Group Dynamics

Last week, I was talking to a friend of mine about a movie. He told me that the movie sucked big time and told me to never ever watch that movie. Once he said that I should never ever watch that movie, it induced a great curiosity in me to watch that movie. How bad a movie can be? Am I so time bound that spending couple of hours in a movie is going to be a waste of time? Well, if you are wondering which movie I am talking about or who the friend is, sorry...I just made it up... The real question is how do we shape ourselves up in a society? Assume the same scenario as before. Instead of you being alone, assume that you have a whole bunch of your friends with you and they all buy into your friend's comments and they all decide to not watch the movie. Will you still watch it?

I was with a group of friends the other day and someone started talking about a new movie. I dont know about others. I am usually hesitant before giving a opinion out loud irrespective of whether it is a good one or a bad one, especially if I have an extreme opinion. I usually sense the vibe of the group and then adapt my answers in such a way that it doesnt create a major conflict of opinions. I think we all probably do that at some degree or other. I think we've acquired a characteristic to mold ourselves to get along with the surroundings. Ofcourse, there are exceptions like this friend of mine who always tries to come up with an anti-argument for any argument placed. Once again, if you are wondering who the friend is or what the movie is, I made that one up too...

We had an exercise in my class yesterday. It is a role play and everyone was supposed to play their part. Everyone had a hidden agenda that they were not supposed to reveal explicitly, but try to achieve it. It is just amazing how a simple role play exercise would transform our thought process into doing things that we dont normally do. Anyway, I played the VP of chamber of commerce and the discussion was to determine what kind of voting mechanism was needed to bring a new board member to the council and what should be the term of the board member. My role was to not really care about the board meeting. I had to accept what others had to say, especially Carol. I had to specifically impress one board member, Carol Stone so that I can go out on a date with her at the end of the meeting. It was an interesting role. My professor was quite impressed with the way I conducted myself...Carol was impressed too...Now, this is not something that I made up..;)

IPTV in Junior Vikatan

Primer/Description: IPTV describes a system where a Digital television service is delivered to subscribing consumers using the IP over a broadband connection. This service is often provided in conjunction with video on demand and may also include internet services such as web access and VoIP where it may be called as Triple Play.

Redback (my employer) is one of the key companies working on IPTV and Triple Play software and hardware. I have heard our CEO mentioning triple play in our small group meetings and in company meetings. I viewed this as a technical mumbo-jumbo and a catchy phrase used to describe the technology.

Even when Redback got a contract with Bellsouth (public information) for triple play, I did not pay any attention. But recently there was some report which said, IPTV is going to be deployed in India. I was surprised but again I did not think too much (it is tough to make me think!)

Finally today I was reading Junior vikatan (a spin-off of Anandha Vikatan) to find out what actress Namitha has to say about Tamil Nadu politics. Then I clicked on this page and start scanning the content. This is the gist of that article “while there is much controversy over cable in Tamil Nadu it may be a thing of the past. IP-TV is going to replace TV and it may remove the need to watch particular channels at particular time blah”

Boom! Now it hit me hard. The technology which I am working is reaching the masses all over the world and changing their day-to-day life.

Finally the bugs I introduce may have some meaningful effect like dropping the IP packets carrying Abhi’s tears (Kolangal serial lead women who cries for everything) . That is COOL!

59%N2+21%H2+ 9%CO2+7%methane +4%O2

Disclaimer: The following article is rated "R" . Reader discretion is advised.

