The moon was the closest to the earth in 15 years last weekend. It was 15% bigger and 35% brighter than normal. (http://lifehacker.com/5109010/photograph-the-biggest-full-moon-in-15-years-tonight). Well, so I photographed it.
Monday, December 15, 2008
The man in the moon.
The moon was the closest to the earth in 15 years last weekend. It was 15% bigger and 35% brighter than normal. (http://lifehacker.com/5109010/photograph-the-biggest-full-moon-in-15-years-tonight). Well, so I photographed it.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Haloween Special - The Rhythm
MDTL is proud to present our latest guest blogger - DarkeArun, who brings us a twisted tale of horror and perversion. Without further ado..
The Rhythm:
You did it. Finally. Its all over. Its the kind of feeling you see at the end of a good horror movie. You look around. This is the moment everyone has been fighting for. But they all looked too exhausted. You decide to get some rest. So you say goodnights and go to your room with a new sense - a sense of freedom. You get your beer and play your favorite NiN songs in your computer. Then you lie back on the chair and fall asleep almost instantly. A big mistake.
Few minutes go by. Then you feel it. The same feeling that was haunting everyone for years. Something is waking you up. You knew what would happen if you wake up and turn around; you will see what you never wanna see. You are scared again. But you stay asleep and almost ignore it. After a while it stops. A moment of silence. While you are still trying to make your mind for your next move, it strikes back. This time it almost feels like an electric pulse is passing right through you. From your left to right. You even hear the buzz. You feel the wave. The rhythm. The rhythm that kills. But you stay strong and do not move. Few seconds pass and it stops. Silence. You hold on tight with your eyes still closed. You know its gonna hit back and you know its gonna hit back real bad. You hear screams from the other rooms. You try to remember where you left your transposer. Too late. You are hit again. And this time with a real strong force. It freezes you. You have no control. You scream. And then....you open your eyes. It twists you back and forth real fast in the chair. It feels worse than a roller coaster ride. You try to see, but its all so dark. You just keep screaming. Then almost instantly everything stops. And you just drop on your table. You open your eyes again. You see the progress bar moving from 99% to 100%. Then you see the word that haunts you for the rest of your life - MDTL.
Happy Halloween!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
In support of Raj Thackeray...
A forward I got.
We all should support Raj Thackeray and take his initiative ahead by doing more...
We all should support Raj Thackeray and take his initiative ahead by doing more...
1. We should teach our kids that if he is second in class, don't study harder.. just beat up the student coming first and throw him out of the school
2. Parliament should have only Delhi-ites as it is located in Delhi
3. Prime-minister, president and all other leaders should only be from Delhi
4. No Hindi movie should be made in Bombay. Only Marathi.
5. At every state border, buses, trains, flights should be stopped and staff changed to local men
6. All Maharashtrians working abroad or in other states should be sent back as they are SNATCHING employment from Locals
7. Lord Shiv, Ganesha and Parvati should not be worshipped in our state as they belong to north (Himalayas)
8. Visits to Taj Mahal should be restricted to people from UP only
9. Relief for farmers in Maharashtra should not come from centre because that is the money collected as Tax from whole of India, so why should it be given to someone in Maharashtra?
10. Let's support Kashmiri Militants because they are right in killing and injuring innocent people for the benefit of their state and community..
11. Let's throw all MNCs out of Maharashtra, why should they earn from us? We will open our own Maharashtra Microsoft, MH Pepsi and MH Marutis of the world
12. Let's stop using cellphones, emails, TV, foreign Movies and dramas. James Bond should speak Marathi
13. We should be ready to die hungry or buy food at 10 times higher price but should not accept imports from other states
14. We should not allow any industry to be set-up in Maharashtra because all machinery comes from outside
15. We should STOP using local trains... Trains are not manufactured by Marathi manoos and Railway Minister is a Bihari
16. Ensure that all our children are born, grow, live and die without ever stepping out of Maharashtra, then they will become true Marathi's
JAI MAHARASHTRA!
