Title_TBD

using scribefire

2010-11-17T02:55:00.001+05:30

Use Chrome BETA version (8+)

Install the scribefire plugin from here

Test!

Hurt

2009-01-06T19:19:00.004+05:30

Sitting on another one of those interminable conference calls that seem to punctuate my working hours, I happened to chat with a colleague who wanted a clarification on something I said. Well, mac laptops (the thing I was talking about) aside, he pointed me to his band's site (www.sonicflare.in) and their latest release Hurt.
Go have a listen and read about the reason behind Hurt.

I still have goosebumps.

Ping

2009-01-05T18:11:00.002+05:30

Ping!
whoa...more than a yr since the last post.
Wonder how much longer for the next one.

Update on the last six months

2007-10-18T20:59:00.000+05:30

Got married.
Moved to a new house.
Was in the US for 2 hectic months. Drove a convertible for the better part of those 2 months.
Went to Mumbai and Pune. Visited Amby Valley.
Attended a Bluetooth UPF (finally!).
For those who missed it, I got married.
Reduced 6 kgs thru exercise and diet (ha!). Gained back 2 kgs god alone knows how.
Came upto this blog update page umpteen times and left without writing anything.
Bought a Nintendo Wii and have reached the pinnacle in Wii Tennis.
Relegated the XBox360 to paperweight.

Will expand on most of the points above in later blogs....but no promises. I think it's better this way to write when I feel like writing rather than a compulsory post every 2 days.

Back again.

2007-10-18T20:58:00.000+05:30

See entry below.

Time to restart blogging

2007-02-28T19:40:00.000+05:30

Happens every year.
I think it is a sign of the times that "Restart Blogging" is a New-Year Resolution.
Just one more thing to make me feel guilty. Like answering phone calls on weekends.
I imagine that 500 yrs ago all I would feel guilty about was for not washing up once a week or the fact that I was hiding up a tree in the last epic war* between our nations (read: woe-begone villages).

Today, the make-me-feel-guilty-about list goes something like this:
- Watching more TV
- Reading less books
- Miserable General Knowledge
- Missing the last feature deadline
- Eating out more often than necessary
- Not servicing my bike for the last 1 yr
- Not checking the oil in my car for the past 6 months
- Overspending on audio accessories
- Not maintaining the required share ratio for some torrent dlnds
- Not finding enough things to write about in this list.

Most are irrelevant (On my death-bed, I won't be wishing I had maintained my share-ratio...unless the torrent community had placed a hit on me for that reason) but still manage to cause me worry.

Still, I'm back to writing. One less worry to worry about.

So what causes your worry-warts to break out?

* More like a scuffle with 17 peasants each side. I was up in the tree C-O-U-N-T-I-N-G.

The Tokyo Chronicles: Sea Paradise et Yokohama

2006-11-10T12:13:00.000+05:30

Second weekend in Tokyo. Made plans to go to Seaparadise at Hakkeijima near Yokohama. Was woken up at 5:30am, reached the station at 7am and took the train to Yokohama with 3 colleagues.
Lots of rides and stuff like that. Was quite intimidated by the Blue Fall when I saw it the first time.

Face thy fear! Sat on it with mixed feelings. The ride up was tension filled with the announcer counting down the seconds before the plunge. The plunge itself was very exhilarating as I kept my eyes open all the time.
In the end, took it twice. Do Fallen Angels feel like this? Is that the reason why they Fall?

Also went on the roller coaster ride twice. Meh...could have been better.

Roamed in the shopping streets of Yokohama in the evening and went to China Town too. Tiring day, but well worth the trip.

Interesting structures....these Chinese temples. The priests were wily enough to con one of my friends into donating 500 yen(about Rs 200/-). The chap came out wondering out loud if this amount was more than he had put in all his life into temple hundis :)

Oh yeah...most of the restaurants here display their menu outside the door and quite a few prepare you for the shock inside too with wax replicas of their food.

The Tokyo Chronicles: Money Walk or "One For The Money..."

2006-10-23T21:31:00.000+05:30

What do you do in a new city if you have 3 holidays back-to-back and don't know a soul? Why, you walk. You get your ass off the hotel and head out in no particular direction. The trick here (especialy if you are in a city where you are a certified illiterate) is to look back at the road you came by and picture how it would look in the dark. Note the signsboards and the shops in the corners. Of course, it helps if your hotel has a nameplate right on top of the 18th floor, but still, you never lose the basics.
Walked left from the hotel, down a bridge over the metro rail and again turned left. Walked a kilometer and reached Meguro station. So far so good. Saw a bunch of hotels nearby including 2 or 3 Indian food joints. Hmm...info stored for later.

I had run out of money in the first 3 days itself. Had only converted about 100$ into yen and it was time to withdraw more from a nearby ATM. Nearby? They were EVERYWHERE! I had noticed the ATMS during my previous walks and it was now time to put the info to good use. So I go up to the first ATM I see, check to see if it accepts Amex and slot it in. Around here is where I hit the first roadblock, namely the lack of an English option on the screen. Now, punching randomly on the screen with your ATM card safely ensconced within the machine is not a good idea, right? Right. I decide to take the card out. Which button exactly, again? Err...hmmm. At this point I am conjuring up images of all the ATM screens I have seen and collecting data for a huge leap of faith based on the fact that software engineers everywhere will code in similar fashion. Not quite scientific but it bore me out when I touched the bottom left menu item. The card came right out with a polite voice telling me to "Domm Arigato Gojaimas"...which I learnt later that day meant "Thank you very much".
Onto the next machine. Same problem with the language option which I checked before even taking the card out of my wallet. Ditto with the next 3. Sigh..this was getting to be frustrating. I decide to take the ultimate leap of faith and go over to the counter and ask for help from the attendant. she takes me to the ATM machine, slots the card in, punches the right buttons and up comes the PIN screen. She moves aside and I enter in the PIN. Now its easy sailing because the next screen asks me for the amount to be withdrawn. I enter in a judicious amount and wait to get rich. Well, not today! The machine spits out my card (politely, of course) and murmurs "Domm Ari.." like it means it. The preplexed lady calls for help from her colleagues and they crowd around trying to make sense of the gaijin's gibberish. Long story short, I return to the hotel empty handed and enquire at the front desk about forex. Turns out the ATMs in the shopping centers were meant only for Japanese cards and all foreign cards had to use the Post-Office ATMs to withdraw cash.
Ka-Tching! Next morning 20,000 yen richer and a whole lot wiser.

The Tokyo Chronicles: Getting into Japan

2006-10-09T09:59:00.000+05:30

Relatively eventless flight..for me at least since my last 2 flights out of India had been delayed over 12-24 hrs. This one was on time and absolutely boring. There were a couple of other guys from my office I had never run into before. Still, it was reassuring since they had been in Japan before. At least, I woud'nt have to figure out a way to get to my hotel on my own...like that first time in Chicago.

