Becoming Father

Yeah... The wait is over. I am a father now. What started as a long wait on troubled days and night for my wife and me (especially for my wife) in march has now come to an end. Yesterday I become a father. If you are in my friendlist on orkut. You can check the photo of the baby.

PS: I am on move and will write more when I have more relaxed access to internet.

Long TIme No Blog

It has been long time since I wrote anything in the blog. So i will again try to be regular to write something.
Many things have happened in last 4-5 months. Well to strat with I am bachelor as of now. Getting more time for myself. More time at office. Well many things and all.
But most inportant is that now I am going for morning walk / jog. I have really put on some weight and I seriously plan to reduce atleast one pound per month.
Well, I need to go now for jogging.
I hope that I will write a post soon...

New Feature : Subscribe through SMS

Now you can subscribe to my Blog through SMS. This service is available in India only.
The feature is brought to you courtesy the innovative technologies by Google Labs. You can also visit Google Labs for more details... Meanwhile subscribe to my blog through SMS or any other method you like. The SMS subscription link is available on the right side.

Reading a book

Before marriage, I used to read lots of book. My interest used to read usually mystery and thriller novels. Of late, I also tried to read some philosophical books as well. But my favorite genre used to be Popular science and Science Fiction. I will not go into specifying the advantages of developing book reading as a hobby but its a good and informative hobby. After marriage, life changes and priority changes and I was unable to read much. However, again I am putting effort to read some books. To start with I have taken a relatively light book. The title of the book is "Instability rules". The details of the book taken from Amazon.com are:

• Title:Instability Rules: The Ten Most Amazing Ideas of Modern Science
• Author: Charles Flower
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (March 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471380423
• ISBN-13: 978-0471380429
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches

The books is really good in bringing out the most intricate and least understood topics in science in most lucid ways. The author has really tried to understand and make the readers understand the topics in most easiest ways. The topics ranges from Bing Bang to Atoms to Human Genome to Quantum Mechanics and so on...
The best part about the book is that author tries to bring in the essence of science in such a way that a non-science oriented person can also articulate and comprehend the subject with lot of understanding. Well, this book is a real buy and I recommend you to go ahead and buy it.

Using my Sony Cybershot W-35 to get better photos

I purchased my first digital camera in Apr 07. The model was Sony Cybershot DSC W-35. A pretty regular point and click camera.  Well this model has been stopped from production and Sony has come with various other newer models. After purchasing I always felt that the this camera is not performing to the expectation. I felt that sometimes the photo is not even matching with the photos taken from Sony K810i camera. Of late, I have even started thinking of getting another camera. Well, before buying any new camera I started understanding what I need in camera and whether  I will get the same in my budget. After giving some thought I have started to understand some ways to make the current camera take better photos.

Disclaimer: The ideas presented are purely mine and need to apply to you to get the best result.

So here are my points:

1. First understand what are capabilities and limitation of  camera. My camera  7 MP camera with 3X zoom is very basic and will not always produce the acceptable results.
2. Try to take the photos from the closest possible position.
3. Take the photographs in highest possible resolution. This helps in cropping the photo to get the required image while maintaining good quality of photo.
4. Avoid automatic settings during the day or while in a room or small hall. Keep the setting to manual, usually set the ISO to something like 100 - 400, if possible using multi-focus function, Enable image stabilization and keep settings like flash to slow sync if possible.
5. Try avoiding the zoom (even optical zoom). If you really require to use the zoom function, try to keep the camera or your elbow steady using support from some table, wall, etc.
6. Almost all camera will give grainy image at higher ISO rating, try to find out the the highest ISO rating for your camera most camera can work upto ISO 400 without much graininess in the picture. In case of my camera, ISO 100 & 200 works best. Use higher ISO only you have very bright light falling on the subject to be photographed.
7. Try to keep flash on (possible in slow sync state) for all the photos except for landscape photos and long shots in low light and darkness.
8. Never expose the camera sensor to direct sunlight or other strong light.
9. Try to follow the rule of thirds to get better photos
10. Take more than one snaps of the photo to have option to select the best one later.
11. IF you have good camera which has option to save photo in RAW format, go ahead and do it. You can always apply the default camera processing through the camera software of your computer.
12. Learn a bit of Photoshop or GIMP, use them to correct the graininess of the photo to some extent, also it is possible to do some color and temperature corrections.
13. While shooting in night have poor expectations from your camera, don't shoot fast moving objects, avoid flash for large area shot. If possible try only portrait shots in night.
14. Know the capability of your camera flash and try to use it as wisely as possible.
15. Apply your mind and experiment a lot in various conditions to know what works best for your camera in various conditions.

I hope my guide will at least help some people to take better photos.

Well you may be wondering what about my plan to buy a new camera. Yeah, its still in my mind but may be next year I will invest in some prosumer camera.

PS: If you like my post please share it on some of the services below. Thanks.

Coming Back soon...

Well, I have been a bit busy as well as lazy for quite some time. You may know now, added responsibility of father to be  really takes a lot of time and I am practically left with little time to relax. But I will definitely try to find some time to write some blog. In the mean time please excuse me and so visit to soon to check out my new post.
In fact you can subscribe to my blog through feed or through email as well.

