Boopathy's Scribbling

Mixture 1

2009-10-02T21:14:00.004+05:30

Just thought, so started again.. a mixture of some things i wanna tell...

->ARR music for Vince Vaughn hollywood film - Couples Retreat.. Hope it goes well too.. http://www.musicaloud.com/2009/09/25/couples-retreat-music-review/
->ARR music for Blue - good music, slow poison .. i guess the movie should be a usual high budget Hindi crap.. http://www.musicaloud.com/2009/09/10/blue-music-review/
->ARR music for The Passage - in torrent now, will hear today.. review says good..
http://www.musicaloud.com/2009/09/16/passage-music-review/
->Unnai Pol oruvan, i liked almost all the songs as the film..

->Playing Batman Arkhum Asylum, its very tempting.. but struggling with the piracy bug they put in it.

->Started using Trillian, i am using it for having gmail, yahoo, twitter and facebook at the same time.. i feel it good.. http://www.trillian.im/
->I am in twitter, http://twitter.com/boo3dmax ,following some 13 with 8 followers.. its different, and it good to see wat johnmayer is doing right now, though its none of my business..
->This one is really good if you had organized music and want to see the lyrics instantly from internet without any pain.. i like this very much for my itunes.. http://www.crintsoft.com/minilyrics.htm
->Again started using some tools - movie label2010, password memory2009, personal finance pro.. all are in torrent and helpful for me..

this might seem like a hurry post.. it isn't, its something like going to office/exam hall at the last moment.. wow i posted finally.. congrats boo!!

An Indian to the land of Native Indians..

2009-01-11T12:56:00.011+05:30

Even a poor old beggar lady begs in fluent English!!
All the electricians are dumb, keeping the switches inverted!!
The traffic police are dumb enough to come in wrong direction!!
Seems a big backup generator always is running: matchboxes are meant for only smoking, candles are meant for praying only..
Noise pollution can only be done by blasting hip-hop music and not by horn in your car!!
A taxi ride just costs you buying a bike and ride it!
Two way flight charges are cheaper than one way!!
YES, am in the land of native Indians.. AMERICA..

I have been here nearly 3.5 months. This whole period passed as fast as my flight which am travelling now, from Sanfransisco to Denver, and to St.Louis by a connecting flight… Got 2 ½ hours, my IBM lappy and a strawberry juice from south west airlines, to start my first blog about my trip. So here it goes…

Where to start? okay from the beginning, coz i understand memto only after multiple tries.. Got short term onsite assignment.. Any living thing having VISA can go US and get their jobs.. Got flight to St.Louis – Bangalore to Paris, Paris to Atlanta, Atlanta to St.Louis. Spent some 2 hours in Paris roaming here and there in airport finally figuring out that Paris uses Euro and its conversion rate. Arrived Atlanta and got the I-91 attached to my visa. So became an NRI, in perfect words, a essential and basic qualification to become a bridegroom to these days girls.. Getting a American return bridegroom has become a fashion these days.. okay keep aside tat stupidity..

Now to St.Louis, figured out easily the missisipi river by seeing the big river near the st.louis when landing.. Finally got my baggage after 15 minutes and easily became the entertainer of the airport, struggling to pull those two baggage. My friends are kind enough to give me their address and giving me a great idea that I can get a taxi..

My big deal was to get the baggage to the taxi stand.. somehow figured out and got a taxi, which is far more good than the personal cars.. I saw in Chicago, taxi drivers havin laptop in taxi and streaming you tube songs connected to the car audio! First taxi driver having and using laptop! Second connecting to internet and steaming audio!! But the drivers in st.louis is not tat developed as the area.. but did a cruise in the highway, somewhere about 100 mph.. and did all the interesting feats, swearing words I saw in films.. here am in America, place where I am Me, I do wat I like to do…

So now in St.Louis, Missouri. It’s the gateway for west, it’s the land which had Jesse James (if you have seen – Assasination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford), it’s the land of Nelly & Chuck Berry.. route 66 passes through it.. it’s the US second crime city.. That’s it nothing more..

This is the Scrap which I wrote when I was in US, will add more abt my travelling in upcoming posts..

2009 TODOs

2009-01-04T20:04:00.002+05:30

Okay, Don’t know if anybody got affected or going to be affected, I AM BACK - may be the most common word used by most scribblers like me. So I AM BACK..

March 2008, I did my last post.. so I don’t want to tell reasons coz its always usual.. 2008 was an incredible year in my life, yes for the first time I was called NRI for few months… from may to aug 2008, lots of pain to get that name.. and lots of enjoyment in that short duration.. Back to India; Back to Singaara Chennai on September.. I got to love it; so I guess I love it.. Back to stay with parents.. again the same struggle with BSNL Broadband.. and few weeks before got internet.. so guess it is clearly stated though not proved that “I was busy from March till now”..

Okay its now 2009, as usual I stayed in home, tuning some TV channels at 00:00 2009 for the wishes.. as usual the same orchestra programs in all channels; I used to surprise about orchestra groups, they survive because people instead of hearing the original song, like to see them trying to reproduce the original song.. Fine, so this New Year went fine.. As everyone tells and few of them executes, here is my resolution plan or 2009 TODOs.

It just took me few minutes to list these, may be becoz I am good at identifying the faults in everybody (as everybody includes me) or may be becoz I am more faulty..

I believe taking a resolution like “I will be kind to others; I will not get angry; I will not cheat others; I will be perfect” is good just to list down but not to execute.. it is simply like I will not lie in my life or I believe Ajith’s next film will be good or Vijay’s next film won’t have rowdies; I mean to say impractical; So I decided to put small actions that is really possible by me.. Guess the intro is big enough..

