Jumping from Windows to Mac . No Windows7 for me?

Last two times at the release of the new microsoft operating system, I got the new pc with the new OS. It was great using Windows XP and to be frank i have enjoyed using Windows Vista. It never crashed on me and i always had a good peformance. My PC was pretty good at the time i bought it (time of vista release - Jan 2007)and is still very good with 4 GB of Ram, Intel Core2 Duo and 160 Gb hard disk. (i dont use much digitla media, so 160 Gb was fine for me).
Now as we are expecting Windows7 release osmetime this year, its time to buy a new PC with the new OS. However i am not sure about it this time. Mind you Windows 7 seems good. I have it installed on my test PC, though i havent done much on it.

However i am planning to jump the ship and move to Mac. I do use Mac occassionally at the uni and i find it really hard to use it, but still i want to move to Mac. Why then i want to move to Mac? Its the iPhone which has convienced me that i got to get the Mac. I got to try it fulltime as my only workstation. Only then will i know if its good for me. As i use Visual Studio for development, i will need to use VMware Fusion. So i ahve decided that my next comp is Mac.
When? - I plan to buy a Mac around summer time. I am still deciding on wihch one..
I dont know if i will ever have a Windows7 PC. Let see what happens in the next 6 months.

My iPhone

I got a new iPhone. Though its been a month now, but i thought i will post it here anyway. Its an awesome piece of device. Functionally my windows mobile does everything what the iPhone does. But the difference is the way iPhone does it. Yes..Its all about the user experience with the iPhone which i am really enjoying.

I am back after a 3 month gap

Its been a long time since i last blogged. Its been a strange and absolutely wonderful time from Nov to Jan 2008 end. A lot happened during this time, some was good some was ok.. I have some sweet memories.
But now after three months of letting myself loose, i am back in business. I will blogging much more regularly from now on.

Credit Crunch - Will this lead to recession?

Northern Rock the UK's fifth-largest mortgage lender, has asked The Bank of England to provide emergency financial support. This has made the Newcastle-based firm the highest-profile UK victim of the global credit crunch, triggered by the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US. But the question is how many more to come? Following the widespread losses made by investors in loans to US homebuyers with poor credit history, the so-called sub-prime loans, banks and investors who have had their fingers burned have become wary of buying any mortgage debt.

As financial times stated: “When the patient is in seizure and the extremities are starting to turn blue it is not the time to worry about the patient’s longer-term dietary plans or about undesirable side-effects of the current treatment. Yet I fear this is what central banks will do. The next set of steps had better be convincing and decisive, otherwise a much wider financial implosion and economic recession will become very likely.”

How will it affect the jobs in the city? Will we see a slowdown? Lets wait and watch

Artificail Intelligence - Machines taking over?

Continuing from m earlier discussion about Artifical Intelligence, i found the following from one fo the technology writers who went to the Singularity Summit

Singularity Institute Research Fellow Eliezer Yudkowsky explained over the weekend at the Singularity Summit why many believe that machines will eventually be smarter than their makers. The stunning progress in packing more computation power onto silicon chips, married with software designers’ increasing ability to take advantage of this power, virtually guarantees that machines are progressing faster than humans are. One day, machines will start building themselves, he predicted. And at that point, humans will certainly no longer be the smartest creatures in the room.

All that conference goers could agree on is that life with machines won't be the same. And even if the machines that take over from the geeks are friendly, these new masters of the universe may not serve pinot noir.

Artificial Intelligence - Where are we heading to?

Recently the Singularity Summit was held in San Francisco and it was attended by record number of people.

I had been reading quite a lot on the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence recently. The singularity institue exists to confront the new world of Artificial Intelligence, both the opportunity and the risk. I have been interested in this field since 2003, when i took a module on AI in my Computer Science degree and thus have my own views to share.

Do you think the machines can take over mankind someday? - Well currently i cant imagine something like that. However i can imagine computers taking over most of our jobs. People worry about competing for jobs with people from Mexico or from China, but what about competing with computers for jobs? People will be friends with robots who tend to understand them better than other humans!!! It will be robots who will make decisions as to when are we supposed to sleep, when are we supposed to eat and what are we supposed to like. Now that seems scary right. I think in 20 -25 years time we might also have the first Human-Robot relationship(partners/marriage). In short, robots will be good enough to replace humans for almost everything.


Robots are already to the level of rather dumb/stupid pets. Given moore's law, they will be to the level of smart pets within three to five years... That much is just simple exploitation of systems that have already been developed... This is such deep stuff, and there is so much of it that it will really take a human+ intelligence to fully use the data that we have now, much less the data that we will generate before we are able to create that human+ intelligence.

