floods

A call to all the NRIs

2010-03-09T18:09:00.000-08:00

I request all the NRIs - the foreign staying occasionally coming back home folk to spend money back home. Infuse what all you can into the Indian economy. Especially your foreign earned income.

Most of us buy land or homes - but those things are already inflated and don't really add to the economy.

I'm talking about services. Public transport, government funded institutions etc.,

If you pick a train now - you have on an average 20 compartments - 1 or no first AC, 1-2 second AC (two tier) coaches, 2-3 third AC (three tier) coaches and 12 second class (three tier) sleeper coaches. See the disparity? That's because the others are over-priced and a little beyond the reach of the common middle class Indian family.

Pick the best these can offer - travel in the priciest AC train coaches that you can afford when you are back home. This helps the railways. And it badly needs an uplift. And it is and will be the common mode of transport for the next 20-30 years. I think that's the best way to give money to the government and help the economy in general. Can you think of something else?

Let me know.

my first ticket

2009-03-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

unknown race

Micheal Clayton

2007-10-22T13:34:00.001-07:00

The usual drill: Another weekend so why not a movie at the local theater.

Micheal Clayton was getting a lot of attention. And by attention I mean people waiting patiently in 500 ft lines for the back row seat.

Just to be sure I look it up at rottentomatoes: a whopping 91% 'fresh tomatoes'.
The movie's been out for a week already and 91%?? Isn't a week long enough for the critics to have sunk their teeth in?

Or maybe the movie IS really good. Wait, let's adjust the truth here: WRONG!

That's strange .. American folk plagued by the blind hero worship syndrome?

Hello George Clooney!

Independence

2007-08-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

So it was August 15th and people followed the usual 'How are you' with 'Happy independence day'

I always wonder if people really mean what they say. And ... usually ignore it after a little while. But this time instead of replying with just the "Wish you the same" line, I added

"... what does 60 years of Indian independence mean to you?"

And the reply:

"Independence only to the country but not to the people of India, in the sense
people are not free here. Just the software field in every field. Just see what growth has been obtained: don't think just about the 60 years, but 5000 years of Indian background.
Education, politics, business, movie industry, sports, science and economy not up to the international level. India does not do any thing for globalization on its own."

Lost in time

2007-07-17T14:28:00.001-07:00

Sadly, Amazon doesn't sell time machines.

Not reading emails?

2007-05-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

Access remote Xserver apps from windows

2007-02-27T02:23:00.000-08:00

This is something I might forget later :|

Step 1: Install Xming
Configure it for multiple windows and disable server access control
Step2: Set 'export DISPLAY=$windows_host_ip:0.0' in the remote machine (Where $windows_host_ip is your IP)
Step3: Test! (this shows 'gnome-system-monitor')

Notes for Gnome

2007-02-18T02:33:00.001-08:00

I was looking for a utility in gnome for taking notes, and as usual I was confronted with many choices. Open source is about choice after all, right? One too many though.

This is not a review/comparison. Just a list.

There's the usual tomboy which sits on your panel.

hnb : Hierarchical notebook. Mimics a gui within a shell. Once you get the hang of it, this can be pretty efficient/easy to manage. Sort of like vi :)

note : Pure command line. Uses vi for editing.

notebook-gtk2 : This is meant for keeping track of things. You have a status and day/time. Looked neat, but I wasn't able to save a sample note.

**: gdk_window_set_icon_list: icons too large

I/O warning : failed to load external entity "/home/pradeep/.notebook/notes.xml"

Document not parsed successfully.

notecase : You can move your notes around: Uses it's format to save files: Note Case Document(.ncd)/ Note Case Encrypted Document (.nce)/ Note Center Document(.hnc). Very simple/clean GUI.

zim : A desktop wiki.

The names in bold are the package names. You could simply do a apt-get install (If you use debian and it's derivatives)

How I got my license...

2006-10-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

I had to get my driving license one day. It turned out that day was a really bad one.

Nothing new about the licensing process as such. I mean there was the "test" of course (for namesake), but nothing testing about it.

So the journey started at 9 in the morning with me arriving at the famous R.T.O. office(which also happens to be a famous landmark/bus stop). We (we, as in, the batch of people from the school through which I got trained for this test : about 10 of them) had to head off to the nearby beach (which was the thiruvanmiyur beach) where the test would be.
So we get ready for the 'officer' to arrive and approve us of our driving skills. But our Govt officiail(TM) takes his time and he arrived at the 'scence' at about 11 30. It was a nice little 3 hour dry summer that we had.

