Kodaikanal in May

Bush in Kodai

Cottage view

On a wall by the lake

Tree taking a dip

Tree idling by the lake

Just before the rain

Pitter patter raindrops

Wet me

The sky clearing

View outside the cottage

Walk in the clouds

This flower is common there

So is this view :)

That is a pretty big lake

Mr.Mist on display

Slow food at POTLUCK

Me and Mayan hot cocoa

Mayan cocoa does burn a little:)

May

May be a maybe or maynot be month! :-)

Insomnia

I don't remember the last time seeing 4:31 AM though I can totally relate to 13:72 :-). What does that make me?

Image Source

http://xkcd.com/313/

Prince - Hindi movie (2010)

Easily one of the most _horrible_ Hindi movies ever made.

Prince
imdb title: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1455816/

please etch it into your memory so that you don't share my fate watching it. The only saving grace for the movie is that I could walk out at intermission. Out of 5, rate it at -10?. No, -100 seems fair enough.

Feverish

I am feverish and thinking one step slower at a time. I feel more human :)

Dedication to work

what's yours?


Image source:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/devotion_to_duty.png

Spam :(

Due to increasingly regular spam, word verification CAPTCHA for commenting is enabled.

Fail with dignity

Ain't they smart?

(Image source unknown) 

Hotel door hacking and how to protect against it ...

Something one needs to be aware of when the doors in use are electronic doors. If you try to open the video on youtube, it says that the video is unsuitable for minors and asks you to login with your gmail account to watch it. That doesn't make sense, kids below 18 should be aware of the attacks and how to protect themselves. Understanding the attack itself will allow the viewer to think of more than one way of protecting themselves and understanding the risks.

March

March me some place else. :)

Deconfliction

This one is definitely worth a watch :-)

Left leg aage agee..

This movie has really good songs. Have seen songs that teach dance steps as a song sequence in English but this should be a first in mainstream Hindi cinema done in style. It couldn't be more hilarious :)

Peer pressure

I still remember how over hyped the movie Dark Knight(Batman series) was. Even worse, I was furious that it topped the imdb.com charts for many consecutive weeks dethroning my all time favorite Shawshank redemption. It took a long time before common sense prevailed and settled at the #8 spot. The same goes with Aamir Khan's new movie '3 idiots'. So rightly named! I just became the 4th idiot watching it.
I remember during under-graduation, students recommending study books that were too difficult to follow and claim they were excellent books to read and recommend it to fellow students, who would buy it and in turn do the same.

How about magazines that promotes and sells new things/ideas. Is a magazine equivalent to peer pressure? Do we feel tempted to think the way the magazine thinks and buy what the magazine says. I think so. What is your take on it?

Future Designer laptop - ROLLTOP

:-)

Pretty interesting Ted talk

Talks Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. West -- the myths that mystify
Click Here

Weather on Earth

Weather on Earth is brr...cold! Hope they get something substantial done at the Copenhagen Climate Summit. Here is how Earth, TX currently looks :-)

Google™ search or search engine

More High Speed Photography

More amazing insight to our world in slow motion

Shirt sense

Deciding what shirt to buy has never been my strong point. Imagine sifting through  the hundreds of shirts stacked on the racks. It is easier to decide when they hang the shirt on a hanger at the shop. It sometimes gives an idea on how it might look on me. The best however is to buy shirts displayed on the dummy and this is exactly what I have been doing.. I even bought a few jeans after seeing them on dummies (and ofcourse trying it out). Buying clothes is  5% common sense and 95%  'dummy' sense for me :)

French Fries

Yummy-Yummy. At MaryBrown in Chennai

Yipee yipee Rain rain!!!

Note the dark clouds casting a shadow over the search keyword :-)

Google™ search or search engine

Daredevil

There was no safety net and if i remember correct, no safety string attached either. Another one in chennai by a performing foreign lady artist.

Unicorn and glass art

From the Sony digital camera. Both shots at different malls in Chennai. The unicorn was kind enough to pose for the camera before it flew away:)

Unicorn



Before twilight

meez

Time to break the jinx. That's me at a camera shop taken on my friend's new Samsung Star. I got myself a Sony Cybershot-looks good for point and click. It however doesn't support win2000 and cannot run the installation CD. Its going to be a while before some of the images could be posted.

