Why?

• If you observe, you'll find a number of cops hanging around perfectly safe areas in the US. For instance, drive down Castro Street in Mountain View, California once, and you'll find at least a couple of cops driving by. I agree there is a police station not far from there, but why do these folks have to hang out in such a safe places? Don't we distribute our cops so areas with a higher crime rates have more cops deployed? I guess the constant joke about cops hanging out at donut shops definitely has some merit.

• Sounds like Russia is headed for more blatant dictatorship. More terror => introduce more controls => Instill more fear => Consolidate power (patriot act, color coded threat levels, detention without hope for due process etc.). The World now has another dictator to deal with, perhaps its time to re-draw the axis of evil and think pre-emptive(!!), I suppose.

• Most of the Indian newspaper websites (TOI, Sify, Chennaionline etc.) have started displaying those annoying, intrusive flash ads. The interesting thing is that all of them started displaying these pretty much at the same time almost like identical dance steps seen in hindi films. Ironically, there was picture of President of India, Abdul Kalam and a report about something he said about education and just when I started reading it, across flashed an ad for Golden Eagle beer!!

• John Kerry appears to be dropping behind in the polls. Edwards is all but missing. I have never seen a mention of his name in the newspapers for several weeks now! The Bush-Cheney team is crusing along since their very well orchestrated convention. The recent international survey findings about the US presidential race were interesting, but not surprising.

IIT KGP Alumni picnic 2004 in the SF Bay Area

The IIT KGP alumni picnic in bay area was back in business after a break of one year. Last year the kgp picnic was folded into the pan-iit picnic. Obviously, the experiment to bring all the IITs together for a picnic had not worked. This year better sense prevailed and all the IIT volunteer armies were issued marching orders to do their own thing. In other words, the widely popular kgp bay area picnic which has been a regular feature for over a decade was back!


The loss of a year appeared to have impacted the events momentum. A number of the regulars (especially from the 80s batches) were not seen around, while a majority of the attendees belonged to the post 1996 batches. The 80s grads were busy chauffering their kids to soccer/baseball games, while there were others who were travelling and could not attend. Of course, there was also the regular "Kaata-yaar, tempo nahin hai" types who did not make it to the event. Missing this year were the singers and guitarists (Shyamal and Dennis duo). A surprise attendee was Aditya Nath Jha who is based in India (86 batch RK) but who happened to be in town. A new feature of this years event was beer guzzling competition. Food, beer, volleyball, cricket and tug of war were the other attractions. The kids loved the pizza and the bubbles.


Overall, the event was great fun as always and hats off to the organizers for pulling it off. The "young and the restless" volunteer team under the seasoned guidance of Roy de Silva (President of the Bay area chapter) has set a target of 500 for next years picnic.


Click here to see a few pictures from the event. (My camera ran out of charge as always after these pictures).

Couple of interesting links

• Check out the news item about the scientists in India developing a cure for TB. I am surprised this hardly made the news here in the US. I think its a very impressive accomplishment. Unfortunately its no where in the news here in the US.

• Ebay founder's blog. I think its a great way for him to be plugged into the next hot thing. Didn't know this existed until yesterday. (Doesn't appear to be a very active blog, but exists nevertheless)

My First Online Book Reading Experience

Book Title : We the Media

Author: Dan Gillmor

I am delighted that I actually managed to read this book entirely online in little over a week. The book is about the new internet phenomenon "blogs". The author Dan Gillmor is well know, particularly in the bay area (and on the Internet!) through his articles in the San Jose Mercury News. After reading a recent book by another journalist, I must admit I am a little biased against "journalists turned first time book authors". As journalists, they know what is hot, and they are well connected in the publishing industry. Besides, they are fairly visible, atleast sufficiently enough to promote the book and ensure a worthwhile business proposition for the publisher. It is to a large extent, like the first mover advantage in the dotcom days. All you needed was a new feature and plenty of buzz and you (possibly!) along with a bunch of investors could make a fast buck! In the publishing world, this means a book high on hype, but low on substance, churned out in record time.

To my pleasant surprise Dan Gillmor's book was different. Firstly, its admirable that a journalist has written a book about a new and emerging technology phenomenon. The author has taken pains to research the latest developments in this area and appears to be completely plugged into this in the course of his daily activities, automatically making him an expert of sorts in this area. Besides, the author has done a really nice job of analyzing his thoughts, impressions, and findings and explored the various challenges and implications of this new phenomenon. Overall, it was very interesting and engaging (partly because I am so excited by blogs myself), and this certainly contributed to my completing the book in such a short time.

Given that this is my first cover to cover (or rather web page to web page!) online book reading experience, here are some thoughts that come to mind from my reading experience.

• 
  
  Online Book Reading is Faster: The online version of this book was available as separate PDF files, ie., one PDF for each chapter. This gave me a good sense for where I was in the book at every stage. Besides, I never felt comfortable stopping midway in a chapter. Instead I made sure that whenever I stopped it was after completing a chapter. In fact, I was averaging about 1-2 chapters a day. In short, I believe I read this book much faster than I would have read a hard copy.

