Kaua'i - Pandora on Earth!

'Absolute beauty!' is how I would describe the island of Kaua'i. If Big Island was all about diverse climate and volcanoes, Kaua'i was all about forests and beaches. That is a splendid combination. Mountainous forests beside magnificent beaches!!! The island is aptly known as 'Garden Isle', but I'd call it Earth's Pandora. Aloha!

I was on the island for only about 33 hours but other than the 7 hours I was indoors, I enjoyed every moment of the remaining time on the beaches and in the wild. I've been to the Pacific coast several times in the past - San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Hilo and Waikoloa but have never seen the ocean as ferocious as it was in Kaua'i. Only when I got back from the island, I happened to see some forums that mentioned about few visitors who drowned. Though it was disappointing to read about their demise, apparently, they are to be blamed for being in-cognizant about the dangers an ocean poses. I came across a sentence in one of the forums that sums up this issue - 'Kaua'i is wild. Respect it!'.

We flew to Lihue, the only international airport on the island. Our resort was about five miles north of the airport. It started to drizzle as we boarded our rental car. And due to this rain, we missed our hotel's entrance a couple of times before I finally nailed it. And by around 5 PM, the rain had stopped completely and we were out on the beach. Amazing views. We could feel the power of the waves splashing onto the rocks on the beach. We didn't do much on the island except watching the Pacific and the mountains on the island. But we got so involved watching these two that we lost track of time and could not visit the southern shore. No worries though. We had our eyes full and what'smore, we will go there again to complete our unfinished business.

Amidst all this beauty, the icing on the cake was something else. A scenic and wonderful Hindu temple (of Lord Shiva), bang in the middle of the Pacific. Can you beat that? We had no clue that a Hindu temple existed there. We were visiting the Kilauea Wildlife Refuge when we ran into this American security personnel who told us about the Hindu temple. For a moment, I did not take him seriously. We had a chat about Arizona and Phoenix, etc. and then he came up with the temple story. We were taken by surprise, but still went on with our initial plan of driving by the northern shore. After the wildlife refuge, we caught up with Hanalei valley lookout and then proceeded to Hanalei and Lumahai beaches, which were easily the best beaches I've ever been to. Amazing views of the nature. The road ends at Kee'e beach, one of the most dangerous yet exquisite beaches known for its reefs. It is one of the best beaches for snorkeling. We have had our eyes full by then. It is at Kee's beach that the famous 'Na Pali' coast begins. 'Pali' means cliff and this coast sure has the most scenic cliffs on this planet. (That's what I've been told and saw in pictures, because I haven't been to this coast. Avatar movie apparently filmed some stuff on this island.) This coast is not accessible by road. You need to either hike a trecherous trail, take a catamaran or a raft tour, or a helicopter tour. Both time and tide worked against us and we had to save Na Pali coast ride for another day. At Kee'e and elsewhere, though we had plans to get into the water, we were lost in the sights of the beaches that we did not even consider getting into the water. After strolling on the Kee'e beach, we were on our way back to visit the southern shore. There were two prominent places to visit on the south - Waimea Canyon, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific and Koke'E State Park.

And then it happened. By a stroke of luck, I changed my mind and decided against visiting the Waimea Canyon. Instead, I drove to the Hindu temple which is nearby the Opaekaa falls we saw in the morning. Thanks to iPhone, the American security personnel at Kilauea and a red signal at Kapaa. It was easily the best temple I've been to and on-par (and probably even better) than Tirumala & Kedarnath. The location of the temple sets it apart. We met a guruji who took us into the temple. I was in a screensaver mode throughout my stay at the temple. Absolute tranquil. We headed back to Kapaa and Lihue pondering over the twist in our trip and how successful it has been overall.

And deep in my mind, I knew I'd visit it again. I murmured to myself ... "I'll be back!". Mahalo!

GMAT Club: Free online GMAT Tests!

For GMAT aspirants looking for tests and practise sets online, there is a thing to rejoice. GMAT Club has around 25 Math and 6 Verbal tests online. One each from Math and Verbal are free. But to access the rest, you need to shell out around $80 or have significant participation in the forums: (a) 50 kudos (b)100 posts with25 kudos or (c) 200 posts and 90+ days of membership.

