Slash your petrol bills by a third

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If you've watched Three Idiots - you might have noticed it's zany props. The scooter powered wheat mill, the horse hair clipper and the exercise console cum washing machine are all real gadgets, designed by real, though unfortunately poor geniuses. Aamir's team is now trying to set up a fund for these guys, first discovered by the National Innovation Foundation run by Professor Anil Gupta. But what about folks, who haven't yet been discovered, even by grassroots organisations like NIF? About a week back, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Shailesh Kumar Gaur, an inventor from Allahabad. He claims he can slash your petrol bill to a third it's current size. What took him more than ten years to perfect, he explained to a novice like me in under a minute. Imagine you're using a hand pump to draw water. If you hold the lever....

A super laptop from India: For just 15,000?

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It's a laptop, an e-book reader, phone and media player all rolled into one. You can draw on its fingerprint resistant touch screen, take quick notes, or click photos with its 3 MegaPixel camera. It's got a 32 GB flash drive, expandable memory, GPS and Wi-Fi. All this for close to Rs 15,000. It's a tablet PC that might just put Apple on the backfoot. And it's been developed by Rajat Sahni, Sachin Ralhan, Devanshu Agrawal, Mohit Gupta, Rohit Rathi and Rohan Shravan. Six Indian IITians and an MBA. After getting rave reviews on several technology blogs, the seven are now busy preparing to launch their dream product in Las Vegas next month. What follows below, is their story, in their own words. How a bunch of Indians, dared to take on the world's best. And succeeded. Three years ago, MIT, Intel, AMD,....

Cutting edge tech and the making of Avatar

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If a movie makes me cry and "feel" for the characters, I usually like it. On that count, Avatar, especially the second half, scored. But it cost me a thousand bucks for an outing for three. Made me wonder if a pirated version would make more sense. Especially because Hall #7 at DT Star Cinemas, DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj, doesn't have 3D screens. Avatar was made in three dimensions. Its images are supposed to have the height, depth and richness of things in the real world. Most of us won't see it that way, because there aren't enough halls with 3D projectors. Even in 2D though, the story's OK. My wife isn't keen on movies with military bravado, she dozed off for a bit just before the interval. But on the whole, she liked it. I'm not sure if the story's as gripping as say....

Why my mother asked me about an SMS

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They were curious. Quite happy of course. And quite curious. It was just an SMS I sent them but - it had them hooked. The message I sent was in Hindi. Sure, politicians sent us all a few during the elections. But receiving or sending one to family and friends is a lot more personal. And surprising. It's quite easy actually. Download Quillpad Mobile from http://quillpadmobile.in, install it on your phone and you're set. You type in English, like you always have. Quillpad guesses how those words sound in Hindi and types them in the Devanagiri script. It doesn't translate anything - it doesn't say Chooha when you type Mouse. It types Mouse, in Hindi. You'll see what I mean. Here's one of the first messages that I typed out. It's a prayer my parents taught me, so I figured....

Exposed on Facebook

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That's Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's creator. Till last week, only his friends could see those photos. This weekend, any of us who chose to, could suddenly peep into, and laugh at, his private life. Thanks to a change in privacy settings he himself rolled in, for you, me and everyone else who uses the site. According to the new rules, your name, sex, city, the picture on your profile, the networks and web pages you're interested in and your Friend's List can be looked at by everyone - and there's nothing you can do about it. The rest of your stuff - your photo albums, status updates, the quizzes and gifts you exchange, the events you've committed to attend etc, can still be restricted to only those....

Bonjour! Comment allez-vous?

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The planet's best scientists are searching for God, in France. Why are we here? What miracle of nature gave us birth? What sustains us? They're asking those questions at the Big Bang Experiment - the world's largest, most expensive science project. France, has been co-host to that endevour, for over fifty years. Now, French science is reaching out to India. Twenty three of their best scientists are touring twenty Indian cities this month, delivering over one hundred lectures on everything from nanotechnology to philosophy to virtual reality. Look up the schedule for your city at http://www.frenchsciencetoday.org. This is one part of the Bonjour India French festival, kicked off earlier this month. Ecole Polytechnique, one of France's best universities is conducting entrance exams in premier Indian colleges like St Xavier's, Ruia, Jai Hind and Wilson in Mumbai, Presidency College, Kolkata and St Stephen's, Delhi. High ranking students are being....

Surfing Google's latest - Wave

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Email was invented 40 years ago. What would it be if it was invented in 2010? Google's tag line for anyone interested in their latest - Wave. "Wave = Google's trump card against Facebook and Twitter!!" "Wave = Instant collaboration, better efficiency, improved output!!!" "Wave = Email + Instant Messenger + Wiki together!" It might become all that, once you've mastered it. But at least for the first few days - "Wave = Frustration." First, you need an invite to use it. Ask for one at www.wave.google.com. Or beg people who're using Wave to invite you. Either way, it takes days before an invite actually lands in your inbox. Once you do log in, you get what looks like an email software. But it can't send emails. Or do anything - till you find people to talk to. IF you're regular on GMail and IF....

A Date with a Nobel Winner

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Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is among the very few scientists of Indian origin who have won a Nobel Prize. He won it this year for Chemistry. In the most basic terms, he helped created a three dimensional photo of a ribosome, one of the building blocks of our DNA, our genetic code. One of the practical uses of that 3D photo is better medicines. Drug companies can now design medicine molecules that can, just like LEGO blocks, lock in seamlessly with the nodes on our ribosomes. And that could mean a whole new world of treatment especially for diseases like cancer. The American Centre arranged a web chat with Dr Ramakrishnan recently and he was besieged by awe-struck admirers - from nine-year-old school students to professional science journalists, they were all fighting to get a word in, to get their questions answered. Here is a transcript of what could....