Monday, December 21, 2009

My MOM’s Creative Designs on Sweater

MyMomSweaterDesigns (6) MyMomSweaterDesigns (7) MyMomSweaterDesigns (8) MyMomSweaterDesigns (9) MyMomSweaterDesigns (10) MyMomSweaterDesigns (11) MyMomSweaterDesigns (12) MyMomSweaterDesigns (13) MyMomSweaterDesigns MyMomSweaterDesigns (2) MyMomSweaterDesigns (3) MyMomSweaterDesigns (4) 

 

Demoing one of My mother’s creative design.

Comments always welcome !!!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Guess What My Name Is Khan is all About

 

Several years ago, when I watched Kill Bill Vol 1, I was blown away by the motivation and reasoning given behind the ruthless revenge vendetta Uma Thurman followed in the movie.

Today as I got some time to have watch the trailer of another SRK movie My Name is Khan I could not help thinking about what the storyline would be. From the trailer itself it is clear that SRK plays an autistic person of the name Rizwan Khan. We see fleeting glimpses of a happy family including son to SRK/Kajol. Also shown is SRK is on a Journey to meet the President of USA. With some dialogues interspersed mentioning about the impact of 9/11 on citizens across the world.

My guess is SRK’s kid is a victim of hate crime and because of the inability of parents to feel safe, he starts on a mission to meet and convince the president to stop ‘hate’ across the world. So i guess the film is another tear jerker/happy feel good ending movie from the KJ productions.

I always love to watch the movies for their treatment and enjoy the moment and experience the concept.

Good luck to KJ/SRK and team for their movie’s success.

What Say !?

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Reading “ASP.NET MVC In Action” book on our “Nook”

Finally My Wifey and I decided on the name for our Nook.

It took a wee bit of time to get reading stuff on it.

I was easily able to copy of PDF files into the gadget by simply hooking it to the PC with the provided charger cable.

The PDF’s formatted well but not as sharp and smooth as I wanted.

I recently had purchased a “ASP.NET MVC In Action” and “IPhone in Action” book by Mannings publication and was informed about the availability of ePub Format. I downloaded them and copied them to the Nook and voila guess what.. the Experience is Just smooth.

I have embedded some photos displaying the same.

ePub is the way to go !!!

 

Reading ASP.NET MVC In Action with Nook (1) Reading ASP.NET MVC In Action with Nook (2) Reading ASP.NET MVC In Action with Nook (3) Reading ASP.NET MVC In Action with Nook (5) Reading ASP.NET MVC In Action with Nook (7) Reading ASP.NET MVC In Action with Nook (8) Reading ASP.NET MVC In Action with Nook (9) Reading ASP.NET MVC In Action with Nook (10)

 

If you already are into technical reading buy eBooks and get a reader. Even though it is not colour yet, eReaders make a great gift.

Anybody want one !?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Got My EReader NOOK

 

Finally after a weeks delay, my thanksgiving purchase this year arrived today by UPS.

It took a 20 minute tussle to unwrap the packing to lay my hands on it. It looks kinda cool and very much like kindle except for the iphone like bottom coloured bar.

I have kept it for charging now and will begin using it later in the day.

Here are the pictures of the NOOK captured on my iPhone 3GS.

 

Picture20091207a 278 Picture20091207a 287 Picture20091207a 295

 

Last week I finished hearing David Baldacci’s “The Christmas Train” and was put off by “The Accidental Billionaires”.

I am already in chapter 3 of “Superfreakonomics” and it’s introduction chapter (preface) is a masterpiece and highly recommended.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Smart things to Know - 2

 

In a follow up to my earlier post. I have recently learnt a couple more tricks to be smart.

Whenever my friends shop online for a technology product or even for a pizza, One of the things they always do is to scout for a Coupon Code or a Deal Offer.

It’s strictly no-no to buy a product without a deal or discount. Once the product to be purchased is decided on, Just Google the product or the brand name and voila ! Discover a valid coupon code or instructions to save money of the purchase and sometimes find alternative places to buy the product for a lot less. (Just be wary of phishing sites. Caveat Emptor). In face using Microsoft Search engine Bing is likely to get you Cashback offers depending on the season.

The second thing I wanted to mention is about Collection Agent. A friend of mine recently mentioned that he always escalates the bills to default and be forwarded to a collection agent where he negotiates a settlement amount on the phone without disturbing his credit score. I really don’t know how much truth is there in it, but next time I default and I get a collection agent call, I am definitely going to negotiate for a waiver.

 

What Say !?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Google Wave – The Impressions

Over the last one month, Google Wave has frequently been a trending tropic on twitter. Most of the time, it would be a ‘spam tweet’, luring unsuspecting users to unwittingly provide info and in turn getting them to retweet the same ‘spam tweet’ further encouraging the trend.

Finally when my friend SN gave me an invite, I invested a couple of hours in the last few days to investigate and jump on and ride the ‘Wave’. My friend already realized that Wave is no fun without friends and this is very true.

The User Interface of Google Wave does not look dazzling or out of this world for any regular social media user who sometimes chats and sometimes forwards emails to his friends.

“Creating a Wave” seems a unlikely phrase but I am sure it would be one of the future trends and be as common as “Googling”.

Today explaining a Google wave is not easy as explaining “what’s an email” or “what’s a tweet”?

What I have recognized so far is the potential for a “Wave Topic” created by you, to intensify and diminish as time progresses. By collaboration by friends and followers, the current trend is likely to have have the most number of posts.

