Life is a blog

I Hate

2009-07-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

Early Morning morons who think jogging with headphones is cool on a street while not giving a damn about the car honking behind them.
The ooh-i-am-so-artsy picture on the facebook, with a half cropped side profile looking out of the window while it is raining, with a musical instrument in sepia tone.
Those use whatever as a punctuation mark
Those who think hmm....+lol+yoyoy is a good substitute for an entire language
Milan Sareen :: I don't care if you don't know her
Single button mouse
My campus Internet Connection
Those who think cryptic status updates are a way to make themselves a mystery woman
Those who fwd chain letters
Those who think driving in their own lane is for losers.
Metrosexual guys
Obsessed with joota-chappal girls
Those who hate windows cause it is cool to do so.
Segmentation Fault
Those who take excessive pictures of themselves during a group outing.
Those who think it is ok to be late
Small organizations/clubs who behave like fortune 500 companies with more designations then employees/members
Anorexic wannabe delhi 15-18 year old girls you find puking after their first large.
Shopping Malls
Male guards who will frisk you at enterance of various buildings
Myself when i can't remember what all i hate

XKCD offline archive with mouseover text

2009-07-23T01:21:00.001-07:00

this post has nothing to do with the generic theme of the blog, but who cares...

I wanted to create an off-line archive of xkcd.com web comic, and found plenty of shell script to do so, but none packaged the image with the mouseover/tooltip text (which for me was half the fun). So i did, what any self-respecting xkcd reader would do, i went on to create one. So here it is for all the xkcd fans.

The link to download the offline archive (from 1-592 in )

https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/138928/xkcd.cbr

the script used to create it.

################################
#!/bin/bash
#Download all xkcd and package with tooltip text
#3rd June, 2009, created by subiet

for i in `seq 1 592`
do
wget http://xkcd.com/$i/
echo "$(grep http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ index.html | head -1 | cut -d\" -f4)" | convert -antialias -background yellow -page 1024x70 text:- $i.jpg

wget `grep http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ index.html | head -1 | cut -d\" -f2`

convert -append $(ls -t | tail -n 1) $i.jpg $i.jgp
rm index.html
rm *.jpg
rm *.png

done

###################################

Fulltext of Telescopictext.com

2009-07-23T01:19:00.000-07:00

fulltext for telescopictext.coom :: Yawning, I I and smearing my eyes with my fingers, I walked walked bleary eyed into the kitchen and made made myself boiled the kettle. filled the kettle. took the kettlegrabbed the kettle, unhooking it from the cord and filled it.. I filled it with fresh waterI turned the tap and drew fresh water, making sure it was cold enough checking with my hands to make sure it was cold enough () (The best tea comes from the coldest water!). I filled the kettle as I glanced outside at the mistoutside for a minute across the city mist. I could taste almost taste the grey. I got some biscuits. The kettle was full so I plugged it inThe kettle was half full, so I switched the tap off and returned it to its socket. I turned it on I flicked the power switch on and got some biscuits out.looked for biscuitssifted through the cupboards, looking for biscuits. Anything Anything above loose crumbs would do. I Thankfully I found some fusty digestives. Biscuits For some reason, biscuits are nicer always nicer when they're they've gone a bit dry and stale. I took the milk out of the fridge. I took the milk out of the fridge and poured some into a mug. I reached over and opened the fridge, retrieving the milk. I got a mug and poured some milk in. I poured a little into a mug at the same time as grabbing the mug from the cupboard and placing it on the surface. This This is a technique I developed that doesn't really save any time, but makes me feel clever. Then I made myself The kettle began grumbling fiercely so I poured water on to a teabag so I took it from the cord, threw a teabag into my cup and poured boiling water onto it and watched it brew. . I watched swirls brown swirls rise up and through the watermuted white of milky water. A few minutes passed. I put the teabag in the bin. I removed removed and squeezed the teabag, then flicked it into the bin. I picked up my mug and left the kitchen with teaa cupnice cup, hot cup of tea strong tea. by Joe Joe Davis Joe M Michael L Lambert Davis >

2008-07-20T01:33:00.000-07:00

Reloaded

maybe i am back! ;")

Photography Blog

2006-11-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you ever wished about taking better photographs, then this is for you

The World-Via My Lens

Why Ubuntu

2006-09-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

WHY UBUNTU?

Well the answer to that is short and simple, WHY NOT UBUNTU/LINUX?

