Today is Michael Jackson's birthday

Michael Jackson didn't live long enough to celebrate his 51st birthday but his fans remember him everyday. And today, 29th August, is a special day because it is King of Pop's birthday. Celebrate his life and music

on this special occasion.

Buzz up!

Over two months have passed since Michael Jackson died of suspected cardiac arrest on June 25 but people have not stopped talking about him. Media still keep hovering around his near and dear ones with the hope of striking upon a scoop. His music albums have been sold like hot cake

after his demise.

Michael Jackson was famous not for nothing. The way he transformed the entertainment industry was incredible. He was set to hit the stage to entertain the people before death stopped his mission. He had been scheduled to perform 50 concerts at the O2 arena in London in July, which would end in 2010. The sold out shows were expected to earn him up to $50 million.

The world will continue to speculate on his life and his death itself but one thing is for sure – he has left a vacuum that nothing can replace. Michael, like any human being was not perfect but he was almost perfect as an artiste and entertainer if not completely perfect.

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with”: Michael Jackson.

Amazon tribes fear disaster

The Xingu River

Pavuru (Xingu national park Brazil): Once they were threatened by wildcat gold-miners and a measles epidemic that slashed their population to just 56. But now the Ikpeng, a proud tribe of Amazon warriors, say a new catastrophe looms over their future: the damming of the rivers they depend upon for food.

Across Brazil alarm bells are ringing over plans to build at least 229 small hydro-electric dams, known as PCHs, which the government hopes will generate electricity and drive economic development.

Opponents say they will damage the environment and destroy the livelihoods of thousands of Brazilian tribes people.

There are 346 PCHs in Brazil, with another 70 under construction and 159 awaiting licences. If the construction of dams continues, “the fish will run out and the waters will start to go down,” warned Komuru Txicao, a local tribesman. “Here in the forest we don’t need electricity. We need fish, water and land.”

For Mr. Komuru and his neighbours, the immediate concern is the construction of a network of PCHs around the Xingu national park in Mato Grosso state. Mr. Komuru fears the dams will block the tributaries of the Xingu, itself the largest tributary of the Amazon. According to the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), four PCHs operate near the reserve; another, Paranatinga I, is waiting for its licence. Aneel says 13 PCHs are being built in Mato Grosso state, while another 19 projects are awaiting licences.

Last March the conflict escalated when eight staff from the electricity company responsible for one PCH spent five days held as “hostage” near Pavuru. They were released only after the President of Brazil’s indigenous agency, Funai, personally intervened. “We didn’t kill them, we ‘arrested’ them,” recalled Mr. Komuru.

Similar battles are raging across the Amazon region. A dispute over the $4 billion Belo Monte dam further north along the Xingu river turned violent in May when an engineer from the Brazilian power company Eletrobras was attacked during a presentation about the plant. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has sought to allay fears over the dam, vowing that it “would not be shoved down anyone’s throat”.

But concerns grew in July when a federal court lifted an embargo on the Belo Monte licensing process, clearing the way for a bidding round later this year.

Having witnessed the Ikpeng’s plight in the 1960s, Melobo, an Ikpeng shaman, fears history may be repeating itself. “The farmers ruin the Indian’s things,” said Mr. Melobo. “They ruin the Indian’s water. They ruin the Indian’s land.”

Michael Jackson's death caused by powerful sedatives

The Los Angeles county coroner has ruled that Michael Jackson's death was caused by a lethal combination of powerful sedative drugs.

Jackson's personal doctor, Conrad Murray, is the target of a manslaughter investigation led by Los Angeles police, according to the Associated Press.
Murray, a cardiologist who treated Jackson for insomnia, told a Los Angeles police official that he had injected Jackson with Propofol in the hours before his death on 25 June in a rented mansion in Los Angeles.

In a sworn affidavit, Los Angeles detective Orlando Martinez said that Murray admitted to giving the 50-year-old Thriller singer a veritable cocktail of drugs to help him sleep the night before he died.

Murray had been Jackson's personal physician for about six weeks, and told investigators that another doctor had introduced Jackson to Propofol.

Martinez said that the Los Angeles county chief coroner, Dr Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, reported Jackson had a lethal level of Propofol in his blood.
Murray told police he used the drug to help Jackson sleep, and that he worried that the singer had become addicted to it. He said he tried to wean Jackson off the drug. Murray said Jackson had injection marks on his hands and feet.

He told investigators that he had monitored Jackson's pulse and oxygen levels as he administered the sedatives during the night, and that Jackson remained awake despite several injections of drugs. He said Jackson had requested and demanded an injection of Propofol.

Murray told investigators that at about 10.30am on 25 June, he left Jackson for less than two minutes to use the bathroom, and that Jackson was not breathing when he returned. He began CPR, injected more drugs and another aide summoned help.

Murray has increasingly become the focus of police efforts to establish the cause of Jackson's death. Two offices and a pharmacy connected to him have been searched by police, as has his home. Federal drug enforcement agents were unable to find records of Murray's purchase of Propofol and have sought medical records from a handful of other physicians who had treated the singer.

Martinez also said that in April, Jackson had offered to pay another doctor any price to obtain Propofol. The physician declined.

Murray has gone into virtual hiding since Jackson's death. In his only public statement, he said in a video posted on YouTube that he had told the truth and "the truth will prevail".

An Archaeologist's View of Orkney & Shetland

We are delighted that local archaeologists will once again give us the benefit of their extensive knowledge and bring to life the fascinating ancient relics that litter the islands of Orkney and Shetland. The islands of Orkney and Shetland are littered with archaeological remains. People first came here over 5000 years ago and many of their remains survive. New architectural sites are discovered every year. Some, such as Skara Brae, were buried under sand, only to be exposed by a winter storm thousands of years later; Skara Brae presents a fascinating glimpse of stone age life from the beds with their little shelves and cubby holes, to the remains of jewellery and medicine. Research is ongoing here and elsewhere excavation by archaeologists continues to uncover new information. The islands are therefore of enormous interest to anyone who enjoys first-hand contact with ancient settlements and buildings, and the people who once lived here.

Stylish Bird Café for Glamorous Gardens

A new generation of turbines

Professor John Gregg at the University of Oxford is an international expert in the fields of spin electronics, spintronics and magnetic instrumentation. But he has designed and built something for homeowners facing high energy costs: a new-generation wind turbine. He is testing the turbine, which features a standard induction motor as a generator, in his mother's garden in Ireland.

It all started thanks to rising energy prices. "About five years ago, the prices got so bad that we agreed we needed a wind turbine to heat the water for the shower," says Gregg. He was "knocked sideways" to find he would have to pay ¤38,000 (£33,000), giving an unrealistic 50-year payback time.

One problem, of course, is the wind. Velocities drop dramatically as you come down in height, and planning laws – though thanks to Irish MP Dick Roche, Ireland has good exemptions for domestic wind turbines – make it difficult to erect tall wind turbines in gardens. The high costs are attributable to custom-built generators, invertors, storage batteries and complex circuitry.

Wind of change

AbuBakr Bahaj, professor of sustainable energy at the University of Southampton, has been undertaking the data analysis work for the UK national micro-wind trials funded by the Energy Saving Trust. A key issue for prospective wind turbine users is understanding their resources.