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Russell Peters
Okay. Russell Peters is live at Siri Fort Delhi on the 29th. Book your tickets at ticketpro.in now! For those not in the know Russell is a knee-slappingly, roll in the aisle inducingly, fantastic comedian.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Banned!
You might wan to check this out. A list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007.
Banned!
You might wan to check this out. A list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Greetings with a Smile
MDTL is proud to present our very first guest blogger, DarkeRose. Here is her first post -
Say not the struggle nought availeth,
the labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faint not, nor faileth,
And as things have been, things remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back through creeks and inlets making
Came, silent flooding in the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly
But westward look, the land is bright.
ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH.
the labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faint not, nor faileth,
And as things have been, things remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back through creeks and inlets making
Came, silent flooding in the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly
But westward look, the land is bright.
ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH.
Greeting the morning with a smile.
We used to have a cheap blue alarm clock which we acquired early in our marriage after we realised that our body clocks were just not doing their job after a late night of partying. It served us well through the years. Only now and then would we fail to wake up to its dulcet tones. On those days I and my better half (worse half on those days) would miraculously find ourselves on our feet with staring eyes and hair on end screaming at each other for not hearing the alarm. Then there would be a mad rush for the loo, sometimes in the wrong direction. While doing the job and going through Femina's tips on how to greet the morning with a smile, I would be interrupted by a pounding on the bathroom door and a voice asking frantically where the sugar was for the tea he was making. Grumblingly I'd crack the door sarcastically asking if this was a hotel or what that he didn’t know where things were kept. Then I would give directions that the sugar was in the cupboard whose keys were in the other cupboard whose keys were in the--------. This exercise was a painfully failing attempt on my behalf to curb the pilfering activities of my maid servant, who invariably when I lost them would hand them to me with a smirk. Hence the continuous change of hiding places. Finally after the keys were found, he would make his way to the kitchen, but not before passing snide remarks on senility and Alzheimers. I would go back to what I was doing hastily. No time to peruse through that article now!
Nowadays we wake up to the ring of a brand new alarm clock, which has come all the way from Disney land, Paris and was presented to us by our son. Its ring in the morning is enough to wake up the dead. Its ring is also a cue for me to cower under the bedclothes as I see my sleeping partner flail his arms searching for the clock and bringing crashing down all the doodahs with the vase of flowers I had placed on the headboard following another mags advice on how to spice up your bedroom life. In the ensuing silence I'm asked, ’Where did you say the old blue clock was?' I mumble something about senility and Alzheimer’s and turn over.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Answer
I'm publishing New Scientist's best Sci-Fi short story below . . .
Fredric Brown, "Answer"
Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.
"Yes, now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.
--
Fredric Brown, "Answer"
Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.
"Yes, now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.
--
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
MDTL Tutorials - Fedora and XP
Well the Google Docs publishing is shite, so link here for
Viren Joky's
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Blog Publishing from Google Docs
Okay, just below this post, you will see a large unwieldy tutorial on how to use BitTorrent. I had created it on Google Docs for a friend, and thought I'd publish it on my blog. For people not in the know, Google Docs allows you to publish your document directly on your blog. On the Share button on the right, hit 'Publish At Web Page', change your blog site settings, and hit Post.
However, as you can see below, the formatting is shite. It looks slightly better as a published web page, but my graphics have lost their black backgrounds surprisingly enough, so they dont look as cool.
Update: Yeah, its apparently just IE6 which displays the icons like crap. FF is working just fine
However, as you can see below, the formatting is shite. It looks slightly better as a published web page, but my graphics have lost their black backgrounds surprisingly enough, so they dont look as cool.
Update: Yeah, its apparently just IE6 which displays the icons like crap. FF is working just fine
Viren Joky's
BitTorrent for Dummies
Okay, you've heard a lot about this torrent thing; supposedly the next great thing in file sharing <read pirating>. But, you have no idea of how to go about accessing it's power. In other words the last word of the title describes you to a T. Hey, if the shoe fits...
