Meenal and I recently decided to swap phones. And it goes without saying she wanted it wiped completely clean (with the niggly application issues, my saved Wi-Fi settings and my music collection that she absolutely loathes) and baby fresh just like the day we got it. And the whole exercise being as “exciting” as watching paint dry… I thought I’d put it out there for anyone who every decided to go this route.

Step 1: Head over to the iPhone settings page

Step 2: From the General page, (Step 3) hit the Reset button

Step 4: Finally press the Erase all Content and Settings button.

The phone would now ask to you conform your choice a couple of times. Since you’re not going to be doing this every other day, decide carefully. Oh and since this process is irreversible too! Now the iPhone does its thing for a few minutes or hours depending on your iPhones’ config or files. That’s it… Enjoy your as-new and fresh iPhone.

Its been quite a while since I’ve posted anything, anywhere online… Anyone who’s been through the ordeal of finding a home in the current scenario would surely vouch for the heartache and frustration of finding a place that fits your needs and your budget. So after 4-6 months of a roller-coaster ride (with many dips, than highs), we finally settled for this 3 bedder, 880 sq. mt. weatherboard “cottage” in a lovely court at Bayswater North. Overlooking the Dandenong ranges, we just immediately fell in love with the light and air that permeated the space. The rear deck and backyard rejuvenate us every time we get home after a dreary day at work. Have a dekko;

More pics, shall be posted as we work our way through our unpacking, sorting and minor refurbishments on the inside. Here is an exterior shot from the homehound archive;

Thank you to all the people who guided us through this search. Our special thanks to Jossychayan, Benjichayan and Atap who we’ve annoyed at all hours with all kinds of doubts and queries. Thanks guys! Over and above, thank God for finally revealing an earthly abode for us. Keep us in your prayers.

Received a lovely email from Vikram recently and I just had to share it.

Money has no memory. Experience has. You will never know what the total cost of your education was, but for a lifetime you will recall and relive the memories of schools and colleges. Few years from now, you will forget the amount you paid to settle the hospitalization bill, but will ever cherish having saved your mother’s life or the life you get to live with the just born. You won’t remember the cost of your honeymoon, but to the last breath remember the experiences of the bliss of togetherness. Money has no memory. Experience has.

Good times and bad times, times of prosperity and times of poverty, times when the future looked so secure and times when you didn’t know from where the tomorrow will come… life has been in one way or the other a roller-coaster ride for everyone. Beyond all that abundance and beyond all that deprivation, what remains is the memory of experiences. Sometimes the wallet was full… sometimes even the pocket was empty. There was enough and you still had reasons to frown. There wasn’t enough and you still had reasons to smile. Today, you can look back with tears of gratitude for all the times you had laughed together, and also look back with a smile at all the times you cried alone. All in all, life filled you with experiences to create a history of your own self, and you alone can remember them all.

The first time you balanced yourself on your cycle without support… The first time she said ‘yes’ and it was two years since you proposed… The first cry… the first steps… the first word… the first kiss… all of your child… The first gift you bought for your parents and the first gift your daughter gave you… The first award… the first public appreciation… the first stage performance… And the list is endless… Experiences, with timeless memory… No denying that anything that’s material cost money, but the fact remains the cost of the experience will be forgotten, but the experience never.

So, what if it’s economic recession? Let it be, but let there not be a recession to the quality of your life. You can still take your parents, if not on a pilgrimage, at least to the local temple. You can still play with your children, if not on an international holiday, at least in the local park. It doesn’t cost money to lie down or to take a loved one onto your lap. Nice time to train the employees, create leadership availability and be ready for the wonderful times when they arrive. Hey! Aspects like your health, knowledge development and spiritual growth are not economy dependent.

Time will pass… economy will revive… currency will soon be in current… and in all this; I don’t want you to look back and realize you did nothing but stayed in gloom. Recession can make you lose out on money. Let it not make you lose out on experiences… If you are not happy with what you have, no matter how much more you have, you will still not be happy.

Make a statement with the way you live your life: How I feel has nothing to do with how much I have.

Its been almost two years now that I’ve been enjoying my Rapidshare’s premium account and simply love it! Blazing speeds and no more waiting on seeders with torrents… its been sensational. I was previously using Speed Download as my dedicated download manager. All was well until I wanted to setup scheduled downloads… What a nightmare?! So this time around, I decided to give iGetter a go. I then realized, that scheduling or managing downloads was a breeze. The interface still left a lot to be desired as compared to Speed Download. But the main issue was getting Rapidshare downloads to work. And so it was Google to the rescue… again. Here’s getting iGetter & Rapidshare to work in 8 steps:

1. Open iGetter preferences

2. Head over to Site Manager

3. Click the “New” button

4. Set the Server Path to http://.rapidshare.com/ and enter in your Username and Password for your Rapidshare premium account.

