I don’t believe anymore

Worried citizen, fading morale
They broke the rules
But told me
They want us to feel happy
I still believed

Unrealized dreams, lost hopes
They killed the innocents
But told me
They want us to live long
I still believed

Helpless eyes, stressed folks
They extorted people
But told me
They want us to be rich
I still believed

Scared faces, empty streets
They wreaked havoc
But told me
They want us to feel safe
I still believed

Endless struggle, spiritless life
Thriving poverty, growing injustice
Caught in darkness
One day, my belief grew legs
And walked away

(My Poems also appear at www.poemhunter.com)

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Japanese society: at crossroads of religion and superstition

There’s a saying, 'Every Japanese is a Shinto when he’s born, a Christian when he marries, and a Buddhist once he dies'. During my stay in Japan for the period of little under four years, I've learned that Japanese people, most of the times, refrain from talking about two things: politics and religion. Probably that's why it took more than half of a century for the Japanese to seriously think of replacing the Liberal Democrats to lead Japan (Read the related post here). However in this post, I intend to discuss only about religious aspect of the Japanese society.

It appears that religion doesn't play a very big role in the Japanese society. Most of the Japanese will tell you that either they are atheists or they don't take religion very seriously. Buddhism and Shintoism are the major religions of the Japanese, although not many engage in the kind of daily religious activities that we see in other countries. An average Japanese would look somewhat religious while visiting a shrine or while going to a cemetery. However, when asked if they really believe in god, the answer will be either denial or vague philosophical.

Before I continue further, let me share an interesting incident with you all. Last year, I was on a trip to the Okinawa islands of Japan in order to attend a conference. I was accompanied by one of my friends who hails from Indonesia. In that trip I met several interesting people but the coolest person I met would probably go unnoticed by many. He was a taxi driver. After leaving the airport, we hopped onto a taxi and took off for the hotel. 'So, where shall I drop you guys?', asked the taxi driver in an interesting way. He was surely different than many others who appear so formal and polite in their conversations. He appeared to be carefree in attitude and comfortable in his own skin. His manner and words were refreshing. After he had the idea of our destination hotel, he asked  casually, 'where are you from?'. 'Nepal', I replied. It seemed that he had no idea about my country so I added, 'It's the country of Mt. Everest and birth place of lord Buddha. I guess you are a Buddhist, right?' His answer was nothing less than a surprise to me, well, you may think so. I'm a Buddhist probably because of my ancestors but, I'm not a religious person. I think most of the Japanese don't believe in religion literally.' Suddenly the conversation had become intense and interesting. I asked, 'so what do you believe in? Do you think religion has nothing to do in our lives? What I think is that religion has a basic role to lead us towards a happy life. Isn't it so?' His response was so philosophical, 'see, what I believe is that a happy live is not because of any religion or god. The right way to lead my life would be to do always good and help others. The most important thing is to follow our conscience and not merely live according to any religious ideology'. We talked almost all the way till we finally reached our hotel. However, I am not going to write rest of the conversation as it would be out of scope of this post. My intention of putting this incident here is only to show how most of the Japanese react once asked about their religion. The statistics  reveal that Japan is among one of the most least religious countries.

Are Japanese non-religious? Well, if you put this question in a different way, you are most likely to get different responses. Do you visit a shrine or a temple on occasions like New Year, festivals or before taking a major decision? Do you bow and pray to the rising sun? Do you seek a good luck charm from a Shinto shrine? Do you want to get married at a Church? Do you take your babies to the shrine for blessings? Do you want to have your funeral held in a Buddhist temple? etc. Questions like these are most likely to generate positive answers. The following table summarizes the major religious activities of Japanese:

Description	When	Where
o-miya mairi	On the 30th day after birth	Shrine
Shichi-go-san	At the age of 3, 5, 7	Shrine
Praying for success in exams	February, March	Shrine
Coming-of-age day	Age 20	Shrine
Wedding		Shrine/ Temple/ Church
Funeral, memorial services		Temple/ Church
warding off evils		Shrine/ Temple

(Source: The book 'Unfolding Japanese Traditions')

In the present Japanese society, people are not bound to a specific religion and they don't seem to care much about their rites in life being connected to Buddhism or Shintoism, because they don't consider it exactly a religious practice. Going to Shinto shrines, getting married at a Church and holding funerals at Buddhist temples have become practical customs for the Japanese. Most of the Japanese accept each religion along with the associated religious occasions so naturally.

