As I mature…

I’ve learned that you cannot make someone love you.
All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.

I’ve learned that no matter how much I care,
some people are just assholes.

I’ve learned that it takes years to build up the trust,
and it takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t compare yourself to others -
they are more screwed up than you think.

I’ve learned that you can keep vomiting
long after you think you’re finished.

I’ve learned that we are responsible for what we do,
unless we are celebrities.

I’ve learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first,
the passion fades, and there had better be a lot of money to take place of it.

I’ve learned that 99% of the time when something is not working in the house,
one of your kids did it.

I’ve learned that people you care most about in life are taken from you soon
and all the less important ones just never go away.

Pass this along to 5 friends… trust me, they’ll appreciate it.
Who knows, maybe something good will happen.

If not… tough shit!

*Forwarded to me by my friend Priyanka.

How much ‘alien’ are we?

How alien are we? I give a lot of thought about it, considering how diverse the life on earth is be it over the surface or in water. Roughly 1.75 million species have been formally described and given official names, undescribed are even much more than that (reference http://www.eoearth.org/article/Biodiversity). It is very likely that many of these species got its origin form different planets in the galaxy.

Around 4.5 billion years ago a star explode under supernova causing enormous amount of rubble of rocks and meteors. Due to enormous acceleration and gravitational force the meteors collided with each other to form bigger rocks meteors which are also known at proto-planets. Over the period of millions of years that followed after supernova this process stopped, forming our solar system.

The earth was not like what it is today. In the beginning it was a ball of molten rocks and gases…. Billions of years ago earth was filled with gases – hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon-di-oxide, but no oxygen. But from where does the oxygen came? What is the source of water on earth?

Origin of life is still the most puzzling of all the things explored by scientists. 3.1 billion year ago humans would have only survived for few moments. What is the source of life? The answer lies in the answers for the source of water & oxygen.

Even after formation of all the planets there were still millions of meteors left in the universe. Many of them found their way to earth. Many of these meteors also contained frozen gases & water and also an important building block of life – amino acids. When they hit the earth surface all these become part of our planet. The impact of frozen meteors cooled down the surface of earth forming continents and oceans. Actually it didn’t cooled the surface instantly, instead its a different topic how the earth’s core was formed with molten iron and nickel. But these meteors actually played a crucial role in cooling done the burning planet.

This explains the source of water, but not about oxygen.

With lot of CO2 and sun bacteria started forming under the surface of water – they were none other than Cyanobacteria also known as green-blue algae. This was the first sign of life. They absorbed sunlight and absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere, and in the process released oxygen. The process we now know as photosynthesis. Over the period of time the CO2 continued to decrease and oxygen continued to increase. Once there was enough oxygen, there was no looking back. Life found its way on the land as well.

This suggests that life on our planet is attributed to the alien bodies that came to earth billions of years ago and become part of the planet and found a way to evolve into complex life. This also may mean that we all, including all animals, are aliens or have some genes of them in us! :)

Further references: Humans are alien of animal planet – part 1 & part 2

How to create a iTunes Account without credit card

Apple sometimes pisses me off with their licensing, copyright and purchase policies. I bought a iPod Touch last month and downloaded iTunes. For getting album artwork, user is required to have the iTune account. This account can only be created if you are from a country where the iTune services are available. Above all, you need a credit card to create an account.

There is no way you can create an iTune account without this information… :(

I was wrong… apple provides a way to create the account… look for more details at: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534 or follow the instructions below:

  • You must make sure you are in the App Store, not the iTunes Store.

app store link

  • Pick your country from the pop-up menu at the bottom of the iTunes Store homepage.
  • Important: Before proceeding to the next step, you must purchase a free  application by clicking ‘Free App’.
  • Click create new account.

            create new account button

  • Click Continue.
  • You’ll need to read and agree to the iTunes terms and conditions, make sure you check the box next to where it says "I have read and agree to the iTunes Terms and Conditions." Click Continue.
  • Enter your email address, create your password, continue to create and answer your security question, then enter your birthday. Click Continue.
  • Select None as the payment option.
    select none as credit card payment option
  • Continue to fill out the required name and address fields.
  • You’ll then see a screen that says ‘Verify your Account’. Click Done and then check your email for a verification email from iTunes Store.           image
  • Open the email and click on the link enclosed in the email to activate your account.

    click link in email to activate account

  • Once you click on the link, iTunes should then prompt you to sign in with your account name and password.
  • You’ll then see the below "Congratulations" screen. Click Done to be taken to the App Store home page.

    congratulations your itunes store account has been created

    Voila! You have just created a US iTunes Store account without a credit card. you can now use that to download all the free stuff on the US App Store and also the freebies like music and what not. these details can also be used on the app store application found on your iPhone 2.0 or iTouch 2.0.

So enjoy iTunes and make your library more colorful! :)

Energy needs and it’s effect on global warming!

