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Showing posts from October, 2006

Ego Search

One of the advantages of having a rare name is that you don't have to come up with 'stupid' usernames for your email or any other web account. The other advantage lies in zeroing in on what others think of you via a simple ego search through any search engine. I stumbled across what one of my not-so-close colleagues thinks of me while doing one of these routine searches to see how far and wide my fame has spread. Well, though it hasn't spread much, I must confess I was pleasantly surprised at how highly this individual is opined in my favor. And this even though we've conversed only on a couple of occasions. I won't embarrass myself by quoting him verbatim since it's hardly worth the effort and easily overshoots what yours truly truly merits. Still, I revel in the thought. Either he's too gullible or I've mastered the art of presenting a persona better than the real me!
Saw MT after a looooong while. I'll build a temple in her name. I'll rescue her from the fires. I'll rescue her from the goons. I'll keep her in a museum. I'll break bones for her! Damn, I must stop these thoughts from flooding my mind each time I see this heavenly beauty. If only she could be mine. I wish something could bring us together.
I thought I hated pizza, but that's what I've been having for the past two days in the after-lunch hours since I feel so starved having leapfrogged lunch.

Washing Revisited

I really must shake off my lethargy and wash my clothes more often. I can't even put to words what a horrific discovery I made this morning while donning my formal trousers. If procrastination can be near-fatal, this must be it!

I was so close!

A lot of Digg ing has helped me come across some very interesting stuff on the Net. Stumbling across two cracks for ALLOFMP3.com 's DRM protected free music downloads was one of them. Of course, the folks at ALLOFMP3 have been in the news for a long time for its confrontational stance against the media bigwigs, payment gateways, governments, ISP's...well, the list is virtually endless. I'm sure they couldn't afford a crack adding to their woes. I downloaded an mp3x (mp3 with DRM) file yesterday while queuing a host of albums to be downloaded later. The two cracks that were downloaded were a real pain and I ran out of patience trying to make them work yesterday. I finally figured out today how one of them works and was about to crack the DRM when I realized that ALLOFMP3 was now forcing a patch to its audio player (only through which can you play its mp3x files) which renders the crack useless. All my fantasies of owning some great albums for free are now up in flames...

Party @ Golden Palm

I'm currently going through a bankruptcy of words...and consequently can't post a companion elucidation to the above video. I've also muted the clip audio since I discovered (much to my consternation) that I kept blabbering to myself during most of the shooting!

Issues @ Work

A lot of frustration and blood-boiling happened today. But in the end, the problem was solved. I've learnt a vital lesson about people...and I'm not about to share it with the rest of the world. There'll be a secret post published later. And IE7 has been a real memory guzzler. I had used it barely for 30 mins this morning when I realised that it had consumed over 200MB! Here's a tip: To keep the memory footprint of programs under check, keep minimizing them to the taskbar regularly. It helps drastically reduce memory usage. Maximizing to the original size inflates memory occupancy once again, but not to the original levels. Strange, but true. I love the facelift Yahoo! Bookmarks got recently. I've been regularly using these bookmarks since ages and I'm handicapped without them. I'm contemplating reconciling with the blogosphere soon. I rarely post...and when I do, it's mostly crap.
The day was spent almost entirely in subscribing to podcasts. What a waste. The task of continuing with A Suitable Boy seems daunting.

Late

I was late for school only once when classes started earlier. I was late for the office shuttle only once (today) when it arrived at our stop earlier. I managed to catch it before it left. And we reached our facility in record time...24 mins to be exact. 0821 hrs was when we reached our destination.

The very thought of you

Hey, it's fun intimidating my colleagues! They keep begging me not to write anything about them in my blog...but the thought is so tempting, I'm seriously thinking of getting the ball rolling. My first victim will be MR. Buddy, your days of relative obscurity are numbered!

It's been 10 years...

...since I last heard Willis Conover ! I managed to download a 2-minute live introduction to a jazz band by him today. It was divine hearing him after so many years. Old memories flooded my mind.

