Getting too lazy these days..

It has been sometime since I started noticing this, but now its getting more and more serious. I no more do a lot of things which I used to do previously. Somebody in family said I am not doing things around, I told them I am now busy with my work and can no more spend a lot of time on such things..

Well, that was a big lie. I dont take my work home. That means I have absolutely nothing to do after 5.30 pm. The story wasnt same when I used to be a student. I used to have a project or some kinda extra work to keep me occupied. But despite of all that I was a regular gamer, used to spend a lot of time on phone and too much time in front of TV. I used to go for a movie once in a while as well. But now, with all that free time I am doing none of these.

The job not only gave me a lot of free time but also a new mobile connection which is an almost free kinda thing. But still I am making half the phone calls I used to make. Everyday I start with decisions to call up one of my friends and end up the day with another name in the “to-call” list. I am becoming lazy even to type an sms…even to post a tweet. Then comes the gtalk thing. Previously I was too cautious not to miss even a single IM. But now sometimes I dont answer to an IM even if I am in front of the PC(not always ok..). And now recently I have even stopped updating my blog. That is not something usual. See this post came after such a long time, that this whole interface seems strange for me now.

The worst part is with gaming. People who knew me for sometime will also know how much I loved gaming. Even thats stopped now. I downloaded COD 5 long back but still dinn even install it..I clearly remember how I played COD 4. The same day i got the disc, I finished it in one stretch of of 6 hours gameplay. Hmmm..its been a while playing CS as well.

So what am I doing these days..I am not sure. Till a couple of days back Arjun used to be at home,and we saw a few films together. Now that he is gone, I dont know what will happen to the filmy evenings. Is it the TV..no..my TV blew up. Its in a blackout. So untill I buy a new one there is no TV. The computer? Yeah it is the computer..that I know, but what am I doing with it..nothing much. Random reading. Thats what happens most time. Eating wikipedia is another thing. Then learning totally weird things…things like Mil-dot ranging for long range shooting, counter interrogation tactics,…what am I going to do with them..save the world?? I dont know. Then there is a lot of youtube viewing as well.

I think its high time I need to find a girlfriend, otherwise I might get married to wiki or youtube…is there a section 377 something that talks about a man-machine affair…

Internet weather forecast..

Goodday readers, welcome to the Internet weather forecast…

Google Vs. Microsoft..story getting hotter..

Seems like Microsoft has gone panicky with the recent announcements from Google and the hype its causing. They are trying everyway to counter it and get over their nightmares. Chrome when it came as a browser itself, caused so much of trouble for the Microsoft people. But that was pretty ok. IE was never a trump card for MS in the market. Although I am a regular windows user, I never ever use IE. Its such a horrible terrible thing in every possible way.

When Google came in with chrome that was goddamn light(pops up the second u click it..) and with innovative features like the “Incognito window” (something that was very essential for my kinda ppl) they too fought back with IE8 where they called incognito as “in-private”..And guess what they came up with as a promo..well they came up with this..

That was such a pathetic ad that i cudnt even believe that was a product of MS. Infact this OMGIGP will catch u if u just use IE.

It was at this point Google came up with the idea of extending Chrome to an OS..an internet based OS. The first response from MS  to it was the usual one, mock at it. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was trying to belittle Chrome as just an “interesting” thing.”Who knows what this thing is? To me, the Chrome OS thing is highly interesting,” said Ballmer, choosing his words carefully and drawing more amusement from the largely pro-Microsoft crowd.”It won’t happen for a year and a half and they already announced an operating system,” he added, referring to Google’s Android system for smartphones. [Taken from a Reuters report].

Good one Mr.Ballmer, perhaps you should watch this video before making another comment.

Mr. Ballmer do you remember one of the comments thats pictured in that video that was actually made by you. May be in a couple of years that statement can be replaced with the one you just made.Ok now if you dont see Google as a competitor at all, then why did u just hit the panic button. You guys were running around announcing Microsoft Gazelle , a browser with a kernel funda, that is built for clouds. Well thats the same thing but even better what Google aims by Chrome OS. And what was that all of a sudden announcement for an online version of MS word for?And Office 2010 too…Because you know it well that Windows is the trump card. The rest of the story is dependant on the future of Windows. If MS lose the OS bussiness, then they are finished. So its absolutely necessary to fight off this threat. Doesnt matter if it takes to use a ‘Puking’ ad.

Its real hard when you change your cell number

Yeah its really a hard time when you change your cell number. Especially if you have been using for a pretty long time. I think two and a half years is a good span to get a lot of contacts and have ur number given to scores of people. Now I have changed my number. Let me say it first no more 9995207621 ..now its 9567400056.

