SeisMac - Seismograph on MacBook

I came across this awesome OSX app which fetches the data from the Macbook's inertial sensors and displays the various acceleration components of your laptop in real time. The axes scale can be changed interactively and sample rate varied upto 500 Hz. There are supports available on the site to even calibrate it for accuracy and offset. It might just be a fun app for people but probably its going to be of great use to me in my thesis as it revolves around someting similar :)

Its a freeware available at http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html

PS: I am wondering if it can be used to detect earthquakes or other seismic motions :P
It depends highly on the accuracy and precision of the sensors.

Video chat on Google account !!!

TMRS lab, November 13th, 3 a.m.
I open my gmail inbox and what do I see ..... Google has launched video chat through Gmail and this time for MAC users as well..... the event which the Mac community has been craving for a long time.
What more .. unlike google talk which doesn't support voice chat during the lan ban hours in IIT, this thing works perfectly fine even at 3 a.m. in the night that too with very clear voice and video quality. Now you can peep into your gtalk friend's room in neighboring hostel or probably anywhere in the world.
Hats off to Goooooooooooooogle. Keep it up guys !!!!

Just need to install a google talk plugin for web browser and sign in to your gmail account ...
download the plugin from:
http://mail.google.com/videochat/?hl=en

The first pic above is the screenshot when receiving a call from someone and
the second one is that when you pick-up the call and begin the video chat. :)

La Tour Eiffel

Eiffel Tower in various colors and light condition. Took the pictures on 3 consecutive days from 24th to 26th May 08 during my Paris visit. The giant steel tower looks marvelous and magnificent all the way. Riding to the top of this 324 meter high tower is equally amazing. Some interesting facts about the tower :
- Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm
- The tower also sways 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind
- The tower has a mass less than the mass of the air contained in a cylinder of the same dimensions

Fountain at Hall-2 Hall Day

This is one of the most beautiful thing I have ever created. Along with 3 of my juniors, I made this running fountain for our Hall day in Feb 07 . We made a circular enclosure 1 feet high using bricks and put a big sheet of plastic over it thus forming a pond like structure 2 metre in diameter. Then we got some aluminium sheet from junk and managed to make a cascade like structure with it - over which water would flow down. C. Rahul who originally planned to make a mermaid (but couldn't due to lack of time) finally made the thermocole fish. Then he decorated the pond with green plants inside our hall. A pump was fitted appropriately to circulate the water and run the fountain. Rahul (Bendre) added some frothing agent into the water 10 minutes before the function started which doubled its beauty.
The entire thing was ready in 2 days and set up at the entrance.
Then came the most amusing part of all - the Maar daala dance performed by Bendre in the pond after the function.

The mobile house

Model of next generation mobile house - made it when I was in 12th for participating in the science exhibition in Macfair International competition at our school.

The entire structure was made of plywood - more than 10 kgs heavy - and could move on wheels controlled by a handheld remote device. It was a two floors house with
- a motor controlled lift running between the 2 floors
- automatic lights
- fire alarm
- intrusion counter
- number lock based double doors
- a postbox with letter detector
- a rain water harvested fountain
- windows with light intensity control using polarizer

Not forgetting that all this was achieved without any microcontroller

How it began..

Recently, while discussing about my computer speakers, which I made an year ago, with Shubham (yes the sk8erboy :) ), he suggested me to start blogging. And here I am ready to share ..... my experiences and experiments.

This is more like a memoir for me than anything else.