www.BPODigest.com i-Vortal

Stanford on iTunes

WorldChanging reports the availability of selective Stanford lectures for free on iTunes.

Stanford University has begun to make recordings of select lectures, speeches, interviews and events available on the iTunes Music Store, for free. The material currently available includes a number of WorldChanging-related topics: talks by Lawrence Lessig, Geoff Davis on Microfinance, Paul Erlich on Population and Sustainability, and over 50 presentations on Health and Medicine. A restricted access section provides course-related materials for students and instructors, as well.

On the one hand, Stanford has put out for public consumption a collection (which is intended to grow) of generally very good lectures and discussions, and has done so in a non-protected way; moreover, by using the iTunes store, they're piggybacking upon a system that already has a large following and seamless integration with the most common digital music player. On the other hand, by using the iTunes store, they're limiting the audience to people with relatively recent mainstream computers -- Simputers, Linux boxes, and the like need not apply. Because of the way the ITMS works, they may also be limiting the audience to people in the United States or North America.

What I am really really looking forward is an iPod with an inbuilt camera to help me do easy Vodcasting (Video Podcasting).

Building India

Lately, I have been visiting various universities in USA in the process of figuring out the best school to pursue my MBA. All universities I visited were started around 100 to 200 years ago. After visiting them, I started concluding that these universities must have been acting as a backbone for building the world largest economy and most vibrant democratic society. Today was discussing with a colleague of mine 'Why we don't have such universities in India? Is it possible for India to become a great nation with out building such universities?’ Just now I came across Building One's Nation by Ashok Khosla, who talks about the difference between americans and Indians in building a nation. Ashok writes that USA is built by the youth of nineteenth century:

The young people of nineteenth century America were being called upon to build a nation. And they responded, working twelve, fourteen and sixteen hours a day, thirty days a month, twelve months a year. Painstakingly, they built institutions and infrastructure that are today the envy of the world: universities, local democracies, businesses, transportation networks, agricultural and industrial systems that combine to form the largest and most vibrant economy in history.

A one way ticket to the U.S. is now widely considered in our parts of the world to be the first prize in the lottery of life?

It is not the model; claim our young people, but the opportunities that make North America their preferred career destination. Their own role models: parents, teachers, uncles and aunts -- not to mention their peers -- concur: if the “infrastructure” does not exist at home to make use of one’s education, why not go abroad?

The educational institutions in developing countries are clearly not geared for the task of nation building. The schools are starved of funds, and hundreds of millions of children will grow up to languish in a state of virtual illiteracy. Yet, at huge national expense, we provide world class education virtually free to the privileged few, mostly the children of the rich and the powerful. The institutions of higher learning impart values and knowledge which are of little use in one’s own country, and are even proud to serve as factories to export the most valuable national resource any country has: brains. For virtually no revenue at all.

There is no question that the development of India is in the hands of youth. We are already seeing how the liberalization of economy is galvanizing entrepreneurship and job creation. However I strongly believe that until the Indian political system is embraced by highly educated youth who have the vision and ability to put India on the fast track of development, we will keep seeing and hearing stories about an un(der)developed nation.

Atanu is afraid that the current Indian political leadership may not be up for the challenge:

When I look at the vicious cycle of poverty that the majority of India’s children are caught in, I have only one hope and that is education. If we can educate just one generation fully, we have some hope of solving India’s problems. That is the challenge but given the uneducated leadership, I am afraid that it may not come to pass.

Life is a random draw for Kids in India

Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Random Education Thoughts writes about his thoughts after visiting one of the most expensive schools of India.

I would describe the Mercedes Benz International School in Pune to be the Rolls-Royce of schools in India.

It is the kind of school that if you have to ask what the tuition fees are, you probably cannot afford it. With only 167 students, it is as exclusive as it is expensive. The annual fee is mind-boggling—to me at least—over half a million rupees a year. The top fees is Rs 5.7 lakhs ( approximately, US$ 13,000) and the one-time fixed cost is Rs 3 lakhs.

The kids in the Mercedes Benz schools were having fun. One large group was having their lunch in the school cafeteria. A smiling, happy, noisy bunch of I guess 8 to 10-year olds. We walked past another bunch which was evidently the school chorus and band. They were led by a couple of music teachers, one a Canadian-Indian and the other Danish. We looked around the classrooms and the labs and the library. Everything was neat and tidy.

