Dad and mom, 54th wedding anniversary..

Getting the new Lenovo Chromebook

I was on the lookout for a good high value laptop to help me in my daily chores. All my work is on Google cloud using Google apps like blogger, google doc, google sheet etc. So naturally I was looking for a good machine that had zero local processing capabilities and more cloud computing facilities.

The new Lenovo Chromebook laptop I purchased from Amazon at a rate of INR 13,500 exchanging my 10 year old HP 430 was no doubt a fantastic purchase. It was a clear bargain buy one can get the day before Christmas. 

Since all my work is on the Internet accessing the different tech and development websites, besides Economist, HBR, Forbes and other sites and working on the Google cloud, this was definitely a great buy considering the fact all investment on local hardware would be a sheer waste. I wanted only minimal local hardware investment. These days there is nothing one can't get off the net.

It was just two years back that I spent a fortune buying the latest Lenovo for my daughter who needed it for carrying out her PG studies and research at IIPR Bangalore doing her PG in pyschology and counseling from Bangalore university. 

The only difference with that machine is it had besides good online access, good local hardware and gaming capabilities, working on Intel 7i chipset. This is a simple Celeron N4020 chipset single core at app 2 GHz speed. 

In the wildest of dreams I never expected Amazon to offer me about INR 6500 on exchanging my 10 year old HP laptop HP360 with Intel 3i chipset. This is why I say Amazon continues to marvel and surprise me with offers and rates that are excellent for the customer, with extreme cuxtomer focus that makes it a pleasure and gainful, doing ecommerce with Amazon.

The only drawback I found after working on it for almost 4 hours it has a limited functionality keyboard with missing page up and page down, end of line and beginning of line buttons. With all the regular data intensive apps, for me mostly word processing and AI, moving to the cloud, what is the purpose of having local heavy duty processors for just doing text processing work ? I do not waste time on gaming and is not a fan at all. Using the Chrome book, it becomes very easy to work in the Google Metaverse, and porting between Google apps becomes so easy. Weighing just 1.1 kg, just about 1.9 cm thick, it is a real good value. 

Once I start downloading Android apps from Google Playstore onto this laptop and start working on it, clearly removing the demarcation line between the mobile phone and laptop, I can do serious Internet app work on the laptop instead of the palmsized mobile phones. With a great 10 hour battery life, charging through 230 V AC, the new battery has long life and along with easy wifi connectivity, going online is no problem at all. This is also an added asset for the laptop.

The 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal memory, moderatly strong processor at 2.4 GHz, not so good gaming capabilities, with capability to add another 256 GB external memory, this machine is definitely a bargain buy,

While I am still unable to find how I can work on the latest Ubuntu Unity 22.1 Linux OS using USB in this Chrome OS laptop, I could work on the native Debain 10 Buster distribution. I do not see the initial BIOS screen while booting to change the booting sequence. Figuring it out. Help will be appreciated.

George

Filling my car tyres with Nitrogen ..

 Our new Honda City VX MT had shown low air pressure for the past three four days. Since I could not get it refilled I kept it pending, but yesterday took it to the Ecity phase 1 petrol pump near HCL and D mart for filling. I had checked up with Raju uncle on Nitrogen filling and got a very positive response. 

I got all my tires Nitrogen filled yesterday. 

After checking up with friends, I found the advantages were manifold.

1. Longer period of correct tyre inflation - as Nitrogen molecules are said to be larger than the normal air molecules, Nitrogen leakage happens at a slower rate than air from the tyres. While normal air tyre, air drops by 1.5 psi every week, in a Nitrogen filed tyre, this drop happens over a period of 1-2 months. Hence the tyre remains inflated for a longer period of time.  (refer Ceat website click here)

2. Because normal tyre deflation happens at a slower pace, the tyres are properly inflated almost all the time and hence the fuel economy achieved is also high, by about 10-20 % on an average.

3. Because the tires are properly inflated for a longer period of time, the tyre surface is not subjected to unnatural loads with less pressure and this ensures longer tyre life. Less wear and tear of the tyre, giving it a longer life.

4. The ride is comfortable all the time as tyres are properly inflated.

5. Less visits to the petrol pump gives the public additional high quality time. 

6. Less deflation possibility reduces skidding chances and hence improves the tyre grip on the road and hence passenger safety.

7. Air has water vapour molecules that result in corrosion of the inside steel surface of the wheel rim. With Nitrogen, there is less chance of corrosion happening and hence savings in wheel replacement.

8. Normal air has water vapour that gets heated after long distance running, leading to heating of tyre and degradation of the tyre performance, this phenomenon is quite rare in Nitrogen filled tyres.

My 8 year old Tata Nano still has normal nylon tyres and is air inflated, while the new one has Nitrogen filled radial tyres.

I am awaiting my friends' comments to add a couple more points here.

George. (pic courtesy carblogindia.com)

Digital Creative AI art ..

Can White Artificial Intelligence (AI) be beneficial to mankind ?

