Microsoft's Anti Spyware results

A picture is worth a thousand words. This one is worth many more.


Speaks (Shouts?) of the level of desperation of Microsoft to see Firefox out of the market.
God save Microsoft (I don't really mean that, but then I think of MS employees).

Linux and Open Source rock!
So does Firefox!
(I love to repeat this)

Google rocks!

I have become a huge fan of Google now. After all, because of their research and dedicated hard work I can show the world where my home is!! I mean, there has to be a limit to everything but Google is above all those limits.
I wonder how much storage space they have. Let us count:

1. Google Search: It is said that Google maintains a copy of (almost) the entire internet on its fileservers. Can you imagine how much storage that would require? I don't think you can. I can't. But these guys are doing it.
   
2. Google Groups: Usenet like newsgroups for people to discuss and solve their problems and issues. Amongst all the services Google offers, I like this one most.
   
3. Gmail: Forget Yahoo!, forget Hotmail. IMHO, Gmail is much better than them because it offers 2GB(!) of inbox size and also because it doesn't append those stupid footers at the end of the mails.
   
4. Google Earth: Oh this is where they take the lead. Infact, in this category, in my knowledge, there is no competition to what Google has done. C'mon, they showed me my home (yes I could see it very clearly) on my PC with a only few mouse clicks. They are GODS in this!
   I have attached a screenshot (see the oval there in the image?), but a clearer image can be seen here and the exact thing can be seen here (requires Google Earth to be installed on your machine).
   
   Infact, they are so advanced in this that they can show the 3-D imagery of the buildings in 38 US cities! Can anyone match this?
   
5. Google Maps: This seems less useful now with Google Earth out. Still a very useful service for PCs connected to not-so-high bandwidth networks.
   
6. Orkut: Needs any introduction?
   
7. ...and there's so much more that they are doing I will run out of space on this blog of mine.
   

For some more screenshots I took from Google Earth, click here.

Antaragni - 2005

This one is about the biggest festival I have ever seen, Antaragni, the cultural festival of IIT Kanpur.

The good part of this fest is that we get to have some real fun in the form of events like Quizzes, Crosswords, Extempore, Kavi Sammelan, Nukkad, Stage Plays, India Haat, Rock Show, Treasure Hunt, Personality Contest and Discotheque. Believe me, the atmosphere is electrifying (reasons stated later in here) and you just cannot resist the temptation to participate in or be a part of the audience in any event. The campus looks like a place to be which makes me think what the visitors would think of life here.

The general opinion of people who have never been to IIT about IITs is that these are places where people are either found in libraries or on the roads with their faces burried in books (or research papers). However, that's not true by any means of imagination. You can always find some people who find interest in studying 'only' but they are far out-numbered even in IITs. In fact, the number of people who are crazy about things like Rock Music, lets say, is much more here than the number of such people in my previous college, Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering (BVCoE), although that is so mainly because of the fact that the number of students in IIT is atleast 20 times the number of students in BVCoE.

Given that, some of these people with misconceptions about IITs sometimes go to IITs for cultural fests and that's when they get to know the truth about life in here. They see how we enjoy all the good things in life and equally appreciate things like Nukkad etc, which goes completely against the image of IITians they have in mind. In some cases, it goes so far that some people actually start thinking that life at IITs is only about all these cultural activities and that clearing JEE or GATE once and then spending some years on the campus (each year containing 3.5 days of Antaragni!) is all they need to do, which again is a myth. They do not see the amount of effort IITians have to put in to get up early in the morning to attend the classes, complete the assignments in time and in case of really motivated students, also do research work to get some papers to their name.

Coming back to what makes the atmosphere electrifying, among other factors the most important and beautiful factor is the set of babes who come to participate in and enjoy Antaragni. One of the reasons why all IITK students look forward to events like Antaragni and Udghosh is the number of beautiful females who come to the campus for about 3 days. Those of you who have read Chetan Bhagat's first (and very famous) book know what is it that makes such fests the most awaited events :p Not that we do not like the events, we just love all the events and are very interested in taking part in those events, but the reason stated above takes the front seat when it comes to "Why we love Antaragni (or Udghosh)?"

