Facebook released their application platform last May. The “platform” allows developers to create applications for facebook users.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been busy creating a facebook application HappyWishes which allows facebook users to send Wishes to their friends and family for any happy occasion.

Check it out. It was fun coding it and I hope you enjoy using it.

Your comments and reviews are always welcome.

A judge who passes comments before hearing both sides of the argument does not deserve to pass judgments.

When I was a kid I grew up wondering if there was even a system of justice in India other than fists, sticks, stones and lethal weapons. To my relief, I am discovering there is in fact a justice system but alas the relief is only short lived. The supreme court is the apex body and it is piled with many men who have little clue on the aspirations of the majority of the people and remain alienated from the masses. Yes, these are alienated men who pass judgments based on alien laws that were borrowed from an alien society. I wonder how many times the Constitution of India has been amended?

Here is a nice editorial from The Hindu, pulling up the unconstitutional behavior of a man who supposedly keeps the law. In polite and mild terms this is pathetic and shows how the apex court in India is infested with biased men.

John Schwartz of The NY Times writes about a new engineering college where the emphasis is more on “experiential” learning.

The article teaser captured my attention,

“In an era when software matters more than steel, …”

You can read the full article here.

I believe there is some truth to this statement, simply because even a seemingly hardware centric product like the iPod is so successful because of its software. I am not an iPod user but just imagine using the iPod without iTunes. Organizing and building the music collection would be very difficult without a good piece of software. It certainly was not a pleasant experience to rip/search/download, organize mp3 files in the pre-iTunes years.

Yes, We are in the era of software and The NY Times said so

I just read an interesting story on the cbc technology section about a white list approach to computer security.

Who is going to maintain this “white list”? Is there already a consortium of application vendors that have agreed on this “white list”?

If this gains traction there are some interesting technology and business issues that need to be solved. Overall, interesting times ahead for security software industry.

Here is a list of pie categories from the 2007 National Pie Championships Commercial Entry Form,

Apple
Apple Crumb
Banana Cream
Berry
Blueberry
Candy/Cookie Cream
Cherry
Chocolate Cream
Citrus
Coconut Cream
Custard
Key Lime
Nut
Open
Open Cream
Open Fruit/Berry
Peach
Peanut Butter
Pumpkin
Silk Cream

The very elemental nature of this list attracted me. Enjoy the pie!

The Ramar Setu is described in MSN Encarta as a group of islands connecting the Indian subcontinent and the Island of Sri Lanka.

The Ramar Setu has recently become a subject of argument and debate. Ships transporting cargo between the East Coast and the West Coast have to go around the island of Sri Lanka in the present day scenario. The Goverment of India apparently wanted to create a shorter route for these ships and make way by clearing this island cluster and deepening the straits.

The primary reason this is of interest to me is that this is a beautiful structure at least from the satellite imagery on google maps, only the Gods, so to speak have the imagination to build some thing of this scale and beauty.

Here are some reasons why this is interesting to me,

- Shipping as a mode of transportation is under-developed/under-utilized in India, Railways is the big kahuna for cargo transportation in this continent. This is only empirical, you can post some numbers in the comments section if you want to. This project will be a boost for shipping.

- The Indian sub continent has a vast coast line. Universities specialising in Marine Biology and Marine biologists are as rare as Indian olympic athletes in a country of over a billion people. Do you have a friend who went to university and studied marine biology? Probably not.

Marine biology and the beautiful tropical waters of this area may get some attention, at least one hopes that they will.

- The Archaeological Society of India (poor suckers -I pity them – I wonder what they think/say to each other every day they walk into work.). They may have to do some real work and “dig” up some convincing evidence.

- The party in power (DMK) that desperately wants to build this canal and dredge the straits, was born out of a social revolution movement and was based on the ethos of an “individual’s self respect”, “power of reasoning”. In essence , these were advocates of the “power of reasoning” over superstitions and blind faith. If your question to them is, Was ramar sethu built by Rama a mythological character in the Indian epic Ramayana and God to many present day faithful devotees? You pretty much have your answer.

Above all this is a classic Faith vs Science debate. Strangely and in a funny way, these kinds of debates rarely happen in India. This is a one of a kind.

If you were googling for Ramar Sethu and ended up seeing this video you have probably noticed the many flaws in the arguments and argument construction.

Ironically, this guy calls himself a scientist and proposes to protect the ramar setu as a monument of ancient heritage, funny.

As for me, I am content answering more trivial questions like who built the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge or the Brooklyn Bridge.

Vanakkam! until next time…

Now that Rafa Nadal is out of the US Open 2007, Is there anyone to challenge Roger Federer ?

Yes. The world #3 Novak Djokovic.