An idea is worth itself if it generates more money than it promises. The Google Wave Idea is a potential money spinner for Google, much better than YouTube.

If not for the steep learning curve for new users and its redundancy of utility along with social media updates, Google Wave would indeed have been fasters to create a wave.

Best wishes to creators and developers of “Google Wave” to have recognized the potential of Facebook and other social media updates and developed an ‘probably’ likeable and ‘currently heavy’ tool considering future acceptance today.

Lets all see how the Wave goes.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

TTCMM

--------------------------------------------------------

Sometime in 1979, We first got introduced to each other in kindergarten class.

There has been no looking back ever since, our friendship has grown strong and stood the test of time and distance.

My best friend and I were raised in a town named Roha in the state of Maharashtra in India (Asia).

Of all the imaginations and discussions we had about in our pre teen years of the way we would shape up, it never occurred to us that one day, we will meet up in the land of opportunities.

So here we are in USA, halfway across the world where we were born, like in a Jeffrey Archer novel, .

My Wifey and I are looking forward to their visit this week celebrating 30 odd years of friendship and life.

----------------------------------------------------------

Somehow many of the things I do today have been inculcated into me since my birth. Like the habit of praying with my hands joined together every morning. Or always handing and receiving money with my right hand.

There were questions I had about certain things, most of them were answered logically or I had to figure them out on my own or from some story which has been passed on by word of mouth from generations.

One of the questions I had was about, why is it that Traditionally in the Indian family do the cooking ?

Recently as I saw my bloated tummy from the in-shirt dress I was wearing and this question again crossed my mind. You can imagine why.

----------------------------------------------------------

Halloween for me is still a day when enthusiastic kids go around dressed up in Costumes and ask for Trick or Treat.

Most of the snaps that day are very scary to see at in isolation.

Uploading the Halloween photos on Facebook made me think how will my friends react to finding my ‘wifey's’ photo in the album.

----------------------------------------------------------

For those who have come in late, TTCMM stands for Thoughts that crossed my mind.

What Say !?

Heavy Breakfast and Heavy Technology

 

Today morning I had home made vegetable puffs (instead of Wednesday waffles). Just two pieces have made me feel heavy in the tummy. They were excellent but as I am typing this I am feeling drowsy.

In my first job as a technical trainer, a colleague told me “Eat for yourself, but Dress for others”. From that day on, I have always put efforts to dress properly. But on the other hand, my eating habits relied on the principle “If it is on the plate, it should get to the tummy”. No real attention to chewing properly or the calories consumed. Strangely the consequence of this did not ever cross my mind.

Before I got married “Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince and Dine like a Pauper” was a pretty good reference statement to adhere for eating.

After I got married, my wifey, an cook par excellence, allowed me to indulge everyday in smorgasbord of delicious food with encouragement to push my gorging limits.

Another dimension to it is the experimentation into newer recipes and delicacies. I had never imagined in my wildest dreams of eating a home made burrito, mind you, but one day I did and it was great. Lucky me.. Touch wood.

Today at the cusp of 14 months of marriage I am overweight by 28 pounds according to my wii-fit app.

Another aspect of my technological work is to be up to speed with the latest and greatest. Reading technical articles, directly off my Hi-Def LCD Screen has its pain points. It wearing off the eyes.

I sometimes jump skip some paragraphs to find myself staring at the brightly lit screen with my eyes wide open, reading words and trying to understand context and connect the dots which do not make sense if you lose concentration.

This is the same reason for which I have ordered myself the new digital reader “Nook”. I hope this will take care of the eyes not hurting them too much while reading digital copies.

The point I am trying to throw across is the idea that “the best way to read and learn new things” is to be in a relaxed state of mind.

I have learnt a few Meditation techniques in the past like Reiki and I hope to resume them this month and be back to my 100% concentration in everything I do.

What Say !? Am I focused on the task at hand ?

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Smart things to know

 

Did you know, In a multiplex, you ‘can’ use the same ticket for viewing another show at another screen ?

Come to think of it, I never even gave a second thought to this anytime. But when I heard this It sounded crazy. But apparently there was some truth in it. Some of the present immediately acknowledged having done so.  No wonder many students might as well as use this information for getting into a screen which charges higher ‘ticket’ price by buying a ‘lower priced ticket’ and then switch to another screen after the show starts.

What Say !? Isn’t that smart ?

For quite sometime I was thinking about posting some of the smartest ideas I have learnt from my interaction with few of my friends in recent years.

Another friend of mine mentioned about considering ‘road inclines’ while driving in drizzle or rain time and driving in the highest lane to avoid encountering ‘hydroplaning’. Of course I should have known it, but It never registered until my friend mentioned.

The smartest mention according to me was to allow free entry into screening of ‘Bollywood’ movies and charging for ‘permission’ to leave in the middle of the screening. Come to think of that, the most tepid and stupid movies being made, this free business model might generate more amount of revenue than cinema halls running movie for less than 5 patrons. What Say !?

If you are aware that on Saturday mornings most theatres sell tickets at half the price, then another smart thing is to catch up with movies in theatres only on Saturday mornings.

Let me cut this post short here abruptly because I am beginning to sound a wee bit whacky !!!

Always remember ‘Information is wealth and/or power’, ‘Half Knowledge could be dangerous’ and ‘Look before you leap’.

Ciao again soon !!!

Monday, October 12, 2009

The Missing Decimal Point

 

Another weekend passed by and I had another set of interesting events and incidents.

