Monday, January 12, 2009

Just back from Mount Karnalla!

I, along with some office buddies and families worked up this one dayer picnic, that turned out to be a three hour trek...

met all at Panvel bus stand, Amber had a bad track of road, traveling all the way from dahisar paying Road Toll at 7 places, and had a broken gear box or something making him go slow.

Vinod had a dead phone, and the Phone company girl insisted the phone was switched off, all of us already made up our minds that hes not interested in comming...and surprise, surprise, he was there with his whole family, wife and two kids totting along...

George rode on his Avenger and enjoyed the trip with wife and kid Joshua...

Sanjay came along with Amish - by the end of the trip wanted it to go on forever...a sure contender for another of these kinds of trips...

The trip started with vada-pav at dutta vada-pav centre - a must see place if visiting anywhere mumbai-goa highway side...the Kharvas there is a must have.

Next stop at Karnala bird sanctuary, all vehicles parked and entry taxes paid, walking up to the guest house.

The guest house is surrounded by many bird houses and the variety there is unbeatable.

After packing some fresh Guavas, carrots, Cucumbers and a watermelon, the troupe started towards the nature trail leading to the Karnalla fort.

Lots of grunts, panting breaths and swollen ankles later, we finally reached the summit. Reaching there, all the tiring went up in thin air...all fresh invigorating oxygen there must be the reason...

After about 30 minutes of rest there,all wanted to return. So, we return and again an hour and 30 minutes later, we reach the base. Since all had travelled light, water was the most demanded commodity, and the canteen guys made some quick sale in our group...

A late lunch on the way back, where everyone just ready for any kind of food they could lay their hands on... A good Dhaba we discovered makes absolutely fingerlicking food at a very reasonable price...

Return to dutta snack centre for a final tea break...

some group photos and hugs and kisses later, we head home...its going to be a long day tommorrow...

George has promissed a Special treat for all who reach office at 9:30 next day...am sure he would be sorry for this announcement.
signing off...


p.s. continued on the second day...body pain and leg pain are the centre of talk among the trek participants...and yes, george lost out, he has to give a special treat to almost all who came to the trek.....ha ha ha...

Photos are here...


If above slideshow is not properly visible, you may want to see the below link for going to my online album...
Mount Karnalla!!!

Windows 7 beta, flexible Displays et. all

Just came across this interesting video of tech updates...
the holy grail of M$soft...Apple wireless charging station, OLED flex display....Sony Cybershot camera that transmits images to internet websites, or to a WIFIed television across the room, Liquid Cooled Computers, that look like Motor Radiators he he he, Geting real with Duck Hunt Game- YES, its now Real world point and shoot game, rather than sitting in front of your PC like a lame duck!!!

Video below with more details...

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Wireless Power Charging - recharge your devices wirelessly...


Recharge your portable devices such as laptops, Mobile Phones, MP3 players etc without getting tied down to a power socket...

WIFI or Wireless LANs have already freed up IT users from their desks, and are freely connected to their networks where wireless signals are available.

A similar setup, where your devices are recharged without connecting to a power socket is under research from quite some time...

Reality check:
Eight companies have formed a consortium with the aim of developing a wireless power standard. Convinient power, Fulton innovation, Logitech, National Semiconductor, Philips, Sanyo, Shenzhen sangfei communications and texas instruments are members of this group that sees wireless power charging taking away the need of wires and connectors.

The goal is to create charging station upon which you drop your mobile devices and it charges. no fuss of wires, no fuss. The standard works for devices that are close to each other and employs the principple of magnetic induction.


More of such glimpses into the crystal ball of futuristic technologies as and when they happen. Till then, Signing off,

Storage devices that will not Crash!


Thought about many topics to post, however, somethings on my mind to post about new technologies whenever they strike to me...

This is a first valid posting towards a new category i would like to call THE TECHNOLOGY CRYSTAL BALL...

Upcomming trends towards sturdy storage devices, that do not crash each time they fall off your desk or laptop lead to Solid State Storage, SSD as they are called. SSDs are currently in their 10s of Gbs availibility, but Hard drives that store upto 500Gbs are available and that too at price points much cheaper than say a 8Gb SSD.

Reality check:
Toshiba announced the first 2.5 inch SSD based on 43Nanometer cell circuits. They are announced in capacities upto 512Gb. You can look at prices falling to affordable levels very soon.