Telephone numbering system in India is getting all too complicated with the advent of mobile numbers starting with 7 and 8.
For example, Vodafone mobile numbers in UP East start with 8052. (+918052******). Now...that puts some limitation on the numbers that can be allotted to telephone users in Bangalore (STD Code 080)...no user there can be alloted a number starting with 52 (52******) there since that number too will end up being +918052******.
There are numerous more examples. One will now need a computer software to check for possible clashes before allotting a new number :P
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Lok Sabha Election Info
The 15th Lok Sabha elections are round the corner. They will be held in five phases from April 16 to May 13.
I was looking up information on the elections and found the following information. Readers (read voters) mind find them useful.
You can find information regarding the candidates standing for election and other useful information (like the symbols used for political parties etc) on the official website of Election Commission of India. ( http://eci.nic.in/ )
The list of candidates can be found at
http://eci.nic.in/candidateinfo/frmcandidate.aspx
The list of candidates for the four constituencies in Bangalore (North, South, Rural, Central) is not finalized since the last date (8 April 2009) for withdrawal of candidature for phase 2B of the elections is not yet over. Election in Bangalore (Phase 2B) will be held on 23 April, 2009.
The candidate lists for constituencies in Kerala (Phase 1) are already available. Elections in Kerala will be on 16 April, 2009.
One important document is the Voter's Guide : http://eci.nic.in/ECI_voters_guideline_2006.pdf
Some more information is available on the National Portal of India ( http://india.gov.in/ ). Currently its spotlight is on the 2009 Elections.
http://india.gov.in/spotlight/spotlight.php
Some FAQs :
On the election process : http://www.india.gov.in/allimpfrms/alldocs/11945.pdf
On the Electronic Voting Machine : http://www.india.gov.in/allimpfrms/alldocs/11946.pdf
Lastly, Google has stated that it will host a website for the elections : http://www.google.co.in/loksabha2009
The website is already functional. No idea about the authenticity of the information it provides.
Happy Voting..!!!
I was looking up information on the elections and found the following information. Readers (read voters) mind find them useful.
You can find information regarding the candidates standing for election and other useful information (like the symbols used for political parties etc) on the official website of Election Commission of India. ( http://eci.nic.in/ )
The list of candidates can be found at
http://eci.nic.in/candidateinfo/frmcandidate.aspx
The list of candidates for the four constituencies in Bangalore (North, South, Rural, Central) is not finalized since the last date (8 April 2009) for withdrawal of candidature for phase 2B of the elections is not yet over. Election in Bangalore (Phase 2B) will be held on 23 April, 2009.
The candidate lists for constituencies in Kerala (Phase 1) are already available. Elections in Kerala will be on 16 April, 2009.
One important document is the Voter's Guide : http://eci.nic.in/ECI_voters_guideline_2006.pdf
Some more information is available on the National Portal of India ( http://india.gov.in/ ). Currently its spotlight is on the 2009 Elections.
http://india.gov.in/spotlight/spotlight.php
Some FAQs :
On the election process : http://www.india.gov.in/allimpfrms/alldocs/11945.pdf
On the Electronic Voting Machine : http://www.india.gov.in/allimpfrms/alldocs/11946.pdf
Lastly, Google has stated that it will host a website for the elections : http://www.google.co.in/loksabha2009
The website is already functional. No idea about the authenticity of the information it provides.
Happy Voting..!!!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
- Be innovative and escape the law...
- I was going through articles under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations.
- Article 11
- Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
- No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
So if you want to commit some 'crime' that has not yet been banned/ termed illegal by the law, you can commit the same and get away with it, even if the government declares the act to be a crime later on. So if you can be innovative, you can escape the law.
People who lived during the formative years of the constitution probably had more freedom in the aspect.
Even now, you get a sort of a notice period before something is banned.
Here is how - Any new law has to be passed both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. This typically takes at least a few days. Any person who keeps him/herself well informed about the current affairs will get wind of a new law in the offing. Then this bill has to be approved by the President and then published in the gazette before it becomes a law. This takes at least a few week.
All in all, you get ample amount of time to finish your acts (!!) before it is prohibited.
Monday, August 11, 2008
How are climate crisis and mutation related?
Guys....it is crisis season !!!!