Sounds a bit strange, right? It seems that these occasional 'religious' activities are followed only as traditions. This may be due to either most of the Japanese: a) have no or very little faith in the relevance of their 'own' religion; b) don't think that only religion drives the moral values or provides meaning to life; c) think that every religion has a basic purpose to provide means of leading life in a disciplined, peaceful, and happy way.

Are Japanese superstitious? Although not always the case, many people relate religious activities to superstition. Superstition is an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear of certain 'other-worldly forces' of the universe. There are many practices to indicate that Japanese people are superstitious. One of the examples being their faith in good luck charms. They believe that during life, one has one or two unlucky years (for men: 25 and 42 years of age ; for women: 19 and 33 years of age) in which important changes related to health, family, social life, fortune etc. may occur. Those years are considered as the turning point of their lives. Therefore at these ages or when one is hit by a spell of bad luck, he visits to a Shrine or a temple to have the evils warded off (warding off evils). Like in many other countries, superstition have strong roots in Japanese society.

At the end, Japanese people may not be committed to any specific religion but their thinking and life-style seems greatly influenced by the Shinto beliefs that has helped to glue their cultural heritage together. Though people continue to believe in the social rituals, they don't want to be the part of an organized religion. Besides, being superstitious is not bad as long as it’s not harmful. What I admire about Japanese is their commitment towards ethics and high moral values. I believe that religion has a basic purpose of helping us lead life in a disciplined, peaceful, and happy way. Japanese are less sensitive towards any specific religious doctrine but, at the same time, are superstitious in their beliefs. In a way, Japanese society stands at the crossroads of religion and superstition.

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Smartphones, what can you do with it? Do you really need one?

Cell phones have undoubtedly become an integral part of our lives. I’m pretty sure you never leave your home without one. But how many of you use it for more than making calls or sending text messages? Do you know what a modern smartphone is capable of? I’m guessing most of you do, but when Deependra asked me to post about something interesting related to technology, I thought why not write about smartphones. After all, they are the future of computing devices. And personally I believe desktops and bulky laptops will soon become a thing of the past, and these tiny mobile computing devices will dominate.

What is a smartphone ?

Some of you might be wondering what a smartphone really is? And how does it differ from a normal cell phone? Well, the answer is not as clear cut as it used to be few years back. Conventionally, a smartphone is a mobile phone that runs a mobile operating system and offers PC-Like functionality. Perhaps the main distinguishing feature is the mobile operating system, which provides a standardized platform for 3rd party application developers. This allows the users to download and install 3rd party applications to enhance their phone’s functionality beyond what is originally supported by the manufacturer. Software capabilities of smart phones generally differ from a regular phone due to:

• Rich web clients and browsers that can provide PC-like browsing capabilities
• Fully fledged Email clients (supporting SMTP/POP/IMAP/ActiveSync)
• Advanced internet based application support (VOIP services, Instant Messengers, Social networking)
• Advanced PC syncing capabilities (Contacts/calendar entries/Organizer)
• Support for running multiple applications simultaneously
• Support for custom GPS navigation applications (e.g.: Google Maps, Garmin, etc.)
• Allowing 3rd party applications to access all the hardware features of the phone (this has led to the development of so many creative and innovative applications)

On top of this, smartphones generally offer better hardware features too, such as:

• Faster micro processors (based on Advanced RISC Machine : ARM chips)
• Advanced graphics capabilities (2D and 3D hardware acceleration)
• More memory (more RAM for running applications and expandable storage for file storage)
• Better connectivity options (i.e : High-speed internet)
• Full QWERTY keyboards
• Large high resolution screens with touch input capability
• Built-in GPS units with compasses

However, as I said before the differences between a smartphone and a regular phone are fading away as the later has now started to provide some of the smartphone like features. Therefore, the features mentioned above are no longer exclusive only to smartphones, but as you go further apart in the scale of smart phones and regular phones, differences become obvious.

