A mechanic was removing the cylinder heads from the motor of a car when he
spotted the famous heart surgeon in his shop, who was standing off to the
side, waiting for the service manager to come to take a look at his car.
The mechanic shouted across the garage,”Hello Doctor!! Please come over
here for a minute.”
The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic.
The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked
argumentatively, “So doctor, look at this. I also open hearts, take valves
out, grind ‘em, put in new parts, and when I finish, this will work as a
new one. So how come you get the big money, when you and me is doing
basically the same work? “
The doctor leaned over and whispered to the mechanic….. .
.
.
.
.
..
. .
.
He said: “Try to do it when the engine is running “.
Posted in jokes.
By my corner
– September 23, 2008
How Grid Computing enables Big Bang Experiment
The world’s biggest physics experiment, the Large Hadron particle collider that began running on Wednesday in a 17-mile tunnel below the French-Swiss border, produces so much data that even the massive computing power at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research can’t sift through it all.
So the Geneva-based lab, known by its old French acronym CERN, is sharing that burden among dozens of computing centers around the world. The result is the LHC Grid, a network of 60,000 computers that will analyse what happens when protons are hurled at each other inside the collider.
Scientists will need the additional computing power to sift through the mountains of data produced when the colliders’ four giant detectors — 10 times more accurate than any previous instruments — measure activity at the subatomic level.
“You can think of each experiment as a giant digital camera with around 150 million pixels taking snapshots 600 million times a second,” explains CERN’s Ian Bird, who leads the grid project.
Sophisticated filters discard all but the most interesting data, but that still leaves 15 petabytes to be analysed each year — enough to fill 2 million DVDs. So it will get sent via high-speed lines to 11 top research institutions in Europe, North America and Asia, and from there to a wider network of 150 facilities where the information can be scrutinised by thousands of researchers — who could share in the glory of any discovery.
Distributed computing has been seen before, notably in the SETI (at) Home project that lets people contribute their PCs’ spare time to the search for extraterrestrial life.
But the vast scale of the CERN effort will be closely watched by scientists who expect grid computing to become even more widely used for research ranging from new drugs to more effective nuclear power.
Posted in Technical.
By my corner
– September 21, 2008
Posted in Blogs.
By my corner
– September 20, 2008
*Seems this is a real story that happened between the customer of
General Motors and its Customer-Care Executive.*
A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:
This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for
not
answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a
tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night. but
the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole
family votes on which kind of ice cream we
should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It’s also a fact that
I
recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have
created a problem.
You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the
store my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car
starts just fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no
matter how silly it sounds:
”What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla
ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?”
The Pontiac Executive was understandably skeptical about the letter,
but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to
be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine
neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinnertime,
so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was
vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to
the car, it wouldn’t start.
The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got
chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The
car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.
Now the Engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this
man’s car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to
continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And
toward
this end he began to take notes: he jotted down all sorts of data: time of
day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc. In a short time,
he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other
flavor.
Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the
most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for
quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a
different counter where it took considerably longer to
check out the flavor. Now, the question for the Engineer was why the
car wouldn’t start when it took less time.
Eureka - Time was now the problem - not the vanilla ice cream!!!!
The engineer quickly came up with the answer: “vapour lock”. It was
happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other
flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When
the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapour lock to
dissipate.
Remember:
Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem
to be simple only when we find the solution with cool thinking.
Don’t just say its “IMPOSSIBLE” without putting a sincere effort…
Observe the word “IMPOSSIBLE” carefully… Looking closer you will
see, “I’M POSSIBLE”…
What really matters is your attitude and your perception 
Posted in Blogs.
By my corner
– September 18, 2008
European
English:
The European Commission has just announced an agreement
whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than
German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations,
the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for
improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as
‘Euro-English’.
In the first year, ’s’ will replace the soft ‘c’.
Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard ‘c’ will be
dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have
one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when
the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced with ‘f’.. This will make words like
fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to
reach the stage where! more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have
always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the
languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil
be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’.
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be dropd from vords
kontaining ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil
sensibl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu
understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz
yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
Posted in jokes.
By my corner
– September 10, 2008
Google
introduces Map Maker in India
Google has launched Google Map Maker
(mapmaker.google.com) in India. Google Map Maker, conceived
and developed by the Indian engineering team, allows users to add or edit
features, such as roads, businesses, parks, schools, apartment buildings,
localities and more.
With
Google Map Maker tools, users can add detailed information about locations and
the user- created geographical content is updated and made visible immediately
to all other users.
The
product also introduces peer moderation allowing users to review the data their
peers have entered to ensure map quality and
accuracy.
The
mapping product is particularly relevant for a country like India, with its
vast territory, varying geographies, and language and cultural diversity. For
example, Google Map Maker can help bolster commerce by enabling people to map
local businesses from their regions. Similarly, NGOs can benefit from it by
effectively mapping challenging belts in the rural and sub-urban areas.
”Google Map Maker solves an inherent need especially for
countries such as ours where maps data is sparse. This product embodies our
passion to empower people everywhere, to share knowledge of the places they know
best by creating maps,” says Dr Lalitesh Katragadda, software engineer and
creator of Google Map Maker.
