tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86687392024-03-13T23:53:57.387-07:00Ramblings of an unfettered mind<b>Affable, Friendly, Family-man, Geek, Crazy, Fanatic, Linux, Vim, Shy, Utter dislike for politics, Disciplinarian, Reserved, Suave, Funny, Austere, Humble, Hot-tempered, Capricious, Adamant, Intelligent, Spiritual...</b><br>
This is how my family and buddies will stereotype me.
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And now for those who are still wondering what is all this 'the-shaolin' stuff: It's just that I *LOVE* Martial-Arts and Shaolin Kung Fu being one of my favourites, though I have not practiced Kung Fu.The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.comBlogger286125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-83651114176183322752016-02-06T21:15:00.000-08:002016-02-06T23:32:55.708-08:00Quest for a (healthy) chocolate almond butter cookie<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nothing like a perfect unplanned weekend, well not the whole weekend </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> (so far!) </span>anyway, at least Saturday...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I once ate <a href="https://www.kashi.com/our-foods/cookies/kashi-cookies-chocolate-almond-butter" target="_blank">Kashi Chocolate Almond Butter</a> cookie and when I woke up this fine (but gloomy) morning, for some reason I realized that there's a a big hole in my life... it wasn't until a few moments of deep self contemplation did I realize what it was... a hole inflicted by that very cookie I had <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">devoured</span></span>, something only a perfect homemade healthy chocolate cookie could fill<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">t<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">hat's how </span></span>began </span></span>the quest to <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">bake </span>my own.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L3XiYd25xv8/Vra08EZBIlI/AAAAAAAAkP4/AGTMVuQllQ8/s1600/IMG_3827-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="444" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L3XiYd25xv8/Vra08EZBIlI/AAAAAAAAkP4/AGTMVuQllQ8/s640/IMG_3827-12.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After some Googling I found <a href="http://acleanbake.com/guest-post-kashi-almond-butter-cookies/" target="_blank">a recipe</a> that was closest to what I was looking for. Best part was it was egg-less and di<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">dn't have anything <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">that I wouldn't normally eat or couldn't pronounce, so very unlike the one I ate. </span></span>With tweaks of my own already playing in my mind I was swaying between: organize-n-clean the house(it's in total disarray!), clean the kitchen (barely any space on kitchen platform to work), cook lunch, go to office, oorrr.... bake a cookie!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I don't have to tell you who won... it was that chocolate crazed hound living inside of me, that's <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">who</span>! (And to tell you the truth, it was totally worth skipping lunch for it!). I had to go office though, couldn't skip that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With mind set on the goal, I called upon my good'ol companion, Vividh Bharti. Vividah Bharat was playing non-stop old melodies, a perfect setting for job at hand. I needed no more encouragement, I knew I had made the right choice.<br /><br />In the process, I discovered a few new (old!) songs that I hadn't heard before... that is the best part of listening to music on "real" radio, you always find a gem or two you haven't heard before. And since this was non-stop gapless program, there were no radio jockeys, no adverts nothing, just pure unadulterated music. Just me, my radio and cookie, perfectly Zen-like (though there was nothing <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Zen about it!)<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. </span></span>My appreciation for behind-the-curtain engineers at the radio station who make this happen grew a bit today, but deepest heart felt thanks to people at <a href="http://allindiaradio.gov.in/Default.aspx" target="_blank">AIR</a> who finally made Vividh Bharti officially available over-the-web!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nyW01kEUZfM/Vra10ZY7MdI/AAAAAAAAkP8/EnBv5fK43pI/s1600/IMG_3823-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="394" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nyW01kEUZfM/Vra10ZY7MdI/AAAAAAAAkP8/EnBv5fK43pI/s640/IMG_3823-9.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just about to go into the oven</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let's not digress too much.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There was but one hurdle in otherwise perfect quest for a perfect cookie... I was short of 2 very important ingredients: oats flour and buckwheat flour. I wasn't in a mood to go out and shop, lest then I would have to finish other (boring) outdoorsy chores too. I obviously had some buckwheat and oats at hand, so I put them in my good trust NutriBullet, for I knew she could handle it in a jiffy and indeed a few zaps later I had perfect oat and buckwheat flours! Problem solved.<br />I followed <a href="http://acleanbake.com/guest-post-kashi-almond-butter-cookies/" target="_blank">the discovered recipe</a> pretty much to the word, only change I made was to add molasses and almost double/triple the amount of nuts and cocoa powder. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nough histroy, let's get to<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> baking...</span></span> </span><br /><br /><b>First, My Personal Tips:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Always roast the nuts. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">M</span></span>ake sure you <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">give enough ti<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">me </span></span>to cool them down, an <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">hour maybe (you can alw<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ays roast and keep s<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ome in airtight container for later use)</span></span></span>. If you use them warm they become too soft and take away all the fun of having crunchy nuts in <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the </span>cookies. You can use almonds, peanuts, walnuts, hazelnuts or any other nut you love</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the </span>honey and/or coconut oil is solid (like it always is in the Pacific Northwest) don't microwave, rather just put the required amount in a small bowl, place the bowl in a larger one and add hot water to the larger bowl (on general principle, I avoid microwave if I can). In a few minutes you'll have them nice and flowing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">DO NOT, PLEASE DO NOT use store-bought run-of-the-mill cocoa/co<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">cao</span> powder<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. For <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the </span></span></span>perfect <b><i>umph</i></b>, use really high quality minimally processed raw cocoa powder. Ever since I have discovered this ingredient, my kitchen-life hasn't been same again. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I know the list of ingredients looks a bit <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">long for <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">purportedly</span> simple recipe</span>, but trust me, this is a very very for<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">giving cookie<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> (again very zen-like) and very simple to make. Doesn't turn out bad if you don't proportion <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a few ingredients right. You'll have to take my word <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">on it for now.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Ingredients:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1/4 cup honey</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2 tablespoons almond butter</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2 teaspoons vanilla</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3/4 cup rolled oats</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2 tablespoons cocoa powder</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1/4 cup each of: buckwheat, oat and whole wheat flour</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3/4 teaspoon baking soda</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1/4 teaspoon salt</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2 tablespoons chocolate chips (I used way more than that!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2 tablespoons almonds & walnuts, chopped and toasted (<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">or </span>any <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">of the </span>nuts you love)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses (optional)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Cooking Directions:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Preheat the oven to 350F/175C</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">W</span>hisk together the honey, coconut oil, almond butter and vanilla in a bowl</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Add the next five ingredients, rolled oats, cocoa and 3 flours; mix until just combined</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You are not looking for the regular perfect smooth blob of dough, so don't try to mash it into one!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fold in the chocolate chips and (cooled down) nuts</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Flatten into a circle—they will not spread once they start baking but they will break, so you'll have to <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">muster some </span>skill</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bake for 12-13 minutes, or until the tops look dry</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Remove and let it cool completely before serving, lest you'll burn your tongue from the still lava-hot choco-chips hidden inside (don't ask me how I know this!)</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hlasEkygJHc/Vra30deVpoI/AAAAAAAAkQU/8BFBPkmJmbI/s1600/2016-02-06%2B14.31.25-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="630" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hlasEkygJHc/Vra30deVpoI/AAAAAAAAkQU/8BFBPkmJmbI/s640/2016-02-06%2B14.31.25-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's how mixed ingredients should look like</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What would I do differently:</span></b><br />
<ol start="0">
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Add more blackstrap molasses</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Experiment adding some more variety of grain<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">s</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For a small batch I made, I would rather use a small counter-top oven versus the huge cooking range one</span></li>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BgjhF5pZl2E/Vra13x1AwdI/AAAAAAAAkQQ/D0TpW8_nQug/s1600/IMG_3826-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BgjhF5pZl2E/Vra13x1AwdI/AAAAAAAAkQQ/D0TpW8_nQug/s640/IMG_3826-11.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Out came scrumptious Chocolate Almond Butter cookie!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-35724251681057865202014-09-15T20:28:00.001-07:002014-09-17T11:45:16.232-07:00SwiftKey - The Worst Virtual Keyboard<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had heard a few raves about this new virtual keyboard (some even touted it as the best virtual keyboard on Android). So I wasn't very surprised seeing people go a little crazy when <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/11/swiftkey-android-keyboard-free/" target="_blank">SwiftKey announced</a> a free version for android. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I took the dive and installed it right away, fearing the offer was not going to last long. The initial setup looked kind of polished and very welcoming. The UI was certainly a notch better than stock/Google/Sammy keyboard, with a some amazing color/visual customizations. Cool!<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it had one FATAL flaw... right from the very first sentence I typed, it would misspell about every 3rd word! No kidding, I had to erase the word over and over only to find myself giving up on 4th or 5th retry and typing one alphabet at a time rather than swiping (or like I like to call it, Swype'ing). Total disaster <i>~~~sigh~~~</i>. I thought I was typing obscure words, I toned down my vocabulary but SwiftKey's accuracy didn't improve. It didn't even remember or learn that I'm constantly correcting what was interpreted of my swipe, or what I had chosen the last time on the same swipe pattern.<br />And if I ever wanted to spell out non-English words, then the feeling was nothing short of having entered the <i>gates of hell</i>! I'm not kidding or exaggerating. It is indeed that bad. More than once I felt I would rather prefer the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T9_%28predictive_text%29" target="_blank">T9 Predictive Text</a> of older feature phones from last decade (which, for the record was amazing for the time on phones). After raving about swipe'ing keyboard when it first came and showing it off to friends, I started feeling sheepish and embarrassed in front friends when had to correct over and over <b>AND </b>over. Not to mention the horror of adding an apostrophe(') to any word, you have to fight hard against SwiftKey to NOT add a space, and if you go back it often, due to mind of its own, change the word, auto-(in)correct (tm)!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But I wasn't ready to give it up yet, the critical self inside of me questioned me, I thought it was probably my swiping, or my words, or my usage, or something in me that was horribly wrong, so I kept using it for good 3 months.. But one fine day my patience crossed its threshold (not to be confused with <a href="http://www.winbeta.org/news/windows-9-threshold-whats-name" target="_blank">Windows Threshold</a>! Bad joke!). But seriously, I reached a point where I said just <b>!@#$ </b>it, I don't want to retype every 3rd word any time I type a sentence. I didn't want to spend enormous amount of time correcting or updating SwiftKey's dictionary, esp. when I knew my last virtual keyboard was awesome.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, that very instant, before steam would start coming out of my ears and nose, I switched back to my good'ol <i><b>Swype</b></i> (<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nuance.swype.dtc&hl=en" target="_blank">Google Play</a>, <a href="http://www.swype.com/" target="_blank">official page</a>)! Boy did I miss you! With tears in my eyes </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(<b>of happiness, </b>of course) </span> I whispered into her caring ears, <b>I missed you so bad, I really did! Glad to have you back in my life</b>!<i> ~~~hugs and kisses~~~ </i>(yes, I'm known to sometimes talk to inanimate objects in cases like this)!</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ZAUVZOdfaU/VBevPX73bpI/AAAAAAAAcEc/F_C7SVJW48w/s1600/2014-09-16%2B01.10.09_annotated.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ZAUVZOdfaU/VBevPX73bpI/AAAAAAAAcEc/F_C7SVJW48w/s1600/2014-09-16%2B01.10.09_annotated.png" height="400" width="225" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />I'm now re-experiencing the joy of fast and error-free typing, <i>Swype</i>'ing!!<i> ~~~muah~~~</i><br />I highly doubt the claims that SwiftKey is the most popular virtual keyboard out there, in my opinion it's <b><i>the </i>worst virtual keyboard </b>I have ever used. Adiós SwifyKey! At this point, I don't feel like checking out the blogsphere as to why SwiftKey wasn't good for me, esp. because I know a perfectly great virtual keyboard is sitting right in front of me! The rational part of my self is hating me for sticking with it for so long and wasting so much of precious time, but the un-rational(<i>uhh? what?</i>) part is happy I gave it a good shot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you haven't tried SwiftKey, then don't worry, you haven't missed a thing.</span>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-65839723610062005102014-08-26T15:59:00.000-07:002014-08-29T14:33:22.489-07:00Movie Review: Transformers-Age of Extinction<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It's been a while here... intense work coupled with good weather is keeping me away from blogging.<br />So I thought I will post a quick review on the something... something that was supposed to be a movie I saw a few days back... <i><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transformers_age_of_extinction/" target="_blank">Transformers: Age of Extinction</a></i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If you don't care to read my elaborate and detailed review of the movie, I'll offer you something that perfectly summarizes the whole movie in a single line and you can then decide what you want to do next..<b>.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b> </b></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Watching </b></span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><i>Age of Extinction </i></b></span></span></span>is like watching two drunk junkyards having wild-wild sex in the fit of love in your backyard.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />Plot wise, if you can say one exists (which doesn't!), it is strikingly identical to all the other 3 movies in the series that preceded it:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Everyone searching for that one that thing, spark, seed, fruit, flower... that will tip the scale in Autobot wars, <i>Check</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">An underdog (Mark Wahlberg), <i>Check</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Barely-Legal hot chick (<b><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Nicola+Peltz" target="_blank">Nicola Peltz</a></b>) who, no matter what, always has a perfect makeup with pink luscious lipstick on, ALL the bejesus time, <i>Check</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Secret Government Organization, <i>Check</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A villain hiding in plain sight (Megatron aka Galvatron), <i>Check</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A hero hiding in plain sight (Optimus Prime), <i>Check</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Plain sight hiding in plain sight... WAIT! What?? That doesn't make sense! <i>Check!</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Lots of shaky shots, fire, destruction, mayhem, explosions... <i>Check, check and Check!</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Incoherent story line, <i>Check</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Predictable, <i>Check</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And it is unbearably long, <i>Check</i></span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">(For the record, the first <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">original Transformers</a> was enjoyable, with just the right amount of special effects and not unbearably long).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">First off, it looks like the movie was made by someone (and FOR someone) who loves to masturbate to violent explosions and destruction of things. And every iteration of the "<i>act</i>" then demands for a bigger and larger explosion to get <i>the fix</i>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There are so many explosions in the movie that it makes all of the 4th of July fireworks combined (to date!) look like a mere spark from striking a matchstick. If <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000881/" target="_blank">Michael Bay</a></b> were ever looking for an alternate profession, I think he can really give even the most contemporary Pyrotechnians a run for their monies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Age of Extinction</i> basically is the exact same movie as the first one, just with more cheap and racist shots at humor, more noise (or the explosion), more robots (or car thingies, because you can't tell what's what anymore). Once the autobots start fighting (or start making violent love, because no one can really discern what's happening!) you can't figure which are the good guys and which are the bad ones, which makes it orders of magnitude more annoying, because you want to root for the good guys, right?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">To top it all off, the movie is incredibly long, 160 minutes, which is well over 2 and freakin' half hours! <b>2 freaking half hours </b>of mind-numbing noise, mind-bending explosions, mind-@#$ing action and all this to no end, or the same "<i>we must save humans(~~~imagine Prime's voice~~~)</i>" sh!t. That's torture, not entertainment. If you want to exact a revenge on someone without him/her realizing it... take them to this movie, IN 3-freaking-D!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And most certainly NO, I haven't missed the juiciest part, Michael Bay's penchant for staring barely-legal female characters is only a notch higher in this version compared to previous movies. While looking at the hot 20-something year old <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Nicola+Peltz" target="_blank"><b>Nicola Peltz</b></a> may make you overlook a few flaws in the movie, more than average flaws might I even add <i>~~~wink wink~~~</i>, even 100s of her in this movie cannot make you overlook the lameness of everything this film has thrown on the screen.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I believe I have </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">now </span>been permanently marred by this experience and I've decided to ban all future Michael Bay films from my life for good. I wouldn't have watched this one either, had it not been for my buddy insisting on watching it. At least he agreed to my one condition when I retaliated; <i>I'm not going to watch it in 3D, even if you pay me a thousand dollars</i>! (A lesson I learned the hard way from the experience of watching the last Transformer movie in 3D, Rise or Fall or Revenge of something).<br /><br />But, in all fairness, the ideal audience for this movie is not the demographic of USA, but it is other parts of the world, parts where the movie industry just doesn't have the technical know-how of creating such mayhem of special effects. Let alone being able to afford monetary expenses of creating one. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So, I said it in the beginning and I'll say it again...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Watching <i>Age of Extinction</i> is like watching two drunk junkyards having wild-wild sex in the fit of love in your backyard.</b></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Other notable disappointments have been <i>Man of Steel</i> and the latest <i>Spiderman </i>(the name of which I refuse to Google)<i>, 300-Rise of an Empire </i>(my review <b><a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2014/03/movie-review-300-rise-of-empire.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>)<i>.</i> And I'm sure I'm missing a movie or two.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>~~~sigh~~~ </i>Good movies are so hard to come by these days. Until last week, I was pinning my hopes on the <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1291150/" target="_blank">Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</a></b>. As a kid I adored that cartoon series, but I heard even TMNT-2014 <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/teenage_mutant_ninja_turtles_2013/" target="_blank">is rated as drearily dull</a>, even at its best. But I might still watch it, just for the sake of it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Links:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ol start="0"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<li><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5KQQWlIgGc" target="_blank">If Michael Bay directed movie UP</a></b></li>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Transformers, 2007</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1055369/?ref_=fn_al_tt_6" target="_blank">Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 2009</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399103/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5" target="_blank">Transformers: Dark of the Moon, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2109248/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt" target="_blank">Transformers: Age of Extinction, 2014</a></li>