Shopping in Singapore airport: well, it's more expensive than WalMart, that's for sure. The listed price on a Creative Vision W 30 GB was about 700 S$ which is about 440USD. The price of this product in US is about 399 USD!!
Also, they did'nt have the Shure E2c in any electronic shop in the entire airport. Sigh...

Landing in Narita was a nightmare because of the storm in Tokyo..it was one of the roughest landings I've had in the recent past. Mid-air is something totally else (was in a Delhi-Mumbai flight in Nov last year and got into turbulence because of air pockets over Jaipur. Literally lifted a foot off the seat. And then put my foot on the floor just as all the passengers were lifted about half a foot into the air! )

Got to the immigration counter and realised a little belatedly that all my documents were in my checked in baggage. This happened because we were allowed only 1 carry-on baggage at Bangalore. I was forced to pack in my laptop bag...and all the documents + visiting cards with it. So there I was smiling sheepishly at the lady in the visa counter who was looking at me incredulously. No invitation letter. No visiting card. No proof of employment documents. Luckily, I pointed to the other 2 guys from my office who were in the next 2 counters. That smoothed things a little. Also, I fished out my identity card and she broke into a smile. Phew! Of course, I got a strict admonishment to carry all documents on person. Lesson learnt.

The bus ride to the Westin Tokyo was interesting....I saw all these cars pass by and EVERY ONE of those cars had a GPS receiver. Hmm...some insight here...don't know what.

The Tokyo Chronicles:Holiday fest

2006-10-09T09:10:00.000+05:30

Am in Tokyo since last Friday.
Got in via Narita on Singapore Airlines...let me start at the top.

Our client needs a presence from our team in Tokyo even though most of our issues are resolved. Its much easier to get things done in Bangalore except for the issues that absolutely need FOMA phones. Oh well, time to tackle those issues. Also, I have to look for a replacement for my wrecked M1000 (ya, dropped it once too often and the touchscreen cracked...sigh)
Aanyways, got the Japan visa in 4 days even with the holidays in between. Ah, the holidays...let me count the ones I had in the past 2 weeks: Sept 29th is the last working day I remember. 30th Sep and 1st Oct were weekends, 2nd Oct(Monday) was a holday in India on account of Gandhi Jayanti. So the attendance on Tuesday (3rd Oct) was minimal. Add to this the fact that Wed(4th Oct) was a holiday in Bangalore because of a bandh in support of the Belgaum issue. I was supposed to travel on the 4th but (wisely) got it shifted to 5th Oct. Not much work done on a day you travel. I was on travel on 6th (Friday) landing in Tokyo late on Friday night. 7th and 8th, well, weekend again. Now the icing: 9th (Monday) is a holiday in Japan (Health and Sports Day (Taiiku-no-hi)). I'll trudge into a new office tomorrow morning.

So in effect, got 3 days on my own in Japan. Haven't met any of the ppl in the other teams yet since they are all staying in other hotels.

I'll blog my experiences in Tokyo over the next month in a more or less regular fashion.

Grado SR60

2006-09-11T20:09:00.000+05:30

Pure Audio bliss.

Over the years I've tried on, loved, and discarded dozens of headphones. The Sony MDRs which came with my Walkman in the early 90s, the Sony Fontopias I had bought from grey-markets in Nagpur and Bombay, the Philips earbuds that saw me through 2000-2002, the Philips HD800 that was sweet sounding but horrible to wear for long durations....the list goes on.
I remember gawking at a pair of Sennheiser electrostatic headphones that retailed for about 20,000 INR and wondering which FD to break to get my hands on those. Luckily for me, at that point I was very far from any bank and the moment of insanity passed.
Still, the quest for a continued.
Recently I bought a pair of JVC HA-FX55 earphones which gave me above average sound experience for a decent price. It is a sound-isolating headphone...much better in my opinion than any sound cancelling headphone. I find the hiss of the sound cancelling headphones to be fatiguing and prefer the near-perfect seal of calm silence of a sound isolating pair. Of course, at first you get jarred by the enhanced sound of your heartbeat but after a while it's reassuring.
And then...on impulse (after reading the reviews on a few sites), I ordered a pair of Grado SR60s. 4 days later, I finally understood what audiophile insanity (the urge to splurge thousands of dollars on hi-fi equipment) is all about.
You may have heard of headphones that make you think that you are in the first row of the auditorium in a rock concert. Well, with the Grado SR60s, you ARE right on stage in the middle of the musicians.
The clarity and soundstage seperation is absolutely mindblowing. You can hear the softest cymbal beat at the same time as the meanest riff in Hotel California-Live version. You can hear Jagjit Singh spit out a P before he goes on to say "Phir...". You can hear the violin players moving from centerstage to the rear and then back again to the forefront in crystal clear clarity in Tadap Tadap Ke. Hot For Teacher by Van Halen...remember the start? the layered effect brought on by the bass drums never sounded better. Listening to Live performances is astounding because you can pinpoint each performer in your head.
The construction of the headphones is straight out of a 50s movie but it has panache because it's so functional. It's style is its performance. I would'nt want it any other way.
The only minus points of these headphones are that they leak a lot of sound...so it's not exactly what you can use in the office. Have my sights on a pair of Shure E2c now for office listening :)

Snooker times

2006-05-09T22:27:00.000+05:30

We have a Snooker table in the office premises and of-late most post-lunch pre-mandatory-email-check time is spent potting reds and snooking the white or at least in the attempts to do so. Its' not everyday that my colleague and I find an empty table the moment we enter. This calls for a forbearing stance in the room overlooking the proceedings on the table. Every missed shot will be met with absolutely no emotion from the overlookers which rings as volumes of abuse heaped on the one who goofed the shot. The more aggressive ones will stand right up at the table pretending to observe the opposite wall. Gentle tactics to get people to play fast and leave the premises asap. Over time you get an idea of which tactic works on what set of people. Like the freshers who monopolise the pool table can be rounded off if one of their mentors happens to walk in OR if you call up the mentor on the phone for a casual name-dropped converstation :) Or the UPA (read hyderabadi; internal joke) bunch who can be packed off with sniggers and eye-rolling. Very subtly, of course.

Playing on the same table with a small selection of people allows you to formulate tactics for each one of them. One interesting criteria is the favourite pocket of each player. This can be observed from the number of balls in each pocket at the end of a game. Place a yellow or green in the vicinity of said pocket and their game takes a hit. :D
The cue-stick is another formidable weapon. Knowing the characteristics (cue-tip wobbles during spin-shots on some sticks, two are warped and needs adjustment for a straight shot) etc. make it a more intersting game than just gaining the most points.

My level of expertise? : I've hit the Uncanny Valley meaning my skills are going downhill, I'm getting cross-eyed, my back aches, and I suspect one of my arms is getting longer than the other :D

Time and Place

2006-05-03T19:32:00.000+05:30

Took out my trusty old ride last Sunday after nearly a year. The interlude was not quite intentional but after buying a car, I just never got around to taking the bike out. My watchman was quite insistent on the virtues of keeping the engine in running condition by riding it at least once a month. Didn't happen.

