Future cars tell you where they are parked

One day cars could tell you where they are parked without you needing to remember.

Background : 5 floors of large parking lot with hundreds of cars often confuses me about where did i park my car. Going home for lunch doubles the confusion as i need to search my car twice. As most of you know during winter basements and parking lots are some of the coldest parts. Its drives you mad searching your car in the cold. I found that I am not the only one to find it hard to remember parking spots after checking with some more people on the way to parking spots. Almost everyone has the same problem once in a while(specially when they are pre-occupied with some thoughts and foget to actively remember where they parked the car).

I was wondering if we had the technology that could tell me where my car is parked on my iPhone.


Options: Yes technologies are already existing to achieve some of these. Here are some of them.

iPhone app can locate your parked location- This is the closest option for me. Yes this application can tell me only if I tell the app that i parked my car here(need to choose park here in the application). This does not track your car but remembers the location where I marked the location.

Your Car lock key can also beep loudly to tell you where it is located. I do have this feature, but if i am far from my car it does not reach the car.

OnStar service of GM is another closest technology that can track your vehicle. But no iPhone app or a website to track your car.

There are some keychains availavle that can mark the car location just like iphone app. This makes it a little bit easier, but again those compact devices arent yet as reliable and advanced as other GPS devices are.



Some advanced thoughts...
If there are 5-10 floors, GPS only marks the location in 2Dimension, so you wont be able to find out the floor where you parked it. There should be some way to figure out the height and map it to the floor number. I am sure some one picks this idea in future and makes a fundo gadget to locate your car.

Conclusion: Man finds more and more ways to get lazy and handover the thinking to machines/gadgets. This is one of mine. I am sure future holds lot of such smart features in cars.

ICC to keep 14-team Cricket World Cup after U-turn

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has performed a U-turn on controversial plans to reduce the size of the Cricket World Cup after agreeing to allow four non-Test playing nations to participate in the next edition of the competition.

The ICC originally planned to cut the list of participants to 10 “full member” nations, excluding “associates” such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Kenya, which all took part in the 14-team Cricket World Cup earlier this year. The governing body’s initial decision was made after criticism of the length of the 2011 tournament, which ran from February 19 to April 2 in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, but the ICC agreed to review its proposal after complaints from the lower-ranked nations.

The ICC, which held its annual conference in Hong Kong, confirmed that four associate members will now take part in the tournament after a qualifying process. “The ICC executive board today reversed its previous decisions and approved a 14-team format for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to be held in Australia and New Zealand and a 12-team format for the ICC World Twenty20 events in 2012 (Sri Lanka) and 2014 (Bangladesh),” read a statement from the ICC. The Twenty20 events were initially slated to include 16 teams, up from 12.

The ICC also announced the 2019 World Cup would be a 10-team event, with the top eight places going to the top-ranked teams and two berths being awarded in a pre-qualifying tournament. Cricket Ireland CEO Warren Deutrom told AFP: “I suppose the immediate reaction is one of relief, and that we can all now divert our energies in the significantly more proactive pursuit of trying to qualify.”

The board also approved a recommendation made by its chief executives' committee on Monday to make the controversial Umpire Decision Review System (DRS) mandatory in all Tests and one-day matches. Hot Spot, the “thermal imaging” technology now available and made mandatory in the DRS, will mostly be used for close catches and edges. On Wednesday, the ICC executive board is expected to discuss plans to scrap the ICC's two-year rotational presidency.

If I have black money, make it national property: Ramdev

NEW DELHI: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who fasted earlier this month against mountingcorruption in the country, said here Sunday that if any black money was found with him, it could be declared national property.

"If the government finds any black money with me, they can declare it national property," Ramdevsaid while addressing a press conference in the Capital.

Weeks after he was forced to quit Delhi, Baba Ramdev returned here Sunday to meet Raj Bala, 51, who is at the GB Pant Hospital since suffering spinal injuries in a police crackdown on the yoga guru post midnight June 4.

