002+05:30

My Profile and list of write ups - http://content.msn.co.in/MSNContribute/Userprofile.aspx?UserID=NGNiN2IwYjgtMjc4Mi00YjBiLThkNDMtMDFmOTViODg2MmQ1

The Art Of Being Happy - http://content.msn.co.in/MSNContribute/Story.aspx?PageID=a0a429d8-7790-4362-8a67-c22c2b00205e

Quantum of Solace - http://content.msn.co.in/MSNContribute/Story.aspx?PageID=f91ad2b0-be1a-4d42-8998-24fe6e3ef206

Read, comment, enjoy and contribute.

m.I.m

Tour London Guide - Things to do in London and nearby

2009-01-02T15:05:00.038+05:30

Things to do in London and nearby, places to visit in London. A ready guide prepared for you, enjoy!

London the city which brings a sparkle to many an eye.

As Angela Carter said - Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.
Or as William Shakespeare said Would I were in an alehouse in London. I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.
Or again as William Shakespeare said I hope to see London once ere I die.

How many of us have grown up singing the nursery rhyme
London Bridge is falling down, Falling down, Falling down. London Bridge is falling down, My fair lady.
….
…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_is_Falling_Down

How many of us from India have wondered where the Kohinoor diamond has disappeared?

The rhyme was created to mark the difficulty faced in bridging the two sides of the River Thames and the bridge which collapsed which being built.

So if you happen to be in the city London which had the world’s busiest airport – Heathrow which handles the largest international traffic, what would you do? Yes you would roam and visit some historic places. I will try to give rough sketch of what to do in London, what to avoid or postpone as the last priority.

You can start your tour point from the London Waterloo railway station [$1$], a station which has existed from 1848 the largest station in the UK in terms of number of platforms and greatest floor area. The station has appeared in the movie The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon, and Bollywood film Jhoom Barabar Jhoom was filmed here as well.

As you walk out of the station and in a few minutes you are treated to the London Eye [$2$], the largest Ferris wheel in Europe and ranks among the top three of the world. It can be accessed from the Westminster underground station as well.
As Richard Rogers says
“ The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody. That's the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London.
http://www.londoneye.com/

[If you use south west trains for any part of your journey you have a two for one ticket offer]
The views from the top of the London Eye are just incredible; as you won’t miss entering the floors of the Eiffel tower you should miss this.

London Eye

View For top

And as you walk further down you are greeted to the London Aquarium [$3$] and this can be given a miss, this doesn’t match anywhere close to the Singapore aquarium. Though this is Europe’s largest indoor aquarium http://www.londonaquarium.co.uk/
[If you use south west trains for any part of your journey you have a two for one ticket offer]

London Aquarium

There is a scary experience place right next to the aquarium and I haven’t been there, the other alternative for this is the London Dungeon [$4$] where they try to scare you and make you get worried, but well worth the price and good fun, but make sure you are not alone. This can be accessed from the Tower bridge station http://www.thedungeons.com/

London Dungeon

As you walk along you begin to see Big Ben building [$5$] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock in the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster. The clock is the world's largest four-faced, chiming clock ant the third largest free-standing clock tower in the world.

Big Ben

A complete View

You walk around the Big Ben and you come across the Parliament Square buildings known as the palace of Westminster [$6$]. A few rooms were damaged in the great fire of 1834 and few rooms were damaged during the World War 2 during a bombing raid.
http://www.parliament.uk/about/visiting.cfm

Parliament Square

You can trace your path back a few meters back and walk to your left / right to the Westminster Abbey [$7$] Benedictine monks first came to this abbey in the middle of the tenth century, establishing a tradition of daily worship. The Abbey has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the final resting place of seventeen monarchs.
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/

Westminister Abbey

Next to the church is the St Margaret’s church [$8$]
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/st-margarets/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Margaret%27s,_Westminster

You can now proceed to Charring Cross from the Waterloo tube station or the Westminster tube station to visit Trafalgar square [$9$] its trademark is Nelson's Column which stands in the centre and the four lion statues that guard the column. Statues and sculptures are on display in the square, including a fourth plinth displaying changing pieces of contemporary art, and it is a site of political demonstrations.
The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been "King William the Fourth's Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar Square".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafalgar_Square

Trafalgar Square

As you walk further down the road you will enter the Buckingham Palace area and you can see the Buckingham Palace [$10$] at the end of the road. The change of guard [$11$] happens often and is worth to watch for few, though remember to get there early else your view won’t be too good. http://www.changing-the-guard.com/

Palace and the gates

Palace Square

Change of Guard

Now as you walk back you can enter the St James Park, Green Park [$12$] etc for a nice view of water birds, squirrels and nice greenery.
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/green_park/
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/st_james_park/

Royal Parks

Birds at the parks

Now if you hit lunch time Little Frankie’s [$13$] at the Trafalgar square is a good place to have some Italian and American dishes.

Now get to Charring cross station and take the tube to Baker Street for a visit of Madame Tussauds [$14$] - the famous wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It was set up by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud.
http://www.madametussauds.com/London/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Tussauds
[If you use south west trains for any part of your journey you have a two for one ticket offer]

Salman Khan at Madam Tussauds

As you walk back to the Baker Street station you can see the Statue of Sherlock Holmes – the famous fictional detective as his official address is 221 B Baker Street [$15$] an address that does not actually exist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Street

Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street

You can take the tube and get to BlackFriars station or London Bridge and walk down to the Shakespeare Globe theatre [$16$] Origin of Box Office – In earlier centuries the theatres didn’t have payment systems or ticket counters, there used to be a box where the people coming in would throw money and walk in to watch the play / show, as the collection gathered in the box, the box would be taken around to all the floors and then finally to a room / office room where it was stored, counted and kept in the safe. This bought the name as box office.
[Information gathered at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre tour]
http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/
[If you use south west trains for any part of your journey you have a two for one ticket offer]

Shakespeare's Globe theatre

Next you can walk down to the Tate Modern Art Gallery [$17$] next block, entrance is free and the art exhibits are as abstract as you can ever see.
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/

Tate Modern Art Gallery

You can cross the river by walking on top of the millennium bridge - the London Millennium Footbridge [$18$] is a pedestrian-only steel suspension bridge crossing the River Thames. Londoners nicknamed the bridge the Wobbly Bridge after crowds of pedestrians felt an unexpected swaying motion on the first two days after the bridge opened.

