Say no to reservation

The policy of the politicians to divide and rule to gain votes is clearly brought out through the reservation quota being increased to a staggering 49.5%. This is definitely cutting off the seats available to normal people born into a socially disadvantaged non-reserved class. One must realize that the Open Category seats allow everyone – SC, ST, OBC, anyone – to gain admission based on their merit. There is a myth in many minds that removing or reducing reservation means that doors are closed to the ‘backward’ classes. It only opens the door wider to include the now disadvantaged non-reserved class. The perfect strategy is to reserve seats in coaching institutions for ‘backward’ classes so that they can develop the merit themselves and compete like the rest of the country to gain their rightful place. Remember – Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day and maybe beg for free fish everyday. But teach a man to fish and he can fish to earn his living. Provide coaching at primary school level , develop the skill and let everyone compete at an equal level.

Free SMS worldwide

SMS invasion

Mobiles have taken over a major part of our life. I myself feel disconnected if my mobile phone is not with me. Even though I make few calls, I SMS a lot.

Stephen King's "Cell" - I haven't read it yet but surely would like to. The thought that these gadgets can turn us into mindless zombies doesn't seem too farfetched to me.

Even now, I mindlessly forward jokes and stuff I receive on my cell. "Send to list" I command I order and it obeys. but who exactly is commanding whom ? . . .

A few days back I read about a gadget that can turn on and off home appliances by sending an SMS to the system.

Case of the broken pin in the jack

I had a computer problem recently – the Audio output jack was blocked by the broken (metal) tip of my speaker’s audio pin.

To solve it I had to use several methods of which finally one was successful. Initially I tried pulling it out with toothpicks … but to no avail. Luckily my motherboard and cabinet supported a separate audio out jack in the cabinet front panel. Using the motherboard manual, I changed the jumper settings to divert audio out to this jack (port).
It worked fine.

But my mind wasn’t rested till I got the motherboard’s audio out working. It couldn’t be opened from inside – it was a sealed metal box and I did not want to damage the motherboard.
First I tried to pull it out with toothpicks, forceps, but couldn’t grip the pin. Then I tried using the vacuum from a desoldering gun but to no avail. I also tried a magnet but it didn’t work – later I discovered that the pin was not attracted to magnets. Then , using needle and thread I tried to make a noose to lower it into the jack, wrap it tight round the pin and pull it out – but it kept slipping and was hard work.
Finally- the one that worked – I took and ordinary syringe needle, bent the tip very slightly. Then I inserted it into the jack with the bend sideways so that it(bend) went past the broken pin. Next I turned the needle so that the bend came under the pin. Then slowly but steadily I pulled outwards. Using another needle, I manipulated and straightened the upper part of the pin while still pulling. Finally, I got the broken pin out. I have preserved it still somewhere.

Reciprocal linking

Subscribe in a reader

Terms and conditions and other blah blah blah ;-)

I will put up lots of ideas that I get in this blog. You are free to add your comments on them - whether u think they will work, whether they r really necessary, ur ideas added to mine, ... anything. Remember, I,m not responsible for anything that happens to u or anyone else because you read my blog. If at all u plan to use any of my ideas, do contact me- thru the guest book at My website (http://johnkerala.tripod.com or www.johndavis.i8.com or www.johndavis.tk (redirection service))

The Ultimate Rememberall for people whom u r supposed to remember but keep forgetting.

Wait I almost forgot that I had an idea. Well here it is. First u upload a database of all the people u r supposed to remember along with their photos. Then u need a program that can search thru photos to match a face in a new photo to that in the database. I really think it exists. I'm just not 100% sure. It can just store a database of the facial features (eye to eye distance, nose shape or something,...) or high tech like iris pattern (u know, in scifi movies, that exists too) Finally, whwn u see someone u know but u don't know who it is, u whip out ur camera mobile and start shooting(oh, u need that too). Send the photos via GPRS to ur top secret database & get the identification immediately. Now that's a rememberall.

Procrastination is reaaallly the thief of time !!!!

I finally decided that putting off something that has to be done today really puts it off for a really long time. For example , posting an entry in this blog. How many times I would have thought - "Now I'll just have enough time to check my mail. I'll blog that wonderful idea tomorrow. Anyway I'll check my mail tomorrow." This went on for quite a long time, I can assure you. For reference check my previous (first, actually) blog posting. For a remedy, I'll need to have an electronic organiser on my mobile(or cell - can't call it just a phone now - those things have everything in them) which decides what to do at what particular time determined in a scientific manner. Now I will sit down and meditate on this thought. Adios! Lots to study too! \P. S. - I didn't have time for this blog so I copied this post from another one of my blogs.

(http://johnkerala.tripod.com/ideas/)

The Creation

artwork copyright Joe Tucciarone

I really didn't think I'd make a blog. But finally its done. I had always thought that I'd just keep making websites that would not be updated every now and then but just made and left.

This blog , I now understand is based on a different principle - an online diary , a place to put up ones ideas and thought or 'Fundas' as I'd like to call them. I hope this one doesn't go forgotten after this very first post. Anyway check out my website www.johndavis.tk . It's actually redirected to http://johnkerala.tripod.com . Also see www.johndavis.i8.com . And my email address is john da fun da @ h ot m ail . com (without the spaces ) .There is no space in that - its just a funda to fool any mass mailing softbot that hunts for email ids. Anyways, time to log off. See ya soon . (If anyone reads this , that is )

My Cluster map

Map of vistors to my website.


There are several free services which give free vistor mapping services. Some of them setect visitors automatically and show them as a dot on a ma. Others allow you to have a flash or JAVA based map which lets blog or website visitors to give their name and put a pin on the world map to show their location.

The visitors can also leave a message or comment.

The location is traced by tracing the IP address of the computer and so, it can detect where in the world the vistor has come from.





You can also get such a visitor map by joining any of the free services which provides visitor maps or clustermaps - Some of them are CLustermaps.com, neoworx.com and ip2location among others ...

Do try them out to find out where your blog visitors come from ...