Old keyboard Died today

 Many of the posts on this blog were written using my old keyboard which died today. It almost drove me mad and I wanted to smash it onto the floor and break it into pieces. The keys in the "qwerty" row stopped working. Guess it was a meaningful death for a qwerty layout keyboard. The new keyboard has the "wasd" keys in red instead of the standard black ones. I guess gamers would love these red highlighted "wasd"  keys. I am also relieved that this keyboard doesn't have a stupid row of multimedia keys which I never liked. Incidentally this makes the keyboard look sleeker and meaner. The "soft touch" keys on this new keyboard are a welcome relief for my fingers too.

Old keyboard at the top and new one at the bottom of the image

What are PIPA and SOPA capable of doing to the internet

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

NOTE:-If video is too slow then use then click "HD",the HD mode will get switched off and the video will load faster

The above video explains as to how PIPA and SOPA can affect internet and affect the world as a whole.In short PIPA and SOPA can :-
==>Uploading a video with baby dancing to a tune over video sharing sites like youtube , metacafe etc can land one in serious trouble.
==>Not only that media companies can take down the site which allowed you to upload the aforementioned video
==>Encourage similar laws through out the world
==>Give an excuse the social networking sites  scour through your private content on pretext of searching for illegal or copyrighted content in your posts
==>Governments may  start preventing people from blogging, stemming from fear of the unknown

Reflecting on 2011

Reflecting on 2011 / The year that  2011 was...

 Phew it is that of the year already ,the time all the news channels ,websites and newspapers / magazines put up articles saying "best of year" blah blah blah. Time sure flies fast.The year seemed to have just started,but we are at the threshold of another "new year". This year (2011) is memorable in many ways.There were a lot of things happening!!!! through out the world as well as in India.The most prominent feature of the year  was the unabated rise in price of petrol.This post is essentially about 2011 seen through my sewed eyes :-D.2011 as with each new year , began with a lot of promises / new year resolutions , but it unfolded as follows:-

January , 2011
==>The Arab world literally boiled over and  many countries  in Arab world namely  Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Bahrain faced social unrest. Some governments like the ones in Egypt and Libya even got overthrown in the ensuing protests over the course of the year.Tahrir Square became popular of all over the world.Sounds similar to Tienanmen square in china.Guess all town squares starting with letter "T" are political hotspots.
==>At that point of time before GOVT restored the Tamil New Year Day to the traditional date of April later in the year , Tamils  celebrated Tamil New year on Pongal day ,atleast officially :-).

February , 2011
The country was reeling under the shame of Common Wealth games expose when on  February 2, 2011, Union minister Raja  was arrested and put behind bars.This really opened the flood gates and made way for many other politicians and company CEOS to be arrested under 2G scam.

March , 2011
The year began with a devastating earthquake and ensuing Tsunami which steam rolled many cities on Japan's east coast.The worst affected was Fukushima.The nuclear reactors in the town / city Dai ichi and Dai Ni were breached by the monstrous waves.This event shook the entire world.The insights it brought are:-
==>Japan makes most of the paint pigments for automotive industry and any major event in one part of the world affects the world economy in a big way.
==>Most of coastal cities around the world including Chennai are sitting on a ticking time bomb(ref:-Tsunami) which are just waiting for the right time to go kaboom!!!
==>The inherent danger and threat that nuclear reactors pose to all the countries of the world.Not only are they costly but they are very vulnerable to natural calamities.

April , 2011

==>In a daring pre dawn raid on May 2, 2011Osama Bin Laden was killed. The commandos conducted operations fearlessly on foreign soil.This showed  that America is still a "super power".

==>Tamilnadu opted for change of power on 13 April 2011 in the sate elections.

==>India won the ICC,ODI world cup after 28 years.India won by 6 wickets (with 10 balls remaining) against srilanka

==>It was more than a year I switched to Linux
==>Kalmadi was put behind bars for involvement in CWG scam.

May , 2011
==>More shame was waiting for for the infamous UPA alliance when Kanimozhi was arrested in connection with involvement in 2G scam.She became the third Member Of Parliament of the current government after Raja and kalmadi.
==>On 16 May 2011 Jayalalitha was sworn in chief minister for a third term.
==>Mamata Banerjee in Bengal assumed power on 20 May 2011 after she successfully stopped the Left juggernaut after remaining unbeaten for 34 year.
==>Taliban & co exacted revenge by attacking Mehran base in Pakistan. The audacious attack is nicknamed Mehran attack.