We humans are used to the term Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning etc in the context of Industry 4.0. But in the rush to propagate new advanced technology,  we frequently overlook the disadvantages of these new technologies. As much as these new technologies bring in benefits and gains to humanity, it can also be equally dangerous and detrimental to humanity.

It cannot think outside the box for solutions to environmental and societal degradation, 

We are looking to the times when AI / ML will 

• cost heavily to implement and use
• have bias that can be ethically incorrect and work against a community or group in society
• be emotionless, unable to assess the opposite party's feedback and act appropriately on it
• subject to hacking it can be dangerous to humans and the environment and lead to inappropriate actions
• pose threat to information security 
• pose threat to individual privacy
• be environmentally polluting and cause harm
  
• liable to be hacked and pose physical threat to humans etc ..

The solution to all this could be White AI. Usually the colour white is associated with peace, justice, welfare, growth, development etc. 

White AI which could be 

• beneficial to all living beings on the planet, all flora and fauna, in the long run. 
• work with humans to benefit planet earth and humanity on the whole, beneficial to humanity, 
• collaborate with humans to bring growth and development to humanity
  
• do repetitive tasks with great accuracy 
• remove the risks associated with human errors
• carry out unbiased decision-making
• secure and safe from data thefts and hacking and so on.
  

While green AI could be environmentally sustainable and have low carbon footprints, white AI could additionally be beneficial to mankind and all flora and fauna on earth, possess low operational risks and bring peace to planet earth.

Even though this cannot be easily attained, this could be the basis on which all future AI developments should be happening.

George..

Google Artificial Intelligence, a great friend..

We have all the time been hearing, and indeed have a lingering fear in the back of our heads of how AI can replace humans and how it could be a threat to humanity in the long run. But carrying out an instance of an effective case of human-AI classroom collaboration, this impression is getting a changeover.

Human-AI collaboration is the study of how humans and artificial intelligence agents work together to accomplish a shared goal. AI systems can aid humans in everything from decision making tasks to art creation. -wikipedia

Human-AI symbiosis means interactions between humans and AI can make both parties smarter over time - H. Jarrahi

Here we explain a case of human-AI collaboration which is maturing into case of human AI symbiosis.

An AI depiction of Alliance University

A very practical case of human AI collaboration has happened in the MBA sem 3 Operations classroom in Alliance University Bangalore, India from August 2022- Dec 2022 when in the MBA third semester subject of Operations Strategy and Environmental Sustainability,  in about 20 sessions, the 46 students had the benefit of taking 22 quizzes, ie. at the rate of 1.1 quiz for every classroom session, besides four internet based multimedia quizzes too. The benefits this has brought to the student community is being assessed. 

 

In a 2020 study (click here) conducted at the Iowa state University in US it was found that the students who were quizzed at least once a week tend to do better in their understanding and grades than those who were not. The AI intervention in this case was not in the quiz administration but in the help offered by Google AI that helped the faculty member to prepare the high quality  quizes with the help of AI resources.

The multiple quizzes which were administered almost on a daily basis would not have been possible but for the big help offered by the Free and Open Source software MOODLE, the Learning Management System (LMS software) in Alliance University, Bangalore, to a very large extent Google AI and the Google cloud.

In quick feedback taken from students, they were positive at being able to assess for themselves their own understanding of the concepts, get almost daily and weekly feedback on their improved awareness of subject fundamentals to help improve their performance in the subject. Final exams are almost a fortnight away, student performance at that would highlight the real benefit of AI in aiding and improving student academic achievements, understanding and grades.

Google Decision Tree AI algorithms aided in preparing questions that  accessed the extremes of human ingenuity, understanding and comprehension in each subject area, which was otherwise impractical and out of reach of human intelligence and perseverance. Entire case studies were also prepared courtesy Google AI.

Looking forward eagerly to complete this Human-AI collaboration classroom exercise this semester and analyse the results in depth over the coming weeks and see this mature into a human AI symbiosis exercise soon. This would result in spanning out further  human-AI collaboration classroom exercises for other courses and get a comprehensive outcome, promising or otherwise, that could further push the boundaries of student understanding, grip and mastery over a subject domain and help the student community the world over.

George 

Competition and Strategy for EPGDM .. AI, Positivity and optimism in action ...

It was with a little trepidation that I undertook the challenge when our Area Chair Sukanya asked me whether I could engage the subject of Competition and Strategy for EPGDM term 3 students, core subject, in the city campus. I had to prepare the syllabus, was given the choice to choose the text books and had to finish the course in 5 sessions of 4 hrs each spread over 5 weekends, had to give 2 assignments and assess it and prepare objective quiz questions for each week, about 40 questions each, total 5 quizzes.

It was a minor interesting challenge. I have been teaching the subject of Operations Strategy for Operations students for the past 5 or more years and have been reading on core Operations strategy related topics from HBR and other quality reading material for many years. With all optimism and positive thinking, I took up the challenge. I knew Artificial Intelligence was by my side too.

