Macworld: News: MIT to launch $100 laptop prototype in November



This initiative doesn't involve Intel or Microsoft!Now thats definitely a wonderful effort and has a stamp of a genuine noble endeavour!

As to children accessing pornography, the lab is working on how best to block harmful online content, he said. However, Negroponte asks people not to blame the medium. “Pornography uses the printed page, but [Johannes] Gutenberg [the inventor of the printing press] isn’t getting much flak,” he quipped.

Kudos to Negroponte and companies like AMD/Google backing this effort!
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

so makkalae..
ellaarum latestaa enna padam paathaenga/paatu kaetaenga?

I saw thotti jaya last week..karmam...its shud have been named dirty jaya!!
sakka worstu movie..onnumae illa padathla..full fighting dhaan..adhuvum very local..

Parineeta was beautiful...vidya balan was so lovely to watch!
bunty aur babli sahikala...Kajra re paatu maathram super duper hit! Ash kalakirndhaa.
Sarkar was an okay types..nowhere comparable to godfather or nayagan though..
Bride and prejudice was very colourful..But concept konjam too muchaa irundhudhu..

feb 14 nu oru padam paathaen..not so great movie..paatulaam superaa irkum andhe padathla but..
arindhum ariyaamalum was ok types..prakash raj villianaa vandhu comedy pannitaan..Arya looked decent...paatulaam semmaya irundhudhu..
Priyasakhi was nice but overaa Sadha thoppul :p kaamchu saagadichutaan!

I am yet to see Aaa Aaah..oru kalluriyin kadhai...paheli..dus..Mangal Pandey...daas..jitthan..maayaavi..chinnaa...idhulaam computer la download panni vechurkaen..but no enthu/time to watch :)

adthathu adhukulla Gajni vera release panniduva polarke..hmm..next i guess i will watch that then...

saw transporter 2 in the theatre on saturday..as usual hollywood masala movie..Audi car was awesome!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

-That it doesn't happen 'Only in India' - even the so-called developed nations like U.S.A can go wrong in its prediction of weather and the path of hurricanes. - Not a single drop of rain or any gusty wind here in austin!

-That somehow Texas seems to get higher priority in terms of political attention and precautionary measures when compared to Louisiana. - Is it because TX is the president's state or because Louisiana is predominantly an afro-american infested state?

-That Bush's vacation is over and he still can use phrases like 'weapons of mass destruction' or 'war against weather' while referring to Katrina or Rita. - It was really pathetic to see him speak stupidly as usual!

-That people in the U.S are either over-cautious or totally carefree!

-That no matter it was a hurricane scary weekend or a normal weekend,people don't turn up at work on friday or leave as early as 11 a.m!

-That people are so paranoid that they end up buying groceries and things that they would never have bought and used even on a normal day.I heard a friend stock up cereals,milk,fruits and many other things that I bet he would never eat even on a normal day!

-That 100 different news channels survive 24 hours showing the same pictures and talking about the same set of things happening!None of them have anything remotely different from each other to offer and none of them get tired of showing the waves rising and flooded areas!

-That refugees or evacuees in the U.S,sometimes end up leading a better life with new sheets/new clothes/better living conditions and fresher food than when they lived earlier normally!That really is different than in India,where any refugee or evacuee would be considered on par to a beggar and would be generously endowed with most of the old clothes and leftovers!

-That these deadly hurricanes are aptly named after females!You never know when they are serious and where they would hit you!The damage can never be assessed exactly and they can paint the entire town red,when they are in full form!

-That lack of affordable mass public transport system such as the railways is a main problem in the U.S!I wonder if this kind of a congestion on the roads and large scale use of gas could have been avoided with trains carrying people out to safer places!

-That this instance of over-cautiousness is going to be akin to the 'puli varadhu' story!Next time theres a major hurricane,I doubt if people are going to take pains in evacuating,considering the 13 hr drives to cover 100 miles of distance!