Hindi Melodrama

There is nothing as beautiful as Hindi melodrama, the main reason I love watching Hindi movies so much. It leaves me with a sense of satisfaction. The sheer energy, color and drama and songs that go in are amazing. Hindi movies is proof that you don't need a real script to make a beautiful movie. It doesn't matter how Sharukhan shifts from his Punjab power attire to macho man and how is wife doesn't recognize this and thinks that they are two separate people! But in the end who cares? Hindi movies aren't about intelligence. It serves its purpose very well- not only take you on an emotional roller coaster but leaves you with a sense of happiness and awakening in the end. The above song is standing testimony of this case.

More news on my computer

I am trying to shake is my laziness. My mouse(at lab) had a problem for nearly 8 months. Sometimes you would have to click 3-4 times unless you are really professional and know the exact spot where the click translates on the monitor. Finally, I went up today and asked for a mouse and got a new fully functional mouse. My Firefox browser crashed yesterday. Tried to uninstall and reinstall but with no success. Finally, shifted to Opera browser. Now, I have a brand new mouse and brand new browser.

After typing all this, i wonder why any of this is going to be of any interest to anyone :-)

...

This blogger has become very lazzyyy.

Wedding Entrance :)

The Geek Factor

Well, I actually did an Ms. with some emphasis to research. So, most folks think that I am a geek. My cousin recently asked if I plan on doing a PhD. and I said "yes,hopefully'. Then he says "oh, so when you get married, you and your wife would be seated in adjacent rooms and studying!". That would give some idea what my family perceives about me. Honestly, none of this is true and I am just being stereotyped here :-)

Anyway, this "others proclaimed geek" (me) decided to go for a movie (Transformers 2) with other friends from my department at University. They are all either Ms. or PhD students (read geeks). I booked 15 movie tickets online and we left for the theater in two separate vehicles since we wouldn't fit into one. We arrived a few minutes late at the theater and I distributed the tickets (basically two printouts, one for 8 tickets in one row and the other for 7 tickets in another row). Since we were late, we rushed into the movie hall and started searching for seats. Someone else was seated on the chair corresponding to my seat number, whom I gladly evicted. All looked fine and I was trying to figure out the part of the movie I missed. Then after a few minutes one of my friend came up and complained that all the seats were occupied and he couldn't find a place to sit. I told him that someone might be occupying one of our seats and to get this sorted 4 of us got up and went to the door man with our printouts. The doorman went into the hall and came out after 5 minutes saying that he couldn't sort it out. He looked rather confused. My friend was rather annoyed by this and asked for the Hall supervisor. Another two minutes, the Hall supervisor appears and my friend starts scolding him for the delay and confusion. He didn't yell but has a nice way of getting things across and was pretty good at it. My friend told the supervisor that someone else was occupying our seat and asked him to sort it out.
The supervisor said fine, one of you come along with me, I will point my torch at the person corresponding to each seat number on your tickets and you identify if the person is yours or not. Started with the 1st seat number-yes he is ours, says my friend, so is the 2nd, 3rd..., all the way upto the 14 th and 15 th!
The supervisor comes out and tells us, see I have accounted for each person to the seat number on your tickets, what is the problem? That's when I realized there were 16 of us and not 15 as we presumed. I whispered to my friend (that had scolded the supervisor) that there were 16 of us! He was mum and he wouldn't say another word. Finally, I told the supervisor "We have a problem. We have an extra person"!. He wasn't surprised, he seemed to know. Eventually, one of us who had already watched the movie previously left the hall and visited the mall nearby.
I narrated this to my mom who couldn't stop laughing and she said "all these researchers together couldn't even count right!". Didn't I tell you I was no geek :-)

Slow

My desktop computer has become soooooo slow and has almost run out of space. Haven't done a reinstall in four years and takes a good five minutes to powerup fully. I gave the laptop to my brother. Now, the only thing i seem to need at my fingertips is a keyboard to a fast computer :D I also wouldn't mind faster interfaces like the one Jas uses:)

Viva

Hurray!!! Eventually done with Ms. viva voce. I just learned that its not viva voice but viva voce :)

Dancing Queen

How bizzare is this?

