A Man's Guide to what women actually mean when they say it...!
1. We need = I want
2. It’s your decision = The correct decision should be obvious by now
3. Do what you want = You’ll pay for this later
4. We need to talk = I need to complain
5. You’re...so manly = You need a shave and you sweat a lot
6. You’re certainly attentive tonight! = Is sex all you ever think about?
7. I’m not emotional! And I’m not overreacting! = I’ve got my period
8. This kitchen is so inconvenient = I want a new house
9. I want new curtains = and carpeting, and furniture, and wallpaper ...
10. I need wedding shoes = the other 40 pairs are the wrong shade of white
11. Hang the picture there = NO, I mean hang it there
12. I heard a noise = I noticed you were almost asleep
13. Do you love me? = I’m going to ask for something expensive
14. How much do you love me? = I did something today you’re not going to like
15. I’ll be ready in a minute = kick off your shoes and find a good game on TV
16. Is my butt fat? = Tell me I’m beautiful
17. You have to learn to communicate = Just agree with me
18. Yes = No
19. No = No
20. Maybe = No
21. I’m sorry = You’ll be sorry
22. Do you like this recipe? = It’s easy to fix so you’d better get used to it
23. I’m not yelling! = Yes I’m yelling because I think it’s important
24. All we’re going to buy is a soap dish = It goes without saying that we’re stopping at the cosmetics department, the shoe department, I need to look at a few purses, and those sheets would look great in the bedroom and did you bring your check book?
A Woman's Guide to what men actually mean when they say it...!
1. I’m hungry = I’m hungry
2. I’m sleepy = I’m sleepy
3. I’m tired = I’m tired
4. Do you want to go to a movie = I’d eventually like to have sex with you
5. Can I take you out to dinner? = I’d eventually like to have sex with you
6. Can I call you sometime? = I’d eventually like to have sex with you
7. May I have this dance? = I’d eventually like to have sex with you
8. Nice dress = Nice cleavage!
9. You look tense, let me give you a massage = I want to fondle you
10. What’s wrong? = I don’t see why you’re making such a big deal out of this
11. What’s wrong? = what meaningless, self inflicted psychological trauma are you going through now?
12. What’s wrong? = I guess sex tonight is out of the question
13. I’m bored = Do you want to have sex?
14. I love you = Let’s have sex now
15. I love you, too = Okay, I said it...we’d better have sex now!
16. Yes, I like the way you cut your hair = I liked it better before
17. Yes, I like the way you cut your hair = $50 and it doesn’t look that much different!
18. Let’s talk = I am trying to impress you by showing that I am a deep person and maybe then you’d like to have sex with me
19. Will you marry me? = I want to make it illegal for other men to have sex with you
20. I like that one better (while shopping) = Pick any frigging dress and let’s get out of here.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Ten Predictions...
While snooping around online, I came across ten predictions written by Steve Yegge, based on undercurrents that he's felt while reading through some techie stuff, as expected. Most of 'em are pretty obvious prediction and are just to kick-start the creative thought process.
Important Note: The predictions themselves don't matter! Most of them might turn up wrong...! The point of this exercise is to show you things that you'd start thinking...things that you weren't really aware of. Other people might find it an interesting read, even if there are factual errors or whatever...!
Prediction #1:
XML databases will surpass relational databases in popularity by 2011.
Reason for prediction:
Nobody likes to do O/R mapping; everyone just wants a solution.
XML is the most popular vehicle for representing loosely-structured, hierarchical data. Relational databases can't do this very well. Many common types of data are intrinsically hierarchical and loosely structured, so storing them in an RDBMS can be difficult. Examples: books, articles, and most other written documentation. HTML. Search indexes. File systems. Game worlds. Classical music scores. It's just easier to model some things this way.
Prediction #2:
Someone will make a lot of money by hosting open-source web applications.
Reason for prediction:
Most small development shops would pay a monthly fee not to have to administer the apps themselves.
We're rapidly entering the age of hosted web services, and big companies are taking advantage of their scalable infrastructure to host data and computing for companies without that expertise. They're a lot of work that's just overhead. You almost need a full-time administrator for these systems. Backups, performance tuning, branch administration, lots of issues. All you really want is for it to work, so you can focus on your problem domain.
Prediction #3:
Multi-threaded programming will fall out of favor by 2012.
Reason for prediction:
Cost/benefit ratio isn't high enough.
When safe alternatives to existing unsafe technologies come along, it takes about ten to fifteen years before everyone's switched over. Not that the unsafe users actually switch; that's just how long, on average, it takes the majority of them to be killed accidentally by their product, leaving only the new, safer programmers behind.
Hence, many programmers prefer to use C++ instead of far safer alternatives such as Java or Objective-C. And many programmers prefer to use Perl instead of far safer alternatives such as Ruby or Python. Many programmers prefer debugging weird problems in production over the much safer alternative of writing unit tests for their own code. And virtually all programmers prefer programming by side-effect over safer alternatives such as functional or declarative programming.
Multi-threaded programming has officially been declared hazardous to your health since, oh, roughly the week after it was invented. Everyone knew it was really tricky from the outset. It provided all sorts of exciting and (if I do say so myself) rather manly new failure modes: deadlocks, livelocks, missed signals, race conditions, read/write conflicts, write/write conflicts, and so on. But it did offer some ease-of-use advantages over IPC. And C++ programs already crash or corrupt data so often that occasional threading errors don't usually make much of a difference.
Prediction #4:
Java's "market share" on the JVM will drop below 50% by 2010. In other words, over half the code written for the Java platform will not be Java. It'll be Python, Ruby, Haskell, Lisp, and a variety of other languages. The Java programming language will become more like "assembly-language for the JVM" — something you use for building frameworks in Java, but most app code will be in higher-level languages compiled into Java bytecode.
Reason for prediction:
The Java core language is the weakest part of the otherwise strong Java platform.
The Java language just isn't cutting it, though. It's really hard to see this if you're coming from a C/C++ background, because Java is so much better than C++ that it feels like you've died and gone to Programmer Heaven. Java has real strings, and real exceptions, and real namespaces, and and real runtime typing, and real pure-virtual interfaces, and a real security model, and real memory management, and a real library system, and fast compilation times, and it's portable, and it doesn't crash. C++ is a miserable, poisoned purgatory, and Java delivers you from it. So as you might imagine, it takes a few years before you start to chafe at Java's limitations.
But Java is verbose and somewhat uncompressible: it lacks a macro system, so it's not extensible in the way XML and Lisp are extensible. What they decide to give you is all you've got. And it has no first-class functions, no preprocessor, no met programming, and no templating system. So it takes forever to say certain complex things in Java, and it's hard to to avoid certain kinds of code duplication. Java code bases tend to be pretty large — smaller than equivalent C++ code bases, possibly, but you still wind up with a lot of code.
Prediction #5:
Lisp will be in the top 10 most popular programming languages by 2010.
Reason for prediction:
Lisp is a keeper. And it's getting a lot of good press these days.
I think it'll be in the top 10, but not in the top 5. If you count all Lisp dialects including Scheme, it might make #6, though. That would include ANSI Common Lisp, Emacs Lisp, Scheme, Guile, Arc, and probably a few other dialects as well. Heck, if you just count lines of code, Lisp is already the fourth most-used language in a RedHat Linux distribution.
There are some other very solid functional-programming languages out there; Lisp isn't the only player in the field. Each of them has its advantages: Erlang has the world's best distributed-computing facilities; Haskell appears to be the world's most elegant and succinct language; OCaml binaries fairly consistently outperform C++. Most functional languages are pretty nice in at least one dimension.
But Lisp has a secret weapon: Paul Graham. Programming languages don't become successful based on their technical merits. The masses of programmers out there don't know or care about technical merit. They just want someone to look up to, someone to tell them what to do. Languages are religions, and religions need a spiritual leader. It's best if it's a person, but a faceless corporation will do in a pinch, if they have a good marketing department. And now Lisp has a new thought-leader and champion in Paul Graham: successful author; influential essayist; inventor of Yahoo! Store; the man who killed Spam. He has an impressive resume, and he appears to be only just getting started. He's creating the next-generation Lisp (called "Arc"), and his essays have been making the world sit up and pay attention. Largely because of Paul's leadership, everyone's talking about Lisp.
Prediction #6:
A new internet community-hangout will appear. One that you and I will frequent.
