Advogato blog for jayakumar

29 Aug 2005

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 06:38:55 GMT

2.6.13 is out. Full changelog between 12 and 13 is here. Both my patches are in.

5 Aug 2005

Fri, 5 Aug 2005 13:14:49 GMT

Chemman Chaalai

Chemman Chaalai, The Gravel Road (Tamil with English subtitles) [A Tamil film without singing and dancing] looks like a very powerful and interesting movie. I will be looking to watch it. This review has an interesting synopsis.

Nokia n770 versus Mobilis Wireless

There is adequate information and pictures for the n770. It seems it's an 220MHz TI OMAP with a 4.1" TFT? and priced at USD$350. The Mobilis Wireless appears to be 400MHz Xscale PXA-255 based with a 7" TFT and priced at USD$250?. But there are so few pictures and so few concrete pieces of information about it. ncoretech needs to put up more information about it if they want to arouse developer interest. It's no use having a good product if you don't let anyone know about it and independently test and talk about it. Surely, one can do better than just a single pdf with vague information.

23 Jul 2005

Sat, 23 Jul 2005 15:35:05 GMT

I was reading about the effects of industrial pollution on the global climate. I noticed Veerabhadran Ramanathan's work especially on the tracking of air mass and polluted air masses over the Indian sub-continent. Apparently, a large scale experiment called INDOEX was performed.

The summary of what they've concluded from their results is here. Here are some things that caught my attention:
all pre-INDOEX experiments revealed findings that the impact of the anthropogenic pollution from the Indian sub-continent on the chemical, physical and optical properties of the atmosphere can be substantial in magnitude and spatial coverage.

I think that means that the amount of pollution from India is large. Further, it means that the impact of this pollution on the earth's atmosphere is big too.

Evidence of direct transport of anthropogenic emissions (such as dark grey filter color and high dust loading) was detected 1500 km from southern India. Since then, more evidences of the anthropogenic impact in the Indian Ocean region have been observed.

I think that means that the pollution from India even makes its way to the northern chain of the Maldives right smack in the middle of the Indian Ocean. That's very bad.

Trajectory calculations show that the northeast monsoonal low level flow can transport sulfates, mineral dust and other aerosols from the Indian sub-continent to the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) within 6 to 7 days and the transport of mineral dust in the middle troposphere from the Arabian desert can reach to 4000 km away with a transit time of 2 to 3 days [Krishnamurti et al., 1998].

Ok. That means it takes just 6-7 days for the pollution to travel across the ocean. I couldn't quite get an understanding of what their results imply in terms of long term enviromental impact. I am of course wondering what impact all this pollution will have on the monsoons and climate change. The pollution has had a serious negative effect on human life. I didn't look for stats but I'm pretty sure incidence rates of respiratory disease has been on the rise. Organo-mercury and other organo-heavy metal compounds and PCB contamination of the food supply will probably start to have an impact in terms of a rise in neurological disorders.

This is bad stuff. I think we should do something about it. I don't know what, yet...

23 Jul 2005

Sat, 23 Jul 2005 00:34:22 GMT

From this article about thimerosal:

Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, autistic disorders also appear to be soaring in India, Argentina, Nicaragua and other developing countries that are now using thimerosal-laced vaccines. The World Health Organization continues to insist thimerosal is safe, but it promises to keep the possibility that it is linked to neurological disorders "under review."

Be careful what you let doctors put into you. The "First, do no harm" principle should be a key assumption about vaccines. Developing countries should be very wary about vaccines. There is often a double standard in vaccine manufacture. Notice the: Vaccine manufacturers had already begun to phase thimerosal out of injections given to American infants

What about infants who aren't in America? Do they deserve any less?

21 Jul 2005

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:02:34 GMT

Hehe. This one and this one. John Leach, I can't wait for the next one.

19 Jul 2005

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 13:59:57 GMT

Congratulation to the winners of Redhat India's Lord Of The Code program. I don't know about the first placed project. But the second place winners built an interesting project. It was a project to add GTK+ bindings to Octave. Nicely done. Congrats to Ramasamy C, Muthiah A, Hemant Kumar, and R Saravana Manickam.

18 Jul 2005

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:02:04 GMT

I like Nek Chand and others 40 acre rock and sculpture garden In Chandigarh. More about it here.

17 Jul 2005

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:16:30 GMT

Slashback:

An innovative enviromentally friendly method for building a ski lift in Manali, India.

No wonder RMS refuses Coca-Cola. They're suing this photographer, Sharad Haksar for this image of coca cola above pots near a push pipe, a tire and a container of some chemicals. Maybe they thought it would remind too many customers of the alleged excessive pollution levels found in Coca-cola and watertable reduction issues.

Manmohan Singh talks about India's relationship with Britain among other things. I found the following part interesting:

At this meeting, the Mahatma was asked: 'How far would you cut India off from the Empire?' His reply was precise - 'From the Empire, entirely; from the British nation not at all, if I want India to gain and not to grieve.' He added, 'The British Empire is an Empire only because of India. The Emperorship must go and I should love to be an equal partner with Britain, sharing her joys and sorrows. But it must be a partnership on equal terms.' This remarkable statement by the Mahatma has defined the basis of our relationship with Britain.

Indian cheetahs went extinct in 1952. The last living cheetah apparently died in 1952 in Chitoor in Andhra. The Gir lion is down to 200. 3 species of Indian vulture are going to go extinct unless a better alternative to diclofenac is found. And meanwhile Iran says to India "No, you can't copy our cheetahs. Go ask Africa.". You know, if you want to keep your native species' alive, it's best to do it while they're still here rather than ask your neighbours to lend you their DNA once you've killed all of your own. Either we all fix something or we lose these creatures.

I liked Dilip's essay about sharing. Here's a snippet:

But there's another point here. My days in Orissa and Kutch taught me a lesson that I learned once more in Tamil Nadu: if that word patriotism means anything at all, it must mean the kind of selfless dedication I saw in people like PK. The simple urge to do something for your fellow human being, for no better reason than that he is your fellow human being.

16 Jul 2005

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 07:10:09 GMT

I watched Danny the dog. I liked it. It's unique. It's interesting.

It has two faces that are infamously familiar: Tamer Hassan, and Bob Hoskins. It was written by Luc Besson who happens to have also been the producer for Ong Bak. And yes, also the producer for Léon the professional. A couple of his other flicks are Kiss of the Dragon, The Messenger. It stars Morgan Freeman and Jet Li. I'll say no more.

13 Jul 2005

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 11:01:02 GMT

New kernel is out.2.6.13-rc3. Looks like some relevant mtd and jffs2 fixes. Everyone's out for OLS next week.