So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye.
It has been a long summer. With Neil Gaiman and Randall Munroe for thought, FB and Orkut for the rot, and an assortment of movies from TPB, and a lone project with an end that is still elusive, the summer draws to a close. Another year dawns where we learn about the wonders of instrumentation and the scarcity of girls. One can but hope that the winds of change bring with them a few good faces.
With this, I reach my monthly quota of 6 blag posts and feel a pressing need to give something back to you guys as my third not-really-succesful-but-fun-all-the-same month of blagging ends. Considering my love for lists, I thought I would drop a few suggestions based on what I have been doing these holidays. Be it an alternative to fly-swatting or deep ideas for enhancing your knowledge, I trust you would find them amusing, if not overwhelmingly phenomenal.
To counter boredom - nitrome.com (best.flashgames.ever), icanhascheezburger.com ('nuff said)
Reading - Sandman (Neil Gaiman), one of the best stories ever crafted
Webcomics - xkcd, toothpastefordinner
Gaming - Gunbound, NeoSteam (Both are MMORPGs)
Movies - Gran Torino, Memoirs of a Geisha (still haunted by the soundtrack...)
I was hoping to write reviews for most of these but didn't really get down to it. Expect more on this in the future as I foresee no work over the next few months.
Getting back to the farewell, it is only temporary. You can stop crying now. Although my college is technologically challenged, I promise to put stuff up somehow. If you want to say anything (which I doubt, since most of you are people who will be at said hell hole with me), send a mail.
Coherence in this post is very poor since I'm finishing it in a hurry and am slightly depressed over leaving the climate, good food and the internet behind as I head to college. So long, guys, and thanks for all the kitsch.
Pramod
P.S. W00t, I actually signed it...
P.P.S Readers, thank you. You guys are teh best <3
Advice on the interweb
T-Shirts, Self Help Books and the Internet have been the predominant sources of knowledge since the turn of the century. With the first two discounted due to child labour concers and scientific studies, the wild, wide interweb is where people seek answers. People with queries have been visiting the likes of Y! Answers hoping to resolve questions they were too scared to ask their parents. Personally, my experience with such sites has been limited as I, being sort of well-read when it comes to the internet, do not trust people online. More so, when they have names like Dr.FixIt or MJlives (no self referential pun intended...).
Through a weirdly humourous twist of fate, I ended up browsing one of the Y!Answers pages today and actually enjoyed the experience. Given my love for sharing information, even the mildly funny bits, I decided to blag about it. The topics ranged from simple relationship advice to serious questions regarding pubic shrubbery. Here are excerpts from the various pages I visited over half an hour of enthusiastic clicking:
Q) I have been together with this girl for 3 years now, (...) don't have a job, still with my parents (im 15) and i tried not calling her but text her often, then one day she asked why i havn't been calling and i explained, but she got mad
A1) that is so swee... wait, how have you been dating a girl since you were 12?
Q) I'm 17 and like this 15 year old girl who lives opposite me. We've never spoken to one another. Now I wanna just ring that doorbell and start a conversation (when her parents aren't home) Any ideas what excuse I could come up with?
A1) when he rparents aren't home ? what are you hoping will happen?
A2) pretend you're selling something? or ask for donations and if you get it -- really donate it.
A3) (...) Or if you're a real creep just ask "does this rag smell like chloroform to you?" Good luck.
Q) Girls! How often do you want to have *** with? your boyfriend? And does he want it as much as you? Or does he want less, or more?
A) breakfast lunch and dinner
Q) Please tell me what to do if i accidentally broke some wine bottle in some wal-mart? please tell me
A1) run
A2) announce very loudly: "spill, spill, spill, wine spill in aisle number 4. emergency cleanup crew lay to aisle 4 with a mop."
A3) Hi from France ♫ Do nothing ! Just take another !...
Q) I penetrated my girlfriend and my **** was kinda wet... but it was only for a min.. then i retrieved it!! will she get pregnant?? should i get her a pill?? please help....!!
A1-9) Random useful answer
A10) Good thing you retrieved your ****, you could have lost it! Also, no, your girlfriend won't get pregnant. She already is!
