Dec 31st 2007.. a year has come to an end. This is the time for us to celebrate what we achieved, ponder on the things we missed, learn from the things we failed, think harder on completing the things we have started, dream of starting new things.
The year has not been all bad for me. I continued to do what I love most and that is to develop applications and learn new things. It gave me the chance to travel to new places. It made me realize what I had with me, when I was back in india. One place where I had all my family, relatives and good old friends, the other where I made new friends and learnt to be more dependent.
My brother got married this year and bought a beautiful young lady into our family. Our house is now filled with more joy than ever before. He changed his job and settled down in Bangalore. I got a new home to visit when I am in Bangalore.
I started this blog and am surprised when I see that people do visit from all corners of the world. I got a new medium to share my thoughts, likes and dislikes with others.
I got a chance to work on new frameworks, hone my skills on existing technologies. I realized that there is so much to learn and share, no matter how many hours of efforts you put in. It gave me confidence to start on new applications and understand business that I have never developed applications before.
So knowing my strengths and weaknesses has prepared me better to start a whole new year, a year where I can strive to make those dreams come true. The year will not be filled with easy success but will be filled with new opportunities.
So here I wish all my friends a year where you win those opportunities, overcome the hurdles no matter how much they make you sweat, feel a sense of accomplishment for the results you achieve and for the efforts you put in. Happy New Year!!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
MCG - Boxing Day Test match
Christmas celebration was just over and Boxing day lurked round the corner. me and my friends had booked tickets for the first day of the first test match between india and australia. Andrew symonds was exposed to some bad (surprisingly named racists) remarks and taunts by the indian crowd and equally supportive australian fans were expected to return the taunts with interest. so i was excited about the match even though i would rate myself really poor fan of the game, specially being from india where it is a religion and sachin is the god.
Melbourne cricket ground home of Melbourne cricket club is world famous. many memorable matches other than cricket have been played on the very same ground. the Austraian Football League finals is also played here. it is REALLY a huge ground and also holds the record for the maximum number of light towers (six) on any sporting avenue.
we got up early (by weekend standards) and after having the same quick breakfast of corn flakes headed out to the stadium. it is at a walkable distance from our apartment and the weather didnt appear bad either for a good walk. No sooner than we crossed the yarra river we could see australian fans pouring in at the stadium with their flag on their backs. we had thought of buying indian flags at the merchandise shop in the stadium but the patriotic australians (poor marketing skills) had nothing remotely indian at that shop.
The stadium can be seen amidst the skyscrapers of melbourne and looks really magnificient even from a mile away. no sooner did we enter the stadium we could see handful of players from both teams practising at the nets. i saw Dravid for the first time in real life practising his famous straight drive.
we knew it would be crowded and so walked in to know where we were to seat. the stadium looked even more wonderful inside than from outside. with lucious green grass trimmed perfectly it looked welcoming to the eyes. but today a battle was about to be fought and it would be gladiators in there who will be fighting for their country and fame if not for life. it was empty when we took our seats but later aussie families covered us from all sides. though i would have liked to be seated with indian fans i had no complaints whatsoever when the aussie girls were so beautiful in the front row.
the coin was tossed and australia won it, deciding to bat first. we were a little disappointed even though we get to see all indian players at once if india fielded. But indian bowlers are not as good as the the indian batting line up and it was saddening that we will not be getting to see the maestro strike boundaries of brett lee's bowling.
the first half was boring and the sun scorching in all its fury. my jeans was burning and it was hotter in the ground than the weather department had predicted. we could not sit any longer and the sadder part is that niky had booked our seats in the dry area (damnit). so we had to walk out to grab a beer and discussed india's poor bowling attack and the hot sun burning us.
till lunch we had got ourselves burnt under the sun and the indian team was not having any luck on the field as well. i was even wondering to walk back home to watch it in the comforts of home. but what happened post lunch made the day fruitful than we wanted. india struck with the first wicket and then the mighty australians were humbled by anil kumble's bowling attack. even the shade fell on our heads and we started enjoying the match. indian players gave us plenty of opportunities to cheer and scream at the top of our voices and it felt so good doing this in a foreign land.