Well here's my simple 5 step guide to getting on the torrent bandwagon and achieving download nirvana. Okay, so it may not be 5 steps. At this point I'm not sure of the number of steps it'll take.
How to read this guide -
Here we go -
Download a BitTorent Client
I personally use BitComet, but that's probably not the best client. uTorrent is supposed to be good, and it's really light on resources (I'm trying it out now), or try Azureus for a full featured download.
Here's a list of torrent clients
And that's it. You're done and well on your way to accumulating masses of porn.. er legitimate files. Now may be a good time to buy that external 1 Tb hdd you were thinking about.
-Viren
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Have sex NOW. The world ends at 1pm.(or maybe not)
Well, the large Hardon.. er Hadron collider will be switched on around 12:30 pm Indian time. And of course, we don't believe in CERN's safety nonsense. Heres how it'll go..
In about 3 minutes it'll have produced Strangelets and Vaccum Bubbles and Magnetic Monopoles.
At 7 minutes , scientists will discover the God Particle (even more fantastic than the Jesus phone) and will almost instantly come up with the Grand Unified Theory which will be so magnificent, so stupendous, that scientists, at a flash will understand how to achieve faster than light travel, solve global warming, and even make Sarah Palin VP.
Just past 9 minutes, a stable black hole will be created which absorbs enough matter to be self sustaining.
Ten seconds past this the event horizon will overtake Earth.
In twenty minutes, the black hole will crash into the sun, extinguishing it. Jupiter has already been swallowed and Neptune will be spiralling into the hole.
One hour later, the solar system does not exist.
So, my advice is; grab your towel and hitch a quick ride from a passing Volgon ship. The end of the solar system should be quite a spectacular sight seen from a couple of light days away.
In about 3 minutes it'll have produced Strangelets and Vaccum Bubbles and Magnetic Monopoles.
At 7 minutes , scientists will discover the God Particle (even more fantastic than the Jesus phone) and will almost instantly come up with the Grand Unified Theory which will be so magnificent, so stupendous, that scientists, at a flash will understand how to achieve faster than light travel, solve global warming, and even make Sarah Palin VP.
Just past 9 minutes, a stable black hole will be created which absorbs enough matter to be self sustaining.
Ten seconds past this the event horizon will overtake Earth.
In twenty minutes, the black hole will crash into the sun, extinguishing it. Jupiter has already been swallowed and Neptune will be spiralling into the hole.
One hour later, the solar system does not exist.
So, my advice is; grab your towel and hitch a quick ride from a passing Volgon ship. The end of the solar system should be quite a spectacular sight seen from a couple of light days away.
Update - apparently today was just a test run. We have till Oct 21.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
The science of sleep
I'm having a tough time keeping my eyes open right now. Even Feeder streaming on the last.fm app on my iPhone is not helping. Nor is the cup of murky water which passes for coffee round here. Maybe it was due to a really late night yesterday. Following a late dinner, my friend stuffed her face with the bday cake I had received from office. Unfortunately, this cake had eggs... and guess what; my friend's allergic.
Within minutes, her face had swollen up to epic propotions. She refused to look on the bright side - that the swelling had eliminated the bags under her eyes at least. So at around 12 am we drove to the nearest hospital to get some allergy pills. Since we were around there, we decided to show her to the doc. In a few minutes this doc wanders in, obviously still groggy with sleep. So he goes into the curtained enclosure and started asking my friend questions.
Now my friend is a total fraud indian, and when the doc asked her to show her 'jeeb' (which means tongue in Hindi), she started unbuttoning her shirt. Okay I kid, I kid, but she kept speaking in English, and the doc, apparently not comfortable with the language, decide to come out and talk to me, as the obvious person in charge (NO I do NOT look old enough to be her father). Well, as I suspected, he just prescribed some Avil and Allegra, though he did want to give her a shot; which I was quite keen on too. But madam was too skittish, so we dropped the plan.