Where to go in Goa

Well, I visited Goa few days back. Calling Goa as Tourism capital of India may not be totally wrong. The visit was for official purpose so, I went with office colleagues instead of wife or family. Notwithstanding that it was really an interesting trip. It was my first trip to Goa and I really liked the fun and frolic in the environ of Goa. Goa infact constitutes number of small towns in span of few kilometers to each other. Major towns include Mudgaon,Mapusa, Panjim/Miramar, Vasco and so on...
My trip was a small one and our place of stay and place of work (conference) was 60+ km away so, practically we were not getting much time in the evening to enjoy. However, there are somethings which I could cover on a Sunday which fell in between our proposed conference.
Most of the Tour Packages cover one day trip to North Goa or South Goa for full day. You can get vehicle as per your choice, may be bus or minibus or something like Car/Jeep. We ruled out North Goa trip in favour of South Goa trip. North Goa trip consitituted of trips to most of the beaches of Goa while South Goa trip covered 2 temples, two famous churches, one beach, museum and so on...
People who have not been to beaches regularly or visiting beaches for first time should go for North Goa trip. Well, having stayed in Kerala for so many years and I don't have much fancy for beaches. Anyways best way to see Goa is to take a Bike/Car on rent and drive yourself through ins and outs of Goa. Go wherever you like and soak yourself in sweat, sand and feni. But before closing my post, let me recommend you some of the important places where to visit in Goa

* River Boat Cruise (from Miramar)- Full of fun, must be the primary target of your destination Goa
* Beaches - Vagator (Natural, Scenic Beauty), Colva (Fun and Adventure including water scooter and parasailing)
* Churches - Basallica of Born Jesus (Historically one of the most important church in India), Church of At. Augistine, Dona Paula (High point with beautiful scenics)
* Temples - Sri Mangesh Temple (Temple dedicated to Lord Shiv, this temple is associated with Lata Mangeshkar's family
* Goa Spice Plantation - A beautiful place which unfortunately, I missed during my Goa visit.

Lots of memories are there in Goa to soak onto. Just Go Goa....

Avira Home Premium License Giveaway

Avira is again giving away its 6 month free license of Avira Premium Security Suite in collaboration with PC Advisor . Yes Avira is one of the leading anti-virus available for free with excellent detection rates and overall good performance. See more details here
Avira Personal - Free Antivirus is available for free while Avira Premium Security Suite comes with additional host of features and protections including a build-in Firewall, Game Mode, Web Gaurd, Rescue System, Anti-Bot, Parental Control and many more. You can get details here. The cost of the license is appx: 40 Euro but its available for free for 6 month from the link given above.

For the people who don't know how to get the license please see my earlier post on similar topic.

Shiv Kumar - Blog: Delhi Daredevils will rule IPL2

Shiv Kumar - Blog: Delhi Daredevils will rule IPL2

Delhi Daredevils will rule IPL2

Well, I have been to Goa recently for attending a workshop organized by DRDO - FICCI  on "Commercialization of DRDO technologies". It was a fun trip and will write about may be in next post. But IPL comes first.

I am sure that by now people will start agreeing with me that Delhi's team is one of the strongest team in IPL right now. Well agreed that Deccan Chargers has been giving excellent performance till now and they have won 4 out of 4 matches they played. But a long season of Twenty20 is a real killer for the players and I am sure that all the star performers will start under-performing by the fag end of the series.
So you may ask whats so good in that. Well the point is that in Delhi Daredevil the star players namely Gautum Gambhir and Virender Sehwag are still to fire. Once they come in form they will blast away all the competition. I just hope that their performance will peak somewhere towards the end of the series. Well, I am not counting out other players and many match winners are in the team but lets accept the fact that Viru is sufficient enough to win the match.

Today's match with Rajasthan Royal will be a really tough match for Delhi's team. Reasons:
1. Rajasthan team has performed really poor and they will fight with all their vigor and energy to prove themselves.
2. Delhi's team will be under serious pressure to match the record of 4 wins of Deccan Charger.
3. Shane Warne can come out of an Ace out of his sleeve any time.

With all these challenges, I will not be disappointed if Delhi's team loose. Only they should not loose a match from the jaws of victory.

I hope that all things go well for Delhi Daredevil and they return India with IPL trophy. Best of luck to Viru's team.

Cricket, Delhi Daredevils, IPL 2

IPL 2 - Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai Super King: My view

If you have seen my orkut account then you may be aware that this year I am supporting Delhi Daredevils team to win the tournament. As I usually don't watch much of TV and my wife has a schedule for watching TV I don't get to watch the match completely. However, I got to watch the thrilling end of the match. Truly, the match could have gone anyways but today was Daredevil's day. One thing which I observed during this match as well as during the earlier matches as well is that the spinners definitely have an important role to play in this tournament. The second last over during in which Daniel Vettori bowled and completed the run-out of Goni helped to win the match. I won't call it a turning point of the match but will give its due importance. One player whose contribution may have gone unnoticed during this stellar performance of Ab deVillers and bowlers is that of David Warner. The way he fielded in the deep and took the catches made spectacular saves of boundaries really deserves appreciation.

