Rama's Happy Thoughts

Test

2008-10-24T20:19:00.002-05:00

A test post from my iPhone.

Best ad blocker ever!!

2007-10-28T17:57:00.000-05:00

Privoxy is simply the best free ad blocking software. And it works on all browsers and all platforms including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Netscape Navigator, Camino etc. on Windows, Mac and Linux.

I used to use Firefox and I miss the AdBlock extension since I switched to Safari on Mac OS X. Installing Privoxy is a breeze and here's all you need to know to get it running with no ads :)

Lazy guide to Privoxy on Safari with OS X:

1. Download Privoxy [Link]

2. Install it by double-clicking on the downloaded file.

3. Click on the Apple icon on top-left corner of your screen

4. Click System Preferences, then Network and click on bottom button called Configure.

5. Click on Proxies tab and check on Web Proxy and Secure Web Proxy items.

6. Enter 127.0.0.1 on FTP Proxy Server box and 8118 on the box next to it (port).

7. Hit Apply and Restart your computer.

8. See the magic of all annoying banner ads, text ads etc.. disappear. Viola!

9. For settings, just go to http://p.p/ from your browser.

Screenshot below.

For more complicated steps approach, look into this official Privoxy guide and the Installation guide. Remember it pays to be lazy !!

2007-01-15T23:17:00.000-05:00

Here's my linkedin profile as a passionate marketing researcher (UGA MMR). Btw, I finally am migrated to the new blogger. Looks snappy.

Revenge of the nerds aka Rise of microstream

2006-09-22T14:13:00.000-05:00

Weird Al has a new video. More info on Al.

Internet, due to its almost zero distribution costs, has brought the marginalized outliers to mainstream (according to conventional definitions). This Youtube video could eventually rival the Nielsen rating that the coolest show on MTV could pull tonight. Still, the video probably would never be on the "cool-hip" MTV. Why? Its too not-mainstream. Its too not-the-"average"-viewer. So what? Why let some rich-50yr MTV producer tell you what you want to watch.

For the curious, this phenomenon of zero distribution costs have been well documented in the popular LongTail.

Dare to Dream..

2006-05-03T14:33:00.000-05:00

The Octagon as it was fondly called, the 24hr computer lab at my alma mater, the Regional Engineering College at Trichy (RECT) campus was an wonderful place. RECTians gather over there to do programming, and well other less-serious stuff as well. Here is a snapshot of it in all glory. And it's slogan "Dare to Dream" was an inspirational one too.

Define:Lollu

2006-03-08T17:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a depiction of Lollu (a tamil word meaning losely to insouciance in english)

More maps maps of India

2006-03-08T12:27:00.000-05:00

Following the map series I and II, the latest edition as follows:

First the good news. Finally, there are maps of India released without any restrictions from the Survey of India. Department of Science and Technology (DST) has recently lifted the insane regulations at the Map India 2006 conference. So, there will be two versions (available in both hard and digital copy) as

Open Series Maps (OSM)
Defence Series Maps (DSM)

Obviously, the one available for public would be the OSMs. Anyways, I am keeping my eyes open to see where and when I can actually download them. Here is the National Policy on Maps [pdf] and their guidelines [pdf].

Also, I accidently stumbled upon an excellent resource which contains info for almost all the cities/towns in the world. It is called Global Gazetteer. And it is simply awesome. Here's the info about Erode.

My friend has recently shown me about this excellent resource for free GIS maps of India. I have downloaded several of them. Expect some maps out on this blog soon.

While talking about maps, check out this nice GIS map of India java mashup with Census data. And it actually works very neat.

Finally, the government of India has its official portal for its citizens. Bravo!! It is a dream come true for me. ;)

Whenever life gets you down

2006-02-28T09:49:00.000-05:00

Check out this excellent visual: You start at 10^23 meters out on the galaxy and travel through 'powers of ten' and end up at quark size inside of an atom of the leaf.

As an additional exercise, reflect on the this song from Monty Python's Meaning of Life:

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you've had quite enough...

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles per hour
It's orbiting at nineteen miles per second, so it's reckoned
The Sun that is the source of all our power
The Sun, and you, and me, and all the stars that we can see
Are travelling at a million miles per day
In an outer spiral arm at forty thousand miles per hour
In the galaxy we call the Milky Way

The galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick
But out by us it's just three thousand light years wide
We're thirty thousand light years from Galactic Central Point
We go 'round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions and billions
In this amazing and expanding universe

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
The fastest it can go
The speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is
So, remember when you're feeling down and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And hope that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space
'Cause it's bugger all down here on Earth

lyrics courtesy of astro

For your aural pleasure, listen to the above galaxy song as you watch the visual.

