Out of box thinking to cool roof

With the temperatures the way they are at Chennai now (106F / 41 C)  I explored the options of using the cool roof solution.  But then all Chennai homes have rainwater harvesting and the cool roof solution eventually runs into groundwater – is that going to create another ecological problem?

Then on Saturday I read about how OOB thinking is akin to madness and well, I am mad.madrasi, so it is time to think out of the box.  Coincidentally I heard that a good friend is about to try out cool roof – but it is also expensive – for my flat terrace, it would cost about Rs. 15,000/- (> 1000 sq. ft).

So I floated the idea of just white wash the terrace with lime – normal, good for nothing, useless lime (or white cement).  And lime getting into ground water should be harmless – isn’t it?  After all it is used for water purification.

Any thoughts?

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If Doosras are OK, why not double bouncers?

Never since the chinaman and the flipper has any new* slow bowling technique emerged. But it seems there is an attempt now to bowl a double-bounce ball.

They’re speculating whether the rules will be rewritten to stop such deliveries; I say let them bowl ‘doubles’.

For one, it is going to be a very difficult ball to bowl.  I remember trying to bowl such deliveries in my ‘underarm’ gully cricket days and not being successful more than half the time – and that was underarm.  Trying to bowl an accurate overarm ‘doubles’ would be a rare achievement in itself.
Second, if you’ve ever tried it, you would know that the ball turns the ‘other’ way after the 2nd bounce – making it doubly difficult to be accurate (pun intended).

And last, the batsman can always dance down the pitch to make it a ‘non-double’ – remember the bowler will be a ‘slow’ bowler = maybe not even a spinner.

* There was the doosra, but like the Aussies, I think that it is pure chucking.  I mean a Pakistani inventing something sportive is like Ferrari making a Hummer.

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Nilekani preparing ground to take cover?

Seems that one of the smartest sons of India is practicing fancy footwork to avoid the repercussions of the Unique ID project.  By saying that the UIDAI will back law to protect data, he has now admitted that existing laws do not protect privacy of an Indian citizen.

But on further reading, the report seems to suggest that he is preparing grounds to claim “I told you so … I thought so…”, further down the years.  Let us take a quick look:

• UIDA will ‘support, endorse’ any new Act to protect privacy and data security
• Such an Law will not be part of the UID Act, which will legitimize the UID
• Thus any data breach or intrusion of privacy will NOT be the responsibility of the UIDA
• UIDA will be ‘just’ data ‘collecting’, number ‘issuing’ authority – a backend; something like your mobile phone operator – just give you a phone number, if you misuse it or anybody harasses you, you’ve to run to someone else for protection.
• UID itself will not collect data – it will be done by ‘Registrars’ – including oil marketing companies, National Census Bureau and National Population Register – some, if not all of them, have information which are supposed to be in public domain.
• How are you going to segregate the public domain vs.UID data?
• What happens if there is a mix-up or breach?
• The ‘banks’ will be both ‘registrar’ and ‘partner’ – so how do you restrict them to ‘Y or N’ query? 
• And which ‘banks’ are going to be ‘registrars’?  Will it include ICICI and HDFC, which are non-Indian owned banks?
• If so, do these banks have any company rules prohibiting say a Paki or a Chinki from becoming CEO or CIO and releasing data to Al-Qaeda, ISI or PLA?
• And last, if info will be released for reasons of ‘national security’, who is the authority to decide that ‘national security’ is involved vis-a-vis a particular citizen?

On the whole, I’ve just this to say …

Mr. Nilekani, you’re sowing the wind …

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India Met Department is Idiots Met Department

There appears to be something wrong with the India Met Dept.  Granted meteos the world over are subject of humour, but these guys take the cake – and when they order cheesecakes, they must be getting fruitcakes.
>;->

As per this article (in The Hindu - link disappeared Oct 2012) Cyclone takes zig-zag path nears coast, the cyclone is supposed to cross the coast Thursday morning.  Whereas the JTWC has been predicting that the TC will pass land late Thursday evening  – see these TC Laila Warnings 06 and 09.

The JTWC TC Laila Warning NR 06 DTG (Date & Time Group) is 19/0300 Z (19/0830 IST).

See this IMD Laila Advisory #11 DTG is 19/0600 UTC (19/1130 IST) where it clearly states Laila will “ CROSS ANDHRA PRADESH COAST BETWEEN NELLORE AND KAKINADA, CLOSE TO MACHILIPATNAM BY MORNING OF 20^TH MAY 2010”.
:-X

And since the landfall didn’t happen, here is the another Advisory #17 DTG 20/0000 UTC (20/0530 IST) predicting a landfall by afternoon 20th.

BTW here is the JTWC graphic with Warning NR 10; Watch out Bangladesh, looks like you too might get it.



Heckuva Job guys – thank god she’s Laila & not Katrina

PS:  I’ve started using http://www.webcitation.org/ for archiving dynamic content – a real great tool.

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Use the gamers to fight infiltration

It seems after amassing terrorists in PoK over the last few weeks, Pakistan has doubled their monthly 'wages'.  Obviously this is to stroke up the terror activities in J&K which have seen a drop due to Pakis own problem at home.