Well more in next post..... Happy IPL 2

Technorati Tags: Cricket, IPL 2, Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super King

Backup Search Engine Plugins in Firefox

Recently, I was planning to format and reinstall my OS. So I thought of how to backup my browser (Firefox) settings and addons. Well luckily, I had downloaded the .xpi files earlier before installing the add-ons so no problems with add-ons.  How cunning and intelligent of me. Next I backed-up my bookmarks using bookmark manager. Well thats the easy one and next I got stuck. What to do to backup all the installed search engines. I tried to get my hand dirty and I found a directory containing various plugins, extensions, add-ons, bookmark backups and search engines etc. The listing was

C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[????????].default

in my computer running on Microsoft Vista.

IT may be located in a different folder in your computer so be wary. I thought of copying the profile folder as a backup but then this looks a risky way and I thought this may be the only way when I discovered an excellent plug-in for firefox. The plugin is FEBE

The detail description for FEBE is
FEBE backs up your extensions, themes, and (optionally) your bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies and just about everything else Firefox offers (it can even backup/restore your entire profile).

Features:

* Schedule automatic backups on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
* Save backups in time-stamped folders to easily identify when the backups were created. Specify how many folders you wish to keep and FEBE removes the oldest.
* Backup reminder. FEBE can alert you if a backup has not been completed in a specified number of days.
* Comprehensive results report with links to the author’s extension/theme homepages.
* User-defined backups. Make backups of virtually any file or folder - Firefox related or not. Just specify what to backup and FEBE does the rest.
* Extensive built-in help files. Just click the little blue information icons in FEBE options.
* FEBE 6.0 uses native Firefox zip/unzip components. Much, much faster than previous FEBE versions that depended on external, third-party utilities.
* Upload backups to your Box.net account automatically or with a single click. (FEBE 6.0)
* Verify your extension directory. Upgrading to Fx 3.0 sometimes leaves garbage in the extensions directory. FEBE can clean it up. (FEBE 6.0)
* Quick Backup. You can quickly backup as many or as few individual extensions/themes as you like. They can be saved together in a single, installable xpi file (Similar to CLEO). (FEBE 6.0)
* … and more!

Once installed, FEBE is available from the Firefox Tools menu. An icon can be placed on the toolbar via (right-click on toolbar) > Customize...

Important: FEBE 6.0 is for Firefox 3.0 and above only. For Firefox 2.0, use FEBE 5.0.

FEBE for Thunderbird (TEBE) beta is available at http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions/tebe/tebebeta.html

So yet another plugin solving my problem. Well thank you users and developer community of firefox for coming up with yet another excellent plugin.
Now FEBE is installed in Firefox and ready to backup my firefox customization.Technorati Tags: Firefox, Firefox addons, Backup firefox

Veegaland - An experience

Kerala is well known for its natural beauty and charm. People who come to Kerala usually use Cochin as the key spot to move around in Kerala may be Munnar or Kumarakkam or Backwaters or Fort Kochi and so on...
But a real beauty lies very near to Cochin (Just 10 kms). Its a amusement park with all the natural beauty and fun. The name is Veegaland। you may ask what so special here compared to amusement park anywhere. The speciality is the nature around it. While designing and implementing the park no compromise has been made with nature. The whole scenic beauty and lush greenery is visible from various rides, view points and games. The real memorable experience will linger your mind for days and weeks to come once you visit Veegaland.
Well why am I saying so much??? Because I just had the experience few days back. All the nice rides, cars, special shows, water park, cleaniliness of world standard, no cheating by vendors, everything is great there. Only thing which is not good is that one day is not sufficient to enjoy Veegaland. Go ahead enjoy this video and decide yourself.

Conficker Worm and how to save oneself?

Conficker worm is a worm which came into knowledge of world in Oct 08 is being treated as currently most dangerous malware which will become dangerously active on 1st April 09 which is targetted on various exploits and security holes left in the Microsoft Windows OS. 3 variant of Conficker have been released each becoming more dangerous. The third variant which like likely to become active on 1st April will calculate which domains to contact and start dumping all the data onto various server. Prior to that it will make the infected machine as a mini server connecting all the computer either connected through LAN or sharing similar IP address and infect all those computers making them vunerable on 1st April. When all the infected computers start connecting to internet and transferring huge quantity of data things will go haywire and result in chocking of internet. Just Searh for Conficker on Google and you will find numerous pages on it.

Well so how to save ourself?
1. If you are a windows user, head towards Microsoft Update Site and download all the patches, critical and essential update. Well, this is a tough ask for Indians like me downloading atleast few hundred MBs of updates and patches but it is essential in Windows. Once updated Conficker wom though may be sitting in in PC cannot so much and it will have to wait till it discovers another security hole in the Microsoft OS. Then head to this site to download GNU/Linux based Conficker removal tool. Its a real irony that Microsoft has to rely on Linux based removal tool for removing the one of the current biggest threat.
or
2. Alternatively get rid of youw Windows OS and get Linux.

We will discuss the option 2 in detail later on, I bet most of the people will head for option 1 despite the fact that Microsoft is a resource hog, unstable, more prone to virus, trojan, worm etc., having poor security and need to run antivirus, antispyware, antimalware, antirootkit, etc. to keep it safe.

Anyways time to patchup your Windows and let me enjoy my Linux.

Step by Step Guide on How torrents work?

Lets start with some introduction. Here is summary from Wikipedia

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and by some estimates it accounts for about 35% of all traffic on the entire Internet.