the australian supporters had their own way of entertainment. they would start mexican waves even though it was banned and the commentators kept warning that initiators will be thrown out of the field. in addition to that big plastic balls were tossed around and the security guys had a tough time grabbing them from the spectators. i also got a chance to punch one of the many balls tossed around. some of them even made it to the ground. if this was not enough two drunk australian fans ran madly on the ground. the first one didnt make it too far but the second one bisected through the pitch and was later overpowered by the police. the penalty for that short life of fame and madness is 6000 dollars.
once indians got six wickets we thought it was worth the effort of coming to the stadium and getting burnt in the sun. but indian bowlers kept getting more wickets and we got more hungrier. at the end of day inidan team had got 9 wickets.
as we walked back we again got to see dravid practising (man he works hard) with robing singh bowling in the nets. all of us stopped to see this at an even closer view. the australian supporters also were there and they were sledging even worse than the australian team players. Dravid kept smiling and kept practising. when we decided to leave i shouted all the best dravid and walked back. Santy mentioned i should have told that in my native language as dravid and i were from the same indian state, Karnataka. i thought that was a good idea but just hoped that dravid performs well the next day to shatter the words of australian supporters.
we had quick showers at the apartment and then left for the boxing day shopping spree hoping to buy any remaining stocks. the eventful day had come to a close and i only wished indian team lived to the expectations of their fans.
Melbourne cricket ground home of Melbourne cricket club is world famous. many memorable matches other than cricket have been played on the very same ground. the Austraian Football League finals is also played here. it is REALLY a huge ground and also holds the record for the maximum number of light towers (six) on any sporting avenue.
we got up early (by weekend standards) and after having the same quick breakfast of corn flakes headed out to the stadium. it is at a walkable distance from our apartment and the weather didnt appear bad either for a good walk. No sooner than we crossed the yarra river we could see australian fans pouring in at the stadium with their flag on their backs. we had thought of buying indian flags at the merchandise shop in the stadium but the patriotic australians (poor marketing skills) had nothing remotely indian at that shop.
The stadium can be seen amidst the skyscrapers of melbourne and looks really magnificient even from a mile away. no sooner did we enter the stadium we could see handful of players from both teams practising at the nets. i saw Dravid for the first time in real life practising his famous straight drive.
we knew it would be crowded and so walked in to know where we were to seat. the stadium looked even more wonderful inside than from outside. with lucious green grass trimmed perfectly it looked welcoming to the eyes. but today a battle was about to be fought and it would be gladiators in there who will be fighting for their country and fame if not for life. it was empty when we took our seats but later aussie families covered us from all sides. though i would have liked to be seated with indian fans i had no complaints whatsoever when the aussie girls were so beautiful in the front row.
the coin was tossed and australia won it, deciding to bat first. we were a little disappointed even though we get to see all indian players at once if india fielded. But indian bowlers are not as good as the the indian batting line up and it was saddening that we will not be getting to see the maestro strike boundaries of brett lee's bowling.
the first half was boring and the sun scorching in all its fury. my jeans was burning and it was hotter in the ground than the weather department had predicted. we could not sit any longer and the sadder part is that niky had booked our seats in the dry area (damnit). so we had to walk out to grab a beer and discussed india's poor bowling attack and the hot sun burning us.
till lunch we had got ourselves burnt under the sun and the indian team was not having any luck on the field as well. i was even wondering to walk back home to watch it in the comforts of home. but what happened post lunch made the day fruitful than we wanted. india struck with the first wicket and then the mighty australians were humbled by anil kumble's bowling attack. even the shade fell on our heads and we started enjoying the match. indian players gave us plenty of opportunities to cheer and scream at the top of our voices and it felt so good doing this in a foreign land.
the australian supporters had their own way of entertainment. they would start mexican waves even though it was banned and the commentators kept warning that initiators will be thrown out of the field. in addition to that big plastic balls were tossed around and the security guys had a tough time grabbing them from the spectators. i also got a chance to punch one of the many balls tossed around. some of them even made it to the ground. if this was not enough two drunk australian fans ran madly on the ground. the first one didnt make it too far but the second one bisected through the pitch and was later overpowered by the police. the penalty for that short life of fame and madness is 6000 dollars.
once indians got six wickets we thought it was worth the effort of coming to the stadium and getting burnt in the sun. but indian bowlers kept getting more wickets and we got more hungrier. at the end of day inidan team had got 9 wickets.
