This is just great feeling, no crackers, no noise pollution or no air pollution for the past 9 years. This simply makes me feel proud of myself. Yes, that's it, I haven't burnt a cracker from the past 9 years. This दीपावली, if I don't burn crackers(which is for sure), then it becomes 10 years of crackers-free दीपावली.
That means I'm not contributing to air pollution nor noise pollution as others do.
This all started in my school, we had taken an oath that we won't burn crackers and I feel proud that I've kept my word. I believe my friends would have done the same(I know few friends who have kept the words).
I urge that even you guys do the same thing by stop burning crackers and making दीपावली a pollution free festival. This दीपावली let us remove the darkness in our thoughts by lighting the lamp of knowledge and the first step in doing so is by taking an oath not to burn crackers from today.
Happy दीपावली!
दीपावली उत्सवस्य शुभाशयः!
Friday, 9 November 2012
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Traffic Congestion in Bengalooru
Well, this is not Yet Another Blog for complaining traffic conditions in Bengalooru or misleading the reader by suggesting some stupid ideas that everyone knows it doesn't work. If that's the case what's the content of this post. Well, I do speak about the traffic conditions in Bengalooru but with a different perspective. I do put some light on some so called solutions and try to show that these things doesn't work.
Before going into what Traffic conditions in Bengalooru let me share what I think about Traffic. In computer networks, "Congestion" occurs when a link is carrying more data than it can carry leading to "Packet loss" or " Queueing Delay" etc. Think about Road also as a link carrying some data, now what happens more vehicles try to go at a time than the width of the road? if, all the vehicles go with same speed then that's fine, otherwise what happens is "Slow Moving Traffic".
Q. Is it the width of the roads?
A. No, definitely no. It might have been the reason. But looking at the rate at which vehicles are increasing even if you keep on widening roads some day it wouldn't enough.
Q. Is it the poor architecture of the city?
A. Yes, but to some extent.
Q. Is it the Traffic Controlling System in the city?
A. No, the work done by Bangalore City Traffic Police is pretty good.
Q. Is it the BMTC buses blocking most of the available bandwidth of the road?
A. If the same question was asked a month before then I might have said yes, but, this time it's a no. And BMTC bus strike this September has revealed that they are not the true culprits behind traffic problems. People believed that there would be less traffic on that day, but it was the other extreme. The reason is fairly simple people used their private vehicles to travel leading to traffic problems.
Q. Is it people who travel in private vehicles?
A. Finally, you got it right. But I just don't blame them it's also the pedestrians who add to the traffic problems.
Q. But, why is it so?
A. The answer is simple, "No One Follows Traffic Rules". Before explaining my point let me answer one more question.
Q. Can congestion be avoided or the problem can be solved?
A. NO. Congestion cannot be avoided nor the problem can be solved.
If we look at our infrastructure, in most of the localities the width of the road is 40ft. But if we look at the vehicle density, then anyone can say that there can't be "Smooth(actually it's Fast) Traffic flow". The problem is the varying speed of the vehicles.
Just imagine if all the vehicles moved with same speed, there were no overtakings as a result everyone by default followed a single lane. Even if you cannot avoid the "Slow movingness" but there's no "Chaos" in the system and the system is "Deterministic". These are the characteristics of a good network.
But what's happening is everyone are in hurry, they want to reach their destination early. So, they don't care about "Traffic Rules". This brings in chaos in the system and there is utter non-determinism in the model. This makes the model useless.
If everyone stops using their private vehicles and they commute using public transport available, that would bring down the bandwidth problem a lot. Also, if everyone cares for their co-travellers and drives responsibly, then there would be no chaos and system would move towards determinism.
There's no escape from "Traffic Congestion" or "Slow-Moving Traffic" but we could make it "Smooth-Moving Traffic" if only everyone followed traffic rules and drove responsibly.
Before going into what Traffic conditions in Bengalooru let me share what I think about Traffic. In computer networks, "Congestion" occurs when a link is carrying more data than it can carry leading to "Packet loss" or " Queueing Delay" etc. Think about Road also as a link carrying some data, now what happens more vehicles try to go at a time than the width of the road? if, all the vehicles go with same speed then that's fine, otherwise what happens is "Slow Moving Traffic".
If that's the case what are the causes for congestion..
A. No, definitely no. It might have been the reason. But looking at the rate at which vehicles are increasing even if you keep on widening roads some day it wouldn't enough.
