Prakash Advani's Blog

A friend recently asked me what would be my Dream PC, so here are some thoughts.

- All hardware should be Linux compatible.
- CPU should be preferable AMD Athlon 64 (64-Bit) or Intel P4 Hyper Threading.
- 800 FSB along with DDR 400 Memory.
- Display card should be Nvidia high end graphic card. If the card is on-board there should be an AGP 8X slot also available.
- Hard disk should be Serial ATA with 7200 RPM speed. – Raid controller would be nice to have.
- DVD ROM with CD writer or better still DVD writer. I have found Plextor to be a very good and reliable CD Writer, Pioneer is suppose to be the best in DVD players.
- 100 Mbps LAN on board.
- Mimimum 4 USB 2.0 ports 2 in the front and 2 behind.
- 15/17″ LCD Monitor.
- 3 Button or Scroll Mouse.
- Cabinet should be as small as possible preferably like Mini-ITX.
- Low Noise. System should be as low noise as possible.

I recently got a Hathway Cable Internet at home. Its 64 K, definitely faster than the Dial-up that I used to use before but not very fast. I get a maximum download speed of 7 K.

Incidentally it works faster on Linux, I wonder why but its good

I often find, people (including me) forget to attach files in their emails. This happens if you think you will first finish writing the email and then attach at the end. Invariably you forget to do do that before you hit the send button. Your reflex action is trained to hit the send button after composing. What I have started doing is that if I am composing an email, and I need to attach something, I stop midway, attach the file and then continue writing.

If you happen to be a person who reads each of your emails once again before sending them then you wont face such a problem.

My article titled ‘Better features, and cheaper too’ got published in Economic Times today. The article is to urge people to move to Open Office and Mozilla on Windows as the first step. The next step of course is to replace the underlying OS with Linux

www.globalrichlist.com is a site where you input your annual income in US$ and it tells you how rich you as compared to the rest of the world.

After seeing the results, I have less reasons to crib

A friend of mine, sent me this.

1. The number of companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, at more than 6,000, is second only to NYSE.
2. Four out of 10 Silicon Valley startups are run by Indians.
3. With 800 movies per year, India’s film industry overshadows Hollywood.
4. The organised lottery market in India is US$7bn (2% of GDP).
5. India consumes a fifth of the world’s gold output.
6. Indians account for 45% of H1-B visas issued by the US every year.
7. Growing at 6%, in 25 years Indian GDP (on a PPP basis) will be at the same level the US is at today.
8. Six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years. No other country has won more than twice.
9. Bank deposits in India roughly equal 50% of its GDP OE again, among the
   highest in the world.
10. Indian Railways is the largest railway network in the world under single management.
11. India has the third-largest army in the world, nearly 1.5 million strong.
12. India is the largest producer and consumer of tea in the world,
    accounting for more than 30% of global production and 25% of consumption.
13. India is the world’s premier center for diamond cutting and polishing.
    Nine out of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India.
14. India has the highest number of annual bulk drugs filings (77) with
    USFDA.
15. India is home to the largest number of pharmaceutical plants (61)
    approved by USFDA outside the US.
16. India’s Hero Honda is the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer, with 2002 production of 1.7m units.
17. Other than US and Japan, India is the only country to have built a
    super computer indigenously.
18. Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world, with a staff of
    1.6 million people.
19. It is the second-largest cement-producing country in the world,
    producing more than 110m tonnes.
20. Of the Fortune 500 companies, 220 outsource their software-related work to India.
21. There are 8,500 Indian restaurants in the UK, 15% of the country’s
    total dining-out establishments.
22. India is the largest democracy in the world, with nearly 400m voting in the last national elections.
23. India has the second-largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world. 24* India has the third-largest investor base in the world.
24. According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds.
25. The Kumbh Mela festival, held every 12 years in the city of Allahabad, attracts 25 million people OE more than the population of 185 of the 227 countries in the world.
26. The Indian city of Varanasi, also known as Benares, is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
27. There are 3.22 million Indians in the US.
28. Indians are the richest immigrant class in the US, with nearly 200,000 millionaires.
    India is ranked the sixth country in the world in terms of satellite launches.
29. There are over 70,000 bank branches in India – among the highest in the world.

Sounds nice so I posted it but what is important to note is that we have a long way to go.

I enjoyed playing with Knoppix and now I have installed it on my hard disk. Its my desktop now both at home and office. I also liked Morphix since it offers more flexibility to build your own Knoppix like CD. I recently interviewed the founder of Morphix for Newsforge.