Japanese KBC or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? [The TV Series]

This TV series was first aired in the United Kingdom, where it was hosted by Chris Tarrant.The first time it was aired was on Sept 4th 1998. So not so much old. The peculiar thing about this show is that, the emphasis is not on speed but its on the suspence the question create. Apart from that the concept of "Lifelines" and using real "cheques"is also unique.It was such a hit that after UK, many other countries like US, Australia, finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan and ofcourse our India and more countries also followed the same suit.

Yesterday i was seeing the Japan version of it.
Everybody has seen KBC, but just thought about how Japan plays that game and discovered this following video which is a episode with legendary sumo wrestler "Konishiki".The sets are almost same but because of his size, the show had a special seat made for him. Also note the Japanese Version of "Phone a friend" which is actually in this version have people related to contestant (Friends, Associates and Teacher) called "Study" to help the contestents. That was kind of intrestign to me. Also see how they use 50-50 and the use of "Final Answer" in the end. Also see how everybody prays when the contests is waiting for the host(Minorikawa Norio also known as Mino Monta) to answer. That also reveals the emotions of this part of the world. A word about the host. "Minorikawa Norio" also known as "Mino Monta" is the host of this series in Japan.On November 28, 2006, he set the Guinness World Record for the television host who had appeared live for the most time (21 hours, 42 minutes) during a week.Also note how they introduce theie celebrity guest and see how the answer is explained in the end.

The clip below is a cam recording of TV itself, hence the poor quality but I guess above description whould help us to understand the clip.


KBC, is really a "food for thought" kind of game and really our TV Technlogy is helping us to improve on this aspect of our lives in each county in its own unique way.
Do tell me what thoughts came to your minds when you were seeing it.

The Speeds of the trains !

Was just wondering about the high speed trains(Long distance)in the world. In the process discovered some amazing facts about the high speeds train in the world ranging in the speeds.

First of all I started with the search on our Indian trains.
Bhopal Shatabdi Express from Bhopal-New Delhi is the fastest train in India with the Commercial Speed (i.e., total distance covered divided by total time taken, including scheduled stoppages) of around 89.49 kms/h. The same train has recorded a top speed of 150kms/h recently. Mumbai Rajdhani is second highest in India with the commercial
speed of 86.76 kms/h.

Feel the speed of Bhopal Shatabdi Express crossing a station.


Get a glimpse of Mumbai Rajdhani passing by on the tracks.


Then moved towards the international scene and discovered as follows.
"MagLev" (MAGnetic LEVitation) of Japan is the fastest train under the sun which set the highest record speed of 581 Kms/h (Commercial Speed : 501 kms/h).

See this video to meet MAGLEV in person :


A normal Airbus A380 has a speed of aroung 900Kms/h.

Not all trains in Japan run with that speed. The average speed of long distance journey with Shinkansen (a.k.a Bullet Trains) is from 130 to 300 Km/h. Like for explample the distance between Tokyo and Osaka (like Mumbai to Delhi) is baout 550 km and with shinkansen it takes around 2.5 hours for the journey.

Who are the competitor to Japan`s Maglev then in the whole world. The Maglev is number one in the world using the unconventional track (magnetic-levitation), but in the uncocnvetional (non-magnetic) tracks its French TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) recorded a test speed of 574.8 Kms/h.

There are few more intresting trains in Italy(Direttissima: 254 kms/h), Germany(Transrapid 08 : 501 km/h), Taiwan (THSR: 335.50 kms/h) and South Korea (KTX : 300 kms/h).

So lot of latest technology is helping human being to reach to their destinations as fast as possible.

Man simply started with the invention of a wheel, then bullock/horse cart, bicyle (Speed : 15 km/h), then automated mopeds, then Cars, then Trains, then Planes, then Rockets and going towards making of time machine. May be soon in the near future the dream of human being "With the press of a button I am in India, With the press of button I am in Japan or anywhere else in the world " may come true. I don`t know that will we be able to witness that era. But whats wrong in hoping of such time since we have evidence of human progress in that direction.

World is getting hotter ! (Tokyo witnesses highest temperatures ever).

Its official summers here. Tokyo witnessed a highest temperature ever of 40.9 degree Celsius in the month of August. This is the highest in last 74 years. 40.8 C was recorded in the year 1933.Sicne the country is not used to such heat, at least 3 people died and more than 530 people were taken to hospital apparently due to the heat, according to public broadcaster NHK.Normally in the summers the temperature use to fluctuate between 32 to 38 C, but this year Sun has been very angry on this part of the world too.The humidity is also unbearable. Things should be better from next month. In Tokyo they have started planting more trees as a counter measure to improve the situation.

In India, the highest recorded temperature till date is 50.6 C at Alwar, on the fringes of the Thar Desert and lowest of -45 C in Dras Ladhak, says source wiki.
Its really astonishing to notice that during this rainy season of India, cities which were not humid are also experienceing tremendous humidity like the one we use to have in cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Vizak etc.

The global warming is showing its true colors.

Well How can we contribute in handling this problem on personal grounds ?
We can do as follows....
1. The car you drive: the most important personal climate decision.
2. Choose clean power
3. Unplug a freezer.
4. The ligh bulbs we use.
5. Plant a tree : You can make a difference in this world by planting tree in your backyard.

