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Showing posts from 2009

My 4th Patent application got approved for filing!

Coorg - Team outing

http://picasaweb.google.com/bschandramohan/CoorgTeamOuting#

Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry

Date: Sep 18th to Sep 21st Places covered: Vellore , Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry . Transport: 3 cars - My first trip outing in my Ritz. People: Pallavi (wife), Divi (younger sis), Mom in my car.... jeeju, hema (elder sis), nieces - Aditi and Bhoomika, Sis parents-in-law, Anand bhaiya, Jaya bhabhi and their daughters - Dimpi, Anjali. Stay: Mamalla Beach resort in Mahabalipuram and Hotel Sooriya International in Pondicherry . Didn't cover Gingee fort or the Tiruvannamalai temple as it was getting already very late. Took leaves on 18th (Fri) and 21st Sep (Mon). Since Friday was also Mahalaya Amavasya, we took head bath and planned to do Pooja in the morning itself. Pallavi and mom got up even earlier and finished up cooking too before 6. After finishing pooja, we did start at 6:30 in the morning. Jeeju was driving his Wagon R, Bhaiya his Alto and me the powerful Ritz :). Took NICE Road and hit NH4 road. The road was too good and for the first time in my life I cr

First Anniversary - Kerala Trip

Sep 11 (9/11) happens to be my marriage anniversary and thought about taking a day or two off and go to some place on our first anniversary. Initial choice was Lakshwadeep, but after speaking to "Raghu The Great", decided against going there in the rainy season. Goa and Kodaikanal were two other options we initially covered but thought would go for Goa in November timeframe and Kodaikanal wasn't worth if it's raining... Since Rohit had been to Kerala last month and mentioned it was a memorable trip, thought will check it out. Kerala Greenery website   had lot's of packages and we zero-ed in on SP-05 which covered Alleppey to Kumarakom backwater, Munnar hill station and Cochin city. We started here on 10 th Sep 9:00 PM train from Yeshwanthpur - Kochuvelli Garibh Rath express.. It's a fairly new train with only 3AC and hence people are not aware about it... You can easily get tickets even 1 day before your travel….. Train started on time and we had our p

Royal Enfield - Thunderbird !

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  The macho man on the Royal Enfield Thunderbird !!! :) Test riding my brother-in-law's bike ..... My good old but special splendor (the rear wheel is visible) in the background !

Magadheera - Telugu movie review

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  Captivating story line with good acting and impressive visuals. Different movie compared to the run of the mill love stories currently - This has Ramcharan and Kajal playing lovers in 2 different eras. When I heard initially that it would be a rebirth story, I felt nostalgic about how it would shape up but seeing the movie made me completely reverse my opinions. The story starts impressively with Ramcharan (as Kaala Bhairava) and Kajal the princess talking in their dying moments. They are reborn as Harsha and Indhu. Read many comments that the next 30 mins to 1 hour in the new world is boring, but the pair's bubbliness makes that enjoyable too. I would have loved Chiranjeevi to have done something different though. I always enjoyed the spontaneousness and effortless dance of Chiranjeevi and hence seeing Ramcharan dance was little bit anticlimax. The steps were great and he is a fabulous dancer, but you get a feeling that he is trying too hard to get the tough steps corre

Angel's Landing in Zion National Park - Homepage of Bing today !

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  Very happy to see Angel's Landing in Zion National Park as home page for Bing today. One of the best places I have visited in my life.... and what a hike it was ! :).. Still amazed seeing the videos if I really did it :-). Comment on why the monolith was named as Angel's Landing is worth reading: "While exploring Zion in 1916, Frederick Fisher exclaimed, "only an angel could land on it," and thus the monolith was named Angels Landing" .   Some more cool images and text @ http://www.naturalbornhikers.com/AngelsLanding/angelslanding.htm A video from Youtube: <Not mine :)>

Weekend Visits - In and Around Dodballapur

So, past few weekends I am travelling to my "athe mane" in Dodballapur regularly as my wife is there :) and visited lot's of places there- July 4th - had been to Nandi Hills - a beautiful small hillock about 70 kms from Bangalore. Not many "view" points to see as in hill stations but the whole place is great to laze around especially during the cool drizzling climate we had. Did a half round of the hill top after visiting the temple and then played some games - shuttlecock , Frisbee , volley ball etc. .. :) Last weekend - Saturday - had been to Sai baba temple and Nandi temple on Dodballapur - Chikballapur road. Not to be confused with the Bull temple in basavangudi. It's in the Nandi village right below the more famous Nandi Hills we had been to last to last weekend. It's now called Bhoga Nandishwara temple , and has idols of Bhoga Nandishwara, Ugra Narasimha and Arunachaleshwara. An ancient and very beautiful temple - you can definitely feel

Booked my first car!

