I Hate

• 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

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

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 >

Reloaded

maybe i am back! ;")

Photography Blog

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

The World-Via My Lens

Why Ubuntu

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

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.