Angel in Disguise

Okay, i was busy playing shuttle today morning 'cos it was a superb sunday and as an exception i was woken up by a friend who thought i shouldn't be sleeping (duh!). Never mind that, we were playing shuttle at 6:30AM. Some 5 minutes later, we felt some strange vibration. It stopped a few seconds later. And we continued to play.... Getting damn tired after 2 and half hours of playing, we started back home .... our clothes completely soiled from the play.

Then came the news, it came as a huge wave, bringing with it all the dirty pictures that washed away every single human heart in the world. The news created ripples of feelings, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, colour etc. It destroyed part of Mother Earth's biggest continent. What followed was a week that we can't forgot. Its not the ills of tsunami that im going to tell you about. Its about how the world helped the affected people to get them on track ASAP. Myself and my friend played a small role with the help of an elder, whom we can never forget. He is our friend philosopher and guide.

[Sunday - 26 Dec 2004]
The tsunami struck. First i thought it was just a hoax. As more news was pouring in, i soon realised something bad had happened. The rest of the day was spent on many Oooo's and Aaaa's, typical of every accident or incident encountered till now.

[Monday - 27 Dec 2004]
[9:00 AM]
My friend gets a message on his mobile. It told us to donate for tsunami relief and gave an address for doing so. The address was a place in north Chennai called Kolathur. Soon, we got into action. We collected clothes from our friends and got them assembled at my place. So much we got that it can't be taken by public transport. We were wondering what to do with those, when we got a call from a person. We told him we have collected some clothes ... and more than half of my house's living room was full of them. He told us to keep it in our house itself and told something that he had planned for the evening.

[12:00 PM]
We assembled a small team of 8 year olds in my apartment. We also assigned them a team leader ;-) and told them to collect as much proper kitchen ware as possible. The one with the most vessels got 2 kitkat family packs. That was enough to set them on fire. About 2 hrs later, we had collected quite a lot of vessels too. Some more of my friends came and we were now 6 altogether with around 8 of those 8 year olds. This was exciting. We took some rest and the real adventure started after 6PM.

[6:00 PM]
A local team had been formed in the playground near my house...a bullock cart was arranged along with an auto-rickshaw that had a portable microphone attached to it. Two collection centers were also temporarily arranged. The auto went from street to street in the locality announcing that a bullock cart was on its way to collect relief items. With more than 40 of us now, lots and lots of items had been collected. The whole of the area was buzzing with activity. A lot of ladies from nearby houses came to those collection centers. They seggregated the clothes into shirts, pants, sarees etc. and made individual packs. A lot of work was going on at tremendous pace and everything was happening simultaneously. The more we brought in, they more they enjoyed of seggregating them. Hats off to those ladies and the 8 year olds !!! :D

[10:00 PM]
The collected items were taken to a place called Vivekananda Kendra. The night was cold today. So, lots of bed sheets were taken now in a van for distribution at Fore Shore Estate. The sight that engulfed us was worse than what i mentioned here. When the van stopped and when the window was opened, people swarmed to get whatever they could. It was like throwing a stone at a beehive. Myself and my friend covered all the 20km in my bajaj sunny ;-) 'cos the van was full. We returned home by 1:30 AM.

[Tuesday - 28 Dec 2004]
A meeting was organised to distribute the relief in an effective way. Those who swarmed yesterday aren't beggers, they are people like us...many having a decent living but lost everything to the tsunami. So, something had to be done that will prevent them from swarming and also the relief will reach properly. A plan was devised. A survey was planned to assess the damage and requirements. Just collecting something and throwing it at them will never work and it is a waste of time too.

[Wednesday - 29 Dec 2004]
We assembled at Vivekananda Kendra at 10AM today. Myself, my close friend, the elder i mentioned and 10 others were packed in a Tata sumo to visit 3 villages along the East Coast Road. Similarly, other teams were also formed to visit the nearby areas. Some fellows had the opportunity to visit Nagapattinam (the worst affected place, where there was atleast a death in almost all houses), particularly a young doctor who spent the next month doing free service and helping them rehabilitate. Good work dude !!!

The first village was Chinnandi Kuppam near Neelangarai (Blue Lagoon). We heard almost all of the painful tales that they were telling. At places where there were huts, only stones remained. A huge chunk of a road was missing and it was found about half a km inland. Boats were thrown atop houses that managed to survive. Well, those sights are still fresh in my mind. We took a detailed survey of each and every house. They said, "Everybody is giving us packets of raw rice sir...with no oil or vessels to cook them, how do we use it? We are more than 200 families here". This hit a point and made a note. One more remarkable thing happened. A team of Muslim doctors were doing a health checkup in a temple at this place symbolizing "Unity In Diversity".

The other 2 villages that our team visited was Injambakkam & Panaiyurkuppam. We returned home by 8:30PM.

[Thursday - 30 Dec 2004]
We went back to Kendra and did lots of work there. Many people of my age were present and we made good friends with them. Some of them are still in contact. We seggregated clothes for half the day today. This was one of the toughtest parts because more than anything else clothes were abundant. Two guys from Pune had come down to Chennai for this purpose. As the segregation was being done, they were arranged into family packs. It contained 1 shirt, 1 pant, 1 saree, blouse material, a set for kids, 1 towel or bedsheet. They were packed and sealed.

