Beyond the Silence

RSA 8 (Eclipse) EAR Deployment Assembly Fileset missing : Classpath issue - NOT bundling the config xml if they are specified as filesets

2011-03-09T19:38:00.003-05:00

If you are facing issues with IBM RSA 8(Rational Software Architect) coz your EAR file has deployment assembly with filesets and your RSA does not give u a fix for the fileset, then this might help you.

All you have to do is to to add the eclipse update site :
http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/updates/development/

And install Jboss Maven Integration.

That's it. It will add fileset to the list of options that are available in the Deployment assembly. I struggled for two days until my lead showed me how to fix this. Hope this helps. Enjoy!

Missouri, I love you! (Part 1)

2011-01-16T10:17:00.012-05:00

I went to my friend's wedding in Springfield Missouri last week. It so happens that I am the Best Man. What are the odds of that happening again huh? :). His name is Sabarinath and he's my schoolmate. We were like thickest of buds back in school with another guy Victor. But as time passed, life happened and we are busy with our own lives.

One day he calls me up and tells me he is getting married and asked me if I wanna be a Groomsman. Obviously I am excited and happy so needless to say that I said Ok. Somehow I ended up being the Best man with some unseen forces acting behind the scenes. I met the bride on Facebook and she seemed pretty chilled out and not crazy. Her name is Tabitha and she is a HUGE Facebook Junkie.

I was in two minds about this wedding, whether to go or not as I don't know anyone except the Groom there and I thought it will be really really boring. But since he actually honoured me with an invite and the best man title even though we are not in touch for a long time, I finally decided to go.

Work is kind of crazy these days so I didn't get my vacation approved and had to put in the hours before hand to compensate. Finally, I flew in on 7th Jan 2011 to Branson MO and here are the highlights of my trip :

The Branson Airport did not look like an airport at all. They (4 fat men) had to pull a wheeled stair case to get people off the plane. That is sooo archaic and even Mangolia has skyways I believe.

Skyways are not the only thing missing in this airport even bodies were missing i.e.they have deer/antelope heads hanging all around the place.

The airport was playing 60s music ON REPEAT.

Dolly Parton is the BIGGEST thing that ever happened to this city and they make sure you know it by playing her videos every 0.25 seconds. I found that video on youtube, watch this video embedded down here. But if you really wanna go through that experience again and again, Click here

There was no AT&T signal in Branson Of course!

My friend, the Groom lost track of time and completely forgot I was coming. Hence, I got to spend some more time in this wonderful thing that they call the Airport in Branson.

I tried to make conversation with an Indian looking guy sitting next to me, he pretended to be busy texting on his iPhone but the funny part is - I have an iPhone too and it didnt work coz there is no signal. Am I that boring really?

Finally, we made it home and I met the Bride who seemed to be normal in the first impression but with in an hour or so I found out I was completely WRONG. She's freaking crazy. You will say the same thing by the end of this post, I can bet on that.

I rested for an hour in their bed pushing aside whatever crap was lying on the bed and making room for myself. When I went to bed, I was alone but by the time I woke up Sab was next to me?

The Bride explained this situation to each and every one of her friends who walked through the door AGAIN AND AGAIN as "Two Burritos" lying next to each other on her bed? Somehow, it was funny at the time. But She called me a Burrito? and I'm not Mexican - Do I look fucking Carlos to you? ;)

I chose to spend some time with the Bride to get to know her instead of going out with Sab to pick up someone from somewhere, God knows! Little did I know, that it was a BIG MISTAKE!

I offered my free time and joined the little party that seemed to be making cute little baskets/boxes that looked like chinese take out bags and keep pink candies in them. YES, for a minute we all felt like little girls.

With all this Gay stuff going on, the bride started her Standup Comedy Show as if the party wasn't nuts as it is - OMG, She's is HILARIOUS. The stuff that comes off that mouth is pretty unbelievable. She's got a mouth I tell you!

Some of the Highlights of her show :

Guy 1 : "You Pennis is soo small, it's practically a Tic-Tac. (For those unfamiliar with Tic-Tacs, here's an image. Just one of those NOT the whole box)

Guy 2's Comeback : " Oh yeah, let me refresh your breath then (some inappropriate Gestures here can bring the point home - just use your imagination - I can't tell you everything here. ) :)

I cannot do justice to her humour on the web here but the narration is just awesome. This is probably the BEST JOKE ever if you hear it from her. I met a lot of funny people in my life but this one is the funniest by far. PURE AWESOMENESS!

To be Continued.......

How and Why I became a Computer Engineer

2010-10-10T21:13:00.018-04:00

The School

Vijayawada, my home town is famous for having the best educational institutions in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is also known as Vidyalawada i.e. Land of Education. I was very fortunate to study in Kennedy High School which was kind of hip and happening with computers and all. Our family was not very well to do at the time and my parents struggled to pay the fee for all four of us kids. It was a very difficult time. My mom fought with my grandpa when he thought its just a waste of money to send us to private schools. He wanted to send us to public schools where the medium of instruction was Telugu and not English. My dad obeyed everything my grandpa said but this time my mom fought against it and won. Eswar Prasad, the principal of the school was kind enough to waive some fee off for us as we all did well in the entry tests and we were four kids joining the school from one family. Enough with the sentiment, let's get to business - Shall we? This is a story of how I got introduced to computers and how my life changed from then.

The Heat

Our school purchased 2 computers when I was in the 7th or 8th grade. They were very slow and had 32Mb RAM I think. They ran Windows 95 and MS DOS. They took a hell lot of time to boot up but surprising took very small amount of time to heat up. It took longer for us to see the desktop after the boot up than to bake an omelette on the heated CPU. Our school was not air conditioned at the time. Heck, we did not even have fans in the classrooms until I reached 9th grade. Our only source of air and light were the unfinished walls that were built 8ft tall leaving a 2ft window from the 10ft ceiling. It sounds bad when I put it in words but it was actually quite ok. We got plenty of Vitamin D (thanks to the sun) and we got fresh air too. And when it rained we had the day off. What more can you ask for huh? (thanks to global warming and shit, it didnt rain much anyways). It also saved huge electric bills for the school management which kept the school fee still affordable. What a brilliant idea huh? Anyways, even though our school didnt need much electricity for its daily operations, the computers needed air conditioners which hogged the electricity. They brought in ACs just for the computers to function without burning down the whole school. So, it was always cooler inside the computer room even though it was hot as hell outside which gave us more reasons to go to computer classes. We were there for all the wrong reasons.

The Teacher

They also hired a new teacher to teach us the computer stuff. This is not any teacher but DA TEACHER. Her name was Rajani. She was probably the most beautiful woman I have seen till then. She was gracious and very patient. She had a way about her. She was very soft spoken and genuinely liked kids. She was about 20 years old at that time. Every boy in the class wanted to do good and be the best. We all instantly fell in love. I was no exception. They say - "Behind every successful man, there is a woman" right? I don't know if I am a successful man or not but I am pretty sure I am a man and this woman was in front of me not behind me in this journey (well, not through out but the much required head start). Why did I mention that here? that quote does not really apply to my case. So, my adaptation of that quote would be "Infront of any not so successful man (but ok type of success - mind you {credit is due when it is due} ) there would be a really Hot teacher"

The TypeWriter

My dad's job as a Manager of an Orphanage required us to have a type writer at home and it also served as a fun toy for us kids. We used to type crap for fun (I guess Geeks are born not made). It was somehow fun back then. When my dad first brought it home, we had a power outage that night (power outages are part of life when you are in India) but that did not stop us from playing with it, we typed crap in the candle lights. Can you imagine? We were so obsessed with it. Let me rephrase, I was obsessed with it for a while. I felt like an Einstein sitting in front of it. This magical machine would write for me and all I had to do was to punch some keys. Not only does it write, it also writes it in color red sometimes which was a major miracle in my life. Needless to say, I got better at typing without joining any institute. This helped me in a lot more ways than I thought.

The Ambition

One day in my 5th or 6th grade, the teacher was feeling lazy and she wanted to finish her allotted time. So, she decided to cover it up with the masquerade of picking pupils' mind. She started a small survey and asked every one in the class to describe what they wanna be when they grow up. In India, you dont have much choice - you are either a doctor or an engineer, That's it. And when I say engineer it's mostly civil, mechanical or electrical/electronic engineering. Those are the only respected career choices. Everything else is just a waste of time according to popular belief. Oh, there is also Army/Navy/Airforce (every boy's dream). So, everyone just picked something out of that allotted choices of career. But I was the outcast. I said I wanted to become computer engineer. At the time, it was unheard of atleast among the kids in our class. So, some kids laughed when I chose such an odd career which made me more stubborn and at that point I decided to be a computer engineer no matter what.

The Supremacy

The primary purpose of computers at school was to play some educational CDs and some fun games. The most popular game being Typing test. We all used to bang on the keyboards to show off our incredible typing skills. This put me on advantage and I was virtually unbeatable coz of my homework. I got a head-start in this fight to supremacy.

The Teacher was very very impressed by typing skills and it only lasted a few days. I had to come up with something new to win her heart. So, I started poking around the OS and learnt a few things like how to install some softwares, run some cool dos commands like deleting files that other teachers stored. The teacher taught us how to write simple programs in FORTRAN I think. Although I dont remember any of it now, I remember her teaching. The school principal's wife was always in the computer room with only one book in her hand that had a BIG title "JAVA - the complete reference". We were not allowed to touch that book and she never taught us that Java thing. When I first heard we had Java in the curriculum for my engineering, I jumped. I knew that's what I am gonna master coz I was not allowed to touch that book. I still remember reading that book cover to cover (yes, the whole 1172 pages) in two days (and nights) when I took up that course. Now, I am neck deep in Java although I cant swim in Java, the pit is not that deep that I have to swim. Pffh, Geek Humor?

Life aftermath

As you can see, my career choice was driven by

1. Childhood stubbornness to prove ignorant kids wrong
2. Hot Teacher who left the school after a while and got married (broke hundreds of little hearts into million pieces)
3. A Typewriter that started it all.
4. Indian Heat - that's the main reason to spend hours in the Air Conditioned Computer room at school. In order to stay there I had to do something with the computer and while messing around I learnt a lot about computers.
5. The BIG java book that we were not allowed to touch.

It might seem strange that my BIGGEST choice in life was driven by such idiotic stuff. But all this silly stuff helped me spend a lot of time around computers which helped me to be really good at it later when I went to college. You might think that I chose the right field for all the wrong reasons but there is a bit more than that to it. I normally stick to what I am good at, it's a natural trait of all normal humans. So, when I had to choose a main stream for engineering I chose Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) even though it was all crashing at the time coz I was really good at computers. The millenium bubble happened and everyone said computers are not here to stay long. Parents discouraged (rather condemned) their kids from taking computer engineering. Amidst all that chaos, I asked myself what am I gonna be and the ONLY answer i could think of was Computers.

Here I am now, happy and content with my career choice. I cannot imagine what I would have been if I had not taken up CSIT. Not a bad choice after all huh?

How to lose friends and alienate people (part 1)

2010-09-21T23:33:00.008-04:00

I have always had friends. All kinds of them - friends, best friends, just friends, friends of friends, friends that use me, friends that abuse me (not physically -dont get any ideas Ok?) and friends that I use. Sometimes, I think I have too many of them than I'd have like to have. Even my parents and siblings would agree that there are too many so called "Friends" in my network. I abuse the word friendship in the way that I call any relationship : Friendship. I don't know why - may be coz friendship is the only relationship that can be associated with anyone without any changes to anything. I am the kind of person who would walk into a restaurant, order some random thing and eat whatever they prepare without even adding any condiments to it. I dont like to change anything much. I am ok with whatever it is and however it is (as long as it is to my liking :) ). Most of the time, I dont even order for myself - I let the waitress pick out something for me. It sometimes ends up being a total disaster but that's life. I do not do this coz I am too lazy to choose but I do this coz I want to experience what the other person is like - what he/she would like to eat or what he/she would order if it was up to them. This is my way of escaping me and being someone else I guess. Or may be I am just too confused to order anything for myself. That being said, I am also a control freak in other aspects. I am a complete set of paradoxes. Not necessarily a Hypocrite but a self-contradicting entity driven by the context.

I have always been good with people. I think I can go as far as saying I understand people (including some women) to a fair extent (I think). Although I misjudge them at times but I am right to most extent. I have seen lots of types - stereotypes I mean. In my short time here on planet earth I have had chance to interact with so many ists - extremists, conformists, objectivists, pessimists, activists, atheists, religionist, sadists, enthusiasts and The Closet Depressionists. The most amazing thing about me is that I can relate to all of them. When I am with one, I completely understand what they mean and can relate to what they are. Infact, I saw a movie (Little Children) the other day about a cheating husband and I could totally (or thothally as my russain friend says it) relate to that even though I am neither married nor the cheating type. It's like I get into the other person's skin with no effort at all. It comes very naturally to me. This might seem a bit proud and all but it is true. Well, true* (with a star!)

The point is, my ability to relate to people got me a lot of friends. People confide in me or ask me for advise or dump their troubles or just wanna talk to me coz I seem to care/listen. As crazy as it sounds, it is very hard to find people who can listen. I do and hence I get to listen to a lot of crap from a lot of people. Although, I am quite a bit of a talker too. So, when I am not talking, I am listening - makes sense right? (See, I was not lying after all).

The other day, I looked at the variety of age groups, ethnicities, backgrounds of the people in my network and it's pretty interesting. I have so many kinds of people in my network - Americans, Canadians, Africans, Europeans, Indians, Chinese, Nepalese, Korean, Haitian, Nigerian, Black, White, Young, Old, Adolescent, Male, Alpha-Male, Female, Women, Girls, Boys, Pastors, Atheists, Virgins, Sex Addicts, Cabbies, Waiters, Millionaires, Actors, Photographers, Bloggers, Coders, Geeks, Hotties & Notties, Scientist and a Murderer among many others in my friends list. I understand this is not an achievement but just the variety of the people in my network is mind blowing. I am not kidding, this is my network for real.

When I moved to USA, I had 2 business contacts (my employers Sreenivas and Nagesh) to call in case of emergency and 2 friends to call who would care to talk to me (Wesley and Gordon from InsideView) - that was pretty much it. You can imagine how difficult it must have been for me to come down from having a massive directory to call to just 2. Back home, I had just about everyone calling me to play cricket or watch a movie or just hang out or doing something really stupid like staking out a friend's locality for hot girls. My day was packed with meaningless events and idiotic randomness to say the least. The people in my life drove it in all directions although it was MY life. I took charge only when it is required. It was fun that way. I loved every moment of it until it all came to a complete halt when I move to the United States of America.

to be continued.....

Most beautiful opening and closing lines for a movie : The Switch (2010)

2010-09-11T20:23:00.003-04:00

"Look at us : running around, always rushed, always late - I guess that's why they call it the Human Race. What we crave for most in this world is Connection. For some people it happens at first sight, it's when you know, you know! It's fate working its magic and that's great for them. They get to live a Pop song, ride the express train but that's not the way it really works. For the rest of us, it's a bit less romantic, it's complicated, it's messy, it's about horrible timing and fumbled opportunities and not being able to say what you need to say when you need to say it - at least that's the way it was for me." - From the move "The Switch" (the most beautiful opening line for a movie I've ever heard)

The movie closes with this note :
"But sometimes it slows down just enough for all the pieces to fall into place, Fate works its magic and you are connected. Every once in a while, in all the randomness - something unexpected happens and it pushes us all forward and the truth is - what I'm starting to think, what I'm starting to feel is that may be the human race isn't a Race at all"

Isn't this beautiful? Great job by the writers, I love it!

Allan Loeb (screenplay)
Jeffrey Eugenides (short story)

Just thought tats

2010-09-11T10:14:00.007-04:00

I know that you are wondering what the title of this post means - right? No, it's not a typo and It's not proper english either and that is exactly the point here. I used this beautiful gibberish phrase in a video interview the other day. To give you more context, let describe the event more.

The context

I was interviewing a real nice lady (Linda) from Ohio who is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis and Brain Tumor and still helping a kid in India get a decent education. She cannot walk and is confined to a wheelchair. She can only see through one eye and that too after opening the eyelid with her hand. She finds it in her heart to give others while she is yet to receive. So, I was interviewing her to find out what drives her to help others despite her condition while we are lost in our own selfish world. She is as Christian as it gets, although I am not much of a Christian myself, I wonder why people do what they do and this curiousity drove me nuts until I interviewed her. She said something funny in the interview, if I remember correctly - she said "I never did anything wrong" - which was a joke obviously but I was not sure if that was a joke or not. As soon as she said that, I thought to myself that "Yeah right, that is a BIG LIE and you know it but go on it's YOUR show." I did not say that out loud (Thank God!) but I was thinking it. She continued to say "that of course would be a lie, I am Human!" and laughed. I felt a sigh of relief that she was just joking and was not seriously try to imply that she's all godly and divine and did the right thing her whole life coz you never know with the people in pain - they either turn extremely bitter or freakishly divine and I am not good with either extremes.

Here's the video of the interview. FYI, the video skips to the part where I utter the stupid phrase. :

If you watch the video, you know that she started with "I wish I could" but obviously I missed that part. I only hear what I want to hear sometimes. :)

The Phrase

Anyways, I wanted to share my feeling of relief (that she is just normal like us) with her by telling her that I just thought the same thing (i.e. the big statement being a lie) and to put it into words, I had two choices - I could either say
1. I just thought so too. Or
2. I just thought that.

and what do I do? I combine both while speaking it out, the result being "Just thought tats ". Wait, if you are paying attention - you would notice that I said "Just thought tats" - the letter "I" is missing here. Where is the "I"?

What happened to the "I"?

I normally do not say "I" alot as I think it is selfish to use it much. I will explain in a bit why I think so. (if you read carefully, I used "I" 5 times in the last 2 sentences. So much for not using "I" huh? Don't worry, I already know I am a hypocrite. I saved you the trouble. There I go with the "I" again. hahaha! ).

Also, my mentor Rodney taught me email manners long ago and he said "If you have to describe something you did or something about you (i.e. you are the subject/actor) and want to start a sentence with the letter 'I' - just omit 'I'. It is implied coz people talk about themselves all the time. If you are talking - chances are you are talking about yourself and hence no need to specify that it is indeed you who did that great little thing and no one else. People get it so dont stress on it."

Let me show you an example of what he meant. Both the following sentences describe a simple in event in a person's life but notice the difference it makes when you put it in a certain way. Think of this as your friend's facebook status update :

Sentence 1:
"I watched a movie at my house and I had a great time with my friends"

sounds a bit too arrogant although there is nothing wrong with this sentence. If you are an immigrant, you are more likely to use this form of sentence as you are basically translating from your mother tongue (coz we think in our mother tongue first) and in the enthusiastic effort to be more clear in communication, you appear arrogant unintentionally. When some American (whose mother tongue is English) hears it - it sounds like : "It is you (not someone else) who watched a movie, at your house (not anywhere but in your precious little mansion) and with your friends (not with someone else's idiotic friends but with your own bunch of idiots)". As you can see, the whole point is lost - now he thinks you are too full of yourself as you did not need to specify each and every time that it is you, it is implied. This is more of a cultural difference than language. You can just let go the "I" and "my" and say it in a non-arrogant way.

Sentence 2:
"watched a movie at home and had a great time with friends".

You can see I am not referring to myself so much here and which makes me sound normal and not like an egoistic emperor. Although there are times when you must use 'I'. Like when I am blogging. I must use 'I' and cannot do without it. :)

More Wisdom

I can just stop here with the "I" lecture but since I already put so much effort into it, I'd like to add another important point here. I tend to avoid "I" in email communication involving team or even just me. I either omit it or use "we" instead if there is a partner in crime. I use "we" even though the other party did not do much but thats between him/her and me. Isn't it? (Well, if your mate is a pain in the ass - then you can just use "I" but normally using "we" gets you more points as it shows that you are a team player)

Some example emails :
"All, deployed a build - please test" // when I did it alone.
Instead of
"All, I deployed a build - please test my build"

"All, we are planning a potluck this friday." //when there are other people involved even though it's your idea.
Instead of
"All, I am thinking of having a potluck this friday and everyone agrees."

Back to the Phrase

Now that you know what happened to the "I", let's move on the rest of the sentence.

The Original sentences :
1. I just thought so too. Or
2. I just thought that.

The amalgam :
"Just thought tats"

Breaking it down, I think I started it out with "I just thought that" but changed it to "I just thought so". We already know that I dont use "I" much and hence the absence of "I". But what in the world is "tats"?. I have no idea where the "tats" came from. I guess my mind thought that it was a fitting end to the changed phrase. Anyways, the result being some garbage that even I didnt understand. I would have totally missed it if I hadn't recorded it and would continue to do so for the rest of my life without even knowing that I was SME (Subject Matter Expert) on gibberish.

Bottom Line : I talk gibberish even when I am sober. Don't pay too much attention to it, as I will break it down later and blog it for you. :)

A celebration of Life - My Father!

2010-08-24T21:54:00.009-04:00

He was not the best dad in the whole world, not even close
Although not the worst by any standard, I've seen worse

You see, I did not have a choice but to I love him as he was my ONLY dad
He did love me back although I was NOT his only kid

He was always curious to know how much money I made
I never told him for the fear of spreading the word

Although it was peanuts here, but when you convert it to rupees - it was millions
As soon as I told him, the whole neighbourhood knew and that costed me big bucks

"He had a unique way of boasting about you" - my brother rants
I blame my dad for ruining our brotherhood with his pompous contrasts

He was so proud of me for being a success in everything I did
I guess, he lived his life through the ambitions I fulfilled

"My son lives in America" - he used to proudly say
Made me feel like I went to Mars just by moving to USA

It was his dream to explore the world and see things far far away
Never really happened, but boy did he try?

Almost married a Finnish lady he met on penpals
Quite a ladies man I remember my mom kicking a fuss

I wish I had his charm or whatever it was that attracted ladies
Unfortunately, I only inherited his curly hair and nothing else

He did not have the best sense of humour
But Man, did he did like to laugh!