The test starts. And it ends. Quick. For the motor cycle(with gear) we had to do a '8' and for the LMV(Light Motor Vehicle) : car, a simple 100 mts straight drive.

He could have as well just given us the license instead of making us wait in the sun for so long.

This done, I had to go stand in 3 queues to get the forms signed and for a photo of me, all of which left me with the license in my hand at about 2:30 : A total of 6 hours !

I was exhausted. All the sun and no lunch had given into a stingy headache (which would later turn into fever and stay a week)

All's done. I need not go through this ordeal for the next 20 years. And I hope by then the process would be easier and the traffic would not be as haphazard as it is now.

IE specific

2006-09-27T23:02:00.000-07:00

Abducted Indian engineer killed by Taliban

2006-04-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

So another usual story, you know, the taliban killed someone.

And the statements the PM and the President make:

'President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the incident. Singh said killing of an innocent Indian civilian was an "inhuman act".'

They have deciphered it. It's an inhuman act! And they 'condemn' it.

I mean shutup ! A guy is DEAD and these people have nothing to say but the same old perfunctory shit like 'they are saddened by it' and they are 'grieved' by it?

Are they going to do anything about it? Well certainly, they will provide the family with some money and protection and fade the news. Just another death.

Goes to show there's not much value for life in this country.

so far...

2006-04-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

So eventually I get my first bike. APACHE !

Again it's like one of those things again: you wait for something for so long and when you actually get it, you don't really feel all the enerygy that was there in first place. :-/
Maybe some company would change that opinion ;-)

Oh and I've decided to put all my "amateur photography" here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21273974@N00/

Also about BSNL broadband. All the folks at vt are out crying (me included) coz there's no change in the plans. YET.

And thus life moves on.

beautiful

2006-02-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

"I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear?
When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man,
To soar with angels blest;
But even from angelhood I must pass on ..."

(excerpt from Masnawi, by Hazrat)

VT meet

2006-01-29T11:46:00.000-08:00

I finally got a cell phone ... the connection is pending : should get in a few days (hopefully)

And had a meeting with the VT forum members Planet Yum/Coffee Day/Beach ... was fun.

Pics tommorow :)

Summary

2006-01-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

It's all about changes.

And the will , ofcourse.

my kernel compile

2005-12-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

i know this sounds geeky/stupid/n00bish/whatever but i compiled the linux 2.6.14.3 kernel !!! :)) for my slackware 10.2 (which btw is amazing)

my eth0 and onboard audio worked without a glitch !

Aftermath

2005-11-26T04:10:00.000-08:00

Woo!
All our 'late night' practice did pay off (for what it was worth)

Big stadium...about 7500~ people. But the strange thing was I never felt nervous about it :-s not while i was playing anyway :P

This is the way it went:

Three songs it was (except Nothing Else Matters). The first one Californication came out quite well. All the drum rolls and the solo. The second one, Boulevard of Broken Dreams got really damaged... there was no 'sync' or may be the song was not meant to be played onstage with such equipment. It was a mess. Then came 'Teen Spirit' ... I stomped on heavy distortion for this :D (which got some attention i guess)

And in the end there was some cheer and applause (which was more than what I expected :-s ) It felt good.

The responses were quite good. One was that my voice was quite different on stage.

Thus ended my first 'concert' with due apologies to people who'd prefer to not call it one ;-)

And the 'rendezvous' team is gonna meet for dinner next weekend to celebrate 'the Dutch style' (Boss' words)

KO !

My first band!

2005-11-22T22:39:00.000-08:00

Never thought the 'Rendezvous' thing would materialize at all! I mean for a 'Rock' band. IT DID and we are playing tommorrow at the Nehru Stadium ! Today is the last practice 'night' @ Lakshman Shruthi

This is the list of the songs:

Californication - RHCP
Boulevard of Broken dreams - Greenday
Nothing Else Matters - Metallica (If they let us play 4 songs)
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Hope to get some snaps and put it on here :D

Lost in the city

2005-11-07T08:21:00.000-08:00

I finally got my electric guitar an Ibanez 370DX BK
The new 2005 model...can't believe I got it at all!

It's like one of those things that you keep waiting for such a long time that when it actually happens, you just can't get to realise it has happened ...

doesn't make sense? nevermind ...

