Well! This is what

Purpose

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:35:00 +0000

They say that if you have a goal set and achieve it then you should consider yourself successful. But is that really so? They also ask you to tell your plan to God and guarantee a laughter from God.

Maybe God has a plan for all of us. Maybe God is just like a child building sandcastles at the beach unaware of the waves of the sea approaching. But today at this point I somehow feel that this child has listened to my request and granted me my wish.

At this point it is hard for me not to thank the almighty. Not to bow down in prayers and thank God for all that he has done. For all the quirks, difficulties that has led me to this point in life. There had been many points in life where we probably go mad and start asking the existence of a higher power and I have had plenty of them in my way. Cursing and tearing for feeling ignored. Oh how many times had I felt that.

There I was about 22 months back dreaming someday of reaching where I am today. Telling my friends my dreams and hopes. Did I think I will get where I am today? Yes. Did I know for sure that it is going to happen? Not really. They say three mantra for success are Dedication, Determination and Devotion. I did have determination, lacked dedication but again strong devotion towards things I believe in and principles that I made for myself. 2/3 not too bad at the end of the day. It paid off.

VAIO needs to step up

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:01:00 +0000

Been a big fan of FIFA 12 ever since 2003. Unfortunately my Sony VAIO has taken that joy out of my life. Do not get me wrong. I have not stopped playing the franchise. Just that I now no longer play in Legendary or World class difficulty level.

You the chip set in the computer has certain limitation. I am unable to to sprint diagonally and while doing so I can't shoot. Basically I can only press two effective buttons at an instance and the third one I press renders it moot. The notebook does have a decent graphics processor to handle games smoothly however if the user is not able to use the keys as he/she wishes then what was the point Sony?

In the beginning I had assumed it to be a problem with my notebook keyboard solely and purchased an external keyboard. However that did the same thing. Now I am skeptical to go for a gamepad. I do not know if that will act up similarly.

Recently got hold of FIFA 12 and my virtual pro needs to grow. However to do that, he needs to play a few games in world class mode. I know if i do that i will never achieve the targets with this notebook. So thank you Sony for ruining my FIFA experience!!

Was I playing Wii?

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:34:00 +0000

Watched the Real Zaragoza Vs Real Madrid match last night at 11:30 PM IST. Just before that watched Manchester United Vs Arsenal at 8:30 PM IST. The EPL match was entertaining not only because Manchester thrashed Arsenal but the view of the game on the TV was good. The main area was always visible and I could see the ball as the camera followed the ball keeping it as the center of focus. I never even bothered to think that it is not something that should be taken for granted.

While watching the la liga match I realised that I was constantly moving my head instinctively alongwith my body to the edge of the chair to get a glimpse out of the corner of the TV. It was annoying. I didnt realise at first then it occurred to me. The damned ball was no where in the camera view. Now this happens once or twice it is acceptable. But whenever the ball was in the middle of the field, it was never in the camera.

I guess it is not enough that La Liga is joke of a league compared to EPL but do their camera need to suck too?? It is bad enough that we all know the results of the match when Barcelona and Real Madrid plays the other teams. But now they are not even bothering to show the ball too. I wonder whom to blame for this? Maybe it is the fault of Ten Action/Sports to get the broadcast from some amateur cameraman. Then again why would LFP allow some amateur cameraman to broadcast the game. Now if the camera is operated automatically and some AI follows the ball across the field and rotates the camera accordingly should not LFP at least get a decent software that can perform the job properly?

LFP keeps proving their inferiority over and over when compared to EPL. No doubt they have the two best teams in the world but other than that they have nothing to offer. Also there is no reason for Barca and Real to play all 38 matches for the season. They should just play two matches against each other. This would decide the champion and the runner up. Then the other 18 teams in La Liga can play 34 matches each and save themselve some humiliating defeats.

Bucket List !!!

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:46:00 +0000

Just one year back I was excited. I had just got through the CAT exam and was on my way to one of the IIMs. Little did I know at that time that this day will come when I will regret my decision to come here.

Yeah for the outside world it seems like that IIMs are one way ticket to success and glory. You may think that and you may be right. You see, the problem is that people have different aspirations and success in itself has different meaning to everyone. I personally never wanted a fat salary and what follows after it.

Just today I was discussing a story with one of my friends a.k.a Periappa, about Warren Buffett. During the course of discussion it became evident that we all got caught in the rat race that is called CAT. Ironic isn't it? Now do we call Mr. Buffett successful? In a conventional worldly, materialistic way, sure!! He is extremely wealthy, popular but it makes you wonder did he really want this in his life?

I may(note: may) graduate from this institute and earn a little more than the general income. But today I feel that I wanted more in life. Not just money. And here is the list of things that I want from life.

