tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60688132011-11-28T07:28:42.839+05:30Stories and stuff. No gossip!Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.comBlogger2971100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-82471027401386610142009-09-18T00:10:00.000+05:302009-09-18T00:10:04.664+05:30

Economy class, (also called coach class, standard class, or cattle class), is the lowest class of seating in air travel and rail travel. The term is slang, much like the word slumdog. Enough said.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-18616968148831607722009-09-16T11:46:00.000+05:302009-09-16T11:46:00.032+05:30

Further to my earlier post on ICICI Bank's NEFT charges, I've started using cheques to transfer my money to my other accounts. It isn't as big a hassle as it seems as long as you don't need the money transferred immediately. Even with NEFT it takes a couple of days anyway. Once the moolah is in an account which does not levy NEFT charges, I'm home free!

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-12669571119444099412009-09-16T07:55:00.000+05:302009-09-16T07:55:06.975+05:30

Almost fell off my chair laughing when I read the news... Saving money may be an eyewash, but it never occurred to me that it may actually get our "leaders" to experience what life is like for the rest of us. I remember there were so many cases of stoning local trains in Mumbai and elsewhere, in which people were hurt. Nothing really seemed to have happened then - just a big news story and

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-38362189354063270832009-09-15T19:44:00.000+05:302009-09-15T19:44:44.998+05:30

Read news reports on the move to ban all VoIP communication in India. The reasons being put forward are security-related. Not being an expert in this field, I would like to know whether it is possible at all without banning the Net itself. My meagre knowledge indicates that VoIP is nothing magical; just data transmission with some QoS, no? How would one go about distinguishing normal data

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-87016733468937978352009-09-08T11:04:00.002+05:302009-09-08T11:25:19.355+05:30

The big city was offline for two days. As I travelled back from office in the middle of the day, my thoughts went back to another similar incident. Different city, different people involved, different time of the day - but the result was the same. Nothing to eat.That's right, for single men (or men forced into singleness when the wife is out of town) food becomes an issue whenever something like

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-40946459897711553772009-08-28T15:11:00.002+05:302009-08-28T15:21:09.881+05:30

Great news. ICICI Bank will now charge Rs.5 per transaction for electronic funds transfer. Time to shift money and salary accounts from ICICI Bank?5 bucks may not be much on both absolute and relative terms for most of us. But I fail to understand why I would pay anything at all to transfer my own money from the bank. I do it online because it is convenient and I can schedule automatic transfers

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-32167694610596141792009-08-27T13:09:00.000+05:302009-08-27T13:10:06.989+05:30

My good friend Vidooshak blogs here ,as a guest blogger - no less, about how freshers are in a hurry to reach manager-level positions. In a nutshell, people want to get out of the "team member" kind of role and move to a "team-leader" role as quickly as possible. Without having paid their dues, so to speak.A different perspective from someone from product development as against the services

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-84315166374201700972009-08-26T11:49:00.002+05:302009-08-26T13:04:28.634+05:30

Recently read news about a priest in a temple hocking the temple jewels to marry off his daughters. Then read a piece about how priests are underpaid even though the temple "corporation" is the richest in the world.I'm stunned at how many questions this raises in my mind.Temple jewels?! What in the name of... er... God is a temple doing with jewels? I was always told that a temple is a place

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-59093965096475997032009-08-26T11:48:00.000+05:302009-08-26T11:49:15.135+05:30

Two years without anything to say? Wow!

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-10562990784093266252008-01-04T11:30:00.001+05:302008-01-04T11:30:38.114+05:30

"Life is too short to humour morons." Doesn't that sum up the old year?And what's the big deal with new years anyway? An arbitrary day whenthe whole world and their uncle goes crazy.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1620231740448518692007-11-22T18:41:00.000+05:302007-11-22T18:46:37.529+05:30

I've seen some mention of this topic on many online forums in the fast few days - for the uninitiated, this is about the 2% or 2.5% "extra" that merchants charge for using a credit card at their shops. This is because banks charge them this amount, and they are unwilling to pay it.Most card users express their outrage at having to pay more. I have a simple story to tell.Merchant: "That would be

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-9446615644896438312007-11-18T16:09:00.000+05:302007-11-18T16:29:57.722+05:30

You may well wonder why this would merit a blog post, especially from me. I've a habit of re-installing the OS on my systems about once a month. That's usually because I screw something up or install some weird bit of software that renders my system unusable.But this post is not about that.The observant reader may remember that I have a (now old) laptop - the eMachines M6805. It was a nice little

