Sandeep Gupta

(a XOR b) using NAND gates

Sandy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:11:00 -0800

Recently, someone asked me to construct the expression (a XOR b) using NAND gate/operator only. The first thing I did was write down the expressions which I thought I would need during the expression,

NOT (x OR y) = (NOT x) AND (NOT y)
NOT (x AND y) = (NOT x) OR (NOT y)
NOT (x AND y) = x NAND y
NOT x = x NAND x
x AND NOT x = 0 (ZERO)

and then I started expanding the expression like I knew everything.

a XOR b
= ( a OR b) AND NOT (a AND b)
= (a OR b) AND (NOT a OR NOT b)
= (a OR b) AND (a NAND b)
= NOT(NOT(a OR b)) AND (a NAND b)
= NOT (NOT a AND NOT b) AND (a NAND b)
= (NOT a NAND NOT b) AND (a NAND b)
= NOT { (NOT a NAND NOT b) NAND (a NAND b) }
= NOT { (a NAND a) NAND (b NAND b) NAND (a NAND b) }
= { (a NAND a) NAND (b NAND b) NAND (a NAND b) } NAND { (a NAND a) NAND (b NAND b) NAND (a NAND b) }

And I was happy to have done this very easily. But then if you succeed in first attempt it indicates you did a blunder. And I did one too. The mistake was to write down the rules initially. This stopped my mind to think of other boolean algebra rules.

(a XOR b) = (a OR b) - (a AND b)
= (a OR b) AND NOT (a AND b)
= (a OR b) AND [ (NOT a) OR (NOT b) ]
= [a AND (NOT a) ] OR [ b AND NOT b] OR [a AND NOT b] OR [b AND NOT a]
= [a AND NOT b] OR [b AND NOT a]

Also someone suggested me to use . (dot) for AND operator, ' (apos) for NOT operator, + (plus) for OR operator. Taking all this into my mind here is a simpler expansion,

a XOR b = a.b' + a'b
= ((a.b' + a'b)')'
= ( (a.b')' . (a'.b)' )'
= (a NAND b') NAND (a' NAND b)
= [a NAND (b NAND b) ] NAND [ (a NAND a) NAND b ]

If only I hadn't stopped using my mind :)

Happy Birthday!!!

Sandy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:00:00 -0700

colorful candles on the cake,
a mild blow is what it would take,
waiting for long, family and friends,
singing the universal celebration song.

feel the chill, embrace the weather,
hold your drink, loud say cheers,
to the music in the air, lend an ear,
in your very own day of the year.

remember the beautiful memories,
passing years can never mar,
rejoice the experiences big or small,
that have made you what you are.

time to weave new dreams,
of trekking in white mountains,
of walking in the dark lands,
of rowing the blue stream.

may the morning sun's rays,
bring every happiness your way,
with each passing moment, I pray,
fragrance of winter's makes you sway,
wishing you a very happy birthday!!!

- celebrating the birthday of the world's most beautiful girl, the One, the Elegant Stranger!!!

A Promise

Sandy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:26:00 -0700

Apologies to a friend
whom I have offended
but believe me bud
it was never my intent

its not your hard work
that I try to question
not the way you live
that I try to reason

I didn't mean to be
unkind or rude
it was only an attempt
to create a prelude

a failed attempt to hide
the feelings deep inside
of what can't be described
in words, but only by eyes

Give me one more chance
and never will I say again
words that may annoy
or have shades of nuance

Today I make a promise
A promise I promise
not to break, not to
repeat the same mistake again!

- your friend, sandy

Love Score

Sandy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:28:00 -0700

my fall will be for you,
to hold you in the wild.
my rise will be of you,
when your heart smiles.

in every breath I live,
my love will be in you.
every day, every way,
my heart beats for you.

I lay my life and all faith
in your hands, my dear
if you be the one to cut me,
something will die, I fear.

hold me, love me,
change my stars,
heal my scars, or,
I will bleed forever.

my fall will be for you,
my love will be in you,
if you be the one to cut me,
I will bleed forever!

- dedicated and written for the ONE, eluding me for months now.

PS: inspired by Nightwish's awesome song, Ghost Love Score.

The Hope

Sandy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:33:00 -0700

Weeks have passed, since I halted in my run.
To lie down and think, away from the burning sun.

All my varied thoughts, why are all the same?
They start and end, revolving at the only name.

The darkness has fallen, storm plays the melody.
The silence that has spread, cannot be broken.

I fight the dark shadows, in search of light.
Awaiting the dawn, in this dark night.

For sometimes, silence, leads to deafness;
Sometimes, even darkness, to blindness.

All my hopes and dreams, now rest in you.
I want to get closer, drifting away, seem to be you.

I pray with prayers, that may melt the heart,
the power and will, of whom, can bridge our part.

Tonight any dream will do, as long as, your fragrance,
keeps the flame burning, of hope, of love of you!

- still hoping, me

Christmas Tree Puzzle Solution

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:15:00 -0700

Christmas Tree Puzzle Solution Four angels sat on the Christmas tree amidst other ornaments. Two had blue halos and two – yellow. However, none of them could see above his head. Angel A sat on the top branch and could see the angels B and C, who sat below him. Angel B, could see angel C who sat on the lower branch. And angel D stood at the base of the tree obscured from view by a thicket of branches, so no one could see him and he could not see anyone either. Which one of them could be the first to guess the color of his halo and speak it out loud for all other angels to hear? --- --- --- Solution 1 If angels B and C had aureole of the same color, then angel A must have...

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Answer : Lateral Thinking - The Elevator Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:06:00 -0700

Answer : Lateral Thinking - The Elevator Puzzle A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator -- or if it was raining that day -- he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the tenth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment. --- Solution The man is a dwarf. He can't reach the upper elevator buttons, but he can ask people to push them for him. He can also push them with his umbrella.--- More Lateral Thinking More Brain Teasers

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Christmas Tree Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:15:00 -0700

Christmas Tree Puzzle Four angels sat on the Christmas tree amidst other ornaments. Two had blue halos and two – yellow. However, none of them could see above his head. Angel A sat on the top branch and could see the angels B and C, who sat below him. Angel B, could see angel C who sat on the lower branch. And angel D stood at the base of the tree obscured from view by a thicket of branches, so no one could see him and he could not see anyone either. Which one of them could be the first to guess the color of his halo and speak it out loud for all other angels to hear? ---

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The Longing

Sandy — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 06:58:00 -0700

The land and air all around us,
devoid of moist, cracked and dry.
Waiting for the rains to come,
to bid the summer good bye.

Staring for countless hours
at the clear skies, every day.
In the hunt for any allusion,
since I walked the demolt way.

Words were conveyed,
but was the feeling?
It makes me feel fret,
about, what's your thinking?

What holds you to reply,
is something I can't decipher.
Do I not hold good on your assay,
or still, am I a stranger?

In words what I could weave,
was only the mark of an etch.
One more chance is what I seek,
to open my heart's sketch.

I am curious to know, if you,
feel the magic as I do.
Knowing what makes you tickle,
will help me the way I woo.

I long for a response,
burning in great ardor.
As all wait for the fragrance,
of earth, soaked in vapour.

To quench the thirst of many,
when will the dark clouds arrive?
The ears are eager for the thunder,
for, we all need a reason to survive!

- still waiting for an answer, me

Lateral Thinking - The Elevator Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:00:00 -0700

Lateral Thinking - The Elevator Puzzle A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator -- or if it was raining that day -- he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the tenth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment. Why does the person follow such a way to go to his apartment? --- More Lateral Thinking More Brain Teasers

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The Proposal

Sandy — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:00:00 -0700

For the past decade, playing hide and seek,
is a wish, a dream, that had gone meek.
Since that day of vivid college images,
to this day of lonely voyages.

You changed my world with a blink of an eye,
that's something I cannot deny.
You put my soul from worst to best,
that is why I treasure you my dearest.

Your flawless beauty, your baby charm,
elegance, innocence, and the lively warmth.
The oasis you are, bringing in relief,
still ailing and lost in this beautiful belief.

Belief that waits in this world of ours,
for one lone soul another lonely soul.
Each choosing each through all the weary hours,
and meeting strangely at one sudden goal.

Brought chocolates, when should have flowers,
making my first mistake, in that evening hour.
Neither can I blame the ambience, nor the time,
responsibility of spoiling it, was only mine.

Had been waiting for you to ask,
so sudden, the question that came.
Unprepared, I created a mess,
when all I wanted was YOU, to say a YES!

To reveal so, my heart,
I know is not the right way to start.
Couldn't think of a better way,
for you are so very far away.

Celebrating friendship on this day,
I steal this golden opportunity.
Of requesting to find time, if you may,
and heed to my long concealed plea.

My heart left its dwelling place,
and can return no more.
Like a fragrance, fill my inner voids,
help me make our own lore.

Years will pass, decades too,
I want to spend my whole life through.
With you beside me, till old we grew,
I wanna know, if you would want too?

- waiting for an answer, me

Magical Behavior of Microsft Products

Sandy — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:55:00 -0700

Today morning I received one of those another forwarded mails telling me of all those crazy magical things that Microsoft products do, and which no one from Microsoft including Bill Gates (as claimed in the email) is able to explain.

Without wasting a minute let's take a look at the magic and the magic behind it ;)

Magic #1: An Indian found that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the Computer which can be named as "CON". This is something funny and inexplicable. At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened! TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE A "CON" FOLDER
Magic Behind: First, why do every Indian has to proclaim that it was discovered by an Indian? Is it some sort of egoistic game we all are playing in this world?

Leave it, anyways, the reason one cannot create a folder called CON is because CON is a special redirect for CONsole (meaning Monitor output, in general). You can use CON along with pipes to redirect the output streams to monitor, say in case it was going to a printer. Hence, the observed behavior. It is analogous to something like you won't use the variable *sin* in a trigonometric equation, or you can't use an *if* as a variable in a programming language.

Magic #2: For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1) Open an empty notepad file
2) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3) Save it as whatever you want.
4) Close it, and re-open it.
Noticed the weird bug? No one can explain!
Magic Behind: This is simply an encoding issue. When notepad opens a file it tries to identify the file type encoding, and because of a bug where the characters form a particular pattern make notepad believe it is Chinese, it seems to us as if everything disappeared. Save the file in UTF-8/16 and everyhting would work fine. Open the file in Wordpad/Notepad++ etc and you can see the original text. For more details read the following Wikipedia page: Bush hid the facts

Magic #3: Again this is something funny and can't be explained. At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened! It was discovered by another Indian. Try it out yourself. Open Microsoft Word and type =rand (200, 99) And then press ENTER And see the magic.

Magic Behind: Oh gosh... another Indian thing. I am upset.

On a serious note, this is nether a bug nor an easter egg in Microsoft word. This is a feature developed specifically on the request of users. This is a functionality that Microsoft provides. Don't believe me, well, read this Microsoft Support page. rand(p,l) is a special command you issue to Word to insert sample text in the localized language of the OS. This helps content editors, localization testers, and others a lot.

If only people could stop boasting about things done by Indians. I am proud to be an Indian, but not the one's as these.

Portrait of a Friend

Sandy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:10:00 -0700

I can't give solutions to all of life's problems, doubts,or fears.
But I can listen to you, and together we will search for answers.

I can't change your past with all it's heartache and pain,
nor the future with its untold stories.
But I can be there now when you need me to care.

I can't keep your feet from stumbling.
I can only offer my hand that you may grasp it and not fall.

Your joys, triumphs, successes, and happiness are not mine;
Yet I can share in your laughter.

I can't give you boundaries which I have determined for you,
But I can give you the room to change, room to grow,
room to be yourself.

I can't keep your heart from breaking and hurting,
But I can cry with you and help you pick up the pieces
and put them back in place.

I can't tell you who you are.
I can only love you and be your friend.

- Anonymous

The Last Nail

Sandy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:19:00 -0700

when all happiness ends
the clouds of sorrow ascend
when there is no one to depend
all alone you are unable to defend

when memories act as dope
life seems all in mope
when all sounds are a trope
your soul slips in dark's grope

you remember the warmth of embrace
the sparkling smile on her face
the magical charm and grace
missing all those wonderful days

when you were together as one
every moment you lived for fun
you worshiped the power of numen
in belief, the bliss cannot be undone

a day then came, when broken
were the dreams, ground shaken
revealed was her true craft
crying, bleeding you lay bereft

you realize loosing your friends
earning many a foes
finding no way to gain back
what you lost, adds up to your woes

strength had gone, courage was frail
to her last jolt, you failed
sealing your coffin, she
hammered in the last nail!

Synergy - One keyboard/mouse for multiple computers

Sandy — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:56:00 -0700

Many of us use multiple computers at work, most probably, a laptop and the desktop. And most of the time we find ourselves wondering as to why the cursor isn't moving with the mouse, only to realize that we were using the wrong keyboard/mouse combination. Sounds familiar, huh? I have been irritated by this a lot in the past, and recently, I discovered this magical tool which left me cursing as to why I didn't discover it earlier.

Synergy, an open source tool that seems to be doing magic. In its own words,

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Yes, it really does that. In reality, as soon as I configured this tool, this is the first post I am making using the other screen and smiling :) Configuration in super easy - it was over under 2 minutes and now I have the pleasure of cleaning up my office desk of all those useless wires. I can now only have multiple screens with a single pair of keyboard and mouse and work seamlessly. How easy, isn't it?

Another major power of the tool is to bring the universal clipboard into existence. You want to copy from one computer to another, simply, copy from the screen of the first, move keyboard to second, and paste. Voilla - its simpler than buying an ice-cream. Enjoy!!!

Are you left gasping for more? Here it comes... Screensaver's on all computers are in sync. They start at the same time and end at the same time. Amazing - yes atleast for me.

In anticipation that some fellow world citizen might easy his/her pain with this tool. Hail Synergy, Hail the power of Open-Source!!!

New York Times launches Times Reader 2.0

Sandy — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:45:00 -0700

New York Times released a Times Reader which makes reading online newspaper fun and exciting. Times Reader enables a user to read New York Times without a web browser. This might not look like a big change considering the fact that NYT is already available on web via a browser, but, the sparkling difference is the compelling and commanding interface. And yes, for those who might not have picked it up, Times Reader is a desktop application. Yes, it is !!!

Times Reader makes reading news worthy as the interface is built specifically for the purpose. Again there is no need to wait for page refreshes to get updates, Times Reader would itself refresh the contents continually, without any user input. It keeps displaying the last updated time in the top right corner, can browse through pages, and user clicks for details on a story take them directly with a nice transition effect, creating that Wow effect.

Here is what I saw on my first run,

Try it and let the world know of your opinion.

Unlike its predecessor, Times Reader 2.0 is built over Adobe AIR technology which enables it over Windows, Macintosh and your favorite flavor of Linux, as opposed to the earlier WPF version that was restricted to Windows.

I wish something similar is developed by the 'Times of India', for they already have an e-paper edition which kind of sucks. Rise India, leverage technology to show prowess to the world.

Untitled

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:24:00 -0700

Answer to No Sunrise Lateral Thinking Puzzle In the middle of the night a man gets out of bed, walks to the yard and puts something in a bag. He then gets in his car, drives across town to his friend's house and rings the doorbell. His friend answers and the man says, "Here, you wanted it, so its yours." The man then smiles and drives home. As a result of all this, though, he never sees another sunrise in his life (but yes, he is alive). How can you explain this? Now think laterally don't go by all what is given!! Solution: The man put his rooster in the bag and gave it to the friend who had admired it. Now he could sleep in peace at last until well...

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The count puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:16:00 -0700

The count puzzle The puzzle is too simple, you just need to fill in the blanks below. The number of 0 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 1 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 2 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 3 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 4 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 5 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 6 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 7 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 8 in this whole puzzle is ...... The number of 9 in this whole puzzle is ...... ---

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Prime Number Upside down

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:01:00 -0700

Prime Number upside down If you type the prime 3217001 on a calculator and hold it upside down, you can read the word "IDOLIZE", provided you accept that '0' can be both "D" and "O". Are there any larger primes that become a meaningful word when read upside down like this? ---

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Breaking In...

Sandy — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:47:00 -0700

The pain..though gone...
My heart still yearns
for the one who hurt me so.

Seems a lifetime away
since we said our goodbyes
Should have known better?
Yes... I know....

But love falls upon those
unexpectant...
No warning is given perchance

creeping up like a thief in
the still of the night
breaking into our hearts
in an instance...

Without any insight
you've stolen my heart..
and now I have nothing to give.

emptiness remains
a great big black hole
yet I still have a life to live.

emptiness re fills with time
and distance...
the hole mends a little each day

but my heart still yearns
for the one who took it
so cruelly that day....

Aimless Life !!!

Sandy — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 04:30:00 -0700

I wake up from a dream yet again,
Of a future filled with drear.
A continuing of existence,
Lack-luster and without cheer.

It pains me to see fate without chance,
With nothing I can do,
So I blindly take another step,
Into a future filled with nothing new.

What can I even attempt to do,
But hope all my dreams are wrong?
Just thinking I could fall,
And with one step end Fate’s sharp prong.

It pokes and prods and mocks at me,
Showing me the future same,
And that my bored-ness with life
Is caused from having a life without aim.

- Nicholas Page

Adieu !!!

Sandy — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:07:00 -0700

With a hope in the heart
of working with you all again
have loads of food by the cart
and coffee-sips in the rain.

I now choose to meander
with all your wishes to tread
to make new friends while I wander
on the long road ahead !!!

- Sandeep

Calling out people

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:51:00 -0700

Since, i have been very busy lately. getting absolutely not time to post new puzzles or respond to people. I would want someone serious, to contribute to the blog. If not actively, passive help is more than welcome. If you come across new puzzles or anything related.. Please do contribute to the blog. Thanks, Sunil Kumar

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Rumour-mongers Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:48:00 -0700

Rumour-mongers Puzzle You surely need me to make a point sound I could save time or ease your workday Rumour-mongers in the market pass me around When you are satisfied you give me away. What am I?

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Resignation!

Sandy — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:50:00 -0800

Partly reveals my state of mind... ;)

The name is good, the brand is big
But the work I do is that of a pig
The work or the brand; what is my way?
I don't know if I should stay.

To work, they have set their own way
Nobody will care to hear what I say
My will be NULL, they wont change their way
I don't know if I should stay.

The project is in a critical stage
But to do good work, this is the age
This dilemma is killing me day by day
I don't know if I should stay.

