For God’s sake, lets not waste food

Food - in abundance for some, cant afford two square meals a day for some.
Food - taken for granted for some, cant afford to take for granted even the next meal for some.

Such diversity with the fundamental ingredient required to keep a man alive. Then, does it gets it due respect? Or do some people even think that it deserves that? Take a look at some facts. Let me also add this disclaimer here that I am not against any kind of tradition, I respect them; but wastage of food is something to think about.

1. In India, it’s a tradition in weddings to shower bride and groom with rice grains. After the tradition, I am sure these are swept away. Say we use only 1 kg of rice per wedding, we have thousands of weddings each year. It could have fed so many hungry people.
Alternative - Why not use ‘CONFETTIS’ ? or colourful thermocol balls?
2. In Switzerland, there is an old tradition of carving the Turnips and making Lanterns out of it.
This happens typically in November , and TONS and TONS of turnips are carved, kids make beautiful lamps and there is a procession in the evening in every street.
First, you grow turnips, remove the pulp inside - throw the pulp, carve the outer turnip to make lamps, end of the day just throw! what a waste?
3. Florida - Yearly even; Throwing the oranges at each other.
4. Spain - Yearly event; Tomatoes thrown at each other, crushed etc..
5. India - Dasheera , Big festival, ‘TONS’ of White pumpkin crushed
6. India - Got a new new vehicle, congratulations - crush 4 lemons for all the 4 wheels of the car…belief is that there will be no accidents.. hey comeon.. just drive carefully. Please do your poojas, but don’t waste food items.

PLEASE -There is another world, where people simply can’t afford even sometimes one meal a day.
Can we not do our part? Can we not teach some of these things to our children, so atleast the next generation is more aware and does its part?

Read a few more links below related to this -

http://www.mamalisa.com/blog/the-turnip-fair-in-switzerland-marked-by-thousands-of-lanterns-made-out-of-turnips/

http://www.andreagrant.org/zuerich/turnip.html

http://www.sa-venues.com/events/kwazulu-natal-event-description.php?id=896

OCS Front-End service stopped with service-specific error 3286842403 (0xC3E93C23), due to Windows update KB974571

[Short url for this article - http://doiop.com/ocsFE_issue]

I am sure you must be facing this issue suddenly in your OCS production environment. This is quite interesting. I’m just sharing my experience. It’s also quite funny that Microsoft releases ‘Security updates’ and ends up bringing down a production server. One of the Windows security update KB974571 has broken OCS R2; that’s why OCS Front-End service Stopped.

My OCS Server, LiveMeeting; Group Chat environment was working fine until Yesterday. But Today when i have tried to login to OCS, I was not able to login. Then i checked for my OCS Server; found that all of the OCS Services are in started state except OCS Front-End service.
I tried to restart my OCS FE, but i ended with the following service specific error 3286842403 (0xC3E93C23).

Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 10/15/2009 11:22:54 AM
Event ID: 7024
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: FTI-360-VM1.ima64.com
Description:
The Office Communications Server Front-End service terminated with service-specific error 3286842403 (0xC3E93C23).
Event Xml:

7024
0
2
0
0
0×80000000000000

54887

System
FTI-360-VM1.ima64.com

Office Communications Server Front-End
3286842403 (0xC3E93C23)

I was just clueless for a moment. I was not ready to accept that something has gone wrong with my OCS Server as nobody has access rights; also it was working fine till late night yesterday. I did not know how to proceed from there for a moment.

I took a dip breath; then restarted my system. But still the same issue was there.
Then i started thinking what might went wrong in last 8 hours. Suddenly i thought let me check for updates happened in my system last night.

Then after half an hour I figure it out, that One of the Windows security update KB974571 has broken OCS R2; that’s why OCS Front-End service Stopped.

I removed this Windows update & restarted my OCS Front End Service.
Then it worked fine for me.

It’s a bug in windows update….. They have managed bring down a critical product service with the release of a windows update.

This could happen for LCS & OCS R1 deployments also.

Please also note of another complexity that affects end users -

Auto-upgrades are enabled on end user desktops as well. Security Update KB974571 will be applied on end user desktops. Hence users will not be able to login to OCS though the FE Server is up, after removing the offending update from the FE Server.

But the users without this Security update will be able to login to OCS. To address this issue, end users too need to uninstall this update from their desktops. This is applicable for LCS as well.

Photos, videos from Ramanasram visit September 2009

Main Entrance of Ramana Ashram

As usual, the highlight of the trip was the spiritual experience. Its like going back to a place where you have always belonged. So obviously we all were feeling very sad as we were nearing the date to return. Though we were to return on Monday (which was the last holiday in the long weekend), we postponed departure to the next day. We started early morning on Tuesday so we can reach Bangalore in time so I can make it to my office in time.

Another special aspect about this trip was going there during Navarathri. Everyday there was a special pooja. Goddess Parvathi’s idol was installed in the temple after oorkolam and the decoration was very grand. There were musical concerts arranged within the ashram premises on each of the days of the Navarathri. Some very well known artists performed.

Of course, the trip is not complete without visiting skandashram. My elder daughter loves to go to Skandashram. Its a 35 to 40 minute trek on the Hill and my 7 year old daughter does it with ease. Just keep chanting Ramana’s name and you dont realize anything.

Outside view of Skandashram

A typical schedule when we visit Ramanashram.

1. Get up at 5am
2. Meditation at the meditation hall between 5:30-6:30am
3. Witness early morning poojas at the Ramana shrine.
4. Breakfast at 7am
5. Relax, Read at Ramana Library or visit Skandashram
6. Lunch at 11:30am
7. Relax till 2pm
8. Read books in the library or at your room or attend the book reading session in Tamil/English at the shrine
9. Tea at 4pm
10. Visit the book shop within the ashram
11. Poojas, attend the daily Parayanam (chants)
12. Dinner at 7:30pm
13. Spend some more time at the temple
14. To bed at 8:30pm

More Snaps

View of Arunachala temple from skandashram

View of the sacred Arunachala Hill from Ramanasramam

Outside view of Ramana Shrine

Inside view of Ramana shrine

Narayana seva (feeding the poor) at Ramanasram

Dining hall for guests

View of cottage in Ramanasram

Here’s a video