I would now give a very brief description of an event in Antaragni, called Mridaksh and then tell you something about it. Mridaksh - The Personality Contest is one of the most famous and looked upon events in Antaragni. You wouldn't believe how long the queue of people waiting to get the entry is. Cannot tell you more about Mridaksh because I have been a part of only two Antaragnis and both times the queue was so long that I dropped the idea of going inside. Now the reason why I told you about Mridaksh. One of my very good friends Monika has won the event this year. Haven't been able to talk to her because the event took place only tonight and I was busy in the Rock Show past 3 hours. Knowing her, I am not surprised that she won it, because she has the qualities in her to win such contests, but I am very sad that I did not wait in that queue outside to enter the Auditorium and see her win the night. Well done Monika! (You owe me a treat now :-p)

There are more good news. Another very good friend, Kaushik, secured 2nd position in the quiz contest. This result was actually very surprising because to me, he is the among the best in the game and if he doesn't win a quiz, it really says a lot about the winner. Though second prize is great too, but I know how dearly he wanted to win the first prize. After all, he lives quizzes. Would a normal person wish birthday to his best friend by sending a quiz, the answer to which is "Happy Birthday"? (Sorry Kaushik, I never wanted to mention it here, but could not stop myself)
This post is dedicated to Monika and Kaushik, for the success they have got. You make me proud, both of you.

All in all, Antaragni is one of the most beautiful things in my life and I am surely gonna miss the fun next year onwards (assuming everything goes fine and I graduate in time). I love you Antaragni (and also all the babes who come along with it)!

Just now came to know that Arjun's love life was spiced up at Calypso. He'll put up the details in his blog shortly (otherwise, I will).

Trying out Flock

I was just trying out this new browser, called Flock that I have come across.
Appears to be a good browser to me, at first look.

The best feature about it is, I can compose my blog offline and then ask it to publish directly, from within the browser's composer. So it is something like what 'Thunderbird' is for mail exchange.

Most importantly, it is based on the Firefox Engine, and therefore is very fast to use.
Firefox rocks! So does Flock!

WordSearch Game

Came across this addictive game on the internet today. The URL is here.









Have fun!

Oh by the way, I re-learnt the power of the famous technique of problem solving, called Hit-and-Trial. This post is a result of a post on the IITK Newsgroup asking how to run an applet in blogger, and to answer his query I picked this applet & tried to put it into my blog :-)

Big Fish and 12 Angry Men

Sounds like the title of a tale?
Those, actually, are two of the movies I have seen lately. Both the movies are great in their own respects. While '12 Angry Men' is a serious drama, set in a room, a small budget movie with hardly any camera effects, 'Big Fish' is a feel good movie, which takes you through a person's life, describes how he lived his life (and much more), captures the imagination of the viewer and leaves the viewer happy and sad at the same time. No doubt, both the movies are great in their own sense. I'll take some time and write a little about both of them one by one.

• Big Fish: The movie mainly is a feel-good movie to be watched specially when you are feeling a little lonely or just want to watch some light stuff after long gruelling hours of work (or anything mind-consuming like CS). The story revolves around a guy named Edward Bloom, what he goes through in his life and how he manages to cross so many hurdles along his way. The guy keeps telling his stories to people around him and most of his talk seems to be full of plain stories, full of adventure and drama, but hardly any truth. His own son grows sick of all this story-telling stuff and they separate for sometime, only to meet again when Ed Bloom gets seriously sick. That's when Will Bloom (Edward's son) comes back to live with him, and to take good care of the ill old man. While he is there, Will again has to go through all that story-hearing stuff, which kind of keeps driving him crazy. Finally, Will tries to find the truth behind these stories that his dad had been telling him since he was 5 years old. In the processes, Will meets quite a few people and gets to know about few more people who had been in Edward's life. The movie ends with emotion-packed drama, leaves you very happy, and a little sad. If you are not a dumbo, by now you might have guessed that Edward Bloom dies in the end, but not before making his mark in many lifes and making a difference to so many of them.
  Must watch, atleast once.
  My Rating: 3.5/5
  
  
• 12 Angry Men: A Gem! One of the best all-time movies, for me. The plot basically is that a boy is convicted for murdering his own father and after the hearing, a jury of 12 jurors is appointed to pass the verdict on the case. Now the verdict of the jury will be accepted only if the jury members agree on a unanimous decision, failing which the judge will pass his own judgement.
  
  So these 12 guys are seated in a room, and that's where the rest of the movie is shot, on a very hot day's night (which is cooler by no means) and most frusuratingly, the fan in the room also doesn't work (although as it turns out later, they did not turn it on the right way). Now these guys have to come to a unanimous decision, or discuss the case until either they come to a decision (i.e. Guilty or Not Guilty) or they are unable to decide and the case goes into the hands of the judge.
  
