• Switched On: The Linux ultraportable opportunity - Engadget
  This summer seems to be shaping up as a key time for ultraportables with new powerful and power-optimized processors coming to market, the highest-profile of which is Intel’s Atom.
  (tags: atom intel hp asus eee eeepc ultraportable laptop notebook mininote linux windows novelll suse xandros)
• Closer encounter: Nasa plans landing on 40m-wide asteroid travelling at 28,000mph | Science | The Guardian
  Nasa engineers have identified the 1.1m tonne asteroid, which in 2000 was given a significant chance of slamming into Earth, as a potential landing site for astronauts, ahead of plans to venture deeper into the solar system with a crewed voyage to Mars.
  (tags: nasa asteroid space exploration cool astronaut)

So the state behaving anti-socially makes it okay, then?

Open Tech 2008, registration opened today. I've already registered :)

Kurinji raga is derived from the 29th melakarta Sankarabharanam. It is a sampoorna raga with vakra sancharas (needs a separate post) in the arohana and avarohana.

A: s r g m g m p d n s
Av: s n p n d d p m g r s
The notes taken by the raga besides Shadjam and Pancham are :: R2-Chatusruti rishabham, G2-Antara gandharam, M1-shudha madyamam, D2-Chatusruti daivatam and N2-kaishiki Nishadham. Jiva and nyasa swaras are G, P, N. The phrase “snNS” has N as tevra swara and the upanga raga has all the notes rendered with gamaka.

Since the svara sanchara is limited, it is sung in madhyama (slow tempo) shruti in vilambit laya to enhance feelings of compassion. Kurinji is actually a Tamil folk tune adopted into Karnatic music.

[1] Kshirabdi Kanyakaku | KhandaChapu (29MelaJanyam) | Annamacharya | Telugu |
[2] Muddugare Yashoda | Adi | Annamacharya | Telugu |
NotreBene : Time permitting, I shall add data, so consider the raga-series a perpetual work-in-progress. Thanks for using a track-back to this original blog entry instead of copying!

https://twitter.com/pleia2

• Camera Hacks: Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera
  If you’re using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you’ve got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box.
  (tags: canon camera digital lifehacker extend advanced software hardware)

[gallery]
This past weekend, my sister (Jenn), my aunt (Judy), two friends (Stephanie and Dereka), and I did a triathlon. We had all been training for it since January, and the day finally came. I was so nervous the days before the race that I was having problems eating and sleeping. But the day came and went, and we were all trimuphant. I finished the race way faster than I thought I would, in 2 hours and 1 minute (02:01:18). Here is the break down of all the little parts.

Swim (750 meters): 00:22:53
Transistion 1: 00:04:34
Bike (14 miles): 00:56:22
Transistion 2: 00:01:32
Run (5k): 00:35:59

I am amazed at how well I did on the 5k after all that biking. I had lots of fun though, because Jenn and I finished the bike around the same time and ran the 5k together. We would walk for a bit, then pick a couple land marks and run for a bit. The entire bike and run parts were flat, but by the time it got to the run it was hot and humid outside. I was taking water from the water stations and dumping it on my head. Jenn and I finished the race together, just like we finished our last 5k. I had a really great time and I am planning on doing another one soon.

During the awarding of PSIA Honor Award Speaking infront of PSIA members about Case Study on IP Making the news in the IT field these past few days is a Filipina named Ma. Odea “Deng” Ching. She made a big feat by being elected as the Vice President of Archiva, a community based Open Source project of [...]

…by being governed by those who are dumber.

I thought the Westminster System we use in Australia was weird. American elections of DELEGATES, wild crazy stuff. Especially if you are Hillary Clinton, who I once quite admired, and now despise as an example of power corrupting…

Anyway, see if you can follow Keith Olbermann’s explanation.

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A few months back I was asked if I wanted to be considered for the Ubuntu Regional Membership Board for the Americas. It’s one of three Membership Boards in the world whose task is to handle applications for people who apply for Ubuntu Membership.

