Grad Life

© Jorge Cham.

iPod therefore I am?

Duke University, this fall, plans to provide freshmen with iPods. While I know many friends who would love to get their hands on one (an iPod .. come to thinbk of it maybe also a Duke degreee), this is not the prescribed method of getting one. The easiest course is to buy one at your local friendly electronic delearship. ($250 onwards). The iPod is unarguably the best of the high capacity mp3 players around .. though it's high price tag keeps it from the public. (And also mainatins its elitist image).

Digression performed, lets get back to the main theme. I doubt Duke had anticipated the kind of publicity this announcement has made. 1650 lucky freshmen will get 20Gb iPods .. which will cost Duke a whopping half a million dollars!! While the main aim is to make academic use of the gadgets, I doubt that will be the case. The 2 parties to benefit most are (a) The Freshmen and (b) Apple .. though that is not the order I have in mind. For Apple .. this marks overcoming of a major hurdle .. and signifies the entry (theoretically atleast) of the iPod into markets with uses other than listening to music. (Also I wonder how many Duke freshmen already own iPods?) Definitely more than the national average .. with $40,000 a year in fees .. $250 is like .. affordable.

Duke students will receive models stocked with school-related information, including freshman orientation details, the academic calendar, campus tours and even the school's fight song. The university also will create a Web site modeled on the Apple iTunes online music site from which students can download songs and course content from faculty, including language lessons, lectures and audio books.

Noones complaining though as Duke is shelling out the dough from its own pocket (supposedly). Much unlike our own UMD which, until recently, forced freshmen to buy their own iPaqs.

Related:
Duke iPod FAQ. [Link]
Hirak writes abt the same. [Link]
Post title courtsey: Patrix. [Link]

A Bandh to Bandhs

In a landmark order, The Bombay High court fined the Shiv-Sena and the BJP Rs 20 lakhs each for calling, supporting and enforcing a bandh in July 2003, in the wake of the Ghatkopar blast. The Maharashtra Govt listed some measures that would be brought out in the near future to combat frequent calls for such bandhs by political parties. Apparently, the decision was a result of a PIL filed in the High court claiming a loss of Rs 50 crore as a result of the bandh . While no Indian court would have fined the ones responsible the whole (or even a significant part of the) amount (even if they were held fully liable for the loss), this is a step in the right direction.

The state listed out four broad measures it planned to implement. It said that any party, organisation, group or individual calling for bandh will be served a notice under Section 149 Cr.PC, which will state the illegality of bandh. The notice will also state that the person or organisation calling for bandh will be liable for legal action for any loss of life, injury or property damage.

This is a major step by the state to reign in the sundry political parties and the way they treat the state as their baap ka maal. Lets just hope this would lead to people thinking twice before calling a bandh and enforcing it in the way it has historically been done. And if that IS done .. then lets hope the said measures are brought into immediate effect.

Related:
The BJP says it will appeal in the Supreme Court against the imposed fine [Link]
So will the Sena [Link]

Baygon Ad..

Baygon advertisement. Its been a while since a print ad made me smile. Smart people these. Starting my own ad agency was one of the tens (or maybe hundreds) of things I dreamt of doing. *sigh*

Crazy ppl

I don't have much time right now .. have to work on the final pieces of my thesis, but heres something for you .. yesterday after playing volleyball from 7 to 9pm, having dinner at our favourite restaurant, and watching Lakshya it was 3:15 AM and we were bored. So me and 2 of my friends .. we went to the gym! We have joined a 24 hr gym and always wanted to make full use of the 24hr facility [stupid grin]. It was fun though .. had fun from 3:30 to 4:30 am pumping iron (not that I do much of that too). A guy came in at 4:20am apparently after waking up early and before setting off on whatever ghastly workplace he goes to so early .. seemed really surprised to see someone already present before him (and a little pissed too .. 'darn these creeps beat me to it today') .. but managed to wish us a 'good morning'. We barely controlled our laughter and went back home for a blissfull sleep.

I woke up at noon.

So if I move to Delhi ..

Rediff reports that Delhi has the most crorepatis in India. The figures are based upon the National Council of Applied Economic Research's forthcoming 'The Great Indian Middle Class' which is based on a sample of over 3,00,000 households and is a part of NCAER's annual household survey.

They have defined crorepati households as those having an annual income of Rs 1 crore [USD 220,000]. So Delhi it seems has 5,085 super-rich households [which comes to roughly 1 in 500] and Mumbai has 4,439 [1 in 800].

Interestingly, Nagpur shows the fastest growth in this elite group and has 425 super-rich households.

The whole study looks pretty interesting and it would be fun to delve into other parts of it, also into other classes of income as well.

Okaaaaaay

Okay; someone do something about this.

Superconductivity coming of age?

Superconductivity holds a lot of promise. Problem is, it has been showing us that it holds a lot of promise for a while now. I remember going on a school trip when I was in the 7th grade to the Univ. of Pune, and visiting the superconductivity research lab. I don't recall much what the guy talked about, but I do recall being fascinated by the liquid nitrogen [-195C]. 'The guy' demonstrated how cold it was by dipping a fresh red rose into it and taking it out immediately .. the rose was dry and brittle as any fine dried specimen you will find. *shudder*
Trip down memory lane over; lets talk about current things. The reason superconductors are evading our lives is that they need a very low temperature to operate. Heck, if I remember it right, any material can be a superconductor if cooled to a cold enough temperature (somewhere frighteningly close to absolute zero probably). So material scientists have been trying hard to come up with something that will exhibit these properties even in a considerably less cold environment. The Economist [registration reqd.] has an article which talks about how the various obstacles that lie in the way of superconductive practicality are being overcome and how they will soon find enter our lives. Good technology this, will change things as we know them for sure.

Gotta Fast

I have had a very fleeting relationship with hunger as such. Luckily I was born in a house where (sounds a lot like the beginning of an autobiography does'nt it) the parents provided yours truly with food, water, shelter, love .. no problems there ever. Also I eat quite frequently .. its inbuilt. Not being from even a slightly religious family .. I rarely did the upaas etc seriously. An Ekadashi would mean hogging the special food for that day. So now I am seriously considering slowly introducing my body (and mind) to the unknown world of fasting. Why? Well .. (no .. I am not gonna say why not) .. I just want to try it out. [Did you notice Hinduism, Islam, Catholicism .. all endorse some fast or the other.. and I am sure Buddhism does too.]

I am not planning to do it regularly or anything .. just if and when I feel like it .. one day to start with. I am considering a liquid diet. (I have quite a large loophole here .. smoothies, milkshakes.. here I come).