Soliloquy (To infinity.....and beyond)

Mosquito Repellent Software!

2009-05-07T23:43:00.006+05:30

Heard of mosquito coils, mosquito nets, mosquito mats etc? Amused at the term mosquito repellent software? I have probably written thousands of lines of code over the last couple of years, but seriously a software for keeping mosquitoes out of the door was new one! Thinking I could go to mom and tell her "See mom, I have a mosquito repellent software which you can run on our home computer!! You only have to click this icon, just like opening internet explorer!"
As a matter of fact such a software does exist. It makes your PC produce a frequency of sound that is effective in driving mosquitoes away. Of course, you will have to check the configuration of the speakers you use, ie if it can actually emit sounds of such frequency.

Check out google for some of the interesting links on this one. Maybe you wil hit upon one that says, shoo mosquitoes from your mobile! :)

Happy Reading on this one!

ATM Blues

2007-05-09T17:45:00.007+05:30

I've never doubted my skills of using an ATM( Automated Transaction Machine ). I was in fact quite proud that I learnt to use the ATM before my mom and also that I could remember the password in my mind unlike my friends who had them written on pieces of paper. On this particular day I defeated my pride, suprisingly!
This happened a month back. I was going to Kerala that evening to attend my grandpa's funeral. I was forlon and sad since the previous day, ever since I got the news from Kerala. ( Spent most of the day remembering the good vacations we had in Kerala while we were kids. The mango trees, having tender coconut water standing under the tree that grew it, collecting pineapples from the bushes, all of that we did. All the kids with our dear "appachen" ventured out everyday, expecting a new adventure. )
I wound up my work at office and left for the day. Half hour later I was home packing my bag. I decided to leave at 5 for the 6.15 bus from Madiwala I had tele- booked that morning. Considering the traffic conditions in Bangalore specially in the evening, I thought it was a safe time to start. I was short of cash, so I took a detour to the ATM to withdraw some to pay for my ticket and of course for the travel. That would mean at least a 15 min delay before I could take the auto-rickshaw to the bus station.
I got into the HDFC ATM in a hurry and slipped in my card into the slot. I keyed in the pin and amount and waited for my transaction to process. 2 seconds later I hear a beep and a message saying my Pin does not match. First time in 3 years!! I thought I did a mistype, so there I entered the pin again and the rest of the process followed.2 seconds later I hear the beep again with the same message. The next second, my brain started its ramblings.."Pin's been keyed in wrong twice, how did this happen?? someone's changed my pin??My account has been hacked and all my money's gone!!The bus leaves at 6.15!!! I dont have enough money to pay the ticket!!! I dont think I'll be able to go today! " Sigh! 2 mins late, before a I could pass out I tell my brain to stop and slip in my card again into the slot and key in the pin with another combination of the same numbers, thinking that I probably made a mistake.By now I am totally confused about the pin. Another 2 attempts and I get a message saying "Your card has been blocked, you can use it after 24hours"!
Well I managed to call my roomies and get the money I needed and ended up at bus station just on time. But forgetting my pin was the last thing I would do and wondered what went wrong with me. It felt like the password file got deleted from my brain and I would never get it back again.
Maybe I should write down my passwords some place. But then I would have to do away with my pride....

Oracle India, PTP

'I' ed

2006-10-03T17:15:00.000+05:30

Been tagged by someone at the distance....hoping these pieces will fit :)

I am thinking about -
... what my next post should be
I said -
... I have been busy, and so its frozen in here
I hear -
.... voices calling from afar
I wish -
... I knew....
I wonder -
... If my wish would ever come true
I regret -
... not being able to build courage to take a boat ride ever
I want to -
.. know what it would be like, otherwise
I am -
... what I think
I dance -
... almost never, maybe in front of the mirror in my room ..lol!
I sing -
....always, always, always
I cry -
... whenever I watch cryee cryee scenes in the movies
... many a times to discharge my sadness
I am not always -
... the perfectionist I'd love to be!
I make with my hands -
... my stupid computer look smarter than me ;)
I write -
... when I am bored at work ;)
I confuse -
... my mind with the question...what if?
I need -
... blessings and prayers always coz of which I think I live to see this day
And finally -
... I think I will get to do what I want to...shhhhhhhhh

Mentos Khao..Dimaag ki batti Jalao ;)

2006-07-17T14:24:00.000+05:30

Lunch overwith, time to have a "Mentos Chewy Dragee". My cube partner opens her drawer, both of us peer into it where of course lie a dozen mentos candies. Today we have 3 flavors to choose from 'lime n lemon', 'strawberry' and 'mint'(in order of liking ;) ) ! We both pick up the yellow candy...open the wrapper...n pop it in...now as we savor the tangy taste of the candy,the next thing to do...wrappers need to be disposed off...so here I go...Open my drawer! Convenient I must say!