[Friday - 31 Dec 2004]
Today, we took a hand with the vessels. Many people from big companies visited today. One of them notably asked us how much family packs we had assembled. We told, "about 150 yesterday". He immediately called up Saravana stores and ordered 150 kerosene cookers. Wow!!. We also learnt how to stitch sacks after packing the vessels. First time in my life, i realised studying and earning a good life isn't the only thing. There are lots more to life. It was a very exciting day. I just loved this moment.

[Saturday - 1 Jan 2005]
A new year began today. I realised a lot in the past week. With all the family packs, we were scheduled to go a place called Devaneri to distribute them. They contained a dress pack, kerosene cooker, 2 vessles, 2 tumblers, 5 kgs of rice, 2 soap bars, bread, biscuits, a small lamp, oil, a bed sheet, straw mat, pillow and a photo of Lord Ganesh and Jesus. We reached Devanari by around 11 AM. The experience on monday had taught us not to throw things. So, the older people who came with us, met the village heads and asked them to call all the families to an open ground where they would be delivered a hour's lecture. When the lecture was going on, all the family packs were moved from the van to a counter. The whole process was done very fast with more than 25 of us in a chain.

The lecture was over by this time. One lady from each family was asked to get the relief materials. They all came in a quiet queue and the relief were distributed without even a wee bit of trouble. :D

Thus came to an end a week that i can't forget in my life. Furthermore, as part of the rehabilitation programme we assembled before pongal festival to get a survey of the number of people doing 10th and 12th in each of those villages. Myself and my friend went to Injambakkam to get the details. We also determined a place where a tuition can be housed. Exactly a week later, teachers were appointed and free tuitions were started. On the day of pongal, 15th Jan 2005 we went to Srinivasapuram to celebrate a united pongal, gave them mental strength to overcome this.

What more would i want?? The tsunami was an angel in disguise and it had taught me so much. If you wonder what you can do, try to be a part of a good NGO. Also try to donate a small sum of your salary every month for this purpose. Islam says, "For every Rs.100 you earn, donate Re.1". My heart-felt thanks to the guys who made this possible and made me realise the other side of life...

Update: Check this post at World Wide Help blog. Also, check Echo Club !

Happy Moment

As i was going to a store nearby, i met an old lady from my apartment and this conversation happened.

Myself: Hello granny, how are you?
Granny (smiles :D): I'm fine son. How are you?
Myself: I'm very fine (considering the exams tomorrow, im not that much fine)
Granny: When do you have to go for work?
Myself: May be next june or july
Granny: Very happy to hear that. Is it going to be Bangalore?
Myself: Ya, may be
Granny: Good, i know you are a very smart boy (:D). You will do well in your career. All the Best.

Saying so, she left. I was very happy to hear such encouraging words and got nailed to that place for about a minute, staring into infinity....she came back again and tapped my hand and asked "What??". Getting back to senses, i smiled and said "Nothing granny" and left.

Something that made the day so special was the words she used. She didn't say "do well"; she said "you will do well". There is a significant difference in the meanings of both of them :-).

Thank you granny, for making this day so special !!! >:D<

Thanks a lot ...

Exams

hi!! its been a week since i blogged. Guessed why?? Exams have started again....and God!!! how i hate it. They are really a huge pain. No wonder, it was a very happy occasion on the evening it got postponed...Now its even sadder to note that they have got postponed to the 2nd of Jan and all the new year fun is ruined boooohooooo !!!

Still 3 more to go.... :((

Powerful Words

I was taking notes very sincerely (occasional hobby he he)...every 20 or 30 seconds looking up to get what he was telling. The lecture was on how to speak well in group discussions during campus interviews. Some guys at the last were giggling at every word he spoke...it made me to smile ofcourse....classroom fun is too good...He completed what he was saying and then clapped his hands twice to the get attention of the class.

The giggling stopped...everyone looked up. He said, "Put the pens down. I'm going to tell you something important". That said, even the last benchers looked up. The sound of all the books closing filled the room for sometime and then there was pin-drop silence. He cleared his throat....

"Do you know???" he began, "Do you know, im HIV positive"....What??? What the hell?? I was shell shocked. My eyes popped out. He continued, "im having leukemia too". What the hell of a class was this...I was bombed. This was worse than the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. A HIV+ guy doing a class for us?? Not even in the wildest dreams i was imagining so...almost paralysed with that information. sniff...sniff...some girls on the far right had started weeping and they began to wipe their noses...the news too big for them to bear.

Seeing them, he began to laugh. I couldn't just understand what he was doing. He tells he is HIV+ and starts laughing. Congrats!! for his positive approach but it was still beyond comprehension. He started again, "Didn't I get you all by surprise?". "Yes" was the unanymous reply. He said, "Words whether they are empty or full, they leave a huge impact. I know you wont forget this in your lifetime. So choose your words carefully in your Group Disscussion. If you dont then your job is out of your hands".

How true that is with our life also. With hasty decisions and words thrown out carelessly, we not only create a crack between our friendship, we also leave a scar in our friend's heart. So, let us choose words carefully before we speak. This brings back to my mind the famous Thirukkural "Theeyinal sutta pun ullaarum aaraathe naavinaal sutta vadu". It means, "Even the deepest burns caused by fire will heal one day, but the burns caused by words wont heal".

Brr...I'm shivering now!! The exam fever caught up sometime back...Its showing the symptoms of leaving now because of the rains...and the exams got postponed again.

--

Kannadasan

hi!! just remembered these very famous Kaviarasu Kannadasan's poems....enjoy them....

1
kalangalil aval vasantham
kalaigalile aval oviyam
mathangalil aval margazhi
malargalile aval malligai

2
veedu varai uravu
veedhi varai manaivi
kaadu varai pillai
kadaisi varai yaro

These poems are really superb!!!