  The beauty of the movie is that each jury member has an important role to play in the movie. Some of them have their own opinions about people (basically prejudice) which influences their decision, while some jurors are unable to make their mind about the thing and therefore keep changing their decision too often, and there are some others who want the thing to get over by reaching a decision, no matter right or wrong, as soon as possible. Then there are those jurors who think very logically and are very dedicated to the task, and also there are those who do not want to reach any decision in haste, because it is matter of life or death for the accused.
  
  The movie takes a lot of twists and turns and at many points in the movie, I changed my opinion about the case. It is one of those movies which are the best mix of best of stories, appropriate direction and unmatched acting by everyone (almost) in the cast. By the way, one of the jurors reminded me (and my friends Nitin and Sachin) of Boman Irani, one of the best actors in Bollywood today and one of my few favourites.
  
  I have given below, my favourite piece of conversation. This Juror, whom I call 'A', stands up and starts speaking very aggresively to all other Jurors and tries to make his point. But one by one, all other jurors (except one, whom I call 'B') start moving away, thinking about the case and paying no heed to whatever he was saying. This makes him a little bit nervous and he kind of breaks down during his own speech, may be realizing that his reasoning on the subject is wrong. Notice how he modulates his voice, changes his expression and makes gestures during all this.
  
  The italicized part that follows contains spoilers. Please do not read it till you see the movie once.
  
  Juror A:
  I don't understand you people!
  
  All these picky little points you keep
  bringing up, they don't mean nothing!
  
  You saw this kid just like I did.
  
  Don't tell me you believe that
  phoney story about losing the knife
  
  and about being at the movies.
  
  Look, you know how these people lie.
  lt's born in them.
  
  What the heck? I don't have to tell you.
  They don't know what the truth is!
  
  And they don't need any real big reason
  to kill someone, either.
  
  No, sir. They get drunk.
  They're real big drinkers, all of 'em.
  
  You know that. And bang!
  Someone's lying in the gutter.
  
  Nobody's blaming 'em.
  That's the way they are by nature.
  
  You know what I mean? Violent.
  Where are you going?
  
  Human life don't mean
  as much to them as it does to us.
  
  They're lushing it up
  and fighting all the time,
  
  and if somebody gets killed,
  somebody gets killed! They don't care!
  
  Sure, there's some good things about 'em,
  too. I'm the first one to say that.
  
  I've known a couple who were OK,
  but that's the exception.
  
  Most of 'em, it's like they have
  no feelings! They can do anything!
  
  What's going on here?
  
  I'm trying to tell you.
  You're making a big mistake, you people.
  
  This kid is a liar. I know it.
  I know all about them.
  
  Listen to me. They're no good.
  
  There's not a one of 'em who's any good.
  
  I mean, what's happening in here?
  
  I speak my piece, and you...
  Listen to me.
  I... We're... we're...
  
  This kid on trial here. His type.
  Well, don't you know about them?
  
  There's a... There's a danger here.
  These people are dangerous.
  They're... wild.
  
  Listen to me. Listen to me.
  
  Juror B:
  I have. Now, sit down
  and don't open your mouth again.
  
  Juror A:
  Some of the time... I tell you.
  
  
  Must watch, see it as many times as you can.
  My Rating: 4.5/5
  

Draw-a-pig!

It is a funny title to give, but it just tells you what you are going to read about.
Came across a site today which claims to tell you about your personality, your traits and your sex life. The most interesting thing, however, is that they find it all by analyzing "your pig".

What you are supposed to do is to draw a pig, in the space provided.. Draw as much or as little as you like and then submit the picture. A little more work, and you get the answers to some of the most important questions about yourself. How much of that is true, and how much it should be believed is another question.

My PIG is here:





Do not believe the last deduction made from my pig's drawing!!! As I said, it is just a stupid piggy thingy.. Do not believe it.


Waiting for your pigs to join mine .
Post your pigs too!

Fire in the hole!