"Regardless of whether the wind turbine produces electricity or heat, if the wind resource is poor, the device will perform inadequately," he says. "It is important to consider for a realistically sited micro-wind turbine what the wind resource is, rather than considering performance at for example a 12m/s wind speed [how commercial large-scale turbines are rated] – this is very misleading for micro-wind."

It also comes down to the user's usual source of energy. For example, the home heating oil used in rural areas is more expensive than gas, with 60% of the domestic energy budget being consumed by heating.

"I assume that the market for this device is housing which is not on the national gas network," says Bahaj. "This obviously helps the economics because the heating costs are much higher than normal."

As the world invests in renewable resources, every little counts.

The week in wildlife (12 pictures)

Fifth of UK honeybee colonies died last winter

Nearly a fifth of the UK's honeybee colonies died last winter, figures from the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) revealed today.

The figure is an improvement on the previous year when almost a third of hives did not make it through the winter, but is double "acceptable" levels, the BBKA's president Tim Lovett warned.

Across the country an average of 19.2% of colonies died over winter, with the highest losses in the north of England, where 32.1% perished, and the lowest in the east of England, where just 12.8% did not survive.

According to the BBKA, the period of really cold weather in the winter encouraged the bees to "cluster" together, helping them to survive, while good weather in early spring enabled them to forage for nectar and pollen.

The association also believes beekeepers took more care to feed colonies where necessary to prevent them starving.

But there was still a "worrying and continuing high level of colony loss" which the BBKA put down to diseases threatening the bees.

Lovett said: "The improved figure is very welcome, compared with the 30.5% for winter 2007-2008, but is way short of the 7% to 10% which until the last five years has been considered acceptable.

"It underlines the need for research into the causes and remedies for disease in order to ensure that our principal economic pollinator, the honey bee, can survive the onslaught of the threats it currently faces.

"Also, it still shows that there is a worrying and continuing high level of colony loss which we have to attribute to disease and for which we currently have few answers in terms of husbandry or medication.

He said similar levels of losses in other areas of farming would be considered "disastrous" with dramatic effects on food prices, and answers through research were urgently needed.

"These ongoing losses in the pollination army of honey bees cannot continue if we are to secure food supplies," he warned.

Bees are estimated to be worth around £200m to the UK economy each year, as they pollinate many of the food crops grown here, such as apples and oilseed rape.

But in recent years they have been hit by agricultural changes which have reduced the availability of the wildflowers that are so important in providing food for the insects.

Diseases such as the varroa mite have infected hives, killing the bees, while climate change and pesticide use have also been suggested as possible factors in the insects' decline

A report by the parliamentary accounts committee last month warned the government was giving "little priority" to the health of the nation's bees despite their importance to the agricultural economy.

Honeybee colonies are disappearing at an "alarming" rate and ministers have until recently taken little interest in the problem, the report claimed.

The cross-party public accounts committee wants the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ring-fence research spending on bee health and not allow it to be diluted by looking at other pollinating insects — a call backed by Lovett today.

There are more images of individuals around now than in any other point in history, yet portraiture has nothing to do with contemporary art

Portrait art has never been more pointless

There are more images of individuals around now than in any other point in history, yet portraiture has nothing to do with contemporary art

Why does mention of portraiture make me snort with derision? For the sitter, to have one's portrait painted is to indulge in a preposterous bit of self-aggrandisement, while to be a jobbing portrait painter is to exercise the lucrative employment of one's skills in a manner that has nothing to do with contemporary art. To champion portrait painting is to hark back to a 19th-century view of what matters in art, just as to visit the National Portrait Gallery is to enter an archive of social history rather than an art gallery. But isn't there something perverse about this view? I know Jean-Paul Sartre told us that hell is other people, but on the whole we tend not to be so misanthropic. We like people a lot, and whether or not we have met them personally, we gain particular satisfaction from knowing what they look like.

Among the genres of art we find outlined in traditional academic theory, landscape appears to be the one with the largest and most immediate contemporary purchase on our imagination. While Joshua Reynolds might have been thinking only of painting when he discussed 'landskips' in his Discourses on Art, the category now encompasses a far wider range of activities, from Richard Long's walks to the wheat crop recently grown and harvested on a disused railway siding in Dalston, East London, by the Hungarian-American artist Agnes Denes.

Alongside landscape, that other minor category, portraiture, seems to be much less secure in its status. The act of commissioning a portrait is something few of us will do – it being restricted to those with more money than is good for them. There are more photographic images of individuals around than ever before – perhaps because of that, and the ease with which still more can be generated, the idea of producing a composed portrait strikes me as increasingly pointless. Even when we do encounter such a thing, we don't always assume that what we're looking at is a portrait. Why is it, for example, that when walking round the current Elizabeth Peyton exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery – an exhibition consisting largely of paintings of people – it doesn't seem right to classify it as a show of portraiture?

The people Peyton paints are famous, and their faces can be seen everywhere in countless photographs. So, one of the main functions of the portrait – producing a likeness – is rendered irrelevant because we really don't need Peyton to show us what Liam Gallagher looks like. If her work is interesting it's because it goes beyond this, allowing us to see Gallagher not only as an individual, but as signifying pervasive features of our cultural environment, a screen upon which we can project our own desires and fears. Which is to say, it is not a portrait at all, but what Reynolds would have called a history painting: the most important kind of art there is.

Reynolds's preferred term was, in fact, poetical painting. That is, painting that generalises a specific person in an imaginative and instructive way. When Charlotte Corday went to stab the French revolutionary Marat, he was sitting in his bath because that was the only way he could get relief for the chronic skin condition from which he suffered. He was definitely not the smooth-skinned, muscle-bound, Michelangelo-esque demi-god depicted by Jacques-Louis David in his famous painting of the murdered man. Likewise, when Gerhard Richter paints his aunt Marianne from an old family snapshot – a painting shown in the exhibition of his portraits at the National Portrait Gallery earlier this year – what makes it overwhelmingly powerful is the knowledge that some time after the photo was taken she was placed in a mental home and subsequently murdered by the Nazis as part of their euthanasia programme to improve the nation's health.

The figure in history is what matters. As with landscape, portraiture becomes pertinent when it breaks out of its straightjacket and offers something more than a tastefully composed and skilfully executed representation of someone. This is not to say that painting can't matter in either landscape or portraiture, it's just that it can no longer be a necessary and sufficient condition. Witness the contrasting tales of two men in Trafalgar Square. Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, has expressed regret at the spectacle of Antony Gormley's One and Other project outside his hallowed doors. Sandy Nairne, director of the adjacent National Portrait Gallery, has himself stood on the fourth plinth. There is a live feed from the plinth relayed to a screen in the portrait gallery's foyer in recognition of the fact that, along with such things as tagged photos on Facebook, this parade of randomly selected humanity is as much as anything else the contemporary face of portraiture.

Galileo's telescope reaches 400th anniversary

It is 400 years since Galileo Galilei demonstrated his telescope, which would lead him to make new astronomical observations

Galileo's telescope helped the astronomer to learn more about our solar system. This is a reconstruction of the telescope. Photograph: Jim Sugar/Corbis

While many people have been loudly celebrating this year's double commemoration of 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species, another scientific anniversary has crept up relatively quietly, marking an event which arguably changed human thought and the way we see ourselves even more irrevocably.

