Get a diploma in hindi expletives..

... watch Omkara :)
Its a good movie, but don't go and do something as dumb as taking your parents to watch it. Although if you are comfortable with them listening to all the BCs, MCs, BetCs, Cs and a lot more new ones.. then go ahead..

Note: For further studies, visit Delhi or consult me :)

5 in 1

The screen-shot shows a server running.

1. Windows XP (locally)

2. A Virtual PC Windows XP machine (demo001)

3. A remote desktop session through the virtual Win XP machine (i.e. 2) to my machine .

4. Another instance of Virtual PC Windows XP machine (cydttestmachine-001) running on the remote machine , through the remote desktop session (i.e. 3) started on the Virtual PC Windows XP machine (i.e. 2)

5. An instance of the Bochs emulator (http://bochs.sourceforge.net) running DLX Linux n the remote machine, through the remote desktop session (i.e. 3) started on the Virtual PC Windows XP machine (i.e. 2)

This pointless exercise was brought to you by yours truly. ... I'm sooo happy :)

An apple a day

Let me be frank, I spend most of my day in office. The reason is not just the excellent coffee machine, but also something else.
In a cubicle hidden from the eyes of most, sits a beauty. Slim and sexy and all alone in that cubicle. Before you have your tongues lolling out and having scandalous thoughts, let me bring you down to earth by telling that it is an iMac that I'm talking about. It has been 3 days since I got an account on that machine, and I have been playing with it everyday for at least one hour. Apart from being good to look at, its a pleasure to work on. It runs Mac OS X Tiger and it puts the current OSes (WinXP, Linux etc) to shame.
I'm currently fidgeting with the automator, applescript and dashboard widgets. Lets see where it takes me to :)

I got something to distract you

So I saw this article on slashdot about community empowered search engines or something, and I say... ok.. another thing to decorate my blog... yummm... So I have gone ahead and put it up on the sidebar. Now, it is up to the community (ie you.. my precious blog reader) to go and empower it.
I should get better things to do ... sigh

The Spy Training Manual

Another series of "Profane Intellect" showcased by our very own personal favorite: Penny-Arcade :)

Boo

Lots of spare time brought me close to Python and now work has brought me close to C#. Hence I said why not go ahead and try out Boo.

P.S: The cartoon is there just to throw you off track .. Actually ... no.. its there just because I love it.

RIP Google Talk

I don't know how old is this, or maybe its totally new, but the two giants: Yahoo! and MSN have tied up their IM networks together to whip ass. And that ass belongs to Google. I smell a dirty battle ... yummy :)

Krisssh

Of the many goof ups which Bollywood makes, this one has to stand out as the best... or maybe the worst. Apna Jadooo empowered Rohit Mehra (Hrithik Roshan) is working on some stupid future seeing computer. He works day in and day out for two years continuous and on his last day of work he comes to know that his wife is pregnant. This is where you rewind and look at the previous sentence... yes I said: two years continuous work and wife getting pregnant. Now, only if you remember the teachings from your 9th class biology text-book you will realize that Jadoo was really hard at work ;-)

But thinking as to how the movie really was, I would say that it was definitely better than Superman returns. One of the stunts where Hrithik imitates a singaporean street stunt artist is really impressive. Otherwise if you are as big as a movie buff as me, you will notice many things similar to : Minority report, Matrix and Spiderman.

Now time for a bit of self mockery:

(Name of movie) : (Name of Protagonist)

Koi Mil Gaya : Rohit
Koi Mil Gaya -2 : Krishna
Koi Mil Gaya -3 : Your guess is as good as my name.

Zombie

Most people who start working have this excuse that they don't update their blog because of too much work. I thought that I will try and not make that cliched excuse, but I just have a gaping creative black hole in front of me, which is sucking all my good ideas (and in a short while, also me and the surrounding light), so that will be my excuse as well.
Yanyway, I'm right now in Bangalore. The land of gardens, or the city of gardens. More appropriate to call it the city of one-ways, traffic jams, pubs, modified cars/bikes and babes (Ankur, you need to get out more :P )
I live in a 1BHK (1 Bedroom, Hall , Kitchen, for those uninitiated to the real estate and brokerage world) house and cough up 3.5 K for that. As I don't have a roommate, I end up paying the whole amount.

Life's been a blur from when I landed here 2 weeks back and till now. I have consumed in a lot of interesting technical stuff, and also a whole lot of coffee.

I will end this post by saying, that Superman is a whole lot worse than Krrriiiiissssshhhh (pardon my spelling), don't see it even if you get free tickets. Your two and a half hours can be spent more usefully by sleeping, day-dreaming, picking your nose etc.

Bye bye Delhi...

hello Bangalore.

Half time

England is putting up an exceedingly poor display against Trinidad and Tobago. Its half time and they haven't scored a goal. In fact they just managed to escape being down one goal. The score is right now 0-0.
The only snazzy thing which happened was Gerard kicking a ball with full power and it colliding with some other balls, which were gallantly provided by Yorke of Trinidad and Tobago. Needless to say it invoked agony in the player and humor in those watching.
Which makes me ask you one question: Do you remember the first time you were kicked/hit/stabbed/crunched/punched ... errr.. .. there? If not ponder and write your feelings in 500 words or more and come back for more tips on wasting time.