Almost all phones support Java Platform Micro Edition (formally known as J2ME). This allows 3rd party Java applications to be installed and run on any phone (including standard phones). In the early days, Java applications couldn’t do much, because they didn’t have access to most of the core phone features. But things are changing with new revisions. However, because regular phones are manufactured with limited hardware capabilities (to reduce the cost and increase portability and battery life), they are still not as versatile as smartphones even with Java.

Mobile Operating systems

There are a number of smartphone operating systems, some of the most popular ones are listed below:

• Symbian
• Windows Mobile
• iPhone OS
• Android*
• BlackBerry
• Palm WebOS*
• Maemo* (an upcoming OS for Nokia smartphones)
• Linux
  

* based on Linux.

And some of the leading smartphone manufacturers are:

• Nokia (Symbian, Maemo)
• SonyEricsson (Symbian, Windows Mobile)
• Apple (iPhone OS)
• Samsung (Symbian, Windows mobile, Android)
• HTC (Windows Mobile, Android)
• BlackBerry (BlackBerry OS)
• Palm (Palm OS)

If you are looking to buy a smartphone, then choosing the correct operating system is as important as any other phone feature (i.e: Number of megapixels in the camera, screen size/resolution/type, battery life etc.). The chart below shows the market share of Smartphone operating systems as of Q2/2009 (Canalys).

As you can see, Symbian is the dominating OS followed by Blackberry and Apple. Blackberry OS is popular because of the business oriented BlackBerry phone and it’s unique hardware and software support (QWERTY keyboard, email web etc.). But now, other big players (Nokia, Samsung) are also coming up with smartphones having the same hardware and software features to the Blackberry (but running a different OS). Therefore, I speculate that Blackberry market share might drop in the future.

Reason for Iphone OS’s popularity is obvious: The Apple iPhone. But I don’t think iPhone OS is popular due to it’s smartphone capabilities. Majority of the iPhone users are buying it for the iPod (music) capabilities and as a fashion accessory. Every teenage needs an iPhone, because they think its cool and hip. But If you compare an iPhone with another high end smartphone by another company (i.e Nokia or SonyEricsson) you will quickly notice that iPhone is inferior in terms of hardware capabilities. But Apple has managed to make the iPhone a successful smart phone due to their creative marketing strategies and application store support (Apple App Store).

But perhaps the most exiting smartphone OS out there right now the Android OS by Google. So far it has a very low market share because the OS itself and devices supporting it are new. The operating system was first launched just over a year ago. But there are plenty of Android devices out in the market right now and more are coming out each day. With the support of Google and huge open source community behind it, tables will turn pretty soon and Android will become a strong competitor in the smart phone OS industry.

New trends

Social networking is the buzzword in today’s smartphone world. Every smartphone OS is now putting out a ton of applications and widgets to support popular social networking services like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc.. If you look at some of the recent phones, you will see that social network integrations run deep in to phone’s operating system. On some phones for example, now you can see the latest Facebook profile picture along with the status message when someone is calling you. You can have all your favorite news feeds and live weather/traffic updates right on the home screen. Access to all sorts of information is right there at your fingertips.

Business capabilities of smartphones are also getting more advanced each day. Sending and receiving emails has never been easier, you can sync your phone with multiple email accounts. With Office packages now you can create or edit spreadsheets and word documents right from the mobile phone. With full QWERTY physical keyboards typing on a phone is no longer an issue.

Few years back, having a MP3 player in your phone was considered a huge convenience. But now, with high-speed internet and all these connectivity options you have access to more than few MP3s or small video clips stored on your memory card. There are live TV support and video on demand capabilities with support for online gaming.

GPS based services are another fast evolving trend in mobile phones. With almost all smartphones now having an integrated GPS unit, GPS navigation has become a standard feature. All you have to do is speak the name of the place you want to go, and then the phone will take you there with turn by turn voice guided instructions. With options like Geotagging now you can keep your friends or family informed of your location allowing them and you to find one another easily. When taking a picture or a video, the phone will automatically the tag it with location information, so you don’t have to worry about renaming or entering those details manually. Possibilities are endless when you couple a smartphone with a GPS and high-speed internet.

Are there any drawbacks?

