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Last October I wrote about my cycling trip to Chandil. I recently purchased a new bike – my Shwin Sporterra. So after a long break I went for a long trip to Golconda Fort in Hyderabad. When I started the trip I never had not planned for this trial. But as I started to ride I found a new trial which was simply amazing, It was through the Nehru Ring road (Samshabad Airport Bypass) and via the Scenic India Army Artillery centre. Then came to know that this leads to Golconda.

When I reached the Moti Darwaza in Golconda, I felt great in finding a new trial. The total distance covered was 62 KM up and down and you can find the route map here. The total time taken was about 3 hours. I would recommended this trial for all amateur bike enthusiasts.

Post the ride went for Manirathnam’s Raavan. I read a lot of scathing reviews about the movie. But I enjoyed the beautiful cinematography. Loved every place shown in the movie, wanted to explore such places- reminded me of my trekking experience @ Chalakudy during my Rotaract days and North East trip post XL. AR Rahman was again magical in his tunes. For me this movie was definitely worth watching in the Big screen.

I just went through ComScore May 2010 Search Rankings. Google remains in the top,but there is 0.7% dip in the marker share. Yahoo & Bing are with 29.5% market share. I am combining both data because of their Yahoo-Microsoft Alliance.

These percentage changes may look very small seeing the first time. But it matters a lot, because the total core search activity for one month in Total U.S is about 15935million searches. Now you can do the Math.

Off late I am tracking the market share of various operating systems. I used to read many user reviews, research data to keep updated. Today I found an interesting way to find out the operating system market share from the data which I have been accumulating. I use Google analytics to analyse the site statistics for this website. Google analytics captures the operating system and browser capabilities. That gives the visitor operating system capabilities. I just picked the last 3 months visitor statistics for my website and that gave a glimpse of market share of OS among the people who use internet the maximum.  The image over the left shows Windows is among the top with about 80%. But the data here shows only the PC users who have access to internet. In countries like India/China there are many PCs without an Internet connection and logically they would not be having a Mac/Linux but Windows (Highly likely a pirated version). Another interesting piece was there was couple of visitors from mobile devices to my website – from an Android/ iPhone/iPad. This shows people of now search more from mobile devices. Let us see how the Chrome OS skews this data set in future.

Do you think a social media application can help stop the spread of malaria? Could a mobile alert system help warn citizens of a looming natural disaster?  Can a mobile phone be used to detect vascular diseases like sickle cell anemia and type 1 diabetes?

These are just a few of the projects designed by students competing in the Imagine Cup, a global technology competition focused on improving education, healthcare and the environment. These students all have one thing in common; they are going to change the world!

Starting from a field of over 325,000 competitors from all over the world, only 400 have made it to the final stage and will attend the Worldwide Finals in Poland this summer. You can learn more about their projects, watch their videos, and vote to support your favourite team at www.imaginecup.com.  

Open to students around the world, the Imagine Cup is a serious challenge that draws incredible talent, passion and perseverance. The event spans one year, beginning with local, regional and online competitions. The finalists go on to attend the Worldwide Finals held in a different location every year.  The intensity of the work brings students together, and motivates the competitors to rise above challenges and make an impact on the world.

And let’s face it; the world could use a little changing.  We live in difficult times with a ton of problems raining down on people every day.  The real question is who is going to step up and do something about it? We think it’s you. Be sure to tune into www.imaginecup.com on July 8^th to see who emerges as the “People’s Choice” champion.

So after a lot of thinking, I have moved out of Coimbatore now. I am settled now in a new place. Very hot compared to my home town. But getting used to it. So first thing I have bought is a bike. I used to travel to my engineering college (GCT) in Coimbatore by a Hercules Thriller. After four years I have bought my own bike – Shwinn Sporterra. It is a 21 gear set bike, just getting used to riding this.

Today I went for enrolling in a nearby swimming pool at Gachibowli Sports Complex. The pool is really awesome, that is what I would say for a 50m pool. But I was in for a rude shock seeing the crowd for enrolling in a swimming pool. The enrolment starts at 7 AM in front of the gate on every 5th of the month. But actually people come and stand in the queue the previous day night about 9.30 pm. There were people with pillows and bed sheets sleeping in the queue to get the 100 odd forms distributed every month.

I have never seen this much of crowd for a swimming pool. You can see that in the picture also. I think people in Hyderabad are more health conscious – if so the statistics should prove that.  I find many people into biking (like me :). There is a Hyderabad cycling club which organises regular cycling events.