In the stopped traffic an old man with a very shriveled face appeared at the driver’s side. I dug into my pockets and handed the few coins I had to the driver to give to the old man. He turned away with gratitude on his tired face. On my side of the car then appeared a little girl, about 7 years old. She had in her hands a couple of packets of Q-tips.

I shook my head to indicate that I did not want any. But she pleaded with her eyes, asking for some help. Usually I carry about fifty rupees in change to give as handouts but I was out of change. My wallet I recalled had only one-hundred rupee bills. I was not totally sure that I had any lower denomination bills. For some reason, I was against giving out a Rs 100. But I did not want to reach for my wallet and check. If I had done that, it would have raised her hopes, only to be dashed if I did not give her any money after all. I sat there feeling miserable shaking my head no until she gave up and went to the next vehicle.

I think one of the ways to promote the spread of education is to encourage existing private education system to impart education to the poor students gratis. It may sound like a Robin Hood philosophy, but if the education system itself starts responding to the needs of the society in a generous way, it will certainly give opportunity for more poor students to study. I have been thinking about establishing a foundation that recognizes such education institutions and provide grants to them as a token of recognition of their efforts. I still have to do some research about the viability of such foundation. I would appreciate if you can provide any inputs.

Out of Action or Too much of Action

Ok guys, I know I have been out of action on the blog for about a week. There are too many things going on. I successfully submitted Stanford application after spending N number of hours writing the essays. Over the week I was busy getting my crashed laptop repaired by replacing the hard drive. Thankfully it crashed only after the Stanford app was submitted. I was also extremely busy at office trying to coordinate the development of crazily changing requirements. In the weekend I went to LA and boy it is an awesome city, just felt as if I was in Mumbai. The weather was extremely good and the traffic was extremely bad. On Monday evening I think I lucked out on traffic while driving back to LAX airport; else I would have certainly missed the flight.

Yesterday I had an Alumni interview of Michigan Ross School of Business. The interview went on for about 30 minutes and I think it went really well. All the java mentoring that I have been doing has certainly helped me in navigating through the interview at a comfortable pace. I felt a little bit nervous while answering the first question; however I noticed that and immediately told to my self ‘Shhhhhhhhhhhh’, which helped me in calming down and talk confidently. I could not read the expression of the interviewer, but I felt as if I was making a decent impression. I wished I had more time to explain things in detail; however the trick is to intelligently present all the content in a relevant way within the available time. Now I will again get busy with other essays and interviews. Wish me luck.

Buy A T-Shirt For Earth Quake Relief

Chapati Mystery has set up an online fund raising channel for Soth Asia Earth Quake Relief. You can donate by Buying Tshirts

When 60 Million Girls Disappear - What do you call it?

If 60 million Tamils, or Muslims, or Slavs or Jews or Yadavs or Todas or Bedu’s or Kurds disappeared it would be front page news. But, when 60 million girls disappear, it seems to be par for the course.

Read more @ How to Name It?

I think one of the major issues that drive Indians to get rid of female fetus is the dowry nightmare that they have to face when they have to marry off their girl child. Unless something is done to eradicate the dowry monster from the culture, female feticide will continue to plague Indians.

me glad that I have no kids - gargi

After trying to cast Kids in her latest project, Gargi questions: Where are the Kids?

The last few weeks have been spent trying to cast kids for a show that we might be doing. The show is centred around 10 year olds - doing what ever 10 year olds are supposed to be doing.

The entire process has made me glad that I have no kids - children in Mumbai are scary. They behave like petulant & irritating 18 year olds. the girls try and act sexy, the boys macho. I asked a question, what games do you play. Pat comes the answer - nintendo, games on my playstation, or playing is for babies. No chor police, no lagori, not even the modern equivalent of out door games.

It is positively scary. I hope it is a function of the kind of kids who want to act (or whose parents want them to act) rather than symbolic of the entire lot of Mumbai/metro kids. After looking for almost 15 days - we still haven’t found the kids. Because the kind of naughty innocence that we are looking for doesn’t seem to be available.

Crazy about google - Get Logogled

Alright check my Logogle (Google Logo) @ here

You can get Logogled yourself @ http://www.logogle.com/

Push the Georgy Down

You thought you could never push the Bush down, well here is some solace for you. Go to http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm and push him down again and again and have fun doing it.

Free Internet Books Directory

If you are looking for softcopies of boooks that are freely downloadable, your search is over. Visit this free ebooks directory and enjoy your reading.

