ramadocblog

“It runs only in circle within the wheel!

Thank heavens that it does not squeal!

Never had a creature like this in this house!

It is round and small and tis called a computer mouse!!”

There was a time when we all had that irritating mouse! The one with the ball! Some early geeks would have had the ball on top which was the trackball but the ones which most had were the ones with the ball on the bottom!

Somehow though I used to like it! It was a marvel how the ball inside would move and and the arrow would move along with it!

Then later came the wheel! Not the chariot kind but the mouse one!

The wheel is still an integral part of the mouse unlike the ball!

Did you know that the original function of the Wheel which turned out to be scroll was actually made to zoom!?

read on!

So this mouse had some smooth function when it started! You could always tell a new mouse from the old by the scroll!

The ball would have becomes dirty and it acted almost like a mini vacuum cleaner! The thrill of discovering an old mouse with a computer arrow going slow was so cool!

Then all we had to do was remove the ball and you would be surprised at the dirt collected! Slowly but surely all the dirt was cleaned and a gentle blow here and a firm wipe there and the ball would be shining! We would remove it and play around with it just for fun!

Finally the joy of seeing the arrow move so prompt along with the mouse was unparalleled! Many times I would invert the mouse and the ball would disappear! Then we would manually move the mouse and see the arrow move! That was thrilling! My kids would  laugh if they read this now!

The horror is when the mouse moved but the arrow remained in the screen in spite of cleaning and clearing all the dust! Then you know the dreaded windows frozen screen! Only the three magical buttons may work or you would have to go for a hard restart fervently praying that the work may have been stored! Which is why even now as a habit I keep on pressing Ctrl + S every instant when I type something! 

Now in spite of the terrible mechanical look in an otherwise smooth non moving parts device, the mouse had its own appeal!

The only two main moving part at the time were the mouse and the CD/DVD tray which always had issues! No wonder both have been efficiently removed by versions which do not have moving parts in them! Still I miss the mouse!

With the wheel now remaining the only moving part of the mouse, the thing to go was the ball which has been now been replaced by the optical scrolling!

The original inventor of the mouse wheel has been credited to be Eric and his team from Microsoft. In his own article titled The History of the Scroll Wheel; he explains how it was first thought for the zoom function! 

Back in 1993, as he was watching many Excel users do their work, he noticed the difficulty they had moving around large spreadsheets!

Finding and jumping to different sections was often difficult. 

Eric then had the idea that perhaps a richer input device would help.

His original idea was the zoom lever. 

This was simply a lever, presumably for your non-mouse hand (i.e. on the left side of your keyboard if you’re right-handed). When you push it away from you the spreadsheet zooms out. When you pull it towards you, it zooms back in!

He prototyped this by hooking a joystick up to his computer and using DDE to connect it to Excel for zooming. Using a joystick button along with the stick, he also had it do “data zooming”, which was drilling in and out through Excel outlines! 

But focusing on zooming was a very Excel-centric approach. More specifically, it was a very 2-D centric approach!

That is, using an application that presents 2-dimensional data, like a spreadsheet or graphics, it’s very useful to zoom in and out. But the other main style of application is a linear flow application like Word, and there it’s not as useful. You could do zooming with Word, where zooming out shows you a multi-page view and then you click on a desired page and zoom into it, but that’s not as natural as with a spreadsheet or graphics and images!

Around this time, the hardware guys came back and said that they had considered adding a wheel to the mouse, but they didn’t know what it would be used for. Document navigation answered that question, so they said that if Eric could get Office to support it, they would build it. 

This really meant Excel and Word since they were the “800 lb gorillas” — if Excel and Word supported something, then the other Office apps would follow, and if Office as a whole supported something, then everyone else would follow too! This is because during that time, computer was mainly for word and excel work which means documentation which it still is today if you take out the games!

Eric was completely fixated on the idea that the wheel should be for zooming by default, but finally relented when he met resistance from legendary technology journalist Walt Mossberg. Before they shipped it, they added a button under the wheel, and made the default wheel action “scroll”!

