Life, Fun and Beyond

Windows Live Writer

2010-11-11T04:26:00.000-08:00

Installed Windows Live Essentials 2011 Download here. The blog tool Windows Live Writer is worth trying out. I

A message to this world !!!,

2009-08-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Singh is King again!!!

2009-05-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

Glad center is in good hands, I hate to see it falling into wrong hands. Singh is a good guy, his stability and clean record has won hearts. Indian citizens who have not voted this time, please make sure you consider voting next time. Know your candidates before you vote!. Make this world a better place to live by choosing right leaders, remember you choose your fate.

Solar powered Water Pumps

2009-05-12T05:02:00.000-07:00

Most of the villages in INDIA gets only four hours of electricity. The electric board gives power in shifts one week it is during the day and the next it is during the night. So this means todays farmers not only have limited source of water supply but limited source of energy to power the machines needed for irrigation.

I am facing the same problem for my mango plantations, High manpower cost, limited availability of water and power is forcing farmers to move from main stream cultivations like Rice,Sugar to Plantations. Plantations require less resources and man power. I will not be wrong if I say nuclear family system that is being widely adopted in INDIA as one of the reasons for the problems farmers are facing in-term's of manpower.

Most of the farmers have automated their irrigation system, which is a relief to them to certain extent, i,e they need not to be present for the power to come day/night. Government subsidy for farmers is made this solution a hit!.

I plan to follow the same approach, but thought of looking at alternatives before I jump in to automating watering system for my Mango plantation.

My first thought was to solve the power problem, I looked around for solar powered water pumps and to my surprise I found quite a few vendors delivering them already. What made think was the price at which this was being made available to farmers, A decent solar powered water pump costs between 4.4lakhs to 6.5 lakhs, this is a huge investment for farmers. Considering the ROI this is case of suicide for a poor farmer.

I strongly encourage today's political parties to look at encouraging use of alternative power in Irrigation!!!, Are you guys listening......

TataBPSolar is one company that provides this solution and I appreciate their effort!!.

Hike in fuel prices! are we looking at alternatives...

2008-06-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Well government today announced increase in fuel prices, Diesel will cost 3 Rs more , Petrol 5 Rs more and LPG 50 Rs more. Increase in fuel prices and increasing consumption of fuel day by day pushes us to look around for alternatives.

India claims to have more than 2 million installation of Gober plants(Bio fuel) in rural areas, mainly used as cooking gas, well I have one at my native. Its a very good cost effective solution. Why not use Bio fuel for transportation vehicles too.

European countries like Sweden seem to have high speed trains and buses running on Bio fuel. Why not have all the new Volvo buses run on Bio fuel.

I bet INDIA generates tons of waste that can be used by Bio plants... . This initiative will keep INDIA and environment clean :).

Karnataka has choosen........

2008-06-03T06:52:00.000-07:00

Well the elections are over and we have a new government. The results clearly showed people's frustration in the previous governments. People of Karnataka have chosen and its up to the leaders of BJP to prove their worthiness. My advice to Mr.CM get innovative...... :) .

Here is what I think the new government should concentrate ....

1.Reduce crime and corruption in the state
2.Improve roads,reduce congestion by increasing number of underpasses.
3.Improve water quality
4.Educate and reduce the consumption of power. I have noticed street lights being switched on in broad daylight. Well Mr.CM automate the powering infrastructure.
5.Promote Eco friendliness
6.I want my State clean and green. I want my Garden city back.
7.Increase tree plantations in the city. Lot of trees have been cut down as a result of roads being widened.
8.Promote innovation in Agriculture field.
9.Bangalore needs a better Mass transit system. I have my doubts that current Metro plans will work.
10.Increase parks, improve waste collection system and regularly clean the drainage system!

Copyrights, Licenses nicely Illustrated

2008-01-31T20:41:00.000-08:00

A picture says thousand words , here is a nice illustration trying to explain CDDL and BSD licenses.

Music for Meditation...

2008-01-18T22:02:00.001-08:00

A nice video giving introduction to different kinds of music used in meditation .....

Calm your mind

2008-01-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

A disturbed mind shows path to heal. Our Gurus say a human mind is like a drunken monkey. Millions of thoughts come and go every day. Our views change every minute, well can we do much about it , all we can do is control our mind to the extent possible.

Here is what I hear from others, Mind can be controlled by

Reaching out to God (Worship, Helping others when you can .....)

Controlling your breath (Yoga)

At the bottom of my blog I have some links to some very good videos which will help to change your thoughts and relax your unstable mind if possible.

Plan your meetings

2008-01-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

If your team is distributed across the globe and if you need to plan a meeting then this online meeting planner will be of great use to you. I will be glad to know if you find a better one....