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16th jul Update: Looks like the registration for the car will be delayed as it's not left from Gurgoan and might be another couple of weeks :(.. . was eagerly waiting for it early next week :(.. .. Maruti Suzuki Ritz ... ZXI - Baker's Chocolate color (same as above). You can click on Features , specs , colors to get more details about the car. Total Cost: 5.66 Lakhs. Booked in Bimal showroom, Bannergatta Road. One of the most time taking decision of my life... . Story of my choice o-> Initial thoughts were to go for a mid-segment car. .. just to meet the space criteria. Thought about Fiat Linea, Ford Fiesta, Hyundai Verna. Didn't like Swift Dezire based on it's looks, Accent because it's a very old engine and rumors that it's production will be stopped soon... Honda City and Civic were way above my initial budget thoughts... Linea being a fiat, issues with services were prominent; Fiesta got bad reviews about petrol car mileage and maintena

BITians get-together

Raghu was back from Boston for a 2 week vacation and we finally met today in Gopalan mall (closer to Raghu's house... as the USian has lost touch with driving in India and doesn't want to touch his bike/car :) )... So raghu, his wife hema and son agasthya, Rohit and his wife shubha, Pramoda, Myself and Pallavi met around 3:30. Just went to the Food Court and chatted and chatted non-stop for more than a couple of hours. It was great to meet raghu after nearly 1 and 1/2 years and others after a long gap. Forgot to get a camera but shot some snaps from mobile:

RCB - what a turnaround !

Would have been great to see them lift the DLF IPL cup... but to be the runner's up from a position mid way through the tournament where they were thought to be below or equal to last year's position is a great turnaround. Congats RCB.. We are proud of your performance !

Treat to UTM-IDC Team @ Jalsa

  Finally after all the hectic work in the last 2 months, UTM team reached code complete. To celebrate it, I thought as a team we could go out for lunch. After discussing on various restaurants like - civet, bhagini, lemon grass, village, aadi, we finally chose Jalsa (recommended by Amit). So the whole UTM team - Mayur, Ramesh, pasha, Guru, Amar, Pratyash, Saravanan, Rajendra & I (excluding Nikhat) and Amit & Anand set off around 12:50 in Amit and Anand's cars. Vishnu joined us for desserts. None of us had taken a camera, so attaching the snaps from mobile below: Jalsa in on Outer ring road between Marathalli and KR Puram. Nice place with good ambience. Food was tasty too with good quantity per item. Nice place to go out on weekends but little on the costlier side.

Harry's marriage

Had been to Pallavi's cousin's marriage on May 2nd (reception in the evening) - 3rd morning (marriage) in dodballapur... Some snaps of the same:

Hair makeover - trial

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Found this link in digg.com : http://www.instyle.com/instyle/makeover/ & my wife was keen to try out various hair styles :-)   and experimentation on me:       

Thiruvanamalai

  Mom had prayed that she will get me and Pallavi to MelMarvathur (Om Shakthi) temple after marriage. Again, I wasn't too keen, but had to... initial plan was to goto chennai and then visit this and spend remaining of the weekend in Chennai. But as we enquired about details, we came to know that going via Thiruvanamalai is better and we can visit Vellore while coming back. So we left early at 5:30 on 7th March, and then headed to the Thiruvanamalai . Stopped over at Krishnagiri to have breakfast. Reached Thiruvanamalai at 9:45. Booked a room in Hotel Arunachala which was supposed to be the best hotel there. MelMarvathur was about 100kms from thiruvanamalai but the route was supposed to be good. So we left immediately after having breakfast and we reached around 11:50. saw the temple, prayed for sometime and headed back to Thiruvanamalai. Reached at 3:00 - had lunch, and then went to Girivalam (the route with temples all around the base of the hill). After visiting few temples

Visit to Tirupathi after more than 15 years

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Last time I went to TIRUPATHI was with my family - grandma, dad, mom, lathakka, kavi and a small small divi :).. Wasn't too keen to go there again, but it so turned out that Pallavi had prayed that she will get her husband there and that too to climb the seven hills barefoot and visit the god :(... I reluctantly had to agree and decided on a Saturday and Sunday with Pallavi's parents and brothers. We left on friday night by KSRTC Airavath -11:30 bus and it reached at sharp 4:30. We checked into a hotel in Tirupathi and got ready and headed to Ticket counter to get the tickets. We were able to get the Archanananthara darshanam tickets for next day morning at 4 Am. Booked a Innova and saw few temples around: Kanipakam (Lord Ganesha's temple), Srinivasa mangapuram and Alamelu Mangapuram. Food was okayish in tirupathi. After visiting the temples, we decided to start the climb to the top of Tirumala where the world famous Lord Venkateshwara resides. The seven peaks a

