NomadicRider

The theory of Multiple Intelligence

kunika — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:21:23 +0000

Multiple Intelligences

My kid doesn’t get good grades … All she is interested in is music and games… Why don’t you get a REAL Job ? He’s such an idiot ! Flunked math again !

Here is some food for thought … Can intelligence be measured by just an IQ test, which is common for all? Is there only one kind of intelligence?

The other day, while channel surfing, I chanced upon a program on T.V. discussing Frames of Mind - The theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Earl Gardner (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences)

Gardner has different view point on the kinds of intelligence that exist. KINDS – yup ! He has a theory of multiple Intelligences. According to him - intelligence is ‘the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural setting‘.

The list of 8 intelligences that he speaks about include some that we commonly think of as logical and educational and some that deal with art and literature. See for your self:

Linguistic intelligence: Understanding spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals. Someone with strong Linguistic Intelligence will be able to remember great deal of info & have the ability to effectively use language to express themselves. Like – Russell Peters, Writers, lawyers, and speakers.
Logical-mathematical intelligence: Having the capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically. Essentially, detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically. Like– Vishwanathan Anand, Software programmers, Analysts.
Musical intelligence: Having performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns. It encompasses the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms. Like- AR Rehman, DJ’s, Singers etc.
Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence: Utilizing one’s whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. Having remarkable Mind–Body co-ordination. Like- Dancers, Gymnasts, Drummers, Sports person, even the kids who are good on PS2.
Spatial intelligence: Having an ability to discern similarities across diverse domains. Visual-thinkers. Like- Manish Arora, Painters, Architect, Engineers, Designers, Bartenders
Interpersonal intelligence: Having the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. Potential to work effectively with others. Like- Mother Teresa, Salespeople, religious and political leaders.
Intrapersonal intelligence: entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one’s feelings, fears and motivations. Self-Understanding. Like- Osho, Spiritual Teachers.
Naturalistic Intelligence: Having ability to understand and work effectively in the natural world. Like- Steve Irwin, Biologists and Zoologists.

Obviously, all the 8 are present in everyone and they rarely operate independently. It’s just that some people have Special Abilities or Intelligence (skewed towards one of the 8) which is what makes them brilliant.

Well ! After all this I have only one thing to declare - my genius ;)

If you found this post interesting, you may also want to read …

Off to Goa for the weekend

Review of Fashion … and … when will it finish

Sharninder — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:59:17 +0000

So … I just finished seeing the movie Fashion and I have only one thing to say to Madhur Bhandarkar … that was one loooonnnggg movie dude ! Oh and I also think it was a very boring movie.

I mean I get the idea of realistic cinema and and all that and I’d probably have been fine if this movie had gotten over in about 1-1/2 hours instead of the 2-1/2 hours it took, but the whole look and concept of Fashion just didn’t work for me.

The movie is about a small town girl who comes to the big city to become a model. Her struggling days, her success, the arrogance and her downfall have all been depicted convincingly. Priyanka’s role is pretty good and her acting commendable, and that is just about the only thing that I liked about the movie.

I just feel that the movie took a long time in getting the message across and that made it slow and almost tortuous. I don’t remember seeing a movie, in the recent past, which I wish would have ended sooner.

Another thing which doesn’t work for me is that Madhur’s movies for some reason look like they’ve all been made on second hand reels which he found while lurking in the back alleys of the entertainment industry.

And no by second hand reels, I don’t mean that the concept is old. Kudos to Madhur for daring to make a film which actually shows the reality of the industry like it is. But, he could have atleast used better lighting ! Or a better camera-man !

Well, I agree that I don’t understand the movie biz very well and how expensive it is to make movies … but I really wish I hadn’t paid so much money to see this movie.

Oh, btw, Madhur … taking a dig at real life and packaging it in a movie is not realistic cinema. Show us something we haven’t seen. I mean we’ve all seen the gay fashion designers and their socialite trophy wives and the drug addict models … ‘Nuff said !

If you found this post interesting, you may also want to read …

Dostana Review … and … Apple product placement

Sharninder — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:31:36 +0000

I saw Dostana last Saturday and kinda liked the movie. I mean I have no idea that John Abraham had so many fans in Bangalore. I mean fans of the male kind ! The kind who would whistle looking at John coming out of the Miami Ocean in his Undies … a ‘La Ursula Andress. Well, not really, but you get the drift !