Reason for prediction:
People like to socialize.
Where's the internet community? I don't see it. People don't hang out on Amazon's website, or Google's, or eBay's, or Microsoft's. Not anywhere, really. There are little chat rooms here and there, and some static link-in sites where you can answer a bunch of questions about your hair color and favorite taco sauce. Yawn.
Prediction #7:
The mobile/wireless/handheld market is still at least 5 years out.
Reason for prediction:
My spider-sense isn't tingling yet.
Every year for at least the past decade, pundits have been predicting that next year will be the Year of Wireless Mobile Computing. They say every human being and most pets on the planet will spend the majority of their disposable income on mobile wireless services for their tiny handheld supercomputer phones. These devices will have 1900x1200 resolution, 1500-hour battery lives, T1 connection speeds, microsecond latency, a reception range that covers the planet surface to a depth of six miles, and will cost less than a pack of Mentos.
Every year, it's next year. Every next year, it doesn't happen. And you know what? Frankly, I'm getting tired of hearing about it. When I go to Best Buy or Costco or Rat Shack, I don't see tiny handheld devices and service plans that are "almost" tempting. What I see is crap that I wouldn't buy with someone else's money.
Don't get me wrong: it will happen someday. But I think it's not going to be any time soon. Betcha!
Prediction #8:
Someday I will voluntarily pay Google for one of their services.
Reason for prediction:
They're putting technological heroin in their services, and someday they're going to start charging.
I've never paid Google a dime, as far as I know, and I'd venture to guess that I've spent a lot more time on their website than on Amazon's. Or Starbucks'. I do a lot of Googling for free, and so do you. Google has changed my life. If I can't find what I'm looking for in Google in 3 tries, looking no further than the first 10 search results on each try, then it probably doesn't exist. Google is every bit as important a programmer-tool for me as my compiler is. And it's pretty darn important for my day-to-day life, too. As one example, I never use a phone book anymore. Want Uwajimaya's number? Type "Uwajimaya" into Google. You can even find it by spelling it incorrectly as "Uwajamaya". I just tried it.
And I still haven't ever paid Google a dime. But I'm convinced — someday, I will. As soon as they want me to.
Prediction #9:
Apple's laptop sales will exceed those of HP/Compaq, IBM, Dell and Gateway combined by 2010.
Reason for prediction:
Macs rule. Windows laptops are as exciting as a shiny disco ball in the ceiling.
I bought a Powerbook for my wife Linh about 8 months ago, and she uses it so much that I can't even sneak a peek at it once in a while. I just looked over at its little spot on our desk, and it's not there. She's using it right now. I bet she's on that thing for 3 hours a day at least, maybe more — playing games, reading mail, surfing the web, sharing pictures with her sisters. Doing Google searches, and I didn't tell her about Google. She just sorta found it. Before I bought her that Powerbook, her average computer usage was around an hour a year.
Macs are a triple-threat right now: they're trendy (which rarely correlates with quality; it's simply a marketing feat), they're actually easy to use for non-computer users, and they're a powerful platform for developers and power-users. There's something there for everyone.
But now the open-source community likes Macs just as much as you and I do. So before long, maybe even now, Macs will be a better choice for the majority of my computer activities, including programming. And when that happens, who would buy a PC laptop? Not me, that's for sure. My next one will be a Mac.
Prediction #10:
In five years' time, most programmers will still be average.
Reason for prediction:
That's just how the math works out.
Of course most programmers will still be average, by definition. The problem is that the average level of quality and productivity probably won't have changed all that much. The difference between great hackers and average plodders is a hundred-fold, which implies great potential for improving the average. But I doubt the industry average productivty/quality per-capita output will go up even 50% over the next 5 years, let alone 2 orders of magnitude. Partly because there are too many J2EE consultants out there ruining the numbers. But more importantly, most people are just doing this gig for a living. So most people will still be average, and average will still be ho-hum.
PS: Find the complete story here: http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/ten-predictions
Important Note: The predictions themselves don't matter! Most of them might turn up wrong...! The point of this exercise is to show you things that you'd start thinking...things that you weren't really aware of. Other people might find it an interesting read, even if there are factual errors or whatever...!
Prediction #1:
XML databases will surpass relational databases in popularity by 2011.
Reason for prediction:
Nobody likes to do O/R mapping; everyone just wants a solution.
XML is the most popular vehicle for representing loosely-structured, hierarchical data. Relational databases can't do this very well. Many common types of data are intrinsically hierarchical and loosely structured, so storing them in an RDBMS can be difficult. Examples: books, articles, and most other written documentation. HTML. Search indexes. File systems. Game worlds. Classical music scores. It's just easier to model some things this way.
Prediction #2:
Someone will make a lot of money by hosting open-source web applications.
Reason for prediction:
Most small development shops would pay a monthly fee not to have to administer the apps themselves.
We're rapidly entering the age of hosted web services, and big companies are taking advantage of their scalable infrastructure to host data and computing for companies without that expertise. They're a lot of work that's just overhead. You almost need a full-time administrator for these systems. Backups, performance tuning, branch administration, lots of issues. All you really want is for it to work, so you can focus on your problem domain.
Prediction #3:
Multi-threaded programming will fall out of favor by 2012.
Reason for prediction:
Cost/benefit ratio isn't high enough.
When safe alternatives to existing unsafe technologies come along, it takes about ten to fifteen years before everyone's switched over. Not that the unsafe users actually switch; that's just how long, on average, it takes the majority of them to be killed accidentally by their product, leaving only the new, safer programmers behind.
Hence, many programmers prefer to use C++ instead of far safer alternatives such as Java or Objective-C. And many programmers prefer to use Perl instead of far safer alternatives such as Ruby or Python. Many programmers prefer debugging weird problems in production over the much safer alternative of writing unit tests for their own code. And virtually all programmers prefer programming by side-effect over safer alternatives such as functional or declarative programming.
Multi-threaded programming has officially been declared hazardous to your health since, oh, roughly the week after it was invented. Everyone knew it was really tricky from the outset. It provided all sorts of exciting and (if I do say so myself) rather manly new failure modes: deadlocks, livelocks, missed signals, race conditions, read/write conflicts, write/write conflicts, and so on. But it did offer some ease-of-use advantages over IPC. And C++ programs already crash or corrupt data so often that occasional threading errors don't usually make much of a difference.
Prediction #4:
Java's "market share" on the JVM will drop below 50% by 2010. In other words, over half the code written for the Java platform will not be Java. It'll be Python, Ruby, Haskell, Lisp, and a variety of other languages. The Java programming language will become more like "assembly-language for the JVM" — something you use for building frameworks in Java, but most app code will be in higher-level languages compiled into Java bytecode.
Reason for prediction:
The Java core language is the weakest part of the otherwise strong Java platform.
The Java language just isn't cutting it, though. It's really hard to see this if you're coming from a C/C++ background, because Java is so much better than C++ that it feels like you've died and gone to Programmer Heaven. Java has real strings, and real exceptions, and real namespaces, and and real runtime typing, and real pure-virtual interfaces, and a real security model, and real memory management, and a real library system, and fast compilation times, and it's portable, and it doesn't crash. C++ is a miserable, poisoned purgatory, and Java delivers you from it. So as you might imagine, it takes a few years before you start to chafe at Java's limitations.
But Java is verbose and somewhat uncompressible: it lacks a macro system, so it's not extensible in the way XML and Lisp are extensible. What they decide to give you is all you've got. And it has no first-class functions, no preprocessor, no met programming, and no templating system. So it takes forever to say certain complex things in Java, and it's hard to to avoid certain kinds of code duplication. Java code bases tend to be pretty large — smaller than equivalent C++ code bases, possibly, but you still wind up with a lot of code.
Prediction #5:
Lisp will be in the top 10 most popular programming languages by 2010.
Reason for prediction:
Lisp is a keeper. And it's getting a lot of good press these days.
I think it'll be in the top 10, but not in the top 5. If you count all Lisp dialects including Scheme, it might make #6, though. That would include ANSI Common Lisp, Emacs Lisp, Scheme, Guile, Arc, and probably a few other dialects as well. Heck, if you just count lines of code, Lisp is already the fourth most-used language in a RedHat Linux distribution.