As you can see, asking the netizens might not be the brightest thing to do, but if occasional humour is your kind of thing, sign up immediately. And drop me a message.
BTW, I'm down with the flu. Revenge of the fallen pigs.
Through a weirdly humourous twist of fate, I ended up browsing one of the Y!Answers pages today and actually enjoyed the experience. Given my love for sharing information, even the mildly funny bits, I decided to blag about it. The topics ranged from simple relationship advice to serious questions regarding pubic shrubbery. Here are excerpts from the various pages I visited over half an hour of enthusiastic clicking:
Q) I have been together with this girl for 3 years now, (...) don't have a job, still with my parents (im 15) and i tried not calling her but text her often, then one day she asked why i havn't been calling and i explained, but she got mad
A1) that is so swee... wait, how have you been dating a girl since you were 12?
Q) I'm 17 and like this 15 year old girl who lives opposite me. We've never spoken to one another. Now I wanna just ring that doorbell and start a conversation (when her parents aren't home) Any ideas what excuse I could come up with?
A1) when he rparents aren't home ? what are you hoping will happen?
A2) pretend you're selling something? or ask for donations and if you get it -- really donate it.
A3) (...) Or if you're a real creep just ask "does this rag smell like chloroform to you?" Good luck.
Q) Girls! How often do you want to have *** with? your boyfriend? And does he want it as much as you? Or does he want less, or more?
A) breakfast lunch and dinner
Q) Please tell me what to do if i accidentally broke some wine bottle in some wal-mart? please tell me
A1) run
A2) announce very loudly: "spill, spill, spill, wine spill in aisle number 4. emergency cleanup crew lay to aisle 4 with a mop."
A3) Hi from France ♫ Do nothing ! Just take another !...
Q) I penetrated my girlfriend and my **** was kinda wet... but it was only for a min.. then i retrieved it!! will she get pregnant?? should i get her a pill?? please help....!!
A1-9) Random useful answer
A10) Good thing you retrieved your ****, you could have lost it! Also, no, your girlfriend won't get pregnant. She already is!
As you can see, asking the netizens might not be the brightest thing to do, but if occasional humour is your kind of thing, sign up immediately. And drop me a message.
BTW, I'm down with the flu. Revenge of the fallen pigs.
Fun at IIT
We wonder, at times, how different our lives would be if we studied at a better institution. These thoughts grow with our realisation that we are studying in a college which has the large vacation period as its strongest vouch. Forced into the projects by overzealous parents, a batchmate and I forayed into IIT hoping to add a feather to our hitherto unremarkable resumés. The project is running smoothly (with no end in sight...) and we devote some of our time thinking about life at IIT. Life is not fun enough as it is. We came up with a few really interesting things to do there. Here are a few of the mentionable ones:
NOTE: Appreciation requires some knowledge of IIT-M and related geography
1) Remember the elephant circle at the middle of the campus? We planned on taking photos sitting on them. Only, with a sniper rifle. Nobody would dream of seeing a sniper there and it would prove to be the perfect vantage point. Cover does leave you wanting, but hey, if you get him before he sees you, how does it matter?
2) The buses for transportation inside take time. A lot of time. A simple plan born out of necessity involved car-jacking. I, being the thin, defenceless one, would distract the driver while my physically more (marginally) intimidating friend would yank the driver out. I would then proceed to jump in pretending to wrest control from him but my lack of counter-terrorist combat knowledge would lead to the accelerator being pressed.
3) This one was his idea. Well, its inspired by him, at least. Not satisfied with alcohol, he decided to completely destroy his liver. Three bottles of beer, one of whiskey, one of apple vodka and one of vanilla vodka. Once you're sloshed, stock up on paracetamol and take one an hour for the next twenty four. Give the devil our greetings when you get there.
4) People take videos/photos of the campus every now and then. Walk into one of these naturally, then, turn around suddenly, face the camera, wave wildly and shout "Hi, mom!". Blame it on the study load and Kapil Sibal.
If you are an NITT-ian who, like the rest, turned up at IITM for your project, support our cause. We need more volunteers to fund the sniper rifle.