The rest as they say is how the Wheel was made! My mother used to love the older mouse only since she used to play a cute little game called the Monster Hunter with it! The optical mouse was never that good for her because it needed the mouse pad! Another mom favourite were the cop movies of birthday celebrity Suresh Gopi especially Eklavyan! She would have felt so happy with his recent victory! 

Now keep the mouse pad safe and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“The bullet would have surely shot the Batman!

But his arch nemesis The Joker came in the way! 

Bewildering everyone! He said! Being his enemy is my life! 

Don’t shoot and take my life away!”

Everyone knows the adage, “A friend in need is a friend indeed” but it brings into question why a phrase like this is needed since the very definition of a friend is a person who would anyway help you!

This is when this amazing book called the 48 Law of power by Robert Greene comes into mind! In the very second law he states that you must never Put Too Much Trust in Friends; Learn How to Use Enemies. Keep a close eye on your friends — they easily become envious and resentful, and will undermine you!

In contrast, if you promote an enemy, he’ll be more loyal than a friend in an effort to prove himself. So use your enemies! 

While a friend expects more and more favors, and seethes with jealousy, these former enemies expected nothing and got everything!

A man suddenly spared the guillotine is a grateful man indeed, and will go to the ends of the earth for the man who has pardoned him! 

The author also talks about the Emperor Sung of China (he became the emperor in 959), who managed to break the pattern of coups, violence and civil war by making his former enemies his friends.

The collapse of the T’ang brought chaos to China as numerous dynasties vied for control. After 50 years of turmoil, one ruler emerged to re-unite the country. Donning the yellow robe, he declared himself T’ai-tsu, Emperor of the Sung. His dynasty would last 319 years!

Japan was nearing the end of the Sengoku Jidai (“Warring States Period”) when lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi wrapped up the unification of Japan that had begun under his predecessor Oda Nobunaga. Unlike his former lord, Hideyoshi made judicious use of mercy to turn former enemies into allies. Those who opposed him in one campaign would become the vanguard of the next. This snowballing effect allowed Hideyoshi to bring Japan under his rule by 1591! 

Another story like this but closer to us is the story of Chanakya and a minster of the enemy called the Rakhsasa. Now the minister of the enemy made lots of attempts to kill Chanakya’s king Chandragupta but Chanakya always spoilt his plans!

In one instance, he saved a soldier of Rakhsasa from being killed for punishment and that soldier not only became his friend but also his trusted spy! Which made the job of Chanakya much easier! 

After several attempts by Rakhsasa on Chandraguta’s life he was finally left with nothing but hate and desperation! He also understood though that Chankya is a formidable enemy and the masters Rakhsasa was trying to protect and support were incapable of their post! 

At this juncture Chanakya offered him the place of Chandragupta’s Minister! It was a master stroke! In spite of being the enemy Rakhsasa was actually a clever minister, only that Chanakya was more clever! 

Chanakya then had nothing to worry about and retired to his Ashram while his king was safe in the hands of Rakhsasa! 

If you make your biggest enemy your friend then he or she will make sure that the responsibility they have been given will be fulfilled with utmost sincerity which you may not get from your friend! 

So if you have a nemesis or a great enemy; reach out to him or her and maybe he or she may help you out in ways you could not have imagined! 

It is also difficult to imagine now how one of the cult comedies made in Bharat had the birthday celebrity Satish Ravilal Shah as a corpse for the most part of the film but still played the most important part in a hilarious way!

Do not watch that movie if you want to sleep! But do watch it if you want to laugh hysterically!

Shubh Ratri! 

“Just want to clear my head and drive the sleep!

Want to smile without looking like a creep! 

This may not make me a king in any way! 

But a hot water shower will surely make my day!”

The common point between Agatha Christie and Stephen King! 

Then you have the recent Pulitzer prize winners; Junot Diaz, Colson Whitehead, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Jennifer Egan!

Now the easy answer is that they are all great writers!

In fact the list is much longer because of one trait or habit which they all share!

They used to get the best ideas when they are in the shower!

There is a name for this! The bathroom brainwave!