</span></ol>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></div>
The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-63734120600106963902014-03-25T17:33:00.002-07:002014-03-25T17:35:42.707-07:00Movie Review: 300-Rise of an Empire<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253863/" target="_blank">300-Rise of an Empire</a></b>, or in simple terms, <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/" target="_blank">300</a> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253863/" target="_blank">Part-2</a></b>...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">One of those other weekends, I had nothing better to do (in retrospect, I was so wrong!) so I went to catch up on a movie with a buddy, it had been a really long time since I last watched a movie in theater. To say that the movie was boring, would be a gross understatement, cinematography was good, but only at times and only to a certain extent.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And here's my take, the movie, surprisingly can be very accurately summarized in mere 3 short words/phrases:</span></div>
<ol start="0">
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Water! </b>Lots of it! In fact it wouldn't hurt to blame California's water shortage entirely on this movie!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Blood! </b>Even more plentiful than water! Take that Mel Gibson for <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/" target="_blank">Apocalypto</a></i> or even Quentin Tarantino for <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/" target="_blank">Kill Bill</a>(<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378194/" target="_blank">s</a>)</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>One lousy </b>half-a$$ s3x scene (s3x scenes are quintessential part of <i>_every_</i> American movie)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Slow Motion </b>(ok, I lied, there are 4 items, not 3).</span></li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The movie is nothing more than a hodge-podge of dismemberment of body parts (hands, legs, head, anything) that fly everywhere with blood splattering all around in extreme slow motion under a gloomy-n-internally overcast semi-black-and-white environment. When nobody's hacking bodies, the dialogues in the movie are banal, at best.<br />Compared to the original 300 (<a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2007/03/movie-review-300.html" target="_blank">my review here</a>), this movie is almost entirely shot in slow motion. I was afraid even the dialogues would now start appearing in ssslllooowwww mmmoootttiiiooonnn and to tell you the truth, I wouldn't have been surprised if that had actually happened! So much so, that if we played the movie at normal rate then the entire movie would be over in 15 minutes flat! The time part is a bit of an over statement, but you get the idea.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Good Thing: </b>The only silver lining, watching it in 3D didn't induce a head-ache (and that's only because of the movie being in slo-mo), unlike <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/" target="_blank">Superman-Man of Steel</a>, which gave me a splitting headache after I watched it in 3D, TW-<i>freaking</i>-ICE!<br /><br /><b>Verdict:</b><br />Life could only be better if you skip this one.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">See Also:</span></b></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2007/03/movie-review-300.html" target="_blank">Movie Review: 300</a></span></li>
</ul>
The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-3391781861596108562014-03-19T21:50:00.001-07:002014-03-29T20:06:48.922-07:00Spring Is Here<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Long time no see??? Well, been sunk in life's <strike>shitty</strike> boring problems knee deep too long now. Not a good excuse to not post, but hey, that's the best I've got :(<br />Anyway, I thought posting some beautiful photos would be a good way to say "<i>hello</i>" to a few fellow readers I have left...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lately, work-life has gotten a tad boring, mostly as I don't have my discuss-everything-under-the-sun lunches with buddies at work anymore; instead have chosen to watch Youtube videos while I gobble down food at my desk, at wildly irregular times. But all's not lost, or so it feels...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sun was out for two straight days and skies were clear bright blue, almost made me feel lucky for being alive and be able to see this day (<i>note: this is not an exaggeration when you live in Seattle</i>)! But my skepticism that <b>Spring </b>is upon me, didn't budge. That is only until I cared to look around my office while I parked my car and walked towards my building: Cherry Blossom buds opening up! So the very next day I brought along my camera (luckily it was sunny again!) and went on a stroll after lunch to shoot some pictures around the campus. And here's the result: <b>Spring is upon us guys</b>!<br />Time to break out of winter clothes! Gear up for some hiking, photography and camping!<br /><br />Yes, if you let her have it her way, Nature does have a way of uplifting your mood on occasion, trying hard to make you re-believe that life is indeed beautiful.<br />These are just a few shots from around the campus, full album here on flickr: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/sets/72157642303358725/show/" target="_blank"><b>Spring 2014</b></a>!<br /><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Equipment:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Body-Canon EOS 6D (full frame)<br /> Lenses-Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro Lens & Canon 70-200mm IS F4L</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Note: </b>Weather turned sucky the very day after I took pictures and went only southwards for even worse on the weekend. You know, that's <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/blog/seattle_weather" target="_blank">the typical Seattle weather</a>, awesome and great while I'm holed up in my little office but crappy on weekends when I have time to explore the outdoors </i>~~~sigh~~~ <i>That's the finicky Pacific North West weather we all love so much :-)</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Full album with many more photos here on flickr: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/sets/72157642303358725/show/" target="_blank"><b>Spring 2014</b></a>!</span>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-78798284889131905262013-11-26T11:57:00.004-08:002014-04-25T11:08:12.437-07:00Galaxy S3 4.3 Jelly Bean Update Annoyance<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If you are looking for steps to stop that annoying download complete notification, skip to <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8668739#clear_cache_instructions">Instructions</a> section.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There have been a lot of issues with the 4.3 Jelly Bean update pushed out so at some point <a href="http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-suspends-galaxy-s3-android-43-rollout-investigate-issues" target="_blank">Samsung decided to pull back</a> the update and work on fixing them. But I was surprised when AT&T pushed the 4.3 update nonetheless. I didn't want to be guinea pig or spend hours fixing annoyances, so I delayed the update, but, not very unlike Windows <i>~~~aarrgghhh~~~</i> it kept insisting every few hours that I update the darn phone. The only respite being God-sent postpone button that allowed me to postpone the update for up to 1, 2, 4 or 8 hours, I selected the max duration, 8 hours. After doing that 2-3 times, today morning, to my horror, when I got up and checked my mobile I noticed there was a subtle difference in my lock-screen's appearance. Even before unlocking it dawned upon me that I have gotten the dreaded upgrade. Instead of my early morning routine that helps me shake off the slumber, it was this squeamish feeling of being violated that jolted me back from sleepiness.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I haven't used it more than an hour, so I can't say what I like and what I hate about this update, or what are the annoyances, except one... There's one that's breaking everybody's resolve to NOT swear and that is: randomly showing notification that a file has been downloaded. Now, this file, in all the cases is either not recognizable or was downloaded years ago, actually in mobile-years, eons ago! So, of course when you tap on it, you get back an error something to the effect of "<i>Cannot find this file</i>".</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">After Google'ing, I figured this was a very common annoyance and people suggested "Clearing Cache" to get rid of this. But no one actually shared detailed steps how to do so. Or more importantly, "<b>which</b>" cache to clear! After some trial and error I figured how to do it. And I thought of making a quick post to help others rid themselves of this irritating behavior.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="clear_cache_instructions"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Instructions to Clear Cache:</span></b></div>
<ol start="0" style="text-align: justify;">
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Pull down the notification center when you have an icon notifying you of some download</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Tap-n-Hold on the filename that appears</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">An "App Info" menu will pop up</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Tap on that "App Info" menu</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It takes you to Android's standard interface from where you can manage the applications</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Just hit "Clear Data", it will warn you, just say ok and proceed with clearing data</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Voilà! You will not be bothered with this again, unless you REALLY download something</span></li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I couldn't find this app whose data I cleared from Application Manager, so I take it must be some system internal app that's hidden from Application Manager. And I didn't know if what I was doing was the real solution, so I didn't even take any screenshots to help, but at least I remembered the steps.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Edit: </b>The app is called "Download Manager" and actually is visible if you are patient enough to scroll through "All" apps tab in application manager. Here's the screenshot. Blogger is not letting me upload images, so here's the link to screenshot: <b><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/dc9o1225p56baaw/download_manager_2.jpg" target="_blank">Screenshot-Clear Download Manager's Cache</a></b>.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Edit: </b>The BIGGEST annoyance so far has been random battery drains, just yesterday it dropped off from 100% to 85% in less than 5 minutes, the phone's back went warm AND this was while in "power saving" mode! I fired up Elixir2 and noticed most CPU has been hogged by Samsung's wretched KNOX. My battery is lasting less than half a day in power saving mode (and I don't have any bells-n-whistles enabled, aka FB, Twitter, Email notifications, etc.).<br />This is just pathetic. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Moral:</b> When will these idiots (the ones defining upgrade/update experiences) realize that there are some of us who DON'T want to be forced to upgrade, especially when there are many known unresolved issues with the update. And if you MUST annoy with hourly reminders, at least don't FORCE upgrade while I'm asleep and can't baby-sit your f!@#$ing notifications! <i>~~~sigh~~~</i> There's no dearth of idiots in this world, none whatsoever!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Is Samsung becoming the new Yahoo!/HP, refer to my previous post: <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2012/08/stop-writing-crappy-software.html">Stop Writing Crappy Software</a></span></div>
The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-17227144595072465592013-09-14T21:28:00.001-07:002013-09-14T21:28:55.324-07:00My Dirty Secret: Wettest Dream of My Life<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Today, I'm letting you in on my real dirty dream, wettest of wet dreams I would LOVE to experience, vividly comic'ized by the great artist at <a href="http://xkcd.com/" target="_blank">xkcd</a>... </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tech_support.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tech_support.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">All the nerds-n-geeks out there are experiencing a nerd-boner as... .. ... <i>~~~aarrghh~~~</i> I'll be back shortly!</span>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-47739206597705640762013-08-03T16:48:00.001-07:002013-08-03T16:52:45.410-07:00Healthful Spinach Smoothie<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As I promised in the last post, here's the recipe I promised. First things first, fret not, as I have told you earlier, I'm not going to convert this blog into a store house of cooking recipes, people have already done wonderful job all around the blogsphere.<br />But in my quest to improve my eating habits, I will share a few health-filled recipes once in a while.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Making this <b>Spinach Smoothie</b> (<i>Palak Smoothie</i>) is so astoundingly easy and simple, that it really defies the commonly held belief that you have to spend hours in order to cook a healthy meal(<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>*conditions apply!</i></span>). Not to mention it would be </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> outrightly</span> criminal NOT to make this regularly!</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sNEsrdn0BaM/Uf2Vr8QMtGI/AAAAAAAAZLI/wTHbEZ42e9g/s1600/IMG_2511-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sNEsrdn0BaM/Uf2Vr8QMtGI/AAAAAAAAZLI/wTHbEZ42e9g/s640/IMG_2511-3.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />This is enough to make about 3-4 glasses of smoothie, scale it per your needs:</span></div>
<ol start="0" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<li>Banana - 2</li>
<li>Pineapple - 1/4th</li>
<li>Slice of Whole Lemon - 1</li>
<li>Spinach - approx. 3 handfuls</li>
<li>Peeled Oranges - 2</li>
<li>Papaya - 1/4th</li>
<li>Condiments: Black Pepper</li>
<li>Optional: Almost any fruit you want, esp. berries, avocado, Cinnamon, Honey</li>
<li>Water, to get the consistency you prefer</li>
</span></ol>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you don't want to read rest of the <strike>boring</strike> interesting commentary, then here's your skipping-to-the-best-part...<br /><b>Quick Recipe: Grind them (0-5) all together, sprinkle freshly ground pepper and top it off with a mint leaf</b>!</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W4jFzmipq3Y/Uf2V6zg_PQI/AAAAAAAAZLQ/if_vt9-jBcY/s1600/IMG_2506-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W4jFzmipq3Y/Uf2V6zg_PQI/AAAAAAAAZLQ/if_vt9-jBcY/s400/IMG_2506-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you have time, patience and zest to endure my boring (but not totally useless) commentary, then here you go...<br />The key idea here is gathering the ingredients, once you have them, it is just a matter of putting them in the mixer and making a smoothie out of it, there's not too much more to it. But if there's one thing I want to point out is, <b>do not </b>skip on the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">slice of a </span>whole-lemon, the lemon's grind (thick outer skin) is what gives this smoothie its unique deep flavor. If you don't have one handy, DO NOT expect spectacular results when you substitute it for that lowly chemical-laden lemon juice from your fridge. I recommend running out to the nearest grocery store, instead and picking one up (note that running will also up your appetite for a healthful drink!). My 3-handfuls of spinach measurement is approximate, keep adding till you get nice vibrant green color.<br /><br />The trick is to grind all of these properly, putting Spinach in first will make the mixer's motor run on near-zero-load with leaves sitting there almost undisturbed! Don't curse me when this happens, because it means you haven't read the full post ;-) Luckily for you, you will almost instantly start getting the burning smell, so you'll know something's amiss! (Note that I have a very cheap 4 year old mixer, so I have to be creative how I grind things in it; chances are you might have better luck with yours, or coincidentally, have a cheapo one like mine!). Always put juicy fruits first, the juice helps form the base of the smoothie, a thick paste.<br /><br /><b>Once ready, top it off with freshly ground pepper and a flavorful mint leaf! </b>That all there is to it!<br /><br />You can experiment the base recipe in many many ways, the above is a good reference of what all goes into this smoothie, a good starting point, be creative with what you can add. Like avocado, papaya and black-pepper are my own personal touch to this recipe.<br />If you want to keep this healthy, then there are a few things I strongly recommend against adding. Also, unless you want your smoothie to taste like a slush, I recommend keeping ice out too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Things to keep out of your smoothie</b>: sugar (NO NO NO additional sugar or sweetener </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">is needed</span>, for christ's sake banana and pineapple bring enough sugar already), milk (doesn't go well with citrus fruits), Strawberries (will conflict with pineapple and citrus flavor).<br /><br />If you have all the ingredients ready(<i>*</i>), it doesn't take more than a minute to whip a glassful of this smoothie, including cleaning time. Use fresh ingredients, especially spinach leaves, frozen spinach will not get you anywhere close to what fresh ones can achieve. I'm willing to bet it will not even taste like a smoothie. I generally chop the fruits over the weekend and keep them in the refrigerator, that way I don't have to spend too much time gathering all the ingredients whenever I want to make a glassful. Chopping pineapple, especially, is a bit time consuming a task best reserved for weekend.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More Tips:</span>
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<ol start="0"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<li><b>Bananas</b></li>
Another trick I have picked up for making great smoothies over the period is using frozen bananas. I have had to throw away a lot many bananas for not eating them before they went black and rancid. So now I just peel all the bananas, put them in a nice ziplock bag and put them in deep freezer! They will stay there for at least a month, but I consume them within a week's time. This also means you will never have to use ice in your smoothie again!