The protocol works initially when a file provider makes his file (or group of files) available to the network. This is called a seed and allows others, named peers, to connect and download the file. Each peer who downloads a part of the data makes it available to other peers to download. After the file is successfully downloaded by a peer, many continue to make the data available, becoming additional seeds. This distributed nature of BitTorrent leads to a viral spreading of a file throughout peers. As more seeds get added, the likelihood of a successful connection increases exponentially. Relative to standard Internet hosting, this provides a significant reduction in the original distributor's hardware and bandwidth resource costs. It also provides redundancy against system problems and reduces dependence on the original distributor.

In simple words, any file to be shared between multiple people need not be available on a single machine / server. Instead as more and more people share it becomes available from all the computer which connects to the file and makes it available to people looking for same file.

Now coming to to steps....

1. You need a torrent client to handle the torrent file. Download μtorrent using your favorite browser. Install the μtorrent software.

   
   

2. Next you need to download the bittorrent file for the required software, movie or song etc. These torrent files have extension “.torrent” and are shared usually in private forums or torrent groups. Some of these “.torrent” files are also available in free database. Few of the famous such services are Isohunt, The Pirate Bay and Torrentz.

   
   

   
   

   
   

3. Now for example, I want to download the latest release of Ubuntu OS. So it is how I go. First search for Ubuntu and see the results

   
   

   Here I have already arranged sorted the “.torrent” file listing as per total number of seeders “S”. Note that higher seeder count corresponds to more people sharing the file and hence faster download speed.

4. Click to the desired torrent from the screenshot seen above. You can click on comments tab and read the comments of people who have already downloaded the file and them click the large “Download .torrent”.

   
   

   Save the file in a folder preferably with a name like torrents_download or similar to avoid confusion.

5. Now open μtorrent from start menu / desktop / quick launch bar. Click “File ==> Open Torrent” and select the downloaded torrent in previous step

   
   

6. Select the location to save the file

   
   

   Click “OK” and you start downloading.

Now you can see it has started downloading.

The biggest advantage of downloading file through torrent is that its easily available, your download speed depends on popularity of file. And best of all when downloading a huge file you don't need to download in one go. Pause it, Quit the programme and continue downloading whenever you feel like.

So what are you waiting for enter the world of bittorrent file sharing.

An excellent Free Online Syncing Storage Space : Get DropBox

I haven't written any blog for a long time. I was busy with some office work and home issues. As things are less hectic now a days. I discovered a excellent online storage and syncing free file hosting space. The service is offered from GetDropBox. This website offers installer for Windows, Linux and Mac. Once installed you can define a folder as your dropbox. All the files and directory structure will get syncronised on online storage as well as PC. You can create Dropbox configuration with a single account and it will syncronize all the folders on all the PCs. This is particularly useful if you want to work at home and office or on some other remote location. You can simply sync all the PCs and share the files. You can also login using web interface if still download the file and upload back. Things will automatically get syncronised. You can also use it as a online storage.

Free version comes with 2 GB. while paid version comes with 50 GB huge size storage. They also have refferal system, so  you and your friend both  get 250 MB extra storage space  in case any of your friend accept and uses getdropbox. This is limited to upto 6 GB.

Best part of the service is that it supports not only Windows and Mac but also Linux. Also, I haven't felt any speed throttling while uploading or downloading the files. I am happily sharing the files.

Last note: you can also put files like audio files or photos in shared folders and invite friends to view them bysending them the links for files and folder  or alternatively send email from the web interface.

Rating of service : 8.5 out of 10.

Free Giveaway TuneUp Utilities 2007

TuneUp Utilities is one of the best Windows Tweaking and Maintenance Software available today. The current version is TuneUp Utilities 2009 available here. Much better than any commercial product like System Mechanic and Norton 360. Also I find better than all the freewares like CCleaner or Anvanced System Care Basic. But what if we can get TuneUp Utilities for free. Well, you may not get the latest version but equally effective along with some cool features which have removed from latest version like TuneUp MemOptimizer (optimize memory in background which no longer included in new version).

Some feature highlights from the official website looks like this.

Fast, effective Windows Optimization

• One-click overview of your PC performance
• Quick analysis of your PC’s hardware, operating system, and programs
• Real performance increases, real fast
• Easy-to-understand help functions

Intelligent Windows Optimization built in for every PC

• Intelligent recommendations for your unique PC optimization
• Identifies your personal settings and protects them
• Highlights your PC’s optimization potential, including unused programs and resource-draining settings
• Recommends options and explains performance results before taking any action

Safe Windows Optimization

• Provides you with safe and effective optimization results
• Corrects all mistakes created from previous tuning attempts
• Comprehensive and easy rollback ability for any changes made to your PC

Perfectly designed for your Windows Operating System

• Automatically detects and configures for your operating system
• Ideal for XP and Vista (32/64 bit) users
• Designed to leverage the unique features within each operating system

Well if you are interested to use this great software (albeit a slightly older version) with all the current features and for free and legally this is what you need to do.

Step 1: Download TuneUp Utilities 2007 from here.

Step 2: Register with the key “JMNCG-FKNGR-WMAMT-FRTQL-BLYJB-XDYMX” and your name and organization (if any). Without the quotes of course.

Step. 3: Oh!!! its done enjoy a fully commercial software for free and that too legally.

Well that's it, happy tweaking and optimizing.

Windows Live Writer – A new Blogging Tool

Today I am trying Windows Live Writer… It looks pretty simple to install and use…Prerequisite is .Net installed in your computer. Well I am using Vista so its preinstalled. Now I download the web installer and install only the Writer component.

