Grand Canyon - The Making

Toroweep, Grand Canyon National Park
AZ, USA

While the Colorado river accounts for the canyon’s depth, its width and formations are the work of even greater forces. Wind rushing thru the canyon erodes the limestone and sandstone- a few grains at a time. Rain pouring over the rim cuts deep side canyons on the softer rock. Perhaps the greatest canyon building force is snow or ice ! Water from the snow melt and the rain work its way into the cracks on the rocks. When frozen, expands, forcing the rocks away from the canyon walls.

 

Ray Ozzie continues to Amaze, but Would it Suffice ???

Tech Preview of Microsoft Mesh was launched yesterday. First few glances of Mesh sounds promising (here here and here too). Had been wondering what Ray Oozie was up to all these days. It has been 3 years since he joined Microsoft. And yes he is the same person behind Lotus Notes and Groove.

The former(Notes) was bought by IBM and the latter(Groove) was taken over by Microsoft. Though Ozzie was not able to stick with IBM for long, Lotus Notes did play a vital role in the rebirth of IBM in 90’s. Microsoft was everyone’s Darling then, and IBM was the big bad guy. DejaVu, here we are at the same juncture, only the player are different - Microsoft & Google.

Not that old an Illustration from Wired

Earlier when Ozzie teamed up at Microsoft, he addressed  the 70,000+ members with this Memo.

In 1995, Bill Gates foresaw the Internet tidal wave and pushed his company to adapt. At the time, that seemed prophetic. Today, Ray Ozzie is pushing the same thing, but this time it’s about survival.

Would Ozzie be able to turn the tables for Microsoft ? Time would tell !!!

Update : A diff perspective to Mesh from Joel Spolsky

 

Rock-a-mania

Skyline Arch, Arches National Park
UT, USA

Click here for Slideshow of the whole trip.

 

Morphing Mobile from Nokia

 

Yes it indeed, is a mobile from Nokia. Check out the below Video for cool features !!!

Now that you have drooled over the same (like me!) don’t be disappointed to know it  is a concept - a nanotechnology concept device from Nokia and University of Cambridge launch the Morph.

Morph is a concept that promises stretchable, flexible, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces. Nanotech seems to be really promising.

Elements of Morph might be available to integrate into handheld devices within 7 years, though initially only at the high-end.

Even if half of what is being projected is attained, it would be an amazing gadget.

Time would tell !!!

 

Just Do it !

Enroute to Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT, USA

Thinking you need rest makes you restless.
Thinking you have to work hard makes you tired.
Thinking you have worked hard brings self pity.

Just Do It !!!

 

Fall in Love with Nature

Alpine Scenic Loop
Provo, UT, USA

For the full set check this out.

 

Ancient Drawing Board

 

Lower Calf Creek Trail
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Utah, USA

It was an amazing experience just walking between mineral-streaked cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, beaver ponds and pre-historic rock art sites en route to the 126-foot-high Lower Calf Creek Falls. The total roundtrip distance to the falls is 5-1/2 miles. Though the summer sun was above and my (a little over a year old) son was on the backpack, the hike was pretty enjoyable with very little elevation change. Most of the trail is sandy & that slows the pace, at times !

The most interesting part of the hike were the wall paintings and the Indian granaries (zoom in & zoom out) and of course the jewel of the crown being the lower falls itself.

On an entirely different perspective, we travel so far, hike so long to get a peek into the lives of the Anasazi Indians. These petroglyph on the walls of the canyons does provide the glimpse. But you know what, in most of these trails you see a notice that there are messages that indicate a heavy penalty if you make new makings (or painting) on these canyon walls (of course !!!)

We do have the technology to make new painting on these walls, that could last more the existing ones. If we are not allowed to make new paintings today how would people, 800 - 1000 years from get a glimpse onto ours lives …… right

Wrong !!! As technology grows, live changes and so is the medium. Who knows even the blog(s) like these -yeah the same one u r reading now could serve the purpose of providing the window to our lives, in future. Time’s Person of the year , 2006 clearly indicated the significance of the user generated content (if you already don’t know Times Person of the year 2006 is YOU) .

