Naveen Ashish’s Blog

We recently visited Cabos San Lucas, Mexico. I was debating,
to almost the very last minute whether (after flying into SJD)
to rent a car and drive on our own vs taking taxis. We opted,
rightly I think in retrospect, for the former and here is my summary:
1. Driving in Cabos San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo and the “tourist
corridor” in between is overall quite doable (for someone from the US).
2. Roads are quite good in that part, the corridor itself is a 4 lane highway,
and the traffic was not much.
3. Speed limits are posted throughout though folks seemed to take them as
suggestions I didn’t encounter any rash/speedy drivers though.
4. There’s a good police presence at primary places.
5. Parking is not usually a problem most places.
6. We paid through our nose for the insurance but I saw no choice, in fact
the insurance coverage was a solid twice the car rental price itself but that
is that - taking cabs throughout would probably have cost us that much
or more !

I was looking for such “experiences” on the Web prior to travel,
so hopefully this is helpful to someone contemplating the same …

From a blog I happened to browse through, I think it applies very well
to what we preach in our publications

कई बार यूँ भी हमने अपने दिल को बहलाया है

जिन बातों को खुद नहीं समझे औरों को समझाया है

Ms Mallika Sarabhai posted her criticism of Mr Amitabh Bachchan
as accepting to be the brand ambassador of Gujarat. (Link to post).

Here is a fan’s (Amitabh’s !) response:

My dear Mallika ben, Greetings from a …er … um .. Amitabh fan !

You are indeed a fine dancer, social activist of sorts, an intellectual as we like to call people in India. But should I believe in your criticism of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan’s decision to endorse the state of Gujarat ?

Let us take the issue of professing, from a pure common sense perspective. You know, as a consumer, I wouldn’t really care if Mr. Bachchan actually uses Nerolac paints in his home were I paint shopping and considering Nerolac as an option. Much as I don’t care if Shah Rukh Khan indeed uses Airtel 1c a minute calling cards (boy wouldn’t I be heart-broken and cheated to find out he didn’t !), or if Jessica Simpson only orders Pizza from Pizza Hut, or that Teri Hatcher actually gets her electronic goodies from our very humble Radio Schack down the corner ! Celebrities, the world over, do ads because they get paid for it, consumers like me watch such ads many a time because of the celebrity in it, and producers pay for it. Advertising 101, end of story.

Then you provide us with some statistics, no doubt accurate, as examples of things wrong with or in your state. Truly regrettable, and truly glaring examples of problems that need to be fixed. But I wonder then, is any state in India, or India itself then ever worthy of any sort of endorsement by anyone ? No one should endorse Karnataka – why give any credit to the IT revolution in the state when after all even there there are still villages without electricity ? Never endorse Maharashtra as despite being once established as the commercial and industrial powerhouse, one has violence resulting from local divisive politics, there are farmer suicides, you name it.

I must confess that I have not been to Gujarat ever in the last 30 years. What I do hear from many in Gujarat and India are stories of how efficiently the government is being run. How the electricity situation has so dramatically improved. How industry friendly the climate is. And of course it is still rather recent how Gujarat promptly came to the rescue of a project that I believe all Indians should be proud of – the $2500 car as Forbes calls it – Tata’s Nano.

An actor, a celebrity, gets impressed with such things in a state and decides to endorse it. Why should we fish for something more in it ? The endorsement will probably do some good, and certainly no harm will it ?

With highest regards,
A Bachchan Fan

मैंने हाल ही में LA में बहुत ही स्वादिष्ट इंडियन “वेगन” खाना खाया |
वैसे में खुद वेगन तो दूर, शाकाहारी भी नहीं हूँ लेकिन cholsterol के
नंबर देख आजकल शाकाहारी व्यंजनों पे ज्यादा ध्यान देना पड़ रहा है |
Bawarchi नाम का यह छोटा सा restaurant LA के venice इलाके
में है | इनकी dishes परिवर्तनात्मक हैं | सोया विंदालू, टोफू टिक्का मसाला,
सोया माखानी, इत्यादि | स्वास्थ के साथ स्वाद भी ! और कुच्छ ऐसी सब्जियां
जो US में कम मिलती हैं ! जैसे भें, अर्भी, और कत्ताहैल |
कोई आश्चर्य नहीं की देसियों की साथ, यह अमरीकनों को भी पसंद आ रहा है |

मैन कुछ दिन पेहले हि “शब्द्कोश” कि बात रह था |
और आज गूगल ने अप्नि online dictionary रिलीज की है |
खास कर के translations feature काफि प्रक्रिश्ट है |

मैन आज पेह्ली बार कम्प्युटर पर हिन्दी मे लिख रहा हून |
हिन्दी और अन्य भाशाओन मे कम्प्युटर पर लिखने कि
टेक्नोलोजी तो काफि समय से उप्लब्ध है, पर आज जाकर
इस्को खुद प्रयोग कर्ने क मन कर रहा है |

अब हिन्दी कि ओर यह अचानक स्नेह कुछ आश्चर्यजनक
तो है | बचपन से ही हिन्दी का स्थान “सेकेन्ड लैन्गुएज”
का हि रहा है, मात्र भाशा होने के बावजूद |
एक खिन्चाव सा है कि अप्ने आप को इस माध्यम मे
प्रकट करूं | आवगमन का जैसे एक नया आयाम हि खुल
गया है !

आज कुछ ज्यादा नहिन, सिर्फ दो “टूल्स” जो बडे
उप्कारी लगे | एक तो येह एडिटर,
दूस्रा “shabdkosh” |

So do we need (yet!) another programming language …..

From an unexpected quarter, Google, comes a new language GO touted as a savior for present maladies.

Seems worth a look at least …. and there is an impressive pedigree behind it - of the Bell Labs C, C++ and UNIX ers …

This report is a must read for computer science folks, especially in data management,
and semantics.

We’ve heard the phrase “public private partnership” rather often, in the context of
(higher) education in India. Check out the LNMIIT - which seems to be an actual example
of such an entity.

Why do we need a “semantic-web” ? (Web) search appears as one compelling application so far …. however the user honestly seen anything useful and scalable yet …. Powerset - hurry up !!

However it seems to medical and clinical informatics is one community that has really adopting (and wisely so) semantic-web technologies to address their knowledge sharing, search, retrieval etc needs in a specialized domain. This may well be the “killer-app” for semantics technologies.