Anyway, the movie was fun and mostly harmless clean comedy. I know some people were disappointed with the movie because … you know … they actually thought that Abhishek Bachhan and John Abraham would be playing a couple in the movie !

So, anyway the movie is about two random guys who are looking for a place to stay in Miami and end up being interested in the same apartment. The hitch is that the apartment is only for girls and so the duo decide to act as a couple and the rest, as they say, is history :-) Well, not really, but you know how these things go … I’m not supposed to spoil the fun and all that jazz.

All in all, I’d say its a nice and fun movie … Oh wait .. I already said that. Well, go watch the movie then.

The other thing that I wanted to talk about is product placement in movies. Specifically, Apple product placement. And when does it really start to get irritating.

I mean, I’m all for the producers making an extra buck by making the actors pose with nice and sexy gadgets, but there definitely has to be a limit to this. Or if there isn’t … a limit should be set soon … like now !

The makers of Dostana must have really got a nice bundle from Apple for promoting Macbooks, iPods, and iPhones in the movie. The movie features all those gadgets in multiple scenes and in places where they were absoltely avoidable. In fact, Karan Johar went a step ahead and started with promoting Apple products outside the movie too by gifting John a (new shiny white) Macbook on a chat show he was hosting for, of course, promoting the movie.

If you found this post interesting, you may also want to read …

Microsoft SkyDrive now at 25GB

Sharninder — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:05:57 +0000

It seems like Microsoft is quite serious about making their Live SkyDrive a serious contender in the online storage business. They launched the service about an year back with 500MB of space, hardly enough for … well anything … increasing it to 5GB in February and surprised everyone last week by announcing that SkyDrive will now come with 25GBs of free online space. Wow !

Microsoft’s competitors in the Online storage space are Box.net, Wuala, Xdrive, Mozy (an EMC subsidiary) , Adrive and countless others. Granted that this space is already crowded, Microsoft’s decision might come in as a surprise to some. I, on the other hand, feel that this is just another attempt by Microsoft to establish a presence in the online space. Wonder how long before Google joins the party.

Adrive offers 50GB of free space, and in terms of free space, looks to be the only real competitor in the space. The rest of them all offer anywhere from 1-5GBs free and while that is enough to get a reviewer started with the service, a real long term user would definitely be looking for more than that. I know I do.

I’m sure with this latest update (and Microsoft’s massive Marketing machinery) Skydrive will definitely gain a lot of new users. How long can they maintain the momemtum and all the good press that Live (and Windows 7) has been getting is anyone’s guess.

If you found this post interesting, you may also want to read …

Friday Linkfest

Sharninder — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:49:18 +0000

Been a while since the Linkfest … well, I’ve been travelling and have been kinda busy. Here is the collection of links from what I’ve been reading this week.

Business

Scobleizer.com: Rober Scoble has been travelling in China this week and he’s amazed by the speed of development in there and the way business is conducted in that country. He posted about it earlier this week.

China makes, the world takes: The Atlantic’s excellent article on China.

Humour

I’m a Mac, I’m a PC

And I’m Linux, losers

Technology

Build your own Wall-E: This dude is awesome !

Yahoo officially introduces their new Open Strategy

The Best way to tether your iPhone to your laptop … for free - Unlike AT & T, which is going to charge $30/month for this basic facility. Boooo AT & T !!

If you found this post interesting, you may also want to read …

The Drinks are on me !

Kunika and Sharninder — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:38:14 +0000

This post is what, in web-jargon these days, is called a mind-dump.

As I sit in the office on a nice breezy (and slow) afternoon, wishing is all I can do and here are some of my favorite drinks that I’m wishing for …. right now !

Nothing extraordinary … out of the box … but like they say - if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it !!

LIITE (Long Island Iced Tea) - Djins @ Hyaat-Delhi, that’s where I first had LITE. The best part is that you need just one to get you into high spirits. One look at the ingredients and you’ll know why !

You need ½ a shot each of Gin, White Rum, Tequila , Triple Sec & Vodka . Some Coke for the color & some lemon juice.

