Friday, March 27, 2009

Flash Shortcut Keys


The following is a list of shortcut keys that I find most used in Adobe Flash. These are the same for all versions of Flash to date. These shortcuts are for PC (Windows) users
Tools:
Flash Selection Tool Selection Tool - V
Flash Sub Selection Tool Sub Selection Tool - A
Flash Free Transform Tool Free Transform Tool - Q
Flash Gradient Transform Tool Gradient Transform Tool - F
Flash Line Tool Line Tool - N
Flash Pen Tool Pen Tool - P
Flash Lasso Tool Lasso Tool - L
Flash Text Tool Text Tool - T
Flash Oval Tool Oval Tool - O
Flash Rectangle Tool - R
Flash Pencil Tool Pencil Tool - Y
Eyedropper ToolFlash Eyedropper Tool - I
Flash Brush Tool Brush Tool - B
Flash Ink Bottle Tool Ink Bottle Tool - S
Flash Paint Bucket Tool Paint Bucket Tool - K
Flash Eraser ToolFlash Eraser Tool - E

Monday, March 23, 2009

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Market, Assets & Bankruptcy

Once there was a little island country. The land of this country was the tiny island itself. The total money in circulation was 2 dollars as there were only two pieces of 1 dollar coins circulating around.

There were 3 citizens living on this island country.

A owned the land.
B and C each owned 1 dollar.

B decided to purchase the land from A for 1 dollar. So, now A and C own 1 dollar each while B owned a piece of land that is worth 1 dollar.

The net asset of the country now = 3 dollars.

Now C thought that since there is only one piece of land in the country, and land is non producible asset, its value must definitely go up. So, he borrowed 1 dollar from A, and together with his own 1 dollar, he bought the land from B for 2 dollars.

  1. A has a loan to C of 1 dollar, so his net asset is 1 dollar.
  2. B sold his land and got 2 dollars, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
  3. C owned the piece of land worth 2 dollars but with his 1 dollar debt to A, his net residual asset is 1 dollar.

Thus, the net asset of the country = 4 dollars.

A saw that the land he once owned has raised in value. He regretted having sold it. Luckily, he has a 1 dollar loan to C. He then borrowed 2 dollars from B and acquired the land back from C for 3 dollars. The payment is by 2 dollars cash (which he borrowed) and cancellation of the 1 dollar loan to C. As a result, A now owned a piece of land that is worth 3 dollars. But since he owed B 2 dollars, his net asset is 1 dollar.

  1. B loaned 2 dollars to A. So his net asset is 2 dollars.
  2. C now has the 2 coins. His net asset is also 2 dollars.

The net asset of the country = 5 dollars. A bubble is building up.

B saw that the value of land kept rising. He also wanted to own the land. So he bought the land from A for 4 dollars. The payment is by borrowing 2 dollars from C, and cancellation of his 2 dollars loan to A.

  1. As a result, A has got his debt cleared and he got the 2 coins. His net asset is 2 dollars.
  2. B owned a piece of land that is worth 4 dollars, but since he has a debt of 2 dollars with C, his net asset is 2 dollars.
  3. C loaned 2 dollars to B, so his net asset is 2 dollars.

The net asset of the country = 6 dollars; even though, the country has only one piece of land and 2 Dollars in circulation.

Everybody has made money and everybody felt happy and prosperous.

One day an evil wind blew, and an evil thought came to C's mind. 'Hey, what if the land price stop going up, how could B repay my loan? There is only 2 dollars in circulation, and, I think after all the land that B owns is worth at most only 1 dollar, and no more.'

A also thought the same way.

Nobody wanted to buy land anymore.

  1. So, in the end, A owns the 2 dollar coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.
  2. B owed C 2 dollars and the land he owned which he thought worth 4 dollars is now 1 dollar. So his net asset is only 1 dollar.
  3. C has a loan of 2 dollars to B. But it is a bad debt. Although his net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.

The net asset of the country = 3 dollars again.

So, who has stolen the 3 dollars from the country? Of course, before the bubble burst B thought his land was worth 4 dollars. Actually, right before the collapse, the net asset of the country was 6 dollars on paper. B's net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.

B had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. C as to relinquish his 2 dollars bad debt to B, but in return he acquired the land which is worth 1 dollar now.

  1. A owns the 2 coins; his net asset is 2 dollars.
  2. B is bankrupt; his net asset is 0 dollar. ( he lost everything )
  3. C got no choice but end up with a land worth only 1 dollar

The net asset of the country = 3 dollars.


