Desis, Start Sketching !

I was recently talking to a friend who works with 3D printing (some samples of 3D printing are here) and is thinking of starting a business of his own. He sent me his prototype website for feedback and the first thing that occurred to me was that he was working only with CAD models when a lot of modelers are switching to Google Sketchup. After his initial doubts, he started using it and now he tells me that he is amazed with its capabilities and is extremely grateful to me for suggesting it.

Like the webpage claims, you can model anything in 3D. Needless to say, a lot of people have been modeling buildings in their towns and every now and then a supermodeler is recognised and appreciated by the community. The most recent one, as far as I know, is Tang, whose goal is to model Taiwan. Check out some of his amazing models here.

So far I have seen many such supermodelers from all over the world but I am still missing someone from India. Given that India has so many beautiful places and buildings and even more talented people, this should not be this hard.

Constructing 3D buildings in one's hometown would be a great school level or even undergraduate level project. I say home town because in that case it would be easier to take photos of the buildings/monuments (to add the photo textures to the 3D model) and take in-situ measurements if there is a particularly difficult feature to model.

If enough initiative is shown by a particular school/town, Google may even be ready to sponsor some other activities in that place.

The board of tourism could use this tool to popularise some of the less known places in India Most international tourists only know two things about India - the Taj Mahal and Ayurveda. At best, they know about Rajasthan. The Karnak temple, the Vitthala temple and ruins in Hampi, various temples in Tamilnadu and so many more places can be brought to the attention to millions of Google users by means of Skechup.

The tool is free, is relatively easy to use and there are tonnes of training material and user forums available to help guide newbies...so makkale, give it a try and start Sketching !

PS: I would have loved to show a sample model that I created but certain rules in the industry I work in prevent me from doing so but I am sure Google search can help answer all your questions.

PPS: If I did miss any skechup supermodelers from India, please let me know, I will be really happy to get to know them !

Me like it !

I was sending an email and when I pressed the 'send' button, this is what happened.

It stops avasara kudukais like me from being embarassed and from having to send a second email ! Adra sakkai !

Update (for users without Buzz):

A friend of mine tried writing 'I have attached a pony to a donkey' and tried to send it. The email got sent without a pop-up, so its not just searching for the phrase 'I have attached' but it also takes contextual information.

What did you try ?

Delhi takes the lead in GIS

I was surprised and impressed when I first heard of the Delhi State Spatial Data Infrastructure Project (DSSDI). It is a project between Survey of India (Be honest, you didn't know such an agency existed, right?) and the Delhi Government to map Delhi to a hitherto unknown precision and here comes the exciting part, in 3D ! It began in 2007 and is now nearing completion and anything and everything is mapped right from traffic signs to light poles to underground systems. There are aerial photographs, terrain data, buildings, land use information all at high accuracies, enough to create a 3D virtual walkthrough of the city. The aim was to create a comprehensive information system that can be used by all Govt. agencies and from some samples I saw (which I unfortunately cannot share here), I have to say they are almost there.

In addition to this a number of monitoring and control centres as well as wireless cameras are to be installed throughout the city for security purposes for the commonwealth games (Maybe this can pursuade a number of foreign teams who have refused to come citing security reasons). I am expecting the hue and cry about violation of privacy by some organization in Delhi anytime now!

Before I recovered from this surprise, I saw another news piece that calls for installing GPS units in Autos in Delhi to use the distance traveled information to regulate fares. The installation apparently has to be done within the next 6 months and there will be a small hike in the fares so that the money comes from the customers in return for the service they get.

If you have any experience with Autos in Chennai, you can realize how this news brings a new hope to someone like me, hailing from Chennai and having to fight with Auto wallahs for every ride I take every time I go home! Appa used to always tell me not to haggle with street vendors for a few rupees since they depend on those for their livelihood while to us it almost means nothing. I would have gladly applied the same logic to Chennai Auto drivers had they not unabashedly asked me for four times the regular price without batting an eyelid ! I have a sneaking suspicion that in spite of installing GPS units, they would probably turn them off and still ask for a flat rate just like they do now with the auto meters but what’s life without a little hope….

On another note, I used the google maps app in the iPhone while driving from Ranipet to Chennai and I was completely amazed at how accurate it was and how it includes even the smallest kurukku sandhu (street)! Driving from Delhi to Noida though was a different challenge – the sector naming always drives me crazy especially when sector 86 follows sector 43 ! In spite of this, the google maps app had just 2 errors and still got me to the destination.