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-18288198153920897122007-11-06T20:46:00.001+05:302007-11-06T21:12:27.705+05:30

Read this news, and that set me thinking on multiple planes.Of course, I had this great urge to laugh out loud at some of the comments made by readers on news sites. They made the point that they thought they were not being paid enough. They invariably made the comparison with salaries in the U.S. One person went to the extent of complaining that he got a lesser salary after returning to India.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-44549600811686216842007-11-06T12:34:00.000+05:302007-11-06T12:40:32.912+05:30

http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/nov/06power.htmRegardless of what the article says, one line grabbed my attention:"Result: More than a third of the power generated in India continues to go into a black hole."i.e. the daily "load-shedding" we endure is a direct result of trasmission losses and theft.There's more: "Some states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-20190681537651049182007-10-09T14:37:00.000+05:302007-10-09T14:48:38.522+05:30

Back after a long hiatus. Lots of changes and some more expected. Whatever. :)I was somewhat taken aback at the largesse showered upon the victorious T20 team (does anyone else think that it sounds like a new Terminator model number?). BCCI, I can understand. They have fleeced the paying public and the TV channels and probably have enough moolah to drown their cricketers in. Where, however, do

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-69617273851378261412007-08-06T21:08:00.000+05:302007-08-06T21:23:18.238+05:30

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-40552468781197904482007-07-07T14:03:00.000+05:302007-07-07T14:12:10.294+05:30

Income tax return time again. My views on income tax should be well known by now to the one person who reads this blog ;) I think it's arbitrary, unfair and stupid. Abolish income tax and put up a sales tax/VAT on all items, let me pay tax in proportion to what I consume, that way I can't evade tax by not reporting income. The rich will obviously consume more and will pay more tax.Why don't

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-35657882509349505862007-06-07T14:53:00.001+05:302007-07-07T14:53:23.783+05:30

For once, a sane-sounding religious man? There is hope yet.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1181898836862487192007-06-06T18:56:00.001+05:302007-07-07T14:50:33.241+05:30

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.-Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the Younger," Roman stoic philosopher, writer, and politician

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-47999137474648773672007-05-25T20:23:00.000+05:302007-05-25T21:31:58.044+05:30

The PM says salaries of CEOs should be "restrained".What about... Politicians, film stars, cricketers who earn in the zillions. Government servants who don't seem to even do the work they are paid for. Businessmen who don't pay any tax. Farmers who don't pay any tax. The gov'mint itself that spends on useless things.Salary of the CEO is something that the company and it's shareholders have

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-56581075430672754692007-05-15T19:32:00.000+05:302007-05-15T19:44:59.194+05:30

You can read her post here.It's an interesting topic, no doubt, and she raises some good points. I won't go into into the details of those points though because there really isn't anything to debate about there.All I would say is that we should not rush to deal out judgment, because we do not know the real circumstances of each case. For a lot of old people, rearing a grandchild is a dream come

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-8399893554331518672007-05-09T13:19:00.000+05:302007-05-09T14:19:52.854+05:30

For some reason, I quite enjoy re-reading parts of LOTR, it's quite profound if you think about it enough."Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.""I have no help to send, therefore I must go myself.""All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost...""He should not vow to

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-55347715543203592652007-05-09T12:58:00.000+05:302007-05-09T13:01:56.711+05:30

This number is mine!Go here to get your own number:http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1155Here's the background:"The people who control AACS, the copy protection technology used on HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs, are apparently trying to shut down websites that publish a certain 128-bit integer. The number is apparently a “processing key” used in AACS. Together with a suitable computer program, the

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-34760941359354846232007-04-28T13:41:00.000+05:302007-04-28T13:43:15.669+05:30

Interesting article in New Scientist...http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11745-could-black-holes-be-portals-to-other-universes.html

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-56683931011830608422007-04-10T11:52:00.001+05:302007-07-07T14:54:11.482+05:30

This one eluded me for a long time since all the reviews and info websites I came across mentioned that it was not possible to update the Xbox360 dashboard without an Xbox Live connection.However...http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/console/softwareupdates.htm#disc

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-2489879624468194472007-04-09T13:27:00.001+05:302007-07-07T14:55:01.949+05:30