1. High speed car chase. I remember when we were young and I started to ride a bicycle. We used to have these races and chases. Those were exhilarating. Would like to feel that again. But this time with Cars.... muah ha ha hmuah a ha ha hah

2. Want to be in a gun fight and(most importantly) survive it. I sometimes wonder how 50 cent must have felt with several bullets through his face. While you are bleeding out blood faster than a damaged water tap, your body would keep pumping adrenaline to keep you from going into coma.

3. Fight Anderson Silva or Fedor Emilienenko. Doesn't have to be a telecast. After all I don't want millions of viewers to see me getting my ass kicked. A simple bout or a sparring session would suffice.

4. Stop being a robot. Get hit by a thunderbolt(refer, Godfather, Mario Puzo) and then get dumped.

5. Live life under uncertainty. There was this time once my friend and I had only Rs. 200 left for three freaking days and no other sources of income. We had to leave for Kolkata from Bangalore after the second day and we almost starved all the way through the train journey of 38 hours. After getting down at the station and taking a cab, we didn't even have the money to pay the cab driver........ Do you remember Arjun Das???? Good times eh???

6. Get high. So high that I pass out. Frankly I have never been so high that I had no recollection of the events of the previous day/night. But apparently it is possible. Recently I feel that the my tolerance for alcohol, nicotine has been on a slide.

7. Bungee jumping if not sky diving!!! I cant wait to have a break where I can go to Rishikesh and go bungee jumping. Just hope that the rope does not tear midway. Got to check my diet.

8. Rob a bank. Carry a cylinder of liquid nitrogen and break open the bank vault. If I rob a bank then I would like to do it without any subtleties. Let the alarm go off, come out of the bank with the cash, fulfill wish number 2. Then fulfill wish number 1. After escaping donate the money to missionaries of charity or even better.... Bhavishya!!!

9. Travel back in time and bring back a Tyrannosaurus Rex as a pet. Preferably bring back a young one so that I can see it grow into a monster that it is..... Muaha HA ha ha Muah HA Ha ha ha

10. Last wish is that do at least one of the above before I reach the geriatric era of my life......

Bucket list
signing off

My phone

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:06:00 +0000

There was a time when I had changed mobiles a number of times in a single year. I was in college and stupid and thought that I was keeping up with the current trend. Then a time came when I felt grown up and stopped. Well I have been with my Nokia N73M since then and after two and half long years the mobile finally died on me. I used one of my friend's phone for a while and then decided that I should go and get a phone for myself.

After doing a lot of research on the net and checking a hell lot of reviews here is what I had decided:

1. I want a mobile with Dynamic OS preferably with a touch screen interface as it is much much better than the earlier inconvenient models(remember Nokia 7700?)
2. Now to satisfy the above condition I had only a handful of options from the current market namely, Symbian OS phones, WinMo OS phones, Android and iPhones.
3. I want a decent camera with a decent video recording on the phone. Wi-Fi is needed.
4. I dont want a ridiculously expensive mobile which will cost me an arm and a leg.

So after checking all these stats above I had a very few options. HTC viva, HTC touch 3G, Nokia 5800 XM, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S8300 ultraTouch(no Wi-Fi), HTC dream G1

So after breaking my head on the internet and watching a marathon of reviews, I councluded to Nokia 5800XM. It pretty much met all my requirement. I can understand that the camera specifications are less compared to the Arena and the ultraTouch but I have been using Symbian phone before and with that I knew I would feel right at home with the 5800. I honestly dont think that anyone who has serious interest in photography would like to buy phone for photography no matter how many megapixels they can churn out. And trust me its not sour grapes. Plus in India now there is this offer where you buy a 5800XM and you get a sennheiser headset free with the handset. Sweet deal considering that the sennheiser headsets are really nice. The one they gave free along with the handset is not the top of the crop but definitely very very nice. I am not an audiophile but I sure know music quality. This phone also comes loaded with Wi-Fi and a bunch of music which I probably will never listen in my life. Anyway they do give 8GB of memory card in the phone. Thats just enough for my use. I dont listen to music all the time but I do like to listen to music at times and its good that I can carry my favorite songs with me everywhere and also fit in a few movies.

Overall I feel the phone is pretty good if you want a standard touch screen phone. I had also checked the LG cookie and Samsung Star they had the 3D window view like in HTC touch however they come with a major drawback due to their propreitary headphone jack and OS. Same goes for the S8300 and the Arena. Their touch screen looks really fancy. They swivel and swing and you can put widgets on the screen. But the flexibility of installing different types of software for different purpose is very limited. I was really disappointed to see that Sony Ericsson were not providing any competition to the Nokia 5800 XM. They do not have any phones in that price range with similar features. HTC were good options too as their touchflo interface is really smooth and silky but the thought of Windows Mobile kind of put me off. Nonetheless the HTC touch HD is a wonderful mobile for whoever can afford it(I can't). Then there was Apple iPhone which is a wonderful phone as per some people but feel it is way too overpriced for the features it offers, but more about it later.

