The All Seeing i - iPhone 4

Apple's new toy, iPhone 4, looks far better than its siblings, and it scores on several other counts as well: design, features and performance. The 3G handset is fitted with the efficient new A4 CPU - also used in iPad, plus new operating system iOS 4. What stands out is its new 3.5-inch high contrast (800:1) 'Retina' display. With 326 pixels per inch it has a resolution higher than what a human eye can see. Add to that a 5 MP canera capable of 30 FPS video and LED flash and video editing apps. The battery life is reasonably good (around 14 hrs. talk time). Eat your heart out - or call up that long last NRI relativ and get you iPhone 4 for $199 from US :)

The Bicycle Project

I picked this up from my Friends blog (sorry Shirish :)). But worth mentioning it on this blog again.

Riding a bicycle in the chaotic traffic of Pune is plain scary and unsafe. But some of us do buy bicycles for the sake of exercise. Of course, the enthusiasm quickly sags and the bicycle gathers dust.
If you are in such a situation, keep reading.
Some people from the Indian cities of Mumbai and Pune have come together to start an initiative called ‘The Bicycle Project’. They gather such dust-gathering bicycles from various households, repair them and distribute them to the unprivilaged poor children in the remote areas.
It’s a boon for the poor children who otherwise have to walk several miles every day just to reach their schools.
The Bicycle project aims to distribute 100,000 bicycles to the underprivilaged children in remote areas.
I donated my bicycle last week. If you wish to do the same, you can contact the Bicycle Project on the India numbers given below. Volenteers will come to your doorstep and collect the bicycles, repair them and distribute them.
Mumbai – Hemant Chhabra – 9820149022
Pune – Kiran Deolalkar – 9920769666
e-mail : thebicycleproject@gmail.com
Happy donating

Is Ramayan History or Mythology?

In recent times, there has been a public debate raging on about Ramayana (to be precise "Ram Setu") being real (History) or unreal/fantasy (mythology). Though I am not a true follower of history, however, I found the below site veyr useful and a eye-opener. This site talks about a lto of details right from Rama's birth till his return from Lanka and many other things. It tries to map current placess/dates to the history (i now choose to call this as History now after readig this site). Very interesting....a good read.
http://www.historicalrama.org/home.html

The Downfall of Agile Hitler

Apologies to my regular readers. Things have been pretty busy at home and at work lately, so I haven't blogged for ages! To ease me back into the chair gently, here is a funny video about "Agile Hitler" that was posted on YouTube. I must admit it made me laugh out loud! It starts slowly, but it's worth sticking with it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1wKO3rID9g&feature=player_embedded

Need for high speeds in Broadband world

There has been a tremendous evolution in the space of broadband technologies. This started with Narroband (telephone line - dial up) which used to provide speeds upto 56 KBPS which I still feel was good speed for normal internet browsing. This was then evolved into DSL technology (Always-ON) broadband - xDSL (ADSL, VDSL, RADSL etc.) The latest trend in DSL is ADSL2+ which can provide upto 40M speeds. However, DSL always had distance limitations associated with it. There have been other broadband technologies - Cable (DOCSIS 3.0 provides upto 50 Mbps speeds), wireless broadband. But the "need for speed" has always been increasing. The latest trend is Fiber to the Premises or curb or cabinet with Fiber as a access mechanism. The current GPON tech. for fiber now supports upto 2.4 GBPS (if 32 way splitter is used - this mean each individual user can get upto 70 to 100 Mbps.). I am still concerned, do we have such a high bandwidth-hungry applications which need such high speeds. Typical gaming applications need 4 Mbps, HDTV require 19MBps, SDTV require approx. 4MBps.

Going by this speed, what's the next? Are we talking about Broadband speeds of GBs? The day will soon come where our PC speed will be slow than what Broadband can offer.

FP (Function Point) Counting should not be done by Application Project Managers / Developers.

Looking at software estimation technique with FP, this technique is suited when we want to estimate the S/W size from a business user perspective. This technique is mainly based on data/functions that cross application boundary and are User Identifiable. Since this is heavily based on what Business User sees as a functinality from the application, i think FP counting should be always done from the Business Users/SME point of view rather than Project Managers of the application. Project Managers always tend to bring technology constraints while doing estimations, and FP should should be tech. independent. I think, the rational behind FP counting can only be achieved if we start estimating it from business user's perspective.

Is Sachin a GOD of International Cricket?

I have been reading book on Sachin ("If Cricket is releigion, Sachin is GOD"). This book is a MUST READ for all SRT critics and fans. Lots of Myths are turned upside down and the real picture is shown with the help of stats. Yes...Sachin is GOD of C. He is a MATCH WINNER. Ian Chappell said once in 2007 (looking at Sach's form in WC2007) that, Sachin should stand in front of mirror and ask a question "Mirror, Mirror, Should I retire" and Mirror will say "Yes"...well, Mr. Chappell, look at what Sach ahs done in recent IND-NZ series (Mar-2009), he is the second highest run getter in Tests...do you think, mirror will still say "Yes"..:) GOD NEVER RETIRES. Even his presence in the team is more than enough for India to win.