Painting done!

Tried a new look. Nev thanks for your feedback, what do you say about this new look?. Sorry folks for all these changes, just cannot help playing around with code:) Nonetheless this look might stay for a while, till I change my mind again.

Sarat was speaking about the drive to continue writing and was concerned about whether this will just be a passing fad. To that thought all I can say is that I too have thought on the same lines. As far as I am concerned I am into long-term. Nonetheless it just get's easier to keep writing when folks like you add your comments. It would be fun to know what you like or dislike or do not care about this place or about the matter at hand. At least his way I know that apart from myself and my wife and a few people whose arm I twist; there are others out there who at least drop in from time to time:) No pressure!!! :D

By the way it's a funny coincidence that I am listening to Sting and the specific song- "It's Probably Me" and I am writing about Sarat. I apologize to the folks who did not get the significance of the last line. It's kinda difficult to explain if you do not know Sarat.

A sane voice!

Check out his reaction at slashdot. This is one sane person and he has an interesting observation to make.
(I copy-pasted the article as I did not know how to link just one reply. If any of you know how to do it please advise me)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re:SCO probably wrote it (Score:5, Interesting)
by pjrc (134994) on Tuesday January 27, @09:48AM (#8099443)
(http://www.pjrc.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday June 27, @04:31PM)

"Since Mydoom has been identified as a variant of Mimail, which is largely believe to have been written on behalf of spammers and/or paypal scammers (apparantly in Russia), the most likely scenario is that the same group created Mydoom.

The attack on SCO is most likely just a diversion. A simple distraction from the actual goal... to turn millions of machines into zombies which can be used to conduct illegal activities (phishing scams), or can turned into email/spam relays to be sold to spammers.

It's already been established that Mydoom installs a backdoor and allows routing of tcp/ip connections to mask the identity of the originator. More or less exactly what scammers hoping to defraud ordinary people of banking details (phishing) need. Also the standard approach to turning machines into a valuable asset that can be sold to spammers in need of mail relays or "bulletproof hosting" for their websites that host the images all those spam messages reference.

Attacking SCO is a smart diversion.... especially if SCO takes the bait and publishes a flamebait press release (seems almost certain), which will of course provoke a response from the free software / open source communities. Lots of free press to help divert the anger of millions of (clueless) victims towards the very visible open source and free software people, and SCO, and away from the real criminals.

Judging from most of the comments here on Slashdot so far, it appears to be working perfectly. "
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MyDoom, another worm, same fools!!!

MyDoom MyDoom everywhere ... and f@$&=ups still do not protect themselves. As a result expect the whole net experience to feel like a walk through quagmire as mentioned in this article MyDoom Slows Web Performance. I think the article speaks for itself.

While you are at that site check out this article too With Friends Like These, Linux Doesn't Need Enemies. Gets one really pissed off, such people! I mean, hey, I don't want to take no moral stand. I remember as a teenager I was big time impressed by Morris. However at that point the reason for the rebellious nature was or the freedom to code...for the freedom to try out the internals of every beast we know. To use one's hacking skills maliciously is bad enough. For others of the fraternity to support is down right crazy. All this will do is frighten away non-technophiles from Linux. They must be thinking of a new movie title out there in Hollywood, 'The Gangs Of Linux'.

Anyways enough of ranting. Will be back after a break and some painting.
Cheerio!

New Colours

Worked on the look of this page with respect to the colour scheme. Just tried out a new variation. Comments for this would be most helpful.

A couple of sites

Hello folks.

Before I go on any rant of my own I wanted to put before you the link of a person who rants with great style. Here it is: Joel on Software - Please Sir May I Have a Linker?. In fact his site is a must visit from time to time, I strongly recommend it. The site is at Joel on Software.

Speaking of log sites a new blog has been generated by my good friend Sujith. As is usual with him he is procrastinating about the choice of a title. He will surely come up with an excuse in a couple of months that he just wanted to be different:D Anyways here is his blogspot sit Title_TBD. Check it out; I have big hopes for it.