• 
  
  No Distractions: The PDF files itself appear to be identical to the final print version. In other words, if you disregard the space allocated for binding, what you see online is plain text restricted right to the center of your browser with lots of empty white space on both sides (the print version needs this to account for the binding). In other words, with no distraction from the main text its very easy to remain focused unlike reading an online newspaper, for instance, where there are so many distracting ads, links to other articles, blurbs etc.

• 
  
  External Links: This book had so many references to other websites, blogs etc that I was tempted frequently to wander away. The PDF file did not however provide links to these sites which would have made it very convenient. On the other hand, I am glad the links weren't provided, because I am sure that would have proved be a huge distraction. I found myself visiting a laundry list of sites after completing each chapter. It would have been useful to list these at the end of each chapter.

• 
  
  Missed the ability to highlight text: When I read books, especially non-fiction, I love to underline/highlight text that I find useful or interesting. This helps me come back to it at a later stage and regain my thoughts that occurred to me when I first read the text. Unfortunately, this was not possible in the online version.

• 
  
  Strain on the eyes: Staring at a computer screen for several hours (which most people in the Bay area especially do these days anyway) has its challenges as everyone is aware. Interestingly, I didn't quite feel the strain because I read the book at a steady pace of one or two chapters a day.

• 
  
  Impact on book sales: As a published author myself, I have often wondered about the impact of providing books online on the actual sale of the book. I am convinced that by and large it will help in the sale of the book. In my case, I don't think I will buy the book (I might choose to buy a used copy or a paper back version if it ever comes out), but I have mentioned this book to so many people, who might otherwise not have known about it. So in the final analysis, I believe that providing the entire book online will only help the sale of the book and won't necessarily hurt it. Its akin to distributing free copies and should be considered as "marketing" for the book.

• 
  
  Makes piracy easier: Just as there is rampant software piracy in many part of the world, making a book available online makes is so much easier to copy and distribute these books. Unfortunately, this only makes it easier for those who indulge in such unlawful practices. The reality is that in the final analysis I don't believe this will negatively impact the book sales. These were sales of pirated copies anyway and will remain so. Given that we don't have a solution to prevent piracy in general, I guess its of little use to worry about this issue.

• 
  
  Online versions of book likely to increase: I am fairly confident that a day will come in the not too distant future where all published books are available for those to prefer to read it online, irrespective of whether they are free of charge or for a price. There might be interesting technologies and creative business models that add variations to how published books are made available online. But I strongly believe that this is an emerging trend that is here to stay. Besides, the whole concept of Creative Commons Licensing (which Dan Gillmor's book is licensed under), there could be a great ripple effect in terms of creative work inspired from writings available through this form of licensing.

In summary, its great that thanks to the Internet, its possible to read a book entirely online. I had always thought about it, but never really gone through the actual experience of reading a book online. I am glad I did, and happy that I actually liked the first book I read online. This article was not necessarily meant to be review of the book, though I feel the author has done a fine job of capturing this new phenomenon of blogs (the concept of grassroots journalism and the citizen journalist is really powerful and cool!), where the there are so many unknowns as the technology and usage matures.

Relevant links you might want to check out:

• Stanford Law school Prof, Lawrence Lessig's website (the spirit behind Creative Commons Licensing)


• Website directory from this book


• Chapter 8 of this book (a great insight into the latest and greatest)


• Sun exec Jonathan Schwartz's blog


• Microsoft's official blogger


• Back to Iraq (the story of how several unknown people contributed $ to sponsor a guys's travel to Iraq to cover the recent Iraq war)

The new Moore's Law

Michael Moore has more than been in the news these days. Sorry my semiconductor junkies, Senator McCain's "disingenuous film maker" is making more painless news these days than the entire slumping semiconductor combined. The slump incidentally is led ironically by Intel, founded by none other than the other "Moore" we all know.


The other day I was talking to a friend of mine and he said he read somewhere (San Jose Mercury News?) that there is a new Moore's law! Its as follows:


"Michael Moore's notoriety doubles every 18 months!"

Foreigners in India

There has been a lot of press about outsourcing and its impact on cities in India. In fact, its very common these days to find foreigners on the streets of major Indian cities. And these folks are not tourists, but people who live and work in these Indian cities.


When I come across such articles, I am reminded of a hugely successfully Tamil film (starring Rajnikanth) in which a comedian by name Janakaraj, portrays a tea shop owner who pretends to know English. In one scene, a foreigner (a white in this case) walks up to the tea shop. All excited, Janakaraj brushes aside his friends and says "Saar, I will tell you ever thing that is in this shop saar...we have tea, bun, vadai ...". The man turns to him and says in the local dialect, "Oru single chaya, rendu masaal vada".


Don't be surprised if this happens some time in the not too distant future in Chennai!!

