Dear Soumya, Quickly convey, it was a joke.....or risk 100% burns due to extreme flaming....... :) Anyway, I am always on listening mode on this list, so the replies directly to you... see below. You can choose to post the email to list if you want... Soumyanath Chatterjee wrote: > Sorry for this absolutely Off topic post. > > A few days ago, I was watching a documentory on Sky Train. For those > who are wondering what is sky train; it is a train line from Western > Chaina to Tibet. It is considered to be a engineering marvel as it > travels at a height of over 4000 ft, requiring presurized cabins and > supply oxygen. Well, pressurized cabins is an old technology and nothing so great about it......... Passenger jets, cold storage bogies etc. all one has to do is just put it for train with passenger seats... Basically, a glorified interiors designer's / engineers work, to attract the attention of the world. > Needless to say, engines thay pull the train has no > parallel in world Again overly glorified way of conveying things, what we need to understand is how steep the gradient is and what is the power required. Please check the information provided by the Chinese (if you can find) and compare if the gradient is steeper compared to our decades old Mumbai (sea level) to Karjat / Kasara (Westen Ghat) in 2:30 hours trip where Central Railway runs the local trains as well as Diesel engines with long length of bogies on long distance passenger trains on a daily basis over packed with humanity (load). The question to ask is X ft to 4000ft over what distance and speed and the value of X and therefore the steepness assessement and therefore the power required by the engines. Maybe the Chinese first time tried to do something in real high tech. and were so overwhelmed that they had to shout the world over. > and much of line was laid on snow, which melts in > day time and freezes in night. > Again the same fallacy.....lines are not on snow per say, they had to work on soil which gets affected by a temperature change of X degrees over a 24 hours period. Now, please do try to find and assess what is the freezing point of water and melting point of snow and also the latent heat involved. Thereafter, please also check similarly the temperature variation both in summers and winters in our our very own Rajasthan and Simla and Nilgiris and Darjeeling. What is required is high carbon steel and regular replacement of rails and tracking. No big deal again........maybe for chinese it is and for a those few who are overawed by the chinese propaganda. > All these were new technology, never before tried. It is a long track > over 3000Km long taking about 24Hrs to travel. There was also a small > mention - the project started in 2001 and completed in July 2006. > Beg your pardon... there is nothing new about it. Expecting new in technology from chinese is expecting the race of "SWORN PIRATES" of suddenly turning into "DEVELOPERS of the CENTURY"..... come on beat it and see through the propaganda please. Tracking 3000 Kms over 5 years in open land..... they are worse than our own home grown variety of communists....Anyway, building a train line from one country China to another county Tibet should be having such lengths... nothing wonderful about it..... Maybe the gauge conversion work done in India over working network without affecting traffic should be taken up as an example to study / implement the world over..... what do you say...... > They had to overcome many hurdle, which were not thought during > planning of the project. The team definately had to evaluate many > options and selected one of them. > Oh sure, what do you expect the pirates to do......plan....... What a joke..... HA HA HA HAH AHHHH...........so they had to actually do a lot of things over and over again (evaluate in other words) > What I wonder: > Was those choice about nitty-gritty of implementation was demoratically done? > The objective of the having this rail link is to subjugate a race and country and you expect democracy has any place in this context. This rail link is the link to disaster for a generation of Tibetans to come, who will vanish from the face of earth before they are born. > Was the issue of which shovel to use for cutting the ice was more > important than where to lay the line? > Not at all, the issue was which man to kill and which land to exploit, so the Chinese chose Tibet and Tibetans. So what do you have to say about that ....? > Was the team lost time and energy in deciding who will contol kitchen > instead of how to lay the line? > Again not at all, they ate all the food meant for Tibetans all the time. Ask a Tibetan who came to India between 1950 to 1970 and even now.....and he/she will answer the question about the kitchen control by Chinese... > Was the name of team more important discussion on meeting the project deadline? > > Never, the team is very well known the world over Red Army and Communist China. Whether famous or infamous you decide and take side...... > I can only wonder, because I have never seen such achievement. Are you communist ...? No probs with that.....if you are an Indian and still never heard or seen better achievement in your very own country then you are probably a Chinese Communist......then it is understandable....... > What I > see is in my example of ilug-cal site is: > Hardly any post on what to put up in the site, in contrast to massive > mails on which CMS to use. > Very knowledgeble and highly technical discussion in how many hops the > net traffic takes, in