Trip to Bangalore

hi!! I went to Bangalore for the past 2 days...1st day to attend the launch event...2nd day to roam around the place.

Day 1
Reached bangalore at 6AM and had a lunch-like-breakfast with 4 aloo parathas, 2 club sandwiches and a pineapple juice. Phew!! getting quite heavy with that, went to the nearest lodge & flopped for the next 4 hrs, almost shivering due to the cold weather.

Finding it was already 10:30AM, had a good bath & after another small breakfast ;-) headed to Palace Grounds, where the launch event was about to take place. Btw, if you are wondering what the launch event was, Bill Gates was visiting Bangalore to launch the latest version of the platform for developing and deploying software....Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006.

Event started at about 2:30PM; Bill Gates giving his keynote address for about an hour and after other blah blah blah, the event was over at 6PM. Parikrama was good with their Super Hero song, but other than that i could find they were only screaming with their voices and guitars :)) .

The event as a whole was great. The audience, around 6000 IT pros in and around B'lore and we Microsoft Student Champs from chennai, coimbatore, b'lore and mumbai. It was great learning experience, in that we got to know how Bill thinks. He is thinking at about 20 to 30 years ahead of today (duh! ofcourse he does) & with his proper timing of events, no doubt he is the richest man personally and built a company that is building 300 odd products. He was sharing his vision of the tablet pc as the next revolution, his next investment of $1.7 billion in India over the next 4 years etc. He also mentioned that India is 1 of the primary development centers outside USA. Getting a seat barely 100 metres away from the man, i was no doubt very attentive to his keynote. Thanks a lot to the ADEs for arranging that. Moreover, we had a great time meeting the other champs.

As with any big event, there are some negatives too. The food was as bad as it could be. They served 2 very small bananas (each 1 about an inch in size), 1 cake, 1 veg puff, frooti cool drink, 1 small sandwich, 2 cookies. Anyone with the right brains couldn't have thought of such a wonderfully stupid lunch. That apart, the event was a success.

Day 2
Night dawns early at B'lore and it gets dark very soon. So, waking up at 10AM the next day, i got ready in half hour and went to Lalbagh Gardens. It was a half hour journey from the place called J.P.Nagar. The garden is so huge and its right there in the center of the city. It also has a mini lake inside and the whole atmosphere was cool and great. If you would want some peace amidst the noice of bangalore, then this is the place to go (i would recommend Thekkady lake in Kerala as the first destination).

Now for some positives about Bangalore...
1. Its a good place with a cool-cooler type of weather in contrast to Chennai's hot-hotter weather.
2. A city with lots of opportunites for IT pros because this is the home for some of the biggest software companies.
3. Helpful people and uncheating autorickshaws.
4. Its the place for bird hunting ;-)

As for some negatives,
1. Very crowded. If there is anything else that would determine the time required to reach a place its the worst traffic.
2. Cost of living is high. You need to earn a decent amount to sustain yourself in bangalore.

Personally, i love Bangalore and i would love to work/live there, but it would only come next to Chennai bcos its my darling hometown. How much i had missed this place for the past 2 days??? Phew!!!

hey! did you ever wonder why Bill had to visit this time for the launch???

--

Fun Poems

hi!! read these 2 poems....

Poem1:
saptiya bun
beachla mun
shoot panrathuku gun
kalayla udhikum sun
unga appavuku nee oru son

Poem2:
pepsi romba gup
nee kooda romba gabbu
vekka poraen appu
sariya mappu
beer kudicha erum mabbu
velaiku pona kidaikum dabbu
un mela enakku veruppu
en endral nee romba sharpu
nan than idhai writingu adhai nee nambu!!

Ha ha ha....these 2 are really comic...no meaning in them though. Ofcourse, they weren't written by me.

The rains...

It was a cool night....very cool...infact it was a perfect kinda night everyone would be looking for. No rains, no wind, just a gentle breeze wafting through the air, carrying with it the fragrance of fresh winter flowers, the billion stars in the sky....showering their ray of light on every particle of earth...so much so that i actually drifted into sleep...unknown to me.....dreams enveloping my web of thoughts. Then slowly & unknowingly, i went off into a deep sleep.....merging with my soul....

Then suddenly i woke up....so wide awake that every ounce of sleep that assembled, shattered to pieces. I was starting to sweat. Didn't have any clue...why was i sweating?? Just as I was thinking, a thunder crashed through, tearing the skies apart with a lightning. Then slowly it started to drizzle...slowly at first...a bit louder then and it continued. After about 20 seconds, the light drizzle became very heavy, falling heavily on my windows. Already puddles of water had formed here and there.

Completely awake now, i got up & went to the balcony to watch the rain. It hit me now, I started to feel the pinch, then the pain...it tore through my heart...it was excruciating now...I was almost in tears. Yes, I knew it. I discovered where it originated. It was also running deep in my subconscious mind.

I was snuggling in my warm blankets sometime ago & woke up sweating...only to think that...they were littered on the roads. Like small children litter broken toys all around the house, the flood-devasted people were everywhere....on the road, on the pavement...every place you could think of. My heart ached seeing them. I was crumbling sensing that I couldn't do anything more than give away a few shirts and pants. My sub-conscious said, "Every human is born with a purpose, do it now. Its your turn. Do it whole heartedly" as I listened to them patiently.

Things became clear now. Sweating ceased. The crumbling blocks started to rebuild themselves...Its a new life...a great life...a life of giving !!!