Anyway, the bottomline is that I have a new phone and I am excited. I am off to play with my new toy.....

Does this even happen

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:26:00 +0000

Today afternoon I experienced a strange incident. One of my friend, did not get recruited to a company because she is pregnant. The strange part was that there were a few rounds of interview and after the last round yesterday they informed that she I was not aware of the fact that companies can reject a candidate because of maternity issues.

Now under The Maternity Benefits Act 1961 Bare Act, it is stated that

(1) No employer shall knowingly employ a woman in any establishment during the six weeks immediately following the day of her delivery or her miscarriage.

(2) No woman shall work in any establishment during the six weeks immediately following the day of her delivery or her miscarriage.

(3) Without prejudice to the provisions of section 6, no pregnant woman shall, on a request being made by her in this behalf, be required by her employer to do during the period specified in subsection (4) any work which is of an arduous nature or which involves long hours o standing, or which is of an arduous nature or which involves long hours of standing, or which in any way is likely to interfere with her pregnancy or the normal development of the foetus, or is likely to cause her miscarriage or otherwise to adversely affect her health.

(4) The period referred to in sub-section (3) shall be -

(a) the period of one month immediately preceding the period of six weeks, before the date of her expected delivery;

(b) any period during the said period of six weeks for which the pregnant woman does not avail of leave of absence under section 6.

Now considering the highlighted line above, the friend of mine that I mentioned was not withing 6 weeks away from delivery date. So my question is that does this company(Transworks a.k.a. Aditya Birla Minacs) has the right to just deny employment to a woman because of her maternity condition?

I mean there are strict laws in US that states that this is discrimination. Is there any law/amendment in India that says likewise? A clause from US law

Pregnancy Discrimination

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act is an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions constitutes unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII, which covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. Title VII also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government. Women who are pregnant or affected by related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations.

Title VII's pregnancy-related protections include:

* Hiring

An employer cannot refuse to hire a pregnant woman because of her pregnancy, because of a pregnancy-related condition or because of the prejudices of co-workers, clients, or customers.

Play Asia

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:11:00 +0000

I had ordered a game from play-Asia website on 9th February. Reached today. Must say that i am impressed with the shipment time. I don't know whom to give the credit for it. Play-Asia, Chinese postal service or the Indian post. Today is 19th February. Taking the weekends in consideration, the time taken for the package to reach me is 8 days. This is by far the best international service that i have received so far.

It just makes more sense to order the games from play-Asia anyway because there is no extra charge for shipment of game CD/DVD. Moreover the game prices are cheaper than in India. I went searching for this game "Assassins Creed" in Bangalore and could not get it from the big game shops in Brigade road. I looked it up online from EBay. The price for this game from the online shops of the EBay merchants is Rs. 2700-Rs.3500 plus taxes and shipping charges. Then I checked play-Asia. The price there was $24.90(Rs. 1275). Since its from another country I was a little skeptical at first about ordering from them as the Indian custom office can be pain in the ass at times. But I must now say that I will be ordering all my games from play-Asia from now on. EBay sellers you suck!!! trying to rip off people like that. If I can get the game for less than Rs.1300 then so can you suckers!!

Anyway so much of eBay bashing for the day. I am off to 1911 AD.

Pendrive shipment

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:31:00 +0000

Just bought a pen drive from EBay India and boy! did I have to go through a long delay just to receive it. That made me think if the Indian courier companies are actually delivering services as promised.

The seller on EBay named "veerdirect" or something like that, was very gentle and kind. I must say that its not the seller's fault. I purchased the pen drive on 10th and the pen drive was shipped on the 11th. The mistake(an honest one I suppose) the seller made was to choose Aramex as the courier.

Since 11th the Aramex website showed that the shipment was "out for delivery". Anyway eventually the shipment was delivered on 18th after calling Aramex for about 4 times and the seller about 3 times. Surprisingly once when I called, the Aramex support told me that the data was not available to them. Isnt it strange? How can that be possible? The data may not be available to me but to Aramex at least they should be. How are they going to answer the queries of the people otherwise? Apparently the courier

service provider Aramex did not provide service in my area. But then the question is that isn't they suppose to mention that to the sender at the time of registration. I thought they did.

Anyway the pen drive is pretty nice. Its of 8GB of capacity and serves my purpose well. There were other pen drives that had the 16GB or 32GB capacity but honestly I don't need them. So I didn't see the need to pay the extra dough to get those.

