Full-tu Fall-tu :-)

1. Why do people always "fall" in love, and not "rise" in it?

2. Why is a toothpaste called a "tooth"paste, and not "teeth"paste?

The Living Daylights - Part II

Question:- Has India ever had Daylight Saving Time?

Ans:- No??

Are you sure??

While making my previous post on Daylight Saving Time (DST), I came across this diagram on Wikipedia. I could hardly believe my eyes when I noticed India being shown as one of the countries which have once had DST. After looking around a lot of places and finding no mention of it, I returned to trusty old wiki, and found this.

The line said that India had briefly adopted DST during war times. But names of the wars, or any other reference link had not been given. I imagined that DST must have been implemented in India during the British times, i.e. during World War I or II. But some further research on wiki lead me to this and this.

So folks, here is a piece of data that might help you win 2 crores in KBC. :-)

India does not observe Daylight Saving Time now. During the Sino-Indian War in 1962 and the India-Pakistan Wars in 1965 and 1971, it was used.

Meanwhile, I am still on the lookout for more information on this, in order to find out exactly why and for how long was DST implemented in India during those wars. In case anyone reading this blog has some information about this, I request him/her to post a comment and share the information.

Arbit in Times.. for the 3rd time !!

I would like to inform all Arbit Choudhury fans about his latest media appearance. On the 12th March 2007, Arbit Choudhury got a mention in Times of India for the third time. The mention appeared in relation to the proposed creation of Arbit Choudhury merchandise by the management students of NITIE through their student managed company.

Veteran Arbit fans would recall that Arbit appeared on the front page of Bombay and Kolkata Times on October 18th 2005, as well as received a mention in an Education Times article on October 21st 2004. Arbit Choudhury has also grabbed mentions in other leading publications like Business World , and Indian Express over the years. More details about Arbit's media appearances can be found on http://www.arbitmba.com/

The Living Daylights

I for one, have never quite understood the rationale behind Daylight Saving Time (DST). Clocks in many countries across the world are moved forward by 1 hour during early spring, and moved back by an hour in fall. For years, I had been told this is done to make use of longer days during summer. I spent most of my childhood wondering why people would want to shift their clocks one hour FORWARD during summer. During summer, the number of sunlit hours during a day increase both ways, so there is more sunlight during the morning as well as during the evening. By shifting the clocks one hour forward, one is making the day last longer towards the evening, but at the same time, making it start late in the morning. I was always at loss figuring out a reason for this seemingly meaningless tinkering with time-zones.

It was only recently that I happen to read that the very purpose of Day Light Saving is to provide more sunlight during evenings. This would make evenings more productive, as people tend to work till sunset. Also, having more sunlight during evenings saves electricity, as people would not switch on their lights till it gets dark. But I still have reservations about this theory, as it’s true benefit can only be realized if people continue to start their day at their non-DST adjusted morning hours. If I shift my entire day to day schedule I hour forward (which is what most people do), I am effectively negating the impact of DST. Also, DST might have been more useful during the early 1900s (when it was first implemented), when most people used to work outdoors, and abundant electricity was not available. But in this day an age, when the vast majority of the population works in temperature controlled environs indoors, the savings might not be substantial. Having said all that, going by the fact that almost half of the world follows DST, I guess there are many merits to the system, beyond comprehension for my limited intellect.

The only grudge I have with DST is that it has robbed me of an hour of my life. I am in the US now, and have had to shift my clock forward by an hour on March 11, to adjust for DST. As a result, March 11 was a 23 hour day for me. But in all probability, I will be in India when the reverse adjustment is made in fall. And since India has no DST, I will end up living 1 hour less. Just imagine, if such a think happens to a person many times during his life, he might actually end up loosing a decent chunk of his life time. :-)

"Lost time is never found again." - Proverb

The Hound of Hagerstown

One of 1st things you notice after coming from a 3rd world country to a 1st world one is the efficiency of infrastructure; how things that work on paper, also work on the field; and how clearly defined systems govern each sphere of public activity. But at times, you encounter incidents, which really make you feel, no system is perfect.