Everything about a smartphone seems so wonderful and tempting, isn’t it? But all these features come at a cost. To begin with, the price of a smartphone is usually several times more compared to a regular phone. But that is not the only compromise you have to make. Due to all these new technologies, a smartphone is usually very bulky and heavier than a regular phone. Furthermore, the high end components and connectivity options have a negative impact on the battery life. A typical high end smartphone with all of its bells and whistles turned ON will not last more than a day. That means you have to constantly keep an eye on the battery meter. And then, for most of the above fun features to work, you need a high speed always connected internet/data plan (which are normally expensive in most countries). So, at the end of the day you have to pay more for the phone and for your contract then tolerate a heavier, bulker device that won’t last more than a day on a single charge.

Is it for you?

Well…., now I guess you have an idea what is a smartphone, and what it can do and its drawbacks. Deciding whether you really want one or not should depend on your needs. If you are just a regular user wanting only a phone for its calling and texting features then I see no reason for spending more to get a bulky device that you need to charge every day. But if you are one of those who want to be always up-to-date and with touch with all your friends (eMail, news, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc..) then a regular phone will not simply cut it.

(*The author, Hasitha Ariyaratne, hails from Colombo, Sri Lanka)

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Never Stop Dreaming: celebrating 100th blog post

What you are reading now actually marks the 100th post on this blog, Never Stop Dreaming, which I started last year as a convenient way to give voice to my feelings, share ideas and events and exchange opinions on various issues. It's been a little over 75 weeks when I first posted at this blog. Earlier, blogging was just an extension to my habit of writing daily diary - a time off thing to avoid boredom and loneliness - but, soon it became a passion. I started to see blogging as a wonderful medium to convey and exchange my feelings. It became a place where I could explicitly express myself. I have tried to be regular in blogging but at times, my social and personal commitments have made it difficult. Today, as I am posting this 100th entry, it gives me immense satisfaction having reached this small milestone. And, your precious company provides me with a reason to look beyond. Today, your visit has reassured me that I am not alone walking on this road. I treasure this feeling of togetherness.

'Never Stop Dreaming' kicked off as www.hellobirgunj.blogspot.com on May 23, 2008 and later changed to the blogger- hosted custom domain www.deependrajha.com from September 16, 2009 onwards. Out of 100 posts (including this one), this blog has featured nine articles from some of the eminent guest authors. I take this opportunity to show my gratitude to all the guest writers: Er. Navaraj Karki for writing a couple of wonderful articles on the status of electricity in Nepal; my friend from Sri Lanka, Hasitha Ariyaratne, for penning many useful articles related to computer technology, my friend Boga Thura Manatsha from Botswana for authoring an informative article on the stunning success story of Botswana from one of the world's poorest countries to an 'economic miracle'; my friend Dr. Ramesh Kumar Bhandari for penning a technical article on the prospects of solar installations in Nepalese context; and my cousin Mukesh Jha, who is a USA based IT support Tech., for writing a couple of informative and inspiring articles. You all have actually added a new dimension to this blog. It's been my pleasure and privilege to have you all here.

I have tried to share my thoughts on different topics through this blog. Out of my blog entries, almost one fourth are poems. I am not a poet or someone close to this title. I just try to express my deep and intense feelings through words, and that's it. Through poetry, I try to accumulate my emotions that may reflect some aspects of my life that need talking about. In a way, this blog has been the journal of my journey - a journey called life!

Now, it's the time to reflect on the some of the most popular posts on this blog. based on visitors choice. Let me share the 5 most popular blog entries at 'Never Stop Dreaming':

1. The Japanese culture of shame and suicide
2. Fighting against the darkness
3. Lord Buddha, Anish Giri & the Slumdog Millionaire movie
4. A birthday wish to someone special
5. Does terrorrism belong to any religion? : The context of Mumbai terror attacks

Besides these posts, one of my earlier entries, Hello Birgunj, leads the list of articles with the most comments on them till date followed by the posts One year of blogging: the blogger in me turned one today, Flashback 2008: revisiting an eventful year, What makes USA different from Japan? and I'm an alien .

There have been several ups and downs while coming all the way down to this post, and I have no doubt that it will continue to be so in accordance with what I'm feeling and how I'm responding to my emotions, with the degree to which I'm immersed in my writing. But, I think I enjoy blogging, now more than ever. Because, the feeling of sharing ideas with you all is satisfying in itself. I enjoy being a participant in this vibrant world of blogging. This blog has introduced me to a widening circle of fellow blogger and many visitors who I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Through this medium, I managed to rediscover my own old friend circle after a fairly long time. Believe me, I've very little to complain about.

