Download Firefox 3 ... Today

It's June 17th, and today Firefox 3 get released officially. Mozilla, that own Firefox is trying to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records, by making the maximum downloads in the first 24 hours of release.

I am die hard fan of firefox, and would like to request all users of Firefox to download the new version today and help Mozilla in setting the record. I also request all non-Firefox users to also download Firefox and give it a try. I bet that you will like to so much that you will never wanna go back to your old browser, except for sites that were designed specifically on for those browsers.

Mozilla also has a site http://www.spreadfirefox.com to track the number of downloads.

To download Firefox 3, go to either http://www.spreadfirefox.com or http://www.mozilla.com/firefox

Hope all of you will join me and millions in downloading FF3 and setting the record

Technorati Tags: Software, Mozilla, Firefox, Firefox 3, FF3, Download, Guinness World Records

Price of Oil ... Up Up and Away ... Alternate Perspective ... Resetting the base price of Crude

98 ... 99 ... 102 ... 105 ... 110 ... 115 ... 120 ... up up and away, that's how the price of crude oil is over the past one year.

2 years back, the price oil touching 70-80 dollars was a big thing and it got people and governments worried, but with the current prices there is just no reprieve. Is the current price of oil actually due to demand-supply or just speculation in the futures market?

Analysts say that the rise is oil is not because of any mismatch in demand-supply i.e. either production or refining capacities but mainly speculation and the fall in the value of the dollar in comparison to the other major currencies namely the Euro and the British Pound.

I am no expert at the topic or an analyst of any kind, but just a thinking consumer trying to evaluate the situation just for my own benefit, and solace. Looking that the current situation, I feel there is one more angle that most analyst might have missed or do not want to talk about. The angle being of resetting expectations in the minds of the consumers for the price of fuel (gas).

Till 2005-2006, consumers were used to prices hovering in the range of 60-70 dollars a barrel of crude oil. The prices have always hovered in in this range for years, thus limiting the margins of the oil companies and making the increase in profits connected to either rise in consumption or other non-core activities to increase their top line profits. Additionally, with the recent push from governments to go green, increase in fuel economy of cars, mixing of ethanol, bio fuels must have got the big oil companies worried about their bottom lines. Since each of the above factors except mixing of ethanol drives towards reduction in consumption of fuel (gas) for the same number of miles driven by consumer. Additionally the drive by car makers like Honda, Toyota and others to develop electric and hybrid vehicles adds to the woes of the oil companies as this directly reduces or in some cases minimizes the use of fuel.

So now if the oil companies want to keep their investors happy and keep up with the great profits and returns they are used to for the past many decades, they would have to increase the raise the prices of the raw material (crude oil) as much as possible. Since the extraction of the raw material is performed by the same companies (fully backward integrated) every dollar rise in the price of crude, add billions of dollars directly to their bottom line, without any increase in cost of production. This was they will be able to safeguard the interests o your investors and keep showing record profits.

Additionally, by increasing the prices to phenomenal level to lets say 150 or something, and they cooling the prices and resetting the base prices to say 115 or 120 will be a easy task as the consumers will be happy that the prices is no longer 150 a barrel but 120 now, and generally since public memory is short they will soon forget that just a few years back the price of oil used to hover around 60-70 dollars a barrel.

So in the end everyone's happy. The consumers happy since the oil prices have cooled down and are way of their peaks. The oil companies are happy since the base price for crude has been reset from 60-70 dollars, to the new current levels. The investors are happy since the oil companies are still reporting exceptional profits even in the era of "Go Green", "Environment Friendly". All are happy, then how is unhappy in the end? It's those crazy consumers who live and cherish the past when fuel (gas) was dirt cheap (USD 0.96/gallon in the US) compared to today (USD 4.00 or 5.00/gallon)

Technorati Tags: Crude Oil, Gas, Petrol, Fuel, Oil Companies, PoV, Point of View, Speculation, Perspective

Blackberry Phone and security issue in India

For the past few month I have been reading about the issues between RIM (Research In Motion) the manufactures of Blackberry phones and the Security Agencies (Intelligence Bureau) of India.

The issue being raised by the security agencies revolve around that they cannot lawfully intercept the communications happening between the world and a blackberry user in India, since the RIM servers are hosted in Canada. In addition even communication between 2 blackberry users within India cannot be lawfully intercepted because the messages completely bypass the telcos in India. Now since the information is being passed directly through a server that is hosted outside the country it is difficult for the agencies it to intercept lawfully.

One of the suggestions given by the government and the security agencies is to host the servers in India, this way they will be able to gain access to communications in case they need to for security reasons.

But at this, RIM as been talking about other alternatives of providing access like providing mechanisms to decompress data, to be allowed for interception (read here) which may lead to a breach of privacy, but are not ready to co-locate their servers in India. Till now RIM has shied away from this option and no clue about the reasons. Earlier in the year RIM had 2 major outages due to which many users in North America were not able to access their mails for hours.