There are some other very solid functional-programming languages out there; Lisp isn't the only player in the field. Each of them has its advantages: Erlang has the world's best distributed-computing facilities; Haskell appears to be the world's most elegant and succinct language; OCaml binaries fairly consistently outperform C++. Most functional languages are pretty nice in at least one dimension.
But Lisp has a secret weapon: Paul Graham. Programming languages don't become successful based on their technical merits. The masses of programmers out there don't know or care about technical merit. They just want someone to look up to, someone to tell them what to do. Languages are religions, and religions need a spiritual leader. It's best if it's a person, but a faceless corporation will do in a pinch, if they have a good marketing department. And now Lisp has a new thought-leader and champion in Paul Graham: successful author; influential essayist; inventor of Yahoo! Store; the man who killed Spam. He has an impressive resume, and he appears to be only just getting started. He's creating the next-generation Lisp (called "Arc"), and his essays have been making the world sit up and pay attention. Largely because of Paul's leadership, everyone's talking about Lisp.
Prediction #6:
A new internet community-hangout will appear. One that you and I will frequent.
Reason for prediction:
People like to socialize.
Where's the internet community? I don't see it. People don't hang out on Amazon's website, or Google's, or eBay's, or Microsoft's. Not anywhere, really. There are little chat rooms here and there, and some static link-in sites where you can answer a bunch of questions about your hair color and favorite taco sauce. Yawn.
Prediction #7:
The mobile/wireless/handheld market is still at least 5 years out.
Reason for prediction:
My spider-sense isn't tingling yet.
Every year for at least the past decade, pundits have been predicting that next year will be the Year of Wireless Mobile Computing. They say every human being and most pets on the planet will spend the majority of their disposable income on mobile wireless services for their tiny handheld supercomputer phones. These devices will have 1900x1200 resolution, 1500-hour battery lives, T1 connection speeds, microsecond latency, a reception range that covers the planet surface to a depth of six miles, and will cost less than a pack of Mentos.
Every year, it's next year. Every next year, it doesn't happen. And you know what? Frankly, I'm getting tired of hearing about it. When I go to Best Buy or Costco or Rat Shack, I don't see tiny handheld devices and service plans that are "almost" tempting. What I see is crap that I wouldn't buy with someone else's money.
Don't get me wrong: it will happen someday. But I think it's not going to be any time soon. Betcha!
Prediction #8:
Someday I will voluntarily pay Google for one of their services.
Reason for prediction:
They're putting technological heroin in their services, and someday they're going to start charging.
I've never paid Google a dime, as far as I know, and I'd venture to guess that I've spent a lot more time on their website than on Amazon's. Or Starbucks'. I do a lot of Googling for free, and so do you. Google has changed my life. If I can't find what I'm looking for in Google in 3 tries, looking no further than the first 10 search results on each try, then it probably doesn't exist. Google is every bit as important a programmer-tool for me as my compiler is. And it's pretty darn important for my day-to-day life, too. As one example, I never use a phone book anymore. Want Uwajimaya's number? Type "Uwajimaya" into Google. You can even find it by spelling it incorrectly as "Uwajamaya". I just tried it.
And I still haven't ever paid Google a dime. But I'm convinced — someday, I will. As soon as they want me to.
Prediction #9:
Apple's laptop sales will exceed those of HP/Compaq, IBM, Dell and Gateway combined by 2010.
Reason for prediction:
Macs rule. Windows laptops are as exciting as a shiny disco ball in the ceiling.
I bought a Powerbook for my wife Linh about 8 months ago, and she uses it so much that I can't even sneak a peek at it once in a while. I just looked over at its little spot on our desk, and it's not there. She's using it right now. I bet she's on that thing for 3 hours a day at least, maybe more — playing games, reading mail, surfing the web, sharing pictures with her sisters. Doing Google searches, and I didn't tell her about Google. She just sorta found it. Before I bought her that Powerbook, her average computer usage was around an hour a year.
Macs are a triple-threat right now: they're trendy (which rarely correlates with quality; it's simply a marketing feat), they're actually easy to use for non-computer users, and they're a powerful platform for developers and power-users. There's something there for everyone.
But now the open-source community likes Macs just as much as you and I do. So before long, maybe even now, Macs will be a better choice for the majority of my computer activities, including programming. And when that happens, who would buy a PC laptop? Not me, that's for sure. My next one will be a Mac.
Prediction #10:
In five years' time, most programmers will still be average.
Reason for prediction:
That's just how the math works out.
Of course most programmers will still be average, by definition. The problem is that the average level of quality and productivity probably won't have changed all that much. The difference between great hackers and average plodders is a hundred-fold, which implies great potential for improving the average. But I doubt the industry average productivty/quality per-capita output will go up even 50% over the next 5 years, let alone 2 orders of magnitude. Partly because there are too many J2EE consultants out there ruining the numbers. But more importantly, most people are just doing this gig for a living. So most people will still be average, and average will still be ho-hum.
PS: Find the complete story here: http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/ten-predictions
Friday, September 18, 2009
Flop Show...!
Last weekend was pretty much a disaster in term of movies...!
As usual, I had booked few tickets for Saturday nights show at Sathyam for the new animation movie '9'. Alas...I got a lil' 2 drunk in the afternoon itself that i completely slept off and missed it. Not 2 mention that tickets were with me and 3 of my friends who were supposed to have seen the movie with me, also missed it...! As expected, I woke up to get an ear-full from each of them and all 3 took their turns. Anyway hoping 2 make up for this, I had booked tickets for the same movie at INox for Sunday nights show (and still regretting for that...!).
BORING- is what the movie exactly is. I shud've guessed it at the beginning itself, cuz for a movie hall with 300 seats, hardly 30 were filled up. If your thinking of watching this movie, DONT...! All in all, I was still happy that I got to do some shopping before the movie. Got myself some clothes & accessories, including a really sexy ring. That completed the combination of elements, cuz i now had a ring of different metal, on each of my fingers, lolz.
Oh yeah...n i also bought that Diesel watch. Priced at around 14k ($280), its not too expensive as some of the watches I've seen my friends wearing ;-) But definitely worth a buy...!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
New Moon...!
All vampire lovers & those hard-core Twilight Fan's would know exactly what I'm talking about. Yes, the saga continues with the 2nd part 'New Moon'. After watching a couple of official trailers, I have strong reasons to believe that this is gonna be much more exciting than the 1st part.
Few things to expect...
- some interesting new characters have been introduced...
- story line's getting into a whole new twist with some Vampire elders thrown in...
- some major animation scene's & action...
Check Utube for the latest trailers and see for yourself.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Shifting Houses....
After what seemed as a never ending process of shifting from one place to another, I think i'm finally settled in one place, atleast for the next 3 months. For those who don't know, I was transferred to Chennai in the month of Feb and have been struggling to get a decent place for a nominal rent. Not to add the pressure of roomies; I guess i'm the most unlucky in this aspect. We were 4 guys (2 Mumbai + 1 Delhi+ me) who got transferred here and apart from me, everyone else has gone back to where they came from, while I'm still counting my days in Chennai...!
For all those who are new to Chennai and thinking of taking up a place to stay, consider the following:
1. Water supply through-out the year.
2. Frequency of power-cuts.
3. Water clogging during the rainy season.
4. Infrastructure availability such as Broadband Internet, ATM, Banks, Gas station, Restaurant, Super market, Liquor shops, etc.
5. Availability of house maid, laundry.
6. Mosquito & other insect issues.
It would be quite surprising that some of these might be turn out to be major concerns after shifting in Chennai, since it's still not up to the mark as Delhi or Mumbai. I personally believe that most of the area's in Chennai are definitely over priced, in terms of rent. Some of the decent localities on the OMR side are Adyar, Bescent Nager, Thiruvanmayur, Perungudi, Thoraipakkam, Velachery. If your looking out for accommodation more towards the center of the city, T.Nager, Nungambakkam, Kodambakkam are pretty good options. Places to avoid would include Medavakkam, Pallikarnai, Madipakkam, Nanganallur and other adjoining areas.
For all those who are new to Chennai and thinking of taking up a place to stay, consider the following:
1. Water supply through-out the year.
2. Frequency of power-cuts.
3. Water clogging during the rainy season.
4. Infrastructure availability such as Broadband Internet, ATM, Banks, Gas station, Restaurant, Super market, Liquor shops, etc.