Exactly 400 years ago today, on 25 August 1609, the Italian astronomer and philosopher Galilei Galileo showed Venetian merchants his new creation, a telescope – the instrument that was to bring him both scientific immortality and, more immediately, a whole lot of trouble.

A refinement of models first devised in the Netherlands, Galileo's slim, brown stick was puny even by the standards of something one might buy in hobby shop today. But his eight-powered telescope, and the more powerful models he soon produced, when pointed skywards led Galileo to a series of groundbreaking conclusions.

The moon was not, as long believed, completely smooth. Another planet, Jupiter, also had moons. Meanwhile Venus showed a range of moon-like phases, something which could not happen if both it and the sun orbited the earth.

This latter phenomenon had been predicted by Nicolaus Copernicus when, nearly a century before, he had proposed the notion of a planetary system with the sun at the centre, not the earth.

Galileo's discoveries were, perhaps predictably, not best welcomed by the Catholic church, and he spent the final decade of his life under house arrest.

It was certainly a revelation which upset the orthodoxies – and the churches – at least as much as Darwin's, and perhaps merits a bit more of fuss, although museum-goers in Philadelphia and Stockholm can view one of Galileo's very early telescopes, on loan this year from Florence. A good deal more people are likely to be alerted thanks to Google's day-long adaptation of their main page logo to a Google Doodle in honour of the event.

Interview of Actor Karthi

Actor Karthi talks to subha j rao about the much-awaited Aayirathil Oruvan, and what cinema means to him
He had the kind of debut not many would have dreamt of. After growing up in cosmopolitan Chennai and studying abroad, Karthi dumped his suave demeanour for the unkempt look of Paruthiveeran. And surprised a whole lot of moviegoers and critics with his rustic charm.
Now, that kind of success is hard to repeat. Especially, when there’s huge expectation about your next film. But, Karthi handles all that pressure beautifully, happily smiling away queries about the long gap between Paruthiveeran and Selvaraghavan’s magnum opus Aayirathil Oruvan.
“I was prepared for the delay; just did not know it would take two years. Nor did I know it was such a big film. Plus, there was so much expectation, and I had to deliver,” he says.
All the hype over the film seems justified, with Karthi saying it’s “something no one has ever attempted before. Just watching Selva work is a delight. I loved interacting with him. It was a huge opportunity. And, there are these ‘silent’ scenes — pure symphony on screen.”
“Aayirathil Oruvan drained me. But, as an actor, many scenes gave me a high. Like when I gave a four-page dialogue scene in one take.”
Karthi stumped many with his performance in Paruthiveeran — a spontaneity that usually comes after years in front of the camera. Looking back, how does he rate himself in the film? “I surprised myself at times (especially in the scene where I dance on the road wearing nothing but a pair of shorts). All credit to director Ameer for that.” The actor’s next flick, Paiyya, co-starring Tammannah, is directed by Lingusamy. “I am a huge fan of his Run, and wanted to do something like that. Paiyaa is a road movie and it’s a lot of fun, though there is this huge pressure to be a commercial hero,” he says. And, then, there’s a film (“a unique script”, co-starring Kajal Agarwal) with Susindran of Vennila Kabbadi Kuzhu fame, and his home production (Studio Green) Siruthai, due to start six months down the line.
Even after his sudden ascent to stardom, Karthi is the quintessential boy-next-door. How does he manage to remain so? “Why should I be different?” he shoots back. “Cinema is not new to me. It helped that I did not enter the industry as a bright-eyed youngster. And, I always remember what Suriya told me — ‘at any point, someone will be famous. It is only films that live to tell the tale’. My friends are still my buddies from St. Bede’s. Appa ensured that we had a middle-class upbringing and imbibed those values.” Wanting to be a director, Karthi worked with Mani Ratnam for a while. So, can we expect to see him make his own movie soon? “After seeing Mani sir, Ameer and Selva work, I believe I should not attempt direction if I can’t create something even remotely close to their work.”
For someone who admits he had no clarity as a youngster, Karthi chooses scripts with care. “It should be appealing enough to keep you excited through the six months of shooting.” And, despite having done two movies that ‘celebrated’ the actor in him, he loves commercial cinema. “I love masala movies … Pokkiri, Ghilli, Ghajini. I would love to do both kinds of cinema.” He is also kicked about the new wave cinema in Tamil. “They encourage you to try out something different.”
He also envisions a day when movies will be made for niche audiences, like in Bollywood. “Probably, when we have more multiplexes. That way, you can make movies on small budgets, without worrying about whether it will appeal to all.”
How does the young crop of actors get along with one another? “Famously. I hang out a lot with Jeyam Ravi, Aarya and Jeeva. And, no, we don’t discuss films,” he laughs.

The International Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition

This fantastic exhibition brings beautiful and inspiring garden photography to Kew in an outdoor display. Showcasing the finalists and winners of the second annual International Garden Photographer of the Year competition, the exhibition returns following great success last year.

The competition is open to everyone, amateurs and professionals alike, from any country in the world. Competition categories are ‘Plant Portraits’, ‘Garden Views’, ‘Wildlife in the Garden’, ‘People in the Garden’, ‘The Edible Garden’, and ‘Trees’. The special category this year is ‘World Botanic Gardens’, inspired by Kew’s 250th Anniversary.

The overall winner of the 2009 competition is Jonathan Berman, for his photo titled In Tresco Abbey Gardens (at top of page). The judges said: "What struck us immediately about this picture was its dreamlike quality. The use of infrared has enhanced the drama of clouds, sky and foliage and the composition is superb, with the child adding interest to the foreground and the leaves making a perfect frame to the garden beyond." "You step through the frame of this photograph, into a child's fantasy of a secret garden. The contrast and textures create a surreal impression. But it's not all rose-tinted: there's a slightly sinister feeling that sets my imagination running and makes for a truly memorable image."

The Tribes of Science

Peter Curran visits members of the many and varied disciplines of science, from astronomy to zoology, to explore their habitat, customs, rituals and beliefs.

Peter meets the botanists who won the lottery. Seed conservation used to be rather marginal to the main scientific activity at The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. That is, until, the scientists who preserve seeds for future generations asked for and received 30 million pounds.

At the Millenium Seed Bank in Sussex, the gentle world of botany and the rude world of commerce come together in a rampant hybrid.

Ways to avoid swine flu?

I found this in The Whitehaven News for 28th April 1870. It is a letter from 'Carbolic Acid' attributing an outbreak of typhoid to:

1. Overcrowding
2. Partial or total want of ventilation
3. Want of sufficient light
4. Want of cleanliness in apartments
5. Living and sleeping in the same room.
6. Almost total disuse of water-closets where placed outside the house
7. The keeping of foul utensils within doors for weeks together without emptying
8. The keeping of poultry in the house, often in bedrooms
9. Sleeping on the floors of bedrooms
10. Almost total disregard for the presence of bad smells
11. The want of changes in clothing, unfrequency of washing the clothes and skin, and its consequences
12. The use and abuse of certain kinds of drink
13. The use of bad and low-priced ood
14. The Want of sufficient food
15. Irrregular habits of body, of times of eating, and of living generally
16. Recklessness in warding off first attacks of illness
17. General and almost total ignorance of the laws of health, and superstitious and erroneous ideas respecting the origin and treatment of diseases.
18. Total disgreard for almost anything and everything but a carouse* weekly or fortnightly, oftener when convenient.