So to summarize, in my opinion if you can avoid Aramex courier in the future please do so.

TATA Indicom Wimax Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:19:00 +0000

Just took the a new net connection in at home. Location Bangalore. Before i went ahead and selected TATA there were several options like Reliance, Airtel, BSNL but some way or the other they were not suitable.
Reliance for example is a company that I don't really like. They make a lot of promise and maintain service in the beginning but they later become kind of (for lack of better word) pathetic. I know it because i was regular in their broadband center named, WebWorld. At first it was awesome. But then that was 3 years ago. Now i am surprised that they are still in business. Moreover Reliance has the policy like Walmart(as some seems to claim). They will crash the market price by reducing the price of their service even lower than what it will cost them. Since they are a very wealthy company they can afford to do that. As a result put the others out of business and later when they have monopoly they will increase the price twofold.
I was really keen on taking Airtel connection though but the problem was Airtel only provides broadband connection to selected areas in the city and the place where i am right now is not one of them. So had to rule out Airtel.
BSNL is another good service provider. Now when i say service I don't mean their customer service but rather the net connection. It is stable and no hassle kind of service. The only problem is that the amount of time and document they require to process your request is unimaginable. I had gone to their local exchange center to apply and they scared me with their talk. Now just FYI, I am not originally from Bangalore. I have been staying here since last 7 years but I was not born here. I don't speak the language that's spoken here locally. And this is very noticeable in my appearance. Well to cut the long story short the officer at the BSNL center asked for my address proof in Bangalore and as well as from native, asked for a driving licence and a voter id card. And even if I had provided all the of the demanded documents it would still take 2 months to give the connection to my place. Can you believe that? How can the public service bodies be so lethargic? That was disgusting. Anyway so the only option I had was TATA Wimax.
To be honest I was skeptical at first to take TATA, because I have read some reviews online which says TATA Wimax has the problem of getting disconnected very often. Anyway without a choice I took the TATA broadband connection and I must say that I am pretty happy with the connection. They are providing their promised speed and the connection is stable.

Now I remember what the people had been saying online about the unstable net connection and I think I know the reason. You see though the connection is stable the equipment(modem) they provided is not of a very good quality. Well cant actually blame them because they charge minimal for the installation charge. Thanks to the company where I am employed, installation charge for me was NIL. Now going back to the topic of connection, its not that my connection has not been disconnected. But I didn't have to call the TATA customer care and bother about their poor service and blah blah blah. I just go to my computer's network and sharing center and reset the connection. Now note, that the connection does not get cut off all by its own. It only happens if you happen to move the modem so that the Ethernet cable is disturbed. Also if you do not properly shutdown the computer the connection gets disturbed the next time you restart. Here all you need to do is disable and enable the connection. That's all. I have attached a screenshot as to how you can go about doing it.
So if you are in Bangalore and looking for boradband connection then you may seriously consider TATA. If you have BSNL land phone then BSNL is definitely a better option if you are willing to wait for a month or two. Airtel is good too but their limited service area is kind of a turn off. However TATA is providing service all over Bangalore and the installation took just two days as promised. I must say that this is the first time I am using any TATA product and I am really impressed.

to play this disc please insert it into an xbox 360 console

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:57:00 +0000

I wrote earlier that it made more sense in getting an xbox 360 in India. To tell the truth Microsoft is making me eat my words. I purchased the Gears of War, GTA 4 and DOA4. Till last week atleast the DOA4 use to play fine but suddenly it stopped and started showing up the error to play this disc please insert it into an xbox 360 console in different languages.

I thought what the hell! and call microsoft - they asked me stuff like if the disc is scratched or not. Not to mention that the GTA and Gears of war has been scratched by the 360 and cannot be played anymore but the DOA was working fine and it did not have ny scratches for sure. However the girl who answered my call in Xbox support was very helpful and initiated an exchange process and today the redington people called me and told me that they will come to exchange the unit.

Apparently its an issue with the drive and the unit needs to be replaced. So if you come across this error then call Xbox support immediately and get your console exchanged. Ciao

Why it makes more sense in buying Xbox 360 in India

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:13:00 +0000

Ever since the GTA IV was released only for PS3 and Xbox 360, I had been tormented and punished by Rockstar Games for having a PC and none of those two consoles. We all know what GTA is. And those of you who say that GTA is not the best game on this planet you need to really have a reality check. Ever since the GTA franchise had gone 3D it could not have had such large cult following if it was not the best and the most awesomest(schoff!) game.

Well to cut the long story short, this GTA release finally made me get my lazy bum off the chair, get some work and gather enough cash to buy a console. Now before i went shopping for console i was in dilemma as to which console to choose from.