A dirty trick

Just why do some people think they are smarter than others and that their techniques of deception won't be detected? I've been at the receiving end of one such cheap shot. What happened tonight was way too debasing to the culprits. I'll retaliate in time. I know it doesn't sound too benign, but it's time I put my foot on the ground.

Diwali

The frenetic pace of life during the 4 days of Durga Puja is followed by a period of stark lull, when people look forward to the festival of lights, Diwali. Today was Diwali but it failed to enthuse me. Mani & folks had decided to veil the facade of our building with strings of multicolored lights . It looked very nice. A misdirected rocket launched from the street below headed straight towards me and exploded just 2 feet away. The escaping sparks didn't burn me though. It would have been a very different story had I failed to duck at the right moment. The careless guys below had conveniently fled to escape our wrath! Well, danger was all around. You should see how dangerously some people play with fire. I saw yet another rocket narrowly missing the door of an apartment and hitting the wall instead. And it was very apparent that the guys were in no mod to learn to be cautious. The crackers were sometimes too noisy and painful on the ears. And if I complained, who would listen?...

A revelation

Since I've had above-average time to kill today, I did some research on the memory efficiency of IE7 viz-a-viz FF3. I put the two browsers through a series of duplicate motions and the results were startling. I must confess I've got to contradict one of my earlier observations. Startlingly, FF3 was at least 26% more memory efficient than IE7. As if that wasn't enough, the memory occupancy of IE even immediately upon launch was much higher than Firefox's. This was astounding since the higher lever of FF's abstraction forces it to rely on its own services rather than on the services provided by Windows. IE, on the other hand, is tightly integrated with Windows services and was thus expected to have a lower memory footprint. Any explainations for that? The test obviously wasn't exhaustive enough and thus can't lend sufficient credibility to the conclusions. Perhaps using them for hours on end under strictly similar conditions would yield different results. Th...

Even Windows Live Mail desktop works!

It seems to be my lucky day today, notwithstanding the leave I failed to win. I had received an invite for Windows Live Mail desktop a few months ago. Though I downloaded it successfully, the installation would always fail. Multiple attempts yielded the same result. I tried lady luck today and I must confess she's in a flirtatious mood! WLMD worked flawlessly and I'm currently using it to access my primary Hotmail account, though it can equally well be used to access multiple MSN, IMAP and POP3 (including Gmail) accounts. In fact WLMD is a hybrid download that even allows you to access newsgroups, subscribe to newsfeeds and do a host of other things. I guess Microsoft is finally rising to the fact that it has to collaborate with other services and assume a more symbiotic role if it needs to survive in the Web era.
Subhasish just called. He's back in Mumbai after this 3-week stay in Bangalore and I deeply regret not being able to meet him. Anyway, he's slated to be back shortly and I hope things are different then.

IE7 actually works!