<li><b>Leftovers</b></li>
Make sure you don't make too much, this tastes best when made fresh. But if you have leftover, then just put the smoothie in a nice air-tight mason jar, it will last for 3 or so days in the fridge. Spinach is rich in iron, so naturally it will turn a tad dark, don't be scared, it will still be good for consumption.</span></ol>
The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-9645936573590946572013-06-09T11:48:00.000-07:002013-08-03T16:49:05.327-07:00I have been hacked!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Have you ever had a feeling that your brain is being hacked into while you are asleep? And by hack I mean programatically, of course, not physically. That's the <strike>feeling</strike> dream I had early morning today... while I lay half awake I had an unsettling dream that my brain was hacked into and someone was having fun while rummaging through it. I bet I squirmed a bit, who wouldn't!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Was it not enough that I have, more than once, had <a href="https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=recursion" target="_blank">recursive</a> dreams, now somebody has to hack into my brain? </span>I lay perfectly still struggling with my part asleep-part awake-part confused state of mind without perturbing anything just so that I can understand what's happening, or lack hereof! Early morning brain hacks would so very well explain the slow mornings I have had! Stupid me, anything that will convince me I need to spend an extra 5 minutes in the bed :)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My mind then wanders off (hacker seems to have gone by now <i>~~~phew~~~</i>) first worried about what has been deleted from my brain, not that you can backup a brain (funny, you can hack into one, copy it contents, delete some, but not back it up, attaboy!). But as it goes, one never knows what has been deleted until the one actually needs it. And then I get concerned about what inner thoughts the hacker might have tapped into.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I lay there contemplating (ohh.... in reality, here comes another 10 minutes of sweet sleep!), so I lay there contemplating, what would it mean in reality to hack into someone's psyche programatically, if and when it could be done, without the subject knowing it. That's when I realized it was just a dream (but nothing is ever JUST a dream, never, is it!). And no, I'm not talking about the stupid movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/" target="_blank">Inception</a> and again no, neither did I see it before going to bed nor do I intend to see it in foreseeable future, I didn't even think of thinking of seeing it in foreseeable future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It has been longest break on blog so far, somewhere around 8+ months <i>~~~sigh~~~ </i>A few people asked me lately why have I stopped writing and I assured them that I haven't stopped writing I just have stopped blogging them for a short while (a popular euphemism for: am being a lazy bum!). So this <strike>useless</strike> bizarre dream of today's seemed like a perfect post to resume blogging with, or a good attempt at the very least.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As to life...<br />It pains me to see that I haven't been making full use of the Sun that's blessing us Seattle'ites (residents of Seattle, not satellites!) with longer days. Hope to get back on the saddle before winter kicks in and days start getting shorter where it gets dark by 4pm and it starts feeling day ended even before it started.<br /><br /><i><b>Coming up next</b></i>: How to make a <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2013/08/healthful-spinach-smoothie.html" target="_blank">quick very healthy smoothie</a> in under a minute! </span></div>
The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-25882777515071150392012-08-26T23:19:00.000-07:002013-04-29T11:24:50.030-07:00 Stop Writing Crappy Software<div style="text-align: justify;">
My diatribe today is aimed at recent (unpleasant) experiences with:</div>
<ul>
<li>HP Printer Deskjet F4400 series</li>
<li>Yahoo! Mail</li>
</ul>
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I know that ranting is NOT the best'est way to resume blogging, but hey, I'm surprisingly disgusted! Appalled! Sad! Furious! Irritated! And yes, you have every right to ask how can you feel so many things at one time! What happened?<br />
Well, rest assured, I (miraculously) still have my all of my mental faculties <i>~~touchwood~~</i><br />
Let me lay it down upon you...<br />
I had returned after a long day's work, went on house hunt right away, picked up a few groceries on the way home for dinner, helped prep up the dinner and had just finished dinning. So far so good.<br />
It was right then that we got an email asking us to send out a few documents urgently. It was a race against time, literally, come to think of it. I printed them, we filled them up and then came (what I could only recall, in retrospect, as the SCARY) part: Scanning them! No biggie, I said we have that all-in-one copier I just printed these on, don't we! Having unsuccessfully tried scanning a document last time, I was not too hopeful. But I was (hopelessly) optimistic. You know, it is not uncommon for software to have failed you the first time and it works the next time you try it out again. It is as if software has healing powers and miraculously fix themselves over time or something.</div>
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So, I set out to scan. I put the first paper on the glass, flipped the cover... <i>Tick-Tick</i>, and the copier starts grunting, sucks in a blank paper and makes an exact hard copy for me. <i>Tcch...</i> entirely my fault, I hit "copy" button and that is NOT what I wanted. It turns out, in that incomprehensible maze of buttons, there isn't a "<i>just scan and don't damn print it!</i>" button. So I fire up "<i>Print and Fax</i>" from my OSX, it connects to my printer promptly (relatively speaking). And lights up the "Scan" button on the software, which I promptly hit. Poof! After grunting for good part of few minutes, the scanner was making multiple pass over the document (am guessing once for each of the 3-4 primary colors it can deal with). Each time pretending to be enhancing the preview on my macbook's screen. And then it just stuck there, scan completed at 100% but "scanning..." dialog still showed it was working on something. I let it set for a while but then after too long I killed it. I checked the destination folder... No scanned images. I repeat the process, only this time I don't hit the copy button but the correct "scan" button. Exact same behavior, but this time I did see a scanned copy of my document. Got me a bit excited there for a minute. +1 for optimism!</div>
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One down, 4 more to go! I swap out for the next page. Repeat, no luck. Patiently I do it again, no luck. And try it again! Still no luck.<br />
Every time I had to kill the darn program because it would finish a 100% and then never budge from there. But this time I didn't get any scanned copies as a byproduct. As it turns, there are multiple ways to scan a doc on OSX, so I fired up "<i>Preview</i>" this time. No luck with that either. But I noticed Dropbox stopped sync'ing, the icon turned red. It complained my disk was full. Scanning also stopped throwing a "Disk is full" error. "#@~! Yes right! That is all I needed at this time!" I was starting to loose my cool by now. I could swear I had plenty of disk space to go around. So I hit terminal and indeed the good'ol trusted "du" told me I was out of disk space.<br />
I deleted a few large files and paused Dropbox syncing to free up some disk space. I restarted scanning and <i>pooff</i>! The darn scanning window complained I was out of disk space eff'ing yet again. There's no denying this time I had few MBs worth of free space to begin with because I had deleted the files with my own bare hands (metaphorically) and checked free space with my own eyes (indeed tired and strained by now), but unfailingly I had noticed I had made some space available before restarting the whole scanning ordeal. What is going on, by this time I was adorning my sentences a few verbal niceties!</div>
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All I needed was a few MBs. I have noticed that sometimes rebooting OSX gets me back some disk space, I think that comes from reclaiming the filesystem log space, am not sure though. But it was worth a try. Plus it would kill any unwanted lingering programs potentially interfering with the scanning. In parallel, I was trying to snap photos of the document with our phones in the hopes we could get decent photos rather than fight with the copier. But that wasn't panning out well either. After reboot, I back up 3 GBs worth of data and delete it off my macbook. Ahh hhaa! Now lets try this again. This time I fire up "<i>Image Capture</i>" to rule out any software issues. Maybe they all use the same backend to talk to the printer, implying same hung behavior, but it was worth a shot.</div>
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I hit "Scan" and lo-and-behold! Still the same "hung" behavior after reaching 100% completion. But... out of curiosity, I check disk space... And <i>~~~horror in my eyes~~~</i> <b>Holy Spiderman's mad-cow crap! </b> It's depleting. And depleting real fast. Within few moments of Image Capture being hung, it had consumed nearly 2GB of disk space. At this time I was more furious than I was frustrated or even tired and started turning red (I'm sure if I looked at myself in the mirror, my eyes were already bloodshot!). I shot a few more verbal projectiles in the scanner's direction, cursed the software developers under my breath who made this crap and abandoned the idea of scanning altogether. Two hours into it and it was getting on my nerves.<br />
I can understand sloppy UI design, hard-to-navigate menus, unintuitive user controls, etc. even an occasional crash (though I would ask why, but say I gave it so much lee way) and I have seen a healthy share of those... but a scanner hogging on my disk space by GBs within seconds... that is taking sucking to totally new heights altogether! Totally unacceptable. <br />
Something that was once a scanner, in my eyes was now an array of dysfunctional mechanical parts clubbed with even crappier software.</div>
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I were all so set to unleash the full wrath of my bottled up verbal abuses on that lowly inanimate object. But just then Zen took over me: <i>Atul, nothing good has ever come out of violence, you know</i>. I resisted that stupid inner voice of mine, "<i>Sure as hell it has, you want to try (I almost got into my alert fighting stance)? Look around in the real world, one with the most fire power, rules everyone. You really want to try it! Huuh!</i>", I felt myself repeatedly muttering it under my fiery breath! The only thing (thankfully!) missing was a visible flame coming out of my nostrils. Long story short, cooler mind prevailed, but probably only because there were larger issues to take be taken care of later that night than fighting with the lowly copier.<br />
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Now I don't know if it is Apple's OSX who is at fault or HP, I would guess the driver comes from HP, but I could be wrong. I would give Apple some benefit of doubt, just because everything else on my MacBook (including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Camp_%28software%29" target="_blank">bootcamp</a>'ed Windows) works flawlessly and drivers typically come from device manufacturers, so I say it must be HP. Trying to scan and reproduce the experience on Windows would have definitely narrowed down the culprit, but I dare not scan from that piece of crappy copier again! As a printer it is not too bad, but as a scanner, God save you.</div>
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Thank you very much however-is-at-fault here, for teaching a lesson (see morals below) here the hard way, I will never forget it! If it was any consolation, I was reminded that I got the all-in-one <strike>crapper</strike> printer free with the laptop. Wonder why, I laughed? All the more reason to trash it to pulp with a baseball bat.<br />
Well, that by itself wasn't enough to prompt this post... that last nail-in-the-coffin came in the form of online experience the next morning.</div>
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I have a yahoo mail account that had been attracting nothing but spams for the longest of time. So I thought of salvaging it for sending craigslist queries. So I went in and tried to edit my profile. First off, it was an effort to find "WHERE" should I look for my profile and change it. There were too many options: Should I look under "<i>Hi, Atul"</i> or should I look under the "<i>Options</i>" or should I look under the most promising "<i>My Y!</i>"??? <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-syoERvYgzuQ/UDu4CMnzHgI/AAAAAAAAXXE/X7R88dytui8/s1600/yahoo_mail_0b.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="254" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-syoERvYgzuQ/UDu4CMnzHgI/AAAAAAAAXXE/X7R88dytui8/s640/yahoo_mail_0b.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Confusing Multitude of options</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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Well as it turns out "My Y!" is THE LAST place you should go to. The thing I wanted is under "<i>Hi, Atul</i>", it gave me a drop-down menu with few a options, one of them being "<i>Profile</i>". Gotcha! Wait, not yet! That page throws an annoying 404 Page Not Found Error.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xz8-slEfGHo/UDsGrcam_ZI/AAAAAAAAXWw/XJLjWEJJd2Q/s1600/yahoo_mail_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="338" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xz8-slEfGHo/UDsGrcam_ZI/AAAAAAAAXWw/XJLjWEJJd2Q/s640/yahoo_mail_1.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The annoying 404-Error</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I try to keep it cool. Moving on. I trace back my steps and then follow other lead, "<i>Account Info</i>". That looked promising, shows my profile and besides my profile it had an "<i>Edit Profile Details</i>" link.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r6SjlS87OEs/UDsHPceAQUI/AAAAAAAAXW4/cKqjoFOdGyE/s1600/yahoo_mail_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r6SjlS87OEs/UDsHPceAQUI/AAAAAAAAXW4/cKqjoFOdGyE/s640/yahoo_mail_2.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jackpot???</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But guess what, that link too takes me to the same 404 error! What is even more @!#$'ed up is that all the links on that page are invalid links! They all land you in the same "404-Page Not Found" world. Even the f___ing Help link! Seriously, are you eff'ing kidding me! <b>Does anybody ever test this crap</b>? All the links on that page were crapped out. And this is NOT a transient error, I have been giving it a try for a week now, every single day of the week. It is permanently damaged.</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">http://profile.yahoo.com/404/*http://www.yahoo.com</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">http://profile.yahoo.com/404/*http://help.yahoo.com</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">http://profile.yahoo.com/404/*http://search.yahoo.com/search/options?p=</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So after that, I give up hopes and dig out the REAL Yahoo help page. That is even more eff'ed up. After selecting categories and sub-categories of my issue, Yahoo throws an error saying something to the effect of "<i>We are too busy with other issues, try seeking help in online forums</i>". Damn right you are busy, I said, with this kind of crappy web designing you better be busy either helping people or fixing up your shit. I gave up. With renewed energy I have been trying it day after day. One fine day, night actually, it let me type the question after selecting categories. But THE only thing it showed me were some pretty useless "Quick Answers". None of them relevant for my problem. I can't actually contact the damn Yahoo engineers who wrote this crap! Seriously, are you kidding me now? So there is virtually NO way for me to resolve this issue :( If I'm expected to post this on some forum and then wait eternally while some God-sent messiah answers the question, then sorry, I neither have the energy nor hope to do that. Sorry Yahoo, you are off my list too :( I can't say I will miss you, but I sure liked using your services in the past.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While I have some expectations from Yahoo now that the reigns are in the (seemingly able) hands of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marissa_Mayer" target="_blank">Marissa Mayer</a>, (esp. after introducing that free food and now new <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marissa-mayer-wants-to-give-every-yahoo-employee-an-iphone-2012-8" target="_blank">iPhones for every employee</a>), I'm not too hopeful of their online services improving anytime soon despite improved morale.</div>
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I intend to serve multiple purposes by writing and sharing this... </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
First, of course is to vent out the anger and frustration, so that the crap gets out of my system <i>~~~phew~~~</i> feels sooooo good now. Next is to show how rampant the distribution of crappy software/hardware/services is, even from well repudiated companies who are (or rather, once were) industry leaders (wonder why they slipped into irrelevance). Third is a lesson to myself and other software developers is to understand how important it is to focus on the end-user experience and the quality of whatever we produce. On which front, Apple is really a role model to follow. No I'm not Apple fanboy and I hate iPhone, but there is no denying their uber attention to detail and uncanny polish in their products, that was once only afforded by Sony.<br />
<br />
At this moment, Oatmeal's comic on Printers is spot on: <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers" target="_blank">Printers Are From Hell</a>. No, seriously, some really ARE made by Satan himself!</div>
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<br />
<b>Moral 0: I have <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2011/08/designing-good-interfaces-function.html" target="_blank">said this before</a> and saying this again...</b><br />
Writing good software is anything but a trivial task, it takes tremendous skill, practice, patience and time to write a functional and elegant piece of code. As usual, my role-model has always been the ubiquitous all-round best-in-the-class editor: <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/search/label/vim" target="_blank"><b>vi[m]</b></a>. Oh God, there is so much to learn from vi, at least from a user's perspective. More than a decade of using it on all possible platforms (Linux, Windows, MacOSX, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX) and it is yet to hang or crash on me! That is something. You can err on the side that vi might not be as complex as, say a scanning software, but the sheer functionality it gives without breaking fundamentals of usability and stability stand unrivaled.</div>
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<b>Moral 1: Never, ever, ever, ever in my life am I going to get another crappy HP printer.</b> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My request, an earnest'est request (if such an adjective doesn't exist then let's invent it!) my earnest'est request to the world is <b>PLEASE PLEASE STOP writing crappy software and services</b>. It is crime against humanity and seriously it won't be long before it will be unlawful to write crappy software and shove it down users' unsuspecting throats.<br />
I'm no <a href="http://stallman.org/" target="_blank">Richard Stallman</a>, nor can I call myself an avid <a href="http://stallman.org/" target="_blank">RMS</a> fan, but I do love <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source" target="_blank">open source</a> software. And holy bajeesus apesh!t, today I swear I totally understand how frustration drove RMS to start the whole Open Source movement: inability to add code to improve printer functionality in the 1980s.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Moral 2: Either you sit and crib about your problems or fix what is broken.</b><br />
Wait, why can't I do both, sure I can :)<br />
So, now that I have cribbed about it, I will make sure the work I produce shall meet at least certain quality standards.</div>
The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-22539693164918680322012-08-17T16:23:00.001-07:002012-08-17T16:23:38.882-07:00Anybody there?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Back Form Hiatus!!!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I'm not sure if you guys still come here anymore (I know some still do, just don't know which ones of you)... but hey, it is not like I will stop writing if nobody reads, I write because I love to write.<br /><br />Lot of (good) changes have happened in my life in around last few months, some at a pace I could not easily comprehend, so I was busily absorbed into my own little world, taking it in, one bit at a time. Slowly, at a glacial pace, I'm coming out of that hiding and planning on resuming blogging, amongst few other important things that got put on hold. Top on the list being replying to emails! Facebook'ing, if you are wondering, didn't make it to the list.<br /><br />As usual, I have a huge cache of posts to make, so there is no dearth of stuff to write about, it is time that's the gating factor, always has been time, darn time <i>~~~sigh~~~</i> I don't know what I will post first, but if it is any consolation, let it be a pleasant surprise :)<br /><br />Say "hello" (or <i>"Hello World"</i>, for the nerdy audience) if you are eager to read my next post(s).</span></div>
The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-32229391505339317872012-01-06T18:26:00.000-08:002012-01-08T22:08:44.537-08:00Keep Marketing Advertisements Out of Your Mailbox<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">For the people who don't want to entertain themselves with my stories, here's the crux of the matter: How to stop getting all the crap into your snail-mailboxes. But before you get all Uncle-Skeptical, I want to add that it works! Yes! It effing works. I was highly surprised when, after a week of registration, my mailbox was going very lean and mean!<br />
<i>Note: This is for US only, I'm not sure if this is a serious problem in India yet</i>.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Quick Steps:</b><br />
<ol start="0"><li>Go to DMA Choice page and create a login, <a href="https://www.dmachoice.org/dma/member/regist.action" target="_blank">click here</a>.<br />
DMA is the most comprehensive <b>do not mail</b> list that most large list owners, compilers and mailers will bump their lists against.</li>
<li>You have 4 sub-categories to opt-out from. I recommend opting-out of everything: Catalogs, Magazine Offers, Other Mail Offers and the most annoying of all, Credit Offers (cards, loans, etc.).</li>
The first three are simple click-and-be-done-with-it types.
