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Scientists break worldwide Internet speed record

Tokyo (Japan) – A group of researchers in the Internet2 consortium has set a new record for sending data through the Internet at more than nine gigabits per second. The team broke the old record of 7.67 Gbps, which was set last December. Using modified protocols, they were able to send data across a 20,000 mile path at a constant rate of 9.08 Gbps. At this speed, a high definition version of a movie could be downloaded in just a few seconds, instead of over 40 hours on a typical broadband connection.[Link]

Internet2 is a non-profit consortium made up of a few hundred universities, corporations, and government agencies. The goal is to design a faster version of the internet capable of handing extremely high bandwidth.

As of 2007, BSNL, an Indian phone company, is planning to boost speeds of their DSL offering to 2 megabits per second from 256 kbps.
On top of that, it charge people for downloads, which defeats the purpose of signing up for broadband.

Sigh.. We are far behind west or for that matter, from Southeast Asia.

As per Organization for Economic Co-Operation & Development (OECD), look at the broadband penetration in European countries. Surprisingly, USA is at number 15th. USA has to do some broadband policy changes, if it still wants to be the internet/technology king.

Ridiculous temples in India

1. Do you know that there is Visa Venkateswara Swami temple (near Hyderabad) which is also known as “God of Sure Visas “

The 500-year-old Balaji temple at Chilkur, about 40 km from Hyderabad attracts plenty of visitors, the devout praying for a hundred different things, as at most temples. But none as many as those who want visas. So, much so, the (swayambhu) god here has begun to be referred to as ‘Visa Venkateswara Swami’. It is a growingly popular belief, around here, that this god grants the most difficult-to-obtain visas to go abroad for jobs, post-marriage emigrations, or higher studies, in a miraculously short time after making a vow.

… when your vow is fulfiled, you come back and make 108 circumambulations. To help you remember the numbers as you walk around, the temple gives you little pieces of paper with 108 marks on them so you can keep count by crossing out one number each time you complete a round.

2. There is similar other temple Veetrirundha Perumal Kovil near Chennai that attracts people who are seeking visas to the US.

3. And now we have our own ‘IIT’ Saraswati temple at Kota, Rajasthan. This town is home to coaching centres that train nearly 50,000 students to crack the IITs’ Joint Entrance Exam.

Priceless.

The Justin Show

Guess who got inspired by The Truman Show. Forget blogging, forget video blogging. New buzz in town is LifeBlogging. Justin is sharing every moment of his life with the world. Justin went beyond a simple web camera to broadcast his life on the web 24/7 using a camera on his head. Justin wears the camera 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even in the bathroom. Even on a date. I don’t know who are the intended audience but I guess there are lot of people out there who have lot of free time in their hand. So if you are one of them, go and watch Justin going through his life. After all, he has promised to wear the headgear till his death.

Narayana Murthy and fuss over National Anthem

It all started with an Infosys programm at its Mysore campus in which the President Kalam was the chief guest. On the occasion, the Infosys authorities played an instrumental version of the National Anthem instead of it being sung.

When asked to explain the reason behind the decision, Murthy gave his own reasons, unaware that his comment could lead to a huge debate in the public domain. “We have a lot of foreigners. We didn’t want them to be embarrassed, when they are silent and others are singing. So this was fine,” he said.

I don’t understand what embarrassment foreigners feel by listening to their host-country’s national anthem. Isn’t that the whole idea of being in a foreign land? To learn, understand and respect the host country. And how long does a national anthem lasts, all of 52 seconds.

I don’t know with this attitude, how good president Narayana Murthy would be.