ATMENtec - the ultimate respirator device

Good news, folks! Thanks to all the focus in the media on the right technologies which are affordable and effective in fighting Covid-19 and also in improving our health, I have come across this ultimate device. It is named ATMENtec.

You will be amazed to know more about this!

1. It takes care of all respiratory demand in terms of capacity and flow rate. 
2. The system comes with pre-filtration, moisturiser, and warmer. 
3. It triggers alarms during any malfunction. 
4. It has 100% built-in redundancy. 
5. It uses "bioenergy",  something of a new discovery. 
6. It is very easy to operate for all age groups. 
7. It gives bio-feedback for improved sense of wellness. 
8. It has a 3X turbo mode. 
9. It comes with a lifetime warranty. 
10. It requires zero extra space for bedside as well as ambulatory use. 
11. It comes with a built-in user guide which is child-friendly. 
12. No plastic parts. 
13. Based on open source technology. 
14. Easily available DIY service. 

Now that you are aware of ATMENtec, you can get it same day free delivery for offline or online orders without a doctor's prescription. 

The BEST NEWS OF ALL. 

Take a deep breath, folks! 

It is free! 

It is the human respiratory system! 

Take care and be safe. 😊

Zootopia- what I like about this 3D animated movie

I saw Zootopia twice, first with grandkids and then with better-half.

I feel the movie is a bit over the top for kids, unless they are already thinking of career choices and how to make the world a better place for everyone. And whatever your age, if you like crisp dialogue, great 3D animation (especially trains speeding amok), the American Urban Dream, and some wild adventure, you are going to fall in love with this movie.

Many hot buttons of popularity are pressed nonchalantly by Disney Studios:

1. The hero is a young, tiny, girl rabbit, Officer Judy Hopps who doen't blink when she says, "It's called a hustle, sweetheart!", with a boldness and courage belying her social stereotype-imposed self-image and dimunitive size. She pairs up with a wily, well-networked, fox who's on the bend after having been a bit of a vagabond himself. The two make a delightful pair as they take on the notorious complications of a complex urban world full of wheels within wheels of good, bad, lazy, and ugly bits all mixed up nicely. 
2. You do have spoofs of famous movie moments.
3. You have, to boot, Shakira herself appearing as a sexy gazelle, singing and dancing her way into every bison and leopard heart.
4. Animals who think, act, speak human, no, make it American dreamer, all the time.

Go watch it. and tell me what you think!

Don't just sit there, learn Bharatanatyam!

What looks like a designer chair is surely one,  but more than what you think.
The "No Sweat, No Sweat"  company,  who made their millions selling the Ab King Pro ("crunch with the punch") and the Sedentary Walker ("Move your legs, not your butt")  have launched this for the December season.

Every Bharatanatyam aspirant knows that the most important thing is Arre Mandi. This esoteric term means "how to sit without sitting." So a Bharatanatyam exponent will perfect over the years the posture of sitting on a non-existent chair. This is supposed to confer grace, posture, and foster the best eye contact during abhinaya. Now supposing you actually sit on a chair,  and the chair does all the foot thumping and aids in abhinaya, you have Bharatanatyam v3.0. That is the idea behind the Bharatanatyam Chair.

How this advanced design works is that you find a convenient, spacious, well ventilated, flat surface in a room and place the chair. Then you plug it into the wall socket (100-240V,50/60 Hz, 10A).
You have an iOS/Android app that links via Bluetooth 3.0 and controls the lessons.

You are led through all the key moves of the classic art form including foot movements, hand movements, eye movements, neck movements, and facial expressions.  A series of mild shocks make you squirm and stomp your feet as you sit comfortably on the chair. No need for make up,  jewellery, special costumes etc. unless you are performing in public.

The Bharatanatyam Chair has graded lessons and you can become a Master of Arts in 24 lessons. The entire system is covered by a one year warranty.
Order yours today online at USD 499.95!

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Earth shakes below the Metro. I see the Iskcon spire. I remember the prasad.The climb's worth it - such fabulous decorations! Am lost in the chant until I hear the conch.