This raises some questions in my mind regarding the policies of RIM. Most of the companies, talk about have redundant networks, and disaster recovery management systems, like co-locating server in a different country.

RIM could use this opportunity to have co-hosting put in place in a different part of the world. Also India has proved it's skills in IT and IT enabled services.

So my main question is what is stopping RIM from setting up servers in India and help the security agencies. Also won't it be useful for the company to have servers in India, as they could serve a large population in Asia including India, China, Singapore, and other Asian countries (2/3rd of world's population) using servers in a near proximity thus reducing their overall network and other operating costs?

Technorati Tags: Blackberry, Research In Motion, Telecom, Point of View

Opening doors to nice lebanese cuisine .... Open Sesame

Name : Open Sesame
Address: 5215 E 2nd St, Long Beach, CA 90803 US (Get Directions)
Cuisine : Lebanese/Mediterranean
Website: http://www.opensesamegrill.com
Price : $$
Parking : Street
Rating : 4/5

If you like Lebanese food and stay around LA or visiting, then this is one place you should not miss. The place is not very big, so be prepared to wait. We went on a Thursday and even then we had to wait for a good 30 mins. They are opening an another place just round the corner, but looking at the rush, I feel even after that place open up, there will still be waiting for a minimum of 15-20 mins.

Since the restaurant Located in the city of Long Beach on 2nd Street, the feel around is very good. There are many shops, and restaurants and hence even at 10 pm the street looks pretty lively with people walking and enjoying. Since it is in the main commercial area, they do not have a parking lot, and one needs to find street parking. The decor give a typical mediterranean look and the feel of the place is very nice.

After the long wait, we finally got a table. Being vegetarians although our choices are limited, none the less they have a good 5 appetizers and 2 entrees in the menu for us. Being light eaters, we (my wife and I) normally share the dishes so that way we can taste and sample multiple dishes.

For starters we ordered Fried Potatoes. This is a very neat dish. It consists of potatoes sauteed with
cilantro, garlic, chili and lemon. The ingredients give the potato a
nice tangy flavor with a touch of spice.
Below is a pic of the dish.
(Excuse us for the quality of the image, we forgot our camera,and had
to use the cellphone's camera to click the photograph)



And for the entree we had ordered the Vegetarian Plate.
It is pretty wholesome as it consists of hummus, baba ghannouj,
tabouleh, grape leaves and falafel patties. All this is served with pita
bread. The falafel patties and the hummus was awesome, I really loved
it. The quantity of the dish was nice and enough to fill both of us.



Our overall experience was great and we definitely recommend to go to Open Sesame and try out the authentic lebanese food.

Technorati Tags: Lebanese, Long Beach, Mediterranean, Restaurant Review

Trip to Chicago ...

End of May was arriving, as so was our first long weekend in US, Memorial Day (28th May). Since this was our first long weekend, we decided to go and visit my friend/colleague Jaswinder and his family in Schaumburg.

So we were back out on the I-55 towards Chicago, and experienced with my prior experience on the Interstate, I was more confident and ready to take up the challenge. We reached my friend's house after a drive of 2½ hours. I had been to Schaumburg earlier when I had come to US on a prior assignment in 2003, so the place was familiar and it was like revisiting and cherishing old memories.

Since we had reached in the evening, we just relaxed and chit chatted. My friend a daughter and she is around 2 yrs old, so it was great fun playing with her. Next day we had decided to go to Chicago, but my friend's coming was doubtful due to some project problems. Understandable, since I was with him on the same project 2 yrs back and know the issues.

So next day morning, Kruti and I drove to the Roselle station, to catch the Metra for Chicago downtown. It's take about an hour and costs USD 5 for a weekend pass so it an excellent deal, compared to driving paying toll and plus parking charges which are no less than USD 15 in downtown.

The moment we came out of the Union Station, we walk on the sidewalks towards the loop and Michigan Ave. The first building (of the many in Chicago) was the Sears Tower (the tallest building once upon a time in the world, and currently in USA) Then walking on reached Michigan Ave, passing by Club Quarters on 110 W. Adams Street. I remember this place since I stayed here during my 15 day visit, after which my work profile got transformed from an J2EE expert to an BPM (Business Process Management) expert with skills in process modeling, design, and everything around it and not to forget SOA (Servcie Oriented Architecture) which has went on to become my primary domain of expertise now.

Walking we reached on the intersection of W Adams St and Michigan Ave, and exactly in front of us was the Art Institute of Chicago. We did not visit the museum, since none of us are big museum fans. We like seeing nice places, architectures, and roaming around in the open. So after adoring the architecture we moved on towards Lake Shore Drive.