<li>To opt out of Credit Offers the website redirects you to OptOutPreScreen (<a href="https://www.optoutprescreen.com/" target="_blank">link</a>).<br />
This is a centralized service to process requests from consumers to<br />
"Opt-In" or "Opt-Out" of the firms that offer credit or insurance. Fill out your information, and get rid of all the mail-crap that would have otherwise found its way to your garbage anyway.</li>
</ol>Now, time for the long drawn story... (No matter what you say, I know all of you secretly love maal-masala, the spice! :D )<br />
<br />
I was appalled seeing the wastage of paper (and a lot of other natural resource!) when I first came to this country. But nothing struck me harder than seeing pamphlets/offers/brochures after pamphlets finding its way into my snail-mailbox. I was like "who the heck even goes through all this crap". And indeed, EVERYBODY I know immediately throws it away into a dustbin conveniently placed just beside the mailboxes, without even as much of a second thought! The dustbin is eternally full, esp. in the evenings when people empty their mailboxes (putting away more than 79% of it) directly into that bin. I sincerely wish they consider this bin for recycling, for all you know since it is NOT labelled one it might end up in the garbage dump :(<br />
<br />
Before I put an end to the misery, I progressed through a few stages and learned that there is a very easy way to put stop to this crap, and in the process also save precious paper, few bits at a time.<br />
<br />
<b>Phase 0. WTF!</b><br />
Really, the first time I got keys to my mailbox it was already beaming with a lot of papers. Seriously, if you don't clear them every other day, you WILL get a notice from your postmaster saying to clear your box otherwise he won't deliver any mails! Because there is no place to stuff any more. (I'm *not* making this up, this has indeed happened to me! On more than one occasion). I was joyous when I felt so many people are writing to me, but then I was like, "Wait a minute, I just got here and none of my friends know my postal, soo..." <i>~~creep'ed out expression~~</i> My joy was short lived <i>~~sigh~~</i>, but I diligently ripped open every single envelope, only to discard it. After a few weeks, I was like, what the 'eff is this? I didn't even subscribe to it and I'm not even interested in any of them, why do companies like to waste so much of paper?<br />
<br />
<b>Phase 1. Wow! Credit Card Offers!</b><br />
Over time I got a tad smarter (really?). As a student I had no credit history and the only bank willing to give me a no-annual-fee credit card was the PNC Bank who had a branch in my University (No! It was <i>not </i>out of bank's altruism, it was only because I deposited my tuition monies in their bank that they felt secure that I won't run away without paying off the card). The limit was very low, but good enough to get started on building the credit. Only enough to buy month's worth of groceries and some misc expenses. So I used to be all excited whenever I got credit card offers in the mail. I would discard all other marketing stuff and rip open only the ones with credit card offers. Invariably, every one of them had some annual fees associated with it. Disheartened, but still hopeful, I kept doing that for a while.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Phase 2. Meh!</b><br />
Soon I discovered that credit card companies aren't interested in you if you pay off your dues regularly. You are actually robbing them of the opportunity to charge you obscene interest rates on your balance and huge fines. I then went into a phase of total ignorance. '<i>Whatever</i>' is the word I muttered under my breath whenever I saw all this crap in the mail. By this time <i>_every_</i> mail, other than the ones I knew I need to open (which were no more than 1 in 10s of them) found its way to recycle can.<br />
<br />
<b>Phase 3. Aggrrhhh !@#$!</b><br />
Then came the sate of total frustration when the envelopes weren't a clear indicator of what lies within. I would either open then right away, but increasingly they started finding their way into a stack of 'to be attended later' bin on my table. It was often weeks before I got to them while they kept piling up on my desk. Half way through these various phases, I had read somewhere that there exists an option to disable all these mails. Half skeptical, half hopeful and half praying I wished the system was "Default Opt-Out". Imagine opening a new email account only to find that 99% of emails what look legitimate are actually spam! And you have to individually unsubscribe out from each one of them <br />
Every time I ripped open an envelope and tossed them into recycle can, my heart ached. I can't go out there and plant a tree every month, but I can 'effing help reduce their falling.<br />
<br />
<b>Phase 4. Get up and be a man!</b><br />
Then one fine day I had it enough. United Airways (in relation to some frequent flyer miles program I had signed up for) kept sending me a letter every freakin' week, it bugged me the most. Discover Credit Card offer came second with the same frequency. Then there was Chase 'Open new account and get $100 credit' nonsense, Clear internet service. Followed by car insurance offers, loan offers, etc. I said I have to be a man and stand up to this. And the encouragement came to me in the form of a nice article in Reader's Digest I was skimming through just before my bedtime. Voila! I said to myself, "Let's try this now!" I got up, spent no more than 9 minutes and I crossed my fingers before going to bed that night. I will never forget that night, because in just about over a week I was GLAD that all the unnecessary mail I didn't want went down. It has been a solid year now since then and my mailbox is going very lean! Much leaner than most VS models! Now, 90% of mails I get are the ones that need my attention. A good jump from < 1% before!<br />
<br />
I generally don't give out unsolicited advices (but heck, this is my blog, eerr... what I meant was) but I will still give out this once. Because wasting paper hurts me a lot (maybe second only to wasting food, water and time),<br />
I urge you to...<br />
0. Stop all the marketing, banking, etc. flyers by following steps on <a href="https://www.dmachoice.org/dma/member/regist.action" target="_blank">DMA website</a><br />
1. Stop paper statements for all your bank statements, credit card statements, utility bills and use internet instead.<br />
<br />
The only ones I have not been able to put a stop to are "ValPak" and some thick bundle of newspaper'ly blob that I have NEVER gone through to understand what it is. ValPak is less annoying because its frequency is very low, but the newspaper'y thing is ANNOYING, a bundle every week! I am thinking of confronting my postmaster one of the days and figure if there's a way out.<br />
<br />
But all in all, this (do-not-distrubt like) registry indeed works like a charm.<br />
<br />
I did my bit of going green, did you?<br />
<b>A quick recap...</b><br />
<ol start="0"><li>Go to DMA Choice page and create <a href="https://www.dmachoice.org/dma/member/regist.action" target="_blank">your login</a></li>
<li>You have 4 sub-categories to opt-out from. Opt-out of everything:<br />
Catalogs, Magazine Offers, Other Mail Offers and most annoying of all, Credit Offers.<br />
The first three are simple click-and-be-done-with-it types.</li>
<li>To opt out of Credit Offers the website redirects you to OptOutPreScreen (<a href="https://www.optoutprescreen.com/" target="_blank">link</a>). Fill out your information and save paper!</li>
</ol>I promise it won't take more than 9 mins of your precoious time!<br />
<br />
Save Paper, Save Trees, Save Your Time... Go Green!</div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-43765105327125373152011-12-02T11:15:00.000-08:002012-01-02T12:43:28.186-08:00You know you are a geek when...<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">This was sitting in my cache of posts-to-make for over 2 years! Thought of giving it a finishing touch and putting it out.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I generally take it as a compliment when someone calls me a geek/nerd (and I trust most of us would), unless it is said with an obvious hint of contempt. So if you take being called a geek in the right vein, then you might enjoy this post. If you don't, then I mean no offense. Also I don't imply to stereotype geeks, so take it easy guys-n-gals.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Most of this is from personal experience, some is from observation, a few passed down as second hand information and some might even be figments of my imagination. Don't hesitate to take this with a grain of salt if your diet allows for any more room for sodium, that is :)</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Don't know if you are a (computer) geek? Here are some tell-tale signs that will help identify a tech-savvy computer geek inside of you...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><ol start="0"><li>The first thing you do after meeting a new person is Google him/her out!<br />
<i>(Note: Bing him/Bing her still doesn't sound right to me! Bing'ing is just too hilarious to even think of as a verb!)</i><br />
From there, you then check out every link there is referring to this person, particularly (strictly in that order): personal webpage, posts in mailing lists, LinkedIn profile, blog, <del>Orkut</del>, Google+, Facebook, and any other other (anti-)social networking websites you happen to be on. Of course, given the person must pique your interest to a certain extent.<br />
This doubles up for any unknown tech jargon, new words or technology you come across ... almost anything new you don't know about, animate or inanimate.<br />
Also, on your first date you are tempted to say "Tell me something that I don't already know from Google" ;-) </li>
<li>Looking at a resume, you can immediately tell if it was written in M$ Word, OpenOffice or LaTeX.<br />
<i>Corollary</i>: You are intolerant to resumes (and any documents in general) that you DO NOT have access to in pure text (or at least in pdf) format.</li>
<li>You can type your search queries on Google.com faster than it can suggest likely matches based on your partial input.</li>
<li>When you see someone's Windoze desktop the first thing reaction is that you have an insuppressible desire to clean the desktop, delete MB's worth of temporary files, empty Recycle Bin, run a Windows Update and rid the computer off the WinRot. If it doesn't have an anti-virus, you raise your hands in the air and silently swear under your breath, "[S]he doesn't deserve to own a PC!".</li>
<li>When you go to your friends house, and find his/her wi-fi router open (not secured), you spend the rest of the day re-configuring the router and all his computers to use secure connections. Chances are you will render at least one of the computers without network access, but you would have convinced your friend (against his will!) that it is better this way than keeping the router unsecured. Though, for the love of roller-blading computers, you can't explain him why has it <i>_not_</i> caused a problem till now (that is until you proclaimed, without any proof, it was a problem)!</li>
<li>You get irritable when someone spends more than a fraction of second to find the right key on the keyboard</li>
<li>You have a craving to buy the latest and most sophisticated laptop there is. But the only thing preventing you from doing so is either you already have pile-loads of them, or you don't have bandwidth to keep all of them up-to-date with latest patches. Or your budget doesn't allow you to get one (strictly in that order).</li>
<li>You can still dig into one of your closets and produce a 5-1/4 or a 3-inch archaic floppy disks.</li>
<li>At any given point in time, you can flick out GBs worth of storage space in flash/usb drives from your backpack or pockets.</li>
<li>The first thing you think of on your perfect outing, date or any such important occasion, is how soon you can go back to your computer and blog it all out! And chances are you have already composed most of the post in your head already! Including layout, photos you will include and their captions too!</li>
<li>You don't necessarily hate GUIs, but command-line is still your way of life, and you root for root access.</li>
<li>At any given time, you have a total of at least 15 tabs open in your browser (most of them still unread).</li>
<li>You have almost all of your important documents GPG'ed and backed somewhere. Not to mention, you have a backup in at least 2/more places: external HDD and DVD.</li>
<li>You are paranoid about always keeping your personal documents encrypted</li>
<li>Your public key is published on some well known key server</li>
<li>You can remember all the different UserId-Password combinations by heart to all the tens of sites you visit regularly. Heck, you even remember exact URLs. And you are on your way to memorizing the IP addresses too ;-)</li>
<li>Given an IP address, you cannot suppress a desire to do a <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">nslookup </span>on it, <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">ping </span>it and even <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">traceroute</span> it! You just can't look at an IP address and not know what domain it belongs to.</li>
<li>When you look at something new, you are brimming with thoughts of how does it work. If you don't find a convincible enough theory, the first thing you do is Google it out on the first chance.</li>
<li>You look at yourself in a mirror only when:<br />
<ul><li> you have to shave<i> (doesn't apply to girls)</i></li>
<li> comb your hair (strictly not more than once a day! And some even consider that as optional)</li>
<li> something's gotten into your eyes and it won't go away by just swiping your bacteria-laden coffee/tea stained rough fingers through it multiple times</li>
<li> trying new clothes, which you buy STRICTLY only if you if HAVE to (for ex. I took out a new pair of jeans when the one I wore for a year and a half started giving way. For which I generally don't care, but I was worried the stitches around crotch region would give way to the cool breeze, and Seattle's pretty cold).</li>
</ul></li>
<li>As long as the important body parts are covered with a clean and fresh clothing, you don't give a damn about what you are wearing, specially to work. Hell! You don't even bother if you wear the same clothes the whole year. And given you rarely look at yourself anyway, functionally, in my opinion, this is a very efficient choice. Mental faculties are best spent solving a bug, instead! Or creating one :-P<br />
But please wear fresh/washed clothes, don't want you giving a bad name to the rest of geekdom.</li>
<li>You know the technical difference between a password and a passphrase</li>
<li>You can understand, a majority of <a href="http://www.xkcd.com/" target="_blank">xkcd</a> strips</li>
<li>You can key in your zip code at the gas station machine faster than it can accept it! And the delay it expects between each keystroke freaks the hell out of you!</li>
<li>You can see things only one way....<br />
<ul><li>If it is broken: Rip it open, of course you can fix it!</li>
<li>If it ain't broken: Rip it open, how the hell does it work? You are sure you can make it work faster/better!</li>
Either ways, you end up with a non-functioning object but a satisfied soul. Hey, satisfaction counts, doesn't it!</ul><br />
</li>
<li>You feel elated (have achieved nirvana?) when you have one of your pages (blog or homepage) turn up as the TOP hit in Google search (of course other than narcissistic searches i.e. searches for your own unique name)!<br />
<ul><li>(try "<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=gdb+vi+mode" target="_blank">gdb vi mode</a>"). (-as of Fri 12/01/2011)</li>
<li>(try "<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=review+State+Of+Fear-Michael+Crichton" target="_blank">review State Of Fear-Michael Crichton</a>"). (-Fri 05/13/2011)</li>
</ul>Your search results may vary. Snapshots below:<br />
</li>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rYb9GlQHXTc/TtgcB5D3u1I/AAAAAAAAUhI/7vvUx0oBlYQ/s1600/google_gdb_vi_mode.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rYb9GlQHXTc/TtgcB5D3u1I/AAAAAAAAUhI/7vvUx0oBlYQ/s200/google_gdb_vi_mode.png" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VwOmxPg_EzQ/TtgcCEyswLI/AAAAAAAAUhU/vUTxDKTS624/s1600/crop_google_state_of_fear.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VwOmxPg_EzQ/TtgcCEyswLI/AAAAAAAAUhU/vUTxDKTS624/s200/crop_google_state_of_fear.png" width="200" /></a></div><li>You never delete an entry from your TODO list when done, you just comment them out with '//' or a '#':<br />
<pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> ...
