Last week of April, a happening week indeed; Newsmakers -
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life - Book written by an American born Indian, Kaavya Vishwanathan (a freshman @ Harvard) has been taken off the book shelves after she was accused of plagiarism (to which she acknowledged later).
Her book was the first in a two-book deal worth 500,000 dollars signed when she was just 17; But alas ... it turned out that more than 40 passages were similar (quite similar actually) to a novel by Megan McCafferty. Although she claims it to be unintentional, the harm's done and its gonna hurt real bad as she learns it the hard way.
U turn by Afridi - Shahid Afridi has decided that it was not a good idea to bail out on test cricket and focus more on his ODI Career. Noob. Its like a childplay now-a-days with players announcing their decision without consulting the mgrs. or even other players only to find themselves back in the spotlight. It should be a binding condition in the players contract that they can't get up one day and decide to retire. What message does this convey to other players and the world on how the Team Management works ??
I believe he took the decision of not playing in tests because he was dropped from a recent test match against Srilanka. But then its doesn't go that way right ? Wake up next day - call a press conference - and go like ... "Mein Test Cricket nahin khel raha ".
IE 7.0 - Microsoft have come up with Internet Explorer 7.0 lately. Pretty much similar to Opera/Firefox as they have tried to focus on tabbed viewing amongst other features. How successful it is needs to be seen, I've installed it today but am yet to play around with the addins.
Archived in: Plagiarism India Afridi Cricket Harvard Microsoft Internet Explorer Firefox Srilanka Pakistan Boston
Posted by Rajesh @ 1:43 AM; PERMALINK,
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It so happened that I couldn't find anything to post today. Too busy now-a-days, consider this as a filler ... but nice ones. Enjoy ;-)
And Tendlya ...
Archived in : Google Video Sachin Russel Peters Airtel Advertisements Cricket
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How can't you luv this guy ? Now a days I just sit back and watch him take over Garfield as my fav. Got this one somehow and couldn't resist myself ...
Some Out-Of-Office E-Mail Auto-Replies....by
Dilbert! Undoubtedly the worlds best geek!
1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.
3. Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed so that I may be promoted to management.
4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation on 4/18. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has beencharged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional wordin your message.
6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server Connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart yourcomputer and try sending again. (The beauty of this is that when youreturn, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).
7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expectto receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
8. Hi. I'm thinking about what you've just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.
9. Hi! I'm busy negotiating the salary for my new job. Don't bother toleave me any messages.
And the best one ...
10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medicalreasons. When I return, please refer to me as 'Loretta' instead of 'Steve'.
Thanks Soumya for the email ...
Posted by Rajesh @ 11:00 PM; PERMALINK,
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Haven't been to
Panera Bread before but happened to stop by at one one on my way home this Sunday. Something different I should say and pretty good too. They do offer great food at reasonable price, its got a comfortable atmosphere and most importantly -
free Wifi. I didn't use the wifi but saw a few chaps hooked onto their laptops. And why not? Panera is the largest provider of Wi-Fi internet access in the states with about 575 bakery-cafes offering free service.
They have a superb menu which consists of Freshly baked breads, Bagels, Soups, Hand-tossed Salads, Sandwiches, Pastries & Sweets etc..etc..etc... I happened to have a French Onion soup and a Chicken Olivada Sandwich. It was more than fillingggggg.
You would also find a beautiful fireplace, booths with round and square tables, free samples by the coffee station and free wi-fi. At the counter they serve espresso, lattes and specialty teas as well as chilled beverages such as Iced Green Tea. Each day Panera has different soups on the menu and their bagels are among the best around.
2nd visit ?? Oh Yeah !! Simply 'cause they use great ingredients (and their combination is superb), make them fresh, wonderful food and the best bread anywhere The next time you are choosing between a fast food restaurant and Panera, spend a few extra minutes and go to Panera.
Posted by Rajesh @ 11:00 PM; PERMALINK,
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It would be quite obvious by now and if you are driving ur car that often, say to work morning and evening, it would be killing ya. Its no big secret, you would have seen the gas prices at the pump getting
higher and
higher. In the last month itself, the price per gallon has climbed 16% and the price one pays at the pump is 31% higher than this time last year.