Well, this weekend I learned that I was appointed along with 8 others the board. I know most of my fellow board members pretty well and it’s a fantastic group of folks, if I do say so myself :)

Hooray!

• Brit Clerics Call on Doctor Who to Save Jesus | The Underwire from Wired.com
  Noting their shared heroism and universal appeal, British clergy think the Church of England should call on The Doctor to help Jesus — or at least Jesus’ church. Bah. The Doctor is way cooler than church. And more real.
  (tags: church religion britian doctorwho drwho tv television cult funny)
• Fairness, idealism and other atrocities - Los Angeles Times
  P J O’Rourke. enough said. bliss!!
  (tags: pjorourke satire humour humor article funny)
• Real-life daughter of former Dr Who to star as TV Time Lord’s daughter | the Daily Mail
  Actress Georgia Moffett, 23, has plumped for current Doctor David Tennant - over her famous father Peter Davison, 57 who played the Doctor in the eighties - calling him the sexiest ever Time Lord.
  (tags: doctorwho drwho tv television cult)

PyOhio: Call for Presentations

PyOhio, the first annual Python programming mini-conference for Ohio and surrounding areas will take place Saturday, July 26, in Columbus, Ohio. The conference is free of change and will include scheduled presentations, Lighting Talks and unconference-style Open Spaces.

You can read more about the conference at http://pyohio.org

PyOhio invites all interested people to present scheduled talks. All presentations are expected to last 40 minutes with a 10 minute question-and-answer period. PyOhio will accept abstracts covering any area of Python programming. A classroom area with computers will also be available for possible hands-on sessions.

All presentations proposals should submit abstracts no longer than 500 words in length. Abstracts must include the title, summary of the presentation, the expertise level targeted, and a brief description of the area of Python programming it relates to.

All proposals should be emailed to for review.

The submission deadline will be June 1, 2008. Accepted proposals will be notified by July 1.

Rice started it and Bush chimed in by blaming India and China for the rising food prices ...but what intriuges me is whyrepresentatives from Monsanto and Wal-Mart sit in a board appointed by the Congress government to implement the provisions of an agricultural-trade-agreement, when it is plainly obvious that it benefits the American economy at the cost of the Indian one.

Calling all people who has the passion to volunteer and help out other people in need.  This could be one of those rare chance for you to experience adventure and at the same time do good deeds to your fellowmen. Who knows, maybe helping out other people restore their eyesight might also be the road [...]

• Raptor - Improved menu system for KDE 4 | Raptor Menu
  Raptor aims to deliver a new kind of launch menu system for KDE. It is designed with usability and beauty in mind.
  (tags: raptor kde4 menu desktop linux context)
• NASA - LRO
  NASA invites people of all ages to join the lunar exploration journey with an opportunity to send their names to the moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,
  (tags: education kids lunar mission nasa science space web history moon)

Just downloaded free Nine Inch Nails album - The Slip. Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. Cool!

Went to collect a computer from ruudboy yesterday. It didn't enjoy the journey home and wouldn't POST. I ended up taking it all apart and found a loose screw between the motherboard and the case. It now has Ubuntu Hardy on it.

The drive in there is 200G though, which seems like overkill. My music drive is 80G and full. I'm considering putting a smaller drive in the box, and formatting the 200G drive and using it as a new music drive. I'll re-rip my music, and then copy across the music on the music drive I don't have on CD.

The machine is an athlon 3000, so better than my current little shuttle. It has some kind of 128MB radeon card in it which runs compiz. I think I'll swap in the 512MB Nvidia card and some more RAM. It'll probably get my audigy too.

I've re-used one of my old computer names, this box is colossus, named after a WW2 machine. The last computer I had called that was a duron 750 which was used for Radio Radio as a media store.

Chakravagam – 16th Melakarta, sampurna ragam.

A:- S R1 G3 M1 P D2 N2 S
Av:-S N2 D2 P M1 G3 R1 S

This raga is a melancholy raga and its corresponding Hindustani raga is Aahir Bhairav.