Voter Registration by Jaago Re! One Billion Votes

  Registered and got a mailer with forms and a request to share this below message: Hey, I've been awakened and I want you to be awake too. I realized how important it is to stop complaining but start voting to make a difference. And now, it's simpler than ever before! Jaago re! One Billion Votes - a nationwide movement on voter registration - has made it possible to fill a voter registration form online and that too in just 5 minutes! Go to www.jaagore.com to learn more and register to vote right now.. If you have already registered to vote, you can still register with Jaago re! One Billion Votes movement and get periodic confirmation of your voter status, and election related news and reminders. Believe it or not, even registered voters sometimes do not figure in voter lists! Go to www.jaagore.com for more information, and to learn about voting related rules and procedures. Thanks,

Third patent approved for filing

  "And I am banking heavily on a 3rd one." - almost comes true. Though that particular application got rejected, got another one which was a spin-off of that idea approved ! ... Feels good to get so many ideas going to next level !

Cool links to check (4) - All about patents

http://www.litmanlaw.com/content.aspx?page=3§ion=1 has a very good description about patents and it's processes. For patents search you can use - Google patent search

Second patent approved for filing

Okay.. .so "hope this will be the first of many" comes true ! ... Second one of my patent draft is approved for filing in US. And I am banking heavily on a 3rd one. - I had discussions with our vertical head as well as the Global business head. Let's see how things go on... 

Cool links to check (3) - For Indian Startups

  http://www.pluggd.in/ pluGGd.in profiles and reviews Indian technology startups; and is at the center stage of events that are shaping India 2 .0. Has some interesting insights.

Cool links to check 2 - Info about Intuit 25 years !

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Nice to know that Intuit is going green in true sense and instead of paper filing for "GreatPlacesToWorkFor", intuit employees created this website to articulate all the details: http://www.intuit25.com/  

Cool Links to Check 1 - Cool way to learn technical stuff

http://codingfreak.blogspot.com/2008/05/cool-way-to-learn-technical-stuff-from.html Really like the idea of these guys from CommonCraft: http://www.commoncraft.com/ . Paid versions and Free versions available.

Ramalingeshwara temple - off Bannergatta road

Last weekend had been to Ramalingeshwara temple which is off Bannergatta road. It's basically a cave temple - Rama's idols along with Seetha, Lakshmana and Hanuman and another with Shiva linga are present here. There is also a dhyaana mandira. The evenings are extremely quiet here and can spend some peaceful time here. You can also sit atop the small hillock and see around the kind of growth this place has seen. It's close to the more famous Meenakshi temple - which is thronged by 100s of pilgrims day in and out. To reach, you have to take the road opposite the meenakshi temple (there's a sign board for Hulimaavu police station) and travel for a little lesser than 1/2 km. Sad that this road is in pitiable condition - maybe that's the reason for not so many visitors to the temple. Again, since it was a temple visit, didn't take the camera and hence no pictures to attach, but would definitely recommend everyone to pay a visit to the temple. There is also a

Patents - how do I find out how it works! or what is patentable?

  [Draft] Nope... I am not talking about "How patents works?"  google search or in HowStuffWorks.com . Some people tend to not like software patents as it kind of restricts the features being used widespread. Mostly OpenSource minds tend to believe nothing should be patentable and any new idea/tech should be reusable. Though makes sense, in this cut-throat competition world, don't see that as a possibility. Now coming to the actual questions - I am still figuring how things work in the patent world. I see some cool ideas not getting patented or then some "not-so-cool" ideas getting patented and lying with no-one using them. Should all patents be productizable? Not definitely. Swype as a product - not sure if it will definitely catch on, but atleast with the patent, it knows there cannot be 100s of imitations of that in the market or a larger organisation adding it into their product and not paying any royalty to the actual idea generators. Some compan

Swype - real cool innovation?

  Looking at the great comments - fast, hypnotical, magical, blindingly fast, love this... thought it's worth checking it out. Link: http://www.swypeinc.com/ It's a cool invention and using it might help in quick typing, but it does have it's nemesis'. It's not 100% accurate as typing (if you type correctly) as it uses some kind of data matching with it's dictionary to find the words as you swipe across the panel. Not sure you can enter Abbreviations and some code names using this mechanism. A great invention but with not that impressive dependency.

Why on earth can't I disable SearchWiki in Google Search?

Google Experiments are usually very interesting and I participate/use many of them. SearchWiki is one cool concept too... details about searchwiki are here . Now that I experimented, I want to get rid of that, but for some strange reason, google doesn't allow you to ! ...  Any logged in user by default gets the searchwiki with all the buttons around and previous modifications to results. That looks crap and I want to get out of it but just can't find an option.. Google search found thousands of people lamenting on the same and one of the links talked about how to disable... the page : it talks about signing off - Nope.. I don't want to do that as gmail doesn't require login for couple of weeks I think and I don't want to sign off google to keep signing into gmail everytime. GreaseMonkey script - No, I don;'t want to install some plugins to just do some search Join some experiments - well, if I have to join an experiment to get out of another experi

Welcome 2009!