Idhi Sangati cartoon

The first thing I look for, whenever i get a chance to read eenadu newspaper is sridhar's "idhi sangati" corner. This gadget brings Sridhar's cartoon to your igoogle

Redwood State Park

101 Freeway

For FireFox users only

Choosing useful Firefox plug-in is a big challenge. Dhiraj in his neobinaries blog talks about the five useful Firefox plug-ins, I find ScrapBook very useful.

Panchang Google gadget

This gadget displays all five parts of the Panchanga (Hindu Calendar) The current time and time zone information is picked from target machine. This is my first iGoogle gadget, to add it to your personalized Google pages Click on "Add to Google" button below, if you want this gadget on your web page leave a comment I can send you the code. Add this gadget to your webpage

Software Development

On the lighter side....

Perpetual machine

As a child, my idea of perpetual machine is connecting the shafts of an electric generator and electric motor, which are also connected electrically to make complete loop for flow of energy, but it took me some time to realize that things are not perfect. In my 10th grade I learnt about eddy currents which made my perpetual machine no more perpetual with time I learnt that they are many other factors which make my setup lesser and lesser perpetual... Bhaskara II in 12th century introduced this concept after this many mathematicians and physicists came up with many designs but with no success. Even though some of these designs (like drinking bird, Crookes radiometer etc) may appears to be perpetual but they are not truly perpetual they consume some sort of natural energy like temperature gradients, phase changes of water or other fluids etc. Recently a company named Steorn claimed to have built a perpetual machine but their public demo was a failure.

Four legged robotic mule

Checkout this video of a Robotic mule developed by Boston Dynamics. This gasoline beast developed for U.S. Army have amazing life-like responses.

Sunrise

Captured this video on my trip to Vijayawada

Mr Woo's home made robots

Here's a great clip of some beautiful home-made robots created by a Chinese farmer Mr Woo.

Magical Hampi

Photographs from my Hampi trip Solitude of Green Shutter speed: 1/350s Focal Length: 23.1mm Vittala Temple Shutter speed : 1/125s Focal Length : 17.5mm In Hampi every stone has its own story Musical pillars of Vittala Temple Shutter speed: 1/500s

Low Temperature Thermal Desalination

14 years back I read an article about sea water desalination plant which works on the temperature difference that exists between deep and shallow waters, but I wondered why no one is putting these ideas to practice in spite of drinking water problems in many parts of the world. Recently while digging for information related to Setu Samudram project I happened to read about NIOT’s desalination project (Low Temperature Thermal Desalination) in kavaratti based on the temperature gradient of the sea waters. LTTD works something like this the warm ocean waters from the surface are evaporated in low pressure containers and the cold waters from the deep oceans are used to cool the vapours. With a heat engine electricity can also be generated from the water vapours. I feel this technology is better alternative to silicon based solar harnessing technologies which requires huge surface areas for solar panels. http://www.niot.res.in/Desalination/main.php

I am rare

I found this link in one of the blogs and took a dig at it. Here's what I found. See, I am rare!!

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?