Sounds remarkably good advice for avoiding swine flu and similar in 2009.

History of Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi or "Vinayak Chaturthi" is one of the major traditional festivals celebrated by the Hindu community. It is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Bhadrapada, starting on the shukla chaturthi (fourth day of the waxing moon period). Typically the day falls sometime between August 20 and September 15. The festival lasts for 10 days, ending on Ananta Chaturdashi, and is traditionally celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha. According to Hindu mythology, Lord Ganesha is the son of Shiva (The God of Destruction in the Hindu Holy Trinity of Creator-Preserver-Destroyer) and Parvati (Shiva’s consort). The cutest and most lovable Indian God, Ganesha or Ganpati has the head of an elephant on which rests an elegant tiara, four podgy hands joined to a sizeable belly with each hand holding its own symbolic object - a trishul or a trident in one, an ankush or goad (made from his very own broken tooth) in another, a lotus in the third and a rosary (which is sometimes replaced by modaks, his favourite sweet) in the fourth. Revered as the deity of auspiciousness and wisdom, Lord Ganesha is also famous for being a trickster and for his profound sense of humour. It is believed that Lord Ganesh was born on a fourth day (chaturthi) of the bright fortnight of the Hindu lunar month of Magh. Since then, an association between Ganesh and chaturthi has been established. Thus the festival dedicated to the worship of Lord Ganesha on this chaturthi day is named as Ganesh Chaturthi. There is a curiously interesting tale about the birth of Ganesha. It is believed that once while Parvati was bathing, she created a human figure from some unguent and balm, gave him life and asked him to guard the door while she bathed. After a long period of meditation on Mountain Kailash (Lord Shiva’s abode), Shiva chose that very moment to drop by to see his better half, but was abruptly stopped by the man-god Parvati had posted at the door. Outraged by the cheek of this stranger, Shiva cut off his head only to discover moments later that he had killed Parvati’s son! For fear of enraging his wife, Shiva immediately dispatched his ganas (attendants) to get him the head of the first living creature they could find. Well, the first living creature happened to be an elephant. As instructed, the head was chopped off and brought back to Shiva, who placed it on Parvati’s son’s body, bringing him back to life. This elephant-headed god was welcomed into the first family of the Hindu heavens and named Ganesha or Ganapati, which literally means the chief of the ganas, or the attendants of Shiva. Ganesha is the foremost god of the Hindu pantheon. This brave guardian of the door to Parvati’s bath is beheld today as the most auspicious God of new beginnings. He is worshipped during every festival and before people undertake a journey or embark upon a new venture. You will also see him carefully guarding entrances to temples and homes, peeping out of calendars and happily gracing marriages and other such occasions. It is not known when and how Ganesh Chaturthi was first celebrated. But according to the historian Shri Rajwade, the earliest Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations can be traced back to the times of the reigns of dynasties as Satavahana, Rashtrakuta and Chalukya. Historical records reveal that Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations were initiated in Maharashtra by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaja, the great Maratha ruler, to promote culture and nationalism. And it had continued ever since. There are also references in history to similar celebrations during Peshwa times. It is believed that Lord Ganapati was the family deity of the Peshwas. After the end of Peshwa rule, Ganesh Chaturthi remained a family affair in Maharashtra from the period of 1818 to 1892. 1857 was a landmark year for India and moreso in the context of Indian freedom. It was the year of Sepoy Mutiny, an armed rebellion against the ruling British Empire by the Indian soldiers. This was the first war that India waged to gain back her independence from her white rulers. Though unsuccesful, this battle marked the beginning of the Indian struggle for independence. Many orators, leaders and freedom fighters all over India teamed to put up a united resistance to the British domination. One of these eminent leaders was Bal Gangadhar Tilak, an Indian nationalist, social reformer and freedom fighter. Greatly esteemed by the Indian people, especially of Maharashtra, Tilak was commonly referred to as "Lokmanya" or "he who is regarded by the people". It was Tilak, who brought back the tradition of Ganesh Chaturthi and reshaped the annual Ganesh festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. Lokamanya saw how Lord Ganesha was worshipped by the upper stratum as well as the rank and file of India. The visionary that he was, Tilak realized the cultural importance of this deity and popularised Ganesha Chaturthi as a National Festival "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. He knew that India couldn't fight her rulers until she solved the differences within her own. Hence, to unite all social classes Tilak chose Ganesha as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule because of his wide appeal as "the god for Everyman". It was around 1893, during the nascent stages of Indian nationalism, that Tilak began to organize the Ganesh Utsav as a social and religious function. He was the first to put in large public images of Ganesha in pavilions and establish the tradition of their immersion on the tenth day. The festival facilitated community participation and involvement in the form of learned discourses, dance dramas, poetry recital, musical concerts, debates, etc. It served as a meeting place for common people of all castes and communities, at a time when all social and political gatherings were forbidden by the British Empire for fear of conspiracies to be hatched against them. An important festival during the Peshwa era, Ganesha Chaturthi acquired at this time a more organized form all over India largely due to Lokmanya's efforts. Since then, Ganesh Chaturthi has been celebrated throughout Maharashtra as also in other states with great community enthusiasm and participation. With the independence of India in 1947, it was proclaimed to be a national festival. Today, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated in the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and many other parts of India. The festival is so popular that the preparations begin months in advance. Days before the actual worship, homes are cleaned and marquees erected at street corners to house the idols of the Lord. Elaborate arrangements are made for lighting, decoration, mirrors and flowers. The artisans who make the idols of Ganesh vie with each other to make bigger and better sculptures. The sizes of the relatively larger ones range anywhere from 10 meters to 30 meters in height. These are installed in marquees and in homes prior to the Puja (worship). During the festival days, the Lord is worshipped with great devotion and prayer services are performed daily. The duration of the Lord's stay varies from place to place; once the worship is complete, the statues are carried on decorated floats to be immersed in the sea after one, three, five, seven and ten days. Thousands of processions converge on the beaches to immerse the holy idols in the sea. This procession and immersion is accompanied with dancing and the sound of exciting drum-beats, devotional songs and exploding firecrackers. As the idol is immersed amidst loud chants of "Ganesh Maharaj Ki Jai!" (Hail Lord Ganesh), the festival comes to an end with pleas to the Lord to return the next year with chants of "Ganpati bappa morya, pudcha varshi laukar ya" (Hail Lord Ganesh, return again soon next year). Tourists from all over the world come to witness this wonderful event in the sun kissed beaches of Goa and Mumbai. While celebrated all over India, Ganesh Chaturthi festivities are most elaborate in states like Maharashtra, Goa (It is the biggest festival for Konkani people all over the world), Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and other areas which were former states of the Maratha Empire. Outside India, it is celebrated in Nepal by the Newars. In the 21st century, with the world turning fast into a global village, Ganesh Chaturthi is now celebrated all over the world, wherever there is a presence of a Hindu community.