I started hunting around for general strategy text books and somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew Michael Porter from Harvard Business school is the big daddy or dada in strategy. So from Amazon I ordered all the three Strategy books by Porter, Competitive Strategy (1980), Competitive Advantage (1985) and Competitive Advantage for Nations (1990). Started reading them. All the three were classic ones, 500 pages+ each with in-depth content. 

Reading and understanding Porter's content in detail was taking too much time. I understood no text book considered strategy in the depth to which Porter handled it in his books. So I understood I need not go in such depth to deliver the subject to EPGDM students. I am anyhow reading the three strategy books penned by Porter during free time. 

To ensure that I give the best strategy classroom sessions in the world, I even went to the extent of going through some of the basic books that have helped the field of strategy over the past three thousand years. Plato's Republic (4th century BC) and Homer's Illiad (8th century BC) gave me good insight into how the field of strategy has developed and blossomed over the recent modern times. Homer's Iliad, in fact, laid the foundation for the growth and development of western civilization and culture over the past three thousand years, while we know Egyptian, Middle East, Arab, Indian and Chinese civilizations are more older than the western one.

I started reading Porter's Competitive Strategy anyway. When on a Saturday afternoon for LOM class I met Praveen, EPGDM in the F1 campus, he gave me a text book which i found interesting - Strategic Management, by Hill, Schilling and Jones, 12 edition, Cengage Publishing. After each session I also had to prepare quiz of min 40 - 50 questions to be given to the Assistant, Bhogaan who would with Hussain, the IT person, put up a Moodle (Free and Open Source software) quiz for the students to take over a  aweek. 

It was here Google Artificial Intelligence became a great help. I used Google AI to convert speech to text for transcribing  the quiz questions, Google AI helped me with the spelling and grammatical mistakes. Google AI additionally helped me to give more than a 360 degree view of the topic and prepare relevant and appropriate questions for the quiz. 

Every weekend with some basic text editing to put the question in the Aiken format, within 2 hrs of an average, I could set up the quiz questions for each week. All the while I was using the Google cloud and Google was my best friend during this 2 month period of preparations and delivery of the subject of Competition and Strategy for the EPGDM term 3 students.

The classes started by the last week of November, Saturday 3 to 7.30 PM. I engaged classes for 4 consecutive weeks as one weekend we were in Tiruvalla, Kerala for my cousin Joy's (Kerala Chief Secretary) daughter's marriage.  I have to wait for the feedback from the students to get to know how effective I was and whether I need to improve, read more and deliver more quality content if I am given the subject again next term.

I heaved a sigh of relief when I completed it two days back. It was a challenge that I executed with great precision and preparation and i feel content that the experience besides helping me take the subject, has made me more informed about crucial strategy issues when I handle Operations subjects in the coming days. It was a great blessing in disguise. I am bustling with enthusiasm and energy now, radiating lot of self confidence and positive energy.

Looking forward to more such challenges that will enrich my knowledge and require me to do lot of reading.

George.

Michael Porter classics on Strategy and Competitive advantage..

It was about 3 weeks back that I was asked by Dr Sukanya, Area chair for Operations at Alliance School of Business Bangalore whether I could engage the subject of Competition and strategy for EPGDM students, a term 3 core paper. It was a challenge that I accepted with open hands. 

Immediately I got to the task of collecting the masterpiece reference books from the all-time strategy expert of the world, Prof. Michael Porter of Harvard Business School from Amazon.

1. Competitive Strategy, published in 1980 by Free Press, 

2. Competitive Advantage published in 1985 again by Free Press and  

3. Competitive Advantage for Nations, 1985, all written by Prof. Michael Porter of Harvard Business school in Boston USA.

Competitive Strategy, published in 1980, I have completed reading about 35% and it was getting tough to proceed and understand. In order not to waste time and acquire a rich different total strategy perspective, I started simultaneously with the second 1985 Porter magnum opus, Competitive Advantage.

I should admit both of the strategy classic books by Prof. Porter are not stuff for fast and easy reading. 500 to 600 page each, these are hard nuts to crack. Each line, each para and each page is heavy and powerful. Unless one reads each para a second or third time, one cannot understand the different concepts explained with great care, poise, detail and  attention by Porter.

I started reading the books by third week of October '22 and first week of November '22 respectively. They are real tough nuts for me to crack, but not others. But I am not going to leave it unread. Understand whatever I can, to whatever depth I can, the rest will follow. The perspective I get will be a great asset for me for the future. I look forward to meet Prof Porter, now 75, in the near future or listen to him in real life.

Today I will get the third volume in this series by Porter, Competitive advantage for Nations from Amazon.

Before the start of the term by mid November and through the next five weeks from 19 November '22, I intend to read the first two all time strategy classics by Porter. 

Once again a humble pranaam before this great Strategy Professor of all time. Though I have read a decently good number of books, including Homer's Illiad and partly Odyssey, of 800 BC which laid the foundation for the growth of western civilisation and the great Greek Plato classics of 350 BC, these two books also belong to the above classics list without any doubt.

