January 2006 Archives

Roger Federer, the swiss tennis superstar won his 7th grandslam at the Australian open 2006.

Roger federer is crying.. !!@@!!
Boys shouldn't cry... roger.. no.. STOP. yak.. he cried :o)

---Excerpts from the news.
Roger was unable to contain his emotions after receiving the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup from Australian Rod Laver, the last player to hold all four major titles simultaneously. "I guess it's all coming out now," said Roger, with tears streaming down his cheeks. "I've had some hard speeches but this one is really tough."

Later, Roger explained that the magnitude of his latest achievement had been overwhelming. "It was a different type of grand slam victory, and I think that's why it was so emotional for me," he said. "I felt very nervous going into the match again. I was incredibly nervous, actually."
---

A friend of mine told me that, once in an interview Federer was asked what's the secret of his game.. and he said something like this..
"I dont know.. I almost feel nothing else except the game when i am on the court.. I forget myself, the people around sometimes, and everything. I do feel like i came back from a different world when the game is over. Looking back, I myself feel when did i play like that. Most games make me lose sight of everything else and i get so involved."

And once, adre agassi remarked after losing to Federer.. "He is so precise, accurate, and clean in his game. His precision is like art, and is the best I have seen. He is so very close to perfection in his game. And I am happy playing him...no wonder i lost."

...And that's how the professional is playing his tennis. Not like a game for fun. but professionally giving the best.

Also, the Women's singles title winner at the australian open 2006, Amelia mauresmo said.. "I was ready to die on court today.." after winning the finals.

Tennis is not a game when some people give so much to it...its art.

Related Links:
Roger federer has a very very cool official homepage. The website is as professional like Federer himself.
http://www.rogerfederer.com

Australian-open photo gallery

"One person dies of bird flu in china.." reported the presenter on BBC news.. We have heard about deaths due to bird flu in different parts of the world.. all reporting a few deaths now and then.

This virus is very confusing and peculiar.

Is it really attacking only particular people.. and killing a very few here and there in the world..

or,
is it like governments of countries suppress the number of deaths to avoid panic with tourists and local people.

Because, i have not heard about any virus that can affect only particular people. Viruses don't spread like that. they spread like slow fire. they make all their victims difficult.

Also, i have heard that atleast 90% of bird flu victims are from asia or a few european countries.. Is bird flu sensitive to climate or something because of which it is more threatening to asian and a few european countries, countries which are close to equator alone?

All these confusions, and i could derive the following quickly from the web recently.

1. Bird flu has for centuries been there affecting birds, and sometimes pigs and a few other animals. But in recent years the virus seems to have gained strength to jump from birds and infect humans, and particular strains of bird flu called 'Avian influenza' are the ones that infect humans.

These strains of the virus move from bird to human infecting them. Yes, as far as I could find out, bird flu can infect a person only from birds.. at this point of time atleast the virus is not capable of moving from human to human..

It definitely is a peculiar virus to study.. no wonder no effective medicine is yet identified to save humans.

2. But there isn't "just one" bird flu - there are many.

3. Even so, only the strain "H5N1 virus" or "Avian Flu" or "Avian influenza" is capable of infecting humans with potentially devastating consequences.

4. Since at this point of time it can move from only a bird to human.. not from human to human..and only particular strains are devastating on humans, the virus is killing less humans.

5. The only way known to control bird flu is... to kill affected or probably affected birds.. and this one concept kills millions of chicken every year.

6. The biggest threat is, if bird flu mixes with human flu or somehow gets capability to move from human-to-human... that day could trigger something very serious.

Related links:
Center for disease control and prevention
Whats bird flu
61 facts on bird-flu

This post is for people who are in line with news about software industry.. Pardon me to write technical content.. but this is getting interesting about the future of Windows technologies.

Story So Far...
When Microsoft launched .Net, all the world's programmers had a shock and protested, since .Net was, and is, slowly replacing every other microsoft programming language like 'the lovely' VisualBasic, 'the solid' VisualC++.

What happened to the protest.. did Microsoft do something?
Many technology bloggers suggest that programmers forgot the protest since web boomed and everyone was busy creating web applications. Even today, in my opinion out of every 100 applications we develop, only one or two are windows applications, others are web based.