 

End of the story; but there is however a redistribution of wealth. A is the winner, B is the loser, C is lucky that he is spared. A few points worth noting:

  1. When a bubble is building up, the debt of individuals to one another in a country is also building up.
  2. This story of the island is a closed system whereby there is no other country and hence no foreign debt. The worth of the asset can only be calculated using the island's own currency. Hence, there is no net loss.
  3. An over-damped system is assumed when the bubble burst, meaning the land's value did not go down to below 1 dollar.
  4. When the bubble burst, the fellow with cash is the winner. The fellows having the land or extending loan to others are the losers. The asset could shrink or in worst case, they go bankrupt.
  5. If there is another citizen D either holding a dollar or another piece of land but refrains from taking part in the game, he will neither win nor lose. But he will see the value of his money or land goes up and down like a see saw.
  6. When the bubble was in the growing phase, everybody made money.
  7. If you are smart and know that you are living in a growing bubble, it is worthwhile to borrow money (like A) and take part in the game. But you must know when you should change everything back to cash.
  8. As in the case of land, the above phenomenon applies to stocks as well.
  9. The actual worth of land or stocks depends largely on psychology.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Top 10 Blunders in developing eLearning

  • Skipping Steps
  • Starting It All Wrong
  • Underestimating the Work
  • Choosing the Wrong Team Members
  • Choosing the Wrong Tools
  • Choosing the Wrong Media Elements
  • Designing Incorrectly
  • Allowing Later Scope Changes
  • Not Evaluating the Coursework
  • Not Expecting the Unexpected

Click here to download the PDF, The Top 10 Blunder sin Developing E-Learning by Joseph Ganci

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Where is my mind?

I don't know where is my mind is;
May be in the outer world ,
May be in some ones heart,
May be anywhere or everywhere
Still I hope to see it at least once,
In my life or somewhere- in its
original kind , so that I could know him.
So, that I am hear the marvelous stories he had.

The stories may be related with love,
romance, nature, wildlife, adventure
or anything that exists in this
world and would exist till the end.
" Thy mind where you are staying,
stay well, do well for this world
and try to keep cool" – would
be my saying to him.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Computer Hardware in Plain English

Friday, February 20, 2009

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Investing Money in Plain English - A common craft video

Monday, February 09, 2009

Risk Mitigation

Risk mitigation actions reduce the chance that a risk will be realized and/or reduce the seriousness of a risk that is realized. The costs of these actions should be identified as part of the EVALUATION activities. There are two broad types of risk mitigation or treatment activities:

  • Preventative - planned actions to reduce the LIKELIHOOD a risk will occur and the SERIOUSNESS if it does occur. In other words, what can be done now? For example, if a risk were identified that the project’s major clients will not have the technical expertise to utilize adequately the technology the project is implementing, an appropriate preventative action would be to provide technical training. Preventative actions for Grades A and B risks should be implemented before the project progresses very far into the MANAGE Phase.
  • Contingency - planned actions to reduce the SERIOUSNESS of the risk if it does occur. In other words, what should be done if? For example, a possible action in response to the previous risk might be that ongoing technical support and advice is provided to the client organization once the technology is implemented.
Risk mitigation actions should be cost efficient and effective in that they help reduce the risk exposure of the project. Conscious decisions need to be made regarding the wearing or transferring of certain risks as opposed to the costs of mitigation.

For serious risks, an extremely effective risk mitigation strategy can be justified more easily in terms of its cost. Mitigation strategies to reduce the likelihood and seriousness of risks should be built into the budget and activities of the project. Mitigation strategies should be measured, comparing cost and benefits.

RECOVERY actions are those subsequent actions that allow you to move on after a risk has occurred. They include management of residual risks. Hopefully, the seriousness of a risk’s impact on the project will have been reduced due to the planned contingencies being implemented. These recovery actions should be built into the work breakdown structure for the project. In other words - what should be done and when.

Reference: Tasmanian Government Project Management Guidelines Version 6.0

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Road skills Hyderabadi must have
  • Drive 4 wheelers like 4 wheelers and not like 2-wheelers. Most of the RTC buses are driven like 2-wheelers, specially in the Kukatpally route.
  • While driving at night use normal headlight mode and not high –beam mode. Guys you need to understand that driving in high-beam mode is dangerous not only for the person who is driving in the opposite direction but also you.
  • While crossing roads, use zebra crossing (this is applicable throughout India). In case you are not doing that, atleast develop a sense of understanding the problem driver faces in case you jump right in front of him while attempting to cross the road. Andhra Pradesh is one of the states in India with very high number of road accidents.
  • And finally, follow traffic rule, at least the basic ones ( stop at red light, don't race on roads..etc)

Friday, February 06, 2009

Top 10 Qualities of a Project Manager

  • Inspires a Shared Vision
  • Good Communicator
  • Ability to Delegate Tasks
  • Problem Solving Skills
  • Integrity
  • Enthusiasm
  • Empathy
  • Competence
  • Team-Building Skills
  • Cool Under Pressure


This list was compiled after surfing through the Internet.
Channel Created on Google SMS Channels. This is a test post.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Powerpoint - best practice by Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki' n addition to being a good author/blogger, was one of the very early Apple employees and more recently has been a venture investor. At Garage (http://www.garage.com/), probably he has seen countless Powerpoint presentations. Presumably because he is tired of seeing poor Powerpoint presentations, he spends many pages in his book, Art of The Start talking about Powerpoint best practices.