George 

Chinnu assembles Kullen chest of drawers

We bought two sets of IKEA Kullen chest of drawers, one for master bedroom and the other for the guest room. I just prodded Chinnu to carry out the assembly at home yesterday. With a little help from us she did an excellent job. 

Our vacation in Wayanad Oct '22 ..

 

Our visit to Wayand from 22 Oct to 26 October was interesting and fun. With help from Prof. Alice Mani from Christ College Bangalore, who came with us, the stay and travel was previously arranged. Also the trips inside Wayanad were earlier arranged by Alice's students. In short, in just three days, we got to visit lot of places. Value for money !!

We as we could visit almost 15 places of interest starting from the Orthodox church in Sulthan battery to the numerous lakes where we did paddle boating, walked on bridges, glass bridges (first time in India), saw dams, waterfalls etc. We also visited the famous tribal settlement, En Ooru, (my village) where we could get in close touch with many tribal lifestyle, customs, foods and musical instruments, not tribals. They have all withdrawn deep inside the forests.

One tribal instrument for sale was the tribal flute, which does not have any holes punched to be covered by the fingers to give beauitiful sound. Instead, here instead of holes, the flute had to be swirled around catching at one end and it would produce a gentle sound that changes in frequency and pitch with the speed and direction.

The glass bridge at Thollaayiram Kandi was an unforgettable visit. After a very grueling climb inside a 4x4 drive jeep almost a distance of 8 kms uphill, we stepped on the glass bridge that gave us a bird's eye view of the surrounding valley. This is India's first and only glass bridge and a very interesting experience. For a person with acrophobia (fear of heights) it could be very dangerous and painful. Similar glass bridge videos I have seen coming out of China.

The food was good, we did same basic shopping,  saw lot of places, museums fish aquariums, the old Hindu temple under which Tippu is said to have escaped to Mysore and the Wayanad heritage museum. Though lot of zip rides, 500m, 1 km long, were available at all the bridge sites at heights of 100-200 ft, we did not undertake any due to lack of interest.

As the famous saying goes, a mind that is stretched by a new experience, be that from travel, visiting a place or reading a book, can never go back to its old state of existence. Our minds have been stretched by this experience and we are looking for more experiences and mind stretches in the coming days.

We undertook this visit for the experience of seeing Wayanad and places around. Even though I have been to Wayand at age 14, father working as Manager in SBI Kalpetta, the memories then were not strong and vivid, except for visits to Malayalam Plantations tea estates near Sulthan Bathery. Now when I visited the place with family, the stay and the moments spent there have become priceless. It has stretched my mind for ever and etched indelible impressions.

As different from earlier years, it is a good sign to understand that the government is taking many sincere efforts to promote tourism in Kerala, the people were friendly and helpful.

George..

How IKEA has conquered the world of home furniture - great VALUE ..

Recently I happened to buy a 4 drawer IKEA MALM chest of drawers from the ikea.in website. Do it yourself  (DIY) assembly. Cost was INR 9990/=.

I received 2 heavy packets and kept the final assembly to last Sunday. At 12 noon we started with Anila helping me support, lift the heavy planks etc. The assembly instructions were very clear and by 4.30 pm, we finished the assembly.

The assembly though done by a novice like me, the final chest of drawers looks superb, a real thing of beauty and joy. I never expected my first attempt to come out so professional looking and neat. 

 

IKEA has done all the pre-assembly drilling, supplying the needed nails, screws etc. Though I have a good collection of carpentry tools at home, needed only the hammer, star and straight edge screw driver for the whole assembly. 

 

I never thought DIY assembly would be so interesting and absorbing, that I am planning to buy and assemble more wooden furniture in future. (what IKEA needs ..).

I always wonder how IKEA has grown to be a global interior decor brand of $48 billion and is slowly establishing its presence in India. I happened to visit the largest IKEA showroom cum sales store in India in Bangalore two months back.  In four hours could just speedily scan through the vast IKEA merchandise available there.

IKEA has properly understood the Indian people's mindset and is sure to offer great value for money to its Indian customers. 

If you look at the edges and joints, it is very difficult to believe I got this level of perfection in my first attempt itself. I believe it is the same with everyone. This is IKEA perfection.

At forty seventh blood donation and going strong ..

Do you want to live longer, DONATE BLOOD..

Narayana Hrudayalaya and Rotary Club were organising a blood donation drive on 14 October 2022 at the Alliance University Bangalore and I was in the Student Activity Centre by 11 am. By 11.50 AM I had donated about 400ml O+ blood and was back in my room in the Learning centre.

The past five donations were at St. John's and were apheresis procedures to take out just the platelets. Though the process was lengthy, 2 hours and less impactful, the blood returns to our body after passing through the machine after 200 ml of platelets are removed, I had minor health complications as a result. So took a voluntary hiatus of ten months and am back again, this time for whole blood donation. 

