Wired News: History's Worst Software Bugs

Now thats a list which is useful:)

My new site

More explanations later.

A must see video from RedHat.

Check out venky's blog for more here:

http://svenky.blogspot.com/2005/10/truth-happens.html

Official Google Blog: Guess what just turned 34?

Just a tag for myself. This is the "Gmail Engineer's" post on the 34th anniversary of the '@':)

Gypsy kings - Vo La Re karaoke

As the name suggests this is a karoke of a Gypsy King hit. I absolutely love this number - and so will you!!! A not-to-be-missed-link.

NJOY!!!

Thanks to Joshi Kaka for the link.

[JoelOnSoftware] Set Your Priorities

"Custom development is that murky world where a customer tells you
what to build, and you say, 'are you sure?' and they say yes, and
you make an absolutely beautiful spec, and say, 'is this what you
want?' and they say yes, and you make them sign the spec in indelible
ink, nay, blood, and they do, and then you build that thing they signed
off on, promptly, precisely and exactly, and they see it and they are
horrified and shocked, and you spend the rest of the week reading up
on whether your E&O insurance is going to cover the legal fees for the
lawsuit you've gotten yourself into or merely the settlement cost. Or,
if you're really lucky, the customer will smile wanly and put your
code in a drawer and never use it again and never call you back."

This is what came into my inbox from Joel - the leader for his latest
article. As usual well worth a read - just jump to the following url.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SetYourPriorities.html

Unsupported versions of RedHat

...as of Spetember 2005.
Just a bookmark for meself:)

Red Hat Linux from Colgate to Shrike
Red Hat Linux 9 (Shrike)
Red Hat Linux 8.0 (Psyche)
Red Hat Linux 7.3 (Valhalla)
Red Hat Linux 7.2 (Enigma)
Red Hat Linux 7.1 (Seawolf)
Red Hat Linux 7 (Guinness)
Red Hat Linux 6.2 (Zoot)
Red Hat Linux 6.1 (Cartman)
Red Hat Linux 6.0 (Hedwig)
Red Hat Linux 5.2 (Apollo)
Red Hat Linux 5.1 (Manhattan)
Red Hat Linux 5.0 (Hurricane)
Red Hat Linux 4.2 (Biltmore)
Red Hat Linux 4.1 (Vanderbilt)
Red Hat Linux 4.0 (Colgate)

http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/eol/

are.you.a.gada.be?

This is the new site put put there by Chris Pirillo. Check out more about the site here.

I like it!!! Why you ask? I just like the interesting idea of having the search put there directly in the url. Real time and money saver when connecting to the web via a mobile device.

For. eg. checking for brijwhiz, specifically in blog means that I access the url: http://brijwhiz.gada.be/b.

A default search on my name would be : http://brijwhiz.gada.be/.

(the search itself is more like askjeeves - a collection of searches from most search engines.

Very Very interesting idea. Brij Liketh!!! Check it out!

{btw if you did not grok the title gada sounds like the hindid word for donkey!!!}

Yahoo! Podcasts

A place to search and store podcasts. Very very interesting! Gotta watch this site:)

US, Israeli game theory duo win economics Nobel

Interesting article.

Thanks to HImanshu for the link.

An evening with Googles Marissa Mayer

Another article I came to know via PLUG.

Mallu Catholic Names...the Formula

Hey matey's,
One more viral mail which was just too hilarious. Good sense of humour is a compulsary requirement to proceed.

"Kindly pass this to others
No Offense Intended

how to name your kids as if you were a Mallu Christian

Statutory warning: If you are not South Indian it might be pointless reading further
Extra Statutory warning: If you are a mallu with the pride of Kerala in your loins DON'T read any further

It has been a well kept secret for eons, shrouded in mystery and mazes of
deceit, but finally Itty Boben Jacob Elias Kuruvilla from Pazhookaville,
near Thelmasherry, Kerala has consented to let us publish this classified
mallu formula, on the naming of mallu christian kids.

1. Select a combination of both the mother and fathers names. Eg: Suresh and Sharon = Susha or Joseph and Beena = Jobi.
2. The addition of a 'mon' (meaning son) or 'mol' (meaning daughter) is optional. eg: Sushamol, Jobimon
3. To attach a modern anglicised feel to the names, the mol or mon can be replaced with boy or girl. eg: Jobiboy, Sushagirl.
4. For the politically correct keralite family, mol and mon can be replaced by the universal 'kutty'(child), which can be used for both boys and girls!
Eg: Jokutty, Susikutty

Even parents having combination names can still give their children suitable names eg: Libi and Jobi = Lijo

However, in the scenario where the parents already have combination names that cannot form more comprehensible child names. Eg: Itty and Amukutty, would produce only Itam (which doesn't even sound like a name) or Amit (which is like Northie and stuff !!!), then
a. use an English word like Baby, Merry, Titty, Pearly, Smiley, Anarchy,etc.
b. use a combination of two English names that you think sound cool (but never cool enough) like Meredith + Gina = Megi, or Sharon + Darlene = Sharlene
c. Use a name from the Bible (and not Nebuchadnezzar ! Use one that even velliammachi can pronounce !) like Jacob, Sam, John, Joseph, Mathew, or Jijo!
d. Use a name that sounds like a cuss word but isn't. Eg: Boben, Prussy, Shagi, JustinTimberlake etc.

Note: The use of the letter 'j' is useful in the naming of sibling where names that sound alike are a novelty. Eg: Ajji, Sajji, Majji, Bhajji and Nimajji, or Sijo, Lijo, Jijo, Anjo, Panjo, Banjo.
"

UNIX Branching diagram

So you thought Unix was just one bright thought and one bright beam of light, huh! Well I think even Amsterdam railways will be simpler than the roots of present day *nix :)

via a dude from the PLUG

Lazer Trip Alarm

If only I had this during my jerking days;)

via TPCU55

Star Wars Chronicles

"In the Star Wars Chronicles, fr. Roderick takes you to a galaxy far, far away to explore the mythology, the philosphy and the religious themes underneath the surface of the Star Wars movies. Messianic hope, vocation and celibate, fall and redemption, betrayal and fidelity are some of the many themes that George Lucas has woven into the tapestry of his epic saga, and this podcast explores them all."

I like Fr. Rodericks's take on Harry Potter. Will be checking out this set too. Really like this podcast. And I am in good company;):

The new viral mail in town

Bush would be happy with the viral mail making the rounds here with the following images. Normally they go direct to my junkpile. However these images are important at times if only to remind us that soldiers are humans too.

Maryamie: Things That Go Beep Beep Early In the Morning

No - this essay is not about the RoadRunner:)
This is the an essay from the blog of Maryam. A young blog - but well written. Tihs article was especially funny, in a creepy same-thing-happens-with-me kind of way:)

check it out!!!

Kewl Print Ad

That's one effective ad. Nuff said!!!

MirrorMask out today!!!

Gaiman/McKean/Henson film opens this Friday!

Hey Sarat! I hope you are ready with a ticket!!!

Btw I forgot to inform you that I bought the DVD of Ran.

Drawings Gallery :: The Universal Turing Machine

A beautiful portrait of Alan Turing called "The Universal Turing Machine".
Visit the site for more such pics.

PHPFormGenerator

An interesting form
generator, here for anchor purposes only.

Fluxbox EyeCandy

Just an anchor for my personal reference

Why I(Linc) don't go to movies.

What he said!

Cricinfo - Quote ... unquote

Cricinfo - Quote ... unquote: "'We were brought up watching opening batsmen score nine before lunch. If Geoffrey Boycott flashed at a ball outside off stump in the first over of a Test match, questions were asked in Parliament. If he flashed at two, the ravens abandoned the Tower of London.'
Brian Viner writes about the frenetic pace of the current Ashes series and wonders what happened to Test cricket as he knew it"

I was ROTFL after reading this quote. Reminded e of the good old days when day listened to Vijay Merchant's show:)

iMSIT_Walkingman_188_294.gif (GIF Image, 188x294 pixels)

Don't know if I blogged this before. Great pic of work. More interesting as the link which pointed me to this called it the "Walking Decrypter" Kind of an apt name:)

McNealy's Straight Talk

found this via Berlind's Midnight Oil :

iPods and Fat Clients (Windows) are "historical oddities"… by ZDNet's David Berlind -- ...according to Dan Gillmor's account of an interview of Sun CEO Scott McNealy done by D co-host Kara Swisher. As I've written elsewhere, I agree on the iPod (Can Sun capitalize if that's so?). But the fat client? I wouldn't write the obituary just yet.