In the popular book the 5am club, Robin Sharma has stated how getting up at 5 am is the most coveted secret of highly successful people! Adding to that routine is the early morning shower! 

When you shower, you apparently get amazing ideas! 

A Nat Geo article explains that rather than constantly grinding away at a problem or desperately seeking a flash of inspiration, research from the last 15 years suggests that people may be more likely to have creative breakthroughs or epiphanies when they’re doing a habitual task that doesn’t require much thought—an activity in which you’re basically on autopilot!

This lets your mind wander or engage in spontaneous cognition or “stream of consciousness” thinking, which experts believe helps retrieve unusual memories and generate new ideas!

Researchers have shown that the default mode network (DMN)—which connects more than a dozen regions of the brain—becomes more active during mind-wandering or passive tasks than when you’re doing something that demands focus. Simply put, the DMN is “the state the brain returns to when you’re not actively engaged,” explains Roger Beaty, a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity Lab at Penn State University. By contrast, when you’re mired in a demanding task, the brain’s executive control systems keep your thinking focused, analytical, and logical.

So one of the routine mechanical and automatic task in most people is taking the shower or using the restroom! The brain here is not having any distractions and is now free to release its creative juices! This may also be the reason why like in the movie Psycho, people are more sensitive or vulnerable while taking a shower!

Amid the mist and suds, a good shower can relax not only your body but also your mind, unleashing streams of consciousness, clarity and creativity.

Research shows that what is known as the “shower effect” also can occur outside the shower, and many of our best thoughts don’t happen at work or school — but occur while going about our days with ideas incubating in the background!

Typical triggers for events, that make us feel great and relaxed and therefore give us an increased dopamine flow are taking a warm shower, exercising, driving home, etc. The chances of having great ideas then are a lot higher!

Still, that’s not all there is to it. Dopamine release is an essential component but Dopamine alone, which gets triggered in hundreds of events, where we aren’t very creative, can’t be the only reason. Another crucial factor is a distraction which may provide the break you need to disengage from a fixation on the ineffective solution!

Basically a calm and relaxed mind and a clean body gets your creative juices flowing! Time for a shower then??!!  Of course if you want to be successful and famous like birthday celebrity Gautam Shantilal Adani then you have to get out and work more! 

Though a warm bath before sleep may give you good sleep!

Shubh Ratri…

“He had fallen down the pit and was in the blue!

How to escape he just had no clue!

Then he felt glad as he saw his mate!

Happy that someone else is sharing his fate!”

In the movie Three Idiots, when their friend was assumed to have failed his two friends were sad! But when they find out that he had topped, they were more sad!

In a malayalam movie which is a cult classic, called Nadodikkattu; Mohanlal gets into trouble for having harassing his boss! He then feels happy when his friend also gets into the same trouble!

There are so many examples of this all over whether in life or in movies! When one is down and he or she is feeling down, he or she gets special pleasure when someone else is also down!

It is like how in the days of power cut and intermittent electrical supply, whenever the electricity used to go out in my house, the first thing my we would do is see if the neighbour has the supply or not! When they also were in the dark then we would feel happy! 

Even in the school days also, when one used to get less marks then he or she would be sad but when his or her friend also gets less marks there is a mild feeling of happiness!

Now this is perfectly normal and of course a primitive behaviour! Within limits it is a perfect example of human mentality but when it becomes extreme in that when you fail, you try to pull others down then it is an evil phenomenon called the crab mentality!

So if you notice a pile of crabs in a bucket, where they all try to escape while pulling back any crab who manages to escape so that they’re back to their misery and the group’s collective demise! 

According to Psychology Today, crab mentality is an analogy to the selfish and envious behavior of someone upon other people’s success. Crab mentality is also defined as someone’s tendency to pull down people around them who they consider are better than them in any aspect. People with crab mentality often think that if they can’t have it, then other people can’t have it too! 

At an emotional level, crab mentality can stem from a deep-seated human need for self-esteem and social comparison.