5. Repeat step number 4 by changing the Server Path to http://.rapidshare.com/files/ and re-entering your Username and Password.

6. Browse to your Rapidshare Premium Zone Login and go to the “Settings” page. You’ll find the button just below the large Rapidshare logo.

7. Be sure to have ticked the Direct Downloads selection for your account.

8. Enjoy!

After 2 years of rigorous (ab)use, my gutsy old Camry has given up on me. It all started with a standard mid-week morning dash to work. The cars’ engine just wouldn’t turn. I ended up calling RACV and was in luck, with a bloke at my gate literally in 5 minutes. He had a look and suspected that this problem was a ‘compression lock’. After pouring in some anti-freeze (I guess), and after a few ignition attempts the engine finally turns over. But then, we spot another issue, white fumes and fluid dripping from the exhaust. And while I’m still at the front of the car with the boot open, I spot the fumes and bubbles at the radiator cap opening. This is when the RACV mechanic gets really worried. He reckons I should get my car checked out ASAP. Ah well, after calling in to report the emergency in at work, I head off to the nearest car workshop.

The bloke there has a dekko, and thinks the car engine has a minute hole thats letting all the coolant and engine oil mix-up and ultimately causing it to stall. He reckon he can solve the issue by using an entire can of some-kinda-glass-chip-based sealant. His process consisted of running the engine super hot pouring in all this concocted mixture and then cooling the engine down. Hopefully fusing the minute gap. A few hours later, we are still left with a sputtering, leaky exhaust and a fuming radiator. That left this mechanic guessing it was a blown head gasket. A few days of public transport and soul-and-wallet-searching resulted in our decision to now get in and get a new car.

So without further ado, here is our new car…

We are really enjoying the Camry Altise. This is really our first new car, ever. So yes, we’re definitely very excited. The downside after driving it around for about a week and a half is the lack of power when I compare it against the V6 of the old one. That is my only (major) gripe. Apart from that, I love the new styling of the Camry Altise and just about everything else.

Just a parting reminder of what I once had. Alas, now just a flowerpot waiting for the yard strippers to take it apart.

I’m loving the new (not quite so new) Pentagram single, Voice. The video for this song coincided with the India wide protests that occurred due to the extension of the reservation quota by the Indian universities. Their video features about 30 of the bands’ friends and fans, who sing the chorus. Have a dekko.

I came across the WPtouch plugin while browsing through Alan Levine’s blog. This is primarily a Wordpress theme that formats your blog to make it slick and readable on mobile devices. Developed by BraveNewCode that makes an awesome array of open source projects. In their own words;

More than just a plugin, WPtouch is an entire theme package for your WordPress website. Modeled after Apple’s app store design specs, WPtouch makes your WordPress website load lightning fast on touch mobile devices, show your content beautifully, all while not interfering with your regular theme.

The blog looks beautiful on my iPhone. Have a dekko.

Web crawling tonight I came across a neat site called “Spell with Flickr“, which does exactly what it implies. It uses an assortment of images on Flickr that have text in them (graffiti, signage etc) to generate a word or phrase of your choice. You can click on any text that you don’t like to cycle through the database of bright, gaudy, delightful text, till you get (or think) you’ve got your font fix.

This web-app is made by a 28 year old developer based in Springfield NJ, Erik Kastner.

After quite a long hiatus, I was recently asked by my brother to develop some pilot 3D visuals for a kitchen design job. This was more to exhibit the strengths of visuals with regards to time, level of detail and (most importantly) its ability to sell their kitchens. I started, as usual, with importing the JPG schematics directly into SketchUp and beginning my model.

These were the first direct exports from SketchUp.

To add further depth to these ‘flat’ images, I then used the Worncall Technique to generate these;

And then for the final presentation style, I exported my model to a 3DS format. Which I used to import into 3D Studio Max, assigned materials, lights and added some ‘props’ to liven up the scene. Final renders using VRay and post-render edits using Photoshop.

As always crits and comments are more than welcome. M8 signing out!

I’m constantly amazed at Google Suggest‘  drop-down menu of “popular” web searches. It really isn’t all that great, but the results are as surprising as a smack on your face. Here is what I’m talking about… The first isn’t much of a surprise, but the second sure is…

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