Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Photography

The other day I was reading some post on Rediff, and there was this website from a an Indian Born in America. She is a photographer and the website has some really cool pics.

http://www.nishasondhe.com/

Monday, June 16, 2008

Comics of 80's

Comics of 80's

I was very happy when my sister wanted some Hindi comics for her 7-year and 4-year daughter; an experience for the US citizens.

Comics, those books which were part of every kid’s life who was born between 1972 and 1982 (just an assumption). Life seemed to be impossible. There were clubs made by kids like me all over the city, restricted for a particular area. And the members were to pay Re. 1, for the membership and moreover they were not allowed to take home the comics, fear of him not returning the borrowed book. The money earned was later utilized in buying new comics.

The so called library was setup in every summer breaks for 2 months. If by chance you are traveling and in train, then you could also do an exchange on every chain store of AH Wheeler. Sometime if the comic is in a very bad shape then the vendor would charge you for the new comic, which was very painful and time consuming too.

The collection of comics varied from the simle/comedy/soothing to the more action packed drama/thriller.

Ranging from Billoo, Pinki, Chacha Chaudhary (jinka dimag computer se bhi tez chalta hai, whose brain runs faster then the computer) and Saboo (more like today’s Hulk), to Angara, Shaktiman, Nagraj and what not.

So when Manu got comics for my nephew and niece, they could not read more then 50% of the comics, simply because of the reason that those comics are still very simple unlike today’s’ kids. After the end of every chapter, he would ask why the chapter ended abruptly? Are we supposed to laugh at this? What should we laugh on? In search of better story they read few more but after couple of them, there patience answered, and I ended up reading all of them, still laughing and smiling, may be because I knew, where to laugh and where to smile, and also, how they are supposed to end.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Google on IE8

Google on IE8

Dunno what is wrong here.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Does cruise control use up more fuel?

With the fuel prices going north, Manu started conserving more fuel and energy, by adhering to some standards what car owners should follow. Like, using less of AC, putting fewer brakes and driving in speed limit when inside the city to avoid brakes and successive acceleration.

Few days back when going to Jersey for the weekend, I was driving in my new Camry with cruise control on and suddenly she said drive manually, and don't use CC. I was surprised why she is saying that. As far as I knew, car's with constant speed gives you more mileage. But, she was adamant on her finding, when she heard the same on radio. I was pissed of with her constant nagging, asked her to sleep so that I can put on the CC mode.

Well, after reaching home, the first thing I searched was "Does cruise control use up more fuel?" and I found the following from Yahoo! Answers.

It saves you fuel no matter where you drive, for the simple reason that no person on the planet can maintain an exact speed as accurately as a cruise control. If you want proof, set it on 65 and drive down the flattest stretch of road you can find. You will be able to spot the people without cruise control because they will constantly be varying their speed, catching up to you, passing you, and falling behind you no matter how hard they try. If you disengage your cruise control, you will not be able to maintain a constant speed to within a half a mile an hour. A cruise control monitors your speed thousands and thousands of times a minute, and makes almost imperceptible changes to the throttle, giving the engine only the fuel it needs to maintain a speed. It does not get tired; it does not get fatigued, distracted, or fooled by hills or headwinds. In contrast, every time you slow down even a couple of miles an hour, it takes more fuel to return to your desired speed than it takes for the cruise control to precisely maintain it.