The good thing about Windows live writer is that it imports the theme look so you can carry out colour matching of the text to look better in actual post , insert photos of your choice either from photo sharing websites or from PC.

The only confusing feature till now I have found is, option to edit the Categories. The categories option is hidden somewhere and I still need to find it. Thereafter I will modify the post to inform more about it.

More good features include ability to ping the post on various servers and advanced WYSWYG editor.

Well overall it looks good Blogging tool and happy blogging.

Enabling Ethernet / Lan on Asus P5KPL-CM motherboard in Linux

I have a assembled computer with Asus P5-KPL CM motherboard. My wife wanted to learn something about Fedora while I am a Linux Mint Fan. Anyways after some argument I installed Fedora 9 GNU/Linux Distro. The first problem I faced was with enabling the network card / ethernet control /LAN card whatever you call.
Fortunately, Asus has provided driver files for GNU/linux in the accompanying CD. So how do I enable Lan using driver CD here are the steps:

1. Extract the LAN files in Windows or some other machine which supports handling of rar files. I don't know why it has been provided in RAR files, tarballs would have been better.
2. Anyways, Boot into Fedora 9 and determine the release version of kernel. Use command "uname -r".
3. Since, the ethernet is non-functional, we need to enable the same for which we need kernel-devel<version>rpm package. Download the same from download.fedora.redhat.com . Download from another machine or after booting from any other OS in which LAN is working.
4. Boot in Fedora and install kernel-devel<version>rpm package. Use the command "su -"and root password and then followed by "rpm -i kernel-devel<version>rpm package".
5. Now copy the extracted LAN driver files in a folder such as "/home/<user name>/driver" or similar. change the directory to "/home/<user name>/driver/l1e*/src. Install the files using the command "make install"
6. Restart and your Fedora is having an active LAN connection.
7. Go to "System > Preferences > Network" and assign proper gateway and ipaddress. Any You are ready to browse using Fedora.

I hope this small guide will help in enabling your LAN in Asus P5-KPL CM motherboard

Happy Valentine Day

Today is 14th Feb Valentine Day in memory of a famous priest St. Valentine. Infact, he was in a way preacher of love. In his memory, Valentine Day is now celebrated almost throughout the world when young people get an opportunity to express their love for each other and get an opportunity to commit to each other for rest of their life. Even not so young also use this day to re-affirm their love for each other and vow for life long love. Well, how to express this feeling is an personal choice but I thought of a way which may really appeal atleast some of the people. Well, its really simple just to say "I LOVE YOU" but with a twist. Just express it in more than 40 languages. Well I don't know so many languages but as always google is there to help. I have converted "I LOVE YOU" in 41 languages using http://translate.google.com and here is my expression

Albanian : unë të dua
Arabic : أنا أحبك
Bulagarian: Обичам те
Catalan: t'estimo
Chinese : 爱你
Croatian :
volim te
Czech : Miluji tě
Danish : Jeg elsker dig
Dutch : Ik hou van jou
English : I love You
Estonian : Ma armastan sind
Filipino : Mahal kita
Finnish : Minä rakastan sinua
French : I love You
Galician : Eu te amo
German : Ich liebe Sie
Greek : Σε αγαπώ
Hebrew : אני אוהב אותך
Hindi : मैं आपसे प्यार करता / करती हूँ
Hungarian : Szeretlek
Indonesian : Aku cinta kamu
Italian : Vi amo
Japanese : 愛しています
Korean : 당신을 사랑합니다
Latvian : Es mīlu Tevi
Lithuanian : AŠ TAVE MYLIU
Maltese : Inħobbok
Norwegian : Jeg elsker deg
Polish : Kocham cię
Portuguese : Eu te amo
Romanian : Te iubesc
Russian : Я тебя люблю
Serbian : Волим те
Slovak : Milujem ťa
Slovenian : Ljubim te
Spanish : Te amo
Swedish : Jag älskar dig
Thai : ฉันรักเธอ
Turkish : Seni seviyorum
Ukrainian : Я тебе люблю
Vietnamese : Tôi yêu bạn

Speed up your PC (Windows guide)

As a PC user, my first introduction to mouse and GUI was Windows and most of us had the same experience i.e. MS Windows. While there are few using other OS particularly Mac and GNU/Linux but they constitute minuscule small number of people. Lets concentrate on Windows user. Out of which most of us are average user who don't know neither care about its functioning and maintenance of PC. So for us there are various free and commercial software to take care of the PC, its maintenance, smooth functioning and keeping it up-to-date. Some such free softwares are CCleaner and Advanced System Pro Basic and so on... You can also opt for more professional solutions which are paid one including TuneUp utilities and System Mechanic. Well These softwares are really great but there are few things which we can do to make our PC better without the help of software and some of these features can't be achieved by softwares. I am just compiling a small list which I do to make my PC faster, more responsive and better performing.