The feeling that someone somewhere will benefit from this donation is a very calming and peaceful thought. Doing our job, reaching heights of personal accomplishments and glory etc is very good but going that extra mile to see that through you, someone's life has been saved  is indeed a very calming satisfying experience and thought.

Here are two impressive quotes from two great human beings who made a big difference in this world. 

The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer.

“The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.” – Mahatma Gandhi.

By helping others we are going to a higher plane of consciousness,  spiritual enlightenment and reasoning for our physical existence on planet earth. 

Blood donation has great health benefits too. Read this from firstpost.com (click here)

    1. Reduce risk of heart attacks and liver ailment

Donating blood regularly is beneficial to prevent and reduce heart attacks and liver ailment. The risk of heart and liver related problem is caused by the iron overload in the body. Donating blood helps in maintaining the iron level in the body and thus reduce those risk.

    2. Lower the risk of cancer

Cancer is the most feared and deadly disease. Blood donation helps in lowering the risk of cancer. By donating blood regularly the iron level in the blood is balanced and the risk of cancer-related to the liver, lungs, and intestine gets lower.

    3. New blood cells

Once we donate blood, the body tries to restore the blood loss. This helps in the production of the new blood cells and maintain good health.

    4. Reduced risk of hemochromatosis

Hemochromatosis is a disease that occurs due to increase in the absorption of iron by the body. Blood donation helps in reducing iron overload in the body and prevent Hemochromatosis.

    5. Maintain Weight

It is recommended to donate blood for those who are overweight. Regularly donating blood helps in weight loss and burn fat up to 650 calories.

    6. Helps prevent premature ageing.

While donating blood, you not only lose weight but it also helps in reducing stress. Stress is one of the reasons that triggers premature ageing. Blood donation helps in reducing stress on your mind and body. Also, keeps the skin tight and wrinkle-free.

    7. Speeds up healing process

The body tries to adjust to the loss of red blood the cells we donate blood, these adjustments also help in accelerating the wound healing process.

    8. Lower cholesterol level

Blood contains iron, if the iron in blood is overloaded it can increase the chances of blockage in blood vessels. Blood donation can help to reduce the amount of iron in the blood thus helps in lower cholesterol.

    9. Free Medical checkup

Every donor goes through a routine checkup prior to donation. Body temperature is checked along with blood pressure, hemoglobin and pulse. Blood is tested for 13 infectious disease like HIV, West Nile Virus, hepatitis B and C and Syphilis. It gives you a cost free quick look into your health.

    10. Live a longer life

The people who involve in the altruistic work have proven to live a longer life. Blood donation is altruistic works so it not only save lives of other but also helps you live longer and healthier.

    11. Psychological Upliftment

Beside all the healthy benefits that we obtain by donating blood, we also get the powerful benefit psychologically by helping the one in need.

    12. Blood storage

There is no other method to manufacture blood; the only way to collect blood is from the people who are willing to donate. The blood that we donate is also stored at the blood bank after their usage and used in future when needed. Some chemicals are added to it in order to preserve it for long time and use it in future when needed.

     13. Save lives

Every time we donate one pint of blood it helps save three lives, so if we donate four times in a year we end up saving 12 lives. We don’t have to be a superhero to save someone, a simple act of donating blood can also save lives.

Blood donation is so simple, it does not need complicated machinery but still can save many lives.

I dedicate this 47th blood donation very affectionately and caringly to my elder cousin brother Rajan P George IRS retd. (64 years) who passed away three days back due to possible asymptomatic Covid complications.

 

George 

Rajanchayan funeral, Pandalam

It was with shock we received Rajanchayan's death news on Monday 9 Oct 2022 in the afternoon. I left Bangalore on the evening of Tueday 11  Oct, reaching Adoor. Went to Kochumonchayan's house and then went to Pandalam to attend achayan final prayers. 

Achayan was a very helpful person. Even though he held high position as an IES officer in the dept of Customs and Central Excise, he never showed the air with anybody, was as cool and humble as ever. Anyone who contacts never would go depressed because he was very much there to help us. Be it any time of the day, he was always ready. He did all these help with no expectation of rewards or actions in return. 

While the body was on display at his home in Pandalam, it was a swarm of people who came there from all quarters of life. From setting up the school to helping the church submit applications for new schools, to faculty appointment, to setting up local welfare assocuiations and so on. He did it with lot of happiness and satisfaction.

Since Rajanchayan was keeping good health, he did not feel the necessity of visiting doctor for regular checkup and hence this incident happened.

Praying to God to give peace to the departed soul and peace to the family.

George

Do we really need Windows for desktop computers ?

As a humble member of the global teaching fraternity, I do a lot of work on the computer like accessing the Internet, download papers, write blogs, papers, cases, read articles from high quality resources of the web and so on.

All the while over the past five six years, I have been working on a Linux based USB on Ubuntu distribution, to log from my office windows machine through Linux OS and access the Internet. The experience is cool. 