He did tell me, though, to take a long hard look at her face so I could make sure the swelling didn't increase, which cracked us all up. We reached back at 1 with no further incident; I still suspect the 'allergic swelling' was nothing more than fat from all the cake hogging that had no place else to go.
However I stayed up even later, as I was in the midst of installing Fedora 9 on my laptop. Yes; if you've read my post 'A Tragic Gap', you'll know my XPS died a horrible and painful death. Dell have however, been most impressive, and they replaced my hdd and dvd drive (which was acting up too) within the week. So yeah, my laptop is resurrected, and I'm in the best phase... installing new apps. I simply love fresh installs, the smell and feel of a fresh OS gets me all sweaty and excited.
To start off, I installed XP on a 15gb partition, leaving the rest of the disk unallocated. Now I know people who don't bother to partition, and to them I say 'Repent!' My partitioning strategy is to use a smaller partition for XP, and other essential software like an antivirus. The rest of my programs are installed into the next contiguous partition, and the rest of the space is partitioned to store my Media, Pictures, Games and Downloads in separate partitions leaving about 15Gb for a Linux install.
After installing XP and the necessary drivers from Dell, I registered it, and installed SP3. I love updates, and am determined to get the latest stuff on this installation. I then flashed my DVD drives firmware with the latest update, and downloaded the latest graphic drivers from Nvidia. So far so good, everything went without a hitch. I also installed AVG antivirus free v8. Now, I've always been a Norton fanboi.. but their last incantation left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. After hearing good things about AVG on lifehacker.com, I decided to give it a go and not install Norton's Systemworks.
Around this point I decided it was a good idea to install Fedora 9 alongside XP. Why Fedora? Because I've been a fan of Red Hat from it's 3.0 days. Not that I've given any other system a try. Well I booted off the DVD, and everything proceeded fine till I tried to create the Linux Partition Structure, where it fell over in a heap telling me that I had insufficient space to create the / partition. After trying all sorts of things.. even repeatedly repartitioning my drives, I was ready to give up.
A search through the forums, however gave me a clue. A HDD can support only a maximum of four partitions apparently. A new user will point to my afore mentioned multiple partition in confusion. Allow me to clarify - All those partitions were logical partitions created inside an extended partition. However I had created my Programs partition as a primary partition, instead of a logical one which means I had already used up 3 of the 4 allowed primary partitions - C drive, Programs, and an Extended one to hold my logical partitions. And Linux needed at least two spots to install. And this was the correct reason inspite of the incorrect and misleading 'out of space' error.
Well, using Powerquest's infinitely useful Partition Magic, I converted E: Programs into a logical partition inside my Extended partition, and then reran the installation. This time it proceede without hitch, and I soon had Fedora up and running by 3 am. Initial impressions are not that great however. I expected the Gnome UI to be more kickass... infact its almost boring in it's plainness (I'm looking at screenshots of fedora 8 and it seems prettier). I'll try KDE today and let you know. Maybe these guys should talk to my kickass designed friend. I'm also still trying to get my WiFi working on fedora, but it's taking a while. I am such a n00b.
Anyways, I should be running on full functionality soon. It's such a relief to work on a bright 1950x1200 display again. THAT is what my blog is supposed to look like. For now I'm carefully searching for the latest versions of essential software. Do you have any suggestions or preferences for the best essential software no Windows installation should be without?
Anyways, after all that I finally got to sleep at 3 am. And that explains why there are imprints of the keyboard on my forehead today.
Within minutes, her face had swollen up to epic propotions. She refused to look on the bright side - that the swelling had eliminated the bags under her eyes at least. So at around 12 am we drove to the nearest hospital to get some allergy pills. Since we were around there, we decided to show her to the doc. In a few minutes this doc wanders in, obviously still groggy with sleep. So he goes into the curtained enclosure and started asking my friend questions.
Now my friend is a total fraud indian, and when the doc asked her to show her 'jeeb' (which means tongue in Hindi), she started unbuttoning her shirt. Okay I kid, I kid, but she kept speaking in English, and the doc, apparently not comfortable with the language, decide to come out and talk to me, as the obvious person in charge (NO I do NOT look old enough to be her father). Well, as I suspected, he just prescribed some Avil and Allegra, though he did want to give her a shot; which I was quite keen on too. But madam was too skittish, so we dropped the plan.