The terrorist were very well trained and were equally well equipped with the latest gear. The amount of ammo that they carried with them was insane and they were using night vision goggles with other ultrasonic radio communication gear.Source:-Link

Terrorists and night vision goggles ? Even Indian army is still not equipped adequately for warfare at night
==>LHC reports creation of quark-gluon plasma.Densest Matter Created in Big-Bang Machine.There has been rising fears that very Large particle accelerators like Hadron Collider could be creating Black Holes within them and that these had the ability to destroy the world.Read more - here

June ,2011
==>Festivities arrived rather early at Ramlila ,Delhi this year. Ramdev showed how the Indian government is ill equipped to handle any kind challenge / emergency .On 27 February 2011 Baba Ramdev held a large rally of over 1 lakh people at the Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi to protest against corruption.Then he started a mass movement called  Bhrashtachar Mitao Satyagrah 4 June 2011 at Ramlila Maidan and this led to "RamLilaBagh" event.The entire episode showed how immature our democracy was.Read more about the incident here:- Ramlila_Maidan_protests 
==>Anna Hazare's anti corruption movement gathers steam.He and other civil society members decided to boycott the meeting of the joint Lokpal Bill drafting committee scheduled on 6 June 2011 in protest against the forcible eviction of Swami Ramdev and his followers by the Delhi Police from Ramlila Maidan on 5 June 2011

July , 2011
India began their disastrous away cricket series against England with a solid drubbing at Lords(Mecca of cricket).In the England v India at Lord's, Jul 21-25, 2011 Pataudi Trophy, 1st Test England won by 196 runs.Many people wondered as to how India which won the world cup couple of months ago could even have receive such a severe drubbing in the Test and ODI series.

August , 2011
==>There was mini rebirth of this blog ;-)I started blogging regularly again.
==>Facebook Overtakes Orkut in India – Another Setback for Google
==>Hazare ended his fast on 28 August 2011,after  starting it on 16 August 2011 after the Indian Government had passed the resolution for the Lokpal Bill unanimously,
==>Thailand faced the worst  Floods in 70 Years 

September , 2011
September 8, 2011 was the 10th anniversary of the twin tower attacks

October , 2011
==>Libya's tyrannical dictator for more than a decade breathed his last on 20 October 2011
==>New Gundam series “Mobile Suit Gundam AGE”  begins airing on October 9, 2011

November , 2011
==> I joined "indiblogger" on 22nd Nov 2011 


December , 2011
==>On 16th I  got my first Indiblogger rank

==>kim Jong II ,the North Korean dictator breathes his last
==>US pulls out of Iraq .The last of the soldiers too have left the country

Add Personal Touch To Blogger By Adding Fav Icon

Add Personal Touch To Blogger By Adding Fav Icon
 After playing around with the various templates and applying them onto my blog an trying out the gadgets i have tried to add  one more piece  customisation to my blog by creating a fav icon.Th favourite icon not only adds a nice touch to the web page but also shows up in the bookmarks whenever you bookmark your web page in your browser.

Step 1:-
Create Icon in Pinta
The first step involves creating the icon file. I have used a tool called pinta which is a light weight image editor for which i am using to creating a simple icon file. Get your 1-click installer for pinta here
==>Open Pinta 

==>Resize Canvas To either 16x16 , 32X32 or 25X25 Pixels

 ==>Ensure that Pixel Pixel rid and Rulers are on.This will help greatly while working with individual pixels as well as aligning your icon

=

==>To create a simple text based icon use the bucket tool to cover all the pixels with a single colour

==>Type in the required Text in a contrasting colour.
==> You can Apply effects like Sharpen to make the wording crispier.
==>Also note that you can choose the required font for the  text to appear funky or stylish

==>Save the image in ".ico" format
==>Of course if you are good with image creation tools you can create varied patterns and designs and thus create nice icon files
==>Always upload the image and test whether the icon look fine.Though your design might  awesome,one uploading it to site it might not look fabulous.

Step 2:-

Adding icon to Blogger
==>After logging into blogger ,click on "design"  link of your blog
==>In the design page click on the "Edit" link of the "Favicon" gadget.

 ==>Browse your desktop,locate the icon file that you have created  and save the page.

==>After this step i would advise to close  all the browser windows and clear the browser cache and restart the blogger and view the blog.This step is needed because typically browsers cache the fav icons and they will not show new fav icon unless the browser is closed and opened.The below screen shots show the blog before and after the fav icon change

Highlights Your Posts

It will make your posts stand out in the Reading Lists in blogger if one follows you in blogger. If anyone subscribes to your blogs rss feed too your favourite icon  will get displayed.

If you had two extra hours in a day, how would you spend it?