The good word is that the website has decided to give open-access to all the online tests on holidays (starting Christmas 2009). It is a good way to get a sneak peek on the quality, difficulty and pattern of these tests. The next upcoming holiday is MLK on 18th Jan.

Happy Testing!

Google Phone - What's in it for me?

On December 12th, Google blogged about the 'Android dogfood' that its employees are getting for the holidays. A blog good enough to stir the pot. Incidentally, I was at Google's Mountain View campus on that day and attended their Christmas party later that evening. Though I have been to the campus before, this was the first time I actually got to see the interiors, meet some employees and have a feel of the actual company. The campus was lively and you could feel the aura getting to you. If a visit could generate such a feeling, how does it feel to work work for the company and take part in its innovations?

Anyways, coming back to the main point, it is time that a smart-phone came out from Google's stable. It is almost out. The fanatic pace of innovations from Google are really mind-boggling. Also, dogfooding gives Google access to vital information - feedback about features, shortcomings and positives. It is vital information that is hard to buy, even for Google. And it makes perfect sense to have this information before releasing a product. Tested waters you see! Then there is another possible masterstroke. The company may sell these unlocked phones online. It hardly appears to be a big deal. But, make no mistake, a big deal it is. Again, it is user-information. By purchasing the phones online (obviously through Google accounts), the company can get access to users' preferences and search habits which translate to dollars in advertising. Keyword-targeted advertisements can be better optimized and revenue can shoot up. Makes sense, doesn't it?

So, what can this mean to users and cellular providers? More obviously than not, it is good for the users. Competition coerces innovative products. And users flock to innovation. On the contrary, it can be devastating to cellular providers. I don't think it will be that bad, but it can hurt them significantly. It all depends on what the Gphone offers. I'd look for a phone that is fast, convenient and loaded. In short, a one-stop-shop. Also, an unlocked GSM phone lets you get rid of the existing 2-year contracts, which look ridiculous at times. An unlocked phone also lets you use pre-paid cards internationally. And more importantly, I'd like the phone to be way better than iPhone. If it is merely 'as good as', I may as well stay with my current phone. On the other hand, if the Gphone has an obtrusive feature like 'Watch a short TV commercial before you make this phone call', I am not going anywhere near! So, I am just waiting too see what Google has in store. I'm eager to see how their strategy unfolds.

Gphone, NexusOne, Passion or whatever! What's in a name?

Computerized CAT 2009 - What went wrong?

Any serious B-School aspirant in India will know how revered CAT (Common Admission Test administered by IIMs) is. It is rather aptly considered to be the mother of all competitive exams in India. Not that all competitive tests originated from CAT but that it is by far the most rigorous, time intensive and an outlandishly competitive examination. To me, only IIT's JEE is as competitive, if not more. That said, both these examinations are poles apart. JEE is far too technical whereas CAT is all about precise Math and mind boggling English in a single package.

And now, IIMs have gone a step ahead and wanted to have CAT administered in an online format. And ironically, what transpired makes a very good case study. The CAT committee has stressed that its role in administering the examination at the 105 centres in 32 cities was restricted to preparing questions. That was the objective. IIMs may have wanted to get rid of the test administration part and focus on their institutes and respective programs, which by the way is a great idea. These institutes can focus more on their programs and worry less about the test delivery. And then they chose Prometric as the test delivery partner.

To start with, it is a bold and forward step to plan administer CAT online. I see nothing wrong in this intention. What should take centerstage is to determine if this idea is feasible taking into consideration the limitations of our infrastructure, number of aspirants planning to take the test and above all, the nuances involved with implementing the plans. Do we have the infrastructure to successfully hold an online examination of this magnitude. The answer is evident from this week's fiasco. Not yet!