However today was different...sudden realization dawned and we were staring at almost 2 dozen wrappers( guess collections of the past week)....tucked under the file and notebooks...on counting them we were in for a shock...we were having close to 5..ummm..or is it 6...7 would be being honest....mentos chewy dragees each, everyday! While the lime n lemon flavor is the most desirable, mint and strawberry flavors sufficed when the favourite ran out of stock(with the supplier of course, ie a small shop arnd the corner).

Wondering what made us pop in these candies....going by the 'mentos' punchline maybe it did have an effect on our dimaag....maybe thats the reason why I wasnt drowsy in the afternoons lately...hey I came up with a post breaking my previous frequency, and I thought I had run outta ideas ;)...guess it works after all.

Dreading that we have probably become mentos addicts, we decided not to lay pur hands on the candies anymore...aunctioned off the remaining ones for free....we got back to work chewing on the candy, lamenting it was the last one.

Here's what remains of our "mentos chewy dragees".....sigh.....

Hoshwalon Ko Khabar Kya

2006-07-03T15:09:00.000+05:30

"Jhankar Beats" on World Space is the sole source of music once I get to work, they seem to be playing coupla decent songs today....long time since I heard this jagjit singh number , the singing maestro is my favourite gazal singer, the feeling with which he renders his songs only brings out the meaning of each word more deeply...so sing along!

hoshwaaloan ko khabar kya bekhudii kya chiiz hai
ishq kiiji'e phir samjhiye zindagii kya chiiz hai

unse nazar kya milii roshan fizaa'en ho ga'iin
aaj jaana pyaar kii jaaduugarii kya chiiz hai

khultii zulfoan ne sikhaa'ii mausamoan ko shaayarii
jhuktii aankhoan ne bataaya maikashii kya chiiz hai

ham laboan se kah na paa'e unse haal-e-dil kabhii
aur voh samjhe nahiin yeh khaamoshii kya chiiz hai

Superhit Inspirations

2006-06-08T15:24:00.000+05:30

Heard the songs from the latest release Krishh..."Ek tha ladka, ek thi ladki deewani" sounded familiar...After thinking for about a whole evening I finally managed to match the tune to a number from a 90s shah rukh movie called Koyla (one of his movies gone into oblivion)....the music director takes inspiration from his own creation to make a new song....so goes the legend of inspirations...from hollywood, from non-hindi compositions...I hear there is a song coming up that is apparently inspired from the national anthem of Hungary....had a groupthink, the other day over lunch with colleagues....someone's heard a song inspired by the australian national anthem...so goes the story of inspirations...n its one to live forever..people love listening to their favorite numbers over and over again..n thats how we get superhits!!

God's Own Country

2006-06-02T13:30:00.000+05:30

...fraud mallu goes to Kerala after gap of 4 whole years and comes back with some pictures as a proof of affiliation to this place rightly called 'Daivathinte Swantham Naadu' .....sigh!!!

Gangster

2006-05-01T20:25:00.000+05:30

A movie had to be a part of the long weekend...GANGSTER it was!!!

Mahesh Bhatt lives upto his reputation with this latest presentation...unlike its title the movie has little to do with "gangsters"...its essentially a love story...very sensitive and touching...

Without indulging into too many details...the movie is all to do about a woman( Simran) who gets trapped into a situation where she has to make a choice between the gangster( Daya ) who rescued her from the dinginess of a dance bar, whom she dreamt of having a life with, who is on the constant run saving himself from the law keepers, who of course who loves her, who strays away from his mentor( Khan ) for her....and the other a next door guy( Aakash )..who becomes her closest confidante, life support, rescuer in the absence of Daya...who promises her the secure life that she never got from Daya...
Turn of events eventually lead her to make the wrong choice.... The rest is for you to find out....
The movie goes into the present and the past..and has nested flashback sequences that dont confuse the viewer at all..very sensitively shot...the story unfolds with a flow...has a couple of broken links...which keep the viewer interested....the story reaches its full circle in the end...the songs are well organised and timely ...the movie doesnt make you laugh at all....rather can get you all weepy...
Dialogues are few considering it is a 2 hour movie with 4 songs in between...not very impressive though...few of them sound absurd for the situation..but one realises in the end why they sounded that way.