Well, Sunday was just one of those days... Went down expecting to pay for my negligence with sore muscles from kicking the Bullet to life. 6 kicks. 6 well timed kicks. That's all it took for the bike to roar to life. Added a can of oil, filled up petrol and filled in air at a station about 2 kms off and the bike was back in its element. And so was I. Could'nt believe that I traded this excitement for the closed-in ride of a car. Zen and the Motor... came back in flashes. Wow! was I a fool or what!

20 mins later, sense prevailed. I was out at noon, the dust was everywhere and, while the ride was exciting, the roads and the rest of the traffic was not. Realised (not for the first time) the meaning of Time and Place.

A Time for everything and everything in its Time.
Ditto Place.

Inactivity

2006-05-03T19:19:00.000+05:30

Sitting in office doing nothing...this is new.

Just finished a major release last night and don't have anything to do right now. Seriously, I'm not used to this kind of inactivity. Which is really saying something considering what a lazy bum I am.

Fiddled with the layout and colors on this blogsite. Am actually answering calls today...even the ones I have put on my "ignore without prejudice" list (a feature on the M1000 but that's a blog for another day.)

This is irritating.

Salman Rushdie and Suketu Mehta

2006-04-03T18:22:00.000+05:30

Finished reading Satanic Verses after being on the lookout for this book a long time. Halfway thru the book, I had this vague feeling that something was missing, that something has been snipped out. Turns out I was right. The version of the book I had read did not have a complete chapter (read a chapterwise critique of the book on the net to verify this). Anyway....
Salman Rushdies' strength is in the emotions invoked by his long-winding sentences about everyday things. I particularly enjoyed The Moor's Last Sigh and Satanic Verses because of the evocative passages about Mumbai. I've heard that Midnight's Children is even better in the Mumbai nostalgia but I'll have to read the book to comment.
Of course, Mumbai in this case is South Mumbai which I have practically nothing to do with. For me, it's just another place like Paris or Tokyo except for the faintly tangiable effect of having been there a few dozen times in my life. The roads, streets, shops mentioned in the book are real in that sense.

Another interesting Mumbai book is Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta. Simple language, lucid thoughts, and (mostly) recognizable faces. Never imagined a non-fiction book could be so incisive in its portrayal of the many faces of Mumbai. The author is an ex-South Mumbaikar who had a long spell in New York and has decided to decimate the chaos that's Mumbai for his understanding once he got back. And came up with the book in the process. Worth a read.

2 books, 2 authors, 2 very different ways of writing and yet somehow... the vast canvas of ordinariness and larger-than-life characters in Rushdie's novel are no match for the extra-ordinary, yet common-place, way of living of the real-life characters of Mehta's book.

When was the last time You did something for the first time?

2006-01-21T19:14:00.000+05:30

Last night.

Saw snow fall.
Played in about 11 inches of snow! Whoopee!!!!

Its almost magical the way it floats down to earth. I've not been moved like this in a long long time.

Can't wait to get out again and play some more :))

January 1???

2006-01-02T19:05:00.000+05:30

Again? What's so new about this year then!?

Post to ring in the New Year!

2006-01-02T19:01:00.000+05:30

Actually it is to publish the new layout... :D

Plucking your twanger...Rainbow style

2005-06-16T21:46:00.000+05:30

Almost could'nt believe it when I heard of this link.
Crazy thing is, it was actually aired!
See the link below to see what I mean :)

Pluck away!

Self replicating C program

2005-03-23T21:25:00.000+05:30

One of the most frustrating but interesting exercises in C is to write a self replicating program. A self replicating program is one which prints out its own source code on execution. Given below is a link to the world's smallest such program in C. Quite ingenious and very very tongue-in-cheek :)

World's Smallest SRP in C

confused?

here's the explanation :)

Fuzon

2005-02-28T16:08:00.000+05:30

There I was,
forlorn and lone,
watching TV,
waiting for the phone.

Switching channels,
lacking interest,
paused at a music video,
different from the rest.

No dancing bimbos here,
Nor flashy females fell,
Just an "old-type" picturisation,
With a story to tell.

Piqued I paused,
Senses slowly awoke,
The music was mellifluous,
Not the usual grating yoke. *

Stayed for the video,
Sold for the song,
Folks hunting haiku in my poem,
There's no place so wrong :)

Long poem short,
Many thanks to Venky,
The band was Fuzon,
and er...you are a monkey **

Anyways, went out and bought the CD (Venky's been asking me to do so for ages), and tried to rip it(Venky again :D ). Turns out, I can't! The CD was copy protected. More power to them till I find out a way to do it. Still, I can't think of a better band to purchase music from.

* For those who are wondering, the term yoke is used here to signify the joining of different pieces of sounds that pass for music nowadays. That, and a healthy dose of poetic license ;)

** Mah pom degenerates real fast, eh?

Bodyshopping in Bangalore!

2005-02-09T01:38:00.000+05:30

Location: Brigade Road
Sunday afternoon

Why are we here? Plastic :)

2005-01-27T20:26:00.000+05:30

Ancient philiosophical question.
Came by this wonderful answer while reading about the damage non-biodegradable plastic causes earth.

In the words of comedian George Carlin:
"If plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, 'Why are we here?' Plastic...asshole. "

The Mahabharata

2005-01-25T19:44:00.000+05:30

"The Mahabharata" by Kamala Subramaniam

Read this wonderful book the first chance you get. It's the complete Mahabharata (as far as I know), the full 18 parvas, and in reasonably exquisite detail. Of course, for the epic in its entirety, you'd have to read the sanskrit version. My dad was telling me about the level of detail in malayalam translation of the epic. The description was about one of the variety of arrows that Arjuna was proficient in shooting at an enemy atop a charging elephant. I cannot reproduce the poetic version but the gist is: The arrow, after leaving the bow, first pierces the trunk of the elephant, enters through its left eye, exits out of its head, skewers the mahout, then the enemy rider, and finally slices through the uplifted tail of the unlucky elephant!
The book I read is quite inferior by comparison but it still has the magic of Amar Chitra Katha (after all, the ACK stories we have read are, in fact, from this book) and the delicious whiplash of philosophy. There are no clearcut heroes or villains in the Mahabharata. Everyone is guilty by association and everyone is worthy by their deeds. You learn to question even Lord Krishna's methods and at times find yourself sympathizing with Duryodhana.

I started off on this book just for the stories but I stayed back for the marvelous portrayal of human emotions and belief in value systems. One of the basic lessons of the Mahabharata, according to me, is how to change with the times. I'll be reading the book every year just to see what other meanings I can pick up from it.

Absolutely fantastic book and thoroughly recommended.

I'm Feeling Lucky

2005-01-21T14:57:00.000+05:30

1. Go to google.com
2. Type in 'sujithrk' in the search box
3. Press the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button

Presto!!!
Voila!!!
Hurray!!!

It's this page :)))

Nice :)

Cricket debacle.