This refers to Paris Hilton: "An empty energy-drink bottle found in the back of the celebrity's car will be auctioned off on eBay."The current bid is apparently 103 dollars.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-17079989148517476422007-04-07T19:30:00.000+05:302007-04-07T19:34:13.074+05:30

Why doesn't Outlook have any direct way to import Thunderbird email? One would think they would want to encourage it instead of making it so cumbersome.Rename all mboxes to have the .mbx extension - this itself was a pain because I had so many folders and subfoldersTransfer all these mboxes over to the Windows machineInstall Eudora on the Windows systemThen copy them over to a Eudora install so

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-33529870531103562852007-03-26T12:32:00.001+05:302007-03-26T12:32:01.182+05:30

Read an article somewhere about behaviour of Indians on flights. Personal experience: 3 guys harassing the checkin counter girl because they wanted to be seated together WITHOUT A SEPARATING AISLE. And this was a flight lasting barely 2 hours. The words they used - "What nonsense", "We're frequent fliers", "You should have asked us before assigning the seats". Sigh.Powered by ScribeFire.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-54338800834163976812007-03-18T16:46:00.000+05:302007-03-18T16:47:52.816+05:30

What will they think of next?! ;)

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-45200987833879360052007-03-15T16:12:00.000+05:302007-03-15T16:36:39.321+05:30

From a rediff.com/forbes article: On the other hand, statistics tell us that 70% of divorce filings are by women. So men, it's not likely you'll control the timing of the split, though you might control the purse strings. (Statistics for the US of A, of course...)

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-59806645431947463352007-03-12T15:01:00.000+05:302007-03-12T15:03:05.318+05:30

Thanks to Vidooshak for pointing this to me:Crumbling roads, jammed airports, and power blackouts could hobble growthhttp://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_12/b4026001.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-30931645708985923212007-03-08T12:33:00.000+05:302007-03-08T14:11:01.128+05:30

Anonymous says in his comment that the search bomb is due to a corporate appointment - about which I am actually aware. What's funny is the flurry of hits to this blog which has nothing to do with the subject at hand... oh well, the hits continue.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-14506431339918762462007-03-07T20:12:00.001+05:302007-03-07T20:12:53.458+05:30

http://www.2walls.com/SOCIAL/cat_attack.asp

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-70285333724319896202007-03-07T17:06:00.000+05:302007-03-07T18:37:35.030+05:30

From Wikipedia:"As for the Macedonians, however, their struggle with Porus blunted their courage and stayed their further advance into India.For having had all they could do to repulse an enemy who mustered only twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse, they violently opposed Alexander when he insisted on crossing the river Ganges also, the width of which, as they learned, was thirty-two

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-42283138068965430482007-03-07T16:17:00.000+05:302007-03-07T16:20:05.076+05:30

So says a news report. Interesting times... things are really coming to a head.I wonder what the rules would be and how they would be enforced - especially if candidates with the right skillsets cannot be found.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-43690193085311621012007-03-06T19:13:00.000+05:302007-03-06T19:26:55.274+05:30

Cue all kinds of posts on message boards about how great women are and how much better they are than men. Why is it that we need to denigrate others to prove to ourselves how good we are?My favourite bugbear is Board exams' results - where there are blaring headlines saying something about "girls outshine boys yet again". Whether the statistics actually prove this or not is a different story,

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-5269701947900923022007-03-06T15:22:00.000+05:302007-03-06T15:24:35.126+05:30

"mitchell j. habib"Some id^H^H ... er...person searching for the term above has hit my blog several times. I've seen this trend in the past, there will be hits from machines all over the world, searching for the same term. But the one above is different since it seems to be coming from within the same company. Strange.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-14393499528108125452007-03-06T15:15:00.000+05:302007-03-06T15:16:34.287+05:30

News reports say that there is a proposal to form three new IITs. Aren't there enough IITs already? Weren't the NIT's supposed to fulfill the gap for tech education? Will they be able to maintain the high levels of standards of IITs when there's one in every city?