When me and a friend where evaluating ways to travel from Hagerstown to Baltimore, the best option we could think of was a Greyhound bus. We had been told that Greyhound is one of the premiere bus services in the US, covering the entire length and breadth of the vast nation. When we arrived at the Greyhound bus stop in Hagerstown early in the morning, and purchased tickets for the 8.30 bus to Baltimore, little did we know what was in store for us. The bus duly arrived on time, and as well were about to enter, the driver came out to say, “We have no seats in this bus from here to Baltimore.” Bewildered by this statement, I replied “But what about the tickets we have purchased for THIS bus?”

“All the seats are occupied by passengers travelling from previous strops.” With this nonchalant reply, he closed the door and drove away.

“How can you sell the tickets without knowing if there are enough seats in the bus or not? What are we supposed to do with our $ 20 tickets now?” asked my friend back at the ticket booking counter.

“Our tickets are good for 1 year from the date of purchase. You can use them any time you want for the next 1 year.” replied the attendant.

“But we NEED to travel to Baltimore today!!”

“Then you can take the next Greyhound bus to Baltimore.”

“When is that supposed to arrive here?”

“5 hours from now.”

“We cannot wait for 5 hours here. All our plans would be screwed.”

“Well, you can take a taxi if it is urgent.”

Brilliant. As if Greyhound is going to pay for the taxi.

“We want to cancel our tickets. Give us a refund.” I intervened.

“The tickets can only be cancelled in Dallas.”

“What?? Don’t tell me we need to go to DALLAS to get these cancelled.” The attendant was getting to our nerves.

“No, we will give you an envelop in which you can mail your tickets. 20% of the ticket fee will be deducted on cancellation. You will receive the refund in a few weeks time.”

We soon realized that arguing with the attendant would serve no purpose, and called up our colleagues in Baltimore to inform them that we would arrive 5 hours late.

My VisualDNA

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Google Devta !!

When I happened to stumble upon this article yesterday, the last 2 paras caught my special attention.

The next step: the Gdrive

The fact that Google now thinks that it is able to handle the amount of data world wide Gmail requires may indicate that the next step is close at hand, namely the Google Platypus Gdrive.

The Gdrive is not public and you cannot use it yet. But the Google staff can. They can use Platypus as an online disk drive, saving not only email and documents, but any types of files. Welcome to the world of online computing!

I am beginning to wonder, is all this a part of Google's new vision, that of translating each and every offline computer application to an online one. Do they want to create an online equivalent for all offline activities performed on a computer. Are they trying to move the world towards a day when any action which could be performed on a PC today, can also be performed collaboratively online.

Here are some indications that hint such a vision:-

- GMail is virtually an online equivalent of Desktop mail applications like MS Outlook and Lotus, in terms of unlimited storage and archival of mails.

- Google Calender being a an online extension of the Calender functionality in Desktop mail applications.

- Google Docs and Spreadsheets are the online equivalents of word processors and spreadsheet applications like MS Word and Excel.

- There are rumors that Google plans to come up with an online version of MS Office itself, known as Google Office

- GDrive is the online equivalent of the Hard Disk.

I wonder if one day, Google will come up with a completely Online Desktop, when people would just log into their virtual desktops online, and perform all the functions they can with their physical desktops today.

For the billions of Google devotees like me and Nikhil, that would be the ultimate online place of worship !!

The Unknown Tintin !!

Just like the zillions of Tintin fans across the planet, I too have been frequently frustrated at the fact that Herge could create only 23 Tintin comics during his lifetime. Coupled with the fact that he did not want anyone to continue creating Tintin after his death, make Tintin comics an even rarer commodity. While there are hundreds and thousands of Phantom, Mandrake, Superman and Batman comics going around, each Tintin comic is worth it's weight in gold.

Here is a must browse site for all the die-hard Tintin fans across the world, containing wonderful nuggets of information about various deleted and unpublished parts of official Tintin comics, as well as some un-official Tintin comic books.

P.S.:-

1. Here is my previous pondering on Tintin.

2. I just invented a new phrase, "must browse".. :-)