How does an autowallah usually give you directions ? He says, ‘nera poi koil anda thirumbu, aprum straighta pona oru postofffice varum, anga second right’ (go until you reach the temple, then turn and go straight until you reach the postoffice and then take a second right). Notice how directions are always related to landmarks ? Google uses exactly this logic to give directions in google maps in India (the screenshot shows how directions are given in other countries).

aga motham, vandhutangayya map poda....the vetti officers who pass time by giving right or wrong directions to people are going to be so disappointed !

India Vs China - (e)relations

A couple of months ago, this article caught my attention more so because from what little I know about the Indian army, its strengths and weaknesses, I can definitely say that if there is a war, both countries will lose but India will sustain the most damage and in a few years, everyone will conveniently forget any territories occupied by China (like the China-occupied Kashmir that seems to have eluded everyone’s memory). China already made a big fuss about the Indian Prime minister visiting Arunachal Pradesh. So what are China’s intentions towards India ?

I have always held the opinion that just because a country does not support democracy, it is no reason to suspect it of espionage or accuse it of unfriendliness. But this article refers to a report that shows a planned campaign of computer hacking by China. Comforting.

Internet freedom in China is very questionable and Google has already said that it may end operations in China . Previously, Google had been censoring the search results by filtering those websites that were categorized as hostile according to the Chinese Government. Agreed that Google is not the perfect platform for privacy. But even when Obama was in China, he aired his views on the topic of internet freedom and very predictably, it fell on deaf ears and the irony was that even his views were censored in various parts of the country.

I met a person from a Govt. agency in China at a conference. He voluntarily spoke to me, talked to me about his trip to Delhi a few years ago and then we moved on to discussing the conference itself. I gave him a business card and asked him for one. He searched for it in his pockets and said he would give it to me later (since the conference still had 3 more days to go). That was the last I saw of him ! Everytime I managed to talk to him during the coffee or lunch break, he would somehow evade me and I gave up after a while. Someone from a Govt. agency refuses to share a business card. Perfect. On the other side, the Indian army is requesting the personnel not to enter service-related information in Facebook or orkut for fear of leaking sensitive information. Democracy.

We used to have pot luck dinners at the University where students from many countries would meet and each would bring a dish from his/her place. There were 3 Chinese and during the dinner I asked them about their future plans and if they would go back to China. All the three said ‘No’ spontaneously and seeing my surprised look went on to explain that they liked it better in Europe and so on. Since then I have met numerous Chinese – friends and otherwise and until date I do not know of anyone who wants to go back. Do they all miss the freedom of expression, freedom of choice, freedom to watch a movie or browse without having the Govt. interfere? I wonder……

I completely agree that China and India view progress and success in very different ways. While China could conduct Olympics, India is still struggling to get the venue ready for the common wealth games (oh..what a shame) ! While China always figures in the top 5 Olympic medal winners, Indians look up the list everyday waiting for one winner to show up in the final tally. Yes, the Chinese are committed, and yes, they are working towards a goal. Everyone is talking about China’s growth and progress but how many people stop and ask ‘But at what cost?!’

War and colonialisation were seen as symbols of power of a country…oh…did I say were? Only there is the prefix e- to everything now, hackers are in demand and cyber wars are the way to go.

Amidst all this, the business week seems to have a completely different and interesting take. This article refutes the age old assumption that the China market is too big to walk away from and says India is a better market and here is the most interesting paragraph from the article - “The urban-rural income gap has steadily declined since the early '90s. Over the past decade, economic growth in rural India has outpaced growth in urban areas by almost 40%. Rural India now accounts for half the country's GDP, up from 41% in 1982. World Bank studies show that rural China accounts for only a third of GDP and generates just 15% of China's growth. Meanwhile, rural India is chipping in about two-thirds of overall growth”. This may be the cue for many firms to move from China to India and make similar or little lesser profits but without the difficult commercial conditions. If this is going to be good for India, well, that is a question that only time can answer.

PS: If you were expecting me to come up with resolutions for this issue, as flattering as that sounds, I would rather not. I am a simple minded person who believes in every country minding its own business and no one in the international political arena will be happy with that.

PPS: I was trying to look at the issue objectively but some of my biases could have found its way into my words. Sorry. Intention is only to think about the issue and hear what others have to say as well.

Mental note: I should stop reading so much about India and China using Google ! God knows where that will land me.

Copyright for picture: no idea, the source I used: wonderfulwanderings.wordpress.com

Buzz is driving people crazy.....