I still remember painting pictures just to impress him and win a reward
He'd appreciate it even if it was the same green parrot every time I doodled.

I feared his Big Leather belt every time I fought with someone
But when I was in trouble, he was my own private 911

He was always too honest and never lied
He helped people in need when he was full and satisfied

He hated my guts when I disobeyed him and did things my way
He drove me nuts with his save up and donate policy

He was never too greedy except when it comes to food
"Food was his first love" my mom repeatedly complained

Never heard him complain much, he was always a happy camper
"God, just give me enough" - that was his only prayer

He loved me even when I hated him
I could never completely understand him

He listened when I talked about all sorts of things
He wanted to talk to me but I was too busy with my friends

He had a cynical laugh that would piss off mom
But that was his revenge for cooking the crap that she fed him

He was paralyzed for thirteen long years and never could run again
But even then, I dont think he ever felt sorry for his condition

His name was Daiva Prasad translates to God's Gift
He lived a peaceful life, departed happy and content

I owe my every breath to him and He is the reason I am here
He gave me life, He's my Father!

Dear Dad, wherever you are, near or far
You will always be remembered for the man you were.

Rest in Peace!
Love you Dad!

John

Being John- Early Morning

2010-08-23T21:46:00.023-04:00

Since you know why my name is John (i.e. after reading the world's longest article on the shortest name here), I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to the real me and show you what it means to be John.

Let us start with the daily routine, what does John do from the moment he wakes till the moment he goes bed, Shall we?

Daily Routine : Wake up (6:30AM to 8:00AM)

Contrary to popular belief, My waking up is not an event, it's a process similar to a Satellite Launch. It has T-3 stages and each stage is separated from the other by an alarm. I have three alarms on my iPhone at 6:30, at 7:30 and at 8:00 on weekdays.

You might ask me why three alarms? Well, they are not just redundant alarms but each alarm has a purpose as you will learn. When the 6:30 alarm rings and starts the Stage 1, it does a deserving job of destroying my idiotic dreams and reminds me that it is a weekday (i.e. I actually have to drag my ass to work). As soon as it rings, I struggle to find my phone and turn in off and in that struggle I transfer myself into a lucid dreamy state. Translation : I pause the dream for a sec to turn off the alarm and resume it where I left off but this time I control them - if there is something I do not like about them, I start to change it now. For e.g. If there is Brunette, I change her to Blonde. You get the idea right? ;) I am such a control freak that I try to control even my dreams. If it was up to me, I'd like to control my Manager Lori's dreams too.

Why Lori?
Ans: Two Reasons
1. She's my boss and Thou shalt suck up to Thy Boss (First commandment of every employee).
2. She asked me to blog about her the other day so here's a blog about you Lori. Happy now? Where's my BIG BONUS? I need it RIGHT NOW! (BTW, she reads my blog so this is totally gonna work or I'll be out of work - only time can tell!)

This joy ride goes on while I prepare myself for the next stage of this journey when the alarm at 7:30 AM. And when the 7:30 one rings, I struggle to end my dream and hit the Cancel button. At this point I am almost 40% awake.

Quick question : What does a Geek do as soon as he wakes up?
Answer : He checks his mail and Facebook (i.e. if he has a virtual social life)

Since I am a Super Geek, I check my mail even before I am awake enough to realize that I have drooled so much that my pillow is soaking wet. (I am only kidding, am I?)

Anyways, I pull up the mail client on my iPhone 4. I specifically mentioned iPhone 4 coz I am so damn proud of purchasing this piece of shit after standing in a really long queue for 8 long hours on a work day. People keep telling me to return it if I hate it so much but I fail to understand why. Sure, I hate it. Sure, it drops calls, Sure, it crashes apps. Sure, it has connectivity problems. But its from APPLE and I love APPLE. This one reason beats all those arguments - doesn't it?

Thanks to Nagesh Puli for sharing this video that explains perfectly how I feel about iPhone. FYI, If you haven't figured it out - I am the retard in the video. :)

Ok getting back to the story, I check my mail with eyes half shut ( when I say mail, I mean all my 6 mail accounts and all the folders in each of them including SPAM/JUNK/BULK).

There's an alias (i.e. a backup account) for each mail provider as you can see. If you are wondering why this madness, let me put your mind at rest. I am the type of guy who buys two tickets even when I am travelling alone coz I am afraid I will lose one. Imagine what a mess I would be if I was on a roundtrip coz it will be four tickets even when I am the only traveller. :)

Anyways, if there is an important email, I read it again after reading everything else. If something requires my input - then I reply but only after saving it a million times while I draft it. To give you an idea on the kind of serious mail I receive, let me name a few of my frequent email associates, the list includes big names in every industry - Macys, Amazon, ebay, GAP, Levis, Dockers, Java Ranch, Citibank and Bank of America with all the offers in the world. I am a proud recipient of all the spam that they ever sent out. (Yes, I do know that they provide a 'Unsubscribe' link in each of those emails but who has the time to click it right? Besides, if I stop this spam - I might have to wait for days to get real emails from real people. I dont know if I have that kind of patience and I might give in and start spamming all my 1000+ gmail contacts asking for emails)

Here's are some emails that I receive almost every day:
Exhibit #1:

I would have totally missed out on Champion Underwear if it wasn't for this spam from Macys. Thank God!

Exhibit #2:

Did you read that? 10% off on Kids and Baby styles - Oh My God! I gotta rush to the store RIGHT NOW! Wait, I don't have any kids! (Maybe I did in that dream a minute ago but that does not count, does it?)

Exhibit #3:

The funny part about the above email from Citibank is that I keep getting these emails asking to sign up for an account that I already hold with them for the past 2 years. Failing to understand the logic behind it, I think I have signed up for all their different types of accounts NRO/NRE/Savings/Current etc but nothing seems to stop these welcome emails. :)

Once I am done with knowing what kind of offers we have in Macys, GAP and Dockers - it's time to move on to know what my friends are up to. So, I log in to facebook - and here are some intriguing updates that I get from my network.

You can see how useful it is to know what my friend Prasad Kolapalli thinks of his profile picture or about the opposite sex. I have a million more similar updates to skim through before I can see any real news on my Facebook network. Even that amount of spam cannot stop me from doing this daily. I do this every day from 7:30 AM to 8:00AM until the alarm rings again.

This is the Final Alarm and I must getup now. I have to get ready for work. As you can see, my waking up process is similar to a Satellite Launch - it has T-3 stages and each stage plays a significant role and is required for the next stage to be successful.

to be continued.....

Movies, Books, Me and the Original Sin

2010-08-19T01:03:00.004-04:00

Blogger's Golden Rule : "All posts need not be funny and all funny things need not be blogged".

Disclaimer : I know you are here to have some fun and get a few occasional laughs. But I'm afraid I am serious at times and this is one of those rare occasions.

Movies and People

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a story conveyed with moving images.

Movie is not just an art of story telling. There's more to movies than just song and dance. It gives people ideas, emotions, entertainment and inspiration. Most importantly, it sets you free. Free from those work tensions, free from your wife/husband, free from the parents, free from the problems of life, free from anything that is bothering you. For those 2 or 3 hours that you are there -you are transported to a whole new world where anything is possible - you can fly, you can walk in space, you can be the top secret agent licensed to kill, you can be Prince Charming or you can be Cinderella.

Now matter who you are in real life, for the length of that movie - you are unstoppable. You cry, you laugh, you think, you dream, you sing, you dance, you fight and you love. You experience so much in such a short time. It's amazing what you can feel by just sitting in a theatre and letting your senses go wild.

Movies Vs Books

Now, this is an interesting discussion. To judge the contest between Movies and Books - we need to first understand how they communicate with us. As crazy as this sounds - it is true they do communicate. After all they are both nothing but a medium of communication.

How does this communication happen?
Books communicate through language (i.e. text) while Movies communicate through audio-visuals ( i.e.motion picture). You experience this communication in your own way.

What constitutes this Experience?
If you take a sentence of any language - it generally has three parts i.e. Subject, Object and Verb/Action. Similarly, if you take an experience - it can probably be broken down into three similar parts stimulus (Subject), Senses (Object) and Perception/Imagination (Action). I'm not throwing fancy terms here but just trying to understand (along with you) what really happens when we read a book or watch a movie.

To understand the experience, we need to understand the constituents first :

Stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment.

Senses are the physiological capacities within organisms that provide inputs for perception.

Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.

Imagination is the ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts, in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses.

To summarize you experience a book/movie based on the stimulus that it provides to your senses which causes you to perceive/imagine something.

For me, Books are one dimensional in the sense that there is only text while movies on the other hand are multi-dimensional with audio, video etc. And the new age 3D movies make the experience almost a complete feast of senses. Movies work with more senses than just plain text in the books. For e.g. If you see a child walking - you not only see the child but the environment surrounding the child, the way that the child is walking, whether the child is happy/sad, the time of the day and the bells ringing in the background etc. There's a lot of detail that is captured in the movie that is not possible to capture in text.

But if you take your imagination into account. Books guide your imagination and do not block it. For e.g. If I write the following sentence -
"The child is walking alone on a bridge"
For you - the bridge could be a wooden bridge on a river, for someone else it could be Golden Gate bridge, for someone else it could be a very small rope bridge across a stream.
The child could be Black or White or Chinese or Indian depending on who's reading it.
The child could be male or female
The child might be happy or sad or limping or jumping while walking.

So, the same book might create a whole different perspective for each reader. They do not share the same visuals or sounds that their mind creates based on their individual preferences.

Movies block Imagination with the visuals and audio. You are surrounded with sound and bombarded with visuals. For e.g. If you see a child walking alone on a bridge - You only see that bridge and that child and walking with that expression and you will only hear that background score. There is not much room for imagination. The choices are already made by the film maker. You just witness the creation.

Movies are more stimuli and hence the experience is more perceived than imagined. Books have fewer stimuli and hence more imagined than perceived. Now, it's an individual preference which one is better.

As a lazy bugger, I prefer movies to books anytime because
1. Movies are over in 2-3 hours and you can get back to your life knowing that the story ended unlike books which I never seem to be able to finish even after years and I am still curious to know what happens in that novel I started reading when I was 18.
2. Movies do not require a dictionary for you to understand what the heck is going on as you can clearly see when two people are fighting as opposed to reading any of the following words that can describe a fight - "battle, combat, duel, struggle, tilt, war, wrestle, fight altercation, bicker, clash, contention, controversy, debate, difficulty, disagreement, dispute, polemic, quarrel, run-in, spat, squabble, tiff, word, wrangle, contend, dispute, quarrel, quibble, spat, squabble, tiff, wrangle, bellicosity, belligerence, belligerency, combativeness, contentiousness, pugnaciousness, pugnacity, truculence, truculency, fistfight, fisticuffs, scrap, scuffle, tussle" and a million others.
3. You can watch movies with your friends. Well, you can argue that you can read books with friends at book clubs or whatever but who does that really? Have you ever read a book cover-to-cover with any of your friends? If you did, may god help you and your friend.
4. If it was such a good book, then it must have been made into a movie by now right? And I can get that great story in just 2-3 hours as opposed days/years. Speaking of which, I cannot wait for this movie Atlast Shrugged as my Russian friend handed me the printed version of it that has 1170 pages and the first thought that came to me was - maybe there is a movie already? let me imdb it. (Trivia: How many dates end with her handing you a HUGE book on capitalistic ideology? You must be thinking none but think again - I am still here! )

Movies and India

Indian Cinema is one of the largest centres of film production in the world. Movies are the ONLY form of entertainment in India after Cricket (or is it before Cricket?). It not just a livelihood for a few but it decides how, many people lead their lives. Let me tell you an example of how much Indians love movies. While shooting the movie Gandhi (1982), 300,000 extras appeared in the funeral sequence. About 200,000 were volunteers and 94,560 were paid a small fee (under contract). The sequence was filmed on 31st Jan 1981, the 33rd anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's funeral. 11 crews shot over 20,000 feet of film, which was pared down to 125 seconds in the final release. We loved Gandhi and we love movies, so when they were making a film about Gandhi - everyone in that locality showed up.

As a Kid growing up in India, you either play cricket or watch movies for entertainment. There is not much to do otherwise. If Sharukh Khan (Brad Pitt of Indian movies) or Sachin Tendulkar (the best cricketer ever) ran for government, I am pretty sure, they will win unanimously. There is no national religion of India but if there has to be one then it would be Movies and Cricket combined. Ok, if you are wondering if there is a point to all this... there is.

Movies, Me and Christianity

John till age 15, sucked pretty bad at cricket as all my friends were dicks and they would never let me play. They would just let me play coz they needed someone to field the ball ( but now, I rock at it ofcourse - not that I have better friends now { I still am friends with the same bunch of idiots, some people never learn} but I just got better by practicing). So the only other thing left to do was to watch movies. However, my family is pretty Christian, actually as christian as it gets ( Note. Indian Christianity is completely different from Western Christianity, just so you know). As Indian Christians, we are banned from watching Movies - Movies are bad, movies teach you nonsense, Movies are the devil and whatnot. Needless to say, my parents did not take me to any movies whatsoever. That's not true actually - my Dad took us to a couple of movies in my lifetime - If I remember it correctly, he took us to watch the following movies: (He was a huge hollywood fan too)

1. Jaws
2. The Spy who Loved Me
3. Thuderball (I think we saw it, but I am not sure)
4. Jurassic Park
5. Batman and Robin

So, correcting my earlier statement - According to Indian Christianity - It's ok to watch movies under parent supervision and on television but not with your friends -OMG, that is such a sin! You could go straight to hell for that - ( I never get this statement - "straight to hell" - like there is a stop in between where you party and then go to hell - what's with that? really? )

Movies and Me - The Original Sin

This is the sin that lured me the most as a kid and there were plenty of sins to choose from like not showering after school, eating without washing hands etc. I call it the original sin as this caused the fall of me - i.e. fall into the dark side (movies). Also this was the most perfectly planned sin of my childhood although it ended up being a disaster. I had to wait till I was 12 to have the balls to lie to my parents and go watch a movie. It was not that kind of movie (you pervert -we were kids) but a bilingual blockbuster hit in Telugu and Tamil called Prema Desam. I came up with a master plan to commit my first real sin. Here's the plan :

1. Get my brother involved coz then the punishment would be less if we get caught. Somehow, parents think the elder is to blame even when I do all the shit. Also, I love my brother. He was my hero. ( He was also my Wikipedia. JetLi can walk on water, Jackie Chan can climb Mount Everest - guess why? coz my brother said so. And I completely believed him. There's no other answer to any question after my brother enlightens me with an answer. PERIOD!)
2. Steal money from dad's secret locker - I never stole anything from others but just from my own house. The way I looked at it is, it's the family's money and I am family so its my money - isn't it? ( Once I took the last 100 rupee note in the locker and my mom asked me if I found any money lying around coz we really need it and that made me realize what I did and then I never stole again. She could have beaten the shit out of me and took it but she did not and hence the change in me.)
3. Come up with a story for being late from school - that was easy - Tutoring! In my school time, I've had more tutorials than actual classes in school but my grades DID NOT get any better though. (FYI, I was in the top 3 always so it was not such a big deal)
4. Catch a train back home from the movie theatre as we live right behind a railway station and the movie theatre is just a minute away from the next train station - Who buys a ticket for a train really? It's government property - In democracy, government is a servant of people and I am one of the people so the train is actually ours i.e. mine to ride for free whenever I want and to wherever I want.

It was a difficult job to get my brother into the whole grand scheme of things. He is not that big fan of Telugu movies - he likes action flicks and hollywood stuff. Convincing him to watch a Telugu romantic movie was the hardest part. After that was accomplished, everything else fell into place. We lied and we went to the movie - had so much fun eating a Re.1 popcorn packet - it actually lasted for a whole 2 seconds and the samosas we bought were gone before we started eating it. My brother still thinks I ate it all - and he's right. I am such a pig sometimes. Well, if you had one of those - you will be too.

The movie was really good, it was about friendship and love triangle basically Pearl Harbour without the war and without someone disappearing for a while and without all the cool graphics and without the love scenes. It was a classic. Like all movies, even this movie although a classic came to an end and then reality sank in. We had to go home.

We were singing the songs from the movie while walking back to the train station little did we know that this night was not over yet. As always, my fate interrupted and the train was delayed by an hour and half. Now, we were going to be in deep shit. Our parents were surely waiting for us to get back home and we were in soo much trouble. FYI, when Indian parents are mad - the kids have scars. Not that they are necessarily evil but those scars are reminders for us kids of the bad things that we have done. I am now such a good person coz my parents used to beat the shit out of me when I tried to even think of doing anything evil. Even today, I think of my mom before doing something crazy. Don't worry it's a good thing. Trust me!

Anyways, getting back to the story - we reached home at 11:30 in the night. We were stupid enough to think that we could just sneak in and wake up next morning as if nothing happened. But as soon as we snuck in, all the lights in the house came on. My mom was standing right in front of us. I still remember her face very vividly. She had this expression that I have never seen before and I normally manage to squeeze out a lot of expressions out of her. I knew I was in shit deep up to my neck - heck even my brother's neck (he was taller than me at the time but now I have out grown him ) for that matter.

I was ready to get crucified and say my last prayers when I saw my Mom bring out my Dad's BIG leather belt. That was the ultimate weapon. Anyone who sees that belt must have done something really, really bad. I was pretty sure I deserved it and that my funeral will have my own meat curry. I once saw my Dad hit someone with that belt, I do not remember who but I remember that he cried for days. So, THE BELT was gonna be used on us anytime now and there was no escape. My Mom was standing at the only exit to that room and she had a weird look. I knew it was the judgement night and my first sin ever awakened the evil in my Mom. I closed my eyes and prayed that it ends with the least amount of pain and scars.

One minute passed and nothing happened. Two minutes passed and nothing happened. I opened my eyes looking to to see God or the Devil as I was pretty sure I was dead and was actually happy that I did not suffer at all. But to my surprise, it was my Mom. She was handing us the belt and she said "Go on, take it and hit me!" I could not believe my eyes and ears. How was this possible? I mean HOW? A minute ago, I was pretty sure she was gonna kill me and now this? What is going on? This must be a trap. What do I do?

Amidst all this confusion, she spoke again. She said "It was my fault to raise you like this. It was wrong of me to trust you and give you the freedom. How stupid was I to think that my sons would never lie to me? blabalababla ..... more blalablalba ..... even more blabalalbbla...

My ears shut down at that point and I was brain dead already. If you think I am a dramatic, you should meet my mom. If I am a soap then she's the opera. And a grand one that lasts forever. Needless to say, there were dialogues, punchlines, tears and a lot of promises that we made. Fortunately, there were no scars from that night. No physical scars at least.

Movies and Me - The Original Sin (Aftermath)

From that day on, I wish I can say I never lied to my mom but who am I kidding? I did lie even after that, I did go to movies even after that, I did sneak in even after that but I just made sure my mom would not catch me again. May be she knew but she did not bother. Well, that was my first sin folks. My first movie without permission. And since then I have become a huge movie buff and even now I watch a lot of meaningless crap and continue to enjoy it.

THE END

Indian Idol 5 - Best Performances

2010-08-14T20:14:00.005-04:00

Shreeram Chandra - Khwaja Mere Khwaja

Shreem Chandra - Breathless with Shankar Mahadevan

Swaroop Khan - Jau kahan

Rakesh Maini - Tumne Mujhe Dekha

Bhoomi Trivedi - Meter Down

Swaroop and Sattar - Bhawra aaya rey

If you want the mp3s some of the best performances, please find the link below. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

http://www.mediafire.com/?4yykin9o5io5s

My name is John - yes it really is!

2010-08-10T14:55:00.026-04:00

You guys have been so patient reading all my idiotic stories and hence I've decided to give you an executive pass to have an exclusive "behind the scenes" look into my life. What makes John, John? What drives me to do such stupid stuff? and Why am I so irritatingly interesting? (wait, I am? you just agree with everything, don't you? you loser!) FUN FUN FUN. (It's ALT+F4 in case you forgot).

Well, for those who are still here - I'm gonna have to start somewhere so I will start with my name. You are thinking, how long can a story about a simple name be right? With me, every story is long - you should have known by now. If not, you are either really slow or you've never read my blog (new user? yay!).

My name is John - yes that is my real name and not something I gave myself after I got off the boat. I am for real John and that is what my parents named me. It is my birth name. It is my only name. I donot go by any other name coz I donot need it. I have a perfectly good firstname, middlename and a lastname why would I need another name? Isnt it annoying to read all this fuss about my name? Now, imagine telling it to everyone you meet for your entire life coz when I introduce myself everyone says "Really? what is your Indian Name?" or "What's your name in Indian?" and I am like "Dude, I do not have an Indian name. And, there is no language called Indian. Get it?".

My name has been my biggest problem for my whole entire life. Even as a grown adult I still deal with these idiotic questions on a daily basis. You can imagine how much fun it must have been as a kid in INDIA where you can count the number of Johns on fingers even though there are 1.18 billion people (and counting) there. Back home, everyone around me had a indian sounding name like shyam, venu, viseshu, pavan or sarada but that was a luxury I could never have. My parents loved me soo much and made me uniquely precious with an alien sounding name (for India that is) - JOHN. Interesting thing about this is when you call the name "John" in India - people immediately turn heads to see who this kid is (I'm not kidding, they really do). As if that wasn't enough, my parents gave me the middle name Jimmy (can u feel the love?) - now, you HAVE to see what John Jimmy looks like amidst prasads, mohans and what not. And I was quite popular in school and college - may be partly coz of the unique name. I turned more heads with my name than with my looks. No, I dont blame them.

My full name is a bit interesting for the lack of a better term. I was pretty sure my parents hated me but one day not so long ago I asked my dad (thankfully I did ask just before he passed away) why the heck did he give me this name and why he hated me so much and he asked in return "you dont like it?" and I am like after 25 years you will like anything, ANYTHING really. You can name me a freaking BATTERY or something and I would learn to live with it and love it. Just for the record, I do like my name very much now. I really do coz I realize that it could have been much worse (relatively speaking) i.e. something like SukDeep or something.

