Weekend Update

Well, last week was fun, for most part of it!

Started with Wed 0.00 hrs, our group went to buddy's house to wish him Happy Birthday. It was a pleasant surprise for him. I had taken my handycam and managed to record every moment out there. It's sooooo much fun to watch it over and over again! The birthday boy was a little shy in front of the camera, and it only that thrilled me even more to shoot him. After blowing the candles, we bathed him in cake and cream! After eating some (which we managed to salvage) we headed home.

Come morning and my mates insisted that I come downstairs and play holi. Incessant calls with my bro constantly pusuing me to play, I still refused to budge. My mom stepped in and switched off my PC, point blank!!! I conceded and thought of going to play holi.

I used to play holi like a maniac when I was a kid and used to stay in mumbai. Ever since I have come to Pune, I only played holi once in hostel, and that was 6+ years back! Seeing me downstairs, everyone was thrilled and I felt very nice.

Colours, water filled balloons, mud, water... everything just kept flying, hitting me once in a while! Since we were to play only with colors provided by our society cultural committee, I wasn't worried about allergic reactions. But the greatest fun was playing in mud. We created a BIG puddle and every once a while we dragged someone in (me included) and poured a bucketful of mud mixed with water!!! It was so much fun that I vouched I would never ever miss playing holi in future.

Though physically exhausted at the end, I was mentally rejuvenated. Thanks to my Mom, bro and mates who were adamant that I should play!

Sunday, of course, football. Then I went to a small lunch party at my mate's place (Boney). His mom is an excellent cook and his lunch box is always the central topic of discussion in lunch room at office. Boney's mom was more than a warm host.

We had Pasta, Singaporean noodles, some Bengali dessert, roti, vegetables and some snacks. What's so special about her cooking is that she manages to cook everything with absolutely no or little, without compromising on food quality and taste. And this was the primary reason this party was organized. Female colleagues were eager to learn the technique (though, only one of them managed turned up in time!!!). I can't forget the taste!!!

Post lunch, we played carrom. Everyone of us out there were playing after LONG time and so everyone's unique style (read mistakes) entertained us throughout the game. We kept cheering and commenting at the top of our voices, as if there's no tomorrow!

Lord of War: Movie Review

Lord of War: Some time back I managed to watch this fantastic movie. And was just thrilled! This is not like most Hollywood flick with lots of actions or chicks. It's a completely out-of-the-band movie, very unconventional. And only a handful few would like and would be able to appreciate it.

The screen is completely ruled by Nicholas Cage. With movies like Con Air, Face Off & National Treasure under his belt, it shouldn't be surprising that his acting and cast is par excellence in this movie as well.

Based on actual events, this is an ordeal that Uri Orlov (Nicholas), a Soviet immigrant, goes through to become the most dreaded arms dealer. Starting off small, he eventually starts selling off stockpiled arsenal of post-Cold War Ukraine to many, but most notably to the eternally sadistic African dictator: Andre. While on business tour, he falls in love with beautiful women: Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan), whose heart he eventually wins & marries her.



Uri starts living a good citizen, moving away from his dreaded business of arms smuggling. Everything is perfect in his world...

But past has returned to haunt him: Andre! Problems compound when his brother (also his partner) gets addicted to cocaine.

This riveting journey through 3 decades of global carnage, you are mesmerised by Nicholas' magnetism which gradually changes polarity. By the end of movie, you find yourself in ruthless moral dilemma, at one point you really go mad seeing how circumstances force you into something you don't want to go into!!! To top it off all, constantly running commentary plays a magnificent role in making move more fun and filling in all gaps that action/dialogues can't.
I rate it at 8/10.

I had a whining baby... I got her silenced!

But not anymore!!!

My baby had been whining incessantly for past 3+ months. Initially I shrugged her off thinking it's a transient problem, maybe it's coming from harddisk (HDD). But the sheer thought of HDD giving out such an audible noise sent chills through my spine. Since I was too much bogged down by workload I thought to let it go. But soon it became real PITA, I couldn't switch her ON when anyone's sleeping in the room! If you have ever heard Dell/Cisco switches in your IT department or hundreds of PC running in a server farm, you will understand pain I'm talking about. After much deliberation, I called up my dealer and explained him my grave situation. He insisted that it cannot come from HDD, it must be fan and added that he would send his engineeer to look over.

