Sunday 25 November, 2007

Header Picture

A new header picture from my old phone album
cheers!

PS: has anyone successfully done this? Using Yahoo Pipes to join 2 flickr RSS feeds to combine into single, then show in slideshow widget on blogger.

Saturday 24 November, 2007

sunscreen advise to those in final year in college.

  • Value City Pulse, you will soon find out that there are more expensive, less comfortable and more distant places to bear a bollywood flick.
  • Value Mannu and Daddu, they are your best friend, especially of those with late night appetites.
  • Value your open air theatre, its no fun to see Yuvraj hit six sixes on a twenty one inch box and that too alone.
  • Value your neighbouring room, even if it has a stinky occupant who likes Himesh Reshammiya, soon you will have far more unbearable characters in your life.
  • Value the library, soon all your reading material will limit to sleazy pages of the morning newspapers.
  • Value your playing field, semi-clad sweating jogging chicks can attract you to jog on the roads but at the end of the day your knees will hurt like crap.
  • Value Sardar Kebab junction, just take my word for this one, if Gods ate, theyd eat his butter chicken and momos.
  • Value the galla, the brightest, smartest and most intellectual discussions of your life are over once you are out of college.
  • Value your instructors, soon you will encounter some waste of human organs instructing you.
  • Value E-FJunction, soon you will understand that cafes and pubs are as good for hanging out as a toilet seat is for tap dancing.
  • Value corridor cricket, it is, was and will always be the zenith of human endurance.
  • Value mafia, your professional life will depend upon the skills you gain from it.
  • Value your LAN, soon you will have a limited collection of hundred odd films and a two hundred GB harddisk ! yes you will.
  • Value your labs, soon you will start spending nights in front of the computer at a desk, for someone else.
  • Value your room mate, soon you may end up with a Karmic Healing freak.

Thursday 22 November, 2007

How to write a good report

1. Sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a well lit place in front of your computer.

2. Log onto Gtalk and start DC++ (be sure to go on away or busy!). Check your email.

3. Read over the assignment carefully, to make certain you understand it.

4. Walk down to the FC and buy some chips and dew, or get chocolates from daddu's, to help you concentrate.

5. Check DC++ for new releases.

6. Call up a friend and ask if he/she wants to go to grab a coffee. Just to get settled down and ready to work.

7. When you get back to your room, sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a clean, well lit place.

8. Read over the assignment again to make absolutely certain you understand it.

9. Check DC++ for new releases.

10. Scroll through DC++ chat and spend some time coming up with new smiley combinations.

11. Yawn, check the time, and open a blank word document.

12. Start JAP or freedom and grab some new mp3z off limewire.

13. Check your email. (Any of this sounding familiar yet??)

14. Chat on Gtalk with one of your friends about the future. (ie what great movies and series you watched and plans for the holidays).

15. Check DC++ for new releases and scroll through chat.

16. Listen to your new mp3z and download some more.

17. PM/ net send a friend and ask if he/she's started writing yet. Exchange derogatory remarks about your prof, the
course, the college, the world at large, and how life sucks.

18. Go to daddu's and buy a pack of polo. You've probably run out.

19. Phone someone you haven't talked to in a long time( more than 12 hours) and moan about how hard it is to write a report and how little time you have.

20. Decide that you're hungry and have some snacks at the FC.

21. Check DC++ for releases, and browse through the whole list, finally finding something you overlooked.

22. Watch that new episode of House/Heroes/Scrubs... and keep promising to start the report once you're done watching it.

23. Check DC++ chat and comment on how good/bad the episode was, and after learning that there's going to be a season break, abuse the producers.