First one. “try perfection like arrange things” – more generic; I am not going to save any file in my desktop; only the scraps. I am going to save the files in proper folder.. this TODO isn’t new, but its new for me.

Second one. “try to update blog regularly”; update blog weekly, so do it in the week ending for sure. Donno how good this is for u.. okay, any have the TODOs are for me..

Third one. “sleep soon; wake early”; stick to sleep before 11:00 PM and not after 7:00 AM, trust me, haven’t seen two consecutive 7:00 AMs in the past 3yrs..

Fourth one. “try to complete things tat time itself; don’t postpone” – no one can really do that, So maintain a todo list in the desktop and prioritize things.

That’s it I guess, there are lots that can be told, but i believe the above four though small will make some significance difference, first and third makes my job easier in office and home; especially with computers, second should make my friends circle healthy, third should make myself and my parents circle healthy.. Guess its overdose of words for a resolution.. have a draft post written in flight somewhere during my roaming in US, will continue about that.. only thing that I got now to write, boast and celebrate – My US Trip.. will be back with that, bfn..

Template Change

2008-03-05T09:35:00.005+05:30

I always like changes and especially in designing.. So altered the blog template, to avoid not to be too much blue-ish.. Hope you like it.. Also did a small scripting to show the front image randomly.. These are the altered/designed images that you will see randomly...

Finding ME with GPS

2008-03-04T09:22:00.001+05:30

Finding Me – Not psychologically but geographically.. Yes with the help of GPS receiver that I installed in my PSP. A short description on this product.

I always like to use my PSP for some other purposes, other than gaming. Found out that it can be used as navigation device. As it has display, a small GPS receiver and software with maps loaded in the memory, helps to see the maps and track where we are and where we are heading.
I ordered this device – GPS Receiver official from Sony and hence cost little more, but very reliable. I saw some other cheap GPS receivers for PSP, but they required extra wires, which need be genuine, it seems. Also I realized from some forums, about the compatibly issues with other receivers. So finally decide for sony product which doesn’t need wires. I ordered from Play Asia, Hong Kong in this link.

It got shipped within few days by postal, as if you wish to track it by DHL or BlueDart, you can but paying price more than the product. It is relatively small compared to the device and it mounts on the top of the PSP perfectly. That’s it, its installed.

Now the Software for using this: You need two software, PSP mapping software and software for your PC to download maps. There are plenty of softwares for your version of PSP, luckily the software I downloaded first, worked for me. FYI my PSP firmware is 3.51 m33-6. I am using MapThis! Software in PSP for GPS Navigation and using GMDL0.5.04b software for downloading necessary maps (from Google Maps, Microsoft live maps, etc etc)

The Map This! Wiki Guide: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Map_This

The GMDL Guide: http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=60230

I downloaded the maps of south India and Bangalore covering my location and put it in my PSP. Then turned on my PSP, and opened Map This!, turned on my PSP. I couldn’t get any satellite if I sit inside my house. But I am able to get up to 13 satellites at the max when standing out. When I give some 3 minutes, I can get easily fixed to 4 satellites and able to get my position – longitude and latitude something like N 13` 04` 13` and E 77` 38` 17` . Now a tiny blue arrow shows my position, even if my map is somewhere, it centers it and shows my position.

So now I have the point where I am and If I move the point moves. The software just needs this, it calculates the speed, max speed, avg speed, distance travelled, trip time and different 3d views of map. I tried using it in my car, seems to be working, but couldn’t test it thoroughly as I was stuck in traffic that day. Will go home or somewhere with the map loaded just for testing this!! Here are some of the PSP screenshots of my location.

All about my PSP – Versatile portable

2008-02-26T23:59:00.007+05:30

I bought a secondhand PSP a month above to quince my thrust on Create Zen Vision W or to prevent myself from big expenses by getting Zen Vision. I see PSP (Play Station Portable) far cheaper and worthy comparing to any portable players if you are an active PC user, I mean you have to compromise the memory size by replacing files you want to play. Here is why I put my money on PSP.

Short description:

PSP is Play Station Portable by Sony Corporation launched in 2003. It is meant for portable gaming. It has separate drive called UMD drive, where you can only put UMD discs. So Sony PSP is meant to play game/software only from UMD disks. It will be the same if there are no hackers in the world and no users like me to utilize them. By doing a 1000 INR firmware update, the PSP is hacked. Now it is ready to play anything from its memory stick.

Features:

Now coming to features, PSP is versatile. It can play games, obviously. It can play videos (mpeg-4). It can play audio (mp3/wma). It can be used to view pictures. Nothing can beat its video quality and audio quality is also fine and its obvious as it is a Sony product. It is Wifi enabled. It can also read pdfs. It can read docs. It can be used as organizer. It can be navigating device…the list goes on, until the PSP software hacks halt.

Why all these features with such a low price of 8k INR? I heard that there are still people getting original UMD disk paying 1k INR for one game UMD disks are sole proprietary of Sony Corporation. Seem they get money in them.

Drawbacks: size and size.

Yes, memory size and device size. The PSP I am using is having a memory size of 1GB only. By far I have seen PSPs having memory 4GB at the max in common. But in my 1GB memory stick I can put two movies and one compressed game and some software as well. Won't that be enough for your journey? Yes it won't if you have uncompressed game which could be 1GB, but 4GB should be more than enough to put all.

If you are okay with this memory size then comes the player size.. it is definitively bulky, but bulky enough for good video display and to sit in lap for movies in long journey.