There was a time that every day was a bomb day in India and now the chickens had gone home to roost as Pakis are suffering the same fate.  But now the bloody Pakistanis can’t stand that, do they?  If they’re losing both eyes, then India should lose at least one is their prayers and hence they are amassing terrorists and offering them more money to go and die in J&K.

So, why don’t we think out-of-the-box and do something quite different and mind blowing?  I think we should take a leaf out of the novel rated as one of the (if not the) best science fiction works ever – Ender’s Game.

Now in India is the summer vacation time with all the college kids turning to ‘gaming’ after the IPL/WC-T20 season is over.  Till June 11, when the FIFA WC starts, these idle minds will be wasting their time playing GTA or WoW. 

so why don’t we put in machine guns equipped with night vision cameras right along the infiltration zone and give it to these co-eds?  They can spot & shoot the infiltrators, staying in their Air conditioned game rooms.

Knock, knock, is the Defence Ministry listening?

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Brain scans not narco-analysis can reveal lies

India’s Supreme Court ruled that ‘truth-drug tests’ like narco-analysis, lie detector and brain mapping tests are illegal and are an infringement on a person’s privacy.  That was on May 4th.

Barely 5 days later, US scientists have claimed that Brain-scans can be useful as lie-detectors.  That was what the so called ‘Brain mapping’ used in India was about, wasn’t it?

But to be fair, the researchers have also explained how the results could not be relied upon 100% and could be manipulated or cheated.

 Nice conundrum this:

One hand you do have a test that can possibly give a clue to solving a crime.  OTOH, manipulation by the witness can easily condemn an innocent man – merely on the basis of that test.  And in India where cops are known to railroad innocents, we’d be better off without such tests.

Also, the supreme court decision is (I think) the first major decision, on a citizen’s right to privacy; with this decision as basis, we can expect much more verdicts in future – like when the phones are tapped or illegal search and seizure – and many such restrictions that are totally alien to the Indian Police.

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Freed Somali pirates 'probably died'

At last men after my own heart. 

The Russians set the pirates on a inflatable and sent them home and the freed Somali pirates 'probably died'. 
Way to go Russia. 

Why bring them out to Moscow, put them on trial, spend money, convict them and then wait to hang them?

Like India spending $ 4,000 per day for the terrorist  Kasab.  This in a country with the per capita income of $ 1,116.

That is if some terrorist loving, humanism spewing crack heads don’t pop up and start pleading mercy for terrorists and then there is the Presidential pardon.  Makes me want to puke.

As I had blogged earlier, treason-terrorism-nothing-to-forgive and AFAIC just shoot them.
o:-)<

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Are British women's breasts getting bigger?

Of all the things I dreamed of reading on a Sunday morning, a report about boobs getting bigger was the most unexpected [http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/16/womens-breasts-are-getting-bigger].

I thought the limeys would have more important things to worry about - Ash clouds, BA strike, Cricket match fixing, Kichdi government and the Ed-David  rivalry – than their women having bigger boobs.

Hope the British women don’t expose them – or some mad mullah will curse them with earthquakes.

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Delhi MLAs eye Games Village flats

The chow-hounds are at their favourite games.  By the people, for the people and feck the people, with the Delhi MLAs eye Games Village flats, Dikshit says flat no  (pun intended).

At least we seem to have a sensible and a principled woman as the CM in Delhi – can’t say the same for other states.

But seriously, how can these chow-hounds even contemplate such freeloading?  Don’t they have even a fart whiff of shame in them?

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18 grams of dust and time to gloat

I decided to upgrade the Linux (dual boot) to simplyMEPHIS 8.5 and then a reformat/reinstall of the Windows too.  And ended up having problems for 2 days.  The Linux refused to boot and the Win motherboard drivers were lost.

Finally managed to get them going – Linux by down to earth ‘troubleshoot with command console’ technique (which never fails) and Win drivers by hunting out the Intel CD – at first the Intel CD refused to copy but by that very fantastic tool ‘Teracopy’ managed to copy them & get going.

Since I also lost all my starred items from FeedDemon for blogging on interesting subjects (about 70 of them), I am hampered.  So I think it is time (this week) to ‘Gloat’.

The 18 grams of dust is what I recovered from my PC when I vacuumed the PC as part of cleaning.
Oooh!

p.s.:  I lost the smiley support too! :-)



(image for illustrative purposes only)

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A tiffin box, first time in my adult life

For the 1st time in my life, I carried packed lunch to work on Friday.  During the seven years of my sailing life, there was no question of packing anything lunch or otherwise.

Over the next 7 years as shore manager there was always the company canteen and the restaurants of Mumbai.  And the last 7 years on my own, lunch was mostly at home.

In fact, the last time I carried packed lunch was to my 10th class room.  After that, schooling was on shift pattern and I never had to carry lunch.  Thus after almost 2 score and half decade later – packed lunch.

And in case you wonder what the lunch was – here is the snapshot.  A typical madrasi lunch – a good serving of ‘curd rice’, a serving of mashed spinach and 2 vadu mangai (tender small mango) pickles – carried in a typical madrasi stainless steel ‘dabba’ or tiffin carrier.

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