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-64045920986006218142007-03-06T13:54:00.000+05:302007-03-06T15:13:43.282+05:30

"The project manager of a top IT company in Pune felt distinctly put off when a candidate turned up for a job interview -- in a white floral-print shirt and a pair of jeans.She felt that the casual dress indicated a casual attitude."What crap! I have never come across a situation or heard of one first-hand where a person's dress caused a problem in an interview for a software job. Of course the

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-64879345490140329702007-03-01T14:04:00.000+05:302007-03-02T12:07:45.935+05:30

... long live the dual core Opteron!Because if it doesn't I'll have to fall back to the 1GHz P3... sigh.Yes, my M6805 is dead. The power lights turn on but nothing happens after that. Of course, it was overclocked to 2 GHz but it's a bit late to think about that. The question now is, what can be salvaged from the carcass? HDD yes, a puny little 60GB, 4200rpm thing. 2x256 MB SODIMMs, but no place

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1101604839507831682007-02-28T16:53:00.000+05:302007-02-28T16:55:34.565+05:30

http://paulgraham.com/anybots.htmlCall me an old-fashioned-geek, but this really got me excited. The video is worth a look. Really impressive.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-85033375585730767252007-02-28T12:58:00.001+05:302007-02-28T13:03:16.063+05:30

"While Chidambaram kept income tax limit unchanged, he increased the threshold limit by Rs 10,000 giving every assessee a relief of Rs 1,000."Why? Granted that there are a lot of poor people in the country, but how much of a difference is a thousand bucks a year going to make?BSE has already dropped by more than 500 points as of writing.And now I'm beginning to question expenditure like the

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-28955432828034469652007-02-25T18:01:00.002+05:302007-02-25T18:02:05.536+05:30

Hmmm...

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-70870563309730062612007-01-24T20:56:00.000+05:302007-01-24T21:11:01.768+05:30

I keep coming across policies, schemes, decisions of the powers-that-be that boggle my mind.Small cars, which include the Santro, Maruti Alto and Wagon R, attract an excise duty of 16 per cent, against 24 per cent for large cars. Why the difference? A small car is apparently defined as being under 3m in length. Huh.Some ministers somewhere have changed a policy to now provide for some money to be

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-18490227139995647242007-01-20T12:21:00.001+05:302007-01-20T12:21:59.064+05:30

A briefcase, a lunch and a man on the edgeEach step get closer to losing his headIs someone in heaven? Are they looking down?Cause nothing is fair, just you look around

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-27599183036885650582007-01-12T14:33:00.000+05:302007-01-12T14:34:27.361+05:30

"Today's LCD flat panels are already obsolete" it seems. I was thinking of perhaps shelling out some dough for a widescreen LCD monitor for my Xbox, but it looks like I'll be waiting for some time after all.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-66252664004472264702007-01-10T22:15:00.000+05:302007-01-10T22:16:05.184+05:30

NASA goes metric... certainly took them a long time.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-15980583224560239812007-01-10T22:11:00.000+05:302007-01-10T22:13:22.197+05:30

"The telescope will generate 30 TB of data a night, for 10 years, from a 3-gigapixel CCD array."

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-41007086113039009032007-01-10T12:53:00.000+05:302007-01-10T12:54:19.935+05:30

The PSLV-C7 is carrying the 680 kg Indian remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2, the 550 kg Space Capsule Recovery Equipment, Indonesia's LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina's 6 kg nanosatellite PEHUENSAT-1.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-32324341035192496912007-01-08T20:20:00.001+05:302007-01-08T20:20:33.617+05:30

Ozzy's "Perry Mason" ... pffft.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-75291282841637085272007-01-08T20:17:00.000+05:302007-01-08T20:18:29.506+05:30

Breaking the habit, anyone?Clutching my cureI tightly lock the doorI try to catch my breath againI hurt much moreThan anytime beforeI had no options left againI don't want to be the oneThe battles always choose'Cause inside I realizeThat I'm the one confusedI don't know what's worth fighting forOr why I have to screamI don't know why I instigateAnd say what I don't meanI don't know how I got this

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-72963489919472403992006-12-29T17:40:00.000+05:302006-12-29T17:42:33.094+05:30

Wonder why I've put those up? Yup, easy way to transfer them to my cellphone when I don't have the USB cable or when I'm at work on my Linux workstation. Just put the link on the blog, point my cellphone to it and download... works like a charm.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-32684173177439079112006-12-29T17:13:00.000+05:302006-12-29T17:14:03.024+05:30

Symbian BitTorrent Client

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-38986773895509451872006-12-29T17:09:00.000+05:302006-12-29T17:10:58.511+05:30

WLAN Wizard for N80

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-4345211902149777012006-12-28T16:10:00.001+05:302006-12-28T16:10:48.669+05:30