He did tell me, though, to take a long hard look at her face so I could make sure the swelling didn't increase, which cracked us all up. We reached back at 1 with no further incident; I still suspect the 'allergic swelling' was nothing more than fat from all the cake hogging that had no place else to go.
However I stayed up even later, as I was in the midst of installing Fedora 9 on my laptop. Yes; if you've read my post 'A Tragic Gap', you'll know my XPS died a horrible and painful death. Dell have however, been most impressive, and they replaced my hdd and dvd drive (which was acting up too) within the week. So yeah, my laptop is resurrected, and I'm in the best phase... installing new apps. I simply love fresh installs, the smell and feel of a fresh OS gets me all sweaty and excited.
To start off, I installed XP on a 15gb partition, leaving the rest of the disk unallocated. Now I know people who don't bother to partition, and to them I say 'Repent!' My partitioning strategy is to use a smaller partition for XP, and other essential software like an antivirus. The rest of my programs are installed into the next contiguous partition, and the rest of the space is partitioned to store my Media, Pictures, Games and Downloads in separate partitions leaving about 15Gb for a Linux install.
After installing XP and the necessary drivers from Dell, I registered it, and installed SP3. I love updates, and am determined to get the latest stuff on this installation. I then flashed my DVD drives firmware with the latest update, and downloaded the latest graphic drivers from Nvidia. So far so good, everything went without a hitch. I also installed AVG antivirus free v8. Now, I've always been a Norton fanboi.. but their last incantation left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. After hearing good things about AVG on lifehacker.com, I decided to give it a go and not install Norton's Systemworks.
Around this point I decided it was a good idea to install Fedora 9 alongside XP. Why Fedora? Because I've been a fan of Red Hat from it's 3.0 days. Not that I've given any other system a try. Well I booted off the DVD, and everything proceeded fine till I tried to create the Linux Partition Structure, where it fell over in a heap telling me that I had insufficient space to create the / partition. After trying all sorts of things.. even repeatedly repartitioning my drives, I was ready to give up.
A search through the forums, however gave me a clue. A HDD can support only a maximum of four partitions apparently. A new user will point to my afore mentioned multiple partition in confusion. Allow me to clarify - All those partitions were logical partitions created inside an extended partition. However I had created my Programs partition as a primary partition, instead of a logical one which means I had already used up 3 of the 4 allowed primary partitions - C drive, Programs, and an Extended one to hold my logical partitions. And Linux needed at least two spots to install. And this was the correct reason inspite of the incorrect and misleading 'out of space' error.
Well, using Powerquest's infinitely useful Partition Magic, I converted E: Programs into a logical partition inside my Extended partition, and then reran the installation. This time it proceede without hitch, and I soon had Fedora up and running by 3 am. Initial impressions are not that great however. I expected the Gnome UI to be more kickass... infact its almost boring in it's plainness (I'm looking at screenshots of fedora 8 and it seems prettier). I'll try KDE today and let you know. Maybe these guys should talk to my kickass designed friend. I'm also still trying to get my WiFi working on fedora, but it's taking a while. I am such a n00b.
Anyways, I should be running on full functionality soon. It's such a relief to work on a bright 1950x1200 display again. THAT is what my blog is supposed to look like. For now I'm carefully searching for the latest versions of essential software. Do you have any suggestions or preferences for the best essential software no Windows installation should be without?
Anyways, after all that I finally got to sleep at 3 am. And that explains why there are imprints of the keyboard on my forehead today.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Another Random Post
I'm still laptopless and lazy, so instead of blogging the longer posts I have been working on, here is another collection of randomness. Hmm maybe I should have written that laptop-less. You know, so the perverts out there don't read it wrong. Yes. I mean YOU.