As I pointed out earlier - I really like the fat client. I always find fat client applications ahve a certain polish which I do not find in thin client applications.

Microsoft's nightmare inches closer to reality | CNET News.com

Microsoft's nightmare inches closer to reality | CNET News.com: "Microsoft's nightmare inches closer to reality"

via Scripting News.

P.S: Personally I still love stand-alone OS's to Web based applications:)

Xena.Shimmera.Net - New Gab's Xena Obsession

As is obvious a site for Xena addicts.

Google blog search

Funny how things grow right below your nose and you do not realise it. In this case Google had come out with ablog search and I was totally unaware of it. why should I have known? Well look at the very top of my page. Seems it relsed on 14th Sept. Well here are some more interesting links regarding this.

Google's lacklustre Blog Search
Google: the tale that's wagging the blog?

Microsoft Challenges Massachusetts on Open-Format Plan

As usual Microsoft falls back upon the most dependable of strategies -FUD!!!

link obtained from latest newsletter of www.experts-exchange.com

Yahoo stirs tempest over China dealings

Money over morals -so what's new. I am sure my MBA friends will agree that business is business;)

link obtained from latest newsletter of www.experts-exchange.com

EFF: The Customer Is Always Wrong: A User's Guide to DRM in Online Music

There is generally a problem with us human beings. Something is never an issue till it does not affect us. Well waiting on the fence is going to be very very harmful in the future. For too long people kept quite about what they felt about issues like DRM. Well it is here to stay breaking every right that a person deserves. Add the Digital Millennium Act into the mix and what we have is a "failure to communicate" Nuff said!

Categories of Free and Non-Free Software

I used to be very confused regarding this. However this page succinctly explains this.

Read an e-book to your child, go to jail?

Seriously, at least as per Adobe's copyright.

For all of you shouting about how copyright is the very column on which our society is based - you need to read this:)

ONLamp.com: Open Source Security: Still a Myth

"Outside the open source community, the notion that open source is good for security--particularly when developers are diligent--often meets with extreme skepticism. In fact, many people worry that exactly the opposite may be true: that open source software may tend to be less secure. One can certainly make a reasonable claim."

Something that worries me at times.
Consider the following:
"All in all, in some cases open source may have more eyeballs on it. Are those eyeballs looking for security problems, though? Are they doing it in a structured way? Do they have any compelling incentive? Do they have a reason to focus dozens or hundreds of hours on the problem to approach the level of effort generally given to a commercial audit? The answer to all of these questions is usually no. A good deal of software doesn't get examined for security at all, open source or not. When it does, commercial software tends to receive much more qualified attention."

For more read the article.

Free as in Freedom

Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software.

Another gem while perusing the O'Reilly site. Enjoy:)

Colophon (book) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In publishing, a colophon describes details of the production of a book."

How did I reach here? O'Reilly again. While persuing their site for some books I repeatedly saw this word as a link for many books and thought I would check it out.

O'Reilly: Origin of Species: A History of O'Reilly Animals

Generally all O'Reilly books have the name for the animal featured on the cover somewhere in the book. However I faced a situation today where this was not true. The reason was that the book I had was the pocket reference for the vi editor, which did not explain the animal on the cover. This must have been due to the fact that this was a companion book to "Learning the vi editor" and the animal featured on both the books were the same.
As usual my curiosity was piqued and I wanted to find out more. My initial feeling was that it was a lemur. However I was wrong and in the process found out about a completely different animal - a tarsier.

A day well spent!!! :)

The main link of this article will send you to the article of the lady who started this trend.
Also visit this link for info about why some of the O'Reilly book do NOT have animal covers.

Sorry mates...

...but I have to add word verification for the comments as there is too much comment-spam happening. Hope this does not inconvenience you lot. If there are any problems just email me.

Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Am I?

Yup that's what/who I am :)

The idea to do this came while perusing Nitin's site

ONLamp.com: What I Hate About Your Programming Language

ONLamp.com: What I Hate About Your Programming Language

Interesting article. Gives me an impetus to learn some more languages so that I can come up with a list of my own:)

Geek Code ver 3.12

Well I admit I am at least a decade late in publishing my "geek code". But hey! better late than ready, right:)
So here goes:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GE/CS d>- s:++>: a->? C++>++++$ USL>++++ P+>+++ L+>++ E---@ W++ N++ o+ K?
w+(---) O? M-@ V-- PS+>++ PE++ Y+>++ PGP>++ t+>++ !5 X+(-) R*() tv+
b++>++++ DI++++ D++ G++ e*++>+++ h---() r+++ y+*
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Click on the above code to get it decoded. The decoding is done by "The Geek Code Decoder Page"

Some more Geek Codes:

Larry Wall
Wil Wheaton

So what's your Geek Code

The Mercury: Fatal crash mars GB rally [19sep05]

"Citroen's race leader Sebastien Loeb, who would have clinched his second successive championship as a result, then took time penalties to ensure he did not win in such circumstances."

The circumstances was the death of one of the co-drivers Michael Park. If he had not taken the penalty he would have won the series as the rest of the stage ahad been cancelled. Pretty decent of him to not win in these circumstances.

This is one of the great things about Rallying. Competition more often than not is with oneself and not the kill em' all attitude that other sports require. Now if only the showcasing of Rallying was made better:(

Coloring.com - free online interactive coloring pages and coloring books

Interesting sites for toddlers.

arXiv.org e-Print archive

This is a free archive of scientific papers. A very much required resource in these days of restrictive and ridiculous patenting.

SoYouWanna know the ten most expensive music videos?

"When MTV launched on August 1, 1981, the first music video it played was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. What an awful video. In those days, all a music video needed was jiggly girls in bikinis, big hair, fast cars, and if you were lucky, jiggly girls with big hair driving fast cars. No huge costs, just a little something to complement the listening experience."

Well things have changed and more often than not the songs nowadays seem to complement the video:)
Check the most expensive of these videos.

Joel on Software - Painless Functional Specifications - Part 1: Why Bother?

Today was a classic case of synchronicity. For the fast few days I was quite caught up in the comp.software.extreme-programming
Today I got Joel's mail regarding his latest post (people have started discussing it in the usenet group) which basically pointed out the following:
"I can’t tell you how strongly I believe in Big Design Up Front, which the proponents of Extreme Programming consider anathema. I have consistently saved time and made better products by using BDUF and I’m proud to use it, no matter what the XP fanatics claim. They’re just wrong on this point and I can’t be any clearer than that."

Interesting point - I had hardly mulled this over when a friend wanted to know more about Agile Programming:)

But none of this has anything to do with this post :D

All I started out to say was that after visiting Joel's latest post I visited the links he ad pointed out one of which happened to be the post which is linked in the title of this post. I was reading this post and I happened upon this line:

"The more you write, the more you'll be able to write. If you need to write specs and you can't, start a journal, create a weblog, take a creative writing class, or just write a nice letter to every relative and college roommate you've blown off for the last 4 years."

Whats great about this line??? Well, this was the line which inspired me to start weblogging:)

So at the end of it all this was just a trivial emotional post:)

The Meaning of R.S.V.P.

Quite useful since many of us have forgotten what this acronym stands for. I know I had!

The short of it : "Respondez S'il Vous Plait"
The complete description - hop over to the link above.