For those who don't know what i am talking about, Ubuntu is a Linux Distribution, and Linux is an Operating System, and Operating System is the most essential software on your computer, another example of it is Windows)

See, guys, what i want to say, give Linux a chance, today it isn't what people thought a decade back it was, by that i mean a "geek ONLY" operating system. Ubuntu 6.06 can serve as good, rather very good starting point, and Linux doesn't have problems (unlike XP), in having other operating systems in your system, so you can always dual boot initially.

As for installation, Ubuntu 6.06 installation is the easiest thing on earth, seriously, it goes like this, you pop a cd in your drive and boot up the comp, there is complete running (but slow,as it is running from ram) OS in front of you, and you just click an install icon, and while the system is being installed, you can even check your mail or listen to some music, SERIOUSLY, you can do all this while the system is being installed. No complicated questions, etc, rather it can even suggest a partitioning pattern and do it for you too, all automatically.

Ubuntu by default comes with a complete set of tools that you need for your day to day use, for example (here i am mentioning the name of their windows counterpart for easy identification)- photoshop, media players, MS office, simple games, firefox, outlook express etc, all the linux varients of them are as good as the windows one if not better.

Installing,searching and UPDATING softwares in Ubuntu (and in general most Linux distros) with their package managers, is atleast 5x easier than windows.

And yes Ubuntu has one of the widest device & driver support that I've seen in any linux distro to this date. (even in modest terms i have seen quite a few)

Also till now, we have been talking about stuff in linux in a counterpart fashion, i mean seriously once someone gets addicted to linux way of life, it is difficult to go back to windows, for example Virtual Desktops rock my world, live icons are God sent, Nautilus Scripts, are just so convinient and helpfull, among many others.

BETTER filesystem, higher security(i just love the File Access Permission System in them) and stability are issues which already have been established beyond doubt. So i am ignoring them.

Another major point, it is FREE, and FREE as in every sense of the word, use it, contribute it, distribute it, play with it, and most importantly ENJOY it (edited due to inputs from the first comment). Seriously, there is something called as a FREE lunch, and all good things in life are FREE ;-)

Also the have an amazing user support forum, for help, if you need it.

By the Way, let me clear it that in general i don't have any problems with Microsoft or Bill Gates, i simply adore Bill Gates (for his vision) and i love in general Microsoft's hardware, xbox, mouses (yeah it is not mice) and keyboards.

Regards
Subiet

And yeah, i am not being paid a single penny by anyone for this, i am doing to for love and not for commerce.

Getting Blogspot to work with Performancing

2006-09-08T02:32:00.000-07:00

New Blogspot is great with some good features, but then there is a small problem of it not working with performancing, here is simple step by step guide to do so.

1) Choose Manual Config and then select "blogger" as blogging service
2) Type "http://beta.blogger.com/api" as the API URL
3) Username and password as normal

You are done!!! (but your posts will only be posted as drafts)

Happy Blogging

EDIT: 22 September, 2006

now you can download a development build of PFF, which supports (almost) blogger beta, here is a link for that

http://jedbrown.net/temp/performancing-1.3+devbuild-091806.xpi

Formula1 and Football

2006-05-16T01:16:00.000-07:00

Hi guyz, Check out this blog on Formula1 and Football (http://f1nfootball.blogspot.com), for some nice articles/news/views on the above mentioned topics.

FARECHASE & GOOGLE CALENDER

2006-04-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

Well today, i checked two new products on offer, also possibly the two most hyped online services(this year) on offer. namely FARECHASE and GOOGLE CALENDER. well the names are pretty self explanatory, the first is a service to compare and buy airtickets and reserve hotels, while the second is your calender.

as always, the most hyped products aren't always the best, and as always google performed decently well. that is to say, that farechase was a big disappointment, while google calender was pretty much worth the hype.

FARECHASE :: well it was pretty sad, the results came from pretty useless sites, and not mostly from the root server of airlines, also the tickets were priced very steeply, even if you are booking two months in advance, and there was a complete ommission of LCC. for example i wanted to book a BOM-DEL flight on 16th july for my sis, and i was expecting a sub 60$ ticket from an LCC and a sub 100$ ticket from a normal airline(economy class), but what i was got was some freaking 182$ & higher. there wasn't any further details abt the fare you are getting, i mean if it is a class A,B,C etc or other stuff.
I mean if this was the performance on del-mum-del sector, one of the buisest in asia, imagine on other sectors.
atleast in india, booking directly from the airline site/makemytrip/indiatimes

/rediff perform way way better, rediff and indiatimes are especially good if you are booking just abt 15days in advance and want a good deal.