My new Sony Xperia Z2 phone

A slick, shiny piece of glass,

A mirror to my soul,

A magical slate of endless fun

Z2 is my new goldfish bowl.

Of water, it's totally unafraid

Like a simmering silky mermaid.

I welcome traffic jams as fun

I can shoot and post on the run!

The new Xperia is my entire world-

At least for now, I'm sure,

Inside lies no serpent curled,

It's totally mindless play so pure!

The Zombienet

This week's news :

1. Facebook buys Whatsapp for US $ 19 billion.

2. Google glass is now available for prescription wearers, along with a few etiquette tips.

3. The Mobile World Congress 2014 Barcelona has announced what is my next mobile phone.

There, you have it -my weekly headlines summary, which completely bypasses the world of humans, with its Modis, Paswans, and Lalus. We don't interact with or inhabit the same world as those people who want to now go and live in London since Amma is releasing them from life imprisonment in jails that they entered in 1991 or so, soon after having blown off the head of Indian politics at Sriperambadur ( where is it dear? Look up in Google Earth, lazy!)

 Yes, that was the prehistoric year when there was no Internet, no mobile phone, and no PC.

What!? You mean there was a time on earth when there were humans, that is those who were not robots hobbling around clutching little shiny lighted screens!? Yes. A different time. A different world. A different species.

So human history can be written briefly as the progression of creatures in this sequence: 

Worms

Dinosaurs

Humans

Viruses

Androids.

The last named is you and me, what the dictionary defines as an automaton in the form of a human being. Another name for android.

In the new language of the zombienet we all androids inhabit, there are surprising parallels to humans'. 

Let me list six most powerful words of them:

Breathe = Facebook

Smile = Emoji

Walk or stroll or travel = Browse

Speak = Whatsapp

Unburden your soul = Post on your FB timeline.

Sleep or wake up = Come online or go offline.

In the Zombienet, man's propensity to happiness, sadness, war, disease and death have all equivalents. The Android can suffer or experience an extremely wide range of unpredictable mental states. As recently reported, these vulnerabilities are best exemplified by the issues caused by a bug in the IOS 6.1.1 due to possibilities of rogue access to your devices using the encryption vulnerabilities in SSL. A fix is coming shortly as 7.0.6. Such issues don't always hurt us folks in Zombienet of course. Some of us use KitKat, you see. Even Nokia X uses a stripped version of this OS.

But the worst news?!?!? We may have to go backwards in time and technology, into a world of the spoken language that humans used. That's because some of the folks who shared in the 19 billion loot have decided to offer voice telephony for free on Whatsapp. Yes. Speech. 

An Open and Shut Nut case

My wife is a big user of fresh coconut in all our South Indian cooking. In fact, her mother had shared a proverb with me long back: "With Coconut and Asafotida in the kitchen even a monkey can cook!" I am also a big believer in coconut dishes, especially coconut chutney and Avial. So you can well imagine that we grate a lot of coconut, almost on a daily basis.

Let me correct that last sentence. I grate coconut a lot, as a token of my help in kitchen and to ensure we never have shortages. And that brings me to the technical theme of this post.

You see, we are still looking for the perfect coconut grater. Looking at strong coffee-colored, muscular Kerala men and women,  I think their well-being is as much owed to coconut tree climbing as to grating coconuts. I have seen in coffee table books and fancy cookery titles enticing pictures of ancient royal, coconut graters. My wife, an M. Tech engineer, has a clear idea of how the ideal coconut grater should be designed. But we are nowhere near perfect with what we have.

When the last one, an old reliable, died out meekly, I set out to buy a great grater. After much searching all over, I bought one (see picture) at an enterprising Marwari store in Thippasandra. When I told the owner that I might bring it back for refund or replacement if rejected by GHQ, he told me that I should tell my lady to make do with what she got. I told him he didn't seem to understand either coconut-graters or women like I do.