Shake all the ingredients except the coke with ice and strain into a highball. Then pour the coke on the top. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

Rum Cola – Simple and effective. Also known as ‘dhoka-cola’ , All fauji kids would vouch for this one. Most people like it with Bacardi or Old Monk but I prefer Capt Morgan’s. The spicy vanilla after taste is splendid.

You’ll need 1 shot Captain Morgan’s spiced rum, Coke. I also add ½ a lime.

In a tall glass pour in the rum & top the glass with ice. Add the coke & drop in some lime slices.

Center Shock – a good friend of mine once made this for me by accident. It’s something many people will not like, but I do.

You’ll need tender coconut in the shell, one shot of vodka and a straw.

Just make an opening in the coconut and remove about a sip or two from it. Fill in the vodka and keep it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Serve with a straw.

Mojito – It just looks so good that you have to have it !

You’ll need 1.5 oz White Rum, 10-12 fresh mint leaves,1/2 lime, 7 oz club soda & 3 tsp. sugar syrup.

Crush mint leaves and lightly squeeze lime in a cool tall glass. Pour sweet syrup to cover and fill glass with ice. Add the Rum, club soda, and stir. Garnish with a lime wedge and a few sprigs of mint.

And of course Draught Beer (to keep my husband happy) – You need a can of chilled beer. Just open and drink.

I just have one request, when ever you serve a drink, please do it in the right glass. And although my husband says ‘a drink tastes the same in any glass’, I firmly believe that without proper presentation… the drink loses its ATTITUDE ; )

Do you guys have a favorite drink … let me know the recipe in the comments and I promise I’ll try them :-)

You may also want to read …

5 Must Do’s while in Pune

kunika — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:28:43 +0000

1ne : MARZ - O - RIN

Self Service/ No Smoking/ Veg, Non-Veg - that’s what Marz-o-rin’s menu card reads. One of Pune’s most loved & known café, situated right on MG road opposite Buddhani wafers – Marz-o-rin is a must visit when in Pune.

Still maintaining the old world charm of the British, the cozy little balcony upstairs is ideal for a coffee and sandwich break. The place is a favorite with the oldies (the regulars, who come to discuss the hot topic of the day) as well as the teenage crowd out on a (low budget) date.

Famous for the Chicken Sandwiches and Milkshakes, they also serve - Burgers, Rolls, Bakes, Salads, cakes, pastries and a variety of beverages. It’s not like a regular CCD or Barista - the food is good, service is quick and the prices are still very affordable. For example, the chocolate shake at Marz-o-rin costs a mere Rs. 30 !

The beverage menu is widespread with fresh juices, hot coffee, chillers, milkshakes and falooda. The sandwiches, pizza and hot bakes are available in white and brown bread options. I had the chicken sandwich with creamy spicy mayo (best enjoyed grilled with extra mayo), chocolate milk shake (which was sweeter than what I usually have), followed by a brownie. Everything on the menu is for Rs. 30-50. Yes! Seriously. I recommend sitting on the 1st floor balcony, and spending time gazing at the passers-by on MG Road.

T2o: Burger King

Not the ‘multi-million-dollar-Burger-King’… this is Pune’s most famous Burger join … the undisputed champ of the biggest-heaviest-Juiciest- Burgers and all well within a price range of Rs. 30 to Rs. 75.

It’s a dream world for non-vegetarians with chicken burger, mutton roll, sausage surprise and the ever popular King Burger (the King Burger is a humongous steak burger). On the menu you’ll find Jumbo burgers which are of the size of a quarter-plate, dripping with mayonnaise, and I’ll bet you can’t finish one.

The place is always crowded, the service is slow, and there is no parking available near the Camp outlet… but no one seems to mind ! If you have time, little money and you are hungry… this is the cheapest and tastiest option available.

Th3ee: The German Bakery

To some the German Bakery is a ‘maybe’ in Pune, for others it’s a daily ritual, but certainly if you have been there once you’ll go there again. Frequented by travellers, Osho followers, college kids, artists, hippies, trouble-makers and everyone in between, TGB is more than just an old wooden shack in Koregaon Park.

On the menu is fresh carrot juice, cake slices, Banana Lassi, Cold coffee, Masala Chai, Fruit Cream, herb Bread and some healthy options too. The prices range from Rs. 20 to Rs 90.

Its all about great food and superb coffee, but most of all, a fabulous experience. Making friends with random people, just observing or daydreaming … it’s a place to do whatever you wanna do !