If you are looking to learn Java or trying to become an expert in java look no further, here is the exhaustive list of Free Java Books:

1. A Java GUI Programmer's Primer

2. Advanced Programming for the Java 2 Platform

3. Data Structures and Algorithms With Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Java

4. EJB Design Patterns

5. Introduction to Programming Using Java

6. J2EE and XML Development

7. Jakarta Struts Live

8. Java Data Objects

9. Java Thin-Client Programming

10. Java Thin-Client Programming for a Network Computing Environment

11. JXTA

12. Mastering Enterprise Java Beans Second Edition

13. Securing Java

14. Thinking in Java

15. Introduction to Reverse Engineering Software

How can India Inc and NGOs rush in?

BASHAARAT MASOOD & MUZAMIL JALEEL write in Indian Express:

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who led special prayers at Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid today, sent the rest of India a wake-up call: ‘‘It is sad that people have not responded to this great tragedy. This was not expected. When Latur and Bhuj were ravaged, big industrialists stepped forward to help. But no one seems to be coming to our aid.’’

What the Mirwaiz said about India Inc and NGOs not doing enough in Kashmir’s hour of need is being repeated by people everywhere, be it Srinagar or Uri or Tangdhar.

With the government still missing in villages along the LoC, people are also beginning to notice the absence of voluntary groups. Other than the Army, which has moved at great speed to rush relief, it has been left to hundreds of young men from across the Valley to come to the aid of the affected.

Here is the news of massacre of Hindus by militants, in the aftermath of earth quake:

AT a time when people are yet to recover from the shock of the Saturday earthquake and security forces are busy providing relief to victims, militants struck in Rajouri district, killing ten Hindus and a Muslim last night.

Though no militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the massacre, police suspect it to be the handiwork of Hizbul Mujahideen Pir Panchal Regiment (HMPPR) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

Pointing out that they attacked the adjoining villages of Rajnagar and Gabbar in Budhal tehsil, both 60 km from Rajouri town, sources said the HMPPR’s Deputy Divisional Commander Sangat Pathan alias Abu Hamza was himself leading the killers.

The militants first had dinner at the house of some of the victims, before slitting their throat one by one.

None of the victims was a member of the Village Defence Committee (VDC) or associated with the police, a security official told ENS adding that the militants appear to have suspected them to be police informers. Letter heads of HMPPR and LeT were also seized. They read: ‘‘Har mukbir ka yahi haal hoga (Every informer will meet the same fate).’’

India Inc and NGO organization are comprised of ordinary Indians who are not trained to deal with militants. It is highly unlikely that these ordinary people would dare to put their lives on the death line while offering help; instead they would prefer offering help from outside. Only trained army is capable of dealing with such situations and Indian army is doing everything that it can to reach out.

Army troops today reached hitherto inaccessible areas in quake-battered Jammu and Kashmir and volunteers and NGOs chipped in to help the state government in providing succour to the victims even as death count in weekend's monster quake mounted to over 1300.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited worst-hit Tangdhar and Uri sectors and announced an additional Rs 500 crore relief to the state to cope with the devastation wreaked by the temblor.

Describing the tragedy as a national calamity, he said 1300 people had perished and 4,500 were injured in the quake that flattened or damaged 32,000 houses.

India is reaching out to PoK Kashmiri's as well.

India on Wednesday joined the international aid efforts for earthquake victims in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by flying a plane-load of relief material and said it was ready to despatch more consignment at short notice.

An Indian cargo plane carrying the first consignment of 25 tonnes of relief supplies landed in Islamabad in the wee hours of today, becoming the first Indian relief aircraft to land since the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

IAF’s Ilyushin-76 aircraft, loaded with 15,000 blankets, 50 tents, plastic sheets, mattresses, food items and a variety of medicines and medical supplies landed at the airport in Islamabad at 2:45 am, Indian Embassy sources said in Islamabad.

While Pakistan is not ready to work with India relief efforts:

Pakistan today ruled out joint relief operations with India in quake-hit Kashmir region and instead made a counter offer to help New Delhi in its efforts to deal with the crisis.

"There is no possibility of any joint relief operations on both sides of the LoC. There is no population on the LoC,” newly-appointed Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasleen Aslam told reporters here.

The Pakistan army is operating in villages and towns in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) including far-flung areas but not on the LoC, she said.

Programming Quotes

Check out for some cool programming quotes @ Xonaâ„¢ Quotes
My Favs:

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

After you finish the first 90% of a project, you have to finish the other 90%. It's that second 90% that's the key to success.

Any non-trivial program contains at least one bug.

Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable.

Good software, like wine, takes time.

Writing code is not production, it's not always craftsmanship (though it can be), it's design.