-That whether its Katrina or Rita,the desis here in U.S just wait for the action to end being never tired of watching the KATRINA Kaif movie that they downloaded from the internet and the americans just continue sipping their beer and MargaRITAs, well seated on their couches!

-That folks in India have started getting better awareness about U.S and its weather patern!-I was amazed to hear warnings and friendly advices from friends and family even a week earlier than RITA was supposed to hit!Paatis,amma and maamis speaking of hurricanes,typhoons and tornadoes and their categories ranging from level 3/benign nature etc with such elan brought a smile in me!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Bride and Prejudice by Gurinder Chadda offered a few well-cherished smiles this weekend!The funny take on the matrimonial process in India was a treat to watch mainly because I was able to relate well to the digs taken at both the Indian families and the NRI guys!But the story seemed to fit much into the year 2020 time period wherein it would have been apt to display the way this movie portrayed the Indian families having no reservations against marrying their daughters off to any phirangi fellow,ranging from Brits to the Americans,encompassing the green card holding confused desi junta too!


The songs seemed to be out of place due to the 'sound of music' like interlacing of songs and dialogues with no real demarcation between the scenes!The music,which screamed of its Indianness seemed to have been majorly screwed around with random English words,although one particular song seemed to very funny with the American people ranging from the Baywatch junta to the African American church Choir people humming to the punjabi beats!
The movie portrayed a colourful India and wonderfully dressed desis in every frame,but it lacked the depth everytime Aishwarya Rai tried to justify the cultural significance and beauty of India.Aishwarya Rai seemed to speak a passable accent of English and yet again reminded that she lacked some kind of a natural instinct while acting.It did seem to be a well rehearsed effort from the start till the end.The hero of the movie played his role with ease,although he failed to represent the normal american guy who you might see here in the U.S.A!

The Kohli Sahab character seemed to be a funny element in the movie,quite successfully exaggerating the ABCD outlook!Some of his mannerisms,albiet evoking some laughter,made it look horrible!

Overall a decent timepass movie for the Indian audience.Not at all a good example to showcase India in front of the entire world as a poor country laden with desperate girls ready to forsake their families and culture just to get married to white men!
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Ammani has a request for bloggers to put up this notice about fundraising for a noble cause!
Its fairly easy to donate using Paypal.

I donated the 2$ and I did feel good abt it.The feel of thinking abt 1 child in India eat for a whole week - That really is worth the effort!
Or if you think you are not able to relate to that feeling that well,think abt it as a very nominal fee being requested for all those hours of wholesome entertainment from the blog world(mainly ammani)!

So,you benevolent bloghoppers!Take a minute of your time and 2$ of your pocket money and please donate!
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Watch Free Movies Online - Free Movie Downloads
Its got mostly the old classics!But a very useful site when it comes down to killing a solid 2 or 3 hours on a saturday morning!
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

These are the 50 top downloads from download.com!

Other things I found to be cool...
1) Roamdrive is similar to gmail drive where you can drag and drop - files and it goes into your gmail account.But here you can do that for hotmail as well as Gmail.The GUI looks neat too.
I found it more useful in the reverse process.I can actually drag and drop files from the roamdrive application onto another computer!


2) EvilLyrics is a program for displaying lyrics to the current song in your media played

Run the program and any of supported media players. Lyrics are fetched every time song in the player changes!
Sorry.It works for Enlgish only :p...

3)For all those multiple personality disorder people :) - This application will allow you to run multiple instances of Yahoo! Messenger(under several names) instead of only having one open.


-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Answers.com - Alt + click is a pretty cool application for someone like me whos started to forget the meanings of many words I knew earlier during the GRE study days and also for acquiring general knowledge about stuff I din't know earlier.
Point to a word and press alt+click your mouse !Details about the word pointed to, gets displayed in the answers.com window!
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Outsourcing: A sea change

What next?Coding from the skies/parachutes? :)
How abt from the moon?

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

I'm not a musician..
but I can make you appreciate the world of music better..

I'm not at all a cook..
but I can help you spice up your culinary skills better...

