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Showing posts from March, 2005

2 Sittu

Thanks for the confirmation! The problem does not lie with IE or Firefox (my mainstay). There's something weird about the infrastructure here. Even the searchbar @ the top of my page appears surreal (I can't find a better word) sometimes. However, everything appears fine whenever I surf via Sify. Maybe the firewall is playing tricks. Websense could also be the perpetrator.
Thanks, Sam. I was under the impression that my pages had stolen a lot of traffic from our mailing list. It's good that some life has been infused once again into our list, even though a hapless Sam is once again the butt of all our jokes. Didi & I r supposed to go to Gariahat to attend an urgent business.
I can't c the Blogger logo in the posting below. Is it just my PC? If anyone can c it, please reply.

A cruel irony

logo100 Originally uploaded by deepanjan_nag . Nature, it seems, is hell bent upon retiring my mental faculties...and is consequently garnering all its resources. I don't know whether it was the Net connection that was acting up or IE going through one of its periods. Maybe the web server was the conspirator & simply refused to serve me right...and when pressed too hard, served me with a vengeance. Whatever be the reason, the multiple post is its manifestation. I've decided not to purge the superfluous posts. They occupy additional server space. That's punitive enough!

Skytech Solutions

The defunct city of Kolkata

Bunked office as I was slated 2 receive my voter's card. But this being the obnoxious city that it is, I came back empty handed. The card is not yet ready, they say. The next auspicious date is set for the 2nd of April. History has a bad habit of repeating itself. Let's hope there is a departure this time.

The Defunct city of Kolkata

Bunked office as I was slated 2 receive my voter's card. But this being the obnoxious city that it is, I didn't receive my coveted card. The next auspicious date is the 2nd of April. Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself.

The Defunct city of Kolkata

Bunked office as I was slated 2 receive my voter's card. But this being the obnoxious city that it is, I didn't receive my coveted card. The next auspicious date is the 2nd of April. Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself.

2 Sabu

Yeah, I heard that thing about Gmail, though I had given the details a miss. Interesting revelations. I think there already are downloads available that let you exploit this feature.

2 Rob

C? Even cyberspace has conspired against me. I can't view the card as it has been blocked. I'll see it via Sify. Thanks for the card, though!

The RD Connection

The RD Connection Originally uploaded by deepanjan_nag . We had been Reader's Digest subscribers for many years. Dad finally acquiesced in severing the relationship when we had to abdicate Jamshedpur for KOlkata. I was already in Pune by then and dad had more pressing issues to deal with, consequential to which the subscription was never renewed. However, I remained a loyal reader and regularly bought its issues from the newsstand. Every vacation, I would lug them back home for dad. Dad couldn't afford to read much anymore because his eyesight was failing rather drastically. Anyway, I eventually switched places and landed in Ranchi. It was during my stay here that RD published a special issue in December '04 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its Indian edition. It was a compilation of the best articles that had ever been published in it. I wanted to gift a copy to dad, who, I was sure would be delighted. I probed the newsstands in Ranchi for the collector's

I write this in earnest

Dad has expired. It's a crazy world. I feel ostracized. I wish I had never been born. Maybe one of these days will be my last. What's the point in fighting a battle when the war is already lost?

Here's to Diya

She's the apple of my eye. She's ready to strip @ the drop of a hat. Her prevarications could slip thru a lie detector with effortless ease. She sings out of tune with gay abandon...& relishes it. She throws tantrums, and almost always ends up on the winning side. She has a smile that simply steals my heart away. She has few secrets and delves into then upon request. She talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks. She bribes me with hugs and kisses. Many a siesta have I misses because of her habitual blabbering. Her enigmatic ways are simply baffling and bafflingly simple. It's impossible to miss her charms. She is my doting 4yr old neice, Diyasha. I hope she comes across this blog some day and realise what a whale of a time we shared together.
Snapped a photo for my voter's card. I'm slated to receive it on the 29th or 30th. I'll never use it for voting, though. What's the point in choosing between a donkey and an ass when all I want is a horse or at least a pony? It was an extremely enervating day for me. Had to rush to the ration shop first thing in the morning. Then it was off to the bank. Then came the voting thing.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Something Odd

The Paste feature in entirely non-existent in this frame via Firefox. IE is worse. It simply refuses to go beyond the first few pages of any site. Idiosyncrasy in its quaintest form.
How ubiquitous are the lesser forms of life! My antiparticles should unite. Maybe their cumulative forces will be a match 4 me!