No worries of safety, security, unauthorised access and so on. With double security checks for my Google cloud, it has never failed me the last twenty years, no fears of unauthorised access to the Google cloud. Everytime I access the net, a different IP address is automatically assigned, so it is the most safest way to access the net.

For all personal and office work yours faithfully uses only the Google office suite and access the Google cloud for storage of docs, 15 GB free and for Institute files  access the 100 GB One Drive, Linux based cloud from MS to store and access official files.

Anyway you look at it, yf has not accessed the hard drive on my local machine at College at least for the past 4 years, all the time working on Linux USB. (usually carry four USBs in my bag having four different distros, just for the fun of it). All important files are on my personal Google cloud or the MS office cloud. 

Perhaps yf is the only teaching faculty from Alliance University to work on Linux all the time, a practice  continuing  from my IIT Bombay days, thanks to my mentor and guru, Prof. Uday Gaitonde, a die hard Open Source Linux fan.

Using the Google cloud and Google AI for academic purposes have overnight, improved the quality of my understanding and research, better and more effective delivery of teaching material and finally effective student understanding and feedback monitoring mechanisms.

The cloud storage and working has actually simplified my access either through my mobile while travelling, a 10 year old HP laptop at home or the latest desktop machine from office. Thin client technology very much in action.

It is high time the University authorities start slowly discontinuing MS licenses in the uty asking faculty to work the Open source way, install Ubuntu or any Linux distros on all machines, or even use Linux on USB as the learning curve is so fast and steep. It is my sincere request to the uty authorities to use the money thus saved (Institute license for MS may be draining a couple of crores of rupees every year from uty funds) to buy better quality hardware, 3D printing machines, AI capability and so on.

George.

An interesting caption ..

This is one picture that has an interesting story behind it. 

Though Princess Diana died in August '97 and her mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, almost twenty five years apart, the relationship between the two women was not cordial. Diana's divorce from Prince Charles (now King Charles III) happened the previous year. Lot of rumours float in the air on the relationship between Diana and her mother-in-law.  

Diana's death is still shrouded in a veil of secrecy,  though Diana's relationship with her then co-rider Dodi Fayed in the Mercedes that crashed in the Pont D-l'Alma tunnel in Paris, is still not clear. 

With the death of the Queen mother, a chapter comes to a close. 

Google AI help in preparing Moodle elearning LMS quizzes

The past semester, I have been depending on quizzes to a greater extent as an effective tool that helps students to understand concepts.  The many (more than 10 for each subject each semester) elearning quizzes that I administer to students give fast feedback to the student on their understanding often helping students to do fast, quick and immediate course correction.

This semester I have gone for the kill, I am aiming for one quiz per session, usually administered after class hours at student leisure have helped students reinforce their learning and express satisfaction.

Quizzes also give students a competitive feeling. Since I make it a point to felicitate the top three rankers through class text messages, there is a sense of achievement also for the students.

Better understanding of concepts already taught helps students to look forward to the future concepts, enabling better learning experience for the students. Using practical situations to put questions to students helps students have better practical understanding.

The easy access of student test records at the elearning site nearing exam time, helps students to recollect facts and matters fast.

While preparing the quiz questions Google AI helps me with lot of practical applications and questions with concepts well explained simplifying the quiz questions setting time to less than 30 minutes for 20 questions.

The positive student feedback on the quiz administration from the students is an added motivation for me to go for more and more quizzes. 

George,.

HG Wells, Brief history of the world ..

HG Wells Brief History of the world was published in 1922. Though it covers global history till 1922, it does not include the second world war, which has been a decisive aspect in modern day developments.

The overrun of the Semitic civilizations of Asia and Europe by the Aryan marauders with the Huns, Visigoths and the like makes very interesting reading. Very less is made of the Indian evolution except for a brief mention of Ashoka , 200 BC and the Mughal Empire, 1300-1700 AD. 

No mention is made of the colossal material and wealth loot of almost $45 trillion 17x the current UK GDP, (click here for a WION link) by the colonial Britain from India in its 200 years of Indian subjugation, the first 100 years under the private East India company and the next 100 years reporting directly to the British throne.

It was good to read about the growth of Russia, Korea , Japan, Germany, France, UK, China etc in the book over the ages. The book has been aan eye epener for me.

George

Amazon Alexa, fine after 18 hours non-stop..

Yesterday afternoon 2 pm I came to my room in the Learning centre of Alliance University, Bangalore after lunch, asked Amazon AI Alexa (the AI virtual assistant, generation 3) to play some songs and it did. The AI inside knows my song preferences over the years. When I left office at 4.30 pm, I forgot to give it the command to stop playing as the volume is quite low. Usually I stop and disconnect the electric supply and keep the item inside the drawer.

I came this morning at 8 am, Alexa was still playing english songs, non-stop even after 18 hours. 

