The Worlds Cheapest Tablet Computer - AAKASH 2

More than a year and a half ago, admist much hype and anticipation, the The Worlds Cheapest Tablet computer, ÀAKASH was launched by the Government of India. It was priced at around 20 - 25 dollars and was seen as a major break through in the field of tablet computing which would totally revolutionise the use of Tablets around the world.

I still remember the amount of buzz it generated among the youth of the country. Everybody wanted to get their hands on one. When the Pre-booking was launched on Datawind's website, it received an unimaginable response and within 3 days bookings were closed for the first 3 months. It had generated such a hype that inspite of the bookings being closed for the first 3 months, they kept on getting upto 100k bookings, everyday!

But difference in opinion and infighting among the Tablet manufacturers Datawind Technologies and the Indian Government and the blatant inability of Datawind to meet the scheduled deadlines meant that the project was shelved. Only a few thousand tablets were distributed to students. Being named the cheapest tablet had its flaws too. 256Mb RAM, 366 Ghz processor, a resistive touch screen, Android version 2.2 and a flimsy built meant that it was definately not a show stealer.

But now, the GOI and Datawind have brought out the next generation model of the earlier tablet - AAKASH 2. On the ocassion of National Education day, the tablet was launched in New delhi by the honourable President Mr. Pranab Mukherji. It still holds on to the tag of being the cheapest tablet in the world. At a subsidiced price of just Rs.1130 (approx 21 dollars) it boasts of much better specifications than its predecesor. Under the hood it is being powered by a 1Ghz processor with 512 Mb RAM. The tablet has an internal storage capacity of upto 4GB and can be expanded using the MICRO SD slot. It comes with the latest Android 4.0 version and has a Capacitative touch screen. It also boasts of an USB port. Much improved when compared to its predecesor. A successor to the AAKASH 2 with a dual core A8 processor is rumoured to hit the stands soon.
AAKASH 2 is expected to reach the hands of more than 22 crore students, all over India in the next 4-6 years.
In a country where 95% of the population does not have access to any sort of computing device, the Worlds Cheapest Tablet will definately become a major major revolution.

O-B-A-M-A

50 years after Martin Luther King led a Two Hundred and fifty thousand strong rally in Washington to fight for the equal rights of the black people, America elected her first black President, Barack Hussien Obama in the year 2008. It was seen as a historic moment and some even considered Obama's victory as a fluke and was seen as a victory riding the wave of human sentiments and also the need for a change, a new begining from the war ravaged past decade.

4 years on and America faced yet another election. Promises were kept and some were not. America hadn't yet fully recovered. The economy was still in the process of recovering. The deficit was still high. Unemployment too.
But America was definately in a better shape than she was 4 years ago. The free fall in job cuts had been arrested and slowly but surely new jobs were being created. The American Health care system had been revamped. So too the education system. Much had been done but still much had to be done.
Come elections there was every possibiliy that the President would fall. The Republicans believed they could topple the president. A lot was said, blows traded, opinions voiced an awful lot of money spent and finally the day came when America had to vote for her President.

The votes were polled and when the results came, it was to be OBAMA.

America has spoken, 50 years on from the march in Washington, after the first black president was elected into office and 4 years later, he has been RE-ELECTED and his doubters proved WRONG.

OBAMA clearly knows that his second term would be much harder. He has a lot to do in the next four years. A lot of his plans and policies have to see light. Here's hoping that he is able to achieve what he set out on doing!
Im a big admirer of OBAMA. He inspires a lot of people around the world.

Good luck OBAMA, that's all what I can say.

WED 2012

For more info Click Here

Using Candles During Earth Hour? Think Again!

 The Earth Hour 2012 is here. Time to switch off your power and spend an hour in the dark! An hour, can't be that bad can it? Still there are a lot of people out in the world who don't believe or want to or
maybe are just too lazy to do it! Aah, leave it.

 
Earth Hour is usually characterised by a lot of public get-together's and rallies / demonstrations with thousands of people who believe in the notion of lighting candles. What most people fail to realise is that candles are not the ideal substitutes to light bulbs. Although, candles are very nice, provide a nice romantic feel and ambience and stuff, they too pollute the environment when they are burned and produce an assortment of chemical compounds and heat. Its not to say that i'm a Candle hater! No, never. I like candles too.

Although burning 2 or 3 candels won't do as much damage as cars or a nuclear power plant or burning fossil fuels like petrol etc, while in the case of rallies, it is worth noting the fact.
 
