New Look !

Movable Type is an excellent opensource blogging platform. This weekend I tried to transition from blogger to MT and in the process, screwed up my original blogger template.

Hence the new look :)

Dump and flush

A couple of comments from work:

Me: Hey could you reproduce the bug ?
Him: Wait, I am taking the dump.

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

Abey, did you flush already ? I asked you specifically NOT to flush ...


Ofcourse, in both of the cases, they were referring to the database ;)

An upper hand

It has been a couple of weeks now that I moved to a new place and I m already fed up with my neighbor. Well, it isnt really his fault, the building itself is a pretty old structure maintained by an 80 something chinese(the landlord) who wouldnt care to replace/repair the ageing wood in the structure ... Hence, whenever the neighbor walks, the ceiling thuds. Now, thats alright but in a particular corner of the room, the wood squeaks, squeals and screeches.

Something abt my sleeping habits, I sleep at 1 and get up at 9(like you, like everyone else) and a whisper can wake me up, no alarms needed. The neighbor goes to sleep at 10 and gets up at 7. In the process of getting ready for work(probably) he wakes me up at 7. Today, I couldnt take it and half asleep, frustrated, I banged the wall twice.

He retaliated with 2 twice-louder thuds. I went back to sleep thinking ... yeah ... point noted ... you got an "upper" hand ...

So you think you're dumb ?

Sometimes, you are so into yourself, into your thoughts that you forget things arnd you ! Doesnt happen to me often, but yesterday it did ... I handed over my bus pass to the gym attendant. However, I came back to my senses while I was giving it to her,i promptly took it back, so it wasnt that embarrassing!

However, the other day ... I bought coffee, and to pay for it, I handed my gym card over! Now, as if this wasnt embarrassing enough, that girl started swiping the card! After a couple of retries, she took a close-detailed look over the card and said to me, bringing me back to my senses, that the card was a "club one" card and they only accept "Visa" or "Amex" cards there.
Feels good to know there are dumber ppl arnd in this world ;)

HTC Touch - Phone and beyond!

Update:
Consider the Iphone 3G too :)
(http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0806wdt546x/event/index.html)
for the following reasons:

• better battery
  
• push email and contacts
• flush headphone jack
• 3G
• Appstore
• GPS
  
• 2.0
• Multitouch
• Accelerometer
• Smart sensors
  

And the HTC Touch Pro too :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long time since I posted!

My last post was about my new phone - the HTC touch, so is this! All I would say is, at this time, if you're thinking of buying a new phone ... forget the much hyped-iphone, a kid's toy-the sidekick, the executive's good for nothing blackberry ... just buy the touch!!! The touch can do everthing the above can and more ! camera, music, email, messaging you name it!

And more recently, GPS and Android !!!

I check all my email on my phone, I use http://www.nextbus.com/wireless/miniPrediction.shtml?a=sf-muni&r=30&d=23104&s=COLMTAY1&ts=4STFOL1
regularly, check news feeds, youtube etc

I got GPS working on this little beast a week before !

The first thing I did after getting GPS to work was hunting a geocache ;) I found this
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=3385d966-130a-4fa4-96ff-e7dd221b51e9

I geotag the images I take from my phone !

Using Reperion, it lets you track yourself ... live !!! check the route i took home yesterday from work here (click on the breadcrumbs checkbox) http://tracker1.reperion.com/GMap.aspx?name=mkharche
Needless to say, no need of buying a GPS for the car(which I dont have anyways ;), the car I mean ;)!

And yeah, its only a matter of time when someone comes up a full android implementation on touch !!! check this
http://it029000.massey.ac.nz/vogue/

Evolution of my phone

Following is in chronological order !!!! ;)

Sun sues Versata

This is cool

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/12/04/1204trilogy.html


especially after

http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/kansascity/othercities/sanjose/stories/2007/10/08/daily30.html?b=1191816000%5E1532522
more specifically ...
http://phoenix.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=96031&p=irol-SECText&TEXT=aHR0cDovL2NjYm4uMTBrd2l6YXJkLmNvbS94bWwvZmlsaW5nLnhtbD9yZXBvPXRlbmsmaXBhZ2U9NTIwODkwNSZhdHRhY2g9T04%3d

Mashups

Highly recommended sites: I'll try to keep adding to this list.

www.bandsintown.com
www.startupweekend.com
www.uship.com
www.playmegaphone.com
www.xobni.com
www.anywhere.fm/player /
www.housingmaps.com
http://labs.ideeinc.com/
http://www.odinjobs.com/
http://www.411.com/
http://www.esnips.com/socialdna
http://www.fatdoor.com
http://www.rentometer.com
http://sf.cleanscores.com/

ATM characters

Yesterday I was at an ATM. I was 10 persons away from my turn. Following is a small account of all the people I saw there.

The Robber-Face : Sorry, but your face looks like a robber determined to rob the bank tonight. You especially turn up at the ATM in the night when there is no one around, alight your bike, helmet clad, with your probable-accomplice-in-crime as the pillion rider. You walk right in the ATM, still helmet clad. I understand that it’s a hassle to remove the helmet for a 2 mins, 100 rs withdrawing exercise, but do you even know that there is a small camera-eye looking at you behind the ATM ? Well, forget it, I just pray that even if you are a robber, just rob the bank and spare me !

The Over Cautious : You are so cautious that you ponder on each choice the machine presents you with, for 2 mins just to be right, lest you fuck up and end up withdrawing 200 instead of 100 ! Frankly, how does it even matter especially when there are 10 ppl outside waiting for you to get your butt out ? ! Also, you are the ones who count your money 2 times to be sure of the amount. Please understand that there is one in a million chance that the machine will be wrong. And one in a million chance, the unfortunate will be you ! Lastly, please stop pressing the “Stop” and “Cancel” on the ATM. What are you thinking ? You have the money and you can still cancel the transaction ? You must be a negative IQ !

The Sneaky ones : Please, there are just 10 “desparate” ppl in the line. And you will probably be caught trying to sneak in. And then you make up the sorry excuse – “I am getting late for blah blah”. Dude, who isn’t ? !

The Women : Ladies, trust me, ATMs are not for you. You will probably take the same time to withdraw money from the branch. You have to make sure that the saree/dupatta doesn’t fall off, You have to make sure that you don’t lose the line with whoever it is on the phone, all the time you do the transaction! You have to make sure you do e’thing the “over cautious” one does. You have to put the money in the purse BEFORE you come out of the ATM. You have to … forget it, this place is too small to discuss all that !

The Teachers : I understand that your bittu needs to learn to operate the ATM. But please, he is just 4 years old ! He probably cannot distinguish between a 500 rupee note and a toilet paper!

The Simpletons: You try out all possible ways of inserting the card in and then ask me for help. Then I have to explain to you why a pin-code is something you need to keep a secret and “remember” !

The Guard : Where are you ? Oh there you are … in the AC, sleeping in the night at 2 am ! Dude, even I don’t sleep in an AC !