Bibek Paudel. Photo Blog.

My Blog has moved

2008-10-09T11:45:00.004+05:45

Hi everyone,
I no longer blog here. Blogger (hence, Google) has very pathetic support for self-hosted blogs (FTP-hosting) and that annoyed me very much. So, I have moved over to wordpress. Here's the address: http://bibekpaudel.wordpress.com/

Find me there. My pictures will be uploaded to my picasa and flickr accounts too. Here are the links:

My weblog: http://bibekpaudel.wordpress.com

All information on my web presence will be updated there.

Thank you all for visiting my blog. Please continue doing so :)

Hip Hop guys of Nepal

2008-01-25T05:50:00.000+05:45

Related Story : Hip Hop guys of Nepal @ Bibek Paudel blog.

The Vista threat

2008-01-25T05:38:00.000+05:45

Related Story : On Windows Vista @ Bibek Paudel blog.

The OLPC $100 Laptop ( XO-1, The Children's Machine ).

2007-07-07T23:59:00.000+05:45

A technological innovation in itself, the $100 OLPC laptop, tailor-designed to suit the needs of schoolchildren in developing countries brings together two wonders on Earth: children and Computer Science. This is a potential power to change the world.

This machine named XO-1 isn't just another laptop made cheap in order to be made sellable. The XO-1 is planned to be low-cost, small, durable, and efficient. In fact, it is less of a laptop and more of a vehicle to make education more accessible and to bridge the digital divide. Its success hinges on different factors like government policy, educators, content developers, social workers, politicians, managers, technocrats, students, engineers/developers and possibly every strata of the society.
I am personally very excited about it. Imagine a child in a very remote village in a very difficult Nepalese terrain reading contents from the Wikipedia or from other schools. Imagine him sharing a work of music, art, text with his friends or other kids in faraway places. There already are many success stories from countries where OLPC has been tried. If you read about them or watch their videos, I believe, you can't remain unmoved.
Harnessing the power of free and open source softwares, intelligent hardware design, and the angels that we call children, the OLPC laptop is a promising step towards a better world.

All the following pictures (except the last two) are of a B2-TEST SAMPLE machine provided to OLPC Nepal.

The XO-1 when open.

A laptop on a laptop's lap.

The reverse face of a closed XO-1. Battery Compartment is seen.

The front face of a closed XO.

How to open an XO ?

Pull out those antennae first.

Rip the faces apart !

Booting an XO. There's the Power button. Notice the speaker and the camera too.

The XO is loading the firmware.

The booting process. The OLPC laptop runs on a slimmed-down version of Fedora GNU/Linux.

Sugar is Sweet !
Sugar is the name of the XO's interface. Unlike in our desktop systems, it does not use a "desktop" metaphor and only focuses on one task at a time. It is written in the Python Programming language.

You can rotate the screen to adjust your reading positions.

It can be used in the e-book mode, the way you read a normal book.

The keyboard and a hybrid stylus/touch pad. It is dust and water proof.

The green outgrowth are the laptop's antennae. They use long range WiFi. The maximum range recorded so far is 2 km in free space. The laptops use mesh-networking which means you stay connected to the network as long as there is an XO in your range. This way, a network may virtually extend from one point to all over the world.

I think this is the most popular of all the OLPC pictures.

Luckily, http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Drawing75c.png has this picture which shows everything you read so far in this post.

These rugged, low-power computers contain flash memory instead of a hard drive. Pricing is currently expected to start at around US$135–175 and the goal is to reach the US$100 mark in 2008. Approximately 500 developer boards (Alpha-1) were distributed in summer 2006; 875 working prototypes (Beta 1) were delivered in late 2006; 2400 Beta-2 machines were distributed at the end of February 2007; full-scale production is expected to start in mid-2007. This year, seven nations have committed to buy the XO-1 for their schoolchildren, including Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay. Other countries including Nepal are likely to follow suit in the coming years.

In Nepal, the project is run by some enthusiastic youth volunteers. You can help the cause by donating, volunteering or by spreading the word !

alt="One Laptop Per Child Logo" style='padding: 5px; border: none;'>

Free Software Movement in Nepal (FOSS Nepal).