I was doing a review the other day for one of my colleagues.We were alone in a conf room ,going through his review papers and discussing about it. He has a very deep voice and I usually have to strain and keep my ears wide open to listen to him. On that day, his voice was like a sinewave, going up and down which was very unrealistic . Hmmm..I couldn't understand his tension as he had a very good review after all...The room was very quite , and then I heard it....just before he hit the peak of the sinewave....a distinct whining sound at first..It varied from a whining to rumbling,occasionally a car backfiring sound too..I acted normal without any facial contortions , trying to hide my embarrasment lest I embarrass him. I wish I could pacify him with a "Been there, done that"...Alas!! We cannot talk about that, can we.? We know that we can control it (in Tamil, it is called "Amukki Vasikaradhu") and we do too in most occasions, which can be nastier than the accompanying noise. Hey !! Dont be embarassed anymore. It is after all a mixture of gases as follows
59%N2+21%H2+9%CO2+7%methane+4%O2 and guess what 1% of its makeup is what makes it stink...I got all this info from a book called "Why do men have nipples". The book doesnot talk just about nipples, but rather gives lot of trivias in the real world. It is a very good bathroom reader.
Some more intersting facts about this mixture:
The temp at its time of creation is 98.6 F ( close to body temp,duh..)
They have been clocked at a speed of ten feet per second.( Maybe the equation might change while running :-)).
A person produces about half a litre per day.( If you eat beans, brocolli, I think you can hit one litre).
The gas that makes it stink is hydrogen sulfide with sulfur as the smelly component.(Cabbage,eggs,beans have more sulphur).
Here comes the finale: Most people pass it about fourteen times a day. If you have never heard someone , rest assured that they are humans after all and should be passing out atleast half a litre....Ha.Ha..thats consoling.
Next time, you are in an emabarrassing situation, buckle up and just tell them its just hydrogen sulfide.....Happy "....ing"

Fermat's principle of least time...

It is amazing how things in nature works the way it does. I recently came across this rather interesting concept and thought that it was pretty cool. Fermat is one of those physicists who lived in the early 17th century. He discovered that light always takes the path that corresponds to the shortest time. What does that mean?

Assume a circle which is divided along its diameter such that there is an upper and lower half. Choose two points on the circumference of the circle in the upper half (say points A and B). Assume that there is a mirror along the axis of the diameter such that any light from a source A gets reflected at the diameter and reaches the point B. There are several ways the light could get reflected. But, in reality, the light gets reflected at a point such that the distance from point A to mirror to point B is the shortest. It so happens that, at that point, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. It doesnt stop here...What about refraction?

In the case of refraction, assume all the conditions as above, except that instead of the light getting reflected by the diameter axis, it is going to pass through it and hit the other side of the circle at a slightly different angle. If the lower half of the circle is a denser medium (say glass/water), the ray of light is slightly shifted inward and reaches a point B'. If you connect the line AB', that would be the shortest distance. But then, light doesnt follow that path. Why? Since light travels slower in the denser medium, it tries to trace a lengthier path in the air and a shorter path in the denser medium. In effect, light reaches the point B' in the shortest time. The factor that accounts for the density is nothing but the refractive index. Quite amazing, isnt it? This formed the fundamental concept through which major discoveries like Calculus and Wave theory were made later. If I think about it, it makes me wonder if everything in nature has an intent. Hmm..that would be a topic for another discussion.

Quite an adventure

The tiger snarled at me. Its skin resembled golden sand and maroon stripes. Up close, it’s head looked more like a snakeskin leather purse. My husband and I saw the giant cat and ran for the bedroom. We went inside and slammed the door shut. My heart was pounding. We looked at each other as we heard its claw scratching the door. A moment later the animal slid its paw under the door and as we looked agape, the rest of the tiger’s body followed. In no time it was inside the room. I remembered what I had read in books. Animals can smell fear. I tried my best to act casual. After all, there was the possibility the animal was not a man-eater. Even though that did not explain its eagerness to chase us down, I chose to ignore that fact. My husband was stiff, and the tiger passed him to arrive at my side. In one swift move it took my left wrist in its clenched jaw. It must have been fright, flight, fight. My right hand instinctively dug into the eyes of the tiger and I continued to exert force to suffocate it. Oddly, the tiger’s face grew smaller and smaller till it totally fit inside my palm. The animal gave up after some snuffling. Phew!