I'm John F Kennedy....ha ha ha...

hi!! i laughed my head out when i saw the words on the image after taking the test at http://www.similarminds.com

Here is the photo...




ha ha ha ha !!!

Email Time Capsule

hi!!

Forbes.com has an innovative idea called the Time Capsule. Its aim is to collect emails now and then send it to you in the next 1/3/5/10/20 years which ever you prefer. Fancy reading a message 20 years later when many things around us will change drastically. It will be great to remember our friends again that we tend to forget over time.

It surely is exciting. So, check out the Email Capsule. Yahoo! is one of the companies handling this project along with an entrepreneur. Read more about the project at this url.

Be sure to do it....Last day is 30th November 2005. Off to send myself an email :-) .....bye!!~~

PS: Here is another interesting url http://futureme.org/.

Start downloading 2 to 8 :-) - Part 2

hi!! this is the part 2 of "Start Downloading 2 to 8". Before you continue, you may want to read the first part of the post. It deals with scheduling downloads.

Coming back, this method was tested on Huawei SmartAX 880 modem and this solution works for those who have that "Always On". A similar kind of interface was found with Huawei SmartAX 800 modem.

Warning: Before you try this, make sure you save your existing connection settings.

1. Start-->Run. Type "cmd" or "command" and press Enter.
2. Type "ipconfig" in the DOS prompt and press Enter. Note down the IP address. Most of the time it will be 192.168.1.1
3. Open Internet Explorer and type http://192.168.1.1
4. Expand the "Home" node and click on "WAN Setting".
5. Change the "WAN Type" to "RFC2684Bridged".
6. Click Apply, restart the modem and enjoy!!!

Now, you have to create a dialer to connect to the server. Follow these steps to create the dialer.

1. Start-->Control Panel (or) Start-->Settings-->Control Panel. Go to Network Connections.
2. Create a new connection. From now on, follow the wizard to create your broadband dialup account. You need to have your username and password for creating the same.

The reason why you may want to change to dial-up broadband connection is to schedule downloads. It is said that the modem must be restarted at 2AM to start a new session. Creating a new session by restarting the modem automatically is not possible. After you followed the above 6 steps, you have to follow another set of 6 steps found at http://broadbandforum.in/index.php?showtopic=2431&hl=tutorial , so that you can actually use that full 2 to 8 for downloads without overdoing your 1GB limit.

Most of the time, the Dataone Account Administration link at www.dataone.in redirects to the wrong site. Use this instead http://10.240.43.216/, to monitor you broadband usage.

To restore back to "Always On", follow the first 4 steps and then change the "WAN Type" to "PPP". Give your username, password and select enabled for Use eDNS field. Click apply and restart the modem......

India - A Secular Country ???

hi!!

This is an account of a small incident of my friend......read on..

This is such an unfair question by itself (Is India a secular country?). The festival of lights, festival of joy invites shops, services, stores to increase sales during this period of diwali. But is diwali meant only for those who celebrate it? Isn't a festival common to all? Common to mankind in general whether you reside in Europe or USA? Leave alone Europe ; it happened in Chennai.

Listening to grandma's rants about diwali discounts, I entered a well reputed beauty parlour in the city which offered good discounts for all kinds of stuff done till Diwali in their parlour. The lady who was being attended to just before my turn was told that her payment would be Rs.6 for threading. But she was charged Rs.8-the real cost of threading without taking into account the diwali offer. When she inquired into the issue she was told that it was a diwali discount and since she was a Christian she couldn't avail it!!!horror of horrors! In a secular, democratic, socialistic, republic (whatever they taught us in civics!)Country like India and among the well educated ladies of Chennai this discrimination based on religion still exists! What if she had worn a "bindhi" and walked into the parlour? She becomes a Hindu and gets the discount? The issue here was a matter of trivial two rupees which she could have easily parted with; but can India part with its secular policies because of shameful incidents like this?

In this age even when lowly thieving does not discriminate religions and caste, people earning a decent living do fail to notice this. Is this what our 57 years of independence as a free body taught us?Obviously enraged by this, the lady voiced out "What? You discriminate based on religion in a secular country like India? Be ashamed of yourselves to have spoken those words" and so on and also added " I'm going to write about this to the newspapers and to the police. You will be in jail; remember that". Although I'm not aware if one could be jailed for this because it was forgotten by the lady herself when she added, "I'm silenced now; be sure it does not happen to anyone else". This incident is giving me nightmares because being new to this kind of aghast experience I never believed that religious discrimination ever existed in the world, should I remain oblivious to the incident and walk away like that lady?

Well, the least i can say is, this is really sad......

Happpppyyy Deepavaliiiiiii !!!

hi!! dudes n duddetes,

I'm very happy today. the reason?? deepavali was excellent and this special deepavali will be in the archives for many many years to come.

During this deepavali, i met some of my school friends who were with me during the good as well as the bad times, extending their warmth when i needed the most. I visited most of their houses & believe me.....i didnt have lunch yesterday, because to all the houses we went, we were served with delicious delicacies that include gulab jamun, ribbon bakkoda, om podi etc. Ofcourse we gulped everything ;-) & what made them special was that every piece was home-made.

Back in the evening, we all met again at my place. This time, all of the things we did in the evening was shot in my friend's handycam. We then burst a little crackers, ate a lot of sweets again & shot some more.....

On the whole, this deepavali was just great, not because of crackers or the new dress or anything else. It was just about friendship. By the end of the day, i wished no end to this day.....but all things must come to an end.