I knew modern HDDs have a S.M.A.R.T. technology built in them: Self-Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology. Thanks to numerous harddisk and laptop reviews, I knew they use HDTune to measure performance and benchmark drives. I gave it a look and found it does read HDD's SMART report and present it in human readable form. Phew! Only I know how relieved I was when HDTune reported that my HDD was in good health. It was only then it occured to me that I should look at fan! How the bloody hell I ruled out fan noise to start with??? Fan noise, the *most* frequently discussed topics in notebooks community, is usually unheard of in the PC world.


The hunt for good utility to find/tweak fan speed ended in SpeedFan. All processors provide information about it's temperature, volatages, etc., and additional instrumentaion on mobo gives information about ambient temperature and fan speeds. Whenever the sound was too loud, I noticed that fan spun at very high speeds, reaching 5000 rpm at times. Though I didn't know normal operating rpm, I was convinced that fan's spinning at unusually high speeds and is the culprit!

Instead of calling the engineer home, I hand carried the PC to my dealer. After looking at the problem, he said that he would order a replacement processor, because fan alone is not available. Thanks to his keen observation, when he was unmounting the heatsink, he noticed that there's a *thick* layer of dust between Fan and the heatsink. All pieces immediately fell in place in my head. The thick layer insulated the heatsink, and also sheilded it from fan's blow, forcing fan to spin at unusually high speeds to shove heat off the processor! He cleaned it and BINGO! My baby was silent as never before!!! I ran SpeedFan and confirmed that even under 70% CPU load, fan never crossed 2900 rpm mark! I then wanted my PC's front panel USB & mic/headphone jacks working. That too were resolved (problem: wrong connections on mobo!!!). The complete ordeal took well over 3 odd hours!




My happiness knew no bounds, as I can now switch my baby and talk to her without disturbing anyone in my room :-)

Great Dinner Party

Yesterday, we had a great dinner party @ colleague's place. Occasion??? Well, her hubby had just returned from Japan and so hubby-chubby wanted to celebrate their reunion by inviting all of us for dinner. The food was just great, tasty & yummy! Especially the 'Methi Malai Mutter' (MMM), I'm still licking my fingers. With such a good preparation, she has spoilt me, now on, I wouldn't like MMM at any hotel! BTW, I have another colleague who too is great at kitchen, and her specialty is exotic finger-licking 'Raitas' She adds all vegetables that I've never heard of being added to Raita, and behold, it always tastes great. I hardly dare to taste one at hotels now, for I know it can't beat her preparation. (in layman's terms, Raita is mixture of curd & vegetables, in a variety of ways). After lots of desserts, we had Ice-cream with honey with Almond toppings! And to top it off, we all sat leisurely chatting about all topics under the sun for long enough, until it dawned upon us that it's just Monday and we all have to go to office tomorrow! We were so carried away, that none of us realized that we should catpure some of these moments in the camera. By end, I had eaten so much, that I can bet my center of gravity shifted big time!

Wish I too were proficient at cooking, then I too could show off my cooking skills!!!

Cool Weekend

This weekend was much pleasant than earlier! Yes, I managed to finish off all my work through Friday and assure myself uninterrupted weekend. I burnt about 12+ DVDs backing up all my important data, and cleaned up a lot of mess in my room. Dusted my PC off all the filth it accumulated since last time I cleaned it, which was about good 3-4 months ago ;-) My mom was pretty impressed and satisfied with this feat of mine, since she was after me to dust my comp for too long. My mom would have dusted it herself, but the countless wires dangling around is a strong enough deterrent for her. Watched a good movie after the chores: Pride & Prejudice. More on it later...

Sunday football was fun, as usual. It was fun to have an old timer, Sam, back to the game. This time we even managed to have an extra player as substitution!!! I didn't have to run too hard like last weekend because my buddy (Ajit) played excellent last defence, and hardly any pass went past him. I could afford to be a little lazy with him around! He was man of the match this Sunday, a star defender! Rest of the day just melted away pleasantly while hosting guests at my place.

Felt more at peace this weekend after a break from gruelling routine. Could connect to my inner self for few moments :-) OOps, this is getting too philosophical!

Now about Pride & Prejudice...

As most of you might already know, it's based on Jane Austen's novel about five beautiful Bennet sisters - Elizabeth, or Lizzie (Keira Knightley), Jane (Rosamund Pike), Lydia (Jena Malone), Mary (Talulah Riley), and Kitty (Carey Mulligan), by the same title. Filmed entirely on locations in the U.K., portraying 18th century country, the scenic beauty is just breathtaking. Cinematography is too good, almost flawless, I would say.