Now i was not going to use the cable provided with the console to connect to my Display and i cannot afford to purchase a LCD or Plasma HDTV so my only option was to use my LCD monitor as the display for the console. Those of you who are in the same state(i know many of you in India are, flat panel displays still cost a bomb here) and can live with the limited real estate of the display size keep in mind that you will either have to get a Microsoft(or some cheap quality) VGA HD cable(for the 360) to connect to your LCD monitor or you need to go out and get a component to VGA adapter(available from XCM - thats the most well known i guess). Now the MS VGA adapter or the XCM adapter will set you back by about Rs. 1700 or Rs. 2200 respectively. Please note that its still much less compared to how much you will spend for a LCD or Plasma TV.

Ok now since i could forget about the type of connectivity cable options the next part in question was which console will be sufficient. As per the gamespot reviews and many many other reviews on the net its pretty clear that there are hardly any difference between the display of the game and the gameplay. And since i am buying the console for GTA IV that strongly neutralises the competition between two consoles.

Now i was thrown with three logical options in front of me. Xbox 360 core/arcade, Xbox 360 Pro or PS3 40GB. Prices Rs. 15000, 23000, 25000 respectively. If i buy the core console then eventually i will have to buy a hard drive(atleast 20 Gb since thats the smallest hard drive available) and it will cost me 5700. So eventually the prices of core, pro and ps3 comes to Rs. 20700, 23000, 25000. Well now bear in mind here that Xbox consoles are giving 2 and 4 games free with their consoles with the core and the pro versions. I am never even going to play those games so i may as well sell them in ebay in intact condition. And considering i will sell them for Rs. 1000 a piece I will save Rs 2000 and 4000 with each of them. PS3 is however giving a spiderman movie free and i could sell that on ebay too but getting a buyer would be really really difficult. Lets face it, who will buy a blue ray Spiderman 3. The movie sucked big time. And i didnt think anyone would pay Rs 2000 for a movie. But lets say that i am able to sell it some "Murga", so where do we stand finally? Core Rs 18700, Pro Rs 19000 and Ps3 23000.

Ok ok, enough of sounding like shylock(hey thats my hard earned money dude!) Now lets consider the other things. Which console has better hardware - PS3 without doubt. Their failure rate is minimal unlike 33% failure in case of Xbox. PS3 has a blue ray player and built in Wi Fi. On the other hand i kind of find it sick to hold the PS3 controller. Feels as if i am holding a hollow pipe in my hand. Lets not even go to the zone where the Xbox controller is much more comfortable than the PS3. Ok after the GTA there are some good upcoming games for PS3 but then again PS3 games cost more than the Xbox ones(oh shylock back in play again).

Infact i was having a really hard time deciding what to do. At the same time i was participating on Ebay regularily to keep an eye on good deals and taking part in online auctions and bidding. Suddenly one day out of the blue(i dont know if the snipers missed it or not) i won a core console for Rs. 11500. WOW. That decided.

I bought the Xbox 360 Core and got a hard drive. It also came with two free games(which i eventually sold on ebay and bought the GTA4). Ha Ha Ha Ha

And till this day while typing this Blog i am roaming around the streets of liberty city delivering cars for my contact. Tell you about GTA IV soon.

Hey i have not finished telling you why it makes more sense to get a Xbox 360 in India rather than PS3. Lets face it, the games are almost similar and 90% of the games are launched on both the consoles so what makes PS3 superior to Xbox 360? The blue ray player you say? Hey right now in india i dont think anyone is buying blue ray movies. It will eventually happen. Yes yes. But then it will take time. Yes the Indian consumer market being very value oriented, i think we will have to make till Moserbaer India start making blue ray discs. So does it makes sense to purchase a game console just for the sake of blue ray player which i wont use for, say, two years? No i dont think so. My advice to you guys, if you have a 1080p HDTV and can afford to buy blue ray titles then go and get yourself PS3 to stand out of the crowd. But if you are solely focused on gaming then go get Xbox 360.

My new camera

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Couple of days back i was chatting with a few of my friends about camera and we started talking about different types of cameras and suddenly realised that i have never owned a camera till now. Hmm. So it got me thinking maybe i should go out there and buy a camera. However i have been using the camera on my Nokia N73 and though its 3.2 MP only i must say that it takes some great picture in the day when there is enough light. So but using this camera phone i am aware of the fact that smaller the camera is more is the difficulty in taking the picture with one hand. I often face picture quality issue due to hand movement resulting in blurry pictures. Well basically i wanted something i can use with one hand. Now the bigger cameras are usually the DSLRs nowdays which are for an enthusiast and above level. I, on the other hand, being only a casual snapper decided to go for a digital camera but with the ease and comfort of DSLR. So here is what i got.