I know very well that this writing may not express so much i feel, but the feeling of the bond was excellent. If u are reading this blog & if you had experienced something similar in your life, kindly share it.......

Awaiting next deepavali.......bye!!~~

Shopping in rain

hi!!

Shopping in rain is a great experience, especially when all routes from ashok nagar to tnagar is flooded. Just on the spur of the moment myself and 1 of my friends decided to go shopping for deepavali because of 2 reasons.

1. TNagar wouldn't be crowded today.
2. We can go splash..splash.. in rain water all the way to tnagar.

Nothing to stop us, we made our way to the shopping hub of chennai. As expected, there was nothing in sight expect some 2 or 3 autorichshaws & some die-hard shoppers who were in the same mind set as me ;-). In most places, we waded & literally swam across in knee deep water. The rain had started coming down heavily, thankfully i was covered....

Going thro' the waters, the fastest mode of transport was the newspaperwalla tricycle and walking. After enjoying for more than an hours walk, we reached a place called duraisamy subway, the main link between Tnagar and the western side of the city. The subway was 95% submerged in H2O.....

Gosh!!! what a site it was to see a diesel auto half submerged in the subway. Water had already started to seep in thro' the door & the driver was struggling. But anyway, we had to move. So we took a snap of that in my friend's mobile & left for Tnagar. It was 5 minutes away & we were beginning to sense victory because the Pothys logo was visible. After another 15 mins of wading, we managed to reach Mount Everest (Tnagar)...

After shopping in Pothys, RmKV & Saravana Stores, we started heading back. Having tea & some hot bajjis, we saw yet another incident at the same subway. This time it was a van. Despite all the warnings of not to enter the subway, he entered the subway in full speed. He also reached the middle of it & the van stopped all of a sudden & didnt start. Watching all that, we smiled to ourselves thinking how much of a chennaite he was, "Born to break rules" even though it meant good to him.

The water that was knee deep had another grown another 10cm in the 3 hrs we shopped & started wetting my pants through the rain coat. We bundled all our clothes in 2 huge bags that we got from the shop & started floating the bags. What was the need to carry it when we were finding it difficult even to walk comfortably?? Splashing ofcourse was fun. :-)

Another hour later, we reached home & received a sound thrashing.....yea, both of us :)). With a cup of piping hot chocolate, we narrated all our shopping experience. The 5th grade guy i told about here burst out laughing when i told him how a wave of water splashed on us when a jeep was trying to make it across the road.

On the whole, the shopping we did was something that i cant forget. This is the first time ever in my lifetime, i had shopped sooooo comfortably, dat too in Tnagar. Just for the sake, we went to Tnagar again today & my gracious God!! look at the crowd outside Saravana Stores. You would go mad just at the site of it.

Signing off now!! bye!!~~

DOS Games ...

hi!! this is a continuation of the previous blog...myself & one of my friends Ram had a chat about our memories & ofcourse most of it was filled with how we played DOS games. You can read that post here. That post is a bit long.

Here are some links where you can find your favourite DOS games.

1. DOS Games Archive
2. DOS Games Online

Some games are not supported on 32-bit platforms. To run them, you can download dosbox from sourceforge.net.

bye!!~~

Some Good Old Memories

hi!!

This blog is about some good old memories that had been and will be with me.....

First off, my darling sunny. How many of you have used bajaj sunny. Well, we were one of the first buyers here & its been with us for the past 10 years & ya..... its still running. Some 3 days ago, i was compelled to take that vehicle out for a nearby store. & what a surprise it gave me when it started after 2 kicks. Great!!! bike oops! moped or scooter whatever...

Even today, its giving a mileage of 30kmpl & it travels at a speed of 50kmph after some struggle with the accelerator. My dad wanted to sell it last month. But i stopped saying that after another 10 years, it will become an antique & bike lovers will come after it... ;-)

Second, comes my age old computer....not this 1 ofcourse!! I got my first computer during 9th grade summer holidays & what a superb configuration it had.
1. 1GB of HDD.
2. 8MB RAM.
3. A 31/2 floppy drive
4. A 51/4 floppy drive .... yes i got one with my old comp!!!
5. No cdrom drive or multimedia.

Floppy drive was considered to be the most modern thing ever at that time & we used to buy DOS games in at a rate of Rs.100. Games such Dangerous Dave & Prince of Persia 1 were the most popular with us at that time. Later, after around 6 months, we upgraded our system to 32MB RAM, got a 32X cdrom drive with a multimedia set. The first cdrom game that i played was RoadRash, followed by Motoracer 2, NFS 2 and Claw. They still remain the favourites primarily because they dont use much of system resource & they are simply great!!!

Still later, that same old system ran Windows 98 & we used to be very content with playing all the games mentioned above, all in 1GB & 32 MB RAM.

Third, its the magazine Tinkle. I cant just forget the days when myself & my brother used to wait for the newspaper boy who used to deliver it. Then as usual every fortnight morning, begins the fight as to who should read it first. Thanks to Uncle Anant Pai (Tinkle Editor) who made such a superb magazine.

Its very difficult to write for kids & i realised it when i read tinkle sometime back. There was a recipe to make ice-cream & there were instructions such as, "Take help from an adult for this" and "Be careful with knife" etc...

There are ofcourse lots of memories but i will reserve them for another post.

Till then, bye n take care......

Back with a bang...

hi!!