Did I mention that all my siblings have perfectly Indian sounding names - my brother is Anand Prasad, sisters - Swaroopa Rani and Prasanna Rani. Yes, it's true. I think that is what makes me so angry. My parents decided to experiment with me. Lucky me yay! They had my elder sis Swaroopa first, then my brother Anand and decided to go crazy with me and then got their senses back with my little sis Prasanna. Had my little sis had an American name like Lucy, Jenny or whatever - I would have been less pissed off I guess. (Consistency people - is it to much to ask for?) But they cherry picked me to mess with. And that's why I thought my parents hated me. When I tell people in India my name, they get curious and ask what my siblings names are as if we're a freak family or something like - "you have this disease, lets see what your siblings have" sort of thing... and when I tell them my sibling's names- they always go like, "What's wrong with you then?" and I just smile. I dont know why honestly.

Anyways, here's the big moment of truth - It turns out, my dad watched a Bollywood film "Disco Dancer" which was released around the same time I was born and he liked it so much that he decided to name me Jimmy as the lead character's name was Jimmy. But my grandfather had other plans for me. My grandpa wanted to name me something from Bible and that too John to be specific. You see, everyone had a say what to name me - except ME of course. Well Einstein, I see your point - I was a toddler right? But they could have atleast asked me to point at names written on paper or let me choose from a raffle right? I'm pretty sure, they did no such thing given how stubborn my dad and granddad were. Finally after a lot of going back and forth - they ended up naming me both John & Jimmy and I am still paying the price.

Kids in school used to tease me as Jimmy is a common name for a dog back in India. Interestingly or Unfortunately, all the dog names in India are American/English be it Jimmy, Tommy, Jacky, and what not. And to add to that I was not that easy on looks. I was never the cutest kid in the class. Whenever they call my name, as expected people turn to look and they have this disappointed look in their faces - like "This is John Jimmy?". I did not understand what they were expecting, were they expecting Brad Pitt or something? I took me awhile but I got used to the turning heads and disappointed looks. It did not bother me for long. I am too positive to be bothered by such trivial stuff - except when the girl's hot. But I always wanted to say this to all those people - "Look, I am sorry I am not Brad Pitt and quite honestly I dont understand why I have to be Brad Pitt - I am John Jimmy, DEAL WITH IT! If you think you can be a better 'John Jimmy' - then please be my guest!"

Life is not that easy when you name your kid without considering the environment he grows up in. I think, there needs to be atleast a bunch of laws on what to name a kid.

Louis CK nails it in this video :

Britches

2010-08-03T16:49:00.016-04:00

We had a test release the other day and I sent out an email informing the team to test the new build. Here are the people involved.

1. Lori M - my manager
2. Yong L - my colleague
3. Kimberly B - my crazy colleague
4. Christi B - Kim's manager
5. John D - Me ofcourse!

The Emails

From: John Dondapati
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:12 AM

Guys,
We’ve just deployed the new build onto the development server. Please test!
--
Thanks,
John

From: Yong L
Sent: Fri 5/21/2010 11:27 AM

I’ll be on vacation from 6/18 to 7/10. Let’s do as much as we can before that time frame.
Happy clicking… :-)
--
Yong

From:Kimberly B
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:34 AM

Who approved that vacation??? I want one those!!!!! hehe
--
Kim

From: John Dondapati
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:49 AM

Well Kim, are you gonna go home to China? I don’t think so!
Besides, you work from home remember? Heheh!

And that’s why you don’t get a vacation. So, there - I took care of it for you Lori!
--
John

From: Lori M
Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 12:00:50 -0400

Thanks John!!
Sometimes Kim gets a bit big for her britches eh??? Hahah!!
--
Thanks!
Lori M, Project Manager

The Autocomplete

You have to understand how human mind works in order to understand why this harmless email chain has caused a chaos. I normally have "Autocomplete" ON in my mind. I do not read anything completely and just try to complete it with something I already know. That's how everyone thinks/reads normally so I am normal -thank you! And when I read the above email, I missed the 'r' in the word 'britches' which is an honest mistake right?

Hence the original sentence :
"Kim gets a bit big for her britches"

became
"Kim gets a bit big for her bitches"

And once my mind is set on something, it will only see what it wants to see, so no matter how many times I read the email, I read bitches instead of britches. I clearly did not understand what my manager meant. And when I do not understand something, my creative side of the brain kicks in and I try to assume and create. In the process, I tried to dissect the sentence and understand it.

The Grammatical Analysis

The original sentence :
"Kim gets a bit big for her britches"

The new sentence after Autocomplete :
"Kim gets a bit big for her bitches"

Breakdown :

Subject : Kim
Objects : Bitches
Verb : gets a bit big

Reconstruction :

Who is Kim?
Ans : I know Kim. Kim is my colleague/friend.

What happened to my friend Kim?
Ans: She's got a bit Big.

Big for what?
Ans: Big for her bitches.

Who are her bitches?
Ans: There are five people in the email - Kim, Lori, Christi, Yong and Me. Since lori sent the email it cannot be her. Since she is talking about Kim, it cannot be kim. Christi is Kim's Boss so she cannot be Kim's bitch, it has to be the other way around -i.e. Kim has to be Christi's bitch if at all there needs to be some kind of bitch-hood between them. So, the only two other people left on the email are Yong and me. So, Yong and I have to be Kim's bitches. (But why? )

Reconstructing the sentence : : Yong and I are Kim's bitches? What the fuck?

The Chaos

With the new developments in mind, I walked up to my good friend/colleague Ms.Calendra P and complained with a sad little puppy face "I think my manager just called me a Bitch!" which completely takes her by surprise and she's like "I'm sorry, what did you just say?" so I repeat again "I think my manager just called me Kim's Bitch along with Yong".

Calendra says "No, I am pretty sure - Lori would not call you that - what happened?" and I said "I am pretty sure she did, look at the email yourself" offering her the email to look at. She reads it and blasts out laughing and tells me that she actually used the word Britches and not bitches which means pants/trousers.

But it still didnt make sense and in my mind I am still going crazy. Kim's too big for her trousers? What does that mean? Why would Kim be too big for her trousers? She has another thing coming? (are these two expressions related?) Is the joke on Kim? So, yong are I are safe but why is my manager calling my friend Kim a transvestite? May be Lori meant Bitches and misspelt it? Who made Calendra a Linguistic expert? What does she know?

Calendra goes on to explain that it's a southern expression to say that someone's Conceited (excessively proud of oneself), a.k.a self-important and saved me from doing yet another analysis/breakdown and reconstruction although I was mid-way by that time.

That seemed to make sense and I was satisfied with the reasonable explanation that Calendra offered me. So, I called Kim and explained her the confusion and that the Joke's on her (haha). So, Kim in-turn conferences in Lori as she thinks this is hilarious for some reason and we all have some good laughs for a solid 15 mintues. Although, Kim wanted to conference in Christi who is totally intimidating even for a grown man like me. I'm really scared of her and if I must explain how much then it's something like this - I can walk up to the devil and and look it in the eye and say "Fuck you!" but I would not walk up to Christi and say "You look good!". She's that intimidating. Thank god she didn't call her in.

At the end, it was all good. I am no one's bitch and I still have my job. yay! :)

Moral of the Story

Be careful when u read important emails from important people but not too careful that u overanalyse the situation. And use a language that is more common when you have immigrants like me working for you and for whom English is a third language although the medium of instruction is English in our schools. We think in our mother tongue first and then translate it and there's a lot that gets lost in the translation.

Meet the Neighbours

2010-08-03T01:22:00.025-04:00

This is me in the pic - you can tell how nice I am from the look - cant you?

And this is Jane - my neighbour and resident evil. I am sure all her friends would agree!

And here's the story of how we met!

All the readers of my blog ( that is a pretty big number - two to be precise i.e. including me) read it religiously and are up to date with my life. So if you are reading this, chances are you are the other and you must be already familiar with my Blood Rice Cooker Triology, if not read the part 1, part 2 and part 3 to understand my perspective on the random events that happened on one night when I met my neighbour. (please, read it -for the love of god. please! )

Interestingly, it turns out that I am not the only one who's writing about that night. My neighbour (the evil in the image here) also thought it was the greatest moment of her life too and decided to write a story to share with the world. Although she was very unwilling to share it with me coz she thought there might be something in there that can offend me (as unlikely as it sounds - sure, I get offended too sometimes). Little does she know that there are so many few things in this world that can upset me. That's a whole different conversation and we are not discussing my self respect or the lack of it here.

I had to rush and finish the last installment of the Bloody Rice Cooker triology just to get her to send me her story. That was the deal we made as the good old "persistent nagging" did not do the trick this time. FYI, She's pretty good at ignoring stuff and that's an useful skill.

I think my version is much more colourful and dramatic while her's is a bit dry with formal language and reporterisque (did I just invent a word? yay! ) narrative. To be fair, she wrote it on the same night and for a limited audience who had a life unlike me who has to entertain the world (i.e. you my friend - you can stop looking over your shoulder now! ). So, you can imagine she lacked the creative juices and the will to entertain.

Without any further blablabla, I present you "Meet the Neighbors" (thats the title - but that does not mean I am the focker. Also, she's american and hence "Neighbor" and not "Neighbour" - I can see you are paying attention to detail.). Here's her perspective on things.

Disclaimer : No, I did not edit anything. This is totally her version. Yes, this is what she sent me!

Meet the Neighbors

preamble:
i came back from the park and was walking into my apartment complex
as some random guy from the first floor suggested me to lock both
lower and upper locks (since we had a string of burlglaries in the
complex). he said that when he locked himself out of the apartment
using the lower lock the maintenance guy only took a second to open
it.
i said, "i see" as i continued up the stairs...

main part:
on the second floor i passed by a sad sad indian guy with bare feet
dejectedly sitting next to an apartment door. his head was bowed low,
his eyes bloodshot as he looked up at me with an expression of utter
despair...

i got home and jumped on the bed with a sigh, stretching next to my
computer when i heard a knock on the door. the sad indian guy was
standing outside. i opened the door, wondering what kind hopeless
situation he may be in, looking pretty disheveled and sweaty in his
button down blue shirt, khaki shorts and no shoes...

sorrowfully he related to me how he locked himself out of his
apartment when he bended to pick up a package delivered to him... he
did not even have his shoes on. he's been sitting outside and
wondering the streets for the past 2.5 hours, while waiting on his
roommate who went for swimming lessons. and could i, please, give
this dying man a glass of water and my cell phone so that he can call
him and ask whether he is ever planning to be back. of course i gave
him water, tea, cookies, frozen yogurt, phone and use of my computer
so that he could look up his roommate's phone number (damn smart
phones we never remember anyone's numbers anymore). i also offered
the comfort of my home, my company and gossip girl on tv until such
time as his roommate would show up. for that he told me his sad story
of waiting, when an old lady ran from him because he had no shoes (he
explained to her that indians don't wear shoes) and a boy on a golf
course wanted him for a target practice "daddy, can i hit the homeless
guy?"

in 30 or so minutes he left to check whether his renegade roommate has
shown up and promptly came back as i was sticking corn into the
boiling water. in another five minutes came a knock on the door.
another indian guy, with shoes on entered my apartment. it was the
long lost roommate. "i locked myself out", he pronounced and went on
to explain how he opened the door, put his swimming gear in, and went
outside to pick up a package sitting by the door as it swung closed
and locked him out... with his shoes still on. as i slowly slid down
the wall laughing, the barefoot indian programmer lamented that nobody
will ever believe the story. the second indian programmer said "speak
for yourself, i won't tell anyone" and i added "no worries, i will".
we sat around for a while chatting and eating cookies until the
maintenance guy came and finally let the guys back into the
apartment... my barefoot visitor looked down at the package and
sighed: "i read the instructions to this damn rice cooker in spanish,
and i don't even speak spanish!".

conclusion:
in 5 minutes there was another knock on the door, they wanted my phone
number.........

continuation follows?

In my defense, She's offered me the phone number - I just cashed it. But I'd have totally asked for it if she hadn't offered it but that didnt happen - did it?

That's that. What do you think? Vote and let me know which one you like. And as my reader I'd expect you to vote for me. I hate to block out my only reader so dont make me do it.

Show some Loyalty soldier - get down and give me 10 RIGHT NOW.

Bloody Rice Cooker - Part 3

2010-07-19T15:21:00.006-04:00

To the Critics: I know I am dragging this but I dont have anything else to say on my blog so read it or not..

Quick Recap: I was locked out of my apartment without my mobile or footwear or anything on me and my attempts to have fun while I wait are turning into disasters. Finally I have some company in the form of a really nice/hot neighbour who was crazy enough to entertain me while I wait for my roommate whom I instructed not disturb me while I try to get to know this girl. Ok, you are now up to date. Go on - read this final installment and let me know how much of an idiot my roommate is.

I was having a good nice quality time with my upstairs neighbour for a while when I remembered that my roommate might be home so I checked downstairs to see if he's home. Actually I did not care and he was the last thing on my mind but it was getting kind of late and the hot girl suggested I should check coz I seem to be making the couch pretty much home. She's right in a way coz I used her mobile, laptop, restroom, tv, couch and ate her magic mushrooms in the 30 mts I was there so she might be thinking "Why dont you just move in?".

So, realizing that I cannot just move into her apartment on the night we met (not to mention in the most idiotic circumstances) I was walking down the stairs and saw my roommate waiting for me in the hallway. Touched by my roommate's genuine care and concern for me, I wanted to hug him (one of those, awww! sorta moments) but restrained myself from doing so as it's gay in almost any country not just USA. So, I told him "Dude, its really sweet but you dont have to wait for me in the hallway. I am a grown adult locked out without slippers thats all!"

And he turns to me and he says "Dude, you wont believe what just happened!" which got my instant attention as he went on to explain that he came home and went in put all his stuff on the coffee table like he always does like a well programmed robot and remembered seeing the parcel out at the door (I left it there after reading the spanish instruction manual for the bloody rice cooker), so stepped out to check out parcel and put one step in the door but the door slammed (its a heavy door, you dont wanna put your leg when it slams shut- trust me I've been there and done that) and he had to take his foot out resulting in yet another classic lock out for the night!"

It took me a minute to process the information while my roommate smiled at my void face like he finished first in a pie eating contest or something. When I realized that my dumb roommate did the same exact mistake I did just a couple of hours earlier, I could not do anything but to sit there and laugh my ass off. It was laugh of relief that I am not the only idiot on the planet. It was laugh of "what an idiot" type of rejoice. After two minutes of complete cacophony of deafening horse grunts (thats the closest natural sound that describes our laughter) we went up stairs again.

Same song and dance - I knock on the door, she comes out with that weird expression in her face but this time add "Now, what?" to the previous expressions. And I was laughing at the stupidity of my roommate and its more fun this time coz its not me who's the idiot for a change. I finally catch my breath and told her "Guess what, my roommate is also locked out!" and I am sure the first things that went in her head is "Is this guy for real? This is the world's worst pick up ever! Do I look that dumb? "

Realizing how difficult it is for a normal sane person to comprehend this insane sequence of random events - we sat down while my idiot roommate explained her how it all happened and she goes "I can believe that!" and I am like "Are you serious? How can u believe that he did the same exact stupid thing I did on the same exact night?" to which she says "Yes, it is possible that two idiots can live together!" Very True indeed! - I told u she was a scientist right?

Finally, we all sit down and laugh about it and call the apartment maintenance to come rescue us. Half an hour later, we got into our apartment along with the Bloody Rice Cooker!

-----------------------------THE END------------------------

I called my mom and told her the whole incident (not focusing on the hot girl though) and the first thing she says is "You gotta get yourself a new roommate - that kid's dumb!" :)

Bloody Rice Cooker - Part 2

2010-07-16T11:19:00.016-04:00

As I was waiting in the hallway for someone to rescue me, my neighbour from upstairs who I only know as the HOT-GIRL walked in. She was on phone so I didnt bother disturbing her. But she gave me a funny look (u know the routine "what's wrong with you" look) as I was sitting on the floor barefoot outside a locked door in the hallway.

As time seemed to freeze, new troubles started for me. Now, I have to take a leak and I am thirsty. It's weird how you need input and to output at the same time. My body needs water which is why I am thirsty but I also have to take a leak which means my body has too much of water. Human body is not something I understand so I left it at that. But my body did not. I really had to go. So, I knocked on my single-african american-kind of hot-neighbours' door but no response. She's not home. Perfect! My luck was laughing at me and I could hear it. Anyways, I know that the other apartment is vacant so my options were :
a. the old chinese lady across the hall (really? I dont know why I am counting this as an option either)
b. the vietnamese veteran from downstairs (I am sure he had shot gun handy)
c. the pakistani couple that never smiles from downstairs. (well, he is pakistani.. and I am an Indian so we are already enemies before we even met)
d. the hot russian brunette from upstairs. (hell, yeah! if u ever heard a russian girl speak, u know why I am so excited. Their accent turns even gay men on.)

It's anyone's guess who I picked. No, its not the old chinese lady. I chose to knock on the hot Russian's door duh!

She opens the door and has this puzzled look which I can only summarize as "Who the fuck are you? What do you want? Why dont you have any slippers on? What's with that beard?" kind of look. So, I opened my mouth but no words came out. I guess my brain is trying to come up with a story to explain my current situation but it is having a tough time as the eyes are too busy with visual feast right in front my eyes. Finally, I pulled it together and said "Hi, I live downstairs. I know this is gonna sound crazy but I am locked out without my cellphone, footwear and car keys. Can you help me out?". She said "Sure, come on in. You could use my phone to call someone". I took the phone and said thank you - only then I realized I dont know my roommate's number. Who remember's numbers right? So, she was like - "Well, do you want me to guess the digits for you?" and I remembered why I bought my iPhone.

It's mainly because I can find it if I ever lose it through mobileme. It's a service which can locate your phone and store your data on the cloud. I periodically (more like religiously to be honest) sync my contacts, bookmarks and mail on me.com which is real useful if you ever lose your phone. So, I asked her if I could use her laptop. She was real nice and let me use it. Needless to say I found the number and called my roommate while my new friend is making a cup of hot tea for me that I could drink while eating the frozen yogurt and crumbled cookies that looked like magic mushrooms. She was more than happy to have some company as she lives alone. She constantly kept apologizing for the mess which made me think how much organized I am regardless of the crap I seem to accumulate around my bed. We had some nice time together watching some "only-for-young-american-teens" drama on the antique 21" Television from 1950s that she might have stolen from a museum in DC coz there's no way you would have TV that small yet HUGE these days.

So, we had some time to kill so I started poking around and asking her questions about her and stuff in general. She plays piano (or is it keyboard? now u know how much I know music) and has a lot of paintings hanging around. Interestingly, one of them is her portrait. Hmmm, she said her friend tried to paint her once and that was the result. It was close, I can see the resemblance but I would have never guessed it was her. A hot girl with paintings, portraits of her and piano - who would not wanna find out what she does for a living right? So, I asked and get this! She's a Research Scientist. A SCIENTIST for real - I always think of either Albert Einstein or Tom cruise when I hear the word scientist. That's as close as I can get to that word. Why Tom cruise? well, coz of the scientology and stuff. Anyways, the point here is she's beauty with brains.

So, I called my roommate and told him to take his time and should not rush returning home. I gave him clear instructions not to worry about me and not to disturb me either.

to be continued....

Bloody Rice Cooker - Part 1

2010-07-13T08:36:00.010-04:00

As the title suggests, its a story about a Bloody Rice cooker which caused a turmoil yesterday.

It all started when someone knocked on the door at 6:45 last night, but by the time I opened the door there was no one so I looked around and found a parcel at the door - curious to check it out I stepped out and accidentally locked myself out. There have been a few robberies recently in my neighbourhood and we made it a habit to keep the lock on so that it automatically locks when we step out. Hence the lock out. Interestingly, I dont wear any footwear when I am home, that's a habit I brought with me from India. So, now I am locked out, with no key, no car, no cellphone, no money, no wallet and worse no foot wear. This would have been a problem for anyone but not me. I am too positive to be bothered by such trivial things besides I know that my roommate who just stepped out is gonna be back in an hour or atleast that is what I thought at the time. So, I decided to make good use of my time and take a walk, yes barefoot (good catch, so you've been paying attention I see).

I live in an apartment complex surrounded by golf course - it's pretty scenic and that was one of the reasons why we chose this place. So, I sat on the golf course laughing at my stupidity and enjoying the beautiful sunset coz there's nothing much I can do without any mechanical help. It was a much needed time off the routine things. I took a stroll down the memory lane and remembered how I used to play cricket barefoot back home and how it never bothered me much back then. We actually had a life without mobiles and computers and what not. We were just kids and there was nothing that could stop us from having fun. We did not need no fancy gadgets or anything to have some good clean quality fun with friends. So what happened to all that - how did I turn out to be a gadget freak with my iPhone 4 and mac book? I actually stood in line for 8 long hours to get me the brand new iPhone 4 on the day it was released. What went wrong? So, I kept thinking all this sitting on the golf course barefoot while the joggers who passed by were looking at me funny.

To make things more interesting, a dad was teaching his kid golf and the kid was getting bored hitting a tiny ball in a small hole on a huge patch of grass. So, the kid must have asked the dad "Can I hit the homeless guy sitting over there instead?" pointing at me. And dad must have said "Knock him out son!" coz the kid started targeting me. You see, I am not much of a golfer but I know that there are no moving targets in golf. So, it didnt take long for me to figure out that I was the target after all the kid was shooting at me. So, unable to come up with a reasonable story on how I could explain the situation to the doctor if the kid actually succeeded in his mission - I decided to get out of there before I get hurt.

