My Thoughts! - by Prakash G.R.

Yesterday, when I was in Chennai, I run across this Google service accidently. What else to say?

Another V.Good for Google

written by Prakash G.R.

I saw this article from Gilli on Macro photography by reversing the lens in an SLR. I tried it yesterday. After a lots and lots of trail & errors, I got some good shots. Check this image:

This is taken with a 50mm lens in normal way. Look at the all flowers. The lens cap should give you an idea about the size of those flowers. Now in macro mode, the same flowers:

If you have enough bandwidth, here is the high resolution full screen slide show (The pictures look much better in high resolution).

A brief guide on Reverse lens macro photography:

• First things first - the object. First I tried with some plain flowers and the results were not reflecting in the efforts. It was just like a normal photograph. So select an object which will have lot of details when zoomed in
• Take off your lens, reverse it and hold it to the mount. Keep the other end of the lens some 10-20 cms away from the object and try to move your lens+camera together towards the object. At some point you will find the object focussed. From there you can adjust the focus from your lens
• Remember, the lens is out of its mount. You don’t have any control over any of the lens functions. The aperture is wide open and no auto focus
• You retain full control of your sensor. So Whitebalance/ISO are adjustable. Also the shutter speed. Change these settings with the fully open aperture in mind.
• The DOF is too good. The focusable area is hardly one or two millimeters
• Any small movement (either camera/object) will cause dramatic effects in the picture. You would have seen in the above shots itself
• Try to get hold of a tripod and/or a reverse adapter. Believe me. Its a pain in your back to shoot without them
• Patience. You need a lot of patience. But the results will be worthy of the time you spent experimenting.

written by Prakash G.R.

Yesterday when I came out of Bangalore Airport, I saw a big advertisement for a residential apartment. It said about a free gift with every purchase and a jackpot prize for one person.  What’s surprising in that - you ask. Well the free gift is a brand new BMW Car and the jackpot prize is a personal jet or a private island! I was about to fall down and then read the whole advertisement. The ad was by Damac and property is in Dubai. Hmmm, Ok. Bangaloer is real estate prices are under controlor is it that Bangalore people decided that the prices here are too high and started investing in “cheaper” ones like these?

I had my camera with me and took few snaps in the return journey. While my flight was waiting to enter the runway, another flight was landing. With the evening sun in the backdrop it came out as a nice snap. Check it out

written by Prakash G.R.

A snap that I took two weeks back in Chennai. It got me quite a lot of good comments. One of my friend pinged me and said that he had this as his desktop wallpaper, so thought its worthy enough to post it here

written by Prakash G.R.

2 months back, after the normal password change stuff, I forgot the new password of my ICICI Demat account. I applied for a new password thru the portal, but it was returned back saying invalid address. After 5 mins of waiting and a long call with the customer care “executive”, I got them resend the password. It was sent back again for the same reason. It happened twice again. The last time, I was not ready to take chance. I followed up with the First Flight couriers and I was going there to the Peelamedu office every day and finally got my password - nearly after 2 months!(for a change, this time the mistake was not by ICICI)

When I asked them what was wrong with the address, I got this stupid answer: One of the delivery guys went for a long leave and they didn’t have enough resources. And more over the password was sent in a ZB category, which means they should not hold it for more than a day or two. So they sent it back. The best reason to return it was to say that the address is invalid. WTF? When I asked whether they know how important the timely delivery of a demat account password, I got a sarcastic answer. I really got pissed off, but shouting there is of no use. I decided to hit them where it hurts.

Back to home and the first thing I did was to write a detailed mail to ICICI’s helpdesk about what happened, and put the First Flight’s Mumbai head office & regional head office in the CC. I said not to deliver any of the communication to me thru this courier and suggested them not to use this for anyone else also. The response was good. The FF Courier’s head office guys contacted me for more info of what happened. After 2 days (probably probing into what exactly happened) they apologized and said it will not happen. I hope the Peelamedu guys would have got whatever they deserved or even more.

PS: In case you were wondering, the help desk guy @ ICICI direct did what he was trained to. He replied (luckily not Reply All) promptly with the step-by-step directions of how to apply the new password. I replied asking him to forward the issue to their superiors and take appropriate action. That worked. At least their supervisor could understand and promised me that they will take up the issue to concerned authorities in ICICI and thanked for the feed back.

written by Prakash G.R.

