Happiness from iPod and a Water Fountain

It was a cloudy saturday evening and we decided to go off on a mission to get some groceries done for the week. After finishing the ordeal that is called Grocery shopping, we thought we might want to check out the new Apple store in our area. This store has been opened up recently and we never got the time or need to drop in, until now. Apple has released a new iPod Nano and iPod Touch and we thought we could test drive it at the store. We drove around looking for the store for a few minutes, our eyes lying on several different things trying to locate a big Apple logo. My 1.5 year old daughter saw the big Apple logo sign first and said “Apple!” and that’s how we found the store. The store was slightly bigger than the one at Country Club Plaza in Kansas city.

How thin can an iPod be?

Apple has put iPod Nano on a strict fat free diet. It has squeezed the jelly out of it using a sugarcane juice maker. Then using a Chappati rolling stick, normally used by wives to beat the crap out of husbands, they have rolled the iPod Nano sideways to give it a thin oval look. This thing was so thin and light that if someone stood upside down in the store on his index fingers, I would have said “huh! Big deal!”.

The screen was brilliant and bright and the interface response time was quick. The colors were fantastic and I loved the Orange, Yellow and Silver of the lot. The screen is too small for playing a video, so it is probably just for occasional peeking and wouldn’t be usable for full length TV Shows or Movies.

The new iPod Nano shuffles beautifully. You just shake the iPod and it plays the next song in the shuffle line. Remember the days when you used to beat the top of your radio to get a clear reception, well this is sorta like that. This is a cool new feature, I don’t have to look at the screen and just have to shake it to listen to a random next song.

Available in 8GB for $149 and 16GB for $199.

Me: “I love it. I want it one now, honey! Can I buy this 8GB one? It is just $149″                                                                     (Picture: http://www.apple.com)

Wife: “You already have a perfectly good iPod Nano!”

Me: “But this is new. Owning this will make me the happiest man, please, pretty please! See even the daughter is loving the iPod.”

My daughter was getting all curious and attempting her minority report stunt to grab hold of the iPods lying on the table. She was very curious looking at all the colorful ipods.

For Bargain Hunters, I saw the older iPod Nanos at 4GB- $99 and 8GB – $129. Just put a word to your relative in US heading to a vacation in India, but don’t point them to this blog!

iPods are also Touchy!

(Picture – http://www.apple.com)

When you get rid of the phone component in the iPhone, you get the iPod Touch. The new iPod Touch is even more thinner than it’s predecessor. Thin is becoming a feature now, a fashionable demand. Whenever you think how much thinner can it get, Apple shows it in the next version of the iPod. iPod touch has WiFi and can do email, Web browsing, Games, Applications and YouTube. In the first version of the iPod touch it was difficult for me to type on the touch screen, but this new version seems much more easier to type and I was quite surprised by that. I wonder what changed, perhaps the software.

YouTube is the key here. It can be very addicting especially due to the simple and cool YouTube user interface on the iPod Touch. So I searched and watched this song and it came out really well on the device.

I also played this song, one of my daughter’s favourite. She always laughs whenever she sees Rajinikanth on the screen. Perhaps, she thinks that he is a comedian and he is always funny, especially due to this song.

She smiled wide as she saw Rajinikanth dance for the Style number in Sivaji.

Me: “This is a cool iPod. I think we can buy this. I don’t want the iPod Nano, I will have this one. It is just $229 and it will make me very happy.”

Wife: “You keep changing your mind!”

My daugther concurred with me as she was now all stimulated to grab hold of the iPod touch playing Rajinikanth’s song on Youtube.

We finished our window shopping and then came out of the store. It was a cool dark evening and the fountain just by the store was glittering beautifully in the halogen light coming from inside the fountain. We stood there for a while to enjoy a calm moment, a gentle breeze, sound of the water flowing in the fountain. It was a happy moment to just look at the fountain in silence.

I didn’t want to buy it and have it for myself, but it made me happy. It wasn’t a cool iPod with cool features, but it made me happy. My daugther was agreeing with me as she smiled wide looking at the water and the light and making attempts to try and catch the flowing water.