His mantra is that Powerpoint should follow a 10/20/30 Rule (check out The Art of Pitching section in the book). There should be no more than 10 slides in the presentation as very few people take away much more than one concept from a presentation, so all that other stuff is extra. The slide presentation should be designed to last 20 minutes, leaving room for ample questions between slides or after the presentation. He says the font should be size should be no smaller than 30 (Arial font). Guy says that audiences read faster than you can talk, so that while you are up there talking, they are trying to read your slides and not listening to what you are saying.

He says that there are something like 60 animation features within Powerpoint and he recommends the less use of it the better. His advice is to use your voice & body to emphasize when a point is important, not some fancy Powerpoint trick. The only place he recommends using any of this is in going through bullet points on a slide, presumably to avoid having people read ahead. Speaking of bullets, Guy suggests that bulleted slides should have one point with bullets and only one layer of bullets (lest you violate the 30 part of 10/20/30).

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Warangal Fort


Warangal Fort
Originally uploaded by Anandarup
The Ruins of a majestic fort

Monday, January 26, 2009

Warangal Trip

Last Saturday we planned for one day Warangal Trip from Hyderabad. The route we choosed was Bhongir Fort, Yadagirigutta, Kolanpaka, Warangal, Palampet and back. The driver was horrible, had no idea about the route and couldn't speak Hindi. So, we kept asking local people as we travelled.

The first stop was Simhadri temple near Yadagirigutta. After darshan we drove to Yadagirigutta Temple. Yadagirigutta is a popular of Narasimha 

Swamy situated on a hillock. Yadagirigutta is about 60km from Hyderabad.

In Tretayugam, there lived a sage by the name of Yadarishi, son of the great sage Rishyasrunga and Santa Devi who did penance inside a cave with the blessings of Anjaneya (Hanuman) on this hill between Bhongir (Bhuvanagiri) and Raigiri (Now in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh). Pleased with his deep devotion, Lord Narasimha, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu appeared before him in five different forms as Jwala, Yogananda, Gandabherunda, Ugra and Lakshminarasimha. They later manifested themselves into finely sculpted forms that later came to be worshiped as Pancha Narasimha Kshetram.

There are Purana and traditional accounts of this Shrine, which are widely popular among the devotees. There is mention about the origin of this temple in the Skanda Purana, one of the famous 18 puranas.

Glowing bright atop the sikharam of garbha griha (Sanctum Sanctorum) of this cave temple is the golden Sudarshana Chakra (about 3 ft x 3ft) of Lord Vishnu (whose reincarnation is Lord Narasimha), the adornment as well as the weapon is a symbol this temple is identified by from as far away as 6 km. It is said that many years ago the chakra moved in the direction from which the devotees came as if like a compass guiding them towards the temple.

Lord Narasimha is believed to have been worshiped by sages (rishis). The region of  Yadagirigutta is reputed to be a "Rishi Aradhana Kshetram" or the place of worship for sages.

As the belief goes, Lord Narasimha has taken on the role of a "doctor" and is known as "Vaidya Narasimha" by his devotees at this shrine to cure many chronic diseases and the role of a 'do gooder' to those who are under the influence of bad planets, witch craft and black magic. Many instances are cited of the Lord appearing in the dreams of the devotees, and administering medicines and operated the patients and blessed them with good health. Many devotees tell of vivid dreams in which the Lord comes to heal them from chronic or terminal illnesses, and even mental or emotional problems. A mandala (40 day) pradakshina is very popular made by many devotees to get cured of a long standing ailment or chronic disease. Often, the Lord Himself has imparted mantrOpadEsham to select devotees in their dreams.

Another Legend also has it that Sriman Narayana, pleased with Yada's penance, sent Sri Anjaneya to direct the rishi to a holy spot, where the Lord appeared to him in the form of Sri

 LakshmiNarasimha. This spot is marked by a temple located at the foot of the Yadagiri hillock, and is located about 5 km from the present temple. There the sage worshiped the Lord for many years.

After Yadarishi attained moksha, a number of tribals, hearing of the Lord's presence, came to worship Him at this temple. But, not being very learned, these devotees began to engage in improper worship. Because of this, Sri LakshmiNarasimha moved into to the hills. The tribals searched for many years to find their Lord, to no avail.

After many years had passed, the Lord appeared in the dream of a devout lady among the tribe, directing her to a large cavern wherein He revealed Himself to all as five majestic Avatars.