Most candels are made from Paraffin which is also a petroleum product making it non renewable. I went through the packaging of one of the locally made candles and guess what i found - Paraffin! Paraffin wax candles produce soot – that black stuff caused from the flickering flame. “When soot is airborne, it is subject to inhalation. The particles can potentially penetrate the deepest areas of the lungs, the lower respiratory tract and alveoli". Not only are people with asthma more susceptible to the effects of burning paraffin wax candles, but also the elderly and children. Science has proven that a child’s tiny body is negatively affected by chronic low-level lead exposure. Burning paraffin wax candles that contain lead wicks is definitely in the category of low-level lead exposure.

The container of a local brand of candles - clearly mentions that it's made of Paraffin Wax

There is also the issue of packaging the same into plastic covers! Burning a few candles may not make for much on the global scale. But switching to environment friendly items such as Beeswax can help us to further the reach and importance of the Earth Hour. Even the WWF official site in its FAQ's section (Question 8) advices Earth Hour enthusiasts to use natural candles!

Beeswax Candles

I hope you don't take my criticism of candles in the wrong sense! 
As the saying goes - Tiny drops of water make a mighty ocean, lets all do our bit, however insignificant or small it might be, to assist in the betterment of our mother earth!

Want to read more about the ill effects of burning candles / studies - go to the following links - they're very helpful!

1. http://www.theredheadriter.com/2012/03/the-truth-about-paraffin-wax-candles-are-they-toxic/
2. http://enochthered.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/earth-hour-candles-and-carbon/
3. http://www.stubbornmule.net/2009/03/burning-candles/
4. http://www.natural-environment.com/blog/2008/03/26/environmental-impact-of-candles-during-earth-hour/
5. http://www.alive.com/articles/view/23434/go_beyond_earth_hour
6. http://www.ecogeek.org/efficiency/2642

Earth Hour 2012

Earth Hour 2012 is less than 24 hours away. This Global event launched by the World Wide Fund for Nature a couple of years ago in Australia is all set to be the biggest and most widespread Earth Hour yet,
covering more than 135 countries and over 2 billion people. The Earth Hour 2012 campaign, 'I WILL IF YOU WILL', intends to engage the growing global community to go beyond the hour! 

So friends, lets all be a part of this global event. Where ever in the world you might be, make sure to switch off all the lights in your homes for 1 hour between 8.30 - 9.30pm today. Spread the word, its never too late.

Elloo...

Hello blogosphere!
Sorry for being in exile for the past 6 months.
Been a very testing 6 months in my life. Life's not been exactly moving in the direction that i've wanted. Been tough and challenging, mostly on my spirit. But then again, whats life without any challenges!

Just about a month to go till i face my next hurdle. The next 30 days are very very vital for me. Make or Break!

Hopefully at the end of this storm there'll be a golden sky awaiting me! :)

Onam ... Ponnonam ..

Being the last Onam for which all of us will be present in office, everyone wanted to do something or the other to celebrate Onam. Rajeesh &Jithin chetans article ship period was coming to an end and Shini chechi was also due to leave soon for a better employment close to her native. But the problem was that all of us were busy with something or the other (office work that is, mind you :p) and no one was able to take charge and plan anything for Onam. Days went by fast and soon Rajeesh Bhai and Shini chechi left. The rest of us assured them we’ll be defiantely having celebrations in office and that they would have to compulsorily come and join us in it. Days went by, but still nothing had been planned and Onam was getting closer. Time was not on our side. Finally it came to stage that this was not going to work as none of us were free and agreed that we wouldn’t be having any Onam celebrations. Onam was on the 10^th of September, Friday. Sept 10^th and 11^th were declared as holidays by our Sir, much to all our delight. So Uthradam, Sept 9^th Thursday was to be our last working day before Onam. Ashwathy and Linda chechi had other commitments to attend to and were on leave. Shravan had been completing the auditing at M/s NAPC and Jithin Bhai had been doing the same at M/s Process Color. Shravan had completed his work and was back at office. MD of M/s Process color had declared 4 days of holidays for the staff at Process color, much to their wonder and delight. (They had never gotten more than 3 days… ever!!!) So Jithin Bhai was also back in office. So it was just the 5 of us at office for Onam – Me, Sujin, Shravan and Jithin Bhai and of course Sir.