Srinivasa Mangapuram/Kalyana Venkateswara.

2008-01-04T10:54:00.001-08:00

IMG_0254
Originally uploaded by venugr.k

Srinivasa Mangapuram is a small village near Tirupathi. Sri Kalyana Venkateswara Swamy Temple is located in this village. Legends say that Lord Venkateswara after his marriage with Godess Padmavathi stayed here for sometime before proceeding to Tirumala, as per Hindu customs newly married couples are not supposed to climb hills, such devotees can have darshan of Lord at this temple and attain moksha.

It is also said that individuals having trouble getting into wedlock can pray here and get rid of troubles. Kalyana Utsavam to the Lord is performed here every day. Devotees get rid of their troubles by attending this ritual. At the end of ritual the Priest ties kankana (Yellow thread) to the right hand of the Devotee...

Travellers can stay at Tirupati and visit temples around. Tirupati has quite a number of Good Hotels(Bliss, Bhimas, Fortune Kences, Mayura). Srinivasa Mangapuram is about 12 kms from Tirupati. Various modes of transport are available APSRTC runs buses from Tirupati , Shared Autos and Private Taxis are also available.

My New Motorola Ming......

2008-01-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

When ever I visit my in-laws place at Tirupati I make it a point to visit Kapila Teertham Temple every day along with my wife. Unfortunately last week when I did this I lost my Motorokr E6.
I was very upset as I had recently purchased it after my Treo 650 was badly damaged. Loosing E6 meant losing 16000 Indian Rupees. Well I could not get it back as the person who found the phone would not lift my call :( . After trying for one week I gave up and my wife decided to gift me a new Phone. This time I got to choose the gift :).

I needed basic PDA functionality but nothing came near to my Palm Treo 650 for a descent price. I refused to buy a expensive phone as I had lost lot of money on my Palm Treo 650 and Motorokr E6. My wife still insisted so I decided to go for Motorola Ming aka Motorola A1200. It is a very cute phone and had all the basic PDA functionality I needed. It runs on Unix has Touch screen, Handwriting and speech recognition , 2 mega-pixel camera well here is the complete spec and feature list. It is a cute chick and I am loving it ......
I now need a iPod to play my Audible books(Treo 650 supported audible too..) . Darn!!! I miss my Palm Treo .....

My Library my life ....... Part 1

2008-01-04T03:14:00.000-08:00

They say knowledge is power, and we have many ways to acquire knowledge. A Guru plays a important role in mentoring one's life. A Guru need not be a person in physical form, Guru can be in any form books, pictures, idol's, our surroundings,animals......

Here is my knowledge base, I share this to spread the existence of some good material to improve the quality of our life and change the way we live in this world. .....

Audible Books @ http://audible.com :
---------------------------------------------

My Audible Books

How to Win Friends & Influence People (Unabridged) by Dale Carniege
A Shortcut to Good Grammar (Instant Scholar Series) by Living Language
Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
Primal Leadership (Unabridged) by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
The Only Negotiating Guide You'll Ever Need by Peter B. Stark and Jane Flaherty
You're in Charge, Now What? by Thomas Neff and James Citrin
Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell
Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach
Getting to Yes (Unabridged) by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton of the Harvard Negotiation Project
The 8th Habit (Unabridged), Part 1 & Part by Stephen R. Covey

My Audible Subscriptions :