5. Availability of house maid, laundry.
6. Mosquito & other insect issues.
It would be quite surprising that some of these might be turn out to be major concerns after shifting in Chennai, since it's still not up to the mark as Delhi or Mumbai. I personally believe that most of the area's in Chennai are definitely over priced, in terms of rent. Some of the decent localities on the OMR side are Adyar, Bescent Nager, Thiruvanmayur, Perungudi, Thoraipakkam, Velachery. If your looking out for accommodation more towards the center of the city, T.Nager, Nungambakkam, Kodambakkam are pretty good options. Places to avoid would include Medavakkam, Pallikarnai, Madipakkam, Nanganallur and other adjoining areas.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Knowing...
Awesome...!!!
That's the movie in short...well, very short actually. The movie is an exact depiction of my beliefs. Before I get into the movie, let me share my thoughts:
1. There's about a billion other planet, with at-least a few million of them which can support life, as per probability.
2. What we call GOD is only ALIEN. A civilization much more advanced than us...beyond our capability to understand their technology or science.
3. Man saw Aliens ages back, but didn't know how to express it in scientific terms, so he termed it GOD.
4. I seriously believe that mankind will unite and strive for development, together as a species only when we finally discover that were not alone in this universe.
5. This planet was never ours. It's their planet, for them to probably experiment & understand primitive species', evolution, origins of life and maybe even themselves and how they became 'who they are'.
6. At the rate that man is destroying 'their planet', I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to destroy everything ahead of us and retake the planet; maybe start off a new experiment or give mankind another fresh start.
7. Our knowledge is probably 0.000001% of theirs. That's probably why there are millions of things that man cannot explain (precision of pyramids, Bermuda triangle, medical miracles, life after death...).
8. Like me, all those who've realized these truths, would definitely see the world differently. As for those who haven't accepted these yet, I suggest you do ASAP.
9. I firmly believe that they will come back, choose those souls that have been enlightened & discard the others.
As for the movie, it was a real good thriller, although it started off like a horror movie. Most people might figure out what the story is all about in the first 30 minutes itself. Still it's quite interesting to see how it reaches that end. More than anything, the movie got me thinking about these off-late rumors that I've been hearing that the worlds gonna end on 21st Dec 2012. And the surprising part is that, almost 4-5 civilizations that existed ages back, have predicted this incident on the same date, and that too in their own native calender systems. I wonder what made all of them think of the same event in the same way. Either-way, we're all gonna be there to witness it...lucky us.
Coming back, most of the movie circles around Nicholas Cage, displaying his excellent acting skills and even the lil kid, who's played pretty well. This movies a definite 5 outta 5 from my end and a MUST watch for all believers of extraterrestrials.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Storage Solutions...
Off late I've been dangerously running out of Hard Disk space. Owing to my huge collection of movies, songs, games and other stuff my 700GB was completely full. I was so cramped outta space my at one point i saw my Vista Ultimate was running with 4MB of free space on my primary drive, with no memory for visualization incase RAM is over. I decided to grab an external HDD preferably with lotsa free space, enough to accommodate all my data needs. Went to my usual electronic outlet and got myself a state of the art Western Digital 1 TB External HDD, code named: 'My Book' by WD. Costing around Rs. 7000, here's some of its features.
Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is no CD to install, the included software loads from the drive the first time you plug it in. This also comes with a Flexible triple interface. 1. USB 2.0 for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers. 2. FireWire 400, which is a high-performance interface that's perfect for Macintosh® computers. 3. eSATA 3 Gb/s which is a ultra-fast interface giving you speeds comparable to a state-of-the-art internal hard drive.
The modified Capacity gauge helps you find out how much space is available on your drive although it works with the USB and FireWire connection only. One of the new features is that its much more Smart and energy efficient ie It turns itself on and off with your computer and Safe Shutdown prevents the drive from being powered down until all your data has been written.
All in all, its definitely worth the cost and the storage space. Also looks pretty cool, suiting the rest of the gadgets that you'd have on your computer table.
Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is no CD to install, the included software loads from the drive the first time you plug it in. This also comes with a Flexible triple interface. 1. USB 2.0 for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers. 2. FireWire 400, which is a high-performance interface that's perfect for Macintosh® computers. 3. eSATA 3 Gb/s which is a ultra-fast interface giving you speeds comparable to a state-of-the-art internal hard drive.
The modified Capacity gauge helps you find out how much space is available on your drive although it works with the USB and FireWire connection only. One of the new features is that its much more Smart and energy efficient ie It turns itself on and off with your computer and Safe Shutdown prevents the drive from being powered down until all your data has been written.
All in all, its definitely worth the cost and the storage space. Also looks pretty cool, suiting the rest of the gadgets that you'd have on your computer table.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Weekend tip...!!!
Yep...as saturday night draws closer, here's a tip for all fellow party animals new to Chennai. Check out Over here for some info on the top 5 clubs n pubs in Chennai.
But do remember guys- ur in Chennai, so no girl...? No clubbing...!!!
But do remember guys- ur in Chennai, so no girl...? No clubbing...!!!
Signs that you ain't born to code...
1. You’d rather be trained than self-teach
In most development shops, there is rarely any training, even if the company has a training program in place for other employees. At best, the company might reimburse you for a book you buy. Programmers are expected to arrive on their first day with all (or at least most ) of the skills they need. Even worse, the assumption is that programmers are really smart people who are good at problem solving. That assumption leads upper management to believe that good programmers do not need training. Finally, training for developers is extremely expensive. The result? When you change positions, you will need to figure out what is going on yourself, and you will probably need to teach yourself.
2. You like regular working hours
Software development projects are notorious for being late. Even the projects that are delivered on time always seem to run behind schedule at some point. If you don’t like (or can’t handle) irregular or fluctuating demands on your time by your employer, development is not for you. When crunch time comes, your employer is more concerned with getting the product in the hands of a million-dollar client than with your child’s soccer game or the new TV program you wanted to watch.
3. You prefer regular raises to job-hopping
The world of development is one of continual erosion of skill value. Unless you are working at a shop that deals with slow-to-change technologies, chances are, your skill set is less valuable every day. The state of the art is changing rapidly, and the skills that are hot today will be ho-hum tomorrow. As a result, it is difficult to sit at the same desk doing the same work every day and expect a raise that exceeds a cost of living increase. You need to keep your skills up to date just to maintain your current value. In addition, if you want to boost your paycheck, you need to expand your skill set significantly and either earn an internal promotion or go to another company.
4. You do not get along well with others
It’s one thing to be an introverted person or to prefer to work by yourself. It’s another thing to be unable to get along with others, and it can sink you as a developer. Not only that, your manager may well be a nontechnical person (or a technical person who has not worked hands-on in some time), so you need to be able to express yourself to nontechnical people.
5. You are easily frustrated
Software development is often quite frustrating. Documentation is outdated or wrong, the previous programmer wrote unreadable code, the boss has rules to follow that make no sense… the list is endless. At the end of the day, no one wants to be working next to someone who is always cursing under his or her breath or screaming at the monitor. If you are the kind of person who goes insane spending eight hours to do what appears to be 10 minutes’ worth of work, this is not a career for you.
6. You are close-minded to others’ ideas
In programming, there are often problems that have more than one “right” answers. If you do not handle criticism well, or do not care to hear the suggestions of others, you might miss something important. For example, one of our junior guys makes a suggestion. After considering it for a bit, the ML decided to try it. It turned out that he was right and the ML was wrong, and his suggestion brought the time to execute a piece of code from multiple days to a few hours. Ignoring this junior guy due to the difference in experience levels would have been foolish.
7. You are not a “details person”
Programming is all about the details. If you get lost in a movie more complex than Conan the Barbarian or have a hard time filling out a rebate voucher, you probably won’t do very well in the development world. Sometimes, something as simple as a missing period can mean the difference between random failure and perfect success. If you are the type of person who might not figure out where the missing period is, your career will be limited in range, at best.
8. You do not take personal pride in your work
Sure, it’s possible to program by the book and do a passable job. The problem is, the book keeps getting rewritten. Software development is not a factory job where you tighten the same bolt all day long, where a touch too much or too little torque makes no difference. It requires independent thought, which in turn requires the people doing the work to take pride in it. Furthermore, it’s easy to do something the wrong way and have it work just well enough to end up in production. That “little error” you turn a blind eye to since it doesn’t seem to cause any problems will cause problems. Programmers who do not treat each project as something to be proud of turn out poor quality work, which in turn makes their careers short-lived.