Anyway, whereas this grater is doing quite well, thank you, my wife has continued her search for the perfect design, inspired by what she saw in someone's house. When we went to the said shop in Gandhi Bazar, the shopkeeper showed us items much deficient in quality and engineering, and looked totally disinterested in selling a grater. He reminded me of my neighbour who has lost all interest in coconuts since his doctor told him coconut kernel is rich in cholesterol. (science bit: coconut, being a vegetable, has zero cholesterol which is an enzyme produced by animals). 

Anyways. In order to stabilize my coconut grater situation, I decided to replace the poor quality horizontal holding bolt and nut (see the picture) that held the blade with much wobble. The wobble contributes to acute dissatisfaction in the grater (here I mean myself) and constant cribbing in the kitchen. So last Sunday, I set out in search of a bolt and nut of quality.

My discovery was shocking. Tens of hardware shops, and none sold nuts and bolts! They sold fancy bathroom fittings and paints etc., but no nuts and bolts. Some small shops that resembled scrap dealers showed some rusty pieces, but nothing of engineering excellence. Someone told me to travel all the way downtown, an unlikely prospect since I was already squirming at the auto fare to Thippasandra.

Then I had a lateral thought. Such a lateral thought resembles freshly grated, soft, sweet and succulent coconut. The thought was: Why not try an auto parts dealer?!? I moved at once, at the speed of light, to the nearest dingy Auto Parts shop where a very knowledgeable salesman attended to me in five seconds with the right item.

So in the picture you see the long bolt with three washers and two nuts, doing a wonderful job of the "Open and Shut Grater Blade" task. No wobble, no pain.

Ever since, I am a happy man with faith restored in mankind. No wonder they call the coconut tree as Kalpavriksha, the wish-fulfilling tree.

Total expense: two trips to Gandhi Bazar market taxi fare Rs. 800/ PLUS auto fare for Thippasandra trip Rs 60/-. Cost of bolt and two nuts and three washers Rs.3/-. 

To be on the safe side I also bought a matching JK spanner, an original duplicate that cost me Rs 30/-.

Tips on Creativity

I copy below this set of tips on jump-starting your creativity by Nellie Akalp of Corp.net, that I just read in pulse.com:      .

BY NELLIE AKALP1 day ago

Whether you want to design a new product, devise a tagline for a client or solve a scheduling problem, creative thinking gives you an undeniable edge. However, we can't just summon creativity on a whim; when we need it most, it's nowhere to be seen.

If you’re in need of more outside-the-box, inventive thinking at work, here are five ways to boost your creativity.

1. Ditch the quiet office.

Unlike detail-oriented, analytical thinking, creativity thrives amidst moderate distraction. That’s why it’s so hard to get the creative juices flowing when you shut the door and block out all distractions.

Researchers at the University of Illinois found that a moderate level of ambient noise induces “process disfluency.” In short, distractions disrupt the flow of thought, leading to more abstract, broader and creative thinking. Researchers also found that noise had to be at a moderate level (around 70 decibels, the equivalent of a radio/TV in the background or someone running a vacuum cleaner) to enhance creativity. Lower or higher levels did not have positive impacts on creativity.

If you’re attempting to think of a creative solution, try distracting yourself by working at a café or park bench.

2. Silence the inner critic.

Whenever we churn out something out-of-the-ordinary, we open ourselves to scrutiny and criticism. In many cases, our own inner critic is the most effective at shooting things down. It’s hard to be creative when you’re constantly worried that x, y or z won’t be good enough.

When children draw, they don’t worry about making mistakes; they take risks, do their own thing and have fun. Yet if most adults picked up a sketchpad, they would start thinking, "That doesn’t look right," "that’s not good enough" from the very beginning.

The inner critic tightens your mind and blocks creative flow, so find any way to silence this negative voice. For example, give yourself permission to brainstorm by automatically writing down ideas as you think of them — then worry later whether they're any good.