I realized two things:

1. Happiness is a temporary feeling that shifts from one thing to another that you like.

2. Happiness is not just in buying cool things but Happiness is in the way you like something around you.

It is amazing to see the wisdom that a child brings to you.

Nano, Robo, Busy

A Haiku for the new iPod Nano – Nanochromatic.

slim, shiny colors,

comes In Eight and Sixteen Gig,

nanochromatic!

Coming soon: Imaginary Climax of Robo (Endhiran). Read the first half of the story here.

I am on a training all week this week and hence I am sorry that I couldn’t read a lot of my blogs from the blogroll. I will be in full speed from next week. Until then, Please hang in there my fellow bloggers.

Formula Zero emissions

Motor racing is an expensive sport with lots of fuel burnt during practice and the race. The fuel used are usually high octane highly refined gasoline and we all know gasoline burnt amounts to more CO2 in the atmosphere. I love motor racing with a sportsman hat, but when I wear the earthly environment-friendly hat it irks me a bit whenever I see the amount of fuel that goes into the Formula 1 car during the pit stop. Even more irritating is when a minor mistake leads to a fire on the fuel tank door during the pit stop thereby burning off some fuel externally. 2008 F1 season has seen it happening more often. So in effect I have two alter egos within myself that fights everyday – a motor sports loving heart pounding at 18,000 RPM fighting against an Earth friendly brain at Rest. Battle of the minds are always difficult to handle.

But I see a ray of hope from the past few days. The future of Motor racing could be altered into zero emissions by this single most significant event. Hydrogen powered Fuel cells emit nothing but water (H2O) when burnt to convert into electrcity. Formula Zero (The website is in Dutch) is a Go Kart racing championship with cars built with Hydrogen powered fuel cells. Sure, the cars won’t do top speeds of 330 Kmph at 18,000 RPM but with much more improvement in Hydrogen Fuel cell technology we could do that speed.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical conversion device. It produces electricity from fuel (on the anode side) and an oxidant (on the cathode side), which react in the presence of an electrolyte.

(Picture: http://www.formulazero.nl)

The first ever Hydrogen powered Car racing happened last weekend at Rotterdam, Netherlands. The wise used to say “A Journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step”. I am glad that the first step in environment friendly racing has been taken. As the interest grows in Green racing the current Formula zero class is expected to grow to Formula 3 very soon. Also, the Formula zero is already recognized by the motor sport governing body FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile).

Dubbed the Formula Zero championship, the contest pitted teams from five countries against each other in a zero-emissions go-kart race. Each team’s entry was powered by a commercial fuel cell that produces electricity from hydrogen. A Dutch team won the endurance event, while a Spanish team clinched the award for fastest lap.

So what does this mean to Green Motor sporting and in effect leading to more Green cars?

In one word I will say it as Sponsorship. With sponsorship you will have the much needed funding to get the sport to higher levels. Funding is used to do more research on the car components and build faster, efficient and cheaper engines and fuel cell technology. Improvements in Racing always ties down to usage of those technology in parts by commercial vehicle makers. This will make way for cheaper and more efficient electric and fuel cell cars for the road. If popular car makers like Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Honda enter this racing as teams then the technology will be more accessible for these auto makers and in turn will be easier for them to put it to use for commercial purposes.

As it grows faster and reaches Formula 3 and perhaps Formula 1 someday, Motor Racing can finally give up on oil and become a completely environment friendly sport. This is my dream and until this dream materializes my mind will be at constant battle.

In other news, MDI’s (Motor Development International) Air Car is beginning to see some light (It is out in the streets, probably for test rides) and getting ready for 2009 launch in France. This car runs on compressed air which is something that can be easily made available using existing Air Compressor machines (similar to the one that fills air in tyres). I believe Tata has some investment (Beware: Old News!) and involvement with this company and who knows we might see a Tata Indicair or Nano-air soon!

The car boasts a 50 mile range running off of compressed air, and can stretch that further by heating up the air with another power source.

So if you have to go beyond 50 miles you should either start blowing air into the fuel tank with your mouth or use the power of Flatulence caused by Sambar/Vada Paav. Obviously don’t do it alternatively!