Why Web applications attracted the developers?
Businesses and corporates are now totally webby about software.

Right from HR management applications, to banking applications, to end-user free service like chats, addressbooks, .. everything is web-based today. Even some anti-virus solutions are web-based these days.

The developer community marketed the web rightly because they like it.

The web gives a huge relief to developers because of the fact that the end-user only needs to have a web-browser no-matter which web application he is using. This eliminated a bigger worry of making an application work on every PC given the huge number of choices in hardware and OS these days.

Microsoft's success with the bigger problem:
Imagine,.. All your customers are glued to a set of technologies that you developed, and this technology is largely becoming outdated and supporting it is counting on your resources which want to develop new and better technologies..
Could there be a better victory than your customers allowing you to removing the old stuff and replace it with new ones.

This happened for Microsoft. Because developers and technologists were busy (and still busy) with web-based technologies like DHTML, XML, blogs, RSS, ASP.NET and the likes... Microsoft had success in establishing .NET without frowns from the developers who determine whether any technology succeeds or not.

With this success behind it, Microsoft is planning more such revamp to its existing technology.

New technology is good, better and it helps evolve more better software. But more than this, its good to software industry for reasons of more work.

The Future..
Everyone of us have heard about Microsoft working on things they like calling Whidbey, Yukon, Longhorn etc., And that Microsoft is planning releases of all these new software in the coming years.

What's on store:

Whidbey - A new .NET (which suggest to be more backward "INCOMPATIBLE" than the already existing .net version which doesn't support any old applications developed in languages like Visual Basic, Visual C++ etc.,)

Yukon - A new SQL Server

WinFX - A replacement for Win32 and NTFS fiesystem itself they say.

Longhorn OS - Already called 'Windows Vista' and ready for launch, suggests to support .net applications more than non-.net applications. A microsoft support guy also told me 4-5 months back that the WinFX system which will be part of longhorn is the reason delaying longhorn's (or Vista's)launch.

ASP.NET 2.0 - A new ASP.NET framework that claims to be upgrade of the existng web programming framework of microsoft.

God... that's everything.. the win32 system is being changed, OS technology is getting changed, Database server, and .NET framework which will be the base of future windows OS's ...are all going to change.

Windows technologies are going to change.

That means, all application that run on Visual basic or C++ technologies, will need a partial migration(if not total migration) to new technology.

This is to take advantage of the new changes, or who knows windows software may not run itself on the new platforms if they aren't migrated... because doubts and rumours are looming large that backward compatibility has been of less priority to Microsoft while developing the new techonlogies.

A new boom in desktop / windows based applications underway?
To me all this looks like.. there are going to be more migration projects to convert outdated technology(Visual basic, VC++ and win32) applications to newer technologies, ... very similar to projects we see today to migrate ASP to ASP.NET, or VB to VB.NET.

The Launch party
Microsoft is planning to release all new technology within 2008, gradually with all their usual hype, claims, and promises...which worked for .NET's launch in 2000.

Its worthwhile noting here that Microsoft worked on .NET's launch for almost 2 years, from 2000 to 2002.. .NET and new OSes like WinXP were marketed non-stop.

Why India would benefit?
> Because migration projects are generally considered for outsourcing.
> Outsourced projects go to countries where cost is low, resources are high, quality is satisfactory and promising.
> India has successfully created a promising pool of software resource headcount continously in the past 5 years.

Migration projects are not new software development, but same old software re-wired with new technologies.

Also, when migration is only to upgrade the technology and the software needs to functionally do the same things like before, people only tend to spend less money on the migration... moving such projects to the outsourcing pool.

If you don't trust me on why I feel India will benefit,... then think about why Microsoft is all of a sudden tempted to invest $1.7billion in its Indian operations without doing this all these years when outsourcing was already hot. Bill gates who recently came to India announced about this investment plan of $2billion.

Indian software industry needn't worry on getting projects, and can concentrate only on building resources for the demand expected.