Other
than India, Google Map Maker
is available in 57 countries in Asia, the Island Nations, and the Caribbean.
Posted in Technical.
By my corner
– September 2, 2008
We
have been seeing a lot of cost cutting on the low cost
airlines including paid meals and drinking water… some
of the areas being considered to enhance profitability in
wake of spiraling jet fuel costs……….
.cheers!
The
beauty of LOW COST AIRLINES…… 
Attendant:
Welcome aboard Ala Carte Air, Sir.. May I see your ticket?
Passenger: Sure.
Attendant:
You’re in seat 12B. That will be $5, please!
Passenger: What for?
Attendant: For telling you
where to sit.
Passenger: But I already knew where to
sit.
Attendant: Nevertheless, we are now charging a
seat-locator fee of $5. It’s the airline’s new policy.
Passenger: That’s the craziest thing I ever heard. I
won’t pay it.
Attendant: Sir, do you want a seat on this
flight, or not?
Passenger: Yes, yes. All right, I’ll
pay. But the airline is going to hear about this.
Attendant: Thank you. My goodness, your
carry-on bag looks heavy. Would you like me to stow it in
the overhead compartment for you?
Passenger: That
would be swell, thanks.
Attendant: No problem (grunts). Up we go, and
done! That will be $10, please.
Passenger: What?
Attendant: The airline now
charges a $10 carry-on assistance fee.
Passenger: This
is extortion. I won’t stand for it.
Attendant: Actually,
you’re right - you can’t stand. You need to sit, and
fasten your seat belt. We’re about to push back from
the gate. But first I need that $10.
Passenger: No
way.
Attendant: Sir, if you don’t comply, I will be
forced to call the air marshal. And you really don’t want me
to do that.
Passenger: Why not? Is he going to shoot me?
Attendant: No, but there’s a $50 air-marshal hailing
fee.
Passenger: Oh, all right, here - take the $10.. I
can’t believe
this.
Attendant: Thank
you for your cooperation, sir.. Is there anything else I can do
for you?
Passenger: Yes. It’s stuffy in here, and my
overhead fan doesn’t seem to work. Can you fix
it?
Attendant: Your overhead fan is not broken, sir. Just
insert two quarters into the overhead coin slot for the first five
minutes.
Passenger: The airline is
charging me for cabin air?
Attendant: Of course not, sir. Stagnant
cabin air is provided free of charge. It’s the circulating air that
costs 50 cents.
Passenger: I don’t have any quarters. Can you make
change for a dollar?
Attendant: Certainly, sir! Here you go!
Passenger: But you’ve given me only three quarters for my
dollar.
Attendant: Yes,
there’s a change-making fee of 25 cents. Passenger: For crying’ out
loud. All I have left is a lousy quarter?
Whatever will I do with it?
Attendant: Hang on to
it. You’ll need it later for the lavatory.
Happy
travelling…….
Posted in jokes.
By my corner
– August 22, 2008
Posted in Food.
By my corner
– August 22, 2008
yeh hai aam
zindagi……
Aur ye hai mentos Zindagi……
Posted in jokes.
By my corner
– August 22, 2008
Cuil
search engine takes on Google
The
Cuil search engine has been brought into existence by Anna Patterson and her
husband Tom Costello on 28th July, 2008. But why has Cuil attracted so much
attention? This is because; its founders have claimed that this search engine is
capable of performing better and more comprehensive job of indexing online
information compared to its rivals Google and
Microsoft.
It
needs to be mentioned that Anna Patterson was a former employee of Google and
that the last search engine created by Anna impressed Google so much that the
industry leader decide to buy the technology in the year 2004. The Cuil founders
have stated that around 120 billion web pages have been used to build up the
index of Cuil and they are of the opinion that the figure is far bigger than
Google or Microsoft.
The
founders of Cuil are aware of the fact that people care for online privacy and
they noticed that even Google, the search engine giant keeps and store
everything that the users search on the engine. Cuil is expected to utilize this
opportunity and the founders have assured not to store any personal
information.
A
classic format is maintained by both Google and Microsoft to keep their search
results while Cuil uses a magazine format for displaying the search results.
Cuil would not focus on the technology used by Google so far by which the leader
has only considered the number of quality of links to and from a web page, but
instead, Cuil would put more emphasis on the understanding of the information
contained in the web pages.
Cuil which is pronounced as "cool" had
required $33 million of venture capital during its making process and this
search engine has begun to process request from Monday, 28th July, 2008. Cuil
has a black homepage that uses just 59 watts of energy as compared to a white
homepage that uses a higher energy of 74
watts.
But
there are several reasons why Cuil has to travel a long way to overtake Google,
the industry leader. Google introduced the service first and it had added
additional services like free e-mail, free photo sharing and other free web
applications. Secondly, the advertisers are a search engine's true customers and
they would not like the idea of not storing the personal information about the
searchers. The google toolbar which is already established on millions of search
browsers would advertise for Google and lastly, one might be doubtful about
Google's privacy protections, but still time is needed to prove the intensity of
such a problem!
Website
: www.cuil.com
Posted in Technical.
By my corner
– August 8, 2008