Soumitra, of the P&I variety, you next?

Weise des Fuchses

Was playing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Great game! As I was playing a particularly difficult scenario I realized that I was finding it very difficult trying to distinguish between the allies NPC's and enemies. Got killed quite a number of times due to this confusion (as I am sure must have happened to lots of soldiers) Co-incidently I also watched Guns Of Navarone. Both this things brought a question to my head.
Why are all WWII games so victor(as in ally) centric. I have no fun shooting Germans(unless of course they are specifically Nazis) I mean I am no Englishman who never forgets that for once the Deutsch were defeated by them. I guess after leaving through the Battle of Britain you end up with that frame of mind. However that is neither here nor there with respect to my core issue. Now before you jump the gun I must stress that personally I would have no fun playing as Hitler and recreating all his genocidal acts. However there were a lot more normal Germans in the war than there were Nazis. Would it not be fun to play as Schindler in a RPG. Or maybe win the battle of Stalingrad. Or my personal favourite, recreate the career of Rommel, playing the desert fox himself.
It is widely stated by historians that the German army of the time was the best with lots of elite units and the most disciplined. Would it not be fun to have all that power in your hand and see how it turns out. It would fun to see if we could become Field-Marshal with the speed with which Rommel got promoted to the post. In fact we could add intrigue to see if we could succeed where Rommel failed; Overthrow Hitler himself.

So for any game developers out there who are listening, how about making a new game. Call it Medal Of Honor: Weise des Fuchses.

Data back!!!