If this is your first time visiting this blog, I would like to welcome you! Please take a look of the archives and browse through some of the posts. I believe you will find many stuffs interesting and informative. If you’re a regular visitor, thank you so much for your loyal support. Because, this blog would have no meaning without you all. Never Stop Dreaming.

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I want you to feel me

It’s a sleepless lonely night
I can’t stop thinking of you
If only you knew
How much I love you
Cold winds blowing around
I’m still awake
Out on the streets
Wandering willy-nilly
Chilled to the bone
Abandoned and alone

It’s a shivering dark night
But can’t freeze my feelings for you
If only you knew
How much I miss you
Up above the frosty sky
I see the sinking moon
Behind the clouds
Braving the winds
The moon resembled me
Desperate and deserted she

It’s a quiet empty night
But I can’t get hold of the silence
If only you knew
How much I need you
Memories keep floating back
I feel you in my heart
Entwined ten fingers
Scream in prayer
Sudden glitter of fireflies
Start making loud cries

I wonder,
If silence has ever been this loud
If night has ever been this empty
If life has ever been this illusive
Oh, my sweetheart!
I am in pain tonight
The sinking moon feels it
The freezing cold feels it
The vanishing cloud feels it
The dying star feels it
But when will you feel me?

(My poems also appear at http://www.poemhunter.com )

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Will Windows 7 Replace XP and Vista?

This article is written by a guest author Mukesh Jha, a USA based IT Support Tech. This week, Microsoft came up with its latest operating system, Windows 7, in the market. The previous launch by Microsoft, Windows Vista, was disliked by most of the users. People are in a dilemma whether to go for Windows 7 now or is it too early. I installed Windows 7 recently on my computer and personally I am also interested to know a bit more about this much hyped operating system. In this post, the author intends to compare the last three operating systems by Microsoft – Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 – and presents his opinion. Before I stop, let me thank Mukesh for writing this article for the readers of this blog. Please welcome him as he prepares to take over.

Microsoft, the undisputed leader in business productivity software, has almost enjoyed a monopoly in the market of operating systems for personal computers. This week, on October 22nd, Microsoft launched its latest version of operating system called Windows 7. According to many, Microsoft’s last venture, Windows Vista, was a failure thanks to the reasons like poor marketing, faster battery drain in the laptops, higher system requirements, missing drivers, poor overall performance, missing file system like winFS and so on. Windows Vista could get a share of less than 10% installation on the corporate computers. Microsoft itself did admit that Vista was not a success after all. Now we are entering into the age of Windows 7 but the question is “Will Windows 7 Replace XP and Vista?” I am going to share my opinions with you all with the help of this post.

After a great success of Windows XP, Vista came up. Unfortunately Vista was unable to replace XP and couldn’t come even close to XP if we talk about its share in terms of use. Still 60% of the businesses are using XP environment because they believe that it works best for their working needs. There are quite a few companies still using Windows 2000 that’s because there are some particular applications which may not be compatible with XP but other than that most companies use Windows XP. Besides this, the world seems to be in love with Windows XP. People want to keep it in market especially after their experience with Windows Vista, and this makes Vista look even worse. There are some reports about people reverting back to XP after finding the drawbacks of Vista.

Windows Vista is out for quite some time now. Vista originally came carrying a goal to replace XP but failed to leave even its own footprint. I have encountered very few instances of a company using it in their work environment. To many, Vista is nothing better than a piece of junk. Vista is being used mainly by either home users or those who use the computer for their home/ personal use because they do not have a choice other than using it. Here in the United States, most of the outlets like Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Sams Club, Costco etc. were selling computers with only Vista preloaded (before Windows 7 was launched). When People ask to uninstall Vista, they charge some additional money ($99.00) to remove Vista and put XP back on (except for some Vista ultimate users who had an option to get their operating system down- graded for free). The percentage of people who don’t know anything about an operating system despite of using computer for a long time is fairly high even now. For people who fall under this category may not have any issues either by with XP or with Vista. So basically Microsoft is forcing people to buy the computers with Vista pre-loaded. This way, Microsoft still making profit whether you take the computer as it is or even if you ask them replaces Vista with XP at additional $99.00. Let’s forget the Vista here but do keep the XP in mind and let’s move towards the new innovation, Windows 7.

