Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Seagate Hard Disk Failure with Soft tick ... tick... tick....Noise

       I have been using many Seagate Hard Disks for a decade, also recommending it to friends/colleagues as a (amateur) technician. It has been found durable, efficient and cheap. None of them reported as failure although, some other computer parts complained to be repaired or replaced.
       But 3 years ago, my hard disk (Seagate, SATA, 80 GB) was not recognized by BIOS after sudden power cut off during windows installation, at the point of disk format. It was within warranty period, so I took to the vendor. Their BIOS system was also unable to recognize my hard disk. After 3 days, he called me notifying that hard disk was working properly without any repair. Both of us astonished; it worked automatically (without repairing? was he telling the truth?). Recovery software helped to recover most of my files except some photos (recovered but damaged), and office 2007 documents (*.docx, *.xlsx etc. But office 2003 format like *.doc, *.xls were fine). This HDD is still working well with dual operating system of Linux and Windows XP.
       Then another case of HDD failure also happened to me. Ten months ago, I had purchased a 250 GB SATA (16 MB cache), Seagate Barracuda ES (China); Date Code 08133; site code WV; Lot: 10111209. Five partition was made, 3 with Ext-2 and initial 2 with NTFS format. Fedora 12 was installed for the reason that virus might not able to transfer while back up from normal hard disk containing windows XP. Although I kept this hard disk inside the computer, power cable and data cable was connected only once a month. But used as primary (regular hard disk as secondary for a moment) to copy and paste (from regular HDD) using its own operating system i.e. Fedora.
       Up to six months it worked well but suddenly, screen was frozen (hanged) without any external interruption like shock, electricity failure. Upon restart, BIOS did not recognize this HDD. It disappointed me. Then I disconnected  power and data cable for one month and after a month it worked properly but failed in the middle of file copy. It made me doom. I had strong belief on hard disk, I felt power cable was loose, and I purchased a new power cable (regular HDD is PATA). Didn't work !??@!!!. Tried with another computer, no luck. I noticed a soft sound of tick...tick.... tick... while connecting with power cable. This HDD was dumped for a month.
       I was willing to change it, and irritated vendor (shopkeeper) checked upon my request, it worked fine. This time, the HDD betrayed me. It was amazing how it worked, I requested to restart and repeat but he refused. I requested him to copy some important files (a few MB), which was not in regular HDD. He scolded me, and tried to manifest his importance indexing customers.  I had little hope, however, tried again but didn't work, and same soft tick...tick.... tick...!!!
       I am still confused, whether this lot/HDD is faulty one or shopkeeper provided refurbished/ used one (lying as new), or I have to think twice before recommending to use Seagate HDD as the best.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Presentation Styles of European/American Scientists and South Asian Scientists

I have been attending some national and international symposiums and getting chance to listen seminars by veterans from many countries. Two weeks ago, I got chance to take part in two inauguration ceremonies in a day. It was really an exciting experience as two inaugurations in a single day. Surprisingly, a distinct way of presentation styles between South Asian scientists and European/American scientists that I have realized, however, may not be interacted with sufficient eminent scientists.
South Asian
  1. The sentence starts as, I/my colleague discovered........
  2. Content : most of the literature survey, and long introduction, and few result.
  3. Slide filled with most of copied and pasted texts, and definitions.
  4. Seminar deliver : just read text that written in slide somewhat similar to reading news and make audience sleep.
  5. Spend time just to define few scientific terms.
  6. Acknowledge : no or very few.
  7. Don't care for allocated time limit.
European/American
  1. The sentence starts as, we/our team discovered........
  2. Content : most of their own result and less literature survey, and short introduction.
  3. Slide filled with most of pictorial and graphical representation of their experimental findings.
  4. Seminar deliver : describe picture or graph try to make audience understand of new discovery.
  5. Spend time using scientific terms to describe the results, science and mechanism.
  6. Acknowledge : whole team(s).
  7. Aware of time limit.
Important, this is not intended to make a conclusion that all South Asian scientists do as mentioned above, and neither all European/American scientists can always do in this manner.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

View a Glimpse and Visit Ravishing Nepal

       Sometimes, lacking of development, and abhorring science and technology may be beneficial preserving natural beauty and ecosystem, ancient culture and heritage, etc. Nepal has the evidence of it.
       In spite of small territory, diverse flora and fauna, language, ethnic group and culture, religion along with the highest peak in the world (Mt. Everest), seraph of peace (Buddha) has been stowed in Nepal, which is not in other country.
       Nepal is celebrating 2011 as "Nepal Tourism Year 2011".


       Courtesy: http://www.vn2011.blogspot.com