As I carried out the tiger, I awoke from my slumber and noticed I had broken into a sweat! The room temperature had fallen to under 60 deg, why was I sweating so profusely? It must have been all the hard work in my dream.

I recently read dreams can be very useful tools for self-discovery and problem solving. Dreams result as our mind adjusts to the happenings in life and prepares and incubates ideas. As per WebMd, “On one side of the aisle are psychotherapists, many of whom believe dreams are a key to unlocking and liberating repressed memories of past traumatic experiences. On the other side are neurobiologists, many of whom hold that dreams are just byproducts of electrical activity -- random firing of brain circuits during sleep that cause bizarre images and weird associations.”

If I went by the psychotherapists, then what is it I am preparing for or what am I reminiscing? I can’t envision a situation in the future where I would share a room with a tiger! The only incident in my past that involves animals, me and fear is when I was 3-4 years old and felt the cows outside the grocery store were out to gore me till my rescuer (my Mother) appeared. The possibility that that event triggered this dream seems very remote. If I went by the psychiatrists’ opinion, part of the dream where the animal crawled under the door, looked like a snake, then the shrinking face all makes sense –these are weird and unreal. However, it does not explain the fact that I have struggled, but killed 2 other tigers in the past (in dreams, of course!)

Other side of Internet...

As we all know, every technology has its own advantages and disadvantages. It is usually a risk-benefit tradeoff that populates a technology for widespread adoption. A while back, I watched the tamil movie "Boys"... Comedian Senthil plays a role where he has a list of all the temples and what will be served at various times in a day for the entire year. Long story short (assuming you all have seen the movie), Senthil will say that "Information is Power". If internet can provide every conceivable information you need, imagine the "power" you acquire. But, there is another side to it too...everyone in the system acquire power, the good and the bad...

I think that information revolution is slowly marching towards its pinnacle. That said, I feel that security of such information is not. Most of our information is available online. Websites like zabasearch.com can give a history of all your previous address with phone numbers and even birth dates. Google maps can pinpoint the address that you live in through their satellite picture. Sites like www.maps.a9.com can give you pictures of your roads (not the top-view like google, this is the regular view as if we were to walk on those roads). All these information, out in the public, sorted and documented. To be fair, sites like http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov gives the database of sex offenders in your neighbourhood with address and picture (california only, for other states, goto sexoffender.com and click on appropriate state). You will be surprised with the results. As I have written earlier, most of the websites you visit inject a cookie/spyware programs in your computer to monitor all kinds of transactions that you do. If you use one of those free spyware tools like http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/, you will know how many programs are running on your PC that you are not aware of. I hope I scared you guys enough... But, it is actually true.

I recently heard of this concept called positive sandwich. If you have to say something that could provoke bad feelings, apparently, it would be good if it is preceded and succeeded by a good note. This way, it will reduce the impact of the bad note. Let me try...If you belong to the group of people who dont check their credit history atleast once in a year, here is a good news for you. If you go to www.annualcreditreport.com, you can get your credit reports from all the 3 credit bureau for *free*. You can get a free report once every year. Do check it up and look out for any suspicious activities or credit card/bank accounts that you are not aware of. Information is Power. And to those who feed on information to cause disruption, information translates to "Evil Power" and aids the dark side...:)

Do you want to sleep ?

Whenever I travelled, I always wondered if earth is indeed really big or not. Whenever I flew, it will seem to me as if I am seeing the same old stuff through the window and then suddenly I will hear that the flight has reached its destination. Well, I was aware that the farther up you fly, your visibility (in a clear sky) will be much higher and hence, it is possible that you will see more than what you normally do.