GOOGLE CALENDER :: well this was pretty neat service from google, it basically offers you a online calender with almost all the features you would ever need, and even a phone alert, if you have US telecom subscription. It is an absolute boon for ppl who are on the move, and don't carry their own laptops and find the cellphones and PDAs to cumbersome. it isn't something new, yahoo has been offering a pretty decent one fo ages, but as always with google what was nice was the speed and simple layout. the best part is that you can import you calender from outlook, so sync funda works well here.

subiet

Is google trying to be GOD

2006-04-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

well here i would like to touch upon another issue. see i have been tracking google for abt 3 years very very keenly, coz acc to me here is one company who can actually beat M$. (i have heard abt atleast a dozen having the potential to do so, and seeing them disappear or being purchased by M$ ) but google is constantly proving me and its supporters right.

but a little keen observation, frequent visit to google labs, and keeping a track on goole, reveals a very frightning picture. i will ilustrate my point

GOOGLE PRODUCTS
1) google search engine => knows exactly what you are searching and looking for

2) gmail.com => captures the market, and make ppl store huge amount of their mails on google servers

3)google base => offers free upload service, makes ppl store a lot of their information on google servers again

4)google earth => with enabling community shared placemarks, knows where you are staying (94% ppl attempt to locate their homes, in the first search on gearth) or where ppl want to go the most in general.

5) google calender => eliminates your desktop calender, this has two implications, you are now even storing your softwares on google servers with your data, secondly they know where you are going.

6) google api's => soon to be launched, will enable ppl to do tasks like wordprocessing, spreadsheet etc online.

see what i am trying to point is that, google wants ppl to completely store their data and software on their servers, knows exactly where you are going, doing, and even knows what you want to know. (God is the word).

see probably google is doing all this, coz of amazing advert potential, coz it can direct just the right adverts to you, knowing what it knows (or attempting to know abt you).

now coming to the danger, even if i ignore that google has something up their sleeves (like first making you dependent on them, and then charging their free services), what abt the risk of data theft, when the whole code winxp can be realeased on net, even data theft from google servers is a possibilty, well the evil just doesn't end there, but i won't further discuss that, but leave it to you to think.

what say???????

subiet

Paris Hilton : A MOCD (Mass Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

2005-12-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

I will start by explaining MOCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disease that the boy who couldn't stop washing his hands suffers from, or the person who can't stop running or me who can't stop blogging.

Now MOCD is a Mass OCD, that is a obsessive disorder that almost the whole world suffers from.

I say this because for some reason, 6 billion people across the globe, find images and news related to her in some or the other part of the newspaper that they wake up to.

I don't understand why is it important to them that which party did she attended, when did she suffered from a wardrobe malfunction (this is somewhat still explainable), or which pet she is currently obsessed with, or who is that man she is dating.

Every act of her creates a plethora of actions and reactions, now when her hamburger ad was released (see the pic above, though for me the spoof is much better), I don't understand the need for such a strong reaction, tell me honestly, how many of you haven't seen her already as her parents saw her when she was born, then why this hue and cry.

How does it matter if she wears pink colored socks or blue, she is dumb and she is not even good looking (in case you think she is, do a google image search for 'Angelina Jolie' and you will understand the importance of theory of relativity).

Every time she is awarded a best/worst party animal, best/worst singer, best/worst actor, best/worst hair and so on, it is splashed on the world page, alongside an earthquake of 7.0 intensity in some country sharing almost equal space.
Though i wasn't surprised when she was given the worst dressed award, but it made me wonder that when is generally dressed?

I sincerly pray to GOD, that let this be the last piece of writing ever written abt her, with the possible exception of other prayers like this.
GOD are you listening??

Do tell me if you agree with me or are you already planning to murder me...

Linux vs Microsoft

2005-12-15T10:08:00.000-08:00

I am a linux lover and for me Tux (Linux's symbol) is an angel, here are certain quotes and statements that i have collected, created, overheard and read over the past few years, i hope you enjoy them, and do not forget to add your own...

UNIX is an operating system, OS/2 is half an operating system, Windows is a shell, and DOS is a boot partition virus. (Peter Coffin)

What would you rather have to plow a field — two strong oxen or 1,024 chickens? (Seymour Cray)

This is Unix and Netware country, on a quiet night you can hear a windows NT Reboot.