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demonMaxwell's demon is an 1867 thought experiment by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, meant to raise questions about the possibility of violating the second law of thermodynamics.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1167301371761842522006-12-28T15:52:00.000+05:302006-12-28T15:52:51.763+05:30

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tachyon04s.gifSince a tachyon moves faster than the speed of light, we can not see it approaching. After a tachyon has passed nearby, we would be able to see two images of it, appearing and departing in opposite directions. powered by performancing firefox

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1167300872650938652006-12-28T15:44:00.000+05:302006-12-28T15:44:33.216+05:30

Places I've transited through in recent times (other than Noida and Delhi, of course):1. Helsinki2. Oulu3. Lucknow (2 separate trips)4. Rae Bareily5. Allahabad6. Durg7. KanpurAnd for varied reasons too, work-related, wedding reception of a close friend and recruiting.Used up 3 more of my lives: 2 road near-accidents, 1 actual-accident-but-not-quite-fatal.Got myself an Xbox 360, NFS Carbon and

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1166086138098887162006-12-14T14:18:00.000+05:302006-12-14T14:18:58.660+05:30

Deano’s World - Internet Marketing, Madrid, Life, SEO & More. » Blog Archive » Bizarre Google Request UpdateWorth a read.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1162826958726890842006-11-06T20:59:00.000+05:302006-11-06T20:59:18.736+05:30

Would it have been possible to come across news like this without the Internet?"A new U.S. study finds evidence for 'Snowball Earth,'the hypothesis that the entire Earth was ice-covered for long periodson several occasions, most recently 600-700 million years ago. The icyconditions (Earth's oceans frozen completely with ice more than akilometer thick) ended violently under extreme greenhouse

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1160941574124381102006-10-16T01:14:00.000+05:302006-10-16T01:16:14.140+05:30

I am actually watching a programme on a TV channel about "rotis" that are doubling every seven days. And I am doubled up with laughter.A word of warning for the gullible - the so-called "roti" seems to be a symbiotic mix of a bunch of bacteria and fungii, and may be contaminated with the more toxic relatives of these buggers. Probably not a good idea to ingest it unless you know how it has been

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1160559552595926342006-10-11T15:09:00.000+05:302006-10-11T15:09:12.670+05:30

News from October 10th, 2006. The guv'mint thinks that optical fibres ...er... help in the sale of light energy. And "(t)he Commercial Tax Department has estimated a loss of Rs. 1,200 crore to the State exchequer". I don't know whether to laugh or cry.A comment on slashdot really captures it all for me:Like India REALLY needs more government interference and disincentive to investment. ... Good

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1160300001214942302006-10-08T15:03:00.000+05:302006-10-08T15:03:21.326+05:30

http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/act3/astrology3.htmlSome nice points:Are all horoscopes done before the discovery of the three outermost planets incorrect? Pluto was discovered in 1930, Uranus in 1781. Are they to be taken into account? Yes, No? Why, why not?If the astrological influence is carried by a known force, why do the planets dominate? "...the

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1160241041355088052006-10-07T22:40:00.000+05:302006-10-07T22:40:41.383+05:30

Chaos makes a point about astrology in a comment to the last post. He says that the position of the planet will cause a difference in whatever forces one wants to believe in and that is why location and time are important.However, my point was - why should the influence of the planets *at the time of birth* make any difference to how my life unfolds? Whatever force one chooses to attribute to any

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159975241469618282006-10-04T20:50:00.000+05:302006-10-04T20:51:49.793+05:30

I was having a discussion about why I consider astrology/palmistry to be junk. Then I came across this interesting statement - with reference to the fact that either gravitational or magnetic effects of the planets would make a difference to a person's life:The doctor has a greater gravitational pull on a newborn baby than doesMars. The doctor's cell phone has a greater impact on the

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159973635328145382006-10-04T20:23:00.000+05:302006-10-04T20:23:55.986+05:30

Saw an article about this and it reminded me of other such things I've come across. Oft-repeated advice is to mention your accomplishments to the boss, the example always given is sales targets. Or number of customers. Or something equally easy to quantify.What about us software folk? I certainly can't say that I wrote a million lines of code while the boss expected me to only write ten thousand

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159970064349119402006-10-04T19:24:00.000+05:302006-10-04T19:25:55.530+05:30