Now, deprived of some quiet time alone - I was forced to come back home and wait in the hall way. Bored out of my mind, I decided to check to see if the parcel that caused all this was worth the fuss. It's from Amazon.com and that is where I normally buy books from. So, hoping to find a good read I opened the parcel. But to my surprise, It was Rice Cooker. And guess what, we already have a rice cooker. I dont know why my roommate ordered another one. Anyways, needless to say there was nothing to read in there except for the Rice Cooker Manual. So, I did the right thing and read the whole manual for about an hour. I even read the instructions in Spanish and I dont even speak spanish. You can guess, how bored I was.

to be continued....

Happy Birthday Sis!

2010-07-07T14:24:00.004-04:00

It's my little sister's birthday today. Spoke to her this morning for a while - she wants me to come home for good. Her words stir up a storm inside my head. I've been thinking for a while about it and when my little sis said those words, I just wanted to pack and go. But I can't - not yet. I have some stuff to take care first.

Anyways, It's her birthday today - so let 's talk about her. She's the purest thing in my life. When I think of her - I always think of this cute little 8 yr old kid with pig tails and innocent smile through wide teeth. She's my little sister. She does not want much from me. Whenever I talk to her - I ask her if she wants anything but she just doesn't want anything. She's happy where she is. She is a happy little bee. She's gonna be a doctor soon. Wow, my little sis is gonna be a doc! Time just flies!

When I gift her something, it feels soo good inside. It's like I want to give her stuff just to make myself feel good. Her smile brightens my day. I remember taking her to school everyday and making her tell lies so that we can skip school sometimes. She was like my little side kick when we were in school. Once I got hurt doing something stupid in the school and I remember her crying so much. I did not cry until I saw her cry.

It's a shame i cant be there with my family to celebrate her birthday. As kids, we used to look forward to July sooo much coz both our birthdays are in July. We would get a new pair of clothes and we get to be soo special for one whole day. We weren't that rich growing up so it was a pretty big deal.

Anyways, this brings back a lot of memories as you can see. Happy Birthday Prasanna - I hope all your dreams come true and I will make sure that they will. I love you soo much and you mean a world to me. I miss you.

Love,
your brother
John

I Pray For you!

2010-06-03T14:24:00.001-04:00

I haven't been to church since I don't remember when
Things were going great til they fell apart again
So I listened to the preacher as he told me what to do
He said you can't go hatin' others who have done wrong to you
Sometimes we get angry but we must not condemn
Let the good Lord do his job, you just pray for them

I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill
I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill
And knocks you in the head like I'd like to
I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls
I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls
I pray all your dreams never come true
Just know wherever you are, honey, I pray for you

I'm really glad I found my way to church
Cause I'm already feelin' better and I thank God for the words
Yeah, I'm gonna take the high road and do what the preacher told me to do
You keep messin' up, and I'll keep prayin' for you

I pray your tire goes out at 110
I pray you pass out drunk with your best friend
And wake up with his and her tattoos

I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill
I pray a flower pot falls from a window sill
And knocks you in the head like I'd like to
I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls
I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls
I pray all your dreams never come true
Just know wherever you are, near or far
In your house or in your car
Wherever you are, honey, I pray for you
I pray for you

Courtesy : Pray For You Lyrics by Jaron And the Long Road Ahead

Random Thoughts

2010-05-24T15:16:00.003-04:00

I've been doing a lot of "nothing" these days even when I am busy doing something. My mind seems to do a lot of touring around while I just physically sit there in my cube doing routine stuff without any thought to it. Not that i am being dishonest to my job duties but its just that it has become second nature and I dont seem to be needing any brain activity for that routine mundane tasks.

I dont really know where it goes, what it does, how it manages to disappear and reappear without my intervention. It's amazing what a mind can do. It can wander off to places far far away in a split second and then resurface as if it never left.

I once read Human Brain is the only living organ that monitors itself. If it is true, does that mean that the surveillance and monitoring system of my brain has a loop hole? Does that mean my mind has evolved so much so that it can skip being monitored? Am I a mutated human? Am I a superior Organism?

You see, these are the sort of things that keep my mind busy even while I am doing something important. Some of the other thoughts being :

Topic : Death

Where does the soul go after death?
What happens to my facebook profile after I die?
Who will get my gmail access? // Banks are pretty straightforward
What happens during death? We always thought of it as a painful experience but what if it's the most beautiful and real experience ever?
Why do we die? To make room for the new ones to come? Or just simple session TIME OUT?
Why is death feared? For the loss of life that we all seem to waste anyways?

Topic : Movies

Where is this 3D revolution taking us? the more the merrier I know but in the quest to entertain we might miss out the heart and soul of the movie i.e. Drama

Topic : Jobs

I have doubled my income every year in the past 3-4 years. And it looks like I have come to a point of stagnation for a while unless I do something really fantastic or utterly stupid. Should I be satisfied with what I have and just go on with the routine for the fear of losing this or should I be more pro-active and keep on the look out for new things and waste my life in a never ending quest?

Topic : Marriage

Why do people get married? Is it coz they are afraid of being alone for the rest of their life? Is it coz it has been labelled the "right thing" to do when you reach a certain age?

Topic : Charity & Life

We are all moved by the life that the disabled lead i.e. the blind, mute, deaf and challenged. They are all out there unable to help themselves even to do the most mundane thing like walk or see or hear or talk. These people need help 24/7. They cannot do most of the things we do. They all have major problems unlike us. Their life is a struggle from the start to finish. The things that we take for granted are a dream for them. Most of them would never be able to do what we do with no thought. We all know someone like that. But do we help them. Apart from a once in a year feel-guilty-hence-donate or feel-good-like-to-share type of charity stuff, do we care for them at all? We go about our routines forgetting everything else and immersing ourselves in our own world that we created for ourselves. Is it selfish or just normal? I am not saying we should give our lives to help them for the rest of our lives but what can we do? What is our purpose in this life?

Is it to live our life the way we want to and just go about minding our own business turning a blind eye to the less fortunate? Is it about helping everyone and finding happiness in other's? Is it stupid to live your life for others? Is it possible in this new world? Can such thing be done especially after you have seen all the good things that you have seen? How far should one go in helping others and not losing one's self? How can I care for myself without being selfish? Being charitable is one thing and living life for others is another. I am very moved by the film Beyond Borders (starring Angelina Jolie) but would I ever be able to do any such thing? Would I be able to forgive myself if I dont? Can I live being just another human ?

Does it matter how much I earn here and how happy I make my family in afterlife? Who are my duties and responsibilities towards? Was Gandhi right in ignoring his family and setting a country free? Was he wrong for leaving his kid to ruins and taking care of strangers? What is the purpose of this life? Why are we here?

Online Dating and what to expect!

2010-05-20T13:51:00.004-04:00

It's funny how I landed in the online dating world. I was being interviewed awhile ago by the creator of eharmony.com for a position in web 3.0 company and I was checking him out just to see what his background is and stumbled upon eharmony.com. After that excruciating zillion questions about me and my partner preferences, I was exhausted but at the same time I wanted some ROI (Return on Investment) for the time I wasted and was never getting back. So, I started browsing and noticed how many people are out there trying to find that someone special. So, I joined the league and ever since I've been on this quest to find that super smart/caring/loving/intelligent/kind/cute/smoking-hot girl.

Here's alittle theory I have on Online Dating. It helps you to understand what to expect there.

Disclaimer : I am not a veteran in the online dating field but I have been watching and closely observing this space for a while hoping to build a desi dating site someday. My intentions are purely business related and nothing else. Also this might be a good point to mention that I did not stalk anyone to come up with this theory.

I noticed that online dating sites are like Mangolian Grills. There are five kinds of people (broadly speaking) in there.
1. The hungry a.k.a. desperate //the label is self-explanatory
2. The smart/cheap //who want a big meal for small price (call it smart or cheap)
3. The bored //who are bored off routine sandwiches.
4. The adventurous and humanitarian. (you can totally tell - I belong here, cant you?)
5. The silent observers a.k.a stalkers and spies. //I DONT belong in this group although it looks like it - just so you know!

The hungry/desperate ones are there for a reason and they know it well. They try whatever looks good and sometimes they lie and cheat just to satisfy the hunger. Once their hunger is satisfied they might not be a good partner. Rule of Thumb - desperate people are dangerous!

The smart ones are there coz they dont wanna spend too much out there and wanna get money's worth. In this context, going out to a bar daily and trying to fish for girls is just time consuming and an expensive affair. Besides, who has time and patience right? The problem here is that they are here to fish but they dont want any fish - they have their preferences and biases. They want certain height, weight, complexion, caste, creed, religion and income. Preference is good but bias is not (well, not always). They walk in there and see a decent amount of choice but in their mind they know what they exactly want. You cannot reason with them unless you fall in that small circle they draw around themselves.

The bored ones - now there is a story here. They have tried all things possible and are just bored. They are tired and exhausted. They wanna settle down. More often than not, these people have a great story to share but they often tend not to share it. They tend to hide it for reasons very personal sometimes reasonable and rightly so and sometimes afraid of judgement. They dont have that fresh enthusiasm and outlook to life that is quintessential to keep a relationship fresh and interesting. They have this "Whatever" attitude which is quite boring at times.

The adventurous ones - also the humanitarians - They will try everything atleast once before they say no to it. They are open minded, fresh and interesting. I probably fall in this category We dont have a closed mind but we do have certain standards.

The silent observers - They are mostly observing the space looking for something. They might be here trying their luck or they might be too shy and insecure or their might be evaluating the business value of such sites or they might be spying on someone or they might just be stalking someone. You never know and You should not know! Sometimes, It's invasion of their privacy that pisses them off!

So, there you go - Online Dating, what to expect 101 for you. Hope it helps you. Guns and Roses are welcome!

The Algorithm of Life

2010-04-07T15:42:00.009-04:00

Ok, I am on a very tedious process of discovering myself to know what I am, what I can be, what I was and what I've become. In this process, I have discovered some truths of life. As I am programmer, I am thinking of this as a "Algorithm of Life". Everyone's life has a different algorithm. And, this is mine.

Why Algorithm?
An algorithm is a sequence of decisions that make up the program. Similarly, my life is a cumulative process of the decisions I've made. For e.g. I am an Engineer because I choose to be one, I am a Christian because I choose to be one. So, it makes sense to look at the process of these life transforming decisions as a algorithm.
NOTE: I am aware that some of the decisions of our lives are not taken by us which means that all these different algorithms are intertwined to create a giant program called the Universe. But, lets start with one at a time.

The way I seem to live life is by being reactive more, than being pro-active. I seem to react to the problems that I face with and life happens when attending to these problems otherwise its just plain old boring with the never changing routine. Look at it this way, I am driving straight unless I am faced with a junction. At this junction, we have to make a choice whether to turn left or right or go straight or turn back. I call these junctions - Problems. When I say problems, I mean decisions that are abit more serious than what to eat now and whether to watch movie or sleep. Problem sounds a bit misnomer but its not actually.

A problem is a decision to be made in the Algorithm of Life.

According to the wiki, A problem is an "issue" or obstacle which makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal, objective or purpose. It refers to a situation, condition, or issue that is yet unresolved. In a broad sense, a problem exists when an individual becomes aware of a significant difference between what actually is and what is desired.

My desire is to go on with my life without interruptions and when I am faced with an issue, I have to make some decisions. And hence I call this situation a problem. Since, we agree on the definition of the problem and the algorithm - we can proceed and see how they relate.

As I explained earlier, life goes on with the routine unless we face problems. So, its not totally crazy to say that Problems determine life. As the junctions determine the course. So, it is very crucial to understand how we deal with problems in order to understand life.

I seem to be the best expert out there on me and also the only person I seem to be knowing inside out is me so who's a better guinea pig than me for this kind of experiment right? So, lets start the experiment.

Every problem I've faced seem to be a composition of emotion and logic. Sometimes, it's more of emotions for e.g. my dad's passing away and sometimes its more of logic - e.g. my decision to migrate to USA. So, it is fair to say that a Problem in the Algorithm of Life has two constituents - Emotion and Logic.

Emotion - The feeling inside that drives your actions and is also driven by your actions. i.e. Reaction from the Heart to a Problem

According to wiki, Emotion is associated with mood, temperament, personality, and disposition.

Logic - The motivation/reasoning behind the action stripped of the emotion. i.e. Reaction from the Mind to a Problem

According to wiki, Logic, (from the Greek λογικός logikos)[1] is the study of reasoning.[2] Logic is used in most intellectual activity, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, and computer science. Logic examines general forms which arguments may take, which forms are valid, and which are fallacies. It is one kind of critical thinking. In philosophy, the study of logic falls in the area of epistemology, which asks: "How do we know what we know?" In mathematics, it is the study of valid inferences within some formal language.[3]

So, when you deal with problems - you deal with the emotion and logic. Sometimes, emotions blind you to bias your solution certain way that it does not make any logical sense but seems to satisfy you regardless (or make someone else happy). And sometimes logic drives you to act like a machine than a human.

In other words, Emotion is the input from the heart and Logic is the input from the Brain - you need both to process the information and come up with a decision for the problem at hand.

Lately, I have been pretty good at making decisions that seem to have the desirable outcome i.e. my routine is not disrupted. Which is pretty good considering my history. That is to say, I have taken emotions out of equation in most of the things and looked at it as pure logic. Then analyze it and come up with solutions and then apply emotions again to get the complete picture.

If I have a problem at hand, here's a brief list of questions that I ask myself :

1. What is the problem at hand (after removing all the emotions from it)?
See, emotions blur everything in the way. Emotions are like colored (and broken) eye glasses that would only let you see a part of the what is shown and even if you do see through them you would not see it in the right color. Its hard to get the complete picture with emotions involved. So, thats why you have to take them out of the equation to understand the naked problem.

2. How would this problem affect me?
This is an important question to ask yourself as the impact drives the reaction. If you are aware of the extent of impact then you can prioritize accordingly in order solve this problem at hand with the right amount of attention it deserves, too much attention on an insignificant problem is just a waste of everything and too less attention to a potential disaster is stupid too. You are your first priority most of the times and its ok to be a bit selfish as long as it does not affect others. So, know the impact on yourself first before you go and sacrifice yourself for no good.

3. What would happen if I dont solve this?
Not every problem is meant to be solved, and not every problem has a direct affect on your routine. It's very important to know what would happen if you dont solve it before you actually try to solve it. You might just get away by not solving it, you never know. Also, think of others too, what if you dont solve this problem and it becomes a huge burden to someone else? Take into account the impact on others before you dismiss a problem.

4. What would happen if I do solve this?
This is the part where you think glory. You might get a Nobel Prize for solving this or you might get a cross. Some solutions might start a chain reaction. The solution to your problem might trigger a explosion of problems to some unlucky being. Its important to understand the impact even when the problem is solved i.e. know your solution and its impact too.

5. What are the possible solutions?
Explore the solution set. Every problem has more than one solution. Its true. The right solution and the wrong solution and occasionally the "ok" solution. All of them solve the problem. All of them are solutions. You have to take into regard all of them before you can make judgement.

6. Which solution best suits the problem given my current context and the parameters for this?
Evaluate/Gauge your solutions within the context and the parameters. That's how you know which solution fits the bill. This analysis is very important without which you might end up with the wrong solution that could potentially land you in more trouble than before.

7. What are the tools available to devise a solution?
Not all the solutions are free. Everything has a price. And everything has a catch. Sometimes, the price is not so much and sometimes the catch is negligible. But in any case, you need tools to devise the solution. The tools determine the price for the solution in association with the impact later. Some solutions use inexpensive tools but cost later. Some solutions cost more for the tools and you might never have to pay later. Know you tools before you devise the solution. Study them along with the impacts to know the price of the solution.

8. What is the picture with emotions in place?
All problems are not logical. Most of the routine problems of life are emotional. They donot have much logic to them. For e.g. you are pissed at your friend for not calling you on your birthday - there's no logic to it. He might have been busy with more important things or may be he's just a dick. May be thats your gift. Who knows? So, the point being there's no logic to emotional problems. So, when you strip down these problems off emotions then there isnt much of it left to analyse. So, you have to put them back in context to know what really is going on. Also, in the case of problems that do have logic it helps to get the complete picture by putting back the emotions in. You will know what I am talking about in a second. Dont worry!

9. How can I manipulate it to fit my solution in or how can I sell my solution to the emotionally blinded parties involved?

With the problems that have both logic and emotions in high proportions - there is a certain advantage to analyse them without the emotions i.e. you get to see the naked problem. But logic without emotions is more of scientific experiment rather than life. Life is drama, we need both of them in their own proportions. After you analyse the problem minus emotions, you put the emotions back in and see the complete picture. Think of it this way, say you are contracting to renovate an old house. If you look at the house as it is - with the paintings and stuff, you will have no idea of what's beneath it. You have to forget the color of the walls are and how beautiful the paint is to really think whether you need that wall or not. Once you figured out what you wanna do with the walls then know what you need to do. But if you tell the customer that you wanna tear the beautiful wall apart - its getting emotional now. So, you have to sell it in emotions, you have to tell them what is gonna be there instead and how beautiful it is gonna be. Then the customer might like the whole idea. So, there is a lot of selling and buying when emotions are put back into picture. You might actually use this to your advantage. There is nothing selfish about it. Well, there might be but its good to have things work your way at times. But do not exploit this. Use this with caution.

10. What is the extent of bullshit I can deal with for this solution sale?
Some sales are easy and some are not. But in both cases, there will be bullshit. You have to know the extent of bullshit you can put up with in order to deal with the sale. Some sales are not worth the bullshit that goes into the sale. Know the extent and keep the conversations to the length that fits the bill. NO more NO less. You are all set!

These are the main questions I seem to be asking myself lately whenever I have a big problem staring right at me. I have given the reasoning behind the questions. It was not always like this. I used to think "Oh my god, OH my god" first - then freak out a little bit more and then when I am done freaking out - I'd sit and think about the solutions within that emotional chaos. Which did not work very well as you might have guessed.

Lately, I am faced with too many problems and there was a constant freak out period and I didn't like that. I thought to myself, there has to be a better way to deal with chaos and I started observing myself more. It did not take that long to figure out how I reacted to problems. With the help of some good friends, I have been observing my behaviour abit more carefully and started realizing patterns in my behaviour.

There is a pattern to everything in life. There is a pattern to my sleep, my walk, my laugh, my cry, my thoughts, my ideas, my moods, my lunches, my dinners, my workouts, my work, my talk, my breathing and my being. I am a composite being of my patterns. My behaviour is a collection of these intricate patterns. My brain is a collection of these patterns. My being is a collection of my behaviour, thoughts, physique and conscious which have patterns in themselves.

A pattern in the Algorithm of Life is a repeated sequence of actions/characteristics which tend to describe the being. Although, these patterns are not the core of the being but the repetitiveness of these patterns makes them look like they are. The outer being is what is projected as the entire being but in reality more often than not - the inner being is very different from what you see. For e.g. some people might come off as arrogant but in reality they are very shy or insecure that makes them act that way at times.

More on the Patterns later. Please feel free to comment and chip in. Thanks!

Connect Open Source on Mac.

2010-03-17T15:50:00.002-04:00

Last night I was working very late till 2AM on building the source code of Connect (http://www.connectopensource.org/) on my Mac. They didn't have instructions for Mac so I had to use the Linux instructions which almost worked as it is but there were a couple problems as Netbeans 6.7.1 had a directory name with space in it. Also the sudo had to be run with -E option in order to preserve environment.

It took me alot of patience to build the whole source code using ant coz the java was running out of space. I had to kill every process except the essential ones and finally it completed with 1760m of memory. The whole code base was about 5.31Gb after the build is completed. I've never in my life built such a huge code base with any tool.

But I'm glad it was success. Although, I still need to work on deploying it.

My good friend Lisa was also up all night keeping company as I was doing this. I sincerely thank her for her support. Lisa, I couldnt have done this without you. Thanks!

P.S. : Will keep posted on how it goes with the Deploy.

Juniper Network Connect on SnowLeopard Installation and Fix

2010-03-09T15:04:00.005-05:00

I've recently reinstalled Snow Leopard on my Mac and that started it all. My work needs me to VPN into servers which I just cannot get to without VPN in my new mac. I had to kiss goodbye the lovely "Work from Home" option as I have to be in the office all the time. Although, its not required everyday but its always a good option to have. When I try to start VPN it just silently quits with no error nothing. If there was an error, I can google it but there is nothing which was annoying. It jus does not give me anything error.

I googled every possible combination of the words "Juniper Network Connect", "Mac", "Snow Leopard", "install", "fix", "troubles" etc. but everyone seems to say the same thing. Basically, they all say that I had to do this.


sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/juniper/nc/[version number]/
sudo mkdir '/Applications/Network Connect.app/Contents/Frameworks'

But to do this I have to have Juniper NC installed first which I dont have. And to add to that, I cannot get any installer anywhere for mac. I am not a registered user at Juniper's site so I cannot get my hands on the installer there. My VPN server does not offer it as a download. So, I was hopelessly lost for a while until It struck me that most of the universities use VPN so they have to give out the installer on their sites. So, I Googled for "juniper network connect mac site:*.edu". the site:*.edu is there coz most of the universities have their sites end with .edu and bingo I found this link here from UMBC. God bless UMBC!

At the bottom, I found the link to download installer for Network_Connect_OSX10_5.pkg

I know what you are thinking, this is for 10.5 and not 10.6. I do know that I am on Mac OSX 10.6 but this gave me a way to install something atleast and I thought older version is better than no version at all right? may be I can update it later or as long as this works who cares which version it is right?

So, I installed it ASAP, logged to my VPN server and tried to start the client but this time it threw an error

An actual error. This is progress. THANK GOD!

So, I google this error and found a solution here

Basically, what it means is that some idiot at Sun decided to change the password to keystore from "changeit" to "changeme" that prevented the Installer from accessing the keystore as it was using the old password. So, the fix was to change the password back to changeit


sudo keytool -storepasswd -new changeit -keystore /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Resources/Deploy.bundle/Contents/Home/lib/security/cacerts -storepass changeme

Note: The above is one single command so it should be in one line. Please make sure there are no extra spaces or new lines.