My thoughts on "The India awakening"

Read it on jpmmr

Toys these days... adults find it more funny than children. Think about those japanese robot dogs, robotic restaurant helper and all. Its the adult who loves it and gets his/her grab on one.

I found a regular column on funny gadjets in 'The Times' UK edition, pointing to this website "I want one of those.com" or iwoot.com for buying these gadjets.

Properly called toys, rather than gadjets.. these make good fun even knowing that people are making them. And having them in your dull office could in fact increase productivity :0). Listed are a few.

Room Defender: Mounted on three gun-turret style legs, the Room Defender will protect your privacy from prying snoopers. It has a motion sensor alarm, so when someone enters your room it will give a verbal warning to the intruder, then fire a warning shot (in the form of a foam disc).
Room Defender on iwoot.com

Pokia Mobile Handset: Competition for Nokia is here.
Attached to your mobile phone, it becomes your receiver. For those who are more comfortable using the old receiver type than the phone that never connects your ear and mouth.
Best of all, its great fun to use this on the road, having everyone wonder what on earth you are doing with this phone in your hand in place.
And what better, the phone has connector options ranging from your economic Nokia old model, to a blackberry or a PDA. check it out.
Pokia on iwoot.com

Shark Attack: A remote controlled shark! Not just any old propeller driven fish, oh no, this fabulous finned wonder actually swims with it's tail, just like the real thing - but is considerably less likely to eat you. See the video
Shark Attack! on iwoot.com

Cow Clock: A classic kooky clock for cow lovers everywhere.
cowclock on iwoot.com

Tiki Island Tissue Dispenser: Your standard tissue box has never been a particularly aesthetic desktop item. Now at last, someone with a sense of humour and a flair for design has come up with tissue box covers with a dash of panache.
Tiki on iwoot.com

You require:

*WATER
- 4 to 12 volumes of water, for one volume of beer.
*MALT
- Arguably the most important raw material...for those enzymes and extracts for making beer naturally.

Enzymes are catalysts of chemical reactions. Yes beer is made by a natural process similar to how curd/yoghurt is made from milk.

Malt is derived from special varieties of barley by the malting process.

*HOPS
- Kiln-dried cones also for extracts. Hops is a farm product like barley.

*YEAST
- A living organism (that is sold in packets in stores), and hence not called a raw material much of the time :0) Used for fermentation process which is largely responsible for making natural beer.

And yes, many other ingredients to create the flavor, the proper concentration of ingredients, and to make the proper popular flavored beer.

We have completed listing the core raw materials. The process is just a mixture of heating, fermentation, and extraction processes...better explained with scientific terms and details in 'related links' at the end of this article.

I will just avoid writing the chemical part and write here the part of beer technology that I liked understanding.

Enzymes in beer?
There are enzymes available for every chemical reaction of life...only for chemical reactions, not for anything else of life though :o). Enzymes are protein molecules which accelerate chemical reactions.

Carbohydrates in beer?
Carbohydrates are an important source of energy for living organisms and a means by which energy may be stored. The starch of barley, the malt and extracts provide for carbohydrates in beer. So, if anybody told that drinking beer is actually healthy, they are partially right, but then, there are much better foods to good health than drinking this fermented liquid (unless you drink beer not just for health). Beer is not drunk for its energy even if anyone told you so.

Carbon di-oxide in beer?
Carbon di-oxide is something that our body and most living beings exhale as impurity. And our vehicles do the same, as a pollutant.

But in beer carbon dioxide is used as a conditioner; and for that pressurized packaging in tins/bottles.

Oxygen in beer?
Some relief here from the above paragraph.. Oxygen is injected into the beer making process for allowing for yeast growth, for better fermentation.

Beer is green. not yellow?
Beer made naturally is Green beer, and the yellowish version is due to additives, coloring/flavoring agents, packaging agents etc.,

Well.. that's how much I found out about Beer !!

Related reading: If you are more interested in the manufacture process of beer that I left incomplete above... read one of these.

Book: "Brewing -by Lewis & Young"
Web links:
Making low-cost home-made beer.. with illustrations
How stuff works: Beer: Illustrations from factory

This was the last second of 2005.

Happy New year 2006.