// 9. Reply pending emails - DONE
10. Update the TODO list (with what?)
# 11. Grocery list: Milk, veggies, cheese, bread - DONE
...
</code></pre>One has to be particularly careful because you can't send emails with lines commented out in place of deleting them!<br />
</li>
<li>You know all the switches to give for all the commands you frequently use. But you have been using them for so long that you often can't tell which one does what :)</li>
<li>You have the know-how of tools such that you can transcode any audio or video to make it work on any of your video-playing devices: ipod, phone, music player or TV.</li>
<li>You squirm restlessly in your theater seat when you see one of these in a movie:<br />
<ul><li>The lead actor/actress can hack into ANY damn computer by typing furiously onto the keyboard, without any regards to what operating system it is running! That too without even looking at the keyboard. Let me tell you, even the best of hackers can't do that!<br />
<i>"Please be REASONABLE"</i>, you want to scream your lungs out!</li>
<li>People can do almost anything to a photo/video with just one or two key strokes.<br />
Imagine...<br />
Agent: Freeze the frame, right there, notice the little girl's eye (standing at least one football field away)... That's our number plate reflecting in her teary eyes, zoom in and show it to papa...<br />
<i>~~~click click~~</i> The agent hits no more than 2 keystrokes, and viola! Magic happens!<br />
But what worries more than the fact that there is no way a handful of keystrokes can do that, but the fact that the original photo didn't even have that much fidelity in it to begin with!</li>
</ul></li>
<li>A new email, even if only occasionally, still excites you</li>
<li>More than a handful of unread emails in your Inbox makes you squirm with discomfort</li>
<li>You have a strong opinion about whether an opening brace '{' should be placed on the same line as if/while or the line after. And you don't even want to start on why 'space' is such a superior choice for indention over 'tabs'.</li>
<li>You know what a regular expression is and use them more than regularly.</li>
<li>You know exactly what processes should be running and not running in the background. It annoys the hell out of you if you cannot find out what a particular process does, even if it is a useless process.<br />
Recently I bought a bluetooth dongle for my old PC. After letting appropriate drivers to install, I noticed that it had installed at least 5 freakin' additional services (all auto-started on boot!) and at least 2-3 other supporting processes. All of them were consuming a part of my measly cpu. I freaked out and have never used that dongle again. It is lying in the catacombs of pile of junk somewhere now.</li>
<li>If your laptop/pc is sitting idle and you happen to gaze upon its HDD activity LED (and I BET you will every so often!) and you notice any flickering, you will be fuming with rage and shall unleash your full wrath on the offending process. Tell you, it won't be easy to find the one, but you will make it your day long project, week long, if it comes to that, to find and remove the process from your life, forever!</li>
<li>You have at least one OCD that you are consciously aware of. And, of course, you are NOT ashamed of it :-)</li>
<li>Last but not the least, one sure-shot way of knowing you are a geek (as pointed out by one geeky reader who commented on the post) is if you noticed numbering started with a "0" and not "1"! Don't worry, you are still a geek if you quickly hit a page-up just to check that :D</li>
</ol></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But, above all you know you are a (computer) geek if you could read through the end of the list and laugh out at some of them :-D<br />
Feel free to share your idiosyncrasies...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-67115720428220876062011-11-14T23:22:00.000-08:002011-11-23T10:03:20.421-08:00Potpourri of things<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Frequency of posts have definitely dropped, but that is not for the lack of ideas/thoughts/drafts for the posts. Quite the opposite, I have more than enough to last a year if I were to regain my regular posting frequency.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I think what is affecting my posts is a deluding perception that life is regressing from a state of <i>Ordered Chaos</i> into a state of <i>Meaningless Chaos</i> (no proofs needed!). Which is making me question everything I do more often than I used to. My email responses (of which at one time I could boast of less than 24hrs turn around time!) have become slower and more spaced (in time). Activity on (anti)social networks has dropped to near-zero (but that is a good thing!).</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Not to say I am not having exciting moments. Quite a few, actually. And I wish that this (and upcoming) post(s) will make you believe so <i>(without regards to what the reality is :-P )</i></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">So I thought of posting something that is potpourri of various things, in no particular order, just to prove that the (<i>un</i>)creative juices are still oozing strong, often inundating me with enough of it to prevent any productive work from happening :)</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Lack of posts is often perceived by my friends as a cause of turbulence in my life. So I hope this post will help me debunk their notions in that regards.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>0. Microsoft Photo Book: Inspire</b></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n30etcZ6D0w/TsIG8_tVIkI/AAAAAAAAUgA/NjhprDj46Kw/s1600/Inspire_Book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n30etcZ6D0w/TsIG8_tVIkI/AAAAAAAAUgA/NjhprDj46Kw/s400/Inspire_Book.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Inspire: Sporting my shot</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>While it isn't as great as getting your photo published in NatGeo, getting one in Microsoft's PhotoBook (along side many NatGeo-quality photos) is nothing short of exciting. Every year (since last 2 or 3 years) shutterbugs at Microsoft request employees to submit their best shots. They then run it through judging process and of the thousands that they swift through, they choose a few to be eventually published in to a nice hard-cover book, with a photo each on glossy paper. Another team of volunteers then toil hard to get it printed and make it available at the right cost.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">All this work is volunteer driven, that is, people do it out of sheer passion in their spare time. One of the most exciting parts about this whole effort is the economics... Every copy of book that is sold, part of the purchase money ($35 of the $50 book's value) goes to charity, <a href="http://worldwide.unitedway.org/">United Way</a>. To top it off, Microsoft matches $-for-$ which doubles the charity to $70! You spend $50 buying the book and somewhere a charitable organization receives $70! Interesting! Personally I'm not too game for donating where I don't know when/how the money is spent, but the thought of doing something that aids charity is, at the least, heart warming.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">So, "show me the photo", say you. Here's the one that got through:</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZlLqSIoJhL8/TsIBetqcs2I/AAAAAAAAUfo/yU3XR3BGwIo/s1600/IMG_6277_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZlLqSIoJhL8/TsIBetqcs2I/AAAAAAAAUfo/yU3XR3BGwIo/s640/IMG_6277_02.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dreamy Eye</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And the description reads (this was a nice touch they added compared to last year's book):<br />
<b style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Dream Eyes</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Kirkland, Washington | I was trying the typical macro of an eye and couldn't get enough light on the eye, so I tried moving a little farther away to allow enough light in. During post-processing after a few crops, I soon realized the result was not going to be anything exciting. Having seen many amazing black-and-white shits, I then wondered what the original photo would look like in pure black-and-white! One click and there it was, this dreamy-looking photo. I didn't quite anticipate this outcome when I was shooting; I guess the best shots happen unplanned.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Canon EOS 30D | 100mm | 1/200 | f/5 | ISO 250</span></div>While there is no doubt that I love this photo myself, I wasn't expecting this one to make it through. But, as they say, beauty lies in the eyes of the judges, err... beholder.<br />
My two other submissions were:</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K053FhiNrqw/TsIDfYJ38sI/AAAAAAAAUf4/fAO-GaWHtnU/s1600/img_5875_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="494" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K053FhiNrqw/TsIDfYJ38sI/AAAAAAAAUf4/fAO-GaWHtnU/s640/img_5875_02.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lady Bug's Descend</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aHba-wU-x0U/TsIDedezRxI/AAAAAAAAUfw/Y1bbbTQaI0A/s1600/IMG_5313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="402" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aHba-wU-x0U/TsIDedezRxI/AAAAAAAAUfw/Y1bbbTQaI0A/s640/IMG_5313.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Space Needle By The Night from Kerry Park</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I think the one quality that these two photos lacked was uniqueness. But that's just a guess.<br />
<br />
But... If only this were an eye of some beautiful girl! Why? Well, if it were, then I could have easily gotten an opportunity to ask her out on a dinner (date) ;-) That was actually a humorous (but seemingly serious) comment from a colleague of mine at work.<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Colleague: Did you ask her out for dinner?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Me: <i>~~~befuddled and scratching my head~~~</i> Sorry what?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">I was almost certain I missed to catch a few words in the sentence. Judging by my looks he figured I was as lost as Alice in Wonderland!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Colleague: (wearing a teasing smile) Did you ask her out for a dinner, the girl who's eye you shot?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Me: (bright bulb lighting over my head! Smiling but with saddened feelings...)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Oh! That! No! Unfortunately that is a guy's eye!</span><br />
(<i>With sunken hearts, we both walked in silence for a few seconds, we were on our way to buy copies of book for ourselves and that did cheer me up, though</i>).<br />
BTW, if you do want to buy a copy, you can do so online.<br />
Go to <a href="https://shop.ecompanystore.com/mseppstore/Login.aspx">Microsoft Online Company</a> store, create a new account and search for "Inspire". If you are wondering, then no, I don't get no money or commission if you buy one. More <a href="http://www.istartedsomething.com/20111108/microsofties-show-off-their-best-snaps-in-inspire-photobook-for-charity/">press here</a>. <br />
<br />
<b>1. Rediscovering the joy of Jurassic Park</b><br />
If I haven't said this already (though, I doubt it!), <i><b>Jurassic Park</b></i> still ranks top in my list of top-9 scifi movies. It has been, what, close to 2 decades now and the only scifi movie to beat <i>Jurassic Park</i> at the top spot is <i><b>Matrix-I</b></i> (art, direction, cast, concept, Fx, etc.).<br />
So shortly after I read Micheal Crichton's <i><a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2011/03/book-review-state-of-fear-michael.html">State of Fear</a></i>, about which I <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2011/03/book-review-state-of-fear-michael.html">recently raved about in another post</a>, I had an epiphany: <i>"Boy! Jurassic Park, isn't that your favorite of favorite'st movies based on novel by the same author. (</i><i>inner voice, damn right you are!) Don't you think you should read it, then!"</i><br />
Bam! And off I trotted to my local library to borrow my copy.<br />
<br />
The movie is very well made, but as it is with most movies-made-from-novels, what you ramble out in words is often not easy to portray on screen. Often words (aka imagination in this case) has no boundaries, no limitations, none whatsoever. Movies, as they involve physical/material elements, more often than not, are severely restricted in what they can do and show us. Even when you have the best of Hollywood's creative artists at your command. It fails me why I didn't read this book sooner. But better late than never.<br />
I am still a few pages from the back cover of the novel and I'm enjoying every bit of it. So much so, that if I'm dropping dead from sleep and it it dawns onto me that I won't be able to read even one line on any given night, I still keep the book besides me when I hit bed :D<br />
(<i>Just so you know... I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested :-P</i> ).<br />
<br />
Well, this has become a LONG enough post and I'm barely the scratching surface. If I were to cover everything I set out to cover in this single post, it will become YAILP (<i>Yet Another Insanely Long Post</i>) that nobody will ever bother reading (though I know a few who still would, I thank you in advance!). As a side note, YAILP's happen when you don't post often enough. See the (un)creative juices I was alluding to now!<br />
<br />
So I will just outline things I intend to post in the hopes that doing so will urge me to follow up on them sooner than later...<br />
<br />
<b> 2. Kindle</b><br />
After much thought and checking out various e-readers, I finally bought Kindle. Of a few things, I'm relying heavily on Amazon's proven great history with consumers.<br />
<br />
<b> 3. Aquarium</b><br />
Almost every friend I meet, talk to or converse with over emails (e-friends, if you will!) have asked me about my aquarium(s). Since I was all gung-ho about it when I started and posted almost no update since then, it gives an impression that the fire has ebbed. Quite contrary. I am still spending increasing amount of time nurturing (and enjoying) my 2 tanks. I owe you all a short update, at the very least. Watch this space for more soon.<br />
<br />
<b> 4. Photos</b><br />
I haven't been shooting as much as I would love to and used to, but that is not for the lack of interest. It is just that the opportunities to shoot have reduced significantly because of very few (almost no) hikes and treks in recent months. Blame work for this. Part of reason is also the lack of time to do even minimal post-processing and captioning. But I will share a few photos I clicked that I didn't share here.<br />
<br />
<b> 5. New Lens!</b><br />
I splurged and bought a new lens! Which one? That's a surprise for another post! Supposed to be gift from my bro, but he hasn't paid me yet! lol ;-) But it is the sentiment that counts, right! <i>(Though my credit card company refuses :D)</i> !<br />
<br />
<b> 6. Movies</b><br />
Again, very little on the front of movie entertainment and enrichment. But a few noteworthy ones, vaguely in the order of their awesomeness, I saw are:<br />
<ol start="0"><li>Ip Man </li>
<li>Ip Man-2 </li>
<li>Flashpoint </li>
<li>Revisiting the Harry Potter's</li>
</ol></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b> 7. Ipod Nano: Hits and Misses</b><br />
On my birthday my brother gifted me iPod Nano. And I love it. But it is a far cry from perfection (for my use-case) that I have come to expect from Apple and I want to share my thoughts. I still love my 3yr old Shuffle.<br />
<br />
<b> 8. Jeans</b><br />
A jeans a year or two! Keep guessing!<br />
<br />
<b> 9. Cruise to Alaska</b><br />
My family was visiting me for a few weeks and after lot of back and forth, never-ending debates, lot of arguments and absolutely no planning, we went on an outing that turned out to be one of the most amazing family outings we have had so far: Cruise to Alaska. Watch out for details.<br />
<br />
<b>10. Vibram Five Finger shoes</b> (<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xeqPkLAZhJ5XsiLfzJj9iw?feat=directlink" target="_blank"><i>linky</i></a>)<br />
For their alien'y look, my mom was strongly opposed to the concept of me owning Fiver Finger Shoes, let alone wear them. Glorified socks, she told me! Don't dare you even think of wearing one to work was her stern ultimatum. But my perseverance and love won her over and now not only I own one but two beautiful pairs of Five Fingers, I even wear them to work daily! Yes D A I L Y! I hope to share my feedback on these lovely footwear. But, like me, if you hate to wait, here's a short one line verdict: <i>If you are a bare-foot'ie just get one, don't think twice</i>!<br />
<br />
<b>11. Teas: Green and Oolong</b><br />
I have always been fascinated by teas, mostly because of its ancestral following and origins than the (un)scientific studies that say they are healthy. I have come to believe that modern scientific research should be taken with a grain (read: bagful) of salt, esp. where big bucks are involved (which, come to thing of it, is almost everything!). So I often take refuge in following ancient methods over what science says is best. I'll share my experiences, sure you are eager to hear them.<br />
<br />
<b>12. Obsession with Old Songs and Vividh Bharati</b><br />
It is now completely official that I'm totally misplaced in time: my ways of life (by and large) and taste (notably in terms of music) is very very archaic. So my unyielding obsession towards old songs should be no surprise to any. Watch out for how I rediscovered my lost love and more craziness!<br />
