IBM, the industry giant is also ready to give its UDB DB2 for free. Last year Microsoft offered, SQL server 2005 Express Edition  without any charge. Also, Oracle in the same time offered its 10g Express Edition for free.

Database giants set their basic version for free, which is mainly due to the free & open source databases like MySql, Postgre SQL etc.,  Basically I work in Microsoft Technologies/Products, but for certain things I still use MySql. Also many hosting companies provide Windows hosting with free MySql database. Even Sun lets its source out & making Solaris 10 free to download. 

So, now a days people are more interested in going for free packages rather closed source / paid softwares. In 2003, when I was working in Indian Red Cross Society, New Delhi, I used to meet many people across the globe & who are from non-IT field talking about free softwares. And now many people here in India prefer free / open source products. In general, students are very much interested in open source softwares, so these are the main reasons for the giants to let their basic versions for free.

A Trip to Vedanthangal

Last weekend myself with Senthil Raja, Arun, Prathap, J Prakash went to Vedanthangal. Actually we planned to Vandalur zoo, but, I saw in some TV Channel a day back that Vedanthangal 's season is going to end, so extended the route to see the birds. Vedanthangal is around 80 kilometers from Chennai / Madras (from thiruvanmiyur). We started here at around 2 pm, and reached there by 3:30 pm in bikes.

Vedanthangal, one of India's largest bird sanctuary, spreads around 75 acres of water & a bit land, which is a bushy with trees, ideal for birds to nest. Water mold covers most of the water surface, so the unclosed area is full of fishes & toads. We saw many birds, and none of us are bird watcher so we don't know the name, but we saw many birds with long-bills.

But, the main problem we faced was, we had nothing to zoom, even we neither had binocular nor SLR cameras. There was small 50 meter outpost-kinda  building, which had a binocular which is zoomed to particular area & was given 15 seconds by the sanctuary people to the visitors watch. But there were many foreigners with big sized SLRs & binoculars, enjoying!!!

My new camera Canon Powershot A610 was used to take the above snaps. And the time was around 3:30 it was bright sunny, so every object illuminates...

Update : Just today, (08-Feb-2006), I saw in Sun TV about Vedanthangal and it was good to see, the birds closely. Even some birds where feeding their young ones. and some with Eggs. So, go with a binocular or a SLR camera.

Update : Now you can rent  a binocular in Vedanthangal!! That too for Rs 10 / hour.

 

My Canon Powershot A 610

Two weeks back I bought Canon Powershot A 610 Digital Camera. Sony Mavica FD-73, was my old camera which I used hardly for a year in 2000, which was a floppy disk model and it can hold only 10 images in one media. Later, my cousin Sudhan with whom I roam a lot, had few cameras, and also  Canon PowerShot S410, so I had no intension of buying a digital camera. And the truth was I want to sell my Sony Mavica FD-73 before buying a new one.

But, last year  I was interested in buying a new camera, so I started searching and reading many reviews. I always recommend Canon, Sony & Nikon cameras. So, I selected  Sony DSC-W5, Nikon Coolpix 5600, Canon PowerShot D450 & Canon PowerShot A610 in October. From then, I took nearly two months to select Canon PowerShot A610.My budget was around 300$. But in a good deal we can get this for even 225$ (with a Dell.com coupon). Here in India, the price is around 16,500 INR (around 350$).

And memory card I have 256 MB SD which is not even sufficient for a one day shoot. So Im planning to buy a 1GB SD Elite Pro Kingston from Buy.com

Specifications :

5.1 Mega Pixels
4x Optical Zoom
4x Digital Zoom
ISO Rating : Auto, 50, 100, 200 & 400
Focus : Auto & Manual
Exposure compensation : -2 EV to +2 EV in 1/3 EV steps
2.0″ vari-angle color LCD with up to 10x playback zoom
Program AE, Shutter-speed priority, Aperture priority and Manual modes
Shutter speeds : 15 seconds to 1/2500 second
Inbuilt Microphone & Speaker
and more...

Canon Powershot A 610 is bit bulky, & its difficult to keep into your shirt pocket, but still the size gives you better result!!

Canon Powershot A 610 Back side View

Back side View with Credit Card (to Compare)

Canon Powershot A 610 compared with my Credit Card

Canon Powershot A 610  Side View showing the USB, AV & power supply port.

Top view of Canon Powershot A 610 with Minimal Zoom

Also, I will post more photos soon, & Im planning to write a review soon

Create username / ID with a dot in Yahoo

Email ID / Username of Yahoo, the web giant can have alphanumerics, with underscore ( _ ) the only used special charachter. But, now they have included dot (.) as a part of their username / id  special character list. The best of all is if you have a yahoo Id before you can then integrate it with the new one, means you can have two username pointing to the same mailbox. Cool    Click here to integrate your existing account with another one. 

If you have a yahoo mail Id like : kiruthik_kumar then you can also create kiruthik.kumar pointing to kiruthik_kumar. Even you can change the primary account to the new one. Also you can login with that!!!

Gmail gives an option to send mails from any email Id provided that is a valid one. (Its very much different from Yahoo's work)

The main difference between the Gmail and Yahoo in this regard is :

Yahoo Supports only one mail Id (that must be also a yahoo Id) both sharing the common mailbox.

Gmail supports any number of email Id(regardless of domain), but its for outgoing mails only. (Even not possible to get mails from your other gmail account/username into one.)

Electronic giant Sony has introduced Sony Reader, a PDA sized device, which lets you to read ebooks. Also it comes with a headphone socket, which helps to hear MP3 songs as well.  

It lends the display technology from e-Ink.

Display      :   15 cm(6 inch)
Weighs      :   250 grams 
Thickness  :   2 cm

Supports Adobe PDF, JPEG & Blogs(RSS). It supports both Secure Digital & Memory Stick to have more memory.

Best of all is, many of the world's leading book publishers will support Sony eBook Reader, including Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster and Time Warner Book Group.

Its nearly three months I posted  to this Category (My Stupidity). This doesn't mean Im growing smart!! Ok.,

Im pursuing MBA through ICFAI's distance learning program & had my first exam last sunday(08-Jan-2006). The curriculum was like two papers each group & Im in the first group. So I have Business Communication & Introduction to Management.

 And last week, I was busy with my office work which came to an end. But I was very much into Business Communication book which was my first exam & the other was scheduled for the next weekend. Nearly I had covered most of the topics. The best of ICFAI is : most of the things like paying exam fees, registering for exams etc., can be done through INTERNET. Even, few exams we can write it online!! So two days before my exam I was to print my Hall Ticket which can also be downloaded in the net!! After printing, I left home. The Hall Ticket was inside my Business Communication book, and after dinner I took it out to read the Rules & Regulation. After seeing that I was bit tensed!!!

It said : Intro to Management - 08/Jan/2006    10:00AM - 1 PM & Business Communication - 15/Jan/2006    10:00AM -1 PM. What to do ... I overlooked it while registering. Then I had only one day to brush up, & look all new chapters in Introduction to Management!!!! The same has happened in my second year of my Under graduation. Bad na... Anyway visit here later to know my result.