Jai Hind

Here is wishing all Indians a Happy Independence Day.



btw the google image for the day:

"feeping creaturism"

Do you know that creature which runs around going "feep, feep".
You don't!!! You should!
So all you managers and software engineers out there, remember these two
words "Feeping Creaturism"

OK,OK before you blow your top it is just a spoonerism for "Creeping
Featurism". A-ha! Now you get it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeping_creaturism

Seven habits of effective text editing

"If you spend a lot of time typing plain text, writing programs or HTML, you can save much of that time by using a good editor and using it effectively. This paper will present guidelines and hints for doing your work more quickly and with fewer mistakes." - Bram Moolenaar

Fogcreek Open House [Notes from a desi geek.]

For JoS fans. If you do not know what JoS means you are not a fan:)

Telegraph | Travel | Travel gadgets: it knows where you are...

The Hitchhikers Guide - the real deal -is here. So don't panic and don't forget your towel!!!

Satellite images of the weather via Insat

Hello mates,
My boss sent this wonderful link to me today.
Check it out.
For more options at this site go to the following link:
Insat Home

The stars of le Tour and how they performed...

... in a snapshot.
Check it all out in the ratings on the bbc site.

Emperor where are your...ahem, where are you???

Invisibility cloak, anyone?

Jonathan Ive / Designer of the Year 2003: Product Designer (1967-) - Design/Designer Information

Love the iPod; hate it???
Either ways check out the designer of all the kewl Apple stuff at the link above.

Joel on Software - Hitting the High Notes

Joel says:

"Does it even make sense to talk about having the 'best programmers?'
Is there so much variation between programmers that this even matters?
Maybe it's obvious to us, but to many, the assertion still needs to be proven."
For more read his article linked above.

An Ozzfest experience

Read about the experience of listening to Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath by clicking the link above.

The Birth Of Vader!!!

Check out the link above.
No further comments from me;)

Time To Get A Laptop

A really good reason to get a laptop

{clean video - audio work-unsafe}

20 Things That Only Happen In Movies - Nostalgia Central

In movies:

"37. Most musical instruments (especially wind instruments and accordions) can be played without moving your fingers."

Just one of the 40 gems to be found at this site

Speak Of The Devil...

Transcript of the Vatican Radio program 105live on Thursday, July 14, 2005.
By fr. Roderick Vonhögen (www.catholicinsider.com)

A must read for all religious zealots who oppose simple fiction like the Harry Potter books.

Bunty and Babli

Image Trial - Photo of Frankfurt Rail Terminus

Just checking the new upload image facility of Blogger.
This was a photo I got from another site. It is supposed tp be a photo f frankfirt rail terminus. Whereveer it is - it is a kewl pic. Reminds me of some video games:)

The photo itself is copyrighted to Florian Sindermann. To see more such photos just hop obver to railpictures.net using the link above.

Blogger Help : How do I post pictures?

Great news!!! Now We can upload images directly to our posts. This is very useful when we want to post away from a comp which has Picasa. To know more go to the above link.

Harry Potter - 6 - The Review

The review of "The Half-Blood Prince" is available at above link.

Got HP: The Half-Blood Prince!!!

Yup - got the latest harry potter. Follow the link for first impressions.

No Brainer™

One of the coolest shockwave games I have seen in somtime. Reminds me of the old game we used to play - Crow flies, pig flies and so on:)
try it if you have the time.

www.UniquePeek.com

A cool vid(maybe a macD ad) Good magic trick, if it is a magic trick, that is!!!

{site not work safe - vid completely clean}

Inhabitat

Some really really out-of-this-worl faucets. Got the link from Todd's site

EarthCore: A Podcast Novel

I love this podcast novel!!!

ktoddstorch @ business thoughts

Very interesting and informative blog site. I chanced upon it while reading the author's interview with Scott Sigler who is the author and presenter of the Podcast Novel Earthcore

A kewl Gujju Rap

Nice number. Worth a dekko!!!

Badmash - a kewl comic strip

This comic strip deserves a browmie

The Mystery of Britney's Breasts

An E! style flash video - quite unsafe for work;)

Road Blocks

Another addictive game;)

Poom

Cool - keep the ball boucing -game.

An unusual Speeding Ticket

Caught this one while surfing randomly.

{Warning - Unsafe banners for work!}

The way the Internet was...

A good webpage reminding us how about the Internet of the 90's.

A true fan!

Maybe fans like this would help Indian Sports.

{Adult Warning - The video is clean but the site banners are not. Do not watch this in the office}

The Comic Project

Luckily for me the owner of this site hit my site and left this refernce sometime ago. A must visit site for guys who liked the old Indrajal comics. Do not visit if you are ethical;)

BBC SPORT | Other Sport... | Cycling | Armstrong takes overall Tour lead

A most fanatastic stage -the team trials. A tough 3-way competition between the leading man Armstrong's team - Discovery, Zabriskie's(who was currently holding onto the yellow jersey) team CSC and Jan Ulrich's team T-Mobile. Lots of drama with Discovery winning by slimmest of margins (2 seconds where normally margins are at least 10-20 seconds) over CSC. This margin would have still allowed Zabriskie to keep his yellow jersey as he would be joint leader with Armstrong, having started with a 2 - sec advantage on the day. Unluckily for him he crashed around 1.5 Kms from the finish - after leading his team to a good fight. A double dollop of bad luck actually cause if he had just made it to the 1Km mark with the team he would have got the same classification as the rest of the team.

Anyways the Boss has the yellow jersey again. However one does not expect to really defen it till the race hits the mountains. That's when you see why Armstrong is a worthy legend.

How the Batmobile Works

 

 Check out  http://www.howstuffworks.com/batmobile.htm

Most of you have been spared my Bat-Mania due to the fact that I have very limited access to the net currently. Nonetheless this was too tasty a morsel to let go. Check out the in's and out's of the Bat's kewl car (Yes Anon - I really think it is kewl:D)

Njoy!

The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster: Darth Vader Superstar

I know the Star Wars season is over - but this is too wonderful to wait. Check out the story of Anakin Skywalker in his own words:)

Roadhouse Blues

Out of Star Wars mania:) This is an essay about some of the memories connected to this song.

Enter The Vader

Check out my review of the latest offering from George Lucas.

Review of the Clone Wars

I have put up the review of the Clone Wars. Check it out! Trivia - It was shown as a daily series in 3 minute slots in Cartoon Network. Luckily I managed to catch it in one go:)

Anon's: Google Search

While I am in the middle of Star Wars mania my friend some of my friends have been writing more useful stuff(as opposed to friends who are not writing at all!?!). Annon has written a lot of reviews of the iShuffle. Check it out, especially both of you, Sujith and Venks. And don't show any mercy, use his comments page and your colourful words liberally:)

Also check out his template - me really like it!

When Star Wars fans go insane

This is a cool pic. Follow this link to see more of the modded car.

Beautiful work. I especially like the R2D2 unit and yes, the dashboard with a place for the light saber. I for one will join this road squadron without a second thought;)

[via essays & elusive]

Star Wars = Dune + Flash Gordon + Hidden Fortress + LOTR + Ben-Hur ...

If you are like me and read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies you see a lot of stuff happening which gives you a feeling of deja-vu. Somtimes it is outright copying of stuff while othert imes it is an interpretation of older material. Granted that the line is thin but there is a lint. Wise men like Lucas accept this and readily point out their interpretations and sources, at least most of the times. Since I was thinking of the Star War movies again a lot of things in the movie seemed so much like other stuff that I had read. For example the parallelism between the LOTR set of books and Star Wars cannot be denied. For more such connections read this article.

GOT IT!!!

More correctly, I have almost got it...the ticket for Revenge Of The Sith, that is. Booked the tickets for the Sunday show; should be in myhands by the morrow. Would have loved to see it on Premiere night. However the missus has to work on Saturday, so Sunday seemed more feasible.
Very excited about it. Right now I am pondering on the logistics of how to watch the 5 episodes and Clone wars before watcing Episode Six [Edit: I mean Episode 3].
As an aside the new KFC is in the same mall as the multiplex where I will watch the movie. So some major original recipe eating on Sunday I visualize:)

"Living La Vida Yoda"

One cool take of an useless song;) (Reminds me of the other cool song Y.O.D.A) Hey if you are a Star Wars fan(atic)s check out the rest of this site. Some really good essays on Star Wars can be found here.