Songs are :
[1] Gajanana Yutam | Adi | MuthuSwami Dikshitar | Samskrit.
[2] Saroja Nabhada | Adi | SwatiThirunal.
[3] Vinayaka Vignanashaka | Rupakam | MuthuSwami Dikshitar | Samskrit.
[4] Apakara NindaiPat | Chatusra Jati Jhumpa Tala (4+3) | ArunaGiri Nathar | Tamil Thirupugzal.
Notes: Thirupugzal, composed in Tamil are hymns in praise of Lord Muruga.

NotreBene : Time permitting, I shall add data, so consider the raga series a perpetual work-in-progress. Thanks for using a track-back to this original blog entry instead of copying!

…to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

So much change in my life this month.So much more upcoming. May I meet it with grace and dignity, and may I have serenity in doing what must be done.

The moving finger has written and moved on, change again and again to be embraced:)

And may there be enough tea:)

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Summer in bangalore is weird and the constantly changing weather, sudden hail and rain is grating on my nerves and left me sick and no voice to boot ! After 4 days of power outage last week, not to forget the daily load-shedding that one is subjected to, since last night there is no water….not a drop! Trudging along for a morning tank inspection confirms the worst, water kissing the bottom of the tank. Apparently Cauvery water is supplied only 3 times a week and during summer it reduces to once a week. WTF?

Most times people buy water and i have seen tanks standing in front of houses to supply water to the residents. Karnataka has a lake Cauvery lake which is renowned for its sweet water and perreinial supply, and yet the local populace has to live with limited supply. The government also fought with its neighbouring states over sharing the Cauvery water and yet does not supply enough water or produce enough power for the citizens. That sucks bigtime!

…I know my endorsement just made your mind up for you.

Tom Hanks, the man of gentle wit and dry humour, has summed up for me why (if I was American), I would vote Obama.

• How can Microsoft overcome Vista’s lingering image problem? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
  Ask the average consumer on the street about Windows and many will insist XP is less annoying, more stable and works just fine, thanks. MY suggestion - design and release non beta software as fill release?
  (tags: vista xp windows issues microsoft)
• Linux 101: Enable DVD Playback in Ubuntu in Two Commands
  How-to site Tech-Recipes.com has been on a bit of a Linux streak lately and ferrets out a two-command, no-repository solution for installing DVD playback
  (tags: howto codecs dvd linux ubuntu cli commandline easy beginner newbie)
• Google and IBM are bonding in a serious way
  While Microsoft Corp. chases Yahoo Inc., Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.’s CEO and chairman, is seeking a stronger relationship with IBM, something IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano appears very interested in.
  (tags: ibm google business corporate partnership)
• Chart: Satellite Smackdown — Which Moon is the Solar System’s Awesomest?
  There are boatloads of kickass moons in the solar system. We break down ten contenders in a highly scientific chart to settle this debate, once and for all. Cool! Moon battles!!!

Exclusive Video: Babbage’s Mechanical Calculator Comes to Life | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

thanks to the efforts of dedicated, historically-minded engineers at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, plus a generous donation of cash from genius Nathan Myhrvold, Babbage’s Difference Engine is on display in Silicon Valley. WANT!

(tags: charlesbabbage ada differenceengine comuter technology history)

Many Eyes: About Many Eyes

Our goal is to “democratize” visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis. Jump right to our visualizations now, take a tour, or read on for a leisurely explanation of the project.

(tags: visualization application charts collaboration communication data design experiment ibm)

My photos from the London Mayor and Assembly count and results

I was an election observer for the Open Rights Group, the British equivalent of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

As you may well know London now has a Conservative mayor, and the far-right BNP got a member on the assembly. I took loads of photos which I'm currently sorting out.

Nick Griffin (BNP leader) was in the assembly hall. The Tories were wearing sweatshirts with "for a Greater London" on the back and they gave speeches complaining that outer London had been neglected in favour of inner London. The Lib Dems came 5th in some places - behind Respect and the BNP in City and East.