9. You prefer to shoot first and ask questions later
Software developers, at least the good ones, spend a lot more time planning what they’re going to type than actually typing. Usually, when coders just open up their code editor and start banging away at the keyboard, most of what they write gets ripped out later. Programmers who ponder, think, consider, and plan write better code in less time with fewer problems. There’s a reason so many programmers barely know how to type properly: The hard part of the job is knowing what to type. People who do not invest the time up front in their zeal to get started with the “real work” are actually skimping on the “real work.” If you are a doer and not a thinker, software development is probably not a good career choice for you.
10. You do not like the geek type of person
For a bunch of reasons (some legitimate), a lot of people just do not enjoy being around the engineer or techie personality. If you have a hard time with the Dilbert or Weird Al personality type, do not even consider going into programming. Are all developers like that? Of course not. But they comprise a large enough portion of the workforce that you would be miserable in the industry.
2. You like regular working hours
3. You prefer regular raises to job-hopping
4. You do not get along well with others
5. You are easily frustrated
6. You are close-minded to others’ ideas
7. You are not a “details person”
8. You do not take personal pride in your work
9. You prefer to shoot first and ask questions later
10. You do not like the geek type of person
Friday, August 7, 2009
Movies n more movies...
This post is a commemoration to mark the fact that my movie collection has finally surpassed 1000 movies. Although I started out like 2 yrs back, the past 2-3 months have been very exciting for I've met a lot of movie collectors such as myself. Movie exchange & web-link exchanges have greatly helped off late. I can safely say that I've got a healthy mix of Horror, Action, Comedy, Romance & sci-fi and I really wanna thank the man who came up with the idea of bit torrent. Some of them worth noting would be The Bond Series, Batman Series and pretty much all the sequel ones that have been out in the past 15 years.
Although on the good part, I don distribute my collection unless its for a nominal barter...either more data or some imported liquid commodities ;-)
Although on the good part, I don distribute my collection unless its for a nominal barter...either more data or some imported liquid commodities ;-)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Me & Joggin....
After months of bragging about getting back in shape...i finally went jogging today. Being the 1st day, I felt the need to do it in some special place instead of the plain old roads. So me n my rommies headed for Bescent Nager Beach and went jogging for a while. Although it was for only 15min, being the very 1st day, that was quite sufficient. Anyway, hope to make it a regular habbit. Wish me luck...!!!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Some lessons 'bout management & work...
This blog is a contribution and more of a handbook for all the freshers getting into I.T, for those who are still trying to get that break in career and get into management. These are some of the basic management behaviors that you'd see in any IT organization and some are those that you'll have to portray in front of the management.
- Management is always right. The sooner you understand this, the faster you'll be recognized.
- Work while you work and play while you should be playing. All work and no play is no good.
- Never go against your boss. Even if your right, you'll still loose the battle.
- Effort and determination can get you places, but direction is what gets you to the right place.
- Never over promise and under deliver. Better to under promise and deliver (This is in co-relation with the next point).
- The more you work, more work will be given to you.
- Love your job and never your company. You never know when your company stops loving you.
- Management is always right. The sooner you understand this, the faster you'll be recognized.
- Work while you work and play while you should be playing. All work and no play is no good.
- Never go against your boss. Even if your right, you'll still loose the battle.
- Effort and determination can get you places, but direction is what gets you to the right place.
- Never over promise and under deliver. Better to under promise and deliver (This is in co-relation with the next point).
- The more you work, more work will be given to you.
- Love your job and never your company. You never know when your company stops loving you.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The curse of the Credit Cards...
I don think the heading requires any more explanation...Yes, I'm referring to credit cards. The very thing that makes us spend unnecessarily on all those extra clothes, partying n all other luxuries that you think you need right away. In the past few years, I've had an eye opening experience with using credit cards. Unfortunately, I didn't have any friends who were good enough in financial aspects to advise me on how to actually go about using it. This blog is for those who already have one and not sure how to manage it and also for those who are planing to get one in future. Given below are some of the aspects that you should absolutely know about cards.
1. My biggest advise DON'T GET A CREDIT CARD...if its already too late and you've got one, only then proceed to point 2...!!!
2. Use your CC only for planned expenses such as an LCD TV, Laptop, household shopping or that expensive Swiss watch :-) Never use it for drinking/ casual shopping, as these 2 will inevitably end up becoming you biggest enemies.
3. Make sure that you have the EMI conversion activated in your CC, so that any purchase above 10k can be converted to EMI's of 6 or 9 months.
4. To ensure successful payment every time...all the times..., make sure the total amount required to pay always less than your monthly salary or 2/5 of your total credit limit, which ever is smaller.
5. Never use your CC and you full salary together. Follow 1 of 2 strategies...
- Either spend all your money and use a card only for desperate huge expenses which can again be converted to EMI as per point 2 (OR)
- Use your card for all your expenses (be it small or big) and use 9/10 your salary every month to pay it up.
6. Keep an extra CC with Balance Transfer capability, so that you can move around money if needed.
7. If your goin' out for a crazy all night paaardy, don't take your card with you. You don't wanna end up waking the next day wondering 'Why-TF did I buy that extra drink for everyone' and that too with a bad hangover...!
Now, do remember that all these apply only if your working and thereby dependent on your salary for your CC payment. If your running a flourishing business or if your dad's paying your CC bill...then swipe it off AMAP (As Much As Possible) and chill out...!
1. My biggest advise DON'T GET A CREDIT CARD...if its already too late and you've got one, only then proceed to point 2...!!!
2. Use your CC only for planned expenses such as an LCD TV, Laptop, household shopping or that expensive Swiss watch :-) Never use it for drinking/ casual shopping, as these 2 will inevitably end up becoming you biggest enemies.
3. Make sure that you have the EMI conversion activated in your CC, so that any purchase above 10k can be converted to EMI's of 6 or 9 months.
4. To ensure successful payment every time...all the times..., make sure the total amount required to pay always less than your monthly salary or 2/5 of your total credit limit, which ever is smaller.
5. Never use your CC and you full salary together. Follow 1 of 2 strategies...
- Either spend all your money and use a card only for desperate huge expenses which can again be converted to EMI as per point 2 (OR)
- Use your card for all your expenses (be it small or big) and use 9/10 your salary every month to pay it up.
6. Keep an extra CC with Balance Transfer capability, so that you can move around money if needed.
7. If your goin' out for a crazy all night paaardy, don't take your card with you. You don't wanna end up waking the next day wondering 'Why-TF did I buy that extra drink for everyone' and that too with a bad hangover...!
Now, do remember that all these apply only if your working and thereby dependent on your salary for your CC payment. If your running a flourishing business or if your dad's paying your CC bill...then swipe it off AMAP (As Much As Possible) and chill out...!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Revenge of the Fallen...
Although I saw this movie about 10 days back, I've taken my own sweet time for the review only cuz i saw it more than once at Sathaym. being a hardcore Transformers fan, i owe it to Optimus Prime. How was the movie ? Amazing...top notch...one of the best I've seen yet. Unlike the first part which mostly revolved around the Cube, this sequel has much more packed in. Ranging from Interplanetary travel, Multiple bots merging into a single Decepticon, treasure hunting, this movie is all set to remain on top of the charts.
One of the most surprising things i noticed at Sathyam while watching the movie was that more than 90% of the crowd were all 15- 30 yr old. I guess they must've all been fans of the original Transformers cartoon as well. Anyway part 2 has a good mix of comedy, treasure hunting, flashbacks, lil bitmore romance and a hella lotta transforming robots. Although majority of my friends disagreed, I feel that part 2 is way far better than part 1. Flaws however, I havent seen much yet, since i still havent seen the movie like 40-50 times as part 1, but im getting the list all prepped up. Personally, I'd rate this movie a 5 outta 5 and worth watching altest twice in the movie hall.
The Proposal...
Women, at times tend to get too sucked into the career mode and also tend to have a very cold heart when given undue powers in office. As always, I was at Sathyam last Sunday night for ‘The Proposal’ along with a few friends. The story begins in a very similar note, briefly explaining the typical problems that guys, who have a female bosses, face. Margaret, played beautifully by Sandra Bullock is a very successful (& powerful) chief editor at a publishing company. Andrew (played by Ryan Reynolds) is out in New York, struggling to get his book published, working under Margaret for 'bout 3 years. Cunning Margaret, who heartlessly plans to use Andrew to gain US citizenship, ends up realizing that she's been missing out on all the finer things in life. The movie reminds me specially of one of my recent friends, who always manages to get herself tied up with work, work and more work.
