Three film makers from west

In wikicamp I met these three young guys; Nic, Adam and John. They are taking a documentary film (Underdog pictures) on Wikipedia and its founder Jimmy Wales . Main theme is how information technology is affecting the world. Now they are going all around the world with Jimmy Wales and shooting.

After the camp we went for Dinner with Jimmy and Adam was with us. Adam wanted to try chicken tikka.

On way back from our dinner, we were on ECR road, Adam was surprised to see no lights in the road…. suddenly Nic pointed to the ‘thing’ that was going in front of our car and said “Hey in Indonesia, I saw the same one but that was more decorated. The ‘thing’ he was referring to was our “Autorikshaw” and I read recently somewhere that in Sri Lanka “Auto” is called a “Ground Helicopter” Both Helicopter and an Auto sounds similar huh?

It was indeed great talking to these guys; we talked about issues on outsourcing, about various countries. After Chennai, they went to Varanasi and then to New Delhi. The movie is expected to be ready by Jan 2008.

All the best for your film guys!!

Another way of opening Gmail account

My dad wanted me to write an article, and the deadline was nearing. He called the other day and reminded me about article. Now no escape from this, I thought and at last I finished the article. But now one problem!!! Dad wants the article in soft copy, in a CD. Quite a moderate demand but its too late. The CD won’t reach him, not even FedEx can do that.

I thought why complicate things? I shall send the article through mail. My Mom, who is more techno savvy than my Dad, used to Google for preparing her teaching notes, but she does not have an email id (forget about dad)

This was my plan of action

I call up Mom, give her my email id and password and ask her to take the article. But then I thought why don’t I create an ID for her? Its high time for her to use mail service. I created a Gmail account for her.

I called her. She is still there in school and asked me call after 20 minutes. I promptly called her (after getting an SMS from by brother asking to call her, why she contacted my brother? Let that remain a mystery).

All set for the big event!!!!

Mom sitting in front of the computer, I too
I ask her to connect Internet, she agrees
While connecting the net , she tells me about a couple of forthcoming weddings!!!
Net is on, she ask me “shall I go to Google?”

Hey Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Co-founders- Google), Are u listening? Where can you find such a Google loyalist?

I said NO, type www.gmail.com , she types

I :- Do you see user id and password
Mom:- Yes
I tell her the user id and password

Now she is a bit bewildered…. Hey Sandu in password everything is coming as dots, any thing wrong? Genuine question from a novice.

She logs in and sees the article. Yeah I got it!!! She yells!!!!
I ask her to click that, she obliges and saves the article.

She asks me whether she can close the mail, I said OK. She wants to try the process again and goes through all the steps once more. At last she ask me

So is this my email address? Yes Mom I say

My Mom’s first email account. I say to myself, Mom welcome to the world of Gmail!!!