Small comparison:

Ipod nano, wins in player size and sucks in everything. Ipod classic wins in memory size and sucks in everything. Ipod video without its wide screen first sucks and I feel it would be difficult to hold it to see an entire movie, where PSP seems better. Zen Vision, which is around thrice the price of PSP has only the media features of PSP. No portable player has gaming, wifi, applications like pdf reader, gps navigation…

I watched Michael Clayton, Bee Movie and BeeGees live last during my last time journey. I played NFS Most Wanted from UMD disk in between each movie. I saw neither my watch nor the mile boards of my home town with a sleepy head.

Conclusion :

Only music – Ipod
Only Video – ZEN Vision
Only Game – PSP
Atleast any two of the above – PSP. Am for all the three… In the next post am gonna write abt the navigation feature of my PSP…

Online AOE Guide

2008-01-20T16:40:00.000+05:30

Again a game related post.. Thought of trying this long before.. Finaly into it, I would say more into it..for about a week..Playing Age Of Empires 2 and 3 and Asian Dynasty expansion online daily.. Got some friends from India and abroad too.. This is post is just a shot tutorial for playing Age of empires 2 and 3. Here it goes…

Things you need.

Of course Age Of Empires Game
Hamachi
AOE loader (only for AOE3)

AOE Games:

As far as I know there are two versions of AOE 2, having same version with both peers is mandatory for online play.

1. AOE 2 - Age of Kings (Red) : CD2.0
AOE 2 – Conquers expansion (Blue): CD1.0

2. AOE 2 - Age of Kings (Red) : CD2.0a
AOE 2 – Conquers expansion (Blue): CD1.0e

For AOE3, you have three editions: Age Of Empires 3 (Basic) and two Expansions: The Asian Dynasties and The War Chiefs. For AOE 3, it is always better to update whatever edition you are having through net. So make sure the editions and versions of the peers are same.

Hamachi:

Hamachi is a VPN internet application which makes one to connect to peers as if you are connecting in LAN. Just install it from here and power it on. You will be given an IP something like 192.168.xx.xx. Choose your own Nick name, and create your own network for your friends, or better join my network
Username : booaoe
Password : password

You can chat with your peer friends to setup all using hamachi.. That’s it, nothing else, if you want to play AOE 2

AOE3 Loader (Only for AOE3 users):

As AOE3 has problems in seeing the internal IP provided by hamachi, this small comes for rescue. Just download this loader from here. Run it and choose the hamachi IP like 192.168.xx.xx and start game and choose the game you want.

Now for AOE2 and AOE3 you are in the game, go to Multiplayer and LAN settings as if you are playing in LAN and host a game and wait for the peers to join or join the game of your peer and enjoy gaming.

Troubleshooting Tips:

Make sure all your peers are in sync with the editions and version you are playing. Make sure all peers have updated for AOE3.
You should be seeing the hamachi IP 192.168.xx.xx in the Peers joining screen. If you are some other IP, check if you have selected hamachi ip in aoe3 loader.
For AOE2, if you are not seeing hamachi IP, goto, control panel -> network connections. Select Advanced -> Advanced Settings menu. Make sure hamachi Connection is in ordered first above all other connections.
If you have problem in finding the game of the peer who has hosted, try to connect using IP of the peer instead of searching the game present in the network.
If you get CRC Version Mismatch error, try different Crack. I had the same problem for Asian Dynasties expansion, and I used this crack to solve it. Download it from this rapidshare link.

I would like to thank Quang, a Vietnam guy who helped me patiently for my first online gaming. And this 14yr old kiddo, Denis from Israel, who helped me for AOE3 setup. And he is a Photoshop geek too… the pic posted in this blog is done by him.. hats off to Denis.. Denis, I think its enough!!

So dudes, come lets play aoe2/3.. join my network :
usename : booaoe & password : password

All About Games

2007-12-25T12:13:00.001+05:30

So for all of the gamers , Q4 of 2007 made them busy. Yes busy in Crysis, Gears of War, War in Confilct, Command and Conquer, COD4 the list goes on.. Fine this should be rather an old post about the hot topic of Gamers in earth – The Crysis. I completed it a month ago I guess and the thing is luckily or efficiently I completed it without referring any walkthrough guide.

Why is it so? Crysis which has the promising graphics and game play has quite enough bugs too. But the game play is awesome but very short, you will have different environments which makes you feel you really miss the previous one. So if you are a gamer you must try this one. Gears of War, from Microsoft is a good one with its different 3^rd person shooter style, which only console users might have used, I guess. This one is different and good except the same environment and same stuffs again and again, I played only few levels. I am not sure how it will be in the next levels. COD4 is the also most spoken game, seems there is a good competition between Crysis and COD4, so downloading it now. Bioshock with amazing graphics and sound, but gameplay is not the way I expected, so I left it without continuing. The same goes to STALKER.

Recently I got this expansion pack from fleming, Age Of Empires - Asian Dynasties. With a great interest in seeing the things regarding india, I got it from him. Basically three cultures are covered in that – India, China and Japan. As all AOE has, this too has campaigns which tell the story with the game play associated with it. I was very interested to see the game play of India, but I have to finish China, Japan campaigns to unlock this one. It took some few hours to complete these at first started without cheat and finished with cheat codes. Now started the india campaign, the first plot starts with barakpur and then Punjab, seems the campaign is about Nana Sahib and at first he about to resist the Indian revolts L So in the starting campaigns Indian are enemies and after some levels Nana Sahib joins indian to protest agains English and I see no great in the game play too, as Indians start doing some revolt and I have to go and crush them. So started the skirmish mode, where me being Indian. You have maps of Himalayas, Central Deccan and Cyleone. The funny and interesting part is: The voice of Indians, all in HINDI; "Mein Aaa Rahaa hoon", "Makan banana vale", "Youth karne ke lea" ,"Sharir mar saktha hai, parathama amar hai". You get mostly elephant warriors and sultans and sipoys. Its really interesting to try this out, you have to install AOE3 first as this one is an addon.

