Tiny Pico

Though it has limited projection capabilities, Optamo Pico is one the tiniest projector ever made commercially available. The technology used is Digital Light Processing or DLP and it is a standalone projector. It is not to be confused with a home movie theatre but it can be easily used for a small group of people.

The Pico is powered by a battery which runs for more than two hours, sufficient enough to watch a movie. It easily projects the pictures, where dim lighting can be arranged and allows you to make presentations, share photos and videos from mobiles, smart phone and iPods.

 Its tiny size makes it easy to carry with the mobile. The new DLP Pico Handheld projectors slip easily into your pocket. Just switch on the projector to watch a movie or play video games. It overcomes the limitations of 3 inch display on mobiles.

DLP Pico Projection Technology is the cutting edge of imaging innovations. It has taken projectors to a whole new level of usefulness. When it is connected to an ultra-mobile device, the four-ounce Optoma Pico Projector gives a far better visual experience with an image that is up to 100 times larger than the small screen of the source device.

The latest LED technology gives better contrast and color to the images. It is a step further in the modern device display industry. What can be more enjoyable than projecting your images on a roof top or on the back of a seat, it certainly creates impression on people the moment you bring it out for use.

The complete package includes 1/8-inch cables and a composite cable to connect it with digital camera, mobile, iPod, TV etc. It has two lithium ion battery packs, a case to carry and an AC adapter. The latest Pico projectors come with upto 32 GB memory and are the epitome of technical ability and functionality.  

Says one of its users

"The Pico is ready to go to work right out of the box. Plug it into the gadget you want to project from, configure the output device, switch on the Pico, and you're ready to start projecting".

Note: Following websites have been used for the reference and study

www.dlp.com

www.gizmag.com

www.projectorcentral.com

www.popularmechanics.com

http://www.optoma.co.uk

www.pcworld.com

Golden Sparrow

“The secret cellars of Lord Anantha Padmanabha Temple are loaded with wealth, and so far, ornaments worth over Rs 1 lac crore have been found.With such wealth and more to come, it seems the temple may well be the richest in the entire country”.

I had been going through this news and wondering what kind of wealth existed in our days of yore. The ‘Temple of Somnath’, in Saurashtra (Gujarat), also had a similar kind of wealth, which was looted away.

As a child I remember my father telling me a real story. There was once a king who was proud of his wealth. He one day decided to find out how much money people had in his kingdom. Though his minister gently suggested to him that there would be people wealthier than the king, he discarded the idea.

To find how much wealth people had, the king one day made an announcement. He announced that on a given date, people should put flags on top of their houses. The number of flags would indicate the number of lacks that individual owned.

On the appointed day, people early in the morning got busy counting their money and putting flags, at the top of their house. In the same kingdom there lived a ‘money lender’ known as Shyamal Seth. He too got up in the morning and asked his son to go to the top of the house and keep a big silver barrel and a golden shovel.

The king with his ministers, set out to find the wealthy people, in the kingdom. The king would count the number of flags and make out, how many lacks the owner had. As he passed by the streets of his capital he was pleased with himself as his belief got confirmed that he was the wealthiest. Suddenly he came across a mansion on top of which there was no flag; instead there was a big silver barrel and a gold shovel. The king was intrigued and annoyed at the same time.

He stopped and sent for the owner of the house. The owner came out hurriedly and bowed to the king. The king asked him why he had not put the flags and what did the silver barrel and golden shovel indicate.

The owner explained to the king that he was a ‘money lender’ by profession, and that he had so much cash in the form of gold and silver coins stocked away in his cellars that days would not be sufficient and the amount was not easily countable.

The king was at a great discomfort at this frank explanation by Shyamal Seth, but he did not want to show his displeasure. He also wanted to verify whether the Seth was really speaking the truth. Feigning a smile on his face the king said to Shyamal Seth “In that case you can easily give a loan to me for the welfare of the kingdom”. He was sure that the Seth would be caught now for the lie and king would be proved correct.

Shyamal Seth without hesitating a bit instantly agreed and asked the king whether he would wish to have the loan in ‘Gold coins’ or ‘Silver coins’. The next day carts full of coins for the fixed loan amount, were seen outside the king’s palace.

With the doubts at rest and his ego crushed, the king called for Shyamal Seth and asked him to take back his money. The Seth folded his hands and in a gentle voice said to the king, “The money which leaves the house of a ‘money lender’ as a loan, always comes back with an interest amount, be it even for a single day”.

The king was shocked, but realizing that for Shyamal Seth this was plain business, he ordered his ministers to return the loan along with the interest.    

 

Mental Diet

The geo-political and cultural circumstances around a society make the necessary fabric, in which we dwell. This was especially so until the modern media had not sprung up dishing out its plethora of    colourful subjects. News did not travel so fast, the local situations remained isolated and people were not as well connected as they are today.