After updating the password to the keystore, I logged in again into my VPN server and started the client. It updated my Network Connect and I was successfully connected to my VPN.

Finally a fix that works. I now have Network Client 6.5 running on my Snowleopard i.e Mac OSX 10.6. Yeyyyy!

So much for VPN huh?

Teaching : Web Development Course (PHP) Completed

2010-03-07T22:51:00.004-05:00

I've always thought of myself as a good teacher even though I've never really taught anyone. And a month or so ago I've got an opportunity to teach online. Teaching is a very tough task let alone teaching online. Its never easy to teach online as you miss that human factor. It sometimes felt like I'm talking to my laptop but I kept reminding myself that there is another person watching this on the other end (thankfully not behind the screen). Teaching online gives you the freedom to be creative. You are not tied to a single room or computer - the whole web is your teaching ground. I've used Skype for talk and TeamViewer for desktop sharing. These great apps have opened whole wide world to me. I sincerely thank their creators and applaud their efforts to keep it free and amazing.

I've played around with PHP long ago in 2005 when I was massively obsessed with the language for its quite and dirty programming model. Since then I've never really got a chance to dig deep as my career as a Java developer took off pretty much unexpected. But PHP has always been my choice of language to quickly test something or play around with new ideas. So, when I saw a chance to pick it up again I jumped and it was well-worth it. I've bought three books "PHP and Mysql Web Development - Fourth Edition" by Luke Welling, "PHP In action" and "PHP, MySQL & Javascript" by Robin Nixon. These books are a must if you wanna be serious about PHP. I'll blog more about these books later.

Back to the Course, I've tried to make it a web-development course rather than just a PHP language course. I dont know how far I have succeeded in making it so but I sure have tried. I had just one student and that made it pretty interesting as I've always preferred One-on-Ones to Groups. My student is completing her M.S. from a Univ here in USA. She has been very obedient (true to her name actually) and hard working which pushed me to my limits. She is also very very good listener which is a blessing. I could not have asked for a better student to start my teaching journey. Thank you Vinaya!

Today we completed the PHP course. Here is the list of the topics we covered as part of this course :
1. Web and the evolution of Internet
2. History of HTML
3. Basics of HTML, XML etc.
4. Apache - web servers, inteactions, communication, configuration httpd.conf, php.ini and my.cnf etc.
5. Programming Languages - Origin and types
6. Java Origin
7. Object Orientation
8. Functional Programming
9. PHP - History and Evolution
10. Installation and Setup
11. Basics of PHP and server scripting languages
12. Syntax and Semantics
13. Variables
14. Arrays
15. Operators Arithmatic, Assignment, Logical and Comparision
16. Branching and Conditional Statements (if, else, if-elseif-else, switch)
17. Looping (while, do while, for, foreach)
18. Functions (Call-by-Value, Call-by-Reference)
19. include, require, include_once and require_once
20. Forms
21. Built-in Variables ( $_GET, $_POST, $_REQUEST, $_SESSION, $_ENV, $_GLOBAL etc.)
22. Magic Constants ( __CLASS__, __FILE__, __LINE__)
23. Embedding HTML in PHP and vice-versa
24. Object Orientation in PHP Vs Java
25. Class, Object, attributes, methods, interfaces
26. OOP concepts in PHP :Encapsulation, Abstraction, Polymorphism, Inheritance etc.
27. Class and its anatomy : __construct(), __get(), __set(), __call(), __destruct();
28. Objects and related concepts like overriding, constructors etc.
29. Access-modifiers i.e. public, private and protected
30. Static methods and variables
31. Late Static Bindings
32. Polymorphism through __call()
33. Multiple Inhertance through interfaces
34. Abstract Classes
35. Utilities like clone and __tostring()
36. final methods and constants
37. Iterators and implementing them using IteratorAggregate
38. Timestamp and Date functions and manipulations : mktime(), Date() and time()
39. Reflections
40. File Manipulations i.e. fopen, fgets, fgetc, file_get_contents
41. File Upload : form, moving, displaying
42. Image manipulations like generating thumnails realtime
43. Cookies
44. Sessions
45. Login and Remember Me scripts
46. Error Handling with onError, try - catch, Exceptions, error_reporting, levels, throws, re-throws etc.
47. Filters - Validating, Sanitizing etc.
48. Built-in Vs Custom filters
49. Databases - basics
50. Mysql basics and administration with Mysql GUI tools, phpmysadmin and commandline.
51. Installation and configurations
52. Accessing Mysql from PHP
53. CRUD application
54. mysql_ functions vs mysqli_ functions
55. Object Orientation with mysqli
56. ORM : ADODB etc,
57. Query vs Prepared Statements
58. ODBC functions as well as different database connectivity
59. Javascript - complete with variables, constructs, functions, array, associative arrays, events, event-handlers etc.
60. Object orientation in Javascript
61. Cross browser compatibility
62. AJAX basics
63. XMLHTTPRequest Vs ActiveXObject
64. generating a request
65. submitting data realtime via GET
66. Suggestions scripts using POST and GET
67. Javascript involved in AJAX and the server scripting with PHP
68. AJAX with XML
69. AJAX with Database connectivity
70. JSON concept only
71. CSS
72. selectors, IDs, classes,
73. pseudo-classes
74. Box Model etc.
75. HTML Tables and design
76. CMS e.g. Drupal concepts
77. Frameworks vs libraries
78. CakePHP and Zend Framework and Webservices with nusoap concepts
79. Command-line php usage.
80. Command-line Mysql and utilities like mysqldump and export to csv.

I think I've covered almost all the basics as well as advanced topics in PHP with some exclusions like mail and stuff. So, finally a huge task completed in about 30 odd hours (who's counting) :)

Bugzilla Setup : Mysql and Apache on Centos

2010-01-27T15:31:00.007-05:00

Mysql setup

Install mysql

sudo yum search mysql // find the right names of the packages here

sudo yum install mysql-server.x86_64 mysql.x86_64 mysql-devel.x86_64

Edit mysql configuration

sudo vim /etc/my.cnf

Add the following lines if not already present

[mysqld]

# Allow packets up to 4MB

max_allowed_packet=4M

# Allow small words in full-text indexes

ft_min_word_len=2

Start Mysql server

sudo /etc/init.d/mysqld start

mysql -uroot // no password by default

Create the database for bugs in the mysql terminal by using the following sql

create database bugs;

Create the user bugs

create user bugs identified by 'passw0rd';

Grant the permissions to user bugs on bugs database

GRANT SELECT, INSERT,UPDATE, DELETE, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE, LOCK TABLES, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, DROP, REFERENCES ON bugs.* TO bugs@localhost identified by 'passw0rd';

Flush privileges in order to take effect immediately. Very important!

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

NOTE: Update your password if you need to :

update mysql.user set Password=password('passw0rd') where User='bugs';

Bugzilla Setup

Download latest stable bugzilla version from the website. It’s 3.4.4 as of now

wget http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/webtools/bugzilla-3.4.4.tar.gz -O bugzilla-3.4.4.tar.gz

Change to the apache directory from where it serves files

cd /var/www/html/

Unzip the tar here /var/www/html/ so that apache can see it

sudo tar -xzvf ~/bugzilla-3.4.4.tar.gz

(optional) Rename the directory to hide the version

sudo mv bugzilla-3.4.4/ bugzilla

Change ownership so that apache can read/write to it

sudo chown -R apache.apache /var/www/html/bugzilla/

Change to bugzilla directory

cd /var/www/html/bugzilla/

Run checksetup.pl – this will show you the perl modules missing

sudo ./checksetup.pl --check-modules

Install gcc (if the linux distro doesn’t already come it), as you will need it to make/compile the modules

sudo yum install gcc.x86_64

Install any missing modules //here are commonly missing modules

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl CGI

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Digest::SHA

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Date::Format

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl DateTime

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl DateTime::TimeZone

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl DateTime::Locale

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Template

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Email::Send

sudo /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Email::MIME

Run the checksetup.pl without any parameters to create a localconfig file.

sudo bash /var/www/html/bugzilla/checksetup.pl

Change the permissions in case there should be a conflict.

sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/bugzilla/

Edit localconfig

sudo vim localconfig

Update the database connection details like username and password

# The DNS name of the host that the database server runs on.

$db_host = 'localhost';

# The name of the database

$db_name = 'bugs';

# Who we connect to the database as.

$db_user = 'bugs';

# Enter your database password here. It's normally advisable to specify

# a password for your bugzilla database user.

# If you use apostrophe (') or a backslash (\) in your password, you'll

# need to escape it by preceding it with a '\' character. (\') or (\)

# (Far simpler just not to use those characters.)

$db_pass = ‘passw0rd’;

# Sometimes the database server is running on a non-standard port. If that's

# the case for your database server, set this to the port number that your

# database server is running on. Setting this to 0 means "use the default

# port for my database server."

$db_port = 0;

# With the introduction of a configurable index page using the

# template toolkit, Bugzilla's main index page is now index.cgi.

# Most web servers will allow you to use index.cgi as a directory

# index, and many come preconfigured that way, but if yours doesn't

# then you'll need an index.html file that provides redirection

# to index.cgi. Setting $index_html to 1 below will allow

# checksetup.pl to create one for you if it doesn't exist.

# NOTE: checksetup.pl will not replace an existing file, so if you

# wish to have checksetup.pl create one for you, you must

# make sure that index.html doesn't already exist

$index_html = 1;

Re-run the checksetup.pl

sudo bash /var/www/html/bugzilla/checksetup.pl

Apache setup

Almost all linux distributions come with httpd pre-installed (i.e. Apache)

If not, install it using

sudo yum install apache

sudo yum install httpd

Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

and add the following lines

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/html/bugzilla/"

 
     < Directory /var/www/html/bugzilla >
        AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
        Options +Indexes +ExecCGI
        DirectoryIndex index.cgi
        AllowOverride Limit
     < / Directory >

Find the line

DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var

Change it to

DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var index.cgi

Start the httpd server

sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart

and you are good to go!

Try http://localhost/bugzilla and have fun!

Steve McCurry - photographs of India

2010-01-15T16:01:00.008-05:00

I have recently came across Steve McCurry's work and I must say this guy is my Photography God. He has an amazing collection of photographs from India over a time period of 20 plus years.

I don't know if I am violating any laws by grabbing his images and displaying it here but I cannot resist from showcasing it here. Each of his photographs speak a wide variety of things. It's amazing how you can capture life in such little things to the minutest details.

Steve - I'm sorry if it offends you since I took these pics from your website without permission but please consider this as an advertisement of your work.

Hats off - you inspire me to take up photography which I'll for sure do. Thanks!

Afgan Girl (Sharbat Gula)

2010-01-15T15:08:00.004-05:00

Many of us remember this photograph from the first Afgan invasion by USA. This was a very very famous pic from that period. It was the iconic representation of the afgan people during their troubled times and still continues to be.

I saw the same potrait at a Afgani restaurant (Maiwand Kabob - they have some amazing kababs) this afternoon and it kept haunting me. I remembered reading about it in the news papers sometime. I also remembered that the photographer tried to trace her for a few years (2 as I remembered) after the initial picture and finally succeeded.

The curiosity led me to dig deep and to my surprise the whole thing turned out to be no less fascinating than a Hollywood film. It actually took him (Steve McCurry i.e. the photographer) almost 17 years to trace this girl. She was 12 years old when she was photographed then and now she is 37.

All this while, she was unaware of her picture's popularity which is amazing to me. I mean, that's life at it's best. It hits you with a bundle of surprises. She is a house wife one day and the next day she is the most wanted person from a famous photograph. Awesome!

Image source : Steve McConnor's website (http://www.stevemccurry.com). Sorry Steve, I am only trying to retell your story here. No Offense!

Highlights :

* In recognition of her, National Geographic set up the Afghan Girls Fund, a charitable organization with the goal of educating Afghan girls and young women.
* The image itself was named "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the National Geographic magazine.
* She was unaware of her picture's popularity all those 17 years.

Read here for more details :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Girl_%28photo%29

Google SideWiki : Path to Web 4.0?

2009-11-13T15:34:00.004-05:00

Google has launched a new product called SideWiki which I think will revolutionize the web possibly paving path to Web 4.0?

Here is why?

I mean, Web 3.0 correlates data in a way that machines could retrieve anything and everything out there and Sidewiki ranks and retrieves them by tying the user interactions to the pages. Do I smell Web 4.0? (a funny depiction of web 4.0 is here)

May be this will pave path to the New Generation browsers being redesigned to capture user interactions as part of the built-in information fetch. Seriously, who needs textbooks? we could save alot of forests and this could also solve Global Warming!

This is graph that I stole from here in order to support my theory.

The graph depicts the web trends over time and data in the confines of Productivity of Keyword search. My take away from this is that the web is bound to become more intelligent and the only way it could do that is by leveraging the human interactions with the web. Sidewiki is exactly that. Let us see how this goes!

While you are at it, try the "Also post to" feature to post the same sidewiki on to your blog simultaneously. This is amazing!

BottomLine : I think this sidewiki concept combined with web 3.0 (i.e. Symantic Web) could possibly the future of web.

How to create ringtones for iPhone (m4r) for free

2009-10-09T15:02:00.005-04:00

I wasted so much time and money on creating ringtones for my iPhone from iTunes. It's so frustrating to pay $0.99 for each ringtone that you create from the song that you already purchased. And the worst part is iTunes will not let you create ringtones from songs that you have already owned since forever. It only lets you create ringtones from the songs you bought in iTunes. This is a major problem I had with Apple. I mean, I have the best mobile in the whole world and I cannot create ringtones for it unless I buy the song again and pay $0.99 again to create a ringtone from it. To add to that, iTunes will only let you create a ringtone for 15 sec. Ideally, it's ok but what if I want it to be 20 secs. And you cannot cut and paste different sections of the song you love. It has to be a continuous segment of 15 seconds. That's lame so I decided to venture out and find a free solution. As always, there is an open source (FREE) alternative to this craziness. Once you go through the following steps, you will never pay a single penny to anyone for ringtones. It's quite simple really. Just follow the instructions and Enjoy!

The Software
1. Download Audacity -The best Open source Sound Editor (version 1.3.9 beta or greater) NOT THE STABLE VERSION i.e. 1.2.6 currently from the Site. Remember this does not work with 1.2.6 or older.
2. Install Lame MP3 encoder library (Needed to work with mp3 files) (Instructions here)
3. Install FFmpeg library(Needed to convert to m4r) (Instructions here). NOTE: I am guessing you need ffmpeg installed already on your Mac/PC to use this plugin. Google it!

The Actual Creation of Ringtone
4. Open a mp3 file you want to create ringtone from in the Audacity application.
5. Select the part you want and copy it.
6. Create a new file (Ctrl + N)
7. Paste the copied part onto the new file.
8. Export the new file as m4r by clicking (File -> Export)
9. Select the format "M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg)"
10. Save as "somefilename.m4r"

Now, import this ringtone into iTues (Ctrl +O). And Sync your iPhone to get the new ringtone. That's all there is to it. Hope you will find it easy. Let me know how it goes!

NOTE: If you wanna check out the ringtones I created, here are some :

1.Eye of the Tiger

2.Chris Brown - Forever Ringtone

3.Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA

4.Natasha Beddingfield - Pocketful of sunshine

5.Micheal Franti - Say Hey I Love You

6.Summer Overture

7.Venessa Carlton - Thousand Miles

All in one zip along with some more - Click Here

Wikiality: There are 1,332,970,000 AHs in the world. Seriously!

2009-09-15T00:39:00.001-04:00

True Story : I was just curious how the population of the world was distributed on the planet and just searched wikipedia for "list of countries by population" and to my surprise this is what I saw on my iPhone.
According to Stephen Colbert, this has got to be true as it's a wikiality. So, it's official that there are 1,332,970,000 AHs in the world as of September 15, 2009.

Sorry, if that offended anyone but it's damn funny. See for yourself!

Glassfish : com.sun.enterprise.util.ASenvPropertyReader setSystemProperties SEVERE: property_reader.unknownHost java.net.UnknownHostException:

2009-08-05T01:40:00.002-04:00

I was getting the following error after I installed Glassfish recently.

Aug 5, 2009 1:37:02 AM com.sun.enterprise.util.ASenvPropertyReader setSystemProperties
SEVERE: property_reader.unknownHost
java.net.UnknownHostException: test.corp: test.corp
at java.net.InetAddress.getLocalHost(InetAddress.java:1308)
at com.sun.enterprise.util.net.NetUtils.getCanonicalHostName(NetUtils.java:89)
at com.sun.enterprise.util.ASenvPropertyReader.setSystemProperties(ASenvPropertyReader.java:188)
at com.sun.enterprise.cli.commands.S1ASCommand.(S1ASCommand.java:140)
at com.sun.enterprise.cli.commands.BaseLifeCycleCommand.(BaseLifeCycleCommand.java:86)
at com.sun.enterprise.cli.commands.StartDomainCommand.(StartDomainCommand.java:55)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:494)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:350)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:303)
at com.sun.enterprise.cli.framework.CommandFactory.createCommand(CommandFactory.java:76)
at com.sun.enterprise.cli.framework.CLIMain.invokeCommand(CLIMain.java:150)
at com.sun.enterprise.cli.framework.CLIMain.main(CLIMain.java:63)
Starting Domain domain1, please wait.
Log redirected to /home/testadmin/java/domains/domain1/logs/server.log.

Domain domain1 is ready to receive client requests. Additional services are being started in background.
java.net.UnknownHostException: test.corp: test.corp
CLI156 Could not start the domain domain1.

The Fix

sudo vim /etc/hosts
#add the following line in it. That's all
127.0.0.1 test.corp

CSS : Make a Button look like a link

2009-06-30T11:01:00.005-04:00

I had to make a button look like a clickable link and here is the CSS I used.

 

.buttonLink{
    color:black;
    background:none;
    text-decoration:underline;
    text-shadow:brown;
    font-variant:small-caps;
    font-weight:bolder;
    font-family:sans-serif;
    padding:0px;
    border-top: 0px solid #fff;
    border-left: 0px solid #fff;
    border-bottom: 0px solid #4799E6;
    border-right: 0px solid #4799E6;
    display: inherit;
    width:auto;
    text-align:center;
}

Usage :

<input id="exampleButton" name="exampleButton" value="Click Here" title="Click Here" class="sortLink" type="submit">

Richfaces & JSF 1.1 ERROR: ClassNotFoundException: javax.faces.component.ActionSource2

2009-06-29T12:42:00.001-04:00

Environment:
Richfaces : 3.3.1
JSF : 1.1
WAS: 6.1

Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.faces.component.ActionSource2

This is caused if you are using richfaces 3 in JSF 1.1 environment.
Richfaces has a dependency on JSF 1.2 and cannot be used in JSF 1.1 environment.

Fix: Remove all web.xml changes you made for richfaces and remove any pom.xml dependencies.

Refer :
http://www.jboss.org/file-access/default/members/jbossrichfaces/freezone/docs/devguide/en/html/TechnicalRequirements.html

Spring faces & JSF 1.1 : org.springframework.faces.ui.ProgressiveUICommand.getActionExpression()Ljavax/el/MethodExpression;

2009-06-29T12:38:00.001-04:00

Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.springframework.faces.ui.ProgressiveUICommand.getActionExpression()Ljavax/el/MethodExpression;

This is caused if you are using sf:commandLink tag in JSF 1.1 environment.
You should change the commandlink to h:commandlink (i.e. the core component) or t:commandLink (i.e. tomahawk component) and that should work.

SWF 2.0.7 & JSF 1.2 : java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.faces.application.StateManager.saveView(Ljavax/faces/context/FacesContext;)Ljava/lang/Object;

2009-06-29T12:35:00.000-04:00

If you get the below error, and you are using JSF 1.1 and SWF 2.0.7
java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.faces.application.StateManager.saveView(Ljavax/faces/context/FacesContext;)Ljava/lang/Object;

Revert back to SWF 2.0.5 and that should fix it.

Its a bug in Spring Web Flow. SWF 2.0.7 makes some JSF 1.2 specific calls that are not supported by JSF 1.1 implementations. Hence the about error. Its supposed to be fixed in 2.0.8.

Refer to :
http://jira.springframework.org/browse/SWF-1112

For more details:
http://jira.springframework.org/browse/SWF-1096

faces-config error : Document is invalid: no grammar found. org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Document is invalid: no grammar found.

2009-06-29T12:30:00.001-04:00

Environment :
JSF 1.1
WAS 6.1

If you get the following error :
org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line 2 column 14: Document is invalid: no grammar found. org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Document is invalid: no grammar found.

Courtesy :
http://wiki.apache.org/myfaces/Websphere_Installation

If you have the faces-config.xml file like below :

Inc.//DTD JavaServer Faces Config 1.1//EN" "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-facesconfig_1_1.dtd">

it must be replaced as follows:

Inc.//DTD JavaServer Faces Config 1.0//EN" "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-facesconfig_1_0.dtd">

That's all there is to it

Setting up SVN repository Hooks : POST-COMMIT

2009-03-11T10:54:00.003-04:00

Recently, I tried to setup the svn hook for shooting out emails on a commit. I had to do alot of googling to really get it working. The SVN book doesnt detail the process nor does any blog/wiki/forum out there. May be - the SVN admins are already geeky enough to figure it out I guess.

Anyways, I am posting my experience here so that it might help someone out there who is a newbie to SVN administration. Here we go...

Setting SVN Hooks

1. Go to the repository hooks directory (on the svn box ofcourse)
* cd /var/svn/repoName/hooks
2. Rename the post-commit.tmpl to post-commit (you can find several hook template scripts in the hooks directory under each repository)
* cp post-commit.tmpl post-commit #copy the tmpl into a normal executable
* chmod +x post-commit #Make it executable
3. Download the commit-email.pl from :
* The SVN tools: http://subversion.tigris.org/tools_contrib.html#commit_email_pl
* OR
* wget -o commit-email.pl http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/contrib/hook-scripts/commit-email.pl.in
#I chose perl script but you can choose ruby or write your own.