All about Erode, Tamilnadu, India

2006-02-02T12:08:00.000-05:00

Though I was born in Chennai (Madras), I spent my entire life till my highschool in a town called Erode, some 400km southwest of Chennai. I did my schooling till grade 3 at Kalaimagal Kalvi Nilayam (KKN) and from grade 4 to 12 at Sengunthar Matriculation Hr. Sec. School (SMHSS). It had it's cool times, good times and some bad times, lousy times and weird moments. I recently went to Erode after some 7 year hiatus. I got to meet my school friends and my childhood friends and it was blast and a touching moment of my recent trip to India. And it was cool. And so here I am, presenting you with maps of Erode.

If you are not that familiar with Erode, might I suggest you to get the general scheme of things from my post on Maps of Tamilnadu and Southern India. Erode is like in the center of Tamilnadu, the southern most state of the Indian subcontinent.

[Click on the maps for bigger maps]

More Info on Erode:

Official website of Erode District; Erode Profile
Wikipedia article on Erode
Portals on Erode 1, 2, 3
Picture gallery from a traveller to Erode, an article

Picking a combination lock

2006-02-02T10:54:00.000-05:00

I had a purple Sphero combination lock from Masterlock to secure my storage area in my apartment and guess what, I had lost the code for it. Ooops !! And I had been running around all over the apartment to get it in vain. And then I tried Masterlock website and they tell me to do a bunch of stuff to get the code back. And then Google came to my rescue. And so did digg's post on how to pick a combination lock. And finally, this wonderful source came to my rescue. Armed with a combination lock spreadsheet and my friend's help, in a few minutes try, Bingo !! The code was cracked.

In this method, you would have to try only a maximum of 100 combinations, and if you had some sense of what numbers you might have had on your original lock, it is even easier. The most suprising thing is that all the codes are either odd or even digits (from 0 to 39).

All Master lock have the same pattern of the codes:

The lock has a dial with 40 calibration marks numbered 0 to 39. A combination consists of 3 of these numbers, for example: 15-25-7. To open the lock, the following steps are taken:

turn the dial clockwise 2 full turns
stop at the first number of the combination
turn the dial counter-clockwise 1 full turn
continue turning counter-clockwise until the 2nd number is reached
turn the dial clockwise again until the 3rd number is reached
pull the shank and the lock will open

Source

As big as it gets..

2005-11-02T22:49:00.000-05:00

I just had to say this: In this world, after all said and done, the truth of the matter is that you are the only person who you can truly depend upon. It's not to say that you are not loved or cared for or looked upon. It just is. And that is when you realize that you are not a kid, but a grown-up.

Sophocles has said it the best when he said, "The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities." And when you stop blaming others and giving excuses and truly look inside into you, you would see the courage to stand within and trust our own instincts. I wish I could remember these as long as I live.

An appeal..

2005-10-21T11:13:00.000-05:00

We all know the disaster caused by the earthquake that hit the Kashmir [more on wikipedia]. Here's an email that received and wanted to put it out on the web for fellow bloggers:

Association for India's Development is deeply moved by the loss of life caused by the South Asian Earthquake that affected parts of Jammu and Kashmir. AID appeals to all its chapters, volunteers, donors and the community to come forward and SUPPORT the relief and reconstruction efforts in the communities affected by the earthquake. AID US has already transferred $15000 for immediate relief and is partnering with various organizations.

Donations can be sent online from here.
[ https://www.aidindia.org/aidadmin/aux/RandRinKashmir2005Donate.jsp ]

Follow all their relief activities on the AIDIndia Blog. Please donate, as every dollar counts. Thanks for reading.

A gift from a friend, indeed..

2005-10-11T15:09:00.000-05:00

One of my best friends, Raja, had sent me this wonderful inspirational powerpoint a while ago. And it was sitting on my computer for the past two years, before I found a way to convert them to an image to post on this blog.

Ofcourse, it is a bit idealistic. But don't let that romantic visionary in your heart squashed by that rational fellow in your head. Hang loose ;)

Hat tip: To convert a ppt (powerpoint) into an image (jpg) as well as several other formats like PDF etc, use the free, in-browser tool from Neevia called Document Converter eXpress. As well as the excellent picture posting from blogger.

Lottery Marketshare in Ohio...

2005-10-11T14:52:00.000-05:00

Lotteries good or bad are the prinicipal proof that 'hope is eternal' in this overtly commercialized world. Here's an easy hack to see what lotteries are popular in ohio. http://www.ohiolottery.com/

Click for a better, bigger pic.

If you blog this, does it mean you are old?

