From the desk of Miss Know-All: Raising a toast to the queen of crime!

(Published on 26 September 2006 in 'Women at Work' - W @ W - a supplement of the Daily Mirror, Colombo, Sri Lanka)

In the words of Washington Irving - “There is never jealousy where there is not strong regard.” How very true for I found myself besieged with envy as Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie's only grandchild and Chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd. led the world in paying glorious tributes to his celebrated grandmother, Agatha Christie on her 126th birthday on 15 September.

And in case you are left wondering where I am coming from pretties, let me explain. No, it’s not Agatha Christie whom I envy. I wish I was in Mathew’s shoes. It must be truly wonderful to have a grandmother who could weave intriguing tales. How many of our grandmothers would tuck us into bed and concoct a story about a Belgian private detective based in London called Hercule Poirot who sported a black waxed moustache and wore patent leather shoes? Or conjure up St Mary’s Mead, the fictional village where the shrewd and intelligent Miss Jane Marple lived?

Agatha Christie remains the world’s best-selling fiction author, with more than over two billion books sold. It was claimed that Agatha Christie was outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. I guess that might have changed ever since but Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple continue to remain the most popular detectives. Many of Christie’s novels were released as movies. For her contribution to literature, Agatha Christie was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1971. The magic of her storytelling continues to reach a contemporary audience and she continues to be recognised as the undisputed 'Queen of Crime'. The Agatha Christie Theatre Company was launched with an immensely successful production of ‘The Hollow.’ This classic mystery was also innovatively adapted into the first ever Agatha Christie story to be a PC game. Kevin Elyot's stage adaptation of ‘And Then There Were None’ opened in the West End to outstanding reviews.

A truly grand old Dame who touched so many lives with her timeless stories of murder and deceit, Agatha Christie was a true woman of substance. One of her quotes, that’s a favourite of mine is - “The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes.”

And to my dearest grandma – I love you a lot – but I wish you had been a little more creative and imaginative with your bed-time stories! The only consolation is that like Miss Marple you like gardening and are often seen carrying knitting needles and yarn!

Miss Know-All
wow@dailymirror.wnl.lk

From the desk of Miss Know-All: What!!! Pluto not a planet...

(Published on 19 September 2006 in 'Women at Work' - W @ W - a supplement of the Daily Mirror, Colombo, Sri Lanka)

Ever since I can remember… (and my Geography teacher, Miss Breganza was a great lady – who would tell me no lie) Pluto has been known as the ninth planet of our solar system since it was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. The new announcement informing the world that Pluto does not fit in with the pattern of the other planets is being unkind to all the Geography teachers down the years. What teachers said in class was law – and one never ever thought of challenging what they said or taught.

Since 1992 small objects, made of rock and ice up to a few hundred kilometres in size, have been found orbiting at a great distance from the Sun. These are called Trans Neptunian Objects (TNOs). The information gathered on Pluto and the discovery of TNOs in the outer solar system with orbital characteristics very similar to those of Pluto, have led to this new deduction. The argument is that Pluto is so small and out of place in its distant orbit around the Sun that it cannot be classified as a proper planet. As a result, Pluto will now have the rare distinction of having dual classification as a planet and a TNO, at least for the time being. This dual classification for Pluto is a result of its remarkable nature.

The group who will decide the official status of Pluto for the professional astronomers is the International Astronomical Union. They will be informing the world of their decision shortly. The definition of a planet is rather arbitrary. Planets need a better definition rather than being known as an object that our ancestors saw moving in the sky. Until there is clarity and a consensus regarding the definition it is not right to either 'demote' Pluto or 'promote' Ceres. Since the discovery of the minor planet Ceres in 1801 astronomers have found thousands of minor planets orbiting the Sun, mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Members of the IAU have been expressing their opinions on Pluto's status. There have been several votes with no clear-cut conclusion. Whatever the result it seems clear that Pluto is a special type of celestial object, which may well deserve a special status.

Well that temporarily puts to rest my belief in my Geography teacher who painstakingly taught us, seven year olds, the names of the nine planets with the help of a model. Miss Breganza – if you are reading this - I still believe that you were right and nothing will ever change that. Today even if the universe changes its views – I shall always remember what you taught me in Grade II. What rings in my mind is what Bertrand Russell has said “More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given.”

Miss Know-All
wow@dailymirror.wnl.lk

From the desk of Miss Know-All: Holy smoke... now it's laptop batteries that are exploding!

(Published on 12 September 2006 in 'Women at Work' - W @ W - a supplement of the Daily Mirror, Colombo, Sri Lanka)

Ever heard of exploding laptops that suddenly burst into flames? Good lord. Laptops have now got a mind of their own. Handle yours with care for if you treat it with a little disdain, it will lose its cool – heat up – and just explode!