Brazil Vs Croatia 1-0

Its official now, I'm also engrossed with the Football World Cup fever.
Contrary to my previous beliefs Croatia wasn't annihilated by Brazil. The Brazilian team looked a bit too relaxed. A lot of their players looked overweight and the great Ronaldo looked fat. He moved like molasses and other than one shot at goal, there wasn't really anything which he did before he was substituted in the second half.
Interestingly Croatia had a lot shots on target, they were just unlucky that they didn't go in.
Anyway, there was this other match between France and Switzerland and it was too boring. The match ended 0-0. But even more frustrating was the ESPN presentation in between matches. Especially the ones in which the Channel [V] VJ's come out and try out their hand at humor.
I don't know what the Indian comedy scene is coming down to these days. There was a time when genuinely funny comedy movies / TV serials used to be released. Movies like "Golmaal", "Jaane bhi to yaaron", "Andaz apna apna", "Hera Pheri" etc, which had pure unadulterated comedy. The guys
then didn't have to resort to cheesy double meaning jokes, as they do now. It was much enjoyable. The genre of comedy movies these days comprise mostly of Hindi remakes of Priyadarshan's Malayalam movies. They seem to be raking in cash, but believe me the original Mallu movies are much better.
Of course, if you don't understand Malayalam, then the jokes on you.

Among other things, Google in a bid to compete with Flickr has launched Picasa Web(courtesy Ankur). They are offering 250 MB for a free account and 6 GB for a paid version ($25 for 1 year). I will hold on to my preciousssssss Flickr Pro account and view everything else with suspicion.

Eating one's own words

If not here, I have at many places said time and again that I don't like to watch football matches (I don't mind playing though). They were too slow, too boringly lethargic (coming from a guy who watches 5 day cricket test matches... yeah yeah I have my double standards). My excuse being that the number of goals scored were too less. Being a basketball player, I guess that excuse was valid to some extent. But then today I saw this world cup match between Japan vs Australia. Australia came back from behind and beat the Japanese 3-1 and ignited in me a new appreciation for the game. I like to watch now.
Now I'm looking forward to the annhilation of Costa Rica Croatia at the hands of Brazil tomorrow :)

Other than words, I'm also eating a lot of other things. Be it visits to coffee shops, restaurants, pubs , roadside vendors, and a countless amount food items which my mom is forcing down my throat, they are all adding to everything to what I had lost earlier... ie.. the thing which grows below your chest. And I bloody well can't keep my tempation under control..

Why I ended up diskliking Da Vinci Code.

There are somethings in life which at first you like, and then after some time you end up not preferring too much. To quote from my life, some examples will be: The Times of India, Almost everything which comes on TV, Chilli Gobi and Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Its like when you meet a person and you really like them, but in a few days, when you get to know them better, you wished you had kept your distance. Something like that happened to me.

My computer got crapped up and I ended up with a lot of fiction novels to read. The prequel to "The Da Vinci" code, "Angels and Demons", was one of them. Now what is interesting is that in both novels the plot is essentially the same. You have a gruesome murder at the beginning, of a person who hides a big secret (which actually is the theme of almost all Dan Brown fiction novels written till now). Then you have the femme fatale who is somehow related to the murdered person, who, inspite of facing such a grave emotional loss, manages to laugh, act sexy, and carry herself as if nothing happened. There is the evil conspirator who is easily guessable and always has a code name, ala "Teacher" and "Janus". Then there is Robert Langdon, who keeps on blabbering about symbology shit at the most inappropriate moments. It all just doesn't seem practical to me anymore.
At one time, though, it did.
When I watched "The Da Vinci code" (the movie), it was merely a test of patience for me. I had read the book. I knew the plot. I knew the answers to all the puzzles. It was really not worth it. I think the movie will not be appreciated by people who haven't read the book (if there are such people ie). I didn't like it even after having read the book.
The good thing though about Dan Brown books is that they do give you a lot of knowledge about a lot of things. Be it art, architecture, cryptography, the works. His books are, as one friend of mine puts it, "Masala books".

I burnt my motherboard

After bearing the 2 and a 1/2 years of torcher at the hands of many in Cochin, my motherboard, ironically, stopped working in Delhi. The reason why this happened is still a mystery. Some speculate it was the train journey and others think that it was due to the heat. Whatever be the case, I have a new one (ASUS A8N-VM-CSM, Rahul's reccomendation) with a 64-bit AMD 3000+ processor on it. Motherboards supporting 32 bit processors are almost extinct. For some reason the sound drivers are not working and I have to get that sorted out. Other than that, I'm just happy to get my "online life" back :)

Pssssstttt.... If you are on the lookout for an AMD 2000+ CPU, I'm always there for you :)

Band of brothers

I just finished watching the HBO mini series (10 episodes): "Band of Brothers". It was released in 2001, but I could get my hands on it only a few months back.
I have seen a lot of war movies, but this is the one which showcases all the aspects of war and is the best among what I have seen. It tells the story about "Easy Company", who are US army paratroopers fighting in the 2nd world war.
It is truly entertaining and revealing. IMDB rating: 9.6 Big thumbs up :)

The eagle lands back in its nest

After a rather comfortable journey in an AC 3 tier compartment with 10 other partners of crime, I finally returned back home. Accompanying me was my monitor, two speakers, keyboard, mouse, UPS, an airbag and a suitcase. Our luggage occupied most of the coach and some of it was even spread under the seats of innocent co-passengers in the other coach.