Windows XP has been the best operating system for almost a decade now but is it the turn for Windows 7? Many People say that Windows 7 seems to be nothing more than some polish applied liberally to the Vista Aero theme. I would say, please do not jump into this conclusion so early, because windows 7 seems to be a complete replacement of Vista and much better than Vista in terms of performance. Windows 7 is more than just spin. It's stable, smooth, and highly polished operating system introducing new graphical features, a new taskbar that can compete handily with the Mac OS X dock, and device management and security enhancements that make it both easier to use and safer. Importantly, it won't require the hardware upgrades that Vista demanded (at least Microsoft claims it). The reason behind this is partially because the hardware has caught up, and partially because Microsoft is eager to make Windows 7 accessible to as many people as possible.

Microsoft is offering six versions of Windows 7: Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, OEM, and Enterprise. The three versions that Redmond will be promoting most heavily are Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, although Starter will also be available to consumers. Windows 7 will support both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. The bare minimum requirements for the 32-bit include a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB available hard-disk space, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. 64-bit systems will require at least a 1 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 20GB of free space on your hard drive, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. A touch-screen monitor is required to take advantage of the native touch features. Do note that some users have claimed to have limited success running the Windows 7 beta with less than 1GB of RAM, but that's not recommended.

Comparing Windows: XP vs. Vista vs. 7
	Windows XP	Windows Vista	Windows 7
Minimum hardware	Processor: 300MHz	Processor: 1GHz	Processor: 1 GHz
	RAM: 128MB	RAM: 1GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit)	RAM: 1GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit)
	Super VGA graphics device	Support for DirectX 9 graphics device with 128MB of memory	Support for DirectX 9 graphics device with 128MB of memory
	HD: 4.2GB (for SP3)	HD: 20GB (32-bit), 40GB (64-bit)	HD: 16GB (32-bit), 20GB (64-bit)
Interface	Luna theme	Aero theme	Aero theme
	Introduces task-based windows options	Introduces transparent panes, window animations, live thumbnails of running programs	Supports slideshow backgrounds, RSS and theme packs
	Skinning possible but difficult	New desktop sidebar supports gadgets	Introduces Aero Shake and Aero Snap
	Desktop Cleanup Wizard automates removing old icons	Supports touch screens	Desktop gadgets can be placed anywhere
			Supports multi-touch on touch screens
Explorer	Replaces tree navigation by default with task pane	Task pane integrated into toolbar	Support for federated searches and libraries
	Improves image handling	New breadcrumb navigation	Virtual folders aggregate content from local and networked drives
	Offers thumbnail previews and group views	New metadata display
	Supports some metadata	Improved icon resolution
		Some documents can be edited from the preview pane
Start menu	New layout	Added search box	Taskbar jumps appear in the Start menu and replace the right column when viewed
	Devices and some Control Panel options appear in menu	All Programs folder changed to a nested format	Documents, Pictures, Music buttons now link to their libraries
		Configurable power button	Control Panel options have been integrated into search results
		User profile picture
Taskbar	New look	Refreshed look	Interactive mouse-over preview panes
	Hideable icons in System Tray	Alt-Tab hot key now shows preview thumbnail of program	Replacement of the Quick Launch bar with pinned programs
			Program-specific jump lists based on pinned programs
			Aero Peek for mouse-over desktop viewing
			Revamped System Tray
Devices	Introduces Universal Plug-n-Play	Debuts portable device API, designed to communicate with cell phones, PDAs, and portable media players	New Device Stage provides a centralized, unified window for managing all aspects of printers and portable devices
	New driver library allows for downgrading drivers when necessary	Introduces Sync Center for managing data synchronizations
Misc.	Introduces context-menu CD and DVD burning from Windows Explorer	Built-in drive partitioning	Expands Windows Explorer disc burning to include ISOs
	Supports multiple versions of a single DLL to prevent programs from overwriting each other	More powerful screen-capturing tool	Introduces XP Mode
	Introduces Hibernate and Sleep modes	Hybrid Sleep and better configuration options for more nuanced power management	Expanded options for disabling components
	Remote Desktop for accessing a computer from another location	User-based file-type associations	Can search text in scanned TIFF
	Fast user account switching	Previous Version automatically backs up changes to individual files	Additional power-saving features for laptops

(source: CNET)

The good: Strong design and Microsoft don't always go together, but they do in Windows 7. Users might take a while to get used to the new taskbar and Aero Peek, but they're a pleasure to use.