The movie as a whole, although predictable like most romantic comedies, has a unique charm added to very beautiful and scenic shots done at Alaska. Added with some nude scenes from the couple and some real funny truths bout guys (...!), this movie is definitely worth 2 hrs on a Sunday evening to relax. I'd rate this 4 outta 5 for those who love romantic comedies. And all you working women out there taking work too seriously, stop for a minute and look around you (at all the good looking men…! he he he) and take some time off…
The movie as a whole, although predictable like most romantic comedies, has a unique charm added to very beautiful and scenic shots done at Alaska. Added with some nude scenes from the couple and some real funny truths bout guys (...!), this movie is definitely worth 2 hrs on a Sunday evening to relax. I'd rate this 4 outta 5 for those who love romantic comedies. And all you working women out there taking work too seriously, stop for a minute and look around you (at all the good looking men…! he he he) and take some time off…
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The re-union of I.T Batch...
Bunking classes, sneakin to movie halls, booze treats for no apparent reasons, having accounts at VSP canteen, late night coffees, xeroxing semester books in the last minute, carrying chits to college, the 'very serious' immature love flings,
sleepless nights, hanging out at chai-wala checking out the so called 'babes of Chennai'...hmmmm.Anyway in the light of me completing 4yrs of work after college, me and some friends decided to arrange for the college re-union of S.R.M Engineerings 2005 I.T batch.
Considering the 120 people from the class, I'd safely assume that only some 80 are left in India and an even lesser number left in Chennai (hardly 30...!). However we had a pretty good number of 10-12, who showed up, all guys only though...No girls invited since it was a booze pardy. Lotta familar faces...same old comments & jokes...I suddenly felt the sheer reality that no matter what, guys will be guys. The entire gang was all excited and interacting the same way we used to, in college.
Same old jokes of Raghu, 'partnership kallai' of Chatti & Ralf, victimised Rajiv, silent observations by me and ofcourse the uncontrolled drinking of all. For those few hours, we were not professional from different industries but the same group of college kids (as in 2001- 05) and i felt that sweet sense of being 16 yrs again. Although the fact that this would be over in a few hours and when i wake up the next day, its gonna be back to same work life, sent a chill through my spine. How i wish those good ol' college days never got over...!
By far our college is the only one in India that I've heard of, to have a 3 star hotel inside the campus with 2 bar's as well and a co-ed hostel too. Come what may i'd say college life was one of the best times in my life and a major part of it goes to the fact that we were all in S.R.M.Engineering College (www.srmuniv.ac.in/). Long live SRMites...Cheers to all...!!!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Linked up with Linksys WRT...
As an update to all, yes, I’ve finally settled down for the time being in Chennai. After a very tiring process of shifting through 3 houses in the past 6 months, I’ve finally decided to stick on to the current house for whatever period I remain here. On account of the same, I treated myself to an unlimited internet connection at home and a decent wireless home networking solution: Linksys WRT Series.
This router has the design that almost makes it look like the windshield of an ultra-modern car. If you consider the cars that you see in futuristic movies and the windshield designs that those cars have, a miniature version of that represents the front of the Linksys router with a slope that starts at the top and extends downwards to the front of the router where all the displays are.
This Linksys unit comes with buttons that you can push to make setup a breeze, encryption that allows you to rest easier because of the extra power, MIMO technology. This allows for an extremely surprising boosting of the system and similar technology that allows you to reach further into your house and reduce “dead zones” where the signal can not reach. Standard specs include 10/100 internal LAN switch, 10/100 WAN port, Wireless radio with WEP, WPA and WPA2, both Personal and Pro. Although I haven’t tested the router in mixed G/N, B/G/N, G only/ N only environments, the router seems pretty stable. In either case most if not all laptops, desktops and even phones are G these days.
All in all, Linksys has been able to effectively combine the beautification of their product with the increase in functionality and that is something that should make users very happy indeed.
This router has the design that almost makes it look like the windshield of an ultra-modern car. If you consider the cars that you see in futuristic movies and the windshield designs that those cars have, a miniature version of that represents the front of the Linksys router with a slope that starts at the top and extends downwards to the front of the router where all the displays are.
This Linksys unit comes with buttons that you can push to make setup a breeze, encryption that allows you to rest easier because of the extra power, MIMO technology. This allows for an extremely surprising boosting of the system and similar technology that allows you to reach further into your house and reduce “dead zones” where the signal can not reach. Standard specs include 10/100 internal LAN switch, 10/100 WAN port, Wireless radio with WEP, WPA and WPA2, both Personal and Pro. Although I haven’t tested the router in mixed G/N, B/G/N, G only/ N only environments, the router seems pretty stable. In either case most if not all laptops, desktops and even phones are G these days.
All in all, Linksys has been able to effectively combine the beautification of their product with the increase in functionality and that is something that should make users very happy indeed.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Mahabalipuram...
After much though and planning I made a trip to Mahabalipuram last weekend. This place is apparently one of the religious locations located around Tamilnadu, with some quite distinct and ancient artwork. Fortunately last weekend the climate turned out to be comparatively good in Chennai and so, me and my roomy Vaibhav set out on his MH-02 registered CBZ to Mahabalipuram.
Clothes...I-pod...Guitar...we were geared up to have an adventurous trip altogether. Located around 60Km from Adayar, Mahabalipuram is hardly a 1hr drive requiring no breaks in between. For those who prefer to have the cool breeze blowing on your face while you’re on a really fast ride alongside the beach, I’d recommend that you take the East Coast Road, visa vie ECR. The other alternate road, Old Mahabalipuram Road (mostly called OMR) is good for those who prefer a relaxed ride along side most of Chennai latest IT firms and Luxury Apartments. For those who don’t know yet, Hiranandani has started construction work in Chennai and finally we have some apartments of international quality coming up hardly 10Km from Sholinganallur. Inspite of the so called good weather here, having a beer or 2 during a long drive helps keep your head cool.
Once arrived, we unpacked at this Hotel Sunrise, which belongs to a friend of mine. Equipped with comfortable AC rooms and very personal room service this place is definitely worth 1k for 24hrs stay. Also includes a roof top bar, which serves excellent Kalimiri (local name for squids), Fried Sharks, prawns and many more delicacies from the Bay of Bengal. After a quick change of attire, we moved on to the beach and sat down at one of the beer bars located there. We treated ourselves to some real good fried Pomfret. Amazing part was the fish was whole, but the scales were scrapped off & some real spicy masala was added to it through carefully cut slits.
Soon after, we went walking on the bazaar road. I grabbed a marble ‘Chillam’ (Indian name for smoking pipe generally used for pot…!) shaped like a king cobra for Rs.200. Bought two silver rings, both with multiple concentric rings, of bronze to give the ‘witchy look’. Also got myself around 5 or 6 marble pendants, all custom shaped into different symbols. We soon headed back to Hotel Sunrise to finish up with some real good food, tastefully accompanied by some house music. Not sure if I should be writing this part, but to be frank, I was quite drunk by 01.00Hrs and have no idea how I got to the bed at night.
The second day, as per 'The plan', we went sight seeing and for some window shopping. Some of the must see places here are Shore Temple, Arjuna’s Penance (described in Mahabharata) , five Rathas (all carved out of a single rock of granite), Lion Pillars (pillars within caves), Mahishasuramarthini cave temple (pretty long name…lolz). Some of the caves and other architectures date back as far as 700 A.D and shows the predominant Dravidian art work of those times. Piece of advice to everyone, sight seeing here (especially since it involved climbing mountains and crawling through valleys) was really one of the most tiring experiences that I’ve had. But the look and feel of the experience is really worth it all. Besides im sure it’ll help us all loose a few pounds too…! I incidentally found that Mahabalipuram is also known for its many orphanages which often invite tourists to visit them and donate.