Debutante Kangana Ranaut( Simran ) is the beautiful face of the movie...quite unlike the regular porcelain faces she has come up with some good show of emotions on-screen and her dialogues(overdoing them at times)...she has a long way to go....
Shiney Ahuja( Daya )...has hardly 3-4 dialogue sequences in his pocket...but his rendition does not live upto the "best debutante of year" award....expressionwise very impressive...one scene towards the end of the movie definitely strikes the right chord...

Emran Hashmi has thankfully not overdone his part...a neat performance in all senses.

Anurag Basu's direction and presentation is commendable...that makes the movie different from the regular ones...though the story is not all that unusual.

The soundtrack by Pritam doesnt let you down...a chartbuster for sure....Bheegi Bheegi takes the cake for the rendition as well as music plus lyrics...Ya Ali( has a sufi touch which is the "in" thing in the music circle) and Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai are equally good...all three songs are laced by some fine lyrics

Wont call the movie a must watch...but if your game for a movie...GANGSTER is worth a peek and is definitely watchable...not recommended to the weak/faint/broken hearted and those who are going through the not so bright side of life.

My ratings
Movie : ***
Star Cast : **1/2

Soundtrack : ***1/2
Story/Script : ***
Dialogues : **

Bros and Cons

2006-04-27T18:33:00.000+05:30

Mr Mahajan fighting for his life....6th day into this ordeal....condition still critical says NDTV.com ...shot by his own younger brother....
A rare and shocking incident that sent a shiver down the spine of all who heard of it.....quite unimaginable in the recent times...and one that will go down in history...

Mystery, Family ties, Resentment,Money power...ring bells....and make some food for thought..

One of the best in his profession...only time will tell if things will be the same , like before saturday...

This is crazy!!!!!!!!

2006-04-07T14:39:00.001+05:30

Some Out-Of-Office E-Mail Auto-Replies....by Dilbert! Undoubtedly the worlds best geek!

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to
you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I
am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have
received anything at all.

3. Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having
my brain removed so that I may be promoted to management.

4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless
emails you send me until I return from vacation on 4/18. Please be
patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been
charged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word
in your message.

6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server
Connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your
computer and try sending again. (The beauty of this is that when you
return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).

7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a
queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect
to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

8. Hi. I'm thinking about what you've just sent me. Please
wait by your PC for my response.

9. Hi! I'm busy negotiating the salary for my new job. Don't bother to
leave me any messages.

10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical
reasons. When I return, please refer to me as 'Loretta' instead
of 'Steve'.

Any takers ????

Thnx ash for this mail!

look for the best here : http://www.geek.nl/pics/dilbert-arch/

Bouncing back

2006-04-02T00:06:00.000+05:30

Ahhh...feels nice to be back in the blogging arena after a long sabbatical (if I may call it that way).....hard to believe that its been more than a month since the last time I came up with something here...anyway...owe it all to my trip to Hyderabad, which ended 2 weeks later than the scheduled 1 week....and then bouncing back to the routine that I had left behind here...

A glimpse of hyderabad I managed to capture

City Awesome city!(Very neat , clean and beautiful)

Places I visitied Hussainsagar(massive and a beautiful lake , though it has awfully unclean on some parts!), Charminar(majestic , unbelievable architecture), AP Assembly House, The High Court.

Pearls Lots of them in different shapes and sizes (can get a good bargain, couldnt help but buy )

Bangles Laakh Bangles (embedded with glasses and stones in many colors)

Karachi Bakery Fruit Biscuits( Quite unique and authentic...made of dry fruits ..)

Favourite hangout place Hyderabad Central(much bigger than the Pune one).

The Best Dessert One of the best I've had...BullsEye at Ohris in HC ( A large piece of rich chocolate cake with a scoop of a vanilla ice-cream right in the middle of it...topped with chocolate sauce , mouthwatering....thnx to Bubun).

Biryani Paradise, Hyderabad House (Has branches in and around the city and is better than Paradise).

Rickshawalas Patented Indian Rickshawalas (Can take you on a joy ride!).

Jubilee Hills Home to the rich and famous of Hyderabad.