I'm typing this while listening to Kraftwerk on my iPhone. Yes I have an iPhone. I'm posh spelt P-O-S-H. I drink my tea with my pinky extended and I never come, I always arrive. What I'm trying to say is - listen to Kraftwerk. Back in 1997 my friend from college, Prashanth dug out this old tape and made me listen to Kraftwerk's Man Machine. A very interesting album, techno trance, with a lot of music which seems to have been stolen by later artists.
One of the books I'm really looking forward to reading is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Supposedly one of Sci-fi's best, I'm surprised I never ran across it. I hope it's magnificent; I'm willing to forgive Card his homophobia. And why didn't anyone tell me about Clive Cussler. I kept seeing his books but was never motivated to pick one up. I plan to rectify that immediately.
And now for some internet goodness. Weird Universe give you your daily hit of bizarre. Want to do some quick and dirty photo editing and don't have the tools? Try Picnik. And read superhero parody [this is NSFW] 'The Pro' here.
I'm typing this while listening to Kraftwerk on my iPhone. Yes I have an iPhone. I'm posh spelt P-O-S-H. I drink my tea with my pinky extended and I never come, I always arrive. What I'm trying to say is - listen to Kraftwerk. Back in 1997 my friend from college, Prashanth dug out this old tape and made me listen to Kraftwerk's Man Machine. A very interesting album, techno trance, with a lot of music which seems to have been stolen by later artists.
One of the books I'm really looking forward to reading is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Supposedly one of Sci-fi's best, I'm surprised I never ran across it. I hope it's magnificent; I'm willing to forgive Card his homophobia. And why didn't anyone tell me about Clive Cussler. I kept seeing his books but was never motivated to pick one up. I plan to rectify that immediately.
And now for some internet goodness. Weird Universe give you your daily hit of bizarre. Want to do some quick and dirty photo editing and don't have the tools? Try Picnik. And read superhero parody [this is NSFW] 'The Pro' here.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Dunno
I just ran into one of my favourite books as a child. It's Nikolai Nosov's The Adventures of Dunno and his Friends. It's funny and whimsical and has the most amazing illustrations. Its available for free online here. Definitely worth a read.
Friday, August 29, 2008
The Sound of Settling.
"The Sound Of Settling"
-Death Cab for Cutie
I've got a hunger
Twisting my stomach into knots
That my tongue was tied off
My brain's repeating
"if you've got an impulse let it out"
But they never make it past my mouth.
Baa bah, this is the sound of settling
Baa bah, baa bah
[x2]
Our youth is fleeting
Old age is just around the bend
And i can't wait to go grey
And i'll sit and wonder
Of every love that could've been
If i'd only thought of something charming to say.
Baa bah, this is the sound of settling
Baa bah, baa bah
[x4]
I've got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots.
-Death Cab for Cutie
I've got a hunger
Twisting my stomach into knots
That my tongue was tied off
My brain's repeating
"if you've got an impulse let it out"
But they never make it past my mouth.
Baa bah, this is the sound of settling
Baa bah, baa bah
[x2]
Our youth is fleeting
Old age is just around the bend
And i can't wait to go grey
And i'll sit and wonder
Of every love that could've been
If i'd only thought of something charming to say.
Baa bah, this is the sound of settling
Baa bah, baa bah
[x4]
I've got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
A Tragic Gap
It's a darke day for us here on the interwebs. My Dell Xps M1710 decided that 2 years of service are quite enough, and with resigned finality, crashed. And that is why, though I have posts waiting for you on my Google Docs, I've been silent for some time. I'm posting this note via the email facility of blogger.
Well, it was not exactly unexpected. I came home one day to find that my hard drive was not recognised by the BIOS. However a quick reset to defaults of the BIOS solved the problem. This of course, made me quite jittery, and the first thind I did was make a backup of my important, irreplaceable files onto my external MyBook.