A Windows user spends 1/3 of his life sleeping, 1/3 rebooting and 1/3 waiting.

windows 95 aka crap - 200$
windows 98 aka absolute crap - 400$
linux - priceless
there are somethings money can buy the rest are good.

i knew that all good things in life are free, but never knew that the paid ones are this bad.

Claiming that your operating system is the best in the world because more people use it is like saying McDonalds makes the best food in the world.

DOS Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq, Tandy, and millions of others are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans, on the other hand, may note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form. -- New York Times, November 26, 1991

Customer: I'm running Windows '98
Tech: Yes.
Customer: My computer isn't working now.
Tech: Yes, you said that.

Windows 3.1 - The best $89 solitaire game you can buy.

Your mouse has moved. Windows NT must be restarted for the change to take effect. Reboot now? [ OK ]

A stable working windows computer...
nice try, afterall i can't stop you from dreaming

-----------------------------------

War of Words

2005-12-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

Said it is, that grief can turn a stone into a poet, am I a testimony to that fact?

War of Words

Sitting in the vehicle of logic,
fuelled by audacity, powered by rudeness,
i ended up creating nothing but obstacles
and did everything I could,
to prevent me from reaching the pinnacle.

Wasted my life, my time,
winning fights, while losing battles
breaking the respect cords,
destorying myself, in what I call
the war of words.

No reason, they say
exists to reason it out,
every time in life,
because the end defines the means
and not the other way round.

Retarded I think, I am
emotionally or socially,
i couldn't decide,
the fact that I wrote these line,
allows me to guess i am emotionally fine.

Times there are,
when cursed I feel,
for certain parts of me to exist,
oh! I wish, I had rested them,
or rested myself to peace.

God grant me the tolerance and courage
to tolerate a bit, and change the rest,
but please grant me wisdom enough,
to know the difference.

Learning curve wasn't steep,
time taken was epic,
and yet I am forced to think,
if I have learned it to the brink.

a decade down, i realize,
it ain't no good, to criticize,
and didn't the wise man said himself,
that leave the world, first change yourself.

-----------------------------------------------------

Wear your woolens

2005-12-13T06:06:00.000-08:00

In this part of the world(Delhi, India) it is winters right now, and with all good things that come along with winter, comes along, free of cost, a new nag. No points for guessing that this post stems from my frustration of my mother nagging me all day long to wear my woolens, and if am already wearing them, I am supposed to add another layer, and the cycle goes on.
Though i understand the genuine concern of my mother, it sometimes just gets too bugging. I know that if I fall ill, i am gonna lose heavily on my studies and work but then i am already taking precautions, am I not.
I bet there will not be a single reader of this post who has not faced this situation at some point of his life or other.
I have no complaints with my mom, but mom, incase you read this, please understand it is just not comfortable to wear 985 layers of woolen clothing.

Life: What is it?

2005-12-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

After my post on death, this I guess is a natural followup. Well according to me life is the best gift given to someone by God (ok by nature for atheists). It is simply wonderful, and it is certainly beyond my intellectual and emotional capabilities to understand people, who frequently vomit out sentences like 'my life sucks' or 'oh! My life is so boring' or 'life, what a burden it is'. According me to me your circumstances are nothing but a manifestation of what you are within.

There is so much to do in life, but this doesn't mean that you rush through it. I would like to quote Mohandas Gandhi (considered to be the father of India) " There is more to life than increasing it's pace".

A moment wasted in sulking is a lifetime of joy lost. Am I starting to sound too philosophical, well anyways I would like to round it up by saying that always remember guys, that the end is always good, if it ain't good then it isn't the end.

Keep smiling...

Death: What is it?

2005-12-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have always wondered what is death? after a lot of thought the only thing i can say for sure is that it is a 'reality'. But a strange one, everyone knows it exists, they know they are going to face it, yet most are afraid of it.
What happens after death, do we live, isn't it possible that the present we are living in is nothing but death from some other world, our present lives may be nothing but after death lives of some world.