as we walked back we again got to see dravid practising (man he works hard) with robing singh bowling in the nets. all of us stopped to see this at an even closer view. the australian supporters also were there and they were sledging even worse than the australian team players. Dravid kept smiling and kept practising. when we decided to leave i shouted all the best dravid and walked back. Santy mentioned i should have told that in my native language as dravid and i were from the same indian state, Karnataka. i thought that was a good idea but just hoped that dravid performs well the next day to shatter the words of australian supporters.
we had quick showers at the apartment and then left for the boxing day shopping spree hoping to buy any remaining stocks. the eventful day had come to a close and i only wished indian team lived to the expectations of their fans.
 |
| MCGBoxingD |
Friday, December 14, 2007
MAC Vs PC
i presume that all of you have seen the many ads released on youtube titled MAC vs PC. if you haven't you should check it out. they are techy and real funny. i am not gonna write about my opinion about what is better, whether a MAC or a PC. i use products of both Apple and Microsoft in my day to day life. ipod is plugged in most of the time when i am not working... and Microsoft is my bread and butter. i live most of my time building applications which run on Microsoft operating systems and using Microsoft Tools and technologies.
so what would happen if Steve Jobs Chief executive of Apple and Bill Gates Microsoft co founder share the same stage. well if you are interested just follow the link below "When Bill Met Steve.."
while you are there you may also want to go through what Bill Gates feels is necessary to succeed in this tech savvy world.. Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed
happy reading..
so what would happen if Steve Jobs Chief executive of Apple and Bill Gates Microsoft co founder share the same stage. well if you are interested just follow the link below "When Bill Met Steve.."
while you are there you may also want to go through what Bill Gates feels is necessary to succeed in this tech savvy world.. Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed
happy reading..
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
how to upload/download images in bulk?
These days it has become a basic necessity to have a digital camera at your hands reach. Every one wants to capture moments forever in their lives and what better way than to click it away in front of your digital camera. with the increasing number of digital photos comes the responsibility of sharing them as well.
there are many online photo albums which ease that out for you. i have tried flickr and picasa till today and have toggled between the two for some minor complaints i had with them. finally i am settling with picasa. the reasons i chose it are very obvious.
Having been through a similar issue i googled on how to upload photos in bulk INSPITE of the firewall. Below is one alternative i have tried and it works smooth.
you need to have mozilla firefox browser installed as the addon which does all the uploading works only with this browser for now. you can install the FREE browser from here.
I am a big fan of this browser and use it all the time unless i am working on a web app or company intranet apps which most of the time work only on IE. the next big thing you need to have on your machine is the universal uploader add on. you can download it from here . This addon allows you to upload images to flickr, picasa videos to youtube facebook blah blah and blah.
you can access the add on from the tools menu and just follow the on screen instructions.
now how to download your friends album in bulk from the online album. You cant sit saving each and every image on your PC from the album no matter how good your girlfriend looks in the album. atleast i dont have that much patience... well actually i dont have a girlfriend. the good thing is you dont have to do it one by one.
just ask your friend to share the album. once that is done you need to have the latest version of picasa intalled on your machine. you can find it here . once you have it installed just open the shared album and you will see a download album link below the album cover page. sweet...just click on that it will launch the installed picasa and follow the onscreen instructions to download the album..
let me know how the uploading/downloading stuff turned out in the comments. or if you have a better way of doing the same just share it in comments.
there are many online photo albums which ease that out for you. i have tried flickr and picasa till today and have toggled between the two for some minor complaints i had with them. finally i am settling with picasa. the reasons i chose it are very obvious.
- it is free
- no need for a separate account. you can start sharing with your gmail account itself.
- you can download a handy and pretty impressive(in terms of GUI) tool picasa to manage your photos even the ones in your web album as well.
- it is maintained by google :)
Having been through a similar issue i googled on how to upload photos in bulk INSPITE of the firewall. Below is one alternative i have tried and it works smooth.
you need to have mozilla firefox browser installed as the addon which does all the uploading works only with this browser for now. you can install the FREE browser from here.
