Virtual World vs Real World
Is our Real World losing all detail while the Virtual Worlds gathers more life?

Read the Gizmodo article from frog Design Mind called Closing the Loop
P2P for premium content: finally.
As I had mentioned in my previous post, P2P can be used to explore new economic models.
It's nice to know that there's formal work in that direction as can be understood by this post.
They are doing exactly what I wanted them to do. It's nice to know the world is becoming a better place. And it inspires me to coninue my speculatory existence.
Open Source Movie!!

"You can help us realizing this project by purchasing the DVD of the movie in advance. The DVDs will include the movie in high quality widescreen, making-of documentaries and all production files. And even better, all orders before September 1 will get their name mentioned in the credits of the movie! "
Target product
The result of this project will be a short movie, 12-20 minutes, which will be distributed under the Creative Commons license which means it will be freely available worldwide for public viewing and redistribution without royalty demands or written permission from the original copyright owners. The movie will become available in three ways:
1) Downloadable version
- Movie in medium size quality, optimal for internet distribution.
- Available on blender.org and other websites2) DVD, extended edition
- Movie itself in maximum (wide screen) video quality
- The Making-Of documentary
- All the digital files (Creative Commons) and software (GPL) as used for the animation production
- Resale via blender.org e-shop3) 35 mm Film
- Targeted at movie theaters and festivals
- Rental costs covering expenses for reproduction and distributionThe movie will be submitted to festivals worldwide, such as the Siggraph Theatre, Cannes Film Festival or the Dutch Animation Festival.
Creative concept
The concept is currently being developed by Bassam Kurdali, Andy Goralczyk and Ton Roosendaal. New team members will be involved with this too.
In cooperation with Montevideo the concept then will be further worked out into a full script. Work on definite storyboards is scheduled to start in first week of September, when the team is together to start working.At this time it is not clear at what level the script or storyboard will be public during the creative and production process. One of the key aspects of the project is to have a small team of people working closely together for a short period, it might help their creative synergy when not every idea or trial or decision is public immediately.
On the other hand we'll depend on contributions from the community as well. This will be one of the aspects the team will further study on.
SPACE.com — ‘Planet’ No Longer a Scientific Word, Discoverer Says
So now they have found a significantly large body in the Kuiper Belt ( the swarm of objects way beyond Neptune). It's larger than Pluto. So it should be a planet.

So we have a tenth planet.
But no.
Going by that, there are 13 more such bodies. So if we call this one the 10th planet, then we infact end up with 23.
So we need to demote Pluto from planethood to avoid this situation, since no scientific definition of Planet will fit pluto but still toe out from encapsulating this new discovery.
There's a solution proposed. Let not "planet" be a scientific word.
Let it be a social/cultural world.
So planet by this definition means any of the big chunks of mass orbiting the sun which we feel close to.
So Pluto stays. And the "tenth" one need not be termed a planet.
Or maybe we can call it the tenth planet, but we need not include the 13 others which are already discovered, or the tens more that are yet to be discovered.
SPACE.com -- 'Planet' No Longer a Scientific Word, Discoverer Says
Suits me. Suits you?
Out goes the reel, theatres may now stream movies off the Internet
Now they have developed a technology using which you can "Broadcast Movies Directly to Theatres(Read more at wired.com)":http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68332,00.html
Now, isn't that amazing. So basically a theatre will become a huge TV.
Electronic Presence Awareness – Dodgeball & Google
I don't know where we are going. Sometimes things happen so fast, they overtake my thoughts and I find myself unprepared to sample what the facts convey. It takes time to sink in. It takes time to then incorporate that fact into my understanding of things and use it to make more accurate and deeper extrapolations.
Dodgeball ties up with
.
You are sitting in a library, reading a book. You wonder which people in the library like the book you are reading. You fire up google and search on it.
Viola, you get a list of people, sorted by Gender, Preferences, Age, Money and everything else that people choose to disclose. And you also get a snap (or even better GPS co-ordinates) and you can just walk up to the person and chat him/her up.
Convenient, revolutionary, amazing & disturbing.
Will take time to handle this.
ICICI Bank’s ‘Five S’ clean up act!
Five S is one of the basic tenets of lean manufacturing. It originated in Japan as a work-environment enhancing measure, but the Japanese believe this visually-oriented exercise is useful not just for improving the physical environment, but also for improving Total Quality Management (TQM) processes.
The five S's are: seiri (sorting out), seiton (systematic arrangement), seiso (spic-n-span), seiketsu (standardise) and shitsuke (self-discipline).
The dominating principle of Five S is to create ownership for every object in the organisation, so that nothing is neglected. In the first step (sorting out), individual owners sort their belongings into needs (used regularly, used irregularly) and wants (may be used later or scrap).
This is followed by making a systematic layout of the workplace, specifying the storage areas and deciding where to put each item, right from files and documents down to the stapler and pins.
The third phase (spic-n-span) monitors whether the earlier steps (S1 and S 2) are being regularly and effectively carried out and the workspace is kept clean.
What follows next is to standardise the policies and rules that are to be followed by the entire workplace. These include making timetables and indexes that indicate where you can find what, using charts and visuals. Finally, it is self-discipline that is required to sustain Five S.
Many successful organisations have found that by developing a high quality work environment and instilling discipline in the form of procedures and work instructions, employees devoted more energy and time to achieve results.
The Five S practice not only helps to impress the customers but also to establish effective quality processes for good services and products.
Five S is a part of the kaizen family that talks about continuous innovation. The Japanese invented it but its been adopted by range of non-Japanese companies ranging from computer giant Hewlett Packard to legendary motorcycles maker Harley Davidson.
In India companies like Hindustan Lever practice the principles of Five S under the umbrella of their efficiency and quality initiative, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM).
Other Indian companies that have taken up Five S include Bhel (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited) and the Aditya Birla group.
read Full Story
GoodNewsIndia~Population control for a democratised India
GoodNewsIndia~%u221E~Population control for a democratised India
A very interesting & inspiring model for population control in India.