Trying to get some traditional Maharashtrian food [thalipeeth, dhik (dhing/ding?) laddu’s, sabudana vada, missal,...] lead me nowhere, except this one in South Bangalore but nobody answers the phone so it may have closed down :-/

I finally found a lady who cooks and delivers dhabbas and had to ask her about dhik/dhing ladoo’s. Yay… she makes them but for personal consumption only. The cost factor and lack of customers means its not viable to commercially sell dhik laddu’s…..shucks.

There is a sizable Maharashtrian population in the city and both states share a lengthy border but the cusine (atleast as tasted in Hotels) is poles apart. The Udipi hotels are called darshini’s here but they are not even a patch on the ones back home—their paratha’s (the waiter calls it “porotha”) is nothing like the punjabi paratha—have they never heard of wheat, aalu, garammasala and baking on a tava as opposed to the very very oily layers (think croissants) they call porotha. As for the kurma—i’ve never had a kurma with coconut…scowl. Now I know better than to order north indian dishes down south. Forget N.Indian food even the S.I variety revolves around the tried and tested Idli-Vada-Dosa-Sambhar with minor variations (Rava or ragi dosa). Its impossible to get a “vethal kozambu” or “parupu kozambu” (this is tough, imo)
AP’s kulfi recipe came to my rescue It seems very similar to the italian gelato but for me the yumminess factor wins hands down. Kulfi is best eaten while taking late-night after-dinner strolls in summer, in my memory. Ah….nevermind that the kulfiwallah usually sells just 2 flavours : pista and kesar !!

To eat a chocolate flavour kulfi one has to make it at home and I wish i could take credit but well …usually my contribution is limited to discussions about :

A] the stirring :- he does not think it should be disturbed while setting and methinks it should be stirred to prevent crystal formation.

B] chocolate melting :- (given a choice this would feature in every sweet dish of mine) He melts the chocolate, cools it and then adds it to the mixture whilst I think its nicer to add uncut chunks of chocolate to the warm mixture and stir.

C] Proportions : imo, only perfectionists measure food ingredients for dessert. Having made that irrational statement lets just say i prefer to cook stuff in varying proportions (== none).
My experiment resulted in a creamy and smoothly textured chocolate-coffee flavored kulfi… it was so delicious that i decided to enjoy it, instead of melting it by taking pictures.

This kulfi recipe (sorry, no measurements – i dont use any, see #C) is simple.
Ingredients : milk, milk cream (milk fat?), sugar, chocolate.

Flavors : Usually cardamom, kesar/saffron and pista (nuts) are added. I use coffee decoction or add pureed seasonal fruits.

Method :

1] blend the creme (milk fat) with sugar in the blender and transfer it to a wok on simmer.

2] When the fat melts add some milk. Check for consistency and sugar (as per taste). Stir and simmer for few minutes.

3] Add a pinch of kesar, 1-2 gm elaichi powder, 1-2 gm dalchini powder, 1-2 gm nutmeg powder (but avoid these if you are adding chocolate). Take off flame and when the mixture turns warm add chunks of chocolate.

3.1] I added some filtered coffee decoction since coffee-chocolate kulfi is heaven. I wish this combination were commercially available. If you dont have (or dont like) chocolate just add the coffee. Its akin to eating frozen coffee
4] Freeze it but keep stirring to prevent icicles formations and to get that rich, creamy texture.

ENJOY :-)

Why not kick off the ragam-series with todi as the first raga ! In the Karnatic system, ‘Todi’ ragam is commonly referred to as “HanumantaTodi” and is placed as the 8th in the melakarta system and being an ancient raga it was called Janatodi.

Todi is a sampoorna raga, i.e. a raga with all 7 notes and perfectly symmetrical tetra-chords as swaras. It has S-shudha, R1-Rishabham, G2-sadharana gandharam, M1-shudha madhyamam, P-Panchamam, D1-shudha dhaivatam, N2-kaishiki nishadham and S.

The poorvanga (S to P) and uttaranga (P to S) are very balanced. The jeeva swaras of Todi are GMDN. Their usage in prayogas during raga aalapana of Todi brings out the beauty of this raga. Nyasa swaras are GMPDN. One can weave different patterns of notes centred around these notes, but some prayogas without panchama (P) sound very beautiful.