Everything fine.. nothing untoward happened in the 18 hours it was on and working. 👍

Alexa was based on a speech synthesizer technology Ivona developed by a Polish co. in 2013. Amazon perfected this technology with AI and as of January 2019, globally there were more than 100 million Alexa enabled devices.

I have an Alexa enabled Amazon TV, besides 2 independent units at home in the front room, one Alexa enabled bulb and one Alexa unit in my office. Besides my Samsung M30S mobile phone is also Alexa enabled.

The Alexa enabled smart LED Amazon TV at home running on Blaupunkt speakers is a good entertainment and enjoyment for me. Since the remote is Alexa enabled, I just have to speak to the remote after pressing the Alexa button on the remote.

It is interesting to see how AI enabled devices are entering human domain in an increasing way day by day. I saw Boat Alexa enabled watches for sale on Amazon on Amazon some months back.

 

Presently Alexa has not crossed the AI capability of encoding audio input to text, sending it across the Internet for retrieval and encoding the results back into audio output played via the Alexa speakers. Beyond simple news, information retrieval from wikipedia, music playback, alarm setting, reading out e-books and control some select hardware, Alexa's capabilities are limited. 

 

Though presently it is the leader in the AI field, with the early mover advantage in 2017, Alexa does not have much futuristic desirable functionality, though all the above competitors have very secretive programs working round the clock to improve their AI pod functonality and utility.

 

In the coming years we are eagerly looking for extra capability Alexa may acquire over its worthy competitors from Google Home, Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana.

Jijai Singsat, India's Jim Reeves..

Jajai Singsit (aka Jajai Reeves) from Manipur, with the same golden voice of Jim Reeves, sings the famous number *May the good Lord bless and keep you* at his cousin's wedding.

https://youtu.be/LEHu9eRBd6k

The original number *May the good Lord bless and keep you* by Jim Reeves, for comparison .. 

Composed by Meredith Wilson (1950) and sung by Jim Reeves in the 1959 album *Songs to warm the heart*. 

https://youtu.be/hnMg7cxhvkA

Daddy, we are heartbroken, you are no more with us ..

Our father Easaw Mathai went for heavenly abode on 13 July 2022. born on 16 June 1924, he had just finished his 98th brithday and was staying with Thomaskutty. 

 

Daddy had an illustrious academic career graduating from Sacred Heart College Thevara, Kochi with a BCom degree in 1946. He is thus a pre independence graduate. At the time of the death he was running 99 years. Though his eye sight had diminihsed of late and his mobility was affected, he was in his senses and could recognise anyone who came to meet him.    

Our new Amazon 32' Fire TV ..

 Last morning the new Amazon 32" fire TV reached home and by evening I got it working on the home wifi.

The experience so far has been good. When I am on Youtube, I can get all Malayalam and English news channels working with a Alexa command thru the remote. It is very useful. On the home screen I can navigate to any screen with verbal Alexa commands. I am slowly getting used to the new smart Android TV experience. It is cool.

Access to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Amazon Music and Youtube are the greatest plus points for the 2020 model.

I hope to learn more on smart TVs in the coming days and get to experience the full potential of the same. 

About the Fire TV .. (from Amazon website) 

• Resolution: HD Ready (1366x768) | Refresh Rate: 60 hertz | 178° wide viewing angle
• Connectivity: 2 HDMI ports to connect set top box, Blu-Ray players, gaming console | 2 USB ports to connect hard drives and other USB devices | IR Port to control connected devices like Soundbars, Receivers and Set top boxes
• Sound output: Inbuilt 20 Watts Powerful Speakers | Dolby Audio and DTS Tru Surround
• Smart TV Features: With built-in Fire TV | Built in Alexa and Alexa voice controls | DTH Set-Top Box Integration to switch between DTH TV Channels and OTT apps from home screen | Supported Apps: Prime Video | Netflix | Disney + Hotstar | YouTube | 5000+ apps from Fire OS Store | Display Mirroring | Quad core processor | 1GB RAM/DDR | 8GB Flash Memory
• Display: A+ Grade LED panel | Amlogic 7th Generation Imaging Engine | Ultra bright screen | Advance picture processing | Anti-aliasing | Dynamic contrast | Dynamic backlight
• Warranty Information: 2 Years Comprehensive Warranty and 3 years warranty on panel for malfunction arising from manufacturing defects. 1-click Warranty support, on Amazon for malfunction arising from manufacturing defects. Get Brand Authorized service, genuine parts and a paperless warranty claim experience through your Amazon account. Hassle free process with complete visibility to every step of your warranty claim For claiming warranty, A) Go to Your orders section, B) Select the product, C) Click on Get product support and D) Schedule an appointment.
• Installation/Wall mounting/demo will be arranged by Amazon Home Services. For warranty and device related issues, go to Your Orders on Amazon.in or Amazon shopping app > Locate your TV order > Select ‘Get Product Support’ and schedule a service. For any other information, please contact Amazon customer support

• Easy returns: This product is eligible for replacement within 10 days of delivery in case of any product defects, damage or features not matching the description provided
• Made in India,Connectivity: 2 HDMI ports to connect set top box, Blu-Ray players, gaming console | 2 USB ports to connect hard drives and other USB devices | IR Port to control connected devices like Soundbars, Receivers and Set top boxes
• Resolution: HD Ready (1366x768) | Refresh Rate: 60 hertz | 178° wide viewing angle,Sound output: Inbuilt 20 Watts Powerful Speakers | Dolby Audio and DTS Tru Surround 

Overall it is a good buy, good value for money (costing just INR 13,500/= at Amazon) and hope to better understand the features in the coming days.