<br />
<b>13. Meeting Old-Time Buddies</b><br />
The joy of connecting with oldest of friends who remain so even in the wake of lack of proper contact and irregular communication, is something that words will always fail to explain, no matter how hard I try. But that doesn't mean one should not try!<br />
<br />
<b>14. Go-Green: Stop Getting Crap in your Snail-Mailbox</b><br />
I can swear on my blog that I had a draft post on this when, about a year back, I spent some time researching on how to put an end to those useless annoying marketing bat-crap flyers (which I didn't ask for) that landed in my mailbox. And it has worked, wonderfully. Except one that I can't put an end to.<br />
I promise to dig out the information and share with you all.<br />
<br />
I will add posts as and when they occur to me, hope but I you got a nice preview of upcoming posts, now just wish that I stick to the schedule here.<br />
See you back soon enough! But wait...<br />
<br />
<b>Ending Note</b>...<br />
I realized that the post would be incomplete without some dash of music... So I bring you a rare song from my collection. Chances are you haven't heard of this song. Or at least not as often. That's because it is part of an incomplete/unreleased film <i>Picnic</i> from the 60s. Where did I hear it, of course Vividh Bharati! Though I cannot wish for you enjoy it as much as I did, but least I hope is you enjoy this song once. I didn't realize <i>Sadhana</i> looked so gorgeous. Maybe it is the setting of the song that's making her seem prettier and the lyrics is definitely accentuating her beauty: <i><b>Kitna Rangeen Hai Ye Chaand Sitaaron Ka Samaa</b></i>.<br />
And if you are wondering then the answer is <i>yes</i>, I too have a feeling this will become my new <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2010/11/love-or-lust-simple-or-flashy-subtle-or.html">loopy-song</a> for a few weeks to come ;-)<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Turn down your volume, treble seems a bit off on this one.</i></span><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oK-P_H9Ue8Q?rel=0" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
As usual, the music is effectively simple and lyrics, deeply meaningful (if you care to dig into them).<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Singers: Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Music : N. Dutta (Datta Naik)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Movie : Picnic (unreleased)</span><br />
<br />
If you crave for the full version, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8s_rHct6Ag">head over to here</a>.<br />
<br />
</div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-76060839871662602182011-09-05T00:18:00.000-07:002011-09-06T10:19:43.269-07:00Gingerbread: Am loving it!<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I never blogged about my darling <i><b>Motorola Droid X</b></i> when I got her about a year back. But rest assured, I don't repent even slightest bit for NOT going with iPhone (and am more than happy I didn't go with WP7, which I could have gotten for free). Don't get me wrong, I still ogle at the sexiness of iPhones, but Droid X has the advantage that you can also make calls with it :-P (blame it on the crappy AT&T network or <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/200996/iphone_4_grip_of_death_i_believe.html">grip-of-death</a>, I don't care!). Even though it leaves a bit to be desired, Droid X is as close as any non-Apple product will ever get to the uber-attention-to-detail and minimalistic design philosophy that is trademark of the Apple products.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">For a while I was keen on getting every update there is for my DroidX. But the enthusiasm died naturally. So much so that I didn't even realize that <a href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.3-highlights.html">Gingerbread</a> update has been pushed out by Verizon for Droid X's (yes, blame i on work)! How Lame, you say? I know, and I concur! I generally rely on the update notifications and I still don't know why I didn't get an alert indicating that one is available. Well, better late than never, I say.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">So it wasn't until my co-worker pointed out that gingerbread has been pushed by Verizon, did I update my OS. Late to join the bandwagon, I got my Gingerbread update more than a full month later. But, now that I have it, I fell in love with my Droid X all over again :) And I say this in spite of the fact that the upgrade wasn't snappy smooth (and for a while I was cursing myself for upgrading). So much so, that I thought I should put up a quick post highlighting the changes I noticed.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I was so excited after the new update, that (much to my mum's frustration!) I was fiddling with the phone most of that weekend, drooling over it (all over again) :D<br />
<br />
This is by no means a complete treatise on Gingerbread, but just a few noteworthy changes.<br />
<i>Note: I haven't spent time isolating which of these are stock Gingerbread features vs MotoBlur enhancements.</i></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Here goes the list:</div><ul style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><li><b>Text-Selection & Copy-Paste</b></li>
I have always been envied for the fact that I could copy-paste since the very first version of Droid X and I was happy (that while the others are still catching up to it the basics), Android has already took it a notch up! The selection of text is now orders of magnitude easier. Two large sliders come up when you select text, so you no longer have to wear magnifying glasses to select the text precisely. And just tapping on the selected text copies it! Eeze-beeze! In fact this has made me hate the old-fashioned way of selecting text on PCs with pesky mice!</ul><ul style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5DfkIcEI1So/TmQvkFt6sYI/AAAAAAAAUZc/CfkmEfoCie8/s1600/IMG_0643.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="355" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5DfkIcEI1So/TmQvkFt6sYI/AAAAAAAAUZc/CfkmEfoCie8/s640/IMG_0643.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Text selection is not orders of magnitude easier!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><li><b>Launcher Dock</b></li>
The launcher dock at the bottom is now permanent, no matter which homescreen you are in, it stays there, giving you access to your MOST frequently used apps just one-click away (if you have ever used a Mac, this is much similar Mac's dock). <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IcrbI8hngYU/TmQvkiX5d7I/AAAAAAAAUZg/OirtnPpJzRg/s1600/IMG_0644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IcrbI8hngYU/TmQvkiX5d7I/AAAAAAAAUZg/OirtnPpJzRg/s640/IMG_0644.JPG" width="340" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dock (red rectangle) stays so on all home screens</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz1Ipe3yMB0/TmQvlBR8ShI/AAAAAAAAUZk/G7i8PUNV8Lo/s1600/IMG_0645.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz1Ipe3yMB0/TmQvlBR8ShI/AAAAAAAAUZk/G7i8PUNV8Lo/s400/IMG_0645.JPG" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here you see an option of adding any app to the Dock</td></tr>
</tbody></table><li><b>Overall Speed</b></li>
I don't know if motorola optimized their interface or it is the Gingerbread magic, but my phone is noticeably faster and animations are much better than Froyo's.
<li><b>Annoying GPS issue resolved</b></li>
My GPS would just refuse to get a fix on current location when I needed it the most. But since I didn't use it very often, it didn't warrant my effort to fight for a replacement. But ever since the new upgrade, I'm yet to see that annoying <i>"Cannot get your current location"</i> error message on maps. I guess time has really come to say good-bye to my (expensive) annoying Garmin GPS.
<li><b>App Groups and more</b></li>
App management has become more usable and coherent with the rest of the system. I have noticed a lot of minor (welcome) tweaks in this area. One of the most tangible change is the ability to add apps to groups and then adding shortcuts to that group on your homescreen. Making organizing your apps a tad better.
<li><b>Quick add-to-home menu</b></li>
Adding shortcut to apps to homescreen is just a one-click operation now! <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2vNSHv1T1x4/TmQvluBalhI/AAAAAAAAUZs/bmrKRiZA5cg/s1600/IMG_0647.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2vNSHv1T1x4/TmQvluBalhI/AAAAAAAAUZs/bmrKRiZA5cg/s640/IMG_0647.JPG" width="333" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tap-n-hold on any app to get this rich set of options</td></tr>
</tbody></table><li><b>Address Book navigation</b></li>
I have always loved the contacts navigation on Android. It got much slicker with the latest update. I just breeze my finger through A-Z on the right hand corner where a traditional scroll-bar would be and I can jump to next-alphabet smoothly. It has been tuned just right so that you don't have to be super-precise if you want to just move form A to B, it will naturally stop momentarily at each alphabet (depending on your speed). <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pVJjcQtOX9g/TmQvmvz8vBI/AAAAAAAAUZ0/aE4R0N0uff8/s1600/IMG_0649.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pVJjcQtOX9g/TmQvmvz8vBI/AAAAAAAAUZ0/aE4R0N0uff8/s640/IMG_0649.JPG" width="373" /></a></div><li><b>Contact History</b></li>
I don't recall using contact history on Froyo much, but now it has become so very accessible. And very handy too. There are a lot of practical applications of this history (which, too much to my frustration, I couldn't find on iPhone!). <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FBMpD1qONnk/TmQvnZf1ZlI/AAAAAAAAUZ4/dhvJOb07p2U/s1600/IMG_0650.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FBMpD1qONnk/TmQvnZf1ZlI/AAAAAAAAUZ4/dhvJOb07p2U/s640/IMG_0650.JPG" width="375" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Full call history for a given contact</td></tr>
</tbody></table><li><b>Speech-to-Text</b></li>
From my past experiences I have NEVER trusted speech-to-text conversions. Right from putting in effort to train the damn software to pronouncing it EXACTLY the way the software expects it to, take your pick. A recent conversation with <a href="http://www.arunviswanathan.com/">Anna</a> urged me to try it out again. Holy Rollerblading Cow! Was my exact reaction when the freak'in phone translated my speech into exact words! Without training the software or even straining myself too hard to speak in pure American accent. Man was I impressed! Google has a knack of solving problems, I gotta admit. Typical use case: if I gave someone a time (you know, I go on lot of dates! :-P) and realize that am running late due to traffic (or work), I whip out my text messenger and voice out my apology that I'm running a little late. Voila! I just have to hit 'send' after that :) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dtPz0ZXMMAE/TmQvni-Q4xI/AAAAAAAAUZ8/2zvG7k9R38k/s1600/IMG_0651.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dtPz0ZXMMAE/TmQvni-Q4xI/AAAAAAAAUZ8/2zvG7k9R38k/s640/IMG_0651.JPG" width="367" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gingerbread translates my speech into text with too much ease!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><li><b>Minor tweaks</b></li>
There is an incredible amount of fine tuning everywhere that makes using Droid X more fun than ever before! In fact when I have to use an iPhone I feel caged and somewhat restricted! And like wise, iPhone users feel there is just too much to choose from when they take my DroidX for a ride. No offense at iPhone, if it is any consolation, it still is the most ogled-after piece of hardware, I think! </ul><ul style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Moving cursor, for example, is painfully impossible to get it at the right spot right on iPhone. On Droid you get a nice big-ass cursor, hard to miss the target with those big boys. Market looks much more organized. Managing apps: starting/stopping, (un)installing, moving between phone/SD card memory, checking resource utilization, etc. has gotten better. Wi-Fi now connects more reliably when I move across home and office. And as it has always had: all this PLUS you can still make calls! </ul><ul style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1qcQna30DU8/TmRyCFV-6FI/AAAAAAAAUaE/R560hM_kgno/s1600/IMG_0653.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1qcQna30DU8/TmRyCFV-6FI/AAAAAAAAUaE/R560hM_kgno/s320/IMG_0653.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moving cursor is now easier too!</td></tr>
</tbody></table></ul><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Thank you once again Google, for giving customers a choice they would love to use (like GMail & GTalk). Mind you, even if you hate Android, it has up'ed the bar for quality of smartphones: choice is always better for customers. If you are out in the market for a new smartphone, you now know what to ask for! :)<br />
<br />
<i>Note: No phone OS war entertained, but constructive criticism's welcome.</i></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-9303299371903591642011-08-23T18:49:00.000-07:002011-08-23T18:51:22.615-07:00Fishtank Update<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Aquarium Update:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Every one of my friends (whether I interact with him/her on a very regular basis or irregular) have asked me over the past few months about <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-new-hobby-aquarium-enthusiast.html">the fishtank</a>. And their intent was to genuinely know about it, not just general chit-chat. Most know about experiments in my life more through my blog than they speak to me (yes, I know that is sad, but not as much as nobody caring at all!). </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> Lack of updates in posts here had got them concerned, I suspect</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So I thought I owe an update on my fishtanks to all you friends who regularly skim through here (irrespective of what draws you here: genuine curiosity, boredom, ample free time to kill or sheer friendship!). .<br />
Thanks for asking, they are doing good! <i> ~~~touchwood~~~</i><br />
<br />
There are a few enhancements I was wanting to do over this summer on my tank (mainly: upgrading to a better dirt and rearranging the plants), but I couldn't spare enough time. The tank looks good, but I wanted to take it a notch higher. Guess it will have to wait for a while now <i>~~~sigh~~~</i><br />
I up'ed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0AFdJ1aEmk">this video</a> a while ago, but never got around posting it here (<i>what a lazy a$$</i>)! </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So here you go, my 30G (110 liters) fresh water planted aquarium. I have shot the video of my smaller (10G) tank too, but haven't gotten around uploading it yet. It had grown a beautiful carpet of Pearl Weed. Which I took down last week as it had a lot of Java Moss intertwined in it, which had started poaching on my pearl weed. So I cleaned most of the surface and replanted them. Waiting to see how that goes.<br />
<br />
<b> Freshwater Planted Aquarium:</b><br />
</span></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/T0AFdJ1aEmk" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Some tips I have come to believe will help budding aquarium enthusiasts.<br />
</span><br />
<ol start="0" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><li><b>Regular water change</b> </li>
I underestimated the importance of this for a long time and did water changes only once in 2 or 3 weeks without much consistency. Now I have moved to a strict once-a-week 20% water change policy. And about 50% once in 4 weeks. With every water change, I add a few drops of liquid fertilizer (<i><a href="http://aquariumpharm.com/products/Product.aspx?ProductID=55">API Leaf Zone</a></i>). I have noticed marked difference. <b>Advantage</b>: Lesser fluctuation in water quality, meaning much stabler chemistry, which all-in-all brings in a lot of goodness within it: healthier fishes & lush green plants being but a few.
<li><b>Lighting</b></li>
I wanted to move to a fancier <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=T5HO">T5HO</a> lighting, but it costs a bomb (I have an expensive 65W CoralLife AquaLight that I got on a discount but it is just too powerful for my tank, I started getting a lot of algae), so I just switched out my aging CFL and put in a new cheap 15W CFL (Phillips, 5100K), which I keep on for about 8 hrs a day. And results were quite satisfactory. I might, now on, keep replacing my CFL every year till the time I can afford fancier lighting. There are talks in the community that effectiveness (notably wavelength and Kelvin temperature) degrades with age of the tube (unlike natural sunlight). Haven't spent too much time validating the claims, but I think it might be true and won't hurt my pocket too much to follow it. </ol><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Anyways, hope you enjoyed the video.</span></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-1740120461819301162011-08-18T00:33:00.000-07:002011-08-23T10:09:24.916-07:00Designing Good Interfaces: Function Names, Arguments & Their Actions<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Wanted to share an interesting (and very oftenly overlooked) programming practice. It is a very bright idea, intuitive, almost, I would argue, to have function names describe their actions and/or intentions:<br />
<pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> create_stack(), destroy_stack(), walk_stack(), kill_process().