2005-10-11T14:44:00.000-05:00

To be honest, I have had that "man" in the neighbourhood. Infact he was the landlord of the housing complex that I spent most of my years on. And he used to yell at us not to play anywhere with the ball. Me and my neighbours use to play cricket as well as running games etc. And also, he use to just stare at us menancingly, and ugh!! How i hated him for spoiling all the fun. And that too, when we were so little and just hanging around. Just blogging this to see as I long, not to be like him !!

Petiness

2005-10-11T14:34:00.000-05:00

Petiness, simply doesn't capture the rage that I feel right now. But, since the disaster of the earthquake that hit the Kashmir [more on wikipedia], politicians are playing the game of not allowing Indian soliders into the politically sensitive borders of the two nations. And it sickens my heart. I know, it is not an easy thing. considering the mutual lack-of-faith and constant finger pointing. But comeon, sometimes, we just don't place the value of life on premium. Background on Kashmir.

And a couple of maps that I collected,

Where to download tamil songs in mp3?

2005-10-08T18:11:00.000-05:00

I got an iPod and wanted to fill my 20 gigs and was wondering where on earth can i find tamil desi songs? A google search led me to this excellent site, Coolgoose that has a huge collection of tamil songs and comedy dramas along with several hindi and folk songs. And it is free with good download speeds. So, click to download tamil songs.

A new and powerful Google Operator

2005-08-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

The star (*), popularized by microsoft as wildcard search operator, is now at Google. And it works amazingly well and brilliantly simple as a fill-in-the blank query, like, [burgers and * make *].

Check out this nice query, [flower * classes] and it fills in the blanks like, flower arranging classes, flower designing classes, flower arrangement courses etc, (get the drift?) and also it does search for variants like courses, course, and lessons.

Notice that it doesn't do stemming on flower. But lo and behold, the synonym tilde operator. Try [~flower * classes] and it does stemming on flower like flowering and floral too.

Wow. It is truly beyond just text matching now. It's a powerful understanding the meaning of the word search. Try it out !!

Spin it, Baby !

2005-08-04T11:12:00.000-05:00

Terry Jenner is Shane Warne's bowling mentor. And in this awesome video, Terry shows the five variations of Shane's spin bowling.

Warne's five spin deliveries video. Check it out !

A Short Story

2005-07-08T11:11:00.000-05:00

On that wonderful dusk with sun
Losing his game to the king of Night.
Red cloids, the only remenants of
the sun's army, dancing in joy.
Not knowing, he will soon be a prey
under Night's swords.

Down, under the wonderful horizon
of sky's colorful empire, lies
once upon Great kingdon, now nothing -
Ulberia. People were, like trees of
Great sahara. Avast on the field encircling
citadel, as if someting is there to guard?

In the old ampitheater nearby, lies
evening markets with rush-free stores,
as if a bird in the mid hot noon.
Unknown faces, unknown dimensions,
unknown buys, unknown sells.
Who is known to who?

Farby, a nimble footed old lady, like a
tall palm with dry leaves to decorate.
She was selling a juice made of dates
Soaked in carmel milk by name "orswanka".
You can call it by any name. Costs
8 kzarjans. Tall artistic cup full of it
would make you take no-food for
a day. Home-made, yet with care
and love. She was given title - "juckey"
meaning "Life-saver". Hadn't she
had saved the life of "Furzer" - the cheiftan
here by her "orswanka". You will call here
a witch for her appearance.

But, a kind gentle hearted witch.
a possible correction you will make on
hearing this: A poor lad accused of
civic crime, was made to fast for a month.
Days gone, but worse for him, nearing
his final hours,, dying of starvation:
providing him "orswanka", she had given
him a life, Indeed! Equals the rank
of God, as a creator of Life! Thank god
for being a human in the jungle of animated
homosapians. But, (she was)
put to death on a horror day.

what knits the old woman
- the juckey with this lad?
Neither blood nor
her friend nor a well wisher.
An unknown stranger:
Ofcourse what binds them?
Unknown binds unknown!
Miracle!

It it the feeling of humanity
or love or brotherhoodisn
Call it as you like! that
binds all, well & forever.
Is, love rules the blue world as
we are by money, nonsensed
fake fame & emptive ego?
The choice is let up to you?

Time can change
Orswanka may be french champagne,
Juckey may be Mother Teresa
Jungle may be a metropolitan
Furzer may be Furher Hitler
But,
Humanity survives as
Earth survives forever!

Yet,
the real love - the real ruler forever!

-Written by yours truly around '93.

quote-o-rama..

2005-06-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
- Aristotle

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
- William Shakespeare

The greatest risk in life is not risking at all!
- Anon

We have what we seek. It is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us.
- Chuang Tse

Reality keeps ruining my life.
-Calvin

Start Typing in Tamil in 3 minutes..