So here's the set:

Ibanez 370 DX
Boss GT8
Marshall 15CD (15W) (yes, a low end one)

And currently am having trouble finding a 220V/110V 35W converter for my GT8 processor. I looked around for this thing at almost all the shops in my place and T Nagar(wrong choice I realized) My feet still hurt as I write this for all the walking I did......

I think I have to go to Kalimdor to get that one

PS. Form a band, anyone? ;)

Ubuntooo !

2005-10-29T03:10:00.000-07:00

Hmm...
Nice to be back posting (again!)

I've _finally_ got ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy) running and am very happy with it. Had problems with Hoary with the sound (still had it running though) .. Breezy runs without a hitch thanks for all the support at ubuntuforums :-).

It's been 3 days since I'm totally on linux (no windows, except for warcraft). No internet on windows.

... And thus happened the _linux-shift_ for me(It had to come one day!)

Nice to be here.

More news, got the new album by Rammstein.. Rosenrot! My first album on linux.. lol :)) It rocks btw.

2005-10-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

OK ... long time now.

I'm doing all good. Just anxious about the CEH thing :-s

Rammstein all set to release their new album(this without much delay at all)

<-- Rosenrot

And Benzin (petrol) being the single.
The lyrics are the typical Rammstein lyrics. Reminds me of the 'dead cat on my head' song.
I hope the album is mutter types.

The new free opera

2005-08-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

First I was using Internet Explorer
Then they told me it was not secure
And told me to use Firefox
It's the new revolution

I was reluctant
But made the switch anyway
Lest I must be thought of as uninformed
But the switch was worth it

Now they tell me Opera is cooler
I'm under pressure
Would it be cool to switch again?
Or would I lose my cool if I don't

I told them it has these google ads
"Now, now ", they said
"Click this link http://my.opera.com/community/party/reg.dml
And get rid of the free ads"

I did and I'm on it right now
But I am not sure if I made the right decision
It's not a big deal, I know
But it makes a HUGE diffference

And to quote that guy from Orkut:
"
WTF..
"

My week off

2005-08-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

So this is my first week OFF from work. The 'off' was primarily because of my ill health. but now that's cured, it's just a plain 'off' without any reasons. Like a holiday at home.

I think I can start off next week with full energy. More anxious about my CEH though which starts this weekend.

Lot of things I learnt from my off. One of the main things was how to reverse engineer(which even invaded my dreams for that matter). Amazing stuff. OleDbg is a great tool.

More later.
(I think I'm starting to make sense in my blogs)

The Personality Defect Test

2005-08-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=4741219933576750506

Starving Artist

You are 0% Rational, 14% Extroverted, 14% Brutal, and 57% Arrogant.
You are the Starving Artist! You are more intuitive than logical, and are primarily guided by your heart and emotions. You are also very introverted and gentle. Of course, this does not mean that you do not have an ego. In fact, you are surprisingly arrogant for someone so emotional and gentle. This is why you are best described as a starving artist. You are very introspective and quite sure of yourself, as any accomplished artist is, yet your views are impractical, guided by feelings, and overly gentle. You probably find math, logic, and similar intellectual pursuits offensive to your artistic sensibilities, and you prefer the open-endedness of artistry because then you know you can never truly have a wrong answer. So really you have no reason to be arrogant, you big doofus, because the skills you value (emotion, spirit, art, etc.) in yourself are valuable only on a subjective level, meaning your arrogance is purely masturbatory. In short, your personality is defective because you are arrogant, introverted, introspective, gentle, and thoroughly irrational...posessing most of the traits needed to be a starving--and useless--artist. So get out there, write a few short stories that are allegories for the spirit, and starve!

To put it less negatively:

1. You are more INTUITIVE than rational.

2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted.

3. You are more GENTLE than brutal.

4. You are more ARROGANT than humble.

how evil are you?

2005-07-31T06:15:00.000-07:00

Test 1 :

http://www.mutedfaith.com/quiz/vq.htm

What Type of Villain are You?

mutedfaith.com.

Test 2:

http://necrobones.com/eviltest.htm

Your EVIL Test Results

(Score: 101 out of 200)
50.5%

Fairly Evil

You are definitely doing some fine work for us, you evil thing you! We're proud of your efforts to corrupt the world in which we exist. We can only hope that you will continue in your efforts to be destructive and cruel in the future. While you are certainly considered an asset to us, you will find that there is still room for improvement. If you can refrain from killing them, some of the other evil people around you may give you some inspiration or ideas on how you can continue to grow in your state of being evil. At this stage you are certainly prospering sufficiently to be one of our honored friends. Come to the dark side, you know you want to!

back

2005-07-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

wb myself :-)
X files : 'Soft Light'

SCULLY: Having a little fun?