History of onam

Onam is a Festival Celebrating in Kerala a state in India. In India the states are mainly divided according to Languages and culture. KERALA belong to a southern state where the Language is Malayalam. Kerala there is 13 districts and 3 main religions (Hindus, Christians, Muslims). The kerala districts has lot of variations in their culture as for northern side theyam and related festivals are important and sorthern part Pooram temple festival is more celebrated.Since in India the states are divided according to Languages in the Kerala the main Language is Malayalam. So the keralites are normally known as Malayalees and as in modern eworld as Mallu. In India we can see lots of states names are evolved from their language like Tamilnadu (the place of Tamil) from the language Tamil, Karnataka (Kannada Language), Gujarath (Gujarathi Language) etc etc. But the Kerala name has been evolved from keram the Malayalam word for coconut. As the name suggests the dominant agricultural activity is growing coconut tree. Now there are lot of other agricultural activity also like Rubber tree, vanilla, tea, coffee etc. But wherever you go you will be able to see Coconut tress (thengu in Malayalam). Kerala is Very beautiful place and it has got a good position on Indian tourism Map. Kerala Backwaters and houseboats are very attraction for the visitors.

Onam the Religious story:

Onam History Manly related to Hindu Religion, But now the Festival has become State Festival and all religions celebrate it. Malayalees believe that once upon a time the king Mahabali was ruled Kerala. Mahabali was the grand son of Prahaladha who was one of the greatest devotee of lord Vishnu. His Fathe hiranyakshipe was against God and He claimed he is ultimated god and every body should worship him. Prahaladha the only son of the king Hiranyashibu defied his father and told him that lord Vishnu stays in even in pillars and rust. An angry hiranyakashibu cut the pillar saying let me see your Vishnu inside the pillar. And Vishnu emerged from pillar as in the form of Narashimham (half Man-half lion form). Vishun is taken Narashimham form as Hiranyakashibu got a blessing early from Lord Shiva that no man or no animal will be able to kill him.

Mahabali was grown on the laps of his grandfather prahaladha and became very religious and devotee to Lord Vishnu. Subsequently he has become the ruler of their kingdom which keralites believe is Kerala. When Mahabali ruled over Kerala it was said as the Golden time in Kerala history. No body ever starved and there was no beggar in the streets. There was no fake measurements or no body used to lye. As the Mahabali name Spread his power as king as well as his spiritual power as good person started growing up. By this Lord Indra who is the king of Heaven got afraid and He thought His Position as King of heaven will Loose to mahabali who looks more eligible for that position. So he consulted the sage naradha and prayed to Lord Vishnu to save his position.

Vishnu takes Vamana avatar

As Vishnu was very pleased with his devotee Mahabali, and he knows that Mahabalies earthy days are over, he accepted Indras request. He promised Indra that he will do the needful. As Lord Vishnu want to bless Mahabali as well as end his earthy days as it is almost completed. He also knows that Mahabali got selfpride of himself since he believe his the best king in the world and he is always having blessings of Lord Vishnu. If he dies in this state his self-pride will stop him to attain the eternal position after his death. So he is taken the form of small brahmin boy (called vamana avatar) and visits Mahabali. Mahabali as usual too proud of himself asks the boy what you want. The boy replied him Oh King I just needed 3 feet of land to sit and pray. Mahabali offered him more land but boy stayed with his request of 3 feet land. And Mahabali granted him and asked him to measure the three feet of land himself.

Once Mahabali agreed for his request Vamana(Lord Vishnu) grown himself to the Universal form. And with One foot he measured all earth, and with second foot he measured Heaven, and sky. Then he tolled to the Mahabali there is no land left to keep his third foot. Mahabali who recognized that vamana is none other than Lord Vishnu and he was so much ashamed of himself about his self-pride as he can not full fill one boys request for3 feet of land. He understood that lord Vishnu has emerged himself to kill his self-pride and to purify him. So he humbly asked the Lord to keep his 3rd foot on his head. Pleased with his obedience Lord Vishnu granted him the rule of Pathalam (The world under earth) and Promised him the King of heaven after the Indras Period. He also granted him a day in a year where he can return to Kerala to visit his people which is onam. And he pressed Mahabali to pathalam (world under earth). Even thought Kerala has become poor afterwards the Malayalees will some how celebrate Onam with flowers, and with lot of food on Onam so that their beloved king will think that Kerala is still prosperous like the days he ruled the country. Now a days Onam is celebrated along with leopard dance all over kerala where people will dress up like leopard and dance in front of a leopard hunder who dressed up as leopard hunder with gun and Boat races all over kerala.

Morality:

Lot of question we ask is why Lord Vishnu send Mahabali to Pathalam (The world below earth) even though he is good.

1. Every person has a limited number of earthy days and Mahabali finished it. So instead of Dying He got a chance to rule another world.
2. He has got chance to keep his head under Lord Vishnu's holy feet and thus he purified to utmost level a man can be achieved. His all sins which might have acted as obstacle in his way to eternity has been cleared. We must read this along with how the cross has been used to kill thousand of people is purified just because they crucified the Jesus (Son of God) on cross.
3. Because of this incident He has got the position King of heaven (after Indras Period) which indra was trying to deny him.
4. He may be the only person in any history where god has begged something from (3 feet of Land). We all beg and pray to god for blessing and Prosperity. He is still remembered by his People even after thousand of years where as other kings has Been Forgotten

Onam Celebrations:

Malayalees Celebrate Onam by putting pookalam (Arts by flowers) in front of Their house. It will start 10 days before the Onam and Onam falls on 10th day of Pookalam. On onam (called as thiruonam ) day Pookkalam will be the biggest one. Onam days Normally will Traditional vegetarian Dishes with Rice, sambar, avial, upperi, Pappadam and Payasam. Lot of special dishes like Varuthepperi, Pickle etc will be there. Non Kerala Malayalees celebrate on Onam in their house. Malayalee association in non Kerala celebrate Onam on nearest Sunday, Saturday or holidays of the country they live. In Kerala Onam is Celebrated By Boat race and other activity

krishna jayanthi

Lord Krishna was born in a prison as his parents were imprisoned by King Kamsa, who came to know that his mother's 8th son (Krishna) will kill him. Lot of miracle incidents happened on the birthday of Lord Krishna to underline his divine power. People celebrate this day as Janmashtami in every year.

As per the Hindu religion, Lord Vishnu came to the earth nine times in different forms, to save the good people from the evil. Moreover, they expect 10th form, which will be the final one. Hindus calls these forms as Dashavatharam (Ten avatars). Lord Krishna was the ninth avatar. Lord Krishna was born on the midnight of the eight day after the full moon of Sravana month. The star of the day was Rohini. Therefore, it is known as Ashtami Rohini. Meaning of ashtami is 8th day after the full moon. This day is also known as Janmashtami, ashtami day of the birth.

