A recent article in The Economist discussed about how Mr Ostwal, an engineer from India, won the grand prize in Nokia’s mobile innovation contest at Barcelona.

During his adolescent years, Mr. Santosh Ostwal often used to wonder at the conditions of the farmers in his village who had to walk a mile to switch on the water pump and then again to switch it off. Since the water and the electric supply was erratic they had to walk three to four times in the night. Seven years after becoming an electrical engineer, he left his job and devoted his life and fortune to develop a gadget to alleviate the farmers from their plight. Farmers were often not ready to accept this as their problem and would try to convince Mr. Ostwal that this is routine and teaches their sons to appreciate the food that they get. He also faced red tape-ism from the government regarding allocation of wireless frequency. There was a time in his life where he had to live on the roads and go hungry for days. Despite such problems, he and his wife worked day and night and develop a smart gadget that can operate the water pumps using standard cell phones. This device named “Nano Ganesh” is now used in Egypt and Australia.

We can derive a few points that I can explain why innovation in India is not admired.

People in India do not understand the power of technology. As the farmers would often say that they do not have anything else to do and walking in the night three to four times is a routine work for them. Besides they also said that this would teach their kids to appreciate the food that they get. The people fail to understand that making life easier could allow them more time to spend with their family and friends. With the exchange of ideas and effort, we can have one more Mr. Ostwal who would work for the betterment of the society.

There is no government or private support to encourage innovation. In many countries, the state or the national government organizes innovation competitions, like the Virginia state government organizing the “Industry Innovation competition”. Many private companies also organize innovation competitions, like Nokia organizing the “Mobile Innovation contest” or Terwiesch and Ulrich organizing various innovation contests.  But, I do not see any Indian companies or India governments promoting Innovation.

References:

The Economist – Aug 2010
Wikipedia – Innovation Competition

TreasureTrooper.com has lots of free and trail offers available.  The free offers give around $0.25 to $1.00 on successful completion, whereas the trail offers can give anything upwards of $1.00.  On successful completion of any offers you will be given some gold coins.  You earn platinum coins, which is another TreasureTrooper.com currency, for completing some of the offers.  On every offer submission you will be presented with a mini game to win pearls.  Gold coins, Pearls and Platinum coins can be used at the TreasureTrooper.com shop for various items and for purchasing referrals.  I would strongly suggest you to create a new email address for doing various free offers, as these offers tend to send lot of junk mails.  This email address can be different from the one that you used registration at TreasureTrooper.com.  Doing the cash offers will be the primary source of your earnings at TreasureTrooper.com.

There are three daily surveys at TreasureTrooper.com giving you an opportunity to make $2.50 every day.  The surveys last for about 30 minutes to 40 minutes and can sometimes by fun.  Many members have complained about the approval rates for the surveys, but I find that the survey approval rate at TreasureTrooper.com is pretty much according to the industry average.

TreasureTrooper.com also provides cash back on online shopping if you visit the online vendor by clicking the links on their website.  Though this gives you some money back on things that you would buy online, the cash back given is nominal when compared to the websites exclusively for cash back programs, like bigcrumbs.com or fatwallet.com.

Cash Clicks is the latest program from TreasureTrooper.com where you earn 5 cents for every advertisement link that you click.  Of all the paid to click website on the Internet this is one of the highest returns for clicking advertisement links.  This is the most popular program at TreasureTrooper.com.

Other programs at TreasureTrooper.com include a $100 treasure hunt and Jungle Slots.  For the $100 treasure hunt, you will have to collect various precious gems (awarded for various achievements at TreasureTrooper.com), gold coins, pearls, and platinum coins to reach at the end of the treasure.  On successful completion, you will be awarded $100, which is pretty impressive.  Jungle Slots is a slot machine which consumes one gold coin for every try where you try to win various slot prizes.  You are awarded a prize (which they would like to keep it a secret) when you collect all the four slot prizes.

