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2011 in review

vidurgupta — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:56:41 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,900 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Filed under: bakkar

People Science: Turning Trash into toys

vidurgupta — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:03:35 +0000

I saw this TED presentation and was amazed by how the speaker, Arvind Gupta, turns commonly available things into great learning toys which teach principles of science. The toys are simple to make and I bet kids anywhere in the world would love to get their hands on them. I know I would

Filed under: education, fun

SSF Walk 2011: promoting eduction in India, one small step at a time

vidurgupta — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:44:42 +0000

Small Step Foundation is a non-profit public benefit volunteer corporation that I support.Their focus is promoting education and support rehabilitation of special need children by directly funding existing Not for profit organizations in India. This is from SSF website:

“If Not Us, Then Who? If Not Now, Then When?”
These were the guiding priniciples of the founders of Small Steps Foundation to take a collective action, our first step to make a positive difference in the lives of millions of helpless children who are deprived of their basic universal human right: Right to Education.

To learn more about the work they are supporting please visit http://projects.smallstepsfoundation.org/

SSF Walk is one of the 2 major fund-raising event that the organization hosts every year. If you live in Northern California, I encourage you to be a part of the walk and help raise funds. You can also support a team of your choice by making a donation of any amount at the Small Steps teams at firstgiving.com

This is the team I support:

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/reetuguptaandnitinkumar-kumar/small-step-walk-2011

Filed under: children, education, India, non-profit, people, poverty

10,000+ views :))

vidurgupta — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:18:13 +0000

Last month this blog crossed 10,000 views over its life time. The total as of today stands at 10,232.

Months and Years

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total

2009 11 140 165 158 160 161 166 203 205 182 222 521 2,294

2010 689 431 507 443 507 584 619 619 586 524 591 843 6,943

2011 934 65 999

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2009	11	140	165	158	160	161	166	203	205	182	222	521	2,294
2010	689	431	507	443	507	584	619	619	586	524	591	843	6,943
2011	934	65	999

Average per Day

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Overall

2009 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 7 7 6 7 17 7

2010 22 15 16 15 16 19 20 20 20 17 20 27 19

2011 30 21 30

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Overall
2009	1	5	5	5	5	5	5	7	7	6	7	17	7
2010	22	15	16	15	16	19	20	20	20	17	20	27	19
2011	30	21											30

Top Posts for all days ending 2011-02-03 (Summarized)

All Time

Title Views

Comcast: enable/disable closed-captions 8,196

Home page 956

How To: Copy to/from VNC Viewer 339

How To: Pine on Fedora 8 194

15 August: Swatantrata Diwas 53

GMail Outage??? 47

Kiva: The money multiplier effect 35

Help Gaurav: Update 31

Sidhu Quotes 29

Help Gaurav 18

For Gaia: Beaver Dams Inspire Fish-Friendly Hydro-power Design 17

Title	Views
Comcast: enable/disable closed-captions	8,196
Home page	956
How To: Copy to/from VNC Viewer	339
How To: Pine on Fedora 8	194
15 August: Swatantrata Diwas	53
GMail Outage???	47
Kiva: The money multiplier effect	35
Help Gaurav: Update	31
Sidhu Quotes	29
Help Gaurav	18
For Gaia: Beaver Dams Inspire Fish-Friendly Hydro-power Design	17

Filed under: bakkar

Kiva: I just reached 50 loans :))

vidurgupta — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:25:10 +0000

As I have posted earlier, I been lending through Kiva.org for about 2.5 years now. Recently, I reached a landmark of 50 loans. These are some of the stats. There are more stats and info if you are interested @ http://www.kiva.org/lender/vidur3752

The interesting things to me are:

I have no defaults till date and
I have been able to use a small some of money and reinvest it multiple times
I have loaned to folks all over the world

My Impact

Statistic Name	Me	Avg. Kiva User*
Number of Loans Made	51	6.5
Number of Successful Invitations	2	0.23
Number of Loans Made by My Invitees	13	1.07
Number of Kiva Cards Given	0	0.47

My Loan Statistics

	Me	Avg. Kiva User*
Total Amount Lent	$2,150.00	$217.87
Total Amount Repaid	$1,555.53	$171.17
Total Amount Lost	$0.00	$1.60
Total Amount Refunded and Expired	$100.00	$2.86
Outstanding Portfolio	$494.47	$42.73
Delinquency Rate	2.72%	2.01%
Amount In Arrears	$13.47	$0.86
Outstanding Portfolio	$494.47	$42.73
Number of Loans Delinquent	2	0.01
Default Rate	0.00%	1.06%
Amount of Ended Loans Defaulted	$0.00	$1.59
Amount of Ended Loans	$1,300.00	$149.30
Currency Exchange Loss Rate	0.00%	0.00%

Distribution By Country

Country	%
Philippines	7.8%
Afghanistan	7.8%
Mongolia	7.8%
Cambodia	5.9%
Pakistan	5.9%
Bolivia	5.9%
Azerbaijan	5.9%
Uganda	5.9%
Dominican Republic	5.9%
United States	5.9%
Lebanon	5.9%
Sierra Leone	3.9%
Nicaragua	3.9%
Peru	3.9%
Tanzania	2.0%
Togo	2.0%
The Democratic Republic Of The Congo	2.0%
Paraguay	2.0%
Guatemala	2.0%
Moldova	2.0%
Samoa	2.0%
Senegal	2.0%
Tajikistan	2.0%

Filed under: kiva, micro-finance, work

Comcast: enable/disable closed-captions (part II)

vidurgupta — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:07:19 +0000

One of the comments on my original post noted that things have changed now. This is what Chris mentioned”

The action has changed slightly, or to clarify:

Tv should be on but cable box off.
Press “cable” button.
Press “menu” button.
The box needs to be off when the menu button is pressed for “secret” menu to appear instead of regular menu.

Thanks for helping out. Comcast now has an instructional video on demand.

I could not verify this as I have a newer Cisco (black) box. On this box I just need to press the ‘menu’ button to get the the closed-captions option.

Filed under: closed captions, comcast, tech

It is SSF walk time again!

vidurgupta — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:25:25 +0000

Last year, I had posted about SSF walk and it is that time of the year again. A small SSF intro: It is a Bay Area based Non-Profit working to fund education projects in India. To raise funds, they are oragnizing a 5k/10k walk and, as always, the event is targeted towards a whole family experience. These are the details of the SSF 2010 Walk.

If you are inclined to donate, consider this team.

Thanks, Vidur

Filed under: children, help, India, life, non-profit

The rise of cricket, the rise of India

vidurgupta — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:57:55 +0000

An interesting talk by Harsha Bhogle on TED.com. He traces the rise of cricket in India with special focus on T20 and IPL. He links it with the economic rise of India and how the power of money has changed the attitude of foreign players and Indian viewers. It is quite funny to be honest.

Filed under: fun, India

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara: The Old and the New

vidurgupta — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:12:46 +0000

Recently a new version of ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ was released and it has created a lot of talk about which version is better. Personally, I believe that old is gold but am putting both versions here for you to decide. First, the old version:

And this is the new version. It is pretty long so 2 links.

Filed under: fun, India, movies

GMail Outage???

vidurgupta — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:05:35 +0000

I have trying to log into my gmail account for the past half hour and repeatedly getting server errors.

Temporary Error (500)

We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes.

This is the technical information

Hide Detailed Technical Info
Numeric Code: 66

I wonder if this affects only me or is a wider issue like the one reported on Feb 24, 2009.

Posted in google