The biggest trouble in this course is to let all your contacts know that u have changed the number. Now that u have a lot of free sms, we can easily send them an sms. But since nowadays many ppl are using 2-3 sims and everyday u get a message saying, “hi, I am %#$ and this is my new number. Although I am using this one,I will be using my old number also. So please dont delete it.” Now ppl have grown tired of it..They no more care to update the number. Especially those like me who still use an old fashioned cell phone where the memory is limited. Dude, cant afford to keep n numbers of yours. There are others in this world as well.

Another trouble was to transfer all the contacts to the new sim. Another trouble of having an old phone. This time my dear friend Arjun saves the day. He’s got this N 73 and in a few clicks all his contacts were backed up and my contacts were transfered to the new sim using his cell as a one minute stay. You know what did that teach him. “Never help a friend”. The Nokia PC suite screwed up and most of his contacts were lost from the backup. Now while I was writing this blog only he told me that. I am terribly sorry for what happened,but what can I do now. If there  was some way, some goddamn way, I’d have done that to save the day. But unfortunately there is none. All I can do now is add that story to this blog as well. And I hope he dont stop helping friends for this, as I am riding on his bike only to the office.

Now if somebody’s asking me “Why on earth did u choose to change the number”, I had to. Reason number 1 is that my old connection was showing some sort of troubles in carrying messages to me. Now when I call the customer care, they tell me it all the other operators in Indi a who holds the fault. Customer care rocks. Now since other airtel users are fine, I thought changing the number wud be a good option. Another reason was that, its a corporate connection offered from where I am currently workign in. The offer was too good to resist. At a rental of INR 249 I get 1200 mins A2A and 600 mins A2M free with a free 300 sms per month. And the call rates if i exceed these limits wud be 30 ps for A2A,40 ps for A2M and 80 ps for Landline calls. Now if my math went well, I’d have a minimum savings of 490 INR per month when I switch to the new connection. That was something I cudnt conviniently ignore. If the Airtel guys dont have some kind of hidden charges in the plan, then I will be more than happy with this one. Most of my calls go to airtel numbers only. So atleast here,Airtel RoX in a good sense. So finally changed it.

Again i should be honest to tell that I had an emotional attachment with that number. There are a lot of things behind that. And there was a friend of mine who was more sad than I am when I changed the sim. Well, not one, two actually. I am sorry.

PS: Arjun lost a lot of contacts. Lot of important numbers. All the Infosys ppl’s numbers..And there is no other backup as well.

I hate communism!!

A few weeks back I have written a couple of articles on my strong secular feelings but that wasnt political at all. But that doesnt mean that I have no political opinions at all. I am a strong anti-communist. I strongly believe communism is such an obselete idea which tries to solve the problems of the modern world based on the rules some guy wrote in the 18th century. When those rules fail to apply properly on the modern day world they simply make some noisy stunts to pretend they havent lost their importance. Locking out industries that are running well and discouraging the investors moving to our land are a few of these stunts. They are all bourgeois establishments  for them. And if anybody says a word against these stunts, they are bourgeois and petty bourgeois again.

The most hated word in their dictionary is “foreign”. The foreign countries are all wicked for them..err not all..there is Cuba, North Korea and may be China. Russians are no more in the list,Gorbachev ruined it all. Now they want us to wait untill N. Korea or Cuba is good enough to make investements in our land and till then no development is allowed at all. Well how can China be in the list. They are communists only in a political sense. When it comes to economy, there is no more communism. Well whatever they call it, it looks like capitalism for me. Oops…capitalism…thats the most forbidden word in this world. You ever say that again then you are a bourgeois.

Looking back in the history can anybody point out an example for a communist nation that has progressed to a developed nation. There is none. Take the example of Korea. The same land was split into North and South halves by the 38th parallel. Just compare the economic status of the communist north and the capitalist south. Look at China. When on did China start to progress, from the moment they threw away communism from their economy. I should accept that as a political system communism helped China as they always had a stable government. That will be good as long as the people are ignorant about the term we call “democracy”.  So my dear communist friend, tell me whats your opinion about democracy is,enlighten us. I know you cant say an answer. You need to take permission from your party to answer a simple question or express your personal feelings. You are not allowed to think, they think for you. You are their workhorse.

Mr.Communist: Well Mr. Bourgeois ,there is no democracy.There is only the party. There is no court,there is only the polit bureau.And there is no god,there is only Marx and Lenin.

The Google Crome OS

Wow..it seems like google is planning to take over the world. This time its an OS from them and they call it the Google Chrome OS. The official blog calls it an “extension” of the Chrome browzer, they were kidding. Chrome OS is a lightweight, open-source PC-operating system that is built over the Linux kernel. And like most google products its supposed to be free of cost as well. Now thats a real deal..all the freedom of open-source and the support of a giant, thats most men’s dream.

