Arbit Scratchpad

The Amida Simputer The Amida Simputer - the portable handheld computer - designed and developed by PicoPeta and manfactured by BEL hit the market recently on 26th ... A few of us were given a simputer each at our workplace (BEL) to evaluate for a week before the launch - its amazingly stable and feature-rich. A host of innovative features from gesture recognition (motion sensors) to being a mobile device connecting to the net from landlines (though at home somehow I could not manage to connect some busy signal/sending password, but some of my colleagues managed to connect successfully) or CDMA phones, a handful of games, an MP3 player, an image viewer, browser, anywhere text scribbling/erase and many many more nifty utilities. The gesture recognition thingie is real stunning; flipping the device you can navigate or move through pictures, ebooks, notes... I actually managed to take notes at a meeting using the scribble feature using the accompanying stylus - it has ...

LATEST BIG 5 TEST RESULTS Big Five Test Results Extroversion (44%) moderately low which suggests you are quiet, unassertive, and aloof. Friendliness (64%) moderately high which suggests you are good natured, trusting, and helpful but possibly too much of a follower Orderliness (68%) moderately high which suggests you are organized, reliable, neat, and ambitious but possibly not very spontaneous and fun. Emotional Stability (42%) moderately low which suggests you are worrying, insecure, emotional, and nervous. Openmindedness (76%) high which suggests you are very intellectual, curious, imaginative but possibly not very practical. Take Free Big Five Personality Test personality tests by similarminds.com EARLIER RESULTS - THESE CHANGE OVER TIME ... The Big Five Personality Test Extroverted |||||||||||| 48% Introverted |||||||||||||| 52% Friendly |||||||||||| 50% Aggressive |||||||||||| 50% Orderly |||||||||||||| 58% Disorderly |||||||||||| 42% ...

Listening to: Ghazals by two brilliant singers - legends... Mausam ko isharo se kyo bula nahi lete Jagjit Singh Dhua bana ke fiza me udaa diya mujhko Lata Mangeshkar An amazing ghazal Fedora Core 1 is not allowing installation of packges directly out of the CDs using the add/delete software feature. Got the 3rd CD yesterday through my copy of Linux For You. They had a great promo ad campaign for the mag (first of its kind focussed on Open source and Linux in Asia) - a superb punchline : FOR EVERY WINDOW THAT CLOSES THERE'S ALWAYS A NEW DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY. OPEN IT (Pun ?) The Da Vinci Code is a speeding thriller with insightful historical facts(fiction) thrown in The writing has an inherent crackling speed, is a natural page turner, but it seems the language gets insipid sometimes meaning he (Dan Brown) does not express the emotions of his characters apart from fear and uncertainity. The writing has very little real literary depth, only in ...

Currently Reading: Autobiography of a Yogi by Swami Yogananda (The true life account of a yogi since his young days with unbelievable accounts of rishis and saints, miracles and spirituality) and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (The Holy Grail and the scandalous history of christianity, the church, Mary Magdalene as the companion of Jesus, all revealed in hidden symbology and secret societies who possess the key to the documents revealing this and more; and a fight to obtain them as the protectors are all murdered for this very reason and then starts the thrilling sequence of events - a well written book in a gripping novel almost entirely set in France starting from its Louvre museum (where the Mona Lisa is))

E-Revolution - The biggest environmental hazard of the future ? Millions of computers are getting disposed every day across the world and now in a big way in our country too thanks to the IT boom. There exists no stringent laws on the recycling and reuse of these toxic items such as cabinets, motherboards, chips and monitors. And as a result the local recyclers try to extract precious metals (read gold) and recycle these in all sorts of hazardous ways thus putting themselves in danger and propagating serious environmental pollution. The LCD in the monitors are toxic chemicals and the alloys and fumes out of burning other such chemicals and polymers and plastics could be deadly thus polluting neighbouring areas too. The illegal disposal and sale of these is even worse - the toxic materials are dumped into our country from the US apart from those that we ourselves generate - China has banned this but we have not because it provides a large number of people with their only means of l...

Entry for the day : Linux Kernel v2.6 performance tests ... Its a great performer, it seems - need to install it - got the sources with me from the LFY CDs... 'At the core of the enhancements in v2.6 is a new process scheduler. The process scheduler in the kernel divides CPU resources among system processes. The performance of the scheduler directly impacts system responsiveness and process latency. In the v2.6 kernel, the new 0(1) scheduler incorporates new algorithms that can substantially increase system performance, especially interactive tasks. The 0(1) scheduler can penalize CPU-hogging processes, improves process prioritization, and provides consistent performance across all processes. Also new in v2.6 are two new I/O schedulers. The scheduler used in the v2.6 kernel by default, the anticipatory scheduler, brings much improved handling of I/O scheduling, ensuring that processes get I/O time when necessary, without unnecessary queuing. Also present is the deadline...

Today is Swami Vivekananda's(1863-1902) 141st birth anniversary. His own words reflect the concepts of communal harmony and religious peace that seems to be missing in this world nowadays... " Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid. The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant. Similar is the case with rel...