Sunday, May 29, 2005
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Can you see a beaming face above.....hope it remains the same in a year's time. Anyways kulla have a wicked birthday and do keep us all posted on the marriage front.
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Saturday, May 21, 2005
FA Cup 2005 in Cardiff
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
The living indian film encyclopedia
He contacted Kamal and asked him to help in his effort of creating awareness about AIDS among public. Kamal didn't hesitate to agree. His fan club is creating record of sorts in donating blood. The same 'Mandram' is going to start the work of creating awareness about AIDS among public.
Yesterday, the Cosmopolitan club had arranged a meet to felicitate Kamal. He was given the memento on this occasion. Kamal had answered the questions from the club members in his intimate style. When asked whether he would act in the role of Thiruvalluvar. He said, there are many questions being raised about his background, whether he is a Christian or a Jain. So, there is confusion in portraying him. He went on to add the reasons along with this. The depth of his knowledge had surprised everybody.When asked about 'Oscar' there are people in the film field who would answer I will buy that car very soon, in this kind of prevailing situation Kamalhasan is indeed a University.
Friday, May 13, 2005
Immigration issue
NAASCOM leading the way
India’s BPO industry growing at 50 per cent annually currently employs over 2.5 lakh people and has exports of USD 5.1 billion. NASSCOM has evolved the test model based on experiments by Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in their BPO Skills Assessment Test (BEST), which has helped BPO firms in those states to get the right candidates, officials said. Initiatives like these will again re-establish India's credentials in the world as a hot BPO destination.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Budger airlines in India
Sunday, May 08, 2005
The Anniyan picture above looks certainly different. It seems this was the one which was released for Anantha Vikatan. Hope the movie turns out to be a trendsetter.
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Saturday, May 07, 2005
tgangers2
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tgangers1
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Mandarin skills
British elections 05
Linux Y2k problem
So another challenge coming our way....can the Indian brigade deliver the goods again, will have to wait and watch.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Hollywood in India
Hollywood had turned its attention to India. There are many reasons for this. With its huge market, India has considerable market share in the worldwide scenario. The major film producing companies of Hollywood, 20th Century Fox and Columbia had realized the potential of India market. So, they had opened their branch offices here in India to promote their films.
Next comes the expertise in Technology. Many of the animation experts in Walt Disney Studio are Indians. Apart from this, animation films that are made in India, costs very less. Because of this, many Hollywood Animation film-producing companies are coming to India to avail this technical expertise.
Ridley Scott is a famous Hollywood director, who had directed the film 'Gladiator'. Russell Crowe had acted in this film as hero. The important aspect of this film is, its art direction. It had brought out the splendor of ancient Rome to the viewers in a very realistic manner.
The cloths, Statues, and 80% of necessary antique things have been created by, the Indian art directors in Mumbai. All these things were shipped to the shooting spot. Now this give and take trade had moved into the next stage.
The film 'A Beautiful Mind' had fetched an Oscar for the actor Russell. This film is about the life of Mathematical genious. Ron Howard directed this film. he was the one who had directed the famous film 'Appollo-13'. He came to India recently. In India he was attracted by, the Malayalam film 'Arputha theevu' by, Vinayan. The 'Theevu'(island) in which only dwarfs are living. Prithiviraj had acted as the hero in this film. Ron Howard liked the film very much.He met Vinayan and held discussion with him.
On coming 18th, Ron Howard's assistant, Michael John will sign an agreement by which, they would get the remake rights of that film in English. This film will be produced by, the producer of 'Spiderman', Dream Works. The hero of this film is the hero of 'Titanic' Decaprio.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Trail Blazing Invention
The head of department of a hospital in Singapore asked Arvind Thiagarajan whether he could solve the problems that they faced while storing large images of echo cardiograms. As per legal requirements, doctors have to store the images for seven years.
"He asked me whether I could help him build a better digital base to store the large amount of information he had. He asked me because of my IT background. I said, why not. I also told him that some kind of compression would help," says 25-year-old Arvind Thiagarajan.
It was to help this Singapore doctor that he started working on digital images.
"As I didn't have a PhD in image compression, I went through a process of trial and error. It was just a coincidence -- or rather a stroke of good luck -- that helped me hit upon an idea. The method I adopted is very simple."
Arvind Thiagarajan explains how he compressed data, on his way to a path-breaking invention.
An invention that saves money, time and precious resources, and at the same time also exemplifies simplicity.
"Conventionally, compression is done using complex transformations such as Discrete Cosine Transformations (DCT) or data transformations, wherein the whole image is converted into a frequency signal and some of the high frequency details are filtered. Because of that loss, we are able to get the data compressed. This is a well-known method used all over the world.