2005-05-23T16:49:00.000-05:00

Yup. It's that easy. I had wandered the lonely road of installing tons of fonts and messing with browser setting, keyboard layout and drivers etc.., just to type and communicate in Tamil. Finally, Unicode came to rescue. And it is pretty much supported on any computer. [Hint: You can type emails in Tamil and others can read it without installing or adjusting anything. Just like in English.]

And it's easy to type in Tamil too.

Why? Because there is a phonetic keyboard maping. So, if you type in English, it turns into tamil (type amma in keyboard -> you will see அம்மா on the screen). Just like that.

How? Install this free Keyboard Mapper [eKalappai 1.0 MB download; More Info].

Which? Press Alt+ 2 keys together to type in say, Notepad or Email etc. [More Help in 6 Easy Steps]

What? See the Keyboard Map below? Yup. You don't need to remember anything. This is more for reference. Like,

உயிரெழுத்துக்கள்	மெய்யெழுத்துக்கள்	கிரந்த எழுத்துக்கள்
அ - a	க் - k, g	ஜ் - j
ஆ - aa, A	ங் - ng	ஷ் - sh, ch, Z
இ - i	ச் - c, s	ஸ் - S
ஈ - ii, I	ஞ் - nj, X	ஹ் - h
உ - u	ட் - t, d	க்ஷ் - ksh, kch, kZ
ஊ - uu, U	ண் - N	ஸ்ரீ - sr
எ - e	த் - th, dh, T
ஏ - ee, E	ந் - w, n-
ஐ - ai	ப் - p, b
ஒ - o	ம் - m
ஓ - oo, O	ய் - y
ஔ - au, oLa	ர் - r
ஃ - q	ல் - l
	வ் - v
	ழ் - z
	ள் - L
	ற் - R
	ன் - n

And bingo!! You can type, and read tamil in any application (word, email, webpages, etc). Just like that. உங்களுக்கும் பிடிக்கும் என்று நினைக்கிறேன். Or you can do cute google searches in தமிழ் like this or this or that.

P.S:Keyboard mapping inspired from Anbudan group

Wow.

2005-05-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

My name in Tamil is ராமச்சந்திரன் மல்லிகா . Let us see if it has any problems when accessed from any browser. Ahh, the bliss of Unicode. And the keyboard layout I used is EKalappai.

Vowels in Tamil - அ ஆ இ ஈ உ ஊ எ ஏ ஐ ஒ ஓ ஔ ஃ
Consonants in Tamil - க ச ட த ப ர ய ற ல வ ழ ள ஞ ங ன ந ம ண

World in an Image... A Trivia

2005-04-07T15:42:00.000-05:00

Q: What do these green and red blocks represent on a world map? hmm,, think a second.. What is common between India, Australia and Japan, that is not shared by Canada or Germany..
A: If you are really curious and need to know the answer, check out here

More Lazy Afternoon reading here Wikipedia:Unusual articles or watch uh..huh... ;)

One Bridge to Rule Them All...

2005-04-05T16:07:00.000-05:00

During my recent roadtrip, I ran into this scary looking bridge. It was purely exhilrating and a nerve wrecking moment to drive my Honda over there. The magical view of the ocean and the thin bridge that spans miles, and miles. It was an intense experience. You gotta get there to drive and live. Whoa!

Image Credit: SME

You can see the Google's Satellite Image of the bridge here

Image Credit: BestOfUSA

It is the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge of North Carolina 12.

Ahh, the Outer banks.

Oohh... sunflowers...

2005-04-02T23:23:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon this excellent picture book with inspiring quotes, when I was on Barnes & Noble store [and i bought it there!]. Pictures of sunny sunflowers in all their might... I just love this book. Whenever I get a chance, I look at it,.,. And it brings me a broad smile and happy feelings.. One of it's excellent quote is,

"Don't hurry, don't WORRY.
You're only here for a short visit.
So be sure to stop and smell the flowers"
- Walter C. Hagen, American Golfer.

It is on Amazon or Froogle [ISBN: 0762416351]. You can also see the whole book (on Search Inside) on Amazon.

Aye... One year since Gmail-April Fool Stunt..

2005-03-31T16:40:00.000-05:00

As the clock turns over 12, it's April Fool's Day again. Just that is not particularly interesting. But, consider, Google introduced Gmail that day, a year before !!. And in a stroke of genius marketing over 1GB and limited availability, Google created a never-seen-before buzz over an email (!) provider. Also, GOOG sky-rocketed it's pre-IPO evaluation.