Television and more recently Internet media is a discovery of power and communication, we are in general aware about how the news is created, released, broadcast and distributed.  So far it has been a time of experimentation with regard to coverage, narration, presentation, and so on. It has been exciting to listen to varied viewpoints, interesting to share news items, compare news from various sources and channels, get the detailed coverage and gossip on the juicy topics.

But Do We Know

That media subtly helps in forming our opinions and attitudes, which greatly affect every aspect of our life. We need to be extremely cautious about our intake and its quality as it influences our perception and understanding of daily situations. Under the garb of ‘Free Media’ we are made to watch violence, overhyped sensation, continuous dose of emotions, criticism and non-evaluated heavy advertising.   

New Era

Now that the media and its scope has been widely and fairly understood. There is a need to study ‘News’ and ‘News making’ in a systematic way. The effect of News on various segments of the society and its objective; what we want to achieve by releasing a particular piece of news? Is the news item constructive, meaningful and helpful or just spicy?

Media should work on generating news which would help in motivating people to build up moral, work on values and create awareness towards individual responsibilities. A wrong belief which most of us carry is that by doing so, programs would become less interesting, monotonous, dull and boring but that need not be the case if a fair balance is maintained. 

What should we focus on?

To start with:

• Instead of harping on the bad examples of our politicians, we can look for cases where a politician has set a good example, we can broadcast and distribute this news over and again till masses have heard.
• People who are clean and honest in their business deals, should be publicized and interviewed often. Focus should be given on how and why these people, operate the way they do. Special news bulletins should be broadcasted about such people.
• Information regarding products can be provided in a more balanced and impartial manner, which can help the consumer decide for himself what he wants to choose.  
• Brave and courageous should be provided encouragement and extra security to speak openly. People should be awarded if they provide good and authentic news.

The Benefit

Things can be achieved with least effort, if such positive broadcasting, distribution and programming were to replace the current scenario, people and society at large could become more peaceful, tolerant, and accepting. There would then be no need to make special effort to instill values in newer generations.

East Or West

Do we know our neighbor well? We all have heard about the ‘Great Wall of China’, ‘The famous Silk of China’, even the ‘Cheap Chinese Products’ but are we really aware what China stands for today. Most of us hardly know our neighbor and the progress it has made, in almost all the fields.

China is raring to become world power, its progress in the fields of Engineering, Technology, Sports and so on, is mind boggling. Fast and sure footed, it is focused about going beyond ‘the West’ and their domination so far.


Why is China different?It is a nation obsessed to improve its infrastructure which is very important for the overall growth of the country.With its mega feats of engineering, it seeks to promote the image of a powerful and modern country.

As though rising from the clouds, the world's longest sea bridge, 42.5-km in length connects the booming northern port city of Qingdao to the industrial suburb of Huangdao. The journey time to the other side of the bay has been halved to just 30 minutes.



The Bailong Elevator is the world’s largest exterior elevator. At over 1,000 feet tall, this elevator looms high midway up a cliff overlooking a valley far below. Moreover, the elevator is mostly glass, affording passengers a dizzying view to the depths below.




The bullet train between Beijing and Hanghai which is made in China is a cause of national pride. It is a mark of innovative muscle of China.




World's highest railway, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, stretches 1,956 kilometers from Xining to Lhasa and marks the country's success in making the impossible possible, by building a railway line across 5,000-meter-high mountain ranges and 550-km-long frozen belt.



The Three Gorges Dam has been more controversial, though it has been the best way to end centuries of floods along the mighty Yangtze and provide energy to fuel the country's economic boom.



Sports

China has shown to the world that through right focus, nothing is impossible for a country dedicated in building itself in all aspects.

At the 2010 Olympic Games it achieved a total of 100 medals (51 golds, 21 silvers and 28 bronzes), a win far to great by any standard, leaving U.S.A. far behind. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see China soon leading in other popular international sports such as, football, cricket and tennis as well.

Still there are many things in its pipeline: more nuclear power plants, projects to pump river water from the fertile south to the arid north, and a 1,300-kilometer, Beijing-to-Shanghai high-speed railway that is scheduled to open in 2012.

China is also vying for projects overseas, including in the U.S., which has almost no high-speed rail expertise. It shows how quickly the technology has been adopted by Chinese companies, who have traditionally only been able to compete on basic infrastructure projects in the developing world.

Why can't we?

We should be proud of our Oriental neighbor for its achievements and learn to focus on issues of national interest and an overall well being of the country and its common man.

Study Or Stress?