The national average is about
2 dollars and 90 cents. You would find prices a bit here and there but not below the 2.80 range. Its good that I dont have to drive to my way work every morning and evening. Public transport in Boston is something that you can rely on and also the traffic and the ridiculous parking charges aren't something that you would like to go for. It would take me more time to drive to work and the way back in the evening, hence makes more sense to take the T (public transport) :) ...
Earth's day marked Mr. Bush giving a message for the drivers worried about the soaring prices - "US must move more quickly toward widespread use of hydrogen-powered cars". Voila .. its easily said than done and we know that its gonna take years to accomplish H2 fuelled cars on the road. And its not that these prices have been predicted to come down anytime soon , they have, on the other hand, been predicted to reach about 4 bucks and we know that a $4 - gallon of gasoline will all but kill the American economy ...
For now, though California, Hawaii,NY and DC have the highest average price per gallon - $3.32 !!!
Archived in:
Boston T Gas Economy US Summer
Posted by Rajesh @ 10:34 PM; PERMALINK,
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Hooked onto this Autobiography by the Founder of S O N Y - Akio Morita. Amazing I should say, among other things he talks about -
- His childhood days and life in Japan
- Early years in the Military
How intuition is often greater than data - everyone had predicted there was no market for 'Walkmans' - but Akio Morita - went ahead with their introduction in the market - and rest is history.
The way people work in Japan and how different it is from the rest of the world.
He made S O N Y a trusetd name everywhere, because a company without borders is one wihout limits and now a days we just look for the three words "Its a Sony" ....
Archived in: Books Japan Sony Autobiography Science
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I have made quite a few posts about The Da Vinci Code and Dan Brown. It seems that everyone's talking about it. The latest from
Google - they have managed to create 12,358 puzzles for
The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google.
Over the next 24 days, they will release these puzzles of varying difficulty levels and if you complete all of them, the've got a pretty nice
Price package for the winner. I did complete one today, didnt get time to go through the rest, though they look pretty sleek. You can login using ur google login Id and you can save the levels before exiting their network.
The biggest online puzzle I believe is still
Deathball's Not Pron. I had
completed that one, while it was only 80 levels. Now I believe David has extended it much much more
Give it a try :D
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No dude, am not talking about the Pink Floyd 'Run Like Hell' .... this is about -
An event participated by a whopping 22000 athletes - Boston Marathon 17th April 2006.
It was the 110th running of this famed footrace yesterday - 26.2 miles, and participated by 22473 athletes in total (13630 males and 8843 females). Robert Cheruiyot from Kenyawas the winner for the second time (2003 being his previous win) clocking 2:07:14 (h:mm:ss).US runners had their say finally after 1985 claiming 6 of the top 11. But I guess there's a long way to go for them, in a sport dominated by Kenyans and Europeans.
I knew it was pretty nasty out there in the streets when I peeped from the 15th floor office @ the tower. Athletes, supporters, friends and families all gathered on the streets in downown Boston ( supporters and friends were um .. not much ... APPROX. ABOUT 500,000 IN NUMBER ;-) ). And believe me, there were more people on streets than that !!! The usual train station where I alight was closed for the day and many sq. miles of streets were blocked for the event. It got worse on my way back home , it took me 30 minutes for a walk to the next train station that took me ~ 2 minutes in the morning.
And on top of that the Baseball game in the evening - a sell out Boston Red Sox match at Fenway. Whoa !! This is how they celebrate Patriots day out here ;-) !! And why not, the Marathon is the second largest single day sporting event (after Superbowl) in terms of on-site media coverage.
I wont go as much and call myself an athlete but used to take part in 1000 and 5000 m events back in school. Maybe its time to take it a level higher ;-) . What say ?
Archived in: Boston Marathon Pink Floyd Kenya Baseball
Posted by Rajesh @ 10:50 AM; PERMALINK,
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One Liners
Saturday, April 15, 2006
One liners are always short and sweet ; apart from the "yo mama" jokes there are many out there. A few that I recently found -
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
Why do you need a driver's license to buy liquor when you can't drink and drive?