I attended two sessions of NoVa Code Camp and both the session were extremes for my liking. While One was a slow and patient snail walk, the other was a roller-coaster ride without the safety belts on. Many interesting ideas presented just flew over my head before I could wrap my brain around it.

Was pleasantly surprised to see sparsely crowded temple, when we made it to the temple at an hour early than usual.

Learnt it the difficult way that Not all Costco’s have gas fuelling facilities, and It is best to avoid driving through Washington DC downtown on weekends even though the GPS shows a comparatively faster travel time.

When my Wifey read out the gas price to be 241 dollars, I immediately asked her to round it to the next cent up because of the 9 at the end. “Read that as 242 dollars coz its 241.9 where 9 is in superscript.”.

Strangely when she observed that people new to the country will misread that as “242” dollars instead of “2 dollars 42 cents” it makes me wonder who came up with this atrocious idea of dropping the decimal point.

I recollect now why my friend once filled up the car tank only to realize it later, it was the price of Milk ‘Gallon’ displayed prominently on the gas station board. Even I too had resisted from ordering wine at a local wine shop, when the labels on bottles showed 899.

I wonder how many people really correctly understand displayed price in any shop.

Think about this, Prices ending in .99 definitely have an edge than a rounded out price but the missing decimal point is can play tricks on the consumer. Time for a revamp.

What Say !?

:-)

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Information Overload – Tipping Point

 

My understanding of ‘Tipping Point’ is a hind sight recognized threshold number at which an activity starts to deviate from its travel path. Thanks to new york press writer Malcohm Gladwell, ‘Tipping Point’, ‘Blink’ and ‘Outliers’ are words being used frequently in the day to day vocabulary.

Every time I open up a browser, I type the url http://reader.google.com and start acknowledging articles which arrive promptly by the rss subscriptions I have setup, by either sharing, marking as read or comment.

When I was introduced to the rss readers, google reader was the simplest and easiest to configure and I have seen it being upgraded with a few salient features which makes it a worthy utility.

Being a avid reader, before RSS Aggregator tools, I used to search for articles on a few subjects and visit various web sites, but thanks to RSS it became easy as a pie to get all the feeds in one place.

Sometime during the Last couple of weeks, I have had an epiphany that this ‘reading' on reader is an overkill for my appetite and I have lost track of my time and other personal events which keeps my life enriched.

From Now on till the end of this year, I am consciously pulling the plug on my google reader feeds subscription and will not visit again still 1st January 2010.

I have reached the ‘Tipping Point’ of information (junk) (perspective) Overload.

Whew !!!

Any Comments !?

:-)

Monday, October 5, 2009

Book Review : Free , The Future of a Radical Price

 

I always acknowledge that any book or article which introduces an ‘idea’ or a ‘train of thought’ I have not thought about is well worth the price and time spent. I might not always agree or be totally convinced but the influence it might cause will only be known later.

Today I completed reading (hearing) the Chris Anderson’s latest book ‘Free’. I did not pay a cent for it but I invested a lot of time, first waiting for the Library request and then later downloading the audio version (read by Chris himself) as podcasts on my iPhone.

Personally I have been a late bloomer to appreciate the value of money. I have unwisely lost large sums of hard earned dollars and the key reason being not really recognizing the potential power of money. My friends know that I often quote ‘The most difficult thing to do in this world is to wait’. Somehow unconsciously we all have been following a commonly recognized rule ‘Time is Money’.

When I picked up this book, Chris Anderson was being criticized for lifting paragraphs directly from Wikipedia without acknowledging the source. Hats off to Chris for covering an idea which lay in front of us and informing us consciously about the various applications of the word ‘free’ and the implications of the same.

You can read this book free at http://books.google.com/books?id=lLZbXN2odVYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Please do pick up this book and read, listen to it on a long distance flight trip. It is worth the time invested.

 

:-)

Sunday, October 4, 2009

What is Google Wave !?

 

I was searching for a brief and really helpful explanation of google wave for those who have come in late. The video below explains 3.5 % of google wave and is really good.

[Thanks Ben]

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

My Incomplete Blog Drafts - Heading

 

    Over the last couple of years, I have had numerous instances when a thought occupied me long enough to make me almost blog about it. In the following cases I started with a heading but somehow did not get enough time to complete it . Just blasting it off so that one day hopefully it will be either irrelevant to write about or I get charged enough to complete this draft.

    1. Why twitter will never catch up to Blogs ?

    2. Curse of the 26th.

    3. Moving beyond the Obvious

    4. Trick Questions and Question Tricks.

    5. Standards for Technology Blogging.

    6. Mini Blog Posts Series

    7. Why Cricket Interests Me ?

    8. Big Sentences and Inarticulate communication.

    9. Consistently Predictable

    10. When God Slept.

    11. Canonical Standards for TDD.

    12. Earliest Memories of Meeting You.

    13. Why did I stop blogging on Sulekha?

    14. Memory Lapses

    15. Connecting the Straight Lines.

      I also lost many other drafts in my previous installations on various computers. But nevertheless the idea to pursue and recover them still lingers on.

      (:-()

      Tuesday, September 22, 2009

      Reading ‘The Lost Symbol’

       

      Ever since I saw the poster announcing Dan Brown’s next book ‘The Lost Symbol’ at a Barnes and Nobles shop about 6 months ago, I have been awaiting it.

      Now that it has been released last week, I got my own copy from the ‘Costco’ shop last week instead of waiting for the ‘request’ queue in the Local Library to serve it fast.