Corporate Crude Jokes

2007-12-21T11:04:00.000+05:30

Well, am tired of telling reasons for long gap in post that am tired of writing posts. So..
In most of the team there will be at least one person who sparks these corporate jokes spontaneously, which other team members inevitably smiles (like me) or laughs (like him). Generally once he opens his mouth all will keep his mouth in smiling position.. that’s corporate culture yaar… Most of these jokes will always consists of these keywords : FTP (measurement of work), Day light savings (time setting changes), issues or Tickets, Onsite, night out, reimbursement or claiming etc..

Recently we had our lift having announcement system for blinds. So started corporate crude jokes.. Whenever I use the lift, I will hear some jokes on this, and the whole lift rocks, laughing! Some of those:

Once it announced, “You are in 1st floor and the time is 6:39”. One man as usual started cracking, “what? 39!!” LOL!! LOL!! Everyone in the lift, laughing… Hey its digital thing yaar, what different it is doing? Whats there in this, to laugh?

The announcement was something like the life is stopping now. no body understands the announcement, but a joke sparkled from one- “Hey.. the lift is falling down” everybody laughed, fine, okay.. now, he is adding more flavor – “ Common man run! Run!, the lift is falling down”. Very few including me in the lift, looked at him murmuring - shut the …

As usual it announced the same pattern and one guy started his ultimate creativity, “can’t this announce daylight savings?” wow!! wat a joke...k i understand you know these stuffs, but why the day light savings comes here? But still two other persons laughed for tat. So it’s a joke.

Well, whether the announcement system in lift is useful for blinds or not, its very useful for these joking jokers. Bye! for next post...

Crysis: Great expectation, Well served

2007-11-04T16:56:00.001+05:30

So back to Bangalore after my (pre) Diwali vacation. Since am not a kid to use crackers to disturb others, instead of using RDX, I decided to have my diwali vacation earlier and so bigger. But the only thing that made me worry is the Crysis Demo, which got postponed a month before to the exact date when my vacation begins. So the first thing I did after my vacation is the download of the 1.8GB download of the Crysis demo. Tried some of the mirrors and found this one having very huge bandwidth, I downloaded it from my office @ 320KBps! NVIDIA link

Completed the demo two times. The great expectation on this game is well served. There is no game to beat its graphics and gameplay. I am having the following rig: Intel core2 E6600 @ 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 7600GT. The game is fine to play in 1280 X 1024 with medium settings and no antialliasing. I don't like to compromise resolution to quality, so only tried in 1280 X 1024 resolution. With my 7600 GT card I am even able to see things in high settings while very high setting is disabled. But it is very hard to play the game in such setting.

As everyone says the graphics is simply superb, you see an high quality movie being rendered in front of you depending on your movements! Apart from graphics the gameplay is outstanding. You can complete a mission in your own creative way. I completed the demo first using the vehicle and in land, then the same demo using boat the next time. It has all farcry features plus plenty of creative things to enjoy. One can shoot the trees and make it fall down to see the enemies hiding behind the trees. You can use object to throw on them and you can shoot at the tires of vehicles to make it immovable. Likewise when you are in a vehicle you can be in different positions and there is display showing the damaged parts of the vehicle, simply superb! Apart from these, you can switch to different modes and attach special features to your weapons. There won't be any game to make you creative and enjoyable like this.

So as the world does, I am dying for the game's release on Nov 15^th.

ATM – ARR makes it for both CLASS and MASS

2007-10-25T11:25:00.001+05:30

Thanks to ARR, there won't be any perfect kutthu song with amateurish lyrics in a Vijay's film soundtrack. I feel ARR is now capable of giving music depending on the hype the films has about, for example, sillunu oru kadhal needs more soothing songs than a grand gala songs as required for sivaji. And here comes a tough situation in music for Vijay, for whom the film only rolls behind him from starting to ending, with some loud jarring songs. ARR handles this very cleverly and has given songs satisfying Vijay fans and ARR fans. The album has six songs, most of them in contra to ARR music, appeals one, in the first listen itself.

Ellaappugazhum – This is the song which most of the music lover hear first in the album, reason: the singer– starting from Humma Humma to Adiradi, you can't tell whether ARR voice or music makes them best. But I think for this one I can tell ARR voice from ARR fan prespective or Lyrics from Vijay fan perspective. The music is not that great as you see in any songs sung by ARR. But repetitive hearing will make this one to be good, I don't like a small bit in the last, not sure if this is because the lyrics is very simple. But overall this song will be the anthem for Vijay fans and ARR deserves the credit.

Order : 3/6. My iTunes Rating: 4 Stars.

Ponmagal Vandaal – Just amazing as I was with "thottal poomalarum" in New. This one proves ARR's versatile music talent. Simply superb the way the old song handled, This song will prove, remix is not just having a eurodance music playing in the background and singing the same old song with some abstract lend raps inserted in between.

Order : 1/6. My iTunes Rating: 5 Stars.

Nee Marilyn Monroe – The pick of the album, the whole song is very catchy, especially the first 2 minutes of the 6 minutes song is simply superb. The lyrics makes it more stylish. Thank God Vaali didn't pen for this song. Na.Muthukumar has done his job well. This song is more western kinda with good tune as Smaiye songs in Kandukonden kandukonden. Only Rahman can create these scores.

