I finally got my beta invite for the sublime video html5 video player. Lets see how this goes along. This is the first trial of this html5 video player by me

The Indian Institute of Science, a leading institution of higher learning with a strong tradition of research for over a century, is opening its portals to undergraduate students by launching a four-year Bachelor of Science (BS) Programme. The programme is designed as a balanced blend of core science and interdisciplinary topics, to serve as a launching pad for research and doctoral studies in cutting-edge areas in science and technology. The graduates will also be ready for attractive career opportunities in academia and industry.

Major Disciplines Offered would be:

• BIOLOGY
• CHEMISTRY
• ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
• MATERIALS
• MATHEMATICS
• PHYSICS

The inaugral batch will begin classes from August 2011 and graduate in June 2015.
Admission will be based on national exams like KVPY and other channels to be announced soon.
Eligibility: 12th standard or equivalent with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics as main subjects.
Applications will be accepted from January 1, 2011, till March 31, 2011.

“I guess the moment you transform from a raft to a ship, the sailing becomes smooth, sometimes too smooth for those in it for the thrill.”

This was a reply to my mail to one of my cousins. I was telling her how spending one year in Yahoo! has been a dream like. Almost everything the way you want it. However still something being amiss. The urgency, the pressure, the hand twisting is somehow amiss. And today I came across the blog of a five year old veteran of Yahoo!, who will be an ex-Yahoo! in another eight hours about his one year in Yahoo!

One of the lines from his post:

But I seem to crave for real work pressure. At the end of the day I just want to go home feeling happy that I made a difference.

And I can empathise with this condition. For me, that level of despair came in two steps. Despair is too strong a word in here but still.
The first one came in some three months after joining. It was too much like sunlab. For those who know me, you know what it means. The complete freedom to do whatever you want. Wrap up your work the way you want it, the way you like it.

And then, another six months down the lane, the realisation that I am getting too comfortable. There is absolutely no pain in here, no worries. But then, down the lane, it can’t be good.

Yahoo! is too good a company. A dream to work with. It takes care of its employees the way your parents take care of you in college. You ve to work and yet you can have all the fun. See, how many students claim they managed to pass out of college without studying? Yet we know that they did study though maybe not to the full extent. They underperformed and yet graduated. Y! is a bit like that. Its resources are under-utilised. Unfortunately, the financial resources are a bit strained.

Maybe I am saying words I shouldn’t. Lets see how things turn out few months down the lane.

Finally I’ll be attending the Yahoo! Open Hack Day 2010. I wanted to attend this event ever since my college days but unfortunately the dates always clashed with onething or the other :!

This time its being organised on July 24th and 25th, 2010.

And this time I’ll be attending as an organiser. That means I can’t participate as a hacker (well not eligible for prizes atleast :! )

hit http://openhackindia2010.pbworks.com/ for more details!

Open hack Day 2010

I know its kinda late to let you know about the making of It’s Y!ou campaign by Yahoo!, but still. I still am inspired and moved by this making! Enjoy!

Just finished reading “The Immortals of Meluha” by the debutant author Amish Tripathi. The Immortals of Meluha is the personification of the great Hindu deity Lord Shiva. The book talks about Lord Shiva, various mythological stories related to him in simple daily talk English, more important English that the present Indian generation can identify with. The story starts with the emergence of Neelkanth, the saviour, the evil defeater. Later on as the story progresses, Shiva meets Sati and further later defeats the evil. But then he is perplexed. Who/what really is evil. The people he has just defeated are they evil? Or has he been tricked into evil by the erstwhile Asuras?
And then he lands up in the land that he has just conquered, Ayodhya, the invincible land, the birth place of Lord Rama.

The last 100 pages of the book compare the two kingdoms – Meluha and Swadeep. Meluha, the land of immortals. The place where people are taken care of by the state. And then Swadeep, where people are left to fend for themselves. However there is a big difference! The Swadeeps live with dignity! Even the beggar on the road has more dignity than the Princess of Meluha could muster while she was ostracized!

The later part of the book looks like a description of modern day India. Infact, the whole book mentions the word “India” only a few times. But somehow the word “India” feels out of place in the context. The story talks about the sapta-sindhu, the citadel of Hariappa (Hariyupa as in book) and Mohenjodaro along with the its great bath. All this reference to history in modern reference brings back somehow nice memories of high school history textbooks.

Also the book seems to be slighty inspired by Ayn Rand – With the initial part talking about state taking care of people (which is completely anti- Ayn Rand btw but pro Ram-Rajya) and then the a capitalist like rule in the actual land of Ram Rajya. One wonders whether the author wants to ask what really is Ram Rajya? The place where every one has all that he needs, all equal amongst themselves but then they deny dignity to the sufferers just to maintain some order? Or whether Ram Rajya is really a place where every one, no matter whether rich and mighty or poor and destitute are at peace with themselves and ve enough dignity to look anyone and everyone in their eyes with pride. Amish also takes a nice and well discussed look upon the caste system, its origin and how it was malformed to its present rigid system.

This book is the first in the series of trilogy about the Shiva.

http://www.shivatrilogy.com/

http://twitter.com/amisht

Sourced from BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8570293.stm

@anywhere, as it is known, will allow people using websites such as Amazon or the New York Times to follow new users or share media directly from the page.

It was unveiled at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

It is similar to Facebook’s Connect service that allows people to log in to other websites using their Facebook details and interact with friends.

“Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo home page,” Twitter said on its blog.

‘Different approach’

The social network has not said when the service will launch, but said that it had already partnered with YouTube, Microsoft Bing and eBay amongst others.

Developers can already add Twitter functionality to their sites using a so-called API (application programming interface).

APIs are a set of tools offered by a firm to allow people outside the company to access and manipulate data held about their users.

They have become increasingly common amongst web firms to extend their reach beyond their own website.

Twitter said that @anywhere was a “different approach” that would be simpler for many sites to use.

This “open” approach to third-party developers allowed Twitter to grow at a phenomenal rate in its early days.

Recent data shows that traffic to Twitter’s websites has levelled off since the middle of 2009.

However, measurements of Twitter use is very difficult as many users interact with the service through desktop software and mobile phones.