2004-11-03T18:34:00.000+05:30

No. It's not about the Indian Cricket team. You can relax and read ahead now.

I play tennis ball cricket in office practically every evening. It's a wonderful thing to compete with guys who know your strengths and weakness. Every single player has his favourite shots and his totally abysmal areas. For example, I am a reasonably good offside batsman and I can pick runs off my toes on the onside too but I am not comfortable with the pull shot or the hook shot. Therefore I am almost always bowled a good length incutter aimed at my stomach. Of course, some days I get lucky and pull that for a six and the formula against me changes for a few days. Likewise, I know which batman I can bowl the yorker to and to who I can get away with a screamer down the offside. To top it all, we play on a circular helipad (concrete base), which covers about 30 yards and the rest is all lush green lawn. Needless to say, NOBODY dives on the helipad but there have been some scintillating catches at the boundary where the fielder comes running in and dives to hold on to the catch.

So much for the preamble. Today we had a match with another group in the company. we had a practice match yesterday with those chaps and beat them hollow. Therefore everyone was in a buoyant mood. After all we do play everyday. What can ppl who play once in a while do against us. As the title mentions, well...quite a bit.

First up, we played on another ground nearby which was an ok pitch (mud) and grass all around. This ground is not preferred by us for our daily games because the boundaries are too short and a good shot is, more often than not, a six. We won the toss and put them to bat. The logic being that they do not have an idea about the potential of the ground and would not know the runs needed for a win. We started off well with only 15 runs coming in the first 4 overs with the fall of 3 wickets. I bowled the 5th and 7th over and gave only 7 runs and took a wicket. Then it started. An innocuous drop catch, a missed stumping chance, a run out throw to the wicket hitting it and shooting off allowing for more runs. A six and a few fours later, the target was 60 of 10 overs. No sweat. Our chaps went in to bat. All of a sudden we realised our folly. You see, this match was set up by one of the players who used to play regularly with us. He had got ppl from his dept. who we did not know. On the other hand, he was expertly setting the field for each and every one of us. On top of that, their bowling was excellent. Good pace, mostly yorkers and widish outside the off stump deliveries with a slip and a second slip at square. We tumbled to 45 all out in about 9 overs.

Lessons learnt:
Do not underestimate the other team.
Do not assume that good bowling on one pitch is enough to bowl on another pitch. I am so used to bowling on concrete that I had to be extra cautions about not slipping on the ground. This robbed me of an few extra yards of speed. Possibly that defended shot could have been a bowled.
Get lots of batting practice. Balls that I whack on the helipad were finding edges and snicks in the 3 overs that I batted. Reason: change in pace/bounce of the ground. Plus, learn to wait for the ball and play on the backfoot. I gave my wicket away to a cross bat shot on the front foot which found the fielder at the boundary behind the bowler. A more balanced shot would have been a sixer.
Fight to the finish. Lost hope is more dangerous than lack of skill. In the over I got out, I was batting with 35 runs to win in 18 balls and the only thought was the smirk and taunts on the face of the challenger who plays with us daily (oh, we are a fun bunch :) ). I should have batted sensibly and waited for a bad ball to whack instead of throwing my wicket to a good ball.

Long post I know, but I just wanted to write all this down while I am still smarting so that I can read this and rectify things before the next match.

TV de-addiction

2004-10-21T16:18:00.000+05:30

This one is straight out of Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

"Sujith RK of Bangalore (India) wilfully and of his own accord, pulled out the cable connection to his TV, paid the cable guys their money every month and abstained from watching TV for a whole of 3 months from July to October in the year 2004"

The main reason for such a drastic step was the amount of ads that deluge us every single day on TV. You cannot watch anything with any kind of seriousness or concentration before being abruptly (emphasis on that, damn it!) jolted by a "message". I absolutely hate having my life disrupted in this fashion. In fact, I make it a point to not pick up the mobile over weekends just on this whim. Of course, not all of my friends see eye-to-eye with me on this particular point :)
I agree with them in principle but hey, whimsical fancies are rather illogical.

You won't believe the amount of free time I had once the idiot box was out of the equation. It's not as if I did not watch any movies in the meantime. I did and quite often too. In spite of that, I saved over 2 hours per day by not entertaining any commercials of any sort. The second major discovery was that the sofa in my house COULD face other walls and still function just as well. In fact, a major, more practical rearrangement of the furniture was possible just by acknowledging that the TV is NOT going to be turned on. I had time to read, to listen to music, to study, to read the newspaper thoroughly, to THINK. Oooh, save the brickbats on that one :)

Finally, in a moment of weakness, I did plug in the damned thing back and have been glued in ever since. I cringe everytime a movie breaks for ads and sorrowfully long for the delicious days when I was a free man. Will I ever have the will power to do it a second time? I do not know.

Serious thought 1

2004-08-19T19:59:00.000+05:30

Would you give an old geezer wheezing down the road an helping hand? Would you help that old lady struggling with shopping bags a much needed respite? What's that I hear? All of you? Everytime? Wonderful. I have the dubious honour of addressing a big bunch of liars! :)

Now before you all drive down with pitchforks and stakes to my house...quite a lot of you know where I live (or do you, sv? :) ) let me explain. Picture yourself as that geezer or old lady some 10-20 yrs from now. What would you do if someone gave you the chance to "help" yourself 20 yrs hence? Well, all of us have that chance. How many of us take it?

I am talking about controlling your diet and 'committing' some regular exercise just so that the future you can walk a little easier, feel a little less tired and live a more painless life. I am talking about studying a little harder, working a little more so that the future you would not have to worry too much about finances.

But seriously, can you imagine a 20 yr old abstaining from drinking/smoking just to help out a 40 yr old stranger?

Gaia has 'got ya'

2004-08-18T19:43:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered what life would be like beyond the solar sysytem? Of course you have. Everyone has. I think it's something to do with the plantation being more envious on the other side of the nefarious dealer of stolen goods.
Anyway, just the other day I was staring out of the window of a moving bus while it was raining heavily. My train of thought chugged along the lines of whether there would be rain (of any kind) on other planets, if and when will man colonise other planets, you know...just the average kind of thoughts after finishing a Philip K. Dick novel. Suddenly, I had a more scarier thought...What if Man is never intended to leave Earth? I mean, what if Earth has some kind of life nourishing force that Man needs to remain alive? They say that Gravity would have been discovered long ago if it has a tendency to shut down once in a while. In other words, some things have to be absent for a while to realise their presence. In such a case, what if you realise the absence of this force only after say, leaving the orbit of Jupiter or after the Solar System?
Man has only been to the moon so far; hence this is perfectly valid paranoia...name one person who can refute it with proof!

We are already overpopulating the Earth, replenishing its resources and generally playing havoc all in the hope that someday we can leave home and settle elsewhere. Imagine the scenario when the news breaks out on Earth that all 18 (or 50??) billion will have to stay home, its just not safe out there.