The money is not good, the place is great
But the development is at a very small rate
Should I go for the work, or wait for pay
I don't know if I should stay!

The managers don't know what they talk
The team doesn't know where they walk
That's a bad situation, what say?
I don't know if I should stay.

I can go to any other place
But what if I get the same disgrace
I can't keep switching day by day
I don't know if I should stay.

The -ves are more, the +ves are less
Then why have this unnecessary mess
No more will I walk their way,
It's all done, I won't stay.

- Anonymous

Why?

Sandy — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:00:00 -0800

You said you loved me,
But you were going to break my heart,
You said you would love me forever,
So why are we apart?

If you really ment forever,
Than say you will try,
Cause you once said forever,
And that made me cry...

- Anonymous

Flute of Delight

Sandy — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:21:00 -0800

Hark, hark to His Flute of delight!
On the bank of Life’s lone shadowy river
He plays to quell our Night!

Wreathed in sweet smiles, a vision of Gleam,
He is crowned with His aerial Love!
He dances, a beacon to derelict souls,
On earth star’s kinship to prove!

- translated by Dilip Kumar Roy

Krishna

Sandy — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:30:00 -0800

At last I find a meaning of soul's birth
Into this universe terrible and sweet,
I who have felt the hungry heart of earth
Aspiring beyond heaven to Krishna's feet.

I have seen the beauty of immortal eyes,
And heard the passion of the Lover's flute,
And known a deathless ecstasy's surprise
And sorrow in my heart for ever mute.

Nearer and nearer now the music draws,
Life shudders with a strange felicity;
All Nature is a wide enamoured pause
Hoping her lord to touch, to clasp, to be.

For this one moment lived the ages past;
The world now throbs fulfilled in me at last.

- Sri Aurobindo

Power of Civil Engineering

Sandy — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:32:00 -0800

The power to observe, perceive and act has elevated man into a class of his own. This god gifted ability has led him to cause change within and around himself.

Change - as they say is the only thing that is permanent. This unquenched thirst for change is the sole spark that drives one to create the world around into a home fit for coexistence of all.

God being the master sculptor has provided all the sources and amenities but in cocooned state. The power to reach out, to metamorphose the resources into useful, fruitful and healthful objects has been bestowed upon only a privileged few.

The air we breathe, the water we drink, the roads we drive on, the bridges we cross, the home we all so love, the life we live, the environment we value is all indebted to those pioneers and fore runners who have exhausted their all for changing just mere existence to living.

Today the life we live is due to the dream that an engineer had seen. The dream to create fire, to make a wheel, to build a house, to cultivate a field, to raise a family is all an engineers vision.

What he dares to dream is unheard of, what he imagines and hopes to achieve is beyond ones wildest imaginations. The engineer who builds a wheel for transport, needs a road for plying. The one who invents electricity, needs transmission setup. He who casts metals for mankind needs a refinery to be set up. From telephone signals to Information Technology laying and setting is a prerequisite.

The water we use for our fields, the electricity harnessed by dams, the bridges bridging our gap, the solid foundations upon which you make your home, the mighty walls that withstand the nuclear reactions, the laying of cables over and below the mother earth, are all conceived by none but one and that one is none but a CIVIL ENGINEER.

Remember, all seven wonders of the world, are civil engineering marvels.

PS: This is in response to an IT Manager's question on me being a Civil Engineer by choice.

Golf Tally Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:23:00 -0800

Golf Tally Puzzle Three friends played golf together regularly all season. At the end of the season they tallied up their scores and compared them to see who had done the best overall. As a result, a heated discussion broke out as to who really did do the best. David pointed out that he had finished ahead of Robert more often than he had finished behind him. Robert countered that he had finished ahead of Bailey more often than he had finished behind him. Bailey claimed that he had finished ahead of David more often than he had finished behind him. All of the statements are true, how could this be? ---

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Rungs under water puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:35:00 -0800

Rungs under water puzzle A boat has a ladder that has six rungs, each rung is one foot apart. The bottom rung is one foot from the water. The tide rises at 12 inches every 15 minutes. Assume high tide peaks in one hour. When the tide is at it's highest, how many rungs are under water? ---

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Solution to Railroad Bridge Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:48:00 -0800

Solution to the Railroad Bridge Puzzle posted on 27th July 2008 Click here to view the the puzzle There is a low railroad bridge in your town. One day you see a large truck stopped just before the underpass. When you asked the driver what has happened, the driver tells you that his truck is one inch higher than the indicated height of the opening. This is the only road to his destination. What can he do to get through the underpass the easiest way? Solution: As the tires of the truck has sufficient clearance between the inner and outer part of the tires via air gap. The tires can be deflated to decrease the height of the truck by one inch and the truck can pass through!!!---

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Of Pearls and Stars

Sandy — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 23:15:00 -0800

The pearly treasures of the sea,
The lights that spatter heaven above,
More precious than these wonders are
My heart-of-hearts filled with your love.

The ocean's power, the heavenly sights
Cannot outweigh a love filled heart.
And sparkling stars or glowing pearls
Pale as love flashes, beams and darts.

So, little, youthful maiden come
Into my ample, feverish heart
For heaven and earth and sea and sky
Do melt as love has melt my heart.You can start writing here...

- by Heinrich Heine

To Propose

Sandy — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:00:00 -0800

Whisked away across the sea.
Bended down upon one knee.
Ask the question .
Ask it right.
Then she'll be your bride tonight.
Ask the question.
Ask it wrong.
Then she'll break your every bone.

- by Cassandra Dawn Davidson

Poisened Drink Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 02:43:00 -0800

Poisened Drink Puzzle A rich old man has died. After his death, his children are surprised to learn that he has left all of his money to his oldest son Jeremiah, who loved him dearly, and ignored his other children, who hated him. So, the funeral is a day or two later, and the other sons and daughters have decided to kill Jeremiah and take his inheritance. Since his father's death, Jeremiah has taken to drinking, and they know that, at the wake, he's going to be gulping down the liquor like it was nectar of the gods. So they decide to poison the drinks. One of the other sons, Wallace, tends bar, and gets the poison all ready. So Jeremiah comes up, crying and depressed, and orders a...

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A Love That Will Stay

Sandy — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:20:00 -0800

I will walk with you without going astray
Even if hardships ahead they lay
I will give you a loving hug everyday
No matter whether the sky is sunny or gray

I will shield you when harm comes your way
You must not be hurt come what may
I will make your days happy and gay
For your fears I will try to allay

I will remember the days to buy you a bouquet
‘Till I’m old and my memory is in disarray
I now only have this to convey
That I love you and my love is here to stay.

- Anonymous

Engineer vs Management

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:57:00 -0800

Engineer vs Management A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted, 'Excuse me sir, can you help me ? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don't know where I am.' The man below replied, 'You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.' 'You must be an engineer,' said the lady balloonist. 'I am’, replied the man. 'How did you know ?' 'Well, answered the balloonist, 'everything you told me is technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your ...

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Klueless Puzzle IV - Solution/Answers - Level 11-18

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:53:00 -0800

Klueless Puzzle IV - Solution/Hints - Level 11-18 The klueless puzzle at IIM Indore have newer version. Klueless 4 The fourth in its series. haven't actually got time to go through but here are few answers/spoilers for level 11 thru 8. Will be adding the hints later. For Answers to Level 1thru 10. Click here WARNING : Dont look at these if you want to try it yourself Level 11. This was easy.. being a cricket follower. The three names - Warner, Edrich and Compton are the three stands of Lord's Cricket Ground, others being Mound , Tavern, Allen , i suppose. Further it is also called as the Mecca of Cricket. Hence it makes perfect sense that this level belongs to this ground. But Lord's is a...

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Totem Destroyer Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:49:00 -0800

Totem Destroyer Puzzle Game Description : There are 25 Totems located in each world. You need to bring them down, but don't just go pulling the trigger everywhere. You must rescue golden idol, the Idol must not fall on the ground. A good enough mind boggling puzzle. Size being 2.5 Mb you may need to wait for a while or download here : right click here and save to your system. Here is the link to the puzzle where i actually found it. Puzzles could be available at many locations. Enjoy!!!! ---

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Klueless Puzzle IV - Solution/Hints - Level 1-10

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:20:00 -0800

Klueless Puzzle IV - Solution/Answers - Level 1-10 For level 11 thru 15 answers click here The klueless puzzle at IIM Indore have newer version. Klueless 4 The fourth in its series. haven't actually got time to go through but here are few answers/spoilers for level 1 thru 10. Will be adding the hints later. WARNING : Dont look at these if you want to try it yourself Level 1. Good enough.. Click on enter. Level 2. fill it with the colored word .. Play Level 3. copy the missing/incorrect letters.. Cakewalk Level 4. This one is country specific. I got no clue from numbers, Ji Mantriji refers to Prime minister. Look at the source code, it says 'None Before'. So the first prime minister of...

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Fastest to 50 Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:24:00 -0700

Fastest to 50 Puzzle Two players are playing a time pass game. They decide to take turns and out integers. The first person to call out “50” wins keeping in mind the following rules: 1. The person starting first should call out the number between 1 to 10 (inclusive) 2. The next player should call out a new number which must exceed the most recent number called by at least one and by no more than 10. Do you want to go first, and if so, what is your strategy? ---

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Appealing Advertisements!!!

Sandy — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:53:00 -0700

From What I Like...

Catch the cheating husband puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:14:00 -0700

Catch the Cheating Husband Puzzle In a certain matriarchal town, the women all believe in an old prophecy that says there will come a time when a stranger will visit the town and announce whether any of the men folks are cheating on their wives. The stranger will simply say “yes” or “no”, without announcing the number of men implicated or their identities. If the stranger arrives and makes his announcement, the women know that they must follow a particular rule: If on any day following the stranger’s announcement a woman deduces that her husband is not faithful to her, she must kick him out into the street at 10 A.M. the next day. This action is immediately observable by every resident in...

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Doctor-Patient Interaction

Sandy — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:12:00 -0700

Doctor to his patient : Ab aapki tabiyat kaisi hai.

Champu : Doctor saheb Pehle se jyada kharab ho gayi hai.

Doctor : dawai khali thi kya?

Champu : Nai doctor saheb.... dawai ki shishi to bhari hui thi.

Doctor : Nahi nahi.... mere kehne ka matlab hai ki dawai le li thi kya.

Champu : ji han, aapne dawai de di thi aur maine le li thi.

Doctor: Abe, dawai pili thi kya?

Champu : Arrey nahi doctor saheb dawai to laal thi.

Doctor : Abe GADHE, Dawai ko pee liya tha kya?

Champu: Dawai ko bhi peeliya ho sakta hai kya? Waisey doctor sahab peeliya to mujhe kabhi nahi hua.

Doctor(in frustration) : Abe teri toh, Dawai ko muh lagakar piet me dala tha ki nai?

Champu: Nai doctor saheb...

Doctor(relieved to get 1st right answer) : Kyon?

Champu : Kyonki dhakkan band tha.

Doctor : Teri saale, to Khola kyon nai.

Champu : Saheb, aapne hi to kaha tha ki shishi ka dhakkan band rakhna.

Doctor : Hey bhagwaan.... Tera ilaz main nai kar sakta, tu ja.

Champu : Bhagwaan ko ilaz ki zaroorat nahi hai doctor saheb, aap mujh par dhyan do aur mujhey yeh batao ki main thik kab tak ho jaunga?

Url based Tile name Controller

Sandy — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:27:00 -0700

Tiles, a framework that is used extensively for templating in Java based web applications. Spring Framework, a dependency injection container that makes configuration easier. There are several controllers available in the Spring framework which makes mapping static JSP/JSF pages directly to the URI's without writing boiler plate code. But in most of the cases, we use Tiles for a templating. What to do in such a case? There is no single controller that would help us map URI's to a tilename. Here is what I came up... A simple controller that would directly map a URI to a tilename and forward the request out.

A typical usage example is as under,

<bean name="urlTilenameController" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.UrlTilenameViewController" > 
<property name="indexTile" value=".homePage" /> 
<property name="toLowercase" value="true" /> 
<property name="stripAfterLastDot" value="true" /> 
<property name="insertStartingDot" value="true" />
</bean>

The parameters should be self explanatory. In case you would like to know more on this, feel free to contact me.

Hope this helps. Keep Walking!

package org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc;

import java.io.File;

import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;

/**
 * TODO: type comment.
 *
 * @author Sandeep on Sep 25, 2008 @ 9:29:54 PM
 *
 */
public class UrlTilenameViewController extends AbstractUrlViewController {
 
 private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(UrlTilenameViewController.class);
 
 private String indexTile;
 
 private boolean toLowercase;
 
 private boolean stripAfterLastDot;
 
 private boolean insertStartingDot;

 /**
 * @param request
 * @return
 * @see org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractUrlViewController#getViewNameForRequest(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest)
 */
 @Override
 protected String getViewNameForRequest(HttpServletRequest request) {
 String uri = extractOperableUrl(request);
 String tileName = getViewNameForUrlPath(uri);
 
 if(log.isDebugEnabled()) {
 log.debug("uri " + uri + " converted to tilename " + tileName);
 }
 
 return tileName;
 }

 protected String extractOperableUrl(HttpServletRequest request) {
 String uri = request.getRequestURI();
 ServletContext context = request.getSession().getServletContext();
 File rootFile = new File(context.getRealPath ("/"));
 String rootContext = rootFile.getName() + "/";
 
 if(log.isDebugEnabled()) {
 log.debug("Request uri received is " + uri + " in the application context " + rootContext);
 }
 
 if(uri.startsWith("/")) {
 uri = uri.substring(1);
 }
 if(uri.startsWith(rootContext)) {
 uri = uri.substring(rootContext.length());
 }
 
 return uri;
 }
 
 protected String getViewNameForUrlPath(String uri) {
 if(uri == null || "".equals(uri)) {
 return this.indexTile;
 }
 uri = uri.replaceAll("/", ".");
 if(this.toLowercase) {
 uri = uri.toLowerCase();
 }
 if(this.stripAfterLastDot) {
 int index = uri.lastIndexOf(".");
 if(index != -1) {
 uri = uri.substring(0, index);
 }
 }
 if(this.insertStartingDot) {
 uri = "." + uri;
 }
 return uri;
 }

 /** Returns the indexTile.
 * @return the indexTile.
 */
 public String getIndexTile() {
 return indexTile;
 }

 /** Sets the indexTile to the specified value.
 * @param indexTile indexTile to set.
 */
 public void setIndexTile(String indexTile) {
 this.indexTile = indexTile;
 }

 /** Returns the toLowercase.
 * @return the toLowercase.
 */
 public boolean isToLowercase() {
 return toLowercase;
 }

 /** Sets the toLowercase to the specified value.
 * @param toLowercase toLowercase to set.
 */
 public void setToLowercase(boolean toLowercase) {
 this.toLowercase = toLowercase;
 }

 /** Returns the stripAfterLastDot.
 * @return the stripAfterLastDot.
 */
 public boolean isStripAfterLastDot() {
 return stripAfterLastDot;
 }

 /** Sets the stripAfterLastDot to the specified value.
 * @param stripAfterLastDot stripAfterLastDot to set.
 */
 public void setStripAfterLastDot(boolean stripAfterLastDot) {
 this.stripAfterLastDot = stripAfterLastDot;
 }

 /** Returns the insertStartingDot.
 * @return the insertStartingDot.
 */
 public boolean isInsertStartingDot() {
 return insertStartingDot;
 }

 /** Sets the insertStartingDot to the specified value.
 * @param insertStartingDot insertStartingDot to set.
 */
 public void setInsertStartingDot(boolean insertStartingDot) {
 this.insertStartingDot = insertStartingDot;
 }
}

Bilbo's Last Song!

Sandy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:53:00 -0700

Day is ended, dim my eyes,
But journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the sea.

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that i shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar,
I'll find the heavens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-earth at last.
I see the star above my mast!

- J R R Tolkein

Answers to Check your presence of mind.

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:31:00 -0700

Answers to Check your presence of mind. as posted on 9th Aug 2008. Click here to view the questions 1. All 12 have 28 days 2. 1:45. The man gave away a total of 25 cents. He divided it between two people. Therefore, he gave a quarter to two. 3. Light the match first. 4. White. If all the walls face south, the house is at the North pole, and the bear, therefore, is a polar bear. 5. Three. Well, it seems that it could almost be either, but if you follow the mathematical orders of operation, division is performed before addition. So... half of two is one. Then add two, and the answer is three. 6. Yes, and a 5th, a 6th, ... 7. I thought Noah brought 2 of each animal, not Moses 8. Halfway, then...

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A Poison Tree

Sandy — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:02:00 -0700

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

- William Blake

Nimrodel

Sandy — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0700

An Elven-maid there was of old,
A shining star by day.
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,
Her shoes of silver-grey.

A star was bound upon her brows,
A light was on her hair
As sun upon the golden boughs
In Lorien the fair.

Her hair was long, her limbs were white,
And fair she was and free;
And in the wind she went as light
As leaf of linden-tree.

Beside the falls of Nimrodel,
By water clear and cool,
Her voice as falling silver fell
Into the shining pool.

Where now she wanders none can tell,
In sunlight or in shade;
For lost of yore was Nimrodel
And in the mountains strayed.

The elven-ships in haven grey
Beneath the mountain-lee
Awaited her for many a day
Beside the roaring sea.

A wind by night in Northern lands
Arose, and loud it cried,
And drove the ship from elven-strands
Across the steaming tide.

When dawn came dim the land was lost,
The mountains sinking grey
Beyond the heaving waves that tossed
Their plumes of blinding spray.

Amroth beheld the fading shore
Now low beyond the swell,
And cursed the faithless ship that bore
Him far from Nimrodel.

Of old he was an Elven-king,
A lord of tree and glen,
When golden were the boughs in spring
In fair Lothlorien.

From helm to sea they saw him leap,
As arrow from the string,
And dive into the water deep,
As mew upon the wing.

The wind was in his flowing hair,
The foam about him shone;
Afar they saw him strong and fair
Go riding like a swan.

But from the West has come no word,
And on the Hither Shore
No tidings Elven-folk have heard
Of Amroth evermore.

- J R R Tolkein

All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter

Sandy — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:50:00 -0700

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

- J R R Tolkein

All Woods Must Fail

Sandy — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:44:00 -0700

O! Wanderers in the shadowed land
Despair not! For though dark they stand,
All woods there be must end at last,
And see the open sun go past:
The setting sun, the rising sun,
The day's end, or the day begun.
For east or west all woods must fail.