      I have been trying to read and flip through the chapter’s and after 5 days of effort, I am into Chapter 6. I am now getting more interested in the book.

      Whenever anybody mentions ‘Dan Brown’ the book ‘The Da Vinci Code’ popsup immediately. But avid book readers know and believe ‘Angels and Demons’ the book was a far interesting and more polished work of the Author. Even ‘Deception Point’ gets a lot of nods as being a better book than the ‘Da Vinci Code’. I have not yet read ‘Digital Fortress’.

      I wonder what kind of book an author should take up once his last book is a best seller. Should the author stick to the same genre or should there be a change in the style, language, editing ?

      Every year a new Jeffrey Archer book attempts to tell another story and it always tends to be compelling page turner and almost un-put-downable for the fans. It meets the minimum quotient of a good write up. But can ‘Dan Brown’ live up to his own standards.

      So far, I think ‘The Lost Symbol’ is a lame title not really interesting. For some strange reason I keep referring to it as ‘The LAST symbol’.

      Lets see how this goes……

       

      :-)

      Tuesday, September 15, 2009

      Waste of Time – Another Go

       

      Before retiring for the night, during our visit to New York when, I copied roughly 600 photos from my DSLR to the Laptop. Just to quality check, I started the Slideshow  and was viewing each of them. I do this exercise after almost every day after the camera use.

       

      My friend brought it to my attention calculating ‘3 seconds per snaps’ makes it 30 minutes of browsing through the days shots.

       

      DARN !!! I have wasted roughly 1 hour every GB of photos I have taken with my camera. I have almost a Terabyte of photos captured in the last couple of years.

       

      During commuting I have developed an ear for listening to podcasts (technical or otherwise), audio books and/or NPR. Thanks to another friend of mine who introduced me to audio book world last year. I have finished listening to 10 books mostly short stories, fiction and/or self help. This I believe has been a good investment of time considering the fact that it is almost next to impossible to avoid commute time.

       

      Somehow I foresee a future of great opportunity for gadgets, software and utility products around the time waste zones like traffic jams, travel departures, commute.

       

      And yes I don’t believe ‘Multi Utility Mobile Phone’ is the answer. There is something missing.

      What Say !?

      :-)

      Sunday, September 13, 2009

      Waste of Time

       

      “The Best Way to Win An Argument is to Avoid It”. There are a zillion acronyms which are used to aid memory retention for a long time and fast recollection. For e.g. WATCH – Watch your Words, Actions , Thoughts, Characters and Habits.

      Last week as I celebrated my birthday, One thought which occurred to me was “Time Being Wasted”. Hindsight is an exact science so even though I hope not to regret things I have done in future, I get some time to analyze the time I have wasted not invested in during my lifetime.

      Anthony Robbins had said, Most People don’t behave or do what ‘exactly’ they should be doing, it is always a case of what causes less pain and what gives greater pleasure influencing the behavior and/or actions.

      When I was in my teens in the My friend and Me used to Frequent the Town Local Library to devour each and every page of “Illustrated Weekly”, “India Today”, “Filmfare” , “Science 2001” et al including all ‘Marathi’, ‘Hindi’ and English dailies. This activity lasted till we left the town for higher studies. In the last decade, Internet has been the major source of all reading in my case.  So every time I was not in school studies or working, my waste of time was around reading, movies or playing.

      Whenever I catch up with friends, we frequently tend to exchange a few thoughts, experiences, opinions on some random but related topics. One of the most recent discussions was about ‘Waste of Time’.

      Most of my ‘Time waste’ activities like reading, entertainment, surfing, playing and fooling around has been influenced majorly by my passing interest or ‘bad’ habit. I have been guilty of wasting time because of ‘cricket’ and ‘Movies’ when I was so much addicted to following cricket that all the cricket sites were on my favorites folder and I used to visit them several times a day.

      I was surprised the other day I discovered my best friend, equally passionate in following cricket, had found his interest Waned. So we had a good intellectual discussion about how and why this can happen.

      One good analogy he mentioned was about ‘Generally people of a generation Idolize and passionately follow Individuals and/or Teams/Bands throughout their career ups and downs’. As soon as the ‘team'/individual’ retires it takes some time for a successor to be followed with the same zeal.

      Extrapolating based on the discussion ‘I can certainly foresee a high amount of productivity increase by the fans of “Sachin Tendulkar” when he retires from cricket’.

      What Say ?

      On another topic, I was lucky to handle an Amazon Kindle which my friend has and was extremely pleased with it. The most surprising aspect for me was I cannot read on KINDLE it when its dark.

      :-)

      Friday, September 11, 2009

      Whatz a D&G ?

       

      I have seldom been a time person. Somehow on instinct I recollect dates of special events or occasions. But keeping track of time has never been my forte. As a matter of fact, my friend BM chides me by asking to mention time the moment I recollect a date of a certain event/occasion.

      My best friend was once worked for marketing a reputed Jewellery and Watch brand and had told me once that “there are more than 600 odd distinct parts of a wrist watch”. Unbelievable but true, like the number of 200 odd bones in a human body.

      Time and again, I have been very lucky to have been gifted a few watches and also recollect getting one on my marriage. But I seldom wear it. Now that my better half has got me a sports D&G Sean Brown DW0365, I am exhilarated. It looks a beautiful piece as can be seen in the image below. It also constantly reminds me of its presence.