Scary, huh? :)

Signing off with some topical copy-paste from Pyramids by Terry Pratchett:

"And it was while he was staring vaguely ahead, lost in that Zen-like contemplation which occurs at moments like this, that there was a faint pop in the air and an entire river valley opened up in front of him. It's not the sort of thing that ought to happen to a thoughtful lad. Especially one who has to wash his own uniform. "

Stayin Alive....

2004-07-27T20:47:00.000+05:30

Just thought I'd let you know I'm still alive.

Yes, I know there are quite a few episodes I have to finish in this blog and I will, in due time. For now, lots of work and a general weariness towards the world at large & myself in particular.

PC Story

2004-06-03T13:54:00.000+05:30

"Looks like this time I've done it. I've finally gone over the edge."

4 hours of deciding components and pricing, 1 hour ride back home, 3 hours of setting up the PC (*more on this later), 1 minute of painful anguish when I realised that the WinXp CD was in office, 30 minutes of jubiliation after I find an old Win98 CD, 1 minute of painful anguish when I realise I don't have the CD key, 4 hours of blissful sleep when I leave the problem for the next day, 12 hours of trying to focus on work while desperately wanting to go home, 1 minute of putting the WinXp CD in my bag (followed by 15-20 times of 10 second glances into the bag every 10-15 minutes to ensure it's there), 1.5 hours of getting home, 2 hours to set up the speakers and install WinXp, 2 minutes of finding the Dire Straits CD and putting it in, and the next 6 hours of being enveloped in sound, movies and effects!

Paisa Vasool!!!

The Config:

Intel Celeron 2.4
Intel 845 GBV motherboard
512 MB RAM
80 GB HDD
56x CD-ROM
17" Samsung monitor
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 with 256 MB VRAM video card
Creative Audigy LS sound card
Creative Inspire 5200 5.1 speakers
APC UPS
Dell Keyboard
Logitech Optical mouse
and Lite-On DVD writer (after Venks is thru with it)

Reasons for choosing Celeron (over P4) and Creative 5.1 (over Altec Lansing 5.1) will be revealed in this blog soon (read: someday when I am not rushing thru work to get home fast :D )

Make your own Computer....in 21 days

2004-05-28T20:21:00.000+05:30

I spent the weekend (ok..only sunday) scouting for PC parts to make my PC. Alternatively, a good PC deal by any vendor would also have done just fine.

The current price in Bangalore comes to about 19k (INR/about USD 435) for a PIV 2.4Ghz Prescott/Intel 845GVL chipset/256MB RAM(333Mhz)/Seagate 80 GB HDD/1.44 FDD/17" LG/Microsoft Kbd.

Now, what configuration do you think is the most suitable (economical and reasonably time-proof) for my needs, namely gaming, watching movies and listening to music considering that I already have an optical mouse, CD-ROM drive, a NIC card, a DVD writer, ATI Radeon 9600 (256MB VRAM) video card with TV out and a Creative Audigy soundcard. (Venky, thanks a lot :) )

Also, I am budgeting for a Creative 5.1 speaker setup. Problem is, I have not heard these yet. I have experienced the 2.1 at Venky's place and that was quite impressive. What are your views on the Creative and Altec Lansing 5.1/2.1 sets?

Feel free to use the comment section to "advise" :)

Da Vinci Code: Utter Tripe triple sundae

2004-05-19T13:10:00.000+05:30

Brij, getting a book endorsed by you was always the mark of a true masterpiece. Remember Ice Station Zebra? Remember H2G2? Remember Zen and the Art..?
Then how could you do this to me?

WARNING...SPOILER ALERT...

I borrowed DVC and finished it over the weekend. How do you say "trash" in Francois? First up, the clues left a lot to be desired.
Mirrored words? Kindergarten stuff! In fact there was a mystery book for primary students in my school library which had this very concept of mirrored words. (and also a brooch which contained the words MAY written in circular fashion which was being argued over by 2 eldery sisters (AMY and Marge) as belonging to one of them.) Basic premise: See the picture and solve the puzzle.

And the clues for APPLE were so obvious after it was revealed that Issac Newton was the knight that I was painfully waiting for the penny to "drop". The "gravity" of the situation was not evident to anyone else. oh well, bad puns apart, what the f*** was the deal with Teabing? Especially the part in which the Teacher walks to the back seat of the stretch limo after "polishing off" Remy presumably to finish Teabing and later it is revealed that Teabing had gone to the back seat to 'keep things in order'. Huh!?!?! JUVENILE!!!!

I had expected a good book and got Hardy Boys (Chapter 20? ok, ok..I am the Villain) teamed up with Three Investigators (JJ, take a bow and then scoot). I cringed at the silly attempts to include more information which was otherwise totally irrelevant to the story (Lion King DVD, Disney's Little Mermaid).

Consolation factor? For a book claiming to be aimed at the "intellectual", none whatsoever!.

Read it at your own risk.

Is your CD safe?

2004-05-07T17:04:00.000+05:30

From an article in cnn.com via slashdot.org :

*snip*
Most people believe that it's the clear underside of the CD that is fragile, when in fact it's the side with the label. Scratches on the underside have to be fairly deep to cause skipping, while scratches on the top can easily penetrate to the aluminum layer. Even the pressure of a pen on the label side can dent the aluminum, rendering the CD unreadable.
*/snip*

whoa!!! so that's what I have been doing wrong all these years!
I deem this a total betrayal of all that I believed in (as far as CDs go).

*snip*
For maximum longevity, discs should be stored vertically and only be handled by the edges. Don't stick labels on them, and in the case of write-once CDs, don't write on them with anything but soft water-based or alcohol-based markers.
*/snip*

Kind of makes you think of what ELSE could be so wrong in our lives that we do not have the good sense (or knowledge) to realise.

Paramparamparamparamparampara!!!! Wakau!!!

2004-04-27T15:21:00.000+05:30

Atke hai guzare kal mein jo,
unko de kuch naya!

Been a long time since I have been totally floored by an ad. Guess all of you must have seen it by now but for the sake of those who have not (read US chaps), this is the new ad for Vanilla Coke starring Vivek Oberoi in a dhinchak Elvis Presley suit (a) riding a vespa, (b) walking with an old Philips radio with antenna, (c) swinging a tennis (wooden) racket like Rajesh Khanna, (d) sending messages via pigeons and (e) disco dancing with the "phamous light suit". Oh, and there's this heavily marathi-accented voice in the background asking if you have tried the new Coke :))))

The final line is the killer:
Naya Vanilla Ice Coke,
Aur Paramparayen nahi.......
and the chorus goes: Paramparamparamparamparampara!!!!

:))))
Little surprise that this ad has been made by the ex-head of Channel V (who also made Jhankar Beats, if I am not mistaken).

btw, on a more serious note, WHERE IS PEPSI???? The market is flooded with Coke and its siblings but Pepsi is nowhere to be seen. Take a look around guys, and tell me if I am mistaken in my observation.

FoolBall!!!!