After quite an exasperating journey, we pushed off for Chennai early evening itself, only cause I had booked tickets for ‘The Hangover’ at Sathyam. No surprise, me and my roomie were in quite a hangover, when we reached the movie hall. Movie however, was really good and we really didn’t mind sitting through it inspite of the tiredness. All those who happen to stumble down to TamilNadu, do make a trip to Mahabalipuram, for it definitely speaks volumes of a forgotten history and culture. Besides Mahabalipuram is also one of the ‘World Heritage Sites’ in India and from my end I'd rate it a 5 out of 5 for a short vacation.
Clothes...I-pod...Guitar...we were geared up to have an adventurous trip altogether. Located around 60Km from Adayar, Mahabalipuram is hardly a 1hr drive requiring no breaks in between. For those who prefer to have the cool breeze blowing on your face while you’re on a really fast ride alongside the beach, I’d recommend that you take the East Coast Road, visa vie ECR. The other alternate road, Old Mahabalipuram Road (mostly called OMR) is good for those who prefer a relaxed ride along side most of Chennai latest IT firms and Luxury Apartments. For those who don’t know yet, Hiranandani has started construction work in Chennai and finally we have some apartments of international quality coming up hardly 10Km from Sholinganallur. Inspite of the so called good weather here, having a beer or 2 during a long drive helps keep your head cool.
Once arrived, we unpacked at this Hotel Sunrise, which belongs to a friend of mine. Equipped with comfortable AC rooms and very personal room service this place is definitely worth 1k for 24hrs stay. Also includes a roof top bar, which serves excellent Kalimiri (local name for squids), Fried Sharks, prawns and many more delicacies from the Bay of Bengal. After a quick change of attire, we moved on to the beach and sat down at one of the beer bars located there. We treated ourselves to some real good fried Pomfret. Amazing part was the fish was whole, but the scales were scrapped off & some real spicy masala was added to it through carefully cut slits.
Soon after, we went walking on the bazaar road. I grabbed a marble ‘Chillam’ (Indian name for smoking pipe generally used for pot…!) shaped like a king cobra for Rs.200. Bought two silver rings, both with multiple concentric rings, of bronze to give the ‘witchy look’. Also got myself around 5 or 6 marble pendants, all custom shaped into different symbols. We soon headed back to Hotel Sunrise to finish up with some real good food, tastefully accompanied by some house music. Not sure if I should be writing this part, but to be frank, I was quite drunk by 01.00Hrs and have no idea how I got to the bed at night.
The second day, as per 'The plan', we went sight seeing and for some window shopping. Some of the must see places here are Shore Temple, Arjuna’s Penance (described in Mahabharata) , five Rathas (all carved out of a single rock of granite), Lion Pillars (pillars within caves), Mahishasuramarthini cave temple (pretty long name…lolz). Some of the caves and other architectures date back as far as 700 A.D and shows the predominant Dravidian art work of those times. Piece of advice to everyone, sight seeing here (especially since it involved climbing mountains and crawling through valleys) was really one of the most tiring experiences that I’ve had. But the look and feel of the experience is really worth it all. Besides im sure it’ll help us all loose a few pounds too…! I incidentally found that Mahabalipuram is also known for its many orphanages which often invite tourists to visit them and donate.
After quite an exasperating journey, we pushed off for Chennai early evening itself, only cause I had booked tickets for ‘The Hangover’ at Sathyam. No surprise, me and my roomie were in quite a hangover, when we reached the movie hall. Movie however, was really good and we really didn’t mind sitting through it inspite of the tiredness. All those who happen to stumble down to TamilNadu, do make a trip to Mahabalipuram, for it definitely speaks volumes of a forgotten history and culture. Besides Mahabalipuram is also one of the ‘World Heritage Sites’ in India and from my end I'd rate it a 5 out of 5 for a short vacation.
Friday, July 3, 2009
The Great Driving Challenge
Off late, I’ve been interested in reading a lot of traveler’s logs and their experiences and I accidentally came across an event called ‘The Great Driving Challenge’, an event for bloggers who travel across the country. It’s a promotional event arranged for couples, by Mitsubishi with 12 day expense paid travel by the Mitsubishi Cedia.
Check out the link http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/ for more info on the event and through http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/featuredapplications to see the list of all the couples who have registered for the event.
All that is expected is for the couple to make a long trip, get some nice pictures done and write about their entire travel and experience on their respective blogs. Winning Prize…??? Big bucks of 1 million Indian rupee for the winning couple and a host of cool gadgets, mobiles etc for runner-ups. Pretty cool I guess, considering the facts- the vehicle is given, the trip is paid and prize money is not bad. Things that you need to qualify- know how to drive (I mean on long trips of 2000-3000Km…), be married (That’s pretty hard, cause personally…I’d rather give up the 1 million and remain bachelor…!!!) and last but not the least- get enough votes from public to become one of the 3 couples to enter the final event.
As I went through this website, I must say, quite a surprising number of participants have registered for the event, to put their driving & surviving skills to the ultimate test on roads. You’ll also find links to their blogs/ Orkut/ FB/ Twitter/ Flicker, their background info, pictures/ travelogues from their earlier trips, their proposed route for the event and also the list of people who have voted for them or written testimonials for them. All in all, it’s a page worth visiting atleast once daily to see the completion getting tougher, as time runs out and the event finally starts. I went through some of the posted profiles; particularly liked 2 of them and decided to put up a badge for one them below.
Do go through the profile at your leisure and vote for whoever you feel fit & should win the event. Personally, the one I’ve suggested has very good travelogues, testimonials and an exceptional blog at http://drivoblog.blogspot.com/ giving quite a lot of information/ tips for all you people out there wishing to start a travelogue of your own. Voting closes by 17th July and the final event is scheduled to be from 6th Aug till 17th Aug. So let’s gear up and give these love birds a push for the ‘Great Driving Challenge’.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The next Generation…
I’ve got this huge addiction to shopping and more so to impulse buys. So last week after hearing about the new 3rd generation I-Pod at my friends place, I made a quick stop at Bescent Nager and grabbed one for myself. First thing that you’ll notice is the puny size of the device. Undoubtedly this is by far the smallest I-pod yet and perfect to plug on to for a morning jog or while working at office.
However unlike the other I-pods, the controls on this are through 3 buttons only. Two are for volume up & down. The 3rd one here in the trickiest- a single click for play/ pause, double click for next song and a triple click for previous song. Also note that there are no rewind and fast-forward buttons like the v2 and v1 versions. The biggest drawback is that the 3 button control panel is on the wiring of the headphones. This makes the headphones for the I-pod shuffle unique and in other words irreplaceable by headphones from other models in case of damage. On the good side, this key configuration removes the need for the 'lock keys' button. The toggle key for shuffle and series mode is the same as in earlier models. Battery back-up lasts for well more than 8hrs inspite of hearing at a pretty high volume. Decently priced at Rs. 4200 for 4GB it has a good value for money as well.
However unlike the other I-pods, the controls on this are through 3 buttons only. Two are for volume up & down. The 3rd one here in the trickiest- a single click for play/ pause, double click for next song and a triple click for previous song. Also note that there are no rewind and fast-forward buttons like the v2 and v1 versions. The biggest drawback is that the 3 button control panel is on the wiring of the headphones. This makes the headphones for the I-pod shuffle unique and in other words irreplaceable by headphones from other models in case of damage. On the good side, this key configuration removes the need for the 'lock keys' button. The toggle key for shuffle and series mode is the same as in earlier models. Battery back-up lasts for well more than 8hrs inspite of hearing at a pretty high volume. Decently priced at Rs. 4200 for 4GB it has a good value for money as well.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sleepless for 60 hrs...
Last weekend, as usual, was pretty much hectic and in my constant effort to get the best out of it I had to skip a few hours of sleep. As most of you would know by now, I work in evening shift and so after getting up at around 17.00Hrs, to my great misfortune, I had to spend 9hrs in office on a Friday evening (Totally F***ed up…!!!). Well anyway, like any other typical Friday, didn’t have much work to do and so ended up spending half the time on FB, Orkut & Gchat (Thank GOD we have access to everything…). After wrapping up with work (ahem…ahem…!) me, Vaibhav (my roomie) & Saravana (another colleague of mine) decided that the best way to kick start the weekend would be to have a lil’ drink, inspite of the fact that it was 05.00Hrs on a Saturday morning (lolz…)
Unfortunately, Chennai does not support the drinking crowd round the clock and neither does it offer a huge variety of options to choose from. We ended up settling for a bottle of some unknown brand of Rum. Well anyway…I had also booked ticket s for 10 people for Terminator 4: Salvation at Sathyam cinemas for the 10AM show. One of the most exciting things which I like is group activities like this, where you’d be following up with 4-5 different units, all driving towards the movie hall, etc. How was the movie…? Good, but definitely not as good as Terminator 2.