      And what is D&G ? It stands for Dolce&Gabbana which is a Italian based luxury fashion brand. So far I have not been a fashion person. I still can’t identify a Prada or a Gucci. But who says you need to be aware of each and everything. Sometimes Ignorance can be bliss. If it looks good and you can afford it and you like it, go ahead and buy it.

      When I mentioned I got a D&G watch from my wifey, my friend says ‘Get It checked for Bugs Dude, You might be Tracked’. LOL.

      imageimage

      Next time we meet don’t be surprised to find my wrist occupied with a D&G and guess what I might be looking forward to hearing a few words of praise of D&G.

      Also no more switching on the iPhone or looking around at the Set Top box or a Wall Clock to check time. Just twist the wrist and view the time. Oh yes.. Its time to go…. Ciao !!!

      :-)

      Tuesday, September 8, 2009

      The Weekend New York Trip – Day 2

       

      On Sunday we woke up at 10’ish and had lunch at Woodlands of Morristown NJ. We had plans to visit Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero and visit the top of Empire State Building reaching New York by bus.

      Following second thoughts G drove us through Lincoln Tunnel to NY. On reaching Empire State Building we did not park but drove all the way to end of 34th Street, Took a left and followed the shore till the 155th Avenue. All the view of the Hudson river and the Atlantic was good. At some times Old Bridges and structures made us recollect the by lanes of ‘Nagothane’ (India). In about 50 plus minutes we were back in front of Empire State Building.

      Parking in weekends in New York streets is free but there is no mention of this anywhere on any of the signs. The info describing where to park and where not to is not clear. We took a chance after several anxious minutes of dilly dallying thanks to my ‘Overly Cautious/fear Driven’ behavior.

      Luckily there was not a minute wasted getting into the Empire State Building. After getting the Tickets, it took us only 30 odd minutes to be on the 80th Floor. Another 10 minutes we were elevated to the 86th Floor of Observatory. The temperature was quite cool in the upper 40’s and Windy as usual. It was just before twilight set in and the view from the top was great. I could not capture good photos because the focus was either on us or the background.

      Here are some photos taken up there on the Top of which G and I posing as the Statue of Liberty was the funniest.

      imageimage image image image image

      We walked out of ESB around 7 pm and had good starbucks coffee. We drove through Park Avenue and after rounding Grand Central station parked on 54th Street to visit SAKS Fifth Avenue shop. It was late in the evening and all the brand shops were closed. There were some good snaps taken in front of the Rockefeller Centre.

      You can find the photos of Day 2 and the drive back to home here.

      There were lot of other plans which never materialized as time was short and not much energy was left.

      1. Catch up with a few friends 2) Take a drive to the Wild Life at Six Flags 3) Visit King of Prussia Mall 4) Visit Ground Zero 5) Have a Sub/Metro/Duckbus ride in NY.

      Hopefully we will be able to do this in some future trip.

      :-)

      Prolonging Career !?

       

      Australian Cricket Captain Ricky Ponting this week announced his intention to retire from Twenty-20’s.

      Ricky Ponting is one of the most shrewd, successful and brilliant players of this generation and at 34 intends to defend the ODI World Cup title as captain and keep playing Test Cricket wearing the Baggy Green as long as possible.

      The reason for retiring from Twenty-20s to Prolong Cricketing Career is the one which I find intriguing.

      What Say !? Only time will tell.

      :-)

      The Weekend New York Trip – Day 1

       

      Following the plan My Wifey and I were forming for the last couple of weeks to visit New York, we finally took off for New Jersey on a Saturday morning instead of the Friday late night drive from Columbia Maryland. A Whole 3 and a 1/2 hour non-stop drive.

      I have been to New York twice earlier when I was single. The first was a 60 day stint as soon as I arrived from India, during which I was staying at JFK Boulevard, NJ and rode on the Johnny Cab to NY office to grab a project. The second was a weekend trip in winter 2007 during which I visited Empire State Building.

      Another one which does not count as a New York trip was when in June I visited Ellis Island and Staten Island to get a view of the ‘Statue of Liberty’

      So this weekend, after a good lunch at ‘Spice Grill’ in Parsippany, NJ, My friend G drove to NY through the Lincoln tunnel. Watch it here

      We parked the car at the Port Authority at afternoon 3 pm. We walked out the Port Authority towards ‘Times Square’.

      Walking on way to ESB, we spent half an hour getting a ‘Caricature’ drawn of us three. The result was in caricature we all three have the same shaped nose. :-)

      image

      Our plan to visit Empire State Building fizzled out as soon as we saw the long queue of tourists wanting to do the same.

      We proceeded to visit and explore Macy’s and ‘escalated’ all the way to the 9th floor. One Sofa I noticed there was strikingly ‘similar’ in texture and shape to the one I recently ordered last week. The price was outrageous 849 USD on discount, while the One we ordered is 400 USD.

      Once we walked out Macy’s we were exhausted and planned on catching up a movie. We got tickets for ‘Inglourious Basterds’. By the time the movie got over and we drove back it was past midnight. I posted my own take of review here [Edit : This got overwritten. Sorry]

      So the links to share the photos are here.

      http://picasaweb.google.com/pavithra.raghuraman35/2009090520090905ReachingNewJersey?authkey=Gv1sRgCOrj4qjwl8K1Sw

      http://picasaweb.google.com/pavithra.raghuraman35/2009090620090905NewYorkTripDay1?authkey=Gv1sRgCJOwyeifts2oEA

      :-)

      Friday, September 4, 2009

      1st Marriage Anniversary

       

      Today 4th September 2009, My Wifey and I are celebrating our 1st Anniversary. So far we have been overwhelmed by the ecards, emails, phone calls and text messages of congratulations and blessings from relatives, friends and well wishers.