....and not in the right way !

I open my google reader and noticed that I have a new follower. To find out who it was, I clicked on it and was surprised to see 'request sent' listed against some of my followers (as in, I have requested them if I could 'follow' them) and am surprised because I never did send those requests. While muttering unparliamentary words about Google, I go a google search (!) to find out if I am the only victim and lo ! there is a whole thread on this issue. I have copy-pasted some of the responses from that thread and have mellowed the 'swearing' !

I found out that I sent requests to follow people in my google reader, but I did not. Google reader, after installing buzz on my gmail, decided that I want to follow a bunch of people. I DO NOT. I want to cancel the "request sent" but I cannot. I am a professor in a university and I do not want to send requests to my students to follow them. This is a serious problem, and I do not understand how to stop this. I tried to disable my google reader completely, but could not find how. How can I solve this?

I would be completely flattered (or freaked out as the case may be) if I get a request from my professor but I would also be on guard because there are only certain things you write that you want your professor to read, right ?!

I had the same problem, which is what brought me to this forum. To undo it, I went into "Buzz" and basically just clicked "Unfollow" on every single person I was "following" there. (Even though Buzz never asks if I want to follow those people, either.) When I went back to Reader, I changed my shared settings to "protected". After I did this, I was basically following no one, and I had to re-check "follow" for the few people I do want to follow. F---ing headache.

Mental note: Check settings in Google Reader.

This whole thing was ridiculous. First, I clicked the "no thanks" to Buzz, but somehow, it's still turned on and running with my account. Then it makes me follow ANYONE that's sent me mail that has a gmail password, even people that only emailed once (like for an ebay transaction). Seriously Google, get with the f---ing program!

Another mental note: Remove one-time transaction ids from my contacts.

The funniest part is most of you will probably read this in Buzz ! Devil thy name is Google !

Vandutangayya, vandhutaanga !

When I first heard that Google was going to map India using vans, I was surprised…..I mean even mapping a city in India would take for ages given that they have no accurate public data to access and they would have to keep driving forever in the traffic to do the mapping themselves. But Google is smarter than that, they are going to use the best resource from India, millions of Indians, to create the maps for them with the Google Internet Bus initiative.

With people getting educated about internet, maps and map making, it will sure be exciting for them to create maps of their neighbourhood. It brings with it an excitement that is akin to what one experienced when one first created an email id or got exposed to a chat tool or even Orkut. I remember how hooked I was in the first 10 days, I spent most of my time awake glued to my laptop and this is exactly what they are counting on, I guess !

They have first started in Kerala…maybe because of the google team using this as an excuse to get ayurvedic massages and boat-house stays while they are touring :D or maybe because of the browsing stats from Kerala!

I am excited, really excited to see the power of user-generated content from a country with millions of users (yes, yes, we have more than a billion people but not all of them use Google, right ?)...and am keeping my fingers crossed....

Update 1:
The bus has apparently already toured Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Did anyone see it, take a tour ? Let me know !

Update 2, as on 18 Dec:
I read another article on this subject and I find the technique of using landmarks for giving directions simply brilliant especially in a place like India where street names have very less value unless it is a prominent one (like Mount Road, CP Ramaswamy road in Chennai). I thought about the street where my school is located and I think it is 4th trust cross street but I am not sure and I went to this school for 12 years ! But everyone in Mandaveli knows where St.John's is and that will definitely be used for giving directions.

Idhu epdi irukku ?

When there are people and countries creating controversies with their privacy violation arguments against Google Street View created by Google Mapping Van by taking panoramic pictures, there is someone who voluntarily tracks the van movement and makes sure he is captured in the photo as well....ennanu partha....Marketing gimmick for his music band.....adapaavi !

And while we are on the topic of privacy, here is something I came across - Top 50 places to See Celebrities in NYC...I cannot believe there is a map like this and its actually used and rated as well...ada rama !! What's next - Maps for Stalkers?!

Yes, technology is growing, so is information availability, but what is not funny is how its actually put to use....God save technology and information from us !!

Power of User Generated Content

Wikipedia, to me, is the power of user-generated content and contribution. It is for the users, by the users.

Do you remember Wikipedia when it first started ? I still remember writing and editing articles back in 2005, when almost anyone could create/edit a page. The content grew, exponentially, not surprising given the increased internet reach and the number of people using/contributing. A simple example would be a retired journalist (wonder if they really have retirement though!). He/she would have learnt, experienced and researched 100s of topics that many of us have probably not even heard about. That knowledge should not die with him/her - Wikipedia is probably one of the easiest ways to ensure that.