3. Experiment with your work environment.

While the distractions of cafés and park benches can help inspire creativity, try to make changes in your workspace itself. For example, studies have shown that the complexity and interchanging notes of Mozart’s sonatas and other classical music can have a positive (albeit short-term) impact on spatial reasoning skills and creative thinking.

In addition to music, you can experiment with color. A 2009 study at the University of British of Columbia found the color blue led to more relaxed and creative thinking, while red boosted performance on more detail-oriented tasks like proofreading.

"Thanks to stop signs, emergency vehicles and teachers' red pens, we associate red with danger, mistakes and caution," said Juliet Zhu, author of the study. "The avoidance motivation, or heightened state, that red activates makes us vigilant and thus helps us perform tasks where careful attention is required to produce a right or wrong answer.

“Through associations with the sky, the ocean and water, most people associate blue with openness, peace and tranquility. The benign cues make people feel safe about being creative and exploratory,” Zhu added.

4. Sift out the busy work.

If your days, weeks and months are packed with “getting things done,” you’re not leaving any time to experiment. Google famously lets its employees use 20% of their workweeks to pursue special projects.

Considering that strategy has worked out pretty well for Google, you might want to try something similar for yourself. Try to carve out some free time every day (even if it’s just 10-20 minutes) to step away from the computer or other obligations and let yourself think.

5. Branch out beyond your comfort zone.

Steve Jobs once said, “A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions.” Sometimes the best path to creative and inventive thinking is to be intentional about experiencing new things in life.

If you’re experiencing a creative block, try picking up a magazine you wouldn’t normally read, have lunch with a friend in a different field or attend an event way outside your industry. Since you don’t know where an idea will come from, feel free to look anywhere and everywhere for your next source of inspiration.

The fascination of trains

Today's Economic Times:

Sitting is killing me

Multitasking info graphic

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Multi-taskers or scatter-brains

Detailed Infographic

High-Res Image

Bhagavan Krishna says in the Gita: those who meditate on me with undivided mind will always be taken care of by me. In other words he says 'don't multitask'.

The story goes that Ramakrishna chided Rani Rasmani when she was once sitting in prayer in the temple. He slapped her and said she should not be thinking of her business affairs when sitting in prayer.

Alas, we are today in the fragmented world of multitasking. The chart today in Economic Times lists the perils of Multitasking.

There is another article on iOS vs. Android, and how Android scores in multitasking!

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How I switched to an Android Phone

I have been using an iPhone since 2007, when I gifted myself on Diwali day a jail-broken one in Sydney Australia, inspired by its being written up as the gadget of the year in Time magazine.

I have used smart phones since 2002. P800 then P910 from Sony Ericsson. I am a bit crazy to spend so much on a phone, but actually it has become a bit of a companion as I google, listen to music and write blogs and snap and edit and upload photos/videos, on the move.

I have lost one P910 and two iPhones in public places to theft. My dear GE colleagues pooled up money to gift me a replacement last year as they knew how dejected I was after losing one in a taxi.

Having paid up tons of money to buy these phones and run up huge 2G/3G/Roaming bills with Airtel, I decided last week to deconstruct my life and switch to a non-3G phone, since I already have a 64 GB 3G iPad 3. So which phone should replace my iPhone 4?

1. It should be a much easier-to-use phone than iPhone.
2. It must be slimmer and longer to hold in the hand during calls.
3. It should have a large, nice display of text and pics and menus.
4. It should have a great camera.
5. It should have some music storage.
6. It should have a good battery charge for a full day's calls.
7. It WILL not have 320 apps like my iPhone had.

I settled for the HTC One V Android 4.0 after some hectic shopping around in Phoenix Mall, Reliance Digital, Sahara Mall Gurgaon and a small specialist phone shop run by Mr Syal. I bought one including a 8 GB SD card and hard back cover for Rs 17,900 paid (by Visa), from Mr Syal.

Here is a photo I just took of an old Krishna picturework hanging on the wall (of my mother's needlework):

Just to let you know how crazy I am, don't ask me what I will do with my iPhone 4. Something good I am sure.