Fortunately, this is something that does not affect me directly anymore, what with me being out of B'lore and all. But I always find bandhs a bit strange. For the life of me I cannot recall any time where a bandh actually had some effect on the policies of the government. This current bandh is supposed to put pressure on the Central government to do something or the other about the

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159893878388839642006-10-03T22:14:00.000+05:302006-10-03T22:14:38.396+05:30

Nostalgia: The Trip to Pondicherry

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159893802750507122006-10-03T22:13:00.000+05:302006-10-03T22:13:22.893+05:30

Nostalgia: The Trip to Pondicherry

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159438289981040972006-09-28T15:29:00.000+05:302006-09-28T15:41:30.066+05:30

There is an AC Neilson survey on consumer optimism and confidence and opinions and other such things , the results of which have just been released. Indians are the most optimistic consumers, world index is at 98, India is at 131, Asia-Pac at 94, blah, blah and more blah. India this and India that. And how many people from India were polled? 506. Uh, oh, it's an ONLINE survey. Nice. And they have

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159435913524753092006-09-28T14:52:00.000+05:302006-09-28T15:01:53.586+05:30

What would a normal email from a good friend of yours typically say? Here's an example from my life:Did you manage to install VISTA RC1 32-bit?Another example:Asked him to get 2* 1GB sticks. But the damn thing won't overclock beyond 251 :(( .. Haven't tried to o/c with 2T ..Us geeks are a strange kind. What does one normally do at 1 o'clock at night? That's right, figure out an xorg config to get

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159278622842030642006-09-26T19:16:00.000+05:302006-09-26T19:20:22.843+05:30

Follow the link and weep.Anyway, I had written an email to the person who had been mentioned in the article asking for more details. He actually responded, saying something like "I will send the details to sir". But no details have been forthcoming.What conclusion do I draw? Searching for the name of the software that he claims to have built brings up nothing other than the original story and

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159086177597517782006-09-24T13:52:00.000+05:302006-09-24T13:52:58.203+05:30

Time spent with cats is never wasted.- ColleteNo matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.- Abe LincolnIf man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.- Mark TwainHow you behave toward cats here below determines your status in Heaven.- Robert HeinleinA cat is an animal who never cries over spilled milk.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1159080093551515392006-09-24T12:11:00.000+05:302006-09-24T12:11:33.566+05:30

Google posts court ruling on Belgian Web siteIn short, newspapers have suddenly discovered that search engines are searching the internet. For some reason, these newspapers think that if the "content" they provide on their news-sites does not appear on the google news page, they will get more hits. In other news, Publishers aim for some control of searh resultswhich essentially says the same

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1158758421131274452006-09-20T18:50:00.000+05:302006-09-20T18:50:21.636+05:30

Welcome to rediff.comI'm laughing my butt off. In short, there was a cricket match between India and the West Indies today. India batted first, and put up a disappointing batting performance. At that point, a bunch of morons jumped up and berated everyone and their uncle for the low score. India then went on to win the match because of an even worse performance by the opponents. And hopefully

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1158494796781766252006-09-17T17:05:00.000+05:302006-09-17T17:36:37.046+05:30

Misleading title again :) I faced a problem after I got my new Logitech G15 keyboard. I promptly unpacked it, plugged it into my laptop to see if it worked and then carried it over to the desktop with much fanfare. Unplugged the PS/2 keyboard, plugged in the G15 and booted up. Everything was fine, except that the mouse didn't work.Now, I have a very nice 5 button PS/2 iBall optical mouse that has

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1158475685006878892006-09-17T11:33:00.000+05:302006-09-17T12:18:10.030+05:30

Black and White 2That's what I'm playing nowadays. Good game, a bit heavy on the resources - takes up 50% of my dual cores and 50% of 2GB RAM! But runs like a charm with everything on high. It's a different sort of feeling, playing god. Here's a review of the game from GameSpot. Note: one of the first games I'm playing that require a minimum of a GeForce4, are the days of my very first video card

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1158472996667022962006-09-17T11:09:00.000+05:302006-09-26T19:16:01.773+05:30

No, I'm not doing that. Yet.I'm talking about some government plan to give a cash award of Rs. 50 thousand to couples that... er... perform an intercaste marriage. For those not in the know, India is a country stuck in the middle ages, where society is divided into castes and all citizens are untouchables, and people die of starvation every day, we haven't heard about electricity and I ride an

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1158231053090997132006-09-14T16:20:00.000+05:302006-09-14T16:20:53.343+05:30