- J R R Tolkein

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

Sandy — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:40:00 -0700

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed and gazed but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

- William Wordsworth

The Road Not Taken

Sandy — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:35:00 -0700

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

My EQ - 147!!

Sandy — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:04:00 -0700

Your EQ is 147

You are remarkable when it comes to relating with others. Only the biggest losers get under your skin.

You are warm and open. Even when life gets you down, you're unafraid of the world and its challenges.

You are comfortable with who you are. And you accept your weaknesses - as well as the weaknesses of others.

While you are quite stable, you don't respond perfectly to every bad situation that comes up.

But you have enough emotional intelligence to know when you need a course correction.

What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

No Sunrise Lateral Thinking Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:47:00 -0700

No Sunrise Lateral Thinking Puzzle In the middle of the night a man gets out of bed, walks to the yard and puts something in a bag. He then gets in his car, drives across town to his friend's house and rings the doorbell. His friend answers and the man says, "Here, you wanted it, so its yours." The man then smiles and drives home. As a result of all this, though, he never sees another sunrise in his life (but yes, he is alive). How can you explain this? Now think laterally don't go by all what is given!! ---

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Prime Number Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:30:00 -0700

Prime Number Puzzle Can the mean of any two consecutive prime numbers ever be prime? (Should be able to answer in 5 seconds) --- Note : Hints : Look at it only if you are not able to answer in 5 seconds | | | | - By definition of mean the result must be between the two source numbers. - By definition of consecutive there can't be a number in between two consecutive numbers.

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The City Population Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:12:00 -0700

The City Population Puzzle A mythical city contains 100,000 married couples but no children. Each family wishes to “continue the male line”, but they do not wish to over-populate. So, each family has one baby per annum until the arrival of the first boy. For example, if (at some future date) a family has five children, then it must be either that they are all girls, and another child is planned, or that there are four girls and one boy, and no more children are planned. Assume that children are equally likely to be born male or female. Let p be the percentage of children that are male at the end of year y. How is this percentage expected to evolve through...

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Guess me Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:15:00 -0700

Guess me Puzzle I turn polar bears white and I will make you cry. I make guys have to pee and girls comb their hair. I make celebrities look stupid and normal people look like celebrities. I turn pancakes brown and make your champagne bubble. If you squeeze me, I'll pop. If you look at me, you'll pop. Who am I ?---

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Google Chrome!

Sandy — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:30:00 -0700

As with any other computer geek, I was amongst the downloader's of the new Google Open Source Browser, Chrome! Downloading and installing it was a breeze, just a couple of minutes. Upon the first start, as with Mozilla Firefox, it asked whether to import data from the current Internet Explorer. Hehe, I don't know why all browsers target IE as their arch-rival.

The first instant liking was its icon and the comic strip that accompanied the Google Chrome launch. For those of you, who didn't had a chance to go through the making of Chrome, here it is. The strip actually explains the theory why the concept of a new browser originated. And they explain really well, keeping the reader tied and wanting for more.

Anyways, Chrome looks much like the Mozilla Firefox and takes its base from it (I think). The icons, the loading style, the address bar etc. match very closely with FireFox 3.0 But the best part was the reading pane area - its so much large. The tab bar has been merged with the window title bar, and with just the address bar beneath, the whole of the rest screen is available to the user for working.

At first look, you notice that the tab window has shifted to the title bar. Nice idea - why do we need a title bar in an application when we have the whole application on screen, and in-focus. Cool! The animations while opening new tabs, resizing windows, and closing tabs just adds more funk and UI-appeal to Chrome! Must say, Google has the best UI and Usability analysts.

A new tab displays some of the most frequently sites as tiles alongwith the last snapshot, which is ultra-cool. In a fraction of second I could locate my favorite site and a click brought me to it. Amazing!

Another sparkling feature, is the introduction of application short-cuts. I tried that with GMail, and yes, it looks amazing. You have a window with GMail running, without anything else except the title bar, like a desktop application. Ummm.... is Google planning to venture into bringing everything to the desktop ;) Well, that would be a boon for all users from countries where the broadband penetration is still a dream.

The popup blocker displays a notification as a hovering window on the bottom right, and the connection information comes as notifications on bottom left, fulfilling the task bar's functionality. Infact, this adds to the beauty of Chrome, adding more space, and removing information which a normal internet user is least bothered of.

Two features introduced in Chrome, would instantly draw a huge fans base amongst the developers. One is the 'View Source Code' - just right click on any page and it shows you the source code of the page. So, whats new? Well, the source code is syntax highlighted, color-coded and line numbered. Also, you have an option to view the source code of an inline frame, which I haven't seen in IE, FF or Safari, except with usage of plugins. I personally am not very comfortable using plugins!

Another is the introduction of Javascript Console. At first look, it seems like a normal console, but upon exploring further its almost a FireBug in place. Whats more is the concept where you can actually see the files being downloaded for a page in a timeline, and optimize your code accordingly. Is this a competition to YSlow! ;)

Yet, there were a few disappointments. While opening MS Exchange 2000, I could not view my inbox, the frame had the whole source code, but I guess there is a problem with the rendering engine. Second, the browser crashes if the internet connection breaks and you try and close it down. But, with the current version as 0.2 and Chrome in beta, its a long journey ahead. I am sure by the time Chrome comes of age, it would be a mature and robust browser taking on IE one-on-one, and is gonna change and shape the future of web.

Keep Walking, Chrome!/p>

Optimize my message Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Sunil Kumar) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:18:00 -0700

Optimize my message Puzzle A Spanish guy was staying far away in a distant city from his wife. He wants his wife to take their bull from home. The only way for him to deliver this message is by writing a letter and each word costs 50 bucks. Now comes the big problem , the guy have only 50 bucks. What would he write to his wife ?---

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Updates: August 6, 2008

Sandy — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:45:00 -0700

* Added object transformers. Useful for runtime transformation of values.
* Added utility classes for helper functions related to Strings and Collections.
* Configured FishEye RSS feeds in Blogger for quick updates.

Bye Bye Beautiful

Sandy — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0700

A mesmerizing song from the album Dark Passion Play by Nightwish. Superb music and wonderful lyrics. Enjoy!

Finally the hills are without eyes
They are tired of painting a dead man's face red
With their own blood

They used to love having so much to lose
Blink your eyes just once and see everything in ruins

Did you ever hear what I told you
Did you ever read what I wrote you
Did you ever listen to what we played
Did you ever let in what the world said
Did we get this far just to feel your hate
Did we play to become only pawns in the game
How blind can you be, don't you see
You chose the long road but we'll be waiting

Bye bye beautiful

Jacob's ghost for the girl in white
Blindfold for the blind
Dead siblings walking the dying earth

Noose around a choking heart
Eternity torn apart
Slow toll now the funeral bells

"I need to die to feel alive"

Did you ever hear what I told you
Did you ever read what I wrote you
Did you ever listen to what we played
Did you ever let in what the world said
Did we get this far just to feel your hate
Did we play to become only pawns in the game
How blind can you be, don't you see
You chose the long road but we'll be waiting

Bye bye beautiful

It's not the tree that forsakes the flower
But the flower that forsakes the tree
Someday I'll learn to love these scars
Still fresh from the red-hot blade of your words

...How blind can you be, don't you see...
...that the gambler lost all he does not have...

Did you ever hear what I told you
Did you ever read what I wrote you
Did you ever listen to what we played
Did you ever let in what the world said
Did we get this far just to feel your hate
Did we play to become only pawns in the game
How blind can you be, don't you see
You chose the long road but we'll be waiting

Bye bye beautiful

Presentations: Spring Framework

Sandy — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:26:00 -0700

I have just finished updating the Spring Presentations for Version 2.5 and am happy to announce that they are now available in the public domain. You may know more and download the presentations from here. There are two presentations covering the Basics and the Enterprise Service Abstractions.

An online preview would be available shortly.

Hope this helps!

Windows Vista and its damn updates!

Sandy — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:16:00 -0700

For millions of users like me, Windows comes as the default operating system which we get familiar and acquainted with. To use it on your computer becomes more of a standard than a choice, for computer manufacturers don't offer much systems on other OS platforms, and Apple tends to be too costlier.

On the same lines when I was looking for a laptop last year, I settled for a DELL machine with Windows Vista Home Premium pre-loaded. But today, I realize what a big mistake I made. Don't worry - not on the part of choosing DELL, but picking up Windows Vista.

Today morning, Windows downloaded and installed an update and then forced me to restart my computer, without any choice, when I did not wanted to. Then it took almost 15 minutes to shut down. At restart it showed me those ugly screens of loading registry entries and files. The screen displayed Installing updates 1 of 3 (0% complete), and then it took another 70 minutes to see the login screen. Once iI authenticated my credentials it took another 15 minutes to load. Now this was frustrating, even after seeing the desktop I could not start any application, and even shut down again. I had already lost 100 minutes of my time, because Windows had installed some silly update which may be I didn't need.

When my patience left, I did a force shutdown and then a cold start. But to add insult to injury, things remained the same. Another 40 minutes, and I had to cold start my system in safe mode. Thank God, it was not slow this time and in couple of minutes I was to the admin console. Upon looking up for updates that were installed recently, I found the culprit.

Windows Desktop Search 4.0 installed on 4 August 2008. Damn hell, why did Microsoft installed a search system by default on my machine. I don't need and I hate desktop search softwares for the reason that they make the performance of the machines pathetic. It took me no time to click on the Uninstall button and then restart. Adding weird faces to the injury and insult, it has already been 90 minutes and my system still waits at the screen Configuring updates: 3 of 3 (0% complete).

If only I could get a chance to speak to the Windows Development Team, I would take the opportunity to let them know that their thinking of doing everything on their own creates life's miserable for users like me.

I already have lost more than 180 minutes (3 hours) of my time due to this and still counting.... :(

Readers, if you could point me to a link where I can file this as a bug, please do let me know, I am more than eager to kick their a**.

Jaane Kahan Hai Woh!

Sandy — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:00:00 -0700

Another mesmerizing romantic song from the genius Rahman! The prettiest song in the album Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Enjoy!

Kahin to.. kahin to.
Hogi woh
Duniya jahan tu mere saaath hain

Chaha mein chaha tu
Aur jaan bas tere mere zajbaat hain
Hogi jahan saba teri
Palkon ki kirano mein
Lori jahan chand ki
Sune teri bahon mein...

[Jane na kahan woh duniya hai
Jane na woh hai bhi ya nahi
Jahan meri zindagi mujhse
Inti kafa nahi ]2

Saasein kho gai hai kiski aahon mein
Mein kho gai hoon jane kiski baahon mein
Manzilon se rahe dhondte chali
Aur kho gai hai manzil kahin rahon mein
Kahin to kahin to hai nasha
Teri meri har mulakat mein
Hoton se hoton ko
Chumti o rehete hai hum har baat pe
Kehti hain fiza jahan
Teri zaameen aasman
Lyricsmasti
Jahan hai tu
Meri hasi meri khushi
Meri jaan

[Jane na kahan woh duniya hai
Jane na woh hai bhi ya nahi
Jahan meri zindagi mujhse
Inti kafa nahi ]2

Reality v/s Reality

Sandy — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:36:00 -0700

Some recent coverages by media and their influence on the Indian history have been surprising me lately. Media has grown to be so powerful that it has now started participating in the future of our country. But with the mushrooming growth of News & Entertainment channels, the overdose of reality shows, and between all this their quest to top the TRPs has shifted the focus from positive development. They are now walking the same trodden path which Indian polity did a few decades ago, in their fight for supremacy.

Let me start highlighting my concerns in the reverse chronological order. The latest was the sudden and unfortunate death of Ishmeet, the winner of the Voice of India 2007. For those of who still are not familiar with this - Voice of India was a reality singing contest, one amongst the dozen being aired, and Ishmeet won in the season 2007. As soon as the news spread, the Gurudwara committee of Delhi closed down all 15 schools in Delhi in his grief. When this wasn't enough, the Punjab state government announced that his last rites would be performed with full state honours.

Not to sound apathetic or to insult or hurt someone's sentiments - My apologies before hand - but did Ishmeet deserved this. Closing 15 schools, leading to a loss atleast 30,000 hours of education (taking 500 children per school with 4 hours of teaching daily). Going for a state funeral which is to honor people who have done something really superb for the country. Just a few days back, there were two Indian soldiers who died when Pakistan opened fire at the LoC. None of those two soldiers have been given a state funeral, when they died defending the independence of me, you and Ishmeet. The news channels covered the entire episode with more dedication than they covered the LoC firing. Guess, whats important for them, country or TRPs?

Another recent traumatic episode is the Aarushi incident. The sensational double murder took place a month after the Jaipur blasts, but still for the next month and a half it was Aarushi ruling over the all news channels from day and night to next day. What happened to Jaipur blasts, the probe and the culprits, the Indian media, the government and lastly all of us forgot. Was it the double murder that was unique or just that she was a small girl. Every week people are killed by the blueline buses, as I read it again in today's newspaper on the 4th page. Senior citizens are being killed by their servants. But I guess these incidents are smaller in significance than the Aarushi case. The height of everything can be realised from the fact that Ekta Kapoor went ahead and shot the same sequence in her serial just to boost the TRPs of a serial that is already a decade old, and has five generations of a family living together and planning to kill each other. Pathetic!

It was only the recent tragic Ahemdabad blasts that made the government remember that there are already dozen cases of serial blasts whose investigation is still pending. Our country's home minister addressed the media, "The existing laws are enough to deal with terrorism" The investigation and probe for the Bombay 93 blasts is still not over. Not over because the culprits still have not been punished. The Indian judiciary which crawls at the snail's pace is still trying to cover the distance. Varanasi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Banglore, Chennai, Bombay, Delhi, Ahemdabad and many many more.....

I can continue writing and filling this place with more and more words, but will that be enough? No !

How many more deaths, how much more blood would it take before the country awakens and tries to address the real issues at hand: terrorism, inflation, unemployment, poverty, drinking water, sanitation, roads, electricity, and yes, education.

Signs of Ageing!

Sandy — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:21:00 -0700

Life ages fast... and you are made to realize that continually in one way or the other. Something really exciting and good happened yesterday that makes me believe that I am aging now. Jokes apart, friends, I have been blessed with a nephew yesterday! And I am so happy about it!

Hooray!!! Yoohoo!!!

For all my friends looking for a visual treat logon to my Orkut profile!

Blogger and My Blog List widget

Sandy — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:44:00 -0700

A friend of mine was trying to add my blog using the recently released, My Blog List widget, in Blogger. But, an error was being thrown saying no feeds could be detected for the blog. When I gotta know of this I was surprised and a bit upset. One, for my blog could not be added to a blog roll and second, I would not be getting more visitors, doh!

Another worry was to analyze the cause behind it. as I tried it myself and with a few hits and trials, I came to the conclusion that FeedBurner is the culprit here. When you are redirecting all your feed viewers to FeedBurner using the Blogger's internal setting, the blog feeds are not discovered by the widget. I am not sure what causes this to happen. But, there is a workaround for all,

Just use the complete blogger feed URL for such blogs. For example, if you are looking to add this blog to your list, instead of saying http://azcarya.blogspot.com say, http://poetinside.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default. Just add /feeds/posts/default to the end of all Blogger blogs and you should be able to get it through.

Hope this helps.
Keep Walking!

Keep Walking!

Sandy — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:30:00 -0700

A song that defines the meaning of the words, Keep Walking!

Gaadi Bulaa Rahi Hai, Seeti Bajaa Rahi Hai
Chalna Hi Zindagi Hai, Chalti Hi Ja Rahi Hai

Dekho Vo Rail, Bachchon Ka Khel, Seekho Sabak Jawaanon
Sar Pe Hai Bojh, Seene Mein Aag, Lab Par Dhuaan Hai Jaano
Phir Bhi Ye Ja Rahi Hai, Nagmein Suna Rahi Hai

Aage Toofan, Peechhe Barsaat, Oopar Gagan Mein Bijli
Soche Na Baat, Din Ho Ke Raat, Signal Hua Ke Nikli
Dekho Vo Aa Rahi Hai, Dekho Vo Ja Rahi Hai

Aate Hain Log, Jaate Hain Log, Paani Mein Jaise Rele
Jaane Ke Baad, Aate Hain Yaad, Guzre Hue Vo Mele
Yaadein Bana Rahi Hai, Yaaden Mita Rahi Hai

Gaadi Ko Dekh, Kaisi Hai Nek, Achchha Bura Na Dekhe
Sab Hain Savaar, Dushman Ke Yaar, Sabko Chali Ye Leke
Jeena Sikha Rahi Hai, Marna Sikha Rahi Hai

Gaadi Ka Naam, Na Kar Badnaam, Patari Pe Rakh Ke Sar Ko
Himmat Na Haar, Kar Intezaar, Aa Laut Jaaen Ghar Ko
Ye Raat Ja Rahi Hai, Vo Subah Aa Rahi Hai

Sun Ye Paigham, Ye Hai Sangraam, Jeevan Nahin Hai Sapna
Dariyaa Ko Faand, Parvat Ko Cheer, Kaam Hai Ye Uska Apna
Neenden Udaa Rahi Hai, Jaago Jagaa Rahi Hai

Greeting Grammar!

Sandy — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:21:00 -0700

Do you feel there is something wrong is saying, "Hi Sandeep". If you DO NOT I would suggest you to read this particular post by Bob, Greeting Grammar, which is definitely an eye opener. Its an amazing post which reminds me of my grade school classes. Gosh, if only I had paid some heed to my teachers. :)

Keep Walking, friends!

What I Gained, What I Lost?

Sandy — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:40:00 -0700

They say,

Change is the only constant in life.

Some say this is crap, some ugly reality. Well, whatever, I am of the belief its a reality - ugly or not, only time would tell! ;)

Not long ago, I met one of my college friends after a really really long time. It was so wonderful and exciting to meet my ol' friend. The first glimpse of her mesmerizing smile was enough to make me forget all my tensions. Yes, she always has this soothing and calming effect on all living souls. (I still remember the meetings of Images, which I was always over-enthusiastic to attend). Its always joyful and liberating to meet friends, sharing experiences, know of their lives and chat on yours! So, I was there playing an artist in the day's stage, unaware of what the Numen had in store for me. We started with the usual greetings, and long time no see, and blah blah blah!