F4ur: Osho Chappals

Comfortable, Economical, Cool and Colourful, you just HAVE to pick up Osho’s while in Pune. Available in all sizes, for men & women, starting at Rs. 50/- , yup you read it right Rs. 50/-

The original osho chappals have a sole made of certain ‘chatai’ type material and has a thick velvety V shaped straps, the original color was the osho red. Now one can match every outfit with the colors available. I picked up the metallic gold & silver this time.

They don’t last very long, but you certainly won’t be wearing a 50 bucks chappal for a marathon !

Fi5e: Budani Wafers & Kayani Bakery

How can one talk about Pune and not about Chivda from Budani and the Shrewsbury buscuits from Kayani!!

They are a must buy. Budani Wafers at MG road is famous for the potato chivda (starts at Rs. 140 per kg) and cheese wafers.

And everyone knows about Pune’s most sought-after Shrewsbury biscuits from Kayani Bakery on East Street. The bakery has been a landmark since it was established by brothers Hormuz and Khodayar Irani in 1955. The Shrewsbury biscuit, which is Kayani’s flagship product, is possibly the most delicious biscuit you will ever eat. I also love there crisp wine biscuits.

The biscuits are often sold-out and both the joints have a siesta time from 2pm to 5 pm… so get in line as early as possible.

If you found this post interesting, you may also want to read …

George Restaurant and Bar - Panaji, North Goa

kunika — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:33:29 +0000

George specializes in Goan cuisine and sea food … how do I know ? Well …

a) It says so on the banner

b) I’ve had the food and IT IS awesome

c) All the locals eat there. One can always be sure that the food is good if the restaurant is always packed and 75% of the people eating are locals.

In the capital Panjim, you’ll find George Bar and Restaurant, right around the corner - going towards Panjim Church. On the first look, It’s an old and rickety looking joint, but they do have an a/c enclosure on the first floor - Called the family room :-)

Like all the other times we have visited Goa, this time also we had-to-have one meal at George. So a long 3 course lunch it was and very economical too - in Rs. 650 we were full to the brim.

Beer like the rest of Goa is at a reasonable 70-80 bucks for 650ml, for starters we had Prawn Masala (Rs 95). The prawns were coated in an amazingly spicy onion-tomato-chilli-garlic-bellpepper’ish-masala. For main-course we ordered Squid xacuti (Rs110), Pork Vindaloo (Rs80) and Fish-curry-rice (Rs100) … Ya ! I know its sounds like a lot and it was but we wanted to get a taste of everything - And we managed to finish everything :-) We ended our meal with a bowl of Caramel Custard (Rs40).

Goan cuisine is an interesting mix of varied influences, apart from the seafood – chicken, beef and pork are part of the goan food tradition. Some dishes that will be on all menus in a Goa restaurant are - xacuti, sopotel, vindaloo and cafreal.

Vinhalhos / Vindaloo – is ‘vinho’ for wine, ‘alhos’ for garlic (Portuguese), ‘viande’ - ‘aloo’ for meat (French) - potato (Indian). A very spicy blend of tones of red chilies, garlic, vinegar, some fenni and palm jaggery. (Did you know that one of the ingredients of Pork Vindaloo is coconut fenni ? )

Cafreal is a goan dish of tribal origin. It was supposedly named after the African soldiers or Kaffirs who brought it to Goa centuries ago. In this dish the meat is marinated and deep-fried. The result is rather dry, but spicy dish. This is the equivalent of Portuguese-style grilled chicken and the sauce is made from the left over marinate.

Sorpotel is prepared from meat diced and cooked in a thick and very spicy sauce favored with red chilies, cinnamon, cloves bathed in tangy toddy vinegar. Sorpotel keeps for several days, and is actually considered to taste better the day after (something like our ma-ki-dal).

Xacuti (pronounced as sha-coo-ti), has its origins in Portuguese cooking. It has lots of earthy spices like nutmeg, coriander, turmeric, chilies, ginger and cloves. Additionally tamarind and lemon juice make for a pungent curry.

I also picked up some ready-to-cook-curry-packets in Goa. Crossing-my-fingers they turn out well !

If you found this post interesting, you may also want to read …

Convert youtube videos online for free

Sharninder — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 06:14:25 +0000

I have a confession to make. I LOVE youtube.