BTW if you are not a Star Wars person and the movies and idea of star wars makes you sick I would advise you return after a week or two as right now I am in the middle of a Star Wars obsession:D

of course if you truly do not believe then all I can say is that I find your lack of faith disturbing!!!

STAR WARS ASCIIMATION

This iis a cool take on Star Wars that I had seen some years ago. Check it out!!! When you are there check out Jar Jar's link too. I had the same feeling that something like this should have happened to him:)

Indian Princely States

Stumbled onto this page as I was browsing this site to know about different flags. Funny how we never learnt about the princely states in our history classes! For anyone interested do not miss the links to the flags of the different princely states, further down the page.

Star Wars Origins - Lightsabers

Some more stuff on lightsabers, specifically about the possible origins of the idea of lightsabers.

Lightsabers are cutting edge technology

Some more "serious" talks about lightsaber "technology" :)

BTW even Slashdot is discussing the lightsaber article in HSW.

ANd for those of you who just HAVE to have one go here!!!

"How Lightsabers Work"

A-ha! Just the article I was searching for!!! For many years a lightsaber, have I waited to make. At last this knowledge to me has come.

May the force with you be :)

Be back in a while

Hello friends, I have been lax in updating this page for some time. My Bad! I must ask you to humour me a day or to more on account of my comp getting fritzed. Should get it up and running. So do drop in after a couple of days.

Many thanks for your patronage.

A Mid-Summer Sunday Afternoon

A very nicely written article by my pal Anon.

Conquering Muscle Cramps

Was shaken out this morning by a painful cramp in my calf muscle. For around 5 seconds it really was excruciating. Frightened poor Magi too.
For a second it almost felt like that muscle group has shifted:) Anyways drank a litre of water and went back to sleep. Somewhere I had this inkling that dehydration can cause cramps hence this solution. When I woke up later the pain was still there. Hence decided to check out all I can about cramps and how to alleviate the pain. Liked this page best so posting it here.

Atlantis - The Lost Continent Finally Found

I absiolutely love myths and Atlantis is the mother of all myths. Check out this site for some interesting takes in this myth.

Boing Boing: Downloadable video clips of Copyfight Debate of the Century

This would have been a great site. Unluckily the videos have been pulled off due to bandwidth issues. Hey! Someone inform them about BitTorrent:)

Check this space for when it comes back on.

High-speed Dance Dance Revolution ...

... while juggling??? I can't do that thing at the slowest speed!!! Hop over to this link on Boing Boing and check it out. Worth a dekko.

Are you keyed into this auto?

Check this link out. As the author puts it "Only in Hollywood!" :)
The keys are not all from the modern keyboards, some of them actually have "telex on" and "telex off" written on them

Have fun with this one :)

He speaks, he speaks!!!

Sarat has updated his blog after a hiatus of almost 2 months. Well worth the wait as he rambles on. Interesting rants on Spring issues (i am with you about the static dude!). Then he rambles on about the colourful candiate for the college elections - The Pirate Captain!!!. For more hop onto his blog

{I have gone ahead and officially called his ramblings site a blog. Now to change my address of residence before I face his fury :)}

...a glitch in the matrix!!!: Old books bloom in Blossoms

A new post on my other site!

Xraye

This space may not be updated for the next 3 days. I am on a business trip to Bangalore and may not be able to login. So to njoy the weekend I am putting up a link to a most unique game. Check it out!

Stupendous Shot

Was quite busy this time around and missed the Masters - the only golf tournament I watch. Well Tiger just had to produce this shot when I was not watching:) Really really worth the time spent to watch it. I was pointed to it by Dave Winer who has also provided a donloadable file of the same.

I repeat, well worth it.

P.S: The pipeline is interesting Steve Rubel points it out and is picked up by Scoble on his page where it comes to the notice of Dave Winer who posts it and is read by yours truly. You read it here. Would be interesting to find how many more such links are there? I guess I know what I will be BlogPulsating (yes that's my new word for it:)) tomorrow.

NewsForge | The ultimate (generic) press release

Hey for all you PR guys out there - this is one real smooth press release which you can use. Really cracked me up:) Especially this part :

"We are backed by a group of multinational venture capital firms. Our founders are dedicated to their vision of a world in which corporations do no evil. We recently closed a second round of funding we are using to keep the excitement going as we prepare for our IPO, which will be handled by the world's premier investment bank. Our directors' expertise spans industries ranging from novelty item wholesaling to personal vehicle retail marketing. We are positioned to rapidly open facilities in major cities worldwide to accommodate the inevitable demand for our breakthrough creation."

Do no evil the new mantra (till you need to pay your stockholders ;))

Thanks to my good mate Neville (not to be confused with Neville Hobson of the For Immediate Release fame - a Real (and Kewl) PR guy - well worth a visit) for the link.

Some ranting on music prices

Just a link to an article on my other blog.

Laser Wheel 3d space video game

Don't know if I have already pointed to this marvellous flash game. Simple dynamics, fast and no graphics to speak of. Retro style space shooting. I absolutely love it.

Call centre theft may bust India's BPO boom

Well well well! Seems like the BS 7799 did not work!!! Really all this certifications are lame, only effective for audits. For any clients out here ... please do your homework...certificates are just pieces of paper, whether they be CMM/ISO or MCP/Sun Certified etc.

Personally I have always felt BS 7799 just meant Bull S**t 7799

css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design

My friend Anon reminded me that I had not linked to this superlative site. Please do visit if you are even remotely interested in web development and CSS. Once you are there play with the different schemes. I am very sure it will give you ideas of your own:)

Mallu Rock!!! - A serving of Avial

Link sent from my dear friend J. F@$king good rock song. Only problem is that my knowledge of Mallu is so poor that I have no idea what the lyrics mean!!! All of you go there and watch it - 100%satisfaction guaranteed. The low quality WMV is only 5.3 MB. And please do send me the meaning of the lyrics if any of you know what it means.

Sorry J, could not help you! We will have to wait for someone else to give us the lyrics:)

P.S: BTW I forgot to mention that Avial was the name of the group.
(for the ignorant among you Avial is a multi-vegetable dish of Kerala)

Update: there is an original version and a dance edit. The videos are alos slightly different. The dance version is ok for its use of some good bass. Too much scratching though!

Yahoo 360 Entry for April 08, 2005

Blog at 360.yahoo updated. For any pals out there wanting invites just put your mail id onto these here comments.

Mobile Phone Fan's Comic Strip

This is the link to all the comic strips by the Mobile Phone Fan.

Njoy!!!

Mobile Phone Fan � Daily Comic Strip #16

This guy makes some cool comic strips. This one was pointed to by both Dave and Jeremy and really worth a visit.

P.S: Warning: Some knowledge of the current state of the blogosphere required to catch the humour.

[Via ScriptingNews]

CSS Rounded Box Generator

Just a link for myself. However if you find it useful to hack together a beautiful web page so much the better.

The latest phone from Motorola - a PAPYR V9

Hey mayes this one is a "first" class in-no-vation from Motorola's stable. I was so busy I posted this 3 days late!!!

Snake appears from tap in Kupwara (GreaterKashmir.com)

Looks like somebody made Moses mad out here in Kupwara:)

[via Dave Barry's site]

This is what VAT's all about

Many states in India have moved to a common VAT system. This has also caused a lot of controversy among the traders in these states. However most of us have no idea of what really is. Here is a very cool primer regarding this.

[this site was pointed to me by both my wife and my friend Double-J, so thanks to both of them:)]

How to really confuse your party guests.

This is one realgravity defying room!

[I can't remember who posted the link to this...was on a clicking spree:) Will put the linking post once I check my aggregator again.]

How to Create Your Own Podcast - A Step-by-Step Tutorial on Podcasting

A lot of people I know do not still grok Podcasting. While my article on podcasting is still to be done here is a link to a good begionner article on how to go about making and posting a podcast. Well worth a read.

