Firefox crossed the 500 Million Download. w00t

Also Firefox 3 beta 3 is out, which as per the reviews is faster and takes lesser resources. I still can’t move to FF3 as many from the huge number of Addons I use are not yet supported on FF3. They will be supported in due course of time. Till then FF2 is doing a decent job.

Way to go FF!!!

Yes, that’s right, yestered at the Devcamp somebody offered me to work for his company without any interview. Similar things has happened twice before in past two-three months.

This one was from a guy whome I met after a gap of over four and a half year. Not sure what impressed him. But, it really feels good to be in demand

The year that was…

Travel
1. Trip to Goa/Gokarna/KArwar
2. Trip to Mysore
3. Track to Kumarparvata
4. Trip to Humpi
5. Trip to Munnar and Allepy
6. A day at Wonder-la
7. Trips to back home

Movies
Watched tons of Movies in 2007.
Best movies : Chek De!, Manorama 6 feet under,
Worst Movies : Shoot them up

Books
Notable books/authors read: Anne Frank, Conan Doyle, Rowlings, Tolkiens, Feyman.

Career
Got the promotion, hike and bonus.

Shopping
The usual better Camera, higher end mobile, Clothes, shoes etc.

Goals Missed
1. Not yet brought a house
2. Not yet brought a vehicle

Vision for 2008
1. Buy a house
2. Move ahead in career more aggressively
3. Buy a vehicle
4. Visit Ladakh/Himalayas
5. Buy a gaming console
6. Restart running/exercising

Wishing you all a very happy new year….Have a wonderful life in year 2008.

Perl is no more a teenager. Yuppieeeee !!
It turned 20 yesterday, and a new and improved version (5.10) is out to celebrate the occasion.
I hope I won’t have to wait forever to get Perl 6 and Parrot.

And yes, the other day Asok did manage to reincarnate successfully. Thanks to his study of shape shifting at IIT, he no more looks like a Snickers Bar. So, the whole episode of dying and reincarnating was much of an popularity stunt, pretty much on the lines of today’s Indie TV serials.

Asok died today during a test of moon shuttle prototype. He planned to reincarnate into his clone, but unfortunately Carol used the jar containing his DNA as a candy jar. And with Asok the Indian connection to the world’s best comic strip has been broken.

Now, will he somehow come back magically or whether there will be some new character created to take his place as intern is still unknown…

aur aage kya hoga dekhenge Hum Log

For the un-initiated, “Sunday TV Conspiracy” is a conspiracy theory floated not so long ago by yours truly, which says that on any given Sunday there would be hardly anything worth watching on the television. Yes, you read it right…there is a conspiracy going on with most the TV channels involved in it, which forces people to not-watch TV on Sunday, the day when most people have most free time at home.

The motive for the conspiracy is still unclear, but you notice even the spicy news channels would be like aalo-ka-sabzi (fried potato) without namak-mirch (salt and pepper) on Sunday. Some of them will be repeating the same news that you have already seen through the week. It seems like nothing much happens on Sundays, or all their over-excited news reporters (who would even report how many chapaties Mrs. Aishwarya Bachhan eat) takes a day off on Sunday. The cartoon channels tries to became the HBO on weekends and broadcast repeat telecast of the Harry Potter movies that you have seen 108 times already. The Movie channels having shown all the big movies on Friday and Saturday nights won’t have anything interesting to show on Sundays. The so called “entertainment channels” are not worth watching on weekdays, so forget about watching them on a Sunday.

Probably the only interesting stuff on Sunday on TV is F1s and other sporting events of the season like Wimbledon, Premiere League, or the finals of some Cricket series. I think that the sports channel have refused to be part of the Sunday TV Conspiracy.

But me being not very interested in sports and being fully aware of this conspiracy took a precautionary measure and asked my friend to book ticket for the movie ‘Aaja Nach Le‘, so that I won’t be at home on Sunday sitting in front of that Idiot Box and being one.

The movie is just another average movie. But the performances of Madhuri, Kunal and Konkona are good. The story is very predictable and the songs are average. Coming to the songs, although the songs are average and no one would be listening to them second time after the movie, but our dear political leaders in few northern states, instead of doing the public work like trying to get those roads/dams/water canal/telecom infrastructure/schools/hospitals made decided to make noise about a line in one of the songs of this movie. I heard the whole song in the theater but could not make out anything objectionable in it…until my friend pointed out the line, which in my opinion was in no way derogatory to anyone. Still these great Indian politicians are trying their luck hard to create a controversy out of nowhere and helping theaters get more crowd for the movie…good luck to them, atleast it’s good for the movie producers and the theaters.

Last weekend, I visited Mysore (Mysuru) as a tourist. The trip was very much unplanned for me. Actually one of my friends was going and they had a place in the cab. He asked me if I would be interested to join and I jumped in.