The very concept the Chrome OS is that its the browzer thats the real OS. Most applications are kept online. Now what the OS is supposed to provide is a quick-starting light and power saving OS that can support this concept. Cynics might ask then how can it be a danger to the current  OS giant Microsoft when chrome is not designed for those power users out there at all. The issue gets strong when the figures show that most of the PC users are not the so called power users. They use PC to access the net, to stay in touch, to make words docs, spreadsheets and do presentations.People dont want to worry about carrying around files and searching out for drivers. Now for them Chrome is the answer to their prayers. And they are the majority. But of course those power users are gonna have a bad time with Chrome. Those like the multimedia eds and the gamers. But they are just a handfull in this world.

The announcement came this tuesday night and in just two days itself it has become one of the most discussed topics in the internet world. People are shooting questions on more detailed informations on the OS and its supports. Unconfirmed reports are coming from around the globe regarding Google negotiating with most OEMs invluding Dell, HP, Asus and Acer. But till this moement they havent given an official comment on that.And as far as the experts can think, it will be a good offer for those OEMs as well. Afterall it can save them around $50 per machine.Considering the ability of Chrome to run on X86 and ARM processors there is every reason to think chrome to be better suited for Netbooks than Windows.

However I was feeling like its Google’s vision into the future. They have already understood computing cannot be contained in a small box. They have realized cloud is the future. With the ability of clouds to share resources the internet becomes the backbone of all computing and all you will ever need is a browzer(what will a browzer look like at that time is something I cant predict).Now in that scenario, it will be the Chrome that makes the future. And what can we use Windows for then…perhaps to sit back and watch the clouds moving in the sky. I would like to quote a a few words I have read about this issue, “If indeed Google puts out a fast, easy to use operating system that lets netbooks soar and free users from constant software patches, Microsoft will find it very hard to explain to consumers why they should continue to use its software, other than just out of a foolish consistency.”

But at the end of the day,there is one thing that makes me wonder…what happened to the android project. HP already had plans to make it their OS for netbooks . Chrome is an entirely different OS and has nothing to do with the Android. Did they really drop the Android project or did they decide to keep it exclusive for the mobile devices. Man its Google. When they do something, there is always a purpose.

Union budget favours my plans !!

Yesterday was the annual budget day in India and was the first after the general elections. The budget summoned mixed responeses, but altogether it was widely called the common man’s budget. But I call it a budget designed exclusively for me. I was planning to buy a cell phone and an LCD TV and whoa, the budget reduced the price of both of them. A bit childish to hear right,I am sorry, but I have to share my happiness with someone no?

Both the above mentioned appliances were very urgent at home. One fine morning the TV I was using just blew up. When I say blew up,dont get the impression that it exploded with a big bang. It simply went blank. So I better say my TV is now on a blackout. Still on putting the settings to highest values of brightness and contrast we still can see some picture.But the problem is everyone in the cast need to be caucassians. The blacks get too much of camouflague..oh I miss Will Smith..Good that the football is white, so Arjun can atleast see the ball moving on the field.

Now the cell phone, I am still using a Nokia 1100..still remember guys..hmm now we who use it have become a rare species ..To count there is me, Nandu, PS and Binu sir…he he. My mom really hates me still using it and keeps on asking me “Cant u buy a better one for god’s sake”…All these days I have been telling her no its fine with this one.Now I think I am starting to think differently.May be I shud go for a new one. But the one big problem with me is that when I think of buying something only the most expensive catches my heart. This time its the Nokia 5800 Music express. I think thats gonna burn a hole in my pocket with atleast a 20K. Hmmm. Yeah there is still deficit in the fund but its fine..the deficit is as small as 20K. But even with a 5800 I am not gonna throw the old 1100. I will need that whenever I am on a long trip. Noone beats 1100 when it comes to the battery life.

Anyway the priority number one is the TV. I am planning to buy a samsung LCD TV. Hey there is no way I can go for 32″…May be a 22″ or a 26″. There are 26″ models which are affordable but I need the connectivity specs and contrast ratio more than the size. I need a USB connectivity and atleast a 1:30000 dynamic contrast ratio. HDMI comes with every model nowadays. If its a 22″ I will be going for Samsung 22B480. Seems like a decent model. And I think I can adjust with a 22″..Afterall I was watching TV on a 21″ CRT till yesterday.

Back with a new look

I was totally out of blogging for a pretty long time. To be honest i was a bit busy with many things. And now I am back. Still a bit busy with some deadlines ahead,but I hope I can manage to fire a few posts here. By the way, I am not just back. I am back with a new look. I mean a new theme for the blog. Atleast those who are very close to me would be frowning to see a non-black theme in my blog. I am well known here for my obsession with black.