Order : 2/6. My iTunes Rating: 5 Stars.

Valayapatti – This one is okay at first listening and its appealing increases as you hear more. This one is very catchy and Naresh has to thank ARR for this. Though seems to be a classic mix, it is appealing with some good interludes and when Naresh comes with a bang.

Order : 5/6. My iTunes Rating: 4 Stars.

Kelamal Kaiyile - This is also a slow poison, The center I mean the anupallavi is simply superb. My iTunes got 4 rating even at the first listen itself. It different to have a beat for a melody but its techno mix is seems good. Though it starts with ordinary tunes and pace, the center portion reserves best. The voices are also suitable for this. The only melody in the album is good and rahmanic.

Order : 4/6. My iTunes Rating: 4 Stars.

Maduraikku Pogathadee – Old folkish song, which resembles to illayaraja tune but it is mixed with various tunes and the flow goes on to make it good. The first start tune is good to hear and will be appealing to all mass. ARR comes with this for B and C grade I guess.

Order : 6/6. My iTunes Rating: 3 Stars.

All these ratings and reviews are after hearing the album, just 15 to 20 times. As a typical ARR album this will slowing grow in you. As my topic tells, ARR managed to give numbers balancing CLASS and MASS. I won't explicitly tell CLASS as ARR fans and MASS as Vijay fans. So ARR rocks with ATM, looking forward for his next project.

2007 Nobel Prizes

2007-10-20T11:43:00.001+05:30

Thanks to Ravi, who gave me hint about Physics Nobel price, I am writing this post. I don't closely watch current news and trends and because of that I am not aware of Nobel price distributions for 2007 a week before. And I decided to get some info about the Nobel prices this time. As usual Wikipedia gives some info about its Swedish origin and controversies and some interesting things like Gandhi was nominated for 5 times and when he was about to give Nobel price, he was assassinated.Now back to 2007 Nobel award, I am just putting the extracts from the Nobel prize site, the parts which I understand (at least partially)..

Medicine - Making Model Mice

"for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells"

The elevation of the humble mouse to become many scientists' experimental animal of choice has been one of the scientific phenomena of the last two decades. Today, genetically-altered mice are an essential component of the experimental toolkit, with thousands of varieties contributing to research in laboratories around the world. Their existence stems from discoveries made in the 1980's by this year's Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies were both seeking ways of specifically altering the mammalian genome, Capecchi with a view to inserting new genes into cells and Smithies in the hope of correcting genetic defects that lead to disease. Working against a background of skepticism, they independently discovered that they could use a natural mechanism, revealed decades before by Joshua Lederberg in bacteria, to introduce short sequences of manipulated DNA into the chromosomes of mammalian cells growing in the laboratory. The technique allowed them to target individual genes with exquisite precision, producing the genetic alterations they sought, but only at the cellular level. Happily, the embryonic stem cell cultures that Martin Evans was then developing provided the necessary vehicle for taking such gene manipulations from the Petri dish into the whole animal. Combining the two, by modifying genes in embryonic stem cells and then injecting those cells into fertilized mouse eggs, made it possible to rear mice with discrete genetic modifications that would be inherited between generations. The so-called 'Knock-out mouse' was born.

Knock-out (and knock-in) mice, the workhorses of many a laboratory today, allow researchers to study the effects of removing (or inserting) a single gene. Genetically-modified mice have therefore frequently helped to reveal a gene's function and, since mice and humans share a remarkable genetic similarity, they also serve as models of many human diseases.

Physics – Gaint Magnetoresistance

"for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance"

Lying at the heart of the computer which you are using to read this article is a memory retrieval system based on the discoveries for which the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg. They discovered, quite independently, a new way of using magnetism to control the flow of electrical current through sandwiches of metals built at the nanotechnology scale.

150 years ago, William Thomson observed very small changes in the electrical properties of metals when they were placed in a magnetic field, a phenomenon he named 'Magnetoresistance'. In due course, his finding found application, magnetically-induced current fluctuations becoming the underlying principle for reading computer memories. Then, in 1988, Fert and Grünberg, working with specially-constructed stacks made from alternating layers of very thinly-spread iron and chromium, unexpectedly discovered that they could use magnetic fields to evoke much greater increases in electrical resistance than Thomson, or anyone since, had observed. Recognizing the novelty of the effect, Fert named it 'Giant magnetoresistance', and it was only a few years before the improvements, and the miniaturization, it offered led to its adoption in favour of classical magnetoresistance.

Giant magnetoresistance is essentially a quantum mechanical effect depending on the property of electron spin. Using an applied magnetic field to cause the electrons belonging to atoms in alternate metal layers to adopt opposite spins results in a reduction in the passage of electric current, in a similar fashion to the way that crossed polarizing filters block the passage of sunlight. When, however, magnetic fields are used to align the electron spins in different layers, current passes more easily, just as light passes through polarizers aligned in the same direction.

The application of this discovery has been rapid and wide-ranging, dramatically improving information storage capacity in many devices, from computers to car brakes. And while quietly pervading the technology behind our daily lives, the principles of giant magnetoresistance are now being used to tackle problems in wider fields, for instance in the selective separation of genetic material.

Chemistry - Exploring Chemistry at the Frontier

"for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces"

Like a successful dinner party, productive chemical reactions depend upon getting the right components to mingle in the right surroundings, and often the best environment for chemistry turns out to be a solid surface. From the cleaning of exhaust fumes in factory chimneys to the reduction of ozone on the outside of ice crystals in the clouds, surface chemistry surrounds us constantly. Developing ways to better understand the detailed dynamics of chemistry at these interfaces has been Gerhard Ertl's life work.