For lack of any useful thing to do, I was trying to figure out an answer to this rather mundane question. To do any mathematical calculation on this stuff, I had to assume that the earth was a perfect sphere. I checked up the radius of the earth to be around 6400 kilometers. This would mean that, if you are standing at a height "h" (say 170 cm) from the ground, in a clear sky, you will see things upto 22 kilometers from the point you are standing (actually, you should draw a circle of radius 22 km around you since you can just rotate to see all those objects). You compute this by drawing a tangent from the top of your head on to the sphere. Now, you will have a right-angled triangle with hypotenuse of "r+h" and a side of "r". The third side is the distance you would see from a height h (d = sqrt(h^2 + 2*h*r)). So, if a flight is hovering at an altitude of 35000 feet (10.668 km), you will be able to see a distance of upto 369.68 kilometres. Given that the circumference of earth is around 40,000 km, you just need approximately 54 positions to see the entire circumference of earth. In other words, if you travel 1000 km, you just need 2 to 3 positions to completely see the whole path. No wonder why I felt the way I did.

Doctors... As real as it gets...

As I grew up, I always believed that doctors are meant to cure illnesses, irrespective of what that illness might be. Well, my view was confined by the fact that I went to doctors only for minor stuff like fever, cold and yada yada. I could very well understand why doctors were respected and were kept in the highest regards. But then, my views changed...

Based on experience, my logical mind started questioning about the distinctness of a doctor. I slowly started realising the fundamental fact that, a human is a human is a human. Given the fact that, any occupation can be practiced, people typically choose to specialise in a skill, mostly to have a career and make money. Doctors are no different. But then, each skill has its own importance factor, as we all know. Doctors are certainly at the top, in the importance factor and that makes them stereotypically "godly". However, they follow a set of procedures that they have studied or recommended. Infact, as a problem gets more and more complicated, the procedures get more and more documented. Contrary to the pre-conceived notions, I found to my surprise that doctors dont come up with innovative techniques to fix a problem. They follow rules and standard techniques and yes, they do commit mistakes in the process. This is not to say that, doctors dont know stuff. Ofcourse they know their stuff. But, it is no different from any other occupation and the illusions of grandeur are just a mirage created by the ignorant mass. As in any other occupation, there are doctors who are good enough, careful enough and are very much cognizant of the fact that they are handling lives and not just a piece of flesh/bone/tissue. Hats off to those doctors. But then, as in any other occupation, it is a rarity as well.

When I go to doctor these days, there are certain things that I keep in mind. I dont assume that the doctors are correct (when did I ever assume anyone was correct..:)). I try to do my diligent work. Web is a great place. I dont assume that the doctors/nurses follow the right sequence for a given problem. I try to question them and ask them why they do what they do. I dont consider them "godly", but rather, trust them on their expertise in performing a given feat with the least complications. In short, I respect doctors but I do not idolize them.

Future of Research....

I was browsing through Amazon.com for some book and landed into this book named "Why do men have nipples?". As it got my curiosity ticking, I googled up several pages and found out the reason. Apparently, every human is bisexual till the 23rd chromosome kicks in and gates the gender part of humans. So, till that time, humans develop both sorts of organs only to be left inactive at a later point of time. Anyway, it makes for a good reading and you will discover some very interesting facts. As I was researching, it occured to me that my research was not bound by time or deadline. It was my innate curiosity to find the unknown. It led me to think about this topic that i have always pondered about. Can research be quantified in terms of deadlines and funding?

I was talking to Shoba's sister today (a professor) and she told me that, the enrollment of PhD candidates in IITs and IISc are diminishing. People dont want to do research anymore. Obviously, the compensation plays a big role. An entry level professor/lecturer gets around Rs 7000, while an IT company pays around Rs 23,000 or more. And, the growth prospects of being in the academic field is not very colorful either. That being said about the Indian academia, I think globally, research is taking a new dimension these days. With the advent in technology, a lot of research areas these days need money. And, money is pumped to those companies who can build a product that could be marketed in someway in the foreseeable future. In other words, if you dont show a promise for a breakthrough, nobody is going to invest in the company. In a way, research is no longer about throwing darts in a random cloud. This is good from the point of view that research folks are forced to focus and are responsible of outcomes. But, it is bad from the point of view that, venturing into unknowns are becoming very limited. Above all, this creates a big gap between the academia who usually share technologies for the betterment of all the researchers and hence, greater technologies could be extended out of already existing ideas.