More than what you want to know about Home Water Heaters

Has the water heater in your home stopped working? If yes, trust me, "I feel your pain". Read on, this can be useful to you. If not, read on anyway, your water heater bust might just be around the corner.


The water heater at home simply stopped working one fine morning. I didn't quite realize that this had happened until I was half way through my shower and noticed that there was no sign of hot water. I grew up in Madras (now Chennai in India) where it is hot and humid all through the year. One of the positives of this awful climate, is that you never had to care for hot water. Growing up there I had become so used to having cold showers that I continued not using hot water even in winter after I had moved up to Kharagpur (in the eastern part of India). So when the water heater stopped working it wasn't exactly too difficult for me to continue my normal life without hot water. Besides, my wife and kids are travelling in India and as long as I got the water heater fixed or replaced by the time they return, I was in good shape. So I decided that I was going to research the "water heater vertical" and explore the market a little. I also sought the help of my lab partner from college to see if he still had his magic touch. No luck, unfortunately. My wife who was terrified at the thought of not having access to hot water on her return that she sent me daily emails to check on the status.

My first step was to visit the water heater which by the way, is installed in the garage in most houses in the SF bay area. Its a cyclindrical piece about 4-5 feet in height, installed on raised platform. On my first visit, I merely looked at it carefully and turned a few knobs hoping that I might miraculously get it to work again. No luck. There were a few notes on it about how to "light" it etc. I decided not to take a chance. There was a flyer right next to it from a company named Water Heaters Only. After close examination, I noticed that the water heater brand said "State Industries". So I now had two sources to call for help. Being a web-addict, I promptly "googled" water heaters and gathered a couple more leads on possible sources of help. My wife shot an email to the local home owners blast email list and got a couple more pieces of advices. (Off the 50+ registrants on the list only two responded. One neighbor provided some tricks on how to get it to start working again, another referred us to Water Heaters Only. In any casr, here is the scoop (while it is still fresh in memory)on what I eventually ended up doing.

• Water Heaters Only: This company is a contractor who resells Rheem, a particular brand of water heaters. They quoted me $920 for parts, labor, installation etc. They never mentioned anything about requiring an approval from the city. (the city inspectors are supposed to pay a visit and ensure that the installation was good to meet standards/codes etc.)
• Allied Plumbing: Similar to Water Heaters Only, except that they deal with Bradford-White brand of Water Heaters. They quoted me $820 all inclusive after visiting our garage. They were honest enough to inform me that city permits/clearance is required and if they took care of it, it would cost an additional $100. (In short, I knew after these two discussions that I am looking at $800+ on this endeavor!).
• State Industries: Given that they are the incumbent, I decided before hand that I had some leverage to negotiate a deal. Unfortunately, they didn't quite seem to care. (In fact, the guy from Water Heaters Only told me that they used to install State Industries Water Heaters at one time, and that they actually went bankrupt and they had too many support problems!). They gave me a quote of $875 without a visit. I had to mentally add a margin for some additional $$ because these folks had not visited
• Home Depot: Another friend of mine had informed me about Home Depot as an option. On visiting the website I noticed that they had a "Free Inspection". I promptly signed up for one since they promised a response within 24 hours. 48 hours went by and I didn't even receive an email acknowledgement! Given that I had three other options and my time was running out (family will be back soon!), I called up the 800 number listed on Home Depot's website. I was promptly informed that the website was incorrect and that they don't provide any free inspection!! They howver offered to pass me on to a "sales specialist" who could potentially give me a quote! After some interrogation, my lucky number was $739.08. I figured this was my lowest quote, the heater brand was GE, plus maybe another $100 suprise additional charges since they had not visited my garage as yet. So I went ahead and ordered the purchase and installation. On the scheduled time the expert appeared, took at look at it and said there would be additional charges of $280!! I had taken half a day off of work, I had mentally prepared my self for a $800 to $900 hit, so I figured I had to go ahead anyway. I called Home Depot and they feigned innocence pointing to the contracting company that was delivering the service. Understandably, the contractor in turn pointed fingers at Home Depot. After negotiations, the contractor agreed to bring it down from $280 to $200. Totally frustrated, I agreed.

The water heater at home, thankfully has been replaced now. It cost me $900. (I downgraded from a 12 year warranty to 9 year warranty 50G GE Water heater). Its working well so far.

Some Additional Tips:

Your serial number on the water heater should read something like A90**** (the 90 refers to the year when it was first installed. In short if this is over 10 years, you need to replace the heater (or atleast that was the pat response from all the vendors/contractors). Most of the folks who visited my garage site, didn't even bother to see if they could fix the existing heater. It was blanket "this needs to be replaced. Tough luck" feedback.

If you find water at the base, ie., around the water heater. It means there has been a leak due and it is probably one more reason to replace the existing heater with a new one.

Water heater salesman suck or there is simply way too much sales of water heaters. In other words, I got the feeling that they don't really care if you buy or not. I never got a follow on call from any of the folks I approached. So its a sellers market.

In summary, my advice: Get the best deal you can and move on, don't sweat, you need the hot water.