The Aradhanam and Puja in this temple are performed according to Pancharatra Agamam. The puja vidhanam (Puja procedure) was set by Late Sri Vangeepuram Narasimhacharyulu who composed Yadagiri Suprabhatam, Prapatti, Stotram, Mangalashasanam and served as Sthanacharya of this temple.

It took around 2 hrs for darshan. After darshan we drove straight to Warangal. For more information on Yadagirigutta temple visit http://www.yadagirigutta.in/

The first stop was 1000 pillar temple. This temple is one of the finest examples of Kakatiya architecture and a testimony to the Vishwakarma Brahmin's excellence in sculpture. Built by Rudra Deva built in 1163 in the style of Chalukyan temple art, it is star shaped and triple shrined.

Image 2: Nandi bull at 1000 pillar temple

Recently, when the archeological department was conducting excavations, they found a water well below the kalyanamandapam, which leads to the conclusion that the foundation of this wonderful structure was built on water.

The marvelous structure was destroyed by the invaders. The temple had idols of 3 Gods, Shiva, Surya and Vishnu. The invaders stole Surya and Vishnu idols. The Shiva idol is still there. And people workship Shiva in the temple. The ASI needs to be more proactive in keeping the structure. Locals charge Rs 20 for parking the car, where as there is no entry fee to enter the site.

From 1000 pillar temple we drove to Bhadra Kali temple. Situated on a hilltop between Hanamakonda and Warangal, it is noted for its stone image of the Goddess Kali. The temple is located on the banks of the "Bhadrakali" Cheruvu (lake).

Our next destination was Warangal Fort or Kila Warangal. 

You need to drive through the bazaar and cross the railway line. The fort is approximately 2 km from the station. Warangal fort dates back to the 12th and 13th century.


Image 3: 

Remains of Fort Warangal

The fort was mostly destroyed by invaders and only the ruins can now be seen. The fort had three protective walls, remnants of which can still be seen today. The first is a mud wall that stands today up to about 20 feet high and several kilometers in circumference, encircling the fort. The second is a wall made of granite rock. The fort has four famous stone gateways, about 30 feet high and still standing, a masterpiece carved from a single rock. They are called Kirti Toranas (gateways of glory) of the Kakatiyas. Another masterpiece from the Kakatiyas. Something else was waiting for me. The Ramappa Temple.

Ramappa Temple also known as Ramalingeswara Temple, is situated in Palampet village, 70 km from Warangal. This is a beautiful monument dating back to 1213 A.D. It displays the glory and richness of the Kakatiya kingdom and is one of the finest specimens of Hindu temple architecture of the time. This medieval temple is a Shivalaya and named after the sculptor Ramappa, a Vishwakarma Brahmin Sthapathi of Karnataka State, who built it rather that after its presiding deity, Ramalingeswara, perhaps to accent Shiva's importance as the personal god of the avatar of Vishnu, Rama. The history says that it was taken 40 years to built this temple.


Image 4: Ramappa Temple

This beautiful temple, an example of brilliant Kakatiya dynasty art, planned and sculpted by Vishwakarma Brahmin Sthapathis was built on the classical pattern of being lifted above the world on a high star-shaped platform. Intricate carvings line the walls and cover the pillars and ceilings. Starting at its base to its wall panels, pillars and ceiling are sculpted figures drawn from Hindu mythology. The roof of the temple is built with bricks, which are so light that they are able to float on water.

The hall in front of the sanctum is filled with exquisitely carved pillars that are placed as to combine light and space wonderfully with the finely chiselled walls and ceiling. There are two small Shiva shrines on either side of the main temple that are completely ruined. The enormous Nandi within, facing the shrine of Shiva, remains in good condition. In most of the shiva temples, the Nandi was strait to deity but in the temples built by Kakatiyas the Nandi is in a alert position and waiting for the order of lord Shiva.

For more images visit my site on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/anandarup/

Sunday, December 21, 2008

All India Festival of Arts and Crafts at Shilparamam

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Monday, August 25, 2008

Metrics vs. Matrix

The words Metrics and Matrix cause confusion, as they sound similar. So, what’s the difference between them?

Metrics:

Metric is a measurement.

Product Quality Metrics describe the characteristics (i.e. Size, complexity, performance Quality level of the product). For example:

  • Mean time to failure
  • Defect density
  • Customer Problems
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Defect Removal Efficiency

Matrix:

Matrix is a data representation and data collection mechanism. Then we use collected data to derive metrics. For example:

  • Requirements Traceability Matrix
  • Functional Traceability Matrix
  • Test Matrix

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Hyderabad...
(as on Sunday morning.. after receiving 20 cm rainfall in last 24 hrs)



Image courtesy: Times of India