Or is it that death is nothing but a biological fact, and we are nothing but bio-mechanical machine, which has to wear to out someday, or are we more than that we a soul.....

i leave it up to you to decide, your comments and views are more than welcomed.

adios,adieu,au_revoir,good-by,cheerio,sayonara 2 life@school

2005-12-09T04:43:00.000-08:00

We are creatures of habit aren't we? We always put the same foot forward first, always wear the socks first in one particular foot, and so on...
we have an inherent inertia to change, but is this the only reason that i am feeling sad and lonely as my school life is coming to an end for all practical purposes(read fun) in 10 days.
i joined the institution "The Mother's International School" 4 years ago, and have had the ride of my life for all these years, had 2 groups of ppl for 2years each to be my classmates and more importantly close friends.
It has been an amazing journey full of joy and laughter, punctuated by a bit of sorrows, a few anxious moments outside the principal office, a few sleepless friday nights coz saturday was parent teacher meeting, and thousands of crushes...
the last 4 years have taught me a lot of things, a few important one are, life is fun, the world is not perfect, people aren't as bad as you think they are.

i will stop here abruptly only to continue later, as i have to complete that stupid 100q assignment.

earthquake

2005-10-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

at 9:26 ist, experienced a 30 second long earthquake tremor, in delhi, india, in case u did too at that point of time in at diff place, drop in a comment

Effects of Advertisement Part 2

2005-03-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

In my last post we imagined internet without advertisements, now lets extend the discussion to the world, but this time i leave it to the viewers to comment and type down their imaginations.

Effects of Advertisement

2005-03-01T04:15:00.000-08:00

Hey, imagine a world without advertisement, well lets make it only "the internet without advertisement".
That will mean that we will have to pay for every free thing [sponsored by advert] that the internet offers to us which we have now taken for granted.
Imagine paying everything you check or read your email. Imagine having to pay for visiting sites, to pay for your google searches, to pay for all the information you ever accessed through net, imagine a world without this blog ;-"), {ok, all the blogs}.
Internet will almost be non-existent, and now imagine a world without internet..., now stop imagining for the day and comment ;-).

another interesting article on advertisement can be found here.

Decode The Mnemonic

2005-02-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

Hey folks my last puzzle seemed to be not all that difficult for you greats, so this one is a little more interesting (read a little difficult)...

Decode The Mnemonic:

Now I - Even I, would celebrate
In rhymes unapt the great
Immortal syracusan rivaled never more
Who in his wondrous lore
Passed on before,
Left men his guidance
How to circles mensurate.

To give you a hint all I would like to say is "Read the Mnemonic again" and if I had to classify this post then I would do it as "recreational mathematics", So folks, come on, just do it.

In case you’re thinking that why don't I mention the source, I would like to
mention that even the answers are there.
P.S: It took me 11 minutes to decode, so take your time.
P.P.S: In case any one of you wants to post his or her own puzzle, trivia or
question, you are more than welcome.

Yes, The Indian President said It

2005-02-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

An Indian teenager from one of the country's most backward states appears to have fooled governments, the media and even the president into believing he had topped the world in a NASA science exam. This is what you all know, but then read this...

When questioned about the incident, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh replied, "Yes, we were fooled to think that a boy from a backward state could have topped the exam. But you Americans were fooled to think that one could be President."

Fashion in Sports

2005-02-28T02:13:00.000-08:00

Fashion Glamour and Sports (Yes, Sports) have always been inseparable, Maria Sharapova, Anna Kournikova and David Beckham are just a few example of the above statement.
Be it the nail paints of Beckham, shoes of Zidane(right, even a simple man like zidane), ferrari jackets, tees of serena and the list just goes on...
I would like each on of you to give one example of fashion trend or just any other trend inculcated from your favorite sport or any other trend that you would like to mention.

Puzzle to Puzzle You

2005-02-26T19:02:00.000-08:00

Once a Father and Son got injured in a plane crash, they were taken to the hospital, there the doctor could save only the son and not the father, after that the doctor excalimed "Ah! here is my son, alive", now how is that possible, write down your answers, there may be various possible, but the most feasible one will be the best. So, can u crack this?

Did u Exercise your brain today?

2005-02-26T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hey we spent so much time and energy in keeping our bodies in shape but do some of us even ever think about exercising our brains, the most vital part of the body.

So, from now on i will be posting some fun, recreational puzzeles for you all to play with, keep checking regularly for updates.

Do Anti-Virus Companies make Viruses?

2005-02-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

Hey it may seem shocking to you, that, why on earth would Anti-Virus Companies be making virus, but dear it may be true. See one of the most important things in the business of anti-virus software is trust rating, and they are enhanced by
1) Being the first one to know of the trouble.
2) First providing the solution.
3) Providing the best solution.
And that’s what precisely they can do if they make the virus and distribute it, coz they will know the root cause of the problem before anyone else do. It may be controversial, but then.......