I sure bet, several internet marketing managers would be salivating for this exact moment now, to pull of a Gmailesque stunt over the bloggers by introducing some cool geeky product [Do I hear Yahoo?]. Maybe Google might do something wicked cool. Maybe not. Eitherway it gonna be a news. A Flash news on ya radar tommorow.

Interesting times ahead.

UPDATE: So, It was Google Gulp and Infinity+1 Storage on Gmail. Well done, Google.

Brilliant !!

2005-03-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

Try your imagination at:
http://www.neave.com/lab/misc/imagination.html [linked]

really a neat idea. try moving the mouse on that page..

Dancing House at Prague..

2005-03-18T11:03:00.001-05:00

Wow.

More Pics

Info

The man who built it

Image credits PragueExperience

Earth at night..

2005-03-06T01:25:00.000-05:00

A while ago, using the remote satellites, a clever scientist showed the impacts of urbanization using the city lights emitted at night. The result: a beautiful image of the earth as seen at night, if you are revolving around it.

It's a beautiful world indeed.

The study

Bigger Image

More NASA links 0 1 2 3

Go ahead, Stare !

Ahh... The smell of a clean boot on the stinky Windows..

2005-03-05T15:08:00.000-05:00

If you are like me, you constantly twitching windows config settings and cleaning up temp files and regedits and stuff. And still stuck in Windows, because you are too poor to buy Macs or you are too addicted to better graphic themes than GNOME, I came across this excellent articles on Clean Boot. Seriously, one of the best I came across yet.

Deleting Temporary Files Painlessly

Try it. And be blessed !!

My blog for Narain Karthikeyan

2005-02-22T10:56:00.000-05:00

Narain Karthikeyan

Maps.. Maps.. of India..

2005-02-21T18:08:00.000-05:00

In india, maps are regulated (as a part of defense measure [doh!]). Survey of India, restricts it [More here]. As a result, maps of india are so limited except for outline maps and you pretty much get to see that and only that in atlas of india. How sad. I lived in india (tamilnadu) for 20 years and i haven't really saw a detailed india map. Anyways, thanks to microsoft mappoint, i finally get to put some maps online. [All copyrights to whoever made it], [click for bigger maps of increasing sizes]

The URLs from expedia are like:
http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=mmvw&lmap=2&xofs=-1368&yofs=-2391&clvl=6

And the map alone is like,
http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=mrdt&ID=3XNsF.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;CenP=23,84&Lang=WLD0409&Alti=500&Size=996,808&Offs=-1368,-2392

where, CenP is centroid (x,y), Alti is probably zoom, size is the size of the image (it takes [656 x 532], [996 x 808], [1228 x 996], [1816 x 1514]) and Offset is probably offset mapping, of which i have no idea.

Useful Desi Links..

2005-02-21T11:21:00.000-05:00

If you never have heard desi, probably, this post is not for you.

AID Columbus Chapter
Columbus Tamil Sangam
Federation of Indian Association
Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America
India Club of Dayton
Indian American Association @ OSU
Indian Students Association @ OSU
Network of Indian Professionals - Columbus
Yahoo! Groups : thamilsangam

Indian Associations in Columbus
Intamm - List of Organisations USA and Canada
Tamil Movies Links
NRIOL - Non Resident Indians Online
Ohio Desi.com
Ohio Indian Restaurants & Grocery
South-Indian Food - Discussion Forum
Sulekha Classifieds: Services in US/Canada
Tamil dvds
Tamil Nation & Beyond

New Google Toolbar Beta 3

2005-02-16T16:01:00.000-05:00

SpellCheck - Check your spelling whenever you type in web forms
WordTranslator - Translate English words into other languages
AutoLink (US only) - Turn street addresses into links to online maps

From:

http://www.toolbar.google.com/T3/index

ooh..

2005-02-14T09:33:00.000-05:00

she likes it.. i mean the candies i made below... ;)

Show your love around.. Happy v-day all around..

Happy V-day baby !!!

2005-02-13T20:54:00.000-05:00

You know who you are !!

Using Acme

Check it out !!

2005-02-08T09:25:00.001-05:00

Greatest stuff since sliced bread:
Google Maps Example

And the sky is falling...

2005-02-03T15:27:00.000-05:00

Woohoo.. Congrats Narain.. You rock !!!

BBC News 1 ;2

Poem: Forget Me Not

2005-01-27T23:53:00.000-05:00

Far in the deep mighty blue ocean
with leap tides to ornament
with ever-roaming waves to anchor
with pandemonium boatman to plunder

on the farthest left of her
from the shore - A Brown Black cray
greek anthology quotes, "God of sea had
been in this antique cave"

To describe, It's almighty empire of
snakes vs scorpions with vultures
preying: spiderrs to cut the
cave from rest

There carved three words:
True to say: Those weren't from the
chisel of a skilled sculptor
but from the very heart of the
writer with his blood

These weren't just a collection of
eleven alphabets, But the very
soul of the writer. The
very essence of life &
thing of the writer.

