Abhijat Saraswat

Postcard from Bali [Video]

Abhijat — Wed, 11 May 2011 11:33:02 +0000

I came across this, it is one of the most beautifully produced and edited videos I’ve ever seen. If you’re ever thought about visiting Bali, this will tip the scales!

Be sure to watch in HD with the sound right up.

Image by kot.stephan

The Aurora [Video]

Abhijat — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:46:12 +0000

Auroras are a magnificent beautiful display in the sky caused when charged particles collied with the Earth magnetic field. This is one of things that is been on my to-see list for as long as I can remember.

Until I go there, I can be envious of this gorgeous display. As an aside this video was shot in temperatures around -25 Celsius.

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

A beautiful snapshot of Thailand [Video]

Abhijat — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:59:32 +0000

Thailand, a place I long to go… I came across this video recently and it captures everything about Thailand – the beautiful colours, people and everything in the video is just perfect. Switch on HD and enjoy it in all it’s glory.

Phuket Breathing // Thailand from artisland on Vimeo.

Discovered through Vagabondish.

In memory of Knut

Abhijat — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:40:20 +0000

Knut, the lovable polar bear, born in capitvity and then subsequently being rejected by his mother died suddenly this past weekend at the age of four. Though contriversal at first, he was hand raised by the zookeers at Berlin Zoo, and soon gained international attention and love. Though I didn’t have a chance to see the bear in person, I have somewhat followed his development and was sad to hear that he suddenly passed away at the tender age of four (in captivity polar bears can live past 20 years).

Here are a collection of images in memory. (Click on the link to go to the original image; all images credited via link).

Visualizing Global Android Activations

Abhijat — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:03:08 +0000

This has been trolling the internet for the last couple of days and for good reasons. It’s a infographic posted on the androiddevelopers youtube channel, visualising global android activations from October 2008 – January 2011. It’s very cool, and certainly shines a light on the enormous growth of the excellent android OS. Check out the video after the jump.

For best viewing play in full HD and note the countdown to popular handset launches in the top left hand corner.

Dr Pepper Japanese Stylee

Abhijat — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:44:57 +0000

Just a quick one, I can across this on the Dallas Observer. It’s the Japanese design of a Dr Pepper can, if ture then, Japanese culture just got even cooler.

Via The Dallas Observer Blog.

Google Goggles solves Sudoku

Abhijat — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:11:05 +0000

Google has released an update to it’s version of Goggles that can now solve Sudoku. Check out the video after the jump.

I’ve tried this with my Nexus one and it works like a charm. Have a go for yourself.

How to make a decent up of tea

Abhijat — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 02:35:43 +0000

Photo credit: Shandi-Lee

I started the new year drinking a well brewed cup of tea, sure it may have had a tad more milk then I would’ve liked, and a little bit too much sweetener, but it was well brewed.

The advantages of drinking tea have been known of years, and have been documented for equally as long

However, despite all of this it can still be difficult to find a decent cup of tea. Which is why I was glad to see Slate.com informing the public at large on How to make a decent cup of tea.

And following a link shared in the comments led me to hacker’s guide to tea, which includes a very useful table containing water temperature and steeping times for various teas.

Check out the info and make yourself a decent cup of tea next time.

100 Pixar characters drawn to scale

Abhijat — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:30:04 +0000

It’s no doubt I’m a big fan of infographics, and I equally love Pixar. I was happy to come across designer Juan Pablo Bravo’s beautiful 7676 x 630 pixel infographic of 100 Pixar characters drawn to scale.

Check it out after the jump.

You can check out the full size graphic here.

[Juan Pablo Bravo via Gizmodo]

6 free ways to discover and learn something new today

Abhijat — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:03:00 +0000

Gone are the times when you have to drag yourself to a library to learn something, with the internet and this list at your fingertips, you will be able to gain access to lectures from some of the world’s best colleges, hear some inspirational talks and discover wonderful and useful information.

Photo by woodleywonderworks

1. Academic Earth

Academic Earth, founded by Richard Ludlow, aggregates lectures from some of America’s top universities – including Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Stanford – in to one easy to navigate place.

The subjects range from architecture, to computer science, to Law, to Philosophy. There is also a lively community behind the site, so each lecture is graded and many can be downloaded as well. Sometimes you can even access the contents of entire courses.

2. TED – Ideas worth spreading

TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is an absolutely brilliant service. It contains a plethora of talks from innovators, comedians, designers, entertainers and many others from countless field.

The site is extremely easy to navigate, you can sort the talks using a range of categories and subject areas. All talks can be downloaded as either video or audio. Moreover, new talks are constantly being added and I personally guarantee that you will find a talk that will either inspire, entertain or teach you something.

3. LearnersTV

Learnerstv.com offers thousands of video lectures, notes, slides and other resources in a range of topics, though the majority are in science based subjects. I’ve found the natural science, computer science, medicine and management lectures to be particularly good and varied. At the time of writing this article there was a massive 9487 lectures on the site for your consumption!

4. MIT Open Courseware

This is a initiative by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has a whopping 1900 courses on offer with the same materials that they use to teach the undergraduate and some graduate courses.

Obviously a lot of the courses are science and engineering based, but there are plenty on offer in other areas as well (economics, gender studies, literature and more). Admittedly, it’s not as easy a site to navigate as some of the others, and video content must be viewed/downloaded either view iTunes or YouTube.

5. Lonely Planet

Of course, not everything has to be about engineering and literature; lonely planet has the must read guides people who wish to travel pretty much anyone in the world.

Offering practical tips from when and where to go, to history, work & study information to much more. Additionally there is a good range of beautiful pictures and videos.

6. MetaFilter

Probably the odd one out in this list, MetaFilter (or MeFi) provides a day-to-day commentary on news in subjects as wide ranging as politics, science, religion and technology.

The site (actually more accurately a blog) is wholly community based, and a very lively one at that. Of particular note is the askMeFi section, where you get answers to, view and answer useful questions.

Activity: Go and listen/read/watch to at least one lecture or talk. Let me know in the comments which one and how you found it.

Do you have any other resources that’s worth mentioning? Let me know in the comments.