      Last year when we tied the knot in India, I was happy for manifold reasons. One of them was, I was no longer spending time searching for a mate.  Today as I look back, I see so many positives of the married life.

      I must give due to my Wifey who is a smart, cheerful, understanding, down-to-earth and a conscious person who is aware of the world around her.

      She also impeccably keeps complete balance of her life and mine with a smile. For me Good Food has always been a great starting point and quite a few of my Friend’s spouses are great cooks. I have been treated royally when it comes to food by some of my friends and thanks to their ‘prayer's’ my Wifey is one of the best cooks.

      Guess what, yesterday I was treated with a ‘Home Made Burrito with Tortillas’. Come On, How many of my Indian friends can boast of having ate a ‘Home Made Burrito’?. Anyway during the first 3 months, I had almost a different variety of ‘curry spiced rice’ for lunch that I ran out of count, I never knew this dishes existed. Each and every one of them was spectacularly cooked and delicious.

      Now that we have moved from Maryland to Virginia, We are looking forward to keeping up the promise of hosting our friends very soon.

      To celebrate our Anniversary, We are driving to New York this weekend and intend to have a memorable time.

      :-)

      Tuesday, September 1, 2009

      Ganapati Bappa’s Blessings

       

      This year 2009, My parents celebrated the 25th anniversary of hosting Lord Ganesha’s Idol as a part of Ganesha Festival celebrated yearly in most part of the world. We host Ganesha for Five days. The Lord is hosted for 1 and 1/2 day, 5 days , 10 days and in some cases 21 days if not retained for a year. For all the hosting days the Celebration is carried out when you have guests trotting in and out visiting Lord’s idol and praying for blessings.

      Born in Chennai, Brought up in Mumbai is something which I oft repeat to introduce myself, Ganesha Festivals are a key event in the calendar year for me during which the activities are impressionable.

      Of the many names of Lord Ganesha one is ‘Vignaharta’ (Destroyer of Sorrows). You can read more about it here

      Being in the ‘Photographic Memory’ time during years till I left for USA, I have great memories of the wonderful time during the festival.

      To jot down a few on the top of my mind

      1. All of us decorate the ‘Room’ in which the Lord’s Idol is Hosted throughout the night with ‘Paper Flags’ , ‘Themocol Cuttings’, ‘Light Bulb Decorations’
      2. We never close the ‘Main door’ of our home day or night.
      3. We keep the ‘oil’ lamp flame alive during the duration of the hosting Lord Ganapati.
      4. Our town Roha has often witnessed umpteen floods during monsoon almost every year but it has never occurred during the time of Ganesha festival.

      There are other memories of when my dad almost drowned one year, I got smacked when I was jay walking near the river bank during visarjan etc etc.

      It is said that the family which plays together stays together. I have experienced and tend to believe ‘The family that PRAYS together Stays together’. I wish even this year I was with my parents to celebrate this festival with them.

      Please have a look at the videos which show the dedication with which the whole festival time is being carried out.

           
           

      May Lord Ganesha bless one and all with all the Happiness and Peace possible.

      Ganapati Bappa Moryaaa !!! Phudchya Varshi Lavkar Yaa !!!

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      Thursday, August 27, 2009

      Microsoft Sketchflow – Excellent Presentation by Frank La Vigne

       

      Almost since the start of the year majority of my software developments efforts have been in Microsoft Silverlight/ASP.NET MVC and jQuery.

      When on 9th July Microsoft released Silverlight 3.0 alongwith Expression Blend 3.0, I immediately downloaded the trial version. One new ‘tool’ released within blend was ‘SketchFlow’.

      Yesterday I attended the CAPAREA.NET presentation on MS SketchFlow by Frank La Vigne, which was a fantastic introduction for a developer mindset person like me to the designer world of presentation UI with the help of Sketchflow.

      The attendance was in single digits, but the enthusiasm and humour filled delivery drove to the point the excellent capabilities of MS Sketchflow, which I believe now is the holy grail for Developers to use for building ‘Mock’ Prototypes.

      Glad I could attend. You can find the presentation slides by visiting Franks website www.franksworld.com

      Thanks to CAPAREA.NET for arranging back to back presentations on two consecutive days by Steve Michelotti and Frank La Vigne.

      Friday, August 21, 2009

      Kandhasamy – Meets Expectations.

       

      A couple of years back, I had received an email forward mentioning that if all the ‘corrupt’ money deposited in Swiss banks by Indians is returned back to the country, than India will be the richest country in the world. I did not take this email seriously because of so called procedures which are more or less determined to protect the bank customer.

      Ever since the initial launch of this Susi Ganesan movie was announced, I was eagerly awaiting to watch this movie. But multiple delays and a long wait, the expectations from this Chiyaan movie after the debacle of Bheema was not sky high but hopefully it should be worth the ticket price.

      Yesterday I watched the premier show of the movie in Loehmann’s Theatre Fairfax VA and was entertained. There were only a handful of movie goers for the show and the price of the ticket an exhorbitant 18 USD per head, I wondered whether there would be a surprise visit by the Celebrities of the movie. :-)

      When you make a movie about current times you always run into the risk of entering a stale issue. I always wondered what kind of issue was being raked up by this movie so that it stands out the test of the time.

      Over the years an actor ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram has been competing in the mutiple ‘getup’ arena with Kamal, Rajni, Ajit et. al. It would seem Vikram prefers action over acting, commercial over content.