A theory called the Tesser’s self-evaluation maintenance theory (SEM) suggests that individuals engage in self-evaluation not only through introspection but also through comparison with others, especially those within their close social circles. 

So when someone close to us excels in areas we value, we might feel threatened and act in ways that downplay their achievements.

This mechanism can partly explain why individuals may attempt to pull down those who achieve more than themselves, as a way to protect their own self-esteem and social standing. Emotions such as envy may be generated when individuals feel threatened during self-evaluation. This can lead to a desire to diminish the well-being of others, particularly when their success highlights our own failures or inadequacies. This is very commonly seen especially among peers who tend to put others down or try to downplay their achievements!

Some amount of envy is the basic tendency of every normal human being but that envy must make you work more hard and better! If you cannot compete, do not become like the silencer from 3 Idiots who will try to sabotage the competitors! 

In a similar context I chanced upon a beautiful movie called the Maidan starring Ajay; here also a disgruntled person whose ego is bruised tries his whole life to downplay and sabotage the career of on person and in that process the whole Indian Football team! A must watch film which shows how the bureaucracy those days made sure that we do not excel in sports! Watch it also as a tribute to the greatest coach who made sure we got a medal in football in Olympics! A feat which has not been repeated for the last 60 years! The man in question is Syed Abdul Rahim who was the pride of Bharat but I was really upset the way he smoked constantly! 

Watch this movie and you will appreciate this legend! Try to pull yourself down to sleep though!

Shubh Ratri!

‘He went to a class on the management of time!

He left in a huff without payin a dime!

They asked him why so much anger and hate?

’cause the time management bloke himself came late!”

Everyone would have heard the saying, काल करे सो आज कर, आज करे सो अब। पल में परलय होएगी, बहुरि करेगा कब। 

Somehow this saying is imprinted on my mind and body! But unfortunately this actually causes anxiety! Apparently the urge to finish a task is a common problem with Type A personalities! 

Making of a list of tasks to be completed is a good thing but some people get more anxious when the list is not ticked complete!

Of course most of the time doing work in time or even before is a good thing!

In fact the defeat of one of the greatest kings Napoleon Bonaparte was because he did not follow the above rule!

Read on!

Napoleone di Buonaparte; later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of successful campaigns across Europe during the Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. 

He had many major conquests and victories! In fact, once he even came back from defeat and his comeback was more strong and forceful as before!

But the battle which finally gave him the biggest defeat and final surrender was the battle of Waterloo! This when his army had more number of soldiers and more experienced! 

On June 18, 1815, Napoleon led his army of some 72,000 troops against the 68,000-man British army, which had also taken up a position near Waterloo, where they were able to communicate with their Prussian allies!

It would have been an easy victory had he attacked earlier! 

In a critical blunder, Napoleon waited until midday to give the command to attack in order to let the waterlogged ground dry after the previous night’s rainstorm. 

The delay gave Blucher’s remaining Prussian troops, who, by some accounts, numbered more than 30,000, time to march to Waterloo and join the battle against the French later that day!

Although Napoleon’s troops mounted a vigorous attack against the British, Wellington’s position along and behind a ridge top — which had negated an early offensive bombardment by Napoleon — and the afternoon arrival of Blucher’s Prussian army turned the tide against the French!

The Prussian cavalry attacked and harried the retreating French troops long into the night. By some estimates, the French suffered almost 40,000 casualties (including dead, wounded or taken prisoner), while British and Prussian casualties numbered some 22,000. An estimated 10,800 men — most of them French soldiers — died in the Battle of Waterloo!

Ultimately, the Battle of Waterloo marked the end of Napoleon’s storied military career. He reportedly rode away from the battle in tears.

Of course when a failure happens there are a countless reasons which come up and everyone with a brain would have at the very least two opinion! So try to do things on time but do not over think if some things take time! That is actually an advice to myself! One defeat though does not take away the fact that he was a great General! Like how no one can deny the fact that birthday celebrity Amrish Puri was a great actor!

Now try to get up on time and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“Mark tells you that you may know this person! 

He or she is a mutual pal!

Of course he or she may be close to you!