The southern end of the bridge is near Globe Theatre, the Bankside Gallery and Tate Modern, the north end next to the City of London School below St Paul's Cathedral. The bridge alignment is such that a clear view of St Paul's south facade is presented from across the river, framed by the bridge supports, thus providing a scenic view of the cathedral.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Bridge_(London)

Millennium bridge (Black Friars bridge in the back ground)

The view from the Millennium bridge

As you walk on the bridge you can see the Tower Bridge of London [$19$] to your right, Black Friars Bridge [$20$] to your right, St Paul’s Cathedral [$21$] directly in front.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfriars_Bridge

http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/TowerBridge/English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Bridge

St Paul’s Cathedral [$21$] is the Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill and the seat of the Bishop of London. Dates back to the 17th century. The cathedral sits on the edge of London's oldest region, the City, which originated as a Roman trading post along the edge of the River Thames. The cathedral is one of London's most visited sites.

The nearest London Underground station is St. Paul's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul%27s_Cathedral
http://www.stpauls.co.uk/

St Paul’s Cathedral

Info: If you have taken a day travel card – you will have unlimited train, tube and bus usage plus if you have taken the day travel card from a south western train station you can get the two for one offers as well.

You can take the tube or bus and proceed to Piccadilly Circus [$22$] and roam around and walk towards Oxford Street [$23$], Bond Street [$24$] – these are the main shopping areas of London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccadilly_Circus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Street
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_Street

Shopping streets

For cricket buffs you can take a tour of the Mecca of cricket – The Lords cricket ground [$25$] – there are only few tour timings in a day - http://www.lords.org

Lords cricket ground

For other important palaces you can visit the South Kensington Palace [$26$]
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page563.asp
[If you use south west trains for any part of your journey you have a two for one ticket offer]

Another famous Square is the Leicester Square [$27$] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_Square

For those who like going on boat rides there is a nice cruise from Waterloo to Greenwich passing through London Bridge [$28$], Tower Bridge of London, Tower Palace [$29$], Greenwich – this ride has a live commentary and is well worth the money.
http://www.citycruises.com/
[If you use south west trains for any part of your journey you have a two for one ticket offer] {33% percent off if you have a travel card}

Tower Bridge of London

Tower Bridge of London (in action)

London Bridge

Tower Palace

Greenwich [$30$] has many antiques selling markets and is a good place to roam about, it is best known for its maritime history and as giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. You can go and visit the zero degree line [$31$] and stand in the West and East hemisphere at the same time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich

Royal Observatory

Greenwich Station

Zero Degree line

British Museum [$32$] is a must for the museum lovers -
http://www.britishmuseum.org/

Kew Gardens & the Treetop walkway[$33$] - its nice to walk in a garden among trees, but how nice would it be to walk among trees at the height of trees...
http://apps.kew.org/trees/
http://www.kew.org/visitor/visitkew.html

London, Europe - art flourishes, theater [$34$] floors you, the latest I have been to was a pantomime - Aladdin...for tickets (good deals)
http://www.lastminute.com/site/entertainment/theatre/
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWTrains/Destinations/specialoffers/_2for1.htm
http://www.ambassadortickets.com/New-Victoria-Theatre

Bird lovers can visit the Wet Land Center in Barnes, London [$35$]
- two for one offer applies
http://www.wwt.org.uk

Shopping freaks can visit the Harrods Mall and get their bank accounts cleared of the excesses, London [$36$] - it has 11000 bulbs lighting up the outer walls...
http://www.harrods.com/harrodsstore/
- two for one offer applies

A really recommended Indian /Sri Lankan eat out in Wembley is the Gana Cafe, mind boggling food, [$37$]
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2008/10/england-srilanka-connection.html

Other places to visit within 1-2 hours of drive / train are
1) Oxfordshire
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2008/11/windsor-castle-and-oxford.html
2) Bath Spa
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2008/09/bath-spa-lucky.html
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2008/12/photograph-guide.html
3) Brighton
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2008/10/brighton-day-trip-boon.html
4) Bournemouth
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2008/09/bournemouth-good-entertainer.html
5) Portsmouth harbor
6) Isle of Wight
7) Windsor Castle
http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2008/11/windsor-castle-and-oxford.html

Hope you liked reading this guide. Contact me for any help...

m.I.m

Wild thoughts of MiM! - Part 4

2008-12-31T16:39:00.003+05:30

Another one of my wacky / tacky thoughts / joke

Mom: Children come and taste the dinner that I have made, its a lovely new recipe, I am sure it will take you to heaven.

Children: (Amidst groans and grins) - mom incidentally or coincidentally the last time you said the same thing we landed in the hospice / clinic / doctors place called heaven... :)

Apologies if you didn't laugh. Anyways laugh your way into 2009 Wish you a happy and prosperous new year.

Click on the picture to have a clear view
http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim/3152711077/

Wild thoughts of MiM - 1
Wild thoughts of MiM -2
Wild thoughts of MiM -3

Photography - http://www.flickr.com/photos/minmaxmim

m.I.m