Monthly Archives: November 2006

Multi-Touch Interactive Screen

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Multi - Touch ScreenGyanster had posted this video on the FreeHyderabad forums and it was mind boggling! Its taken from the Technology website TED – Technology Entertainment Research. The Video shows Jeff Han, the project director at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences gave a demo on what can be described as the harbinger of nex-gen display solutions. Touchscreens have become prominent nowadays…esp. in ATM machines and Information kiosks. Whereas 1st gen touchscreens are sensitive only to a single touch – meaning only one touch on the screen at a time – this one shown here is a multi-touch device.

While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.

Via Multi-Touch Interaction Research

Other Reads : TED

See the Video… Continue reading →

Weekend Sports

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I never play! Only watch’em! Thought readers might be misled into believing that I indulged in some kinda sport! Traditionally, weekends are dominated by movies but for a change the past one was saddled with sports. The Indian team lost yet again in their 3rd ODI with South Africa…that after having the hosts on the mat at 76/6! Thanks to a strong partnership, they fought back and posted a mighty 270+ score – chasing which our batsmen choked and spluttered on to be all out for 170 odd! But the cricket honours for the week rested with Australia who clinically demolished England in their first Ashes test. They ground them into subjugation and notched up a 277 run victory in a li’l more than an hour on the fifth day! Alas, the match was over by the time I woke up on Monday Morning.

The English Premier League dominated the other sport-watching as I watched with glee on saturday Bolton knocking the wind outta Arsenal’s sails in a 3-1 victory.Anelka scored twice and Bolton now move above Arsenal in the table. The other match that Icaught some action was Newcastle’s 1-0 victory over Portsmouth. But the match of the weekend was without doubt the Manchester United – Chelsea clash at Old Trafford. The match between the league leaders and champions was a widely-awaited one and though not a rip-snorter, was a good match. The honours were even (1 – 1) at the end with Man U dominating in the first half and Chelsea coming back strongly in the second.

Other Reads: BBC Sport | CricInfo | ESPNStar

My Ordeal with Hutch

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The past three days have been very tiresome vis-a-vis my Hutch prepaid account. My prepaid validity was to expire on 25th November and to prevent disconnexion, I had recharged on 22nd using ICICI Bank‘s Internet Gateway. Normally I do this every month without any problems whatsoever and I get the equivalent talktime within a few minutes. But this time it was not to be. Minutes and then hours elapsed without me having received the talktime. I kept repeating to myself that patience is a virtue! But when I did not receive the taktime by 9 PM, I called up customer care only to be informed that I’d to get it rectified at the nearest Hutch shop!

So thursday saw me at the Hutch shop wherein I was informed that a technical glitch had caused my talktime not to be credited to my prepaid a/c. Muttering wtf! under my breath, I listened patiently as the executive attempted to troubleshoot the issue and after an hour’s ordeal, assured me that I’d get it within “24 Hours”. Hours turned into days and there was no sign of the talktime yet! Itz saturday today and my patience had run out…..I stormed into the Hutch shop and politely lodged a complaint. Over muttered apologies my complaint was escalated….but wait! that was not the solution…apparently it will be rectified only at Mumbai and that too on Monday! So I will have to shell out another 200 bucks just to ensure that my validity won’t expire! So much so for ‘ultra fast recharge’ over the Internet! Guess I’d better stick to normal scratch-card-based recharging hereon!?!

UPDATE: As of today, I found that the Problem lay with ICICI Bank! Their Mumbai division did not transfer the amount to Hutch’s Prepaid division. I got a mail today apologising for that and they returned back my money to my A/c. :mrgreen: Hutch is not bad after all :P

And so it Begins…

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Thatz not a quote from LOTR: Two Towers but is meant to say, my four-day-weekend begins. Owing to Thanksgiving, we have a two-day off and then a saturday and sunday. Thus making a four-day weekend. And since the time is too short to undertake a homeward bound journey, I’m gonna while it away here itself.

Wednesday night was whiled away watching The Living Daylights followed by some random music channels. Day one of my vacation started off with the telecast of the Ashes series between Australia and England and it unlike subcontinent matches, watching Test matches down under is a visual treat. The game is fast and not at all boring and so is the commentary! Afternoon saw me stroll around Planet M, MusicWorld, Himalaya Book Depot and Odyssey for some books and CD’s. I’d be resuming Christie after a long break and with a few more books, shall be completing her entire collection. Friends urge me to move towards Forsyth and Ludlum but they’re not moi cuppa tea….as of now!

Kabul Express – Music Review

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What makes YashRaj banner’s music so special? And how do they manage to churn out some feel-good music from debutants? These are two questions which Adi Chopra may answer with a quiet non-chalant attitude. But it sure beats me. After Pritam in Dhoom, the banner now gives a chance to Raghav Sachar (who is a 24 year guy with the ability to play 22 instruments!) – not the Raghav of Storyteller fame but of the Cultural Amalgamation fame – to score the music for Kabul Express. And he sure does an OK job.

The music of Kabul Express is an eclectic mix of Indian an Arabic tunes (and though I can’t say them apart) most of them have that ‘lounge’ feeling to it. Banjar Reth starts off with some fast-beats and settles into a foot-tapping number. Crooned by Subha Mudgal, this songs speaks of the barren lands of – what else – Kabul! The Saxophones are prominent in the background. There are two more versions of this song in the album. Banjar Revisited is sung by KK who brings to it much more vigor and rhapsody. Techno beats dominate this one. Banjar Lounge Mix is kinda slow for a Remix but is passable and is probably my least favorite version.

The song of the album is undoubtedly Kabul Fiza which is sung by Raghav himself. Reminiscent of some of Lucky Ali’s numbers, this one picks off from a lilting number into a swaying number accompanied by flutes and percussions. The second version of this one is the instrumental one and I guess it makes use of less than 24 instruments! Yeh Main Aaya Kahaan is a slow song filled with memories and somehow reminds me of Shaan’s Tanha Dil – talking as it does about the ‘unknown journey’. Keh Raha Mera Dil is one number wherein I liked the Flute sounds. It also chronicles the journey of the protagonist across the land and is most probably a sing-along background song. The album rounds off with a Kabul Express Theme which again is just an instrumental. A combination of eerie female vocals with arabian sways and soft lilting music makes it a night-time song by the fireplace.

Overall, the album has a few good songs and some mediocre ones, but the fact that the good ones are better than others is what makes it an OK album in my opinion. A label of ‘Super-Hit’ may elude it but is listenable nevertheless. And though the lack of a duet is pretty much self-explanatory, what makes me wonder is why there isn’t an all-male-duet song on the two leads!