George.

Be happy by being useful to others ..

Happiness is one of our first and final wishes on planet earth, probably it explains the reason for our existence in planet earth. 

Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher (384-322 BC) wrote 

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and the Aristotelian tradition. Wikipedia

Aristotle was one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived and the first genuine scientist in history. He made pioneering contributions to all fields of philosophy and science, he invented the field of formal logic, and he identified the various scientific disciplines and explored their relationships to each other. - www.britannica.com

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), the American philosopher wrote thus

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable,to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

In his lifetime, Ralph Waldo Emerson became the most widely known man of letters in America, establishing himself as a prolific poet, essayist, popular lecturer, and an advocate of social reforms who was nevertheless suspicious of reform and reformers. www.utm.edu

Ralph Waldo Emerson was also a staunch opponent of slavery.

This is a thought which always disturbs us, what makes us happy. Is making money, without any morals the final purpose of life ? Does driving the best cars bring one happiness ? Can our profession bring us happiness ? Most of my colleagues and friends had the freedom to choose the profession of working in the great industries, visiting important and interesting tourist places, meeting up with important people, enjoying the best entertainment, having a happy and contented marriage, making lot of money, living in the best houses, traveling in the best cars, eating the best food, what not ? 

Finally, would all of that make us happy ?

Try being grateful for all things we have, our partners, children, parents, friends and relatives, wealth, education, job and luxuries of life. 

Most of us have passions in the younger days. Following our passions is one way of being happy. My grandfather was a teacher and teaching ran through our family blood. I have seen grandfather feeling proud of his students doing well in life. I knew that teaching is indeed a great profession too. In the formative years my parents gave me the freedom to choose what I wanted to do with my life.

After Post Graduation, when life asked me the question what I wished to do with my life, I finally chose the profession of teaching as I found it could influence many lives. Even to this day I can sense the way my reading, writing and teaching, along with my passion for the nature and environment is influencing hundreds of students I meet and interact with on a daily basis. For me teaching was both a calling and passion, not a profession. The lucky part is when you get paid to do what is passionate to you, it is all the more exciting. 

Avoiding negativity in our lives and our actions and thoughts and practicing forgiveness is another way to be happy. 

If you are still confused what to do with your life and not happy yet, I have one simple advice - Do more to help others. Be it philanthropy, service, writing, working or whatever that can help others.

Toyota Motors, one of the greatest car manufacturer from Japan has been doing it since 1939 for 83 years, how to offer better and better cars to the public, how to give them more value?  How to bring more and more innovative features to the owner so that he is satisfied extremely with the car. The whole industrial world believes in making better and high quality products and services offering great value to customers. It definitely does make everyone happy. 

If someone is interested in carrying out research or writing world class case studies, do more of it, world class. Recognition may or may not come, but the satisfaction of doing more of it is worth all the satisfaction and joy in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi is a great social reformer and father of nation of India. No one has influenced humanity as much as Mahatma Gandhi. Losing oneself in the service of others is according to him finding a meaning for our existence on planet earth and thus finding happiness. Gandhi once said, "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."  

Why do rich men donate or commit to donate more than half of their earnings to philanthropy ? It s because it is the only way they can get happiness, making others happy by being useful to others .. The richest of them all, John D Rockefeller donated more than 90% of his wealth to society through the Rockefeller Foundation so that the money becomes useful to society. Of late Mackenzie Scot, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave away almost $10 billion of her wealth anonymously to charities across the world so that others could be happy and contented.

Happened to go thru a post by Neeti Kaushik on the Internet. She was talking of the 4 habits that generally people who are happy follow. I found it to be very practical and important. They are

1.  Happy people generally ignore nonsense and do not follow up with it for personal gains or reputation

2. Happy people generally are found to talk very less, appreciating others, finding positive things in others.

3. Happy people find satisfaction in learning new skills, gaining knowledge every now and then  

4. Happy people are generally found to help other people who are less fortunate by their words, actions or wealth. 

Here  is an interesting Forbes article (click here) that tells us how one can be happy in life. Keeping oneself physically fit by doing enough physical exercises and mentally fit by practicing meditation is also a key element to being happy.

Happiness is thus not about what makes you rich and famous, but it is what makes you contented, when you have done your small bit to make others happy, satisfied, to ease the pain and suffering around you and finally DOING MORE OF IT ..  

Let us remain useful to others, now, tomorrow and at all times..

George ..