"Behen Raj Bala is in very critical condition. Only a miracle can save her once the ventilator is removed," he said.

"This government is not only corrupt but also cruel. If I had not asked the people to stay calm, there would have been a pool of dead bodies," he added.

Delhi Police broke up his fast against corruption and black money stashed abroad at the Ramlila ground here, dispersing thousands of men and women using force and tear gas. Many suffered injuries. Raj Bala was one of them.

He was asked to leave Delhi and banned from entering the city for 15 days. Ramdev continued his fast in Haridwar and Dehradun till June 12.

History revisited: India wins ICC World Cup 2011

INDIAN LIONS did it in style and the Lankan tigers had to accept defeat at the hands of none other than the cool Indian captain M S Dhoni, who made sure the team India gets on to lift the World Cup 2011 in Mumbai amidst loud cheers and applause from the strong crowd present in the Wankhede stadium to witness the history being written. No doubt MS Dhoni scripted the history when he hit the winning six in the 49^th over and India became the new World Champion after 28 years.

This also moved India up in the ICC ODI rankings and India captured the number one spot and now, the team India is number one in both the formats of the game i.e. test and one day. The victory was long overdue as we missed it in 2003 when Australia defeated us. But Saturday was our day and we made it. This victory is very special to every Indian because of many reasons. First, we lifted the cup by beating Pakistan. Second, we won our match from team Australia also. This gives immense satisfaction that we are now the real champions.

It was a tough road for MS Dhoni and his men as there was tremendous pressure on them to perform and to excel in front of the home crowd and that too in a tournament which is called the “World Cup,” it was never easy. But it was the patience and quality of tackling pressure now that the youngsters in the team have been able to that’s give the team a smooth sailing even in the rough time.

After losing the toss in the finals, as there was some confusion perhaps due to the noise from the crowd that toss had to be done again and when Lanka won it and decided to bat first, many looked at ease thinking it was better to know the target and then chase it off as per the plan.

As India has a long batting line up and the form in which our players were, people thought anything between 260-280 odd runs would be not bad for the Indian side.

After the brilliant century by Mahela Jayawardhane, it was the turn of Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. There were lots of hopes from Sachin as it was his home ground but after Viru got out on a duck, there was complete silence in the stadium and all looked shocked as he got out LBW in the very first over of Lasith Malinga on the second ball. Soon, Sachin also fell prey to Malinga when India was 31 and the score on the board displayed India 31/2.

Then it was the crucial partnership of more than 90 runs between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli which stabilized the Indian innings and when Kohli got out, it was captain M S Dhoni who came out to rescue his team and he made sure that he remained there on the crease till Indian side reached the victory line. He batted brilliantly along with Gautam Gambhir and put India in a commanding position. Gambhir missed his century by three runs.

It was Dhoni and Yuvraj who finished the innings for India and a long dream for millions of Indian cricket fans came true Saturday night when these two made sure that no more wicket fell for India and India became the World Champion in a close fighting game.

It was a big-big win for Indian team. Right from the President and Prime Minister of India every body congratulated MSD and his team members for this historic win. BCCI has announced to give one crore each to the players, Rs 50 lakh to supporting staff and Rs 25 lakh to the selectors of the team.

Zylog launches ‘Wi5’ services

Zylog Systems India, a software solutions and services provider, has launched ‘Wi5’ wireless broadband services in Chennai. The WiFi service will enable customers access high-speed wireless broadband connectivity through their laptops, desktops or mobile devices by subscribing to Wi5’s service on the move


The company, which obtained a category A internet service provider license – license to operate in all of India’s DoT circles – late in 2008, will then be officially entering the ISP business in the country. Its parent already has its offshore software development units in Chennai.