Of course tools like BlogMatrix makes the whole process much easier but that is another story:)

Bug On A Wire

A bug needs to go country and it decides to use Cable. Premise of another fun game from some time age. Well worth for those 5 mins breaks (which end up being 5 hour breaks when you are Piling it Higher and Deeper) :)

As you can see I am on a roll with games today.
Most of these games were pointed to by FetchFido

Especial Bruno Bozzetto on differences between Italy and the rest of Europe

Well worth a watch this weekend. Just repalce Italian by Indian for the desis out there. I remember getting this flash sometime in pre-2000. The politics especially fits us Indians. While you are the site try out the other flash stuff too.

Don't try this at home:)

A funny drum playing video down at the Rockstar Games site. Shockwave file!!! Jsut wondering what the feminists have to say to this? Or is it just my wild imagination???

KILL BILL

A damn silly but addictive flash game of one of the best movies and one of it's best scenes. Try it!

Just how much power does Google need?

An old post that I had forgotten to link. Quite an eye opener on the scale of operations that Google runs!!!

Web of Letters

Real enjoyable!!!. For even more fun concerning the different April Fool stuff put up by the differnt companies read all the articles in Google Blogoscoped for today and yesterday. Also do not forget toc heck out the "Blog-War" between Google and Ask Jeeves:) BTW I am auto-drinking my Google Gulp!

Gmail With 2GB

Damn Gmail ain't coming out of Beta. But they are giving much more space:) This really looks look liike it is going to be home for a lot of my stuff:)
Lets see - at home I have a 80 gigs harddisk.
In each Gmail account I have 50 invites. If I invite myself 40 times I have a space quivalent to my hard disk on the World Wide Web...SWEEEETTTT!!!

Rich formatting enabled in Gmail

Considering that last year on 1st April Google rolled out GMail everyone is waiting iwith bated breath if they are going to do something similar this time. One possibility is that Gmail comes out of Beta. Anyways in the meantime they have added rich text formating to GMail. This will be a really useful feature which was long awaited. Kewl!!! Now Google! what other goodies do you have?

my original site's flooded

Forgot to turn off the faucet!!! Damn!!! Now I have to swab my site:(
Check the state of my site by clicking on the link above.

"I should be knighted for this,"

That's Adam Curry's words for you :)
Hey! frankly I don't mind...Sir Adam Curry has a nice ring to it. Anyways the link is to a BBC article on podcasting and making money off it. Quite a good piece ... hop over and read it.

The most interesting part is where you see Adam sitting on a table with his powerbook and other recording stuff. Well Adam had podcasted his visit to the Beeb - a sound seeing trip of the BBC if you will - and it is quite cool to know that you were actually there when this took place.

Still don't get what podcasting and sound seeing is? One of these days I promise I will put up an explanation on one of my sites:)

Curve Ball

Another Pong like game. The style also reminds me of the holographic game of world domination played by James Bond in Never Say Never Again

Note: really challenging from Level 4 onwards.

Update: My best score was 21660 at level 7. What was your best score?

Radial Pong Game

I was always a big sucker for the original Pong. Well this here is a flash game which is pong on steroids. It has taken the idea of pond away from the table tennis model. Now we have radial bats and ther are no sides. When you touch the ball it becomes your colour and when the comp touches the ball it becomes another color. This is the only clue regarding who has to play. Really good fun!. A small download too.

SOUP OF THE EVENING...BEAUTIFUL SOUP

Beautiful site for soup-aholics:) Was hearing a podcast (will put the link for the specific podcast when I find it it. The link to the home site ) and it pointed me to this side.

As I was hearinf the podcast one interesting point was the term "sick-bed soup" which is basically chicken broth :) I completely agree. Nothing makes one feel better than good hot cicken soup when you have flu or some such illness!!!

HBS Working Knowledge: The Leadership Workshop: Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload

This is one really useful article on how to work on email overload. More importantly it teaches a few things on how we can make it easier for others to receive and make sense of our emails. One of the questions asked in the article is whether one can justify the amount spend on emails taking into account the value of business hours. This is one question that I have been asking myself for some time and I have reached the conclusion that I cannot (Please note that almost 99% of mails that I get in my working environment are official mails.) The result - I have a folder for mails which are and will remain unread.
I wish the senders would either not cc me or explain why I need to get it. Well! I guess good behaviour starts at home:)

The same logic above does not apply for my personal mails. The main reason is that I do not have to spend too much time thinking when replying to a friend. Sometimes even my infamous 'hmmm...' is enough of a reply:)

Scoble Reviews JVC GZ-MC200u

A review by Scoble for a new JVC camcorder which records onto a 4Gig hard disk. He does not seem too enthused by it. Most importantly because of the cost. According to the review the cost is 1100$s Wow! That surely removes any enthusiasm I would have for it:) Nonetheless I like this mode for a review piece. What say you?

BaSkEtBaLL MvP 20o6

One of the blogs that came up when I used the next blog button (upper right corner of the screen). Subject matter was not too interesting for me. Man! Was it colorful though! If I ever go colorful this will be how my page looks. Worth a quick glance.

P.S: It is a diary like site and quite alright. Funnily the colors did not distract me too much. Could it be because the background is black?

Plustech Walking technology

Guess all of you must have already seen this m$t*#r f%&$er!!!