Investing in India

[Via Emergic] Anand Sridharan, a VC blogger from India, takes on the hype sorrunding the purchasing power of Indians.

1. Stick to basic needs

It will take us a while to get to self-actualization needs. Health spas, blogging and other self-indulgent pastimes will remain pastimes, not businesses. Billion $ businesses are most likely in food, clothes, basic infrastructure (roads, houses, health, education), communication, transport, household goods.

2. Think utility, not fun

Middle-class Indian households are used to an all-encompassing entertainment budget of $1/month/head for unlimited cricket, news, songs and movies. And this even includes the EMI on the TV (in addition to the cable bill and a newspaper subscription). No one is in a hurry to pay $5 a pop for a mobile phone game.

3. Price rules – but think VFM, affordability, TCO

Necessity makes us smart consumers. I worry whenever entrepreneurs talk of convenience and choice, without mentioning price. Classic example – Indians buy 2 million cellphones a month, compared to under 100,000 PCs (only consumer sales). Why? Greater value-for-money (most small businessmen actually make up for its cost through higher revenues). Low entry cost ($10-20 to go mobile). No other costs that add to TCO (PC ownership cost equation gets messed up by expensive home internet costs).

4. Unorganized sector is here to stay

With plentiful & cheap labor, there will always be an unorganized sector that is extremely efficient. Factory-processed foods will compete against local kitchen-help. The latter can typically deliver better taste, freshness and convenience, at a lower cost (remember, no overhead, no taxes). So, its going to be far harder to create the next General Mills or Campbell Soup in India. Similarly, kirana shops will stay long after FDI in retail is opened up.

5. Think hard before substituting capital for labor

Western capital-intensive models are often uncompetitive. Both at home (vacuum cleaners never took off, since maids are inexpensive) and in companies (high-volume flour mills still cannot match local ‘chakki-atta’ costs, in the $15 billion wheat-flour market)

I can't agree any less with Anand. This blog has joined my must read list.

This one was minor, big one is yet to come

Today a major earthquake struck Pakistan, North India and Afghanistan. In India Jammu & Kashmir is the most affected state. One of my friend Namrata lives there. She was in her office when the earth quake struck, her office is partly destroyed and three computers were totally gone. She told that she experienced tremors several time in the day. She did not get hurt and she is safe. My other friends in north india are also safe and sound. However, the earth quake episode seems to be not over yet, there are one or more more huge earth quakes waiting arround the corner. According to Indian Express:

"One or more great earthquakes (toll of 200,000 plus) may be overdue in a large fraction of the Himalayas.’’

Over centuries, the Indian plate—one of the 13 that make up the earth’s crust—has been moving towards the adjacent Eurasian plate at an average speed of 4 cm per year. This movement has cracked the Indian plate into several faults, slowly building up stress both in the faults and in the plate boundaries.

That stress can only be relieved through a ‘‘great quake,’’ said internationally renowned quake specialists Roger Bilham and Peter Molnar of the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA and Vinod K. Gaur, who is with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore.

Speaking to The Sunday Express from Port Blair, where he is studying the Andaman Fault in the wake of the tsunami, Bilham said that today’s quake has ‘‘not been (strong) enough for the pent-up stress to be relieved.’’ The worst case scenario: a quake in what experts call the ‘‘Main Boundary Thrust’’—the line between the two plates—that stretches from Kashmir to the North East, right below the Himalayan range.

Today’s epicentre near Muzaffarabad in PoK is close to four major fault lines in the Indian plate. The fact that the quake was 33 km below the earth’s surface helped reduce the damage. Preliminary reports suggest that it could be in the Tarbela fault that lies in the Indus basin.

Of magnitude 7.4 recorded at 9:20 am IST, the location of the earthquake was 34.6 degree North and 73 degree East. Until late this evening, there were eight tremors, the biggest one at 16:16 which recorded 6 on the Richter scale. A study of the location of these aftershocks shows that it is in the same fault but a bit more north, reflecting the stress that has been built up as a result of the main earthquake in the morning.

The silver lining, Bilham said, was that this should be a ‘‘wake-up call’’ to both India and Pakistan that ‘‘here was a common enemy they share.’’ Extra vigilance and strict monitoring of building codes have to be enforced, he said.

It is just so disturning to see all the massive deaths occurring across the world due to hurrincanes, landslides, viruses, earthquakes, terrorists and war. It feels as if as told by my mom - "World seems to be coming to an END."