You are in the US, click a family photo and post it on your blog and facebook.....only to resurface in Prague as a full size poster ad at a local supermarket :-)

The Blog

The new on Telegraph

Kookaburra

This is one long forgotten bird that we had studied at school. The Kookaburra is also known as the laughing jackass and the name comes due to its resemblance to a human laughing. There is an audio clip of the kookaburra Laughing on wikipedia.
Click Here. Headphones on and it probably will take 30 seconds before it buffers and starts playing. No wonder its a little unnerving particularly while in a jungle :-)

More about the bird can be found Here.

Bring me to life

Perfoming at NIT-Calicut

Brother on Drums at NIT-Calicut. Seems to be performing to a dark theme :-)

Matrix-Lobby fight Scene

The original



Our Bollywood ripoff


Akshay Kumar slips on the wall but credits to him for doing it without the heroine :-)

How to successfully find time to blog on a busy schedule

Image courtesy

1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/shapeshift/85220007/

Hail the storm

Snippet:

Rainfall and hailstorm in several parts of Delhi and adjoining areas at around 3.30 pm considerably brought down the temperature.

Temperature dropped by almost 13 degrees, from 38.4 degrees to 25.6 degree Celsius within five minutes, with winds blowing at 96 km per hour gusting through the city bringing rain and hail, the weather department said.

Another 13 degree drop consecutively for the next 10 minutes and you would get to see snow in Delhi :) Unbelievable drop in temperature!

In more strange news, I saw a camel eat snow in the desert on National Geographic...yes, it snows in some of the deserts!!!

Source:
1. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Rain-hailstorm-hit-Delhi/articleshow/4506459.cms

Dreams-Cranberries

That humming is so beyond me.

Click here for YouTube video. Embedding has been unfortunately disabled.

At 40

The outdoor temperature in Chennai is 40 Degree C. The indoor temperature is 23 degree C. I stay indoor all day. There are a lot of trees around but there are 'sun crossings' when the trees are a little apart. I took three sun crossings today on my outdoor adventure with the sun.

Hope the weather has been cooler and you have been cozier on your part of the planet:)

Orkut: India, Brazil and Identity theft

To put it all in perspective, there is this small story. I never thought of online social networks as but a medium for 'social networking'. In one of the conference I attended there was a speaker from AT&T who does his research on online social networks. In one of his slides in his presentation he cites the high popularity of Orkut in India and Brazil due to 'cultural reasons'. His presentation was followed by the questionnaire session and I out of curiosity asked him what he meant by 'cultural reasons'. He said that the reason for the high initial popularity of Orkut in India was because 'Indian men found Brazilian women on Orkut to be expressive'. Well, the rest of the audience starts giggling and then he tells me 'there is nothing to be ashamed of it'. Well great! Thank you.
That probably explains why some of our folks have Brazilian friends on their Orkut friend list. This probably worked well but then Indian men started inviting their Indian lady friends. It may have started well, the ladies put their photos online. The photos were publicly available, their scrapbook was public but all that suddenly changed due to a few tragic crimes. Orkut decided to have privacy settings where you could control who sees your photo album and scrapbook.
Now, the liberal model around which Orkut was built disappeared. Folks could no longer see your photo album or your scrapbook all depending on your privacy settings, which leads to this clever scam where someone can trick you to adding strangers as your friend.

Read about the clever scam that appeared in a popular security experts blog this week.

Click here for how the scam works.

The author talks about the scam in the context of facebook and myspace but the attack can be directly replicated for Orkut. The author talks about possible money laundering as an advantage of the attack. That's not the case in India.In India it's not about the money, it is about the women. You can bet that these attacks will quickly pick up in India because someone wants to see someone else's photo album and scrapbook whose privacy status is set to-'only friends can view/read'. Like the attack on Facebook, if the scam works-even Orkut will suggest an imposter as your friend.Imagine the number of folks in India who would be more than happy to try out this scam!


Ps: The scam described is clever because it is simple and it works!

April?