Confused what that means?
It indicates that a grenade is about to explode... More confused?
Okay how about, "I am dangerous"? Or "I'm on your side"?
Does all this drive you mad? It has surely driven us mad! ;-)
Well, these are some of the expressions used in the immortal game named Counter Strike.
I started playing it about a fortnight back, and already I have become addicted. Actually, not just me. I am accompanied by few more in following our madness(?)... "Madness of Counter Strike". These guys are (in alphabetical order): Arsenal, AtalJi, Billu Badshah, Bud, Chinmay, Cij, DDK, Hardrive, Hitler, Hood, Mangal, Neo, Ozzy, Sauron (that's me), Simha. Now that's a pretty long list isn't it?
Atleast an hour everyday, we play this game. Sometimes some of us are not present. In such cases, the BOTS come as replacements. So once the game starts, all we think of for atleast an hour is how to kill the enemy (or maybe, complete the assigned mission). Oh, it's a great atmosphere. We are all shouting, helping each other, dropping hints, developing strategies.. what not!
Once that one hour of game ends (which almost invariably is more than an hour), it is followed by a coffee session at a cafe joint near the arena (:-p department, I mean. Yes, we play the game in the department!!!). That coffee session is the time to discuss our moves, come up with new plans and also to laugh out the frustration caused due to some players' gameplay (which I won't discuss here). The night ends with more discussion about the game and how it would be like to play CS in a map much like our department, or maybe our hostel. One thing is sure, if hostel is chosen as the map and the terrorists have to plant the bomb, both the teams will choose the same location for both the bomb-sites: MESS and none of the players will try to defuse the bomb :-p
For a preview of the game, take a look at these:




















I have print-screened them from my machine. There's just one thing that I want now.. A CS-CZ version that runs on Linux (What? There's already one? I knew it would be there).

Counter Strike and Condition Zero rock!
Yes they do!

What keeps me busy?

You might notice from now onwards, that my blogs will normally be posted during the first half of the week (starting from today) and seldom would I write them on weekends. Seems to be an interesting pattern, isn't it? Normaly, people blog during the weekends when they are away from their work and spend time by doing all sorts of time-pass activities. Not me.

The reason for such patterns is the 'Weekly Reports' that I have to submit to my thesis* supervisor** every week. As he said, the report should be there in his mailbox on Monday morning. So here's my itinerary for the whole week:

Monday: Time to take rest. Have loads of sleep. Lying around. Listening to Rock music. Playing Anagrams. Thinking about the just-passed weekend and how I just managed to write something worth sending to the supervisor. Go to the lab and browse internet. Most importantly, waiting for the reply from supervisor telling me 'Start working for Thesis!'.

Tuesday: Get up early in the morning for TA duties. Once back from there, sleep throughout the day because of not getting enough sleep previous night. Get up in the evening, read a few novels and few non-academic books, lie around, go to the lab to browse internet & check mails. Most importantly, keep waiting for that mail.

Wednesday: Watch a movie (not too many). Think about how the movie could have been made better. What I would have done had you got the chance to go so close to that blonde in the movie... Start worrying because that mail hasn't arrived yet. It should have come this week atleast. Not to forget, keep checking emails very often.

Thursday: Get up late, because the worried get to my head very quickly and sleep is the only solution. Discuss with colleagues about what they did wrote in the last 'weekly' and how mine was more fraud than them. Keep waiting for the mail. Since it hasn't come till now, the tension starts to get to my head and therefore to feel better, I check the newsgroups for stuff to watch and feel better. All this while, keep checking the emails.

Friday: Last day of the week before the weekend begins. Although, I don't have any classes now, weekends still bring that feeling of holiday and lesser work pressure. So, most of the Friday is spent in thinking about the things I would like to do over the weekend. Sometimes, go to the city also to have a bit of fresh air in Kanpur city. It is essential, you see. The mail hasn't come. This means that the supervisor is not serious about my thesis work and is more concerned about them who just go and meet him everyday :-D . Wtf, I don't care. I'll take care of my topic and thesis myself.

Saturday: Saturday comes with a fresh air of happiness and joy all around. After all, the weekend has finally arrived! So I celebrate its arrival by sleeping till late. Getting up takes a bit of an effort but ummm., I guess I cannot just sleep for too long. That job is done best by my neighbour ;-) Anyway, so as the day progresses, I start worrying about the crooked 'Weekly report' that I have to send. What is it that I could have done thoughout the week, that will impress my supervisor enought to make sure that I don't get that 'dreaded' mail this week? Answering this (NP-Hard) problem takes up the whole day, and at the end of the day, I am nowhere close to getting that idea.