Entirely based on class-conscious England, it's an interesting story of love-hatred-pride and prejudice. When wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley takes up residence in a nearby mansion, the Bennets are abuzz. Jane (my favourite, Rosamund), eldest of daugheters, serene and beautiful, finds herself loosing her heart to Mr. Bingley.

Lizzie too meets handsome and charming (but apparently conceited) Mr. Darcy. When the good-natured Mr. Bingley abruptly departs for London, devastating Jane, Lizzie holds Mr. Darcy culpable for contributing to the heartbreak. But a crisis involving youngest sister Lydia soon opens Lizzie’s eyes to the true nature of a fine gentleman!

I haven't read the novel so can't say how it fares when compared to it, but it is an entertaining movie!

BTW, I've heard that this novel is to females what Mario Puzo's Godfather is to guys!

---- re-edit ---

Don't confuse this with Bollywood's Bride and Prejudice (Hinglish) with this one. And with the reputation of bolly films (that I have) I bet this one would be not even close to what holly version has to offer!

Weekend Update

Hah! This was a pleasant weekend, for most it's part.
Saturday I managed to check in all my code and go home happily. I got a call from office some time late in the evening that things were not working and my check-in was a suspect (OOppss come to office to fix it immediately???). I asked them to try out a thing and didn't get a call again. The strong feeling that I might have to come to office on Sunday to fix this soon faded! Thank GOD, I didn't have to!

Sunday football session was fun. We played U2 (i.e. univ united) versus ROG (rest of the gang, which mainly comprised of Infy ppl). ROG had good forwards and with our forwards out of stamina pretty soon they thrashed us, I guess 5-2. I was the marked man on ground this Sunday. Started with the ball coming full force and attacking my future. Good that my hand came in between miraculously and slowed down the ball. But it still hurt bad and was out of play in gruelling pain for 5 minutes. Back on ground, my ankle was attacked, good that the stud missed my ankle and hit the heels instead. And last, I was reaching for the ball, sprinting and the opponent pushed me *hard* BANG! I went down, couple of scratches on my right leg. Not very nasty though, but enough pain to not let me sleep on my right side, for a week I guess. I don't care much about external wounds, for it's easy to gauge it's seriousness and treat accordingly. I might have to give away jeans for a week as well. But it is internal injuries that I'm more worried about. Lot of good players have been off-field for such internal injuries. And since my knee is paining a little, the thought of being out of play due to injury send chills through my spine.

As I felt for long time now, old U2 buddies conceded that the play has changed significantly. In the good old days, game was played with definite strategy. These days everyone plays for glory, individual game, tackling too much. This results into too many man-to-man collisions, too much chaos, too much confusion and not to mention increased chances of injuries. I hardly remember seeing old-timers dribble the ball so much. And for that matter, they passed the ball first time they see their player. Not admonishing anyone in particular, just a matter of style, and I prefer the older one!

I have come to the frightening conclusion

I have come to the frightening conclusion that...

I am the decisive element...

It is my personal approach that creates the climate...

It is my daily mood that makes the weather...

I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous...

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal...

In all situations
It is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or de-humanized.

Sounds good, but it takes the rigour of a kungfu expert, discipline of a Samurai, perseverance of a hungry lion, and patience of angel mother to realize this, most of which is extinct in today's era, me no exception! Wish I could live by above lines, all the worries would sublime in thin air! This is panacea for all the pian in this bloody world!

Weekend Update

Couple of last weekends have been too hectic now. No time to blog, and nothing other than work to update on. With compelled to work through Saturdays (for multitude of reasons), work being intellectually so unchallenging, thanks to Sunday football sessions that it has helped me maintain my sanity; both physical and mental! Absolutely no time to read books... It has been really long that I have watched a movie in theatre... and freaking out with friends is just a far away dream.

Will soon update you on Blink, Schindler's List, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. And maybe more. For time being, enough to say that they all are worth reading/watching. You won't regret investing your time in them.

Why Apple Really Ditched PowerPC

Ever wondered why on earth did Apple ditch IBM cartel and move on to Intel???
I came upon this *very* interesting article, and thought of sharing with you all.
Why Apple Really Ditched PowerPC?