4. Install sendmail on the box (I have Centos so I use yum, if you are on Ubuntu then use aptitude)
1. yum search sendmail #do a search for the packages with sendmail
2. yum install sendmail.i386 sendmail-cf.i386 sendmail-doc.i386 #these were the packages for my Centos system. It may vary based on your OS.
3. chkconfig sendmail on #start sendmail on boot.
5. Edit /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and add the following line
* Ft/etc/mail/trusted-users
6. Edit /etc/mail/submit.mc and add the following line
* Ft/etc/mail/trusted-users
7. Generate the sendmail.cf file from sendmail.mc using the m4 command. The m4 usage is simple, you just specify the name of the macro file as the argument, in this case sendmail.mc, and redirect the output, which would normally go to the screen, to the sendmail.cf file with the ">" redirector symbol.
* m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
8. Generate the submit.cf file from submit.mc using the m4 command.
* m4 /etc/mail/submit.mc > /etc/mail/submit.cf
9. Restart sendmail to update the configuration
* service sendmail start #start sendmail now
10. Edit /etc/mail/trusted-users and add the following line (if the apache user is used by apache)
* apache
11. The apache user bydefault is blocked from loggin in or running scripts. So you have to edit the /etc/passwd and delete the /sbin/nologin at the end of the line and add your fav shell like this
* apache:x:48:48:Apache:/var/www:/bin/bash
12. Change the ownership of the following scripts so that they can be executed by apache user & group
* chown apache.apache /var/svn/repoName/hooks/post-commit
* chown apache.apache /var/svn/repoName/hooks/commit-email.pl
13. Edit commit-email.pl and add the following line
* var/svn/repoName/hooks/commit-email.pl "$REPOS" "$REV" -h yourhost.com --from svn@yourhost.com -l /var/svn/logs/mailLog.log -r devteam@yourhost.com --summary --diff n devteam@yourhost.com
14. This is it. You are set.

Resources:
Sendmail Reference
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch21_:_Configuring_Linux_Mail_Servers

Trusted-Users :
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/sendmail-trusted-user-617397/

Commit Email
http://subversion.tigris.org/tools_contrib.html#commit_email_pl
http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/contrib/hook-scripts/commit-email.pl.in

Visual JSF Development (Facelets)

2008-12-16T18:05:00.000-05:00

I was looking for Visual JSF development tools with Facelets support today. But to my surprise the IDE industry is lagging so behind in this regard.

I have tried the following IDEs to find the best support of JSF :
Oracle JDeveloper
IDEAs IntelliJ
& NetBeans

None of these seem to offer complete JSF support for facelets. But, all hope is not lost. Another IDE called "myeclipse" offers great support for JSF development with facelets.

Check this out :
http://www.myeclipseide.com/documentation/quickstarts/facelets/

Some Observations :
Oracle JDeveloper was good at Visual preview of your code but doesnt offer the JSF tags to drag and drop.
IDEA's IntelliJ doesnt not have visual support but its great with Spring Web Flow and other features.
NetBeans was great at JSF development with JSP but not Facelets. Although it has limited support to drag and drop JSF tags on to code but it doesnt show you how it looks. You have to view it in a browser.
Myeclipse seems to have complete support but I still have to get it to working.

to be continued.....

JSF + Spring + JMS (websphere MQ) on WAS 6.1 HOWTO

2008-10-30T19:52:00.000-04:00

Alright, I have been struggling for the past one week to get Spring to work with JSF and JMS.

Here are the steps to get the job done.

Create a directory with the following jars

commons-beanutils-1.7.0.jar

commons-digester-1.8.jar
commons-lang-2.4.jar
commons-codec-1.3.jar
commons-discovery-0.2.jar
commons-logging.jar
commons-collections-3.2.jar
commons-el-1.0.jar
el-impl-1.0.jar
el-api-1.0.jar
jsf-facelets-1.1.14.jar
jstl-1.1.2.jar
myfaces-impl-1.2.4.jar
myfaces-api-1.2.4.jar

Create a utility jar commons-logging.jar (OPTIONAL)

Create a shared library in WAS admin console.

4. Create a new class loader in WAS

5. Add shared library references

Make sure the WEB-INF/lib of your application doesnt have anything that is already added to the shared library.
Eventualy you might need to create the following files in the META-INF/services directory of your web-app:(if the dir services does not exist just create it.

javax.faces.application.ApplicationFactory with content: com.sun.faces.application.ApplicationFactoryImpl
javax.faces.context.FacesContextFactory with content: com.sun.faces.context.FacesContextFactoryImpl
javax.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleFactory with conent: com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleFactoryImpl
javax.faces.render.RenderKitFactory with content: com.sun.faces.renderkit.RenderKitFactoryImpl

Package and deploy the application with the default class loaders.

NOTE :

DONOT refer from the WAR to the shared library that is being referenced by the application server's class loader.
The application class loader order should be “parent class loader first”.
The WAR class loader policy should be “class loader for each WAR file in application”.

The WAR's classloader order SHOULD be “parent class loader first”.

Installing Telugu fonts on Centos

2008-10-06T11:04:00.000-04:00

I went to the thotaramudu's blog on my brand new laptop that my company gave me and the font was all funny. I am running Centos 5.2 and wanted to install the telugu font.

So, I did a quick search on yum repositories for telugu


[root@localhost ~]# yum search telugu
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading "priorities" plugin
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * dries: ftp.belnet.be
 * kbs-CentOS-Extras: centos.karan.org
 * kbs-CentOS-Misc: centos.karan.org
 * extras: mirror.cs.vt.edu
 * rpmforge: fr2.rpmfind.net
 * dag: apt.sw.be
 * updates: mirror.cs.vt.edu
 * addons: ftp.lug.udel.edu
 * emperor: yum.emperorlinux.com
 * base: mirror.myriadnetwork.com
 * adobe-linux-i386: linuxdownload.adobe.com
218 packages excluded due to repository priority protections
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
openoffice.org-langpack-te_IN.x86_64 : Telugu language pack for openoffice.org
m17n-db-telugu.noarch : Telugu m17n-db input maps
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
libuninum.i386 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
openoffice.org-langpack-te_IN.x86_64 : Telugu language pack for openoffice.org
fonts-telugu.noarch : Free Telugu truetype fonts
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
openoffice.org-langpack-te_IN.x86_64 : Telugu language pack for openoffice.org
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers
libuninum.x86_64 : Library for converting unicode strings to numbers

There are a couple I can use. So, I installed them.


[root@localhost ~]# yum install fonts-telugu.noarch  m17n-db-telugu.noarch  openoffice.org-langpack-te_IN.x86_64

Thats it. I restarted the firefox and its all Telugu now. :)

BTW, the openoffice language pack and the m17n-db fonts are optional. I just took them coz it didnt hurt and they are really light.

Broadcom 4322AG 802.11a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi Adapter Drivers for linux

2008-09-27T22:20:00.000-04:00

I had a big fight with my Centos to get it to recognize the stupid wifi card that came with my Hp Pavillion dv9920us Notebook PC. Finally I had success.

For linux drivers :

Download the correct driver (32bit or 64bit) from here :
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

From the README

BUILD AND INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
-----------------------------------

hybrid-portsrc.tar.gz
hybrid-portsrc-x86_64.tar.gz

On the target machine, setup the source/hybrid/build directory

1. Create a new directory: mkdir hybrid_wl
2. Go to that directory: cd hybrid_wl
3. Untar the appropriate 32/64 bit file
to that directory
32 bit: tar -xzf /hybrid-portsrc.tar.gz
64 bit: tar -xzf /hybrid-portsrc-x86_64.tar.gz

After untar'ing you should have a src and lib sub directory plus a Linux
2.6 "kbuild" external makefile (Makefile). The lib sub directory has the pre-built
binary, wlc_hybrid.o_shipped.

You use the standard Linux 2.6 kernel build system as follows to make a Linux loadable
kernel module (LKM):

On the target machine, and cd'ed to the directory that contains the Makefile (fragment)

4. Cleanup (optional): make -C /lib/modules/<2.6.xx.xx>/build M=`pwd` clean
5. Build the LKM, i.e. wl.ko: make -C /lib/modules/<2.6.xx.xx>/build M=`pwd`

You should now have a LKM, wl.ko inside this directory.

On this or a machine with the same kernel version, install the driver.

1. Validate you don't have loaded (or built into the kernel) the Linux community provided
driver for Broadcom hardware. This exists in two forms: either "bcm43xx" or a split form
of "b43" plus "b43legacy". If these modules were loaded you would either
a) rmmod bcm43xx or
b) rmmod b43; rmmod b43legacy
2. Make available 802.11 TKIP crypto module: modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip
3. Insert the Broadcom wl module: insmod /wl.ko

Some kernel come with pre-installed Broadcom driver that support Broadcom 4312 family of
PCIE cards. If the kernel support one of those pre-installed driver, you must remove it
in order to install the new driver. Some of existing driver provided by the Linux community that
supports Broadcom hardware are b43/b43legacy/bcm43xx. There is also a ssb driver that is loaded
along with b43. This ssb driver also must to be remove.

If the kernel supports blacklist, you can add those drivers to the blacklist file so that it will
not be loaded on next reboot.

Courtesy : http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt

After you compiled the drivers : make a small shell script that will let you load the LKMs and start NetworkManger (on Redhat based systems)
and save it as /home//bin/wireless.sh
#!/bin/bash
sudo /sbin/modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip
sudo /sbin/insmod /hybrid/build/hybrid_wl/wl.ko
sudo /sbin/service NetworkManager start

This will help you load the wireless drivers. The next time you login - run this script to get the drivers loaded.

Hope that helps. And you can be even more creative and make the drivers load up at startup by writing a startup script and putting in under the /etc/rc.d/ directory or something like that....

Oracle 10.2 on Centos 5.2

2008-09-27T22:16:00.000-04:00

I was trying to install Oracle 10.2 on my Centos 5.2 and it threw the following error : even after I have installed all the pre requisites and even created all the directories and set all the permission.

NOTE : Error in RED and INFO in GREEN
[root@localhost ~]# cd /home/john/dump/oracle/database/

[root@localhost database]# ./runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking installer requirements...

Checking operating system version: must be redhat-3, SuSE-9, redhat-4, UnitedLinux-1.0, asianux-1 or asianux-2
Failed <<<<

Exiting Oracle Universal Installer, log for this session can be found at /tmp/OraInstall2008-09-25_09-51-17AM/installActions2008-09-25_09-51-17AM.log

[root@localhost database]# uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-92.1.10.el5.centos.plus #1 SMP Thu Aug 7 12:20:08 EDT 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[root@localhost database]# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.18-92.1.10.el5.centos.plus (mockbuild@builder10.centos.org) (gcc version 4.1.2 20071124 (Red Hat 4.1.2-42)) #1 SMP Thu Aug 7 12:20:08 EDT 2008

FIX :

So, I edited the /etc/redhat-release :
[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 5.2 (Final)

and changed it to indicate that I had a redhat EL 5.1 version. Then It worked:

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
redhat-4.1.2-42 # Enterprise Linux Enterprise Linux Server release 5.1 (Carthage)

For the whole process of installation (with screenshots ) :
http://bderzhavets.blogspot.com/2007/04/installing-oracle-10.html

iJohn - iPhone and me - guide to the best apps (FREE) out there for your iPhone

2008-09-27T19:28:00.000-04:00

The best fun thing I ever did after I came to USA is to get myself a brand new iPhone 3G. I just cant stop messing with it. It rocks my world.

Things I love about my iPhone :

The look and feel ( Apple has the best UI sense in the market )
The whole multi-touch experience - it doesnt need a keypad and hence more screen space. Bigger the screen bigger the video fun.
The App Store - gotta love it. I have most of the free apps out there installed and it keeps getting better daily.
The video iPod features - it outputs great quality sound and great video playback.
I admit, the camera is not top notch (just 2Mpx) but still thats good enough coz I already have a camera.
Wifi anywhere with 3G - the internet is so rocking fast. I can browse internet from anywhere in the world and not need a computer for that.
Youtube in my hands - this is the best feature of all. I can search browse and view any youtube video I want anytime.

Missing Features (Good to have) :

The email client doesnt run in the background as a daemon coz of limitations on apple sdk (so you have to constantly keep checking your mail or have to keep it in the foreground.) - Blackberry lets you know when there is a new mail real time. I think iPhone too should do that.
IM+ cannot run in the background for the same reason so I have to keep it in the foreground or else I am offline :(
Camera - iPhone deserves atleast a 5Mpx.
Video Recording - follows my earlier point.
DataStorage - I have a 16Gb iPhone and there is no built-in filemanager that lets me store and transfer files other than what my iTunes allow. Thats just cheating Apple!

Anyways, here is a list of the best Apps (FREE) out there that will really help you and make your iPhone more useful despite the flaws I listed.

Coolest of the Lot :

AirSharing - Awesome - Must have if you want to use the iPhone as a wireless drive. Although slow at times but still Its a must have. Clear alternative for Datacase which costs $6.99 for the same functionality. I think Apple intentionally missed the filemanager so somebody decided to take up the responsibility. Kudos!
PangeaVR - this is the coolest app on iPhone - you can view panoromic pix (360 degree view) - just awesome , try it!

Radios

Pandora Radio - awsome collection of music.
AOL Radio - Really nice collection of radio stations (FREE)
Stitcher Radio - Personalized audio delivered

IM and Social networking

Whoshere - Awesome app that helps you meet people near you (finds people nearby and shows their profiles). Pretty neat haan?
Facebook - does what it says
Myspace - if you are a myspace fan.
IM+ - multi protocol IM client like Pidgin (formerly Gaim)
OneConnect - A yahoo IM, pulse and flicker. You add Bebo, facebook, myspace, youtube and twitter accounts. VERY SLOW but okay

News, blogs and Internet

Wordpress - if you are wordpress blogger
Wikipanion - your wikipedia companion.
NYTimes - a little slow but beautiful UI and free
iPhunny - funny bits from different sources (really funny)
Bloomberg - your personal stock market client. Search by stock and track your stocks.

Books

Constitution - your pocket copy of US Constitution
Stanza - ebook reader with a huge collection of books from various sources. You can download and maintain in your own library for reading. AWESOME
Bible - nice little bible with contributions from learned men in your pocket

Movies

Showtimes - great app to find movies near by and timings even maps and IMDB profiles - you can see which movies are most popular and based on User ratings. You can even watch the trailers too. Cool haan?
Movies by Flixter - same as Showtimes but gives the movies on DVD too.and Upcoming movies. It doesnt hurt to have them both :)

Utility

Vnc - You can actually view the the remote PC with VNC viewer (ofcourse you need a vnc server running on that PC). - Awesome app.
Remote - you can control your itunes from your iPhone
Trailguru - tracks the distance you travelled with data like speed and time and etc.
Midomi - this is a nifty little app that lets you find the song you just heard on the radio or you can sing the song and let it search for you or you can search by name of the song or artist. Isnt that cool?
Shazam - basically the same thing as Midomi. I like midomi better.
Whitepages - where you can search people, business and reversone phone search.

Personal Management

Spendlite - track you spending by budgets - for free (only daily and weekly budgets)
DoBot Todos - list of todos to keep you on track.
Groceries ($1.99) - must have if you always forget soemthing after returning from walmart.
BirthdayList - looks like a good idea but still havent figured out how to create a list. Its bad UI.

Food and Restaurants :

UrbanSpoon - this will help you find the restaurant near you based on random selection of food. Try it - its fun. you can browse or search by name.
Yelp - No random selection but you can search anything.
Where
iWant - brose based on categories like - Gas stations, drug stores, restaurants, movies, car Rentals and so on...

Games

Sudoku - For the die hard fans
Hanoi - The good old game (Towers of Hanoi) - I still dont know the algo :)
Audi A4 - Car race - not so great but okay
Labyrinth - Awesome game, ball on the board.
SB2Lite - Addictive game
BillBallLite - Awesome game - guide the ball through a path and pickup stars.
iDoodle2lite - your paint board.
iGolf - just downloaded but looks like fun.
CannonGame - pretty nice if you like tanks and missiles like my friend pavan.
BlueSkiesLite - guide the helicopter through enemy skies.
Hangman - get the word or you die.

Is it really worth it?

2008-09-27T19:00:00.000-04:00

I had a great job, great friends and was having loads of fun back in hyderabad. But I had to come to USA and end my life as it is known to me.

I came to USA and was worried if I could coupe up with the environment changes and the cultural changes. I managed pretty fine till now.

I was unemployed for a couple of months but still was confident that I can make it here. I managed to focus all my thoughts in bettering myself and strengthening my profile so that I could get a job that I am comfortable with. And it has paid off. I didnt go into any kind of depression and although I miss home I kept myself busy so that I wont think about it.

Now I got a really nice job - there is huge of learning curve ahead and I am not scared of taking on it. I work practically all the time I am awake, weekends are not mine. I am just struggling to take time out to live.

I cant call my friends coz when I am awake they are asleep and when we both have a common time then I am busy with work. I cant even go out to have fun coz I dont have a car yet. I am pennyless to add to it.

I have alot of debts and the money I am making now would be hugely cut coz of the deals I made and taxes. I am working for others or taxes half the time. I am not pissed off with this coz this is a necessary evil.

I am not whining either, I am trying to think through the whole cloud of gloom that has set on me. I didnt expect a bachelor party everyday here but its just that life seems so mechanical.

We work, and work and work and never even take time out for ourselves. We dont have time for silly little things like crashing a mall, watching the sun set and stuff.

Sometimes I wonder is this really worth the ordeal? Why do we make ourselves soo mechine like ? Dont we wanna live happily ? Is this what we are working for?

Is this something that we love so much that we alienated ourselves from people ?

Questions and questions are what I can find.

Music is my only rescue in this time of stupid thinking. I am glad I brought alot of music with me from India. Boy I dont know what I would do with that.

Coming to think of it, noone forced me to be here, noone has put a gun to my head and told me to flee from home. Its my idea for quick money and money is good to have right?

But in this race for riches have I lost myself? this is a short introspection of what I missed and what I gained by making the BIG move....

Back home :

I had so many friends around who love me and would hang out with me just bcoz we feel like it. no reason!
I had a pretty good paying job that anyone would kill for.
I had a steady girl friend who loved me but I was too chickened to get married.
I had a family that loves me and I was just a bus ride away.
I had flat of my own and I could just do whatever I want.
I used to eat out daily and the prices never bothered me.
I was just rocking it BIG TIME.

Here :

I have no friends locally except for a few who I can call
I dont have a transport - NO CAR no outing
I have a job that I am trying to fit into - services job is a total different ball game compared to products.
I am pushing myself to prove myself everyday. It has come to a point that I am tired and stressed but thats when the whole learning starts right?
I have no timepass except for the laptop and iPhone.

Is this what I really can live with? Is this worth the ordeal?

Only time can answer but I can tell onething for sure, I am not gonna give up yet. Even though it feels so lonely and I miss home so much - I am not gonna get that to me. I am just gonna try to make it here for the next few years even though that means I have to become a machine myself. This way i will have enough money to go back home and start our own Company JVS Inc.

Wish me luck

Chandrakantha - the DD serial

2008-09-16T17:49:00.002-04:00

Remember Chandrakantha - the Doordarshan serial that we all loved when we were kids.

I used to bung the Sunday school in the church just to watch this. Gosh, the good old times!

I like this description of Chandrakantha. Check it out!

http://dimpleslife.blogspot.com/2007/01/chandrakanta-swashbuckling-fare.html

Good job dimple!
--
Cheers,
John

System Rescue disks : Linux

2008-09-11T17:03:00.002-04:00

HOWTO: create a ultimate boot disc from ubuntu livecd
http://www.linux.com/feature/137524

Although I havent tried the above procedure but it looks like fun. Try it!

System Rescue CD :
http://www.sysresccd.org/System-tools

I have used System Rescue CD countless times and I can assure you, its a must have if you are messing with your computer too often. :)
--
Cheers,
John

Bhopal survivors Fight : bhopal.net

2008-09-05T12:39:00.001-04:00

Everyone is aware of the Union Carbide's tragedy in Bhopal years ago. The survivors are still struggling for their right to live. And are demanding justice thats sooo overdue.

I stumbled upon this site ( bhopal.net ) and was impressed by the right use of internet for the right cause. They are posting the progress of their campaign in a blog and uploading pix and videos daily. They are even hosting these videos on youtube. Thats kind of cool for a village campaign and this shows how the internet can really be used. They even setup a way to fax the Prime minister of India with a petition from anyone who wishes to support the cause. 5832 faxes were sent this way and the faxing is now closed though. That was the best part~

Their walk to Delhi for justice - everything captured in pix on the blog. They walked for 172 days to get to delhi with kids and women.
http://www.bhopal.net/march/dharna2008_blog.html

Their Demands :
http://www.bhopal.net/march/padyatra2008_demands.html

The homepage :
http://www.bhopal.net

This is the best use of internet ever for a right cause and please do visit it to know more.

What you can do to help:

Send a free fax direct to the Prime Minister's office (this is closed now though)

Download, print and send a postcard

Other ideas for action

--
Cheers,
John

Project Milking a cow

2008-07-21T14:41:00.002-04:00

Have you heard the below? Even if you did, its worth a second look. Funny!

Ultimate Softwarism ....):

Client has 2 cows and u need to milk them

1 . First prepare a document when to milk them (Project kick off)

2 . Prepare a document how long you have to milk them (Project plan)

3 . Then prepare how to milk them (Design)

4 . Then prepare what other accessories are needed to milk them (Framework)

5 . Then prepare a 2 dummy cows (sort of toy cows) and show to client the way in which u will milk them (UI Mockups & POC)

6 . If client is not satisfied then redo from step 2

7 . You actually start milking them and find that there are few problem with accessories. (Change framework)

8 . Redo step 4

9 . At last milk them and send it to onsite. (Coding over)

10. Make sure that cow milks properly ( Testing)

11. Onsite reports that it is not milking there.

12. You break your head and find that onsite is trying to milk from bulls

13. At last onsite milk them and send to client (Testing)

14. Client says the quality of milk is not good. (User Acceptance Test)

15. Offsite then slogs and improves the quality of milk

16. Now the client says that the quality is good but its milking at slow rate (performance issue)

17. Again you slog and send it with good performance.

18. Client is happy???

By this time both the COWs aged and cant milk. (The software got old and get ready for next release repeat from step 1) !!!!!

