Chandrayaan 1 – Pictures and Videos

Yes, this post has come a few days late but this is something to be proud about. The spacecraft called Chandrayaan 1 has reached the moon and even released an “impact” probe. Here are some pics and a video showing the surface of the moon as seen from 100 KM above its surface from the orbiting craft.

Video

http://ishare.rediff.com/filevideo.php?id=515335

Pictures:

Moon Surface - Terrain Mapping Camera - 15 Nov 2008

Image taken by the Moon Impact Probe - 14 Nov 2008

Image taken by the Moon Impact Probe - 14 Nov 2008

Earth as viewed by Chandrayaan-1 on 29 Oct 2008 Distance ~ 70000 Km. from Earth

More pictures are available on ISRO’s website here

Flowers

Here is something non technical . Today, I got some spare time and I tried to take a couple of macro shots of the flowers in my home garden. Here we go…

1. Tabernaemontana heyneana

2. Crossandra infundibuliformis

3. Crossandra infundibuliformis

I will try to get some more shots in the coming days.

Looking back at 2007

The year 2007 has been a great one personally for me for various reasons. Its never too late to look back. Well, the points seem to perfectly connect looking back.

A job switch – for good

Jan 2007 – I got into my new job. Though the process, had begun during the late months of 2006, it was in January 2007, that I stepped into my job

New friends

The new job brought a lot of great people together and in great variety from all parts of India. A few of them went on to become my best buddies. Some even as late as November. I have fought with one of them like I never did – shame. Things are fine now.

My first laptop

During the month of May, I got my first laptop. A Dell Inspiron 6400. It came with a Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 processor clocking 1.73 GHz, A GB of RAM, 120 GB HUD and guess what, Windows Vista Home Premium. Laptop rates have been going downhill ever since. No regrets though. I am dual booting Ubuntu 7.10

Three friends got married

Yes, THREE of them got married. All three to the people whom they wanted to marry. One went smooth. The other two had some minor issues that were sorted out before the event. Two more are still single, but well on their way to get married. That leaves me the last bachelor among our friends

Freaking out

This has been a party year. Every month I earned the envy of my friends by sharing a photo album or two. Courtesy of my employer.

Orkut supports Indian Languages

On Orkut, it is now possible to scrap your friends in five Indian languages. Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. This feature has been going on and off for a few days now. I have been waiting to get a screen capture. Here it is.

There is little to wonder since Orkut is a rage in India in spite of all the negative publicity it gets once in a while.

Missile Interceptor Test

India today conducted a missile interceptor test which would form the basis of a future ballistic missile defence system. The test is reported to be successful.

More details here

It is a great achievement and  it was surprising to note that very little attention was given to it on the electronic media.

Beach!!

Three whole days at home and not a trip to the beach??!! Thats bad. And I know that is bad. So what I have decided to do for the evening, is to go visit the beach. The beach has undergone a lot of changes in the past 25 years. Well, more on that later. Here is a pic.

Telemarketing – The pain

Over the last two days I have had two calls from telemarketers selling life insurance and credit cards.

Call 1:

Caller: Sir, I am calling from ….Is this the right time to talk to you?
I: Regarding?
Caller: We are providing a life insurance policy
I: I am not interested
Caller: May I know the reason, sir?

Why on earth should I tell him why I am not interested in his product?

Call 2:

Caller: Sir, I am calling from… We are offering free credit cards.
I: I am not interested
Caller: Since you have a salary account with us, we are providing this card to you
I: How do you know that? In fact, I don’t have a salary account with you
Caller: But, your company has, sir
I: Yeah it does, but I don’t want the card
Caller: Sir, I suggest you go for the card, since it’s free (no annual charges)
I: I know all the credit cards these days are free for life
Caller: Sir, but why don’t you go for it?
I: I said I am not interested. Is that clear
Caller: (pause) ok. Sir (hangs up)

I do understand that the moment I purchased my cell phone number it has been sold to telemarketing companies. I registered myself with the DND registry twice but of no use. There is no where to go and say “Why don’t you stop this?”. But, guess what, these two calls were made to my office phone. What the heck? I tend to get annoyed when the caller insists even after I tell them that I am not interested.

To all the telemarketers – don’t waste others time by insisting they buy your product or service. If your product is worth its salt, then you would not need to persuade anyone to buy it.

Wikicamp.in

The Knowledge Foundation is co-ordinating Wikicamp.in. Wikicamp.in is an unconference where everyone does their bit to organize the event.

Date: 25 Feb 2007
Venue: Main Auditorium, Tidel Park, Chennai, India
Time: 8.30 AM

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and President of Wikimedia Foundation will be attending the event. He will share his vision for Wikipedia. There are other speakers who would be talking on various topics ranging from business applications of wiki to coding your own wiki.

India puts 4 satellites in space

India today successfully launched 4 satellites using a single rocket. The PSLV – C7 rocket lifted two Indian, one Indonesian and one Argentine satellites. Of the two Indian satellites one is a recovery experiment (SRE-1) which is believed to help in building and specializing in re-entry technology. Theother was the Cartosat-2 remote sensing satellite

19.32 minutes after the lift off the PSLV offloaded the satellites into a 637 km high polar sun synchronous orbit (SSO). India’s Cartosat 2 was the first to be ejected, then came Pehuensat 1, SRE 1 and finally Lapan-Tubsat.

“It is a perfect mission. Everything went as planned. I can even challenge others to do a better job,” declared a beaming G Madhavan Nair, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).