MULDER: What are you talking about?

SCULLY: Spontaneous human combustion?

MULDER: I have over a dozen case files of human bodies reduced to ash without any attendant burning or melting. Rapid oxidation without heat.

SCULLY: Let's just forget for the moment that there's no scientific theory to support it.

MULDER: OK.

2005-06-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

louiseville, KY ?

2005-06-01T04:34:00.000-07:00

2005-06-01T04:33:00.000-07:00

more aeroplane

2005-06-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

aeroplane :-)

without computer

2005-05-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

life can be hard without computer at home...coz that's when u start looking for alternatives like TV? that'd mean me stepping away from the path of righteousness ...so i'd rather stick to finishing the unfinished book and try to get cover/recover some unslept sleep !

tada !

Billy is back in action

2005-05-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

Billy Corgan is back in action...
with his new album and new video for the song 'walking shade' ... the songs real cool ! it's different :-)

http://music.yahoo.com/ar-306676---Billy-Corgan

astrology

2005-05-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

"In the midst of all the chaos you face in your personal life, your career takes off unexpectedly Think big and become big in whichever area of your life you may be feeling small in. If single, this evening is promising to make new friends and make friendship a happy premise for a blossoming new romance."

That's probably the best thing I've heard for sometime
Dein worten erlauchtet mich !

guitar hunt

2005-04-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

so finally i go to this place called 'pro musicals' to only find yamaha guitars...adn i tried out 'yamaha pacifica'...they don't have fenders or ibanez ! i got to order them and they'll get it for me! perfect...just when i was ready with the money which i might get this tuesday or wed.
and back at home i got a new home for my computer...it fits so well...can play on it quite comfy...hmmm...let's see
so my guitar search is still on...

new day

2005-04-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

it's a new monday
blue monday
feel so tired
was up late last night ... it hurts...
i'm broken

well, atleast my computer is running out there and that's good...
and coming to my guitar search: it's still on, the guy on the forum said i got to have patience. Yes perhaps, he's right. I decided to put more money on the guitar and less on the amp and processor ...

here's one i'd love to have ...when i'm rich :-
.

my computer

2005-04-01T00:23:00.000-08:00

I shut my computer down after being on (keywords: online,winmx) for nearly 55 hours ...
This dataone braodband thing is the coolest thing ... It's so fast. But then again 'fast' is a relative term, isn't it ?

I got lots of videos now...whole concerts !

from my everyday work log

2005-03-22T04:26:00.000-08:00

Ingenium Search Claim scripting and correlation:

The recording didn't take long, nor did the correlation part. But I screwed up the
correlation that eat up another 2 hrs !
But in the end I wanted to work more...fruitful day I call it.

group pic @ outing

2005-03-16T21:25:00.000-08:00

bitte klicken hier

the day after outing

2005-03-14T02:05:00.000-08:00

So eventually the so called 'outing' ends.
Ended in a sad note: couldn't even see my folks off..who must be in kerala now.

It's kalt und leer @ home now...

at navallur

2005-02-17T19:49:00.000-08:00

so new at navallur...
after running around from st.joseph's to tco to elnet to origin...finally here at navallur...
new fresh place...feels good been here for 4 dyas now ... starting this tuesday

the future ist full of licht :-)

last day @ ORIGIN

2005-02-14T02:57:00.000-08:00

so this is the last day @ ORIGIN
no nostalgia, nothing...thanks!
From tommorow it's gonna be navallur(and i'll pick some nostalgia, for sure)

so navallur here me come .... the actual start to my career

los !

a good day

2005-02-11T04:51:00.000-08:00

it was a good and a productive day...
lesson learned : never leave office before 6 !

another day

2005-02-09T01:05:00.000-08:00

so today isn't 'tomms' ..it's the day after
but yesterday was better at home ... i got all my songs and vids back ! feuer frei ! bang bang !
and i got the combo player too...i got doom 3 demo installed from the digit dvd but can't see any faces ! i got to get the grafic card!
achtung ! grafik kard installieren ! ha ha :-))

And here is the thing ! The performance testing team is now officially called the 'blitzkriegers' now ... that's some cool shit ! and it's German ! i am in love...feuer frei .... !!! (again)

and calvin and hobbes too !

whoa...gr8 day !