Trivial Travel

Took a bus @ 9:30AM to the Regional Passport Office. As ill luck would it, it was closed. Not having the heart to come again another scorching day, I bought 3 forms @ a premium of Rs.2/- per form from a hawker. Now I know that this is an inadvertent aiding & abetting of a practise that plagues our society, better sense gave way to its pragmatic cousin.It was then off to Park Street where I stopped @ Oxford Bookstore to browse thru the latest music albums. A couple of them (classical & jazz) wereworth a buy, but I had no money to spare on a CD.I showed my way out into the open world ,& in keeping with the nascent spirit bought the current issue of Linux For You. I would have walked into Music World next, but the idea of withstanding the allure of Lady Ella & Stan Getz once again sounded beyond me.So I instead took the Metro to Tollygunge, bought BusinessWorld's latest issue, hopped into an auto & headed home.

Aloha GNU

It has finally happened...& I wasn't off the mark by much. Wikipedia (English edition) now has over half-a-million articles. Being a minor contributor, it gives me immense pride 2 c it crossing the milestone.

Searching for Rob

I've had an almost fanatic interest in Search Engines & Alltheweb was my favorite for a long time. In its heyday, Alltheweb had the freshest search index & best advanced search options. I guess this holds true even today. I procrastinated switching loyalty to the Big G precisely because of this. Alltheweb promised to index all the web (thus the name) & for a while seemed to be well on its way to fulfilling the promise.Alas, that was not to be! It was taken over by Overture (which also bought Altavista ). Overture and Inktomi were then purchased by Yahoo! I don't know who provides the search results to whom, but Alltheweb's voice was lost in the din of the crowd, swamped by the mediocrity around it. MSN Search is a bad joke & exists only for the sake of existence. A9 (I'm sure you've tried it) is a quaint SE with lots of bells & whistles. It has even been clairvoyant enough to come up with its own searchbar for Firefox. It may be a force 2 r

Enough of mental mucus. Stop this humbug!

I refuse to be bogged into this 'national' mess any furthur. While it's heartening that even the most innocuous of postings can evoke such spirited responses, entropic discussions peeve me and affect my nerve. Anyway, I'm not answerable to anybody & do not expect others to subscribe to my school of thought. Let's bury the hatchet and steer clear of this issue. BTW, Anon's BOW-WOW easily gave away his breed and nationality! No wonder he prefers the cloak of anonymity.

Patriotism

Criticism is oft our way of loving. What the heck, that's what our parents do most of the time! I'm indeed deeply in love with India, but this love is an offspring of logic and neutrality. After all, what's the point in being judgemental if we can't be judicious? Nostalgia is often mistaken for patriotism, an insidious mixup. I'm time-constrained, folks. But if need be, I'll continue with this fervent issue later. Sameer, I sure hope you don't giveup on an imbecile like me!

To Sameer

Try as I might, I can't fault everything Indian! India's greatest unbecoming will be its chauvinistic citizens. Watching Hindi movies is a luxury I've long renunciated.HOwever, there have indeed been a few jewels from Bollywood's stable of crap. BTW, nationality is a trivial political identity whose importance has been blown way out of proportion. It's yet another of our belittling institutions that inhibit our ability to think borderless, big and benign. It's a crazed obsession most of us entertain ourselves with.

Louis Armstrong

Dad was a great fan of his.

Caution: Social Amelioration Ahead

India TV catches Shakti Kapoor red handed in a sting operation, asking for sexual favours from a wannabe actress. There has been a slew of such sting operations by the Indian news media in the recent past. Kinda reminds me of the king of sting, Tarun Tejpal, CEO of Tehelka.com . I once had the good fortune of chatting with him. Great guy!