High-Tech City Home to the giants of the IT industry(interesting roads....get a F1 track illusion)

Salarjung Museum and the Golconda Fort are two things I missed out on..Hope to catch them on my next visit!

After slogging out almost 12-13 hours on weekdays, weekend expeditions in and around hyderabad got me this picture...

Now I am back to work , kind of relaxed lately(got back to office on monday), expecting some work to come along soon.

GoMgee

2006-02-04T23:44:00.000+05:30

Happened to drop in at MG road to run an errand today....n had my first encounter with the "walking plaza"....n it was one nightmare that I'll remember for sometime..
It was a.k.a climbing a mountain...believe me....the turning near barista that leads to east street has been closed, so to find a parking is the first task...thats ur first summit...well done if ur successful(specially from 6-9PM)...soon after this u realise that your mile away from where you want to go(if your not in a window shopping mood)....so the place I wanted to go was at least 2 kms far...what do I do next...at a distance I saw a mini bus appraoching...what was that...?? the GoMgee joy ride bus...haha!! I am not travelling in that...convinced my legs to take me...After 10 mins of literally sprinting I managed to get on too east street...but omg! what was the whole mess abt???? What I got to see is a massive flock of people walking right in the center of east street....four generations matching their paces!....the place looked so different..with stalls.......loud chatter...the cloud of dust n human odour lying still...loud music on speakers spread over the entire stretch...n of course the GoMgee mascot doing its rounds...get past that bevy ...u have attained summit number two, or maybe 3...4...lost that count...whew!...the final summit now seems closer...finally after dodging thousands of people n saying sorry infinite times...I reached my destination...
On closer observation it seems to be yet another attempt that will go futile in the end...Shopkeepers on that end are the direct victims of this...they surely will have a run for their money if this is made a regular feature...n shopping no longer will be the same....the quiet n peace that the MG Road goers enjoyed while shopping will soon be alien....
The PMC sure thinks of it as an innovative idea to bring back the golden era that existed years back...but it only seems a paradise for the window shoppers...n the mindless wanderers...n kleptomaniacs....

A peek at the difference

2006-01-24T15:41:00.000+05:30

Its not always you come across sites that look and feel different....get to see the work of some great minds...they are definitely worth a peek!...these are two of 'em that I came across today

This is AKAI's site ...very interesting the way it works...select the disk like things on their home page and watch, one of the marketing gals at my workplace passed it on http://www.akai.com/index.asp#

Qualcomm's home page....keep watching the page and move your mouse arnd...u'll find out...every page has something that makes browsing through exciting.
http://www.qualcomm.com/

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

2006-01-12T22:57:00.000+05:30

It was yesterday when ashutosh ..my colleague..stopped me and mentioned "the date this friday is 13th" .... uoh!!!!thats the lst thing on earth i wanted.....cmon I have a demo to give this friday!!!
Paraskevidekatriaphobia(fear of 13th Friday) is what its called....named by Dr. Donald Dossey ...a morbid..irrational fear of this day..
The superstition associated with this day has early origins .... innumerable folklores narrate the evils omens, witchcraft, magic that can cause considerable uneasiness...many of us have used this day as an example to explain how bad the day is....I have seen people freak out on its very mention!!!
What is with these two factors that makes this day so dreadful and eerie...
Friday happens to be the 6th day of the week...which is apparently not a good day...friday rarely has been the day that has seen the advent of something good....
The aversion to number 13 is common...people prefer not numbering a 13th floor as such, of a tall building, till modern times houses have been numbered 121/2 instead of 13......no new ventures or journeys are embarked upon on 13th.....infact people go to the extreme of not venturing out of their houses on 13th....

But this fear is not completely unexplained...its has rather compelling roots...
According to the Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki...he arranged the killing of the god of joy and gladness..the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day....
In ancient Rome, witches reportedly gathered in groups of 12. The 13th was believed to be the devil.
Judas, who betrayed Christ was the 13th person to arrive for the the Last Supper....Jesus was crucified on Friday...its also believed the Great Flood started on a Friday
Numerologists consider 12 a "complete" number. There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus....
One extra that is 13 causes restlessness...
Also the ill-fated mission to the moon, Apollo 13....is attributed by 13
This sounds crazy!!!!!
And to add to all there are series of movies called "Friday the 13th" (with varaitions of course)... picturizing horrors ...
Today the the fear has much more to do with personal experience. Backed by such evidences people suppose that the day is bad and unlucky for whatever reason...Anything that happens abnormally on this day will probably stay for long.... But if you think about it, bad things, big and small, happen all the time. If you're looking for bad luck on Friday the 13th, you'll probably find it anyways!
As for me I guess its TGIF.....thats enough to make my day!!!!!! oh but this fridays a 13th...sigh!!!
courtesy
http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/friday_the_13th.htm