I think there has to be a paradigm shift in the way research is being looked at. Evolution cannot be quantified. Breakthroughs cannot be quantified. So, trying to quantify research in the confinements of market and money will have a huge impact in the future. For any country to be a global force in terms of innovation and technology, they will have to spend their money in incubating researchers to work on such technologies. The "number of engineers" theory that many are going after by itself is not going to yield greater results on a longer term. Time will only answer how this research environment will unfold itself in the future.

Age no bar

Sometimes, people give more importance to age than it warrants. On every vacation to India, I am reminded that I am not getting younger by the day. And this is not just because kids we remember in diapers so recently seem to have graduated and found jobs even! My relatives are always eager to hammer the fact into my head. It should not be of great surprise that I feel older every day I spend there and feel much younger upon my return from my vacation.

I believe age is a relative thing. Of course, we all know no one can possibly get younger over time. But why set limits to what we can do at a certain age, when our body and also our mind will indeed allow us to do much more. I get my inspiration from a lovely young couple who we met while hiking in Chimney Rock State park sometime last year. They were 76 and 72 years old. This would be considered "ripe" old age in my family! I call them young because they were so active, vibrant and zestful. When I was a kid, my grandfather (75) and I were visiting my great grandfather (then 93). I still remember vividly how my great grandfather chided my grandfather when he mentioned he was getting old. My best attempt at translating what he said is, "You are only as old as you think you are". Recently, I met a couple in their 80s, who were out volunteering in this cold weather. It really amazed me to see their efforts to help others. I felt guilty to think of the times I have just felt like sitting on the couch doing nothing useful.


I really appreciate the way some people choose to lead their lives after retirement age. (I deliberately avoid using the term old-age.) When I see a senior at a grocery store waiting in line patiently for her turn, when I see a senior driving his own car (albeit slowly), when I see seniors volunteering, when I see seniors enjoying a sun-bath at the beach, I appreciate it very much and think about what my great grandfather said that day. Every time I have my parents-in-law and parents visiting me in the US, I make every attempt at pointing out how some seniors here live their lives. By the time they leave, I do my best to make them think and feel much younger. Age should not come in the way of leading a productive life if you are physically able to contribute. I think it is an achievable goal to remain useful to the society and to interact with the society no matter how old you are. I certainly hope to make the right choices with my time.

Passion

I am supposedly an optimist as characterized by my friends. Unless otherwise confined by the limits of foreseeable reality, I think one can succeeed in things that they are passionate about. I read in a book once that if your career is based on something that you are passionate about, irrespective of the monetary benefits that you might reap out of it, you will still enjoy the journey. I totally agree to it.

We often try to look out for the formula behind successful people and try to follow it as much as we could. But, in the process, we often sacrifice our interests into achieving something that we dont really like. You will be overwhelmed at how passion can lead you into achieving things that you only dreamed about. When I mean passion, I dont just talk about the goal, but the intent to put all the efforts into making it a reality.

One of the interesting things that recently captured my attention is that, if you pick any two distinct numbers, irrespective of what they are, you can always find infinite numbers between them. Same is true with time and for that matter, anything that is continuous. One way to view life is to take any two points in time and see what you did during that time. If you follow your passion (which will be continuous), doing whatever you do makes it infinitely worthy. Now, that is a life I choose to live by.

Two sides to a coin

A lot of times, I am trapped in the middle of this rather common argument about businesses and how they make money. If I morph myself into different personalities, customer and the businessman, I see the problems that each of them possess. Customers always want the best service at the lowest cost. Businesses want the maximum profit at the lowest cost (to them). Usually, I lean towards the customer portion and criticize the business folks for being a little too greedy. But then, it occured to me that both the consumer end and business end is not that different afterall. Both of them want to maximize profit. The customer wants to do so by giving the least price and the business person does it the other way. So, what is there to crib about?

