Odometer Miles vs. Range Miles in a Tesla Model 3.

Bird Island @ Point Lobos State Reserve

iles are quite tricky to understand when it comes to Tesla cars. (Why only Tesla? Probably all-electric cars). While the battery in each car is specified to have a range — a long-range Model 3, for example, can be charged fully to a range of 310 miles — the actual odometer miles that one may realize during a drive can be substantially less.

We had occasion to drive to Point Lobos State Natural Reserve recently. Google Maps recommended we drive down 101 South, through 156 West, and finally via 1 South, for a total of 81.6 miles, one way.

At the Tesla Shareholder Meeting, 2018.

As I expect to get my hands on my Model 3 in a few days, after a wait of nearly 27 months after registration, I felt a need to attend the Tesla Shareholder Meeting today, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Equally importantly, as a shareholder, I wanted to hear from Elon Musk how, in his words, Tesla is doing.

Futility of Dual-SIM Smartphones.

ual SIMs are considered quite useful, particularly when you are on travel. So, what did I do? I procured a 2nd personal phone, an Android phone. (My first one is an iPhone and we all know that Apple does not have dual-SIM versions of iPhones).

I also procured a post-paid SIM for usage within India.

My $35,000 Tesla Model 3.

Model 3 was unveiled this past Friday, July 28. Tesla made the production Model 3 available to the first 30 owners, all of them Tesla employees:

While it will be quite some time for me to get my hands on my Model 3, even though I stood in line on 31 March 2016 to sign up for it, it is worth making an assessment of what I'd like (A good review by Tom Randall on Bloomberg.com):

As of today, however, the estimated time for my car's availability is:

and my hope is my $35,000 Model 3 — rather, the $58,000 version 😀 — would be available during that window.

Father's Day, 2016.

ather's Day, 2016. Best wishes to you, if you are a father and happen to be reading this, and hope that this Father's Day is as special to you as it is for me.

In a normal course of a Father's Day every year, the usual things happen: Phone calls to dad, visit dad, provide gifts to dad, Father's Day lunch or dinner, etc.

This particular Father's Day, 2016, is very special to me, however. Why?

Has the Republican Party Lost Its Moral Compass?

ow come we see the spectacle of a broken Republican political party in the United States, day in and day out?

For several months now, we have seen Donald Trump make a mockery of democracy. It started with his public mistreatment of newscaster Megyn Kelly, and continues with his latest: Trump assures America ... he has normal-sized 'something else', with a lot of others in between. The fact that he has been able to get away with the abrasive -- read undemocratic -- behavior unbecoming of any civilized human being, let alone the President of the United States, is testament to the strength of US democracy: Tolerating a certain amount of undemocratic behavior.

Rebooting India - A Book Review.

ebooting India by Nandan Nilekani and Viral Shah is an excellent discussion of how, and under what circumstances, Aadhaar got conceived and its meaningful extensions to improve the manner in which the Indian Government can enrich the life of its citizens.

The book is a bold attempt to infuse technology as a foundation for governmental and societal efficacy, by rooting out opportunities for fraud, bribery, leakage, etc. (I'm poignantly familiar with the strikes against computerization labor unions held in the early 1970s that technology was to be eschewed: Why? It'd rob the unionists of 'meaningful' employment, of course, ...)

US Independence Day Celebration, 2015, Personal Style.

ndependence Days of individual countries are celebrated with differing themes all the world over. Today, July 4, is US Independence Day.

Certain institutions take this opportunity to celebrate the day in their own unique way ...

Customization of Web Streaming for Classical Indian Music - An Unscientific Observation.

usic Genome Project®, we learn from Pandora's web site, is what powers the music service. In this post, I want to share my observations in customizing the web site for Indian Classical Music.

The only mechanism for customization of Pandora Radio is the Thumbs-Up/Thumbs-Down pair. (In How Pandora Radio Works, author Julia Layton describes in good detail how you can use the Pandora software to customize the music you'd want to listen to).

Healthcare and Boeing?

ealthcare and Boeing, the aerospace giant?

Yes.

Not exactly the kind of healthcare schemes that employers are interested in, regarding their employees. But, a system for ensuring that patients get wholesome care by their doctors.

My First Uber Trip.

ver since I learnt about the infusion of capital of Uber at an unusually high valuation, and definitely after I came to know about an UberCHOPPER service in Bangalore, I had been awaiting for an opportunity to experience the Uber service myself, complete with the use of the iPhone App, starting from requesting the service ¹.

How Corporations Help Society.

A good example of how corporations help society can be found in this blog post: Second innings with Google’s gCareer program. Since the blog authors are generally of Indian origin, cricket metaphor has been used talk about 2nd careers.

Another example is how Microsoft has influenced the Redmond area in Washington state.

It seems that it is a lot more effective to have corporation-sponsored activities than government-sponsored ones.

