Monday, August 8, 2011

Amazon Kindle - Good E-Reader

Purchased Kindled, directly from Amazon, had few doubts, how it will work here(In India). Finished reading my first book in kindle, in fact my first Asimov book also.
+
  • Inline access to dictionary
  • One click for taking notes or highlight
  • Access to Wikipedia-in fact to other sites also
  • Very easy to nav, from pg to pg
  • Books download pretty fast - few minutes hardly.
  • Play mp3
  • Adjustable font size, zoom image
  • Very light,easy to hold,read and page turn(It fits neatly in my jacket)
  • Device comes with 3G connection - so no need to worry(Amazon has tied up)
  • Text-TO speech - helps, for checking pronunciation
  • Reads PDF directly
-
  • Flicker during page turns
  • Need external light for reading
  • 3g connection is not seamless
  • Very less choice of Indian mags and newspapers

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Ghent Visit - 20 July After Brugge yesterday, today planned to visit another beautiful city of Belgium - Ghent. The Station is Gent-Sint-Pieters, though i had visited earlier had a little doubt as it says Gent plus something. Took a Tram to the centre market place Koren Market. Started at the Tourisl Center at the ground floor of Belfry. Belfry - I wanted to climb the Belfry in Brugge but could not, but i climbet the Belfry here. It was very interesting, each floor had some thing. The Secrecy room, the Bell Room, The Roeland Bell and the Mechanical Clock - Bit Startled when suddely the Drum Started rotation for the 2.00 Pm Music. The View from the Tower was great. St Bavo´s Cathedral - The Main work of art here is The adoration of Mystic lAMB DATING FROM 1432. The Church also houses lot of Stained Glass paintings. Castle of Counts - A few minutes walk from the St Bavo´s Square.This is a massive fort in the middle of the city. Looks real solid, houses the old arms, torture instruments, guillotine. The view from the Top is also good. This is a Festive season and so everywhere there is some band playing or giving some performance.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Brugges Walking Tour - 19th July

Brugges Walk Tour Started at the Tourist Center-The guide explained: Brugges had lot of economic problems ion 18th and 19th century , so the city could not develop, but that is blessing in disguise ,now it has preserved most of the old heritage and the whole city is under the world Heritage site. Also in 2002 Brugges was selected as the cultural capital of Europe. Then she explained that Terracotta, which is a form of clay, was used in the building of of the concert hall, as it is available in plenty in Brugge. The whole city was surrounded by a canal , which is of 9 feet depth, whose height is controlled by sluices. In old tiles there was a river Dijver, but it is no longer there, but the canals are given that name. Then we visited visited the Hospital building, which is now a museum and in old times served as hospital and and to give hospitality for the travelers and needy. Then saw the Brewery Brugges Zot-Half mad man story about MAxmillan , held captive and he did not give permission to build a "Mad house". Maxmillan also ordered the people of Brugges to look after Sans for eternity- now there are around 80 swans. The we visited the "beguinage" which is a shelter for single woman. Then we saw a alms house - which houses a small garden,a room and a chapel. The we saw the Church of our Lady, Where Michelangelo "Madonna and Child" statue is there- it is one of the two statues of him outside Italy. It was made for It was made for the cathedral of Sienna, and since he could not finish in time, the cathedral of Sienna did not accept, so a wealthy merchant bought it and donated to the church. It is placed in between two other statues - one representing Faith and belief(One with goblet) and the other Hope. Thus the three represents, love, faith and hope. We also saw the four horseman statues from apocalypse. Then we vised the Brugges center, where the building style, from Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, neo-Gothic, 19th century, the 2oth century with glass, then the latest by Japanese architect. Then we saw the Belfry, heard the caroline. There are around 52 bells.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Wimbeldon Final 2009- What a Match - Guts, Tenacity and perfection

The finals of Wimbeldon 2009 between Federer and Roddick, is one of the best match i have ever watched. Glued into the TV - The Excellent display of tennis by both the players; Even though i am a Fed fan, cant hide the appreciation for Roddicks display of fighting spritit, producing the aces and serves through out, even at the highly tensed moment. At the last it seemed not like who is going to win, but who is going to let go. Both of them where testing the other to the limits, and it looked like Roddick sensed Fed will not give up even after some 20 games. His remarks in the award ceremony "you have already won 5" implied why not give this one to me? Great Match.Lot of lessons. Federer also proved that he is here to stay for some more time;

Sunday, May 10, 2009

An Amazing technological advance-WOW!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

Friday, May 1, 2009

HallerBos - 10 to 12 KM Walk

After deciding that i will walk for around 10 to 12 Km, in HallerBos forest with my colleague, i started training little, as i don't remember ever walked that much. I started with 2 and 4 Km and then few days before the planned day walked 8 KM. This instilled some confidence that i can walk the 12 Km. So on 30 April evening after Office I and my colleague went to the forest in his car and started the Walk; It was a very good experience.The forest is really beautiful. The main attraction as is the blue bell, it carpets the forest for few weeks in spring. My Colleague gave me lot of information like- in Medieval times the forest used to stretch from Halle to Leuven and now it has shrunk.There are also other Garlic like plant- which smelt like garlic. There were pine trees and beuk trees. He also said there were native squirrels which are red in color, though we could not see one. But all in all it was an wonderful experience- both for walking and for the natural beauty. It took us 2 hrs and 10 minutes to walk.

Half an Hour in front of my Apartment - Car Stats

Volkswagen---43
Peugeot---28
Renault---27
Opel---14
Benz---13
Ford---11
Ciroen---11
Toyota---9
Skoda---9
audi---8
Smart---2
Volvo---1
Mini Cooper---2
Fiat---1
Suzuki---1
Honda---1
Limo---1
???---17
????- I could not identify.
May be at different time and place this can give different fgures, but it satisfies my curiosity