Learning How to Sail - Port and Starboard

When learning how to sail, it is important to take on board (sorry about the pun) the correct terms for each side of the boat. Port refers to the left-hand side of the boat when you are looking forward towards the bow. Starboard is the opposite, referring to the right-hand side of the boat.

Beginner sailors often think that it would be easier to use 'left' and 'right', but these could refer to something else whilst out on the water and become confusing. When you consider looking forwards on a boat, Port is on your left-hand side, when you are looking to the stern of the boat Port is on your right-hand side, therefore the Port side of a boat is fixed, we naturally determine Left and right as we look at it!

It is important to know these two terms because many sailing rules regarding the rights of way that oncoming boats have refer to them. One common way to remember them is that 'port' has the same amount of letters as 'left', but they will soon roll off the tongue easily.

When undertaking a mooring or docking manoeuvre Port or Starboard play a key role in commands from the skipper for setting fenders on the side of your yacht, attaching mooring or docking lines on approach to a jetty or mooring buoy. When assisting the skipper with directional information it is too important to relay that information as port and starboard and not left and right.

When your yacht is under sail the terms Port or Starboard come in to play on your points of sail, if the wind is approach your yacht from the Port side you are sailing on a Port Tack and vice versa for a Starboard Tack. When to two converge your yacht is sailing on a run.

So the points of sail are; Close Hauled, Port or Starboard Tack.

Close Reach, Port or Starboard Tack.

Beam Reach, Port or Starboard Tack.

Broad Reach, Port or Starboard Tack.

Running.

The basic rules to be followed while sailing or racing at sea are those set by International Regulations for Avoiding Collisions at Sea.

The rules are extensive but with relation to Port and Starboard some useful terms to remember are;

If two yachts are approaching each other with the wind approaching on different sides of the yacht, the yacht sailing on a Port Tack should give way to the yacht sailing on the Starboard Tack.

If two yachts are approaching each other with the wind on the same side, which could happen when you are close Hauled sailing, the windward yacht should give way to the leeward yacht. Windward side refers to a yacht sailing in the direction of the wind, while leeward side refers to a yacht sailing against direction of the wind. This could be for example, a yacht sailing close hauled (leeward yacht) approaching a yacht sailing broad reach (windward yacht) both yachts having the wind over their Port Side.

Bangalore to Ooty - Road trip

When travelling from bangalore to ooty by road, there are quite a few
things to do on the way.
The road from bangalore to ooty pases through ramnagara, channapatna,
maddur, mandya, srirangapatna, mysore, najungad, gundelpet, bandipur,
mudumalai to ooty.

Bangalore to Mysore
Bangalore to mysore road is real good right from rajarajeshwari temple
arch and 4 lane trafic capable of doing 100 kmph and excess. Be careful
of sudden traffic diversions due to bridge and road painting works.
Also of pedestrians.
Take a break at 24 hour cafe coffee day (after channapatna - 70km from
bangalore) or kamat (after ramnagaram - 50km from bangalore). You may
try amaravathi before Mandya or Maddur Tiffanys. Other restaurants are
not worth their salt (or sugar)

After Channapatna you may want to stop at Dodda Malur Krishna temple, a
very old temple with a deity of lord baby krishna. Many people believe
that your prayers for a baby come true at this temple.

Srirangapatna has few spots of tourist interest like fort, river view,
nearby ranganathitu bird sanctuary.

If you dig pizzas, you can stop at pizza corner, mysore which is on the
way to ooty road.

Mysore to Ooty
Nanjungad to Gundelpet is straight and smooth road with no traffic.
Easy to maintain excess of 100 KMPH. Beware of sudden speed breakers
and bumpy bridges.
Nanjungad has a very old and famous shiva temple with lot of statues of
gods.

