Google Vs Facebook. Strength’s Vs Weaknesses.

To start of with, this one ain’t a technical post. This is a post explaining the thoughts that crossed my mind during my first 5 minutes in Facebook Mail. The bolded text is the happening in the I-World (Internet-World) and the text below are my thoughts.

So there was this big buzz in the I-World when Mark Zuckerberg announced a thing or two about Facebook Mail, a couple of weeks back I guess.

Another newbie in the I-World and lots of waves created. The success of Facebook means high expectations on the yet to materialize Facebook Mail. So I send in a request to get an invitation for the new Facebook Mail.

I got the Facebook Mail today. I was asked to upgrade the normal messages to the new Facebook Mail & I was given my new Facebook E-mail ID.

My first expressions were in a “Glad” note. Glad, as in I got hold of the Facebook mail before many of my friends. On the first look, it looked plainly similar to the old Facebook Messages, except that may be it covers the width of the page now.

So just to check the working of it, I sent a mail from my Gmail to the new Facebook ID. Back in Facebook when I tried to access the mail I had sent in from Gmail, they said there was a temporary glitch. A problem which did disappear by a refresh, but that was enough for me to come out with a Moral message. The following was my next post in FB.

Facebook Mail Sucks!! Zuckerberg can't beat Larry Page in the mailing front! (FB vs. Google: P)

What’s the Message from all this?

Google has the most successful search engine in the world, and one of the better mail services in Gmail, and another super success in Blogger. But none of those helped a bit when they ventured into Google Buzz, an application similar to Twitter. Google Wave is another, yet similar story of tragedy.

Facebook has the most successful social networking site in the world, but their next big thing; the Facebook Mail looks all set to be a crash & burn.

Everyone has got their own domains, Facebook the Social Networking & Google their own ones. Then why do they have to cross borders into another one’s territories ambitiously? Just as a nation enters into another one’s territory eyeing to reap benefits, but ends up in wars, destruction & famine. If those efforts were spent in their own territory, surely they would’ve been a brighter nation. Alike, instead of transcending into others domain, I wish Facebook expand and improve the glitches in their own services and the same  goes on with Google.

Facebook, Google, Twitter and all similar applications were all results of some brilliant ideas and dreams. Why are they now diluting their dreams by carving out pieces from others dreams?

Work on your Weaknesses rather than another one’s Strengths! ~ Naveen.

Another Lecture…at 8!

 

*Ddinq…Ddinqq…ding din…Ddinqqqq!!!*

Now those were the sound of bullets and it’s the message alert of one of my friends mobile. This guy never puts his mobile on silent mode, and I am quite sure he’s one of those guys who have broken the heavenly silence and peace in the classrooms courtesy all his masala ring tones and crazy message tones. This is an 8’o Clock lecture as the topic name suggests and the teacher being the friendly one who introduced herself on the first day as Lisa, unlike the usual Zhao’s, Lin’s & Liu’s, never takes attendance at all. So what I mean to say is that not many cared to even take off their quilts from their faces, spare for attended this class on a 10 degrees Celsius morning and as of now, at 8.43 AM, there are… *Counting*…there are 16 guys in the class, out of a total of 60 odd Aeronautical major’s.

So, our Laoshi, which means teacher in Chinese was fighting out with some viruses in the computer as I was entering the class some time back, and after a couple of restarts and even getting professional help from our fellow students, has finally started her lecture on Composite Materials. This one’s got more to do with chemistry of the materials, and I hate chemistry, but I think I’ll have to say, the subject is interesting.

So I and this guy whose message tone just now made me take up the pen and scribble all these a few minutes earlier, we were coming from hostel to classroom together. Our walk from the apartment to the classroom felt to take all the time in the world today. I was at instants discussing in my mind the Bigg Boss show and how sadly Samir failed to be the captain yet again. (I watched all the episodes, from Oct 3^rd to yesterdays in a matter of two days, continuously, and now I am too anxiously waiting for each days show.) Bigg Boss addiction even abrupted my biological clock and resulted in me skipping 3 classes on a trot. So as our walk seemed to take all the time in the world, we discussed about how the fishes in the canal, and how they could be feeling cold. I mean, we wear thin shirts on summer and big furred weather jackets on winter, and aren’t they just surviving/living stark naked through all the seasons? So what happens to them when the top layer of the canal freezes and it becomes freaking cold?

So amid these multiple thoughts and discussions I asked him that, haven’t we been walking for a long time, and why aren’t we reaching the classes yet? I had questioned myself in my mind, if the distance had increased courtesy some expansion to the surface of the earth or increase in curvature or is it another symbol of the beginning of the end of the world?? (Stupid Me!!)

*Thud*

The sound of the closing door brought me back to senses as another guy just joined us on the lecture and it’s… 22 now (Oh, BTW – Ain’t that my number?) I didn’t even know when the rest of them entered the class. So didn’t I mention it was an interesting lecture, lemme go back to it now. Good bye guys, and have a nice day, whoever happens to read this.

P.S:- This was an accidental writing and I’ve published this the way it is, without Editing!

My Camera Speaks III : Shanghai Expo Unplugged

Check the previous post if you haven’t, to get an idea what World Expo 2010 – Shanghai is all about. This is a continuation with some details.

Shanghai Expo started on the 1st of May this year and is about to finish in more than a months time, on the 31st of Oct. I was told that each day, the expo attracts anything between two hundred thousand to two million people. One day ticket allow you to stay inside the Expo site from 9 AM to 12 in the midnight, but if you felt that this 15 hours was good enough to see it all, you are terribly wrong. On a day’s ticket, it is not likely that you visit more than 5-6 pavilions. It took me some thing like one hour to get the security clearance to enter inside the Expo site. Our plans were to see all the pavilions  from outside, capture photos, and on the way visit the Indian, African & Aviation pavilions and see how the rest goes.