Studying surface chemistry is a painstaking process, requiring intricate preparation of samples and great precision in visualizing the reactive species that are undergoing chemical reactions in regions just a few atoms deep. The challenges Ertl set himself were bold, for instance to understand the Haber-Bosch process, a reaction of huge industrial importance that has been used since the first world war without anyone knowing precisely how it worked. This process generates ammonia, primarily needed for agriculture, from its constituent elements, hydrogen and nitrogen, on the surface of an iron catalyst. Using an astonishing variety of techniques, Ertl was able to piece together the step-by-step interplay between the hydrogen and nitrogen atoms bound to the face of the iron particles during the reaction, solving a sixty-year old mystery.

Another of Ertl's longstanding areas of interest, and one where his investigations have also revealed previously unknown phenomena, is the conversion of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide on platinum catalysts, one of the reactions performed by catalytic converters in cars. A hallmark of Ertl's approach has been his willingness to return to the same research questions whenever technology became available that opened new avenues for investigating an old problem in a fresh way. This intense focus on particular problems, combined with his patient approach to solving them, hold part of the key to his success in exposing events at chemistry's hidden face.

Peace - The Risk of Climate Change

"for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"

For the third successive year, but for only the sixth time since it was initiated in 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize has been divided equally between an institution and an individual. In awarding the Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global body responsible for scientific assessment of climate change, and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore, the phenomenon's most renowned campaigner, the Norwegian Nobel Committee are highlighting the link they see between the risk of accelerating climate change and the risk of violent conflict and wars.

The IPCC was established by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide policymakers with neutral summaries of the latest information related to human-induced (or anthropogenic) climate change. Run from offices in Geneva, but open to any of the nearly 200 member states belonging to the UN or WMO, the IPCC functions through its working groups. There are currently 3 working groups, focusing on the science, impact and mitigation of climate change, and one task force charged with developing greenhouse gas inventories. The findings of the IPCC are presented as 'Assessment reports', synthesizing the views of the working groups, which are produced approximately every 5 years. The fourth and next report is due at the end of 2007.

The working groups have already published their individual contributions to the forthcoming fourth report. A quote from the Science Working Group's report states "Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations". A quote from Working Group II, which looks at impact, states "Much more evidence has accumulated over the past five years to indicate that changes in many physical and biological systems are linked to anthropogenic warming". They go on to say that "Unmitigated climate change would, in the long term, be likely to exceed the capacity of natural, managed and human systems to adapt".

Al Gore is the leading public advocate of the need to take immediate action to reduce anthropogenic climate change. His campaigning takes many forms, including the Academy Award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth and a book of the same name. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Alliance for Climate Change, an organization dedicated to persuading people of the urgency of responding to what it calls the 'climate crisis'.

I haven't included info about Literature and Economics, which I am not interested and really don't understand. The above search leads to discovery of Ig Nobel Prize and a fantastic documentary – 'An Inconvenient Truth' which I will put in upcoming posts…

Post from Office 2007

2007-10-19T10:42:00.001+05:30

I was about to write post, so opened Office 2007 and when I clicked new, I wondered seeing it having 'New Blog Post'. So trying that now. It asks for username and password by providing the famous blog sites, obviously Blogger is one of them. So picked it and gave username and password and it asks for Image Server. As I am not about to upload photo in this post I skipped and got this nice page in office 2007. Lets see how this works.

This has things like Publish (obviously) and 'publish as draft' too. The 'Manage Accounts' option is for switching between your blogs. Cool! If it works… lets see…Will continue using Office 2007 if this works…

Edit: It works absolutely fine, but i believe i can't put labels for post from World.. But this feature of MS Word 2007 is really Cool...

Vista -> XP Downgrade

2007-10-18T13:24:00.000+05:30

Hi, Its been a long time to be here, believe me i was some what busy in CODING, really office work... Fine so many things happened in between this gap.. One of them i spent my night formating my PC and installing XP and Vista successively during my VO (Virtual Office). This is because i felt my PC to be bit slow and wanted to use Vista extensively (not only becoz of its features and awesome graphics but also i got a solid good crack). But after an extensive use of Vista for 4 or 5 days, i decided to be apart from that. Here are some of the problems which my PC and i faced in Vista (though some of them i did already which i installed the day the torrents had fresh vista).

I am having Pinnacle TV Tuner card, which is not at all detected by Vista, even with the vista driver i am able to make it unrecognizable and even listed channels in Vista Media Center. But when i tried to see the video it will show you the perfect 'Checking for Solutions' screen giving some error. Pinnacle software is far more worse. But i wonder about this as i was able to make the card work when i installed Vista the previous time.
I am having Asus P5B motherboard with inbuilt sound card of 7.1 channel, but again this one has problem in Vista. Though this card is recognizable, the 4.1 speaker of mine is only able to play sound in two speakers. I tried all the combinations settings like 4.1, 5.1 and 7.1 channel with and without sub woofer. Only few produce sound but only in my front two speakers.
If you are iTunes user, then i feel Vista will give you pain sometimes. I had this problem thrice, When you open iTunes, sometimes it will keep on loading the library and results in hanging and after the restart you will see the iTunes having a blank library. All your rating and playlists are gone!!
And at last a big tragedy happened, i did almost all the updates for Vista including Ultimate Extras... After that to my surprise, my Benq DVD writer driver is not at all accessable, its driver is gone into flames!! I am not all able to read anything from my dvd.. That really tested my patience for working in Vista.