I have already seen Lots of Telugu movies, and gulped enough of Biriyani. So far I have i have not travelled much in this place, I  just visited Ramoji Film city. I was travelling to Bangalore and Delhi for my work. Planning to explore the place further in the coming months.

When I saw Google/Gmail Buzz today, this time it was not a big surprise for me. I was expecting already some development behind the word “Buzz” was going on. I had tried creating labels in Gmail with the name Buzz earlier and it never allowed me because it was a Gmail Reserve Word. GTalk also never had the Buzz option. The option of buzz in Gmail-  it is another Twitter or Facebook News feed option. Integrating all the things in one is something Gmail started long ago when they introduced chats inside the mail box. They even integrated video and voice chat inside your mailbox. All the recent developments these days is providing all the need in one place – Videos, music, pictures, mail, search, social networking etc all in one. One Application for all these is what every one are trying. I see this as a technological convergence. This is what seen in electronic and computing gadgets where you can get all the things in one gadget. It acts as a mobile communicator, camera, video and audio player etc. The need of customers has also moved to one gadget for all purpose from multiple gadgets for multiple purpose. So the Google/Gmail Buzz can be called as another Gbook/Gwitter right inside your mail box.

A Good move by Google, since Orkut is losing its market share in one of its dominant market – India. Facebook has become the cool thing now in India compared to Orkut and Google very badly need to lock the customers completely switch to Facebook. The idea of locking its email users in this is a good try by Google. Early adopters of technology like me would try at this point and say it is a cool thing. But its the laggards who make the application a success by staying for longer time. Google Wave is yet to make an impact, I keep shouting inside wave to find the use of it and it is yet to become a success. Buzz should create some buzzing for Google next.

After entering XL, I rarely read any books other than the course materials. Most of the time I was busy behind the laptop screen doing some assignments or projects. Even if I found some free time, I never felt like reading a book, would watch some new Tamil movie which relaxes me a lot. During my summer internship I found some time to read some books. Recently a couple of weeks during travel I could read.

Predictably irrational by Dan Airely 

The basic assumption of Traditional Economics is – “All Humans are Rational, we always make rational choices “. But this book is a fascinating examination of why human beings are wired and conditioned to react irrationally. We human beings are a selfish bunch, so it’s all the more surprising to see how easily we can be manipulated to behave in ways that run counter to our own self-interest.  What I learned from Predictably Irrational is that everyone is irrational sometimes, and that’s OK. We’re not perfectly logical creatures, after all. The trick is training yourself to know when you’re most likely to make irrational choices, and to resist those impulses. I would say this books increased my interest in Behavioural Economics. I would rate this a 4.5 / 5 in terms of value add, style of writing and research done.

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt

No special mention required about this book, as this is one of the book most reviewed, and also you can refer the Freakonomics blog at NY Times. But this is also of the same genre similar to behavioural economics. “Conventional wisdom is often shoddily formed and devilishly difficult to see through” – You will understand this if you read this book. A must read if you would like to understand many economic problems could be related to something which are not obvious. One of the most famous correlations gave by him is the Link between - US crime rate and Legalising Abortion. I would rate a 4/5 for this book.

I have started again, at present I am reading Gregory Robert’s – Shantaram.

Previous Reviews

1. Quick Review

2. Under Cover Economist

For the last 24 years I have never crossed her borders. Respected her Saluted her and I still would do always…But Tomorrow is the first time ever in my lifetime I am crossing the borders of India.

A first trip to Malaysia for a week. The best timing I could ever get. Hope It goes as planned ( Do we have a plan actually:)

This Passion started with Windows 3.1 during my school days, this was a dream company. In-fact I am a  PC!!!

Waiting to explore through World without Walls….

For this Gandhi Jayanthi, I and Hrishi planned a small adventure. Biking till Chandil from XLRI.  We started at about 3.30 in the evening when the weather was very good for cycling. By 5.00 we touched 30 KM on the high way to Chandil. But it was getting dark slowly and the NH 33 highway is a typical India road with many potholes and jammed by trucks. Hence we decided to return and had to abandon the trip to the chandil Dam which required additional 25 Km from that place. When we were returning it became completely dark by 6.00 PM. The worst was the vehicles coming in the opposite direction came with full beam and they never mind to use the dipper. It was becoming to tough to cycle when it started to rain. But still we managed to reach campus by 7.30. It was a 4 hour cycling with a small break twice for 5 minutes. We were happy we were able to cover atleast 60Km in the trip.

You can check the track in this link.