NOTE: Appreciation requires some knowledge of IIT-M and related geography
1) Remember the elephant circle at the middle of the campus? We planned on taking photos sitting on them. Only, with a sniper rifle. Nobody would dream of seeing a sniper there and it would prove to be the perfect vantage point. Cover does leave you wanting, but hey, if you get him before he sees you, how does it matter?
2) The buses for transportation inside take time. A lot of time. A simple plan born out of necessity involved car-jacking. I, being the thin, defenceless one, would distract the driver while my physically more (marginally) intimidating friend would yank the driver out. I would then proceed to jump in pretending to wrest control from him but my lack of counter-terrorist combat knowledge would lead to the accelerator being pressed.
3) This one was his idea. Well, its inspired by him, at least. Not satisfied with alcohol, he decided to completely destroy his liver. Three bottles of beer, one of whiskey, one of apple vodka and one of vanilla vodka. Once you're sloshed, stock up on paracetamol and take one an hour for the next twenty four. Give the devil our greetings when you get there.
4) People take videos/photos of the campus every now and then. Walk into one of these naturally, then, turn around suddenly, face the camera, wave wildly and shout "Hi, mom!". Blame it on the study load and Kapil Sibal.
If you are an NITT-ian who, like the rest, turned up at IITM for your project, support our cause. We need more volunteers to fund the sniper rifle.
When pigs fly and chennai gets wet
I love the weather when it rains. Not that I like getting wet. But it certainly is the type of weather that I like doing things in. Like MMORPGs. Or girls. Well, at least MMORPGs, looking at my luck these days. Going to the beach in a mild drizzle and soaking up in the seaside moisture are excellent ways to spend a Saturday evening. I would include Mozzarella cheese, Vodka and Rum, but I might lose readers if i did.
Getting to the matter of that Saturday evening, I was quite enjoying it. The wind was blowing at the beach after a year. There were girls (real ones; not the Red Bull types). People I knew were present. People I knew but would rather not weren't. Oh, and the weather. Blue sky, easy breeze and a patch of sun. I knew having things this good meant trouble. Or fun. I must admit I didn't expect both.
Getting to the matter of that Saturday evening, I was quite enjoying it. The wind was blowing at the beach after a year. There were girls (real ones; not the Red Bull types). People I knew were present. People I knew but would rather not weren't. Oh, and the weather. Blue sky, easy breeze and a patch of sun. I knew having things this good meant trouble. Or fun. I must admit I didn't expect both.
As we, a group of three, struck up conversation (put here oh-so-ever subtly by one of them), the first plops started. With our skills of premonition, science and plop direction study (one for each of us - "Dude, I think its gonna rain", “Don’t you remember tenth geography? Sea breeze, da!” and "Its increasing! Run for shelter!"), we decided to move. Sadly, debating had given us a late start and most of the nearby spots of shelter were filled with people that trusted their common sense and did not have learned, questioning friends to argue with. We plodded on to a small restaurant at the end of the beach that had shelter, girls and other nice smelling things. Only, we were short on cash and had to give up the latter and be happy with a shed outside that gave us a roof. A small shed, mind you ("This looks like a cow-shed!"). Soon, the number of people in our little cow-shed soared with an increase in the intensity of the downpour and we were left in the middle of it all wondering how to prevent being pickpocketed or felt up. Anirudh, arguably the one with the spontaneity, spoke up.
You must understand that I love pulling pranks off. Not the small banana peel types. What we got as a suggestion was brilliant. Anirudh had a cold; The world had swine flu; And we had a plan to make some space. He sneezed, I exclaimed "Dude, you have swine flu!". Eyes turned, heads lowered, whispers ran and one or two smart ones smiled. The crowd did ease a bit, but it should probably be attributed to the rain and not our genius plot. Nevertheless, it was fun. We had a good laugh over it while some of the duller ones cleared the wool from their eyes. Anirudh and I decided to write about it (I swear I thought about it first...) and this is the result.
I still plan on pulling off more pranks at the beach. Some of it targets the smokers. Some, the Red Bull girls. If you are interested, do give me a ring :)
Oh, and the topic of swine flu and panicking people brought this to mind.