Todi lends itself beautifully for slow medium-paced kritis, varnams, tillanas, viruttham etc. For example, tAyE yashOdA undan | Adi | UttukkADu venkatasubbaiyer, from the movie Morning Raga. The swara kalpana’s and the ragam-taanam-pallavi coupled as fusion music was simply fantastic and Era napai | Adi | Patnam Subramanya Iyer, is another varnam aptly suitable for ragam-taanam-pallavi, where all swaras should be handled softly and each note is suitable for Gamaka prayoga or oscillation.

This page has a composite list of all the Karnatic todi ragam songs. Looking at the “peculiar compositions” by Ramaswami Dikshitar (svarastAna pada varNam) and “Ma manini” Dr.MB.Krishna (which i remember partly, egad :-S), you will find them constructed without words. The whole song consisting of pallavi, anupallavi and charanam is composed with only the 7 swaras… WOW!!

Practically speaking, each of these songs in Todi, sounds different at first. The difference is not because of the lyrics, which albeit different, but look at the swara sthanas (hint: arohanam and avarohanam) which differ. Shruti-bhedam i.e. while singing alap, using tharasthayi R as S, makes Todi sound like Kalyani, but since it interferes with bhava (emotional flow of the raga) which should not be done extensively.

The composers have the liberty of starting off anywhere but are still bound within the raga metrics and that is their playground for creativity. Ofcourse each composition can have a different talas (beats) and no two songs of the same raga will sound alike, else your credibility as a composer is zilch. Duh, imagine the precarious position of the hindi film music composers(?), who are renowned for copying err.. being inspired .. cough.... by other peoples tunes frequently.

Now you must be wondering how a listener will know who is the composer of a particular song in say raga: Todi.

Simple…. Every composer had a signature embedded in the song he/she wrote, akin to the “comments” that programmers include in their programs. Some composers used a pseudonym/pen name and some their real names but they always inserted their names in the charanam (last stanza) of the song, never earlier. Humility matters .

Legend has it that some not-so-famous students of famous composers in order to give credibility to their compositions used to pen them in their “famous composer teachers” names and bask in their shadowed glory. I am not sure how true this is and dont particularly care. Its more fun to enjoy the music!!

In Hindustani music there are quite a few ragas with the suffix Todi but sounds very different from the Karnatic HanumantaTodi. Example : The Hindustani Gurjari Todi, Mian ki Todi, Multani Todi etc., do not resemble the Carnatic Todi. This is true for many ragas which only share a common raga name.

There are many compositions in HanumantaTodi. Every southern Vaggeyakara has composed in Todi. SriThyagaraja has composed around 30 kritis and the speciality is that each one highlights a different nuance of the ragam.

1] The kriti ‘Dasarathe’ starts in mantra sthayee “D” and emphasizes the prayoga of gamaka-laden “D”.
2] The kriti ‘Dasukovalena’ centres round Madhya sthayee “D”.
3] The kriti ‘Koluvamaregada’ starts at Taara sthayee “S” and comes down the avarohana slowly. Shyama Sastri has done a slow vilambit kala kriti with Swarajati Raave, thereby bringing out the slow beauty of this raga.

TO-DO in Todi, including the derivative janya ragas are :

1] Venugana ramana | Mishra Chapu.
2] Dasuko | Misra Jhampa | Thyagaraja.
3] Koluvamaregada | Adi | Thyagaraja.
4] Rajuvedala (Srirangam Pancharatna) | Rupakam | Thyagaraja |
5] Sri Krishnam Bhaja (on Guruvayurapan) | Adi | Dikshitar |
6] Ninne Nammi | Misra Chapu | Shyama Sastri |
7] Raave (Swarajati) | Adi | Shyama Sastri |
8] Sarasija nabhada | Misra Chapu | Swati Tirunal |
9] Thamatham en | Adi | Papanasam Sivan |
10] Tanigai Valar-Khanda Chapu- Papanasam Sivan |
11] Kartikeya- Aadi- Papanasam Sivan |
12] Anjananandam | Adi |
13] Annaiyargal vanam nadi vandar | Adi |
14] Dasharathe dayanidhe | Adi
15] En inge vandu | Adi
16] Jatadhara shankara devedeva | Adi
17] Rasa loka vaibhoga | Adi
18] Tale sharanam amma | Adi
19] Tannam taniyaha senrale | Mishra Chapu
20] Urugada manam enna manamo | Adi
21] Vandavarai varum enrazhaittu mani polum | Adi

