Author: Pradeep

  • Foursquare Day #4sqday

    Foursquare day is called so because in the American calendaring
    system, the format used is mm-dd-yyyy. In this scheme of things, this
    date reads, 4.16 or four and its square – shortened by the twitter
    world to foursquare.

    The experience of getting to Candies (a sweets place, I thought!) was
    terrible. Getting down at Pad. Mohd Rafi Chowk, every time I asked
    directions, I was told the place was only 5 mins away. I asked this 4
    times and got the same reply. After the last ‘it’s just 5 mins away’
    remark, I had given up hope when I saw the nameplate (?). This wasn’t
    the end of things. I then had an equivalent of the ascent of Mount
    Everest climbing up stairs. Finally summited to a round of applause!

    We discussed important questions like what was foursquare, what  the
    people’s twitter handles, what to eat, what a corporate hack did,
    kisko mala pehnaya jaye etc. Enjoyed it totally.

    I took leave, took a strangers suggestion and got into a bus, got off
    at Bandra Stn, stood in the wrong bus stop for 15 mins, got into a
    cliff hanger bus, got into an auto at Sion where it had to stop
    because of a traffic jam and then returned home.

  • What makes you special?

    Read that on the cover of my new IBM notebook, which I plan to use starting September 26.

  • Getting off Twitter

    Since June I’ve been reviewing my usage of the Internet and it’s
    impact on my offline life. I’ve been collecting raw numbers. In the
    past week I crunched the data.

    I spend nearly Rs. 300 per week on accessing the Net. Most of this is
    used on Twitter and Gmail. I saw that I was spending 6 hrs/day despite
    reducing my usage on Twitter. Doing it less often is an option but I
    generally miss out on the fun. I specifically took a higher cost Net
    connection to force me to use it less.

    Even if I can absorb the cost I spend the time I spend here was coming
    from time alloted for reading, listening to songs, working on
    projects, thinking new project ideas etc.

    I’ll keep my friendfeed a/c up and update all the various services. I
    think I’ll be more useful that way.

  • Where does Mumbai get its water from?

    I’m in the middle of various changes in lifestyle which I’m trying to
    make consciously. Today, I thought I needed a good dock to start out
    from and could think of no better place than Mumbai. I’m now out
    asking the question: Where does Mumbai get its water from?

    Over the next few days when I get the time, I will re visit this topic
    here. I will try and document this journey as much as possible.

    I see this as possibly a first step in answering the question of
    rethinking the way mega cities and at the micro level consume water so
    that we can get water conservation measures out of the clean the
    beaches and close the tap mode.

  • Water in the City

    Amazing how little we know about how we get the water we use in our homes.

  • Loss of Water Supply

    Imagine you live in a traditional village which has shared water with
    neighbouring villages, towns and cities for a century. This year was
    nasty and the water board is still pumping out water because those
    freak in the cities don’t see or ignore the lakes falling water level.
    Five years pass and people in your village die because of water abuse
    of your lake by others. The only step then remaining is fortifying the
    water source and levying a larger charge for geting the water. This is
    a possible situation we could be headed towards.

    Unlike computers and electricity, mechanical pipes don’t lend
    themselves to a very high transport efficiency. Precious water is lost
    in every pipe bend, valve, leak and pumping losses. Transporting water
    over large distances is not efficient.

  • Getting Students Interested in LARS

    A key pre-requisite to starting a lunar simulation project is to have
    enough people interested in it. The Chandrayaan mission has piqued
    media interest in the Moon.

    However, people still look at it through mysterious eyes. People think
    Apollo 11 was a hoax. They don’t know that 12 people have gone to the
    Moon. Even the amateur astronomy community does not know of many lunar
    features on the Moon.

    Under such circumstances, it is useful to get students interested.
    Accordingly, we plan to unveil a series of events and mini projects to
    get things going. The announcements begin on October 4.

  • Lunar Analog Research Station – India

    My first knowledge of an analog research station was Arctic Mars
    Analog Station Expedition or AMASE. A thought process carried forward
    with Flashline Mars Analog Research station or FMARS. The Moon Miners
    Manifesto’s India Quarterly expanded on the theme and brought the
    subject of a similar station for the Moon in India at the backdrop of
    the Chandrayaan series of missions to the Moon.

    I became a member of the Moon Society this summer and have begun
    planing on what can eventually be a lunar research station in India.

    I am still reading through papers and worrying about geting people
    on-board before begining the actual effort. I’m also working out a
    simultaneous outreach and education effort that will focus on the
    Chandrayaan series and serve the project’s basis.

  • Water

    My fascination for water started with the lines in my science text
    book urging me to drink 8 to 13 glasses of water everyday. I follow
    this naturally because I do get thirsty alot.

    Fast forward to my under graduate years and it amazes me that we still
    use the same 100 odd year old system to bring water from catchment
    areas to meet requirements of the city. Innovation has worked only in
    bringing water more efficiently in the old system.

    Today, we face a water shortage. Would not people staying closer to
    the water source claim ownership and sell water to her neighbours than
    allow its citizens to die?

    An analogy is supplying water to a colony on the Moon.

  • Hello World!

    I find that I blog little and little and so this sounded something worth looking at. This is my first test post. You can follow the updates on http://pradx.posterous.com. Thanks.