The broadband is finally working & it excites to see a page load at the blinking of an eye. So gud is the excitement & feeling dat, it makes u download the whole world. As of now, there are these listings waiting to be downloaded tonight.

1. Photoshop CS2
2. Flash 8
3. Dreamweaver 8
4. Adobe Reader 7.0.1 for linux, windows

Lots & lots more coming up....

bye!!~~

Updating my blog.....

hi!!

With my dataone broadband connection wrecking havoc all around, i found it too difficult to cope up with dialup :-(. But something is better than nothing ;), so i was sticking around with it & thought of some things that i had not done for the past 1 week or so.

After broadband, checking mail was part of my routine - morning once, evening once & night once, like breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now checking mail using dialup even once is becoming a nightmare. Second one was updating my blog. I was horrified by the thought that i hadnt updated it since the last 2 weeks. Third one is even worse, didnt read more than 3 dozen of offline messages that i receive. boooohoooo!!

Its sickening in dialup to see a google search webpage load at the "speed of light" for 2 minutes at 563 bytes/second. The speed also varies from 563 bytes to a blinding speed of 1.5 kbps. As far as downloads, 1 mb downloading for 5 mins 30 secs tears my nerves apart.

So, all i do is put a webpage for loading in the browser and go for a cup of coffee or choclate & come back to see to my heart-felt satisfaction, the webpage has half-loaded........as i press ESC in frustration.

And as expected, this page too is still loading, as the rest of the posts contemplate whether to appear or not...

bye!!~~ anyone reading this post, plz wish me good luck. Thanks in advance.

Microsoft e-Learning - Free !!!!

hi!! Microsoft has given some very cool online courses for free[1]. Check them out and make sure you make use maximum use of them. Most of these free courses are available for download also. To view them after download, u need the Offline Player.

1. ASP.NET - http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/learn/asptraining/
2. Visual Studio 2005 (Whidbey) - https://www.microsoftelearning.com/visualstudio2005/
3. SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) - https://www.microsoftelearning.com/sqlserver2005/

Note:
1. The courses are free only for a limited period.
2. For optimum performance use IE6.0 SP1 with 1024*768 resolution.


bye!!~~

Lots n Lotsa free eBooks

hi!! chk out this link http://ftp.anyhost.ru/books/www.krf.bsu.by/

This page contains a lot of freely downloadable e-Books such PHP, Ruby, Win XP for Power Users, Flash Actionscript etc. and a lot more.....Donno when the site will expire, so download all that you need immediately.

Using FDM, i have already scheduled for some downloads tonight. Dont miss this & chk it out ;-)

"Google" has started blogging

hey!! guyz, Google has started blogging. Its been around for quite sometime & its right here on blogger. This is the link http://googleblog.blogspot.com

Check it out.

Superb Imagination !!! ha ha ha

hi!! couldnt control laughter when i saw this link http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1322360

superb imagination about the search capablilities of google :)) =)). Jes go 2 the above link m chk dat out.


bye!!~~

The Joy of Teaching Kids...

hi!!

Right next door to my house, there is a small guy doing his 5th grade. Since, we know him right when he was born, he used to be very free with our family. When i came from college yesterday, he immediately came running to my house, sat by my side & told me a very BIG secret !!!!!

Guess what it was??? His parents had bought him a brand new computer (pretty decent configuration) & he was excited about it because he could play "car race" (still NFS 2) & "bike race" (Roadrash). Other than this, what excited me was that he told me how to open "MS Paint" from the start menu & before that switching on the UPS, then pressing the blue button (boot button) near the small opening...... (floppy drive). All my tiredness completely vanished when i heard those words from a kid who had learnt all these just by watching the system assembler work at his home the previous day (quite amazing right?? atleast i think so).

So, without even changing, i went with him next door & asked him to show me a demo of creating a drawing because i didnt know how to do that. By seeing the interest he showed towards this, i thought i should teach him some more in MS Paint. Then i told him how to use brush, change some colours, save his work & reopen his work etc.

But, what really amazed him was, when the desktop background was changed & kept on asking me, to know how it was done. Since his dad had hidden the games from the start menu, he told me that the game was hidden somewhere in the computer & was pestering me to find it for him. As they had also listened to some songs the previous day, he asked how to do the same (he liked the Vijay starrer Ghilli very much). And do u know how he found it!!!!! He clicked on start, programs & instead on clicking on NFS2, he clicked Windows Media Player (a little unsteady with mouse). You should have seen the brighter than the sun smile on his face.....a sense of achievement began to envelope him & shouted Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! with so much ecstacy that bought his mom running from the kitchen :)).

Coming back home, i feel his quest to know more touched me deeply & rang a bell in my mind, that told me to be a MASTER of 1 trade & jack of others.

Right now, he is sitting besides me, tugging at my left hand, to show him how to open the white screen (notepad) so that he could type something & i keep smiling as i have a tough time finishing this blog.....

Fun...Fun...Fun...

hey!! guyz, i took this "stupidity" test. click on the image below for more. all i can tell u now that its funny. ha ha ha!!!

dont forget, there are more funny tests on dat site. neway heres my score...

Security threat in Internet Explorer

hi!! here is a major security threat in IE. Using jes a line of javascript or vbscript, u can retrieve text from clipboard. And using technology such as AJAX, it is possible to send it to the server without page refresh i.e. user willnt know that some communication has happened between his sys & the server. 1 e.g. where AJAX is used is wen u sign up for a new mail account at gmail or yahoo. It gives u a button to check whether the user id u selected is available or not & the result is almost instantaneous without the whole page refreshing.