Or you may not know him or her at all!”

Being the son of an army officer, shifting and getting uprooted from a place was a routine affair! I have known friends who have stayed in the same place and same school for ages or since they were born! I would have changed at least six schools and many more places in my life! Every two to three years just when friendships are getting strong and may be for life time, you are separated and may never see those kids ever again in your life!

Of course if you spend more than two years in a place and in senior grades like after 6 then in all probability you can still contact your old friends and may be get in touch! A reunion here and there and may be remember the good old days!

Your college mates of course will be more in touch since we spend more than five years (six if you count residency!) with them! Then your hostel mates or room mates or medically BODY MATES! Yes! That was not a typo! Body mates are literally the ones with whom you share a BODY! The dissection which is done in the first year is done and usually a single body (it is known as a cadaver!) is shared by a group of people! 

Usually these people would be facing the exams and the stress and the whole course together! Usually they are close and maybe for a long time!

Having suffered the uprooting and shifting in army life, you may know a lot of people! Your Facebook and other social media list of friends would be huge! But with all the friends in the world and in your friend list, there may be only a few whom you can call close! 

Now I was used to this shifting and not forming close bonds for long but for my children the shift from India to another country was tough! They had spent all their time in a single school and in a single place! They had actually spent all their conscious part of their life in the same house with the same neighbor! So  when they shifted out, it was a big shock especially to my son who had a big group of friend! 

The initial enthusiasm of new place and new stuff and being with family made way to the realisation that he may not see his old friends again! 

Of course unlike us, the phone makes sure that you may not lose touch with them but still nothing can replace the Human touch! Then again kids are amazing! They take very little time to get over stuff! They make new friends in an instant and then the whole cycle starts again! 

That is life and change is life! In spite of all these I still remember those amazing time when we used to watch a single movie with friends and enjoy not only the movie but also the company! One such movie was Maine Pyar Kiya! Talking about that movie reminds me not only of my friends but also birthday celebrity the dear mom Reema Lagoo! 

Now say good nigh to your friend WhatsApp group and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“It’s always blue as the sky and white as milk!

The colour of innocence and purity is white!

White is the colour of your proper choice!

Which is why milk in any other colour is just ain’t right!”

Now before you pick up the colour swords! My favourite colour is not white! Nor is my favourite drink white milk! 

The other day we were shifting our house and boiled milk for the first time and allowed it to flow over! The tradition and modern cross was not that proper since it fell over the infra red heater and now the poor heater may not see another dish for a long time! Of course we drank that hot milk with nothing but a little sugar but the memories of milk and my mother simply gushed out like an emotional tsunami!

Remember how your mother would give you a glass of warm milk early in the morning everyday! Many times I would drink only the milk to get it over with and later eat the Horlicks or Boost powder! The worst would be when a single drop of water or even a damp spoon would be left in the jar and the whole thing used to become a hard rock! Of course we boys would still like to lick it and eat the rubbery but sweet mess! Others would put hot milk or hot water into the jar and voila you will have an instant chocolate drink like the way we used to get on special occasions!

Milk is something which is very close to the average Indian household! No one can survive without that! Starting from the coffee or tea and then getting that extra milk if it is your birthday or some holiday! Or even if you have an extra guest in the house or one fine day you are in the mood for a glass of tea! Since ours was a typical coffee drinking family! This used to make drinking tea special! My mother used to love the tea I used to make and she never liked to make tea! One of the few things like rasam which she can make very well but used to like what others make! 

Every holiday had its own special milk variation! 

If it was a kerala festival then more of jaggery with milk so that the sweet would be brown! If it is white then it was her famed Paladda payasam which is made with rice but her added magic was the coconut milk in the end! Even now when I make it like her, my kids come rushing for the coconut payasam!

In Tamil or Kannada festivals the sweet payasam would be white! Of course this is not a rigid rule! My mother used to love making semiya payasam and this is a sweet which can absorb as much milk you can throw at it! 

The simplest dish to make is the rice payasam though the best rice payasam is the one which has a little bit of condensed milk!