Q. Is it the poor architecture of the city?
A. Yes, but to some extent.
Q. Is it the Traffic Controlling System in the city?
A. No, the work done by Bangalore City Traffic Police is pretty good.
Q. Is it the BMTC buses blocking most of the available bandwidth of the road?
A. If the same question was asked a month before then I might have said yes, but, this time it's a no. And BMTC bus strike this September has revealed that they are not the true culprits behind traffic problems. People believed that there would be less traffic on that day, but it was the other extreme. The reason is fairly simple people used their private vehicles to travel leading to traffic problems.
Q. Is it people who travel in private vehicles?
A. Finally, you got it right. But I just don't blame them it's also the pedestrians who add to the traffic problems.
Q. But, why is it so?
A. The answer is simple, "No One Follows Traffic Rules". Before explaining my point let me answer one more question.
Q. Can congestion be avoided or the problem can be solved?
A. NO. Congestion cannot be avoided nor the problem can be solved.
If we look at our infrastructure, in most of the localities the width of the road is 40ft. But if we look at the vehicle density, then anyone can say that there can't be "Smooth(actually it's Fast) Traffic flow". The problem is the varying speed of the vehicles.
Just imagine if all the vehicles moved with same speed, there were no overtakings as a result everyone by default followed a single lane. Even if you cannot avoid the "Slow movingness" but there's no "Chaos" in the system and the system is "Deterministic". These are the characteristics of a good network.
But what's happening is everyone are in hurry, they want to reach their destination early. So, they don't care about "Traffic Rules". This brings in chaos in the system and there is utter non-determinism in the model. This makes the model useless.
If everyone stops using their private vehicles and they commute using public transport available, that would bring down the bandwidth problem a lot. Also, if everyone cares for their co-travellers and drives responsibly, then there would be no chaos and system would move towards determinism.
There's no escape from "Traffic Congestion" or "Slow-Moving Traffic" but we could make it "Smooth-Moving Traffic" if only everyone followed traffic rules and drove responsibly.
Thursday, 13 September 2012
Xournal
Xournal also X Journal is a note-taking, sketching application on GNU/Linux. It is intended for working with stylus. But still I tried it using on my laptop using touchpad. Initially I found some problems simulating stylus using my touchpad but then I was trained to. Before sharing some features and hot to use it, i'll show some sample document which I used as an exercise while studying.
So, Xournal is a full-featured note-taking application. You have "Text Mode" for typing text, "Pen Mode" for writing using stylus or touchpad, "Ruler Mode" to draw lines( I did not use this mode while creating this document), "Highlighter" to highlight some piece of text. Also an "eraser" which you need a lot initially.
Also switching between these modes fairly simple and you can easily remember the shortcuts.
Also switching between these modes fairly simple and you can easily remember the shortcuts.
| Mode | KeyBoard Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Text Mode | Ctrl+Shift+T |
| Pen Mode | Ctrl+Shift+P |
| Ruler Mode | Ctrl+Shift+L |
| Eraser Mode | Ctrl+Shift+E |
| Highlight Mode | Ctrl+Shift+H |
Final Verdict: Xournal is worth trying and you won't be disappointed.
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Anti-T20 or Anti-IPL
In the recent days there's been a lot of debate over the existence of Test matches, ODIs and T20s. Some opine Test matches should be discontinued and some ODIs and some T20s. There are various arguments for their discontinuation. But the question is co-existence of these 3 formats of the game. Arguments like unrelenting schedule have been put forward. But what's the real cause for all these things, Is it more tests being played or more T20s?
Well before answering these things let me give some statistics to you.
Well before answering these things let me give some statistics to you.
| Test | ODI | T20 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 43 | 86 | 43 |
| 2011 | 36 | 96 | 17 |
| 2012 | 28 | 70 | 21 |
Looking at the number of matches played in every format of the game, there's not much difference. So arguments like increased schedule, more burden on the players doesn't become valid. All three formats of the game co-existed before but what's the problem now? Why is everyone questioning the existence about their existence?
So the real cause is the domestic T20s especially IPL.
| IPL | |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 60 |
| 2011 | 74 |
| 2012 | 76 |
So, if any format of the game should vanish then it's IPL and not the other 3.
But how to revive the 3 formats of the game?
Well those who watched the recent England v/s South Africa series never say that Test Cricket is dead. If you want to revive Test Cricket prepare pitches where both batsman and the bowler gets something out of it. Because no one wants to watch a Test match ending in a draw.
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