Janya (derivative) raga :

1] Bhuvana moha saundara sukumara | Dhanyasi | Adi
2] Nada nada nada krishna | Dhanyasi | Adi
3] Padmini vallabha dehi pradehi | Dhanyasi | Adi
4] Natajana kalpavalli | Punnagavarali | Adi
5] Nila vanam tanil oli vishum niraimadiyo | Punnagavarali | Adi
6] Na dhru dhim tadana tomtana (tillana) | Sindhubhairavi | Adi
7] Shen shiva jatadhara shambho | Sindhubhairavi | Adi
NotreBene : Time permitting, I shall add data, so consider the raga-series a perpetual work-in-progress. Thanks for using a track-back to this original blog entry instead of copying!

• Spinsterhood
  To be single in Victorian times
  (tags: culture society women gender)
• Fem Speak: Oh, Horrible Spinsterhood and Singledom
  some great stuff from claire lately:)
  (tags: culture gender society women)
• Turn Thunderbird into the Ultimate Gmail IMAP Client
  (tags: gmail imap email google howto thunderbird opensource tutorial webmail browser configuration googleapps)
• YouTube - Tim Robbins’ Controversial NAB Speech Banned 6 Minutes Six
  people dont want to hear reality?
  (tags: timrobbins nab controversy politics global usa america keynote 2008)
• [Phoronix] OpenSolaris 2008.05 Gives A New Face To Solaris
  (tags: opensolaris opensource solaris os review sun unix)
• Sun and Intel Presentation
  opensolaris, looks great, the logo blows. bubbles????
  (tags: opensolaris sun intel)
• What Sun was trying to do with OpenSolaris
  hopefully come up with a classic unix desktop open source system.
  (tags: opensolaris intent compare sun linux)
• Expelled Exposed
  A detailed look at the Ben Stein movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. We’ll show you why this movie is not a documentary at all, but anti-science propaganda aimed at creating the appearance of controversy where there is none.
  (tags: academia activism anthropology atheism biology crap creationism culture religion expelled film science evolution)
• Deluded SCO CEO on witness stand: “Linux is a copy of UNIX”
  for goodness sake, somebody get darl his medication!!!
  (tags: sco epicfail novell unix sun microsoft opensolaris solaris unixware linux groklaw)
• Twitter Friend Adder on Squidoo
  It is quite a time consuming task to manually follow people so we have created a plugin for Mozilla Firefox that strictly sticks by twitters API so that the tool will not be used for spammers. i will stick with twitterfox but good idea to extend twitter.
  (tags: twitter firefox browser mozilla addon extension)

I’m no longer in my long time IRC Home of #13thHour.

So I have a new home:

#rainwreck
irc.psigenix.net

And I already have the domain! http://rainwreck.com/ (to be prettified soon)

Join us, won’t you?

..of course I’m insanely busy, and will be away from home most of the weekend, so drop by and lurk, meet others :)

Our My marriage is over, divorce papers are in the works.

Saying we’re both I’m devastated and in a great deal of pain over this doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I won’t be discussing this more here, or anywhere in public. There has already been too much hurt and we I just want to deal with this ourselves and move on.

Thanks to everyone who has been there for us me, your love, support and friendship continues to be invaluable.

EDIT: Michael objected to me “speaking for him” in this “meaningless internet/IRC like fashion” so I’ve edited it to exclude.

I had always wanted to record the kritis we had performed earlier on the basis of the ragam, rather than bifurcate it on the basis of the name of the song, composer or even language. That didnt seem very educative since the examinations are structured along those lines and its important to get the theory part correct. sigh now the word “theory” != “by rote”.