Star Wars Revelations ... Panic Struck Productions

Ready for the new Star Wars movie. I ain't speaking of the one by Big Man Lucas. No! Here is an independent fan driven one. Seems to be quite a competent production, if it ain't just a joke that is!!!(with April approaching you can never be sure:))
To the question regarding copyright here is their response:
~~~~~~~~~
Answer:
For most people who do not understand fan films we get this question often .To answer, I doubt if Lucas himself has seen "Revelations". However ,Lucas is a large supporter for fan films,and is very kind enough to let other inspiring artists play in his backyard, as long as you don't try and make money from his hard work, and respectfully so.
"Revelations" is a non-profit film and everyone who worked on the film was a volunteer (no one was paid)
The film itself will be availible free to download from TheForce.net and the "Revelations" website to anyone who wishes to watch it.

A great article put out by "Wired" covers some good ground about fan films and here is what Steve Sansweet (Lucasfilm's head of Fan Relations) had to say,

"There is plenty of room for fans to express their own feelings and opinions," Sansweet said. "We believe our core fans are responsible for the continuing popularity of the series, and we want to encourage them. Our intellectual properties are there for you to play with, but we expect you won't try and make a profit or use our characters in a salacious way. Having that wide-open frontier serves as a self-policing mechanism for the fans, who are really appreciative of being included."
"Sansweet added that Lucas believes fan films will grow more sophisticated as the amateur filmmakers gain new skills. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Worth a dekko.

UPDATE: I just finished checking out the trailer. Awesome!!!

[Via Mondays]

south by southwest festivals conferences

Like good music ... live music ... fresh music ... for FREE. Venks this is one time you want to have a good broadband connection. The south by southwest festival organisers had released the whole set of 750 + songs as one hyper bit-torrent file. If you want the full songs it is 2.8 gigs. Happy with the 30-second clips? Then you have a sane 345 megs to download.

So why are you wasting time...start your torrent. It should be over by next week. Hey sujith, I think you are going to hate Reliance and unreliability;).

Before I sign off I beg your pardon. This piece of news has actually lost its currency and I should have posted it earlier. The downlaod being a torrent it might have worked better at the peak of the wave.

The Density around this blog

Got this from the WebTalk Radio Show which aired on 22nd March 2005. In this Rob discussed with Mitch Ratcliffer about his Online Relationship Mapping company called Persuadio. This can be found at MyDensity.com. IOt is an experiment, just begun, with lots of promise. The link here shows the web around this site.

Be forewarned that the site needs to search a lot to get these links. So once you out your site you may need to try a few times before the site will know all about your site. Once your site is available it keeps adding links to and from the site into its cahe so the alter views are quite fast.

Do try it, if not for any other reasin than to see a visualization tool in Java.

Speaking of Java let me also point you to another company making cool Java visualization tools which which will 100% help your productivity and efficiency. This company is founded by close friends of mine. Do visit them at AvizSoft.


Update: I must add the warning that trying out popular sites will just get a big forest of links. For eg. try the MyDensity link to Scripting News. Of course we always knew that Dave Winer was well connected ;)

Groups slam Indian decision on patent law

I am really sad that we had to agre to this to get into the WTO. I appreciate that the WTO membership is real important. However I would have even been ready to buy legal music!!! rather than stop the making of generics. Initally my lack of enthusiasm for this patent was that we really cannot afford costlier medicines. That si just the way it is. If medicines become costlier people in India will just live with their diseases. That is something I do not think that the developed countires seem to understand.

Readying the article I have linked to I noticed that we have also been a major source of generics for impoverished countries in Africa and other poorer countries. These generics were really important part of aid efforts to these countries. Now it is going to be difficult for these organisations to extend the help they are used to.

Add to this the fact that obviously the MNCs are really happy. After all this law basically means an end to any pharmacy start-up in this country. The main reason is that no start-up can afford the R&D that is required for original block buster drugs.

For Indian IT this is a time of opportunity. The only way start-ups can come up in Pharmacy in India is by having a faster R&D cycle. The only way this is possible is by a goof software driven system for the intital research. Like I said another big possibility for the IT industry.

Oh well!!!

Andrew Moroz's Blog: Nice Work If You Can Get It (***)

This was one well written and sane article regarding the job scene in America. Makes a lot of sense to me.

Self replicating C program

Hey dudes, check out the link in this blog by my good buddy. Really geeky and freaky at the same time;)

Video 22 of 49: Jim Morrison

Pre-Doors recordings of Jim Morrison. I have not yet watched it but would still recommend it. Why? Its Jim speaking...what more do you need?
Florida State University is releasing these recordings.

Update: The said video is a documentary which runs for 1.17 mins. In this we see Jim for aroudn 20 secs tops. Looks like he either made or help make this documentary. Still worth the watch? You bet!!!:)

[via GorillaMask.net, one of the naughtiest sites I visit]

Petrol station mobile risk 'myth'

Very interesting!!! This was one myth I believed. Silly me! Now if only someone will clarify how using my monbile phone during takeoff will crash the plane???

[Via BBC News]

The're made out of meat

There are many things that make a close friendship. One of the things is that you are so close that you do not need to think about your friend. However rude others think it is the friends know that they can get back together at a drop of a hat and just strike it again without any embarrassment. I am lucky to have friends like that. And I was reminded of it today when Sujith sent me this link.

I immediately checked up his blogsite and realised that the fool had not blogged it. So I stole the rights to blog it

About the story itself...I don't know if it is one you would like. Hell! I don't even know if anyone would get it. But I completely grokked it and I felt real happy that Sujith knew I would grok it. And thats what brought up all the melancholy.

Great day:)

Windows Noises

Man - o -man!!! The sweet things some people do when they are learning Flash. Just hope over to this site to have a beautiful experience with simple .wav files.

[via Adam Curry's Blog]

Sami's Net Value - Currently £ 21

Most interesting!!! People want to sell off Sami after his porr run in the past few matches. The funny thing is people are putting their money on it. Am I misinterpreting something here?

[original link sent by Nikhil to a mailing group I belong to]

Which Kill Bill character am I?

You are Hattori Hanzo! The brains of the operation.
Although your advice is impeccable, you are a
closed book.


Which Kill Bill Character Are you??
brought to you by Quizilla

The cellphone gravestone - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Another beauty at Engadget.com

JamPlug FM turns radios into guitar amps.

This is one article that I just had to put it up here for Venky and Sujith and Ketan Pandya(if he ever read this). This gadget is damn cool...this basically means you can play the guitar in your car(as long as you are not driving of course!!!:))

[ Via Engadget]

Red Bull Or Old Bull?�-�Editorial from Planet-F1.com

Quotes from the editorial from Planet-F1.com:
"Bigger Than Schumi
In terms of attracting bigger audiences Jordan have had a much better idea than Red Bull. Employ the best-known F1 driver in the world. Yes, that’s right Narain Karthikeyan is arguably the best-known F1 driver in the world because he’s a household name in the greatest democracy, India.

Sachin Tendulkar won’t just be visiting Ferrari next time he turns up at a grand prix."

Would have made sense if everyone in India knew Narain. Sadly I do not think it is true. Maybe if Sachin visits him he will become more well known

Personally I am very happy with his results. Coming in 15th and 11th in the first two races of his F1 career is commendable. He is reputated to be a very disciplined fellow so I can only see things getting better for him.

Congrats and Best Of Luck to Narain from this corner of the net.

Don't touch this with a 10-foot pole:)

This link leads to my first podcast. Just checking out the feasibilty and ease of using Spark!2.0 software from Blogmatrix. I think it is pretty swell. Just to make sure you do not judge it by my voice (I absolutely hate listening to myself;)) I added a small (Hey RIAA it was a very very small) bit of music. If you have absolutley nothing else to do then hop over there. End to end it took me around 4 mins to get this 1 min worth of audio up there.

BTW it is a bit torrent, sorry all you non geeks but you WILL need a bittorrent downloader. For audio and video I use iPodder which is also my podcatching/broadcatching client. Maybe the first audio torrent that you will be downloading legally :D

Folks, be gentle!!!

Update: forgot to mention this earlier. Sparks! 2.0 itself can be used to download the bittorrents. Just add the feed to the Sparks program. In other words Sparks is all-in-one package. It is a blog aggregator, podcatcher and podcaster all in one! Kewl!!!

"Podcast" word to be patented!!!

Hmmm... I guess the podcasters community were so worried about the monetizing v/s "keep it virgin" argument that nobody saw this coming!!!

[via Scripting News]

learn UNIX in 10 minutes

I have this on-off relation with UNIX. Use it for 3 days and everything comes back and I can use it quite effectively. However get off it for a week and I completely forget most of the instructions. This link is a personal bookmark for the days I need to remember it all:)

Superman Origin Comics!

This is one real freaky re-look into the Superman story. Maybe America will like him better now;)

Some real cool ch...

