Mr. Aggarwal

A cube measures at 6in x 6in x 6in. It is thinly cut into smaller cubes, each 1in x 1in x 1in that remain in the large cube shape. If I paint the outside of the large cube shape, how many smaller cubes have no paint on any of their sides?

Mary and Sally competed head-to-head in more than 1 event. Mary won all but 1 event. She ended with 22 pts, Sally with 13. How much is a win worth and how much is a loss worth?

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, drawl it.” – Ashok Aggarwal with musical guest Brandon Jones

“Your virtual social interaction can kill my real social interaction.” – Ashok Aggarwal

I have found there is a whole lot more “oops” going on in the world than evil. Equip yourself to fight your own “oops” and the “oops” of others. – Ashok Aggarwal

“Discipline is doing what you promise yourself you will do. Responsibility is doing what you promise others you will do.” — Ashok Aggarwal’s Father

“Enjoy the middle, but cherish the edge. Our greatest moments are found on edges.” – Ashok Aggarwal

“One of our country’s greatest charms is the notion that achieving success is worth everything we have. Perhaps our greatest risk is accepting a culture of spending more than that to achieve it.” – Ashok Aggarwal

Facebook always asks me what’s on my mind, Twitter always asks me what’s happening. But only my family can look at me each day and know exactly when to ask me how I’m feeling. – Ashok Aggarwal

India Nighttime Lights Imagery – Normal:

India Nighttime Lights Imagery – Trended and Colored:

I have seen a bunch of internet postings sharing a “NASA” satellite image of India “on the night of Diwali”. As nice as it looks, and as viral as it has gotten, this isn’t a picture of India on Diwali night like most people claim it is. As I understand it, this imagery represents the population growth in India via the change in nighttime lights…the different colors you see are showing change in population for images taken in different years (1992 is blue, 1998 is green, 2003 is red, and white lights show nighttime lights that existed during all 3 sampling times).

Following is the link to the NOAA page of the original image:

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/interest/india.html

Part of the glory of this image is that neighboring countries appear to be “dark” compared to India, but as you look at more of NOAA’s nighttime images, you notice other countries, even the United States (as shown below), have similar nighttime lighting imagery.

PS: I was torn about exposing this as I find it truly enamoring that Indians, Americans, and everyone around the world seems to be amazed by this. So let me request that, if you wish, continue to be amazed, even feel free to doubt what I have shown here and continue to believe that this nighttime light satellite imagery is unique only to India and only on the night of Diwali. And all the colors in different regions show how different parts of the country lights their communities with specific colors. Really, I do enjoy the innocence of people enjoying this picture at face value. Sometimes I wish I didn’t research it myself.

I was just talking to someone that is headed to an event and I am thinking now that I should have added capoeira to my bucket list a few years ago. Enjoy the below:

I put together these slides for some of the kids in my family and thought I would share with others; I think it is important that children understand some basic rules when using email to protect themselves as well as their family and friends. Any constructive input is appreciated.

I just found out about a phone number you can use to test your sound. It is designed for Plantronic headsets, but the idea can be used to just verify what other people hear.

The number is: (866) 210-2157

I then used option 3 to test how I sound and get the playback. I just ignore the Plantronic headset adjustment instructions.

I just bought and installed a new cordless phone system. Our previous system had seen better days — batteries on a few of the phones were not charging anymore and my tripping over the cords for the main base in my office caused it to drop enough times that it had begun to show its scars.

I didn’t shop long, but was generally amazed at how little this technology has advanced. I would have thought that phones would come standard with simple contact synchronization (with Outlook through cords if not with Google or other services over the internet). I also thought a standard feature might be some level of bluetooth integration with my cell phone so I could switch to the handset easily. I dare not expect any sort of rudimentary phone number lookup capabilities with internet services. I don’t even need a map UI — just simple scrolling of the first few numbers it finds — and let me lookup either residential or businesses. But nope, I will expect the exact same features I have had for 15 or more years.

But all those possible capabilities seem way too complicated to even dream of compared to the experience I just encountered while trying to setup the meager number of configurable settings on my phone system (if I can even call it a “system”) tonight. I went through to set up the voicemail access number for my phone provider —– no, I was past wondering why these phones don’t have visual voicemail built-in. After testing the setup, I realized I typo’d one of the numbers. ‘No big deal, I will just change the number,’ I thought to myself. However, though I could initially set the access number through the normal menus, I realized there was simply no way to change it. I had to dig up the manual online and was amused enough by the cryptic steps that I just had to share them (below).

Can someone PLEASE build some interesting land-line phone systems – many of us do still use them for a number of reasons, and I bet many more would if they had any decent functionality (especially with all this research coming out about the possibly negative health implications of cellphone use).

Steps for Changing Your Cordless Phone’s Voicemail Access Number
In order to change your voicemail access number, you must first erase it.
However, there are no textual menus providing any workflow for you to delete the number, let alone change it.
Instead, press {MENU}
Then dial {#}{3}{3}{1} ------ How on earth could I have guessed that???
Then, press and hold {CLEAR} until all digits are erased.
Then select {SAVE}
Then press {OFF}


I would not have been surprised if they next asked me to unplug the device for 20 seconds and plug it back in, followed by spinning around 4 times before attempting to setting the voice mail access code again.

All smooth rocks were once rough around the edges. – Ashok Aggarwal