As we settled down into our conversation, came the real bouncer: I had changed. At first, they were shocking, later surprising, and now thought-provoking. Had I really changed? Yes! I had no option but to agree without retort. I asked, for good or for worse? With a very sweet smile, pat came the reply, Good! Obviously, friends lie often ;)

I thought with this it was over, when my fears came alive again, What had caused this change? What I Gained, What I Lost? I swear this is the toughest question I had ever faced in my entire life, in any examination. Not for there was a result linked to this, but because this questioned the essence of my life, the sole objective of my existence.

And during the next one hour or so, I kept pondering over the real reason and the answer to the question, in the background. Our entire conversation revolved around our own meandering experiences of life in the past couple of years, which we shared with an open-heart. We talked of how life was in the college and how it had become. It brought back the memories of the way I had once lived. Again talking of changes!

It reminded me of my own motto in college, NSS. Surprised! Please don't be! It stood for NO SOCIAL SERVICE. I was not the guy who was of the school of thought that these are futile efforts. Infact, I was too busy enjoying my life and shaping up my life, spinning dreams and hoping that they get fulfilled. I was just like any other teenager who had many many aspirations but was too busy enjoying life and time with friends, rather devoting time to fulfill them.

Music is a topic which always finds in place in any conversation. It started with the discussion of our cellphone's ring-tones. Ghost Love Score is what I get to hear when someone calls me up, something which my friend could not relate to. On the other hand, she had this beautiful romantic song of which I remember each and every word, a song that I have listened to days together in my child hood, You are the Girl of My Dreams. (Another fond one used to be, Because of You). If I retrospect over the past few years, my taste for music had changed drastically. There was a time when I only listened to lively, jovial and romantic music. And today, my day starts with End of All Hope!!!

And we kept on chatting... when I realized that she had some urgent work and had promised to meet only for five minutes. And I had kept her on hold, delaying her urgent thing by almost an hour. Sorry, my friend, I hope I didn't bother you much!

The meeting was a blessing in disguise for me for it brought alive the feelings inside me which I had long buried in some corner of my heart. The last whole week there would not have been an hour when I would not have come back to the question to find an answer. I am indebted to you my friend for my whole life, and I promise that sooner or later, someday I would be able to answer this question. Not for anyone else, but solely for me, I would be able to justify my quest for survival in this world. I promise!!!

Till then, all Keep Walking!

You Are The Girl Of My Dreams

Sandy — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:00:00 -0700

A mesmerizing song I had misplaced somewhere in my heart!

[ Chorus: ]
You are the girl of my dreams
In my heart, I believe
You are the girl of my dreams, baby
Of my dreams

All alone, in my room
Wishing that you were here
Without you, in my arms I'm
holding back all of the tears
Without you in my life I'll
never be satisfied

[ Chorus ]

Sometimes I feel I could
have been better to you
All I wasnt is a chance
To prove that my love is true
Without you in my life I'll
never be satisfied

[ Chorus ]

Baby let's go back in time
To when our hearts would shine
And I could hold you tight
In my dreams at night

[ Chorus(Repeat 3 times) ]

India comes home!

Sandy — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0700

A brilliant ad from Maruti. I just love the background music and the catch line. Awesome!!!

Let's Go!

Sandy — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:28:00 -0700

Someone really likes this one too much... specially for you my friend. Hope you would enjoy this!

Creative Advertisements 2!!!

Sandy — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:05:00 -0700

Avoid using mobiles while driving!

One of the most appealing and heart-touching advertisements I have ever seen in my life. A sincere request to all my readers - please do not use mobile phones while driving!!!

Tyranny of a Developer!

Sandy — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:34:00 -0700

Being a software developer introduces you to many new concepts - importantly, of using and harness the technology yourself to the maximum. Slowly as you start picking up things you start using the same in your daily chores, for example, using mails to communicate often. When you are looking up for that song on your disk, you want the power of Google to do that for you. Recovering accidental deletions of files makes you think if you could have your own private repository with all files being safe. And the list goes on.

I am not left untouched by these thoughts in my own quest. With much of my life being spent in programming, I always look out to develop tools and utilities which help me in my daily chores. But, as the needs grow those don't, reason me being lazy enough. In the last couple of months, I started development of these on a serious basis. To start with I got myself a repository, configured all damn things, put across the build servers and all the other things ones does except development.

Now being ready for development, I started investing time in reading and development to make life easier. My luck didn't last long - I now stand at the point where in I use many systems for development and review of code pieces. I can view files in my repository, discuss them with people, find silly bugs and some blunders. Fixing these blunders is easy, but getting code back into the repository isn't. Why? For I am not with my laptop which has the complete repository checked out. This makes me go back to square one - a need for a web based way to check in files into a repository.

Can I have some luck here on would I have to go back adding this in my wish list? I use Subversion as my repository, as if who doesn't. Perforce guys, sorry you are too costly! ;) A little Google and I could find many a links to all sorts of web based subversion clients, bringing a big smile on my face. I thought I had found a solution. One by one, I kept clicking on the results, browsing to the features page, and checking if somewhere the word, 'commit', or 'check-in' or 'write' was written. To my bad luck, from one to second, second to third, third to n-th, none of them seemed to support web based modification of files.

I kept scrolling through results in anticipation that somewhere down there could be a link which might surprise me. Many a pages down under, I found Nirvana - I found what I was looking for - a web based tool which has write access. YooHoo!!!! I was so excited reading the features list and trying it out, that I am here writing this post. Check the great work from Polarion, the SVNWebClient. A powerful utility for those developers who believe in the Google way, 'Release Early, Release Often'. Check in your files on the move, and keep walking. The best part - its 100% pure Java implementation, which allows me to set it up on my existing servers.

Another good read-only browser worth mentioning is Sventon. Though it does not have the write capabilities, still it have many features of Fisheye, which makes it a right candidate to mention.

For all those developers harness the power of technology and surely, Keep Walking!

Hope this helps!

Creative Advertisements!!!

Sandy — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:41:00 -0700

Chewing tobacco causes mouth cancer!

Drive Slowly!

Encourage Adoption! You never know who you'll bring home!

Think before you waste food! Feed the children!

Stop Racism!

Born Brave!

Sandy — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:45:00 -0700

Kabhi Kabhi

Sandy — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:30:00 -0700

I grabbed the CD of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na today, and its songs are really superb. Rahman at his genius best again! The promo song is in itself a nerve-tickling romantic number... catch on!

Kabhi kabhi Aditi zindagi mein yuhi koi apna lagta hai.
Kabhi kabhi Aditi wo bichhar jaaye to ek sapna lagta hai.
Aise mei koi kaise apne aansu o ko behne se roke?
Aur kaise koi sochle everything's gonna be ok?

Kabhi kabhi to lage zindagi mein rahi naa khushi aur naa mazaa.
Kabhi kabhi to lage har din mushkil aur har pal ek sazaa.
Aise mein koi kaise mushkuraye, kaise hasde khush hoke?
Aur kaise koi soch de everything gonna be ok?

Soch jara jaaneja tujhko hum kitna chahte hai.
Rotein hai hum bhi aggar teri ankhon mein aansu aate hai.
Gaane to aata nahi hai magar phir bhi hum gaate hai.
Ke Aditi maan kabhi, kabhi saare jahan mein andhera hota hai;
Lekin raat ke baad hi to sabera hota hai.

Kabhi kabhi Aditi zindagi mei yuhi koi apna lagta hai.
Kabhi kabhi Aditi wo bichhar jaaye to ek sapna lagta hai.
Hey Aditi Hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde, hasde tu zara.
Nahi to bus thora thora thora thora thora, thora mushkura.

Tu khush hai to lage ke jahan mein chhaayi hai khushi.
Suraj nikle baadlon se aur baatein zindagi.
Suun to jara madhosh hawa tujhse kehne lagi.
Ke Aditi wo jo bichhad-te hai ek na ek din phir mil jaate hai;
Aditi jaane tu ya jaane na phool phir khil jaate hai.

Kabhi kabhi Aditi zindagi mei yuhi koi apna lagta hai.
Kabhi kabhi Aditi wo bichhar jaaye to ek sapna lagta hai.
( Hey Aditi Hasde hasde hasde hasde hasde, hasde tu zara.
Nahi to bus thora thora thora thora thora, thora mushkura. )-5

Swiftly Swift!

Sandy — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:45:00 -0700

Yesterday had been a terrific day, but a wonderful and a memorable one. It would be the day which would always have a great significance in my life. You haven't guessed it by now... okie! I bought MY first car - Swift, reducing my bank balance ;)

I am having much fun! You have fun too!
Happy & Safe Driving!

End of All Hope!

Sandy — Sun, 18 May 2008 02:45:00 -0700

Another mesmerizing song by Nightwish! Its by chance that I happened to browse the Nightwish site, and the lyrics are just superb. They attract you at the first glance, and this is evident from the their best, Ghost Love Score which I listen every morning, every evening. Enjoy!

It is the end of all hope
To lose the child, the faith
To end all the innocence
To be someone like me
This is the birth of all hope
To have what I once had
This life unforgiven
It will end with a birth

No will to wake for this morn
To see another black rose born
Deathbed is slowly covered with snow

Angels, they fell first but I'm still here
Alone as they are drawing near
In heaven my masterpiece will finally be sung

Wounded is the deer that leaps highest
And my wound it cuts so deep
Turn off the light and let me pull the plug

Mandylion without a face
Deathwish without a prayer
End of hope
End of love
End of time
The rest is silence!

Vodafone PUG!!!

Sandy — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:25:00 -0700

Brilliant Vodafone Pug ads...Hats off to the marketing persons.... amazing concept!Enjoy the feast!!!

When Animals are important than Humans!

Sandy — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:40:00 -0700

India, the Incredible India, a campaign by those in power to remain in power. Reality - bites dust. The other side of the coin - too ugly. Watchdogs - people wasting taxpayers money watching Dogs (PS: pun intended).

Recently, the Incredible India, and the Heart of India campaigns have gained momentum. Advertisements running on almost every channel portray India as one the best cultures and countries in the world! Why not, everyone is proud of his/her own motherland. But, is it justified to turn a blind eye to say, that country is progressing. Does mere statistical numbers in a pinch of areas showcase the development. For me, STRICTLY NO! I beg to differ.

Let me take a sweep around the news tales which evoked this thought, which forced me to write.

Cruelty to Mascot Pug
On April 25, 2008, the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) summoned Vodafone on charges of cruelty to Animals. Their allegation , (PS: The advertisement was shot in South Africa!)

The pet dog was made to run, gallop and chase the school van for a long time on a public road. Thereby, the dog was made to undergo severe pain and suffering due to the exhaustion caused by chasing (the bus).

What a wonderful thought! A commercial does not last more than 30 to 60 seconds, and a shot not more than 15 seconds (figures as per my observations). If the AWBI is so worried about the PUG dog, have they charged the Indian Police with cruelty too, for they own dogs which are made to run after criminals for hours. How about dogs which are kept at the airports to sniff out drugs? Isn't that cruelty - knowingly you are forcing a dog to sniff drugs?

Anyways, moving on to the other side of the coin. All the same newspapers which carried the above News, also carried some more stories. Read below,

Mentally challenged girl tied to a cart.

Surat cops in the dock for 'torturing' kids in custody

Napping couple sealed in house by zealous MCD

It seems the authoritative have turned a blind eye to humans and have taken the meaning of their role, literally, watchdogs are only watching dogs. It seems quite a humorous read but if think deeply, and you would be ashamed of the reality. This is Incredible India - A country where anything can happen! A country where everything is possible! A country where dogs are more important than fellow brethren! A country where duties are performed to the letters in the book! :D

I Am A Clog :|

Sandy — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:00:00 -0700

I just took a test and found myself to be a clog. :)

You Are Clogs

You are a solid and down to earth person.

You seek "and almost always achieve" a really sound balance in your life.

You are stylish yet comfortable. Mellow but driven. Excited yet calm.

You are the perfect mesh of contradictions.

No matter what happens, you have the ability to stay well grounded in your life.

People know that they can truly depend on you.

You should live: In Europe

You should work: At a company dedicated to helping the world

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

Google Movies!

Sandy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:53:00 -0700

Here is another interesting service from Google. Want to know, which movie is being showed in which theater at what time? Just enter your city name and watch all the movie shows with current timings on your screen.

You taking it as a joke, try yourself http://www.google.co.in/movies

Happy Googling into movies!

Updates on 24th April 2008

Sandy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:27:00 -0700

* Added another extension point, Jerry Services - a collection of independent common services that may also be wired using Spring. The only dependency would be on Jerry Core.

* Added EmailService as part of Jerry Services.

* Added another extension point, Jerry Taglib - a tag library containing common functionalities and wrappers for Jerry Core services.

* Added an InsertResource tag, used to generate proper linking URL for CSS/SCRIPTs with proper URLs including the application context.

Ya Rabba!

Sandy — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:00:00 -0700

Another great and wonderful song I heard in the Gym today. Not the one to be played there, but still a wonderful song.

Pyaar hai ya saja, aai mere dil bata
tootata kyon nahi dard ka silsila
is pyaar mein hon kaise kaise imntihaan
ye pyaar likhe kaisi kaisi dastaan
ya rabba de de koi jaan bhi agar
dilbar pe ho na, dilbar pe ho na koi asar
ho ya rabba de de koi jaan bhi agar
dilbar pe ho na, dilbar pe ho na koi asar
pyaar hai ya saja, aai mere dil bata
tootata kyon nahi dard ka silsila

kaisa hai safar wafa ki manjil ka
na hai koi hal dilon ki mushkil ka
dhadkan dhadkan bikhri ranjishein
saansein saansein tooti bandishein
kahi to har lamha honton pe fariyaad hai
kisi ki duniya chaahat mein barbaad hai
ya rabba de de koi jaan bhi agar
dilbar pe ho na, dilbar pe ho na koi asar
ho ya rabba de de koi jaan bhi agar
dilbar pe ho na, dilbar pe ho na koi asar

koi na sune sisakati aanhon ko
koi na dhare tadapati baahon ko
aadhi aadhi puri khwaishein
tooti footi sab farmaaishein
kahin shak hain kahin nafrat ki deewaar hai
kahin jeet mein bhi shamil palpal haar hain
ya rabba de de koi jaan bhi agar
dilbar pe ho na, dilbar pe ho na koi asar
ho ya rabba de de koi jaan bhi agar
dilbar pe ho na, dilbar pe ho na koi asar
ho o o pyaar hai ya saja, aai mere dil bata
tootata kyon nahi dard ka silsila
ho o o o ho o o o
na poocho dard bandon se
hansi kaisi khushi kaisi
musibat sar pe rehati hain
kabhi kaisi kabhi kaisi
ho o o o... rabba, rabba ho o o ho
rabba ho o o, ho o ho rabba

Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely!

Sandy — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:50:00 -0700

I just love this song!

Show me the meaning of being lonely

So many words for the broken heart
Its hard to see in a crimson love
So hard to breathe
Walk with me, and maybe
Nights of light so soon become
Wild and free I could feel the sun
Your every wish will be done
They tell me...

Show me the meaning of being lonely
Is this the feeling I need to walk with
Tell me why I cant be there where you are
Theres something missing in my heart

Life goes on as it never ends
Eyes of stone observe the trends
They never say forever gaze
Guilty roads to an endless love
Theres no control
Are you with me now
Your every wish will be done
They tell me

Show me the meaning of being lonely
Is this the feeling I need to walk with
Tell me why I cant be there where you are
Theres something missing in my heart

Theres nowhere to run
I have no place to go
Surrender my heart, body and soul
How can it be youre asking me to feel the things you never show

You are missing in my heart
Tell me why I cant be there where you are

Show me the meaning of being lonely
Is this the feeling I need to walk with
Tell me why I cant be there where you are
Theres something missing in my heart!

Truth of Reservation!

Sandy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:00:00 -0700

A very nice entry on the merits and demerits of Reservation in India, MUST READ!

India - Are We Developing? - III

Sandy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:30:00 -0700

It frustrates to read the morning newspaper in India. Why? All over you could read how inhumane we have become, how the legislature has become a money-mongering monster, the executive indifferent to humanity, and the judiciary burdened with all these evils.

Torch mightier than Humans
The Delhi government has put on barricades, cut short the length of Olympic torch relay by two-third, and deployed hundreds of police-men to protect the flame. What makes this disgusting is the fact that in the past one week there have been more than a dozen murders, two-dozen road-rage and car-thefts and still the Government is not panicking. Criminals stop, bash people and flee with belongings right under the nose of the Govt. that says its normal to happen. Police pushes the blame on lack of strength due to Olympic torch preparation and security of so-called Politicians.

Doling offers to poor!
What was started as a fanatic idea by the Jayalalitha govt. to save her chair is now being replicated by the UPA. They are gonna offer free Colour TV to people below-poverty-line. People below BPL are defined as ones who cannot have two full-meals a day. Guess, how would they be able to pay the electricity bills/cable bills for the TV. Either they would steal from the overhead lines putting extra load on the transmission lines, causing frequent trips. Or may be the Govt. will dole out bill-waivers next year from the tax-payer's pocket.

60000 cr waiver to farmers!
Hard-earned tax-payers money paid for better infrastructure, better policing and safe cities was flushed down the drains just to appease political vote-bank. I am not against helping the needy, but the ones in need are out to the purview. For those who are really poor took loans from money-lenders for they had no guarantee for the banks, and the waiver applies to banks. A fanatic idea of the so-called Finance Minister! Today's newspaper carries the article in which the people involved have accepted on record that the needy might not get this waiver in time (this year) due to fund crunch.

Rising food prices & Inflation!
We all know that inflation has already crossed the 7% mark. The prices of vegetables, cereals have spiraled partly influenced by the Navratra season. Yet, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Shiela Dikshit, is not worried. As per her, if prices have increased so have the pay of all (read Sixth Pay Commission). Are we developing?

Religion/Caste rule, Merit a taboo!
A few hours ago, the honorable Supreme Court has allowed the Devil 'OBC Quota' in premier Educational Institutes of India. Now religion and caste will rule over the power-of-mind. The creamy layers definition has been kept such absurd that all would be benefited. Lets examine,

As per the principles laid down in the Mandal judgment, the children of constitutional functionaries including the President, judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, members of the Union Public Service Commission, Groups A and B or Class I or II officers of the All-India Central and State services and children of public sector employees are excluded from reservation.

Children of armed forces and paramilitary personnel in the rank of colonel or above are also excluded.

The other categories falling under the creamy layer include children of professionals such as lawyers, chartered accountants, doctors, financial and management consultants, engineers, film artists, authors and playwrights.