"What I thought was a completely new approach where you keep the data in the original form itself. It was challenging to code colours. Although they look quite similar to human eyes, in reality, there are minor variations in them. The pattern is not like single pixel colours occurring continuously; it will be like, if one is in the 1st position, the other is in the 5th and another in the 10th.
"So, the challenge was to put all of them together. I felt if we can do that by rearranging the data, we can code them better. When we rearrange the data, it is necessary that we need to maintain the original order. That's where the technique of repetition coding using an index, which we call it as bit- plane, originated.
"What we do is, we maintain a binary index to store the original location of the data when we do the rearrangement and coding. So, at the decompression stage, we can bring back the original data without any loss because we had already indexed it. So, it's a perfectly reversible technique, and very simple, too.
"I really don't know how I hit upon the idea. It was more of a practical approach where intuition played a part. It was logical thinking that helped me.
"Yes, I wondered why nobody in the world thought of this before because it is such a simple thought. Thousands of papers are produced all around the world on compression of data but, somehow, nobody has thought of this fundamental problem."
Not only lossless, but more compression too
When Arvind Thiagarajan applied the compression technique on the images from the hospital, he got 35 times lossless compression. The compression was only 5 times in the traditional techniques like JPEG and data was lost.
Doctors of the Singapore Hospital were surprised and wondered how could a lossless technique give 35 times better compression than a system that produces loss.
In medical applications, doctors cannot afford to lose any data.
Without any delay, the hospital asked the inventor to implement the technique in the hospital.
It was then that he decided to start a new company. A businessman from Singapore became his partner and an Indian investor from Korea also joined and put in $1 million.
Thus, in 2003, MatrixView was born.
According to Arvind Thiagarajan, the name MatrixView was chosen because "we view every image as a matrix. We transform the matrix, we also rearrange the matrix."
But the scientific community was sceptical initially.
"They were sceptical because conventionally, it is known that lossless compression can give only a maximum of 2 times or 3 times compression. So, when we are getting 30 times compression, that too lossless, they wouldn't believe it.
"We had to build a demo and show them independently, and let a third party test it out. We engaged Ernst & Young technology audit team to do the independent testing."
Then, the question came: whether they could manage the same kind of compression with documents, radiology images, echo images, natural colour images, et cetera.
"They couldn't really accept the fact that an Indian company has done this and not an American company," Arvind Thiagarajan remarked.
The beginning
Arvind Thiagarajan had been interested in science and technology even as a school student; it fascinated him to know how things work. This curiosity led him to think differently and develop new products even as a student.
While in school and college, he was more involved in the practical implementation of science, rather than the theory.
It was after joining Anna University as an engineering student in electronics and communication that his creative mind spread its wings far and wide.
Junior scientist award from President Abdul Kalam
It was for a paper he published on the role of multimedia PCs in healthcare that he won the award at a competition held in Chennai.
At that time, he was developing a combined monitor that could show all the different parameters of the body -- such as ECGs, mechanical activities of the heart, echoes and blood pressure.
The paper was about how to get all the signals on a centralised monitoring station, or a PC, so that the doctors could analyse it and store it for later reference. This would mainly help doctors in handling the large amount of details about every patient. It can also be called a patient monitoring system.
The Junior Scientist Award was presented to him in 2001 by the then scientific advisor to the Government of India and the current President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
"He had always been my mentor as he used to spend a lot of time in Anna University. He used to give lectures on how important patent protection is and how India could be the world's technology leader. I was so inspired by him that I decided against going to the United States to pursue higher studies."
Patenting his first invention
Arvind Thiagarajan followed Abdul Kalam's advice of patenting his inventions and ideas without any delay. The first patent was for a device that diagnosed cardiac problems.
Cardiac diagnosis is generally done using Ultra Sound Echo, which costs about half a million dollars. In sharp contradistinction, the device Thiagarajan invented costs only $500! Even home users can use it with ease, he says.
This patent came to the notice of the Singapore government and it showed interest in incubating the technology. They offered an investment of around Singapore $1 million and invited Arvind to go to Singapore and set up a company.
The offer was to develop a product and then commercially market it. He decided to take up the offer.
"It was almost like starting my own venture immediately after I finished my college. It was a great experience. It exposed me to what is happening all around the world and helped me develop a wider perspective like how investors look at new technology, what are the challenges in commercialising new core technology into the market, the steps to be taken, et cetera."
In two years, the clinical trials of his product called 'HeartCard' were conducted. He, however, feels -- on retrospection -- that there was a flaw in the strategy that he adopted to commercialise the product.
