Monday, January 24, 2011

Harry Potter Simulator? Yet Another Harry Potter Post

When I had started blogging (though, it’s been only 3 months!) I had sort of sworn to myself that I won’t post anything about Harry Potter, not that I am loathsome about him but because every second person is a Potter fan and among his fans whosoever is into writing can’t help writing about him. So, initially I didn’t want to be a part of this entourage. But then, having read Harry Potter and not mentioning him in my blog is a sin in itself.

I was in class 8 when I first laid my hands on the series; read 6 of them in a month. I fancied myself as a marathon reader during that one month – used to sit in the last row of the class to skip lessons and read the book, used to miss sports to read it, used to read the book during my prep time. I know there are zillions of others who read the novels with the same fervour. I remember reading the 7th book while standing in a long queue; it had been only 6 days since the book had released and there comes this guy who tells me – “you are a very slow reader!” And a few days later his comment echoed back in my ears when I read – “Started on 12:00 am, 21st July; finished reading the same day at 7:00 am.” written on the inside cover page of one of the copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Whoa! The news of JK Rowling confirming that she won’t write any other Harry Potter book was like someone telling me, all the libraries of the world were going to be closed. I had this dilemma of how would I survive without knowing what’s happening in Harry’s life. Believe me I am not exaggerating; but then that was a 15 year old kid’s doleful tale. People don’t know the name of their great grandfather but know the full name of Dumbledore. JK Rowling has certainly cast a spell on the whole world. There are schools in the United Kingdom which have Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as their A-Level English syllabus. I wish the Kapil Sibbal gets inspired from the Brits and makes Harry Potter part of the Indian curriculum as well. The popularity of Harry Potter is x --> ∞ and will be eternal.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there is this part in which Ron tells that Voldemort’s name had been jinxed. I thought that JK Rowling was hinting to the origin of the term ‘Voldemort’. It made a very obvious impression in my mind that ‘Voldemort’ had been the name of some ancient spell which when casted disrupts the ambient enchantments, and that Tom Riddle had purposely chosen this spell to be his name. Doesn’t it sound more astounding? But my piece of fantasy bit the dust. But I still think this ancient spell thing was worthy enough to earn a place in the novel.

Though it’s peculiar, but I found Harry’s character proves dominating only on a broomstick and in fleeing away dementors. The meagre ‘Expelliarmus’ against the jet of green light sounds too coward. Harry uses ‘Sectumsempra’ against Malfoy but only a disarming spell at the person who had killed his parents and was then after him. Avada Kedavra from Harry’s wand would have proved more heroic in the final duel between him and Voldemort. But then JK Rowling is far great a writer to disapprove what she has written and anyways these are my personal take on the scenes.
I know of people, and that includes myself, who have an utter desire to live within the enchanted walls of Hogwarts, who desire to have a wand, who desire to play Quidditch, their aspirations pile on and on. Imagine, the sorting hat resting on your head and placing you in Gryffindor. My ‘engineering mind’ (though I am not an engineer, but because of the fact that I study in an engineering college, I am allowed to use the term) thought of transfiguring this day dream into reality; and it thought of ‘simulators’. We surely have heard of flight simulators. Why not a ‘Hogwarts Simulator’? People would go into a room with walls covered with 3D screens, with movable floors having numerous axes of rotation. Some laser technology (like they have in Laser Tag) to imitate spells being cast out of wands. The idea is very vague but what an impact it would create on the world if implemented! And people would expect engineers only to make this ‘wonder’!

Parting with the boy who lived is sorrowful but someone has rightly said – “All good things must come to an end.”

Monday, January 17, 2011

The power of Missed Calls

If you have heard of ZIP DIAL, then no point reading further but if you haven’t then you will regret not having read this article before.

1985 - First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis in Delhi. Call rates at its zenith. But 25 years down the line here we are where even a rickshaw puller owns a Nokia 6600, possibly 2nd hand! And the time frame is just 25 human years. We have heard of minute changes sweeping past centuries, finding the true nature of light took more than half a millennium and now we use the same light to connect two mobile phone devices.

What really made me pen down this article is the power of ’missed calls’. ”Give me a missed call when you reach the metro station”. A missed call from the vegetable vendor, signalling his advent in lieu of shouting out aloudissed call from the pool taxi – a request to you to get down and be ready to board etc. etc. etc. These are, you might say, trivial things which don’t really need a mention. What really is intriguing is ZIP DIAL, an innovation so enticing that it might be SAMSUNG’s ‘next is what’! Call 08030050055, a computerized call, automatically become a ‘missed call’ after the first ring and seconds later you have with u an SMS containing the latest cricket update. Try it, you will, if you don’t believe me. All it costs you is your phone’s particulate battery.

I am not running an advertisement campaign for ZIP DIAL. I just felt that a nation whose heart throbs for cricket deserves this piece of information. This isn’t limited to cricket. Recently, I attended Mood Indigo in IIT Bombay. A missed to xyz number made you aware about the upcoming major events at the fest. Imagine the future, a missed call to Star Movies would let you know the days movie schedule; missed call to some stock exchange would enlighten you about the current dollar-rupee rate. But missed calls show magnetism only when directed in areas of huge public interest. And reminisce; these are still missed calls, i.e. free of cost information.
And next comes the crore rupee question – how does the ‘missed call’ operating company earn from this. Well, I don’t want to go into the depth of their economics but their direct income comes from the advertisement that follows after their cricket update.

Happy missed calling!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

GIVE IT A THOUGHT – Why hasn’t man landed on moon ever since the 1970s?

In the recent past, we have heard of rovers on Mars, we have heard of men and women on International Space Station (ISS) but why hasn’t man been sent on moon since December 7, 1972. Well, after a little googling and some time spent on Yahoo Answers I had available with me almost all the answers.

In total twelve people have landed on the Moon. Out of the 20 Apollo Missions only 17 made it while the last three were cancelled to cut costs. The main reason to stop manned moon missions was that the projects used to cost in multi billions and used to fetch nothing but dust from the moon, and of course an evening walk for the astronauts, which other astronauts had already brought before. In comparison to the money spent the information gained by scientists about moon used to see only a minute increment.

Richard Nixon, the then US President approved the development of NASA's Space Shuttle program, a futurist program which would enable NASA to explore the space beyond their limit at that time. Under the Nixon administration, however, NASA's budget declined, NASA’s Administrator was drawing up ambitious plans for the establishment of a permanent base on the Moon by the end of the 1970s and the launch of a manned expedition to Mars as early as 1981. Nixon, however, rejected this proposal.

Also, the reason why the USA hurried to get on Moon was to take a clear lead ahead of USSR in their Cold War. Once they became the invincible occupiers of Moon later moon missions were not required.