From the stone age till date, man has made steady progress in the fields of science & technology. The invention of the wheel, numbers, aircraft, etc have played a big role in evolving mankind from what it was to what it is today. But, have we ever paused a single time and taken a glance back into the road we've walked? Have we asked the Whats, Whys, Wheres and Hows on whatever progress we've made? Still wondering what I'm trying to say? Read on...

Planet Earth is a part of the Solar System, and has taken thousands and millions of years to become what it is today. From a hot mass of burning matter, the planet has slowly cooled outwards-in. The formation of water and land bodies have been purely governed by the changes Earth has been subjected to. The influencing factors like the gravitational pull of the Sun, moon and other bodies in the Solar System have been some of the noticeable external stimuli due to which we see Earth the way it is - 2/3's of water and 1/3's of land.

The movement of the seismic plates below the surface of the Earth has taken the planet through different stages; from the Ice Age to the age of Information and Technology. As we learnt in Physics, there is a Newton's law that states that "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force". This applies well to our planet too. In the many years of mankind, apart from the external forces from the Solar System, our planet has increasingly seen yet another force - Force created by us Homo Sapiens.

Due to the technological advancements in the field of Civil Engineering, man built bridges and flyovers. Man has achieved extreme advancements in this field, that the world also saw the reclamation of land from natural water bodies (viz., seas, oceans and rivers) to create more land for human habitat. As a matter of fact, a good part of Mumbai (in Maharashtra, India) was claimed from the Arabian Sea. So is the Palm Jumeirah.

Due to natural equilibrium, the Earth has naturally been occupied by water for more than 2/3's it's surface area. As the first example, just imagine a pot of water that is filled to its brim. What will happen when you drop a stone into it? The water starts to overflow! This is precisely what we are forcing by claiming land from the natural water bodies!

Here is another example to explain another harsh action of mankind - Just imagine a pot filled with water till the brim and a piece of paper floating on the water surface. What will happen if you place a stone on top of this piece of paper? The paper sinks! This is what mankind is doing by building enormous buildings, skyscrapers, bridges and flyovers!

If we can treat the land (1/3rd of earth's surface) as a physical structure for a moment, we should also understand that this physical structure is also subjected to stresses and strains. Any physical structure has a point of failure / breakage. Applying strain above a certain limit is going to drive the physical structure (land) towards the point of breakage!

Having said that, here is my next question - "Can we make this better? Can we give Earth and mankind a little more time to exist? If so, How?" Here are my thoughts on how we can give ourselves and the generations to follow, a better and safer planet from an infrastructure perspective -

1. Reduce the number of tall skyscrapers - Build smaller structures and use more of the earth's surface to build structures. Start building satellite towns and start expanding away from main cities
2. Stop reclaming land from natural water bodies - Use what is available! Did you know that a very large part of Australia is uninhabited? Did you know that vast areas of land in India and China are uninhabited? This is the case in most countries!
3. Stop breaking mountains to create artificial structures (viz., man-made caves, rivers, etc)
4. Stop mass deforestation! There enough land available to build homes and offices - Let's leave the jungles to the flora and fauna
5. Stop building dams to obstruct the natural flow of water....unless or until its absolutely essential

All of this cannot be done without YOU. I urge you to THINK and ACT on it. If you can do your one bit towards this, I'm sure the generations to come will be more grateful to you than ever. Did you have more and better suggestions? Do let me (and the world) know!

Let us make the world a better and safer place to live. Peace..

With a world that's fast changing, it's inevitable that one may have to do and undo things in an attempt to betterment. Today's world has seen lot more diversity than it was about a decade or two ago. With the technology making news every hour, every minute and every second, it is getting tougher to think of a world sans this wonder invention of mankind - Technology.

With the citizens of the world and the businesses across every street taking advantage of the technology wave, the world has definitely started to look better. From the age of the pin-hole camera to the age of the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) televisions, mankind has gotten to see the world with an increasing touch of reality. From the days of Morse code to the day of the broadband internet and the T1/2/3 lines, mankind has gotten to know happenings across the globe in near-real time.

So, here comes my question - How have these inventions changed You and Your society? As I type this on my laptop, I do realize that in less than 5minutes from now, there are going to be a good number of readers across the globe reading my writing and commenting on the same. Such is the speed of communication. Technology and mankind have shared a very interesting relationship - A Love-Hate Relationship. Interesting? Read on...