Instead of targeting doctors and hospitals, it was targeted at end-users. This, he feels, affected the commercial positioning of the product.
Now that he has learnt more about marketing tricks, he plans to bring the product back into the market once again.
It was while the clinical trials of 'HeartCard' were going on that the doctors asked him about compressing data. Consequently, he came up with the path-breaking invention.
Once MatrixView was formed, he began the fund raising exercise by listing the company on the Australian Stock Exchange in August 2004 and raised about Aus $2.5 million.
Why the Australian Stock Exchange?
"We found that Asian markets are more comfortable in investing in conventional industries, and not core technology. So, it can either be in the US or in Australia. We felt we were too early for the US market. But we were told that Australian stock exchange was open- minded. Within 5 minutes of our listing in the Australian Stock Exchange, our price was doubled from 50 cents into 1 dollar. Within a month, it went up to 1 dollar 80 cents," says he.
Application: Once MatrixView got a patent for the core algorithm, it started looking at the application side of the algorithm. This fundamental technique can be applied in all kinds of images -- medical image, document image, natural colours in the digital cameras, video cameras, CDs, DVDs, in the post-production studios, medical applications, defence, mobile phones, surveillance, imaging, broadcasting. . . where large data has to be stored.
The core algorithm developed by Arvind Thiagarajan allows lesser loss of data and larger compression.
Products: The company decided to call the first product from MatrixView, based on the core algorithm, 'EchoView.'
1. EchoView is a hardware solution that captures the Echocardiogram directly whilst the scan goes on. These images are then optimised with ABO (Adaptive Binary Optimisation) and archived in MatrixView's .mvu format.
Using the existing LAN network, these images are easily transmitted and then retrieved.
The company anticipates EchoView replacing the use of VHS video cassettes to store ultrasound scans in hospitals as EchoView substantially reduces the cost of storage and retrieval.
"If you were to digitise the moving frame of echo data in a hospital, you need 60 gigabytes of data. But with 30 times compression, it can be compressed to just 2 gigabytes of data. This image can be transferred within the hospital for the doctors to see," says the chief scientist.
The first hospitals where EchoView was implemented were the Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospitals at Whitefield (near Bangalore) and Puttaparthi (in Andhra Pradesh).
In a country like India, with the help of EchoView, images from rural clinics -- where there are not many good doctors -- can easily be sent to a specialty hospital in the city for expert opinion.
2. DocuMAT: 'DocuMAT' is for document imaging. "Today's businesses in the insurance, financial services, legal healthcare and government sectors generate, exchange and store huge amount of document image files. With their huge file size, document files clog corporate networks, slowing the pace of communication and business.
The huge pile of papers in these offices can be scanned and saved for several years. They can store this in a centralised depository in a highly compressed manner so that it will save a lot of storage cost," Arvind Thiagarajan explains.
With many foreign companies transferring lots of documents from their offices in the US and Europe for outsourcing to India, they need fast and lossless data transmission.
"The advantage we offer is high lossless compression. Banks and insurance companies in the US and Europe send a lot of data to India as a part of outsourcing. It is a huge business."
At present, MatrixView has a software application team of 10 in Singapore, while the core research team of 50 in Chennai.
His plans for future
"If what we plan now is going to take place, we will be a billion dollar company in the next five years with at least 5,000 employees. We want to be among the top five high-technology companies in the world."
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Brand Rajini
Whatever said and done, this man can still weave his magic to the tamil people and that's proved with the huge success of Chandramukhi. The man is not only a entertaining actor but also a well thought out business man. I might be a person belonging to the opposite gang (I mean the likes of kamalhaasan and surya) but one thing you cannot fail to appreciate is that this person under the spotlight is a simple down to earth person who has risen like a phoenix from the ashes and also never fails to help his old friends when they are in trouble. I found this point from this article.
What next, Mr Rajni?
Expectations are high among not just Rajnikanth's fans but also among producers as to for which production house would the actor do his next movie. After Baba fiasco, Rajnikanth has announced his comeback in grand style with the stunning success of Chandramukhi.Having re-established his super star image through Chandramukhi, Rajnikanth has yet again proved that he is the badhshah of the box office here. Chandramukhi, a wholesome entertainer, has made huge collections wherever it has been screened so far.With Rajnikanth now taking rest in Rishikesh, expectations are high in Kollywood about his next venture. Sources close to the actor said he is keen on doing at least two films a year and would probably commence his next film on Deepavali day and would be completed and released on 14 April next year. Sources say the actor may either do a movie for the president of Tamil Film Producer Council Sathyajyothy Thiyagarajan or Editor Mohan. However there is also a possibility that he would do a movie for veteran producer Panchu Aunachalam, who had produced Rajni starrers such as Arilirundhu Arupadhu Varai, Thambiku Endha Ooru and Veera.Since Panchu Arunchalam is in some financial problem following a string of losses, it is said that Rajnikanth, as a token of gratitude, may do a movie and bail him out of trouble. Rajnikanth has short-listed the three and one among them would certainly be producing Rajnikanth's next venture. Watch this space for more
Technology going at a rapid pace
Namma japanese machans have come up with another great technology. Check this out.....