The bad: Performance is still hit-or-miss in Windows 7. At the ripe age of seven, Windows XP still performs better in some categories.

The bottom line: Windows 7 is more than what Vista should have been, it's where Microsoft needed to go. How much damage Vista did and whether Windows 7 is enough for people to finally abandon Windows XP are questions that nobody has the answers to right now. (source: CNET)

I have recently installed the Windows 7 on my computer. The first impression of this looks okay to me and I would encourage users to install it. It looks like the operating system consumers have been waiting for. Microsoft claims to have fixed most of the problems that were in Vista and believes that Windows 7 is the future of Windows brand of operating systems.

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One year later, the power crisis still exists in Nepal: Is there any solution?

This is a guest post by Er. Nava Raj Karki, a Power System Engineer and Lecturer at Tribhuvan University, Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Nepal. In the beginning of 2009, when Nepal was facing an unprecedented load shedding of 16 hours a day, he analyzed the root causes of the problem and suggested few viable options to combat the crisis (click here to read the previous post). The then Maoist government had come up with the idea of installing 200MW thermal power stations which was later canceled on financial grounds. One year down the lane and nothing significant has been done to avoid power cuts this winter. The government changed and so did their priorities. In this post, Er. Karki intends to analyze the situation of electricity in the country after almost a year. Before he takes over, I thank Karki Sir for penning down this article exclusively for the readers of this blog. Please join me in welcoming him back to Never Stop Dreaming.

Flashback: The Koshi Carnage

Many of us belonging to Nepal are aware of the last year’s record breaking daily power supply cut of 16 hours. For any power system of more than 500MW installed capacity and maximum demand of about 750-800MW, the planned outages referred as LOAD SHEDDING, these figures are unprecedented. One can find very few instances that match Nepal’s power crisis. People keeping a close eye on Nepal’s affairs do remember the natural calamities (but assisted by government inefficiencies) she suffered last year. The Koshi river's eastern embankment breaches that caused large parts of Sunsari and North Bihar flooded taking few hundred lives apart from displacing hundreds of thousands of people in both Nepal and India was not totally caused by excessive water level in the river but because of cutting of spur dams and failure to open gates at Bhimnagar Koshi barrage as required. The Koshi calamity caused many times larger human and financial losses to Bihar compared to Nepal. But because of shear size of the country and inability of Bihari politicians to push central Indian leadership to genuinely take initiative to find long lasting and mutually acceptable solution to this problem, the Koshi flooding soon has been forgotten in India. On the other hand, Nepali economy and people especially from Eastern Nepal suffered hugely as the flooding swept away various sections of East-West highway between Bhantabari and Lauki and isolated Eastern Nepal from rest of the country. It took very long to get the damaged section of the road to get repaired but by that time Nepal has suffered huge financial and economical losses. We will not enter the intricacies of Koshi Treaty that gives sole authority to control, maintain and operate Bhimnagar barrage to India. But since we all know at this point that the flooding was caused not due to unprecedented rainfall but because of failure to repair the embankment on time, one can not get away by blaming the nature for the calamity. Indian government and Bihar government must take the responsibility and compensate for the losses caused to people of Sunsari and the rest of the country. But has our government raised these issues with India ever? No one knows. Except for few independent experts and anti-Indian politicians, no one has raised this issue.