Nothing for none in it
But all for my....
It is nothing but
It is nothing but
"FORGET ME NOT"

These,
weren't a thing for those
who have, none in their life
either to love or to enjoy
neither to share nor to suffer

They,
weren't for my beloved...
But for her very deepest corner
of her heart of her... for
me to remember.

Let
her soul rest in peace forever.

Written by Yours Truly around '93.

Free Greetings with some quality images...

2005-01-27T17:48:00.000-05:00

Was reading over at a forum and found this.. a few (not many.. around 25) excellent pictures as greeting cards.. for free.. and not cluttered.. i send a quick hello to my sweet heart... Nice words dont hurt. do they? so send them one and make someone smile :)

I sent this one !!;)

And just what is holding you back ;)

Sid's view on Firefox..

2005-01-25T09:44:00.000-05:00

Sid, the nice bloke who runs Daily Rundown - News on Search, Internet, Technology.. writes about Firefox..

Stability - No more crashing and me bashing the computer! Holy crap, I remember IE crashing every hour or so because of those ads, spyware etc. ..

Extensions - IE may have the support of many search companies etc, but when it comes to what I really need, FF's got it. ..

The "Feel" - When I was thinking of switching to FireFox, I didn't wanna let that IE feeling go. But I glad I did, because FireFox has got me hooked.

Safety - Whenever I'm using a non-firefox browser, I don't feel safe anymore. I imagine a hacker breaking into my computer or the computer I'm on when my Internet icon (in the bottom-right) lights up.

"Customizability" - With FireFox, I can switch around a lot of stuff and make the browser like me (or like I want it), however, with IE, you can't do that a lot...

Read more here... Have you tried Firefox yet?

Mumtaz or Mumtaj Pictures

2005-01-21T16:34:00.000-05:00

I have assembled a mumtaz picture blog. It is in two parts and contains over 400 images collected over the internet..

But, just who is Mumtaz? A popular actress from south india, who performs in cameo roles as a seductive temptress !!

So check it out..
Mumtaz or Mumtaj Pictures (Part One)
Mumtaz or Mumtaj Pictures (Part Two)

As appeared on Columbus Dispatch Jan 17th

2005-01-17T13:50:00.000-05:00

Evildoer Knowingly Came Clean on WMD’s, President Charges

Just hours after confirming that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was over, President George W. Bush leveled his harshest charge ever at Saddam Hussein, accusing the former Iraqi dictator of “knowingly telling the truth” about not possessing WMD in the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

“After years of lying about his weapons, Saddam Hussein willfully decided to tell the truth about them,” Mr. Bush said. “His treachery knows no bounds.”

After Mr. Bush excoriated Saddam for his “wanton truth-telling,” he added that “thanks to the work of our coalition, Mr. Saddam Hussein will never be free to tell the truth again.”

del.icio.us

2005-01-13T16:39:00.000-05:00

try here ..Mine

More on Happiness..

2005-01-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

Wikipedia has a great article on Happy.. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy]

And it has a picture too..

Whoa !! this makes me happy..

Happy Thoughts...

2005-01-13T11:29:00.000-05:00

Actually i started this blog to put some emphasis on happy thinking.. It is all too easy to feel down on ourselves and keep being passive. So, to buck that trend, here goes some happy thoughts to cheer up the day !!!

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
- Mahatma Gandhi

BlogShares

2005-01-12T13:07:00.000-05:00

BlogShares is a fantasy stock market for weblogs. You get to invest a fictional $500, and blogs are valued by incoming links....

My blogs can be invested too :). And incase you interested, feel free to link 'em..

..

And for this blog..

happy blogging !!

2004-12-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

fed logo

This is the logo for my blog about Roger Federer. I call it 'Federer Magic'.

My sis's thoughts on a newsletter..

2004-12-22T11:01:00.000-05:00

SMILING PLEASE

Smiling is infectious; you catch it like the flu. When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too. I passed around the corner and someone say my grin when he smiled I realized I'd passed it on to him. I thought about that smile then I realized it's worth. A single smile, just like mine could travel round the earth. So, if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected. Let's start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected! Keep the smile going by sending this on a friend.

Everyone needs a SMILE.
Viji R.
(II B.E. C.S.E.)

Amazing Facts!!

Did you know that left handed people can buy pens with special nibs which are out a certain way to make writing easier ?

