Friday, January 30, 2009

Study improvement plan

Though I have not maintained any error log so far for my improvement, I found that it is stupid to continue the same practice. So I am formulating a plan with out time limit to do the following:




My only aim is go through each and every question in the practice questions and maintain a error log of all those questions. From the error log I will find out what are my weak areas and will give a brutal attack on those areas. Also I hope to know about my strength areas also.

My common errors in GMAT exam

My common mistakes while reading:

1. I am not reading actively
2. I am reading the answer choices superficially
3. I am not reading the answer choices at all
4. When I am down with only 2 choices I am always picking the wrong ones.
a. Do not pick strong tone words especially in RC
b. If there is no mention, then no point in choosing the answer choice- however good it may sound or look attractive.
I got a pathetic hit rate of 64% on Kaplan practice RC’s. It was like throwing s**t on my face. Do I really deserve to get in to IIM-A? Do I really deserver to get a 730+ in the exam?

All the concepts are known. There is no specific strategy required. Read CRITICALLY. Drill and doubt each and every word given in the answer choices. “Walk” around the suspicious words. If you can not find anything specific, continue wandering around the word. You can find a convoluted fact with the wrong answer choice. There is nothing specific to learn in CR. It is all about understanding the question and the given answer choices. All the words are carefully engineered to deceive you. Improve your brain power. It has to be laser focus, to face every question thrown at you.

Before excluding any answer choice at a first go, better keep it under suspicion. This is the common mistake I am making. Don’t reject the answer choice out right. Exclude all dirty answer. Elimination has to be 100% correct and with confidence. Precision is the answer here. The words and the answer choices you see are meticulously formulated by experts to deceive you. So work with extreme caution. To score high you need to concentrate like an acid and you have to maintain the vigor through the test. Good luck to me.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Effective way to clean your optical instruments

We all use different kinds of optical instruments like spectacles, cameras, laptop screens, desktop monitors, touch screen phones etc. We often see the smudges or finger print marks leading to irritation or poor visibility. I tried to clean the surfaces using different kind of clothes like cotton, terylene, nylon, sponge etc., But nothing worked. Then finally I found something interesting at big bazaar. It is a cleaning cloth invented by 3M which is a reputed company for its innovative products. It is one of the members of Scotch Brite cleaning products family. The name of the cloth is "High performance cloth ". It is 1/4 of the standard hand-kerchief size. Though it is pricy (Rs.30 or so), it is worth for its money. It is washable, durable and moreover it cleans the smudges and finger prints with out traces. It definitely stands for its promise. Give a try.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

How to find RF energy SAR for your mobile?

I always wondered why the important information of SAR is not given for many handsets and often it is difficult to get from different web sites. It means that you will not generally find the information in the first few visits to the company website. It is tucked deep in to the website, making it difficult to access to common public.I have tried to compile some of the information I could collect so far. Be prepared to get some sweet and shocking surprises about your sixth finger. SAR varies from company to company and model to model. Hence if you are confused between two hand sets to choose, go with the one that is emitting lesser RF energy.

How much RF energy your handset is producing? What is considered a safe level of RF exposure?
All wireless phones sold in the United States meet government requirements that limit their RF energy to safe levels. The relative amount of RF energy absorbed in the head of a wireless telephone-user is given by the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). The FCC requires wireless phones to have SAR levels no greater than 1.6 watts per kilogram.
Source: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/cellular.html#howcan

For all Motorola handsets:

http://rfhealth-sar.motorola.com/SAR/sar-LNprocess.jsp?region=Asia&country=ALL&standard=ICNIRP-1&language=English

For all Nokia hand sets:

http://sar.nokia.com/sar/index.jsp

For all Sony Ericsson hand sets:

http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corporate/company/sustainability/health
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/marketingurlportal?sid=key.SupportSubject.SARdocumentation

For other models:
http://www.mmfai.org/public/sar.cfm?lang=eng

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Magnetic slate-Go Green!

I saw this magnetic slate in Magnet mall (coincidence?!), Akurdi, Pune and I bought it for my daughter. Then I found that it is useful for all sorts of rough works and calculations. I normally use one-sided papers or any other rough papers found near the printer in my office. Then I found that I can completely get rid of the paper also. Since this plate is extremely useful for temporary writing. Now I plan to use in my office also.