Due to these problems i decided to switch back to XP. Luckily i had installed XP along with Vista only for playing games as anyone knows playing heavy games in Vista is foolish having XP with you. So installed everything back in XP from Azureus to iTunes and now using XP and keeping Vista idle in my second drive. So at least for anyone having Pinncle Tv Tuner, Benq dvd writer, Asus Mobo with 4.1 speaker XP is the tension free zone.

Return of Simbu

2007-10-07T23:15:00.000+05:30

I see TV very rarely, sometimes used to switch between VH1 for music and Podigai for fun, but surprisingly yesterday a bigger fun was awaiting for me in Vijay TV. My friend assured me fun in this program called 'Some Jodi program' - regional tv serial dumbs danc competition. As everyone does we scrolled some other channels when these dumbs start dancing, but we didn't miss any part where the main comedian Simbu opens his mouth. This is the first time i am seeing his comments, that my friend assured will be of fun. To my surprise things turned out more interesting and emotional according to Vijay TV... Very childish and exaggerated drama took place..i have no word to speak about it. Check out the video below.

One thing is for sure, Like Father like son, the same emotional psycho. But you will enjoy this, and don't get tears in eyes,laughing...

And just tried to make use of this cartoon tool - http://www.toondoo.com/

Will come with something worthy one later...

Coorg Trekking

2007-10-01T14:12:00.000+05:30

Hi, This is about another trip which me, fleming, lal and friends went for our first trekking trip to Coorg. I am posting the chosen pics and the map we travelled.

View Larger Map

Mumbai Adventure

2007-09-26T09:37:00.000+05:30

Hi, its been long time when we (me and Fleming) went an adventurous trip to Mumbai – Aurangabad. Got time and net only now to post pics of that. I didn’t find interesting to write about the whole travel coz its been very long before (I forgot also some of them). So here I am posting the chosen pics and the map we travelled.

View Larger Map

Office 2007 to Office 97-2003 file conversion

2007-09-25T21:12:00.000+05:30

It happened to my friend long back when cracked Microsoft Office 2007 had been successfully installed. Now it happened also to me. Nothing serious, I liked the style Office 2007 gives and enjoyed creating a excel document which I needed to show in my office in xlsx format mistakenly and ended in trouble when I had to open it in my office with older Office version. After little bit googling this one I found out. Just a small exe provided by Microsoft which will convert Office 2007 word, excel and powerpoint files to Office 2003 format.
Here is the link for that.

My September Games

2007-09-25T09:43:00.000+05:30

I was playing Oblivion for trying out a proper RPG (Role Playing Game) and got the Command & Conquer 3 - Tiberium Wars. Have only played AOE series and then tried lil bit of Empire Earth under Strategy game genre. This C &C 3 is simply superb, which has many types of campaigns and good & sufficient graphics for strategy game. To fully enjoy this game try to get the 2 dvds pack as this high budget game has many clippings as good as a Hollywood clippings featuring Tricia and Jennifer Morrison and our famours Lost guy - Josh Holloway.
So this one is a must try game (rated 9.0 in gamespot) until you get World In Conflict. Also Command & Conquer - Tiberium is gonna come in FPS genre. Now started trying Bioshock from Unreal engine, so unreal, Quake and Doom series lover will like it. Good graphics but indoor brutal shooting, thats it.
One sad news - the demo of The Most awaited game in the universe - The Crysis is postponed one more month :(

Enjoy Gaming!!

Ganapathy Birth Month (Day)

2007-09-24T11:50:00.000+05:30

Here in Bangalore, people who use car like me has to suffer more because of Ganapathy, Because Ganapathy Birthday celebration is converted into BirthMonth. It’s the same as the Ambedkar’s BirthYear! Whenever a politician wants to give free supplies like dresses/food to backward community, they will arrange a function celebrating Ambedkar irrespective of the month Ambedkar is born. The same is the fate for Ganapathy, local rowdies for having their party are giving lift to Ganapathy in their tempo and roams the city causing traffic jam and noise pollution. I wonder instead of destroying Ganapathy by submerging in water, why don’t people destroy him by planting small bombs on his belly? Coz in blore only rowdies celebrate his function who might be using at least petrol bombs…

Seems Ganapathy is the figure just for comedy. I mean he is the comedian among the crew of other Gods. Here is one comedy role of Ganapathy… I feel pity on him; People please give him at least the heroic role of comedy movie (like vadivelu)..

Battle Ends in Peace

2007-09-24T11:29:00.000+05:30

Very few people survived in that battle. I am one of them. Yep, Got back my broadband connection at last! Got the number of the local field engineer and started calling him whenever you think of broadband (during brushing, eating, gaming…) The only advantage is that he is one of them who has at least some sense which most of the govt. employees don’t have. Because whenever I call he had a sign of hesitation for telling me that he couldn’t give me the connection. So, at last got the connection and its speed is far better (for now). So expect more post hereafter…

New Maruti 800 / Suzuki Cervo

2007-09-17T17:32:00.000+05:30

Suzuki is planning to replace the long lasting master kid "Maruti 800" with the Japanese Suzuki Cervo which is the latest small car recently launched in Japan, the Cervo is a compact five door mini, that looks to put the other kids on the block into the shade. This sleek cute car offers 54bhp 660cc engine that boasts to offer peppy performance with great fuel economy.

Suzuki believes that they can price the car in the same amount given by Tata, they can do this by deleting some of the stuff available in the car, or by using a cheaper material to make it cost less, but, we doubt that Suzuki will use such cheap material so long as price is considered. There is going to be a lot of competition between these two in the below 800cc category. The name Cervo has been a history for jap Suzuki cars mainly used in the Japanese version of alto.