You know that English has 26 alphabets but did you know that Singhalese has 54, it is having the maximum number of characters and the shortest is Hawaiian, it has only 12 characters

Every one knows that Dolphins are intelligent, but do you know how much intelligent? They can detect a shirt button at the bottom of a tank, even when blind folded.

Amazing facts
Viji R.
(II B.E. C.S.E.)

From Kannifest '01 Newsletter

Sengunthar Engineering College, Erode, Tamilnadu (India)

Art of Hyperbole..

2004-12-22T10:42:00.000-05:00

WEBMASTER

The Correspondent of Erode Sengunthar Engineering College. Udyog Rattan Thiru. J. Sudhanandhen wanted to have a dynamic web site to have an efficient and hassle free interaction with the students, staff, parents and general public. In order to make it the best, the web site has been planned and designed in a dynamic way. According to his vision and aspirations, the Dynamic Web Site has been launched with user friendly features.

In order to keep updating the functions, facilities and information of the Web Site, the Correspondent has nominated a team of webmasters, consisting of the following:

Webmasters
Mr. V.Venkatachalam
Assistant Professor & HOD / CSE
Mr. G. Sivakumar
Lecturer / CSE

From: http://www.erode-sengunthar.ac.in/webmaster.html [Linked]

BOO !!!!!

Single Letter Domains (aka One-Letter domains)

2004-12-21T11:35:00.000-05:00

As of the writing, there are only 5 active single letter alpha-numeric domain names (TLDs: com, org & net).

Q.com - Quest [Whois Link]
X.com - Paypal [Whois Link]
Z.com - Nissan [Whois Link]

I.net - I.NET [Whois Link]
X.org - X.ORG [Whois Link]

Sources:

2004-12-15T13:49:00.000-05:00

"There will always be people in certain walks of life who cannot afford certain things. That's the way it will be."
- Clive Leach CBE

I just don't want to be the one that can't afford.

Funny Google URLs

2004-11-23T10:10:00.000-05:00

Valentine '01, Mom's Day ['00, '01], Easter '00, April Fool's 00, Dilbert, Britany Spears, Mozilla Search, Bikes, Plex Event.

A Happy Quick Meal..

2004-11-23T09:56:00.000-05:00

I cooked the following receipe for a dinner (2 servings).. And my friend called it 'good food' ;)

Smothered Pork Chops

Ingredients:

1/3 onion, chopped
1 cloves crushed garlic
2 (3/4 inch) thick pork chops (very lean, firm, with grayish pink color - tenderloins)
1/4 cup water
1/9 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 (14.5 ounce) can fat-free chicken broth
1 teaspoon browning sauce (Kitchen Bouquet)

Directions:

Saute onion and garlic in a non-stick skillet coated with vegetable spray until tender.
Season the chops with seasoning salt and pepper.
Add pork chops, and brown on both sides. Add water, and bring to a boil.
Whisk together, flour, chicken broth, and browning sauce until smooth.
Add to skillet, stirring well.
Cover and cook over low heat 30 to 45 minutes or until tender.

Garlic Mashed Potaoes

Ingredients:

1/4 pkg. Ore Ida Mashed Potatoes
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbls. butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Place milk, butter, garlic, salt,and pepper in a microwave-safe dish.
Microwave on high for 2 1/2 minutes. Mix in Ore Ida potatoes.
Microwave for a few minutes (say 2-4 minutes).
Halfway through cooking, mix potatoes with an electric mixer until creamy and smooth.
Serve in microwave-safe dish or transfer to decorative dish.
Garlic flavor will be stonger if prepared several hours before serving.
For a nice touch, place mashed potatoes under broiler to brown top layer

Skillet Cabbage

Ingredients:

1/2 tb Butter
1 c Shredded cabbage
1 tb Water
1/8 ts Salt
1/16 ts Pepper

Directions:

Coat cabbage with melted butter in skillet.
Add water, salt and pepper.
Simmer, covered, until cabbage is tender, about 8 minutes.

Prince of Persia [Original] - The Mother Lode Game..

2004-11-23T09:42:00.000-05:00

I remember playing the Prince of Persia game when i was a kid. And it was a major revelation of the DOS games.. And it rocked !! For the unknown, the complete Prince of Persia Links [Wikipedia], [DMOZ directory], [A fanpage] . An excerpt from Wikipedia:

As the title suggests, The game is set in Persia. The sultan is away at war, and the evil vizier Jaffar plans to seize the throne for himself. Jaffar has imprisoned the princess and given her one hour to make her decision: marry him, or die. The player assumes the role of an adventurer, the princess's true love; he must escape from prison and rescue her before the hour is up, defeating the vizier and earning the princedom of Persia.