2007-07-06T23:02:00.000+05:45

Nepal's own flavor of GNU/Linux Operating System, NepaLinux is now one version younger. NepaLinux 2.0 was released last week.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Nepal has received considerable amount of public and government attention. Two tasks forces have been formed by the Government of Nepal to study the OLPC mission and its prospects in the country.
Research and development work in Natural Language Processing is underway in Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya and Kathmandu University. Nepalese spell checker, English-Nepalese translator, Nepalese grammar Checker, Computing for the illiterate (Sambad Project) and many other encouraging developments are now beginning to take shape. The LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) is going places. It has reached the schools and communities in villages of different faraway districts (like Dailekh).

Having fueled all this, a very vibrant community of talented people, mostly youths, is all geared up to lead the movement of Free and Open Source Software in Nepal. It is indeed very inspiring to all Nepalese in and outside Nepal who is even slightly concerned.

I was fortunate enough to meet some such people this summer. This picture was taken yesterday, after the weekly interaction program, FOSS Ka Kura (FKK), in St. Xaviers College, Maitighar, Kathmandu.

Standing alongside a very energetic and talented group of Free Software activists in Nepal.
Sorry, I forgot some names. But I will try.
(sitting, from right) Dayaram dai, Jwalanta.
(standing, from right, excluding me and Saurabh)Ankur dai(green tee), Subir dai, Basanta dai, Kebina,....

One Laptop Per Child Nepal (OLPC Nepal).

2007-07-04T09:49:00.001+05:45

OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) is a U.S. based, not-for-profit organization with origins in the MIT Media Lab. It was started to design, manufacture, and distribute an inexpensive laptop computer intended to be distributed to children around the world, mainly to those in third world countries, to provide them with a better access to knowledge. The project was first announced in September 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and launched thereafter. The 100$ laptop is called XO.

This summer, I start my association with OLPC Nepal. Last week, on the day of Ashar 15, a festive day in Nepal to celebrate the monsoon and the plantation of rice, we had a gathering in Kathmandu.

with OLPC Nepal. from left: 2nd-Ankur Sharma dai; 4th-Himali Kiran Bhusal dai; 5th-Prasanna bhai.

Everyone is having "dahi-chiuraa" (curd and beaten rice), something that shouldn't be missed on an Ashar-15.(white T-shirt: Shankar Pokharel dai).

alt="One Laptop Per Child Logo" style='padding: 5px; border: none;'>

A time well spent !

2007-06-25T01:47:00.001+05:45

My project at IIT Guwahati is over. So is my 45-day romance with the land of Assam.

I came, I saw, I enjoyed.

I smiled, I left. But I will remember.

The Kamakhya Temple.

2007-06-24T13:55:00.000+05:45

South Asian Hindu purists who ring alarm bells about society and its morality at the slightest hint of sexuality (be it asexual), better go back to school and hold a history book.

The Kamakhya temple, on the Nilachal hills of Guwahati in Assam is a celebration of human carnality. Legend has it that the genital (yoni) of Goddess Sati fell over this place while her husband Lord Shiva was carrying her corpse. Such places where parts of her body fell are known as Shakti-peethas in Hinduism, and have extreme importance among its Shakta cult. In some religious texts, the place is also said to be the site of lovemaking between Shiva and Sati.

The vaginal symbol exists in the main shrine as a large cleft in the bedrock from where a spring emanates. This time of the year, the water runs red with iron oxide resembling menstrual fluid. This is an occasion for large crowds of devotees to visit the shrine for the Ambubasi festival. Hindu philosophy is synaptically associated with the celebration of the union of male and female energies, Shiva and Shakti. They have been represented in the creative symbolism of the yoni and the male symbol of the lingam. And also Kamakhya.

Devotees at the Kamakhya temple during the Ambubasi Mela.

a shrine outside the main temple.

The temple of Kamakhya. Notice the Shikhara architecture.

The immediate entrance gate to the temple.

just outside the temple

the gate at the foot of the hill.

Religion and opium.

2007-06-16T18:45:00.000+05:45

Karl Marx once said, "Religion is the opium of the masses". Maybe. But opium is the religion of masses too, sometimes.
In Hinduism, narcotics and religion have always been associated. Mysticism has strange ways, especially in the East. Lord Shiva is known to be the God of Death. In Assam, Lord Shiva is also worshiped as Baba Bhootnath, the God of the Ghosts.

A 'dhaam' of Baba Bhootnath- the God of the Ghosts, an incarnation of lord Shiva.