Terrorism, food shortage, rising cost of crude oil . . . we have no dearth of problems already. We sure are in a big mess. To top it all, there is now climate crisis. What was hitherto dismissed as an impossibility has turned out to be real. People have long considered the earth's atmosphere to be too big to be affected by human activities of any scale. But, day upon day, year upon year, the extent to which our activities impact the environment has only increased. And today the levels of carbon di-oxide the atmosphere has reached it highest level in several million years. The movie "An Inconvenient Truth" puts it a clear terms. Truly, a brilliant piece of work from Al Gore.
Over the past few years, as the effects of the problem are being witnessed all around the world in the form of floods, drought, tornadoes, melting of polar ice etc, there is a lot of attention and action...be it the Kyoto Protocol or the recent announcement by Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Atlantic promising $ 25 million for anyone who comes up with a viable solution for capturing atmospheric 1 billion tonns of CO2 a year, also called Carbon Sequestration in scientific jargon.
Now, we live in the age of technology....the age where innovation in problem solving is a craze.
So it is with carbon sequestration. A great number research bodies around the world are currently working on the problem. Here is an interesting paper on the topic.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/bm58l17348144812/fulltext.pdf
A good read.!!!. It explains why CO2 generated from burning fossil fuels is virually free from the C14-the radioactive istope of carbon-that is believed to be the primary cause for aging and cancer in humans (or for that matter any living being). The paper then proposes the use of this CO2 to cultivate crops. Food obtained this way will be free from radiocarbon and is therefore "safer" than the conventional food we have been consuming since time immemorial.
But....is there a potential pitfall in this scheme. Does the minute amount of radio carbon (the concentration of C14 is about one in 750 billion C atoms, the rest of the C atoms are C12) in the human body play some critical role?.
While it is true that C14 decay causes damages to the DNA and RNA structures some of which are irreparable, isn't it also true that such 'damages' to the genetic material also cause mutations, some of which are critical for evolution?. Mutation that adds some randomness to the traits that an offspring inherits from its parents. It is what causes diversity, a critical factor for survival and evolution of life forms in the long term.
Perhaps C14 atoms are nature's way of adding some color and variety to the life forms on earth enabling them to change and adapt over extended period of time to an ever changing environment.
Guys....it is crisis season !!!!
Terrorism, food shortage, rising cost of crude oil . . . we have no dearth of problems already. We sure are in a big mess. To top it all, there is now climate crisis. What was hitherto dismissed as an impossibility has turned out to be real. People have long considered the earth's atmosphere to be too big to be affected by human activities of any scale. But, day upon day, year upon year, the extent to which our activities impact the environment has only increased. And today the levels of carbon di-oxide the atmosphere has reached it highest level in several million years. The movie "An Inconvenient Truth" puts it a clear terms. Truly, a brilliant piece of work from Al Gore.
Over the past few years, as the effects of the problem are being witnessed all around the world in the form of floods, drought, tornadoes, melting of polar ice etc, there is a lot of attention and action...be it the Kyoto Protocol or the recent announcement by Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Atlantic promising $ 25 million for anyone who comes up with a viable solution for capturing atmospheric 1 billion tonns of CO2 a year, also called Carbon Sequestration in scientific jargon.
Now, we live in the age of technology....the age where innovation in problem solving is a craze.
So it is with carbon sequestration. A great number research bodies around the world are currently working on the problem. Here is an interesting paper on the topic.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/bm58l17348144812/fulltext.pdf
A good read.!!!. It explains why CO2 generated from burning fossil fuels is virually free from the C14-the radioactive istope of carbon-that is believed to be the primary cause for aging and cancer in humans (or for that matter any living being). The paper then proposes the use of this CO2 to cultivate crops. Food obtained this way will be free from radiocarbon and is therefore "safer" than the conventional food we have been consuming since time immemorial.
But....is there a potential pitfall in this scheme. Does the minute amount of radio carbon (the concentration of C14 is about one in 750 billion C atoms, the rest of the C atoms are C12) in the human body play some critical role?.
While it is true that C14 decay causes damages to the DNA and RNA structures some of which are irreparable, isn't it also true that such 'damages' to the genetic material also cause mutations, some of which are critical for evolution?. Mutation that adds some randomness to the traits that an offspring inherits from its parents. It is what causes diversity, a critical factor for survival and evolution of life forms in the long term.
Perhaps C14 atoms are nature's way of adding some color and variety to the life forms on earth enabling them to change and adapt over extended period of time to an ever changing environment.
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