Yup! For all who read my last blog and were concerned about my loss of data...rest assured. I have managed to retrieve the data and am a much relieved man tonight. For all who were concerned; Thank you very much. Also a big Thanks to all my friends who helped me out in this situation! I was gonna follow a strict no names policy but hey! What the heck!!! So thanks to Sujith, Karan, Ranjith and Rahul. Also thanks to my team for waiting patiently for the new build. I had to stop all my activities on my D: drive as that was were the deleted stuff was. So I guess all of you know what I am gonna do first thing tomorrow? No!!! Not the build; though I will do it soon enough. The first thing tomorrow morning, I will Backup my data!!! Once bitten, twice shy: as they say:)

~~~ tried to write a lame one-liner...Deleted it ~~~

Loss of data....sucks !!!

Today was a tough day. Lost precious data by the erasure of my personal mail folder. I am pretty sure that I had not done it. However the stupid policy of my companies VSS team to keep a standard admin password makes it completely easy for any one to access my machine and delete something by mistake. Or else it could always be a virus. Is it a virus, I do not know! I know for a fact that my file still reside on the D: drive and hence do not want to touch that drive tilll I get a recovery program. One should be on it's way from a friend. Hopefully that should help; as a large portion of my work is in that folder!!!

Did I take a backup earlier; no! No!! NO!!! Yes I know that was pretty stupid of me but there you have it... I did not take a backup. The stress one goes through is not worth it...so for all of you out there, let this be a lesson; keep taking regular backups of your personal folders and misc. data too.

Thats all for the day. Can barely keep my eyed open!
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

No Robin to welcome spring in Madras this year!!!

In midst of all the hustle and bustle of international cricket one important incident almost missed my radar. Robin Singh has announced his retirement from cricket from both international as well as first class cricket. Check out more using this link
Robin Singh calls it a day. Felt sad about that info. The number of time he has resurrected himself has been unbelievable. In fact Yuvraj reminds me a lot of Robin and it is indeed an indication of how time flies that people like Javagal Srinath and Robin Singh have retired. Well! Just wanted to point out the news.

In other news regarding the domestic scene the one thing which struck me that Kambli is playing very well in the Mumbai team. He has already hit 2 centuries and 2 fifties this season.

There is also another controversy wrt umpiring decisions in the Ranjhi Trophy.CAnnot remember the details but it was quite a stupid decision. Will get back with the full story once I check it again.

Talking about all this cricket has anybody noticed something funny about the new lingo doing the round for youngsters cricket. TV as well as newspapers are now terming the tournaments as if they were submarines For examlpe under-19's and under-17's are now specifically noted as U17 and U19 tournaments. When one headline ready Pakistan wins U17 clash with India I thought that war has begun again:)

that's all about cricket for the day.

Republic Day

Hope all of you who have a holiday today have taken the time out to salute our national flag. I do not know what one is supposed to say so I will stick to Happy Republic Day. Had a very happy coincidence. I am in Bombay and as I was coming to Vashi I ended up in Dadar at the precise moment when the parade was passing by. Ended up watching the whole parade of NCC cadets, RSP cadets, Scouts and Guides, the different wings of Maharashtra Police, Firefighters, Coast guards and Naval forces marching by. Also got a glimpse of 2 surface to surface missiles. All in all had a fun time waiting for the bus.

Had green channa on Marine Drive yesterday. Great stuff. For people who can, you should try it. For others, sorry dudes, you are missing out on something great here:D

Take care all!

Ramayana

Dudes,
I jut remembered a piece of info I wanted to share with all. I recently happened to chance upon a version of the Ramayan by Ashok Banker. It is in fact a series. I must say I liked it. Is it true to the original...well... it is the same story but the details tend to be quite different. So if you want to read the Ramayana we all know and revere then the best version is C.Rajagoplachari's. However if you want to read the epic as a beautiful fantasy this new series is really worth the big bucks. Check it out!!!

General stuff

Hello folks. I was just going through my blogs and realised some seem to be a little bloated. Just do not have the skills right now to write in a more concise manner. Guess I will learn by practice. Sorry if any of these blogs bore you. I guess most blogs end up having the personality of it's owner! :D

Btw if any of you are inerested in getting back to the habit of writing but are too busy or lazy to start a website, blogs are very helpful. The Blogger service is very beautiful and if you are from India then the rediff service should also be useful. Try it even if you are not sure. You just might find it most useful.

Fill-in Blog

Was speaking of movies last blog. In connection to that I just wanted to add some dialogues I like.

Unluckily I do not have the actual audio samples. I like each of them for the delivery and tone...so please use you memory of howit was spoken!
~~~~
Kal Ek Aur Aadmi Hafta Dene Se Inkaar Karega - Amitabh in Deewar
~~~~
�Pain is my destiny and I can't avoid it.� -Amitabh in Kaala Patthar
~~~~
�Hum jaha pe khade ho jaate hein, line wahi se shuru hoti hai.� - Amitabh in Kaalia
~~~~
�Main aaj bhi phenke hue paise nahin uthata.� - Amitabh in Deewar
~~~~
�Partner, ab bol hi diye ho to dekh lenge.� - Amitabh in Sholay
~~~~
�Do aansoo ees aankh se gire, phir do oos aankh se. Phir do ees aankh se, do oos aankh se. Phir do oos aankh se, do oos aankh se. Kitne huye?...Nau lakh ke haar ke liye, Barah lakh ke Aanso? Daddy hote to kehte, Vijay tumhe business karna nahi aata?� -Amitabh in Sharabi
~~~~
�Eh Kaancha, saala bandook bhi dikhata hai aur peeche bhi hattha hai?� - Amitabh in Agneepath
~~~~
�Pura naam, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, baap ka naam, Dinanath Chauhan, Maa ka naam, Suhasini Chauhan, Gaon Mandwa. Umar Chatiis saal, ....� - Amitabh in Agneepath
~~~~

All of them are Amitabhs's...funny coincidence;) Mogambo Khoosh hua;)

How about adding your fav dialogue in the comments?

Kal Ho Na Ho...

