Archive for June 2007

WB Atlantis, WB Crew

Last night, all attention was on TV. With the Atlantis scheduled to land. Various TV channels were showing their own coverage.. and perspective of the event. Some were showing people with tensed expressions but waiting to celebrate, some were showing Sunita Williams' relatives being interviewed, some channels were all out to get people even more tensed by showing how the Columbia disaster happened.. and some like Times Now were focussed just at NASA, Reuters and the event. It was all happening.. and then the Atlantis came in sight. truly majestic.. and made what was called a picture perfect touchdown. Whooo... a great experience to watch it live on TV. My palms locked in a prayer, I muttered welcome back Atlantis, welcome back Crew.

The NASA website also maintained a Landing Blog with updates as it was happening and a live video feed too. What a journey it must have been all the way out of the earth's gravitational pull piggybacked on a rocket.. get docked to the ISS... and then back home to the earth. With many such past journeys and many more to come. I got curious about other space shuttles.. existing and non existing.. and their history. I found this interesting Wiki Page which says it all. Also, here is Sunita Williams' Mission Log which I found quite interesting to read.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Posted by Unknown

Atlantis Touchdown - on TimesNow

With all the excitement of the Space Shuttle Atlantis that was expected to land yesterday late night, Indian Standard Time.. I was surfing through news channels watching out for the best coverage. I liked the one showed on Times Now, The Times Of India owned TV news channel. There was live reporting from NASA by Diane King, a Reuters news correspondent. In particular I was impressed with a feature that was titled "Countdown to Touchdown". Excellent information shared out there. What exactly happens when a Space Shuttle lands. Deorbit burn, Entry Interface, Maximum Heating, Exit Blackout, Terminal Area, Approach and Landing.. all about these stages, speeds, when the Commander takes control, the steep nosedive, right to the Touchdown and after. How the crew would be moved out to a safe location. Now thats what I call a good presentation ! Well.. we are all waiting eagerly and praying for the safe return of the Atlantis.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Posted by Unknown

Remembering Rakesh Sharma

As the world prepares to welcome Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams back to mother earth, my mind just went down memory lane when India's Rakesh Sharma went into outer space on Soyuz T-11 in 1984. I was a standard 6th school kid then and was fascinated watching all that was shown on Doordarshan. The memory of his famous answer is still fresh in mind. The then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi asked him, "upar se Bharat kaisa dikh raha hai aap ko ?" and prompt came the reply.. "Ji Bharat to Saare Jahan se Achcha hai". Wow ! That answer went down in history. I also remember his backup Wing Commander, Ravish Malhotra who was on a set of preparatory exercises too. But finally it was Rakesh Sharma who made it.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Posted by Unknown

MSN Messengerrrr Grrrrrrrrr !!!

I noticed something recently with MSN Messenger 8.1. When you hover the mouse over the advertisement section at the bottom of the main window, a big ugly advertisement comes up. Basically the advertisement zooms up and takes a large part of the screen.. and gives me back some distraction in return. Grrrrrr... I hate this !
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Posted by Unknown

Minority Report.. Coming soon..

In 2002 when I saw the Spielberg Movie Minority Report, I was impressed with the stuff shown there. John Anderton, the cop played by Tom Cruise entering the chamber of pre-cogs and using that special computer to "browse" through images captured on it. By browse I meant they showed him actually move his hands through a stored collection of pictures, zooming, rotating and resizing them up by stretching and moving his hands.

Of course I don't wish to narrate the story for those who havent seen the movie but they showed this in a future time era of 2050 which after seeing I said to myself.. eh its not that far and I guess we are gonna see computers like that soon.

And recently when Microsoft unveiled Surface... I said wow ! It's really happening. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/surface and with what Microsoft is heading for.. it's sure to rock !
Monday, June 04, 2007
Posted by Unknown
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I'm Back !

After a gap of an entire year from the blogging scene, I have finally made up my mind to start blogging again. Well, for now at least. So here I am. As usual, this space will NOT be exclusively dedicated to one-track technical content but rather a mix of lot many things that interest me. Keep in touch. Keep writing. :-)
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Posted by Unknown

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