We stared early morning to reach Shivasamudram waterfall and then visited Sriranagapattana (which was once the capital of Tipu Sultan) where we saw Darya Daula Bagh (Tipu’s Summer Palace), Gumbaz (Mausoleum built by Tipu for his parents), Sri Ranganathaswamy temple built in 894 AD, the place where Tipu died and one of the prisons of his time.

In Mysore, besides satying a night in a very luxirous hotel and doing a little shoping (a silk saree for my Mom. See I am good boy ) we visited St. Philomena’s Church, Chamundi Hill, Bull temple, Mysore Palace, Mysore Zoo, and Brindavan Garden.

But the best part of trip was yet to come. On our way back we decided to check out the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary. It’s an amazing place. We were a bit apprehensive while we were going there, and were not expecting to see many birds. But to our surprise we saw many birds including the kinds I have not seen before. Inside the sanctuary there are a few islands on Kaveri River, which are very thickly covered with trees. Most of these rare birds live on these trees as they get natural protection from monkeys and snakes. The guide told use that there are many crocodiles in the river (we happen to see atleast 6), which don’t let monkeys, snakes and other predators cross the river to the islands where these birds live. We took a boat ride around these islands and it was a wonderful experience seeing so many different verities of birds living in there natural habitat (and not in the zoo cages).

My recamondation to anyone going for a Mysore trip.

1. Don’t goto Brindavan Garden. It was very, very and very crowded. I believe there were more people there at that time then you would find in Eden Garden during an  India-Pak Cricket match. And more importantly it’s damn boring. If you are interested in Musical fountains then visit the one in Bangalore, that’s much better.
2. Do visit Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary and don’t miss the boat ride there. It’s worth more then the money (Rs.25) they charge for it.

Around two months back I lost the data cable of my Nokia n70 mobile phone, and Nokia service center was asking astronomically high price for that cable (around 1700 INR / 43USD) see older post. Since then some of you have asked me what did I do? Did I offer the ransom money to Nokia who has taken my phone as hostage, so I could not download and install any new games, themes, ringtones, wallpapers, books, etc on the phone from my PC or transfer any of the picture I have taken from the camera in phone?

Well, the answer is No. No, I didn’t pay Nokia even a single penny (not even a single new Paisa for that matter). Instead I went straight upto EBAY and Searched for the Nokia’s data cable. I found two options available CA-70 and CA-53. The former one has capability of even charging the phone from PC’s USB port. And surprisingly these nice vendors on EBay were charging less then a tenth of what Nokia asked.

So, after looking at the feedback for different sellers, I picked up one in Delhi. Went ahead and placed the order. Zap in 2 days I had the data cable was delivered. No hassle, no extra charge (except for 40INR/1USD as postage and handling, which was explicitly mentioned at the time of placing the order).

I have been using this cable for last two months now, for charging the phone and transferring the data between the phone and PC, and cable is working perfectly fine.

And to Nokia, Thank you; I mean, No Thank you for being such a hijacker.

Tujhse naraaz nahin zindagi hairaan hoon main
Tere masoom sawaalon se pareshaan hoon main

O’ life I m not angry with you but I am surprised
By the innocent questions of yours I am troubled

jeene ke liye socha hi nahin, dard sambhaalne honge
muskuraayen to, muskuraane ke karz utaarne honge

  ‘Never thought, to live I would have to manage sorrows
if smiled, then would have to bear the debts of smiles

muskuraaooN kabhi to lagtaa hai
jaise honTon pe karz rakhhaa hai

When I smile then it seems;
like the smile weigh on my lips like a debt

aaj agar bhar aai hain, boondein baras jaayengii
kal kyaa pataa inke liye aankhen taras jaayengii

Now when the tears flow, I don’t stop them
Who know, tomorrow my eyes would carve for them

jaane kab ghum hua kahaan khoya
ek aansoo chhupaake rakhaa thaa

When have I lost it, where has it gone
One teardrop, which I had saved for long

zindagi tere gham ne hamein rishte naye samjhaaye
mile jo hamein dhoop mein mile chhaon ke thanDe saaye..

O’ life, your sorrows have taught me new relationships
I have found all cool shadows in hard burning suns

– Gulzar

Film: Masoom (1982); Singer(s): Lata Mangeshkar, Anup Ghoshal

I came across this nice poem. It was written for children and Mr. Roger says the title/first line comes from a child. I liked it. I hope you too like it…

What do you do with the mad that you feel
When you feel so mad you could bite?
When the whole wide world seems oh, so wrong…
And nothing you do seems very right?

What do you do? Do you punch a bag?
Do you pound some clay or some dough?
Do you round up friends for a game of tag?
Or see how fast you go?

It’s great to be able to stop
When you’ve planned a thing that’s wrong,
And be able to do something else instead
And think this song:

I can stop when I want to
Can stop when I wish.
I can stop, stop, stop any time.
And what a good feeling to feel like this
And know that the feeling is really mine.
Know that there’s something deep inside
That helps us become what we can.
For a girl can be someday a woman
And a boy can be someday a man.

-Fred M. Rogers