Darn, it's getting hot and sticky!

300 Kmph to 0 in ten seconds

No, I wasn't landing a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier or trying bungee jumping. This one is simple. Book yourself on a night flight to Delhi in December and you will get more than you ask for. Chances that the flight will be delayed due to fog and poor visibility at the Delhi airport will be at 100%. The chances that you are in landing queue at a number greater than 10 will again be 100%. You will soon find the pliot's announcement saying there is a 'traffic jam' in the sky and asking you to sit back and enjoy your flight.You could, if the plane did actually go in circles but it doesn't. It keeps changing altitude at the end of each circle and there is a fairly significant change in cabin pressure. If you can still hear anything after completing two circles, you should be surprised.

However fog does have its advantages if you specifically asked for a window side at the airline counter. Delhi has so far the most beautiful night lights visible from an aircraft. You can see beautiful well arranged lights shimmering on the ground like they were stars, some white and others yellow. You can see the peculiar fog patterns on the ground. At some places the lights will be dimmed by the fog and a few hundred meters away you can see bright lights with absolutely no fog. Put in the landing queue makes it all the more delightful to watch the Delhi night light for so long.

The airliner doesn't expect us to stay in the sky forever, so eventually you get to land braving the fog and near zero visibility. The pilot's voice cracks on the speakers and announces that you are now ready to land and that cabin crew should take landing positions.( I think he means-hang on for dear life).

You get to fasten your seat belt and the descent begins. The night light gets bigger and brighter. The fairy tale world up from the sky slowly disappears and you start getting the feel of the 'real world'. The pilot apparently overshoots by a few dozen meters. The wheel hits the ground rather smooth and then comes to a screeching halt. (I remember counting till 10 before it came to a complete halt. i bet it was close to 10 seconds). This however is a little different from the braking in buses(you get to fly there without actually taking a flight). Here you get to experience 4g to 6g, all free of charge. The pilot announces the outside temperature (2 degree C) and hopes that we enjoyed our flight. Sure, I did! and hope to do it again :-)

ps: Back to probabilities, the chance that you find fog in December in Delhi and finding yourself in a long landing queue is 100%. The chances of a successful landing to enjoy the freezing weather is definitely not 100% :P

The Boo-Boo Key-Key test

Above are two alphabets of a martian language spoken on a far away planet. One of them is pronounced Boo-Boo (similar to pronouncing Boo-Hoo). The other is pronounced as key-key (with an emphasis on the 'k'). Now you have to decide which of the above image is going to be key-key and which one is going to be boo-boo.

Try it out and lets see what you think.

Note: The two martian alphabets are those to the top left and top right of the rectangle.

Once you have made up your mind, look for the answer in comments.