An ashraam for the devotees of the dham. Lets peek inside !

Its evening. They are chanting prayers in the name of the god. They are singing 'Tokari Geet'.

That man there is preparing a special mix of narcotics and some other dry fruits. Bhaang (brought over from Manipur) is mixed with 'panchang' (a holy mix of cardamon, clove etc). The mixture is called 'bhog' and one kilogram of it costs nearly INR 2000 in the market. (Bhootnath thaan, Nagaon)

Take a look here.. They play devotional music and pass on that special thing (see the previous picture) while doing so.

Good Times in Assam.

2007-06-16T17:25:00.002+05:45

Yet another F word that can't be done without.

(in non decreasing order of height) Manash, Sumoy, Anupam and Dihing hostel.

Planning a mischief !

NIT D meets IIT G.

The other side of the road is Assam. This side is Meghalaya. Because of tax and other provisions that I don't know yet, this side of the road is a drinks haven. Cheaper than the labeled price,and more accessible than anything !

Those two guys were spotted buying drinks on the Meghalayan side of the road and selling them in the Assamese side. The next day, this picture made the Assamese police take swift action by arresting these guys ! Look at one of them's shameless smile. He is unaware he is being clicked. (Some pun intended ;))

Old man and the Sea.

The Countryside Assam

2007-06-16T16:58:00.000+05:45

In South Asia, you see a country in its countryside. During my stay in Assam, I went around to some such places too. The Kaziranga National Park, the city of Nagaon in Nagaon disctrict and Bilasipara in Dhubri district.

The Assamese "dhol" in a Namghar.

The statue of the "garuda" in a Namghar.

That's a typical Assamese Namghar.

Assam is full of these trees. You should not miss trying "taamool", a special kind of paan while in Assam.

That's 5 kilograms of pork.

That's some kilograms of, err.... (pork ??). haha.

Tea garden. Yet another common sight in Assam.

Kaziranga National Park.

Kaziranga National Park. It is known for its one horned rhinos. Something that reminds me of the Chitwan National Park.

On the way to Kaziranga.

On the way to Kaziranga.

On the way to Kaziranga.

On the way to Kaziranga.

On the way to Kaziranga. The faraway river is Bramhaputra. Sometimes, you can see wild animals grazing in the fields.

The Shakti temple of Maha Maya, Bilasipara, Dhubri

That Kali statue is really tall.

This is an artificial tree.

and this one an artificial tiger :)

Guwahati, here I come !

2007-05-27T01:06:00.000+05:45

Summer 2007. I was in Guwahati for a month.

Wikipedia:
Guwahati is a major city in eastern India, often considered as the gateway to the North-East Region (NER) of the country and is the largest city within the region. Dispur, the capital of the Indian state of Assam is situated within the city. Guwahati is one of the most rapidly growing cities in India. Today, the city straddles between the LGB International Airport in the west to Narengi in the east for almost 45 kilometres and between the southern bank of the Brahmaputra river and the foothills of the Shillong plateau for around 15 kilometres.
It is a major commercial and educational centre of eastern India and is home to world class institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.

I stayed in IIT Guwahati for the time of my stay in Assam. Here are some of the pictures.

Aerial ! IIT Guwahati.

It Just Rained ! A view from the balcony of my room at Dihing Hostel, IIT Guwahati.

Saraighat bridge over Brahmaputra river as seen from atop a hillock at IIT G.

The city of Guwahati and the Brahmaputra river.

I have never seen a river that I could not love.

People boating. Brahmaputra. Guwahati city seen on the horizon.

people bathing.

People boating across the river.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. - Ecclesiastes 1:7

The Saraighat bridge again. You can see a train passing . Saraighat is the site of historic battles between the Ahom empire and the Mughals in the 17th century. The wars were sometimes fought on the river as well !

thats Assamese for 'Guwahati University'.

inside Guwahati University.

Guwahati University.

Birds at a Zoo. Guwahati.

The Brahmaputra River.

Vehicles over the Saraighat bridge at night time. Crossing the bridge at night is real pleasure. You cant taste a breeze sweeter than that.

All nature wears one universal grin. A view from my room.

A flower is an educated weed. Another view from my room.

Nepali Mandir at the heart of Paltan Bazaar in Guwahati.

You can see more pictures here as I will be going places. Stay tuned !