BITS Pilani administers its admission test online. It has been successful so far. There are a couple of institutes that either conduct their admission test online or outsource the testing process. All this while, an online test is not a test administered on the internet. Computers in a test center are pre-loaded with the examination software and students log on to take the examination. It is pretty much similar to GRE/GMAT with a significant exception that the CAT (pun intended) is not computer adaptive at this point. It is a computer based test as opposed to GRE/GMAT which are computer adaptive. So, what worked for BITS and not for IIMs? Foremost reason would be the number of applicants. About 250,000 (2.5 lakhs) students took CAT in 2008. This year 240,000 students were scheduled to take CAT over a period of 10 days in 105 centers. That is a huge number and it appears bigger when seen in the perspective of our current infrastructure. To pull of a test of this magnitude, Prometric should have had some fool-proof practices in place. It could have organized some mock-CATs (atleast for a price) to see if the computer centers can handle the load. Students would have flocked to avail this offer. In a nation taunted to be a computing superpower, we shouldn't have dearth of anti-virus experts or software. Yet we blame virus attack as a reason for this debacle. A brainstorming session amongst IIMs would have yielded couple of other good fool-proof measures.

Now that CAT is mid-way and the problems are still rampant it is a tricky situation for IIMs. It is an opportunity for IIMs to implement their management practices and clear this mess. But in this debacle, spare a thought for the applicants. Many of them may have been preparing for months and all this stress in the last minute is completely unwanted and unnecessary. I have been going through lot of user comments online and it is a mix of frustration and helplessness. A user complained that his restless neighbor at the test was trying to peep into his computer screen as the neighbor's test hasn't yet begun. Some of them had frozen screens. Some of them were made to run from one center to the other through SMSes. The biggest doubt in the minds of students will be integrity of the test. If the test delivery is vulnerable to viruses, as is claimed, is the scoring vulnerable too? Bringing 'virus' into the discussion opens up a bag of worms (pun again!). Viruses can let outsiders handle a system. If these examination centers have incompetent anti-virus, can outsiders control the software and get to know the questions? I know, it is all a mess!

It will be interesting to see what the future course of action on part of IIMs is. It may be a better idea to start from a clean slate and administer a paper-based test probably 2-3 months down the lane and work on reducing post-processing timelines. One expert suggested administering CAT via the cloud. It could be a good idea for next year. Atleast the crashing part can be taken care of. That said, the main objective for this years CAT should be to ensure that no test taker receives any unfair advantage whatsoever. Only then will this CAT prevail.

Dim Dim - a free open-source web conferencing app

Easy, Open & Affordable! That's Dim Dim. I was searching for a free web conferencing application and then Dim Dim happened. There is a WebEx trial and I have tried Adobe Connect in the past but Dim Dim appears to be a better solution. Dim Dim free supports web conferencing with upto 20 people (audio and video). For anyone who intends to use web conferencing (even sporadically) this defintely looks to be a great tool. I tried Dim Dim out today and was pretty impressed with this freeware. All it took was 2-3 minutes to get started. Video turns on by default and sending out invites and organizing the meeting couldn't get more easier. There were three options - Share Desktop, White board and Share a Presentation. I only tried 'Share Desktop' and it was seamless. Overall, it looks very promising and I was mighty impressed.

Chrome OS - A True Paradigm Shift!

I haven't yet had a peek of Google's OS - Chrome OS but have been following it closely over the last few days. Yesterday (11/19) Google held an event to update prospective users and prospective competitors about the status and some of the features of Chrome OS (Project: Chromium OS). I took instant liking to many features and am also skeptical about a couple of them. I will address my concerns below.

Many of Google's products have been runaway successes. Many useful applications come to mind, including their flagship 'search engine'. GMail, Calendar, App Engine, Maps, Transit stand out. A few haven't taken off that well but are surely promising. But all these products have a commonality. All these apps focus on our day to day activities and are very efficient. I cannot fathom using an email other than GMail because I haven't come across another service that offers more features than GMail. They aren't even close. Google has attainted its stature from the quality of its products. And that is what makes it so imposing to its competitors. Google's open-sourced operating system, Chrome OS, is the next big thing from their stable.