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, the whole world applauded and patronized the invention. Soon, telephones became a common product in every household. When the Global Positioning System (GPS) was invented, the world loved it and it soon became a common feature in most cars and homes. Countries laid down laws that took into account the different types of communication, technology, etc.

With the growth and evolution of technology, the world has become more closely tied to technology today than ever before. This calls for a basic understanding from the citizens of the world that we will need to start looking at technology as one of the key constituents of social and community life too.

For example, Google's Street View service has provoked a lot of citizens on the privacy front. When this first cropped up in August 2008, I thought it was handled appropriately. But then, I saw this happening again just a few days back. Has there been a real solution to this problem? While democracies have always stressed on freedom of speech, freedom of action, etc, it's also important to respect people's privacy.

How can these things be handled? The governments of the world need to revisit their constitution and amend some of these privacy related statements and clauses. It's also important for the governments to have a constant update on the technology progress and accordingly make amendments to the countries' laws to eventually help mankind enjoy the luxuries of technology while getting to have their share of privacy.

I've been waiting to see Blogrolling back in action for quiet sometime now....and it's really nice to see them back. They seemed to have done a migration to a newer technology platform, and it definitely shows up after logging in. One thing I've observed though is that it has become a little slower than the previous version. Nevertheless, I'm happy that they are back!

So, what's in Blogrolling? It's as simple as a link manger. Call it a roster or a list of favorite links, it's just that. Sometimes simpler things are more addictive! Like how many of us have got influenced by Google's search engine, I've somehow always liked simpler manifestations of technology.

Let's hope to see more simpler and smarter manifestations of the technology monster.

I've been observing this very small organization called Deepam for quiet sometime now. This is an organization that wants to "give back" something to the society. They have been doing some commendable work in the recent past that has attracted my attention in more than one instance of time.

It all started with two urban citizens sharing a common goal - Create a Brighter India. The two people are - Ram Viswanathan, who is a technocrat with one the world's biggest IT companies...the Big Blue, and Karthikeyan Vijayakymar, who is an entrepreneur with a strong passion to change the world. I'm proud to have been associated with the two as a friend in more than one way.

Well, let me not get into the past, and give you the opportunity to know more about what Deepam is all about and what's been cooking under the Deepam tree. Do visit www.Deepam.in to know more.

The National Knowledge Commission has been running a contest, and our friends at Deepam have posted an essay and video. The essay and film talks about how Deepam is solving some of the problems in Indian Education System. I strongly urge you to visit the following links and vote/rate these content and help Deepam in supporting a cause.

Please vote / rate the essay here ( please create a login for knowledge portal )
http://knowledgeportal.in/contests/node/290
Please View / Rate the video here ( to rate, please sign-in to youtube )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imvkeqnfaXI

All your votes and ratings will push Deepam one step closer to the prize, which in turn will help this organization get the necessary support to give better education to the Young and Growing India! Also, don't forget to spread the word!

I've been loving Feedburner ever since I started to use it. I started to use Feedburner after Google acquired the company in June 2007 for an estimated $100m. Needless to say, the Google+Feedburner combination has always interested me from both performance and feature set perspectives.

However, even though the acquisition had taken place two years back, there has been no migration of feeds to a Google platform till the recent past. Recently Google started to move Feedburner feeds to its own platform, and I've got a lot of reminders to move my feeds too. Finally, after several reminders, I just finished moving my blog feeds from Feedburner to Google.

The reason for not moving thus far has been for the very reason of not wanting to move and risk losing some valuable subscribers. But I'm sure Google has worked out things well...and the transition seems to happened very smoothly.

APPEAL TO MY READERS

Should you have trouble receiving my posts, I request you to wait for a week's time. Should you still not receive updates, do drop me a note!

My feeds link has changed from http://feeds.feedburner.com/KarthikVijayakumar to http://feeds2.feedburner.com/KarthikVijayakumar. The "feeds2" is the only change. Still, the old link should be redirecting you to my new link. You can still continue subscribe to my posts by email through the "Subscribe via Email" links on my blog or by visiting http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=KarthikVijayakumar.

WEEKEND WISHES

To all who've been struck by the Cupid, Wish you a Happy Valentines Day!! To all who've spent the night staring at your UNIX screens, Wish you a Happy 1234567890 Day!! Have a fun-filled weekend and Stay Inspired!