Further children of all OBCs, whose gross annual income is more than Rs. 2.5 lakhs, must not get the benefit of reservation.

Those of you who have studied in India would know how many of the above have availed this benefit. From my personal experience, in my educational life, 99% fell into this category. Another political fanaticism ready to destroy our country.

MNS, Big B and Maharastrians!
MNS has scored a triple-century in showing their solidarity to the average Maharastrians. They have demanded 80% quota for Maharashtrians in companies held by Tata's and Ambani's. I guess the only one listening to them and who could benefit are their own party-workers for they have nothing else to do whole day, they are only skilled in destroying public property and beating their fellow country-men. Yet, the Chief Minister, the Prime Minister and the President of the country are silent on this hatred-vendetta. Has MNS ever thought of a normal human being who works to earn his daily bread. Can we replicate the same by throwing out all Maharashtrians from all other states and countries, or would they accept reservations of all state people in their state's respective educational institutions! A policy of hatred, divide and rules being followed, government turning a blind-eye!

Passengers thrashed in Blame Game!
Passengers in an auto-rickshaw Pune were thrashed by the bus driver and conductor for they hit an auto-rickshaw and entered an altercation with the driver. Due to this rage, they bashed up the silent occupants of the auto, including a pregnant-woman (who was kicked on stomach by the conductor and driver). Police is yet to arrest the accused, and with political backing, the auto-driver union has asked the couple (in hospital) to apologize in public. The life of the unborn-child is less important than whose fault was it.

Election in state, no one would work!
With impending elections in Karnataka, Banglore is being turned into a no-work zone by aspiring politicians. They are blocking roads in the office-going time to gather crowd for their idiotic and insane speeches, all the more, with the police backing.

“It’s election period. So naturally, candidates and their followers come in thousands. We can't prevent or for that purpose, we can't shift party office to a far-off place. It's inevitable,” says JDS president, YSV Dutta.

Mockery of Emergency!
If you have traveled by Indian Railways, you may be knowing about the Tatkaal scheme. A scheme that was launched to help passengers book tickets in case of emergencies like fatality, medical problems, examinations and interview or urgent business meets. Our very own Lalu Prasad Yadav made such a mockery of this scheme that all India laughed and the needy suffered. He increased the time-frame for reservations from 2 to 5 days. So, now all those living alone should inform their parents/guardians atleast a week back, they are gonna fall ill or meet an accident (I pray no one does ever!)

Young Blood in Government!
Recently, the honorable Prime Minister of India inducted new ministers in his cabinet. Reason influx of young blood to help nation grow faster. If we leave two persons out of calculation, than the average age of ministers inducted comes out to be 59 years. I am confused - is it that their mathematical calculations are weak, or they following Einstein's theory of Relativity, comparing them to themselves. LOL.

A simple question to you, Are we Developing?

Device that can save you from Loan-Recovery Agents!

Sandy — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:15:00 -0700

I just read this news snippet: Car won't start if you default on your loan. Yes it is an immobilizer device that would render your car from starting when you default on your loan payment. The number of devices sold to date in US in itself speaks of the vast possibilities the device has.

If only there is NOT an anti-device for this immobilizer than we can be saved from the criminals hired by loan recovery agents of banks in India.

History of Orkut & chain-Emails!

Sandy — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:00:00 -0700

Chain Emails - Ones that you keep receiving all through the day and wonder why don't they just land up in the SPAM folder. This morning I received one another: About the Birth of Orkut! I am sure most of you must have read this email for the number of times it has been forwarded is quite large. For those of you, who haven't, lets ponder over the contents first,

A guy lost his girlfriend in a train accident....but the gal's name nowhere appeared in the dead list. This guy grew up n became IT technical architect in his late 20?s, achievement in itself!!. He hired developers from the whole globe and plan to make a software where he could search for his gf through the web..Things went as planned...n he found her, after losing millions of dollars and 3 long years!! It was time to shut down the search operation, when the CEO of Google had a word with this guy n took over this application, This Software made a whopping 1 billion dollars profit in its first year, which we today know as ORKUT .

The guy's name is ORKUT BUYUKKOTEN. Yes its named after him only. Today he is paid a hefty sum by Google for the things we do like scrapping. He is expected to b the richest person by 2009. ORKUT BUYUKKOTEN today has 13 assistants to monitor his scrapbook & 8 to monitor his friends-list. He gets around 20,000 friend-requests a day & about 85,000 scraps!!!

Some other Cool Facts abt this guy:
* He gets $12 from Google when every person registers to this website.
* He also gets $10 when you add somebody as a friend.
* He gets $8 when your friend's friend adds you as a friend & gets $6 if anybody adds you as friend in the resulting chain.
* He gets $5 when you scrap somebody & $4 when somebody scraps you.
* He also gets $200 for each photograph you upload on Orkut.
* He gets $2.5 when you add your friend in the crush-list or in the hot-list.
* He gets $2 when you become somebody's fan.
* He gets $1.5 when somebody else becomes your fan.
* He even gets $1 every time you logout of Orkut.
* He gets $0.5 every time you just change your profile-photograph.
* He also gets $0.5 every time you read your friend's scrap-book & $0.5 every time you view your friend's friend-list.

Well, coming to the point, it was not this email that made me write this post, but the person and his background. I got this email from a J2EE developer with say 3+ years of experience. A person from the industry trusting such rubbish is really insane. A word with him and he was trying to convince me that we could do such a thing and earn millions and the next he was almost ready to leave his job. Foolish!

It is not about making choices, but about making informed choices. What is the point in studying so much if we start believing in such stuff, the origination of which lies in a totally-unoccupied mind.

Orkut was developed by a Turkish software developer, Orkut Buyukkokten, working with Google as a 20% project. What's a 20% project? Google has a policy where-in every developer is allowed 20% of a week's time to work on something of his own, the time which he can utilize for personal development. When Orkut stabilized internally it was released by the person as an independent entity. A few months down the line with the growing support Google took it over and provided the kind of infrastructure it needed. The terms of the deal (between Google and Orkut) were not disclosed as any other Google deal. The person is still with Google, and wrote the very first post for Orkut Blog.

Wanna feel the power of Google 20% - here we go - Orkut, Reader, Charts, Adsense, News, and our very favourite GMail. Google 20% is more of an attitude which the organization exhibits than a rule! I wish for a day when my employer would allow the same ;)

The Flame Within

Sandy — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:15:00 -0700

Great music with a superb choreographed dance!

BlaBlaBla

Sandy — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:45:00 -0700

Another funky video by Gigi D'Agostino, Enjoy!

Princess of Egypt!

Sandy — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:15:00 -0700

I'm coming home
and I don't want to hear another word about this
It's hard to fight well
and come alone back from the abyss
No more of them lunatic thoughts time's up
for the Don Quixote
All I ever wanted was to give this my best shot

The sad part is that you come
from a different kind of life
I'm up and leaving now I'm living by the knife
I've lost my faith in human kind and it's time for a rest
Even though I did my best I didn't pass your test

You are the princess of Egypt and I'm just a man
I want to be with you, I feel astray
I need a miracle how to make you understand
I'd make you happy but you're far away

You don't know what you're missing
What it is you leave behind
My good intentions for you makes me one of a kind
You'll get by in your fortress
you will hide behind that wall
But one day you will find out you almost had it all

The sad part is that you come,
from a different kind of life
I'm up and leaving now I'm living by the knife
I've lost my faith in human kind and it's time for a rest
Even though I did my best I didn't pass your test

You are the princess of Egypt and I'm just a man
I want to be with you, I feel astray
I need a miracle how to make you understand
I'd make you happy but you're far away

Exam Time!

Sandy — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0700

Last weekend, I appeared for the SCWCD exam. Before you guys start making any guesses let me make the air clear, I had to appear, I didn't wanted to. Last year I had bought a coupon for the exam on heavy discount. With the baniya mentality, I had thought of selling it to some one else making a premium over it. But guess what, I ran out of luck. Part due to my laziness, part due to my luck, I didn't find any buyer. And the 31st March deadline lay approaching. I had no other option but to appear myself, lest suffer a loss of a few grands.

Now choice of exam center. I started calling each and every mentioned Prometric center to book a date. But, the way we Indians tend to leverage advantage over others limited options, is what I stood in front of. Every center was ready to give a date, but as soon as I told them that coupon was expiring on 31st Mar, they declined. A few offered me the weekday slot. I wanted weekend so as not to fail ;) It seemed I was to loose money, which was my biggest worry. My MOM was after me reiterating that this was to happen when you do things at the 11th hour. Well with a lot of luck wishes from my friends, I finally managed to find a center and book a slot. This time I played smart, I didn't mention about the expiry date. :)

A week before the exam I pondered over the syllabus and was surprised to find that I didn't knew 80% of the stuff. Why? Because that was all theoretical things we tend to forget over time. A crash revision course was needed. To add more to my suffering it was UAT and release time, shit, which gave me little time to study. With the advent of IDE's (Integrated Development Environments) and Intellisense, a lot is taken off developer's shoulders. This makes them more vulnerable to these certification exams.

A free mock exam website came to help. The website contains many links to free Java certification exams. The only thing I could do was start giving them. What is best with these exams is you can submit the whole exam at the very first question, and then browsing answers for review ;) A trick that saved me a lot of time and generated my reading material. I somehow managed to study 50% of the questions provided, and indeed, it proved really helpful.

The day arrived. I just wanted to save my money. I prayed to the almighty to help me keep up to my reputation of being a baniya. Two hours and I was through the test and a round of revision too. I was sure that I would pass and not flunk. God blessed me and I really did pass. Alas! the exam time was over! Paise bach gaye!

I feel the test question required more of mugging than application. Under the agreement I cannot reveal the questions per se, but what I can advise others is that leave the IDE for a month and code everything by hand, specially the deployment descriptor and other config files. The deployment descriptor structure is something that can make you look like a first-grade student even with several years of development experience. And yes, got through the mock-exams, will surely add to your success and save you lots of time ;)

If you need any help on the certification, feel free to reach me.

Hope this helps and Best of luck to all aspirants.

A Walk In The Rain

Sandy — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0700

Its raining outside and the weather is at its best. What more can one desire except to have someone to walk with in this rain. Ahhh.... I am feeling nostalgic. The weather is the sole reason for my creation, Together in the Rain. I long for the day!

BTW, this is Yanni at his best, the video is from the movie Pride and Prejudice.

The Riddle

Sandy — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:30:00 -0700

I got two strong arms blessings of babylon
with time to carry on and try
for sins and false alarms
so to america the brave

wise men save
near a tree by a river
there's a hole in the ground
where an old man of aran
goes around and around
and his mind is a beacon
in the veil of the night
for a strange kind of fashion
there's a wrong and a right

near a tree by a river
there's a hole in the ground
where an old man of Aran
goes around and around
and his mind is a beacon
in the veil of the night
for a strange kind of fashion
there's a wrong and a right
but he'll never, never fight over you

near a tree by a river
there's a hole in the ground
where an old man of aran
goes around and around
and his mind is a beacon
in the veil of the night
for a strange kind of fashion
there's a wrong and a right

near a tree by a river
there's a hole in the ground
where an old man of Aran
goes around and around
and his mind is a beacon
in the veil of the night
for a strange kind of fashion
there's a wrong and a right
but he'll never, never fight over you

i got plans for us
nights in the scullery
and days instead of me
i only know what to discuss
of for anything but light
wise men fighting over you

it's not me you see
pieces of valentine
with just a song of mine
to keep from burning history
seasons of gasoline and gold

wise men fold
near a tree by a river
there's a hole in the ground
where an old man of aran
goes around and around
and his mind is a beacon
in the veil of the night
for a strange kind of fashion
there's a wrong and a right
but he'll never, never fight over you

i got time to kill
sly looks in corridors
without a plan of yours
a blackbird sings on bluebird hill
thanks to the calling of the wild wise mens child.

Pehli Nazar Main

Sandy — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:45:00 -0700

Another brilliant romantic song from Atif Aslam, video from movie Race!

Pehli nazar mein
Kaise jaado kar diya
Tera ban baita hai
Mera jiya
Jaane kya hoga
Kya hoga kya pata
Is pal ko milke
Aa jee le zara

Mein hoon yahan
Tu hai yahan
Meri bahon mein aa
Aa bhi ja
O jaan-e-jaan
Dono jahan
Meri bahon mein aa
Bhool Ja aa

O jaan-e-jaan
Dono jahan
Meri bahon mein aa
Bhool Ja aa

Baby i love u, baby i love you, baby i love you, baby i love you … so..
Baby i love u
Oh i love u
I love u
I love u so
Baby i love u

Har dua mein shamil tera pyaar hai
Bin tere lamha bhi dushwar hai
Dhadhkon ko tujhe se hi darkar hai
Tujhse hai rahtein
Tujhse hai chahtein

Har dua mein shamil tera pyaar hai
Bin tere lamha bhi dushwar hai
Dhadhkon ko tujhe se hi darkar hai
Tujhse hai rahtein
Tujhse hai chahtein

Tu jo mili ek din mujhe
Mein kahin ho gaya lapata

(O jaan-e-jaan
Dono jahan
Meri bahon mein aa
Bhool Ja aa ) ….. 2

Kar diya Deewana dard-e-Khaas ne
Chain cheena isqh ke ehsaas ne
Bekhayali di hai tere pyaas ne
Chaya suroor hai
Kuch to zaroor hai

Kar diya Deewana dard-e-Khaas ne
Chain cheena isqh ke ehsaas ne
Bekhayali di hai tere pyaas ne
Chaya suroor hai
Kuch to zaroor hai

Yeh dooriyan
Jeene na de
Hal mera tujhe na pata

(O jaan-e-jaan
Dono jahan
Meri bahon mein aa
Bhool Ja aa) ….. 2

Baby i love u, baby i love you, baby i love you, baby i love you … so..
Baby i love u
Oh i love u
Baby I love u
I love u…

Talent Hunt - Magical Illusion

Sandy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:45:00 -0700

Another wonderful magical illusion demonstrated as part of a Talen Hunt, Enjoy!

Talent Hunt - Amazing Trick

Sandy — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:00:00 -0700

A clip from the Talent Hunt show, a really amazing trick - sheer speed with a perfect ending. MUST WATCH!

Another one which I could not resist not posting, Enjoy!

Goodbye to you!

Sandy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:15:00 -0700

One of the beautiful songs with LOTR theme!

Of all the things I believe in
I just want to get it over with
tears from behind my eyes
but I do not cry
Counting the days that past me by

I've been searching deep down in my soul
Words that I'm hearing are starting to get old
Looks like I'm starting all over again
The last three years were just pretend and I say

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I love
The one thing that I tried to hold on to

I still get lost in your eyes
And it seems like I can't live a day without you
Closing my eyes till you chase my thoughts away
To a place where I am blinded by the light but it's not right

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to

Ohhh yeah
It hurts to want everything & nothing at the same time
I want whats yours and I want whats mine
I want you but I'm not giving in this time

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to
The one thing that I tried to hold on to

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to

We the stars fall and I lie awake
Your my shooting star

Rang De Basanti!

Sandy — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:10:00 -0700

It so happened this weekend that I spent my Saturday afternoon watching RDB once again. This is one must watch movie for all Indians, and to take lessons from it. What has appeared in newspapers in the past couple of weeks makes me strongly believe in need of RDB wave.

A few minuscule incidents in the day have been the driving force for this post. Currently, there are loud speakers shouting in the neighborhood society. Reason: They are celebrating HOLI, the festival of colors. There are many kids around having exams these days, but the organizer of this fanatic celebration has no one from his family giving exams. I wonder whether it is a festival of colors or music ;)

Two weeks back there was a pooja organized in our society on the occasion of birthday of an year-old child. When I asked the arrangers to lower down the volume of the loud-speakers, I was turned away termed as an atheist. Would the almighty be impressed by this loud music, which troubles up his disciples?

How these two incidents relate to the movie? Well, In the movie when friends are shown having supper at the college canteen, the background news playing on the TV shown was of a MIG-crash. They change the channel for a fashion show. But, when its their friend who suffers the same fate, they woke up. Most of us turn a blind-eye to this loud-speaker menace, because none of us have someone going through exams today. But when someone will, your suggestions would fall on deaf ears, as they did for mine.

In the early stages of the movie the central character is shown telling his friends that he would leave India, for nothing good can happen in this dustbin. The two friends start laughing about the ills that inherit our society, corruption, infrastructure, population etc. I was having this conversation with one of my friends who has been onsite for the past some time. She now sees so many imperfect things in the country, to which I agree too, like the dust all around. But, Is leaving the country an option? Is that our only duty towards our motherland?

I was just talking to my cousin a couple of minutes ago. We were talking of a particular train getting delayed all time. His reasoning is as the train passes through the Bihar region, hence, it gets delayed. Why do we come to so stupid conclusion and start cursing the demographics. It is the lack of will of people to work properly that leads to such situations. It is only we who delay tasks assigned to us, but when someone else does it to us, we scream!

The cause of dust can be attributed to flawed construction techniques, eagerness to save some quick bucks, unauthorized digging and what not. Recently, I saw people digging up the road for there was a fault in their pipe-line. When they had fixed they dumped the soil back, its top view matched that of Himalayas. The very next day I was speaking to the residents of the same building, and found them complaining of the bad condition of the road. They were almost screaming on one of the neighboring buildings for they had left water open, which spoilt up the whole road.

There is one another line by Anupam Kher, "India ki baarat main dhule ke saath sabhi baraati barabar khaate hain", in which he iterates that in any deal in India its from top to down everyone has a share. I was just reading about the INS Jalashwa that we have recently procured. As per the agreement, India would not be able to use the warship in case of a war. I repeat, a warship that you cannot use in a war. Its like buying an umbrella that is not be opened in rains ;)

In the end just before his last moments the main protagonist speaks what his friend tells him on the dining table. No nation is perfect, it is made perfect by the people living in.Today we stand in a position where in we all feel that there are ills in our society. Yes, there are and there are plenty. People like me have been writing about it, but its now time to act. We don't know how to act, we are searching for someone who can guide us. But, this way the wait would be endless.

I feel the best we can do is ponder over and change ourselves. Let's bring upon changes in our daily routine. Changes which won't hinder with our daily routine, but might help build the nation. This reminds me of a daily activity which I have seen people not following. We all work on computers and at the end of day leave monitors turned on. This might help light up other places, like Delhi, which is already reeling under a power scarcity.