My company is starting a initiative “Go Green – Reduce Reuse Recycle” on ‘Earth Day’ i.e. celebrated around the world by earth lovers. This initiative includes:

  • Travel smart - You reduce 1.5 kg of carbon dioxide pollution for every 5 km you don’t drive. Use public transport, avail of the company transport, or simply try car-pooling. You not only contribute to less pollution, you also cut down on fuel cost and stress pills because of less driving.
  • Tree plantation – The company is providing 55 trees, to be bought, and will be planted in the company’s campus.
  • Reduce paper – Resist the urge to print everything. A visit to the printer room reveals how much paper we waste. As a “green” measure, all printers are by default to duplex print. Also, hand dryers are provided in the wash rooms to reduce the paper usage.
  • Vermi-composting on Company’s Campus - Vermi-composting is the technique of using EARTH worms to break down the organic waste generated out of food, paper etc. to create fertilizer. The company will produce vermi-compost fertilizer for all trees on the campus.

This seems to be a really nice initiative at a company level, but the success of it depends on the individuals. Company cannot enforce them, these are just suggestion and best practices. It is left up to individuals to realize their responsibility and find out ways how they can contribute in making earth a better place to live. Companies like mine have started a small but a significant step toward making a greener earth.

I think the demand of energy is directly proportional to the green house gases which are the main source of global warming. Consider this – the electricity used in IT to keep the industry running is huge. The number of computers is doubling every year. Each computer consumes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat. This is not all – to keep the computers cool, air conditions are installed, which again consumes the equivalent amount of energy or perhaps more. Big companies like Google & Microsoft have huge data centers with tens of thousands of computers. They consume massive amount of energy. There is a lot of scope of reducing this electricity consumption by having more energy efficient computers with generate much less heat or does not require any external cooling. I read somewhere that Microsoft was planning to open a big datacenter in Russia or Siberia. I wonder if that is the step to reduce the air conditioning bill…

We all know from our school days that the primary source of electricity are coal (thermal), water (dams), nuclear. Wind and Solar energy is tried at some places but they have not gained the popularity, primarily because ROI is not good. Electricity produces from bio-wastes have been experimented successfully, but again there is the problem of adoption. People tend to use things which are easily to install and use. Wide adoption of alternate fuels requires willingness from both the government and individuals.

Fuel seems to be the major source of contaminating the environment because when it burns it releases CO2 and other gases participating in green house effect. It is very unlikely that the consumption of fuel may be reduced because our demand for energy is only going to increase with each passing day. We need to find better and efficient ways of using the available resources. Scientists are busy finding alternates to currently available fuels option – like in Brazil, ethanol produced from sugarcane is used as an alternate to petrol. Ethanol is cheaper then petrol and produces less green house gases. More than 70% of the gas stations in Brazil now have ethanol available. This was only possible by the willingness and participation of government and citizens.

Government in US is forcing the auto industry to come up with more fuel efficient engines, with alternate to petrol and diesel. With each passing year emission norm are becoming tougher. Hybrid cars are the future, but they are a long way from adoption by common man. We have long heard and seen nuclear powered submarines, but that technology is still far from being used in cars & planes. But there will be one day when our cars will have a small nuclear battery inside that may never be required to be replaced for the car’s entire life.

All this is a big plan, most of them may not even see the light of the day, but as individuals we should thrive of discipline to use our natural resources efficiently. Charity starts from home, so shall any good cause.

Celebrate ‘Earth Day’, everyday!

Living on the edge!

The other day few friends have come over and we were just skipping through some channels when we saw some dangerous adventure sport, with monster trucks. That also reminded me of a program on National Geography where some one was trying to catch the largest alligator in the world. These kind of risk people were taking with their life was breathless. We were discussing how someone can be so foolish or motivated to play with their own life and try to put their head in alligator’s mouth. We finally concluded that over all people in US & Europe have a very dull life and probably the adventure sports and these kind of activities adds some excitement and spark to there dull life. That discussion ended there.

While returning back from office today I was thinking about the adventure in our life, and what kind of adventures do we indulge ourselves in. And I thinks non or rare will be the right word. While I was all in my thought a car (Honda Civic) zipped passed me very dangerously. That very moment was the moment of enlightenment for me. It was something like what Buddha must have experienced when he got enlightenment while sitting under the banyan tree. My Banyan tree was my small little car today.

Anyway, I was talking about my enlightenment today. As soon as that car passed by me, skirting through the thick traffic, I thought that we Indians don’t need any adventure sport to spice up our life, nor we need to catch any alligators for fun. We already have too much of adventure in our life. As soon as we step out from our homes in morning, we are on the roads where everyone has a monster truck, small or big, but size doesn’t matter. Each monster tries to outsmart the other monster. We play the game of testing the nerves & patience. The game is also full of surprises. The game tests your reflexes for applying breaks.

So with all this adventure part of our daily life, who really need to catch an alligator or build a monster truck! Driving or walking on our roads can be as much fun as putting your head in a crocodile’s mouth or catching a lion by its tail.
:)