India 3G Spectrum auction

During may 2010, Indian government auctioned the 3G spectrum to operators for 11 billion dollars. The commercial launch  is expected to be in mid-2011.

According to Department of Telecommunications(DOT) release:

Paired spectrum of 3 blocks of 5MHZ  have been auctioned for 3G in 2.1 GHz range.

A closer look at what this means:
The total geographical area of india is divided into areas called circles and 3-4 operator have been alloted 5Mhz frequency block in each circle. Unlike GSM, All the mobiles belonging to one operator use the same frequency but, ditinguish each other by a scrambling code .

ITU(International Telecomunication Union) has earmarkedset of frequencies called Frequency bands to be used for 3G. One such frquency band is Band 1 operating in a frequency of 2.1 GHZ.

This "Band 1" is used for 3G  transmission in europe, Asia Australia and south ameraica. Frequecies surrounding  3G spectrum are reserved for maritime mobile in india.

Three operators have successfully bid Frequencies for TamilNadu circle:

Books: Kiran Desai

When i began reading Kiran desai's first novel Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, the plot summary reminded me of  RK Narayan's Novels. A small railway staion for a village, the lone station master, a banyan tree for villagers to gather around..
But, this book  is about sampath, a young man working for postal service having a dull, simple life. He flees his home town and climbs up  a guava tree and his life makes a U-turn afterwards. The story is fresh. It is unique in all respect, and abundant with subtle humour.

Her second book The inheritance of loss touches upon a more serious topic -Influence of british in every day life of  indians and obsession with all things western.
The story is set in a far-away town on the foothills of himalayas and revolves around the life of a retired judge
and his cook.

Though the book adapts a bit of a complex writing style with a discontinuous flow, it is in most parts an interesting read.

Strawberries in Skåne

This saturday, I had been to strawberry fields .Since i come from a place where strawberry fields are a impossible sight, i was excited at the prospect of going there and plucking strawberries on my own.

It was in a place near Hassleholm in Skåne in southern sweden, 90kms away from malmo city. My first thought when i arrived was that the plants were much smaller in size than i expected, more like a shrub. Each one had 5 to 6 ripe strawberries. We were told early July is the best time to pluck strawberries in southern sweden.

Here are 2 gardens you could visit:
http://www.kvistalanga.se
http://www.eriksgarden.nu

Self-plucking strawberries is a good weekend outing and a good break from the mechanical city life.

Upcycling

One might have heard about reusing, recycling, but the latest buzzword in green-living parlance is upcycling.

This word was coined by Reiner pilz and used by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. UpCycling by definition is converting a material which would otherwise be a waste into another material of higher value. Yes, It doesn't sound like an invention arrived after several months of out-of-the-box thinking, but it is something that emerged out of common sense.

Infact, it is something that we do in everyday life. Remember the seventh grade practical class where you converted a old shoe box into a toy aquarium with paper fish, sand etc. That is a typical example of a upcycled product. 

Now that this fancy term is coined and making rounds, who uses these upcycled products is a question. A more important question is how can upcycled products enjoy mainstrream use? Upcycled products are today displayed in exhibitions and expositions  and is often used to demonstrate the handiwork of the creator. 

But as awareness in eco-friendly living increases, many hopes that usage of upcycled products will also increase.

Chennai or Madras?

Madras was renamed as Chennai long ago. In the year 1996 to be exact. But, even in india many still remember this city as Madras.

Here in Sweden, When i say to my friends that i come from Chennai, they usually give me a ignorant look.and when i clarify that it was once called Madras, they seem to be surprised.  They still know this city as Madras.
Several Sweden based websites are still  stuck with Madras.

So, the next time you are in Sweden, you know what to say!!

Study in sweden

Many students in India and elsewhere are showing interest in studying in sweden. With a high standard of education, immigrant-friendly policies and a near-perfect social system, sweden is one of the ideal destination for higher education.

I try to compile some useful information about studying in sweden.

Application and Admission
The admission procedure is very straght forward. STUDERA is the website where one has to apply for admission  to all courses in all universtities in sweden.
Take your time to browse through this site. Make sure to submit all the required document before the deadline and you are on your way in.

A recent trend is to apply through a agent. The agent usually charges 50,000 rupees or more with a promise of getting admission in the university of your choice. That's not true! .The agent has no say in the admission procedure and i strongly recommend not to go through the agent, unless you have a lot of money to waste.

Accomadation
When it comes to accomadation, i must admit that it is difficult to find one in sweden. BLOCKET is the best place to begin your search. Alternatively, Call your university and enquire about student accomadation. The people are generally nice and will be happy to assist you.

Cost of Living
Spending pattern is different for each one of us. Swedein is one of the expensive places to live in europe. Most students i know spend somewhere between 5500 to 6500 SEK per month on living.

So, If you are looking for a calm, peaceful student life and a good quality of education, you should give sweden a serious thought.

Happy Learning!!!

Technical Jargons Simplified

Single Chip ICE Platform

Multi Chip ICE platform

Samband - The swedish connection

It has been a good 3 months since i started learning swedish at SFI. I knew swedish belonged to the family of Indo-European languages and so, i have been searching for similarities in words/Pronunciations between swedish and Indian languages esp. Tamil. At last, I found one.

SAMBAND means connection or relation  in swedish .Sambandam  also has the same meaning, connection  or relation in Tamil.
It makes you feel happy to find some similarity between two languages spoken by people 7000 kilometers apart. , no?