$10 laptop computer in schools and colleges in india…

FastCompany posts about $10/- educational laptop computer to be made available in schools and colleges across India. OLPC has come up with a One-Laptop-Per-Child-Program – see more about it here http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/indias-10-laptop

No eggs in Egg plant…

We were talking about how amazing the languages are. some one mentioned about  “no eggs in egg plant” and that reminds me of my first experience ordering pizza at a pizza place in New Jersey. I was about a week or two in this country and was trying Pizza for the 2nd time. We asked for a slice of vege pizza and here goes the conversation:

Me: a slice of vege pizza please
PizzaGal: toppings?
Me: what are the options?
PizzaGal: onions, tomatoes, egg plant, …
Me: no eggs please! No meat please!
PizzaGal: that’s right, no eggs, it’s a vegetable
Me: (confused) that’s alright – no egg plant

It was quiet sometime when I learned about egg plant is indeed a vegetable

Gang Cei Fa Cai – Happy New Year to my Chinese friends…

A new year in China nationals starts today. Chinese years go by different symbols for each year and this year it happens to be Ox. The other day, I heard on the local radio, that it is so timely with all the economic issues we have worldwide, the new year with Ox, meaning praying god to give all the strength we need to bear this economic burden and cruise through with this tough situation. Ox is considered to be fairly stronger animal and helps farming the crops.

(image: http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/images/ox.jpg)

Few years ago, when I called a co-worker to greet him on this occasion and somewhat (wrongly) pronounced this phrase (Gang Cei fa Chai!) and in return he suggested me to also say “hum bou na lai” –> meaning, bring me the lucky money.

 

I remember the new year celebration when i lived in Singapore a few years ago. Few of our friends went around the city the previous day after work. It was a bit late when I finally reached the place where I lived. There was a lot of crowd at the center of the city and the residential areas were quite calm. Apparently when I reached the place where I lived, it was fairly empty. I needed to buy some eatables for that night and the following day, apparently no stores were open all day. There were very few buses being operated on that day as well. What I heard later on was, often people either stay home or go outside for food. I also heard that they would not cook food on that day but all things are prepared the previous day itself.

Parades are one of most attractive events during this time in Singapore.

I also heard on a local radio a week ago, that this is the day they pray a Kitchen God who resides right by the Cooking range / stove. Pray the god offer lots of food and wine to ensure the Kitchen God would convey all the right things about the residents to the superior god in heaven.

listening to some of these stories or traditions, I realize there are many rituals or customs somehow relates to what we do as part of our traditions in India. Southern part of India will celebrate the new year around March or April when a start of Hindu Calendar (Chaitra month) starts.

Here are some resources:

about Chinese new year: http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/
on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year
Activities / superstitions around new year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year#Superstitions_during_the_New_Year_period
ugadi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugadi

Technorati Tags: Chinese New year

Aircraft 75 years from now…

Wright Brothers showed the way, and now the aircrafts later this century going to be a completely innovated and super looking, possibly fuel  and energy efficient, and hopefully better services – Robots?

snapshots below are directly from
http://www.departure2093.com/en/future_fleet_images/?id=20

see more here ==> quite informative…

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/01/in-85-years-air.html

They look cool thought…

Appears to be a good start…

President of USA appears to be on a great start at his office on Day 1. It sounds like a good move with middle-east peace initiative and hopefully end those wars.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28767687/?GT1=43001

Picture: http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090121-obamawh-hnmed-930a.rp420×400.jpg

Presidential Inauguration – Technology cycle

Wired magazine has a great article about how the Presidential inaugurations were celebrated in terms of technology back then and now. Recently when I heard several people mention about the inauguration webcast and watching the celebration at the community gatherings etc, I was thinking about how such events were communicated/conveyed to the people when there was no web or Television. Here I notice this article gives an overview timeline from technology aspect.

Also take a look at this slideshow here

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/01/dayintech_0120

… $160 mil party

You can watch the inauguration online on 20th, and there are bunch of host sites that you can go to. More details here

hmm.. am I reading this as $160 million?  not $160 thousand or a $1.6 million but a $160 million Dollar party? I thought we have an economy issue … Where is this money coming from?

We are snowed again….

We went around this afternoon, though cloudy, didn’t think it was going to snow. From local stores, we thought of driving a little further (about 27miles away) to IKEA stores. Our objective at this store was to look for something we wanted and get out within at the most 15minutes. We also took note of time we checked in. To start with and along the way, we did rush through our steps and didn’t really look around the things. In spite, by the time we came out of payment counters, it was about 90minutes. We stopped for an ice-cream at the store exit, and spent another 30minutes. It was around 5:30 and we knew it would be dark outside, but when we really came closer to the exit door, we realized it was even snowing a little bit.

This is when I realized we had to fill in the gas. Looked for a gas station near by and once done, hit the road again. Traffic was ok but I realized the road was a bit slippery. we just prayed to get home quick and safe. An hour later, we were in our home complex and sighed with relief. *we are home*

as we approached our home, we noticed approximately about an inch of snow blanket on roads and sidewalks.

Technorati Tags: snow,winter

Happy New Year 2009

Wish you all a very happy healthy

& prosperous New Year 2009