</code></pre>What these functions might do is almost self explanatory from their names.<br />
This simple (often untold) rule has helped legions of programmers maintain their sanity (at least of whatever is left), because they know that when they call <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">create_stack()</span> it will create stack, NOT destroy it. And if it does, then there is something obviously wrong with the function. Easy-Beezee. Basic programming principle, correct?<br />
<br />
So imagine yourself working at the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider">LHC</a> and you want to excite an electron! Luckily for you, you are a programmer! So the herculean task of exciting an electron is reduced to writing a few lines of code for you!<br />
Now say, you are onto writing a subroutine to excite an electron, naturally you will be tempted call your's as some variation of: <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">excite_electron()</span>.<br />
<br />
Everything excited, has to eventually come down to a ground state, so you want a complimentary function to bring that electron back to the ground state. You can go with <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">unexcite_electron()</span>. Or you can pass in a <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">TRUE/FALSE</span> argument to the same <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">excite_electron()</span> function and let it decide whether to excite or undo the excitement (pull it to ground state, unexcite).<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Note: Yes, in most cases we programmers couldn't care less if </i>unexcite<i> is not a valid English word, as long as it unambiguously conveys the functionality)</i></span>.<br />
<br />
No big deal. Trivial. Programming looks so easy, you say!<br />
Well, then why the hell do so many programmers look eternally grim with unkempt premature white/gray hair? Here's one reason why...<br />
I bet there are many ways to come up with good function name(s), <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">excite/unexcite</span> pair being one (even if they sound so unexciting!).<br />
But here's particularly one sure-shot way to earn the wrath of your fellow-programmers who have to maintain your code and use your (dreaded!) APIs...<br />
<pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> void excite_electron (void* electron, boolean undo_excite)
{
if (undo_excite) {
decrement( electron->energy );
} else {
increment( electron->energy );
}
}
</code></pre><b>What!</b> Don't see the problem yet! Wait till you have to invoke that interface to do something:</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> // Excite an electron
excite_electron( &hydrogen_electron, <b>FALSE</b> );
// Do your fancy experiments
// Now bring it back to ground state
excite_electron( &hydrogen_electron, <b>TRUE</b> );
</code></pre><i><b>@#$! </b></i>Yes, that was my reaction too! See the problem <b>NOW</b>!<br />
Nothing wrong with the function in itself, but put into larger perspective and it looks dreadful. <b>NEVER</b> EVER have a function name with one verb/action (excite in this case) and a totally opposite action/verb in the arguments (unexcite). Not even for obfuscated code! In my opinion this is plain wrong, not obfuscated.<br />
<br />
Just for the kicks... if you want to make it worse, you can go with:<br />
<pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> excite_electron_2 (void* electron, boolean undo_excite)
{
if (undo_excite != FALSE) {
decrement( electron->energy );
} else {
increment( electron->energy );
}
}
</code></pre>- OR -<br />
<pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> excite_electron_2 (void* electron, boolean undo_excite)
{
if (!undo_excite) {
increment( electron->energy );
} else {
decrement( electron->energy );
}
}
</code></pre><br />
If you still haven't evoked the wrath of that seasoned programmer who has, say, assimilated the essence of zen into himself, you can take it a notch higher by declaring the prototype in a header file as:<br />
<pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> // Function prototype to excite an electron, that is bound to get you killed!
void excite_electron (void* , boolean);
</code></pre><br />
And let the caller be totally surprised of what happens next! :)<br />
Exact same function and exact same outcome, but you have just made it a little harder for reader to decode its workings. Make sure you are not around after you checkin this kind of sh!t into the code repository!<br />
<br />
This is <i><b>NOT</b></i> out of my figment of imagination, this sh!t happens for real!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Moral:</b></i></div><b>0. Law of least astonishment: Please use consistent verbs for function names and arguments. </b>This would be the correct function declaration:<br />
<pre style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(240, 240, 240); border: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> excite_electron( void* electron, boolean excite );
</code></pre>Now the following invocation tells me intuitively without any ambiguity that I am trying to excite an hydrogen electron even without looking at function prototype or its definition.<br />
<pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> excite_electron( &hydrogen_electron, TRUE );
</code></pre></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>1. Avoid double negation:</b></div><pre style="background-image: URL(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkOy52dgMvw/Tkx6JachqvI/AAAAAAAAUYA/cNOeHX4QrVI/s800/alternate_code_bg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> if (dont_remove != FALSE) { ... } // not too readable, DON'T do it
if (dont_remove == TRUE) { ... } // much readable now!
if (dont_remove) { ... } // not only readable but also elegant!
</code></pre><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>2. Designing good usable interfaces is a non-trivial task!</b> Programming is NOT just about churning out lines of code. It is way more than that! That is why some of us believe programming is not just a science, it is an art!</div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-35656710130539728252011-08-14T11:29:00.000-07:002011-08-14T11:29:47.696-07:00THEY Want...<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>THEY</b> want you to <b>cry</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to <b>rejoice</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be <b>crushed</b> from the juggernaut cycle of <b>joy-n-sorrow</b><br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be <b>unhappy</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be <b>jealous</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be <b>restless, frightened, terrorized</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be <b>trapped</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be <b>sick</b> (but of course <b>NOT die</b>, O! how thoughtful of them!)...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be <b>discontent</b>... <b>distraught</b>... to be <b>dissatisfied</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be <b>careless</b>... and to be <b>reckless</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to <b>rob, wage wars, stir unrest, kill</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to <b>drink to stupor</b>, <b>smoke weed</b> and such...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to <b>buy, beg, borrow</b> and <b>steal</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to <b>fall</b>...<br />
<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to want <b>MORE</b>...<br />
<b>THEY</b> want you to be in <b>constant search of peace</b>...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But...<br />
What they <b>DON'T</b> want is for you to attain the peace within yourself, never reach out to that ever illusive inner peace...<br />
So that <b>THEY</b> can run their own agenda unhindered while you are too busy untangling your own mess!</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Simply, because, if everybody finds his or her zen or connection to the core or victory over their minds-and-bodies the whole of socio-politico-economic machinery as we know of today will <i>~~bham~~~</i> come to an abrupt end!<br />
Would that be so bad, after all? THEY don't want you to know that!</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">What? You are lost! So was I, until this epiphany dawned upon me <i>~~~beaming with newly earned uselessly dangerous knowledge~~~</i> Frankly, I'm still lost, but at least I now know where: a place from where I seem to see no escape.<br />
<br />
<b>THEY</b> are the ones who own you and yet make you feel you are free,<br />
<b>THEY</b> are the ones who siphon riches out while you toil away and pay your taxes, it is<br />
<b>THEY</b> who reap the benefits of most of your material hard work,<br />
<b>THEY</b> are the ones who control when you feel and what you feel,<br />
<b>THEY</b> tell you what to read, write and hear...<br />
<b>THEY</b> tell you what to do and how to do it, while making you believe you have a free (<i>~~stifled chuckles~~</i>, free???) free will,</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>THEY</b> are the ones who own you, worse, they own your souls!<br />
There is only <b>THEY</b>, not you or me.<br />
All your base are belong to THEM. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">This my friends, is nothing but a progression towards Dystopian world (1984?)! And...<br />
This my friend, is an illusion of Democracy! A hallucination of highest degree, if you will! And...<br />
<b>THEY</b> don't want you to know that! </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Because, you, like a respectably good populace, are too busy earning your bread, paying your bills, rentals, loans on time, living (as much as possible!) a lawful life and spending the rest of your energies loving your loved ones, turning a blind eye to everything else. <b>You</b> are not like this because of your own will or (laughably your) destiny... you are what you are only because <b>THEY</b> want you to be like this! At least most of you are, there are always mavericks(???) amongst us, and <b>THEY </b>hate (read: eliminate!) them.<br />
<b>THEY </b>choose who becomes what, how and when... Not you...<br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">THIS my dear friend, is <b>THEIR</b> machinery and <b>THEIR</b> victory, not ours! At least for now and some more decades to come!</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">If you understand this (which I highly doubt <i>~~huh~~~</i> Not because you are not smart, but only because of its vagueness and lack of a head-or-a-tail) but if you do understand then you will know that this is a universal fact which knows no personal, political, geographical, social or economical boundaries. The only thing that varies is how sophisticated this machinery of <b>THEIR</b>'s can get. But the machinery is omnipresent <i>~~sigh~~</i><br />
<br />
But, the point I wanted to say was,<br />
this started out as a <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2009/11/random-thought.html">random thought</a> (<b>#33</b>), but I figured it won't be too bad to call it my very own Independence Day Special! (Independence? <i>~~~chuckles chuckles~~~</i> I know I know and I agree with you on this, a very laughable illusion, Independence, indeed!). I found it too apt to pass it otherwise.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Of course, my fellow Indian friends...</div><div style="color: #38761d; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b>Happy Independence Day!</b></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And here's a sincere hoping that you don't see what I do in the above lines!</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>P.S.</i>: An annoyingly deliberate emphasis on <i><b>THEY</b></i> is to signify the power <i><b>THEY</b></i> possess over your lives. And so you must reflect it while you read it by putting extra emphasis whenever you encounter <i><b>THEY</b></i>. Out of respect, you ask? Lol! Hell NO!!!</span></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-68361954347390741852011-08-04T11:03:00.000-07:002011-08-05T09:57:36.122-07:00Better Way To Live?<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Most of you know that I'm a potpourri of <i><a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2009/11/random-thought.html">random thoughts</a></i> and epiphanies. What? You didn't! Well...Well...Well! <i>_Now_</i> you know! :)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So here's one from my bag of random thoughts...<br />
<b>Random Thought #29</b> <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(contrary to the theme, the number 29 itself, btw, is not random)</span></i>:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I often yearn for the much awaited weekends, times of week when I can do whatever (ok, <i>_almost_</i> whatever) I want to do. Of course, within the realms of other duties like weekly chores of cleaning, washing clothes, catching up with buddies, etc.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But the most importantly, I get some time for myself and do things that don't have a direct calculated invest-and-returns benefits, I can do things that just make be feel happy, no strings attached. From what I know, a lot of us mortals yearn for that. At least a lot of mortals that I know do. Which makes me wonder if there <b>HAS </b>to exist a better way to live than just yearn for those 2 coveted days of a 7-day week! There ought to be!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It seems so hand-to-mouth existence:<br />
Solving only immediate or maybe near-future problems. The smarter amongst us anticipates future problems and acts proactively. But still, most of our time goes in either yearning for something too distant in the future (this is slightly different than dreaming). Or we are working just too hard to earn our daily breads and ensure enough provisional safety net for the rainy days.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I am not particularly unhappy, neither do I keep yearning for weekends every day of the week, but today's life style (if it can be called one! and I doubt it could!) </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">in my opinion </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">begs this question: Is there a better to live other than to (however occasionally) yearn for the weekends? I know there <i><b>is</b></i> one, but don't know anything beyond that. Or is it just in human nature to yearn!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What's your secret? Care to share?<br />
<br />
<i><b>Seed for thought</b>: Just came to me while replying a friend's email who insisted on looking up to the weekend.</i><br />
<br />
<i>p.s.: Live every moment as it if it were your last, is total rat-crap and I don't buy it! Living in the present, is slightly palatable form, though. But that's a matter for totally different post(s), or is it!</i></span></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-51052804952173296022011-07-06T20:22:00.000-07:002011-07-06T20:22:58.821-07:00Transformers-Disappoints me again<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">While I'm really short of time (<i>is this becoming a norm???</i> :'(<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> ~~sniff sniff~~ </i></span>) and there are definitely more interesting posts to be made, I thought it might be worth it if this saves some of my readers their precious time (and their hard-earned monies).</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">As I already set the tone, it might be evident that the latest sequel of Transformers, the 3rd part, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399103/">Transformers: Dark Of The Moon</a> has me disappointed. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1055369/">Transformers-2: Revenge of the Fallen</a>, I guess, is not even worth mentioning.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I can't pinpoint one single thing that disappointed me...<br />
Was it the strikingly typical Bollywood-style masala where Rosie (who replaces Megan Fox, what? you already lost interest!) acts as typical spice or was it the action being too-fast-and-a-little-too-much to comprehend to the point of being completely chaotic or the length (2hrs and 40mins) or the utter absurdity of various scenes in the movie. Or <a href="http://dvice.com/archives/2011/07/the-blame-game.php">was it the 3D format</a>! Take your pick.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">While objectifying Megan Fox in the first Transformers was more or less quite subtle, or at least not very clear from the beginning, it is quite evident from the very beginning that the primary role for Rosie is to distract the audience and give them a respite from almost incomprehensible (non-stop) action scenes. And for that reason, maybe, just, maybe, I kind of lost interest every time she popped up on the screen. People wanting to see the movie just for Megan might end up with mixed feelings.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">As to me, I personally went to expose myself to some thought provoking concepts and cool FX but I was completely dissatisfied. Maybe I should have gone for something else. There was just too much going on in the screen to comprehend at one time. It was, in my view, special effects overused. There is, after all, abusing special effects to no creative end.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Moral: </b>Skip it if you can, or if you <i>MUST </i>absolutely watch it (which I doubt!), save yourself some money (and more importantly, TIME) by watching it on a rented DVD while you cook or clean your house. Trust me, you won't repent.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Unsolicited tip: </b>Well, this deserves a post in itself, but nonetheless... <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1302011/">Kungfu Panda-II</a> is every bit exciting as part-I was. My only complain; the movie is way too short, just 1hr and 30min. On second thoughts, that is not too short! I guess it was Einstein's theory of relativity at play, can't be totally sure. But the movie does end just as you think you want more. Anyways, don't miss that one. If you like light-hearted animated movies, you will enjoy this sequel, whether you are a Panda fan or not.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Another </b>totally unrelated random stuff...<br />
An amazing melody voiced by, none other than the maestro <b><a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2010/07/tribute-to-mohammed-rafi-maestro.html">Rafi Sahab</a></b> and <b>Asha Bhosle</b> (btw, did I ever tell you I love Asha's voice an order of magnitude times more over Lata's!), penned by <b>Rajendra Krishna </b>and aggrandized by <b>Ravindra Jain</b>'s music has stuck in my head: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20%20%20%20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDPNaZrdIKc"><b>Yeh Khamoshiyan Yeh Tanhaiyan</b></a>, from <i>Ye Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke</i>.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">A few days of endless listening and still can't seem to it get out of my head. Of course, loving it more with every single iteration :) Beautiful words and even more beautiful tune and voices! Of course, feel free to totally disregard the visuals and focus only on the audio.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nH-4MNDbhJk" width="480"></iframe></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-1824549541873267362011-06-17T23:21:00.000-07:002011-12-23T16:08:33.011-08:00Funny Haircut, Again!<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Life has been a little too demanding lately. While this is not my normal way of having fun, now that I can't do anything about it, I said to myself: "<i>Rather than being glum over it, why don't you have some fun with it!</i>" </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">One fine Sunday when I thought of getting the much-delayed haircut, I didn't have this outcome in my mind. I don't know what did the lady hear, but after she heard me she armed herself with the electric trimmer and slapped on some numbered attachment to it. A normal<i>(?)</i> person would be alarmed, but I thought she would trim the side-burns with the trimmer (as has been my usual experience). Indeed she did, but soon she switched gears and, <i>Nooo....(you can hear me screaming, right!)</i> she went straight for the center of my head... and <i>~~zaapp~~</i> one swift movement and a good chunk of hair from the top of my head disappeared! Martyred, my beautiful hair lay on glaze titled floor, ready to be sucked into the vacuum!<br />
What choice did I then have but to let hair on the rest of my head be reduced to same (lowly-)level! <i>(Some of my friends suggested I should have contested and got a free haircut, while some said this should have been reflected in the tip. I did neither)</i>.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ezPxTxJsUQw/TfvfHQtSsgI/AAAAAAAAUC4/G-Dlvs8KcKs/s1600/Surprised.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ezPxTxJsUQw/TfvfHQtSsgI/AAAAAAAAUC4/G-Dlvs8KcKs/s400/Surprised.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Surprised with the haircut?</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Reaction from all my friends was unanimously from <b>WTF</b> to <b>LMAO</b>! Got a few raised eyebrows from coworkers too. The ones who didn't share the same reaction were just too polite to admit it. Some mild reactions were toned down to <i>"Guys look smart in short hair"</i>. Everybody claimed that I must have fallen asleep during the haircut, but they know it is not true. While most of the world pictures us programmers as caffeine-hooked god(?)-made animate beings (most of them think of us as <i>almost </i>animate), none of us would fall asleep on a chair while someone wields life-threateningly sharp scissors around our heads!</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But one thing was increasingly clear to me, this incident would make for a good post :-P Esp. when I haven't posted in a while.<br />