Marketplace Money
Harvard Business Review
Forbes Magazine
Knowledge@Wharton

Text Books/Reference Books

Technology

Applied Cryptography , Protocols Algorithms and Source Code in C by BRUCE SCHNEIER
Professional Java SOAP by Henry Bequet
Design Patterns Elements of Reusable Obejct -Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson,John Vlissides
IP Telephony Packet-based multimedia communications systems by Olivier Hersent,David Gurle and Jean-Pierre Petit.
Thinking in C++ by BRUCE ECKEL
The Design of the Unix Operating System by Maurice J.Bach
Turbo C++ by Robert Lafore
ALGORITHMS by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L .Rivest
C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup
Designing Web Services with J2EE 1.4 platform JAX-RPC, SOAP and XML Technologies by Inderjeet singh , Sean Brydon, Greg Murray, Vijay Ramachandran, Thierry Violeau, Beth Sterns
UML 2 Toolkit by Hans -Erik Eriksson, Magnus Penker,Brain Lyons, David Fado
JAVA Threads by Scott Oaks and Henry Wong
The unified Modelling Language Reference Manual by James Rumbaugh, Ivar Jacobson, Grady Booch
EJB Design Patterns Advanced Patterns,processes and Idioms by Floyd Marinescu
Concurrent Programming in JAVA Design Principles and Patterns by Doug Lea
Core J2EE Patterns Best practices and Design Strategies by Deepak Alur, John Crupi, Dan Malks
Practical Cryptography by Bruce Schneier and Neils Ferguson
Programming in C by Balaguruswamy E
Writing Unix Device Drivers by Geroge Pajari
Java Certification by Khalid A Mughal , Rolf W Rasmussen
Java Enterprise Design Patterns Vol 3 by Mark Grand
Effective TCP/IP Programming 44 Tips to Improve your Network Programs by Jon C. Sander
ASP.NET 2.0 security, Membership,Role Management by Stefan Schackow
Network Management Principles and Practice by Mani Subramanian
Unix Network Programming by W.Richard Stevens
Java Server Pages by Hans Bergsten
Java Server Programming J2EE Edition by Subhrahmanyam Allamaraju et. all
Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Java Programming Language Third Edition by Ken Arnold, James Gosling,David Holmes
Mastering Enterprise Java Beans by Ed Roman,Scott W.Ambler, Tyler Jewell
Software Engineering by James F.Peter and Witold Pedrycz
J2EE Technology in Practice by Patricia Sueltz
JXTA by Sing Li
SNMP ,SNPM v2 , SNMP v3, RMON 1 and 2 by William Stallings
Unix Power Tools by Jerry Peek, Tim Orellly and Mike Koukides
Inside COM by Dale Rogerson
Head First Design Patterns by Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Freeman
Principles of Compiler Design by Alfred V.Aho and Jeffery D.Ullman
Cryptography and Network Security Principles and Practices by William Stallings
Patterns in Java Vol 1 & 2 by Mark Grand
Unix Shell Programming by Yashwant Kanetkar
An Integrated Approach to Software Engineering by Pankaj Jalore
Object Oriented Programming with C++ by E Balaguruswamy
Pro Java EE5 Performance Management and optimization by Steven Haines
Expert One-on-One Oracle by Thomas Kyte
J2EE Sun certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE by Paul Allen and Joseph Bambara
Core Security Patterns Best Practices ad Strategies for J2EE,Webservices and Identity Management by Christopher Steel, Ramesh Nagappan, Ray Lai
Distributed Operating Systems Concepts and Design by Pradeep K and Sinha
XML Bible by Elliotte Rusty Harold
C# Programming Bible by Jeff Ferguson,et. all
Web Security Privacy and Commerce by Simson Garfinkel & Gene Spafford
Science of Living by Dr. N. GopalaKrishnan Scientist CSIR

Aptitude/Language

Test of Reasoning by Edgar Thorpe
Primary Level Complete Grammar by Peter Yam
Grammar and Composition by Geetha Nagaraj
Course in Mental Ability and Quantitative Aptitude by Edgar Thorpe
Conversational Kannada by N.D Krishnamurthy and Dr. U.P Upadhyaya
Objective Arithmetic by R.S Aggarwal
High School English Grammar and Composition by Wren & Martin
Puzzles and Teasers by George J. Summers

Spiritual / Management

Message of the Vedas - Dimanod Books
Winning in the Game of Life by TOM GEGAX
Relaxation Techniques by Prof Avinash Chandran
Save a Lot Invest Wisely by SLN Simha
Four Objectives of Human Life (Dharma,Artha,Kama,Moksha) by J.M.Mehta
One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Robert Lorber
Moral Stories by Jayadayal Goyandka
Instructive Eleven Stories by Jayadayal Goyandka
How to be a STAR at WORK by Robert E. Kelley
Simplified Physical Exercises by Thathuvagnani Vethathri Maharishi
Self Managing Leadership by Prajapita Bhrama Kumaris
The Nature of Consciousness in the Light of Raja Yoga, Gita and some other disciplines by B.K. Jagdish Chander Hassija
Education in Values by Bhrama Kumaris
Values of Better World by Bhrama Kumaris

Books by A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabupada founder of ISKON- BHAKTIVEDANTA BOOK TRUST

The Quest for Enlightenment
Beyond Illusion and Doubt
Krishna- Pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavana
Dwarakadisha Krishna - Pastimes of Krishna in Dwaraka
The Nectar of Instruction
Civilization and Transcendence
SRI ISOPANISAD
Easy Journey to Other Planets
Civilization and Transcendence
Perfect Questions Perfect Answers
Message of The GITA
SRILA PRABHUPADA A Brief Life Sketch
The Journey of Self-Discovery
Laws of Nature
Srimad Bhagavatam - All Volumes
Narada Bhakti Sutra
KRSNA The Reservoir of Pleasure
The science of Self Realization
Teachings of Lord Kapila The son of Devahuti