I'm not an accountant...
but I sure can help you save some money...

I am not a billboard...
but I host the maximum number of ads on earth...

I am not a polyglot..
but nothing gets lost in my translation...

I am not a star maker...
but in my world of blogs,everyones a hero...

I'm definitely not a genie..
but I can almost make all your thoughts/wishes come true...

I am not a researcher with any degree..
but I shall strive to search anything for you to any degree...

I don't really live..
but I make you live your life better!

Thats me..Watchout! :)
Google!

Posted by rajesh |

Shame!

Inspired from this...

He was sorry the AC in the room was not cold enough. He regretted that the coke he ordered for her was so warm. He apologised for the raindrops that escaped the umbrella that he held over her head. Wasn’t he sad that the traffic signal continued to be red? Surely it was his fault that their son did not qualify for the tennis finals. How terrible he felt that her credit card limit got maxed out. He took responsibility for her being late,busy applying the nth coating of lipstick. And the baby food that he bought last week, getting over early. And the government bandhs and the oversweet mango jams. It was all down to him. It’s my mistake, it’s my mistake, it’s all my mistake, he admitted. When really, he couldn’t give a damn. A rat’s ass. Or a row of pins.
But then he knew something for sure..
A punch on her face would not help make things better either!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Gokulaashtami just whizzed past last month and fortunately this year,I had a pleasant surprise when my friends and I casually visited a friend and his mom treated us to the long-forgotten delicacies...
The Uppu Seedai....
The Vella Seedai.....
Kai murukku ....
Neii appam....

Later I visited the webpage of Sree Krishna sweets and I almost felt like a kid which was given a free entry into some theme park and enjoy all its rides happily the whole day.
The colourful images of all the sweets and savories brought in lots of fond memories from childhood!Some of the sweets reminded of specific relatives.

Eg:The theratipaal reminded me of my Thaatha and Paati who used to meticulously churn gallons and gallons of hot boiling milk in a huge irumbu Kachatti,in an attempt to make the wonderfully tasting therattipaal!Everytime,I used to feel cheated at the end of the ordeal,when all that volume of milk used to evaporate into thin air and what would remain was an unbelievably small quantity of the sweet!And then there would be a frantic fight among us cousins till the barrel was religiously scrapped for discovering even the last bit of therattipaal sticking in the recesses!






The Mysurpa reminded me of the funny incident of Amma trying a hand at it once and everything seeming to go great and fine until the hot molten mixture was poured into the stainless steel plate and letting it to cool for sometime to get a solid texture!The sweet turned so super solid in texture that the knife which was half buried in the mass of Mysurpa broke while we tried to pull it out for cutting.All my uncles and I made fun about using the hammer to break the mysurpa! :)
This Mysurpa from Grand sweets/Krishna Sweets has become some kind of a brand ambassador for both these establishments and almost certainly find a place in any Southie NRI's American Tourister suitcases enroute to the U.S.A!

Take a look at some of these breath-taking,mouth watering sweets...



Thats not really just a silly bunch of bananas!!Thats infact a meticulously shaped sweet!






If you thought you could get that Pattu Veshti or Saree at Nalli or Kumaran,you are totally wrong!Those are some of the catchy creations at Krishna Sweets.Never knew our makkal could get to such a level of creativity!

Kudos to our moms and paatis,who have been mastering the art of sweet making all through the years and finally heartfelt gratitude to the Grand/Krishna Sweets,who,I am sure would help in the sustenance of all our traditions ,particularly with our current generation terribly losing the interest and knowledge of cooking/making sweets!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Go to

http://www.konfabulator.com/download

From there,download that application .

And then you can go to http://www.widgetgallery.com/

There are so many very creative applications..that I am sure you enjoy.
Examples...
1)Coffee alarm..
2)NY Times reader ...
3)Gas price watcher ..
4)People Finder ...

There are so many other things..Enjoy.
Let me know if you found something else in the gallery that was cool!
-Rajesh

Posted by rajesh |