I dream of a better tomorrow where chickens can cross the road and not have their motives questioned.
There are 10 kind of people in this world; those who understand binary and those who don't.
Don't Drink n drive. Smoke weed n Fly !!
Your IQ tests are in; and the results are negative.
When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
I'm always amazed to hear of air crash victims so badly mutilated that they have to be identified by their dental records. What I can't understand is, if they don't know who you are, how do they know who your dentist is.
Prevent hangovers ... stay drunk!!
"They misunderestimated me!" - George W. Bush
Just what was the "Baby On Board" sign for? Did it help us decide which car not to hit in case of an accident?
And one of ze favs ...
*** Thank Drunk I'm not GOD.
Posted by Rajesh @ 9:32 AM; PERMALINK,
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Vishu
Friday, April 14, 2006
This festival (celebrated in Kerala) marks the beginning of the new Spring year and the end of harvest.
Of course for me its just another day at work, but things were different back in Kerala or Mumbai for that matter.
Mom used to prepare offerings to the divine (called Vishukkani) in the puja room and consisted of raw rice, golden cucumber, betal leaves, fresh linen, coins and yellow flowers konna (adjoining pic).
Custom is - On the day of Vishu (i.e. today) wake up @ dawn - go to the puja room with eyes closed so that Vishukanni is the first thing one sees. Wear new clothes on the day and elders of the family distribute tokens of money (called Vishukaineetam) to children, servants ... I still remember how we all used to gather @ our family place and me and my cousins used to freak out ( but that was ... um like 10-15 years ago, yeah 10-15).
The grand feast that follows is simply amazing... lunch/dinner in those banana leaves (nothing new as it happens everyday in Kerala) , the varieties , kheer oh man - I miss that :( . Evening its time to enjoy some firecrackers and a gettogether ...
Enjoy guys .. wish you all a Happy Vishu and Baisakhi and Bihu
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This
website established in 1998 tracks a US Dollar bill of any denomination. A user could enter their local ZIP code and the serial number to track the bill. And once its registered, the site reports the time between sightings, the distance travelled between locations and/or any comments by the finder. Sleek way to keep track yeah ?
They have also come up with a George score which is calculated as follows -
100* ( SQRT(ln(Bills Entered)) + ln(Hits + 1) ) * [1 - (Days of Inactivity / 100)]
where
ln = Natural Log
Bills Entered = the total number of bills you have entered
Hits = total number of hits you have received
Days of Inactivity= number of days since you last ran the 'Your Bills' report
All this means is that the more bills a user enters or hits they receive, the less their score will increase with each entered bill or hit, so that their score doesn't increase as fast when you enter many bills. What's your score ??
Posted by Rajesh @ 10:42 PM; PERMALINK,
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Day 2I simply cannot cut it short as there's so much to pen down. But considering the space available and to make it more interesting would have to point out just the interesting stuff ....
Day 2 - Got up pretty early, although we had to skip b'fast. Pondered over those brochures that were provided and selected a Mexican hutment - Poncho Villa. Food was amazing and better than Margaritas. While parking the car we figured out that "coin parking" was costlier than the usual paid parking. 25 cents for 6 minutes (and they accepted US quarters too - lucky us).
Had a nice meal and off we were to Montréal. Yours truly on the wheel now. All of a sudden I felt the "G" force while stepping on the gas and looking at the speedometer made me realise (once again) *metric units*. How else could I explain the 140 ;-) Reached the destination pretty easily (without getting lost i.e) and parked our car to walk through the streets...
Our first destination - The Underground City. They have built 30 km of tunnels spread over an area of 12 sq. kms of downtown Montréal!! And it includes offices, shopping plazas, residential complexes, hotels, banks, museums, universities and train stations. A freaking 500,000 people use the city every day ~ and is an escape route for them in the severe winter.