 Couple of days ago I joined indiblogger and today I was randomly browsing their site when saw an advertisement @indiblogger seeking entries for a contest titled "If you had two extra hours in a day, how would you spend it?"

I felt like giving it a try and here is my post aimed at the contest.

When i first saw the topic the whole idea of having extra hours in a day seemed ridiculous as we are always running short of time in our day to day lives .But then I realised that this is exact thing that every body needs very badly in their life,those precious costlier than surging gold prices,extra hours.

 This idea seems at first like an idea ripped off from the bonus time allotted at the end of each stage in a video/computer game.Those bonus stages are an awesome idea.You can really increase your points.I would like something similar in real life too.But that would be like asking for too much, ain't it?

   My thoughts drifted to the film 12B which featured Shyam , Jyothika and Simran.The film dealt with two hypothetical situation

one==>in which hero manages his time well and manages to catch a bus for his interview
Two==>in which hero mis - manages his time fails to catch the bus
The point is whoever makes most efficient use of the time succeeds in life,earns laurels and appreciation of the ones around him/her.The film also
talks about the unforgiving,cruel nature of fate but we will leave it at that.

 So what would all of us do  with hour extra two hours of time . Most of us would probably would doze off the extra hours thinking it as a god's gift to provide us  "quantum of relief" from the  rigours of hectic life.

 Some of us would probably be willing to spend us extra hours on personal development like hitting a gym daily for a workout (Or) going or a walk in the fast disappearing parks{which happens to be a reality in chennai as the corporation is busy destroying whatever parks it developed in the pretext of building infrastructure for metro rail} (Or) doing yoga

 Some of us ,especially the  youth(Generation Y) may be tempted  to  spending the the hard earned money at bars/pubs/discotheque etc:for utilising their share of the two extra hours

 Some may opt for spending time in doing things{which usually sits in the farthest corner of mind and keeps bugging us} that they always wanted to do but did not do it for want of adequate time

 Some may turn to visiting places of worship,especially the older generations which obviously is a big no-no for today's generation

 shopaholics would probably be delighted that they can spend more hours in the malls of the big Indian cities.

Bookworms would probably drain away the extra hours by reading more

 As for me I would probably spend my quality time writing more articles for my blog,editing existing posts and experimenting with the whole range of gadgets/themes that are available for the blogs nowadays.

Wormhole,Time warp,Teleportation on Roads ?

Wormhole,Time warp on Roads ?

    The other day i was riding my bike when suddenly i felt that i had reached half way point to my destination quite quickly and felt that i had actually warped from one location to another.I had similar experiences before.Then i realized that there are certain coincidences when this happens:-
==>The route taken by me a often one which i would have used many times.
==>There would be fair amount of traffic on the roads and i would be solely concentrating on the vehicles and road ahead rather than having a glimpse at the various landmarks dotting the route.
  This leads me to a conclusion that my muscles have automatically tuned to the particular route and  then body automatically turns the vehicles at appropriate turns purely based on muscle memory which is quite astounding. On the other hand if one needs to take the correct turns on roads which one travels through, less often then one would be more watchful so as to not miss a turn therby missing the portal gate to the wormhole :-)

[Flash News]Lizard Stalker,red corner issued

  Interpals* has issued red corner notice for apprehending the alleged assailant and terror suspect .Interpals has released the above mug shot of the alleged repeat offender who has been  avoiding the internal security agencies dragnet for the past zillion months.

This picture is from the  time he was in custody of Mosqstatpol** when he was just a minor thug.He had reportedly escaped from custody by bribing the guards and nibbling a hole through the mosquito net.

 The criminal nicknamed "Lizzam" also known in close circles as  "The Gecko" and "Silver Tongue" has been spotted in the past lazing around on window sills,scurrying around on walls of houses,barks of trees and places his sticky padded feet takes him.Lizzam is considered to be armed and dangerous and a potential threat all species of insects . He is known to posses the Quickest Tongue in the Wild-Wild West.He is also rumoured  to be the homicidal killer and usually stalks his prey and finishes them off in one swipe of his long tongue. 

  All the insects have been henceforth been asked to report sightings of above criminal immediately to Interpals through a hundred digit international toll free hotline number [001345454545454545654565695...]