2004-04-27T15:19:00.000+05:30

From a posting in the Sports folder in our BB:

"Barbados needed to win the game by two clear goals in order to
progress to the next round. The trouble was caused by a daft rule in the
competition which stated that in the event of a game going to penalty

kicks, the winner of the penalty kicks would be awarded a 2-0
victory."

"With five minutes to go, Barbados were leading 2-1, and going out of
the tournament - because they needed to win by 2 clear goals.

"Then, when they realised they were probably not going to score
against
! ; Grenada's massed defense, they turned round, and deliberately scored an
own goal to level the scores and take the game into penalties.

"Grenada, themselves not being stupid, realised what was going on,
and
then attempted to score an own goal themselves.

"However, the Barbados players started defending their opponents goal
to prevent this.

"In the last five minutes, spectators were treated to the incredible
sight of both team's defending their opponents goal against attackers
desperately trying to score an own goal and goalkeepers trying to throw
the ball into their own net.

"The game eventually went to penalties, which Barbados won and so were
awarded a 2-0 victory and progressed to the next round!

(Courtesy: ManUtd.com)

Specialization is for insects!!!

2004-04-08T16:34:00.000+05:30

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
--Lazarus Long

Interesting. Especially when taken in context with Brijesh's post about Problem solving vs Programming language skills

Sehwag and the Ashok Chakra

2004-03-29T12:00:00.000+05:30

First, now I know who this Sehwag character is :)

At one point in the match yesterday, the commentators focused on the shots played by Sehwag in the innings. They had the visual aid of the computer generated image that showed what one thousand words might have expressed. The interesting part: it looked like the Ashok Chakra in multihue!

I think its high time the "sehwag ki maa" tag is removed and a new one added:

Sehwags' dad: "Bas kar yaar...."
Sehwag: "Ki karen papaji, petrol katham hi nahin hota..."
Dad : "Champion!"

:D

Jeetega bhai jeetaga...India jeetega!!!

2004-03-24T16:03:00.000+05:30

Faith is a strange thing.
Complete faith is religion.

Complete Exoneration!! Ha! Ha!

2004-03-22T15:58:00.000+05:30

I thought I had a confession to make. Whenever I watch India play, India loses. Sad, no?

I have almost never seen Sachin bat. Whenever I feast my eyes on the exploits of India, Team India starts fidgetting on the field, throwing nervous glances over their shoulders and generally behaving like an erstwhile fluffy pomeranian that's just come in from a rather vicious rainstorm (You almost kick it back out because you don't recognize it save for those sad eyes). That's Team India to me 99% of the time.
Of course, I have heard of the exploits of Team India from people around me and from papers too. But u know what they say about things you hear. Worse things are 'said' about things you read. Barring the paradoxes (doxii??) in the above sentences, I had a very sceptical view of our cricket team.

The only person I could safely watch is Dravid. For a long time I thought SayWag was a gregarious reporter tagging along on the tour. Fleeting glimpses of another Tendulkar at the crease used to bother me but by the time I blinked the surprise out of my eyes, the double would have disappeared leaving me with a strong suspicion that some strange(er) game was afoot. Oh, right...another wicket gone!

Thus it came to be that for years and years I have not watched India play without India losing, barring a few occasions. When India met Pakistan in Bangalore in the Quarter Finals of WC 96, I was on a train back to college. The entire compartment cheered together when we came to know the news the next morning. In 1997, I had just walked into the room when Sachin cut to square and was caught(the ball was grounded but the umpire gave him out) by Jonty Rhodes diving full length to his left. The accusatory glances that I got for that was enough to make me rethink staying on long enough in Nagpur to complete college. In the current Indo-Pak tour, I completely missed the first match and India scores a thrilling victory. (Or so they tell me). I watched the second match long enough to get Sehwag, Laxman and Ganguly out before I rushed back to my seat and played Halo to keep my mind off cricket. Next thing I know, Sachin has scored a century. So on the way home, I stop my bike and join a cheering group outside a shop and watch while 3 wickets fall in 1.2 overs (India needed 53 of 36 balls then). Harrased, I turn away and ride home while Powar and Balaji revive India's chances. I had just parked my bike when the watchman and a Pizza Hut delivery guy shout urgently, "come saar, Nehra batting, 9 balls 13 runs to win". I rush to the radio and Nehra gets bowled out. Ouch! Sujith strikes again!

Over the weekend, however, I was thinking of the few times when I had seen Sachin/India grab victory. WC2003 Mar 1st, India-Pak. Hmm...Ok, One. Sachin's amazing last over against SA in Hero Cup finals. Two. Kaif and Yuvraj beating impossible odds to win the Natwest Trophy. Well well well...at last a pattern emerges. I distinctly remember having complete FAITH in the Indian team in all these encounters. In fact, In the Natwest finals, I had reached home when India were at 180/5 and was exasperated to see my roomies switching channels because they had given up. Sufficient anger welled up in me to snatch the remote, put the match on again and sit through the whole drama with a grim determination that India will prevail. 13th June 2003.

To cut a (really) long story short, Sunday found me in front of the TV with all the determination, grim and otherwise, I could muster and cheer India onto yet another sedate yet exhuberant victory.

You can bet I'll be full of this newly discovered superstition when India meets Pak on Wednesday. India WILL WIN. Statement of Fact.
No ifs. No buts. Meanwhile I'll enjoy my respite from the Guilt Trip.

:)

1001 camels poop in your eye!

2004-03-04T21:53:00.000+05:30

I swear!!!

Thats' all today, folks!

er..nothing personal, you understand...just one of those days when you want to use everyone of those scarlet words :)

Books into Movies

2004-03-02T20:45:00.000+05:30

LOTR:ROTK wins 11/11 Oscars!
Billy Crystal said it best: "Now it's official, all of New Zealand has been thanked!"

On a very general principle, I do not like books being made into movies. It totally undermines the intention of the author to convey the story at his pace, the commitment needed of the reader to complete the book (and quite often lament the fact that the book is over) and most importantly, the imagination that the reader has to employ to give the story colour,sound and well...life. Down the ages, story telling was always an art form that needed the narrator to create his world of ideas and convey it in simple terms (read language) to the listener/reader who constructs his own world out of those ideas. That is magic.
I am sure that my imagination of say...Alice in Wonderland is quite different from anyone else's perception of that world. It's more personal. To stress the point, my imagination of the moment when the Lord of the Nazgul was slain in the fields of Pelenor outside Minas Tirith included a lush green field, a backdrop of tall trees, Lady Erwen crouched low over Theoden and Merry running in ankle deep grass to stab the Lord of the Nazgul. Well, understandable since I was reading it early in the morning on the bus from Bombay to Bangalore in mid-June about 3 yrs ago. Lush green fields all around. Aha!