Our departure at the station witnessed a grand farewell party comprising of our batchmates and some juniors. All of them were used as "coolies" and I'm thankful to them for saving us a lot of money :)
But seriously, it was not too tough for me to leave my friends waving, while the train moved on. Don't think that I'm insesitive or anything. The fact is that I was too tired to be nostalgic.
Another thing with me is that, these things take a lot of time for me to sink in.
So anyway, I'm back in Delhi. I have broadband. I'm keeping myself busy. And I'm as sharp as ever. Envy me!!

Goodbye Cochin

I leave in another 3 hours (or so) for Delhi. It was a hectic end to an otherwise relaxed four years. The end had a trip to Bangalore, 3 sleepless nights, a few interviews and a probable job offer. I wish I could write more, but my fingers fail me and so do my eyes.

Rohit nawab ka bahaduri kartab

Some people sing. Some people dance. Some people play the guitar. Some people collect stamps. Some people collect coins. Some people sleep. Some people travel.

I... well... I .. stop trains B-)

Goodbye Auto

Murphy's Law:

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong

Rohit's corollary:

Indian railways will always run on time, when you are running late.

Auto's train was scheduled for a 12:45 pm departure from Erankulam. We were already late when we left the house at 12:20 pm. The journey to the station usually takes 40 minutes, we had only 25 B-)
We had Sujit Nair behind the wheel, the person who learnt driving when he was only 13 years old. I was at the co-driver's seat providing general navigation and abuses to the passing-by-slow-moving-drivers.
We reached Vytilla junction at 12:30 pm. It really seemed an impossibility that we would be able to reach on time. The traffic was slow moving and we had three more signals to compromise. But then all that was for the usual folks, we were blessed.
On enquiry an innocent bike driver revealed that there was another stealth route to the south station, which went from below the Kadvanthara flyover. We took that route and reached the last platform of Ernakulam South station. The clock read 12:45 pm.
We took all the luggage from the Zen and put it on the ground. Sujit went to park the car, while I took Auto's rucksack (which arguably weighed around 20 kilos) and Auto carried one suitcase and one cardboard box.
We were at the entrance when there was this announcement:

"Train number 2617. .... Ernakulam - Hazarat Nizammudin... Mangla Express.... is on ... platform number.... 1"

We had time... or so I thought.
I burst into a slight jog (I couldn't run due to the weight of the rucksack), jumping and dodging passerbys, trolleys, weighing machines, trains, engines, railway tracks, dogs, people's excreta. (This was the part where Job Bon Jovi's "It's my life" was running in the background) I crossed one platform by jumping the track, then another by going through a train. The next platform though, had a train on it and all the doors were closed. I was forced to take the "flyover" (for lack of a better expression). Auto was following me somewhere, but I couldn't see him behind me. As soon as I reached the top of the "flyover" there was another announcement, which sent shivers down the Auto's spine:

"Train number 2617.... Ernakulam - Hazarat Nizammudin... Mangla Express.... will leave shortly from Platform number... 1"

First in Malayalam, then in Hindi and then finally in English. By the time I started descending the steps of platform number 1. The engine had already blown the horn !! The train started moving. ("It's my life" was still running inside me) Bam ... I landed on the station. The train had gathered speed, but Auto and Sujit were nowhere in sight.
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Enter bullet time
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I knew what I had to do. It was not a decision which I took after a lot of thought. It was more like killing a mosquito which is sucking your blood. You just look at it, register, and kill it. It was like that.
I had to pull the chain !
I got into the train (Rucksack still on my shoulders) reached for the first chain in sight. There was a bewildered gentleman reading a newspaper whom I conveniently ignored, while I pulled the chain. The whole train shivered at the might of my hands. The train came to a sceeching halt. The reading uncle looked even more tensed. I got down and Auto came running down the steps along with Sujit. We packed him in, and asked him to vanish before the squad comes ;)
We wished him a very small goodbye before the train started on its way, once more.
The squad was clueless, after all they were struck by the master-chain-puller-of-the-east, they were looking under the AC compartments when the chain was pulled elsewhere.
I, obviously, due to my ninja training, vanished away without trace.

On retrospect, it was a good thing that we didn't have too much time to say goodbye. The lesser time, the lesser emotional we get. The lesser emotional we get, the lesser uncomfortable we feel.

Although I did give Auto a goodbye gift. I gave Auto the gift of knowledge. The knowledge that he is not a 21 year old bed wetter, but a 21 year old victim of a master prank.
I hope he liked my gift :)