...oppers!!! Some kewl mods of bikes. Has something to do with American Choppers, which is a show in the US (if I am not wrong, that is!!!)
My fav ones were

The Comanche Bike


The I,Robot Bike


and

Junior's Dream Bike



[via Sandcastle's site]

Google Code

Got this from the Google's own blog. Could this be the start all of us need to be code monleys with Google? :) Me Like Site:D

The CCL Game - CCL Computers

A kewl game which will remind you of the Incredible Machines Game. Maybe I find it kewl only becuase I was a big big fan of The Incredible Machines.

[via Google Blogoscoped again!!!]

Google X Gone

Another one from Google Blogoscoped about Google X. As a lot of you who must have tried my link to Google X would know by now Google has removed the site. However their blog still has the entry for the site!!! Go figure!. As I was doing my own figuring I meandered to the Blogscoped site again and realised that there was one thought they had which did not strike me. Did Apple ask Google to take down the site? Considering the recent actions of Apple this seems to be a very plausible explanation. What do you think?

Apply CSS to Specific Sites

One more way users can change the way they consume info. If you have Firefox it seems you can decide how you want to render the pages you get by modifing the Chrome folder's "userContent.css"

Avery good example of how this was used on GMail can be found here

This alongwith all the hullaboo about Google's AutoLinks really brings to fore the fact that the Web is moving much faster than we ever thought. We are really trying to map our real world ideas about what is right and wrong (and what we do or do not own) and it is just not scaling up.

Earlier I did not write about Autolinks for two reasons:
1. Being in India the toolbar did not show any autolinks so I had not experimental data, and
2. I was honestly quite confused about my thoughts regarding it.

Regarding this css thing - again confusion. I do like the idea but as Phillip has shown you could end up with a Google page which has an AskJeeves image instead of the Google logo. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? No Idea!!!

The web is moving way fast dude, real fast!!!

Tehelka - The People's Paper

Put a blog about Shakti Kapoor on my essays site. The read this and really liked it. So here is an article, written much more clearly than I ever could, by Shoma Chaudhury

Lappy 486

Real Cool tip for podcaster

Funniest Halo2 video ever!

The title is Scoble's description of a Halo2 video in which one of the players sleep off (presumably while playing on XBOX live). I have to agree it is quite funny:)

Google Blogoscoped

One of the sites which brings in a good feed of info into my aggregator. The "blogmaster" is Philipp Lenssen. Of special interest are some of his latest blogs concerning Google X (worked fine for me in firefox), Amaztype & Yahoo 360

Bloggers

An interesting fun site making fun of all the 'A-List' Bloggers. After my fan post of Dave Winer I felt that this would give a different view:) Of Course Winer still rocks!!!;)

Dave is at it again!

Most people who reads my blogs knows about Dave Winer. A most colorful and assertive character who is a cool hacker at heart. I really like this fellow. Not only is he partly responsible for XML-RPC, he is the main force behind RSS as we know it , which differs from Netscape's RSS(if I am not wrong). A discussion between Adam Curry and himself resulted in him adding the binary enclosure to the RSS feed thereby giving a new set of podcasts and video blogs to the internet.
Now he is back to try and get the freedom of expression back to the internet. One way to do this is his latest collaborative project - TheTwoWayWeb.Com. Well worth the effort of popping out there. Even if you don't want to be directly involved it does make you think about the direction you would like the web to take.

The Circuit Detective

Why would you want a mere electrician when you can hire "The Circuit Detective"? This guy is really niche too. I spent some time at his 'About Me' page and was quite impressed with his choices. Most useful is the fact that he has put up a lot of stuff that would be useful for people who may be having some electrical malfucntion at their homes. The detective wants it up there to help people and that is pretty cool.

[via Better Living Through Software - specifically the article Will Blogging help a Realtor, a good post on its own right]

[H]ard|Forum - DOOM 3: Project Mars City Mod

Are you imaginative, hard-working, patient, innovative, passionate enough to mod your computer case based on a DOOM3 scheme. Well this guy is!!! And boy! He rocks. Go here for a cool step by step approach on how he is making one of the sexiest case mods around!!!

Boing Boing: HOWTO build a Bluetooth "sniper rifle"

Yo!!! Guys out there with Bluetooth devices beware. Suji, how about some cool coding so that we can deploy Bluetooth 'chaff'(of the anti-radar variety)

Are we to Blame?

Earthquake measuring 5.1 shakes western India Koyna is only 115 kms from Pune. First time I felt a quake. And for around 2 seconds or so it was quite frightening. The last time I felt the floor shake like that was when I was at a live Deep Purple concert. Annon puts it in a more dramatic manner.
Some reports feel we are to blame However others, while stressing that the Koyna dam has had no damage in the current shake, also say that the reservoir is not to blame. According to Mr. Suresh Shirke( President of the Pune chapter of the Indian society of earthquake technology) the cause of this quake is the Russian plate theory.


of course the Sensex swung all over the place due to the earth shaking tremours

In a related story there was a fear of an earthquake in Bhuj on 12th March. However experts felt that the blasts were not quake induced. They said that it was more likely that it was a sonic boom
or something similar. Of course the expert says that it could also be an aftershock!!!

Podcasting & Video Blogging

A well written reference point to Podcasting and Vidblogging. More a reference for myself but hey, if it helps any of you so much the better:)

Feedback time!

Hey there mateys,

This ship has been chugging away for the last month. During this period a lot of you have visited this vessel for tales of places you can be to and ports you should visit. It has been quite an eccelectic trip with this vessel taking quite a meandering path. I thought this was the right time for me to take a breather and request some feedback for you.

So please feel free to put your thoughts onto the comments page regarding this site. Of course I am always fishing for compliments. However criticisms are very welcome too. This site unlike my other site (...a glitch in the matrix) is more than just a repository of links for my own sake. I would like to know whether this site is helpful to any of you. More importantly I would like to know whether you want me to go more hardcore into any specific field. Rest assured, the links will be eccelectic as it is now. Still if even one of you want me to slant the site towards any one field I am ready to do that.

For those reading this on my site, time to get an aggregator:) Nonetheless thanks for being her and please do comment.
For those on an aggregator, good choice dude!!! However please do pop-up and drop a comment.
For those not reading this...guess you have a life!!!

njoy,
brij.

ItsYourTurn

Though a class Novice I still like to play correspondence chess via the net. I like correspondence chess for the freedom that it gives a person as you only have to devote at most 5 mins a day to it.

The good thing about www.ItsYourTurn.com is that all the rendering is in html. Nothing fancier than that. This means that you can access this site from a bare-bones system from an archaic era and still be able to play. Quite useful at times!!!

In addition to different variants of chess this site has other games like backgammon, draughts,battleship, Othello, Go etc. It also has some unique games like Jamble (somewhat like Scrabble). Check out all the games that they have here.

I will put up similar posts for the other sites I visit for chess.

Scent of a Robot

One more QuickTime pic. Downright enjoyable.

[Via the post "Quick, like a bunny" ]

Go light a bulb

An article closely linked to Swades (the movie) Found it a real inspiring read! Thanks to Nikhil for that link!!!

Wire Hang Redux

Hi fellas here's one for the boring times in the office. I am a big sucker for carpal syndrome inducing click-a-fest games which are small and do not take too much attention. The best part I like about these games are that they have no specific goal except to get a better score. The grand daddys of this genre has to be Space invaders, arkanoid and the almighty TETRIS. The lesser names have normally been variants of this like DXBall and paranoid. Well here is a new one. Called Wire Hang Redux it is a game where a very cute and agile anime girl has to climb never ending platforms using a grppling hook. Kinda like a Lara Croft on testostrone;)

Well worth the download (421KBs only)

njoy!!!

405: The Movie

Was checking the Yahoo link from the Ikonnosieur's blog when I espied on the info about the atom films and about this specific one. Just went and watched and like what I saw. For people who are going to watch it just one piece of advice - the lo-res is good enough:)

njoy!!!

EPIC 2014

A matrix-isque future of the world. A 'flash'y look relevant in the current discussion of Auto-links. A must-watch.

[phattboi pointed out this link in the comments for the blog article " Guys Don't Link"]

The Ikonnoisseur's Latest Post

Sorry i am taking a real real lazy path here. However I am on a small avcation and just managed to get my hands on a machine so I thought I would blog. Please do go over to Ikonnoisseur's blog as they have some cool links. the optical links, the ad and the Yahoo introspective as really worth your trip there. So! Whya re you still here?!?!?

NASA World Wind

Heard about this in #102 of the .NET Rocks! Show. Quite an interesting show. However this site is even cooler, insane even. In short it is an open source project that lets one zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. How is it different from Keyhole? It seems that you can input data from a myriad input data sources. This includes satellites feeds, weather feeds, infra red feeds etc. The coding is in C# and managed Direct X. The best part is that it is completely in the Open Source space. The only minus point, the size is slightly forbidding. The program itself is quite small but the datasources are large. Anyways do hop over!!!

India Infoline Budget Corner 2005-06