And it was a good thing I did, as a couple of days back. my laptop restarted and now the hard drive is quite missing. Now, I've not got everything I want off that drive, but I've got enough so that I do not have to commit ritualistic hara-kiri. Of course, I've had hard disks die on me before, the worst being when my 500 Gb external Segate got fried when I connected it to an unprotected power outlet at a friends place in bangalore. A few quick power fluctuations and thats all she wrote.
The stupedest reason for loosing data was way back in undergraduation. Me and a few mates decided to upgrade my Pentium II, 2 gb hdd from Win 95 to 98. So, after copying the stuff I wanted to keep into a folder, we proceeded to wipe everything else and install a pirated copy of 98 which my uncle sent from Singapore. BTW, this kinda activity was the height of excitement for me and my friends those days. And from that you know I live a sad escuse of a life. Anyway, everything was proceeding swimmingly, when the installation hung somewhere towards the end.
A small setback, we figured, and retried the installation with exactly the same results. After several goes, tweaking all possible settings, we had progressed no further. My two friends and I were perplexed and irritated. However this third guy from my class, came forward, and with quiet confidence said that 98 would not install without a full format of the hard disk. We scoffed, but after a few more tries we began to listen to him. He was totally confident and assured us that that was the problem. I really needed the data on my drive, but without an OS it was useless. And in those days of floppy diskettes, no realistic backup solution presented itself.
So, I finally bit the bullet, and typed in format c: . What a sacrifice, but it was the only way to go forward. We ran the installation for the upmteenth time, and lo and behold; it failed in the EXACT same place! At this point the guy quietly removed himself from the proceedings. After some time, my friends left too, admitting defeat. Late in the night however, I came across a setting tucked away in the BIOS which said Enable/Disable Virus Protection. This prevented anything from changing the MBR of the Hard Disk, which windows obviously needed to do. DOH. I disabled it and the installation ran flawlessly.
But I never trusted that guy again.
Well, it was not exactly unexpected. I came home one day to find that my hard drive was not recognised by the BIOS. However a quick reset to defaults of the BIOS solved the problem. This of course, made me quite jittery, and the first thind I did was make a backup of my important, irreplaceable files onto my external MyBook.
And it was a good thing I did, as a couple of days back. my laptop restarted and now the hard drive is quite missing. Now, I've not got everything I want off that drive, but I've got enough so that I do not have to commit ritualistic hara-kiri. Of course, I've had hard disks die on me before, the worst being when my 500 Gb external Segate got fried when I connected it to an unprotected power outlet at a friends place in bangalore. A few quick power fluctuations and thats all she wrote.
The stupedest reason for loosing data was way back in undergraduation. Me and a few mates decided to upgrade my Pentium II, 2 gb hdd from Win 95 to 98. So, after copying the stuff I wanted to keep into a folder, we proceeded to wipe everything else and install a pirated copy of 98 which my uncle sent from Singapore. BTW, this kinda activity was the height of excitement for me and my friends those days. And from that you know I live a sad escuse of a life. Anyway, everything was proceeding swimmingly, when the installation hung somewhere towards the end.
A small setback, we figured, and retried the installation with exactly the same results. After several goes, tweaking all possible settings, we had progressed no further. My two friends and I were perplexed and irritated. However this third guy from my class, came forward, and with quiet confidence said that 98 would not install without a full format of the hard disk. We scoffed, but after a few more tries we began to listen to him. He was totally confident and assured us that that was the problem. I really needed the data on my drive, but without an OS it was useless. And in those days of floppy diskettes, no realistic backup solution presented itself.
So, I finally bit the bullet, and typed in format c: . What a sacrifice, but it was the only way to go forward. We ran the installation for the upmteenth time, and lo and behold; it failed in the EXACT same place! At this point the guy quietly removed himself from the proceedings. After some time, my friends left too, admitting defeat. Late in the night however, I came across a setting tucked away in the BIOS which said Enable/Disable Virus Protection. This prevented anything from changing the MBR of the Hard Disk, which windows obviously needed to do. DOH. I disabled it and the installation ran flawlessly.
But I never trusted that guy again.
Lets Test
Testing the email functionality of blogger.