My friend Neha called today, she sounded panicky and in some trouble, the reason, she did not know how to help her son Rohan, manage his study. Rohan is a class VI CBSE student and his school is very particular about assignments, projects, activities, apart from weekly tutorials, surprise tests etc.

Should she allow him to play for some time, after his tuition? Rohan wanted to play and also watch his favorite TV program, but so many things needed to be done; it was late evening and he had to browse for his project, complete his school homework and also learn a Hindi poem. Neha told me, she wanted her son to play for a while but, but she had no choice.

How many of us face this situation today? There are many parents and children who go through this stress. Long gone are those carefree days and no competition. I have a neighbor who has a daughter studying in college. The daughter sometimes shares some of her memories with me.  She told me once, how as a twelve year old she went up to the terrace at the top of her building and tore her Maths notebook into fine pieces. The notebook contained a lot of “Incomplete” remarks from the teacher and out of fear and confusion she decided to do this.

Her father Mr. Rastogi was a short tempered person. He would teach Maths everyday and made her finish exercises that were yet to be taught in the school. In the process she couldn’t finish her school homework of Maths. This made her come up with this idea.

She then had to witness an argument over the lost notebook between her father and the teacher on the ‘Parents and Teachers meeting’. After coming home that day, she said, that she had actually felt relieved, about what she had done.

Yet another incident, a father raised his voice reminding the son to study, he gave him a cool look and told “I am used to being shouted at, in the school!  Now, if you too want to shout so be it, I am not bothered”.  The father was stunned….., what could he do?

Let us try and understand, ‘Who is at fault’?

                                                                                       

I Heard A Story

Once upon a time there lived a woman named Shukhiya in a village on a sea coast. She was gentle, hardworking and extremely devoted to her husband. One day her husband went to the jungle to cut the woods, as he was about to cut a branch, he was bitten by a poisonous snake and he instantly fell dead.

The villagers noticed and brought the dead body of the husband home. Shukhiya had gone out to get water from the well; when she returned she saw a small crowd collected outside her home. She rushed inside; there…she saw the dead body of her husband which had turned black and blue due to the snake poison. She cried Alas! My husband and out of grief, fainted.

The villagers sat outside, waiting for Sukhiya to regain consciousness. In the meanwhile Sukhiya recovered….seeing no one around her, she slowly pulled her husband’s body, taking it by the back door she put the body on the boat and set out alone on the wide sea.

She wanted to bring her husband back to life. For days she rowed, through rain and storm, protecting the body. The tides and the wind destroyed her boat, the body too decomposed but she continued her journey.

 One morning as she was rowing she came across a beautiful island where she saw a strange happening. A woman came to wash her clothes with two children. Before she sat down for washing, she chopped the children to death and started washing the clothes. After finishing she lifted the bucket touched the bodies of the children who instantly became alive and with the kids in tow she started walking.

Sukhiya couldn’t understand whether she was dreaming or awake. She rowed the raft to the island anchored and ran behind the woman. She managed to reach the woman and explained how she had been carrying the body of her husband, with a hope to get him back to life. 

  The woman heard her and told her not to worry, and that she had come to the right place the ‘Shiv Lok’. The beautiful island was where Maa Parvati sported. Sukhiya was taken to Mother Parvati who was touched and also pleased by Sukhiya’s story. The Mother blessed her and the body of her husband who instantly came back to life, the couple thanked the Mother who blessed them with health and wealth.

Thus Sukhiya managed to bring back her husband from deadly clasp of the death.              

Guiding Our Destiny

We often feel that the external situations are responsible for joys and sorrows in our life. I came across a concept sometime back which made me think about this idea of ‘Guiding our destiny’, or ‘Creating your Destiny’. Some people may ridicule or laugh at this idea but there is a proper science and logic if one is interested about finding out the truth.  

Have we noticed how often we react strongly to an irresponsible behavior from our child, or when our junior repeats the same mistake or when our maidservant doesn’t come on time, to certain situations on road and traffic and so on. Some of us may not express their anger and frustration externally, they may suppress it, still others may swear, murmur, mutter or talk to themselves.

There are many of us who feel sorry about our reactions of anger, hatred, jealousy etc. There are ways and means to overcome these and one must continue on this journey until one succeeds for one’s own benefit. Let me share this concept I came across, which has helped me a great deal:

How to Begin

We begin by becoming aware about what we are thinking this moment and what we are feeling; do nothing about it, just watch.

The Science Behind

Churning the same thought over and again generates a particular ‘Feeling’

Working on the same feeling develops a similar ‘Attitude’

Holding on to the same attitude helps generate a ‘Habit’

Habits good or bad form an individual ‘Personality’

Our Personality governs our ‘Destiny’

As we continuously become aware of our inner world, we unearth the hidden structures which compel us to react the way we do. Slowly over a period of time we start gaining control over ourselves.