After some research and getting my head banged on the wall I could not find any non technical introduction to Drupal. So I decided to cut the jargon out and do it on my own for BarCamp Kathmandu 2010 . So I'm just done with the session/presentation that was not scheduled. Thanks to the one presenter who got lost and I jumped in his time slot.



Below is the presentation:


Drupal A non technical Introduction
View more presentations from Geshan Manandhar.
The response was good. The whole experience today was great. Happy Barcamping everyone.

No questions were allowed due to time but I answered some in twitter. See the trend at #barcampktm http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

Again the load shedding increases, now its 8 hrs a day. I don't know though how much I cuss the leaders, the political situation and the government this situation is not gonna change. Anyways here is the gift of Republic of Nepal Government to its citizens below:


Click for full image 
Uploaded Elsewhere:
Load_Shedding_Schedule Kathmandu 2 August 2010


Update 
It was just for 1 week now its 2 hrs/day from 9 Aug 2010: http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=22012

Hope this situation ends soon, very soon.http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

Can you look into the mirror? Can you open your eyes bigger? Yes like that. Thank you. As soon as I landed and took some steps these were the words the security guard at the Airport told me after I scanned my eyes (retina may be) on the scanner as was a first time visitor. I guess they collected this data for security reasons but the technology used is amazing.


Amazing DubaiDubai as they say it is with doubts the fastest growing city in the world and for many it might be a surprise that its not a country but and emirate/state of the United Arab Emirates. With many superlative landmarks attached to it like the tallest building in the world - Burj Khalifa , the biggest mall in the world - Dubai Mall, One of the biggest airports in the world - Dubai international airport , longest running automated metro in the world - Dubai Metro,  largest musical fountain in the world - Dubai Fountain and others, the city has totally transformed itself in the last two - three decades.

Some technologies used in U.A.ENot only Dubai the neighboring Sharjah has also advanced in the use of technology. The camera fitted traffic signals, the streets under CCVT there are lots of things that are new to me. An interesting fact is that you can't use cash to use public transport in Dubai (except Taxi), to use the bus, metro (train) and the water bus you must buy smart cards produced by NOL . All the roads and transportation fall under the RTA (Road and Transport Authority) management. I had heard of plastic money but this is my first encounter with plastic ticket. RTA has done a commendable job but more is to be done like use of smart cards in places out of Dubai like Sharjah, Metro link from Dubai to Sharjah and adjoining states/emirates are some of my suggestions.


Other interesting technologyDefying the forces of nature they are building man made islands on the sea, after completing Palm Jumeriah now the world is being built. With extensive use of Global Positioning System (GPS) and other high end technology UAE is advancing in unprecedented pace. May be there are so many other things and technologies I'm not aware of.
You can top up your NOL cards with a machine that sucks money I mean you put in a bill/note and it adds the balance to your card. You can even deposit the money to your bank account from a ATM like machine and even transfer the balance of a cheque to your account without any human contact. When will HSBC come in Nepal?? General Online services and online banking services are great. 3G internet is in your pocket and you can even surf in the metro that goes underground in a tunnel. All your holidays, leaves and schedules are on the internet for you to check anytime anywhere.
full Image here.
From small things like censors/tags on the items in the shop that beep when you pass the door (very simple technology) to the RTA buses where you tag the card to check in when you come in the bus and tag it again to check out that calculates the distance and deducts the fare technology is used to the optimum at every step. 
My ConfusionAfter experiencing all this first hand a question raised in my mind is "Are developed nations developed because they use technology so good or because they are developed they use the technology?" - simply put technology first or development first.



I don't know but my friend suggested its people and education that drive the change. Its enlightenment and will to do that make things better. I believe in that.
From a nation where political stability is a myth and that had 9 governments in 10 years in the past decade I don't know what to expect. With incomparable potential like having the second largest water resource in the world and still facing up to 16 hrs per day of load shedding I can't say what to expect from our political leaders.

ConclusionIf people really believe, unexpected visions can turn into reality. I really hope some day Nepal will be as developed. All the things are man made here but we have so much given to us by nature, such natural beauty and resources are scarce. We don't have to fight the 46 C heat in summer neither do we have to clear the snow on the street in the winter (in the major cities) but still we lag behind. 
Hope is very important, may be one day I'll blog about technologies unheard of being used in Nepal.http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

I am not looking at the negative sides of things but there are huge productivity cuts due to the FIFA World Cup 2010. During just this one month, the British economy will loose $ 7.36 Billion and United States will loose 121.7 Million in productivity. 3% plan to report sick and stay back home to watch the match, this may not be the case in Nepal.


(Click on image to view Full size - 1000 px wide - Opens in new tab/window)

Source: http://www.insideview.com/productivity-world-cup.html - (opens in new window/tab)

Without doubts, its the biggest sports festival with 80% of the world's population watching the games with an average of 95 million viewers per match. I'm hearing shouts in my neighborhood :).http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

Did you know facebook is now valued at $7.9 - $ 11billion. Your favourite social networking website will earn $1 billion (projected) in the year 2010. Facebook is #2 website in the world just after Google. More info below in the INFOGRAPHIC:



[Source: MashableMashable.com]

Amazing facts about facebook you should know.http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

Some days back we recorded the first YoungInnovations Private Limited (YIPL) podcast. It was a great experience laughing at our mistakes and seeing each other get stuck when speaking. But overall it was a great experience, we recorded on Content Management System (CMS), why use a CMS, advantages and disadvantages of using a CMS and a simple comparison of the top 3 web CMSes.

(Photo by Zoomar on Flickr)
You can listen to the podcast below, it is hosted by Rabindra Gurung and Me and Prashant Shrestha are the panellist for the discussion :


YIPL Podcast 1: CMS, Why use it, how to choose it sound bite  podcast sound bites


Read the official blog post about why we started the podcast, who is the audience and what we are going to focus in the podcast here. You can listen to the podcast and download it from the YIPL website following this link. Feeback, comments and suggestion are welcome.

Hope you like the podcast and give us your valuable comments and suggestions.http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog

After months and months of waiting and some precious rain the load shedding has been slashed to half of what it was. Now the load shedding has been decreased to 6 hours per day from 12 hours a day some months ago.

This must have given relief to all of us but the football world cup 2010 fans may have been disappointed as when the matches air they might not be able to watch their favourite team play. Anyway below is the load shedding schedule of Kathmandu as of 30th May 2010:

(Click on the picture to see full view)
After being choked by blogger for around 20 days for being marked as spam for no apparent reason, this is a new blog post.
Enjoy the less load shedding.http://geshan.blogspot.com - Geshan's Blog