Unless I understand the difference between a N2 and N3 and am able to distinguish that swara in the construction of the swara kalpana, i cant get the raga right, and therein lies the challenge. Classifying songs according to the raga is much more simpler and easier to understand since many songs can share the same raga and yet sound so different. Some brilliant composers literally play around with this aspect, including the language and speed. Teachers dont have the time to teach every song ever composed on a particular raaga, or they may not even know that many songs. So its upto the student to learn various styles, get a good grasp and try to extend their repetoire.

|| What is a RAGAM? ||

A ragam consists of 7 swarams and the sapta-swarams are :- SA - Shadjam
RI - Rishabham
GA - Gandharam
MA - Madhyamam
PA - Panchamam
DA - Daivatam
NI - Nishadham

Of these swarams, S and P are constant but R, G, D, and N have three variations.

R could be Shudha (R1), Chatusruthi (R2), or Shatsruthi (R3) Rishabham.
G could be Shudha (G1), Sadharna (G2) or Anthara (G3) Gandharam.
D could be Shudha (D1), Chatusruthi (D2)or Shatsruthi (D3) Daivatam.
N could be Shudha (N1), Kaishiki (N2), or Kakali (N3) Nishadham.
|| MELAKARTA RAGAM ||
Any ragam that contains all seven swarams is called a Melakartha Ragam. The 72 Melakarta ragams are all sampoorna ragas which means they have all the 7 swaras in the arohanam and avarohanam. Ragams with less than seven swarams are derived ragas from one of the parent melakarta ragams. Here is a nice chart for calculating the Melakarta ragam.

Janya meaning “derived from” is a set of Janya Ragams derived from the 72 melakarta (sampoorna basic) ragams.

NotreBene : Time permitting, I shall add data, so consider the ragam-series a perpetual work-in-progress. Thanks for using a track-back to this original blog entry instead of copying!

Yesterday, someone asked me if I could design "an MS Access database" for him.

Growl.

As I reflected on it, I realized that the problem is not really the particular technology specified - the problem is that the technology was specified at all before the need was described.

If I offered to make you anything you wanted for dinner, would you ask for "something made with a Teflon spatula?" If you did, I'd tell you, "No no no no no. Describe what you want to eat, and let me figure out what I'm going to use to cook it."

My potential client didn't literally mean that he wanted MS Access to be used, he meant that he wants a database with a GUI interface. He thinks of "Access database" as a way to describe that, because it's the only thing he's ever seen used to build products vaguely resembling the one he's imagining. It's nothing more than a limitation of vocabulary and experience.

The problem is that, so often, that kind of pidgin is taken literally. Tools are pre-selected far too early - while the business users are imagining their needs, before the geeks themselves are even involved,

As a result, there are a lot of geeks out there trying to beat eggs with Teflon spatulas.

My story ends happily, however. My potential client got it when I explained this, and we're going to meet so I can find out what he wants. Then - and only then - will we start discussing which tools to use.

CALL FOR EXAMINEES: Linux Professional Institute (LPI) Certification Levels 1 and 2 Examinations 07 June 2008 (Saturday) 8:00AM to 12:00 noon Lecture Hall, Department of Computer Science, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines The ASEAN+3 Node of the International Open Source Network (IOSN) together with the University of the Philippines Manila-National Telehealth Center in cooperation with the [...]

One of the best things I’ve learned last year is the proper way of  Contemplating.  I haven’t perfected the skill yet but still it has been a good help in my daily struggles and challenges.  It keeps me calm and be in control of my emotions and not the other way around.  If you want [...]

OH NOES! Twitter broken! 500 server error!

Life EPIC FAIL.

• Deluded SCO CEO on witness stand: “Linux is a copy of UNIX”
  Darl McBride entered a courtroom to assert his rights regarding legacy System V code, which he still contends exists within Linux. This despite years of discovery turning up zero evidence to support the assertion. Ars reports from the scene of the Novell v. SCO trial.