One of the easy ways that I chose to analyse the business aspect was to assume myself to be in such a position. I work for a company. I dont demand any less money than what I could get from other companies. Whenever I employ someone to do a job, I not only find the cheapest labor with the best quality, but, I also make sure that he/she does the job efficiently and effectively. I dont give them time to check emails or write blogs..;).. When I head out to sell stuff on ebay or craigslist, I dont just give away stuff. I try to position myself based on the competitors and accept nothing but the best price. In general, it would be fair to assume that, when money is made, people want to maximize it in all possibilities that they can. If one doesnt and they dont have a compelling reason to back it up, it is equivalent to consider that they are incurring an oppurtunity cost and hence losing money. Why would anybody do that?

All the good things said, the critical view of the subject will paint a different picture. When situations like 9/11 or major catastrophies happen, if a store in that area increases its price to benefit based on that situation, is it right to do so? Ethically, it will be a strong NO. But then, if you look at bigger corporates, like all the energy and natural gas companies, they do just that. It doesnt have an emotional song to go with that, showing how a middle class person has to cut down his day to day expenditures to incorporate the increased energy cost. The corporates know for a fact that, a hike in the gas price for a shorter time is not going to change the way people consume energy. Another thing to look at is the compensation paid to CEOs and other higher officials. CEOs of companies get atleast 100 times more benefits than employees. Is that ethical? The list of dubious ethics questions could go on and on which will bring us to the rather difficult question of what is "fair" in the context of business? This question is difficult to me since it also conflicts with the very same ideals that I follow when I have to wear a business hat. In the fabric of life, is it just another thing that we have to live with, being controversial to one's own ideals under different conditions?

How Stupid Am I....

I was new to the company and I was trying to build my relationship with everyone. My then project lead was a friendly guy. We had to work together for a while to setup things for a project. So, I had the oppurtunity to sit with him and go over the day's work everyday in his cube. Instead of just talking about work, I thought of getting to know him more. You know what I mean.

Well, my project lead had this photograph in his cube which had two people in it. I knew that he had a daughter and I could guess that one of them in the picture was his daughter. I couldnt guess who the other person was. It looked like him, but there was something strange, something was missing and I couldnt guess what the problem was. The background looked like they were in the middle of snow. So, both of them were wearing thick jackets and that added to my uncertainity. With every passing day, my curiosity to know who the other person was, increased exponentially. One fine day, I decided to break the ice and ask the question. I looked at him straight in the eye and asked him, "David, (showing the picture) is that you and your daughter?". His response was "No, it is my wife and my daughter...They took it during their trip to Europe..." His face didnt show any kind of surprise. May be, he didnt hear me properly. Good for me...However, I was very embarassed. I tried to switch topic and steer it towards some project stuff. Even now, when I think about it, it gives me a smile...

Advaita

Disclaimer:
The following article deals with philosophy.

I am sure most of us would have heard the word "Advaita" . It preaches us that Atma and Brahman are one. Basically, the universe is one. There is just one single atma . I started thinking about it this morning after reading some comments on "intentblog" website where one person was explaining a surreal experience of his . He mentioned about his trip to Manosarovar and how he suddenly felt connected with the rocks,trees,rivers and gained his energy from them , when he was dead tired and finally made it to the top of the mountain. Interestingly, if you guys have read the book "The Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield, it follows the same concept. The book is very intriguing and talks about nine insights and the transfer of energy from universe to humans and vice versa. I would call it "Advaita".

Last night I was reading SaiSatCharita , when I hit upon these words in one of the chapters.

Shridi Sai says that man is ignorant as long as he thinks
1. He is his body
2. God is different than him.
Basically, he is also trying to preach the same.

I attend a meditation class by RamChandra Mission,where they preach that GOD is within you and there is no need for idol worship. You just medidate in silence and that will take you closer to GOD. Again, I like to call that also Advaita.