So here is my list (I will not go into details, you can find details scattered at many places in the internet):-
1. Disable System Restore function.
2. Remove unwanted startup function using MSCONFIG command. Most of the updaters and preloading softwares like CFTMON (for MS office) etc can be easily disabled.
3. Defragment Regularly using some softwares like Defraggler, Auslogic Defragmentation software or Smart Defrag
4. Check disk for error using CHKDSK and repair all the errors.
5. Open your cabinet (CPU) atleast once in a month and clean up using vacuum cleaner or a soft brush. Don't use any liquid cleaner or water.
6. Disable Automatically search for network folders and printers
7. Disable Animation and appearance setup to gain speed and RAM
8. Remove unnecessary items from SendTo menu and NEW item menu (right click)
9. Disable Recycle Bin. Tell me truly how many times have you undeleted files from Recycle Bin.
10. Disable music or sound related with Windows events. In particular with start up and shut down.
11. Disable Sidebar is Windows Vista.

Well this list is my idea of speeding up my PC you may or ay not agree with me but this works great for me. I will recommend this steps. Go ahead and tweak your PC after all everyone want their PC to be blazing fast.

If you want more details on anything leave a comment and I will mail you back with reply as soon as possible.

Happy Tweaking.

Eagle Eye - A review

Just Completed watching Eagle Eye movie. Well this movie has been released over 3 monthes ago then why the review is now. Well for first, this is my blog and I will blog whatever I like and secondly, I didn't found any good review of the movie for Indian viewer by and Indian. The IMDB plot summary states

Jerry Shaw is an amiable slacker with an over-achieving twin brother. After his twin dies in an accident, strange things happen to Jerry at a dizzying pace: a fortune shows up in his bank account, weapons are delivered to his flat, and a voice on his cell phone tells him the police are on their way. Jerry follows the voice's instructions, and soon he and a woman he's never met are racing through the city, on to a plane, and eventually to the Pentagon, chased by the FBI. She is Rachel Holloman, a single mom; the voice has threatened her son's death if she doesn't cooperate. The voice seems to know everything. Who is behind it, what is being planned, and why Jerry and Rachel?

Well the story is simple and it shows how AI can become so powerful that it can overtake all the decision making to itself and it also shows to some extent how the American power houses are sometimes corrupted by power and don't consider before taking life of innocent.
Anyways there are some worthwhile watching action scene in the movie which you should never miss, The first one is action scene in local railway where Jerry Shaw is trying to escape from the calls coming from the AI eagle Eye. Really good action packed and well executed. The second most exhilarating scene was the entry of aircraft in the tunnel and accident, destruction and escape of Jerry Shaw. The third scene of chase of Rachel Holloman and  Jerry Shaw in the airport luggage conveyor system is a real treat to watch.
Verdict: If you like some action, fast paced movies (which most of the young Indian male) like, do watch it.

RATING
Plot : 8 out of 10
Action Sequence: 9 out of 10
Acting : 7 out of 10
Background Music: 7 out of 10.
Direction : 9 out of 10
Overall : 8 out of 10

Get rid of Telemarketers

All of us in our life face a telemarketer from ‘n’ number companies. I know that they are not bad people but usually their pestering causes us to get upset and give away foul words. well, there are ways to pester them and get rid of them. I am sure atleast one of this will work out best for you.Just go on read them

# 1:

When they ask, “How are you today?”

– tell them something like… “I’m so glad you asked because no one there days seems to care,and I have all these problems; my arthritis is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died….”

You get the idea.

# 2

If they say they’re Shiv Kumar from XYZ Company, ask them to spell their name.Then ask them to spell the company name. Then ask them where it is located.

Continue asking them personal questions or questions about their company for as long as necessary.

# 3:

Cry out in surprise, “Shiv! Is that you? Oh, my goodness, Shiv, how have you been?”

Hopefully, this will give Shiv a few brief moments of pause as she tries to figure out where the heck she could possibly know you from.

# 4:

If some phone/mobile or other such telemarketer calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends plan, reply in as sinister a voice as you can,”I don’t have any friends… would you be my friend?”

# 5:

If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money.
# 6:

Tell the telemarketer you are on “home arrest” and ask if they could bring you a case of beer and some chips.

# 7:

After the telemarketer gives their spell (see # 2), ask him/her to marry you. When they get all flustered, tell them that you could not just give your credit card number to a complete stranger.

# 8:

Tell the telemarketer you are busy at the moment and ask them if they will give you their home phone number so you can call them back.

When the telemarketer explains that they cannot give out their home number, you say, “I guess you don’t want anyone bothering you at home, right?”

The telemarketer will agree and you say, “Now you know how I feel!”

# 9:

Insist that the caller is really your buddy, Preeti, playing a joke.

“Come on, Preeti, cut it out! Seriously, Preeti, how’s your dog?”

And last but not least…

# 10:

Tell them to talk v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, because you want to write every word of your conversation down.

Disclaimer: Nothing is my own. I have copied it from some old mail I got long back.

Budget Computer for Indian

Well, I purchased my current computer nearly 3-4 months ago. And market has gone up and down, new technologies have come and what not. But for an average user like me who spend most of the time doing no major computing intensive job, this development serves only one purpose i.e. lowering the cost of currently bleeding edge components so people like me can afford it.
Also since middle income group people like me can't afford to upgrade or buy a new machine, it is essential to buy something which would be able to perform the job few years down the line too.
One of the mos common mistakes I have seen people making is that they go for latest processors while compromising on other components. Now this is really bad as you will not get the full performance and moreover you will be spending hard-earned money unwisely. So based on my experience and understanding I have compiled a more-or-less balanced system to give an optimum performance. I will not go into the cost details as it may change on weekly basis or even more promptly.
So here are my recommendation:-
1. Processor - With Intel leading the race right now with 45nm fabrication and cooler processor this is the way to go. If you are in gaming Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 will be the best value for money while people using more of a/v editing may also opt for Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 to utilize the functionality and power of multiple cores.