His name featured recently in a spate of incidents some of which are listed below:-
==>Sneaking into bathrooms and Peeking at humans who are bathing.
==>Para-trooping from the ceilings and landing on heads of humans and sending them to deaths [ popular belief among humans in some parts of the world]
==>Gobbling up those pesky flies whole and all
==>Pulling out and chewing at the legs of grasshoppers
==>Tearing off the inattentive miss cockroach and eating her up . Eye witnesses claim  that the poor miss cockroach was squealing trying to escape the clutches of evil villain.
==>Many unfortunate mayflies were caught in crossfire during a fierce tongue fight between Lizzam and fellow law offender Chameleon
==>He has been known to commit heinous crimes like raiding ant caravans pick up random individuals and snack on his hapless victims  that too in in broad day light

 Meanwhile in a related development HI*** has moved a petition and collected a million signatures seeking repeal of the "red corner" notice.Millions have poured onto the streets calling for repeal of the dastardly act of Interpals.A spokesperson of the above association has given us exclusive information stating that gecko has as a matter of  saved millions of humans by chewing up dewy gewy cockroaches and gobbling up blood sucking mosquitoes by the tons

*Interpals [International Pest Association Lackadaisical Security]
**Mosqstatpol [Mosquito State Police]
***HI [Homo Sapiens International]

Haircut

Various Thoughts that flood Mind Before An Impending  "Hair Cut"

• Is it today  ?
• Is today the D-day ?
• Is today "The Day" .
• Is today an inauspicious { Indian traditions dictate that people don't cut hair on certain days of the week } day for an hair cut ?
• Is it a week day or a week end("fount of wisdom"  tells me that weekends at the barber shop would be busier than weekends}?
• Should I wait for one more day till the facial sprouts of hair are a little longer so that I can have a "shave" along with the "cut" at the saloon as it will save a few bucks?
• Is my hair really long enough as to justify such a wasteful expenditure?
• Will the hair grow back after it gets cut since I am growing no younger?
• Should I try out a fancy cut or go for a cheaper "Military Cut" a la "kuruthipunal" style?
• Should I take my bike to the saloon or "go green" by using my cycle for short commutes?
• Should skip hair cut and grow it longer and tie it t the back to get a funcky look?
• Cutting my hair will at the least keep my head cool,whereas the more hair the more number of washes it requires per week!!!
• Hey it is not so bad after all !!!It is far less torturous than a visit to dentist who peeps into your mouth and you must try hard not to bite off his big nose :-)

ISP Vs Linux User

Part I :-

My Internet Service provider (henceforth referred to as ISP) is repeatedly mailing me to get free antivirus package :-)


"By upgrading now, you will be enjoying the following:

• Free bundled Single Anti-Virus License."

Why would i require a Anti virus license if i am using Linux?It is a total no brainer.

Part II :-

 Also whenever i have a broadband outage and report the issue with the call centre guys

==>They would ask me whether the network icon in the system tray is blinking.Since I use "ifup" instead of network manager on GNOME obviously I wouldn't be able to see a network connection icon.

 ==>Then they request me to clear cache ,history blah ,blash{right click on internet explorer icon etc}

==>Then as part of their next sermon they ask me to Press start button==>Run==>cmd,After which i would interrupt them and  tell them politely that i am not using windows but Linux.They pause for second then repeat start saying "Press start button==>Run==>cmd".They either think i am an idiot or they don't want to understand what i am saying.
I bet Half of the ISP support personnel don't know what an OS is.


 It is high time that  Indian ISPs should review their support policies towards  Linux and MAC users. I definitely think as the number of internet users grow in India the size of the niche segment into which I fall will definitely grow in numbers.I would say that this is a sort of discrimination if ISPs continue to work in this fashion.

Ahimsa,mosquitoe bites

Read an interesting web article about ahimsa.It give you some answers about whether killing mosquitoes consists of himsa or violence.Here is the content :-

Questioner: What steps should we take to deal with all the bedbugs, mosquitoes and cockroaches in the house?

Dadashri: To prevent them from infesting the home, you should clean the home and keep it clean. You should catch the roaches, take them outside and throw them far away, but you should not kill them under any circumstance.
Once I was invited to a very prominent man’s home. He made the statement that bedbugs ought to be killed because they bite and suck blood. I asked him where it was written, that the bedbugs should be killed. I explained to him that a person has a right to kill a bedbug only if he is able to create one. The general rule is that you cannot destroy what you cannot create.

Questioner: So why do the bedbugs come to bite?

Dadashri: They do so because you have a pending debt with them. Your body does not belong to you alone. It is not your property in the first place, you have ‘stolen’ it and so the bedbugs are stealing from you. When they bite you, your accounts are being settled and your debts are being paid off. So from now on, do not kill them.

Source:-  http://www.dadashri.org/ahimsa.html

Really Liked playing this game,Simple game play

Red

Junkplay.com

Focus Should be on public or private mode of transportation

With the arrival of every man's cars in india from reputed stables(TATA,BAJAJ) Indian roads which are already heavily congested in all major cities are going to suffer even more.