Another favorite example of mine is Openstreetmap. I have referred to it before in one of my posts. It is an initiative to create a world-wide editable map, and ofcourse its free. The logic behind it is simple - I know where my house is better than any map in the world. I know my area and my favorite places better than anyone else. So why not use that knowledge to create a map or correct a wrong map ? Any user can upload GPS tracks, edit them and what's more, changes can be updated instantly, i.e. if I know my street name has changed, I can correct it. The animated .gif shows how the network has grown over the last few years (If blogger messes with .gif, check Geofabrik).

To support the Openstreetmap initiative, many government sources have also donated data. Today, I can even see RA puram in Openstreetmap and I am just waiting for the OSM community to kick in, in India too. In fact, depending on the interest of the user, even information about pavements, biker paths, handicapped-friendly areas etc. are marked. In spite of all this, there is a pre-established convention to keep the maps consistent as they grow.

Another example along the same lines is the Google mapmaker and I really like the tag line - Become a citizen cartographer and help map your world !

When you map the world, you can also create 3D models using Google Sketchup....after all the world is 3D ! You would be amazed at how many wonderful 3D models have been created this way. Here is a sample.

Well, this idea has been there for quite a while...remember the annoying window that always pops up asking if you want to send an error report ? Well, that's user contribution helping a software provider fix the bugs, only there you do not get any credit for patiently sending in those bug reports but just the satisfaction that they finally managed to fix at least half the bugs !

Then there is another level, where software providers release a beta version, like Google wave and ask users for suggestions. Obviously you get neither royalty nor credit for doing so but its a time-killer and you give yourself a pat on the back for doing your good deed for the day !

I think this idea of harnessing user-generated content for the sake of the community is exactly the direction we should be going in. I also think it will continue to grow, because people need recognition and praise and when there is a podium to showcase talent, they will start exploring the talents that they never knew they had and for once, money is not the only motivation ! For example, Google claims that it would replace any source of photo-textured 3D models by the user-provided data as long as its more accurate. This could be the chance that small start-up companies or hard working individuals had been waiting for; a place to showcase what they are capable of and by doing it in an app that has such a wide reach, is definitely alluring !

Not only is the user-generated content used for free applications but also by commercial businesses - be it map updates for navigation devices, or real-time traffic updates. In these cases though, there is a further stringent step of validating the user-provided content since the customer who paid for the product/service is not going to tolerate mistakes made by some person he/she doesn't know or care about.

Well, we all know about the global village and now we all seem to be heading towards a global team where its not just bad news that is traveling fast ! There is one thing though - doesn't one always know too much about one's own team members ?!

Update as on 1 Dec 2009

Google does what it does best - understanding and using user-generated content with yet another way - model your own town competition !

Copyright for pictures

1. Geofabrik

2. Openstreetmap

3. Google Sketchup

Bus, train, car or walk ?

Eco-routing will give you the right answer...er...route. As the name suggests, the ultimate aim is saving the earth - reducing fuel consumption, reducing pollution, effective energy management, ....you know this part. This is done by offering the most efficient eco-route to get a person from A to B.

There are 2 aspects to eco-routing (or green routing or whatever name everyone comes up with). One, computing an eco-route for a car to take the person from A to B and two, suggesting alternate sources of transport to create a eco-route from A to B.

In the first case, the terrain information serves as a sensor in the car by allowing it to know the ''road ahead'' - is there a curve, a steep slope ahead ? So while this information enables the driver to choose the optimal speed (and gear) thereby saving fuel, the real-time traffic updates tell the driver which route to avoid.

In the second case, the system offers the driver an alternate source of transport i.e. when there is a traffic jam because of an accident, the system tells the driver to take the train instead and no, am not kidding ! But the aim of eco-routing is to make this transition as smooth as possible i.e. it will give you the nearest parking lot, parking price per hour and the train timetable. You have to admit that this is tempting than being stuck in traffic for hours and you are doing your bit to save the earth!

......and what do you know - Google has already started working towards it or at least that's what I think. Here is something that looks like one of the first steps towards building a navigable eco-routing database - integrating public transport information as a layer.

So, are you a game for a walk or taking the train/bus to work ?

Update, as on 24-Nov 2009:

I came across this website and I was very excited that people have started realising and doing something about having no space to walk. Well, yes, it will be a while before we can see results but its good to know we are walking in the right direction for our right to walk :)

Google Wave is making waves !