Quoting from the amazing movie LOTR trailer,

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

PS: Pardon if I have offended someone for my thoughts don't match yours.

Updates on 12th March 2008

Sandy — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:30:00 -0700

* An Ant build task for jerry.core and jerry.apis packages, compiles and builds JARs to be used.

* An Ant task to take the subversion repository backup, create an archive ZIP and send email report of the process.

* Added 3 new filters, EncodingFilter, ExpiresFilter and IEFilter.

(In)Significance of a DOT/Plus

Sandy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:22:00 -0800

I had been using GMail for over two and half years now. But, still there are many tricks that you need to learn. It was one such day today, when I came to know the power (or insignificance) of a DOT in the GMail email address. May be I will take an example to start with. My email address happens to be sandy (dot) pec (at) gmail (dot) com. Preventing spammers gain access to email address is so tough ;)

Now guess what would happen if some one was to send an email to sandypec (at) gmail (dot) com. Logically and with any other email service, the email would be sent to some one with that address and not to me. Right! WRONG! This is where GMail makes a difference. GMail does not recognizes DOT in email addresses before the AT '@' symbol. This mean that email addresses like sandypec, sandy.pec, san.dy.pec, s.a.n.d.y.p.e.c are all one and the same. Yes, they are! So an email sent to an address, which after stripping all DOTS, leads to 'sandypec' as the address part, would always be delivered to me.

May of you would think of it as a bug or a limitation of GMail, where-in it is not able to assign addresses to people. NO! It is an advantage, a boon for users like you and me. Now I can configure multiple email addresses all in one email box. So, say I have one primary address as 'sandy.pec', I can use 'sandypec' while registering for some online community and then redirect all emails coming to 'sandypec' as the address into a folder, aka tags using filters (and of course, auto archive). Similarly you can register 'san.dy.pec' as another email address for those register-only forums, and redirect all emails to trash :)

Well, this seems a bit difficult to use dots to achieve this functionality. How can one remember what email address has he/she configured or not? There is a solution to this too. GMail has another bug or to say feature, where-in it strips down all characters after a PLUS '+' symbol in an email address. So an address like 'sandypec+online' is stripped down to 'sandypec' and delivered to my mail box 'sandy.pec'. Isn't this cool. So now I can have email addresses like 'sandypec+mobilebill' for registering email bills, 'sandypec+banking' for bank registeration, 'sandypec+trash' for emails whose destination should be trash, 'sandypec+forums' for all technical forums and groups.

This should help an average user keep his mails sorted and box clean. Wow! A nice thought-of feature from Google.

TIP: Configure all emails to go into trash box if there is no DOT in the email address. Reason - Well, spammers would also read this, and know that in case of GMail addresses, they can strip down DOTS and PLUS to make their email reach inbox. In case of 'sandypec' they will never ever know where to place the DOT or a PLUS to make it to inbox. For it's you and me who know that I am 'sandy.pec'

Hope this helps.
Sandy

Glimpse of the past!

Sandy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:45:00 -0800

With yesterday being one of the busiest days in the recent weeks, and today being the pious occassion of Maha Shivratri, I preferred to stay back home, with visits to the temple. Idiot box going mad with the Men in Blue, and due to lack of sleep, I spent a couple of hours snoozing in the bed. When quota of sleep full, laziness crept in, and another hour went in the comfort of the bed.

As I lay down memories from my past, started floating in my eyes. Time since childhood, my childhood friends, the college and the gang there it was all so cool and nice. As I reached back towards my professional time, I was being haunted and I dwelled back into those old school lanes. I had a nice surprise in the evening, with one of my childhood friends, pinging me up on Google Talk. As I saw her name popping on the window, it was time to smile. For I was already in those old lanes. Between talks she informed me, that I was considered to be one of the laziest person in our building. That was quite a news to me. It could be for the reason that they didn't consider cricket as a part of some exercise. Well, today she is pleased to find me breaking out of that image.

It is the beginning of the March. By this time the exams used to end, and being the first week, it would have been the first installment of summer vacations. Time to have full masti and get the new books. Roorkee, a small peaceful town, with a canal going through between, was the place where I had spend my childhood, with my house being hardly 15 meters from the canal. In our block of four houses, there was this Mango tree which had been a part of many of our mischief's. The time is right for bearing fruits, with light teal-green flowers all over the tree. Mixed with the breeze of water, the aroma was hypnotic. This I can realize today, when I crave to get a chance again.

Waking up to a few games of Badminton in early morning, coming back home, refreshing, having breakfast and then sitting with friends and playing indoors. A few times helping Mom with the daily chores. Waiting for Dad to come back from office, having lunch and then sleeping for an hour or two. Cricket is the game all children play in the evening. As it grew dark, chatting with friends again and playing some stupid girl-game (as it seems today), like hide and seek or something. I remember playing dark room once, when I almost messed up with my clothes in the cupboard. Having dinner in the night and then back to bed again at 9:30. That was pretty late as per the standards those days, and as I look at today, its time to be back from office.

There were these small Banyan tree and a Guava tree also, which again have helped us a lot. They used to be our extra fielders during the game of cricket. While playing hide and seek, climbing over guava tree was another favorite. There were times when we used to climb for the fruit. My friend's families were too supporting, as we used to spoil all the kitchen veggies, destroy the entire garden. Creating too much noise, shouting at the top of our voices. Even the canal alongside had a special meaning, the breeze brought respite from the heat. It used to become devil at times, when it gulped many of our cricket balls.

It was God's blessing that I had such wonderful friends in my life. My neighbors and my gang. I remember how we used to trouble this little wonderful girl with inventing new nick names for her every other week. She used to popup with many good ideas like the picnic, when she made me run on my cycle for a few kilometers to get her a band-aid. The cricket aficionado who was heard to have slept with his new bat. My friend's elder brother who taught us many a tricks on how to play. The baby doll who was the most wanted amongst us all. She was like an angel whom we all adored and played with. And me, the guy who used to bully others the most.

Ahh...doston tab pata nahin tha, ki woh din itne yaad aayenge.... thanks a lot for making my childhood so sweet.

The Indian Cricket Bubble!

Sandy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:20:00 -0800

For the past two days, the talk buzz words have been the cricket win over Australia. As a true Indian, even I am very proud and happy over the win. But, unlike many others, I would take this opportunity and time to retrospect the way we achieved this win. As I saw the news channels in the day, they all were crazy about the ceremony in the later part of the day. In the afternoon, none carried anything else except MSD and his team.

It is very essential to pat on the back for a job well done, but commending it to the extent that we are gonna rule the next decade is overtly insane. Almost all politicians lost no time in congratulating the team and showering their blessings (in terms of prizes on the cost of tax-payers money). The money that would be given to them was meant for better use: like primary education, infrastructure, clean drinking water etc. Instead it finds itself being spent on already rich. With BCCI announcing crore's as rewards, I am forced to question the justification of this foolish spending?

Let's trace the Indian team's performance in the CB Series.

The first match, if it wouldn't have rained or match fixed, there were no chances we would have won. It was a respite to Indian chances by grace of God. The second match, Sri Lanka had the same luck. As Sri Lanka didn't play a ball it is tough to say that they would have lost. It would have depended a lot on our bowling team. The 4th match India won, but chasing 160 we took 45 overs. 5th match Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets. It was almost a 20-20 match, in which the world champions could not defend a nice total. 7th match we lost by 50 runs, the MSD brigade could not chase even a meager total of 203. The 10th match, world champions tamed the Indian team. Even its loss was when India lost its inhibitions and played some good cricket. The streak continued into the 11th match where in we chased Sri Lanka's miniscule total comfortably. The finals every one knows what happened.

If were to consider out batting line up and the average runs per innings (not related to number of times they had to see the pavilion), Gambhir fared the best with 44, followed by Sachin with 39.9, closely followed by MSD at 39.67. Even R G sharma had a better average (28.75) than the star stroker, Yuvraj (22.44). I remember the day Yuvi scored 76, all news channels were buzzing with the headlines - Return of the Sixer. Reels of Yuvi famous T20 sixes played all evening in the backdrop of the headlines of his regaining form. But, the next few matches, even the so called tail enders fared much better.

I guess it is time for Yuvraj to go back to domestic cricket and work his form out. IPL games are lined up and they offer him a very good chance to show that his T20 sixes, were not a one time show. Ishant has bowled really well and he should be concentrated upon. This is not just one series, there have to be many ahead till we call ourselves world team. I still remember the way we lost to Bangladesh in World Cup. I hope history does not repeat itself again. This is time for merry making, but also time to gear up for the upcoming matches.

Anyone who would have followed the series, would agree that it was our luck to be in finals, and Tendulkar's batting that we won the series. I hope the Indian Cricket Bubble does not burst again.

Ohloh, Fisheye configured!

Sandy — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:13:00 -0800

Ohloh.net, a project directory monitoring up-to-date development activity generating comprehensive metric , has been setup for Jerry. You may visit the project at its Ohloh home page.

FishEye is now displaying amazing information about the project. You may subscribe to the Project Changelog RSS here.

More code has been checked in, which you can visit at the projects repository.

FishEye Configured.

Sandy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:52:00 -0800

Atlassian has generously granted me an open-source licence to use their repository browser FishEye. You can browse the FishEye instance here.

Thanks Atlassian for supporting the open-source community.

Google Static Maps API

Sandy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:00:00 -0800

Just checked-in the code for Google Static Maps API. It is an ultra-thin wrapper over programmatic access for generation of image URLs using the Google API.

The code is available under the Jerry/src/jerry/apis/google/maps directory. Javadocs and binaries ready-to-use are on the way.

A very simple usage example is as under,

 GoogleStaticMap map = new GoogleStaticMap(40.709028,-74.018672, 512, 512, "myKey");
 map.setZoom(14);
 map.addMarker(40.702147,-74.015794, "blue", 's');
 map.addMarker(41.702147,-75.015794, "red", 'a');
 map.setMapType(GoogleStaticMap.MAP_TYPE_MOBILE);
 response.write(map);

Country Demographics!

Sandy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:49:00 -0800

Kosovo recently unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on 17th Feb 2008. This is much disputed by Serbia, Russia, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and other countries. Kosovo if taken to be an independent country would be the 193rd country of the world. Kosovo as a country or not, is not why I make this post. I leave it a better judgment of people residing there.

With the recent demographic violence incited by Raj Thackeray I am forced to ponder over what is he trying to achieve? India already suffering under the evil of communal violence, this man is trying to add fuel to the fire - demographic violence. We call India as one country, where in the world are people discriminated on the basis of which region of the country they belong to. If people are forced to stay and work in the same demographic region they were born in, can we think of business and growth? Mumbai is known as the financial capital of India, for all business trades are done in there. If you stop people from other states making a living there then Mumbai will degrade to just another unknown town. Its glory would last only in History books.

He justifies violence calling his acts a revolution, comparing himself to the Father of the Nation. Can anyone just ask him what is he revolting against? His fellow brethren? The President, The Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of the state are just giving false assurances of safety to people. Their acts are cowardly. A person instigating anti-country sentiments is let free rather being thrown into dungeons. They are ready to comment and take matters upfront in case Indians are in trouble in other countries like Malaysia, but, they are indifferent to what is happening in our own country.

Raj has trouble to Big B's famous song. This foolish man can not even understand that the song is 25 years old, and Big B was just an actor. It is his profession to do what the director says. The song was written by a lyricist who is not from UP. And if he believes that what actors say on screen is what they personally mean, then Big B has done hundreds of advertisements for polio, blood donation, pledging eyes after death, against HIV-infected people. In his movies he has always spoken against communal hatred, demographic hatred and dirty politics. Why can't Raj learn from that and become a good human being and a good Indian first.

He is a mad-man who is trying to achieve power for quite long time now. But due to his mentality and his cynicism never succeeded. In his utter frustration he is trying to garner support of some local goons by inciting violence. He calls this a revolution, the way the terrorists call their violence jehad. He is just another Osama-bin-laden in making, for he divides humanity on the basis of religion, Raj on the basis of people's birth place. Which is worse any sane person can think of?

If what these lunatics want come true then we would have many more countries to add to the list of 193 (or 192 :?) at present!

Cricket in India

Sandy — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:30:00 -0800

Since morning like any other cricket aficionado I had been watching the India-Australia match. The way Aussie's have put up 317 in 50 overs speaks of the confidence they possess. In the last match against Sri Lanka, their defense to a meager 184 total was awesome. With no-batsmen in form, their bowlers took and played the responsible behavior of making Sri-Lanka crash. A much better performance is being exhibited by them today, their batsmen as well as bowlers. As I stroke the keys, their pacers have already ripped down Indian top order. Still, the headline at IBN Live reads, "Out of form bats fire to guide Aus 317-7", and I am left wondering what would they write after India looses the match.

The way India has been putting up dismal performance in every match, and a brilliant while marketing themselves, goes on to reflect what they are more concerned of today. The very next day after auctioning, Pepsi ran an advertisement in the leading dailies featuring MSD "6 crore main kitne pepsi aayenge". The ad in itself reflects the mentality of any organization that is putting its money for marketing. Its not their fault, they are here to earn money by cashing in on the ruling sentiments, currently governing the nation.

I wonder these people who have spent crores of rupees on these players would expect them to perform and win for them. In the busy schedules of international cricket, finding time to play in such tournaments would cut down the time players would get to relax, and keep themselves fit. A case to ponder would be of Sachin, a marvellous batsmen, who when fires is a single-man army. But the kind of pressure he suffers from these days have made us see some nervous-90 innings. Similarly, Yuvraj, who could not score much in the whole Australian Series. The day he fired in the win against Sri-Lanka, news channels like ZEE NEWS, aired continuous videos of Yuvraj's six sixes. The theme of the air was Yuvraj back in form. With today's amazing performance, I guess they can keep the video reel under the table for a while.

This unrestricted growth I am worried would deteriorate the performance, and put extra burden on players to perform. This might also spoil the players in terms of concentration for they would be more focused towards matches that would yield more money in their pockets rather than country's image and honor. Please do not shout on me! This is what has been iterated by the BCCI in case of teams bidding for U-19 players in the recent IPL auctions.

I would be more than happy and pleased if our players can prove me wrong! Best of luck to India, best of luck to cricket!

GMail, Outlook 2007 and IMAP

Sandy — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:15:00 -0800

Since I had bought my laptop, I had not been able to find time to configure my emails on to my email client. Every time I had to use the web mail client and it was a pain for it gets slow, specially when you just need to review your old mails. Finally today I took the plunge and started to configure my GMail account in Outlook 2007. It was a breeze setting up specially with the help of tutorial available on Google here.

The tricky part was to move the Outlook .pst file to a different drive from the default location. Anyone who has had worked with Windows with long would know how pain is to backup data from C drive in case of failures. Using the default procedure listed in Outlook help, I moved the PST to a new location. As I started the client again, it created a new PST in a default location, leaving me wondering as to where did I go wrong while working through the procedure. Well, may be, I tried again with the same problem.

Google is the only way when you get stuck up - a simple search led to me experts-exchange.com, a site that pretends to contain all results, but I guess is useless for it forces you to shell out money for simple answers. I am surprised as to why does Google indexes this site even. A browse through more results, a few more user experiences cursing Microsoft for making simple things so tough, and I was on my way to believe that this was not possible with IMAP accounts. I was almost planning to shift to POP account of GMail, as with POP accounts you just need to click 'Change Folder location...' option and move your PST. I called up one of my friends and then we started to dig a solution for it. Here is what I did, to achieve a very complex simple task.

1. Open Outlook - Configure your GMail account as detailed here. Stop Outlook.

2. Open Control Panel -> Choose Mails -> Click on Data files.

3. Select the Account name and check for the location of the PST file. Leave the window open.

4. Open the folder containing the PST. Move the PST to the desired location.

5. Do NOT rename the file - if you do Outlook creates a new file in the default location again.

5. Switch to the Data Files window (as opened in Step 2) and double click on the PST file location.

6. Outlook displays an error window, Ignore the error, and point to the new location. Close the windows.

7. Outlook may create a new PST in the default location again, delete it, in such a case.

8. Restart Outlook.

Hope this helps.

My Best Friend's Wedding!

Sandy — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:30:00 -0800

Yesterday, it was one of my best friend's wedding. After a long long time, we friends were to get together and have some fun. The first one I met was Vaibhav. It had been almost 2.5 years since we last met, yet the vibes were the same. He had gained a lot of weight, and as per him, I had lost a few kilos here and there. An hour of talk session and we started off to the venue.

We reached Gurgaon and met another from the group, Manik. I was meeting him some 4 months later and Vaibhav a full 4.5 years. The union was a one to remember. The first thing we noticed, Manik too had lost many many kilos. Hehehe... we guys would always be the same. Manik had not bought our gift and we were shouting at him. He had bought the gift but not our gift ;)

Every dog has his day, and it was his. We went straight to the friends place, and were surprised to find him not smiling. Had heard this happens after marriage, but he was standing there, non-expressive. Was it the heat brewing up or some sort of helplessness is something we will never know. Anirudh, the groom, can never change. It was his day and he was busy giving directions to everyone. He was concerned so as nothing could go wrong.

Fifty-seven months had passed since we all get along. The last was when we all had completed college, and were about to leave. The last few days of the college still float in front of me. Accumulated in my room, burning, burning and burning CDs with all we could gather, feasting on drums of cold-drinks with ice, had loads a lot of cheese-chilly and butter-naan's. Who can forget those care-a-damn attitude days!

Coing back, breaking our two-hour long fast :) we were busy giving tips to the eldest of us. Tips ranged from nothing to everything. The sage listening with too sincerity and dedication. One last time he wanted things should not go wrong. We chatted and chatted and chatted. To give him space to get ready, the other three retreated back to Manik's room, where-in we again went burning and sleeping.

Before reaching back, we got the gift, wrapped, and went straight to the venue. There he was - standing as if ordered to be in attention for the Beating Retreat ceremony. Quite tensed and frustrated over the wait, eager and anxious over his gift, and tired for lack of sleep.

The evening was great packed with sparkles of fun, fireworks of smiles, and yes, as with any Indian marriage, huge crowd dancing to the same marriage song, aaj mere yaar ki shaadi hai...

Cross-linking error in Google Code API

Sandy — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:15:00 -0800

A discovery I just happened to make - there is a bug (cross-linking error) in the Google Code API documentation. Check out the page,

http://code.google.com/apis/feedburner/

The links to the Awareness API and the Management API are swapped. The link to the awareness API takes you to the Management API reference at http://code.google.com/apis/feedburner/api_reference.html and the link to the Management API takes you to the Awareness API page at http://code.google.com/apis/feedburner/awareness_api.html

hehehe... I really find it interesting to discover such errors with official documentation.