Exteriors

From the outside the Cervo looks like the Honda Fit, but this one looks like its smaller bro. As there is no sight of Tatas 1 lakh car, comparism between these two are not possible , rumors have been spread that Tatas car would be based on the Indiva Concept. Coming back to the Cervo the lines and cuts of the car are neat and classy and the clean blacky covering at the end of the windows are cleverly made so as not to see too many holes.

The headlights seem too agressive and getting ready to vrroomm and seems confident, well we can hope it really does. The Small mini SUV looks at the back, with an arching roofline, wedgy stance, slanted headlights and stubby bonnet makes out a new shape of itself and bound to be a great car if its priced is good and if its at 1L, it will be crazy selling.

Interiors

The interiors of this car somewhat looks like that of the much popular Swift. The rectangular air vents in the center and the circle open closed ones on the sides dont look even and looks a bit uneven. the colors of the controls do look lights up the dash. The boot is very small, but for daily shopping and office stuffs its just OK.

Seats at the back can seat only two and the third one can cramp up the place. A lot of storage areas are available to keep stuff in the front and find little at the back. Power Windows are airbags are available in the international markets but we doubt that it will come to India at that cost atleast airbags as an option would be better to make the car safe. In the outside markets this car is equipped with front semi-bucket seats, 4-speed auto gearbox a K6A DOHC engine with VVT, bluetooth capability.

Verdict

Cars like these will be a success in India if they are priced well with high profile, the sporty and agressive exteriors and the classy and swifty interiors are bound to make the young gens and the ladies to force their cash out, the Suzuki's bet of combining performance with FE, this car will be a hit in Indian roads.

got this info from my new big buddy - Gopi, Got My Car Stereo becoz of him.. Will be back with a post about it soon...

Crazy Little Character..

2007-08-27T21:18:00.000+05:30

Saw this one from my friend's link...
Just copy the character anywhere, and start typing.... its crazy...
Read this to get the idea...

‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮҉

‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮Get Crazy!!

Desperate to see the sun in the east...

2007-08-13T20:19:00.000+05:30

This post comes out of my own experiences and my current research which is to complete a big task: to make - my eyes open; my brain back to normal, at least around 7:00 am. These are the tips which could make this succeed sometimes.

Avoid a timepiece alarm which stops just by a push on the top button.
Use your mobile phone alarm; also don’t use the Alarm option as it is just for setting only one time. Use remainders so that you can set for 6:45, 6:50 and 6:55 like that as many as you want, depending on the ferocity of your sleep.
Usage of the most annoying tune like (manmade rasa or ambulance alarm) for alarm is a wise option.
Place the mobile in a non reachable position from you bed, I mean a little far from your bed.
Place some chocolates or some eatables near your alarm which could try its best out of your brain.
Put the most interesting download of yours which could make you to go and see its status; switch on the TV immediately before turning off the ringing alarm.
Don’t use curtains to avoid sunlight; your bed could be positioned for direct sunlight.
Setting the fan at full speed and using the insufficient blanket is also good if your morning whether is cool.

These are some of the tips that am trying to survive at 7:00 am, if you have something tell me the secret and please don’t tell anything about late hours coz it’s the time software engineer’s brain is at peak… Bye for now…

New Tamil Nadu Censor board

2007-08-08T15:00:00.000+05:30

This is just to waste time - mine and yours too, just thought of what should be done by the Censor board to make Tamil film industry better.

Ban the following directors : perarasu, ramanarayanan, TR, Vikraman
Ban the following actors playing chubby youths: Cap10 Vijayakanth, Rajini, TR..
Ban the following music directors: Deva, Srikanth deva, Iman, SA Rajkumar..
Ban actor Vijay, if he doesn’t play 2 consecutive films not as a local B grade fellow (teekadai master, poriki, cycle kadaikaran, auto workshop koolie).
Ban actor Ajith if he doesn’t use his brain in choosing forthcoming 2 consecutive films.
Ban cap10 if he does anything in film industry.
Ban the whole TR family from entering to safe guard Tamil film industry and the job of cinema professionals.
Ban so called comedians like Satyan, madhanbabu and supporting actors like overacting sreeman and great actors like ramesh..
Ban actor/Director Seran if he plays any sort of modern character.
Ban the actors if played in movies with age, less than 10 yrs of their real age.
Do censorship only if the film comes with tag - masala home entertainment.
Only 5 films per year can be allowed having new Heroes and heroines.
Ban films having very low budget like ramanarayanan’s and TR’s, if low should be considered as short films or documentaries.
Ban films having very high budget unnecessarily like sivaji, lovebirds, ratchagan, spending more just for songs and waste fight sequences.
Ban the directors if their 3 consecutive films appear same – e.g.: Shankar, same mass strategy; bala, same psychic heroes..
Ban the producers trying to impact on direction screenplay of the film.
Allow all kind of gore scenes and offensive things usage if really required for the film.
Instead of having subtitles like “Smoking / Acquiring liquor is injurious to health” in smoking scenes, “This scene has no logic, this is just for the sake of fun” can be put in very worst no-logic scenes, like collapsing one tower to collapse the n/w connection of whole mobile n/w in a city; famous current shock scene by cap10;
Remove the funny and useless tax reduction on Tamil names for the films.
Strictly Ban Telegu remakes.

If the above things are done I am sure there would be only some 10 movies per year but that is what the viewers has to see, and eventually their taste may improve . The above is just for the sake of fun, it is clear to everyone, who wants a change in Tamil films, that ‘all depends on the viewers taste; nothing won’t change until their taste remain the same.