I am a big fan of this browser and use it all the time unless i am working on a web app or company intranet apps which most of the time work only on IE. the next big thing you need to have on your machine is the universal uploader add on. you can download it from here . This addon allows you to upload images to flickr, picasa videos to youtube facebook blah blah and blah.
you can access the add on from the tools menu and just follow the on screen instructions.
now how to download your friends album in bulk from the online album. You cant sit saving each and every image on your PC from the album no matter how good your girlfriend looks in the album. atleast i dont have that much patience... well actually i dont have a girlfriend. the good thing is you dont have to do it one by one.
just ask your friend to share the album. once that is done you need to have the latest version of picasa intalled on your machine. you can find it here . once you have it installed just open the shared album and you will see a download album link below the album cover page. sweet...just click on that it will launch the installed picasa and follow the onscreen instructions to download the album..
let me know how the uploading/downloading stuff turned out in the comments. or if you have a better way of doing the same just share it in comments.
Monday, December 10, 2007
www - image of your life
Internet has so become an integral part of our lives. It caters to all our needs from educating us to entertaining us, from helping us to flirt with known/unknown people to staying in touch with our parents (if you are abroad). I seriously feel that by studying the websites frequented by an individual one can understand his personality to a certain extent.
my friend niky is such a big fan of cricket that he never misses to open cricinfo every day. he can follow entire match not just T20, not just one day matches but test matches from the first ball to the last on this site. he has read and re read every article on the site and never ceases to discuss them. That rules out one site i need not visit often as i can get a gist of everything on the site from him during cooking. similary i don't miss to narrate on some cool add-on that i came across or some cool method of cutting vegetables that i saw on youtube. (yeah these days i am googling on cooking skills as well).
my point is by observing the sites (other than mail severs like gmail,yahoomail,etc etc) frequented by an individual we can pretty much guess what he wants to become. of course we will not be able to say what does he not want to become.
if a guy visits
technical sites - we can gauge that he is interested in technology but not that is bad in any specific technology.
visiting youtube or videos.google.com - we can say that the individual is interested in music,trailers,cool videos and some other stuff which i cannot mention.
financial sites - the guy wants to make his money earn more money.
google.com - need not say anything.
news - yearns to know more on whats happening
wikipedia - wants to add more info or research more.
Below are the sites which i frequent every day.
igoogle.com - my personalized google page.
google.com/reader - to read the subscribed feeds. i never miss to read feeds from lifehacker,bbc.co.uk/click, msdn.
gmail - to obviously check mails and also to chat with friends
cnn-ibn site - only lately as i dont have access to indian news channels on tv and indian newspapers.
orkut.com - to stay in touch with my friends with whom i cannot chat
youtube.com - view great videos.
so what can you gauge of my personality by knowing the sites i frequent? leave your answers in comments. also mention the sites you frequent day in and day out and i will let you know what i think about your personality. This will also help you share your favourite sites with others.
stay connected.. stay online.
my friend niky is such a big fan of cricket that he never misses to open cricinfo every day. he can follow entire match not just T20, not just one day matches but test matches from the first ball to the last on this site. he has read and re read every article on the site and never ceases to discuss them. That rules out one site i need not visit often as i can get a gist of everything on the site from him during cooking. similary i don't miss to narrate on some cool add-on that i came across or some cool method of cutting vegetables that i saw on youtube. (yeah these days i am googling on cooking skills as well).
my point is by observing the sites (other than mail severs like gmail,yahoomail,etc etc) frequented by an individual we can pretty much guess what he wants to become. of course we will not be able to say what does he not want to become.
if a guy visits
technical sites - we can gauge that he is interested in technology but not that is bad in any specific technology.
visiting youtube or videos.google.com - we can say that the individual is interested in music,trailers,cool videos and some other stuff which i cannot mention.
financial sites - the guy wants to make his money earn more money.
google.com - need not say anything.
news - yearns to know more on whats happening
wikipedia - wants to add more info or research more.
Below are the sites which i frequent every day.
igoogle.com - my personalized google page.
google.com/reader - to read the subscribed feeds. i never miss to read feeds from lifehacker,bbc.co.uk/click, msdn.
gmail - to obviously check mails and also to chat with friends
cnn-ibn site - only lately as i dont have access to indian news channels on tv and indian newspapers.
orkut.com - to stay in touch with my friends with whom i cannot chat
youtube.com - view great videos.
so what can you gauge of my personality by knowing the sites i frequent? leave your answers in comments. also mention the sites you frequent day in and day out and i will let you know what i think about your personality. This will also help you share your favourite sites with others.
stay connected.. stay online.
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