Btw, i read abt this somewhere around 2 weeks ago, but i understood the threat & its severeness when i was reading Sudar's blog yesterday. Thanks 2 u sudar!!

Click on the links to get more information, a demo and a possible(not fool-proof) way to get rid of this problem.

1 more thing, this problem occurs only in internet explorer and i feel its mainly because of the extensive support of activeX controls. if u have some thoughts 2 share, dont hesitate to post a comment.

Start downloading 2 to 8 :-)

hey!! ne1 out there using dataone like me???

well, v hava reason 2 b unhappy 'cos they r giving only 1GB download/upload per month. But there is 1 small reason to be a "lil" happy. 2 AM to 8 AM is free for unlimited usage. To take advantage of this, i created a scheduled task to start downloading using Download Acclerator Plus (DAP) at 2:10 AM & shutdown the system after download completes or at 7:55 AM, whichever occurs first. Ok, heres the procedure to do that. I did this WinXP home and DAP version 7.2.
1. Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Scheduled Tasks.
2. Click next & select a program from the list or click "Browse" button to select ur own. I selected DAP frm the list.
3. Type a name & choose an option from the 1ce given. I chose daily.
4. Give a start time. As for this, give it as "2:10 AM" & select a start date.
5. Enter ur user name & password.
6. If u wan something else 2 b configured tick off the chk box & say "Finish".

Now, u gotta config DAP to start downloading at 2:10 AM. Other download managers vil surely a similar feature.

1. Fire DAP frm Start->Programs->Download Accelerator Plus->Download Accelerator
2. Goto Options->Preferences.
3. Select "Scheduler" from the left side menu & select the chk box
4. Tick the chk box dat says "Start scheduler at..." & select "Daily" & give the time of starting. If u want give the time at which the scheduler has to stop.
5. Select the options from "After scheduled downloads stopped/finished".
6. Click "Apply" & say "Close".

Dats!! it u can now close DAP, leave ur comp on & happily go 2 sleep......Today i have scheduled for 2 downloads from channel9. The 1st 1 is here & the 2nd is here, if u want to c them. They both promise 2 b gud. bye!! n have a gud day.... ;-)

Update: Read through Part 2 also.

BEA User Group Meeting

hi!! i attended the BEA user group meeting at Taj Connemara & this is the first session BEA is having in chennai. Its having plans of starting the same in other metros (its started in mumbai i think, not sure) & pune too.

The topic that was covered in that session was on their "Diablo" (WebLogic Server 9.0) & BEA AquaLogic. Aqualogic is 1 platform for integrating systems of diff. architectures & enabling communication between them. It is more architecture oriented. & b4 going into that there was an hr session on SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). If you dont know what SOA is, it is the next wave of the future & to ride on it, read the June 2005 magz of Developer IQ. There r very good articles on SOA, more importantly Web Services.

In brief, SOA talks about exposing ur application or ur code as a service. This means that, the methods you write for ur app can be called from any OS, any language & also it is available anywhere, anytime. Therefore, you first need to publish your code or class (enabling the service) & make it available to the world (discover) by registering at any of the registries available E.g. UDDI (Universal Description Discovery Integration).

And obviously we were given a DVD containing the WebLogic Platform 8.1, Weblogic Server 9.0 beta, Apache Beehive, Spring framework 1.2 etc.

Gotta try it now. bye!!~~

Pharming Attacks.....Beware!!!

Pharming is a very popular type of network attack among hackers. Lemme explain the process in brief.

1. The hacker looks for a web page from where he wants to get details. Typically it will be a bank’s website.


2. By viewing the design source code of the web page (View > Source) from internet explorer, he recreates a similar web page.


3. Then, he looks at the DNS (Domain Name System) table of the ISP (Internet Service Provider). He gets the list of IP addresses for the different websites & searches for the website he wants to spoof.


4. Now in the DNS table, he changes the IP address of the website to represent his server’s IP address. Eg: If he wants to spoof yahoo.com, he changes yahoo’s IP to his own IP.


5. Whenever a user accesses the site by giving yahoo.com, the DNS now redirects him to the hacker’s system. Since he has recreated a similar page, the end user believes that he has come to the correct page. Now, he gives his user id and pwd to login to the site & wat happens now?? The website shows an error & by this time, the user has lost his user id & pwd to the world.

Prevention is better than cure

1. Banks & other institutions which take data such as user id & pwd often put up a notice on their saying that they never ask for other details.


2. For the users, plzz b careful. Have a look at the url each time u see the site. If it differs, cross check by sending a mail or calling them up. Most probably, the mail wont b replied bcos, the hacker’s IP wont be having a mail server.


3. Check whether the website’s certificate is from an authorized agent. Most hackers don’t have a proper certificate. For this, c whether u have a small eye icon on the status bar of the internet browser (internet fxplorer, firefox, opera etc.).


4. Double click on it to c the certificate.Or better still, don’t use internet :-). That way, u can remain safe forever.

Caritor Orientation Programme Cont....

hi!! im back with the update on Caritor orientation programme....

It happened on 10th and 11th of Sep at my college and was really excellent. Ok, heres a short desc of wat exactly happened. These sessions have proved wat a gr8 company caritor is.

Day 1

After the inaugral function with our chairman, we were left with Mr.Kaushik & Ms.Nidhi from Caritor. They started the sessions by introducing themselves & i should specifically mention here that both of them were real cool. The first session was on "success" and how success is different from happiness (this was eye opening). The second session today was on introducing ourselves. This was not the normal kinda intro v r used to. V were paired up in groups of 2 (1 guy & 1 gal) & told to know abt each other.