Welcome to rediff.comRediff had a decent sort of article on the very confusing topic of choosing a CPU for your next PC upgrade. Of course, they have tried to cover too much territory in a smallish, one page article - but that sets me thinking. There has been a feeling, over the years, of computer jargon being too complex for the layperson to understand. This is true for any technical domain, but

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1157797936853014152006-09-09T16:02:00.000+05:302006-09-09T16:02:17.436+05:30

AnandTech: PhysX Performance Update: City of VillainsOne thing is clear, I won't be buying a Physics accelerator anytime soon. Dual core CPUs are probably good enough for me for the time being.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1156668984190537352006-08-27T14:26:00.000+05:302006-08-27T14:26:24.206+05:30

Certainly one of the best games I have ever played (if not THE best) - Homeworld 2.The original Homeworld was named 1999's "Game of the Year" by PC Gamer, Homeworld 2 merely went one step further with the graphics and gameplay. You can imgagine how much I like this game when I say I'm still playing it in 2006 (it was released in 2003) along with games like AOM, AOE3 and HL-2. I'd completed the

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1156666846861738782006-08-27T13:50:00.000+05:302006-08-27T13:50:46.883+05:30

Quite interesting.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1156664803461675632006-08-27T13:16:00.000+05:302006-08-27T13:16:43.476+05:30

Would you believe it? In the past few days, since I started taking a new route to the office, I've almost run over a rabbit and a pair of mongooses.Well, not quite run over; the road's pretty wide and I saw these animals right at the edge. Not together though, I came across them on different days..This new road's practically isolated, no houses on either side, not much traffic during the day or

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1156191884978515652006-08-22T01:46:00.000+05:302006-08-22T01:54:45.006+05:30

Got myself 2 GB of Transcend RAM. And when I plugged it in...... it didn't work! Drove me crazy for a while and I had to wander around various bulletin boards for overclockers to figure out what I was doing wrong. To cut a long story short, http://www.pcstats.com/NewsView.cfm?NewsID=51110CPC (command per clock) needs to be disabled, plug in the DIMMs into the orange slots to get the dual channel

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1155388665983452842006-08-12T18:47:00.000+05:302006-08-12T18:47:46.566+05:30

Genius Ergo 525 Laser Gaming Mouse Review Page 2: First Thoughts and Testing | Doomed PC: "On plugging in the mouse, Windows thought about it for a minute, as it always does, then the mouse came to life nicely."I don't know, for some reason I found that statement a bit amusing.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1155069570436838542006-08-09T02:05:00.000+05:302006-08-09T02:09:30.466+05:30

Just back from watching Omkara. The short verdict, it's not a movie for the impatient.Technically, the acting may be good, the direction may be good, the cinematography may be good, the dancing may be good, the singing may be good, the guns may be good; but what good is a movie that almost puts me to sleep? The other movie I wrote about earlier was MUCH better. Sigh.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1154875714231443652006-08-06T20:18:00.000+05:302006-08-06T20:18:34.376+05:30

The Hindu : Front Page : Vista opens up from TirunelveliAnother link:http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/output/News/48b2e1f5-869e-4403-b09b-8a11fe86b412.aspxWhy do I find myself so sceptical? Because of the following:"In all probability, Vista will incorporate Mahesh's creation, which is an image browser, image editor, web browser, system tools and disk manager rolled into one.""For example, why

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1154861920923053592006-08-06T16:28:00.000+05:302006-08-06T16:28:41.210+05:30

This Darwaaza falls apartSaw "Darwaaza Band Rakho" on Friday. Regardless of what the review on rediff (and other reviews in other places) says, this was a movie which can be watched at least once. It may not be the best movie or even the best comedy around, but it makes you laugh out loud - what more could one want?