Here’s my prediction. If (see the big If on the title) Novak Djokovic makes it to the final for a showdown with Roger Federer then Djokovic will win.

Why?

Djokovic has,
super high consistency, a syrupy consistency that’s like cream.
moves very well on the court.
power packed shots.
above all he doesn’t loose his nerves or get intimidated.

Remember he has already beaten Federer this year in the US Open Master’s series, earlier this summer.

Well, what do you think? Leave your comments.

About four years back I started to take up the game of tennis a little bit more seriously. I was primarily playing on outdoor courts during the summer months with friends during that time.

When I started to look around for a more serious place to play tennis I couldn’t find a central place to get all the information that I wanted. So, I gathered most of the information about playing tennis in the Minneapolis/St Paul, MN area through my colleagues, friends and now tennis partners. My trusted friend google was not of much help here.

Here are a few tips that can be helpful to newcomers to tennis in the twin cities area, please feel free to share your own tips in the comments section of this post or via mail .

Where to play tennis in the twin cities [Minneapolis/St Paul] area?

My first choice is the Read-Sweatt Family Tennis Center formerly the Nicollet Tennis center. The seasonal leagues scheduled well, the indoor courts are well maintained, well lit and keeps you warm during the minnesota winter, parking is free and there are some great tennis pros to offer you tennis lessons at a reasonable price. I like this place.

If you are a member of Lifetime Fitness you can also take advantage of their tennis courts , indoor as well as outdoor during the warmer summer months, at St Louis Park and Bloomington.

Baseline Tennis Center, University of Minnesota. I have never played here but I have watched my friends play at the indoor courts. This is where the U of MN tennis team practices and the USTA league games are played here in the weekends.

Where to take beginner tennis lessons in the twin cities?

If you are an absolute beginner and you do not have a tennis partner, I suggest that you schedule a series of Group Lessons at least twice a week depending on how fast you want to improve the game and how much time/money you can afford. You can also take the private lessons if you can afford them. RSFTC is my favorite place for these lessons.

How to keep playing regularly?

Join a league. Most places offer league programs that let you play matches with other players rated at your own skill level. I like the leagues at RSFTC. Before you join a league, you have to get rated at a rating clinic conducted by RSFTC for a small fee.

Where to go for good tennis racquet/gear/equipment in the twin cities?

There are at least a couple of tennis shops in the twin cities area. The one that I am familiar with is Michael Lynne’s Tennis Shop in St Louis Park. RSFTC also has its own little tennis shop. Both places have loaner racquets that you can try out before buying. Let me know if you know of other great tennis shops in the twin cities area, I am sure there are many others.

Where to go for stringing/restringing your racquets?

You can typically get your racquet strung at the place you buy it. Both Michael Lynne’s and RSFTC string/restring the racquet for you, if you buy the strings from them. Or they can do it for you for a small fee if you have the strings.

I guess this should at least get you started.

But there are probably many other questions that you have about playing tennis in the twin cities area. Please feel free to leave your questions/comments, I’ll try to answer them as best as I can or possibly someone will have a chance to see your question and answer it for you.

Good Luck and have fun playing tennis!

There is a great amount of media coverage about this bridge collapse but the pictures in this post present another view of the disaster.

Here are some pictures taken by some of my friends who live in the cedar avenue/riverside neighborhood.

I was on my way home driving the opposite way (west), from work when I heard about this disaster on the radio.

This disaster like any other sad event raises many questions, the question on my mind though is how newer technologies can be used to warn and prevent one off disasters and rare incidents like these, where invaluable human lives are lost?

Once again Google is right but unfortunately has to fight old bureaucratic companies, to do the right thing. It’s an open fact that Cisco and ATT have been in bed for a long time.

What this Red Herring story writer does not get is not only press time from Google (funny, a story published on the web with no timestamp, just a date ) but the fact that companies like ATT have indeed stymied innovation.

Case in point, well the internet, which was developed by government research funding to connect networks like ATT and MCI that did not talk to each other, very well, huh!

Executives at large telcos don’t care about innovations or changes and they rarely have passion for new technologies. But they do passionately pursue their bonus checks,options and benefits package, nothing wrong with that except that in order to do so they have to kill competition and maintain status quo, often times ruthlessly and by ANY means necessary.

An open access spectrum means a cell phone user can use any phone (device) on any wireless carrier. Have you ever wondered why you can’t use the same phone on a T-Mobile network and a Verizon network? The technology to use mobile phones, devices on any network is available but its a way of the phone companies to tie us down to their network.

If you ever get a chance to talk about open access, say yes to it … trust me that will open up the real competition and give us more cool stuff like the internet and bring us out of the dark ages.