contrast to what does one see once he reach at > the site. > Very heated discussion on who will control the site and pull the > strings, in contrast to who many people outside the ilug-cal ghetto > has visited the site and cares a hoot about the site. > This is easily possible from the lens that you are looking at the things.... Ever heard of the word R&D, chinese hardly do anything of the sort so .... they end up copying quickly and rapidly......so these issues / thoughts never occur to them.... > Grand magnanimity of offering to host the site (costs about Rs. 300 > per anum) shared with some ones space. In contrast to what value the > site adds to the society..... > Well we have seen what has happened to ilug-cal.org. hosted by a non Indian, not anywhere related to the linux related activities of the city of Kolkata. Controlled / maintained by a few of our own at his mercy...... Compare the above to the complete end to end resource offered by an individual not only for site hosting, free bandwidth and meeting place and coffee on the house, but as a whole something which has effectively to put some focus and life back into the ILUG-CAL that we sometimes identify ourselves with. > I wonder! What will hapen if we, ilug-cal team, is given the > responsibility for the Chinese sky plane.... > That is too insignificant a thing to even compare as to what we have already achieved. > Anyway, China is a different country, let us be proud to be Indian and > be proud citizen of the city that has produced 5 Nobel Lauriets. Amen! > Yes, this is where you have saved yourself.......... Best of Lucks. with Regards, ASHWIN > (Donning my nuke proof jacket, other mails have not been trimmed to > keep context of the mail in perspective to the motivated reader) > > -- > Regards > > Soumyanath Chatterjee > http://www.soumya.name > > On 9/4/06, Arindam Basu <arinbasu99@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> Hi Suren and Mani: >> >> I think it's fair to be minimalist as you design the >> website and then scale up. As my old professor used to >> say, keep things KISS (_k_eep _i_t _s_hort and >> _s_imple) and SOCO (_S_ingle _O_verriding >> _C_ommunication _O_bjective). >> >> I think as with research papers and physician-patient >> communications, it applies to designing group websites >> as well. >> >> Go figure. >> >> Best, >> Arin Basu >> >> --- Surendra Singhi <ssinghi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> >>> Hi Arindam, >>> >>> Thanks for the feedback. The admin (read geeks) team >>> have setup the website, >>> and most of the things are now up and running. What >>> we need now is some >>> editor, who can help us organize things and present >>> a better face to the >>> public. >>> >>> We will try to work on the points which you and >>> Sankarshan mentioned, but >>> we are always going to be doing catching up job, >>> unless someone more capable >>> volunteers to help (can contact off list). >>> >>> Regards, >>> Surendra Singhi >>> >>> Arindam Basu <arinbasu99@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >>> >>> >>>> I was checking out the ilug-cal.info website. >>>> >>>> Questions: >>>> >>>> * Why is the "template chooser" added to the >>>> >>> website >>> >>>> home page? Who needs that? >>>> >>>> * For the home page (and indeed other pages), >>>> >>> links >>> >>>> link back to the same page. This is confusing, and >>>> >>> I >>> >>>> wonder why was that done? >>>> >>>> * Also, as I navigate deeper down the home page >>>> >>> (say >>> >>>> move from home page to "news" page), I expect the >>>> navigation panel to reflect that the pages have >>>> changed. But that does not happen. Confusing, >>>> >>> again. >>> >>>> Then, why did the web designer add a navigation >>>> >>> panel >>> >>>> at all if it is not meant to be informative or be >>>> used? >>>> >>>> * There are 27 links in the front page in all, >>>> >>> some >>> >>>> duplicated at different parts of the page. Why? >>>> >>> What >>> >>>> are all the links doing here? Are they all >>>> >>> absolutely >>> >>>> necessary? >>>> >>>> * Why is there no description of what or who >>>> >>> ilug-cal >>> >>>> is or are? Is it assumed that only people >>>> >>> associated >>> >>>> with ilug-cal or ilug or linux will visit this >>>> website? >>>> >>>> * Why is no link added to enable a visitor to >>>> >>> learn >>> >>>> more about (subscribe/unsubscribe/read online) >>>> >>> the >>> >>>> mailing list? In fact, no information about the >>>> mailing list is included in the website. Why is >>>> >>> this >>> >>>> information omitted? >>>> >>>> * Why does the "chat-log" cover the main >>>> >>> information >>> >>>> presentation area of the home page? The chat log >>>> >>> does >>> >>>> not seem to contain any useful information abot >>>> >>> the >>> >>>> group. It's ugly to look at, very verbose, and >>>> frankly, portrays the group at a very poor light. >>>> >>> Does >>> >>>> it absolutely need to be there? >>>> >>>> * What is the purpose of this website? >>>> >>>> I hope by posting these questions to the mailing >>>> >>> list, >>> >>>> I do not offend anyone. These questions are not >>>> >>> meant >>> >>>> to be negative criticisms. I want to learn more >>>> >>> about >>> >>>> the website and the idea behind it. >>>> >>>> Best, >>>> Arin Basu >>>> >>>> > _______________________________________________ > Ilug-cal-discuss mailing list > Ilug-cal-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://list.ilug-cal.org/mailman/listinfo/ilug-cal-discuss > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com