New Screen Capture Tool

Here's a new screencasting tool: http://www.screenpresso.com/index.html.

For Windows XP users, Microsoft.Net Framework is required.

The Thing Called Relational Database

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!

GNR Rocks

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.

Bad Day for Indian Science

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 not? There is indeed a buzz around town to not skip this movie. I've my doubts. By the way, when did the Golden Globe became the benchmark for us, the poor Indians. I salute the Sanskrit language for the word.

My Old Notebooks

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 is a newspaper photo of Erikson with Stephen Graubard), Salamander, Axolotl, Gegenophis, Rhacophorus, Clarias, Necturus, arterial system of a frog, Cobra.

The first part of the notebook ends here. The text then returns its direction. I start reading again.

This part starts with notes on physiology and then moves to two ecology topics, Symbiosis and Mutualism. Mites follow these topics followed by tables on Geological Time Scale, notes comparing Anopheles and Culex mosquitoes, and notes on bed bugs. Notes on the blood group system, ABO, appears after a brief note on ecology. I read with interest these notes with also had info on the Lewis system.

Notes on agricultural pests, a beetle and shoot borer, is followed by Rh-antigen and its inheritance, pests of sugarcane, a list of topics on animal physiology, cytology and genetics, economic zoology, which I assume can be questions related to old question papers.

Embryology comes next, with notes on Modulations, ooplasm, evocation, and names of two textbooks. I don't remember whether I've read these textbooks. Diagrams on polygenic inheritance of fruits. This section of the note ends after a few blank pages.

I close the notebook, as a dog whines somewhere in the residential lane nearby.

Let the media be slow

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