Minimalist Approach has Advantages.

hen you move to a different town, as we did recently by moving to the Seattle area, an important realization hits you: You are indeed able to live in a minimalist manner, out of suitcases, so to speak. And, life is a lot simpler!

14 March 2014: Doodle for Google

Minimalist approach has other advantages.

Take the Google front page, for example. This simple front page has been the gateway for many people for their searches and for the diurnal goodies that Google itself leads you to: Today, it is about Doodle for Google, a scheme which invites young artists — Grades K-12 — to submit their doodles ...

(An Almost) Perfect Parking Experience in Oakland, California.

The smart way to park.

crambling for change before driving to a different location where you have to allow for parking has been a painful phenomenon. Until recently, that is.

I'm not talking about using a credit card to pay for the parking at a curb; this method, while definitely better than scrambling for change, doesn't come close in convenience. What if you need to extend the parking duration? Do you have to call the toll free number, and get into voice-mail jail? Pain.

Enter Parkmobile.

Chromecast, an Example of a Well-Productized Device.

The Chromecast Device.

Within minutes of unpacking the Chromecast device, you can see it working beautifully on your HDMI-equipped TV, getting controlled by your iPhone or iPad¹! No reading manuals, nothing.

Thanks, Google!

You notice that any TV with an HDMI input, the Chromecast, and your iPhone or iPad work seamlessly.

A Journalistic Faux Pas, Internet style.

Journalists make every effort to report news and information correctly. However, once in a while, mistakes happen.

An example is today's on CNN.com.

The front page provides the title "Apple downgrades Tim Cook". You wonder why Apple downgraded Tim Cook. When you click on the link, however, you are taken to another web page where the title is "Apple employees downgrade Tim Cook".

Big difference.

Apple as a corporate entity is different from its constituent employees although, in many cases, the employees have a say in what Apple, the corporate entity, does or says.

Who won in the 2013 US Presidential Election?

Of course, we all know that President Obama was reelected to the 2013 White house with a 303-206 majority in electoral votes last week. But, the real win is for two important constituencies:

1. Education
2. Economy (Middle class)

Education. The advent of China and India as potential economic forces in the world economy needs to be taken note of. The 21st century belongs to a properly educated workforce. Not merely in overall education emphasizing liberal arts, etc., but one that provides proper grounding in technology too. President Obama's passion towards this cause is unmistakable. Did you see such passion in the GOP camp?

Economy (The middle class). The backbone of any economy is a vibrant middle class. Particularly when the entire world is getting adjusted to a different 'economic center of gravity' than just the 'West', with both the US and the Western Europe in economic struggle, it takes some proactive

A Simplistic Model of Performing Earned Value Management (EVM) in a Project.

Most discussions on Earned Value Management (EVM) will tell us to compute planned values, PV(t), at the time of planning the project, and assess Earned Values, EV(t), as we make progress over time. This is a very easy and effective way of assessing how the project is performing with respect to time, i.e., schedule.

The problem, in many cases, is that Planned Value (PV) cannot realistically be computed at all. In a project that is expected to take about 18 months to complete, with an average of 25 engineers on the project throughout, and the number of engineers changing over time, we can only begin to compute the planned value as time progresses.

Google Fiber, when are you coming to our town?

This blog post is an alternative, easier-to-follow, representation of an article on Mashable.com, How Does Your Internet Service Stack up to Google Fiber?

Property	AT&T	Comcast	Google	Time-Warner	Verizon
Name	Max Turbo Internet and U-verse U450 TV	Xfinity Extreme 105 Internet and Digital Premier TV	Gigabit + Fiber TV	Signature Home Package	FiOS 300 and Ultimate HD
Price/mo	$188	$180	$120	$199	$318
Internet access speed	24 Mbit/s down, 3 Mbit/s up	105 Mbit/s down, 10 Mbit/s up	1000 Mbit/s down, 1000 Mbit/s up	105 Mbit/s down, 10 Mbit/s up	300 Mbit/s down, 65 Mbit/s up
Monthly Data Cap	250 GB	300 GB	Infinite	60 GB	Infinite
Channels	430, incl. Cinemax, HBO	> 300, incl. AMC, ESPN, HBO, Showtime	162, incl. Showtime	350; premium extra	380, incl. ESPN, NFL RedZone, Showtime
DVRs, Recording	1, 4	1, 2	1, 8	1, 2	1, 2
DVR - hrs	65 HD	60 HD	500 HD	150 HD	60 HD
Availability	22 states	39 states, & Washington, DC	Kansas City, KS & Kansas City, MO	29 states	12 states, & Washington, DC

Roger Federer, No.7, No. 17, No. 1.

In a recent article on ESPN.com, on Federer's latest Wimbledon conquest, the first sentence is:

"No. 7, No. 17, No. 1."

Gets you thinking on how well he has done from other points of view. I have given here a simple exercise of determining how well some of these players have done since their 1st Grand Slam win, and how well they may perform in the future. (1st Grand Slam win identifies, in a way, a certain maturity needed for such wins).