      When the movie started with a silly make up as a ‘SuperHero’ Kandhasamy and cooka-a-cooku dance by Vikram trying to really seem funny rather than fearful to the villan, (may be targeting towards the kids) it seemed a bit odd at that time. And the Phantom punch with a indelible mark leftover on the cheek. Eeekkkkk….

      As the movie progressed steady with introduction of Vikram (who looked surprisingly young and handsome), Ashish Vidharthi, Shriya, Vadivelu the movie picked up steam and kept up the attention of the viewer.

      At intermission it seems it would be a revenge saga, but post interval the movie takes a little bit of dip in mexico (pun unintended) and comes back to the steady height of entertainment and moral intent behind the ‘Robinhood’ actions.

      One of the key questions asked in the movie was ‘Why should you overpay for the services !?’.

      It was a paisa vasool movie with catchy music, decent choreography, good acting by Vikram, Ashish Vidharthi.

      Very few movies in the recent memory has stayed back in the hangover the day after, this is one such movie. The questioning style of Vikram to Shriya in their very first encounter, Vadivelu’s bath dance in the Water Treatment scene are memorable.

      Vikram dressing up as Aishwarya and dancing to the tune of ‘Dola Rey…’ was very nicely picturized.

      BTW if you can watch it with kids and not squirm in your seat, it is a good movie by my standards and Kandhasamy meets expectations.

      As a critic we can mention ‘soft editing’ which loosens the pace of the movie a bit and lot of Glaring Bright Flashes and camera angles which are a bit distracting.

      Tuesday, August 11, 2009

      Is it not Obvious ?

       

      “The irony of mastering something difficult is once its mastered it no longer remains difficult.”

      When it comes to problem solving like puzzles, even thinking outside the box still remains thinking within the problem or the solution domain.

      Today I read a news saying General Motors is announcing Volt will give 230 mpg in City Driving. (See Link Here)

      Just yesterday I read about what was the supposed reason for the huge spike in Oil Prices last year in 2008 summer. (Here)

      So just remaining firmly within the context of this two I think obviously there is going to be more speculation about drop in Oil Demand which in turn will raise the prices to ensure the Oil Companies able to sustain their ‘profits’ and ‘investments’.

      What Say !? Is it not Obvious ?

      Monday, August 10, 2009

      Twitter Trends

       

      Whatever I know about human behavior is more or less based on what I have acquired by reading, analyzing and what I have experienced. One of the common pattern is unpredictability. Human behavior is accepted to be a direct result of what the person is thinking at that point in time and also it is based on previous thought jumps and previous experience of the person.

      This is so hard and complex problem to have access to the data behind human thoughts and the result of the reaction to that thought in that instance for that person.

      Our forefathers and every generation has always learnt by listening to others and by experience that it is very easy to ‘influence’ a individual, if we show some interest and attention to the individual. For some this works instantly and for other it takes some time. To influence a Mob, the science or factor’s are not much different. Even you must have heard of discoveries of Ponzi schemes eventually running out of time.

      Essentially the unpredictability of human behavior in a way acts against the very crux of forming a society, but as we know there exists a social life and we as a social animal behave rather consistently with the expectations of the society. So this in my limited experience and knowledge interprets as ‘thinkers’ and the rest. You can say reactors, followers, advantage takers, critics, haters, indifferent etc etc.

      Whenever I look at twitter trending topics I find that most twitterer’s are followers and yes people rather than reactors. The trend of twitter topics in general is very similar to Email Forwards and Spam Scams. There are a lot of specifics, but in whatever data I have seen and uncovered, it seems, twitter can be a tool in influencing human behavior once the thought put out by the individual is immediately acted upon. I wouldn’t be surprised that in future some autobot accounts will reacted individually to many individuals and influence genuine twitter user’s based on need/goal/aim of the ‘Big Brother’.

      What Say !?

      Sunday, August 2, 2009

      Another Bundle Movie – Review – Love Aaj Kal

       

      1986. 6th grade.

      English Teacher to the class : “So how many of you have read “The Invisible Hat” ? Raise your hands”

      Even though I had read I did not raise my hand. My classmate prompty stood up and said “Raghu already read it and says its Bundle.”

      English Teacher : “What do you mean Bundle ?. Last week you said movie Naseeb was good. I saw it and seeing Hema Malini ride her bike over cars stunt, it was bundle”

      Some words haunt you for life. The above is a true story.

      Today :

      Bundle is a colloquial used in Marathi lingo meaning “Its Idiotic”.

      Anyways Last friday my wifey and I watched a hindi movie named ‘Love Aaj Kal’ whose songs I had grown to love in the last month or so. I can boost to know all the lyrics today. After a long time has any hindi album fascinated me with tune and lyrics.

      About the movie, the lesser said the better. I have nothing but disappointment with the story, screen play, acting and choreography. The only saving grace is catchy music.

      Great one liner’s do not make a great movie. An idea is never good enough, but complete only when its sold, executed and followed through in its entirety.

      In the initial frames Director Imtiaz Ali builds up a promise to a different point of view of love and lovers, but ends up repeating the run of the mill formulae of lover’s discovering their love by absence so late that it totally disassociates the viewer from identifying themselves with the on screen characters.

      The patent of Yashraj movies, Discovering Love in Absence by many characters aka discovering the importance of electricity during Load shedding is now a well known formulae to the movie goers and fails to create a impact.