Foliage PowerPoint Template

Sandy — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:30:00 -0800

I have just completed a PowerPoint theme based on the Foliage theme for Wordpress. It has the same color scheme and matching bullet style. The theme is available in formats for MS Office 97-2003 & MS Office 2007 versions. You may read more about the theme here. Download the theme from here. The following slideshow shows some of the snaps from a presentation I am currently working on,

If you like the theme or have words to say, drop in a line or two on the blog or use the project page here.

If you use the theme to build a presentation in the public domain, and would like to have it showcased, please drop in a comment to this article or provide feedback on the project page at Google Code.

India - Are We Developing? - II

Sandy — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:00:00 -0800

Last evening after a hectic days work, I turned on the idiot box after reaching home. I guess that was the biggest mistake of an already bad day. Scrolling through all available channels, all I could find was Mumbai and Munnabhai. Enjoying his life and living some great moments, I would leave the big bro happy in his personal life. Yet, I would take this opportunity to raise a few more points, which force me to question, Are We Developing?

Divide & Rule
This seems to be the policy of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and its leaders. After dividing the society on the basis of caste, they are now moving to divide us on the basis of demographics and region. In utter violation of the Constitution of India, that bars any difference on the basis of caste, creed, sex or region, MNS has already targeted three of them. The members of the front destroyed public buses, beat up food/vegetable vendors and people who were busy trying to make ends meet. These members do nothing whole day but burn public's money on the whims of their insane leaders. The state government is afraid to act, the police sleeping, and other political observers turning a blind eye which makes me think, Are We Developing?

Big Cats Vanishing
As per the official report today there are some 1400 big cats left in India now. There were more than 3500+ in 2002 when Project Tiger started. Its aim was to preserve the cats from extinction. In the span of 5 years the populations have come down by 50%, almost killing one-per-day. As is reported, the forest and wild-life officials are hands-in-gloves with poachers who are making big bucks everyday, which has been shamefully accepted by the officials themselves. In just 2 years from 03-05, 700 sq.km. of forest land reserves were lost poachers. I guess the problem would itself die in the next few years. Are We Developing?

No-reason Official Ministerial Trip
Our Road transport and highway minister, T R Baalu, made a trip to Panama and Cairo in 2004, which costed the ex-chequer around 6 lacs. Nothing new except the fact that the bill was kicked by the Cabinet Secretariat and not by his own ministry. Second, he travelled all alone on the official visit. Third, the reason to the trip is till date unknown. This was disclosed in an RTI application, but still there has been no action to recover the money from the minister. The Prime Minister is still sleeping. This is not the only incident with this very minister. As reported in RTI applications, the reason to his US and Singapore trips are also unknown. What a way for the PM to turn blind eye to naked-abuse of power by his own deputees. Are We Developing?

Murder attempt On Camera
What more to say than watch this spine-chilling video,

Are We Developing?

Colonies Missing
The Delhi Government, which is keen to regularize more than 1400 odd-illegal colonies to increase its vote-bank, has submitted an affidavit in the honorable Supreme Court of India, that it has lost 2 colonies. Yes, lost! The officials say they are unable to trace two such colonies out of the list which was earlier supplied to the honorable court. Well, is this lax attitude of the officials now, or the over-zealous attitude of their counter-parts, where in I question, Are We Developing?

LCA and ever-increasing delays
The ambitious project to develop an indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA) by the Indian government lies in shambles. The project started way back in 1983 and till date the only thing that is known are never-ending extensions. As per the recent news, the full-operational clearance for LCA Tejas is expected in 2012, almost 30 years after the project started. Moreover, the indigenous aircraft would feature a US made engine, and Israeli radars. The project cost has shot up from 560 crores to 5490 crores till date. Can someone ask the government as to why the project is not being scrapped. The money can be used to fight poverty and feed hungry poor people, could be used for primary education. Are We Developing?

US can learn from Indian diversity
In an article of Sunday Times, dated 10 Feb 2008, Chidanand Rajghatta has written an article that the US can learn from Indian diversity. Quoting from the article,

In contrast to the political monoculture that has given the United States 43 white, male presidents in 232 years, it is in India, one of the world’s younger democracies, that the truth of the statement anyone can go on to the highest office in the land is being realized all the time. Consider this: in only 60 years and with 14 Prime Ministers, India has already elected a staggering variety of chief executives — from a Kashmiri Pandit to a Punjabi Sikh, India has seen a UP Thakur and Jat, an Andhra Brahmin, a Punjabi Khatri, a Karnataka Gowda, and a half-Parsi, half-Brahmin pilot, among others at the helm.

I would like to question the author about the diversity he sees, Maharashtra against entry of north-Indians, Delhi biased against Bihars, north-central-southern India biased towards eastern states, where is the diversity?

Misfields Unnoticed by the Captain
After a shameful loss in the match against Sri-lanka yesterday, where-in the Indian team, the so called T20 champions, could not defend a good total, MSD in an interview failed to acknowledge that there were misfields. In a question pointed to the degraded performance of the Indian Vice-captain, Yuvraj Singh, not only as a batsmen, but as a fielder too (he mis-fielded a lot many times), MSD said he didn't see any. With this callous and indifferent attitude, we can only dream of bringing the World Cup back home, but never achieve it.

Yahoo! & Jerry

Sandy — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:10:00 -0800

We all hear about Yahoo! - the center of attraction for ground-searching Microsoft in the world of web. The post is not about what is going on these days, or how things would change in the near future.

Here in, I trace back the journey of Yahoo! as it evolved. From the official Yahoo! history page, I came to know that Yahoo! started as the Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web. The name amused as well as stunned me. Why? Three reasons.

First, This was a startling revelation as I always thought Yahoo! to be somewhat synonymous of its coming to existence. A term coined up revolving around founders, idea or inspirational sources, with a touch of Japanese funk.

Second, Jerry happens to be my favorite cartoon character. Anything that has the farthest linkage to Jerry - the lovely little sweet friend - catches my perfect attention.

Third, my first open-source attempt with my friends is also known as Jerry.

Hope this amazes you too.

Cheers!

A different Captcha for Java developers

Sandy — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:45:00 -0800

A while ago I was just cruising from one website to another, when I came across MJS - MyJavaServer.com. A website that provides free Java hosting to developers so that they can go ahead and hone their web application skills.

As with any usual website even they wanted me to signup. I am lured to test the service and without delay I clicked on the link. The page it led to attracted me to it. The signup form is not like every other. It includes a Challenge.

SignUp Challenge
It requires you to write a simple Java program related to a web application. As you type in the code, it keeps compiling your code, showing the compilation errors. Once, the code compiles successfully, it runs a set of test cases against your code. If all the test cases pass successfully, then only the signup form is enabled.

It was fun attempting the problem which took around 12 minutes to solve. Hope you would enjoy the same. Take the challenge here. MJS SignUp Challenge

Excel - NetWorkDays custom function

Sandy — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:30:00 -0800

Business computations always involve the computation of Net-Work days, and if you are using Excel, you immediately find a solution in NetworkDays function. I have myself used it extensively in my computational work. But, for reasons best known to Microsoft, they have kept this function as part of Analysis Toolpack add-in. Well, to makes obviously no difference as the addin is a part of standard Office shipment. But, when you are developing a spreadsheet to be used by many, you are not very sure whether they have the addin installed/active.

Adding a check for its presence is definitely a good idea, but depending on the Analysis ToolPack just for NetworkDays functionality is not worth it, atleast in my purview. Here is the code of a custom function that does the same for you, and in cases, can remove your dependency on ATP.

Public Function MyNetWorkDays(ByVal startDate As Date, ByVal endDate As Date, Optional ByVal holidays As range = Nothing) As Integer
 Dim diff As Integer, weeks As Integer, ed As Integer, sd As Integer, delta As Integer
 Dim swap As Boolean
 swap = False
 MyNetWorkDays = 0: delta = 0
 
 If endDate < startDate Then
 'swap the dates
 Dim temp As Date
 temp = endDate
 endDate = startDate
 startDate = temp
 swap = True
 End If
 
 diff = endDate - startDate
 ed = Weekday(endDate)
 sd = Weekday(startDate)
 weeks = diff \ 7
 
 If ed = sd Then
 If Not (ed = 1 Or ed = 7) Then
 delta = 1
 End If
 ElseIf ed > sd Then
 If ed = 7 Then ed = 6
 If sd = 1 Then sd = 2
 delta = ed - sd + 1
 Else
 delta = 7 - (sd - ed) - 1
 End If
 MyNetWorkDays = (weeks * 5) + delta
 
 ' check for holidays
 If Not holidays Is Nothing Then
 For Each holiday In holidays
 wh = Weekday(holiday)
 If wh = 1 Or wh = 7 Then
 
 Else
 If startDate <= holiday And holiday <= endDate Then
 MyNetWorkDays = MyNetWorkDays - 1
 End If
 End If
 Next
 End If
 
 If swap Then
 MyNetWorkDays = 0 - MyNetWorkDays
 End If
End Function

Hope this helps.

India - Are We Developing?

Sandy — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:00:00 -0800

As I read the front page news today, that we touched at economic growth rate of 9.6% I sat back pondering over whether this is the actual growth. Not being very pessimistic I would take this opportunity to point out a few grey areas which highlight the plight of developing India.

Clean Yamuna Campaign
The Delhi government is spending tax-payers money putting advetisments in various leading dailies of the country to stop littering in Yamuna, and they would give all Delhi residents a pure and clean Yamuna by 2010. Well, one very good initiative when one looks at the ad. But if one gets aware of the realities, themselves accepted by the Delhi Govt. in the respected courts of India through an affidavit you feel cheated.

As per the affidavit, they have stated in the honorable courts of India that whatever they do, Yamuna cannot be cleaned before 2012. They have spent more than 1800 crores in the past 14 years on its cleaning programmes to fail. Reason mission could not be achieved is corruption, missappropiation of funds, lack of will and implementation. Is the govt. spending taxpayers money on false campaigns, befooling people and playing with their centiments? Is it not shirking of its responsibility by citing lack of will as the reason? Are we developing?

Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway
The prestigious NHAI project that would have reduced travel time from Dhaula-Kuan to Gurgaon to 20 minutes has turned a nightmare. What earlier used to take some 50-60 mintues, this time is now spent in crossing the toll plaza itself, leave travelling the distance. 1000 crores have been spent on its construction. Are we developing?

Kidney Racket
Parents of the accused calling a press-conference and blaming their daughter-in-law for their son indulging in inhuman acts. WOW! You son is so childish that he can become a monster on the behest of his wife. If you knew this was happening for the past 18 years, then why didn't you bring it to the notice of Police, as a law abiding citizen. Because of your silence hundreds of people parted with their kidneys. And you call yourself innocent - Bull Shit!!! Are we developing?

A person arrested thrice on the same charge - illegal human organ trafficking. Released on bail all times. Absconding everytime. Is the Police and Judiciary that fool to grant him bail everytime? The guy is busy duping people on one pretext or the other and the government is busy discussing Rahul Gandhi! Are we developing?

Save Tiger
In 2002, India had a tiger strength of 4000. Today less than 1200 are left as per the recent report of the Ministry responsible for Tiger preserves. Their proposal declare 8 more areas as Wildlife protected. One question: You couldn't stop the extinction process in the past 5 years, what is the guarantee that it would in the coming years? Are we developing?

2 + 2 = 5
I just read this post on IBNLive and was shocked to the findings. Read the actual post here. As per NCERT, 45% students in fifth standard, Class V, cannot add or subtract properly. 60% students are not easy with fractions and decimals, 55% cannot comprehend stories, and 47% don't know about Environmental Science. Are we developing?

OSO, TZP, Jodha-Akbar?
People are celebrating OSO - its success. People appreciated TZP. STOP. But, the way they have been projected is different. A movie totally based on mockery of yesteryears and today earns Gold. A movie with deals with a subject that should be our main focus is protested against, for a member of the cast, expressed his opinion on a national debate topic. STOP. Mockery of past-stars is taken as a creative effort, while a goof-up over names (I am not sure of this) in Jodha-Akbar is protested as being historical ill-treatment. Are we developing?

Absconding and attending office?
An officer with service-tax department is declared absconding by the Police in High-court, wanted in a criminal case. As per official records he is regularly attending office for the past 6 months. Are we developing?

Sledging or Abusive Language?
Harbhajan Singh is happy for being cleared of the racial abuse charge. Fined for a lesser offence of using abusive language. What started of as a joke on the internet forms the basis of hearing. Second, what he confessed to saying is much more explicit than the original stated word. My personal opinion. Why drag family abuses in a friendly game, terming it as just mere sledging. Are we developing?

Update: Resigned Minister draws salary & perks for 11 months
Thanks to one of my friends who reminded me of another story. A minister with the Central Government, has been drawing salary, using all perks of a central minister, occupying his official residence of Janpath for the past 11 months. The irony is he has NOT attended his office for even a single day. How can this happen? Courtesy, our honorable Mr. Prime Minister. The minister resigned 11 months back, but neither it has been accepted or rejected. The decision is pending and hence the minister is having his lovely time. What is he doing? He is busy shooting for his regional language films as a hero. Are we developing?

Verdict in hijacking case pending for the last 23 years, Verdict in terrorism cases pending for 15 years, Clemency pleas pending for 10 years, Govt. initiative to eradicate child labour not yet fruitful after 20 years, LCA (light Combat Aircraft) project of HAL still delayed after 30 years, and scores of such examples make me think time and again, Are we developing?

Excel Workbook/Worksheet protection

Sandy — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:15:00 -0800

Another find of the day. Security and Microsoft seem to be antonyms. And that too so easy. I had been using Excel for many-many years now, but I discovered these holes only day-before. What a fool I have been :(

In no particular order I would travel through various holes/tricks that can be exploited/used to have your way. :D Infact, I had to resort to dirty methods to gain some insight into understanding something.

There are some cells that contain plain values and no formulas. The cells are locked, rows hidden and sheet protected. To view the cells just copy the rows from one before to one another, open a new workbook, paste. Now unhide all the rows, voilla, you have the values of all the cells.
You have a locked sheet with hidden cells containing formulas that link to the same sheet. Copy the sheet to a new workbook, and you have all the cells unlocked.
You have a protected sheet with locked hidden cells containing formulae that refer to other worksheets. A simple copy-paste won't do the trick. Hack it using VBA. Iterate through the cells, read the formula and just set it somewhere else. So easy :)
To prevent a sheet from being Moved/Copied, protect the workbook with a password. One drawback, copy-paste of individual cell ranges bypasses this security. You may use VBA to copy-protect your worksheet, but again that may render workbook useless in case of High-security environments.
Another way could be to protect the entire workbook, put all your formulae on a different worksheet, hide the worksheet. No one would be able to unhide the sheet. Drawback is they can access this sheet using VBA, copy the cells and get the information needed.
The biggest drawback or hack is VBA. Using the powerful ability you can access information in any cell you desire, its formulae, data, formatting. Reconstruct those with the variations you desire, put them at any other place, and reference. No one will ever know you modified. :)

I guess the biggest security problem is VBA. With the feature ON, you leave your data vulnerable to even mediocre programmers. Its a boon to programmers and a curse to security. Even if you protect your VBA modules, someone else can write the code in another workbook, open both simulataneously, and have his way into your data. I am still to discover something really fool-proof.

Anyways many utilities let you make a backdoor entry into protected workbooks/worksheets with just them running in background. It seems there are more holes in the way Excel DOM is implemented. And yes, they work - I tried one with success yesterday :D

Hope this helps.

Dropdown list from ranges on different sheets - Excel

Sandy — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:30:00 -0800

As the title indicates, the post is all about creating a drop down list in Excel from ranges on different sheets. How is this tricky? Well, first excel allows you to use a single list as a dropdown for cell validation. Second, UNION is not permitted between ranges. Third, a collection can not be used for data validation. Fourth, no custom function/method from VBA can be invoked in the cell validation formula. So this complicates the matter a bit.

I recently had to achieve this, so as to self-audit the entries. This particularly comes in handy when one is trying to link entries across multiple sheets to a single ID.

Say we have two ranges called One and Two which occur in sheets Sheet2 and Sheet3. We want to create a drop down in Sheet1 with all values from the two ranges in cells A1:A10. You would need to create a formula in a surrogate cell (say B2 of Sheet1) as =createdropdown(A1:A10,One,Two). The following code is used to achieve the feat.

Public Function mergeRange(ByVal range1 As Range, ByVal range2 As Range) As Collection
 Dim resultSet As New Collection
 For Each iCell In range1
 If Not IsEmpty(iCell.Value) Then
 resultSet.Add (iCell.Value)
 End If
 Next
 For Each iCell In range2
 If Not IsEmpty(iCell.Value) Then
 resultSet.Add (iCell.Value)
 End If
 Next
 Set mergeRange = resultSet
End Function

Public Function createDropDown(ByVal cells As Range, ByVal range1 As Range, ByVal range2 As Range) As Boolean
 Dim intIndex As Long
 Dim strContent As String
 Dim items As Collection
 Set items = mergeRange(range1, range2)
 'build the string to pass to the dropdown
 For Each Item In items
 strContent = strContent & "," & Item
 Next
 
 'build dropdown
 With cells.Validation
 .Delete
 .Add Type:=xlValidateList, AlertStyle:=xlValidAlertStop, Operator:=xlBetween, Formula1:=strContent
 .IgnoreBlank = True
 .InCellDropdown = True
 .InputTitle = "Select a value"
 .ErrorTitle = "You entered a wrong value!"
 .InputMessage = "Please select an item from the list!"
 .ErrorMessage = "Valid values are from the list only!"
 .ShowInput = True
 .ShowError = True
 End With
 createDropDown = True
End Function

The code is pretty self-explanatory. We use a custom function mergeRange to build a collection of all non-NULL values from the two ranges, and then apply the data validation to cells required using VBA.

It took time to reach the solution with my minimal knowledge of Excel DOM - but it was worth a try.

Hope this helps.

Corruption & Negligence at its Best

Sandy — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:30:00 -0800

It pains a lot writing this post. Today happens to be the Republic day of India, a symbol and mark that establishes the sovereignty of the Republic of India. Most of our leaders seemed to be busy celebrating this day, yet, there was no celebration on their faces.

