The Golden 80s

Here's a new screencasting tool: http://www.screenpresso.com/index.html. For Windows XP users, Microsoft.Net Framework is required.

I have attended meetings that often discussed and questioned how the product I document on access or query the database at the implementation level. While a few of these 'technical' discussions do not make much sense, it usullay creates a sense of curiosity to know a little more on the topic. It was with much interest that I read, Is the Relational Database Doomed? , an excellent piece on relational databases and alternatives. I cannot help myself from telling that this is a great piece of 'technical writing. Great post!

Rolling Stone report on GNR live was an interesting news to read. It was 1989 when I first listened to 'Sweet Child of Mine' through the Voice of America.

1. The goof-up over Himalayan glaciers is nothing new as far as Indian science is concerned. Anybody, who is a bit acquainted with Indian universities, knows what happens in the departments and labs. But the absence of official action against those who disgraced India in front of the world Himalayan glaciers is a bit hard to digest. And, even more, I did not understand what this lead to a story on CNN-IBN really meant. Poor journalism anyway. "The Rajendra Pachauri-led Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that claimed that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 owing to climate change and global warning was made without any scientific basis." The problem with this sentence is that it is both wrong and confusing. It must have been rewritten to clear the ambiguity caused by the word 'that'. 2. From Coredump , I went to Wall Street Journal to peer at the salaries technical writers get in the West. Looks good. 3. Should I watch Avatar or n...

I've not discarded my old university notebooks, as I cannot forget the glorious days of my post graduate studies. It looks as if I'll never get back those golden days, when only knowledge and discovery mattered and nothing else. Today, I opened one of those notebooks. The funny thing is a few of these notebooks are a collage of lectures of different subjects. There is no continuity in the notes. In the first few pages, it lists the following types of volcanic rocks: Andesite, Apanitic, and Basalt Next, it lists the texture: Glassy, Vesicles, Porphry, Pegmatite, Plutonic rocks, Phaneritic, Gabbro, Ultramafic Diorite, Granite, Rhyolite, Obsidian, Country or Wall Rock, Concordant, Pipes and Necks, Dykes and Sills, Laccolith, Lopoliths, Stock and Batholith, Extrusive, Chilled Margins, Xenoloiths, Clastic sediments A brief note on sting rays is written in pencil. This is followed by pictures and descriptions of the following animals: Sardine, Echeinesis, Cynoglossus , Mullet (there ...

Trevor Butteworth writes an excellent piece on the need for a slow media movement, to restore the grandeur or decency of good old journalism. He says, "The idea of consuming less, but better, media--of a "slow word" or "slow media" movement--is a strategy journalism should adopt." http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/29/media-newspapers-internet-opinions-columnists-trevor-butterworth.html