So ? Whats so great about it, you ask ? Everyone loves youtube.

Well, yes and no. Everyone likes to spend time on youtube, watch a dozen videos everyday and then move on. I, on the other hand, actually like some of those videos enough that I like to take them with me and play them back on my iPhone/iPod video.

Unlike some other video sharing sites, though, youtube doesn’t offer an easy way to download videos for offline viewing.

There are a ways to download videos from youtube to your personal computer and then convert them to a format which the iPod can play back, but they’re all just inconvenient hacks. They work, but not if you’re in a hurry and are not really in the mood to play around with the countless options that tools like ffmpeg (which, by the way, is an excellent open source video converter) support.

This is where ConvertDirect comes in.

ConvertDirect is an easy to use and free online service for converting youtube videos to one of the many video formats it supports.

Just enter the link to the youtube video and chose the format you want your converted video to be in. Type in your email address and ConvertDirect will send you an email with a link to the converted video. The link will be live for 48 hours during which time you can download the video from their servers.

If you only want to use a desktop player like vlc to play back the videos offline, then click on the “Download the online video directly” tab and download the video to your computer.

Converting youtube videos for offline playback couldn’t have been simpler and more convenient than this.

Go ahead and download all those music videos great educational videos you’ve been waiting to watch and take them with you on the road.

Are there any other great online-to-offline software that you guys use ? Cool websites ? Let us know in the comments.

If you found this post interesting, you may also want to read …

Will Open Source survive the economic crisis

Sharninder — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:57:49 +0000

Will it ?

Conventional logic would say, Yes ! I mean, Open Source is free, right ? Everyone should infact be only using Open Source in an economic crisis.

Well, Andrew Keen doesn’t think so and he’s on Slashdot right now for thinking the way he does. Now, Andrew is entitled his opinion and all that jazz, but, seriously, I think the article is a load of bull****.

The reason Andrew’s thought process doesn’t make sense to me is because he completely and conveniently has chosen to forget the very reason why Open Source even exists. Andrew thinks opensource is for making money and since money is scarce these days, it will not survive. And he’s confusing web 2.0 with opensource.

For the lazy ones, I’ll summarize, Andrew says that the tough economic times that we’re going through will spell the end of the “free” web 2.0 days. That we won’t be seeing any websites providing free services anymore. Fair and square.

He also goes on to say that Open Source is free labour and since it is free, it won’t survive the economic downturn either.

The hungry and cold unemployed masses aren’t going to continue giving away their intellectual labor on the Internet in the speculative hope that they might get some “back end” revenue. “Free” doesn’t fill anyone’s belly; it doesn’t warm anyone up.

Now, first of all … praise where its due. That’s a nice headline you’ve chose for this post Andrew. I mean, Copywriting-101 … Nail it with the headline. But, I don’t think you took the rest of the class, because the rest of your article is full of half baked assumptions that come through pretty clear.

OpenSource is not Web 2.0 and while Web 2.0 does use a lot of opensource at it’s core, they’re both different. Web 2.0 also doesn’t mean making a website and then giving away the services for free. Free services have always been a part of the web and will be.

Web 1.0 or whatever they called it back then was about the Internet finding it’s feat and Web 2.0 has been about cleaning up the house, making the designs plain and simple, making sure the visitor can find what they’re looking for and giving the visitor a reason to pay and come back again. Flickr, 37signals and smugmug are Web 2.0. Sure the 1.0 guys made mistakes, but then that was 1.0 - IT IS EXPECTED :-)

Now, coming to OpenSource. Andrew, my man, you really have to understand that people don’t contribute to OpenSource for the money. Sure, some people do. But, that’s not how opensource survives. It survives because it has a community. You know the kind, where like minded individuals come and discuss ideas and stuff. Well, in the 21st century, they code, apparently !

A lot of these opensource contributors actually like to code. Not, because they get money out of it, but because they like to … well … code. And make friends in the process. Now, friendship is a weird concept. Give stuff away for free and make friends doesn’t actually endorse the idea of OpenSource but then people who get the idea of OpenSource … just do. And that is the power of it. It doesn’t change the world but it goes a long way towards it.

Did I tell you that it is free ? Does it make sense now ?

The problem with your theory is that it goes beyond any logic I’ve heard about or can think about. Oh wait, there IS NO logic in your theory.