24. Wash your hands and face, drink some water and walk around a bit to clear your head.

25. Call up a friend to see how much they have done, probably haven't started either.

26. Look through your photos and try fiddling around with them in photoshop.

27. Sit down and do some serious thinking about your plans for the future.

28. Check to see if anyone is online on DC++ and start a conversation on who sucks more.

29. Check your email and listen to your new mp3z.

30. Call up the same friend you talked to previously, and get a progress report.

31. Read over the assignment one more time, just for heck of it.

32. Look out the window and watch the sunrise. It's almost galla time...

33. Pace the corridors and moan about how you haven't even started on the report.

34. Go to galla, have tea and snacks and share a few jokes with your friends.

35. Rush back to your room and check Gtalk to see if anyone has left you messages.

36. Mumble obscenities, and vent out your frustration by abusing everyone on DC++.

37. 7am - start hacking on the paper without stopping. 8am -paper is finished.

38. Complain to everyone that you didn't get any sleep because you had to write that stupid paper.

39. 8:30am - Go to class, hand in paper, and leave right away so you can take a nap.

Blogged with Flock

Friday 16 November, 2007

Back to college

Hi,
I visited college on 8th of Nov, for about 8 hours and I would say it feels great to walk in those corridors which I hated ( I have/had my reasons), and talking to familiar faces. Well my visit lasted few hours, but it was disappointing that I could not play a single game of DotA and Mouse was sleeping whole day!. I met few other people but couldn't find Ranjit :-(

Wednesday 14 November, 2007

Links and 3 reasons

Interesting read
http://apcmag.com/vista_activation

Especially where he points about the world where activation doesn't exist.
Apparently I have a feeling that windows users don't blog as much (ratio wise), or read blogs, online tech communities as much as linux users. Or maybe it's because linux gives so many problems that you cannot afford to be NOT online.

My top 3 reasons for not switching to linux
  1. No voice support for Google Talk in linux (some, workarounds are on the way)
  2. Gaming (Wine or Cedega is not a great option)
  3. Absence of decent (256kbps or more) internet connection
Luckily I am not using voice chat that much, but I do miss it at times, all my games are running perfectly on cedega with 512RAM(only), and I have a decent internet connection, so I am using linux ;-)

Support!

Source
C|Net reviews of OSX and Vista on 1st November

Lets look at the "
Technical Support" prices, I think they are applicable in US.

OSX -
90 days free, then $49 per incident

Vista -
90 days free, then $59 per incident

Ubuntu -
$250 + Taxes(no idea how much) per Year, for 9x5 support (9 hours a day, 5 days a week)

24x7 support for Ubuntu costs $900 + Taxes per Year, but I think it's not worth that much.

I'll just say three things, apparently few people in my friends and family love Vista!

  1. I have helped someone to find out reason for frequent reboots of a laptop, apparently she thought it was cuz of virus in OS, but it was a hardware problem in the end.
  2. I have helped tons of people on how to install Windows(sadly).
  3. I got a "few" people to shift to Ubuntu, even though I was using XP back then ;-)

OS costs ( from the same review)

OSX - $129 single user license

Vista ( I think OEM prices are lower, but you better check them yourself)
  1. $99 Basic
  2. $159 Premium
  3. $199 Business
  4. $259 Ultimate
Ubuntu - $50,000,000,000 for single user license :-D

Wednesday 7 November, 2007

Stumped

This will leave you stumped too!

If you goto microsoft marketplace, you can see Abi Word" listed there with description, "Open source and lightweight free document creator". Truly amazing ! I thought Microsoft had a policy of ignoring that other half (4% is share of Linux on desktop PC's) of software users/developers exist.
While we are at it, I found an interesting article while digging about Usenet on internet

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/V2_01/homebrew_V2_01_p2.jpg [Image]

This can be seen both right and wrong, after all most of us are making money by writing softwares :P
I bet even Bill Gates din't see something like GNU/Linux and no. of associated "free" software writers coming.

Friday 2 November, 2007

Business Today “Best Companies to Work For in India” list for 2007 is out!

‘Microsoft India’ has emerged as #1 in the Business Today – Mercer – TNS “Best Companies to Work For in India” survey. MindTree Consulting stands second while Infosys Technologies has gone down to 5th after being the #1 for last 2 years.

This is the first time that ‘Microsoft India’ have participated in this survey.

This survey is considered to be the most respected and comprehensive study of workplace satisfaction in the country.

image 

Past results:

image