Now condensed milk was a sweet nectar sent from heaven! Whenever mom used to use the condensed milk can, we used to eagerly wait for her to finish the can knowing fully well that the end and the sides would be sweet and yummy to lick!

When mom was in a generous mood she would give a spoon full for us to use as we wish! I used to love putting that over milk bread and eating to my heart’s delight!

Another amazing milky nectar was this dish called the Therattipal! This was apparently better with a spoilt milk! My dear Padma ATHAI (dad’s sister) was known to make the best therattipal ever! This was a mammoth undertaking since you have to stir and stir! Slowly and steadily you have to keep on adding sugar and make it thicken!

Interestingly many of the famous milk sweets are made by ‘breaking’ the milk!  

Now the most popular milk variant which kids love is the cheese which in our days was not so popular! In fact we used to get canned cheese which was like a greasy sour variant of butter! Better left alone for a long time till the pizza revolution!

Many houses even make ghee with the butter collected from the milk and other places but then that is a long tedious process and my mother of two boys never even dared to venture into it!

Of course after all use is done, the leftover milk is used for making curd for the curd rice or thayir saadam without which any meal is incomplete!

My mother had a dish which we used to make with even excess curds! She used to heat it and curdle it further! That used to give rise to a dish which is similar to curd sambar but more sour! We used to call it Kurki! When there was no side dish or sambar in the house my mother used to simply grind some coconut (even when I say we have no side it still means that an average Indian house would still have some coconut or even some old dish lying in the fridge somewhere!) with jeera and some chillies and mix with the Kurki and we would have a feast! 

My dear mother was a great lady and another great lady is birthday celebrity Droupadi Murmu!

Now if you have a glass of warm milk given by your mother in your hand, consider yourself as the luckiest person in the world and sleep!

Shubh ratri…

“Two misers having a tiff!

Who can save more dime!

It could never be sorted of course!

’cause they could squeeze the last drop of even a lime!”

An interesting article on one of the richest but most frugal woman ever!

This woman used to stink! Literally and figuratively! She used to wear the same dress for years till it started disintegrating! She The press called her “The Witch of Wall Street.” 

The basis for the name was her irascibility and her personal hygiene! She stunk. In summertime the odor would be so foul that people working in the same bank office where she kept a desk would scheme to stay as far away from her as possible!

 Her long black dresses, decades out of style, would turn green and ragged from wear and filth!

Her fingernails were crusty dirty. She went around for 20 years beleaguered by a painful hernia before she finally had to see the doctor.

She was outraged by his fee for surgery ($150 – this was a century ago), but so desperate that she agreed!

And later she tried to stiff the doctor, as was her wont whenever it came to paying for anybody’s services!

Hetty Green, often dubbed the most stingy woman in history, amassed a fortune estimated at over $2.3 billion! 

Despite marrying a fellow millionaire, she lived frugally, consuming leftover cakes and broken biscuits from grocery stores, and arguing daily for a free bone for her dog!

Her miserliness had severe consequences, such as when her son’s leg had to be amputated after she delayed treatment while seeking free medical care. Hetty Green passed away in 1916 at 81 in New York City, earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most stingy person in the world.” She died following a stroke triggered by a quarrel with her maid over a salary increase!

Being a miser is miserable sometimes! Let’s try to get a balance! A balancing act is the sketch of the day! Done in between a super busy day! 

Have a Shubh ratri!

“He could hear voices in his head! 

The thoughts of going insane filled him with dread!

The medic then examined his hat!

There was a small speaker underneath that!”

This is a tech which is an integral part of our tech armamentarium but did you know that this was invented way back in the 1990s but came into the market only in the 2000s!?

read on!

The Bluetooth technology covers everything from audio for wireless headphones and speakers, pairing gaming controllers and keyboards, tethering internet connections, and even occasionally transferring files over the air. Even to the extent that it can be used for remote controlling!

Like everything else, Apple always tries to do things different and by default even the first iPhones and subsequent ones do not use Bluetooth tech for file transfer! They introduced their wifi transfer which was better and faster and later taken up by others!