The fujifilm finepix S5800 was a real bargain at the pricepoint of Rs. 8900($220 approx). It comes with a 8MP sensor with Fujinon Lens and 10X optical zoom. To be honest i could not tell the difference between picture qualities unless there is a huge difference. So while on one hand i read a lot of reviews and praise about the Canon cameras being the best in the series, on the other hand i knew that i want something which is easy to use and is friendly for a casual snapper like me.

Now coming to the things that are important to me. This camera is really comfortable. Holding it in one hand you can perform all the function just using one hand. Though the camera looks kind of heavy it does not feel that way when you hold it in your hand. The credit goes to the design. The batterys go into the slot which is kind of the place where your palm rest on the camera and therefore you do not feel the weight. The camera does come with a lot of manual options but till now while shooting in the day the best mode i found was N(natural light). It really gives great result. Ofcourse there a little purple fringing but its not evident unless you maximise your zoom. Another plus point i think is the AA size batteries. It just makes things easier for you. Anytime the camera runs low on battery all you need to do is walk into a nearby store and purchase four AA size batteries and put them in. You dont need to look for a place where you can charge your camera. The macro mode is also good. I have tried the macro mode to take closeup photos to as least distance as 1 cm and they turned out to be really good. One more thing why i chose this one over fujifilm finepix s5700(the 7MP alternate) is that this camera supports memory cards(xD,SD,SDHC) upto 8GB. Right now i am using a 1 GB card but i will be upgrading it soon to a 8GB SDHC.

I know this is my first camera and i am not "Mr. Knowall" about cameras but i must say i am very happy with this product and for a user like me who clicks pictures as hobby or during vacations and other ocassion rather than for professional purpose this is one of the best option.

How to download from Tudou

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:08:00 +0000

Tudou as you know is most likely the best site for watching videos online. However you may find it difficult to download the videos from there. Few days ago i came upon an application called itudou which you need to download and install but could not make it work as it was all in chinese and i dont know to read or write chinese. However good thing for me and you guys is that i stumbled upon this site called http://www.pkez.com/ where you can get a download link for the videos.
Its pretty simple. All you need to do is start the video, copy the link from the address bar. Go to the above mentioned website and paste the link in the test box on the page which has the little blue button with the chinese letters on it. Click on the chinese box and you will get a download link. Now even thats in chinese but you can make it out since it will have an arrow pointing down with green cirlcle around it. Right click and save target as to download it into your computer. Done.

There you go. Now the file format is flv. So get a flash player or some player which supports flv format.

Crysis Review

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:54:00 +0000

Just Completed the game a few days back and now sitting down to jot down a few thoughts about the game.

First of all the game was too easy. It was over too fast and i didnt like it. The last boss was so easy that it was laughable. However other than that the game has a lot of positive sides.

The graphics were superb. I could not play the game with high or very high setting on my dual core, 1 GB ram, 8800GT but even with medium settings the game turned out to be best looking game in my experience. The environments were destructive and very interactive and it was nice. The weapon modification concept was good. The nanosuit concept was good. But they really could have improvised in the AI and the length of the game department. The ending leaves you wanting more but unfortunately we will have to wait for Crysis 2 or the expansion pack to release.

Prince of Persia Classic

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:47:00 +0000

Recently downloaded the prince of persia classic from the airtel but i did not have the chance to play it other than on my way to work. Well it takes about 30 minutes to reach my place of work from Home and so far i have been playing the games everyday.

The game is great. The gameplay is good. Though sometimes it gets a little trying i personally like the challenge. The prince wears the same clothes which he wore in the sands of time saga. Surprisingly there is a dark prince too. But its something you will have to achieve. The replay value is also pretty good. Since you may not be able to collect all the health potion in your first attempt you may want to play again if you want to achieve all 9 health potions.

The graphics look good. The game's framerate is very smooth and i didn't experience any stutter as long as i only ran this application. This game is probably 10 times better than the Prince of Persia The Two Thrones from gameloft.

Have to give it to gameloft this time for bringing another great game to the mobile world.

Light on Vodafone service india

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:53:00 +0000

During my school days in calcutta a few years ago i had secretly taken a mobile phone without informing my parents and the school authorities. Most of the time i had to keep it hidden but one thing i realised that time was that every person who buys a cell phone and takes a connection will need to call the cell service provider's support number. This is something which no one can refrain from. So the level of customer service that a cell service provides is something everyone will experience.