After talking with ur partner for sometime, each group went on stage to introduce the other. This was a lot fun, especially "unique experience" section.

Heres my expr. As for me, i went to Tirunelveli with my dad once. He went to office dat morning & told me to visit a temple dat was abt an hr from the city. So, i had breakfast & headed to the bus stop. Since i didnt know the city or its suburbs much, i asked the bus conductor to tell me wen the stop came. He was very cool & didnt tell me abt it. Soon, something at the back of my mind told that i may have missed the stop & i asked the conductor abt it. He told im 45 mins behind that temple..... :) I got really mad & asked him how do i get back. He told me to take a bus dat goes to tirunelveli & once i got onto the bus, i was looking at each board of the stop until i was sure i got down at the right place. phew!! i had travelled for more than 4 hrs dat day alone & once i got to the room, i slept until the next morning. :))

Day 2

Today, the first session was on corporate ettiquette. Then v had some more sessions on how to achieve success. 3 main ingredients for achieving success are

1. desire - the burning desire to do something
2. knowledge - that helps u move towards the desire
3. skill - helps u perform the task more efficiently to achieve ur goal

The 2nd session was on listening skills & there were some tests on listening comprehensions. Importance was on managing with other english accents & it can be improved by listening to news channels, movies etc.

Dats it for this post guyz, have anything to ask, plz post a comment. bye!!

Ilaiyaraja's Thiruvasagam

hi!! friends, heard Thiruvasagam? For those of u who dont know wat it is, it is a set of hyms or poems written on Lord Shiva by Thiruvasagar.

For the mortals, the great work by the poet is remade in such a way so that, it reaches the common man. There was a program on sun tv abt this where Ilaiyaraja was giving interview. The question was, "Sir, you very well know that the meaning of the words in the work are difficult to understand. How do u expect it to reach the common man?" The answer was, "The feeling u get wen u listen is what that is more important then understanding the words, which induces change in u (+ve change)".

As an example, he recited the words in the poem (which had no effect ofcourse) & then he sang it in a particular way, which had some effect on me (couldnt really explain dat, u have 2 feel it). Whether u r Ilaiyaraja's fan or not, u must listen to the 1st song. It starts like this

"Poovar senni mannan empuyangap peruman siriyomai ..........."

It was done with Budapest Symphony Orchestra (120 singers), conducted by Laszlo Kovacs & sung by Ilaiyaraja, Bhavatharini etc. A must listen for music lovers around the world. Without doubt, its 1 of the greatest creations!!!

Caritor Orientation Programme

hi!! some of my future colleagues (Caritor) had some orientation programme that was conducted by Caritor itself in their colleges. They had a lot of fun in the 2 days of the program. And v r having it in my college along with the guyz n gals frm Jerusalem & SRM Easweri.

Looking forward to it. seems to b very exciting, i vil surely keep u posted...bye!!

No mouse click??? chk this out

hi!! i found a site called http://www.dontclick.it from this blog. Its a site where u neednt click to navigate.

Chk it out, its really kewl!!.

Oh dear, Its a saturday again....

Its dat time of the week again ..... when all your friends r njoying a good morning sleep & u have to get up early and go to college. And what happens here???

Friends!! its 1 of those sat's again for me & My mom will be asking me to get up, from 5:30AM until its 6:15 AM. After dat, a splash of water goes off on my face & i get up wincing to c dat its a saturday. Rest assured, i lazily brush up & get ready for college ...... oh!! God its 6:45, my buz leaves in another 5 mins & im still dressing up :-O

I scrammble for my socks, stuff them in 1 of my pockets to wear it in the bus (I dont disturb my bag because it isnt opened on normal days) & bolt to the bus stop. Phew!! jes in time to catch the bus, its already leaving. What do i notice now??? I have taken 1 black & 1 white sock in a hurry. oh!! wat a saturday morning itz been. Lets c wat happens 2mrw.

Till then, bye & good night ;)

Can u pronounce Bjarne Stroustrup???

hey!! can u pronounce Bjarne Stroustrup?? I know its difficult & each of u out there may have ur own strings :)) . ...

leave the trouble...The inventor of C++ has a small audio (i got it frm a friend) that pronounces his name. You can download it from my website here.

And remember to change the filename "bjarne.txt" to "bjarne.wav".

Assignment nightmares ....

phew!!! again caught in a ASSignment nightmare...i think its 1 of those toughest things dat 1 has to experience in college.

Frankly speaking, writing an assignment is like walking in muck....wasting such a lot of time & energy. Today, i have a huge pile of assignments besides me with which i have been fighting for 2 days & it still refuses to end. Thinking of finishing it 2nite.

or may be i vil do it 2mrw in college as usual ;)

Nerd Tests

Check this out too!! Its really gud.




For more, go here.

Google Talk

hi!! noticed the Google Talk app?? Its really cool....

Its got a wonderful voice chat module built into it & the voice is crystal clear even in dial-up internet connection (im still using one). But its got a long way to go.

Soon, i think it vil b having all other features of other IM clients plus a very important feature (interoperability with other IM clients) such Yahoo!, MSN etc.

Any thoughts on this??? Don't hesitate to comment on it. g2g now, bye & gn8...

Started my blog

Hooray!! finally started my blog. Wonder why i wanted my blog? Inspiration of a blog came from a lot of other blogs & propelled me to start this one. leaving now... i vil b back with more.