Tiger Beer Singapore Chilli Crab Festival - Bricklane

Today i went to the Tiger Beer Singapore Chilli Crab Festival at bricklane. I had heard so much about bricklane, but never been there. So i othught it was a good chance to go there.

I tried the Singapore's unofficial national dish (crabs!!! - you would have guessed by now), as well as other regional specialities such as Hainanese chicken rice, char kway teow and laksa.

You could even get henna tattoos there, watch Chinese dragon dancing and browse market stalls at this event organised by the Singapore Tourism Board.

Morveover walking around bricklane made me feel that it was quite similar to Camden Market. There were artists, musicians and lots of junk stuff being sold and bought. It was a nice expereince to see another aspect of life and ponder over it.

Still thinking about it actually.....

Sharapova's US Open wardrobe is inspired by New York's skyline

For 2007 U.S. Open Sharapova is wearing tennis dresses decorated with graphic interpretations of the cityscape on the chest.

The dress is a sleek garment made of a breathable wicking jersey and constructed with a no-sew technique with seams bonded with heat and silicone instead of thread.
There are more than 600 Swarovski crystals incorporated into the design, adding a little flash to the outfit, but Sharapova said it's simple and classy, which suits her taste. "I don't like things with too much pattern ... things that are tacky.''
There also are three crystal buttons down the back, creating a keyhole effect.

No thats a quality dress i reckon. By the way she is through to the third round as well.

YouTube role grows as U.S. election nears

Candidate Forum on You Tube


Democratic U.S. presidential candidates (L-R) Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Maurice Gravel, William Richardson, Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd and Joseph Biden take part in a candidates forum at the NAACP annual convention in Detroit, Michigan July 12, 2007. YouTube members are uploading video questions for upcoming CNN/YouTube debates.By yesterday evening, more than 1,700 videos had been put on YouTube's site for tnights debate among Democratic candidates. Now thats what i call Technology influencing Mankind.......or lets say influencing politics

Scotland Trip (15/09/2006 - 18/09/2006)

Before I forget let me capture the events and moments:

15: Edinburgh castle,
Hollyrood House, Edinburgh chapel
Authentic Fish and Chips.
16: Old town visit, dads office search, Royal botanical garden, Rosilln village and
chapel(The DaVinci Code Chapel), Authentic scottish beers and excellent food,
nightclub with champs.
17: Muselborough village and beach, John Muir Walk, Dad old house search,
Portobello beach, BenBradley, Champs discussion, Lots of beer.
18: Champs shopping. Mum shopping. Dad calling,I drinking.

1 year since we finished our Masters Degree

Well its been exactly a year when we finished our dissertation and thus our Master's degree. I just cant believe that time has gone by so fast. I still clearly remember we all working like mad to meet the deadline. Jamie was the first one to finish his dissertation in the whole of the uni i reckon. Ben was struggling to finish his dissertation as well. I remember in the start of august, he was already considering toher options. Writing the actual dissertation (the report) was actually the hardest part for me. Champs and BaoYuan had finished their dissertation early and left Hull. ioulieta was as usual so stressed!!!! We have come a long way from that. Ankur and Rob Miles were cool as it goes with their personality. Ankur i reckon spent equal time in lab and in "Fuel" in July. I partied a lot during July to Aug mid and watched loads of wimbledon. But yeah finally we all got there. Congrats people.

And best of luck for years to come.

Passed my driving test

I have passed my practical driving test. Today was my test at the DVLA croydon centre.

Today 15th of August is India's Independence Day. I am missing the Parade in delhi, which iused ot watch on TV.

Came across this quote on TFS team blog:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” - Albert Einstein

Croydon Life

Police looking for human remains are preparing to begin a finger-tip search of the former home of a convicted paedophile in south London - croydon.
Detectives began an investigation after receiving an anonymous letter last year which claimed human remains linked to events 35 years ago were buried there.

Now that is scary..

Long time no blog

Its been long, really long that i havent blogged. I had written a blog last time on 29th Spetember. A lto has happened since then. The biggest thing is that i have got a job. Yes i am working as a .NET professional now. Its been more than two months and tell you what i am just loving my job. I am working as a .NET Developer. Christmas is approaching now. It would be fun.
Would update all of my blog readers later in detail.

Have a nice weekend everybody
Ankit

Joke

I just came across a joke regrading programmers on dotnetjunkies.



The girl gets irritated with the smoke and says to her lover:

"Can't you see the warning written on the cigarette packet,

Smoking is dangerous to your health?"

The boy replies back

"Darling, I am a programmer, we don't worry about

WARNINGS, we only worry about ERRORS!

By skiff

Hello Folks!!!

This is my first entry