Construction and work:
It consists of two plates, 1.Base plate and 2. Impression surface. There are fine magnetic particles entrapped in between. The impression surface is white in color and when the pencil with the iron tip is placed on that all the fine magnetic particles get attracted towards the tip and when the pencil is moved the magnetic particles traces the path of the pencil tip.

After the use, there is one slider which runs in between the two surfaces to neutralize the magnetic effect and even out the displaced magnetic particles in to one smooth coating.

The price is also nominal ranging from Rs.30 to Rs.60 depending on the size of the slate. You can treat this product as a gift idea to small children. They can have fun of unlimited writing.



Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Changing boarding station for train tickets

If by chance, you have missed to put the boarding point when you are booking through Internet, there is one option to get it corrected. Though it is given in the railway help guide, but the information is well hidden or we simply over look it. There can be some serious problems like berths allotted to other people by TTE if you don't turn up to the wrongly selected boarding point. So it is always safer to correct the boarding point.

The procedure for changing the boarding point is as follows:

1. Take the print out of the ticket
2. Fill the details of the ticket in the regular reservation form
3. Go to any railway ticket booking counter, show the ticket and request them to change the boarding point.
4. They will update the same in the system. I am not clear whether they will provide you with a new ticket or not. For me since, I booked through clear trip they did not give me a new ticket. Anyway, you can ask at the counter to get it clarified.

In addition to changing boarding point, with effect from November 2008, Railways has amended its rule of changing passenger name for e-tickets also. Two of the FAQ's in the www.irctc.co.in reads like this:

Question: How can I modify the details of my ticket?
Answer: A. Postponement / Advancement of journey, Change of passenger details, Change of boarding point etc, can be done across any Reservation counters subject to existing Railway rules. Payment, if any, has to be paid in Cash


Question: How do I change the boarding point and name of the passenger for e-tickets?
Answer: For getting these facilities, customer can now approach the nearest Railway Reservation Office with ‘Electronic Reservation Slip’ print out and photo identity proof of one of the passenger traveling in the ticket at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure of train as per extant Railway rules.
• Such request will be granted once only.

Further reading: http://irctc.co.in/Eticket_new_cancel.html

Monday, January 12, 2009

My Google Adsense story

I thought that adding Google advertisements in my blog would be a cool idea though I did not have any serious intentions of making money with that. So I applied for Google Adsense account and submitted my application. After sending the application, immediately I put the Adsense widget in my blogspot. Adsense advertisements started appearing in my blogspot, only MOMENTARILY. After refreshing the page I could not see any advertisements.

An email came to my gmail account asking for persmission to blogger.com to allow Adsense to appear in my blogspot. So far, so good. Then as usual, my hard luck came to play. My application was promptly rejected. Saying a specific issue type called Page type. The error message is something like this:

"
Thank you for your interest in Google AdSense. Unfortunately, after
reviewing your application, we're unable to accept you into Google
AdSense at this time.

We did not approve your application for the reasons listed below.
Issues:
- Page type
---------------------
Further detail:

Page Type: In order to participate in Google AdSense, publishers'
websites and application information must satisfy the following
guidelines:

- Your website must be your own top-level domain (www.example.com and
not www.example.com/mysite).
- Your domain must have been registered and active for at least 6
months. Before you apply for AdSense.
- You must provide accurate personal information with your application
that matches the information on your domain registration.
- Your website must contain substantial, original content."


I was really frustrated. But apparently I could not find any solution till now and feeling helpless. After wasting lot of time in Internet looking for possible solution, I came up with some conclusions:

Conclusions so far:
1. Adsense is not expecting a www.xyz.blogspot.com address or www.xyz.googlpages.com any more. This change has happened recently around October-November 2008 it seems.

2. If you have got your Adsense account before this new rule change, you are definitely LUCKY.

3. If you somehow convert your blogspot URL in to a static URL, you need to wait for 6 months after registering your domain, I hope.