TreasureTrooper.com is a good and a reliable money earning website, but I would caution anyone thinking of leaving their full time job to join TreasureTrooper.com.  On an average people make around $100 per month, but there are people who make $500 or more per month.  It can provide you with substantial side income if you are willing to put enough effort into it, but people thinking of making it their primary income source may find it disappointing. ]]> http://the-risingsun.com/?feed=rss2&p=232 0 http://the-risingsun.com/?p=226 http://the-risingsun.com/?p=226#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:06:20 +0000 Aniruddha http://the-risingsun.com/?p=226 The count of Monte Cristo, Edmund Dante is back. He has returned to investigate the murder of his beloved, Mercedes. He is on a quest to find the killers of Mercedes and bring them to justice. The game story is based on the characters from Alexander Dumas’ book “The Count of Monte Cristo”.

The Return of Monte Cristo is a hidden object game and is published by Lazy Turtle Games

Rating:

• Pros: Great graphics, No learning curve
• Cons: Short game, Lacks story line

The game has a single untimed mode. It consists of seven chapters with each chapter consisting of three to six locations. You require a key to access each location. On unlocking each location, you are presented with a mini game. These mini games are based on variety of puzzles and are easy to complete. However, the mini games can be skipped to continue to the location. The area on the scene becomes a little dusty when you can navigate to the other location. The hidden objects are made relevant to the game but the size and the color of the objects may vary.

This game is a significant improvement over its predecessor, “The Count of Monte Cristo” in terms of graphics and hint system. The scenes of the game are set in dark, but still the items are not difficult to find. In each location you are given a list of objects that you have to find on the scene. There are hidden objects, blue on the list, which will require another key object to find it. The key object items needs to be used immediately as there is no inventory tray. There is a hint button if there is any object that is frustrating to find. Unlike its predecessor, you no longer have to go to the island of Monte Cristo to gather diamonds for the hints. In this game, there is a delayed timer until which the hint button cannot be reused, so theoretically you can use a hint to find every object on the scene. Another feature that I liked in this version is that when you click an object its silhouette is displayed in the crystal ball on the right bottom corner. This gives an idea of how the object is. The sound effects in the game are also nice and bring the locations to life.

This game will be enjoyed by any hidden object game fan of any age. However what most of gamers will not like is that the game is too short. It generally gets over in 1½ to 2 hours. Also once you complete the game, you know where all the objects are hidden and the game is no longer challenging for subsequent plays. This game is good for any new hidden object gamer, but I would not recommend it to gamers who have played a lot hidden object games.

System Requirements:

• Platform: Windows XP/Vista
• CPU: 800 MHz
• RAM: 256 MB
• DirectX: 7.0
• Hard Drive: 52 MB

Screen Shots:

]]> http://the-risingsun.com/?feed=rss2&p=226 1 http://the-risingsun.com/?p=203 http://the-risingsun.com/?p=203#comments Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:19:56 +0000 Aniruddha http://the-risingsun.com/?p=203 Constellation is NASA’s new program for human space exploration. As part of the Constellation program, NASA plans to develop space vehicles and booster systems which will eventually replace the Space Shuttle. The main goals of the Constellation program are human travel beyond low Earth orbit, to return to the Moon and to expand human presence to Mars.

As of early 2009, missions for the Constellation Program are planned to begin on March 2014 and to continue through 2020. The first stop for the constellation program is at 220 miles above the Earth surface to the International Space Station at the Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The astronauts will then travel 200,000 miles to the Moon. The stay on the Moon will last for a week and will be much more complex than the Apollo missions. The aim of this week long rendezvous on Moon is to explore the possibilities of living and staying on the moon and preparing for a human flight to Mars. Ultimately, the constellation program will have human expedition to the red planet. The mission to Mars will be two and a half year long, with six months of journey each from and to the Station and one and half year of stay for exploration.

The constellation program consist of launch vehicle (Ares I and Ares V boosters), manned space craft (Orion) and lunar lander (Altair).

# Launch Vehicles – Ares I and Ares V

After much consideration, a new rocket system was developed to be used as launch vehicle for this program. It consists of two booster rockets Ares I and Ares V. The two booster system allows each one of them to be optimized to perform their specific missions.