...Blog ko tho kal ka kar sakta hoon! Sorry folks, I am still getting into a rhythm with writing and am finding it extremely difficult to write consistently what my mind holds. Nonetheless I am taking the liberty to cheat a little and predate this blog :D Anyways moving on, I have updated the date of this blog to the 23rd. The day was very important to me for personal reasons but that's not what this blog is about.

No!!!! This blog is also not about the movie Kal Ho na Ho...I am just not ready to go into discussion about a movie that had one of my friends raving about it and another one wanting to kill the whole film industry:) I am happy to take the middle path that the movie was OK, saved largely by pleasing eye-candy visuals, non jarring soundtrack and moments of levity.

However I think I might have hated the movie had I seen it at home on my TV... and I am pretty sure that I will not see it in future either. This thought is what I want to speak about today.

I am a big big Movie buff. Not only do I like movies I like all variety of movies. I have watched multiple reruns of movies as diverse as Sound Of Music, The Good the Bad and The Ugly, Kagemusha and Pulp Fiction. I have sat through Aravindan's movies where every little gesture happen in real time(once I clocked 4 mins of screen time given to a lamp to flicker out; remember the Sunday Afternoon art movies on good ol'DD :D ) and have enjoyed the risqueness of Aankhen(alright! alright! I was young then;)) Now would be the time when you ask Where is all this ego-trip leading to? Well all of this rambling just shows that frankly I have no great taste and am a sucker for the dream-merchants.

So what? Well over the last few years I am adding more and more movies to my hate list. This did not concern me earlier as I thought that I am just maturing and developing better taste. I though that at last I can be on the same level as my esteemed friends who watch movies critically and are very grudging with their praise. However on 23rd I realized nothing has changed. I am still a sucker for the big screen. That's when it struck me...the difference was the atmosphere,the larger than life screen, the theatre, the Dolby surround, and the pop-corn.

When one goes to a cinema hall one has committed to watching movie for a specific period of time. He does this in a (generally) quiet and dark atmosphere where all his senses are attuned to the movie. If the movie is a masterpiece he comes away from the hall either feeling really elated or deeply disturbed depending on the subject of the movie(for the movies of the latter variety I can never see Schindler's List or The Thin Red Line again) Now suppose you take an average or less than average movie. Even these movies can salvage some points with the viewer by at least giving a pleasant experience if not a great one. (For eg. in Kal Ho Na Ho I did find the melodrama a lil bit over the top...however the experience was pleasant once one shuts down the mind. )

Now compare this to watching the same movie at home. Great movies still end up giving us pleasure, the only loss being graphical or auditory. However when average movies are run there is a big problem. Many time movies are average because of weak storylines and to watch such stuff on the idiot box is somehow much more irritating then on the big screen. Add to this the fact that most of the time we spent in front of the idiot box we are constantly shuffling through other stuff to do, or some other priorities to meet or checking up on other channels for other family members. Basically time spent in front of the idiot box is very impatiently spent. Hence when we see something that we find stupid we tend to have exaggerated anger against it as we feel that our time is being wasted. Hence we end up panning the movies we see on the TV.

So I have some to a decision. No more pirated movies for me. Maybe I will see a little less but I will see movies in halls. If I like a movie I might get its VCD or DVD but I will never make a decision about a new movie based on what I see on the small screen . I hope that this will bring back awe for the magic of movies in me.

And yes! Amitabh Rocks!!! :D

I will leave you with my fav dialogue/sound clip of KHNH
" Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen KaantaBen" :D

Need More Speed ...