என்ன எழுதினாலும், உன்னுடைய“அச்சச்சோ!”
“ஊஹூம்…”
“ம்க்கும்!”
“ப்ச்..ப்ச்..”
“ஹேய்…”

…க்களுக்கு முன்னால்
என் கவிதைகள் தோற்று விடுகின்றன!

காதல் ரசம் சொட்டச் சொட்ட கவிதை எழுத எல்லாம் எனக்கு வராது.  அதெல்லாம் அருட்பெருங்கோ அழகா பண்ணுவார். அவர் எழுதினதுல ரொம்ப பிடிச்ச கவிதைல ரொம்ப பிடிச்ச வரிகள் தான் மேல. முழு கவிதை இங்க இருக்கு.

written by Prakash G.R.

“Senator Barack Obama made the point on Monday that the United States needs an education system that enables children to compete with those from India and China”

 - Source: The Hindu.

I thought that this day would never come! So following the same line what might be coming up? Let me guess not-so-far-in-the-future headlines:

• Ford, Toyota, Hyundai and General Motors to form a consortium to create next generation cars as they are facing tough competition from Ambassador & Contessa in the passenger segment and luxury segment. Due to unmatched safety features and comfortness, these mobile sofas took the US markets by storm last year and made the shares of these companies nose dive
• Apple Inc. in a wide anticipated move, shut down its PC hardware division as its can’t win its competitors - HCL and Zenith Computers. Apple Inc’s CEO Steve Jobs said that this move will help Apple’s hardware division to concentrate on iPods and iPhones. He also claimed that within an year, Apple will overtake HRC and come back to number one position in personal MP3 players. Chennai based HRC is currently an undisputed leader in MP3 players with 80% of the market share and Apple a distinct second with 12%. Analysts claim that its better for Apple to shut down its entire hardware division and focus on Mac OS and its applications
• Bose Corporation proudly announced that it has signed a MoU with the Indian audio giant Ahuja. Under this agreement, Bose will use Ahuja’s superior technology in all of its sound systems. Ahuja will provide all the technology and Bose will handle the manufacturing, marketing and distribution. Following this announcement, the widespread rumours that Bose is going to fire their entire R&D department, has becoming more probable than ever
• Taking clues from the successful implementation of Indian Railway administration in Germany and Japan, the French railway minister and his officials were on a 2 month visit to India to learn the functionalities of Indian Railway. They will implement the same structure in France for a better cargo management; better passenger satisfaction and reduced costs. The Indian Railways minister Dr. Kanimozhi will help them in the study and implementation as well
• In reply to Wipro acquiring Yahoo! for Rs 200 Billion, the IT major Infosys is all set to acquire Google for Rs 300 billion in all cash and stock deal. As Infosys already has many of Google’s functionalties (Google Search - MSN Search, Gmail - Hotmail, etc) from its earlier acquisition of Microsoft last year, job cuts across the companies are envisaged
• The American parliament passed the bill on outsourcing its Government to India. Its a well known fact that for decades together, the American Government has failed to clear the debt on the nation. Increasing interest rates, inflation, appreciating Rupee, wrong foreign policies, unnecessary spending on military and war and much more problems can be solved by this. Neeraj Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India and the son of Rahul Gandhi, said that India is ready to help the reviving US economy by taking over as a President of US. Following this decision, the Nasdaq raised by more than 15% and the US dollar raised to 2 year high of Rs 52.

அப்பாவி ஆறுமுகம்: யப்பா ஒபாமா. எங்கள வெச்சு காமெடி கீமெடி எதும் பண்ணிடலையே?

written by Prakash G.R.

வெயில், பருத்தி வீரன், கல்லூரி இந்த மாதிரி நல்ல படம் எல்லாம் எடுக்கும் போது என்னடா இப்படி ஒரு தலைப்புன்னு கேக்கறீங்களா? இத பாருங்க. embed செய்ய இஷ்டம் இல்ல. லிங்க் மட்டும் தான் :-)
அப்பாவி ஆறுமுகம்: ஏம்பா நம்ம எலய தலபதி கூட இப்படித்தான மொதல்ல இருந்தாரு? அவர் இப்போ ஹிட்டு ஹிட்டா குடுக்கலியா?

written by Prakash G.R.

I was looking thru the search queries of Jan 08 for this blog and found these interesting combination of queries:

written by Prakash G.R.

I love B&W photos. Combined with a nice expression, the photos are simply superb. Here is the next set:

    

written by Prakash G.R.