The Indian Pavilion

To be frank, Indian pavilion was a slight disappointment. Not that it looked bad, but considering the powerful nation we are, and considering the kind of Super Power we are supposed to be, they should have done better and invested better. The theme looked okay, the greenness and the structure of it displaying a bit of our culture, but there lacked something that attracts your eye like those of the European, American or even our neighboring Nepalese pavilion. We had to wait for something like an hour to enter the pavilion and inside it were a couple of stores, some antique shops, a food store, and a store of Incredible India & Air India together. The big dome seen at the center is an exhibition hall.

…Several photos from inside the Indian Pavilion are below…

What do you feel about the Indian Pavilion? Was enough work done? Didn’t it lack something from the other pavilions? Do share your views & thoughts through comments.

 

Some pavilion pictures that i missed last time…

…Russia & United States of America…

…Mauritius…

…the African Pavilion & Nepali Pavilion…

 

 

…Estonia…

 

…Romania…

…Germany…

…Winding off…

True, you have had to wait for 2-3 hours in queues to enter any major pavilion, but you can’t expect an easy passage when you know 500,000 people visit this place every day. And the 3 hour wait was made a comfortable one with various facilities and arrangements. Some of them included seating facility for the entire queue and fans every 5 meter or so, and then there was this innovative idea of spraying of water from the roof, every 30 seconds or so, which was nothing but a sudden escape from the humid, hot conditions.

To sum up the experience in a couple of sentences, engineering & organizing were all at their very bests, for this mega event. Pavilions that stole away your breaths, crowd control and voluntary works that made you jealous, free transportation services that made you feel home, an experience to cherish!

Walking through the Expo site, i was thinking how the Commonwealth Villages in New-Delhi would be looking like. Just like the Olympics 2008, this is sure to be a bench mark for any World Fairs from now on.

My Camera Speaks II : World Expo 2010 Unveiled

I am sure I messed up with the trust of my readers by faking an experience from a live football match, with out actually entering the stadium, but then this time is real and genuine and you wouldn’t want to miss this one.

The World Expo 2010 is a 6 month long carnival at Shanghai – China, one of the major economic centers of the world. Over 190 countries and 50 international companies have pavilions, which is also the largest World's Fair site ever at 5.28 square km. The exhibition which is to end in over a month’s time is expected to attracted around 70-100 million ( 7-10 crores ) visitors, the largest for a single event ever. An astounding 3 Lakhs visitors are told to be visiting the expo-site every single day.

These are some of the pictures from the Expo-site.

…At the entrance of the Shanghai World Expo Site…

…The Tricolor…

 

…The Long Queue, nearly 300,000 people pass through these queues every day…

…The pride of China, Chinese Pavilion ( two views )…

…This one’s a Chinese Cultural Pavilion ( my personal favorite from the site!)…

…The Expo Axis…

 

…Three outstanding buildings in Shanghai, as seen from Expo site, (left to right) the Oriental Pearl tower, the Jinmao Tower (11th tallest in world) & the Shanghai World Financial Center ( 3rd tallest in world)…

…Country Pavilions…

…Australia & Finland…

   

…Greece & Sweden…

…Iceland & Ukraine…

…Canada & United Kingdom…

…South Africa & Argentina…

…Inside the African Pavilion…

…The Lupu Bridge, adjacent to Expo site…

     

…The China Aviation Pavilion… 

These photos are entirely clicked by either me, or on me. Please do not copy any with out my consent.

Further photos from the trip & a detailed report about Expo & Indian Pavilion shall follow. Please subscribe to my blog, to receive alerts on my blog updates. (Check back at the right side – top, to subscribe)

Happy Engineer’s Day! A Tribute.

 

Happy Engineer’s day to you mate~!

I know you are quite confused as like, ‘there is a day for the engineers too?’

Yeah dude, there is one and it is today. The 15th of September is regarded as the Engineers Day in India, as a tribute to one of the first and finest engineers India has produced, Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Today is his 150th b’day and let us, with all the pride, wish our fellow engineers a Happy Engineers day.

When i accidently came across this piece of knowledge, that of today being the Engineer’s Day, i knew nothing about him except his name, courtesy the Visvesvaraya Science & Technology Museum, Bangalore. Google and wikipedia helped me expand my knowledge of this great man and here are a few lines about him, a tribute.

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on 15th of Sept 1860, 150 years prior to today, at Muddenahalli village in the present day Karnataka. He earned his B.A. from the Madras University in 1881 and later completed civil engineering from College of Science, Pune. Upon graduating he took up some tedious projects under PWD & Indian Irrigation Commission. Visvesvaraya achieved celebrity status when he designed a flood protection system to protect the city of Hyderabad from floods. He was also very much responsible for the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam across River Cauvery in Mysore & upon completion, it was the biggest reservoir in Asia.

Upon retirement as an engineer, he was made the Diwan of Mysore and he was made the Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire by the British, for his invaluable contributions to the public. Sir Visvesvaraya was conferred with the honorary membership of the international Institution of Civil Engineers ( London based ), a fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science ( Bangalore based ) and several other honorary doctorates. He also received Indian Republic's highest honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He passed away on the 14th of April, 1962 in Bangalore. A true marvel who had lived for over 100 years.

I remember this true legend on his 150th birth day and i wish everyone a Happy Engineer’s Day!

Engineers are the ones who create this nation, structurally. Respect & support them.