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1154360028588468252006-07-31T21:03:00.000+05:302006-07-31T21:03:50.870+05:30

That's right, I've moved to number four on the NFS:MW list. Considering that I haven't touched my gaming PC for close to two months, it's pretty good! I spent a couple of hours last night and bumped myself up a couple of ranks.I used to first play AOE2, and never thought I'd ever like any other genre. AOE2 let to Command and Conquer:Generals, and AOM. Then somehow I got hooked onto UT2004 (that's

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1154260226657072122006-07-30T17:20:00.000+05:302006-07-30T17:20:26.796+05:30

Welcome to rediff.comThis little article caught my eye while I was browsing through rediff. Nope, I'm not thinking of switching jobs. I was merely intrigued by what advice the writer would throw out regarding this topic.Personally, I have never ever written an email sending my resume to a total stranger, unasked for. It has always been through consultants who call ME up first, or directly to

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1154010488867940592006-07-27T19:58:00.000+05:302006-07-27T19:58:08.986+05:30

You'll soon have to pay Rs 7,500 a year as professional tax - The Economic TimesMore taxes. I've lost count of the things that I do for which I have to pay the government a cut. I like to think that I wouldn't mind so much if I saw that money being put to good use. But if what I read in the newspapers is any indication, much of my tax money is certainly not being used to help the country.Most

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1153588635634340142006-07-22T22:38:00.000+05:302006-07-22T22:47:15.650+05:30

Bought the SX2000 yesterday, but managed to get the unit back home today evening. Awesome speakers! The unit has a 3.5mm plug so I should be able to use it for my gaming needs too (but I forgot to get the audio cable, and my 5.1 headphones are good enough for gaming).http://us.kensington.com/html/7206.htmlhttp://www.livedigitally.com/?p=803

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1153153886728555982006-07-17T22:01:00.000+05:302006-07-17T22:01:26.846+05:30

Are ISPs blocking blogs?Ridiculous. ISPs seem to be blocking entire domains because some government agency gave them a 22 page long list of sites to block. Strangely enough, that list is "confidential".

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1151755714095330122006-07-01T17:36:00.000+05:302006-07-01T17:38:34.110+05:30

As the old cliche' goes. But tired. Slept the whole afternoon. Of course getting a vegetarian meal out here is difficult, made do with some sandwiches and an omelette.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1151600284480721762006-06-29T22:25:00.000+05:302006-06-29T22:28:04.530+05:30

Leaving tomorrow afternoon, back by Wednesday. That's a swift trip!

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1151333579452759312006-06-26T20:22:00.000+05:302006-06-26T20:23:00.940+05:30

Shelley The Republican » A True History of LinuxI read a few posts on this "blog" and I simply CANNOT decide whether it is serious or the writers are merely yanking someone's chain.If it's a serious site then I am amazed that such clueless people exist.If it's a farce then I am amazed at the way they manage to troll readers, they've really brought it up to a fine art.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1151261050193750902006-06-25T23:57:00.000+05:302006-06-26T00:14:11.686+05:30

I got the King Kong game along with my 7900gt video card and yesterday I actually got down to installing it. I'm not really a fan of movie-games and I didn't expect much from this one. I got even less.It's SLOW. On a 7900 and a dual core Opteron running at 2.4GHz and 1GB RAM, this game is dead slow. And I was running at the lowest resolution possible. I can't believe I would have some setting

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1151161452657665152006-06-24T20:22:00.000+05:302006-06-24T20:34:12.676+05:30

Someone I know at work wants one. That set me thinking, because he claimed that the specs were much better than the price warranted. Twenty thousand odd rupees, and you get a triple-core 3.2GHz CPU, a decent enough GPU, 512MB RAM, etc. etc. and I spent almost that amount in getting ONLY a dual core Opteron processor. Where's the mismatch?Of course I know that consoles are not meant for general

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1151160651125938562006-06-24T20:09:00.000+05:302006-06-24T20:20:51.150+05:30

Regardless of my outburst about the PM advising motorists to be polite, I must point out that he is not quite off the mark. My comment was about the PM making such remarks when he and his kind are obviously not in touch with the common man's life and what provokes the incidents one sees on the road.But it is clear that there are idiots on the road and I come across them all the time. There is one

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1151147805866134742006-06-24T16:46:00.000+05:302006-06-24T20:09:17.333+05:30

Where are your manners, PM asks motoristsApparently, the PM has no clue what the ordinary people of the country go through; but then again, he's a politician, what was I thinking?

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6068813.post-1150816630547433512006-06-20T20:47:00.000+05:302006-06-20T20:47:10.580+05:30

Georgia Tech Phd student Ram Krithivasan examines a 'frozen' Silicon Germanium chip inside a cryogenic station at the Georgia Electronic Design Center in Atlanta. IBM and Georgia Tech today announced that they have broken the world silicon speed record with a chip that operates at half a trillion cycles per second, some 250 times faster than chips found in conventional cell phones.http://www-03.

Alokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13193869108386402850noreply@blogger.com0