Yeah I like black very much and I accept it that I am somewhat obsessed with it, and even now nothing has changed. So why a non-black theme…simple, I just got bored with the theme I was using and there arent many good black themes available in wordpress. So thought of making a blue shift. Now this theme gives me more room on the screen to put all those widgets. Now since the blog is growing pretty well, I think its necessary to get some more space on the screen..

By the way the blog is doing good these days. Though I was out of it for sometime it was up and running all the time. Now the total number of  hits have moved to a good 38000+ figure and I hope to hit a 50K in a month or a couple. Ok I think I am feeling a bit sleepy now..So bye for now..

And once again, I am back to blogging..It feels like getting back to home after a long time.

Its good to be at home..

I cant tell u the exact feeling I had when I stepped back into my room after a couple of week long wait. I was staying temporarily in hostel for certain work. It was a great feeling of relief, and its too comfortable..Here u can just scream to ur mom for  a tea or a coffee and voila here it is.. When I am out I miss a lot of things. My workstation, hi speed net connection, tv right on front of ur bed and all those homely things…and last but the most important one, my mom…and the food she makes..

Work Life!!!

A fine sunny sunday morning ,what could be more frustrating than to be at the office..that too all alone.I am supposed to go to Chennai next week for ISRO interview and I asked my project manager for a 3 day leave.When I was asking for a leave I meant a loss of pay kinda leave. But what I got was a compensatory leave ,that means I have to work 3 sundays to make it up. That saves me 3 days salary but its too frustrating to be here alone.

But please dont have the impression that my project manager is a jerk like most others in the industry. He is an excellent guy,one of the best in his kind. Not annoying, never pester us asking for status, but on the same time keeps a check on the progress. Another good thing is that he knows the technical side too. So he perfectly understands the trouble in making things work and help a lot in that respect also.He knows what all components we have in shelf and when and where to reuse them. The rest of the crew is too jovial. We always have a nice time at the office. Once the PM is out it simply becomes something comparable to my old classroom. If the PM wasnt there then I am sure nothing called “work” would happen there.

I am frustrated about this sunday job,on the other hand Arjun was asking for a sunday a month. So he can take a compensatory leave on the next saturday and go home for two days twice a month atleast. But that request is still under consideration. May be they are a bit doubtful if we will work properly without anyone to control and monitor us.

Now the ISRO thing is pestering me a lot. The whole of my family want me to go there.Well I am yet to go for the interview and they have already decided my career. Oh my god,this is getting into my head. Some of my relatives have already started making offerings to temples and all. Some are already investigating on the possibilities of getting posted at Trivandrum. I got my admission to a University in France (Sofia Antipolis) but I dinn tell anyone except my mother because they wont even care to listen. All they want to say is ISRO. My mom also favours ISRO over France,but thats becos she can’t even think about not seeing me for a full two year span. Despite of saying all this, neither I can stay 2 years without seeing her. I love her to an extent most of you cant possibly fathom. Will see what happens.

I got a mail from CTS saying they will be sending the offer letter on early 2010. If I am not getting ISRO and cant make it to France (money matters a lot..and my mom too..), then my other options are Infosys and CTS. I already received a call letter from Infy saying I have to join on 9th of November 2009. The last thing I want to do is join Infy. But considering the economic scenario of the world, I shud accept that it will be really unwise not to join and wait for CTS. Chances are there that they might never call. Many of us cogs have already made up their mind to go to infy.

I have never felt IT as a good career for an engineer.I have been learning Computer Science.I didnt do it make somebody’s payroll for the rest of my life. I have made enterprise applications before.I have used many of those those technologies they claim to be the state of the art ones. But in the end what is happening more than “taking data out of the database,presenting it neatly and then putting it back”.There is no need for brain,all u need to have is patience,learn n number of technologies and put them together.

I am not telling that this job needs no brains at all,on the other hand I am asking does this job really demand a four year engineering graduation.We can train a +2 student for 6 months and he can do it neatly. And where is our chance of innovation.Your PL says and you do it. Thats all. Like one my friends in Infy(he is an intern there now) said “we are slaves wearing formals”.And another thing,you can kiss goodbye to a good and peaceful family life,esp if ur spouse is also from the same kind of industry.

So even if I join infy, my plans are still the same. I have all those referance letters and the same spirit left. I will keep on trying for something like ISRO or a higher studies option.

[PS: This is an excerpt from my personal diary.Therefore what u read is completely my personal opinion. If you feel hurt or feel that the information is not true, please, I apologize]