Your Body & Name as Advertisement Space

2005-02-24T05:55:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting yesterday, a little busy these days, well anyways today I would like to bring "Your Body & Name as Advertisement Space" in the focus.
There have been quite a number of offers on ebay and otherwise for people willing to put a brand name on their forehead for say five years for an amount of money or keep their babies names as a brand name (there was a offer for Pepsi) for a period of time.

There has been a lot of hue and cry over it, especially the name of the babies. Under Law it is absolutely legal (both: forehead and names).

My point is that why the hell are we poking our nose in between, especially for the forehead case. History is evidence to the fact that people have always opposed "quick rich" tricks, mainly because they are jealous.

I agree that keeping name of their babies is kinna wrong, cause the child may undergo emotional trauma from peer group for no fault of his/her. There should be a law, like you can't use the body space or the name till the child is a minor and also without his consent even if he is a major.

But I don't see what’s wrong if some adults are willing to rent their foreheads, if its helps them to earn some money, which might be used for education or healthcare etc, then what’s our problem in it. It’s their forehead after all. So, What do u think?

Video killed the Radio Star

2005-02-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
In my mind and in my car,
we can't rewind we've gone to far.

"Giftwrapped Crap" is what comes to my mind when I think about the useless videos being aired these days, for they are there only to titillate you and boosts the sales, or rather generate sales coz otherwise the songs are absolute trash, and no one would ever even think of buying them. Those who suffer are the truly talented but on a shoe string budget singers with possibly less glam bodies. Music needs no supplement, you feel so hurt when you hear some great music on the same channel as these stupid songs are aired also...... To top it all they steal music also in the name of "cover versions". If I had to describe these songs in one word, I would be confused between 'atrocious' and 'ridiculous'.

2005-02-21T03:23:00.000-08:00

folks, had some trouble with archiving, so posts older than a week aren't displayed on the page,so click here to view them and don't forget to check out this post in specific --> click here

Music is my Anti-Drug

2005-02-21T03:08:00.000-08:00

I am no preacher, but still I would like to think out loud that drugs are dangerous and stupid. They don't make us more enlightened, or interesting or creative, they'll just make us sick and brain dead. Thats why its important to have an anti-drug, something that we do instead of taking drugs or to keep us away from it. For example I enjoy music, you might enjoy sports or spirituality or just plain hanging around with your friends, anything that u r passionate about, so whenever u feel the urge just take your ANTI-DRUG. So what's your anti-drug?
Post dedicated to a friend who realized it a little late in his life. :-|

How to Secure your Computer for Free

2005-02-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I spent my last to last new year eve repairing my computer after a computer crash, I was so frustrated that I decided that I have to find a simple, safe and free method of computing. After 14 months of using and testing various products here is what I recommend...

1) Anti-Virus - AVG Anti-virus from Grisoft
It’s free, small to download and as good as the bloated and expensive Norton in every respect, and probably better on its day.

2)Sygate Firewall, don't you ever trust the inbuilt Microsoft firewall, though some people prefer Zone Alarm but I felt that Sygate is faster and more user-friendly, with a very useful incoming/outgoing transfer meter.

3) I always preferred a dedicated anti-spy ware beyond the anti-virus, and Spybot S&D {Search&Destroy} is as good as it gets.

4) It my seem contradictory to the above but its Lavasoft's Ad-aware a good compliment to Spybot especially for the ad wares, spybot specializes in spyware.

Though this small guide is not an example of the genius of mankind, but it should be extremely helpful for lots of people looking forward for safe computing experience. Your suggestions are always welcomed.

Note: All these utilities are free (yes free, not shareware) for personal use, u may consider updating them just once in 15 days, or whenever there is virus threat around.

The age old bench

2005-02-19T05:03:00.000-08:00

vs
Click to enlarge.
Right side is the orignal and left is my version.
Hey guys i picked this image from another blog, played around a bit with a color intensity (red is particular) and contrast level to add that rusty and static for ages look to this picture, but still making it look richer. So what do u think?

Fascinating F1 Trivia

2005-02-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Folks, F1 season is closing in (6th march) so here i am with some fascinating facts about F1, don't forget to add ur own if u wish and tell your friends about it...

01. An F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!

02. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up showing the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...

03. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)

04. The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of approx 1000 degees Centigrade and they attain that temp while braking before almost every turn.

05. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added downforce can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.

06. The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by the front and rear wings and the car underbody is amazing. Once the car is travelling over 160 kph (they travel at over 300kmph),an F1 car can generate enough downforce to equal it's own weight. That means it could actually hold itself to the CEILING of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!

07. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 litre family car.They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.

08. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds.

09. Race car tyres don't have air in them like normal car tyres. Most racing tyres have nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has a more consistent pressure compared to normal air. Air typically contains varying amounts of water vapour in it, which affects its expansion and contraction as a function of temperature, making the tyre pressure unpredictable.

10. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. F1 Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km.

phew! want to be an f1 racer now?
p.s: btw the image at top was of f1 1966 season.

Your Favorite Movie Quote

2005-02-17T22:01:00.000-08:00

Hey friends!
Lets play a simple game if i may call it, you post your favorite movie quotes over here (in the comment section), and ask ur friends to do the same, lets see which quote emerges as a winner.
mine is "hasta la vista, baby" in Terminator 2

Germans go the Nazi way Again

2005-02-17T03:48:00.000-08:00

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing 'sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners who must pay tax and employee health insurance were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.

The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.
She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her 'profile'' and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel"

So I guess if a married man is unemployed, he could be forced to become a "boy for rent", or lose his unemployment benefits. Germany is just a step below nazism again.

Human are Smart enough to understand this!

2005-02-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

According to a sutdy msot pelope can raed and unadetnrsd any mxied up wrod as lnog as the frsit leettr and the lsat lteter are in palce. This is bcesaue we raed wrods as a wolhe and not as leretts in oderr. So y'oure smraetr tahn you thohgut hhu?"

Gmail Invite

2005-02-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

hey ppl! i noe everyone has it but still if neone needs a gmail invite just comment or mail me. i got plenty of them.

F1: Whom do we fight with?

2005-02-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

Standing on one foot - this post is about the lack of competetion in Formula 1. Where is the competetion in formula 1, where are my overtaking manuvers, where is that sense of adventure, where is that adrenaline in short where is that sport itself?

Look at it from any viewpoint, what is the point of racing a minardi with a Ferrari, even if u put the worst of the 20 drivers in Ferrari and the best in the minardi, still Ferrari will win.(u may swap Ferrari with McLaren/bmw/honda and minardi with redbull/toyota).

What I feel is that the companies should pay a fixed sum of money to FIA (say 15 million $ per car), amount should be affordable by all the 10 companies (even minardi has a budget of 45 million $), after which the companies can make restricted but critical customizations in their car (tweaking of aerodynamics, wheels etc). This way all the drivers and companies will be on even platform and it will be then when the companies and the drivers will be tested of their real abilities.
And also tracks should be widened to make the overtaking a lot more feasible.
This way we shall be able to witness some real competition at, say maximum 10kmph less max speed but on a much more higher average speed.

Lets some mosley and ecclestone read this blog ;-)

Is Hype around Sania Mirza Worth?

2005-02-15T03:38:00.000-08:00

Hi people! in my country that is India, there is a rising tennis start named Sania Mirza who has just got her ranking under 100 (at 99.). Sure she is good and deserves a pat on her back. But the question is the quanta of hype that surrounds her worth? If u look at it objectively (read a little critically) she wasn’t even able to reach the Australian open finals (Australian open was when all this hype started). Day before yesterday she did win hydrabad open, though I won't comment on the quality of players in that tournament. She till now hasn't won a single grand slam, so like what is it that so great about her, is India short of pinup girls, in a country where bollywood resides. No i am not another fan of Sharapova but she is a year younger (17), has got slams to her credit and much more... then there was Martina Hingis who too was young..., i am emphasizing on young coz that is what everyone is saying that she is just 18 and has done so much. And if the media wants to write about indians only (i am talking of my country only)

then why not fill their pages about "narayan karthikeyan" the only indian who will ever get behind an F1 car in an F1 race(this season for jordon), so buddy think about it and comment, wating for your opinions.

Valentine's Day

2005-02-13T16:59:00.000-08:00

Hi friends, while reading some articles I felt that this is what some people feel about valentine day - its like on this day that we suddenly remember that we love someone, and we want to express it as much as we can on this day in a fashion which mean that we are compensating for the rest of the 364 days. Oh! dear i really love u, though my busy life didn't give me time to express it for the rest of year is what the message gets across.

well I think that is very pessimistic and kill joy view of life, haven't those people ever heard of something called as reinforcement, according to them we shouldn't even celebrate diwali, Christmas and birthdays and just carry on with our routine life. And if they feel we can spend each day of our life in a manner that we work, celebrate, express and show all emotions on one day itself, i guess they need to get practical.

we certainly need certain stimuli to make ur respond to our feelings in a more explicit(no pun intended) manner, and that is what this day does, so lets enjoy ourselves and this world.........
and not worry over certain issues that don't even exist
bye folks I don't want to waste ur precious time on this day....