Honestly, I am not 'living on the cloud'. Infact, I am nowhere near to living on the cloud. This is because I am dependent on my local machine for many quotidian activities. Chrome OS is a browser-based operating system that makes you live on the cloud. No hard disks, No viruses, No native apps. Just the internet, web apps and solid performance. That is what Chrome OS aims at. It is a new paradigm which started evolving a couple of years back and we are near to embrace it. Another very encouraging feature of this OS is the boot-time and patches. 7 seconds to boot-up. I wouldn't ask for anything less. And Google has mentioned that security and software updates will automatically be applied to the OS from the cloud. So, no more system downtime. The fact that you can access your data on the move is cool. Speed, Simplicity and Security mark the crux of Chrome OS.

That said, Chrome OS is targetted at netbooks (or secondary computers). A Chrome OS device may be the primary device in terms of the amount of time you spend on the internet but there will be things that this won't do (yet!!!). If you code a lot and that requires an IDE or a standalone software like SAS or Oracle, Chrome OS is not ready for that. Likewise, unless Apple comes up with an online iTunes concept you still cannot efficiently use your hard disk-less Chrome OS for syncing your iPhone/iPods. As always, workarounds will find their ways through but, a workaround is a work around. It is not the best way to do things. Second thing concerning Chrome OS is security. Agreed, Chrome OS will be virus-free and security and update patches will be applied automatically but one need not steal your computer to steal your identity. All a thief has to do is steal your online login and they will probably have access to all your Google accounts and everything on your Chrome OS PCs. This coupled with the fact that all your stuff is on the 'cloud' can give you salvo for privacy. The last thing you want is Google or a market research company monitor your online behavior to 'enhance' your online experience. I wouldn't be comfortable with that.

But, it is what it is. I think we can trust a Google product based on the company's track record. I am thinking out loud, but biometric logging can reduce the risk of login-based security threats. I think it is not a bad idea that these Chrome OS based netbooks have fingerprint readers and Google makes it mandatory to login through this or a similar biometric logging feature to access one's online content. It would surely be a good identity management norm.

To sum it up, Chrome OS is a revolutionary move from Google. All that remains to be seen is how they will go about implementing it. And we all know how good Google is at implementing stuff!!!

Ubuntu 9.10 - more of an evolution than a revelation!

I am leaning more towards Ubuntu these days - have been using it regularly over the last 3-4 months. I was prompted for an upgrade to 9.10 yesterday night (it was officially released in the last week of Oct). And I gladly took it. Here is a link to 9.10 release notes.

Success of an operating system is majorly dependent on its usability, features and the interface. And Ubuntu is fast catching up on features and interface. 'Usability' is a tricky though. Device support or an applications' compatibility is proportional to the popularity of an operating system. Software companies are generally unwilling to spend time and money for R&D on their software's compatibility on less popular operating systems. And as long as this happens, these companies' software or related apps remain incompatible on that less popular operating system. This is like a circular reference and a major hurdle for Ubuntu. Workarounds exist for sure, but they reduce the usability. Case in point is Apple's iTunes. It is only supported on Mac and Windows OS. One can get iTunes to work in Ubuntu through WINE (WINdows Emulator), but those extra steps hit the usability of Ubuntu real hard.

But I am confident that more and more companies will continue to confide in Ubuntu or Linux in general as this OS is less cumbersome, robust and user-friendly. And 9.10 is a step in the right direction. It scores high on the user-interface part. It is not instantly distinguishable from Mac OS. Menu bar on the top of the screen and look and feel of the OS is almost the same. But Mac is more shiny and visually attractive. Polished is an apt word for the Mac OS. The log-off/shut-down button has changed significantly in both appearance and functionality. It now has many advanced options (including hibernate). You can also directly control your IM status from this function/button. Appearance of other logos like wireless signal strength, battery power have changed and make the overall appearance of the desktop look very slick.

There were around 200 packages that were disabled from 9.04 and around 400 odd new packages. Most of the apps I had continued into 9.10. A comprehensive list of apps is in the release notes. I still reiterate that usability remains to be the only hurdle for Ubuntu (or for that matter any variant of Linux). Once software corporations start opening up to Linux (obviously Microsoft and Apple will be stay away from producing Linux-friendly products - atleast till Linux becomes super-popular), the real evolution will begin.