Sayan's BlogWorld » development

Steve Woz on our closed source education system

Sayan — Sat, 14 May 2011 17:33:12 +0000

A very succinct message from Steve Woz on how our education system(s) kills creativity in its quest for a one size fits all approach to education…

This is so true all over the world… the waste of human potential is the greatest waste

Via EEtimes and DangerousPrototypes

How do some kids go to school? Remarkable and humbling story of human endurance and the will to get an education

Sayan — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:28:39 +0000

If you live in the Zanskar valley, India it is a 5 day walk along one of the highest rivers, through some of the highest mountains, some of the coldest places on Earth.

Just saw this heart-stopping trip in ‘Human Planet’ on TV.

Human Planet- Zanskar River by BBCfanable

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhzfi8_human-planet-zanskar-river_shortfilms

This is the first someone has successfully filmed the journey that families have to undertake every year.

More here:

http://www.humanplanetblog.com/?p=1080

This one is a must read !

http://timothyallen.blogs.bbcearth.com/2010/02/26/the-school-run/

Going to school in Ladakh, India

On a side note I learned that ice sheets on frozen rivers / lakes is called ‘chaddar’ in Zanskari. In Hindi ‘chaddar’ means ‘sheet’ more like bedspread never knew that it also means ice sheet

LPCXpresso success

Sayan — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 00:27:30 +0000

Success at last …after 2 frustrating days trying to get the NXP LPCXpresso board working. In the end I figured out the issue myself with little / no help from NXP / Code Red Support

Issue:

Project building but debug not working (deployment to board failing)

Resolution:

I looked up the build log files in \.metadata\.log and noticed the following error:
java.lang.Exception: Input Error: There is no script engine for file extension “.vbs”.

I changed the file association for .vbs to WScript but the error did not go away.

A quick google-ing turned up this 3 step process
http://www.nilpo.com/2009/07/windows…ile-extension/

Step 1: Set a default script host

Open a Command Prompt window. In Windows XP, click Start, Run…, and typecmd.exe. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, click Start and type cmd. Then selectcmd in the Instant Search results.

Type the following command and press Enter.

cscript.exe //H:WScript

Step 2: Registering the vbscript.dll module

Open a Command Prompt window. In Windows XP, click Start, Run…, and typecmd.exe. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, run an elevated Command Prompt.

Type the following command in the command prompt window and press Enter.

regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\vbscript.dll

You should see the following confirmation message.

DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll succeeded.

Step 3: Restore the .vbs file associations

If the previous two solutions didn’t work, you should restore the file associations for the .vbs (VBScript) file type by downloading and running one of the registry files below.

FixVBSFileAssociationsXP.reg

FixVBSFileAssociationsVista.reg
Restart and ….

Voila ! the thing works now !

The Story of Electronics

Sayan — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 16:52:00 +0000

The Story of Electronics employs the Story of Stuff style to explore the high-tech revolution’s collateral damage—25 million tons of e-waste and counting, poisoned workers and a public left holding the bill. Host Annie Leonard takes viewers from the mines and factories where our gadgets begin to the horrific backyard recycling shops in China where many end up. The film concludes with a call for a green “race to the top” where designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products that are fully and easily recyclable

t r u t h o u t | The Story of Electronics Video

India vs. USA: A visual comparison

Sayan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:38:10 +0000

Mint.com (now owned by Intuit) has put an interesting set of easy to understand visual comparisons of India vs. USA. Here are the charts / graphs

TED goes to India

Sayan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:56:05 +0000

Just found out that TED is organizing a TED India conference (November 4-7, 2009) in Mysore at the Infosys campus. Check it out here

TED | Michael Pritchard’s water filter turns filthy water drinkable

Sayan — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:59:13 +0000

Turn any water into drinking water… $20 billion can provide safe drinking water for the entire world… this would an ideal stimulus plan…. healthier people can improve their own lives and contribute to their and society’s development

Forward Osmosis- revoluntionary water treatment?

Sayan — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:23:07 +0000

Cleantechnica has a post on Forward Osmosis. It is better explained here. The authors description in a gist:

…conventional desalination and reuse technologies use substantial energy. “forward osmosis,” exploits the natural diffusion of water through a semi-permeable membrane. Their process “draws” pure water from its contaminants to a solution of concentrated salts, which can easily be removed with low heat treatment — effectively desalinating or removing contaminants from water with little energy input.

The concentrated salt solution is probably a mixture of ammonia and/or carbon dioxide dissolved in water. The ammonia and CO2 are later easily boiled off and reused. The energy required for this quite less even low-cost solar heaters may be sufficient.

Fighting hunger with flood-tolerant rice

Sayan — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:35:05 +0000

CNN reports that scientists after over 10 years of research have successfully developed a new strain of flood-tolerant rice through precision breeding. Read the article to know more about the inspiring work being done to positively impact the lives of hundreds of millions.