At gundelpet, take the road to ooty.
Gundelpet to Bandipur is very bad stretch of raod. Bandipur to
TamilNadu border is also bad stretch.
Drive slowly (30 to 40 kmph) as you have chance of seeing the animals
grazing on the road side during the evenings. If you see elephants on
the road side, stop at a distance and observe them carefully. No
honking or bright lights. (easiset way to irritate the elephants) By
their movements, it is easy to findout if they are just grazing or
trying to cross the road. If elephants are in group, no problems.
Beware of single elephant (especially tusker - male elephants).They
tend to easily get irritated as this is their mating season. Other
animals like deer, mongoose, peacocks are harmless. Dont feed the
monkeys as they tend to jump inside the car. Monkey scratches and bites
need anti rabies vaccine. Just before the TN-Kar border checkposts,
many people have seen tigers near the roads but I have been unlucky in
seeing a tiger so far.

From the TN border (police tend to leave off family cars - guys driven
vehicles are checked for liquor and other illegal stuff, there is a
toll gate on TN side), the roads are good but maintain just 30 to 40
kmph.
At the theppakadu junction, (mudumalai forest office) you have 2
choices to go to ooty. The right takes you to ooty through Gudalur,
naduvattam, Pykarra falls, seventh mile to ooty. The left takes you
through Masinagudi, kallahatty water falls to ooty. Both routes are
scenic and have great views. The gudalur road is easy to drive and
heavy vehicles prefer this road. The masinagudi road needs a power
steering as there are 35 hairpin bends in a 15 km stretch and the road
is very steep. Your vehicle needs to be in perfect condition to tackle
this road. Just after Masinagudi there is a point where a leopard
crosses the road.

What to do at wildlife sanctuary
Both at Bandipur and Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary, the forest department organises van
and jeep safari inside the forest to see wild animals. The timings are
Morning 6 to 9 AM and evening 4 to 6 PM. In Bandipur, Jeep safaris are
available. You need to book in advance dring season time as the rush is
heavy. The crowds mill around like a mall in bangalore.

Jungle Home - Gudalur - Ooty Route
Take the right turn at Theppakadu junction and follow the road upto the
edge of the forest.
A nice place to relax here would be Jungle Home, a cottage attached to
the forest. For details please check the website.
The section between Theppakadu and Thorapalli is crucial elephant
habitat zone and is very easy to sight the wild elephants on the road
side. Becareful about the wild tuskers which are always single and easy
to irritate.
The road goes to Gudalur, Naduvattam, ooty. On the way you can see
pykarra falls (not advisable to bathe), 7th mile (where many film
shootings happen - sing a duet with your beau) and proceed to ooty.
Stop at the approved view points only.
Park at the side of the road. Dont obstruct traffic.
Drive carefuly and sensibly.
Beware of irresponsible drivers and buses

How to reach Jungle Home
At Theppakadu Junction take right, pass through the forest border, at
the RTO checkpost (Thorrapalli village) take left, (the small tar road
opposite hotel haridagiri), follow the tar road, after the BSNL cell
phone tower, you find the green gates of Jungle home (green building)

Route Map:
Bangalore - Mysore - Take ooty road
Mysore - Nanjungad - Gundelpet - Take Ooty road
Gundelpet - Bandipur Forest Office - Karnataka Tamilnadu Border -
Theppakadu (Mudumalai forest office) Junction

The top ten online scams

Amir Orad, the executive vice-president and chief marketing officer of the online security specialist Actimize, is a leading expert on financial crime, cyber security, payments and authentication.

Here, he shares his expertise and describes ten common scams that have cheated people out of millions of pounds worldwide.

“Criminals and fraudsters tend to thrive in financial crises, and from our experience with the largest banks in Europe and the rest of the world, recent activity has simply reinforced this conviction.

“As Actimize provides anti-fraud and financial crime solutions for banks and financial institutions, we have witnessed a wide variety of scams, ranging from the simple and obvious to the complex and astounding.

“Here are the top ten scams that are currently trying to relieve unsuspecting consumers of their hard-earned money. These have been categorised into two groups. The first five are those that try and fool people into sending money directly to the bad guys – pretending to be in trouble, a job offer, a favour etc known as 419 or advance fee fraud.

“The second five detail scams whose purpose is to steal personal credentials and computer data to convince the bank to send money. Here, at least, most banks will return the lost funds to consumers unless the bank can prove they were reckless.”