They all seem to be the same wine in different bottles.

Another Trivia:
Among Brahmins, Iyers follow Advaita Vedanta ( started originally by Shankaracharya-Pattai) and Iyengars follow "Visistadvaita"(Ramanujam-Namam) which preaches qualified non-dualism and states that the Ultimate reality, though one is not without differentiation. There are three fundamental realities,Isavara,Soul and Matter which is totally against the Advaita philosphy. My sister is married to a Madhava who follow "Dvaita"(Madhavacharya-Mudhirai)-the existence of permanent reality of two fundamental principles in nature-spirit and matter.

Automobile trivia

Over the course of time, I have heard of some insights about automobiles which I've found to be interesting/useful. Thought of sharing it with you all. The first and foremost of all is the tire pressure. Though I've heard about this through all possible means, I've always been lousy about checking my tire pressure. I hoped that the service folks will take care of it and I dont have to really monitor it, till it hit me hard.

I was travelling on a highway one day when I heard a squealing sound which increased rather quickly over time. I realised that there was some problem and I moved the car over to the shoulder. By that time, the car was literally shaking and when I looked over to see what had happened, I found that one of my car tires had almost melted completely. Later, when I realised the physics behind it, I understood what had happened. When a tire loses pressure, its radius becomes smaller. So, it has to rotate more revolutions (more temperature) to keep up with the speed of other tires. In the process, it gets more deflated. Beyond a critical point, the tire with the lesser pressure gets deflated much more quickly and results in the condition that I faced. Sometimes, it could even resulting in bursting of tire. So, be cautious to check the tire pressure regularly.

The second one is more of a real trivia that I heard from radio. Is it possible to predict where the fuel inlet for a car is, just by looking at the rear of the car? It is possible in most cases. Especially, if the car has only one exhaust at the back. The fuel inlet is usually on the opposite side of where the exhaust is. This doesnt work for twin-exhaust cars. But, in most other cases, it is true.

Finally, we all go on long vacations (esp. to India). We end up asking one of our "trustworthy" friends to start the car once in 3-4 days to make sure that the battery doesnt run low. However, there needs to be an explicit instruction. Ask your friend to drive the car for atleast 10 minutes. The reason being, when you start a car, it drains some amount of charge from the battery. If you dont keep the car turned on for atleast 5 minutes, just enough to charge it back to the original value and more, you are actually depleting charge from the battery. So, if your friend doesnt consider the time aspect of charging back, he is effectively making the condition worse. You might return from your long vacation just to find that the battery is drained and your innocent (in this case, ignorant as well) friend will contemplate by saying that he did turn on the car once every few days...He may be right too... If you were the friend and you really forgot to start your friend's car, you can stage a third friend to come and give this explanation and get you out of the trouble..:)

Thats all for now folks !

Next Generation

A lot of times, we hear about this term "next generation", especially in the context of technology. One simple definition of what the next generation is nothing but, what each company is currently working on. Undoubtedly, things of the present are the technology of the future. But, this blog is not about technology, it is about kids...yes, you didnt mis-read it, this blog is about kids... Well, think about the next-generation of people. They are no one but the kids of the present.

Initially, I was going to look back several hundred years ago, but then, I realised, a couple of generations in the past is more than enough. I was just trying to compare myself with kids of the present to just take note of the differences. I was initially going to ignore the technology aspect since some of them didnt even exist then. But, this is about the difference in life style. I watched my first TV program at 6, used telephone by myself at around 10, worked on a computer at 15, got to use a cellphone at around 23. I see kids around and they do all the above by the age of 4-5. As a kid, I had very little access to library, and in turn, information. Now, it is available at the tip of the finger when you need it.