The birth of Lord Krishna:

Lord Krishna was born in a prison cell as his maternal uncle imprisoned his father and mother, who came to know that his sister's sun would kill him. He imprisoned his sister and husband so that he can kill the each child immediately after the birth. However, the incidents happened in the birthday of Lord Krishna is underlining the fact that nobody can stop or change the plans of ultimate God. On the particular day, just before the birth of Lord Krishna all guards and soldiers of the prison, was fallen in deep sleep. Heavy rain and thunderstorm were going on outside, so that nobody will dare to come out side of their house. After the birth, Krishna's father Vasudevar got divine instruction to take the child to the house of Nandagopar in Gokulam (a place) and exchange with an infant girl born to the Nandagopar's wife at the same time. Immediately the chain used to tie Vasudever was broken and all the doors of prison, which was locked with heavy locks, opened in front of Vasudevar in a miracle. When he came outside with the Lord Krishna in his hands, the huge snake with five heads (known as Ananthan in Hindu mythology) appeared with its hood flattened like an umbrella, so that that the rain will not affect Vasudevar and the kid. The snake followed them to protect the kid from rain by his hood up to the Gokulam where he exchanged his kid with the girl child who was born to Yesodha, the wife of Nandhgopar. Everybody in that house also was in deep sleep so that nobody came to know about this exchange. Once Vasudevar came back to the prison with the girl child the doors of the prison was closed back, the chains used to arrest him was rejoined and the soldiers got awake. When they seen this kid, they immediately informed to King Kamsa. He came to kill the child and astonished to see a girl child. While he was trying to kill that child by hitting the head of the kid on the stone, the kid slipped from his hand and told him "Hey Kamsa I am not the kid who is supposed to kill you. The kid who is supposed to kill you is already in safe place. But remember the sin which you acquired by trying to kill an innocent girl infant immediately after the birth will always follow you and will lead to your death". And the child was vanished after that. People think, it was the Goddess who came to earth for saving Krishna from the hands of Kamsa.

Janmashtami Celebration:

People started celebrating this day as Krishna jayanthi to mark the divine incidents and miracles happened on that day. This day is called Janmashtami as it is the eighth day after the full moon of sravana month (Janma Means birthday, astami means eighth day). It is also called Asthami Rohini (Rohin star on the eigthday after the full moon).Every Krishna temple will have special prayers seeking the blessing of Lord Krishna. Other temple also will conduct special worships for Krishna. Hindu organizations in all over the world will conduct shobha yatra where the male kids will dress up as little Krishna and small female kids will be dressing likeGopikas (Female childhood friends of Lord Krishna).

In the near future, a newly developed piece of software for smartphones will allow users visiting ancient buildings to see what they looked like in their former glory, by just pointing the onboard camera at the structure. The software will automatically recognize the construction, and will display a picture showing the reconstructed version, or how it may have looked at the peak of its glory. Other useful information about it could also be displayed, the creators of the program say.

Behind this virtual-reality initiative is a vast consortium of European Union (EU) nations and technology companies, LiveScience reports. They argue that the “virtual time machine” they are currently perfecting could soon become the piece of software of choice for tourists around the globe, visiting some of the world's most famous ancient structures. Because the application will access a central database, new objects could be constantly added to the existing ones. Over time, this database could become the largest depository of ancient knowledge in the world, accessible via smartphones from any place that has mobile coverage.

The new technology has been named “Intelligent Tourism and Cultural Information through Ubiquitous Services” (iTacitus), taking after the name of the famed senator and historian of the Roman Empire, Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, who lived in the first and second centuries AD. The companies behind the new system say that it could bring a new dimension to museums, palaces, castles, and tourist attractions around the world, by implementing a new source of information, larger than the specific knowledge of any tourist guide.

Tourists “can look at a historic site and, by taking a photo or viewing it through the camera on the mobile device, be able to access much more information about it. They are even able to visualize, in real time, how it looked at different stages in history,” UK-based BMT engineering group scientist Luke Speller, who is part of the team that develops iTacitus, says. The new system's main tools are GPS receivers and image-recognition software, which work together to establish the location of the edifice being studied, and also to analyze specific elements in the ruins or artifacts.

Most Popular Open Source Non-Linux Based Operating Systems

Whenever you mention the phrase Open Source, most people think of Linux. Such is it’s popularity that even people not familiar with open source software have still heard of this mystical, geeky “software” called Linux. And all though my hats are off for the level of popularity that a college project has achieved, I think there is far more to Open Source than Linux, or as a certain Mr.RMS would like to remind us, GNU Linux.

Without further ado, let us familiarize ourselves with some of the more popular open-source non-Linux Distributions or Operation Systems :

OpenSolaris : OpenSolaris is Sun’s attempt at opening it’s traditionally closed but highly successful Solaris OS ( Sun Solaris is covered in Part 2 of this post on closed source POSIX Operating Systems). It is licensed under Sun’s CDDL. It is available as a LiveCD , a USB Distro as well as installable DVD variant for the Sparc as well as x86 family of processors. Built on the GNOME desktop environment, it also comes with other cool open source software from Sun’s foundries like the venerable ZFS file system for Data Centres.

FreeBSD : FreeBSD , like many other flavours of BSD is a fork of University of California, Berkley’s Unix operating system. It has ports on a number of popular platforms like Ultra Sparc, PowerPC, ARM, etc. FreeBSD is touted as been the “unknown giant among operating systems”, since it is used as a production OS by a surprisingly large number of companies including Apple, Yahoo, Cisco, Juniper and NetApp. It is also a favourite among embedded system developers for it’s security, robustness & compatibility features and is used in some residential gateways, set-top-boxes , etc. FreeBSD’s adorable mascot Beastie is one of the most popular logos in the open source world.

Popular Open Source Non-Linux Based Operating Systems

PCBSD : PC BSD is actually derived from FreeBSD. However, PC-BSD was designed for the layman. It comes with a KDE desktop environment complete with the 3D desktop effects and acceleration. Apart from all the features of FreeBSD like stability, virus-free environment, etc., PC-BSD has an astonishingly large number of applications ported or written exclusively for it.

NetBSD : NetBSD, some say runs on everything except a toaster. And then someone went and made it run on one. It is the most widely ported OS in the world. It is another fork of the venerable Berkely Unix, BSD. Again, a favourite among embedded systems developer for reasons mentioned above, it embraces the BSD license making it a financially more viable OS to to adopt.

OpenBSD : Rumor has it that Theo de Raadt, the venerable NetBSD developer forked this Distribution from NetBSD because of personality clashes. However, some like to believe that the reason was more technical since Theod de Raadt wanted to focus on security, open source nature, documentation, code quality, etc. As a result OpenBSD is called the most secured OS in the world, since it implements certain security features which others tend to ignore. In fact, OpenBSD’s logo is a Blowfish, the name of the popular security cipher.

Apart from the ones mentioned above there are more BSDs like DesktopBSD, DragonFlyBSD and a few other commercial, propreitary BSDs, but I think we have covered enough for one post.

GNU/Hurd : Hurd was actually the kernel being developed for the GNU operating system before Linux. It “sits” on top of the “Mach” micro-kernel which is used by Apple’s MAC OS X. Since GNU embraced the monolithic Linux kernel, the Hurd project has been sidelined and although it would interesting for a geek to study it, no known high profile commercial deployments are known… or advised.