Situation 1: I write a blog and I am waiting for an important person's feedback. I check my blog - no comments. I check my gmail - no messages. I check my orkut - no scraps. I check my phone - no sms. I finally login to messenger and bingo, there is an offline waiting for me !

How great would it be if all these applications were linked to in one browser using some smart APIs ?? Solution: Google Wave

Situation 2: I am working on a project report - a project that involves multiple people from multiple teams across mutliple time zones. Each edit is marked with a tag but it is so difficult to keep track of conversations that explain the edits with the edits themselves.

How helpful would it be if I can converse and edit using the same tool and extract one or both at same or different times and send it to the same or different people ?! Solution: Google Wave

Situation 3: I upload pictures from a trip to picasa, a few to orkut and a couple to my blog. I suddenly realise that I have misspelt one of my foreign friend's names in the pictures.

How nice it would be if there were only one copy of the pictures and editing one would change it in all the different portals ?! Solution: Google Wave

Situation 4: I am typing an email and the spell checker is driving me crazy by just matching words to a dictionary. Too and to are both correct words but you are to kind makes no sense !

How smart it would be if my spell checker understood the context and used it for correction and for highlighting mistakes ? Solution: Google Wave

Situation 5: I am inviting people to go to a friend's wedding and I have 20 responses with a few of them saying ''I'll attend'', a few saying ''no'' and yet another few saying ''if time permits''

How practical it would be if there was an in-built gagdet to parse these emails and give me a list of attendees ? Solution: Google Wave

Before I start listing a multitude of situations, you should go and watch the Google Wave Preview at http://wave.google.com/ - its time well spent, seriously !

What does/would Google do ?!

I recently saw an interview of Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Google (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marissa_Mayer - very very impressive !!) and I have jotted down a few things that got my attention. They are listed below (in no particular order) with my comments.

Future of search engines:

Voice-based search: Using speech-to-text for search results - Imagine typing ''love'' in youtube and getting all songs/videos/conversations that has the word somewhere in it !? I bet 50% of all videos will show up but Google sure will have a smart way of figuring that out by offering suggestions or grouping them into categories right from ''Mother Theresa'' to ''love at first sight'' !

Image-based search: How much information can the search engine recognise from a picture - Imagine using a photo of a disneyland ride as an input and finding all other such rides in disneyland or elsewhere or looking for a house you liked !

New Products

Newest Release is GoogleLatitude (http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html): no better way to keep tab on friends, you will literally know where they are, in terms of lat and long ! - Stalkers are sure going to love this :D ! Kidding aside, abundance of information always causes a conflict between privacy and transparency and although Google claims its upto the user, I am still not 100% convinced !

News-related Advertising in GoogleNews: This is more tricky than it sounds. For example, nobody wants to see air tickets ads right next to the news about a plane crash

For Entrepreneurs

Google's Strategy on Featureitis: Don't waste too much time on including features you think the users might want, instead get the product out there, wait for users feedback and then improve your product. For example, GoogleNews implementors had enough time only to include either a sort by date or sort by location feature. Since they were unable to come to a decision they included neither of those. Out of 305 emails they received on the day after the release, 300 asked for a sort for date - bingo ! thats the feature !

Keep looking for improvement opportunities: What is the one major advantage of reading a hard copy ? ''Zero'' seconds to flip through pages (amazingly I never thought of this inspite of reading so much online - I seem to have always had a good internet connection !) and that is exactly where they want to go with the Google Reader as well - whatever you read, whereever you read, you dont have to wait to flip !

Google's mantra for hiring/work culture:

Past performance speaks for future performance => maximum weightage for references - if you are looking to be a googler, then it helps to make peace with your current boss :D

Best of ''both'' - both being ''smart'' and ''getting work done'' - it seems like the former implies the latter but it is amazing how in real life its not always true !

Really small teams and possibly in the same office to avoid meetings - when I think about the time I spend every week attending meetings with colleagues in all possible time zones, I can totally understand why this would help !

Trivia:

Google employees are called googlers - When google is used as a verb these days, I would imagine anyone using google is a googler but since Google says otherwise, are we all then 'googlees'' :D ?!

Google Nap Pods: Googlers can take a power nap at work in Nap pods, that block out sound and light. Google it to see a picture of it :D !

Orkut: The only reason orkut became a hit in Brazil and India is because the latency of the released version (that was not scalable then) did not bother Brazilians and us ! - appo evalo peruku vettiya evalo time irukku ?!