4.You need to pay at least 15 dollars to get one time URL from www.blogger.com but I am not really sure about the maintenance charges if any or there after that.

5. I have not found any site which can give you real "free" domain, with out ads on their own, but still you have to wait for 6 months.

6. One FAQ from Google Adsense reads like this:
Do I have to own a website to use AdSense?
To use AdSense, you must have access to edit the HTML source code of the website you submit in your application. If you submit a site you don't own (for example, www.google.com), you won't be able to place the AdSense code on the site and your application will not be approved
I have not really understood the meaning of "access to edit the HTML source code of the website". Politically engineered words.
7. Google does not accept any more new entries for googlepages.com
8. Instead it is encouraging users to create one site at sites.google.com. There also you will get a complicated URL (similar to blogspot URL) and then you have to change the URL in to some domain name using Google Apps. I don't know whether we need to pay money or not.

Also even if I get a paid domain name from blogger.com, will that qualify the condition required by Google Adsense or not. I really don't' know. Now I am in a dead-lock position. I have decided not to go in to so much depth for this right now. Since I have other priorities, I changed the preference of this task.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Trip to Parshvanath Jain Temple

On the same day of December 31, 2008 after our trip to Pavana dam we headed towards Parshavanath Jain temple, just after Talegaon turn. It is located adjacent to CRPF campus, Pune.

Route:
1. Proceed in the old Pune-Mumbai highway
2. Cross the toll gate
3. Look for Talegoan board sign on your way
4. Cross the turning for Talegaon. You need to turn right if you want to go for Talegaon
5. There is one petrol station on the left hand side of the road after you cross the landmark mentioned in point no 4.
6. After that petrol station, with in 500 meters you will find a left turn.
7. There will be one painting on the wall written in Marathi, welcoming you.
8. In case you missed the left, look for CRPF and take a U-turn to come to the correct turning. There are lots of openings in the divider of the road.

I have visited this temple some 3 years back. At that time, it was under development. Now also it is not fully developed. But it is worth going there to watch the architecture. The kind of stone, the immense human effort put to erect such a temple is amazing. We missed the lunch there. The lunch closes there at 1:30 pm. If you are planning to visit there some time, plan to have your lunch there.



















Thursday, January 8, 2009

The turtle story



A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. Turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place for their outing. During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last!
For about six months they cleaned up the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed.

After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one
condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left.

Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger.

He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich. At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting," SEE! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to get the salt."

[Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves.]

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Trip to Pavna dam

On 31st December 2008 we went to Pavana dam, after finishing our Alandi trip on 29 December 2008. I got the route map from one of my senior colleague and friend. The route is really simple.

1. Go straight in the old Pune - Mumbai highway (Not the express highway or e-way or e-highway, whatever they call).
2. Cross the first toll gate
3. Proceed for Kamshet village. At strategic location you will find name boards mentioning Kamshet. You will cross some important land marks like Talegaon Parshvanath Jain temple, CRPF, etc., Note down the kilometer reading in your vehicle at any one of the board sign and proceed. Exactly at the mentioned distance, you will find Kamshet village. Infact it will be first kind of major 4 point junction in your way.
4. At that junction, take a left turn. You will see a worn out, rusted, metallic arch kind of board put by government. The information will be in Marathi.
5. Proceed with that road. The road will be narrow. But an ordinary driver can manage.
6. On the way you will see a board showing direction for Bedsa caves. If you are interested take the turn to the right and visit it.
7. On the way you will find a T-Junction. At that junction, the road will be somewhat broader for a moment, and take a right turn there.
8. Go ahead. Exactly after 19 kms of travel after taking the main left turn from the main highway you will find yourself at a small restaurant very close to the dam.

We played for some time in the Pavna River. The water is fresh, cool and clean. My 2.5 years old daughter played in the water for 45 minutes. To our surprise, she did not catch any cold or fever.Amazing! We should really thank Mother Nature for such unpolluted, divine gifts. One can see the tung and tikona(if I am not wrong) forts from the banks of river pavna.



Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Life is like that

Today I suddenly remembered by adolescent days while watching a telugu song in Gemini music. The song was about two girls doing all sort of fun they wanted to do. I too know a girl who wanted to experience all sorts of fun like speeding in a bike, striking different poses for photographs, eating the foods (brought by me specially for her)that she liked much, etc,. To be precise, I understood one important fact that girls are more interested in doing such fun kind of activities than boys, only after watching that song. For all the common people, this is not an important fact all, since everybody knew this from their child hood. But it is an important discovery for me. This realization has answered many of my "silly questions".

For me, during my bubbling youth days, I did not possess even an iota of this idea. How strange and stupid!? I did not have one bike, I did not have a camera and I did not have enough money to do developing and printing of the photographs and I never bothered to take something for her to eat. Over all I did not have an attitude or open mind to understand her attitude. Rather a girl's typical attitude. Finally I could not give any thing that the girl was expecting. A sad story.

But I wanted to commit something big to her. I felt something "cheap" in bringing chocolates or sweets to her. At the depth of my heart, I was afraid that if something goes out of control, we will remember only such incidents of eating and some sort of silly funny things (which would become the killing pain, later). I always wanted to be reminded of my "big" commitment rather than these small things. So I kept my visits to her, dry & empty-handed. I did not want the silly things to overpower my big commitment. She lived by my words and only words. I did not spend a penny for her. I tried to deliver my honest and best commitment to her always. I think I have honored my commitment. But now I understand that one has to balance the "big" commitment as well as silly funny things.

Stop. But youths today understand and use (rather exploit) the girls' attitude towards fun. At that time, there were no mobile phones, no digital cameras and no Internet. Gifts are the building blocks of love, now. It will be ridiculous for the happening people of today to imagine such a condition in which people thrived, made communications, loved each other, traveled from one place to another, and eventually died. But nowadays gifting a mobile is a standard for any opposite sex friendship to last at least for some time, SMSing and chatting is like breathing and going to places and taking loads of photographs is the main motto of loving each other.

Now, I have grown older. Really I don't bother what is happening around the youths nowadays. I have grown older to such an extent that I stopped bothering for my fallen hair and she has also grown older to bring up two kids in a challenging environment. We both have everything between us, mobile phone, internet, camera, car & bike and all the things what used to excite her in those golden days. Surprisingly, these gadgets are meant to keep the people close to each other. Despite, having all these things, we are at a distance. An un filled distance so long that we have traveled in different directions. Still we don't speak or communicate. We really don't share a common cause to do so.

My mind would run through various arguments regarding these points and I would finally come up with one simple answer, which every one should accept: Life is like that!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Trip to Tulapur

Right from Alandi we continued our journey to Tulapur. There is something special about Tulapur. Chatrapathi Shivaji's brother Sambaji was killed at Tulapur. There is one temple called Sangameshwar Temple in Tulapur on the banks of a river. I hope that the river is Indrayani. People say two rivers join at this juncture during monsoon and one can see the mixing of two different color waters at this point. Since we went in December we could notice anything. Infact the water was dirty and stagnant as anyone would expect.

The temple is owned and maintained by Nergudkar family in Mumbai. It will be a good place to go with your family and spend some hours having snacks and playing around in the small garden. There is one refreshment stall there. You will not lunch or something like that, but you will definitely get some snacks. Boating facility is also available there.

Direction to reach Tulapur is very simple. Reach Alandi village first and ask anyone about Tulapur village. Sangameshwar temple is a just immediate left cut after you see the tulapur village green name board.



Friday, January 2, 2009

Short trip to Alandhi

On Monday, December 29, we went for a small trip to Alandhi. Some how, I took a wrong road (which actually took me to the wrong entry in the Nasik highway) and went to the Alandhi Sai Baba Temple actually by entering in to Alandhi village. I think it is very simple to go Alandhi. I have given the road map here.

Directions;
1. Go to KSB chowk
2. Cross Tata Motors main gate
3. Cross complete MIDC area- Keep going straight
4. It will leave you in Nasik highway
5. Turn left
6. Go ahead to meet crowdy bhosari pradhikaran area
7. Take a right turn at the bus stand
8. Go straight
9. The road will take you to a major T junction
10. Take a left turn and proceed
11. You will see Alandhi Sai baba temple