The Story of Internet

2008-07-19T14:35:00.003-04:00

Check out : http://www.livinginternet.com/ if you wanna know in depth about Internet and how it came about and all other things that came with it like Usenets, IRC, Email etc.

"An elegantly organized tour of the Internet, both fun and informative, a rare combination!" -- Steve Crocker

This site is a free, in-depth reference about the Internet, written from 1996 through 1999, posted on the Web on January 7, 2000, and last updated February 2, 2008. It includes 700-odd pages, receives more than 90,000 visitors a month, and has benefited from the review and input of many of the people that helped build the Internet. Enjoy!

Veoh.com Rocks

2008-07-15T21:10:00.000-04:00

I used to download a hell lot of movies from Stage6.divx.com before they shut it down. Stage6 guys mentioned Veoh.com would a potential replacement and encouraged the users to try it out. I did and didnt like it much at the first look.

As time passed by, the users grew and the quality of the videos too. I started using their VeohTV and was amazed by the speeds I got with the client. Yes its a better connection but the range of videos available is really great.

I downloaded lots of movies and then its time that I started contributing too. So, I decided to upload some of my fav movies and it turns out there is not restriction on the size of the file. Awesome. Unfortunately, there is a restriction on the duration of the movie - It cannot be longer than 2:45 hours I think.

I hope Veoh removes this limitation soon.

Happy Birthday Dear Sis

2008-07-07T02:30:00.001-04:00

Today is my sister Prasanna Rani Dondapati's birthday. She is turning 22 today. She is a total sweetheart and I love her so much.

I think this is the first birthday of her that I am missing. She is doing her M.B.B.S (Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Science) in NTR University near our home. It was our dream to make her a doctor. She is very very studious and is very concentrated on her studies. She's got some unbelievable grades in her studies in our entire family and we are so proud of her.

I really wish I could be there with the family to celebrate this day but still... With the help of my friends Suvi, Pavan and Maha, I was able to gift her with a really nice set of jewellary. Also, they bought a really nice dress for my elder sister (Swaroopa Rani Dondapati) who is working as a Teacher in Hyderabad.

Thank you Suvi, Pavan and Maha for the help and you guys are the best!

Prasanna - I love you dear sis and may God bless you! I hope you will have everything you want in your life and I wish I can give all that to you! Many Many Happy returns of the day!

Rituraj Mahalim - the gifted Kid

2008-07-05T17:05:00.000-04:00

Rituraj Mahalim - this 7 yr old kid is gifted. Look at the way he dances to Hrithiks number - Main aisa kyon hoon!

Rituraj Mahalim - Amazing modern day dance / comedy to a Kishore Kumar Classic!!

Rituraj Mahalim - dancing to Hamma Hamma from Bombay

Rituraj Mahalim and Vaishnavi - doing Govinda

Rituraj Mahalim and his partner Vaishnavi - dancing to a Marathi number

Rituraj Mahalim - donning Don

Rituraj Mahalim - Soni de Nakhre

Child prodigies

2008-07-05T16:50:00.000-04:00

This kid speaks so many languages to sell peacock feathers :

The same kid in his teens :

Kid mimicing the top telugu Actors :

Inversion of Control (IoC) explained

2008-07-05T16:33:00.000-04:00

I stumbled upon the concept of IoC long ago and without fail I forget what it means and have to google it each and every time. Thankfully there is Wikipedia that has answers for everything.

Wiki : Inversion Of Control

And Martin Fowler calls it Dependancy Injection and explains it in the context of Spring here.

I am gonna blog it so that I would remember it atleast this way. I cant top those experts but here is my understanding of it.

IoC is the software development methodology in which the Control of the program is inverted from the traditional way of User code (the main functionality is in this code) calling Libraries (the common functions like taking user input and display are abstracted into these) to => Libraries calling the user code depending on the events occured.

Example : here (Wikipedia does a very very good job and so I dont wanna waste time topping it).

Behold, Remember the July 1st?

2008-07-01T12:33:00.002-04:00

Meeku August 15 telusaa?

Meeku January 26 telusaa?

mari July 1st?

Ee roju mari meeku teluso ledo kaani oka kaarana janmudu avatarinchina roju. Okey oka aaasayam to ee dharani pina avatarinchina aa Okka magaadu.. yevaru? yevaru?

eee subha sandharbham lo mari aayana paadaalaku naa namassumaanjali arpistuuu konni chinna maatalu... Telugu bhaasha lo vunna padaalanni kalipi remix cheysi urdu to jodinchi english ni add cheysi tamil lo kalipinaa ... aaayana ghanatha ni varninchalemuuu ....idi telisi kooda naakunna bhaasha parignaanaanni mottam rangarinchi vaari visvaroopaaanni ee chinna mail lo varnincha naa prayatnam...

Guntur, Chilakalooripeta, Nuzvid, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai nagaraalanu paavanam cheysina aa paadaalu...
Google, Cognizant, SSIET, A.M.G institutions ki vanne techchina aa mahaanubhaavudu...
Pulihora anna padaanni praachuryam loki tehchi, kalipi, kalipinchi, tini, tinipinchina aaa vyakthi....
kaadu kaadu oka sakthi,
yukthi,
mukthi vidhaatha - moksha pradaatha,
maanava janma ke vanne techchina moola viraatt,
samsaara saagaraaanni single hand to eedina samrat
Family pulihora anna kotta concept ni mana telugu tera ki parichayam cheysina Venkatesh gaari Guruvu, baabu, mogudu ani ayyina...

Mana Anna Ravindra Reddy Duggempudi (alias Harrassment) - 82 and half year lo idi roju naa janminchatam jarigindi... vaariki naa hrudaya poorva janma dina subhaakaankshalu!
--
Itlu,
mee abhimaani
John Jimmy Dondapati

Re: Java Terminology Explained

2008-07-01T10:55:00.002-04:00

I posted the "Java Terminology explained" article in my B.Tech batch's Google Group and one of the guys had the a question. Here is the mail trace.

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 9:53 AM, prasad wrote:

Hi John,

The knowledge you are transferring is really appreciated I had a doubt
that what exactly EOL means.

There version 1.4.2 is no longer exist or the bugs raised in that
version(1.4.2) no longer supported by the sun what exactely it means.

NOTE: * ** J2SE 5.0, **J2SE 1.4.2 are in their Java Technology End of
Life

(EOL) transition period*.

So, I tried to answer him with the following mail.

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 10:49 AM, John Jimmy Dondapati wrote:

Prasad - Its very simple actually. I am gonna walk you through it. Every Software has a lifetime of service and support. During this lifetime, the software is expected to do alot of things and is considered to be up-to-date. Even the support for the Software is easily available coz there will be alot of users for it.

After a couple of versions of a software the older versions are out-dated and are not the best software to run - right? So, the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) announces that they will no longer be supporting the older versions as they have reached their End of Life (EOL) time. This saves them alot of time and money. Also, the user will not be getting the optimal use/performance for the software if he is sticking to the legacy versions.

Java too is a software bundle that runs on top of Operating System, if you closely look at how it works you can understand what I trying to say. Even though we view it as just a language, there are quintessential programs that are needed for the language to be used to program with, like the compiler/interpreter, JVM and everything. These are run on top of the operating system like any other program. So, the fact of the matter is we arent just coding a java program, we are actually progamming a program to run another program on top of the OS (which in turn is a collection of programs for a specific purpose). My point here is that Java is also a Software Bundle and it too has a lifetime of service and support like any other.

Sun Technologies - the creator of Java has announced that they are stopping the support for the older versions which have reached the EOL (End Of Life - this is determined by Sun itself ). And that people should start/make a transition from this version to a higher and more updated version.

Why did they stop support for 1.4.2?

After 1.4.2, there were along of updates and optimizations done to the Java on the whole. Like the new specifications of EJBs were implemented, Annotations were added, and so on...... (check the release notes for each version and you will see the changes done). I guess, if you take the same 1.4.2 code/rprogram and run it in a 1.4.2 JVM and in the most recent JVM 6, there's a pretty good chance that there will be a significant improvement in the timings. And not just that, the language features have evolved to new specifications. So, it was no longer supported and hence ended its life.

I hope this wasnt too long an explanation for the simple question. I was just trying to make you understand that whole idea behind the EOL and not just the term itself. Also, trying to put the whole thing in one single mail so that you dont have any more questions in this regard going further.

Java Terminology Explained

2008-06-30T06:30:00.001-04:00

In the Java world we often hear alot of names like J2SE, J2RE, J2EE, Java EE, J2SDK and JDK. For a idiot like me, its all very confusing. So, I started with simple questions to get some answers inorder to clarify the confusion. This might be very helpful for a java starter.

Java RE - The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) provides the libraries, the Java Virtual Machine, and other components to run applets and applications written in the Java programming language. In addition, two key deployment technologies are part of the JRE: Java Plug-in, which enables applets to run in popular browsers; and Java Web Start, which deploys standalone applications over a network.

Current version : Java RE 6
Previous Versions : J2RE 5.0 (aka J2RE 1.5.0), J2RE 1.4. Read more on Name Change by Sun.

Java SE - Java Platform, Standard Edition (also known as Java 2 Platform) lets you develop and deploy Java applications on desktops and servers, as well as today's demanding Embedded and Real-Time environments. Java SE includes classes that support the development of Java Web Services and provides the foundation for Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE).

Current version : Java SE 6
Previous Versions are called J2SE 5.0 (aka J2SE 1.5.0), J2SDK 1.4.2. Read more on Name Change by Sun.

NOTE: J2SE 5.0, J2SE 1.4.2 are in their Java Technology End of Life (EOL) transition period.

Java EE - Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) builds on the solid foundation of Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) and is the industry standard for implementing enterprise-class service-oriented architecture (SOA) and next-generation web applications.

Current Version : Java EE 5 (Java EE 6 is due this year)
Previous Versions : J2EE (1.4)

What's difference between J2EE and Java EE?

"The name of the Java platform for the enterprise has been simplified. Formerly, the platform was known as Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), and specific versions had "dot numbers" such as J2EE 1.4. The "2" is dropped from the name, as well as the dot number. So the latest version of the Java platform for the enterprise is Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5)." - according to Sun, the creators of Java.

Ambiguity between a JDK and an SDK ?

According to Wikipedia - "The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a subset of what is loosely defined as a Software development kit (SDK) in the general sense. In the descriptions which accompany their recent releases for Java SE, EE, and ME, Sun acknowledge that under their terminology, the JDK forms the subset of the SDK which is responsible for the writing and running of Java programs.^{[citation needed]} The remainder of the SDK is composed of extra software, such as Application Servers, Debuggers, and Documentation."

NOTE: On 17 November 2006, Sun announced that it would be released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), thus making it free software. This happened in large part on 8 May 2007^[1] and the source code was contributed to the OpenJDK.

To know more about JDK : read Wikipedia article on JDK

For all Java Download (Current version) : Visit SDN [Sun Developer Network]
For all the earlier versions of Java products : Visit Java Archive.
To read more on Java Versioning : Click here.

I am trying to perfect Java 2 version 1.4 (i.e. J2EE) and then plan to take it to the next level i.e. Java EE (6 being the version to be released this year).

References : Wikipedia and Java.Sun.com

Expert One on One : J2EE Design and Development

2008-06-30T05:28:00.000-04:00

I started reading a great book on J2EE called "Expert One-on-One : J2EE Design and Development". I read the preface and it looks like a very nice book and Rod Johnson clearly seems to understand the J2EE paradigm inside out. Although this is a rather not so updated book for Java EE (as it is known now) it still gives a great insight into Java as a platform for Enterprise development.

Book on Amazon
Read some reviews here

I read a review that this book not only talks about Java and J2EE but also covers the architectural challenges faced real time and the programming in general. Lets see how much I can grasp from this book.

Getting married the Google Way

2008-06-30T00:19:00.000-04:00

I was going through the google blog and found something interesting. I read a story of a couple planning their whole marriage using Google's free apps.

They used

the Blogger to post the news and updates, used the future-dated-posts to post their thanks!
the Google docs for To-Dos and RSVP Lists ( How Geeky is that?)
the Google Calender for obvious reasons ( to mark the dates ).
the Google Maps for directions to the chapel and sites of interest.

Interesting haan? I guess the next step would be - using Google's Picasa for the Web Photo Album.

This is their blog :
http://infoclarity.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-just-got-married-thanks-google.html

And Google's blog mentions this on their officail blog :
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-got-married-with-google.html

Saw "Saw"

2008-06-30T00:06:00.000-04:00

Finally I saw "Saw" the movie. It was very gripping but gory as hell! This adds one more movie to my all time fav goriest films "Hostel", "Gangs of New York", "Hostel II", "Chain Saw Series" and one more movie which I can not recall right now.

I felt chills running down my spine when I saw the climax of the movie. The end wasnt very convincing where the killer just says he kills them coz they dont appreciate the gift of life and all but I guess if there was a real valid reason to kill he wouldnt be a psycho - would he? And the whole point of a horror film is the thrills and not the logic at the end. Now, I have to watch the next 3 parts to see how gory they are.

Quick Question : What do pyschopaths do when they arent killing someone?
Answer : Watching all the gory films - So, beware of me! hehehe :)

BTW, I was just kidding. Please dont kill me!

Sarkar Raj

2008-06-29T05:54:00.002-04:00

John Gaadu on Vuyyala, flickr collection by djohnjimmy.

I saw Sarkar Raj today as Kishore insisted that we watch it. After a very long time, Ram Gopal Varma has come back with a really really nice movie. It was gripping till the very end and there was a really nice surprise in the end which I bet no one would have seen coming.

Ofcourse, everyone knows that Abhi's character Shankar dies in this sequel but the interesting thing here is how RGV plans the next sequel. Will it be a female lead with Aish taking over the Sarkar Raj? Or will there be another guy?

Anyways, the movie is worth every minute of your (download + watching) time. I would totally recommend it to any hard core gangster movie lover. Its on Veoh.com if you want to download and watch like me.

Oh if you are wondering about the photo here : Coincidentally, we went to the send off lunch/party of Raghavendra this afternoon at the IndiClub here in Baltimore and they have a really nice swing/vuyyala there. And you know I started posing!

Bear the Beard!

2008-06-29T05:31:00.002-04:00

John in Baltimore, originally uploaded by djohnjimmy.

I am trying a new look with the beard and mustache (look closely till you see something funny). There you go!

Jesus had a beard and I was always fascinated with Jesus' beard. I mean, nobody knows for sure that Jesus has a beard or not but from all the movies on Jesus I've seen - there's a very good possiblilty that he might have had a really sexy beard or atleast the Hollywood & Tollywood Jesus did.

Anyways, I know I aint exactly the Jewish type to carry off the beard but still its a free country and the beard doesnt cost you anything in fact if you really think about it, it actually saves you money! Wise huh!:)

I am not quite sure how long I can bear the beard. Its already shabby and itchy but lets see. Alright, enough with the Beard already.

Oh BTW, this nonsense post is brought to you by flickr's new blog this feature. Flickr RULES period.

Spaces Blog

2008-06-27T06:09:00.003-04:00

I was goofing around with spaces.live.com and found that they also offer blogging services now. I guess, someone's feeling inferior of Google!

Its not nearly as great as blogger but still its a blog. The most annoying part of it is the advertisements header on the top. Its just sooooooooo freaking annoying. Microsoft's got to be kidding putting those ads on top of the blogs. I mean, Bill Gates is already filthy rich - come on! Enough with the nickels and dimes on every ad on each blog.

Look at blogger for Christ's sake - are they bothering their users like this? NO. Blogger doesnt do cheap tricks like that. And thats why it is so great. Its plain simple, give the user the whole screen space and let him deal with it.If you want the user to blog, let him customize the blog the way blogger does.

One final word : Microsoft, if you are trying to mimic Blogger, you have to do better than that.

Anyways, here is my Spaces blog. Dont even bother to visit.

http://djohnjimmy.spaces.live.com/blog/

Whole New theme for the blog

2008-06-26T06:56:00.000-04:00

After hours of work I finally came up with a logo/banner for the blog. The image on the top has a strong message and also great graphics.

Please dont know ask me what the message is coz I honestly dont know what it is but you can interpret it in your own way.

One might say - from fear to to the savior!
Or lost to being found.
Or something like that.
It may not be religious at all...

Try to interpret it in your own way. Let me know if you understand it.

Blogger came a long way

2008-06-26T03:59:00.000-04:00

I have been blogging for the past 3 years (not for long and nothing great except for my random rantings but still I was...) and never really bothered to meddle with the layout in the past two years atleast. I played with it long ago when I started blogging but after that I didnt have enough free time to even blog. I was busy living life (yeah right!)

Anyways, yesterday I saw the blog of a friend of mine (Gaurav Jha) and he has totally messed up his blog with a lot of colorful add-ons and stuff. The interesting part here is - that dude isnt a programmer - so I started wondering if a non-programmer can make so many modification then may be blogger has become more user friendly.

I decided to check what they have done and was amazed with blogger's progress. Althoug, the layouts pretty much look the same but now they have different versions/colors/themes for each layout. That department needs some attention. So, I decided to stick it my original layout as nothing else looked simple enough.

But then I saw the add-ons/page-elements page. They have a whole new bunch of addons and they are really simple to add. The add-ons I liked the most are

Slideshow (for Picasa/ Flickr /Photo Bucket) - I attached my flick slideshow as you can see... two reasons - 1. I bought a flickr account and 2. I am proud of my photographic abilities coz I clicked some pictures nice by accident.
Video Bar for Youtube videos - this is cool. Give it a shot!. Although I would love to show my fav youtube videos on this and not just some random youtube channel/most viewed videos (seriously who cares?) - but may be that something for the future.
Blog List - the blogs I read or I am interested in reading or pretending to be reading/following like the google blog.
Link List - this made adding list of elements real easy like my fav movies/shows/whatever.
HTML/JavaScript
Add third-party functionality or other code to your blog. (this is sooo cool - I am thinking of doing something really really cool with this and bt.com's sdk - keep guessing! ). TIP: You can actually put the Google Analytics code here instead of medding with the blog layout html. That way you can easily remove it or change it.
Ofcourse, AdSense - although I am not interested in putting some stupid adds on my blog for obvious reasons ( no-one ever reads this blog except for me!) but still I like the whole ease of adding adsense to your blog.

Keep these updates coming Blogger. Rock On!

Long live Torrents/Mininova.

2008-06-26T03:49:00.000-04:00

I have been watching too many movies lately and I couldnt have done it without Mininova.org. Its soooo bloody simple. All you gotta do is search and download. Its better than google actually coz its save that extra search. With torrents Any movie in the world is just 2 clicks away.

I have used torrents before but it wasnt this fast for two reasons :
* as the internet in India is really expensive and we had to be content with the small bandwidths that are offered to home users.
* people in India dont believe in seeding, we have 1/1000 leeches seeding back home.

I am downloading atleast 5 movies a day and make it a point to seed them till I download the next batch.

Mininova.org ROCKS... and whoever invented the torrent technology is a bloody genious. Long live P2P. I hope its legalized and stays free forever.

Tips : If you have loads of time to kill, go to IMDB's list of top 250 movies

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

2008-06-26T03:44:00.000-04:00

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a story of 4 friends and how destiny plays with them. They gamble and loose alot of money and now have to pay up half a million in a week. How they are gonna come up with the money ? They loot the loot of next door thieves. And a whole big mess happens and what happens next is the best part.

It could not have had a better ending than what it has. Simply superb.

9/10 again.

Memento (2000) Mystery

2008-06-26T03:42:00.000-04:00

I saw Memento today and it was a very very strange movie. The screenplay is totally weird but really cool. It was gripping until the very end. You have no clue what is going on until the climax.

I now know where the Idea for Gajini came from. Its almost the same but the director adapted it to the Indian audience.

9/10

Very very nice movie.

Apple PowerBook G4 M847- power adapter repair

2008-06-24T01:50:00.000-04:00

I have a gift of messing up everything I lay hands on and keeping up with that tradition I messed up the Power Adapter of the Powerbook that Wesley Horner gave me. It was burnt coz of my negligence and I had to search online a whole night to get the best deal and order it.

After I finally ordered it, I couldnt just keep quite and let the mail come. The guilt was eating me and I had to do something about it. So, I decided to repair it on my own. I thought to myself, there will be a couple of wires that are burnt and all I have to do is to break the adapter, take out the wires and join them again. Which is exactly what I did and it surprisingly paid off.

I wont be needing the new adapter after all. Lesson learnt : Never under estimate your skills, try it yourself first before you go on shopping. Anyways, It felt good to repair stuff and get it right.

BTW, I even managed to partially fix the wireless adapter on the Powerbook. Its amazing what we can achieve once we apply our brains. :)

Cidade de Deus - City Of God (2002)

2008-06-24T01:30:00.002-04:00

IMDB Profile :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/

Cidade de Deus is a portugese story of a small town gangster wars. It deals with so many lives involved in this war. Its a true story of a photographer who saw the whole struggle and even lost his brother in the war.

I saw this movie with subtitles and still it was very very gripping. I wish I knew the language to understand it better but then again pictures speak more than words. The screenplay was brilliant and so is the cast. The guy who played the Bunny is awesome.

All in all - its a movie you wanna watch if you are interested in the psychology of humans and why they do what they do.

9/10

I have to watch the next sequel of the movie called "City Of Men". I have downloaded it already before even knowing of this movie.

American History X (1998)

2008-06-24T01:21:00.000-04:00

I just saw an incredible movie of Edward Norton " American History X", its awesome. Its one of the masterpieces of him. He is just absolutely brilliant. I dont know how he gets these kinds of scripts but he just amazes me with all the great movies he did.