 We hadn’t planned anything till now for Onam. So on Wednesday evening I thought why not all of us wear Mundu and come to office, after all its Onam! So I immediately called up Sujin and informed him of my suggestion and he agreed. Next I called Jithin Bhai. He said that he’ll think about it as he had not gone home that day as he had to finalise the work at M/s Process Color and present in before sir. The discussions between them had gotten over pretty late and he had decided to stay over at his friends place. Shravan was the next in line. But much to my frustration there was no answer from him. “He was out of coverage area”. So I decided to leave him a text message instead. The next day dawned in a matter of a few hours. I decided to wear my green Kurta along with the mundu, to office. Even though I was travelling by public bus wearing the very delicate mundu, I got to office without any problems :D. Next to arrive was Jithin Bhai. But much to my disappointment, he wasn’t wearing a mundu but was dressed in pants and shirt. He told me that he was not prepared for it as he had to stay over at his friends place.

Although I was disappointed, I put on a content face as I knew that Jithin Bhai had a valid reason and I proceeded to wait for the next person to arrive. Just then out of the blue Jithin Bhai said, “How about we put a Pookalam”. I was thrilled with the idea and we decided to plan as to how to go about it. What amount of flowers were needed, the design, the money aspect and most importantly, ‘how to handle SIR’! :p We needed to get his permission if we were to go about planning and making the Pookalam. Very honestly I didn’t think that our Sir would give in to the idea as the primary reason why we were there in office that day was to complete pending works (TAX AUDIT DEADLINE was fast approaching on the 30^th of September), otherwise we all would have been celebrating Onam at our respective homes. But here we were, going to spend the entire day doing absolutely no office work but making a Pookalam! We immediately googled for Pookalam designs and very soon we decided on a very simple but elegant looking design. Soon after, Sujin chetan arrived wearing a blue coloured shirt and a “vella mundu with blue coloured kara”. He looked more like some college union member to us! :D Nevertheless he looked real good in that! Immediately after, Shravan also arrived. We told them also about our Pookalam idea and they were also good with it. So the next thing on our agenda was to get Sir’s “approval”.

So, as soon as Sir arrived, all of us started pointing fingers at each other, as to who would put forward the idea to Sir and get his permission! While all our discussions were going on, Sir came out from his cabin to enquire what was going on. Maybe he had over heard us talking from his cabin! With a lot of hesitation as to what might be his reaction to our idea like, I decided to inform Sir of it. But much to our surprise Sir gave us the much needed “Green Flag”, which all of us were anxiously waiting for, that too without even considering it twice in his mind! :p Sir, seemed to have been pretty pleased with our small plan, after all its Onam. You must have some kinda celebration, right? ;) Soon, we were off to work. Shravan and Sujin were sent to get the flowers, while me and Jithin Bhai were to start on the design of the Pookalam. Within the next 45 odd minutes the Pookalam design was ready and so too were the Flowers. We, then over the next 2 hours proceeded to delicately towards putting the flowers in their designated areas in the Pookalam. Before we knew it, we were on the home stretch and time had also flown by. It was nearly 2.00pm. By 2.30 we successfully completed the Pookalam and proceeded to the Photo shoot! :p It was by 3.00pm that we first contemplated on what we were going to have for Lunch!!! Our tummies were really growling. The only thing which we had since breakfast was a packet of banana chips! We knew, the option of an Onam Sadhya was out of the question. It was probably too late. So it was decided, just like the last time, we were to have “Chicken Biriyani” as our Onam Lunch.

The last time we had Onam celebrations at office, we had, Chicken Biriyani & Chocolate Shake!! So we proceeded toward Malabar Biriyani Hut on Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road to quench our hunger! We made an order for 3 Chicken Biriyani’s and Chappathi with Gobi Machurian (for Shravan). But then came the words which we really didn’t want to hear from the waiter – “No Biriyani’s”. Damn! Argh! :l . What a day this was turning out to be! No food?? Just then our waiter said he’ll go check if any rice is still left. Much to all our relief, he came back with Good news. Rice was available and they’d prepare a fry for us too, Chicken that is. So finally, our growling tummies would be soon getting a solution for their problems! While the food was being prepared, we decided to have a Lime Mint Coolers each. So food arrived. We dug in, food tasted great, although the chicken was a bit tough!.... So it turned out to be yet another Onam where we ended up having Chicken and not the traditional SADHYA! :P

To see the rest of the photos CLICK HERE