Power Crisis Aggravated

Now, talk about the other severe blow to Nepal by the Koshi flooding – power crisis. The flooding also swept away few 132kV transmission towers of Kataiyya - Duhabi transmission line that was supplying Nepal’s Power grid about 100MW thereby aggravating the already deteriorating power crisis in Nepal. The load shedding which started way back in 2006 was at its worst peak in the winter and spring following the Koshi carnage. Low rainfall in the catchment area of Kulekhani made things further worse. During its peak of the worst, NEA was supplying power only for 8 hours a day that also mostly during off ours, i.e., midnight to dawn and in the afternoons. The electricity users of NEA could derive very little benefit from such supply regime. Various businesses, industries, service sector, non-governmental sectors, technical educational institutions, government offices and even the ordinary customers were inflicted huge financial losses resulting in billions of rupees loss to the nation’s economy already vulnerable because of decade long Maoist insurgency and the volatile political environment.

During the peak of power crisis last year when Maoists were heading the government, there was buzzword doing round about bringing in diesel power plants as a solution. Diesel power plants come in compact form and very little civil structure compared to hydro or other types of thermal plants is required which makes them attractive in situations of emergencies and where the erstwhile standing power generation plants have been rendered non-functional as a result of natural calamities like cyclones, tornadoes, storms, earthquakes, severe flooding, etc. They are only temporary measures. And, the governments in those countries can afford to have such temporary facilities. In case of Nepal, we are talking about installing Diesel plants permanently. Even if the plants we are talking about are provided by rich western countries as a goodwill gift like one in Duhabi (granted by Finnish government), the operation and maintenance cost will be very high for a country like ours to sustain till the generation from hydro becomes enough not to operate these diesel plants. The cost of electricity from diesel power plants at current rate of approximately NRs 55 per litre of diesel will be approximately Rs 20 per KWh.(1UK gallon=4.5461 litres=139000 btu; 1kWh=3412btu, efficiency of diesel plants = 40%. But if the plant is old and would be given to Nepal as ‘GIFT’, then its efficiency may be further low with higher maintenance cost). If you add some surcharge (due to leakage at our public utility), it will further increase by at least by 10-20%. Diesel plants as temporary solution are OK. But to make 200MW diesel plants part of NEA system for the foreseeable future does not have any economic sense even though the cost of not having electricity is much higher than NRs 20 per kWh. Only the residential customers in Nepal have lower supply outage cost than what will be the cost of electricity from these new diesel plants.

What after sufficient hydrogeneration is available with the system?

But supply outage costs solely can never be the basis for evaluating the feasibility of a project. The greatest fear will be the loss to nation after enough hydro generation becomes available in the system. Then the 200MW diesel plant we are talking about now will surely become ‘White Elephant’. Fund will have to be allocated to carry out basic regular maintenance even the plant may not be brought to operation for several months; salaries to the employees of the plant must be paid. The management will stop giving any significance to the plant once power scenario in the country becomes better owing to generation from hydropower plants. The diesel plant will then get less attention and will be treated as un-necessary like Multifuel at Duhabi which resulted in the Multifuel failing to generate more than 13MW when the country was lurking in the dark. Our policy makers and government ministers talk loud when the situation is already very bad but forget once it becomes a little better and again speak loud when the scenario becomes worse. This is nothing but pure politicking. At least the NEA top brass and policy makers of the country should have long term vision and readymade solution package for impending crises and emergencies. Our utility lack Research & Development wing that would have given them clear cut idea of impending power scenario in the country well in advance and compelled them and other policymakers to take appropriate decisions to avert the power crisis. The academia in our country also lacks research activities in such areas which are common in the research menu of academics in other countries. Also, we must find ways to bring down corruption in dealing with construction of new hydropower plants: be it by NEA or by private developers. We must also bring to an end to current licensing system and adopt a new licensing system under purely competitive basis. The company that commits lower rate of electricity to be sold to NEA will get the project. Obviously, other criteria like company’s technical and financial capabilities, its past project completion records, etc must be assessed as done in awarding other big contracts. Again, this process must be really transparent, not in academic means only.

At The End

We must adopt multi pronged strategy to solve the power crisis in the country. Because of transitional phase in the country, the government may not be able to take bold decisions that have long-term repercussions but experts and policymakers must not sleep. They must, at least, explore various options for solution of country’s power crisis and update the political leadership at appropriate time and not become the means and medium to fulfill the vested interests of politicians, big business houses and foreign profiteering agencies. The promotion of micro hydro plants owned and operated by local users group must be upped with increased level of technical support made available at least at all district headquarters; standardization of machines/ equipments used in such plants; assistance in formation of community level energy users groups; etc.

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