My first connection was Command, which later became Hutch. After i moved to Bangalore i had to take a new connection and i chose Hutch. I was happy with Hutch. Notice how i mentioned "was" instead of "is"? Thats right. I was. They were very good. Everytime i called them they were available. Their agents were helpful and had knowledge of what they were talking about. Once i could not setup my GPRS connection so they gave me the settings so that i could put them manually. Well that is long gone.

I changed my connection to Airtel 2 years ago. Till now. Why? Well, for starter, i dont know why but Hutch service started to suck. And to tell the truth Airtel is good. Their service is good. Their GPRS is faster and its easier to get connected. The deals are competitive. However it seemed difficult to get a post paid connection from Airtel so got myself a Hutch. Well during the time of taking the connection the Hutch agents took over a month to get my address right. Should have understood at that time about their service. However to cut a long story short i ended up with Hutch once again. Which became Vodafone after a month.

Few days ago i decided to activate the EGPRS service. However i tried using the Hutch settings for GPRS, not sure if it will work, and it worked like a charm. One day my access point got removed and i called the customer care for the setting. The agent told me that they will be sending me the setting by sms. They took down my phone details and sent me a setting. However whenever i tried to open that message it asked for something called "configuration pin". I called them again to ask the configuration pin. I was told that it was 123. Tried. Its not 123 for certain. Called them up again and confronted the customer support agent and he started lying. However i remembered the settings for Hutch_GPRS and put it in myself and it worked.

So whats the moral of this story? Dont contact Vodafone support is you are in need. By the way the settings for Hutch/Vodafone GPRS are as following

Connection name: Hutch_GPRS
Access point name: portalnmms
IP : automatic
Type: IPv4
username:
password:
proxy ip address: 10.10.1.100
proxy port: 9401

Its shocking that the Vodafone support is not aware of this settings.

Die Hard for Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:44:00 +0000

In my previous blog when i mentioned that i am not gaming at all, well, that was not entirely correct. I am but in my nokia N73m(if you call that gaming). Let me tell you something about this game that i recetly played(if you call that playing).

Well if you have played games on cellphones and are familiar with the games and the types of games Gameloft makes then you must be aware of the fact that Gameloft's games are by far the best games you can get for you mobile.

I remember when i used to have the Nokia 3660 and downloaded games from gameloft and was blown away. Games like Nightmare creatures, XIII, Prince of Persia Sands of Time, Splinter cell were in fact very good games and thoroughly enjoyable. I know the experience on mobile gaming cannot be compared to the ones on consoles or PC but nonetheless they should give you the satisfaction which should suffice the amount of money you spent in purchasing the game.

This is one of those games that gives you very little satisfaction after playing. The game looks good. Gameloft have evolved with time in the graphics department and the games made nowdays for mobiles are far better than the games which we used to get earlier. However the story is nothing new and i was surprised to find that none of the main villains from the movie are present. Atleast they could have put boss fights like they did in Prince of persia or Assassins Creed(which is a great game by the way). Though one can live without the boss fights, the gameplay is very monotonous and feels like as if you are shooting the same person everytime. Since its a mobile game i didnt expect many different characters and Gameloft lived upto that expectations(no puns intended). One thing unexpectable about this game is the framerate which stutters a lot specially if played for more than 15 minutes. Maybe i should blame Nokia for making phones with less RAM but then gameloft knows the specs of the phones and they should make it in such a way so that its playable. I didnt even bother to play the latter stages since the framerate was too low which made it unplayable. But ofcourse this does not mean that gameloft sucks.

They do really make great mobile games and this is most likely just an isolated event of crappiness. Well lets wait and watch only time will tell.

life without gaming

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:33:00 +0000

Oh its been three months now I have been living away from my computer. Sold my graphics card so its not any good anyway. The only real purpose I used my computer is for gaming and now I am devoid of games and lost in oblivion among millions of other non-gamers.

Huh! life sucks without games. Feel so miserable sometimes. I recently moved into a small place and left my computer with my friend. So as you can imagine no gaming for me. That too at this crucial point when great games like Crysis, Unreal tournament 3, Bioshock has been released. I am falling behind my peers by huge margin. How can this be? However I will surely get a console before GTA IV comes out. This is certain.

Have been planning to get myself a Xbox 360 but it seems a little too expensive. Hmmm applied for a credit card from ICICI since they give the best deal on Xbox. I wish to get a Xbox 360 core system from India or if possible from Play-asia.com.

After I get the console hope to juice up the blogsite with more reviews.

PAN card

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:35:00 +0000

I just got my PAN card through online application. To tell you the truth I am amazed by the speed of processing and the ease of application procedure. Couldnt be anymore happy with the tax department of India. Ha Ha. Really, its so easy to apply for PAN card online and its done so easily that I am at a loss of speech here.