The count of blogs, as of writing this post, just on WordPress.com alone is 1,562,804 blogs with 53,197 new posts today. Even after dropping off the test blogs and the inactive ones, it is still quiet a number - the point is there is a good amount of user content getting generated every day on the Internet.

What would happen to these valuable user generated content, once the user is no more ?Even if someone decides to manage and maintain a users content after user’s time, On what basis would the user account details be shared with the family or friends ? May be the blog or the site could be graciously closed, but what if the users demise is not expected ? Would these become asserts of the individuate and hence be part of his Will ? How would we differentiate between the valuable and junk out of these content ?

So many things to ponder about ….

 

8 mp + 6x zoom + Image Stabilization = $200 ! WOW

Canon 720 IS - Is it really worth a wait?

I’ll know in a month or so. I moved to Canon S2 IS from Canon S50 three years back. It has been Canon for me that worked from the beginning. The cost of Memory Stick and compatibility has always kept me a little farther from Sony.

I have been looking at the option of moving to an SLR for the last couple of months. Still trying to gather reasons to justify the $$$ involved in the same

Meanwhile I was looking for a camera for my mom. Doing a quick search and reading some reviews zero’ed down on some canon models. That is when Canon 720 IS caught my attention.

Some of the key feature that I was looking for and available in Canon 720 IS were

Features	In Canon 720 IS
Compact	Its compact & Sleek
Point & shoot (with Manual Control)	~20 Shooting Mode(s) , with manual options
Power Zoom	6x (not as great as S2’s 12x , but still better)
> 6 megapixel for small Poster Print	8 megapixel
Cost	List price $250 (Street Price ~ $200)
AA Batteries	Yes. Having AA battery compatibility helps a lot, when ur stuck out of no where (lesson learnt from experience !!!)
Image Stabilization	Yes, Makes a lot of difference , especially with power zoom
Memory Options	MMC, SD and SD HC (High Capacity)
Movie Mode	Fast Frame Rate Movie mode for 60-frame-per-second video with sound
Support for additional lenses	Yes , Just in case

So here I am, awaiting for this sleek power toy ! Here is a detailed review of canon 710 , its predecessor, to get a feel for it! For a complete Spec of Canon 720 IS check this.

Update: This is available for $250 from couple of locations. Amazon.com was running this for $229 for just a couple of days last week. Now its $250 there too. Just today (Sept 23) morning noticed its available from oncecall.com for $229 (inclusive of 3 days Fedex shipping + no Tax). This seems to be the best price as of now. Just now placed an order, might not last long !!!

Update 2: It indeed was worth it. Except for the delay between shots (account to just 2 battries rather than 4 like my IS S2) , its just amazing !!!

 

The Earth is Cooking

Yellowstone National Park, WY, USA

This national park sits on 2000° lake of molten lava, an underground pressure cooker of 50 miles long and 30 miles wide. For atleast a few million years, since magma burned a hole under ancient Wyoming’s bedrock, yellow stone periodically disgorged a small ocean of lava in eruptions hundreds of times worse than any volcanic eruptions on earth.

Today, the volcanic action, heats the rocks below the surface, and this in turn creates all manner of spectacle in thousands of steaming hot springs and hundreds of geysers, plus bubbling mud-pots and fumaroles.

At Yellowstone, the earth is cooking - Life, Times Inc

 

Temple Square

Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT

Temple Square - An amazingly different place , an entirely new world within the downtown of Salt Lake City, UT. One a beautiful evening with a wonderful sunset - Lush gardens, serene pond, water fountains, iron cast statues - the list goes on …

For other shots of the Temple square, check this out (slide show).

I need to plan on a couple of visits, there is so much more around here.