... then do not fret for NFS Underground is here.
First the necessary disclaimers:) What ever I am about to write is the product of my upbringing, inclination and choice and in no way is an absolute of any kind :D (Always wanted to say that:D )

Having got that out of the way let me tell you that NFS-Underground is absolutely fantabulous. First off let me stress that I am not the greatest car freak. The closest I come to speed mania is when I drive a Ferrari F1 in Hockenheim or am on a Superbike. The NFS series till date was only fun for the multiplayer element(Haven't tried Hot Pursuit 2). So when I begged a copy of Underground from my friend it was out of simple curiosity. I was in no way ready for the assault on my senses. The entry movie itself blew my mind off. After that it was a linear step-up of emotion for each race I played. I never ever thought that unlocking simple vinyls (thats the extras that you put on the car to give it a unique feel) would be so much fun. In fact I played the game 3 hours straight without even entering the underground mode.

And the underground mode...man-o-man...that mode is just too wicked. A Puneri friend of mine swears that Gulab Jamun with Ice-cream tastes like heaven. Well the underground mode is like that combi...does not seem like it is gonna be intersting or even fun but once you plunge into it one gets a kick at a completely different level. It's about attitude, it's about your ego, it's about your machismo and let me tell you dudes this mode will suck you in. There is always a little bit more you want to do before you shut the game for the day... minutes always turn into a couple of hours. I have spent more than 15 mins just thinking about which decal(sticker) to put on my car and that is saying a lot!!!

Anyways I do not want to tell the storyline of the game so I will cease my monologue...if any of you folks get a chance try this game out...if you are a gamer and even remotely love Speed you will be absolutely love this.

Of course Play At Your Own Risk. I will not be party to any divorce law suits...though I think my wife is gonna sue my friend for ever lending me the game :D.

Take care folks.

P.S: Blame this game for the lack of a blog yesterday and the day before;)

Slow And Steady

Folks, I wanted to speak today about the beautiful game of chess and one of the best ways to play it - correspondence chess. In this kind of chess a person used to make a move and then send it by post to his opponent who would then take his own time to answer back. Sounds real glacial?:) It is!!! But at the same time for people who love the game and want to play it at pleasure this is a most fruitful pursuit. No time limits to meet, no pressure to make idiotic moves, all the literature available to browse through. No wonder correspondence chess mostly end in great games of strategy with nary a mistake made. Nonetheless it is slow and hence the section of chess lovers, viz. the beginners, who could learn much more from these games than from rapid play are rarely attracted to this form. However in the recent years this has changed and now the advent of the net has put a new spin onto this form. Basically we can play chess online but instead of it being real time between the two opponents this game can be played out at a time lag. In other words I could make a move today and my opponent could check it out on the website, mull over it for the next 2 weeks and come back with a good move. Normally the time within which the move has to be made can be configurable, normally between 3 days to 1 month. The 3 day game is in fact one of he best for people who do not want to think too much but have a normal life which takes up most of their time(sadly;)) Now all one has to do is give 10 mins a day to your favourite game by logging on, checking the moves made by your opponent and making your counter moves. 3 days lag helps us to go through the weekend without any worry of timing out:)
Interested, you could try out some of the sites I frequent. They are ItsYourTurn.com and GameKnot.com.
So make your move, maybe e4,eh!!! :D

Bully-proof

Yup that's the word on everybody's lips after today's one day cricket match of India against the Australians. Really lifts up one's spirit after a day like that. There are two specific points in today's game which struck me:
1. Our performance was of such a sterling quality that there was no doubt in anyone's mind that we we were deserving winners and,
2. We WON :)

I could spend an whole afternoon dissecting the above statements but not here and not now. Instead I will lay to rest my blog of the day with a link Bully-proof and with the happy thought that win or lose our team's performance is no longer of the flash-in-a-pan variety.

Adios


P.S: Australia has reared it's ugly;) head in another sport by defeating Pakistan in the Azlan Shah Cup. This is one of those occasions where a victory by Pakistan would have been better than the end result of the day:) Must have been a great match looking at the score 4-3.

Entry

Starting a new Blogger site. Do not know what direction this will take. However intend to start writing and this site should help. I guess I should start this new venture with the name of GOD.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Om Shree Ganeshaya Namah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That will, I promise, be the last time I use HIS name in vain:)