      Oneliners by Saif Ali Khan like “Hum Cake Khane Key Liye Kahin Bhi Jaa Sakthe Hain”  or “Either Hamaari Dosti Gehree Hain yaa yeh Photo 3D hain” or even “Ladke isiliye aage chalte hain kee Ladikyon ko Raah Dikha Sake” are refreshingly charming and memorable.

      But one like “Main ekdum defective piece hoon, Jyaadaa der SAD nahin reh sakta” are all so made up and not meet the standards of SAK.

      Deepika looks superbly good but still fails to mask her non acting ability. Listening to her say “Yeh Angle thoda alag hain” made me squirm. Yikes.

      ‘Harleen Kaur’ looked lost with a made up halo and looked too young for the role.

      All In All One Bundle Movie with foot thumping music. Waste of my time.

      What Say !?

      Saturday, July 25, 2009

      The Sonu Nigam Explosions 2009 Show

       

      This was my first attendance to a Live show in the USA. It was in VA on the 24th July and a music filled entertainment package from 8:00 pm to 11:45 pm at Patriot Center.

      Ayub patel, Gunjan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Hard Kaur and the ultimate multi-talented Sonu kept all the audience in enthralled with back to back performances mixed with Rock, Blues, Oldies and Rap.

      Some of the highlights of the show were

      1. Billie Jeans rendition as a Tribute to MJ

      2. The Moonwalk

      3. The Tabla playing by Sonu on a bench

      4. Singing old songs and new ones without music and mesmerizing the audience and playing with their attention in lyrics and beats.

      5. Last but not the least, the rendition of the ever popular ‘Beedi Jalailey’ to conclude the evening on even a great heights from which it started.

      You can find youtube videos linked at (shot by my Iphone 3GS)

      Overall Another great evening !!!

      Wednesday, July 8, 2009

      Me Think Google Chrome OS for desktop PC will Flop

       

      As I am reading about the announcement that google will release a Google Chrome OS I cannot but wonder why do we need another operating system. In the last 15 years Linux has not been able to make much of a dent in the OS market let alone capture the enterprise acceptance.

      Whatever or whenever they release the OS, I am sure it will not be accepted by the corporate world for quite some time.

      Friday, July 3, 2009

      What am I missing ?- Air India employees go on two-hour strike

       

      As I read this “two hour strike” by Air India to protest delay in salary payments, I am trying to figure out what and who is wrong.

      Are the leaders of the union so Myopic that they cannot see the recession in its peak across the world ? Don’t they realize a Rs 4000 crores loss in the sector only in the last fiscal year means almost they might have to close down ? Bankruptcy anybody?

      Does the GOI think Air India is too big to fail and too big to close ?

      My limited learning informs me ‘Change is the only constant’ and ‘what has a beginning has an end’. It’s your deeds which determine your outcome sooner or later.

      Me think, things do not look great for Air India employees.

      Thursday, July 2, 2009

      Can’t help thinking – Has MJ revived the sagging Online Economy?

       

      It has just been a week since MJ departed and already I see the biggies ‘IT & Telecom’ firms shouting out loud of the biggest text messages sent per second , internet dying with MJ search rush by fans, TMZ announcing the news 1 hour earlier and getting record number of sites, Amazon sold out with all of MJ memorabilia. Yahoo news getting maximum hit etc etc.

      With the US Job numbers announcement just reaching a 9.5% of unemployment, I can’t help wonder if it is MJ’s death which might be the turnaround point for IT business and this boost in turn will permeate in the real world.

      What Say?

      Monday, June 22, 2009

      How useful is the iPhone!?

       

      ‘It is not what the device can do, it is what you can do with your device’ – Anonymous.

      Last weekend a few of my friends planning to invest (waste ?) in the latest iPhone3GS release enquired which were the frequently used apps I used?

      I mentioned about a few which I felt were useful and frequently used (but coming to think of it again, I am having second thoughts). Some of my close friends know me to be a gadget freak (recently acquired tag) and a camera clicker. (Of late Its my camera which has been getting more invites.)

      So let me taking some time to list down a few of the Apps I frequently use in order of frequency of my usage:

      App Name

      App Icon

      What is it ?

      Comment My Rating

      Twitterific Lite 

      twitterrific_icon This is a TWITTER Client allowing Geo-Location at the touch of a ICON. Most of my tweets have a Geo Tag and my twitter id is @kanchirk Easy to Tweet

      3/5

      Camera

       


      Email

       


      Word Warp

      Word Warp


      Jumble Solvr

       


      Audiobooks  


      Voice Notes  


      WeatherBug  


      DailyFinance  


      Public NPR  


      Midomi  


      BOA  


      AAA Discounts  


      Blog Writer Lite  


      Comic Touch  


      Trailguru  


      Facebook  


      Nationwide  


      I am excluding Contacts, iPod, Calculator and Cell phone capability which I believe are the USPs of iPhone apart from the very Cool design and UI. There are more than 18 apps downloaded on my iPhone. But these are the ones which I prefer.

      The iPhone has the convenience of a Hand Held Computer and with a Car Charger, it has become more useful. I still remember many days when I missed my Blackberry pearl and hated iPhone for short battery charge time and slow response when you fill its storage with songs, photos and other stuff.

      Disclaimer: The above list is to simply for record keeping purpose. Please do not waste your time initiating a discussion with me regarding the ‘Utility’ value which I would defer from discussing or defending.

      Note that most of the Apps are free and do not involved any more cents than the heavy initial down payment of 2 year contract with AT&T.