This one was minor, big one is yet to come

Today a major earthquake struck Pakistan, North India and Afghanistan. In India Jammu & Kashmir is the most affected state. One of my friend Namrata lives there. She was in her office when the earth quake struck, her office is partly destroyed and three computers were totally gone. She told that she experienced tremors several time in the day. She did not get hurt and she is safe. My other friends in north india are also safe and sound. However, the earth quake episode seems to be not over yet, there are one or more more huge earth quakes waiting arround the corner. According to Indian Express:

"One or more great earthquakes (toll of 200,000 plus) may be overdue in a large fraction of the Himalayas.’’

Over centuries, the Indian plate—one of the 13 that make up the earth’s crust—has been moving towards the adjacent Eurasian plate at an average speed of 4 cm per year. This movement has cracked the Indian plate into several faults, slowly building up stress both in the faults and in the plate boundaries.

That stress can only be relieved through a ‘‘great quake,’’ said internationally renowned quake specialists Roger Bilham and Peter Molnar of the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA and Vinod K. Gaur, who is with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore.

Speaking to The Sunday Express from Port Blair, where he is studying the Andaman Fault in the wake of the tsunami, Bilham said that today’s quake has ‘‘not been (strong) enough for the pent-up stress to be relieved.’’ The worst case scenario: a quake in what experts call the ‘‘Main Boundary Thrust’’—the line between the two plates—that stretches from Kashmir to the North East, right below the Himalayan range.

Today’s epicentre near Muzaffarabad in PoK is close to four major fault lines in the Indian plate. The fact that the quake was 33 km below the earth’s surface helped reduce the damage. Preliminary reports suggest that it could be in the Tarbela fault that lies in the Indus basin.

Of magnitude 7.4 recorded at 9:20 am IST, the location of the earthquake was 34.6 degree North and 73 degree East. Until late this evening, there were eight tremors, the biggest one at 16:16 which recorded 6 on the Richter scale. A study of the location of these aftershocks shows that it is in the same fault but a bit more north, reflecting the stress that has been built up as a result of the main earthquake in the morning.

The silver lining, Bilham said, was that this should be a ‘‘wake-up call’’ to both India and Pakistan that ‘‘here was a common enemy they share.’’ Extra vigilance and strict monitoring of building codes have to be enforced, he said.

It is just so disturning to see all the massive deaths occurring across the world due to hurrincanes, landslides, viruses, earthquakes, terrorists and war. It seems as if as told by my mom - "World seems to be coming to an end."

Soneri does it again, Well this time even better

Last year, I posted the achievement of Soneri @ this link. This year Soneri has done it even better by making the below poster.

Read it in her proud Dad's own words:

Dear all,

I wanted to share my daughter's wonderful achievement with you.

Plano fire department conducts a fire prevention contest PISD (Plano Independent School District) every year with different themes. In the beginning, this competition is held within the school at grade level. Single winner from all classes for the same grade is advanced to the city level competition, where winner posters from all schools for the same grade compete again.
Winner of city wide competition is advanced to district level competition to be held in March 2006.

My daughter -- Soneri is in 3rd grade.

She won the competition at school level and her poster was advanced for the city level competition. We got mail from Plano Fire Department last Friday that Soneri has also won the City Level Competition and her poster shall be advanced for district level competition to be held in March 2006.

Details of the same are also available at the following links. http://www.planofire.org/

To see the results and posters for all grades at city level please use the following link. http://www.planofire.org/docs/2005FPWPoster.pdf

Soneri, I wish that you keep outdoing yourself each and every year. I wish you all the best.

WIKI Books

[Via Emergic] News.com writes:

If you found yourself needing an old biology textbook and couldn't locate your battered copy from college, you'd have a few options.

You could go to a university bookstore and snag a used copy; you could drop a few dollars on a new one at Amazon.com; or you could track down some old college chums and ask for their copies.

But if Jimmy Wales and his colleagues at the Wikimedia Foundation have anything to say about it, you could have another way to go--the Wikibooks project. It's their attempt to create a comprehensive, kindergarten-to-college curriculum of textbooks that are free and freely distributable, based on an open-source development model.

Created in the same mold as the Wikipedia project--the open-source encyclopedia that lets anyone create or edit an article and that now has nearly 747,000 entries in English alone--Wikibooks is still in its earliest stages.

If you look at the Wikibooks, you will find out how big of a treasure it is, and it is going to grow exponentially. Imagine the things students can do with this kind of treasure, they could be discovering the miracle of Learning Centric Education.