So till the time our bureaucrat become aggresively involved in solving the global warming problem, we can start our own small efforts in this hot world.

This goes for All Orkut (SNS) Lovers !

(SNS = Social Networking Service)

See this short and sweet Video describing how orkut is there on people`s minds and how it can be used without a computer !

[It`s a brazilian video :

What did they communicate ?:

He said: Drink with me tonight?
She said: I can't..
He said: Why not?
and then the boyfriend appears.
]
If you are interested in more information about SNS, "Orkut" - the famous social networking site was developed by a Turkish Software Engineer named Orkut Büyükkökten (Don`t ask me his sirname`s pronounciation :) ) while working in google.He developed Orkut as an independent project, the outgrowth of a company policy whereby all employees at Google can spend 20% of their time working on personal interests.While previously working for Affinity Engines, he had developed a similar system, InCircle, intended for use by university alumni groups.

At the end of July 2004 Orkut surpassed the 1,000,000 member mark, and at the end of September it surpassed the 2,000,000 mark. As of August 2007, the number of members was over 67,000,000.Yes thats big number.

The Japanese counterpart for orkut is "mixi".The word "mixi" is a combination of "mix" and "i", referring to the idea that the user, "i", "mixes" with other users through the service."Mixi Station", a client program that detects songs being played in iTunes and Windows Media Player and uploads them automatically to a communally accessible list in the "Music" section, was implemented late in June 2006. By July 2006, support for winamp was implemented via a winamp plugin, which was quickly made official by Mixi.Batara Kesuma was the only developer at the start of the social networking site.Started in February 2004, there are more than 10 million (1 crore) members and 1 million communities as of July 2007.

If you are an orkut member, then you can actually go to orkut and see his profile too
Orkut`s Orkut Profile

I know my profile is not so important like His Highness Mr. Orkut but just in case any of my friends/relatives read this blog, I am pasting my profile link too for them, but sure you need to be a member of orkut to get in touch with me.
Prem`s Orkut Profile

iPhone - Finally Unlocked

It`s almost 2 months from the release of iPhone and people around the world were trying to free the iPhone so that they can use it with any GSM Service provider they like.

Now, iPhone can be finally used by "ANY" GSM carrier service across the world !

So finally team from "iPhoneSIMfree.com" have freed the iPhone from the clutches of AT&T and have provided evidence of their claims by demonstrating that they can used with T-Mobile (The Second carrier in US). Engadget confirms this news.

Below is the around 1 minute video from Engadget showing the proof of concept of Unlocked iPhone.


http://www.iphonesimfree.com/ has announced that they will start selling the SIMFree mobile very soon.
For us it means that now iPhone lovers don`t have to wait till Apple ties to their countries` local carrier. If your country has GSM network you can buy it now instead of waiting for next year which was the prpbable release date for iPhone in countries other than US and Europe. To simplify it more, now if someone buys the iPhone from "iPhoneSIMfree.com", it can be readily used in countries like Japan, India, China and any country with GSM Service. So no more roaming charges. Use Local provders on the move.

History shows, when people were trying very hard to install windows on MAC, Apple relaeased "Boot Camp" officially to relieve the pain of the general users who are not so good at hacking. When people wanted iTunes with DRM free music , Apple fulfilled their wishes. Now when hackers have unlocked the iPhone, will Apple release a Unlocked phone itself ? Lets`s stay tuned when that happens.

Hey Steve, make the iPhone free. That`s what expected from you. That`s what this Unlocking of iPhone proves.

Update 1: iPhone Unlocking software delayed a bit due to the lawyers of AT&T

Vacations are never enough !

Following are the snaps during the 2 weeks trip to India in August 1st week to 3rd week, year 2007. The conclusion is "Vacations are never enough !"



Was in India for last two weeks. On the way back, we enjoyed the lovely clouds before our flight landed in Mumbai via Singapore(I am hearing that business class direct flights from Narita (tokyo) are starting from September 2007). From Mumbai we started our journey to my home town Amravati via
1. Shirdi (Abode of Sai Baba),
2. Trimbakeshwar (One of 12 JyotirLingas) and
3. Lonar(The world's only salt water lake in basaltic rock is in Lonar. It's a crater lake that is believed to have been caused by a meteorite hitting Earth.).

Apart from my brother Babloo, Mom and Dad, Mama and Maami also joined the gang for the tour. The weather was awesome as Monsoon has just started, Greenry everywhere with cosmic clouds everywhere. If you are going thru road you can stop, sip a cup tea, enjoy the scenery to make the best use of your tour.

Lot of other things to share, but this blog is not enough. To name a few, met my oldy frinds, went to my college, went to my school along with my Mom and Swapnesh, got an opportunity to address to students of my alma mater and met my old teachers, met few relatives, watched "Chak De India", on the full screen which i never get to see in Tokyo. Lot of others things were also planned, but the title of this post explains everything :). But it is said "Something is better than nothing" and is true in this case. Went riding to kondeshwar, a beautiful temple near Amravati with all 12 JyotirLings in one temple. It was awesome too.

In short time was less but every second of it was enjoyable. Felt quite tired coming bck to Tokyo. Hence a bit pause today and office again from tomorow. Lot of things ahead in that front too.