Back to back accidents

It was one of those festival times where one couldn't get train tickets(usually the best way to get home). I figured that I should be home anyway, packed up a small bag, bought some cookies, bottled water and set out to in search of an interstate bus. however, the buses were overbooked and getting a seat even at double or triple the price was not feasible. That would mean that I would not get home. Didn't seem like a good idea then. So, I figured that I could catch multiple buses and get home. I go a ticket for my first destination from which where I needed to catch another bus. The seats were okay and to my cheer they had a TV in the bus. The bus started at around five in the evening and soon it was on the highway zooming its way through. After, a while they played a tamil movie, one of the 90's movies. Interestingly Tamil movies are as intense and melodramatic as hindi movies. It must have been around ten in the night, the movie was over and started dozing off in the seat. The next thing i remember, i was flying in the bus and landed on the floor. Someone, decided to take his chances crossing the road and got hit inspite of all the braking efforts. The whole bus was rumbling due to the sudden braking. It sounded like the bus might disintegrate. Almost every one in the bus escaped unhurt and a few sustained very minor injuries. However the person who got hit was not very lucky. He hit his head on impact and had to be taken to the hospital. After an hours delay of sorting out things, the bus continued and reached my first destination just past midnight. I got out pretty hungry, though i knew to catch my second connection bus. It so happened have that they have good round the clock restaurants at the bus station. After a reasonable dinner, I got another ticket for my second connection bus. This too had a TV. I was not very keen on watching the movie but they were playing it on full volume, that i didn't have much of a choice. this was more of an action movie, not very dramatic like the previous one. This movie comes to an end around 2:30 in the morning. i though, oh good...finally time to catch some sleep. But it was not meant to be. Again, i find myself flying, hitting the seat in front of me and rebounding back to my seat. This time the driver had fallen asleep, got to the wrong side of the road at a divider and hit a motorist. The motorist was seriously bruised though it didn't appear to be life threatening. Waited for another 20 minutes or so hoping that it would be sorted out and that we could continue our journey. Another five minutes passes, the police appears and takes away the driver. A press photographer appeared from no where and starts clicking photos of the accident site. That went on for another few minutes. The passengers were asked to disembark and get another bus plying on that route. I get down and it starts raining immediately. Well, great I thought and got back in. After a while some of the other passengers who were braving the rain stopped a bus and I managed myself into it though it was overcrowded with all the extra passengers it picked up. Luckily, this bus did not have a TV and i was hoping i wouldn't get hit(get unlucky) a third time. But every time the bus braked my heart would miss a beat. By morning, around 5:30 AM i reach the third bus connecting point. Now, i get into the bus and am a little relieved because its already dawn and people see better and start afresh. Even, if they were asleep-the chillness in the air from the rain would keep them awake...and most importantly, no TV in it! Anyway, i get to hop two more buses after that and reached home by noon. If there is anything i did learn from this trip, it was not to take night buses, though i have done it a few times over the years. Either the driver is driving the bus in his half sleep or someone will be crossing the road in his half sleep. Both not so good.

Nested Dreaming

it so happened that i dozed off and very soon stared dreaming. then started dreaming again in the dream. After a while the second(inner) dream terminates and I wake up finding myself conscious but unable to move. well, guess what- i had to go back finish my first (outer) dream to wake up and get moving.

Power me up

Re-charge time :-)

Slumdog Millionare funny goof

Continuity: A large pimple on the right side of Jamal's face appears then disappears then reappears, depending on whether he is being interrogated by the police or is answering questions as a television game-show contestant, even though those events supposedly occurred in the plot within a span of just a few hours.

The mystery of the disappearing pimple!

Quote Source
1. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/goofs

...and a sparrow comes

Thrissur Pooram-Fireworks

This annual event is part of temple festivities in my home town and is also one of the most spectacular sound and light shows. My home is only about a kilometer away from where the fireworks occur. This amateur video will give an idea of the intensity of the fireworks. The sound touches 130 decibels peak.I am told that 140 decibels can cause permanent damage to the ear :-) Yes, it is sheer madness and nearly impossible to stand your ground because of the shockwaves.
The flower pot fireworks are missing in the video which forms the other big firework attraction to the event.

The fire stick layout is quite interesting. It starts bursting in a row, then branches to two or sometimes 4. Gradually the weight of the firesticks is increased to provide greater 'knock out'. Then it ends by putting all the firesticks randomly in a mine field of firepowder and comes to a halt in an uncontrolled bursting of simultaneous firesticks.

Valentine day thoughts

Image courtesy:
1. http://xkcd.com/55/

Vacation

Hols. for me atleast for two weeks. yAY.I'm off for a while till i get back my laptop and a new internet connection.

Color me please

At a hotel lawn in Bangalore

Flying machine

Up and Close

Cookie monster

Who has a cookie for me?

USB that doesn't look like a USB

Check out the new USB look ,click here.

Irish tone

A lovely Irish tune from the Corrs.



This is also the 100 th post on this blog. enjoy the music.

Tourist Scams- A wonderful list

An amazing list of tourist scams. Click here.

I have been caught in one so far. You can use Honk kong dollars in Macau and I was buying m&m's from a store in Macau. I gave a 50 Hong Kong dollar note and among the change returned, was a 20 MOP (Macauan currency) which i thought was 20 Hong Kong dollars.

Some simple rules that i can think of .

1. Trust no one.
2. Do not take help from strangers, if you can help it.
3. Stay off side alley's
4. Donot fall for the mysterious blond or brunette who seems to like you.
5. Keep your wallet safe. Wear a jeans with a tight front pocket or walk with your hands in the pocket at crowded places.