Its a movie about racism and its consequences. Derek Vinyard is a White guy who believes that all the other races are just worthless and are freeloaders. He kills two black guys who are trying to get back at him for some basketball match fight. He spends 3 years in prison and learns that Racism hasnt made his life any better. He was helped by a black guy in the prison and that changes his whole perspective. His own white people screw him in the shower and he learns his lesson. But the problem here is his brother is another Derek in the making and the movie goes on to show how he has trouble making his brother realize the right way and how he faces the consequences.
Its a very moving picture of human emotions and the life in America. Its a movie to watch for any human. The message it delivers is so strong that it ought to be taught at schools anywhere on the planet. Kudos to

Director: Tony Kaye

Writer (WGA): David McKenna (written by)

Totally awesome 9.5/10

The funniest joke ever

2008-06-24T01:18:00.000-04:00

My ex-colleague Sudarshan Vig forwarded me a really funny joke today and I was rolling on the floor laughing after I read it... pass on the laughter!

SUSPECT ULTIMATE:::Chicken story (mind blowing climax)

A farmer rears twenty-five young hens and one old cock. As he feels that the old cock could no longer handle his job efficiently, the farmer bought one young cock from the market.

Old cock to Young cock : "Welcome to join me, we will work together towards productivity.

Young cock : What you mean? As far as I know, you are old and should be retired.

Old cock : Young boy, there are twenty-five hens here, can't I help you with some?

Young cock : No! Not even one, all of them will be mine.

Old cock : In this case, I shall challenge you to a competition and if I win you shall allow me to have one hen and if I lose you will have all.

Young cock :

O.K. What kind of competition?

Old cock: 50 meter run. From here to that tree. But due to my age, I hope you allow me to start off the first 10 meters.

Young cock : No problem ! We will compete tomorrow morning.

Confidently, the following morning, the Young cock allows the Old cock to start off and when the Old cock crosses the 10 meters mark the Young cock chases him with all his might.

Soon enough, he was behind the Old cock back in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly, Bang! ...... before he could overtake the old cock, he was shot dead by the farmer, who cursed, "Hell ! This is the fifth GAY chicken I've bought this week !"

Billa (2007) tamil movie starring Nayantara & Ajit

2008-06-23T16:25:00.001-04:00

I saw Billa (2007) starring Ajit, Nayanatara & Namitha a few days ago. Its a really high quality film with a great cinematography. Most of it is copied from the DON (2007) starring Shah Rukh Khan but still copying isnt that easy. They spent a fortune on this movie with all the shooting in Malaysia. Its a treat to the eyes all through and the producers didnt compromise on a single thing. I have always envied the tamil film industry for the great movies that they come out with once in a while. Kaadal Kondain ("Nenu" by allari nagesh in telugu), pitamagan ( suryaputrudu in telugu )... all these movies were just awesome. I wonder when the telugu industry is going to take up the challenge and make such great movies with the High Quality. We are very good at love, factionism and family stuff but sometimes it gets too boring. We have some great entertainers like Allari Naresh with movies that tickle your funny bone every season but then they are just good for the minute and not like Rajendra prasads masterpieces.

Anyways, coming back to Billa.. Ajit looked stunning in those costumes. Nayanatara stole my heart with the tough girl looks that she easily pulled off. This Keralite is the hottest property in the south right now and has no stopping. She can fit into any outfit and manage to look stunning in that. I am finding myself drooling over her from time to time. She looks exactly like Eva Mendes from the movie Hitch where she plays a FBI agent obsessed with work. I love Eva and now Nayantara.

Trivia : Nayantara's real name is Diana Mariam Kurien.
Billa was originally donned by Rajnikath in 1980.

Nagarjuna's Ride

2008-06-21T23:48:00.000-04:00

I came to know recently that Nagarjuna Akkineni drives around in this baby.... If romours were to be believed, this is the most expensive car owned by any Indian Actor (as of July 2007).

Take a look at the BMW M6
Priced at

100,300 U.S. dollars = 4.29881708 million Indian rupees

http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Content/Vehicles/2008/M/M6Coupe/default.aspx

Now thats a stylish guy - Isnt he?

If Chiru becomes the CM of Andhra

2008-06-21T23:41:00.000-04:00

Chiru is always said to be a patient of nepotism and if this is true and if he becomes the next CM of Andhra Pradesh ...

Are we looking at a cabinet like this ?
http://akasaramanna.net/2008/chiranjeevi-chief-minister-ayithe/

NOTE : For all the die hard Chiru fans, I am a fan myself but sometimes we can Just have some fun and not be a totally obsessed maniac. Take it easy - will you?

Now, thats a honest Butch

2008-06-21T23:34:00.000-04:00

I always liked this bimbo for her honest thirst and desire to be in the news like Paris Hilton of the west. She has a great body and wouldnt mind showing it off. Sometimes when bimbos like this opens mouth its a controversy in the making. And now keeping up with the legacy this whatever chopra makes another scandal. This time at an Interview with Maxim. She totally craves attention and this is how she gets it.

But I really appreciate her for her honesty. She doesnt deny the allegations and pretend to be a sati saavithri like Rakhi Sawanth. She just talks more mature and gets naughty...

Read more here :
http://www.maximindia.in/girls/insidegirls/367/sherlyn_chopra.html

Some thoughts on Chiru

2008-06-21T23:31:00.000-04:00

I personally believe, Its good to have an allround view of something before you trust it. And this shouldnt be something to hold against someone. I think everyone should be given a fair chance.

We all know how great chiru is as an actor, social activist and a person. But sometimes we miss to read between the lines and here are some insights... I cannot say all that is true but its quite possible... But then again there are ppl who make a career out of this. Read on!

http://akasaramanna.net/2008/negative-points-on-chiranjeevi/

Happy Birthday DAD

2008-06-19T02:27:00.000-04:00

Today is my dads 54th birthday. I am not there with him to celebrate but I am sure he will have a great day. Happy Birthday Dad!

SSN

2008-06-19T02:20:00.000-04:00

Good news, I got my Social Security Number today finally. Its a fancy number - what are the odds! :)

I can start working anytime now. :)

21

2008-06-19T01:59:00.000-04:00

Today I saw the movie "21". It was good, very gripping but not really a great movie to treasure. Its about the game black jack and how some students beat the casinos to win big bucks lead by their professor. Things go out of hand and the the fight begins .....
I would recommend it if you are interested in some geeky fun!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478087/

హ్యాపీ డేస్

2008-06-18T05:58:00.000-04:00

నేను నిన్న హ్యాపీ డేస్ మూవీ మళ్లీ చూసాను పెద్దగా తోచక. ఇండియా లో వున్నప్పుడు యువత మొత్తం కలిసి చూసాము అప్పుడు పెద్దగా ఏం అనిపించలేదు గాని ఇప్పుడు ఇక్కడ చూస్తె బాగా నచ్చింది.

శేఖర్ కమ్ముల మంచి డైరెక్టర్. బాగా టచ్ చేసాడు - టచ్ లో వుంటాను ఇంక అతని మూవీస్ కి. మొత్తం నా లైఫ్ మొత్తం రీల్ లా తిరిగింది కళ్ళ ముందు. ఆ ఫ్రెండ్స్, ఆ ఫన్, ఆ రోజులు, ఆ క్లాస్స్లు, ఆ రోడ్లు, ఆ గోల, ఆ లవ్ లు, ఆ అర్ధం కాని పులిహోర అంతా చాల చాల బాగా క్లియర్ గా కనిపించింది కళ్ళముందు. థాంక్స్ శేఖర్!

ఎందుకో తెలియదు కాని నాకు ఇలా అమెరికా లో డాలర్స్ కోసం పాకులాడటం కొంచం చిన్నపిల్లల్లా అనిపిస్తోంది - ఇండియా లో హ్యాపీ గా ఫ్రెండ్స్ తో ఎంజాయ్ చేసేవాడిని ఇక్కడ ఒక్కడినే ఇలా ....

ఐనా ఒక ౩-4 సంవత్సరాల్లో తిరిగి మళ్లీ వేల్లకపోతానా ? అప్పుడు చెయ్యొచ్చు ఎంజాయ్ అని నాకు నేనే సర్దిచెప్పుకుని పడుకున్నాను.

జావా ఒక అగాథం

2008-06-18T05:46:00.000-04:00

నేను అమెరికా వచ్చినప్పటి నుంచి పెద్దగా ఆలోచించలేదు నేను ఏం చేద్దాం ఇక్కడ అని కాని ఏదో ఒక ధీమా వుండేది మనం హీరో అని. వచ్చి ఒక నెల రోజులు అయ్యింది కాని నేను పెద్దగా పీకింది ఏం లేదు రొజూ ఇంట్లో నిద్ర పోవటం తప్ప. ఒక రెండు రోజుల నుంచి ఏదో అసంతృప్తి నేను ఏం చేస్తున్నాను అని. ఇంక ఈ రోజు ఇలా ఐతే కష్టం అని కూర్చుని జావా పుస్తకం పట్టుకున్నాను నిద్ర రాక. వామ్మో జావా ఏదో అనుకున్నా గాని చాలా పెద్ద అగాథం. రెండు chapters చదివాను అప్పుడు అనిపించింది మనకి J2EE అంతగా రాదేమో అని. ఇంకో ఒక chapter చదివాను అస్సలు రాదు అని confirm అయ్యింది.

ఇలానే వుంటే కష్టం సో నేను ఈ రోజు ఫిక్స్ అయ్యింది ఏంటి అంటే - ఒక నెల రోజులు కాస్త కష్ట పడి ఆ J2EE ఏదో కరెక్ట్ గా నేర్చుకుంటే ఇంక మనం ఇక్కడ కుమ్మేయ్యోచ్చు అని. చూద్దాం మరి అది ఎలా జరుగుతుందో...

గుడ్ లక్ రా జాన్ గా

Photos on Flickr

2008-06-17T16:27:00.002-04:00

I bought a flickr pro account last month and am making full use of it. Its been a month since I came to USA and I have already been to San Francisco (most of it), Washinton D.C. (only ariport), New Jersey, New York (from the other side of hudson river) and Baltimore.

Its been a joy ride and I have lots and lots of memories. Wesley Horner and Gordon Anderson were kind enough to host me in SFO for Jason Muldoon's wedding. Iam glad that I got to spend a wonderful week in San Francisco. During that week, I have toured around Bay Area, seen the Submarine from World War 2, seen a underwater aquarium, went around walking the beaches and harbours, walked in a 12K run (Bay to the Breakers) and attended an American wedding. Quite a packed vacation.

Here are the pix - I tried to capture most of the week but still camera cant beat the eye.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djohnjimmy/sets/

Awesome blog post

2008-06-17T15:41:00.001-04:00

Shyam mailed me to read this post whenever I am free and I never laughed so much in my life, this is one of the best blog posts ever in telugu. Its really really funny.

http://thotaramudu.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post.html

You will need telugu font to read this post. Trust me its worth it.

I was really amazed to see so much talent never being discovered.

"Devudu okkokkari ki okko talent istaadu - naaku 23 ichchaadu"

- quote from this post.

Bay Cruise, Pampanito, Aquarium & Sea Lions

2008-05-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had a chance to tour SFO more than ever. I have seen all that there is to see - well almost.

First I walked down the beautiful seashore and reached the tourist hangout. There were ppl from allover the world. I met some really cold Indians and some very nice Americans.

Then I went to the Pampanito ( A world war II submarine ). It was amazing!I saw the torpedoes inside the submarine and the navigation room is cool with all kinds of meters and wheels and stuff.

Then I took the bay cruise to Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz. Will post the pix pretty soon.

Ho Ho San Francisco

2008-05-16T18:25:00.000-04:00

I cant believe I am here. I am really walking the streets in SFO. Its awesome. The weather is really hot and sun but not for me. I am at the InsideView office right now having some nice time with my ex-colleagues here.

I reached SFO at 7:30 PM last night and Wesly Horner was kind enough to pick me up at the airport and host me. I am staying at his place for this week. Tomorrow I will be attending Jason's wedding and then have some fun.

Gordon treated me with a lunch this afternoon along with Wes, Jason Chiang, Greg, Elia and Percy Chow. We went to a nice mexican restaurant and I had a Bison burger, it was really nice. Then we went to have some gilato. It was also very nice.

Greg showed me the sushi and told me how it is prepared. Met Rand Schulman and others at InsideView.

To be continued...

Going Home

2008-03-20T10:18:00.001-04:00

I am gonna go home tonight to spend sometime with my family on Good Friday/Easter. It feels great to go home again after a month. The last month has been very hectic and there wasnt enough time to go to vza on weekends. I am glad I can finally lay back and spend some quality time at home.

--
Cheers,
John
-----------------------------------------
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well!

Jab We met

2008-03-18T03:43:00.001-04:00

Last night I bought a DVD of "Jab We Met". Its a movie that will make you think about the way you live life. I was surprised by the performances of Kareena and Shahid. They both were amazing. Recommend it whole heartedly!

--
Cheers,
John
-----------------------------------------
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well!

Who says Google maps isnt fun?

2008-03-17T06:13:00.001-04:00

Check this out People - Go to think link and click on the "Street View"

Its awesome!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bay+bridge,+San+Francisco,+CA+94107,+USA&sll=37.794771,-122.383388&sspn=0.002404,0.005879&layer=c&ie=UTF8&t=h&cbll=37.803775,-122.371851&ll=37.804035,-122.371843&spn=0.000601,0.00147&z=20&cbp=1,0,,0,4.706798784290641

--
Cheers,
John

Bheemudu Bakasuridini Yela champadu?

2008-02-25T05:47:00.001-05:00

The funniest telugu exam paper ever!

--
Cheers,
John

Installing Windows after Linux - fixing grub

2008-02-13T04:25:00.001-05:00

Note : This may not be useful for all. But just a info when you find yourself in this situation.

Problem :
If you install Windows after linux - it erases the grub.

Solution :
So you need to reinstall grub. Here is a detailed HOWTO of that.

Link :

http://www.twincling.org/node/40

Courtesy :
Satish Vellanki from Twincling has taken the effort to document this. Good stuff!

Comment :
It says for Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) but this works for all linuxes

--
Cheers,
John
-----------------------------------------
Open Source isnt Piracy - there is a difference - really!

Vijayawada : A status report

2008-02-12T04:03:00.001-05:00

Guys,

We have been in our Home town for the past three days and it felt really good. Its growing real fast. I was amazed at the pace with which its growing. Here are some of my observations.

New in Vijayawada (atleast for me)

* Five star hotel - The Gateway Hotel in the place of Andhra Jyothi
* Khandhari is now Fortune Murali
* Inox is coming up in the place of Urvasi (Its gonna be one heck of a hangout for mallrats)
* Reliance has bought Old Bus station and Venkateswara Theatre.
* There will be a big multiplex and a huge jewellary store.
* Looks like the M.G. Road is finally going to get into shape
* Malls everywhere like Chermas, Big Bazar, Spencers, and whatnot!
* Pubs?

It really felt good watching our home town develop. But there are some things that I didnt like ...

* The traffic is now horrible thanks to R&B ( the roads are not spacious enough and the crowd is not educated enough)
* Vinoda talkies aka Priyadarshani is now Srinivasa Palace (DONT EVER GO THERE - its pathetic! There were more prostitutes than audience in the theatre )
* The pimping has started again in the Gandhi nagar (Its not as worse as earlier but its back)
* The police is now back to its normal self ( it was really good when Surendhra babu was around)

--
Cheers,
John

Enough with orkut - let get serious with Social Networking utilities

2008-02-02T00:47:00.001-05:00

Guys,

NOTE: This is not a hate orkut mail but to educate us all about how useful and powerful social networking is and how you can use it instead of using it to just killing time and wasting our lives. I dont hate orkut, but I just dont like it anymore! There is so much you are missing with a narrow orkut vision. Think broad and you can put your valuable time to great use.

Introduction

We have been using Orkut too long and there isnt much use by scrapping except for getting to know more stupids. And then there are communities which have no real purpose other than stupid fun and time pass if not gratify someone's big ego. So, I guess its time to move on... There is so much to social networking than we can imagine. Every other day we get an invite to some wayn, friendster, jaxtr, bullshit and whatnot. Are these really worth your time? How do you judge? Is there anything out there that could really help us in our career instead of fooling around posting some crazy javascripts or the long chain of help me help you messages. Is this what social networking all about? NO...

Why?

When you go to a book store you see lots of books but you buy only those books that your friend referred or read right? why? This is because we believe our connections and network. We are not out there chasing the wild goose. We wanna take the trusted path to our destination. So, we use our network to get things done or get to know things. Thats how the social networking works too.. There are plenty of companies out there who dont trust the naukri.com or monster.com for their hiring. They use the social networks and post the jobs in their network and ask people in their network to refer someone. If you come to know of the job in your network you can dig up a connection and get reffered for the job. As you know, referrals are the best way to the job. You are already special and you dont have to prove too much. But for all this to work, you should have a solid profile up with a confident looking resume. Then you dont look for jobs - jobs look for you and will come to you.

What?

I dont know how many of you guys use LinkedIn and Facebook. But you should try them out, its really useful if you have some good connections. People get job offers just for having connections. I know some couple of really good job openings just because I have some really big connections in there although I am not qualified for that job, it feels good to know right, who knows someday this might get me my dream job.

I will tell you briefly how these could help you :

1. LinnkedIn

LinkedIn has some really cool features like ( People in your network are hiring) which tells you jobs in your network.

You can get referred on getting endorsed by your connections.
You can connect to almost any company through the connections of connections
Most importantly, people dont play around in LinkedIn - its professional. So, you get some really serious people so be serious!

Try LinkenIn : http://www.linkedin.com/

2. Facebook

Faceboook is fun. You can do whatever you want on it. Install and play with applications. Write up your own applications to use the power of facebook API and show off the world how good a developer you are and all. If you develop the right application you get really rich or even hired by facebook. You wont believe but last years two guys hacked facebook and got hired for knowing facebooks loopholes. But messing around with someone's connections is not forgiven and your profile will be deleted if you messed around enough.

Try Facebook : http://www.facebook.com

BOTTOM LINE: Use it or loose it. And that being said, its not orkut so dont play around irresponsibly or you will get kicked.

--
Cheers,
John
-----------------------------------------
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well!

Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo

2008-02-01T07:07:00.001-05:00

Good or Bad?

I personally this - ITS VERY VERY BAD.

More Info:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_yahoo

--
Cheers,
John
-----------------------------------------
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well!

Really good slides on Introduction to Unix/Linux

2008-01-24T06:21:00.001-05:00

Here is a very interesting slideshow on the Introduction to Unix/Linux :

http://www.slideshare.net/duquoi/intro-unixlinux-01/

FYI, you will need flash player to view.

--
Cheers,
John
-----------------------------------------
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well!

Zeitgeist

2007-12-31T00:46:00.001-05:00

Last night I watched a film/documentary called "ZeitGeist" which shook me. It puts forth a whole bunch of truths that no one ever knew. I wont say its completely true but it is one of the possibilities. But if it true, then we have something to really worry about.

Then again, these days you cannot believe anything that you watch.

It has three parts (from wikipedia) :

Part I: The Greatest Story Ever Told Part I evaluates Christian beliefs established in the Bible and critiques the historicity of the Bible. In furtherance of the Jesus myth hypothesis, this part argues that the historical Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid,^[5] and that the Bible is based on astrological principles documented by many ancient civilizations, especially pertaining to movement of the sun through the sky and stars.

Part II: All The World's a Stage Part II asserts that the United States was warned about the impending September 11, 2001 attacks, that NORAD was purposely confused through wargames to allow the planes to reach their targets, and that the World Trade Center buildings underwent a controlled demolition. Additionally, the film argues that six of the named hijackers are still alive, that Hani Hanjour could not have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon, that the Bush Administration covered up the truth in the 9/11 Commission Report, and that the mainstream media has failed to ask important questions about the official account.

Part III: Don't Mind The Men Behind The Curtain Part III asserts that the powerful bankers of the world have been conspiring for world domination and increased power. According to the documentary, the rich of society have been using their wealth to increase financial panic and foster a consolidation of independent competing banks. The film details the Theory of Electronic Conspiracy that the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States , was created in order to steal the wealth of the nation. It showcases the amount of money that has been made by these rich few during World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War and now the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It describes the goal of these bankers as world power over a completely controllable public.^[2]

Christmas Shopping

2007-12-18T13:36:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I bought some really cool winter-wear for my family. A really cool swear shirt for myself too :)
I have never bought stuff for my whole family at once. This is the first time that I am doing such a thing. And I tell you it feels so good to buy something for your loved ones. Lets see if they like the gifts or ?

BTW, Tomorrow I am going to Sonu-nigam's Concert in the Microsoft's Annual meeting here in HITEX. My friend "Mr. Amit Almighty" is taking me along. I am sure to have loads and loads of fun!

Insideview 2.7 - SFDC Sync data picklist

2007-12-18T13:27:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we deployed the V2.7 of IV. The Major attraction of this release is SFDC SyncData picklist which Jerome and I worked on. It was one heck of a learning experience for me in every way. I had to toil to learn JavaBeans, Forms, Action classes and what not! I even wrote some JSP code!

I created two seamlessly syncing functionalities for Leads and Accounts in SFDC. It involved querying IV and SFDC data and showing them side by side and letting the user pick the fields that he wants to sync with his SFDC Lead/Account. The UI that Jerome has put in place just blows your mind. It is amazing what a simple javascript and CSS can do! Full credits to Jerome on this!

The release went great and passed rigorous testing. So far no major bugs have been logged which makes this release so special as all the releases I previously worked on needed patches :)

BOTTOM LINE: I am now becoming confident in my Java/J2EE skills. And Hard work always pays off!

The other side of Hitech City

2007-12-04T13:22:00.001-05:00

I went for jogging the other day. And I thought I would show you the other side of Madapur. This has got to be the best place in whole of hyderabad.

I dont know if you will believe me but this is in the hitech city.

InsideView at Formula One

2007-12-03T11:51:00.001-05:00

Some More Pix!