I happened to watch the live telecast of the popular Republic Day Parade. The initial parade everyone seemed to be joyful and watchful. When the respected President arrived, it was like leaders showing their loyalty personified. Most of them seemed to be ignorant while the respecting the sacrifice of our actual leaders. Most seemed to be bored when we honored the selfless Indians. In the later half of the parade, most of the Indians present seemed to be waiting for its end. The only person who seemed to enjoy was the French President Sarkozy. The joy and smile on his face was enough to tell that he was enjoying each moment. Yet, we call ourselves proud Indians.

Anyways, this is not the reason I make this post. It is to reflect the anguish and the anger inside me. I was watching the daily news - Aaj Tak. The recent crack on the Kidney racket in India has exposed the highest levels of corruption, negligence and indifference shown by the ones who have pledged to protect us.

The doctor who pledged to give life to the ailing turned a monster, and killed innocent men for the silver lining. The corrupt police who even after every information failed to act. They never registered a case, even when people complained. As I read the news the neighbors of the doctor had complained a lot many times, whose plea fell on deaf ears. The bureaucracy who is hand in gloves with these a**h**es. The indifferent media who never shows the face of these Dracula's so that people be aware of them.

This doctor was caught in early 1990 too in Mumbai operating under the alias of Santosh Kumar on the charges of illegally operating the kidney racket. He then escaped the police custody and settled in Gurgaon. For the past some 15 years he has been making a living selling humans. He is worse than cannibals. At least they eat humans to survive, and not to furnish their houses.

All human rights seem to be for these enemies of human kind. Their faces cannot be shown on television. Even the police personnel allow them to cover their faces when media tries to cover it. The police sleeps all day and all night. They never try and protect innocent men. They only protect these killers.

Can any one tell me how the innocent can be cautious to not fall prey to such Dracula's, when we cant even see them. They are as good as terrorists, for we don't know who is our enemy.

GOD please protect the human kind. Don't punish your children so severely. Help us to defeat the daemons of corruption, negligence, and indifference to human kind.

Let humanness prevail!

Blogger change breaks Javascript based themes

Sandy — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:45:00 -0800

A recent Blogger update has broken many Javascript Blogger themes. The issue cropped up because of the way we code our Javascripts. Some of us are finicky enough to make them browser-safe for those old muggy browsers which don't recognize the <script> tag.

<script type='text/javascript'>
<!-- prevent old browsers from rendering this
 alert("Hello World!);
// prevent javascript interpreter from parsing end tag -->
</script>

Now with the new update, what is happening is, Blogger cleans up all the new line breaks from the <script> tag. This makes the whole script as a comment and renders it unfunctional. Hence, the themes break.

<script type='text/javascript'>

</script>

The quick-fix to this problem is to encapsulate all your script inside a CDATA tag. This would solve the problem. Actually this is a problem with the scripts and not with Blogger. They just made their system XML compliant.

<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
 alert("Hello World");
//]]>
</script>

The issue was reported by Dave on my Modified Foliage Theme blog. Thanks Dave for reporting it so soon.

Hope this helps.

Busy Bee!

Sandy — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:30:00 -0800

Life is really busy these days. I am struggling to complete a lot of small tasks simultaneously.

Being the start of the calendar year, its our appraisal time which makes life tough. Tough not for the fear of result - but tough as we need to complete a lot of documents for the audit purpose. But a matter of couple of more days. The assignment at hand is again challenging requiring me to study a lot. An initiative (galat jagah fass gaya) to update a tool that we use, has added to the official burden. But its my baby and I need to track its growth. I would be blogging more on it once I complete it. It comprises me to write a function library in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). I intend to release it too, once I am done enough.

Matrika India, again is one task that needs more time today. It is in its nascent stages and to grow, we need your opinion. How would you like it to grow, what do you expect more in terms of functionality, in terms of content, in terms of knowledge and resources on the subject.

The Blogger themes that I had made some time back also lack my attention. There are a few tweaks that are still incomplete, and I hope they would be done soon. Azcarya White, the theme that powers my blog Azcarya. Modified Foliage that powers Reflections of Creation - a wonderful blog by Dave Bryant, and its own development blog Modified Foliage.

Jerry, is another baby of ours. The idea cropped up trying to churn out web solutions in the public domain. It is really difficult for a code-loving person to develop and host solutions for himself. He needs to rely on many a services in the public domain, that managing them takes more time than his favourite passion - coding. It is intended to be a framework aimed at developers to help them code faster and better. Keep track of Jerry's journey through Jerry's Insignia.

My blogs: Poet Inside, What I Like, Azcarya and finally My Day In Paradise suck up the remaining energy. Keeping them full of new content is where I burn my midnight oil. Sometimes, I really feel closing them down, but not to loose it like this is what keeps me going.

There are a few other tid-bits which I keep putting up in void spaces of my life. I guess its all gonna end soon!

Another friend!

Sandy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:30:00 -0800

Greetings to all!!!

Today, We welcome yet another helping hand. One of my very good friends has joined the project today. This is another brick in the foundation we are building. His presence would increase the pace of development, not just because of work, but his being a constant source of motivation and inspiration.

Who is he? Well, you would have to wait for a day, when I introduce all my friends on board.

My First Step!

Sandy — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:24:00 -0800

Yesterday, I took my first step. It was a very small step in the course I pursue, but it a big one, as it marks the start of actual journey.

Back to basics - the first prototype for Filter Manager is complete. What exactly is the Filter Manager? Well, it is a sort of admin service where-in one would be able to deploy filters, modify their properties, activate/de-activate them on the fly, without restarting the container. This provides an authoritative control over what runs inside the application over the web.

It is based on the Intercepting Filter pattern, and is able to use any filter, without any code modification, as its sub-filter (but with limitations) and vice-versa. Meaning you could use any filter that you write for me, as a normal filter in any other web application as a usual filter.

To harness the complete power of the Filter Manager, you might need to modify your existing filters to comply with a contract, so as to provide additional functionality to activate/deactivate/refresh.

I am still a long way to my first destination, but for those of you curious, you can check the code in the repository.

Sydney Test - Comic Touch

Sandy — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:00:00 -0800

I just read this great article. It features a snap from an Australian daily comparing Symonds to Lord Hanuman. Well this is the right spirit of the media to help end the controversy. My salute to the Aussie newspaper!!!

Read the article here.

Read my previous articles, Sydney Test and Sydney Test Take II

Sydney Test: Umpires & Cricket - Take II

Sandy — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:45:00 -0800

Woohoo... so much has been written off the topic in the past few days. Newspapers are full of pages covering this, and why not, It is now a matter of Indian Pride and the spirit of the game!

First lets collate the important stories on board till date,

IBNLive: Nation outraged, says bring back Indian Team

IBNLive: Mighty Aussies get bad press, few supporters

CricketNext: Ponting must be sacked: Peter Roebuck

CricketNext: First one to be banned for racism: An Aussie

CricInfo: 'I stand by my decision' - Procter

CricInfo: Open your eyes, Ricky

CricInfo: Border and Waugh blame cultural misunderstanding

The Australian: 'I did the right thing by the game'

Anil Kumble

To start with, I will appreciate Anil Kumble as a person first and as a captain next. With so much things going on these days about the past test, the guy has kept his composure. He has kept his cool and not spitted venom in the media. He has maintained the line of dignity, the code of conduct to which the players abide. As a contrast, Andrew Symonds have been barred by CA (Cricket Australia) to write his weekly usual column in a daily he has contract with. They didn't just refrain him from writing about the racism issue, they barred him from the column. Does this signify trust and faith in players, or is it just extra precautionary measure by the Board?

Ricky Ponting

Man, first of all know the meaning of the words you speak. You got angry when a reporter asked you something. You say that you asked Clarke about Ganguly's catch, and on his confirmation you signalled the umpire. Well fine enough, too good to do on field. But now when you are back, check the replays and then opine on what you did. Did Clarke really speak the truth, or was he just ignorant that there was a tip before the catch, and he grassed the ball while getting up?

Mr Ponting, you talk of what you would have gained from this match. Well, as we know now you match the world record of Steve Waugh for most successive test victories. This is just another media flare, I guess. Would you agree to annul the match, if you so firmly believe in the spirit of cricket?

Steve Bucknor

Nothing to say, except please gracefully exit from the series on moral grounds. You have erred, and you really have. Every human does. Its fair enough. But to be a good human being, accept that you made a mistake. Judging so many a things in a second, without replays, is really tough and there are times when you can err. My whole lot of support to you, but please atleast accept that decisions were wrong. Support the game!

Mark Benson

Sir, as an umpire I hold you in high regard. I do not have any doubt on your integrity or sincerity. Your asking Ricky about Ganguly's catch was more than normal. Just a word of caution. In a match already haunted by a lot of controversies in the past four days, should not you have been an extra vigilant and careful, to refer the decision to the third umpire, rather than taking the captain's opinion?

Mike Procter

Mr Procter I believe you have been too naive to believe humans in this world. The stumps microphone, no umpire, no video camera, no one heard what was taken and given between Symonds and Singh. Even, Clarke said he didn't hear anything. Ponting was away from the place where it all happened. Still, you say that beyond a reasonable doubt it had been established. Are you so very confident on the players speaking the truth, for in this situation atleast someone is lying, either Indian players or Australian players.

Andrew Symonds

What to say for you. You yourself acknowledged that you were out, still you stayed on to play as the umpire had erred. Should you not have walked if you call yourself a moral person. This is one incident which proves that you too can err.

Weird Remarks

These are some of the most weird remarks, by players, journalist and readers alike, I read here that the enmity between Ponting and Harbhajan had emerged, when Singh started his career at 17, and after a verbal thing got him off stumps. This inculcated a feeling of revenge in Ponting's heart. <-- CRAP AND RUBBISH. Ponting has many more things in life to do, then remember a fresher off the field.

Remarks on Symonds drinking and appearing to play in Bangladesh have also emerged. Ponting drinking at a bar in 1999 Titan Cup have also surfaced. One of the Indian channel talk shows went to an extent to say, that drinking is an Australian problem. Indian culture doesn't allow to touch alcohol, and we are guys of the highest morale culture. Hmmm... I guess Indian govt. never earns anything from sale of alcohol. :P

People on India are burning effigies of Bucknor, Benson, Ponting and Symonds. Marching donkeys with their names on streets. Is this the great culture we are talking off? Is this justified? I agree there have been mistakes and high-headedness in the match, but this is just not accepted. Its my sincere request to Indian media, not to cover such incidents, and Govt. please ban such public displays of hatred. We have already banned PDA (public displays of affection) why not ban PDH?

ICC, BCCI & CA

I guess to stop this whole episode here itself, to stop things getting further rotten, to stop all this rubbish, please agree and ANNUL THE MATCH. Lets not discuss the rights or wrongs, the outs and not-outs, who speaks the truth and who lies, who lost or who won. Let's keep this match aside from all statistics. This would be in the better interest of the game.

Media
Please unite and get public opinion on ANNULLING THE MATCH. Once that happens, lets not cover the incident again.

Sydney Test: Umpires & Cricket

Sandy — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:45:00 -0800

Today, was the last day of the Sydney Test between India and Australia. What looked like a fighting match headed towards a draw, we saw India loosing it. I have been watching NEWS channels all over Indian Media, and that disgusts me. They are showing it as if Australian team had a hand in asking umpires to give wrong decisions. They have started pin-pointing fingers at personal characters of Australian players. This is ridiculous.

I was just forwarded a request to join a community on Orkut, titled "We hate Steve Bucknor". I was shocked to see such a community already attracting thousands of Indians. I was left pondering over what to do with the request. I had to deny it, I had to first arrive on a reason, Why should I deny it?

If we start hating people just because their first instinct was wrong, because they took wrong decisions, because they lied at some point of time, then we should start hating ourselves. Have we never made mistakes/never lied/never took wrong decisions? If we look in our past, then there would be thousand incidents where we would have done that. But, still we live with pride. We have started questioning integrity of Ponting as a Captain. The media has started asking Australia to stop playing cricket, and drop their title as the World Champions.

Not going very far in history, the Mumbai Police chief called the "New year eve molestation case" as just another small incident. Was this not a blunder? Should we start hating him? Today a Congress MP has been found violating Code of Conduct, where in he challenged a BJP person's character. He was let off with a warning. Should we start hating this MP (for doing so) and the Election Commission (for taking such a soft stand).

I just saw a clip on an Indian National Channel, where in they were challenging the character of Ricky Ponting as a human being. He was being shown as a drunkard, man entering into brawls at the slightest pretext. Same for Andrew Symonds. Pointing out at his drinking habits and girlfriend thing. What would the same people say about Yuvraj, who was shot attending a party a day before. It is not that our players our cultured, they are not. They have their own life-style and we have our own. They have their own culture, we have our own. Calling ourselves superior is like being arrogant on a ego-trip.

They even said that Australia lied in India, when they said Indian people had been making racist remark. Next day, an Indian leading daily published photographs of two Indians making monkey gestures. At that point too, the BCCI, the Indian media, and the Indian public had shunned it off calling it just another incident. Was that really not a racist remark?

Since morning, all channels have been calling Australians by the term "Kangaroos" Now why do we call them so? Today an Australian newspaper (even they erred) showed that there are most of the Brahmins in the Indian Team. Now we are terming the Aussie Newspaper as racist. Is the Brahmin term not used in India frequently. Be it the Gujrat elections, the Himachal elections, the Congress, or the BJP, its used by everyone for their own profit and mean.

I do not say that what happened was right, definitely it was very wrong. But why are we making a mountain of this mole-hill. The Indian media should focus on other important news items, and leave it to the BCCI to handle this. The worst five decisions of the game were,

On the first day, a Sourav Ganguly delivery appeared to have taken some wood of Ricky Ponting's bat on its way to MS Dhoni down the leg side. The Australian captain was given out when he had edged it on to his pads.

More followed when a caught behind shout off Andrew Symonds went unheard, and was rounded off with another one - this time via the third umpire - who dismissed another stumping call. The burly all-rounder replied emphatically with his second Test hundred.

Umpiring errors continued into the second day when umpire Steve Bucknor didn't refer to the third umpire on a stumping call against Symonds as following replays showed his foot wasn't grounded inside the crease.

On the fifth day, Rahul Dravid was undone by a decision from Bucknor, following a caught behind appeal by Andrew Symonds. Dravid, not one to reveal his emotions on the field, reacted angrily and replays confirmed why. The bat was way behind the pad but was adjudged to have edged the ball.

Sourav Ganguly edged the ball to slip fielder Michael Clarke who claimed a dubious catch, umpire Mark Benson thought it apt to ask captain Ricky Ponting who confirmed he did take it even as Ganguly refused to leave the field. Replays confirmed Clarke had grounded the catch.

It is actually the game of Cricket that has been ridiculed and demeaned. The umpires have erred. They made really grave mistakes. But questioning the integrity of umpires like Bucknor and Benson, would be really harsh. There are procedures laid down, the Indian Board and team should walk them. Complain to the ICC, and they would look into the issue.

Benson asking Ponting was that an out. Ponting asked Clarke, and the same was conveyed back. Benson is at fault because he should have consulted the leg umpire or the third umpire. Why are we blaming Ponting for it? There are times when our batsmen have said they were not-out, but actually they were.

Not getting any further right now, Cricket is called to be a gentleman's game. Let it be gentleman's. Lets take it in the right way and stop accusing Aussie team and Umpires, more stop hating them. Errors have been made which should be pointed out in the right manner. Things should be taken in a lighter way, and sorted out in a manly way.

PS: Media guys, please stop spreading hatred and pointing fingers at personal character of others. What happened on field in these five days is important, and not what happened on a series between Australia and Bangladesh, or a tournament in India in 1999.

Read more updates on the continuing article, here.

The Silence

Sandy — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:45:00 -0800

First of all my sincerest apologies to all for being out of the blogging world for long now. Couple of reasons for this: One my office has banned access to Blogger too. Yes, my current employer has put restrictions on Blogger making me handicapped. I guess, this would be the first IT company to block access to blogger.

Second, I have been busy revamping a website completely. This called in for a lot of efforts, as the system had to be based on a technology I haven't coded much in before. A great experience indeed. Would update you all as soon as the new version launches.

Third, I have been developing a tool that should make a life lot easy for developers like me. It might take another two months for it to see the light of the day. But, I am a lot more helpful, as the Christmas holidays are near. Would blog about it in detail on my technology blog soon.

Fourth, family commitments, fun, and a lot of winter laziness. I have been sleeping a lot in the quilt for the past couple of days, which again is another reason for my absence.

Now the good news: I am back with full bang. I would be more active now, much more than I have been before. I have recently got another mean machine for myself, a power-packed laptop. I am loving its sleek and sexy style. Well, this is the first post that comes from its keystrokes.

Keep checking, more to come.

Update: 4 Jan 2008: God answered to my prayers, Blogger is now back operational in the office from today. I hope this helps me get back into shape.

Happy New Year!

Sandy — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:00:00 -0800

Greetings and the Best of Wishes for the New Year! May all your dreams come true in this new morning! Its the beginning of new year and time to make new resolutions, to make new aims. I spent the last fours holidays finalizing my own set of resolutions. I would strive to abide by them as far as possible. So here I go,

Would be regular in replying to comments I receive on my blogs :D
I would keep cool while driving out, will not drive fast, atleast when I have a pillion rider.
Would be more frequent with my blogs, atleast twice per week.
I would help my MOM in her daily chores.
I would be regular with my workout.
I would switch to juices instead of aerated drinks, and too Diet ones.
I would try and reduce the consumption of much delicious Barista's Choco-excess with Ice-cream.
I have a few initiatives at hand, would not let them die a lonely death.
I would help keep the environment clean.
I would try and not forget birthdays, anniversary's and special moments of friends.
I will try to make use of what they call is Brain.
I will think and add more to the list ;)

Last but not the least, I will try hard to keep up the above resolutions. Infact, I have just started with my resolutions, already sulking a can of diet coke. :D

Have a wonderful year ahead!

Jerry!

Sandy — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:45:00 -0700

I am a web-application framework for advanced users/developers to build web-solutions on. I intend to mature as a highly modular, service-oriented, database independent, runtime-configuration, server-independent, user-interface rich and much more. Blessed with lots of APIs and bridges to connect to services, I am gonna make solution development a child's play.

You may access my homepage here.

The framework is licensed under the Apache Software License, Version 2.0.

Coming Soon!

Sandy — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:15:00 -0700

I am Jerry, and I am coming soon!