I saw the movie on a bad print VCD about 2 months ago and I was totally floored. This particular scene was on a parched ground(a war was being fought there, how can it ever be lush?), the Lord of the Nazgul was smaller than my version and it was mid-day. Also, the castle coud be seen in the backdrop. In my imagination, I was on a hillock, the castle was behind me and I distinctly remember not wanting to go nearer because the Lord of the Nazgul scared me. In the movie, we have a face-shot as if I was sitting across a coffee-table with him.

A movie can never match the brilliance acheivable by a book because its the reader who can take it to heights never possible by cinema.
Another thought on the same issue: Reading/Listening to stories allows the imagination to soar and helps you recreate the world in your imagination. Both the author/narrator and the reader/listener improve their imaginative prowess.
Movies, however, make you accept the world shown to you. In such a scenario, only the movie maker's imagination grows. Comments on this welcome :)

Alternatively, the Dude Legolas surfing on the "elephant" was pure joy to watch. All said and done, the trilogy was amazing and truly deserved all the accolades.

Meanwhile check out this link to see how 'different' it could have all have been...shudder...

81 ways to tie a knot!

2004-03-01T20:00:00.000+05:30

No, not the kind that feels like a noose around your neck slowly strangling you and mocking at you while you try to look respectable and presentable in the eyes of the world. The totally other kind, involving a narrow band of silk that you wear on utterly useless occasions. I should know, I wear one to work.
As I was saying, there are 81 ways to knot that tie. I have got it off a site (forgot which one :( ), but I have compiled the salient features in a .doc file which I could send to you if you'd leave your emails with me. heh heh heh...spamillions...here I come! oops..did that get out loud? :)
Seriously, don't leave your emails, just leave a comment that you'd like the doc, don't be knotty (a'pun my word!) and I'll make sure you get it.

Listening to rock at its decedent ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H decadent best: Ozzy Osbourne!

Speed Brakers

2004-02-23T20:06:00.000+05:30

Somewhere close to my home, there is a shady (with trees ;) ) road that plays out a epic in light and shadows everyday on the road below should one have the patience to sit and watch in the hot sun. Ha! Patience! I don't even have time to break up sentences :)
Anyway, this road also had a nice bumpy speed breaker(SB). About 1/2 foot in height like all decent, well groomed SBs should be. Since practically everyone knew about the SB, we had vehicles zooming upto the SB, slamming the brakes, gently cresting the SB in the deceleration and then zooming off once again utilising the downward slope. Thus, the title.
Of course, not *everyone* knew of the SB resulting in it being lost to people's vision in the light-shadow epic mentioned earlier. These folks would drive "normally" and give the SB the respect it deserves.

Last week, the entire road was tarred and flattened resulting in our SB being reduced to about 3" in height. Ah ha! Short & submerged, but still pretty effective like a kick in the nether regions. Also quite invisible :)
So now, we have the erstwhile daredevils who used to honk the 'normal' ppl for driving so slow, driving on that road uncertainly looking/probing/feeling for the SB. The L-S epic makes sure that it remains a dauting task. People in front of me look at the road minutely until the moment someone 'finds' it!. After that they zoom towards the SB quite confidently until they reach the vicinity and it slinks away to be a pain in more senses than one. Sight and touch, to be precise.
Even more pitiable is the state of the new (to this road) motorist who, finding a flat stretch of road, speeds happily and finds out too late that it's not. NNNGGHHH!!!!!

"Life Finds A Way", as Ian Malcolm muttered....well, at least these people won't be muddying up the gene pool, eh? :)

At any rate, the general traffic on that road has slowed down to the respectable speed limit the SB was meant to acheive in its prime. Delicious irony that it's acheiving it now by being a royal PITA.

Life! I'd die before I let go of you!

The Bug

2004-02-17T12:46:00.000+05:30

Been blog surfing like my good friend Brijesh suggested and I was pleasantly surprised at the route I took. First off, Pawans' page and then onto Rohan's blogs. Couldn't help but notice the effect that the Bike has had on them.
Well, I concur!

My affair with the Bug (that's what I call her) started in June 2000. Here I was shopping for a 2 wheeler when I come across my ex-landlord, who happens to have a Bullet showroom and who runs the best Bullet garage in Bangalore right under my erstwhile abode. We get to talking and I commit the faux pas of asking him to recommend a bike..u know the CBZ or Fiero kind. Ah! Did I mention that Anand of Teknik Motors is built like a bull and that his forearms are the kind that would have Schwarzenegger nervously eyeing his trophies and quietly slinking off to the gym? Thankfully, this time, he did not *pat* me on the back but quietly asked me to try out a bullet the coming saturday. Well, what did I have to lose? Only my innocence! :D
From the time I took out a 500cc monster and felt the gently thump of the beast, I knew I had to possess one.

2 weeks later, I was the proud (but not vain) owner of the Bug(Machismo A350). My reasons for naming her thus are many but the gist is: The bunched up look (I've shortened the silencer for a meatier growl), the unassuming confidence of the bike (u need to only pull up at any signal to see that), Dire Straits, the gentle need to be first off the post (ok, this is my need but hey, I can almost feel her reproaching me if I don't do it!) and the fact that we have this relationship of bugging each other. For instance, I'd be very late for a servicing and would coax her to see me through the week with the promise of the best care on Saturday. (So far, I have not broken that promise). At other times, she'd give me niggling problems but nothing so serious that muttering under one's breath and a few sweet talks would not solve :)

Earlier when my office was a nice 25 min ride from home (from Indiranagar to ITPL) with the last 10 mins on absolutely open roads, I used to ruminate on the bike. Ya, just thinking of the day, the solutions to some of the previous days' errors, life in general, etc. was an everyday activity at 80kmph. Just the thing that I miss now. You see, ruminating while riding on Hosur road is just not what you'd commit and live to tell about it.

For a long time I would not wear the helmet because "I wanted to feel the wind in my hair" and also because I felt (no, really...it was a gut feel) that I was safe on board the Bug. I still feel the same but I am wiser now and not so inclined to reduce my chances. So all you guys out there on bikes, Do Strap On That Helmet. Serious.

Now I'll leave you with the lyrics to the Bug by Dire Straits....

The Bug - Dire Straits

Well it's a strange old game - you learn it slow
One step forward and it's back to go
You're standing on the throttle
You're standing on the brakes
In the groove 'til you make a mistake

Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug
Sometimes it all comes together baby
Sometimes you're a fool in love
Sometimes you're the louisville slugger
Sometimes you're the ball
Sometimes it all comes together baby
Sometimes you're going lose it all

You gotta know happy - you gotta know glad
Because you're gonna know lonely
And you're gonna know bad
When you're rippin' and a ridin' and you're coming on strong
You start slippin' and a slidin' and it all goes wrong, because

Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug
Sometimes it all comes together baby
Sometimes you're a fool in love
Sometimes you're the louisville slugger baby
Sometimes you're the ball
Sometimes it all comes together baby
Sometimes you're going lose it all

One day you got the glory
Then you got none
One day you're a diamond
And then you're a stone
Everything can change
In the blink of an eye
So let the good times roll
Before we say goodbye, because

Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug
Sometimes it all comes together baby
Sometimes you're a fool in love
Sometimes you're the louisville slugger baby
Sometimes you're the ball
Sometimes it all comes together baby
Sometimes you're going lose it all

0.5 GB RAM

2004-02-13T19:48:00.000+05:30

And now it's a lacuna in the posts that will need an excuse from me but I'm not giving one. Just been busy a while, used to visit this site often to write something but would give up due to an absence of inspiration.