Cool site for the budget news. Gives a different choice when compared to the usual suspects like The Economic Times. The specific urls I accessed were to read the highlights, the summary and the analysis in .pdf format. An interesting and safe budget. Personally I think it will make the salaried class more optimistic.

Tom Peters!

My friend pointed to me this site tonight. (This is really great. People are helping me to put up the best sites for all of you. We are turning into a community!!!). What can I say about Tom Peters. Los Angeles Times calls him the father of the post-modern corporation. I personally haven't read his books. Nonetheless I will recommend his site, as a lot of people I trust have strongly recommended it.


[suggested by svenky]

Raaga - Cool place for Online Indian music

Check out this site if you like to hear hindi, telugu, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language or malayalam songs. Good collection of songs. If you want to downlaod songs then this is not the site for you. You can only hear music online here. Personally I like it as I rarely download music and it is cool to have an Amitabh channel playing online in the background through the day:) Oh! Before I forget the site is free:) As I always say: Njoy!!!

Update: SVR has given me another link for the Kanndigas out there who are missing the online experience. It also some devotional gems.

Update 2: Added wikipedia links to all the language words so as to give more info about some of the languages which make up India.

The Lost Notebook of Ramanujan

One of my heroes has always been Ramanujan. Especially since mathematics has always been an esoteric art to me, even though I myself have dabbled in graph theory and lattice theory at various periods of my life:)

One more interesting thing about this article is how I came about it. It was pointed in a blog on the Computational Complexity website and the author of this blog himself found it thorugh a Gmail ad in a mail discussing about complexity. So Gmail does help serendipity:)

[Via Computational Complexity]

Shakespeare Remixed:)

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds" the very first sonnet of Shakespeare I ever read. Remixed here and well-done at that. A must-read for all bloggers:)

Google Blog

Brij liketh this search parameter (Though I am sore that the search for awesome car chases did not returne the Italian Job)

How to use PivotTables, Excel's data tool du jour

The most under-estimated and underused productivity tools ever has to be Microsoft Excel. Thelink is to a good article to help us just that little bit more towards using this unassuming spreadsheet's potential.

The Pilgrim

Was listening to this great number which was recommended by my sis-in-law. Great number. My fav part:
"Life is like a puzzle not pieced yet
Might take a village ever long to see that
Don’t break your ties with my pal compromise
And the kid you wanna be you can be that"

Different ways to cook an egg

Was speaking to a friend when she had to pause as dinner was being served. Mention of food made me hungry. So I thought of having hard-boiled eggs. That reminded me to check for the exact instructions. The result - the link above:)

Another interesting site. Reminds of sites I used to do when i was younger, much younger:)

Herb Sutter - The future of Visual C , Part I

This was quite old (actually less than a month old, but seeing how time flies in the blogosphere,it is ancient!!!). I just downloaded the videos (Section 2 is here) Wonderful interview. Good to know that my favourite language is in good hands:)

A Byte of Python

Speaking of chilliesandchutney group we have a new member - Swaroop. He has a very active blog here. He is also the one who has written this online book. I am going to download it now, so if youa re waiting for reviews you will have to wait a while:)

[Via ChilliesandChutney messages]

India Food Survey

The tag line of this site is "A comprehensive, independent and unbiased guide to restaurants and bars in India". Quite a helpful site.
Thanks to Ashish from the Yahoo Group - Chillies&Chutneys for pointing out this site.

Gorilla Foundation rocked by breast display lawsuit

This incident is best quoted by Cleveland zoo's publicist, Sue Allen, who said, 'Those of us in Cleveland would say: 'Only in San Francisco.' '"
What was the whole hue and Cry about. Follow the link to SFGate and read on.

[via JWZ's Live Journal]

Old tetris in narrower dimensions!

This is a 110% must visit site for any Tetris fan. Please, Please, Pretty please do check out the high scores.

[Via Google Blogoscoped]

Orange see Red instead of taking it Easy!!!

"Does Orange own the color orange?" Check out the link above for more details.

[via Engadget]

Adamond ZK1: 2GB Flash Player : Gizmodo

This I would like to have.

[via Gizmodo]

Could Sony Upstage Apple in the future

I have no idea if it will upstage the iShuffle. However it is nice to have a choice. The enjoyable stuff will be watching the two huge giants of proprietary and closed systems slug it out. Will it become a reality? Will Creative prevail? Lets wait and watch.

[Via Gizmodo]

Microsoft and your potential!

Like the falsh demo. Those tablet PCs look look. For more info hop over to the connoisseur's lounge.

A F**King Good Band!!!

Check out the sound clips. Not bad; not bad at all. Good lyrics too. Check this out from their song "Soul Corporations":
"Behold the soul corporations, the spiritual supermarts…
Dispensing salvation with a price tag.
Mocking the truth that resides in our hearts…
Paralysing the human concience, with practiced art."
Doesn't hurt that they are from Kerala:D
Check it out mates. I am sure you will not be disappointed. If you do, hey, I am always here;)

Knoppix helps restore Windows partitions:)

Hey! I absolutely love the Knoppix idea. However I must confess that it just did not strike me to look at it the way Scott Granneman did at The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog. The link for this article is his recommendation.

Update: OOps I did not mean 'restore partitions'. I meant to say that you could recover your files. OOPS again:)

[Via theunofficialmicrosoftweblog]

Windows more secure than Linux????

Read it and flame on:) My two bits. I still think that for the lay consumer a windows machine is really better and more secure than a Linux machine. Of course i have no idea of how Mac fits in the equation.

Bill Gates interviewed on ABC news

This is the transcript of Bill Gates interview by Peter Jennings for ABC news. I found the interview quite interesting. Its funny how when I was a kid IBM was the big bad wolf and Bill Gates was the hero (face it! all of us were ga-ga about how microsoft scored one over IBM). Then into my college life Bill Gates became the Big Bad Wolf. However from the time he has become the Software Architect I am liking his direction again. Mind you i am not a fanboy, and I guess i will never be, but hey it ain't that bad either. Guess we will have to make a call on Microsoft policies on an issue-to-issue basis.

[Via "TheUnofficialMicrosoftWeblog"]

I am confused, what about you?

Hey dudes, what do you think? Is it an optical illusion or just a moving .gif. Help me out here!

Ash on Letterman

A 13 Mb wmv file. For people who are interested. Thanks to Sarat for sending the link.

Update:Just checked the video out. Not too bad actually, though I was put off slightly by the accent.

A must watch video from DEMO

This was a classic piece of marketing according to me. Just stopped short of being cheesy. i can visualize this happening in between all the dry presentations:)

[Via Scobelizer]

Why I Like Scoble & the Fox hits a new high

This is the reason I like Scoble He says it straight as he thinks it. However he is not blunt to the point of stupidity. Just another practical and honest man! Brij like! I love Firefox too. In the past month i have come to know that it is not as liked or used in my immediate surroundings as I would like. The fact that most intranet sites and bank sites are set up sepcifically for IE does hurt it. Well! To each his own! I love it and am happy it is doing well. Will I go a far as to help evangelize it in this manner? I don't know...you see I think that is a tad too rude:) What say you?

Update: Check out Mark Hughes post for some flip-side comments on Scoble. personally I think that it sounds like a raving lunatic. But hey! I am just a lay developer.

Cool commentaries on the MP3 market

Hello dudes. I left my workstation in the hands of my friend and when I came back I found this site open. Found it to be a cool site so decided to tag it here. njoy!!!

A visit to a connoisseur!!!

Hey folks, one of my mates has put up a new blog. Please pay him a visit at the above site. About this guy, he is passionate, highly opinionated and good with words. Good enough reason to pay him a visit, don't you think?

Shoe Lacing Methods

So you thought that there were only one or two ways to tie your shoes? Think again!

My-A-WHAT!?!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha...I cannot stop laughing. Can't write any more ...just go to the site:)
[via Adam Curry's site]

Color Picker

Got this one either from an Endgadget feed or a Gizmodo feed or both. Really Really Cool. You have to see it to believe it. Will this be the future of our searches?

An interesting take on a classic.

I saw the link at scripting news. So I thought it fair to point you to scripting news (a site whose link one MUST have. Just click on the link where Dave speaks about what makes him smile:) Well worth the effort!!!

About the Chief Humanising Officer

This was an article in The Economist. Scoble has gone ahead and humbly spoken about how he is not 'the one' but rather one of many. Awfully decent of him to do that. However the main story in this report is the fact that the blogosphere is indeed a medium of relations and contacts and trust and it does put a human face to a cpmpany when the face being presented is human enough. Trust as usual is an interesting idea but one that can be severly misused(like the McD ads concerning the Lincoln Fries - just google that one as I do not have a link handy:)). Yet there is hope :)

IT Conversations - a real kewl site.

Hello matey's,
I have been thinking of getting one more blog (in addition to my normal blog - "... a glitch in the matrix") to put up links that I like and wanted to share. Blog rolling would not be enough. An analogous site to what I am trying to do here would be Scoble's link blog.

Anyway I wanted to start the blog with a plug for one of the best sites I have visited - ITConversations (Doug Kaye's baby).

This site is into podcasting...and they have great interviews and conference notes in both mp3s and aac modes.

Nuff said...go there right now:)