Though I am very glad about the progress, I am worried if the next-generation is trained to handle the pace at which the workplace is going to unroll. I heard in a seminar once that, workers of the future will have to switch atleast 5-6 different types of careers in their life. However, I dont see the education system of the present improving in anyway to account for it. But then, when I grew up, I dont think I was trained in any way to meet the demands that I am posed with today. But yet, most of us are successful and have been able to adapt ourselves. So, the kids of the present will probably be able to mold themselves as well, given the environment that they live in. That being said, I am not even able to imagine how 2 generations from now will look like...Something to ponder about... OR Am I just getting old...:)

Basic Instinct

There are 2 ways to get to my office. One is the rather slow scenic route with lesser traffic and the other one is the fast-paced freeway. I choose my trips based on how late I am to the office. So, needless to say that I end up taking freeways when I get to office. When I come back, it is just random. Part of the so called scenic route runs parallel to the freeway. The other day, I decided to take the scenic way and I noticed the freeway was packed and I saw sirens wailing and lights flaring. There must have been an accident, must be a bad one since I could see atleast 3-4 fire engines and a dozen of cop cars. The first thing I said to myself was, "Good that I didnt take the freeway today. Otherwise, I wouldve been stuck in traffic". I corrected myself the next moment. But, dont we all get those first instincts at sometime or the other.

One could say that the basic instincts are driven by survival or reproduction. But, the following is a different situation in which the basic instinct doesnt point to either survival or reproduction. When I meet a new person, I somehow dont like to interact with certain people, eventhough I may have very little knowledge about them or their character. Though my rational mind tells me that it is irrational, I am not able to help it. I believe in the proverb "first impression is the best impression" because I think we evaluate someone just by that. I wonder what could be responsible for these basic instincts....

Physics at 1.45AM

I was watching TV at odd hour asusual. And stumbled upon this interesting bit of program

This is what they showed first. An ice skater (a kid) started spinning by applying force and after spinning with a reasonable speed for few seconds by keeping her one leg on the ground and other perpendicular to it (can you imagine it?) she started shifting her position to standing straight and started spinning really fast without applying any extra force. (I am sure the visualization would have made this whole thing more interesting). I was surprised to see her spin so fast and thought this is some kind of trick she is doing. But then a person asked her how she is doing that and asked her to stop since she is violating the newton’s 2nd law of motion. (A body at motion will be going at same speed unless an external force acted upon it)

This kid said she learnt to do it and not sure about any physics behind it. Then the narrator (I assume she is some kind of techie) starts explaining step by step.I am trying my best to reproduce it before it evaporates from my brain.

Momentum works only for body in straight line. For bodies rotating it is called angular momentum. Where momentum depends on Mass, angular momentum depends on I (angular inertia). Angular inertia depends on Mass and Shape of the body. In case of disc (CD), the mass is equally distributed and distance from the center to end of the object is R (radius). So the totally angular momentum is 1/2mR2 (read as half m r square).

The inertia depends on axis of rotation too. For example, a cylinder spinning with a axis going through its center (center of circle) will have less inertia than the cylinder spinning in its length axis. vs --- . For the first case the I = ½ m r^2 and I = 1/12 m l ^2

I = ½ (40kg) (.15m)^2 = 0.45 kgm2 (M = 40Kg; her radius/width = .15m)
I = 1/12 (40kg) (1.2m)^2 = 4.8 kg m2 (M=40kg; her length = 1.2m)

That explains why her inertia is more when she was spinning with her legs in horizontal position and why it is less when she is spinning in upright position. That in turn explains why she could spin faster when she is in upright position

But still that doesn’t explain how she could increase her speed when she shifted from horizontal to vertical without applying any extra pressure.

She continued. According to law of conservation of momentum, momentum should be maintained somehow. And her is the formula for it

L (angular momentum) = I (angular interia) * w (angular velocity)

Since she shifted from horizontal to vertical her inertia changed from 4.8 to .45 and only way to maintain/conserve the angular momentum is by increasing the angular velocity so her velocity went up.

WOW! Sometimes it useful to stay late (1.45AM) to learn physics, other times you may find interesting “Magic bullet” advertisements.

Have a good new year!