Happy weather and paranoia!
You must understand that I love pulling pranks off. Not the small banana peel types. What we got as a suggestion was brilliant. Anirudh had a cold; The world had swine flu; And we had a plan to make some space. He sneezed, I exclaimed "Dude, you have swine flu!". Eyes turned, heads lowered, whispers ran and one or two smart ones smiled. The crowd did ease a bit, but it should probably be attributed to the rain and not our genius plot. Nevertheless, it was fun. We had a good laugh over it while some of the duller ones cleared the wool from their eyes. Anirudh and I decided to write about it (I swear I thought about it first...) and this is the result.
I still plan on pulling off more pranks at the beach. Some of it targets the smokers. Some, the Red Bull girls. If you are interested, do give me a ring :)
Oh, and the topic of swine flu and panicking people brought this to mind.
Happy weather and paranoia!
At the end of the rainbow
A happy, love filled article to launch my new not-so-gaily designed blag :D
Activists in India went wild today as news leaked out of the High Court ruling to decriminalize homosexuality - less than a week after the 40th Stonewall anniversary. It seems like the recent pride parades (which also saw some sad attempts at translation to appeal to the locals) garnering the support of 2,000 people have worked their magic. Barely a day after our prime minister called for better understanding and treatment of the community, the landmark ruling breaks the law of 150 years that was yet another hand-me-down from the Brits.
I was happy to read news about the judgement. I'm not gay, mind you. But I do have friends that possibly are and it would be nice to see some out of the closet. At the same time, I also have friends that aren't comfortable with homosexuality and find it as unnatural as a spider monkey in a Russian swimming pool. The week ahead is going to be fun with hundreds of people posting (like me) about whether or not this decision is a step forward. The ones that disagree seem to have some divine voices on their side - The first voice of dissent was from India's Catholic Bishops. Even though they did not challenge the ruling, they classified the behaviour inethical, unnatural and immoral. The head cleric of the Jama Masjid followed suit saying they would not accept any such law. Quite bold about it. What surprised me the most was that the BJP, which showed its displeasure at the parades, remained silent. That too with a law changed by the UPA. Is the saffron party finally showing some signs of growing up? As much as I would like to believe that, it is probably their news feed running a little late and missing this entry.
You can read BBC's article here.
As icing on the cake, I got to modify Wiki's page on the Indian parades and add the details of the ruling apart from modifying some of the lines (which conveniently missed the Chennai part of the parade). And this time, I had my references ready. Me 1 - Wiki 0.
Activists in India went wild today as news leaked out of the High Court ruling to decriminalize homosexuality - less than a week after the 40th Stonewall anniversary. It seems like the recent pride parades (which also saw some sad attempts at translation to appeal to the locals) garnering the support of 2,000 people have worked their magic. Barely a day after our prime minister called for better understanding and treatment of the community, the landmark ruling breaks the law of 150 years that was yet another hand-me-down from the Brits.
I was happy to read news about the judgement. I'm not gay, mind you. But I do have friends that possibly are and it would be nice to see some out of the closet. At the same time, I also have friends that aren't comfortable with homosexuality and find it as unnatural as a spider monkey in a Russian swimming pool. The week ahead is going to be fun with hundreds of people posting (like me) about whether or not this decision is a step forward. The ones that disagree seem to have some divine voices on their side - The first voice of dissent was from India's Catholic Bishops. Even though they did not challenge the ruling, they classified the behaviour inethical, unnatural and immoral. The head cleric of the Jama Masjid followed suit saying they would not accept any such law. Quite bold about it. What surprised me the most was that the BJP, which showed its displeasure at the parades, remained silent. That too with a law changed by the UPA. Is the saffron party finally showing some signs of growing up? As much as I would like to believe that, it is probably their news feed running a little late and missing this entry.
You can read BBC's article here.
As icing on the cake, I got to modify Wiki's page on the Indian parades and add the details of the ruling apart from modifying some of the lines (which conveniently missed the Chennai part of the parade). And this time, I had my references ready. Me 1 - Wiki 0.