Ares I has a single solid fuel booster rocket which is derived from the Space Shuttle. It connects to an inter-stage new liquid fuel booster at its upper end. Its mission in the Constellation program is to take the astronauts to the International Space Station.

Ares V will have a pair of solid fuel rockets that will burn simultaneously with the liquid fuel rocket, which is much similar to the Space Shuttle. It will have a payload capacity of 188 tonnes to the International Space Station and 71 tonnes capacity to the Moon. After completion, Ares V will become the most powerful rocket ever built. Its mission in the constellation program is to carry the cargo component to the Station and continue the flight to the Moon.

Ares launch vehicles are named after Ares, the Greek god of war.

# Manned space craft – Orion
The manned space craft is named after the constellation Orion. It has a capacity to carry four to six astronauts at a time. Orion is designed to by reused at least 10 times, and therefore allowing NASA to have a fleet of Orion vehicles, each tailored for its specific purpose. In the Constellation program Orion will handle the logistic flight to the International Space Station and after that will become a key component in the human flights to the Moon and the Mars.

Lockheed Martin is the primary contractor for building the Orion Vehicle and Boeing is selected to build the primary heat shield.

# Lunar Lander – Altair
The lunar lander is named Altair after the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. It will be used by astronauts for landings on the surface of the Moon. Altair is currently in the design phase and is scheduled to be complete in 2019. It has a capacity to carry four astronauts along with necessary supplies for a week long exploration on the moon surface.

All said, the Constellation program cost and schedule remains uncertain as per U.S. GAO report. NASA is still struggling to develop a solid business case, including firm requirements, mature technologies, a knowledge based acquisition strategy, realistic cost model, sufficient funding and time, needed to justify moving the Constellation program to the implementation phase. This has delayed the schedule and increased the cost for the Constellation program. Hopefully, we will see “mankind’s giant leap” to Mars soon.

Story:

In Avenue Flo, corporate mogul Mr. Big’s daughter, Vicky is set to marry Tony who is a local pizzeria owner. Flo’s best friend, Quinn is given the responsibility to organize a grand and the biggest wedding that Diner Town has ever seen. Unfortunately for Quinn, everything starts to go wrong, the wedding dress is missing, Vicky’s dog Snookums is lost, and the butterflies for the wedding have escaped. With helplessness, Quinn asks Flo for her help.

Game play:

The game starts with three missions for Flo. The first mission is to find Vicky’s pet poodle Snookums, the second one is to get the wedding dress completed and third is to capture 32 escaped butterflies. Fortunately, the butterflies are all over the place and you simply have to click them to put them in your bag. You have to visit appropriate places to get the wedding dress and find Snookums. There are lots of mini games like fixing the beads machine, stitching the beads to form a pattern, rearranging the clothes. You have to find hidden objects so that you can proceed further in the game. You have to collect recyclable plastic bottles so as to get a token to access the subway. You can visit different parts of the town by clicking the arrows that appear in the game.

Analysis:

While you complete your missions to help Flo gather things to help her friend Quinn, you will be playing a lot of mini games. These mini games require a good amount of skill and concentration and they tend to become harder with each level. The mini games are fun and intricate without getting frustrating. The “find hidden object” missions have been worked out very well in the storyline. The graphics of the game are cartoon like but not childish. However, the graphics could have been better with actual talk instead of bubble header. The music is nice and flowing. The music during the game play motivates the game play.

System Requirements:

• Platform: Windows XP/Vista
• CPU: 1.2 GHz
• RAM: 256 MB
• DirectX: 8.0
• Hard Drive: 84 MB

Screenshots:

• Vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date.
• Only the purchase or 5 year minimum lease of new vehicles qualify.
• Generally, trade-in vehicles must get a weighted combined average rating of 18 or fewer MPG (some very large pickup trucks and cargo vans have different requirements).
• Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in.
• Trade-in vehicles must be in driveable condition.
• The program runs from July 1, 2009 until August 24, 2009
• The program requires the scrapping of the eligible trade-in vehicle and that the dealer disclose to the customer an estimate of the scrap value of the trade-in. The scrap value, however minimal, will be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate.
• The new car bought under the plan must have a suggested retail price of no more than $45,000, and for passenger automobiles, the new vehicle must have a combined fuel economy value of at least 22 mpg.