React OS : ReactOS is NOT a POSIX operating system, but it is such an interesting project, that an exception was in order. ReactOS is based on the Windows design and aims at being completely compatible with WinXP, Win2003, i.e, all the applications and drivers developed for the Windows family would run without ANY changes on ReactOS. The ReactOS kernel, like the rest of the OS , is written from scratch and is COMPLETELY FREE. This feat has been possible only by painstakingly reverse engineering the Windows architecture. I think a few screenshots would say much more than words what this team has been successful in achieving.

This is a Linux world, and it is not advisable for any startup to embrace any of the above OSes. However, it must be remembered that some of the biggest names in the IT industry use some of the above OSes as highly robust and secure servers

The move from desktop to cloud computing makes visualization affordable.

When you log into Autodesk’s Project Showroom, you see a 3D scene, a fully rendered kitchen or bathroom. You see light bouncing off the marble counter’s smooth surface. You see the sheen of the polished wood-cabinet doors. It’s the kind of photo­realistic rendering that would require an hour or more to produce, even with a professional workstation or a supercharged desktop. So you might be surprised to find that when you randomly choose a different tile for the floor or a new refrigerator from the material panel, the scene updates in about five seconds with the new object, complete with raytracing effects.

That’s because the CPU inside your local machine is not shouldering the bulk of the computing burden necessary to bring the scene to life. You are, in essence, tapping into the horsepower of a server farm elsewhere, hosted by Autodesk and its partners. As a result, you get to view a custom 3D scene without processing the complex algorithms that define your scene.

This mode of computing is sometimes called cloud computing, a poetic description of the way your local machine and the more powerful machines communicate with each other over an ethereal network to exchange highly compressed data. With this method, you can perform sophisticated computing tasks—analyze DNA sequences, run particle physics simulations, and generate broadcast-quality movies, to name but a few—far beyond the capacity of your own computer’s chipset.


Project Showroom, an Autodesk technology currently in development, lets you create high-quality rendering, with little or no wait time, through a browser. Delivered in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, the technology could conceivable be deployed to help interior designers, material suppliers, and clients hold discussions online

The method also offers economic benefits. Instead of purchasing a costly high-performance system, you call up the resources over a network when you need them, paying only for the times you use them. On the other end, someone—usually a company that has invested in considerable infrastructure and storage capacity—delivers the computing horsepower you need on demand. Hence the term Software as a Service (SaaS).

Cloud computing is nothing but an evolution of the old client/server paradigm, a transformation prompted by the ubiquitous presence of the Internet and the availability of high-bandwidth connections. Many of us are already using cloud computing, though we may not call it so. If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, if you’ve ever wandered inside the rolling terrain of Google Earth or World of Warcraft, you’re already halfway in the cloud.

For some digital content creators and industrial designers, the cloud is a promising playground. Within the cloud’s infinite confine, they can be much more creative and productive than they would be on their own local machines. For some engineers and project managers, the cloud is a viable substitute for on-premise IT systems and databases. In this grim economy, where cutting operating costs is a common means of survival, the cloud’s affordability makes it almost irresistible.

Rendering as a Service

In February 2007, surrounded by playful, imaginative, kid-friendly gadgets inside the Zeum Theater at Yerba Buena Gardens (San Francisco), Autodesk’s CEO Carl Bass pronounced a new motto: “Experience it before it’s real.” Under his stewardship, Autodesk began pursuing technological advancements that would let its customers see, feel, and understand their design projects—from sustainable residential structures in New Orleans to hybrid vehicles—before the first brick was laid or the first sheet metal was cut. In other words, the digital model created in Autodesk design software becomes a replica of the physical object that will be built.

In July 2007, Scott Sheppard, a software engineer and Autodesk blogger (“It’s Alive in the Lab”), introduced an application called Project Showroom. He gave the public a glimpse of an Autodesk technology that would let interior designers and their clients collaborate over the Web. Through a standard browser window, the designer could propose ideas about the configuration of the kitchen or the bathroom, using a fully rendered 3D scene to show what the furnished environment would be like.


AfterCAD uses cloud computing for its AfterCAD online viewing and markup tool. Additional 3D support is powered by Ogre, an open-source 3D game engine.

The drag-and-drop interface lets you grab a 3D object from the side panel populated with household items readily available in the market: a Jenn-Air refrigerator with cabinet-depth French doors, a single-handle Delta faucet, and DuPont countertops are just a few of the content items in the catalog.

Equipped with the 3D geometry of the room and the furniture, anyone could have produced a realistic rendering of what the layout would look like. So what’s so special about Showroom? The answer is, in one word, speed. Because of its use of cloud computing, Project Showroom could deliver the visual output faster than a standard PC could, allowing you to reconfigure the room at will.

Explaining the appeal of SaaS—the delivery model for Project Showroom—Auto­desk developer Frederic Loranger wrote, “With tens of thousands of servers available in server farms (for example, Amazon EC2), the idea of infinite computing power opens the doors to a wide range of complex mathematical problems and real-time finite-element analysis. Regardless of today’s personal computer advances, they pale in comparison to what can be accomplished by a legion of servers ‘rented’ for just a few seconds.”

In the case of Showroom, the rented serves let you see, in a matter of seconds, what the room looks like with stainless steel doors and a marble floor instead of oiled bronze doors and ivory tiles, for instance. Currently, Project Showroom offers three prototype environments: two kitchens and a bathroom. But nothing prevents a home decorator from capturing the 3D geometry of another environment—say, a living room or a bedroom, complete with bedding, curtains, and window blinds—and making it configurable via Project Showroom technology.

Just as most manufacturers would generate a bill of materials (BOM) for production, sourcing, and cost estimation, Project Showroom lets you generate the room’s content as a list, complete with thumbnails of each cabinet and floor tiles. Currently, the viewport window remains static (you cannot move your cursor around to zoom, pan, or shift perspective), but with increased back-end support, the room could easily be presented as a dynamic panorama. Project Showroom now lives on Autodesk Labs (labs.autodesk.com), where the company previews its works in progress. You can test-drive it for free. The latest update to the application lets you share your room by e-mailing a link or posting the rendered view to your Facebook profile.

Floor Plans on the Fly

In March 2008, Joshua Hall, a product designer and software engineer, filed a report titled “Autodesk: Code-named Project Dragonfly” on his blog “Surreal Notions.” Hall wrote, “For the last few months I have worked with an extremely talented team. We have explored numerous potential product concepts and several innovative UI models to make those products both competitive and unique.… Our product designs focus on leveraging existing Autodesk technologies across the emerging Software as a Service (SaaS) distribution channel.… Once a beta of the product is released, I’ll speak about it in more depth.”

The beta version of Project Dragonfly is now live on Autodesk Labs, the same site where you’ll find Project Showroom. Like Project Showroom, Project Dragonfly lets you use a browser to configure a room. Whereas Project Showroom allows you to experiment with applying different materials in a predefined environment (the 3D geometry of the room is fixed), Project Dragonfly lets you start from an empty floor plan, a template, or a furnished space from the gallery. The drag-and-drop interface lets you instantly resize the floor plan, with parametric values visible so you can adjust it to your preferred dimensions.

Should you choose to expand your room, you can attach add-on shapes to the area to increase its size. Similarly, you can add walls or wall openings to create partitions or open up space within your plan. When you’re placing appliances and furniture in a virtual room (say, a plasma TV in the bedroom), the intelligent alignment system automatically suggests various possible positions and orientations (parallel to the wall, for instance). You can also rotate the item at will, but if your rotation makes the items collide with nearby objects (adjacent walls or tables), you’ll get a visual prompt urging you to seek alternatives.

