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March 11, 2005
Habits seldom die
This is what happens when you start using a phrase more often than needed.
One of my friends has this habit of starting with “I think” before he talks anything. The other day, we were eating lunch together at a restaurant and he was busily talking on his mobile with someone. The signal wasn’t great as usual so he cut the call and called up helpdesk to complain about it. When he uttered the first few words, I almost fell off my chair. Guess what he said?
“I think I am P*****n speaking”
Posted by Vasanth at 11:30 AM | Comments (9)
March 10, 2005
This is no economics!!
The Veeranam project is jinxed, be it old or new. It’s always at the thick of controversies ever since it was conceptualised. The critics say that the project is not viable but the government says its viable.
Now there is a new controversy brewing up in the Veeranam belt for the Chennai Water Supply Augmentation Project-I (New Veeranam Project) in form of farmers and other local folks protesting against the drawal of water from the Veeranam lake as well as from the deep borewells. They claim that it will have a serious consequences on the water table in those areas and the Veeranam lake might get dried up because of the withdrawals which will take away their livelihood.
Here is the twist. I don’t see any demonstration whatsoever in Chennai against people at Panruti-Cuddalore who are refusing to give water to Chennai. However, there is such an outcry every time Mettur Dam dries up and Karnataka refuses to release waters from its reservoirs irrespective of whether there is any water in those reservoirs. One more twist. Where does the water come from for Veeranam lake? Yes it’s from Karnataka and Mettur dam.
What happened to celluloid world and politicians who were all up in arms when the Cauveri issue erupted last time? Isn’t Kollyhood part of Chennai? Why aren’t they agitating for Chennai’s cause?
This is the problem in our society. Without analysing the cause for the issue, everybody plays into the hands of the politicians. Politicians arm-twist issues to suit their local constituency without bothering about merits of the case or seeking a solution for the issue. Keeping power is paramount as far as the politicians are concerned.
There is no problem when there is plenty, be it water or money, it always an issue only when there is a scarcity. Cauvery issue or for that matter, the Veeranam issue, is not a geo-political issue, it’s a simple issue of, what you call in economics, demand supply mismatch.
Posted by Vasanth at 12:20 PM | Comments (1)
March 09, 2005
Its a vicious circle!!
My car’s fuel meter was running low, so I decided to fill in fuel at the nearest gas station. I filled up fuel and also checked the air pressure and should have gone back to office but decided to go to Adyar Anandha Bavan at that gas station. I always have a craving for chats and whenever I fill up fuel for my car, I somehow get attracted to Adyar Anandha Bavan and my legs automatically take me to that place.
It was a late afternoon, so no one was there and I ordered for a Channa Masala and an Aloo Chat. When I was enjoying my Channa Masala (Yummy it was!), a man (gentle!) entered and ordered for a Somosa Channa. It was a self service counter and the service guy tried to pick up a spoon from the bowl (unfortunately, there was only one spoon on that bowl) kept on the counter, but it fell down. He promptly kept the spoon back on the bowl and picked a spoon from somewhere else and gave it to the gentleman standing nearby. He relished his Somosa Channa and was happy, I guess, with the way spoon issue was handled. He left satisfied both for the food and the service.
I was still finishing my Aloo Chat when a new customer came in and ordered for some fancy Halwa. It was like an action replay for me, everything was same expect that this time the spoon didn’t fall down and ofcourse there was no spoon left on the bowl.
Now I am thinking about my spoon.. Oh no, it’s a vicious circle??
Posted by Vasanth at 11:47 AM | Comments (4)
March 04, 2005
Is this how the future search looks?
With this futuristic interface 10x10 you can see the news literally on the net, I mean, grid of pictures in the news, each linked to a set of news stories linked by a common topic.
Here's how it works:
"Every hour, 10x10 scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, and performs an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis on the text contained in their top news stories. After this process, conclusions are automatically drawn about the hour's most important words. The top 100 words are chosen, along with 100 corresponding images, culled from the source news stories. At the end of each day, month, and year, 10x10 looks back through its archives to conclude the top 100 words for the given time period. In this way, a constantly evolving record of our world is formed, based on prominent world events, without any human input. So, you can scroll down the sides for a word that looks interesting, or wander among the thumbnail pictures; click on something you like and you are taken to a detailed version of the picture along with the stories that are relevant to that word."
Posted by Vasanth at 04:20 PM | Comments (5)