IE7 was finally launched by Microsoft yesterday and since than it has been hogging so much of media attention that I finally decided to give it a try today. This, in spite of the fact that I have installed and subsequently uninstalled the betas of IE7 on this machine at least 6 times. Each time I tried to use it, an error message would pop up within 5 seconds and terminate the session! Today's installation had not proved to be futile though. I've been running IE7 for the past 10 minutes and my session is yet to terminate. That's a first! I love the leaner, meaner and slicker interface, but I guess page renditions are better via Firefox. Or maybe I'm just so used to the open-source browser's renditions that anything that appears slightly different on IE7 is being deemed flawed. But, really, the Blogger edit window definitely looks a lot better in Firefox. I've been running Minefield 3.0a1 (Firefox's nightly builds) for the past few months both at home and in ...
The office wears a deserted look on account of most people opting for a holiday. Just the ideal condition for people like me. Even the roads were vacant.
Sebastian reached the US on the 17th. I discovered this after he left me a message on my blog asking me to visit his for news. His blog service is absolutely pathetic...which is what happens if you try to patronize nondescript sites that are not in the mainstream. I managed to read his blog only after letting my newsreader feed on his RSS.
I open my newsreader each morning to quickly sift through the major & minor events that happen all over the world. The one I most look forward to is the folder that contains the blogs. The one that most disappoints me is the folder that contains the blogs. Posts are scant, literature is shaky, grammar is screwed, content isn't enriching, facts are twisted, straight-from-the-heart confessions are rare and thoughtful posts are non-existent. But I really wouldn't blame the bloggers since they have far more pressing obligations to fulfill. After all, most people don't blog for a living...and they shouldn't even try.
I think we should all revert to Assembly Language! Computer Science was a beautiful thing until high-level programming happened!
I'm too busy to blog these days but hope to borrow some time this weekend. I may have to come to office even on Diwali when the rest of India is celebrating the festival of lights. It may be darkness for me. When I get time to spare (which is increasingly becoming a rarity), I quickly browse through my 30-odd sources of news. That's how I remain in touch with the rest of the world. It's my only relief and solace.
Spoke to Sameer for over an hour after office. His talk-time was exhausted mid-way and he quickly got a refill before we continued.
Yahoo! Time Capsule I'll try to contribute.
This is how many of our arguments would end when we were kids. Didi : You are mad! I: Every great man is mad! Didi : But every mad man isn't great!
Reached home @ 2200 hrs. Gave Santosh his much-needed book on C#. The downloads are on in full swing although Mozart's Symphony #39 (in mp3 format) is proving to be frustratingly elusive.
It was Nilotpal's turn last night to be the target of a gang interested in robbing him of his phone and cash. The way these goons diligently prepare before converging on their unsuspecting victims is astounding. Bangalore isn't a safe city.

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt take a ride thru Pune

Bribe

We had halted at the traffic signal near Silk Board. Right next to our shuttle was a truck. A traffic policeman walked up to the driver and gesticulated at his watch while saying something. Apparently, trucks weren't allowed within city limits during normal traffic hours. The policeman extended his palm. The intention was conspicuous. The truck driver, without a moment's hesitation, reached for his purse, extracted some cash and gave it to the policeman who took it keeping a straight face, slipped it into his pocked and swaggered off. I wish I had enough presence of mind to shoot a video of the incident. But it was too late by the time I realised what was happening and to make matters worse, it was very dark although activating the night mode in my camera would have been sufficient to capture the incident for my blog.
Rhymer's face is shrunken after she recently recovered from her brief illness. That's what she thinks! And now her nose strongly suggests that everything is an onion!
Nilotpal confessed to having achieved a personal milestone last Saturday. The way he was relentlessly pursuing his objective, it was only a matter of time before he achieved success. Congrats, boy!
DOR What a movie! I see the renaissance of meaningful cinema in India.
My Nokia 6681 is EDGE enabled. Should I get a connection to the Net via my mobile? I'm considering my options. Downloading via the bittorrent protocol slows down our LAN at home.

Some Gandhi

An industry that's a world beater in producing movies can't score high on the quality front. But it can't be an all-crap producer either. The occasional jewel does come your way...and Lage Raho Munnabhai happens to be just one such jewel. The plot in enthralling without resorting to ridiculous make-believe maladies and their solutions though I'm hardly convinced on the efficacy of Gandhism in the situations his ideals have been pitted against. The gaping flaws are all around you. How can a thug who makes a living by breaking bones and kidnapping hapless people suddenly gain enlightenment by reading books on Gandhi for three consecutive days? If the overwhelming benevolence of real-life's myriad manifestations have failed to influence him in all these years, could reading a few books help cleanse him? I think not. Is knee-jerk Gandhism sustainable? I think not. People hallucinate, but not in the way as portrayed in the movie. Gandhi's views on non-violence have ...
A concerted effort by Santosh and Mantu finally got the exit cleared. The sink's working fine now though we need to be very careful. We has a scare last night.