new home

2005-02-07T03:59:00.000-08:00

yes finally
after two days of waiting we got the whole samaan !
the stupid transportation thing changed vehicle for like 3 times !
it took 4 days to reach chennai from hyderabad...!!

i got my computer back...now to look for the internet connection..hmm....
ust started it this morning just to make sure it worked ... yes it was doing fine...my darling :-)

can't wait to go back home now and get on it :D

tomms !

in ORIGIN

2005-02-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

this ORIGIN institute now i'm in all set and ready to learn Load Runner...
and in another 3 days my folks'd be here in Chennai (that was my dream come true, right?)...all set and ready. Ready for future...ready to go back to the time when i left for college or school FROM HOME and not some stupid sick hostel... :-)

und singt...

no more, no more no more, no more
baby i'm a dreamer
found my horse and carriage

:D

2005-01-25T03:24:00.000-08:00

feels different..tommorow is my birthday
how different can it turn out to be ??

btw this is my first blog from office :-)

last day of my training

2005-01-12T06:40:00.000-08:00

phew !
the training which lasted for one month dec6-jan12 is over ! R.I.P.
no more st.joseph's and all the 'girl no talking to boy and vice versa' and 'no cell phone' and the 'be silent' crap

and hell...if u try to iggy me, i sing...i got my a b c and ef you see ke ... got that ?

tsunami and me

2005-01-02T02:06:00.000-08:00

One of my friends posted this on lonelyplanet.com :

-------

Pradeep/Chennai ( Posted: 31 Dec, 8:47am )

I'm looking for my friend Pradeep Varadarajan. He has just recently moved to Chennai from Hyderabad. I'm not sure which part of the city he lives in. I haven't been able to contact him since the tsunami hit.

--------
><

can't believe it ...

2004-12-24T23:31:00.000-08:00

my tab for 'ohne dich' is posted on gutartabs.cc ... here MY FIRST TAB !!!
and i even got some mails reg. that... what a weekend it has been :-) mixed ... and the some music group @Sathyam's played Greenday...I asked for it ... Cho happy! For a moment i wanted to grab the guitar and play it...Just a month and i'm gonna buy an electric.

All hell can't stop us now !!!

All this makes me wanna study java ... :-))

sunday bloody sunday

2004-12-19T02:57:00.000-08:00

The sundays are really boring...so boring that i'm getting really desperate...and scared. Being online seems much better.

sonne-tag ist kalt und leer...

i hope this thing doesn't happen the next week :-&

...or ever again

tcs bag and cts id

2004-12-16T19:35:00.000-08:00

it was 1900 when i tried to log into my yahoo messenger...but I can't hear familiar sound of silence and my aching back and my blackened wristbone(?)...and WINMX...that's gonna change soon though!!!

is there any new german word? hullo?

the cold gets colder

2004-11-30T20:35:00.000-08:00

So this is it....IT
that same churning feeling in my stomach, everytime i leave home for another place.
But this time it's a bit grave than that...coz i am not gonna come back.

It was a wondeful time naveen, ravi, haritha, sireesha, haritha, kranthi(don't mind the order :D)...i could've been not 'sick' all along...you reminded me of that.
...but you could have picked a better restaurant though! :-P

All this chennai thing looks misty to me ... wonder what's in it for me!
And thanks sasi for saying those words...you knew exactly how I felt for vizag. Exactly.

With all said and done..it's goodbye from hyderabad, see you again in the next part of the course ;-)

leaving vizag

2004-11-24T17:50:00.000-08:00

diese stadt ist eine Dirne
diese stadt ist eine Dirne
diese stadt ist eine Dirne ...

yes there it is

2004-11-22T01:44:00.000-08:00

yes december 3 it is ... done

hey calm down!
why are my parents always out when I get some news?

adios ap! ist wer unglück oder glück, ich kann nei mehr sehen... nein

:-(

hmm...(i picked this up somewhere)

2004-11-18T02:36:00.000-08:00

hmm.....
yes
they say it's dec 3rd ... FINALLLY!
everything adds up to that: almost everyone before me are to join 19, us dec 3.

soon

boy in the well

2004-11-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

Arey!
There was no current the other day so i wrote something ;-) bitte klicken heir.
It's like I have nothing to do when there is a power cut. Ha! As if I DO have something to do when it is on! :-))

I'm bored ...

I got my job....

2004-09-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

I got my job.
Phew! A relief.
I felt so elated that I had to do something. My parents were out. So I got out and RAN. That really helped. Lol.
CTS, Chennai. I'll be moving to Chennai. The land of my native tongue.