Sunday: The D-Day has finally arrived, but no clue about what to write in the weekly report. Saturday and Sunday are always spent in trying to come up with matter to write in weekly. You see, if there was no weekly report mechanism, I could have utilized 2 more days for thesis work i.e. Saturday and Sunday. But apparently, my supervisor wants the work to be too properly organised or may be has some other things on his mind. But why am I being targeted? Why me? I thank The Almighty for putting in a very sharp brain in my head because almost every week, I am able to cook up something to write in the 'Weekly report', which may not be very useful work, but good enough to be mentioned in something as insignificant as a weekly report.
Deep down in my heart, I know that I have not done the right thing by telling things that I have not done and, therefore, I decide that the coming week, I'll complete what I've written for the past week and also do significant amounts of work so that I don't have to send any more lies in the next weekly. After so much hard work, don't I deserve a good, sound sleep?

--
*Thesis: A worthless piece of so-called research that must be submitted and defended (which you can never do, because it is all crap) to get a Master of Technology degree. For getting Bachelor of Technology degree, the same crap is renamed to BTP.
**Supervisor: Someone wo is chosen to tolerate few thesis/BTP students for one full year (actually 18 months in case of thesis) and at the end, declare "Enough is enough, I'll sit with you and help you defend this crap to make sure your stay is not extended. I can take no more of you!"

--
This post is not what I always do, but sometimes this does happen. Most importantly, I would like to clearly mention that my thesis supervisor Dr. MC is very co-operative, helping and welcoming. It is infact due to this idea of weekly reports, that my thesis has gone ahead, although the speed is rather low right now. Sir, please do not mind it if you come across this post sometime although I will try to make sure that it doesn't reach you.
Hats off to Dr. MC!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day to all the Indians and all those who have good intentions towards the country.
58 years ago, on this very day, we were freed from the clutches of British Rule after almost a century of struggle and freedom fights.



I salute those who fought for India's freedom and also those who were not directly involbed in the struggle, but supported those who were! There's a famous saying in Hindi (which happens to be my mother tongue): "Yuddh mein JAI bolne waalon ka bhi mahatva hai"
It means, in a war, even those who shout for the fighters are also very important!

Now, I wasn't born at the time our nation was declared free and I haven't been following political happenings closely by any standards, but I do subscribe to the fact that perhaps we could have made more progress under the British Rule, than we did independently. And I don't say that for no reason.

• I have been in Kanpur for a little over an year and have observed the quality of life here. Can you imagine yourself eating a dish made out of vegetables which could have been bought from someone sitting on half-dry swamp and resting the vegetables on a piece of cloth. Mind you, the cloth also is rested on the half-dry swamp! Interestingly, the market that I am talking about here is never empty, sometimes very crowded. Goes to show the hygiene consciousness of the people.
  
• Look at the condition of roads in Kanpur. I study in IIT, which is one of the most respected institutions of the country. The road leading to it is terrible! However, undoubtedly, this is one of the best roads in Kanpur. Actual condition of other roads is left upto your imagination. I do not have the words to describe them.
  
• Forget Kanpur, its roads and its hygienics. Let's turn our face to more serious issues. You know what an ex-health minister of our country thought about AIDS?
  According to the ex-minister I am reffering to, the root cause of AIDS is not unsafe sexual habits. Rather, it is our desire to have sex (which is most natural to any organism). This ex-minister is well educated and has enough knowledge of sex and AIDS, so I was amazed to hear these words. Instead of promoting the use of condoms and making them most easily available, the government was trying to stop people from having sex! And they thought they would succeed at it?
  Come on! Grow up people!
  
• A panchayat asking a rape victim to marry the accused!
  
• Another panchayat asking a woman to leave her husband's house because her father-in-law raped her and therefore she was now her original husband's mother. WTF! What rubbish!
  

These are some of the issues that came to my mind as I was writing this post, but there are many more topics which are much more serious.

This does not mean that we should not have got the freedom in the first place. I love my motherland and am very happy that I was born and have lived in a free country. However, have we done justice to those who lost their life in winning us the freedom?

This is a time to look back, see where we went wrong, possibly try to rectify the mistakes and make sure we don't repeat them.

JAI HIND

Beautiful. Isn't it?


PS: I am ashamed to admit that I haven't done anything for the country till date and therefore I do not have the right to write all this that I have written. There's one thing, however, that I have done. I have always cast my vote and will always try to continue doing that. I request all those who are eligible to vote, to go and cast their vote during elections, now onwards. Atleast do the minimum you can do for your country.