6. Verify the price of goods before buying/consuming it.
7. Count the currency at the counter so that fraudent claims are harder to make.

Other comments from readers
1. If you are in a bad neighborhood put up a face and make it look like you are a psychotic ruthless maniac yourself.

Another one hard to beat is this

I have only heard of this happening in Spain on the Costa del Sol, but it could happen anywhere. This scam depends on you paying a restaurant/bar bill in cash, usually with a €50 note. The waiter will take your payment, then return shortly after, apologetically telling you that the note is a fake and that you need to pay again. He will return the "fake" bill to you, and any change you're due. Of course, you gave him a REAL note, he gave you a FAKE note, and you gave him a second real note, so you paid €100 for a €50 meal. What I do now is write unobtrusively on all large notes I get, so I can challenge them if it happens to me.

That solution actually doesn't work. The waiter can hide the actual note and then produce a fake note.

Two posted solutions are interesting.

1. Stand up and make a scene. If it is a reputed restaurant, the manager will make sure that you that you will not be further harassed. It depends on the place, at some places it may not be a very good idea.

2. Pay in smaller denominations. This is by far the best solution I can see.

Happy touring!

Bottom 100 movies

Who knew imdb.com had a bottom 100 ranked movie list. check it out and stay away from them :)
Bottom 100, click here

Corr's

I have been listening to a lot of Corr's lately. Always has been an old time favorite.November is gone and December is here to give me company :-)

Vegetable Art

At a Microsoft event in Chennai

Sweet November

Things that i hoped wouldn't work didn't work and those which i hoped would work, worked :-) There is a mild whiff of cold in the air at nights. The rains have brought the temperature down and hopefully it stays that way. Another year is coming to an end. A little busier December with the work i need to complete on time. I don't know where i would be next January. I don't know what the future holds for me but it makes sense.

Aqua

Lounge-Snack bar

Down memory lane- A trip to Delhi

January 2008-To Delhi Monochrome


Balloon Vendor-Near India Gate




Indian Habitat Center

Bicycles in the rain this year

Happy Diwali

Parabola


Flower,light and the rain


Flower and the rain

Stock market madness

Image courtesy : imageshack.us
original location:
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5927/sharemarketcj9.png

The makeup detector

I usually didn't take much/any notice of makeup that people wear until once i went to meet an acquaintance near their hostel. This person was waiting outside the hostel gate. I arrived on time and began carefully looking around for the acquaintance, only in vain. Eventually, this person walks to me and says 'hi'. It was only then i realized that the person had worn no make up at all. It then made me realize, how a 'make up' can result in a 'make over'. Nevertheless, from that day on, i was keen on trying to detect how much make up a person really wears.
Initially i noticed that many folks wearing make up had a different skin tone at the back of their neck with respect to their face. The funny thing is that the mirror will only reflect the face and not the back part of the neck and its easy to forget the contrast. The same applies for hands and feet. All you need is to compare it with the face. This makes it easy to detect the variations and is probably a good way of getting a real idea of the actual tone of the skin.

Naturally folks get smarter and touch up the neck,hand and (maybe even?) feet and makes it nearly impossible to compare. However, all is not lost. We have optics to the rescue :-) It has been found that when light falls on a translucent object (like the skin), it actually goes into the skin and reflects back making the skin appear smoother while make up actually causes light to reflect directly making the skin loose its translucence.

A good approximation of the face with and without makeup is visible in this article on page 54, Fig 32. Other than the skin tone, the difference in the shadows under the nose is clearly visible.

Infact, I came to know about this during a talk on computation cameras at a symposium. I guess i am able to put to good use some of the info :-)

Chasing a Dream

"There is no telling how many miles you have to run when you are chasing a dream!"

Penguin

What does the penguin do when the Arctic ice is gone? It chills out listening to music at our lab.

Icecream

They make jolly good ice cream.

Yelagiri Hills

Its a small quiet hill station near Vellore.

Hot Chocoloate

I love hot chocolate.

A trip to Delhi

Qutb Minar


Alai Minar

Another study pic

Writing Gibberish :-)