However, all thats' going to change...nowwherehaveweheardthatbefore... :)

Just got a new PC at office, std. 2.6 GHz stuff but what blew me completely was the 0.5 GB RAM in it. Ya, I know its quite common and what with phones having 256MB (bear with me, more on this later), it should not have been a surprise to me. But, there it is, I was totally taken aback when a cursory glace at the system properties nonchalantly announced 0.5GB RAM. Then the PC went back to glistening its fingernails on its shirt. Silly upstart kid! what would it know of the days when 4MB RAM was adequate and 16 MB was heaven, tho ppl would shake their heads and say that its a needless expense, when you'd give your right arm for a Pentium (on second thoughts probably not, without a right hand how could we ever play Tie Fighter, after all!) and your left bal....er..eye for ...er...ok, I exagerrate. Things were never so dire as we dare to imagine them but its a whole lot more satisfying to think it was just to make the present more delicious.

Which brings me to the point of this Blog: Things have to be exciting by half as before to get me half as excited as I was half my age. ( Tolkien, take a bow! )

Finishing up for the day with a quote from one of Terry Pratchet's books:

[Granny and girl(Esk) falling to the ground from, oh say, 1 km straight up]
"Granny," said Esk, in the exasperated and remarkably adult voice children use to berate their wayward elders. "I don't think you quite understand. I don't want to hit the ground. It's never done anything to me."

Terry Pratchett books.

2004-02-05T15:51:00.000+05:30

Oops...where does time fly? Already its been 3 days since I added anything. Its going to be a while longer till I add anything meaningful.

For those with a literary inclination, check out http://ice.prohosting.com/cybersoc/pratchett.html.
Here you can download and read all of Terry Pratchett's books. I have dnlded/printed most of them and am into the 3rd such book already. Funny thing is, AFTER reading the book, I want to buy them so that I could have them in a more permanent medium. This is exactly how file-sharing(read Kaazaa/Napster) should work. Ya, I know everyone has their pet theories but fact is, if I like it, I'll buy it so that I can POSSESS it. Period.

And for those who have not yet sampled Terry Pratchett, think of it as Douglas Adams beyond those 5 books. And for those who have not sampled Douglas Adams, my heart weeps for you.

Will get back to the mobile saga soon. FYI, newer chapters are being added to it even as we speak....

2004-02-02T12:32:00.000+05:30

Yawn...long long weekend.

Just gave the folks who read my blog some time to catch up with the *flow* before I go on :)
Also, I have no PC at home. Thus, the hiatus.

Carrying on from where I left off, the Fisio 826 was quite the thing that I needed to keep my tech-attuned senses in a constant turgid state. Like the time I was travelling to Mumbai and there was this photographer chap next to me who had a SE T610. Ah, the hours flew by while he slept and I played with the Bluetooth file/image transfer capabilities of both phones. You see, I had worked on the Bluetooth stack while I was er...cutting my teeth(pun intended) in the s/w field. It was quite satisfying to see what I had read and manipulated many a zany hour come alive. Granted, this particular stack was not mine. But...well, you had to be me at that moment to understand :)

Some months later, I chanced upon a couple of prototype Motorola A760s. A moment while we let all that indrawn breath come out you chaps so that the earth's spin remains unaffected (what with nature not quite seeing eye-to-eye with a vacuum), the ppl not reading this post don't gasp for air-that's-not-there and so that sound-waves can wave again. There. Another moment while we let the resultant tsunami pass.
Hmm. The A760 (for those who came in late), is ... well... just check this out: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/handphones/0,39001718,39017281p,00.htm and http://www.mobileburn.com/gallery.jsp?Id=532.
I'll wait.

Ok, now with 2 A760s and 1 Fisio 826 in the house, I absolutely freaked out on the Bluetooth functionalities. The BT range on the A760s were lacking though. My Fisio could detect the A 760 in the next room but the A760 in my hand could'nt find its brother. However, what struck me most was the touchscreen. Why would anyone ever need buttons again? Oh, did I mention that this phone has been wholly designed and developed in the Bangalore Motorola division? Possibly because it was still in the development stage, this model was a little slow.
The defining moment came when I carried one of it to Casa Picola one sunday night. It turned out to be a total Babe-Magnet! Freaky, huh?

What happens next? Does our brave hero succumb to the wiles of the device? Or just to his own wiles? Watch this space :)

2004-01-29T19:19:00.000+05:30

Not so long ago, I was scanning the market for a PDA phone. My experiences with my Nokia 8210's organiser wont' keep me company during my last days and it's definitely not something I would want to go through again. The very act of entring the data+reminder+repeat etc. was so mind numbingly painful that one was bound to remember the event for the rest of ones' days. Quite effective in a very sad, sadistic way.

Enter the Philips Fisio 826. At first glance it had everything I would *ever* need. GPRS, 4k color screen, Bluetooth, 85g., MMS, etc. I bought this one in a weak moment about 5 months ago and have tried to justify it ever since :)
Here's why: One of the basic things I look for in a phone is...an Alarm Clock. Sad, but true. I need an alarm that can be put to snooze and will not let go till it has woken me up. My Siemens c35i did it 2 yrs ago, the Nokia 8210 did it quite craftily( there was no telling how long the snooze was going to be, it could be 1 minute or 5,10,14 or 22 minutes). This had the advantage that I never could really sleep after the first alarm...kind of like how Damocles felt I guess :) . The Fisio 826 was just pathetic in this field. It had one 20-second alarm that was so stupid(no snooze, no volume control, no tone change) that I wanted to smash it against the wall each time it croaked. In fact, I kept the Nokia 8210 to use it just as an alarm clock!
PDA functionalities? Yes, they were sufficiently good and even intuitive but I learned pretty soon that the software that was needed to sync this with the PC was not availably anywhere. At least not anywhere cheap. Ouch!
Still, some comfort was gleaned from editing pictures & downloading them to the phone and waving it under suddenly-green-to-the-gills-friend's noses. Especially the Batman and Calvin series. Ah!!! :D

From here till the Motorola PDA phone...tomorrow :)

2004-01-28T19:37:00.000+05:30

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the length I go to keep me entertained.Over the next few days I'll harp about "Technology" and how I seem to ascertain what's necessary to keep me amused. In a circuitous way I'll try to justify my latest gadget, a Motorola PDA phone :)

More on this....watch this space.

2004-01-28T18:21:00.000+05:30

woo hoo...my first blog post ever!!!
This is history in the making. Yippee!!!

er.. hmm.. perhaps my second post will be a bit more *mature*, but don't let that discourage you from visiting again.