Well few days back few people from a tax processing organisation came to our office and told us that if we submitted the necessary documents then they would give us the PAN card within 45 working days. Now that would be 2 months in real world time. Luckily I didnt have all the necessary papers with me on that very day. I saw some of my colleauges applying though. So, I asked them if i could walk into their office and apply. They agreed and gave me an address which is in Malleswaram. Now i stay in Koramangala and that office address that they gave was clean 30 KM away from my place. I thought Hell this is gonna be a hard thing to apply. Moreover they would be closed on saturday and sunday. I had decided that i would apply only when they are coming to office the next time. That would be another 3-4 months.

After my failed effort to apply through the agency, I went online and searched for PAN card application on google and found this site https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/pan/index.html. Hmmm so this site lets you apply online for PAN card. To tell the truth I wasnt very excited about it since most of the times(as far as i have noticed) these sites which are run by government are out of service or down. But i was suprised to see that they are taking application.

So what i did? I filled up the form and submitted it. At this point they ask you how you want to pay. You may pay using a credit card or if you have Citibank account then pay through online banking. In case you dont have either then you can choose to pay by DD or cheque. They also clearly mention that paying by DD or cheque may delay the process by the number of days it takes to process the cheque or DD by the bank. Since i have a citibank account, i chose to pay via online banking. Rs. 67.00. That gave me a webpage that i needed to print. Printed a few copies of the Acknowledgement form(thats what its called) and put my photograph and the required documents. Now the required documents while applying online is also not unreasonable. All i had to provide was my matriculation certificate as identity proof and a employment letter from the HR department. Walk in a park. The next step, send the documents to the given address in Mumbai. So i couriered it to the address. Cost Rs. 75. Done. Now the waiting.

Since i didnt have much expectation i was surprised when i got a mail on monday i had sent the courier on wednesday. So that makes it 3 working days. huh!!!! Now why did i ever think of settling for 45 working days with the agency? Now the mail gives me my PAN number but i havent received my PAN card yet. But thats ok since PAN account is more important than the PAN card itself. I should be getting the card by next 3 days.

So here it goes, apply for PAN card online and get a PAN card within a week. If you dont have any sense of time then go for the agencies. Ha ha ha. Dont understand why would anyone want to apply through an agency.

If you want a PAN card i would say online is the way to go.

Dinner time!!

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:13:00 +0000

Yeah, sounds like a meagre post isnt it? Well what i have noticed is that people have forgotten the importance of eating. Look at other creatures they are so much into food because they realise that thats the basic need for living.

We humans on the other hand have plenty of food and dont realise how lucky we are and go after entertainment and other luxuries.
Well all this ranting just to type in about some food? Ranting? maybe.

Well here in Bangalore good food is scarce. When I mean scarce I mean that you get food which is expensive, which looks good and smells good but does not taste good. Easy for me to say since I am not the one cooking I guess.

However, some friends and myself pitched in some money together and bought byriani. Well gotta be honest byriani in Bangalore pretty much sucks compared to what I used to have in Calcutta a.k.a Kolkata. But thats ok. I have come to accept it after staying for a couple of years in Bangalore and anyone coming down to Bangalore from Calcutta will also accept it. Anyway to make a long story short, few days back I had the chance to taste the byriani from a particular Restaurent named Angaan. It is just beside my office and charges a hefty some for the dish. A plate of chicken byriani will cost you Rs. 110. Now wait a minute, I couldnt have imagined having a plate of byriani in Calcutta for Rs. 110. The people would probably burn down the restaurent.

Well this is not Calcutta and this is Banglaore so I went ahead and got myself the byriani. Now, it looked good. spicy like how byrianis should look, smells like true byriani but the tase wasnt there! Hell i couldnt believe that black magic was prevalent in this century. I mean How could they managet to do that? Not that i am against Angaan or anything but thats just how it is here man!

Well the bottomline of this blog!
One advice to the chefs/cooks of the restaurent is that - "Dont cook byriani if you cant".

Om Shanti OM review

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 20:05:00 +0000

Om Shanti Om a.k.a OSO.

Om Shanti Om a.k.a OSO.

Just finished watching the movie. Well I am a Shah Rukh Khan fan and so this may seem biased but the movie was pretty good. I mean it was completely entertaining. It is a typical hindi movie though. It has everything you usually expect from hindi movie(bits and pieces combined). Almost all the stars from the film industry makes a guest appearance in this movie. And i liked the scenes with SRK and Kiran Kher. They were hilarious. Well if you like SRK and like bollywood i guess this movie is for you.

First post

noreply@blogger.com (David Drong) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:56:00 +0000

Hi, this is the first post for my blogsite, its been so long that i have heard about blogs and blogging but never bothered to open up a blogsite. Well will be updating regularily from now on.
See ya