2. Motherboard - Being the control centre and nerve of whole computer it is always better to buy a good sturdy motherboard, if you are an overclocker then you know what to buy, but who don't want to go into tweaking and want to enjoy a stable performance; my suggestion is Asus P5 KPL-CM or may be MSI P35 NEO-F if you can spend a bit more.

3. Hard Disk - Nothing beats here Seagate SATA II 7200 rpm HDD with capacities exceeding 320 GB to avail the higher cache of the HDD.

4. RAM - DDR3 RAMs are becoming cheaper but is still out of reach of common man. I will stick will Corsair 1GB DDR2 800 MHz * 2 Twin pack RAM or may be Kingston (cheaper) or G-skill (costlier)

5. Cabinet & PSU - Zebronics Bijli with 450 VA Zebronics PSU is my choice but may not be available outside India. So better option may be from Cooler Master with lots and lots of fans.

6. Keyboard and Mouse - Logitech is well reputed to provided long lasting keyboard and mouse so go and get one.

7. UPS - No choices here, atleast 600VA APC UPS will do the job

8. Optical Drive - SAMSUNG / LG SATA DVD-Writer are known well to perform pretty well even after few years of usage and write at pretty fast speed. Blu-ray drives are really cool but will burn away a big hole in pocket, it has to be avoided for next couple of years.

9. Monitor - With monitors cost spiralling down at an unprecedent speed, it the right to go for a 19" Widescreen TFT solution from AOC or Dell or may be 24" to enjoy HD content (if you have some). Other options include Samsung to provide good product. You need to personally evaluate the models of your choice and budget to finalize one.

Well I hope this works as a good guide for people who are interested to buy a new PC in next few weeks.

Time Required to copy few files

I had a decently old PC in my office and wanted the copy few files in my pen drive (512 MB size). Well I started copying files and after roughly 3 minutes see what Windows tells me:



It seems I have to wait for more than 4 year for all the files to copy.

Sometimes Windows (R) really gives good time to laugh about.

Release info of various pirated movies

Let me confess something. I used to and even now watch movies downloaded from torrents or rapidshare or other file hosting services. Well, one thing is that I can watch the movies which are yet to release in India. Let aside legal and moral aspect one thing which always intrigued me was that what is all the details attached with the file name. After lot of reading on net and various other source I have learned a bit about the naming nomenclature. Infact, this info contains lot of information about the quality and source of film. Let me try to explain you some of the aspect of it:

CAM - indicates Source of rip- This indicates that the video is recorded using digital camera usually in a theatre, so quality will usually be poor, film may be shaking and full screen may not be covered iduring the shot. Sound will usually interpted by laughter or clapping or so. Peoples may also be seen sometimes walking.

TELESYNC - indicates Source of rip - This is same as CAM rip but audio is usually recorded through a isolated mic or is added later on, so quality may be better than CAM usually when the film has been cropped properly.

SCREENER, SCR, DVD-SCREENER, DVDSCR - indicates Source of rip - A pre-release tape or DVD usually distributed to retail chain or similar places for promotional purposes. Usually these releases have many markings including information about copyright infingement or similar information. Quality can be quite good sometimes especially when ripped to Xvid/DivX or SVCD format.

DVDRIP - indicates Source of rip - This is the best quality rip usually released immediately after release of commercial DVD.

PreDVDRIP - indicates Source of rip - This similar to DVDRIP but is released by rippers before release of DVD in market usually from some source in warehouse or factory.

VCD - indicates Quality of rip - This is MPEG1 format, quality of video is same as VCD ie 352 x 240 resolution video. Quality is usually poor to fiar but they are usually the first to be released in CAM, TELESYNC, etc.

SVCD - indicates Quality of rip - This is MPEG2 format or equivalent to DVD format with 480 X (200 - 480) resolution video. Quality is fair to Good.

XVCD, XSVCD - indicates Quality of rip - Usually are ripped by new rippers and don't follow VCD or SVCD standard like screen resolution may not be correct or bit rate may be low or high and so on. Not very popular. Quality can be poor to good.

DivX, XviD - indicates Quality of rip - DivX is a format designed for multimedia platforms. It uses two codecs,
one low motion, one high motion. most older films were encoded in low
motion only, and they have problems with high motion too. A method
known as SBC (Smart Bit-rate Control) was developed which switches
codecs at the encoding stage, making a much better print. The majority of
PROPER DivX rips are taken from DVDs, and generally up to
2hours in good to excellent quality is possible per disc.

PROPER - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This tag is added by releasing group to indicate that the quality is improved then the first release in the class for example a file CAM-SVCD-DDD may be first release by group DDD but CAM-SVCD-PROPER-RRR is the release by group RRR after group DDD but group RRR claims to be better quality then they add the word PROPER in the filename.

SUBBED - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This indicates that subtitle is hardburned into the video and cannot be changed. Usually the language of the subtitles is also indicated in the file name.

RECODE - indicates the Scene Tag of rip - This shows that a group has taken a release and improved upon the quality of the rip such as by removing the subtitles. cropping the CAM rip or adding fresh sound track.  This is looked upon as a low level act among release teams.