But this is no banter. Dell recently recalled 4.1 million laptops as they felt that the batteries of these could short-circuit. These Dell laptop batteries could overheat and catch fire or explode. This isn't the first time in the computer industry that laptops have been recalled. HP and Apple have recalled laptop batteries in the past. But the threat of the battery exploding or catching fire is something new.

This really got me worried dahlings. As I work late into the nights often leaving the laptop on for hours on end, it was important I understand the mechanism of how the battery worked and why there were chances of it catching fire. Batteries have two terminals - a negatively charged terminal and a positively charged terminal. Energy from electrochemical reactions causes negatively charged particles called electrons to collect at the battery's negatively charged pole. When a battery is connected to a circuit, the electrons flow from the negative pole to the battery's positively charged pole. In this way a flow of charge or electricity is generated. The cells of a lithium-ion battery also contain separators that keep the positive and negative poles called anodes and cathodes apart.

Depending on the type of battery, electrons are generated in different ways. In a lithium-ion battery, pressurized containers house a coil of metal and a flammable, lithium-based liquid. Tiny metal pieces float in the liquid. Manufacturers try their best to limit the size and number of these metal fragments. If the battery gets hot through excessive use or recharging, the pieces of metal begin to move around. If a piece of metal gets too close to the separator that separates the anode from the cathode, it can puncture the separator and cause a short circuit. In case of a short circuit, the spark created could ignite the flammable liquid causing a fire. On the other hand if the short circuit causes the temperature inside the battery to rise rapidly, the battery could explode due to the increased pressure. Conversely if the short circuit causes the temperature to rise slowly, the battery can melt, and the liquid inside can leak out.

As users, we want small, light laptops that we can use for long time periods. We also want our laptops to have lots of processing power. Laptop batteries have to be relatively small, but have the capacity to hold a lot of energy and last a long time. Making lithium-ion batteries that can hold more power for a longer period requires its components, specially the separators, to be small and thin. The reduction in size makes it more probable that the batteries will short circuit or leak.

The thought of your laptop bursting into flames is a scary one. I have started treating mine with a lot more respect honeys. Before I go to bed I cover it with a lace cloth and caress it goodnight… the truth is that I want to be sure it’s not too hot on touch. I’ve come to the firm conclusion that a laptop is a woman. For no one but its creator understands its complexity. Even the smallest errors are stored in long term memory for possible retrieval. And finally – only a woman could explode on losing her cool!

Miss Know-All
wow@dailymirror.wnl.lk

From the desk of Miss Know-All: Fishing or Phishing?

(Published on 5 September 2006 in 'Women at Work' - W @ W - a supplement of the Daily Mirror, Colombo, Sri Lanka)

I often walk into the public library… it’s always a good place to check out who is working hard and could be potential competition. There are so many who aspire to be Miss Know Alls…

Much to my surprise I bumped into a friend who teaches nine year olds at the local convent. What was even more surprising was when asked what she was doing at the library she said she was preparing for the next day’s class. Preparing to teach nine year olds? How much of a preparation would you need for that? On enquiring I learnt that the previous week she was taken to task by a student’s parent for cutting marks in a spelling test. The child had written ‘phishing’ – instead of fishing. The parent a computer engineer had given my friend an entire book on phishing – and the subtracted marks were duly added to the mark sheet.

In computing, phishing is an illegal activity where in fraudulent techniques are used to acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details. People who indulge in phishing are called phishers. These swindlers attempt to get confidential information by concealing their true identity and pretending to be a trustworthy person or business. Phishing is most often carried out using email or an instant message. More recent phishing attempts have targeted the customers of banks and online payment services. Typically, a phishing attempt would be disguised as an official email from a bank, and would attempt to trick the bank's members into giving away their account information.

Most methods of phishing use some form of technical deception designed to make a link in an email appear to belong to an organisation. Misspelled URLs are common tricks. Some phishing scams use JavaScript commands in order to alter the address bar. The damage caused by phishing ranges from loss of online access to financial loss. Unsuspecting people often divulge personal information with ease, including credit card numbers; I-card numbers, and address details. Once this information is acquired, the phishers may use a person's details to create fake accounts in a victim's name or even prevent victims from accessing their own accounts

These days legitimate email messages from organisations to their clients will contain an item of information that is confidential. Emails from banks and credit card companies will often include partial account numbers. One should always be suspicious if the message does not contain some personal information.

I left the library feeling sympathetic towards my friend. She sat with a list of all the words she was to give in the spelling test the next day… checking out all possible valid ways of spelling each word. “Don’t give the student an ‘F’ in his report card when he fails,” I advised. “Just give him a ‘PH’!!!!!!!”

Miss Know-All
wow@dailymirror.wnl.lk