A window to heaven

2005-02-12T22:20:00.000-08:00

After two light hearted posts lets get a bit closer to God and ourselves, here it is poem, originally by my sis

A WINDOW TO HEAVEN

hazel eyes can only see
a world imbued in melancholy

no reason
no scenes
no thought
no means

can wipe off the emtions
freezed in memory
that are to melt in eyes
that submerged deep down in oceans
come about in truths and lies

no betrayl
no love
no kinship
no curse

suffice to form the pearls
that are to form in the folds of eyes
that are prayers in disguise
that are a window to heaven

no saint
no church
no sun
no earth

connnects as these pearls connect
to Him up there
ambition,wish,hope,regret
all snowball
in these pearls
that are a window to heaven

no smiles
no glory
no past
no story

shall make Him come alive
in the mind as they do
to give the push to sart afresh
feeling better,feeling new!

that is why they are
a window to heaven

Intellectual Property - Shiti Rastogi

Blog Syndrom

2005-02-12T20:27:00.000-08:00

Guys are u aware of a deadly disease spreading around the world faster than the most destructive computer virus ever ? Well, its called the BLOG SYNDROME:

Symptoms:
*) While sleeping u see a wonderful dream and u think of cliking 'blog this' or 'publish'

*) Your net is not functioning and u start looking for a cyber cafe in way a person in desert looks for water to read ur blogs and blog your own

*) Faliure of the above leads to withdrawl symptoms similar to the ones associated with drugs

*) You get up in the morning and carry your laptop to the loo, so that u can blog even over there

*) you read this and while smiling u r thinking of CONTRIBUTING UR OWN SYMPTOMS IN THE COMMENTS.

next part will be on the treatment of it...

Intellectual Property - Nishith(Subiet) Rastogi

Old but Gold

2005-02-12T05:23:00.000-08:00

"Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the side
of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt. The
driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban
sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre Cardin tie, gets out and asks the

Shepherd: 'If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?'

The shepherd looks at the young man, and then looks at the large flock of
grazing sheep and replies: 'Okay.' The young man parks the car, connects
his laptop to the mobile-fax, enters a NASA Webster, scans the ground
using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with logarithms and
pivot tables, then prints out a 150 page report on his high-tech
mini-printer. He turns to the shepherd and says, 'You have exactly 1,586
sheep here.' The shepherd cheers,'That's correct, you can have your sheep.'
The young man makes his pick and puts it in the back of his Porsche. The
shepherd looks at him and asks: 'If I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?'
The young man answers, 'Yes, why not?' The shepherd says, 'You are an IT consultant.

'How did you know?' asks the young man.
'Very simple,' answers the shepherd. 'First, you came here without being called.
Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew, and
third, you don't understand anything about my business...
Now can I have my DOG back?'"

Help-Telethon

2005-02-12T04:58:00.000-08:00

in my country, india, today we are having what they call a simulcast across 17 leading television channels of a performance by the indian television and film association in order to raise money for tsunami relief, my question is why is it that we have to be entertained for us to shell out money for such a sensitive cause, why can't simply all the channels donate the money earned by commercials in that 4 hours slot while running their normal programs only, i may not be able to express what i want to but i hope u get the idea

Annual Examinations

2005-02-10T19:17:00.000-08:00

24th is when my final exams will start (the mother's international school, class xi), therefore i might not be regular in posting. studies are going much better then before, monday is the atomic struct assgn., in the morning i read about british prince too, wonder what so relevent about it to our country that it got splashed on the front page as the main headline, should have been in the world page only, well bfn, got to study, and i also hope that my url redirection in www.subiet.co.nr doesn't get cancelled, i will correct it after the exams.

Student Council : The Mother's International School

2005-02-07T06:36:00.000-08:00

So, we finally have a new student council, its a wonderful council according to me, comprising of siddharth kothari, purva chawla, ishaan parekh, aditi uberoi, khazanchi, monisha, savyasachi. i too competed but lost, ofcourse the ones who are selected are better suited than me, no grudges, best of luck council
love&luck
subiet

Update

2005-02-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

updated my site, and made it look more pro: www.subiet.co.nr

First Post

2005-02-07T05:53:00.000-08:00

Here i am, with my perpective of life....... feel free to comment