Reflections

That personal looks would gain such precedence that it had the power of preempting everything else in your life when you were in your early 20's shouldn't be surprising. Kaushik and I exeplified this perfectly. Kaushik, my roommate in Pune, wasn't exactly obese, just slightly overweight with an emerging pot-belly, something that caused him immense consternation. He became most conscious of it whenever he was walking and found a pretty girl looking at him or anything within a radius of one mile. Pune streets, unlike Jamshedpur's, were lined with a lot of cars. Kaushik would make use of his reflection from the window glass to see if everything was in place and impressionable. So each time a pretty babe would come nearer, Kaushik would frantically start admiring his reflections on all the car windows. His bulging belly would suddenly disappear as he would inhale and hold breath till the girl crossed, after which the suffocating Kaushik would 'collapse' back to his ...
The drain was choked and water from our sink flooded our kitchen. Since there was no other exit, our kitchen looked like a tank. All the poking by Santosh was in vain.

Money matters, yet again

I've been in innumerable pecuniary problems ever since my net banking account was disabled owing to five consecutive wrong guesses at the password. Getting a new password itself became an issue and it's only today (2 weeks later) that I've finally been able to apply. The latest glitch to hit me lied in paying my LIC premium. I tried to make the payment today through the Net but was taken aback to realise that it didn't accept credit card payments through the gateway. I had no choice but to go and make the payment over-the-counter. As usual, I preferred paying by my card, but had enough presence of mind (luckily) to ask...just in case. Therein lied an elevation of my worldly wisdom. LIC didn't accept credit card payments at all! Life Insurance Corporation is India's largest life insurance company and is fully owned by he Government of India. It currently contributs around 7% of India's GDP. And we flatter ourselves into believing that we are a software superp...

Santosh & I @ The Forum & Big Bazaar

Who would have thought buying CD's at The Forum or Big Bazaar would be an issue! At The Forum , there were no Moser Baer CD's. The other brands were too expensive or available only in packs of 50 or 100. I bought a CD pouch instead. Big Bazaar was worse. After being redirected from one floor to the other, we finally figured it out for ourselves that there were no CD's at all. We had also planned to buy curtains for the door and windows. Too expensive @ Big Bazaar . We ended up returning home only with the pouch. I had to bribe Santosh en route with a chicken roll for giving me good company. BTW, The Forum is a beehive of activity nowadays. Is western-style aggressive marketing here to stay?! Most impressive was a young girl -must be a college goer- trying to cull people from the crowd and asking them to come up with impromptu, nonsensical performances. Our young friend meanwhile blabbered all the while why Aquaguard was the greatest invention since sliced bread and w...

The Marathon Downloads

Blogging is momentarily playing second fiddle to downloading music off P2P networks. I've already managed to get some fantastic tracks by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, Nat King Cole and Julio Iglesias. John Coltrane, Yanni, Ben Webster, Frank Sinatra, Dolly Parton and a few others are still in queue! Blogging will restart in all its glory on Friday. Of late, I haven't been able to apply my thoughts.

Sunday

It's not the usual sullen Sunday today. Tomorrow is a holiday owing to Gandhi Jayanti. Like other Sundays, however, it was the usual lazy morning that most of my friends woke up to. Abhishek (my colleague) paid us a visit in the afternoon and exploited the opportunity to check the alarmingly infectious Orkut besides his email. The bandwidth was very low and the poor guy was disappointed not to be able to surf to his heart's content. To compensate, we let him watch Lage Raho Munnabhai . The scene where an innocent student is slapped in the college canteen by the protagonist's friend for reasons that remain totally oblivious to the assaulted was absolutely hilarious! Subhasish & I were scheduled to meet up in the evening to visit a few Durga Puja pandals and we were eagerly looking forward to it. The rains played spoilsport. We instead Google Talked for some time before bandwidth stifled it. It was Manilal's turn to throw a dinner party in celebration of his new...

A tiny BitTorrent Client

uTorrent is incredibly tiny with a directly executable download of 172KB! Its memory footprint is negligible and it isn't a resource guzzler like the venerable Azureus .