Walking we reached "The Millennium Park". The park consists of different abstract works of many artists. The park is open throughout the year with no entry fee, but most of the activities including the fountain are operation mainly during Spring and Summer. The Crown fountains is a very different here. There are 2 large Glass brick walls type structures, with small fountains in between. On these glass walls, they showcase faces of people, from different races. One wall displays a male's face while the other displays a female's face. After doing some facial expressions for around 2-3 mins, they open their mouths to form a circle, and a jet of water flows out of the mouth. The children love it, and they have a lot of fun. Moving on we saw all the structures created by the different artists. The best we like of all is the Cloud Gate. It is a bean like structure, coated with highly reflective material. The surfaces are concave and convex, making the reflections fun. It is a must see, if you are visiting Chicago. Then we went on to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion where an Navy band was playing. It was great to see and hear them play. Later we visited The Lurie Garden, it has beautiful plant of different colors, especially purplr ferns.

Moving on, we reached Lakeshore drive. And then started walking towards Navy pier. The walk on the lakeshore drive was very nice. Seeing people run, jog, relax was a great to see. Both of us enjoyed our walk. Finally after walking around 2miles, we reached Navy Pier.

First we decided to take the Architecture cruise that is conducted by Shoreline Sightseeing. The cruise, take you around through the Chicago river and provides a guided tour of Chicago's architecture and it's history. It is a nice way to see most of the buildings in Chicago, as they are built around the Chicago river. The tour also explains the rationale behind the design of each building and it's uniqueness. The tour is for around an hour, but you don't get bored except for the last 5-10 mins, when the boat is returning back since it has traverse part of the same route back.

After the tour we hung out at Navy Pier, saw all the rides, and enjoyed the rest of the time. By the time we finished hanging out, it was time to go back, so we rushed to the station to catch our train. Once we reached Roselle station and we started to head back to my friend's house, I took a small detour.

The detour was to show Kruti where I stayed when I had come earlier and the place around, as I was familiar with the streets (somewhat ;) ). Finally we reached my friends house, tired after an whole day's trip.

Next day, was Sunday and our time to leave back had arrived, but before going we decided to visit Devon Street, it is said to be Little India in Chicago. When we reached, it was really like being back home. So many Indian shops and restaurants. We spent about 2 hrs there, shopping for Indian groceries, and eating and roaming around. The place where we had lunch was Woodland Restaurant. A South Indian restaurant. We were happy to have dosa and chutney here after a long time, even though the chutney was slightly sour, the overall expirence was good.

Finally we headed back to Bloomington. Initially we had hard time get back on the interstate as we had to take to many turns and go through many small lanes. But once we were on the Interstate we were fine. By now I was pretty confident of my driving and felt better driving on the Interstate.

Below are some of our memories for the trip.




Technorati Tags: Bloomington, Chicago, Travel, Millennium Park, Navy Pier, Devon Street, Little India, Schaunburg, Metra

First drive on the Interstate

So finally settled down in our apartment, and the weekend was arriving. We had decided to go to Grand Rapids to my sister's place (who had come down earlier) to meet them.

Like everyone else who do not have GPS, we also took the driving direction using google and set out on journey on the interstate. This was the first time that I was driving on the Interstate (have driven on the Mumbai-Pune expressway) so was slightly nervous but not that much.

After leaving our house, we joined on the I-55 towards Chicago. Bloomington is located on the intersection of I-55 and I-74. So if you have to go to any location north, you have to take I-55 upto Chicago, before you can move into the actual direction.

Initially for the first hours, I was driving at 55mph below the speed limit as I was getting accustomed to the high speeds and the flow of traffic around. Then after the first hour, when we were about to reach Chicago,I gathered some courage, and increased my speed slowly to 65. Then then we hit I-80, to take us towards our destination. On the I-80, after the toll booth is where the fun started for me.

Few miles after the toll booth, come the complex road network around Chicago, with multiple exits and merging. Many time the merging roads are as wide as the interstates, at it was at this time that I got confused a couple of times. I have a habit of looking that the upcoming direction boards, and many times I used to see I-80 towards Indianapolis above me, and slightly later I use to see it 6 lanes to my right, and it was during the initial 2 times, that when I saw the boards on the far right, I actually pulled my car towards the right, only to realize that the board was actually for the parallel road which was merging :)

After leaving the Chicago area, the drive all the way upto Grand Rapids was nice with no additional confusion or issues. By the time we reached Grand Rapids it was 11 pm EST (we left around 5:00pm CST). Once we entered the area where my sister lives, we could not find the final street that she lives on, since there were no street lights, and the street names, were written on very small boards.

To top it all we could not call them since we did not have a cellphone, so finally we managed to reach a 7eleven and requested if we could make a call. The lady there was very nice, and allowed us to make the call. Finally my sis came and picked us up and finally we reached home.

So overall the drive was nice, and got to learn a few things also. The most important one was only look at direction boards above your lave and 2/3 lanes on your left or right. Do not follow the boards, that are on the far right or far left.


Technorati Tags: Bloomington, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Travel