So we went shopping and I bought myself some
Memorabilias. Adding to my collection of
shot glasses and ceramic cups. I wasn't on a shopping spree as I was out
here - for a change. After about 3-4 hours out there sat down to have some to eat. What could be better than fresh Mocha and a slice of superb cake. Out to the streets again at about 9 pm and the night life had just begun. Luckily we found the
Mecca of
cafes - "
Hard Rock Cafe".
With a full intention of losing our senses, we sat down amidst an already crazy crowd (which was expected out there). Corona and Jameson - what better combination could one ask for ? After about an hour - hour and a half .. with Metallica/GnR/System of a Down playing in the background, it really started kicking. Riten and Milan were all smiles (I guess) while I had to scream on top of my voice to the chap serving us, reason being I couldnt hear .. buzzzz
Clock stuck 12 and we decided it was enough to call it a day. Drive back 2 hours - would get on our nerves, we knew that. Ipod playing in the background with all those senti hindi songs .. oh man - it hits you real bad. Especially since most of them revolve around the same sensitive topic "ishq", "pyaar" .... aaaarggh. Discussions are bound to kick off - which dont have any conclusions.
The day ended with we 4 freaks getting back to the pavillion tired/senseless/huffed & puffed. I threw myself on the bed and guess what sleep eludes - as usual under those circumstances. Next day morning - pouring like anything. Damn ~ what a waste - but is it gonna remain the same throughout ? Are we gonna be like "Rain Rain go away Little Johny wants to play" .... more in the next post.
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Boy ! I've started hurting my fingers - typing on a keyboard hasn't caused this, its them clicks on the mouse "check-box" "right-click" "double-click" and after so many permutations and combinations was finally able to give a skeleton to the trip dossier. Without wasting any time/space ....
Day 1
Started off in a typical Hindi movie fashion, with "the boys" stuffing the car trunk with bagpacks which of course was the best possible arrangement - utilizing the space to the max (or atleast we thought so). The 450 some miles was taken care of superbly, mostly driving through the valleys and peaks of Vermont. The recent snow-fall giving the special touch, providing blanket and adding something to the otherwise monotonous "foot on the peddle" scene.
A Cop car was spotted after hours and hours of driving and was giggled by us as finding Kryptonite in no mans land. Was surprising and it was quite unusual; unlike my other long drives where they are spotted as often as a Honda/Toyota @ a Desi Party (no offense). The mere sight of Taco Bell made us scream - which I bet was the apt reaction considering what we've been thru trying to find a decent eatery in VT. Decent here means Dependable Elite Conglomeration of an Edible Tent.
Scenic beauties on the way (both sides of the border) made us open and close the shutter of our Camera more often than the click itself. Mostly because the snaps from inside the 4 wheeler were not as appealing . The condition of Roads, the Land and the small Towns on the other side of the border reminded us of our Motherland and a round of whistle went out after we discovered how to convert the speedometer run in Kph ( believe me it was something different).
The Canadian Air filled my lungs and made me freakout cracking all kinda BS , which I wouldn't have uttered even after getting drunk. The French architecture and the landscape definitely had much to do with it. Roads and driving on the other side is pretty cool though, Speed limits raised to 100-110 instead of 65 on this part of the world. Only difference being the 100s are measured in Metric system ;-)
Got frustrated by the mere thought of my inability to send/receive calls. International roaming charges are not something you would like to incur yeah ? Roger provided us with the best possible service BUT Cell phones turned to mere Pocket Watches. By the time we drove through Montreal and reached Ottawa it was about time to have dinner and doze off. Found an Indian joint (ample desi restraunts out there) checked in and dozed off on one condition though - to get up early the next day to make full use of the good weather.
Signing off Day 1 - mostly spent on driving to reach the destination - with some
snaps.
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Okay, am running a day late out here. Had promised that would be back with something to write on Saturday but couldn't. But hey I got some good reasons yeah ? ;-). The memories and the mesmerizing images of the scenic beauty floating in my mind wouldn't just blur away.
The weather was superb and we couldn't have asked more from the weather gods, although we had planned the trip to Canada a while ago. Yes ! The short and sweet trip I indulged myself the past 3-4 days to Ottawa and Montréal was awesome, superb, magnificient to say the least. Each and every synonym that I could find just made sense all of a sudden, as it left us with memories that would last for ever.