So why call it Project Dragonfly? Amanda Collins, Autodesk Labs’ marketing manager, had a theory: “Dragonflies often symbolize change. In Japanese art, they often represent light and joy.” But Autodesk’s Brian Souder, one of the original program managers behind the product, had a more scientific answer, explained in a colleague’s blog: “The original development team simply liked the engineering behind the insect.”

Project Dragonfly now has a homepage on Facebook, too, allowing you to join the community and get feedback on your floor plans. If it ever becomes a product, Dragonfly has commercial potential as a solution for facilities managers, decorators, and architects to propose layouts, complete with appliances, electronics, and furniture based on what’s currently available from retail and wholesale outlets.

CAD Viewing as a Service

Frequently, industrial designers and engineers working in costly CAD programs faced a quandary. They felt the need to share their work with colleagues in purchasing or marketing, but couldn’t deliver the data-rich 2D and 3D files in a way that was viewable by those without a CAD system. Because buying additional licenses of professional software just to let the extended team members view, inspect, and annotate the CAD files isn’t a reasonable proposition, businesses turned to CAD viewers, simple desktop applications that let you see the CAD files but prevent you from editing the geometry. Informative Graphics, a viewing technology supplier, made a name for itself with its product Brava for just that purpose.

Recently, AfterCAD, which entered the viewer market with its AJAX-based AfterCAD Insight, made a decision to float its viewing and markup tool in the cloud. Renaming its offering as AfterCAD Online, the company began delivering its software via the Web to subscribers for as little as $39.95 a month. The vendor also spiced up its viewer by adding 3D support, powered by the open-source game engine Ogre.

To prove what their software can do, most software suppliers would provide a trial version, to be downloaded and installed on the user’s local machine. With SaaS supplier AfterCAD Online, the solution is much simpler. The company uploads a series of 2D and 3D files to its server, and then lets potential subscribers view the files within its browser-based viewer. With the same viewer that you would use as a subscriber, you can view, pan, zoom, rotate, take measurements of different 2D/3D blocks, and even place one or two annotations.


HP's Remote Graphics Software lets off-site users connect to a workstation via a standard network, making it possible to use a regular computer to do workstation-level computing.

“We created our own online file system and added the visualization and markup applications to that environment,” says Chris Boothroyd, AfterCAD Online’s CEO. “This is like Microsoft SharePoint for CAD, whereby companies can have their own branded, shared spaces to work with clients in a 100 percent browser-based environment.”

According to Boothroyd, AfterCAD uses its own patent-pending technologies, several dual-core Dell blade servers (for file storage, user accounts, work spaces, and other uses), and two blade servers that take DWG and PDF files and render them into AfterCAD’s Webdoc format. In addition, the company has invested in a pair of 3D rendering blade servers, each with four off-the-shelf Nvidia graphics cards. This setup is reinforced by a load balancer from Barracuda Networks and several redundant blade servers for backup, staging new features, and fail-over.

“We have a multi-tenant SaaS solution (multiple users sharing the same computing architecture) to support up to a petabyte (more than 1000tb) of files, which we figure will max out [at] around 3000 to 5000 simultaneous clients,” says Boothroyd. “We offer a managed services option for clients (SaaS Platinum)—the ability to have us purchase, configure, and host their own branded multi-tenant solution for their engineers and clients. For a license fee, they can unbolt that setup and mount it in the rack behind their own firewall as an enterprise installation.”

Boothroyd reveals that AfterCAD is now an Adobe Solutions Partner and that the company is working closely with the graphics giant to integrate AfterCAD Online with Acrobat 9 and Adobe LiveCycle ES. “In May, we’ll be introducing our new 3D view and markup technology to the public SaaS product lineup, where people can upload, share, view, and mark up 3D files created in SketchUp and 3D PDF,” says Boothroyd.

These new functions are targeted at the mechanical CAD and architectural CAD users in pursuit of LEED certification. Support for Google’s SketchUp is a timely enhancement for the architectural crowd because Google’s intuitive 3D modeler has become the architects’ preferred tool for early concept exploration.

On-demand Graphics

Computing in the ethereal dimension has caught the attention of not just software developers, but also hardware developers, including Hewlett-Packard. The computer maker has incorporated remote visualization, a form of cloud computing, as a value-added feature to its workstation line. Known as Remote Graphics Software (RGS), HP’s utility lets you access the computing and visualization horsepower of your workstation over a standard network. Simply put, RGS lets you remotely tap into the processing power of an HP workstation from another machine to perform computing-intensive tasks, such as rendering. With this method, you can load large geographical datasets and 3D files, edit them, animate them, and interactively visualize the output in real time from an inexpensive laptop, as if you were operating a professional workstation equipped with a dual-core processor and a high-end graphics card.

Bill Case, senior associate and manager of technical support for the mechanical/electrical-engineering consultant Peter Basso Associates, was among those who discovered RGS’s benefits. “Many times in the past, designers would have to be off-site, traveling, or working at home,” Case explains. “They need to be able to get into [their work environment], but because their setups and configurations are so complicated, we can’t run them over a standard VPN. We never had a solution for that—until HP’s RGS came along.”

Contrary to the flimsiness suggested by the metaphor, cloud computing might offer some users solid security protocols. Because RGS lets employees of Peter Basso Associates remotely communicate with their workstations by transmitting mouse- clicks, computing commands, and screen images only, the source data—the CAD files—doesn’t leave the workstation located in the office. “There’s a lot of proprietary content we’ve developed over the years that I don’t want floating in a laptop somewhere,” Case notes.

Justifying SaaS

With Project Showroom and Dragonfly, Autodesk is making considerable strides toward the cloud-computing paradigm. But don’t expect the company to become a full-service SaaS solutions provider like Salesforce.com, for instance. Brian Mathews, director of Autodesk Labs, remarks, “We’re a software company, not an infrastructure company. We’re not going to be running data centers.”

Project Showroom and Dragonfly are both proof of concepts. If either becomes a commercial product, the company will rely on SaaS infrastructure suppliers and technology partners like Citrix, Sun, and IBM to provide many of the data warehousing and connectivity components. Because the same SaaS infrastructure is often shared by many companies, Autodesk and other SaaS merchants should be able to provide the service—be it an online floor-plan application or rendering program—for a much lower cost than they would if they were selling individual software licenses and seats.

“The beautiful thing about cloud [computing] is that it’s multi-platform,” says Mathews. “Historically, our code has been very Windows-centric. But cloud and SaaS allow you to keep the computing platform and the display platform separate. Dragonfly and Showroom run on Adobe Flash, so the client (the end user or the consumer) can be on Windows or a Mac—the application will run on anything that runs Flash.”

At the moment, the cloud is like the prairies of the Wild West: open fields of opportunities. But early settlers have an advantage over latecomers because a good track record gives subscribers confidence. If the software resides on your desktop machine, you have access to it 24/7. When the software lives in the cloud, you need the service provider and its network to remain up and running 24/7. Ultimately, the reliability of the supplier may be the most tangible asset in the cloud.