Firefox 3.5 is out. Hail Open Source.
What is that in the air? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its your mom setting the record for the fastest fat object in the stratosphere.
As a side note, Firefox 3.5 was released yesterday. Not quite as interesting as flatulence in the upper reaches of the sky, but it does promise advances in the interweb.
Technicalities first. Built on Gecko 1.9.1 and lots of open source love, the latest run of the fox supports HTML5, Theora, and other nifty new technologies that are -still- unheard of in IE, chrome or safari. A new JScript engine, Tracemonkey, also makes its operation smoother and faster. Of course, if you aren't into hard tech, here is the same in english for you:
1) New JScript - Faster, much faster. Ten times faster than Firefox 2 and twice as FF3
2) Theora, HTML - Opening the way for viewing videos without plugins! Plus, quality improves even for playback at the same bitrate.
3) Private browsing - Ah, chrome did leave an impact. This new feature (possibly adapted from incognito mode in chrome) allows you to browse without cookies or history. Your mom will never know what you did last summer. Or this one, for that matter.
4) Available in 70 languages including 10 Indian ones! Sadly, telugu is on the list.
5) Reduced memory consumption - now better than everything except opera.
5) Downloadable fonts, offline app storage and a multitude of other tweaks that make it even better than FF3
All things do have a streak of slime. Here are the problems I found/faced with 3.5
1) A big, fat, plus symbol telling you to open a new tab. Just like in IE. Disgusting. I don't care if it is more user friendly.
2) If you have NoScript installed (you should, actually - excellent protection from clickjacking and malicious java code), some of the cookies were messed up with 3.5's enhanced protection. If you are a newbie, this could leave you without access to sites like blogspot :|
3) Wee problems with flash cookie storage
On the whole, the community (open source ftw!) has improved upon FF3 by a mile. Combined with the previous innovations of 'Recently closed tabs', the present avatar is a very strong message on standardizing web formats (and returning to regular HTML). With its ginormous add-on database, the fox seems to have a good lead in the browser race. On top of being one of the best browsers for developers, it retains much of its user friendliness and has even added to it. Go on, get it. Join the open source revolution ^_^
As a side note, Firefox 3.5 was released yesterday. Not quite as interesting as flatulence in the upper reaches of the sky, but it does promise advances in the interweb.
Technicalities first. Built on Gecko 1.9.1 and lots of open source love, the latest run of the fox supports HTML5, Theora, and other nifty new technologies that are -still- unheard of in IE, chrome or safari. A new JScript engine, Tracemonkey, also makes its operation smoother and faster. Of course, if you aren't into hard tech, here is the same in english for you:
1) New JScript - Faster, much faster. Ten times faster than Firefox 2 and twice as FF3
2) Theora, HTML - Opening the way for viewing videos without plugins! Plus, quality improves even for playback at the same bitrate.
3) Private browsing - Ah, chrome did leave an impact. This new feature (possibly adapted from incognito mode in chrome) allows you to browse without cookies or history. Your mom will never know what you did last summer. Or this one, for that matter.
4) Available in 70 languages including 10 Indian ones! Sadly, telugu is on the list.
5) Reduced memory consumption - now better than everything except opera.
5) Downloadable fonts, offline app storage and a multitude of other tweaks that make it even better than FF3
All things do have a streak of slime. Here are the problems I found/faced with 3.5
1) A big, fat, plus symbol telling you to open a new tab. Just like in IE. Disgusting. I don't care if it is more user friendly.
2) If you have NoScript installed (you should, actually - excellent protection from clickjacking and malicious java code), some of the cookies were messed up with 3.5's enhanced protection. If you are a newbie, this could leave you without access to sites like blogspot :|
3) Wee problems with flash cookie storage
On the whole, the community (open source ftw!) has improved upon FF3 by a mile. Combined with the previous innovations of 'Recently closed tabs', the present avatar is a very strong message on standardizing web formats (and returning to regular HTML). With its ginormous add-on database, the fox seems to have a good lead in the browser race. On top of being one of the best browsers for developers, it retains much of its user friendliness and has even added to it. Go on, get it. Join the open source revolution ^_^