Indian government must focus on providing the public with cheaper means of transport like public buses ,metros and electric trains.

Also public transport will cause far less pollution

Recipe For Back Ache

Travelling to office from home and back on chennai roads during rainy seson is a real nightmare.The situation is worse when the road gets dug up(the culprits being Electricity Board,BSNL,Broadband,Private Telephone operators,Sewerage Board and the list goes on and on,the latest to join the bandwagon are construction companies which are building flyovers at major intersections)and water gets filled in these holes.One cannot judge the depth of these pits if they get filled with water.

These are artificial sink holes which guide motorists to the other world or the hospital beds.If one successfully is able to negotiate these then also they cannot avoid the potholes on the road.(infact some roads with potholes resemble the surface of the moon with craters).One can even go to the extent in saying that potholes ocassionally give way to mettalled surface instead of saying that "the potholes occur on the roads".These pot holes coupled with numerous speed breakers are a sure shot way to getting back aches.

Also the silencers get worn out within 1 year when one rides on these roads.One hopes that elections are held soon so that at least an effort is made by the government to patch these roads

Wind In The Hair ?? More Like Soil In The Hair

It is probably the first time in 3 months that i drove my two wheeler home from office without a helmet.It felt good like that for some time.But as i increased the speed the wind started blowing into the ears and the buzzing sound began to bug me.Also when i reached home i felt that my hair had collected lot more dirt than usual.Also it began to itch.My eyes were also dry and and corners of the eyes have collected a lot of dirt.Then i realised that wearing helmet and goggles are useful to us in more ways than one while driving apart from protecting us from fatal accidents.Helmets and goggles protect us from dirt,sound on the roads,also cold winds blowing at nights.So i recommend all to wear them while driving two wheelers.

Speed Thrills But Kills

Evey time i climb my two wheeler i feel that i must drive responsibly. But once I start riding the hands automatically start wringing the accelerator and I start riding recklessly. Also I think every driver faces this dilemma. I think we must blame the adrenaline for this. It looks like i am passing the buck. But I can't help it.

Light Always At The End Of Tunnel ?

Think of the situation where after a gruelling day at work , you leave office , tired and hungry and you leave office at odd hours and then without warning all hell breaks lose . Your 2wheeler refuses to start and you are stuck outside city and you are 16 kms away from your house and it is getting late . I tried pressing self start and kicking the kicker .Then i pushed up the steep ramp up from the basement parking.Started pushing my vehicle.Every now and then desperately kicked and pressed the start button.I continued like that for 2 kms.Some auto guys wanted to help me and they almost broke my kicker .They insisted that i take their help . The only mistake i did was to ask them as to there was any mechanic shop nearby . Stupid fools . one kept pressing the self start . Other kicked the kicker . Total mayhem . It was dark all around on the highway and i had to puit up with them as they were 4 of them . Then after i pushed my vehicle for 4 to 5 kms did i try to start it once more when a miracle happened and it started . Thank God otherwise i would have been too tired the next day and i would have missed office.

God Vs Science

Does God exist?Now that is one tough question for people like me.I am neither an atheist nor one who has complete faith in god.The question would be much easier if i belong to either of the afore mentioned categories.Well as far i am concerned every body is had a bit of good and evil and everyone can be GOD if he chooses.So I am sincerely trying to be nice to everyone i meet.Thus i think one day i will achieve salvation if such a thing ever exists.On the other hand science asks man to believe in anything that can be felt,seen,heard and can thus it can verified for its presence.Thus comes the debate whether god really exists or not.This precise thought had driven the renaissance movement.Well meanwhile i continue to ponder about god and his existence.Can anybody help me?

Tryst With Mosquitoes

Well mosquitoes have become a part of my everyday life.They wake me up when it is time to wake up.They keep me active even though i have sedentary habits like browsing on the computer etc:They keep biting me and i am forced to switch positions in front of the machine.They also provide entertainment on dull afternoons during the weekends when we play "If you bite me i will kill you".I am especially affected by mosquitoes because i am allergic to all sort of repellents.well that makes me sitting duck.

Truman Show

Saw "over the hedge" and "truman show" in the morning.I felt that people should not be treated like guniea pigs after watching "truman show".Well now i know how our house pets or imprisonement feels like.I now know how animals in the zoo feel.well if you suddenly come to know that everything about you is fake,one will obviously will feel very depressed.This theme was also touched upon in "The matrix" film.

Wow I have Started Blogging

Well i too have started blogging?Well anyway will try to blog here everyday.Planning to do this for a very long time.Well at last i am finally into this thing.yippee.Yahoo