John Connor (played by Christian Bale), leader of the human Resistance, inspite of having a main role, does not create the nail biting, corner of the seat excitement that was there in the earlier ones. Sam Worthington, who plays the cyborg, creates no magic on screen either. I guess the biggest thing I noticed was that the plot and the story was kinda too obvious, that anyone could have skipped the first 3 parts of the series and still managed to understand the story. I guess a little more of interwoven scenes and story, to any of the previous releases would have made it better. Come what may, Arnie got a huge applause from the entire crowd the minute he came on screen. He probably could have contributed more for the movie, if it not had been for his current role as Governor and also his potential role in Austria’s politics as well.
As the story goes on, soon after the movie, since everyone was in a mood for some chilled beer and good music, we landed at Zara’s. Nice place…good crowd…good music, the only problem might probably be the limitation of the food menu to Spanish delicacies. But being a Spanish pub, u really can’t expect any tandoor dishes either. So after ‘making merry’ for a few hours, we had to leave in a pretty bad shape as one of my buddies got himself quite sloshed. After a lot of hard work and policing, I finally managed to bring him back home to bed. Worth mentioning that a day of no sleep+ 2 sessions of alcohol+ some physical work gets you completely into a different kind of frenzy and you feel like your dangling somewhere between heaven and hell. After hogging on some pizza’s accompanied by a good movie, we decided to go out partying again.
Much to my dismay, Coco-bongo was having a private party and so club access was restricted. Knowing that there’s no way that I’d step back home, without doing something, we decided to have dinner (at 02.30hrs…!). I gotta accept that, come what may, food in a 3 star hotel is still nowhere close to home cooked food. In any case, we got back home and watched ‘Fana’ till morning. Worth mentioning that since we were supposed to vacate the house on 1st July, we thought of cleaning up the place a little. Now, unlike most bachelor apartments, ours was already pretty clean and infact this surprised a lotta my friends too.
Pretty soon, we went shopping at this place called ‘Fashion Folks’. Do note that this place is more of a factory outlet for most branded clothes & accessories. As expected, I ended up spending quite a lot L and also bought an I-pod. Anyway, I headed back home pretty early as I had to meet up with a friend of mine for coffee at sunset. But Coffee turned out to be a pretty fulfilling snack at Subway with some really good ham, salami, greens and mustard sauce. I was a lil embarrassed to hog away in front of my dost, though. For those of you, who haven’t met my roomie- he can’t stand a weekend without a beer. So there we landed u again at Hotel Fortune’s bar again sipping on beer…relaxing by the pool…listening to some good classic MJ song (commemorating his death…sniff sniff…). Since they had to close down and the guys wanted to have a lil more, we grabbed some more alcohol at this shop close to my place, where u pretty much get it 24Hrs. Went for a small drive and later on crashed back at home by 02.00Hrs with ‘Scary Movie 1’.
Quite a hectic weekend; with literally no sleep from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. Hope the next few ones are bit relaxing, but I guess that would never happen since this weekend is running out of time slots already…!
Unfortunately, Chennai does not support the drinking crowd round the clock and neither does it offer a huge variety of options to choose from. We ended up settling for a bottle of some unknown brand of Rum. Well anyway…I had also booked ticket s for 10 people for Terminator 4: Salvation at Sathyam cinemas for the 10AM show. One of the most exciting things which I like is group activities like this, where you’d be following up with 4-5 different units, all driving towards the movie hall, etc. How was the movie…? Good, but definitely not as good as Terminator 2.
John Connor (played by Christian Bale), leader of the human Resistance, inspite of having a main role, does not create the nail biting, corner of the seat excitement that was there in the earlier ones. Sam Worthington, who plays the cyborg, creates no magic on screen either. I guess the biggest thing I noticed was that the plot and the story was kinda too obvious, that anyone could have skipped the first 3 parts of the series and still managed to understand the story. I guess a little more of interwoven scenes and story, to any of the previous releases would have made it better. Come what may, Arnie got a huge applause from the entire crowd the minute he came on screen. He probably could have contributed more for the movie, if it not had been for his current role as Governor and also his potential role in Austria’s politics as well.
As the story goes on, soon after the movie, since everyone was in a mood for some chilled beer and good music, we landed at Zara’s. Nice place…good crowd…good music, the only problem might probably be the limitation of the food menu to Spanish delicacies. But being a Spanish pub, u really can’t expect any tandoor dishes either. So after ‘making merry’ for a few hours, we had to leave in a pretty bad shape as one of my buddies got himself quite sloshed. After a lot of hard work and policing, I finally managed to bring him back home to bed. Worth mentioning that a day of no sleep+ 2 sessions of alcohol+ some physical work gets you completely into a different kind of frenzy and you feel like your dangling somewhere between heaven and hell. After hogging on some pizza’s accompanied by a good movie, we decided to go out partying again.
Much to my dismay, Coco-bongo was having a private party and so club access was restricted. Knowing that there’s no way that I’d step back home, without doing something, we decided to have dinner (at 02.30hrs…!). I gotta accept that, come what may, food in a 3 star hotel is still nowhere close to home cooked food. In any case, we got back home and watched ‘Fana’ till morning. Worth mentioning that since we were supposed to vacate the house on 1st July, we thought of cleaning up the place a little. Now, unlike most bachelor apartments, ours was already pretty clean and infact this surprised a lotta my friends too.
Pretty soon, we went shopping at this place called ‘Fashion Folks’. Do note that this place is more of a factory outlet for most branded clothes & accessories. As expected, I ended up spending quite a lot L and also bought an I-pod. Anyway, I headed back home pretty early as I had to meet up with a friend of mine for coffee at sunset. But Coffee turned out to be a pretty fulfilling snack at Subway with some really good ham, salami, greens and mustard sauce. I was a lil embarrassed to hog away in front of my dost, though. For those of you, who haven’t met my roomie- he can’t stand a weekend without a beer. So there we landed u again at Hotel Fortune’s bar again sipping on beer…relaxing by the pool…listening to some good classic MJ song (commemorating his death…sniff sniff…). Since they had to close down and the guys wanted to have a lil more, we grabbed some more alcohol at this shop close to my place, where u pretty much get it 24Hrs. Went for a small drive and later on crashed back at home by 02.00Hrs with ‘Scary Movie 1’.
Quite a hectic weekend; with literally no sleep from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. Hope the next few ones are bit relaxing, but I guess that would never happen since this weekend is running out of time slots already…!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Disaster of the weekend…
As always, I had planned for a movie last weekend at Sathyam Cinemas. I was meeting up with one of my friends and I must say it was a very memorable one, with a special thanks to ‘Watchmen’. Not to mention that I ended keeping up with my unbreakable record- being late for the movie. Inspite of trying my best, I’ve come to this decision that I just cannot make it to any movie in time, ever in my life. Anyway, not sure how many of you guys had go though the torture of sitting for Watchmen for around 3 hours. Although I had gone though the reviews of this movie before booking the tickets, I was pretty confident that being a superhero movie, it would not be so terrible. Unfortunately I was wrong and I just can’t imagine the way my friend must have felt ‘bout this and fortunately I was quite happy that she didn’t let it bother her much.
Coming back to the movie,Silk Spectre (played by Malin Akerman) with her seducing scenes and intermittent nudity was by far the one force that was keeping most of the crowd in their seats. The role of Walter Kovacs was also not so critically required to the so-called plot of the movie. Dr. Manhattan however, with his super cool powers did kindle the imaginations of many. A major flaw with the movie was the introduction of multiple characters into it rather than the typical pattern of an English movie that revolves around 4-5 characters. By far the only good part was the animation, which might appeal to kids and to some sci-fi lovers. All in all, Watchmen is a definite ‘No-No’ to be seen at the theater. Personally I would’ve rated this movie a 2 out of 5 under normal circumstances, but since I ended up ruining 3 hours on a Saturday evening, which I probably could have spent at a classic diner, retro-pub or a disc, I guess I’ll have to give it a 1 out of 5. Thank God... for my friend who was there along with me; for she helped me survive the movie.
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