But still Bluetooth is a valuable tool and much energy efficient since the power consumed and the tech required is much basic! 

The Bluetooth standard was originally conceived by Dr. Jaap Haartsen at Ericsson back in 1994. Everyone knows the story how it was named for a renowned Viking and king who united Denmark and Norway in the 10th century!

At the time, it was designed to replace RS-232 telecommunication cables, a much older standard conceived in 1960, by using short-range UHF radio waves between 2.4 and 2.485 GHz. 

In 1998 the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) was formed, which to this day publishes and promotes the standard and its subsequent revisions. Bluetooth SIG initially only included Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, and Toshiba, but reached 4,000 members by the end of its first year. Shortly after the inception of the Bluetooth SIG, devices began making their way to markets. The group now contains over 30,000 member companies at various levels of influence!

The first consumer Bluetooth launched in 1999. It was a hands-free mobile headset that earned the technology the “Best of Show Technology Award” at COMDEX. The Bluetooth 1.0 specification also officially launched that year, leading to the release of the first Bluetooth-equipped chipsets, dongles, mice, wireless PC cards, and mobile phones in 2000!

The latest Bluetooth version, the Bluetooth 5 offers the flexibility to make IoT solutions better because of 2x speed, 4x range 8x data capacity. It offers better IoT connection as the range increased up to 4 times. So not only home but whole building, industry, factory, office surrounding would be possible to connect properly. In case you are wondering what is IoT; well the term IoT, or Internet of Things, refers to the collective network of connected devices and the technology that facilitates communication between devices and the cloud, as well as between the devices themselves!

Bluetooth was originally conceived with wireless voice calls in mind but not high-quality music streaming which is its primary use now! Bluetooth now has had competition from Infrared tech which soon became outdated and slow, NFC, WIFI and others! But still, even after more than 30 years of its first invention, it continues to be the first choice in audio! Reminds me of the day’s celebrity who was also the best choice for good roles Mangal Singh Dhillon! 

Now turn off all bluetooth devices and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

Camino Ghosts by John Grisham!

Fictional thriller genre 

Ebook review

No spoilers; not a murder mystery anyways!

I fail to see the love John has with the Camino! This is the third in the series starting with Camino island which was in fact an introduction to the island but very soon departed to stolen books and introduction of the character called Bruce and Mercer! Then you had some thrill with stolen rare books and an exciting ending but the best part of that novel was how to write a novel and get over a slump!

It was followed by Camino winds which like the name suggests is about Camino Wind or cyclone Leo and then a murder mystery which was a frank let down!

After that debacle (according to me) this is a resurrection of sorts for some characters and also the story!

Now although the title points to Ghosts, and the stories do too; it may not be the essence of the story!

The depiction of the slave trade even in passing was really bold and heart wrenching! Some parts are really truthful and those are the places in which John shines!

I really wonder though how he writes and generates novels like a factory on steroids! Just some time back I had written the review of the sequel to the firm!

In fact even his gray mountain series has some books! Not to mention his Kid lawyer series of Theodore Boone! And here I am struggling to finish one novel!

John may be the one author who writes faster than I can read!

Now coming to the story proper, Mercer who was missing in the second novel is now a popular novelist who has two great books under her sleeve and a marriage and a god job to boot! Her friend then introduces her to a non fictional novel written by a debutant who had written it as a memoir to her people in some island near Caimino!

That island then gets into the radar of developers while Lovely the last inhabitant of that island which is like a sacred spot to her, gets in the way!

Between the court and the field, what happens is the rest of the story!

Of course it is fast paced and gripping in places and apart from some serious stuff in the middle, the novel in fact moves according to the plan!

There are no surpsises and it is a fairly predictable ending!

You do not have to read the first two novels to read this one since even though many characters are same and in chronology, the stories are independent. Of course if you are a stickler to series like me then please read the first two novels or at least read my summary of them or use the wiki!

A good time pass but nothing much to write home about!

I Miss John of the Firm and The Pelican brief and the King of tort days! 

Luckily Camino Ghost is tolerable and not ghastly!