A buyer driving a 25 year old intends to drive the car to the road.  Given an option he would prefer to get an used car instead of a paying thousands of dollars for a new car.  As buying an used car is not an option when participating in the “cash for clunkers” program, he would end up with an auto loan which probably he cannot afford.  He will also be paying taxes on the money that was received from the trade in.  Effectively instead of the benefits of $4500 after the trade in, he is left with $3000 after taxes assuming he falls in the 30% tax bracket.  Now here is the worst part.  Before “Cash for Clunkers” program was announced the dealers would throw in many goodies like auto transmission, power windows, air conditioning, etc worth approximately $3000.  After the launch of the program the buyer had to pay for these accessories.  In conclusion, the “Cash for Clunkers” program did not work for the buyers.  They ended up with less value for their money and a loan that they cannot sustain.

One of the other goal of “Cash for Clunkers” was to provide a stimulus for the U.S. automakers and put them on a track of recovery.  According to U.S.DoT, the program’s top seller car was Toyota Corolla followed by Honda Civic and Toyota Camry [2].  So in essence, almost all of the money allocated by the Fed for this program went to the Japanese companies.  While the program was in effect, the car sales was steady, but as soon as the program was called off companies like General Motors reported a drop of 49% in sales.  In nutshell, the “Cash for Clunkers” program did not prevent, but just delayed the inevitable fall.

This initiative was not a complete failure but had some positive pints.  The car dealers made money on the accessories that they were forced to give away for free.  Moreover most of them were able to clear their inventories and save themselves from losses.  The other advantage was most of the fuel guzzlers were replaced by more efficient and new technology cars and this will certainly go as an effort to reduce the carbon foot-print of USA.

Though the “Cash of Clunkers” program was popular, it does not have any long term financial benefits for the people are for the U.S. auto industry.  It does have some benefits, but they were the by-product of this program and not the intended ones.

1. CARS FAQ
2. HuffingtonPost

According to Will of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel peace prize should be awarded to the person who:
“during the preceding year [...] shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.[1]

The key words to consider here are “preceding year”, “fraternity between nations” and “reduction of standing armies”

Obama was elected to presidency in January 2009. During the preceding year (2008) as a U.S. senator he did not put any special efforts to increase the fraternity between nations or to promote peace congresses. He did lobby for Nuclear Arms Reduction Act but we are yet to see it in real. All of his other efforts for peace like reducing conflicts with Muslim nations and combating global climate are initiated this year and are yet to materialize.

We are yet to see any co-operation between nations of the world that can be directly attributed to the actions of Barack Obama. It cetainly looks that he is working towards this, but still these efforts are unformed and the relations between Muslim countries and other countries of the world are strained.

Barack Obama has called for the withdrawal of US Army from Iraq, but we have yet to see how this decision turns out in future. There are still many open question whether US withdrawal makes Iraq a rogue state or proves to be good for the stability of Iraq. Does the cancellation of missile shield in Eastern Europe proves to be disaster and leave the Eastern European countries open to the threat of Iran? We are yet to see the outcome of these decisions.

All said, the decisions taken by Barack Obama are good but they have a long way to go before we can see any concrete results. The recent developments from countries like Iran and North Korea to initiate dialogue with USA is “ray of hope” for global co-operation and fraternity between the nations, but it still is in juvenile stage. He certainly be a good candidate for the Nobel prize in a year or two, but awarding him the Nobel Peace prize for 2009 is a premature decision and it shows that the Nobel Peace prize is politically motivated.

1. “Excerpt from the Will of Alfred Nobel“. Nobel Foundation

Globalization as we know it now, began with the start of the Industrial age. Industries started producing in mass quantity and with no regional market for their products, they started to export goods to other regions. As the transportation became more efficient and more affordable, companies wanted to move their production location at places with affordable labor.