Some introspection

My diary was supposed to chronicle the happy moments of my life. Yet, there have been so few of such moments (especially after dad's demise) that I've had little quality content to append. Today was an especially tenebrific day for me & I lost my temper, which I swear is a rarity. I'll be in a great hurry to purge today's acrimonious memories. Nothing can rejuvenate me to my former self.
Orion, my constant and favorite companion in solitude! There are 3 stars that form the dagger of which the middle star forms the Orion nebula. I had seen it thru a refracting telescope, though the level of magnification left a lot 2 be desired. I once also used an old magnifying glass as the objective lens and a camera lens as the eyepiece to see the nebula. It worked but holding my quivering hands steady was nearly impossible. Halcyon school years they were!

To Sameer

My one liners are a no brainer. But please bear in mind that I manage to steal only a few precious moments (seconds, to be more precise) to surf the Web. Give me a few months, buddy. I'll open the floodgates!

To Sabu

Long time no say! So u still exist! I was under the mistaken impression that u were lost for good somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. Things has hit an all-time low and I'm spending my frivolous existence posting dim witted entries for my blog.
My wristwatch has the prominence of a large clock mounted on an otherwise barren wall. Seldom have I been able to venture out without being asked by someone for the time.
The low-profile machine giving me access to the Net was in a weird mode today and refused to work. I miss Firefox.
Communists are atheists and don't believe in a stratified society. That's why I love them. But they got pretty much everything else wrong. That's why I hate them. And my hatred far outstrips my love for them. Lord, who reads this garbage?!

Pop goes the Populace!

The lengths to which people would go to enjoy the orgasmic exhilerations of multiplication! How much of nocturnal pleasures our folks indulge in is most evident each time I board the bus. Don't these people have anything better to occupy their minds with? Severely entertainment starved they must be! Gifting a Nintendo to each of these hyperactive sex-machines will help plummet our burgeoning population. Problems are aplenty, though! Ours is an intellectually sterile and religiously fertile civilization... a combipack that results in us reproducing like bunnies! BTW, I reckon our bus conductors have more 'people' skills than the HR managers being mass-manufactured by the nondescript business schools that have sprung up all over our country.

Dear Sameer...

I'm SORRY! Perhaps I went overboard in chiding you. Perhaps it was in bad taste. Perhaps what began as a friendly duel snowballed into a public spat. Yet, I was never ill-disposed towards you for those attachments. As one of my prized buddies, you have the right to rebuke me whenever I go 2 far. But u know how gauche I am! Please continue with those attachments. As a friend, I demand that u continue with those meaningless emails! No hard thoughts, buddy. SORRY

The Verdict

I've grilled Firefox for the past few weeks...and my verdict is hereby pronounced: Firefox is indeed superior to IE. IE acts cranky at times. But it would be foolhardy to junk IE just yet, especially since some sites are designed only for Microsoft's browser.

The shape of things to come...

My blog is turning out to be a near-replacement for my email account! It's publicly available and it seems my genius is gradually amassing a fan following. Let me flatter myself! BTW, I really don't mind receiving all these comments. In fact, I really look forward to them. If my genius ever merits an autobiography, I'll remember to acknowledge all these folks
I was on the lookout for a book on VB.net. Went to 3 bookstores (including Oxford). Came back empty handed! Kolkata's intelligentsia indeed!

Sameer

The overstuffed hippo is at it again! A huge attachment had almost stifled my overworked Hotmail account. May that rotten ass rot further in Hell!

To Anon

Welcome to my abode! I look forward to your elucidations. You have been extremely civil in your hatemails (fanmails, really!), and I appreciate that.

vh1

There's a new music channel on air...and I'm loving it! It's definitely better than MTV and Channel V, which have been reduced to being Bollywood showcases.
My postings seem to provide comic interludes to some techies @ Wipro. So now I'm the unofficial cyberjester!
The Usenet must be one of the most important inventions never to be known to most of mankind. I posted some queries and had them answered in less than 5 mins.
Some questions remain unanswered in my blogs. That's where privacy concerns come in. I hope that's OK with my readers!