Maiden one of the New Year

2006-01-05T14:25:00.000+05:30

Been thinking of posting this one since the new year started...little did I know my first day at office this new year will welcome me with a colossal pile of work...my PM just returned after a week long hiatus....that explains how I ended up with that much work...quite a start to the new year...
The week seemed pretty long coz of the work...we had a new HR guy joining us...n he has assumed the role of mailing all of us quote of the day...at 9 sharp...his first quote of the year
"Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence"
....lets see what he has in store for the remaining 360 days...maybe I'll come up with a list of them soon....
We have a "belated" new year party coming up this weekend at the company...looking foward to some fun....whether that happens is yet to be seen...

I guess I should end by hoping that this year will have all dreams coming true...n with a prayer to the lord almighty ..that this year should see less of human suffering....more of peace and laughter ...

BREWing

2005-12-29T14:03:00.000+05:30

The maiden assignment given to me at my first job....my PM came over and said "soumya we got to start researching on bru"..... I was a fresher....but what the hell was "bru" ???...."ya..ok...." went my reply still recovering from the initial discomfiture....
I turned to my monitor .... opened www.google.com ... n slowly typed in bru...still unsure of what would appear....after a half hour ordeal and trying all possible permutations(brue, bru, brooo) that probably would help me in finding a "bru" SDK....I typed in Qualcomm bru.....bingo I had hit the nail....It was the BREW(Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) SDK.....brew eh??
Anyways still not too sure...I finally downloaded the SDK......now I have been working in BREW since the last 6 months....guess its as exciting as brewing a good pint of beer (though I havnt tried the latter!)
BREW is not known to many here in India.....in short it is a platform to develop mobile applications...can be programmed in C/C++/Java..but somehow I felt it is quite Cish....very exciting and gripping....the APIs give you freedom to program with quite some flexibility...
In my view its here to stay and will catch the wireless market..with 3G and CDMA being seen as the future of wireless technologies.....specially with the latest Brew SDK that offers many additional APIs....maybe after a while.....coz of limitations like... it being a proprietary of qualcomm..and very few developers working with it.....but if you wanna play around with the SDK ..which I feel will be worth the while....its available for free download on the Qualcomm site...
Here are some useful links...just in case....
http://brew.qualcomm.com/brew/en/
http://www.developer.com/ws/brew/article.php/1478061
Meanwhile I am trying my best to brew some good useful code.....

"Busy"

2005-12-28T15:41:00.000+05:30

I call the it the "busy" fever...could be a fad.....which has gripped most of my batchmates(most of 'em like me tasting the bitter sweet task of earning their bread n butter since very recently)....including me for that matter... our lives have supposedly zeroed down to being busy.... the entire lot now claim themselves to be "busy" having time only for work(I am kinda disputed on this particular word!).....the term "busy".... has got itself on the first position of the list of our new found corporate jargon...as u might call it....
A patent reply to the question" Hi hows u?"...now by this Im expecting a fine.. a good....but what I eventually see in reply.... a single word "busy"....too bad I recall using "busy" as a reply myself not very long ago.....
Lately I do think twice before pinging anybody on my messenger.....lest I get "busy" as a reply!
As for me...since "busy" sounds too cliched....if I am really too bogged down by work....I find myself opting out of using "busy".....

this is my debut

2005-12-23T10:27:00.000+05:30

Hi!
I finally managed to get myself a place at the blogspot...wonder what took me so long......but they say better late than never! took quite a bit of inspiration....but afterall why have a blog of your own...maybe its a longing desire to be heard....maybe i just have nothing much worthwhile to do......in fact i was questioned by my frnd on this sudden hookup with blogging... maybe its exhibitionism......
Its quite a dull afternoon today.....its friday...last day of the week finally....the day seems to be longer.....I guess I should get back to finishing the piece of leftover code I have been working on.....
Hopefully many more of my writings will see the light of the day....till then adios...
Heres wishing happy writing to me....n reading to u guys!