<br />
As a result of this (pathetic) haircut, my parents almost disowned me. But I convinced my lovely Mom that I will grow them fast (I make her put <a href="http://www.dabur.com/Products-Personal%20Care-Amla%20Hair%20Oil"><b>Dabur Amla</b> Hair Oil</a> every other day. Anyone has better ideas on how to grow them faster!) She agreed to calm my daddy down :) And all's well now and everybody has agreed to take me back into family for the time being :-D You see, my father still adorns the 70's <a href="http://atult.net/images/Vinod_Khanna.gif"><i>Vinod Khanna</i> style</a> long haircut. More than 4 decades and there is very little to no change in his hair style. So it is only natural for him to be very upset looking at his son's navy-styled trimmed haircut given that I'm not in Navy or even closely related.<br />
<br />
Anyway, thought it has been a while I posted something, what better choice than make some people chuckle!<br />
Btw, the last time <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-search-of-perfect-haircut.html">this happened</a>, it was by choice. But this time it was by hmm... force, may I say. You would have a much harder LMAO session with nice before-after pictures from last episode there: <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-search-of-perfect-haircut.html">In Search Of Perfect Haircut</a>!<br />
<br />
As a side note: A lot of friends I talked to conceded that they have been victimized by a similar haircut fail. Unanimously everyone called out the fail at the chain of <a href="http://www.supercuts.com/">Supercuts</a> (just like me)!</div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-1230991168842418062011-05-04T23:22:00.000-07:002011-05-05T09:35:24.074-07:00Best Day and Tulip Festival<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/5674778510/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Pink Tulips up close by Atul-T, on Flickr"><img alt="Pink Tulips up close" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5107/5674778510_4ba96f8d6b.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Wet Pink Tulip Petal</b></span><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>That Saturday was one of the <i><b>BEST</b></i>'est days I have seen in Seattle in about a year. No kidding, I'm not exaggerating. It was only one of the 2-3 days that the Sun was out for a whole day with no rains, no clouds and temperature comfortably hovering a little over 60F (15C). Ok, I give it to you that I'm only talking about weekends, because a sunny weekday is only as useful as a 3-1/2 inch floppy inside a Lightscribe CD Drive (lame analogy, I know, I'm on a roll!).</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/5674211777/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="IMG_6789 by Atul-T, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6789" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/5674211777_224f2d1c91.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Yellow Tulips Field with Cascasdes in the backdrop</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">It was a perfect day <i><b>_NOT_</b></i> to <i><strike>spend</strike></i> waste at the office (like all the other weekends <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>~~sigh~~</i></span>), so we had already decided to visit <a href="http://www.tulipfestival.org/">Skagit Tulip Festival</a>. Looking back, a hike would have been orders of magnitude more exhilarating, but I was more than glad just to step out into the open air. With some last-minute changes in plan more people wanted to join and while one group was running late in spite of my insistence of being out-of-the door by 0800hrs. After waiting for long (restlessly) I said let one group go ahead while the second joins. So we started off at early around 0930 hours and luckily didn't hit any traffic (neither on I-5 nor on the internal roads). The second group (who started 20 minutes after us came more than an hour and a half later). A colleague of mine at office, I later learned, left at noon for the festival and was stuck in a 20+ long miles traffic jam! Indeed, while returning I counted the line on other side of the freeway, it had come to a crawl for 10 miles, after which I stopped paying attention on the other side (because I was driving :-P).</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Long story short, I was as ecstatic for being out in the sun with clear skies as a kid is when you let him loose in a candy store with his favorite Disney Characters. I felt alive again! I am not a bot no more. I pray to thee, for you give life, Sun! I was breathing sun :D<br />
The weather forecast looks abysmal for rest of the Spring, so I hope I make best of the days that are good (read: sunny).<br />
Here are some shots form my <b><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/sets/72157626618728666/with/5674212437/">Tulips Album for the year 2011</a></b>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/5674211549/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Pink Tulips by Atul-T, on Flickr"><img alt="Pink Tulips" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5101/5674211549_be8f67aa6f.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Beautiful Pink Tulips</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/5674212343/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="IMG_6815 by Atul-T, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6815" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5221/5674212343_9c2709906d.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Tulips by a Pond</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/5674212437/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="IMG_6857 by Atul-T, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6857" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5226/5674212437_9da906dcdd.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>At the Heart of Every Tulip!</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/5674779012/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="IMG_6926 by Atul-T, on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_6926" height="333" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5142/5674779012_df141f2e26.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>And now time for one nice Group Photo</b></span><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Full Album here: <b><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atult/sets/72157626618728666/show/">Tulip Festival 2011</a></b>!<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Additional Info:</i></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>2011 seems the worst year on record with the fewest number of days above 55F, per one blogger on his/her post: <a href="http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2011/04/are-springs-getting-worse.html">Are Northwest Springs Getting Worse</a>?</i></div></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-89002175528716837662011-04-23T21:15:00.000-07:002011-12-02T11:19:56.700-08:00Epic MSN Ads Fail!<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I just noticed that lately my blog has been filled with too much seriousness. So I thought it might be a good idea to lighten things up a bit. But I wasn't exactly sure how, because I didn't want to (re)post xckd, geek & poke or dilbert. Facebook, lately, it seems is flooding you with such things already. I don't want to add to your spam. Just then an opportunity knocked in the most unusual way. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I was searching for something in my mail archives. A 5 year old email turned up in the results, which I didn't expect to show up for something I was looking for. It was an old email asking my professor at <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/search/label/alma%20mater">PICT</a> for a letter of recommendation while I was applying for masters. Google is pretty good with searches (did I already mention that?) so out of curiosity I opened the email. <i>Lo and behold</i>! I discovered what could easily be one of the biggest <strike>Google</strike> MSN Ads fail! Here's the screen shot! Click to read the complete email thread and ads fail!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WR6jFSysYCo/TbcwG4_yBiI/AAAAAAAAT8c/byQiX3mQMMg/s1600/Epic_Google_Ads_Fail_Final_FIXED.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WR6jFSysYCo/TbcwG4_yBiI/AAAAAAAAT8c/byQiX3mQMMg/s640/Epic_Google_Ads_Fail_Final_FIXED.png" width="540" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Epic <strike>Google</strike> MSN Ads Fail!</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I was neither looking for s_x not headache after s_x! <strike>Google</strike> MSN Ads are supposed to be relevant to the content, or so I thought! But as you can see here, it seems way off the target! There is no correlation, whatsoever, between asking for a letter of recommendation and s_x doctors! Lol! I thought this was a perfect opportunity to lighten things up a bit!</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
Keep watching the space, I have a nice post cooked up for some more fun, <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2011/12/you-know-you-are-geek-when.html" target="_blank">esp. for geeks</a>! :)<br />
<i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">edit, 2011/12/02</i>: <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2011/12/you-know-you-are-geek-when.html" target="_blank">You know you are a geek when...</a><br />
<br />
On a completely unrelated note (lazy to make another post?), the weather here in Seattle today was simply outstanding. It must have been more than 6-8 months (I'm <i><b>not </b></i>kidding!) that Sun was out from morning through evening, without any trace of rains or clouds. I, for sure, haven't see such a beautiful day in Seattle in months. On freeways, I could see even the farthest of mountain ranges! I felt as ecstatic watching them as a kid feels after watching his favorite Disney character come to life :)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">- - - - - - - - - edit, 2011/04/26 - - - - - - - - -</i></div>Thanks to my friend, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/03317951657512200165">Magesh</a>, for hinting that the ad in question might actually be coming from sender's email client. I verified that and it indeed coming from sender's client, MSN, and NOT from Google Ads. Screenshot below shows URL when I mouse-over the link.<br />
So I stand corrected, it is an Epic MSN Ads fail! :) Or... given that a few years ago hotmail would deliver EVERY junk mail to my inbox and most of legitimate emails to Junk folder, this was expected? :-P<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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</tbody></table></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-85412165087695117342011-04-14T11:21:00.000-07:002011-05-03T23:07:16.214-07:00One quick note...<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I'm racing against deadlines here, but the only way to satiate this overwhelming desire of expressing my gratitude amid increasing disorder (or frenzy, should I say) in life, was to make this quick 2-min post...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Hardly goes by a day when I haven't thanked the musicians/composers, lyricists and singers of Golden Era of Bollywood Music (roughly 1955 through 1975). <a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2010/11/love-or-lust-simple-or-flashy-subtle-or.html">I re-iterate</a>, these have made my life a little more enjoyable, few minutes at a time!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I am disappointed that I was not born in their era (physically, that is, because many believe I mentally still am!), but then, I'm thankful that, at the least, I am born in an era when it is still possible to have access to some/most of their masterful work! </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Once again, I bow to the enviably unprecedented talent these people possessed which produced nothing but magical concoction of words, music and emotions topping it off with a dash of simplicity.<br />
By no means a complete list, but fairly representative, are:<br />
<b> the composers:</b><br />
O.P. Nayyar, Madan Mohan, R.D. Burman, S.D. Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, Ravindra Jain, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>the Poets (Lyricists):</b><br />
Sahir Ludhianvi, Ravindra Jain, Kaifi Azmi, Shakeel Badayuni, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Shailendra.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>the Singers:</b><br />
Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The song that, once again, impressed onto me the power of simplicity, beautiful words and heart warming music is the one from movie <i>Shabnam</i>, composed by <i>Usha Khanna</i>, penned by <i>Javed Anwar </i>and sung by none other than the maestro himself, <i><b><a href="http://the-shaolin.blogspot.com/2010/07/tribute-to-mohammed-rafi-maestro.html">Mohammed Rafi</a></b></i>: the song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDzg8Af3NWM">Yeh Teri Sadgi Yeh Tera Bakpan</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>p.s.: Don't focus on the video, it ain't that great. Just take in the song sans video.</i> </span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bDzg8Af3NWM?rel=0" title="Yeh Teri Sadgi Yeh Tera Bakpan" width="480"></iframe></div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668739.post-71244685851544967392011-03-27T00:35:00.000-07:002011-03-28T11:40:12.624-07:00Book Review: State of Fear, Michael Crichton<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">It might have taken me a few renewals and a few return-hold-pickup cycles at my community library to get through this book, but I have finally managed to get through it. My records tell me this quest to read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/State-Fear-Michael-Crichton/dp/0061782661/">State of Fear</a> started sometime back in November last year!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JD1oh1Kavr4/TY7g-7LrO-I/AAAAAAAAT50/38KbSujmdqw/s1600/state_of_fear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JD1oh1Kavr4/TY7g-7LrO-I/AAAAAAAAT50/38KbSujmdqw/s400/state_of_fear.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">But don't let my sloth in finishing this book talk about its goodness. If anything look at my penchant to finish it, somehow! Anyhow!</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">It has been a <i>very-very-very</i> long time that I have read a novel cover-to-cover under mounting work and less-than-optimal personal time management. That is if I were to skip my re-read of Herman Hesse's <b>Siddartha</b> on my flight to-and-fro to India (which still happens to be my #0 favorite) . I did manage to read a few of Harry Potter's volumes though.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Without jogging my memory too hard, these are the two latest failed trysts with literary work:<br />
0. The Glass Bead Game : (aka, Magister Ludi) by Hermann Hesse<br />
1. Steppenwolf, by Hermann Hesse</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I guess these books were a bit too heavy on spirituality/philosophy for my mind to take on as casual bedtime reading. One needs to set aside considerable chunk of time to enjoy them. So I thought of falling back on my regular thriller and sci-fi. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">This is the first novel of Crichton's I have read and I was quite thrilled. Frankly, I picked up this work only because I liked <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_%28film%29">Jurassic Park</a>, which was adapted from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_%28novel%29">his work</a> by same title. To date that movie remains in my list of top 5 movies. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">As to the novel itself... But let me put you at ease first.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Dont' worry, there <i><b>are no spoilers</b></i>, so read on...</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The book is a wonderfully thought provoking techno-thriller, revolving around the (what I now believe to be highly distorted and misunderstood!) phenomenon of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming">Global Warming</a>. And if there is one thing that I adore a lot, it is a constructive-thought-provoking material. The journey from crowded concrete jungles of LA through the glaciers of Iceland to volcanoes of Antarctica to Arizonian deserts to the spine chilling jungles of Solomon Islands, for the lack of better work, the journey is just breathtaking.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Though mostly bordering around the realm of fiction, his work highlights quite a few interesting (lesser known and often ugly) facts that we don't get to hear. The Appendix-I, in particular, earned my greatest interest.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The author must have done quite a bit of research, as is evident from numerous footnotes, graphs cited from scientific papers & journals, two rich appendices and a whooping twenty page bibliography.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The broader point that the book tries to make is quite remarkable. 75% of the book (quite literally!) goes on and on about whether global warming is really something we need to worry about and whether we can stop or is it just yet another meticulously orchestrated corporate charade. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I kept going along only because it was entertaining and the suspense was quite enticing.<br />
But I almost read the remaining 25% of the book (the last 200 pages) in almost 2-3 seating (yes, that did cost me quite a bit of my sleep, but I suppose it was totally worth it). The book takes on a very interesting and engaging turn when the some Professor Hoffman from USC enters the picture and the title of the book is quoted, verbatim, for the first time since the beginning: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/State-Fear-Michael-Crichton/dp/0061782661/">State of Fear</a>. That, my dear friends, is when the real book starts. Until that point, there is no connection to the title of the book and story. This is the point where all the dots seem to connect, and things seem to light up.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I don't quite know how to put it, but you will need to have a certain kind of inclination, or quality, of lack thereof, if you will, to like this work. No, I don't mean tendencies towards conspiracy theories, but my vocabulary just isn't rich enough yet to describe that quality. Without divulging too much of the plot, the fans of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nineteen-Eighty-Four-George-Orwell/dp/0452284236/">Nineteen-Eighty-Four</a> (by George Orwell) should definitely devour this work of Crichton's.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The book has played right into my <i><b>pessimistic optimism</b></i>. But besides that main theme, the book now also has me yearning for the composure, knowledge and the right balance of arrogance-and-humility that Kenner carries (and, not to forget, a girlfriend like Sarah too :-P). (Yes, I recently have had an epiphany about the importance of the right amount of arrogance to earn respect in this effing world. More on that some other day).</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Moral</b>, though slightly indirect, that I took away is, man has never been able to and will never be able to fathom the way Mother Nature works to the fullest. And so she is best left alone, with as much of little interference from effing pesky humans as is possible. You can admire her, you can nourish her, you can bask in her glory, and even cry over her apathy towards you, you can even caress her, but you can NEVER freakin' try to change her so as to suit your needs. Lest you face unforeseen and unimaginable repercussions and pay princely prices for your interference. A price not measured in terms of money, beware, which is but just a man-made necessary evil, but price in terms of life itself.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">And there a quite a few documented cases (really large scale cases) presented in appendix to support that observation. Worth a read, even if you skip the book and just read them. Of course, they will be a bit out of context, but will still drive the point home. Also, it has bolstered my very strongly held belief: <b>Never trust any corporation</b>!<br />
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Anyway, the bottom line is (because that is what increasingly everybody cares about these days <i>~~sigh~~</i>) this techno-thriller will not only whet your hunger for suspense, action and thrill, but also provide a little food for your post-dinner thoughts.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I should now be onto another book that I have been putting off for almost a decade now (yes, decade, that was not a typo!) Aldous Huxley's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060929871">Brave New World</a> (and its revised version <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brave-World-Revisited-Perennial-Library/dp/0060809841">Brave New World Revisited</a>). Already put a hold at library, can't wait to get my hands on them, am looking forward to enjoying these books.<br />
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More suggestions for a good read are most welcome.<br />
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<i>P.S.: If you want to enjoy the novel as much as I did, then don't read any revealing reviews, esp. Wikipedia. Read'em after you are done with the novel</i>.</div>The Shaolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03608355545765137366noreply@blogger.com2