1. Social Networking scams
Fraudsters hack a social networking account, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or Bebo, and then contact friends and family of claiming that they are in trouble and need money to be sent immediately to a specified address.

2. Prediction scams
This scam arrives in the form of an e-mail that provides the results of a football game taking place the following day, at no cost. The next day the receiver discovers that the prediction is true. Over the next couple of weeks further e-mails are sent providing results that also turn out to be correct.

Following a number of e-mails, another one is sent offering the recipient the chance to buy the results of future games for a hefty sum. The trick is that most of the people who received e-mails would have had a wrong result and so fallen out of the process. But statistically, a small proportion of all the people involved would have received e-mails with the correct results each time.

3. Economy-related scams
Prying on those in financial trouble, these scams can be performed via internet, telephone or post and include a range of financial help and offers such as loan and debt consolidation, fix-your-credit-rating, repossession assistance, phoney advance loans and mortgage foreclosure rescue schemes.

4. "It’s me" scam
This is a scam that has been prevalent in Asia but is now being seen in the West. The fraudster calls an elderly person declaring that their granddaughter has been in a road accident. Cries for help are screamed down the phone line and the fraudster informs the person that money needs to be sent immediately to cover the medical costs.

5. The "offer you can’t refuse"
This involves the sale of a product for which the fraudster provides an overpayment in the form of a cashier’s cheque, usually stolen, and asks for the excess to be transferred back. This can also occur when targets are offered a job, for example, to earn 20% commission. They receive a £10,000 cheque and are then asked to deposit it and return £8,000. The cheque later bounces, by which time the £8,000 is already in the hands of the bad guys.

6. Unauthorised billing group
Many technologies and industries are exploited by this scam, whereby a fraudulent company or service continues to charge an account without the owner’s consent. This also includes online suggestions for limited trials or “verification only” of cards and then charging more than mentioned at the beginning. Most banks, however, will return the money to the account.

7. "Man-in-the-phone" scams
Man-in-the-phone scams use deception and trickery during a telephone conversation to persuade an individual to divulge information. The fraudster phones someone and informs them that there has been a security risk on their account. The fraudster then conference calls in the real bank, whose representative asks for the secret information. Since it’s the real bank with the real account information, the individual often answers the security questions, then provides all bank details, while the fraudster eavesdrops in the background.

8. E-mails containing Trojans
Another e-mail scam is promotional offers, especially ones for anti-spyware solutions. These can include links or attachments infected with Trojans that record keyboard strokes and attempt to steal sensitive details such as passwords etc.

9. Fake escrow services
This is a scam that is growing more common on eBay and other online auctions. Legitimate escrow services act as a third-party go-between: buyers send money to the escrow company, which holds the funds until the seller delivers the merchandise. However, fraudsters are commonly setting up fake ones to con buyers as well as sellers.

10. Phishing scams
This is probably the most common form of fraud and it is still as common and as successful as when it was introduced. Masquerading as a legitimate organisation, usually in the form of an e-mail announcing a bank account or PayPal security breach, the fraudster attempts to acquire bank details, passwords, or login details, often via a spoof website.

Robotics is a challenge and guys have taken it on them to get theingenuity of the bots to interpret the world of social networking tous. Clubbing a robot to get some mechanical touch to the wordy messageswe read across our Twitter profile, a developer has got the GuardianRobot to our desks. The cute little fellow standing on your tabledoesn’t reply to your tweets, however, it is a great companion whounderstands the happy and sad emotions of your friend’s tweets and thenreading them through a specially designed program, responds back.

Therobot raises its head and arm in triumph, in case of a happy messageand waits for a high-5 from you, which is possible by pushing theswitch in its raised hand. The robot, however, lowers its head indespair when the message it reads is sad and only cheers up with a hugfrom you. Video after the jump.

Connected to the Arduino board which is connectedto a computer via USB, the robot is made using a servo to rotate thearm, with another to lower the head. The bot’s belly has a microswitchto detect hugs and another on the hand to detect high-5s. Aninteresting concept indeed, the bot can be programmed further for someother routines, including replying to the tweets, that’ll make theentire social scenario more mechanically exciting.