Just few days back on 12th of May 2008, we had our 1st marriage anniversary. With few of my colleagues, we went to our favorite North Indian Dhaba in Cochin and had a custom made dinner. The dinner was delicious, while the environment was also calm. With all the regular customers of the dhaba gone, it was all for us. Having dinner in traditional dhaba style was fun. Though no hungama and sound but still it was memorable and sweet.
Here are photos from our first anniversary
[gallery=1]
May 24, 2008
May 23, 2008
Does God Exists
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: #222222; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana; color: #222222;">An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty. He asks one of his new students to stand and.....</span></span></strong>
<strong>Prof : So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, sir.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm?
Student is silent.</strong>
<strong>Prof: You can't answer, can you?
Let's start again, young fellow. Is God good?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student: From...God...</strong>
<strong>Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: So who created evil?
Student does not answer.</strong>
<!--more-->
<strong>Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.</strong>
<strong>Prof: So, who created them?
Student has no answer.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?
Student: No, sir.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No, sir.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Yes Faith. And that is the problem science has.</strong>
<strong>Now the student said can I ask something to you Professor.</strong>
<strong>Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Student : And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Student: No sir. There isn't.</strong>
<strong>(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)</strong>
<strong>Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.</strong>
<strong>(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)</strong>
<strong>Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?</strong>
<strong>Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something.
You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light... But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?</strong>
<strong>Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?</strong>
<strong>Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?</strong>
<strong>Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.</strong>
<strong>Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?</strong>
<strong>(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)</strong>
<strong>Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?</strong>
<strong>(The class is in uproar.)</strong>
<strong>Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?</strong>
<strong>(The class breaks out into laughter.)</strong>
<strong>Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?</strong>
<strong>(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)</strong>
<strong>Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving & alive. . </strong>
<strong>
</strong>
<h2><strong>By the way the student was Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, a great scientist in himself also known as Missle man of India.</strong></h2>
<strong>Prof : So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, sir.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm?
Student is silent.</strong>
<strong>Prof: You can't answer, can you?
Let's start again, young fellow. Is God good?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student: From...God...</strong>
<strong>Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: So who created evil?
Student does not answer.</strong>
<!--more-->
<strong>Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.</strong>
<strong>Prof: So, who created them?
Student has no answer.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?
Student: No, sir.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No, sir.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.</strong>
<strong>Prof: Yes Faith. And that is the problem science has.</strong>
<strong>Now the student said can I ask something to you Professor.</strong>
<strong>Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Student : And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.</strong>
<strong>Student: No sir. There isn't.</strong>
<strong>(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)</strong>
<strong>Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.</strong>
<strong>(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)</strong>
<strong>Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?</strong>
<strong>Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something.
You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light... But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?</strong>
<strong>Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?</strong>
<strong>Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?</strong>
<strong>Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.</strong>
<strong>Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?</strong>
<strong>(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)</strong>
<strong>Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?</strong>
<strong>(The class is in uproar.)</strong>
<strong>Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?</strong>
<strong>(The class breaks out into laughter.)</strong>
<strong>Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?</strong>
<strong>(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)</strong>
<strong>Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it sir... The link between man & god is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving & alive. . </strong>
<strong>
</strong>
<h2><strong>By the way the student was Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, a great scientist in himself also known as Missle man of India.</strong></h2>
May 22, 2008
My experience with Free Hosting
I have been trying to host personal website consisting of few static pages, a blog and a gallery time and again. I didn't want to spend any money directly in this task. Bring a non computer guy and with little knowledge of programming except in HTML, C, C++, VB, I was faced with really a tough task. I made numbers of sites using DreamWeaver and finally settled on 110mb.com with shivkr.110mb.com but unfortunately they went paid for Database and my site become defunct. Again the search for a free web site initiated. I tried number of them, including x10hosting.com (good one), freehyperspace.com, freejoomlas.com, directspace.net, awardspace.com, free-space.net (application rejected), free-web-hosting.biz, iifree.net, sitewith.us and many more ... I also tried www.freehostia.com but it had one database in free account so, i couldn't have both blog and gallery on the site and i didn't try at the first stance.
<!--more-->
With time I understood, that Content Management Systems are much better tools than trying to integrate many PHP softwares on a single site. I also learned that Wordpress itself is a very good CMS basically for blogging but can have few static pages and can have gallery by using plugins. So I decided to go with Wordpress, one of the most easy CMS.
Still, my search for reliable free host continued. Then my long time companions in free web hosting www.free-webhosts.com and www.freewebhostingtalk.com reminded of many sites including fatehost.com, byethost.com, 000webhosts.com, Xpesshost.com, vlexo.com, profusehost.net, etc. but each come with limitation like their banner ads or restricted file types and so on.
After lots of research in reliability, speed and functionality of web sites, I have decided that <a href="http://www.freehostia.com" target="_blank">www.freehostia.com</a> serves my purpose well. It has really fast FTP server, no ads on my site, supports 1 MySQL database but the max size is 10 MB, which is more than sufficient for my hosting also comes with no limitation of file types. Only limitation I found was 500 KB file size but thats good to maintain the site as web hosting site otherwise people will spam the service and use it like file hosting site, which will hurt the interest of other web site.
Its control panel is quite advanced and i am still learning about it and may be will write a guide on it later. But for now let me enjoy my new website and see how long it lasts. (Lots of modification in themes and plugins to be done...)
<!--more-->
With time I understood, that Content Management Systems are much better tools than trying to integrate many PHP softwares on a single site. I also learned that Wordpress itself is a very good CMS basically for blogging but can have few static pages and can have gallery by using plugins. So I decided to go with Wordpress, one of the most easy CMS.
Still, my search for reliable free host continued. Then my long time companions in free web hosting www.free-webhosts.com and www.freewebhostingtalk.com reminded of many sites including fatehost.com, byethost.com, 000webhosts.com, Xpesshost.com, vlexo.com, profusehost.net, etc. but each come with limitation like their banner ads or restricted file types and so on.
After lots of research in reliability, speed and functionality of web sites, I have decided that <a href="http://www.freehostia.com" target="_blank">www.freehostia.com</a> serves my purpose well. It has really fast FTP server, no ads on my site, supports 1 MySQL database but the max size is 10 MB, which is more than sufficient for my hosting also comes with no limitation of file types. Only limitation I found was 500 KB file size but thats good to maintain the site as web hosting site otherwise people will spam the service and use it like file hosting site, which will hurt the interest of other web site.
Its control panel is quite advanced and i am still learning about it and may be will write a guide on it later. But for now let me enjoy my new website and see how long it lasts. (Lots of modification in themes and plugins to be done...)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)