Usually the file name ends with with the release group name added at the end.

I hope you will find the information not only entertaining but also help you identify which print to download next time.

Hearty Seasons Wishes

In India, 14th / 15th January is celebrated by various names within India. Some places it is called Lohiri, some call it Makar Sankranti, Some Pongal and so on... Basically it signals the end of harvesting season with bountiful crop and ending of winter in India. Reason may be many but it is an occasion of joy and celebration and I wish all my readers and readers to be a very HAPPY & PROSPEROUS  MAKAR SANKRANTI / PONGAL / LOHIRI.

Finally an Unlimited Plan

Well, finally I have shifted to an unlimited plan provided by Asianet Dataline India Limited. It costs me roughly 450 INR per month including all charges for a 96 kbps speed. Well the commendable part is that they have blocked any port so no problems in using torrents for downloading stuffs. Also they most of the time provide the promised bandwidth.

Asianet Dataline is a Kerala based multiventure company which also provides good cable internet service. They also venture in cable tv distribution, DTH service, various malayalam channels and so on.

Lets come back to my connection: Assuming that I will run my connection for downloading 18 hrs a day (3/4 of the day), of course I will be using more. And I get 80 % of the commited bandwidth I will be getting around
  = (96 /8 (kilobytes))*60 (min)*60 (hour) *18(per day) * 0.8(efficiency)
  = 622080 kilobytes (kB)
  = 607 MB in a day

As I pay 450 INR per day it comes to 15 Rs. for a day. So I pay little more than 2 paisa per MB. Quite a deal I would say. So now I am going to go ahead and use the connection to fullest.

Best part of the deal, I payed for 12 months in advance and I get 3 month free usage thats 25 % extra. I hope to enjoy this to fullest.

6 month Avira home Premium Giveaway

I am an ardentent fan of Avira Antivirus. It is really light on system, lightening fast AV scanner and excellent online scanner. Of late I was using its free version which provides basic protection from Viruses, auto dialer and rootkits but not from many other malicious softwares like malwares, phishing sites, driveby malware etc. Well both of them are good products and use whichever you can afford.

Sometimes back, I learnt from a famous blog site of Raymond, about 3 month license file for avira home premium edition and I grabbed it for free. Now the 3 month is getting over, so I looked on internet and found yet another exciting offer - 6 month Avira Home premium licence.

Here is my guide to get 6 month license for free. Note that the site is in german and use it in same language, I faced problems while trying to browse through google translate.

Step 1. Go to the Avira Promotion Page.

Step 2. You will see a form like this

Fill as mentioned in the figure, change the first drop box too to anything else.

Step 3. After submitting the form you will get a confirmation button. Click on it to see your license download link

Step 4. Clicking the box above opens the page as shown below

Click on the link shown here and you will download an HBEDV.KEY file which will activate the antivirus for 6 monthes.

So go ahead and enjoy the trouble free protection of Avira Home Premium Antivirus

Scribe Fire - An excellent Blogging Tool

I am a die hard fan of Firefox. This is my favorite browser. Well why not something else; because not only it is safe, secure and fast but also it provides innumerable option to customize with plugins, themes and add-ons.
Well the post is not about Firefox but about ScribeFire yet another excellent addon for Firefox. This add-on is a offline as well as online blog posting tool, similar to Windows Live Writer or so.
Next question comes to mind, whats different from Windows Live writer. I have listed few features which I find as the key points for this addon:-

1. Not a separate software: This is not a separate software. It works direclty from Firefox, no installation issues, not .NET framework requirement and so on
2. Light Weight: This add on is extremely light weight both on browser as well as whole PC
3. OS independent: IT will run in Linux, Windows, Mac or any other OS. No problems if you use some obscure OS which self brewed by you. If firefox works for you, it will also work
4. Multi-tab windows: you are allowed to open multiple tabs and write different blog entries for different blog.
5. Support host of blog services:  Few of the major supported blog services are WordPress,Movable Type, Drupal, Blogger  and many more.
6. Enable Pinging: option to enable Pinging to various blog linking services, Technorati and so on.
7. Save draft: Allows to save multiple dafts of post for future posting.
   
8. Editing Old post: You can also edit old posts published, option to edit categories and many others. 

This may be sufficient to justify ScribeFire as an excellent Blog Posting software. Just go ahead and try it. You can get it here.

Enjoy and Happy Blogging

New Year Resolution

Yet a new year has come and we are in 2009, aged one year more gracefully and looking forward to yet another lively year. Well I don't know about others but every year I make some resolutions and always try to adhere to them but it is a matter of few weeks that all the resolutions disappear as puff of smoke. But its always better to make resolution and try to follow them rather not having a single resolution at all.
So what are my resolutions? Well there are few which I am sharing here:-

1. I will blog regularly. I know my quality of post at best will be poor. But then if I don't write what is the use of having a blog. I will try to post atleast one post per week. So that I can keep a touch with the things and hone my blogging skills.
2. I will quit playing Pocket Tanks. This game is really addictive simple game and whenever I am in front of computer I play is as frequently as possible.
3. I will try to spend some time for studying. This is really tricky as after getting a job usually we lost the interest for studying, but better try then to repent.

Anyways, I feel these 3 resolutions are sufficient for me if I can adhere to them and follow them with all my heart.
Wish me good luck...
BTW whats your resolution