A nudist by the name of Roger Peet
Loved to dance in the snow and the sleet,
But one chilly December
He froze every member,
And retired to a monkish retreat.
There was a young lady named Sharkey
Who had an affair with a darkey.
The result of her sins
Was quadruplets, not twins,
One white, and one black, and two khaki.
That is all.
A nudist by the name of Roger Peet
Loved to dance in the snow and the sleet,
But one chilly December
He froze every member,
And retired to a monkish retreat.
There was a young lady named Sharkey
Who had an affair with a darkey.
The result of her sins
Was quadruplets, not twins,
One white, and one black, and two khaki.
That is all.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Sunday, August 03, 2008
My life is a Comic - pt 1
When I was really young, I remember reading a lot of Archies. The were more accessible than superhero comics and much more entertaining than the Chacha Chaudharys and suchlike. On occasion, as I would be zipping through a double digest, my dad would take it and start reading aloud. 'Oh Veronica, you look lovely. SMOOCH! SMOOCH!'. My dad would quite enjoy himself, and exert himself to the maximum to get the full range of sound effects involved whenever Archie went near some girl. He would then look at me in mock surprise and say - This comic is FULL of kissing. Is that why you like it?, and grin. 
Blushing furiously, I would snatch the offending digest out of his hand and tell him that I was just reading it for Jughead (the inveterate girl hater). And it was true because I was at the age when the opposite sex was the enemy, and all contact was to be avoided. Even though I was strangely attracted, externally I presented a strong front, exhorting my friends to resist their lubricious feminine wiles. Of course, with age comes wisdom, and I soon realised that I was no match for them. But that's another story...
I still read Archies, but only when I go home and can get them from the library. They're light enough that I can eat, surf the net, watch TV and read them at the same time. Of course, there were a few superhero comics available then, with Phantom, Tarzan, Mandrake and Flash Gordon leading the front. Many were the happy hours I spent pretending to study, with a Flash comic hidden in my Social Studies textbook. Unfortunately though, I tended to get lost in that world of fantasy, at which point soft 'PEW PEW PEW' sounds would emanate from my throat, as I battled the hordes of Ming the Merciless. At this point my mom would storm in, confiscate my comic and leave me with sore ear, which, let me tell you, was worse than any torture Ming could inflict.
Another comic, or should I say graphic novel, that I was very fond of was the Asterisk and Obelisk series. Goscinny and Uderzo crafted masterpiece after masterpiece with their wry french humour and witty stereotypes. I could read their comics time and time again and still do. Of course Uderzo continued the series after Goscinny died, with mixed success.And of course, in the same format was Herge's Tintin with it's high adventure and the comedic timing of Haddock and Thomson and Thompson. To be precise. These can often have me laughing out loud, which is my criteria for a good book.
Over the years, I've encountered many different comics, and being in a place where easy access to good comics was never easy, the ones I have run across are a motley and varied selection. Ranging from the indigenous Tinkle to Bone and The Blue Devil and Swamp Thing, all comics were grist to my mill.
The earliest comics I remember were the Walt Disney ones starring Mickey, Donald, The Beagle Boys and so on. Most of them involved Hewie, Dewie and Louie thwarting some inventive plan of the Beagle Boys to get their hands on Scrooge McDuck's cash.
In Delhi in the fourth grade He-Man mini booklets were the latest craze. They used to come in plastic pouches, four to the sheet, and I collected them avidly. It was an expression of my interest in science fiction and fantasy, and besides, Teela and The Sorceress interested me strangely.
The earliest comics I remember were the Walt Disney ones starring Mickey, Donald, The Beagle Boys and so on. Most of them involved Hewie, Dewie and Louie thwarting some inventive plan of the Beagle Boys to get their hands on Scrooge McDuck's cash.
In Delhi in the fourth grade He-Man mini booklets were the latest craze. They used to come in plastic pouches, four to the sheet, and I collected them avidly. It was an expression of my interest in science fiction and fantasy, and besides, Teela and The Sorceress interested me strangely.
To be continued....
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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