Here it is: The Original Prince of Persia [369KB, ZIP Archive]. It is IBM PC compatible (aka. pretty much works on every version of windows etc..).

Happy Nostalgic gaming !!

Just what is Asian Indian???

2004-11-19T16:56:00.000-05:00

Well, as anybody from india who is living in usa can attribute, the ethinic troubles of describing yourself is quite a hassle. If you say, you are an "indian", it would very well represent American Indians (a.k.a Native Americans). If you say, you are an "East Indian", it historically represents pretty much everything that British used to occupy.. (incl. a whole bunch of nations).

Official US Census just lumps everyone as "Asians". [Links: General Ethnic Classifications; Detailed Asian Classification PDF;
]. Apparently, close to 1.8 millions claim to be "Asian Indians" living here.

Hence, my ethinicity is Asian Indian..

Spongebob Movie is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2004-11-19T09:17:00.000-05:00

And it's been a wait.. and a long one.. will it be worth the wait.. today, the spongebob movie is released everywhere. And i have tickets for the tonight's show. Ever since, it splashed on tv, it's been a cultural phenomenon, altered lives, gave kids a whole new meaning for the world -"cool". And is slowly absorbing the cultural conciousness of the national.

It's been a long wait.. And i can't wait to see it.. Go Spongebob !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NY Times movie review/info: [Link]
Rotten Tomatoes reviews are here..[Link]
IMDB movie review: [Link]

And the movie (i gotta poll my reviews tonight!)... And take a stab at this movie.. there's quite a chance that you would like it.. (atleast the chances are better than being blissfully happy everafter !!)

All about Roger Federer

2004-11-18T11:44:00.000-05:00

Roger Federer, to me, is an embodiment of all the good things that you associate with a sportsman, and tennis in particular. I am creating a bookmark of Roger Federer 101. There are not that many websites that devote attention to Federer in English :(

Know your Federer !!

Best place to start: Roger Federer Homepage [Link]
Wikipedia stub on Federer: [Link]
Profiles:

ATP's player profile for Federer: [Link]
CBS Sports Line profile: [Link]
Yahoo Sports profile: [US, UK]
ESPN profile: [Link]

Groups:

Google Groups for Federer in rec.sport.tennis & alt.tennis [Link]

Yahoo Group for Federer [Link]

News:

Google News search for Federer [Link]

Topix News search for Federer [Link]

Tennis Forums are a good place to dicuss with fellow tennis enthusiasts

Official Forum on Federer's homepage [Link]
MensTennisForums (MTF) [Link]

I will be adding his interviews, junior days and pre-2003 info.

Did i miss any good source? If so, please add on the comments.

UPDATE: See my Federer Magic Blog for more info on Roger ;)

Browser Stats from W3Schools

2004-11-17T13:40:00.000-05:00

Posted by Hello

Favorite Useful Online Tools.

2004-11-17T10:58:00.000-05:00

Following the favorite online tool post in Google Blogscoped, here is my attempt to list my favorite tools.

Google

Yahoo! Messenger
BugMeNot extension for Firefox
DodgeIt instant mail
Whois.sc
Document Convertor from DocuPub
Stock quotes: ArchEx, Freerealtime, Google
Weather: NWS
Free Dating: PlentyofFish
Maps24, Mapquest, Yahoo Maps (in decreasing order of preference)
Wikipedia
TV guide: Yahoo

Free Copies Of X1 Desktop Search Going Fast

2004-10-15T15:35:00.000-05:00

Idealab has given Jason Calacanis 100 free copies to the X1 desktop search tool to give away to his readers. Want a copy? Visit his Post and link to it.

Places i roam online

2004-08-05T09:06:00.000-05:00

It's fun hanging out in several communities. Also, a pain in, you know what !

Webmasteworld, a nice place to hang-out if you are into wrecking the quality of any search index, including Google. My Profile

Orkut, da place to just be yourself and scribble anything you want. It's fun and addictive, for sure. My Profile, you need to be an Orkut member to see it, though !

HomeofF1, the best forum where you can bully about your fav. F1 race. Nice place to hang out. My Profile there.

Anyhow, i hope to add to this list, some time :)

Recent updates:

MensTennisforums, a very cool place to hang around with tennis enthusiasts. And ofcourse yell and cheer for your fav player too !! You can even do a lil' bit of betting too !! My Profile.

RogerFederer website, a shrine for divine tennis with a feel. Don't forget the calendars and perfumes !! My Profile.

Geocaching, a fun popular sport of hunting down treasures with gps co-ordinates. It's awesome. My cache hunts. I have a Garmin eTrex.