Watch movies on the go
Japanese devise eyeglasses with TV screens
TOKYO, MAY 2: Two and a half decades after the walkman personal stereo livened up commuting, the Japanese will get to watch full-length movies on the subway with a tiny screen hooked on top of eyeglasses.The ‘teleglass,’ which goes on sale in June, comes with earphones and a box that connects to a portable DVD player.
The wearer would see images as if watching a 14-inch television screen from a distance of one meter, according to an official at Scalar Corp, the Tokyo microscope maker that developed the teleglass.
People can slap the tiny screen with a 0.24-inch liquid crystal display and lens onto one side of their glasses or those with normal vision can choose to use a pair of sunglasses.
The sunglasses could make them look cool - or it could indicate they are being mischievous. People nearby have no way of knowing what film is being played on the teleglass.
Scalar developed the teleglass jointly with Arisawa Manufacturing Co Ltd, a Tokyo display materials firm. The gadget is priced around $475.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Manchester pics
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Namma Infosys
Infosys 9th on 'The Wired 40'
Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies is the only Indian company to make it to the Wired magazine's 'The Wired 40' list.
The Wired 40
1 Apple Computer
2 Google
3 Samsung Electronics
4 Amazon.com
5 Yahoo!
6 Electronic Arts
7 Genentech
8 Toyota
9 Infosys Technologies
10 eBay
11 SAP
12 Pixar
13 Cisco
14 IBM
15 Netflix
16 Dell
17 General Electric
18 Medtronic
19 Intel
20 Salesforce.com
21 Vodafone
22 Flextronics
23 EMC
24 Nvidia
25 Jetblue
26 FedEx
27 Monsanto
28 Microsoft
29 Nokia
30 Costco
31 Comcast
32 Pfizer
33 Pfizer
34 Taiwan Semiconductor
35 Gen-probe
36 Citigroup
37 Citigroup
38 Citigroup
39 Exelon
40 BP
Infosys made the list at number nine, behind top ranked Apple and Google, which is number two on the list. In the process Infosys has been ranked ahead of corporate behemoths like IBM, Microsoft, Intel, SAP, Cisco, Dell and GE. Toyota, which is giving Detroit majors like Ford and GM a run for its money, was ranked at number eight.The magazine had this to say about Infosys, which has moved up two ranks since the last year: "The caricature of the Indian outsourcing industry as a voracious monster bent on devouring US jobs isn't just oversimplified, it's obsolete. Case in point: Infosys. The Indian coding shop, which garnered $1.1 billion in sales last year, is hiring 500 employees for Infosys Consulting, a $20 million foray into high-end IT advice based in - guess again -- Fremont, California. Dirt-cheap outsourcing plus strategic guidance makes for a powerful combination -- and one that moves jobs back to the US."
Wired pointed out that the challenge for Infosys would come in the form of competition from Asia. "Beware, the rest of Asia. In the low-cost sweepstakes, China is to India as India is to Western economies." On the flip side the magazine pointed out that the opportunity for a company like Infosys lay in taking a leaf out of what PC maker Dell did. Infosys, Wired said, could potentially, "do to bloated US consultancies what Dell did to the PC industry
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Warren Buffet, the VC
"If there's one thing that you leave here with today, it should be this: And I'll start with a question to get to my point. If you could pick 10% of one person in this room to own or 'go long' for the next 30 years, who would it be? It wouldn't be the person with the highest IQ; it wouldn't be the star athlete; you would look for certain other qualities… And if you had to pick one person to 'short' for the next 30 years, who would it be? Now ask yourself why you have made those selections. If you've considered these questions properly, the person you've gone long is probably someone who is honest, courageous, and dependable; the person you've shorted is probably someone who is egotistical and likes to take the credit. The point is that success is mostly dependent upon elective qualities, not anything with which you are born. You ! can choose to be dependable or not. And it's not easy to change, so choose correctly now. Bertrand Russell once said, 'The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken.' So ask yourself, 'Who do I want to be?' At theend of this process you should determine that the person you want to buy is yourself. You all are holding winning tickets."