Unlike traditional WiFi, which operates out of ‘hotspots’ – spots where wireless transmission equipments are fitted to provide wired connectivity to a small area around it – Zylog’s network uses a mesh network architecture, which makes the wireless network a continuous one. Popularly called a hotzone, this works much like a mobile telephony network. Zylog’s business model would be similar. The company plans to retail network subscription to individual users on a prepaid rental basis.

The company has presently set up 140 nodes in the city and aims to complete setting up 32000 nodes in five cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, apart from Chennai - by the end of the year.

IIFA Awards: Rahman Best Music Director

 Internationally acclaimed and double Oscar winning composer A R Rahman was on Saturday named the Best Music Director at the IDEA International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards for his soulful compositions in the historical romanceJodhaa Akbar.

Rahman couldn't attend the event and director Ashutosh Gowariker received the award on his behalf.

The Best Male Playback Singer Award went to Javed Ali for crooning Jashn-e-bahaara in Johdaa Akbar, while Shreya Ghoshal was named the Best Female Playback Singer for Teri ore in hit romantic comedySingh is Kinng.

Well-known Bollywood writer Javed Akhtar won the Best Lyricist Award for penning the song Jashn-e-bahaara for Jodhaa Akbar.

Aishwarya Rai, the daughter-in-law of IIFA brand ambassador Amitbabh Bachchan, was honoured with a special award for an Outstanding Achievement in International Cinema.

Director-turned actor Farhan Akhtar got the Best Male Debutant of the Year Award for Rock On!, while Asin Thottumkal got Best Female Debut award for action thriller Ghajini.

Jodhaa Akbar bagged the maximum technical awards at IIFA.

While ace designer Neeta Lulla walked away with the Best Costume Design Award for Jodhaa Akbar, Best Editing trophy went to Ballu Saluja and Best Art Direction to Nitin Chandrakant Desai for the Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai starrer historical romance.

Resul Pokkutty, who made history by winning an Oscar for his work in Slumdog Millionaire, bagged the Best Sound Recording trophy for Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini with Amrit.

The Best Cinematography Award went to Jason West for Rock On! and the Best Choreography Award went to Farah Khan for the song Desi girl featuring Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and John Abraham in Dostana.

Claim your Facebook vanity URL, the race is on!

Race to grab your own URL's on the social networking group, Facebook, is on. Claim it early before it is all gone.

It all started on Saturday after midnight, when Facebook debuted usernames for companies, individuals and groups, in order to finally enable everyone to grab an easy-to-remember, easy-to-share URL for profile or page.

If you are late, you still can do it, all you got to do is to hit facebook.com/usernames in your browser. You'll be prompted to login and, upon doing so, if qualified; you'll be given some initial options for Facebook usernames.

If the initial selections aren't what you want, just click on "More" to reveal a field where you can enter your own username and check its availability. If it is available, that's it, just accept it to save your changes.

Within seven minutes of the service being available last night, 345,000 users grabbed one each. Within 15 minutes, over a half million had, Facebook usernames, spokesperson Larry Yu said.

With Facebook offering vanity URLs for the first time, social media expert Susan Jacobson of Temple University's journalism department advises organisations as well as celebrities and politicians to claim their URLs early to avoid having to battle later with a cybersquatter.

"Generally speaking the best defense against cybersquatting or potential malicious use of a famous name is to register accounts in your company's name on new social media sites as soon as they emerge," she explained.

Jacobson likens it to the early days of the internet when regular citizens would rush to buy domain names (i.e. www.madonna.com) and then sell them to celebrities for millions of dollars.

Famous name Facebook users are going to be interested in the vanity URLs because it will make it easier for non-Facebook users to find them, noted Jacobson.

Those Facebook users who restrict access to their information may find it more convenient for their friends to connect to them with the vanity URLs, but their friends will still have to log in to see their restricted information, she said.

Not everyone was happy with the results of the URL FACEBOOK landgrab, as most of the people didn't get the names they wanted within minutes of login. Congratulations, if you got your's.