Driving from Boston was the best decision we had made before we left and I wasn't sure whether we would be proven wrong. I'm happy that we were because selection of the 2 cities Ottawa and Montréal was the best we came up with. Close to 500 snaps and 'I dont know how many hours of video proves the point, if nothing else.
I'm sure its gonna take me a while to gather all the stuff and put it in black and white, butI'll try my best in the coming days. Lot of things to talk about viz. The Driving, People, Roads, French, Money, Weather, Buildings, The Underground City, Scenic beauties .... and the list goes on.
The one thing I'll remember for ever, and its pretty hillarious too, is how I ended up phasing myself in pronouncing Ottawa (and Hiten,Milan,Riten if you happen to read this - please don't correct me ;-) ...) and that almost all the french I had read until now was in The Da Vinci Code - not anymore :D
Snaps and details coming up ....
Posted by Rajesh @ 9:55 PM; PERMALINK,
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Hiatus
Thursday, April 06, 2006
A short break ... back with some activity on 8th ... cya
Posted by Rajesh @ 9:57 AM; PERMALINK,
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NBA
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
The Narmada Bachao Andola (known as the NBA, or the Save the Narmada Movement) is India's most celebrated environmental campaign, but seemed to have faded from the national consciousness until the activist began her most Indian form of protest.
Now NBA in this part of the world means ..mmm something but out there its not just 48 minutes of sruggle. It accompanies protests and hunger strikes. A week long hunger strike by India's most famous environmental activist,Mehda Patkar, has helped reignite this issue which is about two-decades-old now. She says that if the dam's height is raised, more than 35,000 families, most of them impoverished tribal farmers, could have their homes and fields submerged when the monsoon rains arrive in June and are still waiting to be resettled.
Unless they take a decision to stop killing the Narmada Valley by raising the height of the dam I will not end the fast she whispered to Reuters as a woman supporter fanned her face. Arundhati Roy, the Booker-prize-winning author and activist , jumped in saying that Big dams are an industry based on lies and false promises... huh ?? Now I aint got no clue what she means...But authorities have told residents that most of their land will be submerged if the water in the dam fills to even 110 metres, and the rest will be left marooned by the rising water .. Gee Thanks !! So much for information ....
Posted by Rajesh @ 10:48 AM; PERMALINK,
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Been thinking this for some time now. And today listening to some radio stations on the Podcasts, I said its enuf. A compilation or a list of the top 20 Rock/Metal Albums of all times. But this is some list that I put up out here and not necessarily the ones that you all would agree with(comments and any additions welcome though). Don't ask me why 20, had to put a stop somewhere right .... so here goes -
1.
Black Sabbath -
Black Sabbath (1969) 
2. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
3. Led Zep - Physical Graffiti(1975)
4. Pink Floyd - Wish you were here (1975)
5. AC/DC- Highway to Hell (1979)
6. Pink Flyd - The Wall (1979)
7. Ac/Dc- Back in Black (1980)
8. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (1982)
9. Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)
10. Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)
11. Metallica - Metallica (1991)
12. Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)
13. Pearl Jam - Ten (1991)
14. Iron Maiden - Fear of The Dark (1992)
15. Pearl Jam - Vs (1993)
16. Van Halen -
Right here Right now (1993)
17. Radiohead-
The Bends (1995)
18. Tool - Ænima (1996)
19. Rammstein -
Sehnsucht (1997)
20. Tool - Lateralus (2001)
* Ordered by year released
* Not covering albums released after 2001
'A Perfect Circle' would definitely find its way into this list pretty soon am yet to get hold of their songs (like um ... Weak and Powerless for example) .
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Mark Twain probably was correct when he said, and I quote, "April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four."
Apart from the hoaxes and practical jokes that you would have played today, a bigger joke shows up tonight - DST. Yeah, gonna lose 1 damn hr (60 full minutes) of my sleep today. Hell yeah, what a way to celebrate !!! Sometimes I think how on earth can one just wipe off 1 hour ??
Posted by Rajesh @ 11:16 PM; PERMALINK,
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