Hence, they can produce at less cost and selling in a demanding market. This results in more money getting generated in the economy. With Free Trade Agreement, the industries were free to move between different countries, thus bringing prosperity and wealth to all.

People who say no to globalization are people with a myopic view of the economy and fail to see the prosperity that globalization brings. It is because of globalization that companies are able to offer their customers better products at affordable prices. It is because of globalization that the companies are able make more profits and then pass it on to the investors and employees as salary increase or bonuses.

It is because of globalization that the developing countries are able to offer better jobs and thus avoid emigration of its citizen to developed countries. It is because of globalization that the world is becoming less polar with an more even distribution of wealth and power.

With globalization, comes the dependency of one country on other. It is getting to know a different country better. This causes the countries of the world to get a share of the world wealth and the power and increase the diversity. Due to this, it gives the countries less incentive to attack the other country and hence creating an atmosphere of peace and harmony.

The example of this is the relationship between India and China. More the trade happens between these two countries, more are the chances that they resolve their difference with bilateral talks rather than armed conflict.

Thus, globalization creates a level playing field for all world economies. As globalization opens more opportunities, it will bring more diversity and thus creating world peace and prosperity and make the world a better place to live.

I, Robot is a first book in the series of Robot novels written by Asimov. It is a collection of short stories depicting the changes in human life with the incoming of robots. We have always wondered how the robots will change our life and this book very well describes it. This book marks the beginning for the robot science fiction from Asimov and lays the foundation for the the robot series and the foundation series. The robotics laws set in this book is followed throughout all the science fiction books written by him. Though the stories seem independent of each other they are chronologically related with the development of robot technology and how the robots influenced the humanity and human development. It begins when the robots as just mechanical devices that could not speak and did programmed tasks and ends when the robots that can make decisions for the making human life better and stand between mankind and their destruction.

There are stories about robots going mad, reading minds, being humorous, robot politicians, and robots running the whole world. It is a well written book and each story describes the challenges faced by the humans trying to make a better and superior robot. The robots are built on the three basic laws of robotics. They must not harm human beings, they must obey human orders and they must protect their own existence unless the first and the second laws are not violated. The first robots were the kinds built for specific purposes with no intelligence of their own and lacked speech. Then came the robots with speech and intelligence with ability to learn. The last are the robots with decision making ability and they made decision for the whole humanity. There are also stories how robots go rogue and starts thinking of themselves as superior to human beings, but these issues are identified and fixed.

“I, Robot” was published in 1950 and includes the stories that were written in 1940s. The stories prove that Asimov was a great visionary and had a deep knowledge of science. This is a must read book for all science fiction fans.

As the saying, “The rung of ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to support your weight long enough to reach something higher”, this book is a rung of Asimov’s ladder of success as he goes on to become one of the most respected science fiction writers in the world

Bottom Line: Describes very well the start of robotics which is the foundation of many Asimov’s novels.

According to WTO, India and China are the fastest growing economies. Due to the money that is brought into these countries by the American companies, the economies of these countries have grown manifold. The buying power has increased which has resulted in the people of India and China to buy more American products, subsequently increasing the US economy and the job market. Secondly Indian wages where the US jobs are being outsourced has increased to such a point where the Indian companies have started outsourcing some of their jobs to countries like Mexico and Uruguay. In turn the consumer market will increase in these economies resulting in more demand for American products. Moreover as the people of a country get more involved in economic prosperity, they have less time to think for creating chaos and get involved in terrorist activities. Therefore outsourcing develops the society and can bring it out from the chaos and anarchy.

If the US lawmakers decide to stop outsourcing all together, the Indian and the Chinese lawmakers will also prevent any US investment into their economies. There will be no market for the US products. Moreover as the jobs that getting outsourced have stopped, India and China will no longer have any jobs that they can outsource to Mexico or Indonesia. This will create civil unrest in these countries, and Mexico being a neighbor of US will start threatening US security. This will result in the world getting dragged back to dark ages.

The views of US lawmaker on outsourcing, though look a right step in improving the already battered US economy, may prove to be a disaster in long term. I hope that the Obama administration do not take any such action that will destroy the US and the world.