Blogger's Delight

The essence of fellowship..!!

2015-12-07T23:07:00.000-05:00

(I love my readers, hence I've added music to the web version to enhance your reading experience, please listen to it while you read)

Duh, I hate to do this, but I guess it's necessary that I pen this down.

It suddenly appeared to me that I would have to write something on "Good Companionship" as a token of gratitude to all my friends, and this one is for all the people who are dearer to my heart and who at some point in my life touched my soul in a way or so and stayed with me to enjoy my company or left me behind with their memories soothing me every single night before I retire to bed.

From experiencing the first beer to the first smoke,

From the first presentation to the first dance,

From the first day of college to the first day of office,

From buying the first bike to the first car,

From the first mobile SMS to the first smart phone chat,

From mimicking the girl next door to portraying the favorite actor,

Sharing almost every walk of the life, experiencing breakups, loosing friends, combined studies, prizes, surprises, games, birthdays, tears, appraisals, competitions, last minute assignments,
fights, farewells, vacations, trekking, long drives, movies, night outs, lying to parents, apologizing to teachers, mass bunks, college canteens, Friday night parties, ranting about bosses and laughing out loud, waiting for buses, sharing dinner bills and the list goes on..!!

In this busy life of constant chaos there happens to be a delicate yet a powerful emotion which has been binding a number of strangers and had been proving itself as the strongest form of love, it doesn't require an approval from your guardians or legal bonding from the court of law, it doesn't require gifts nor does it require bribes yet it prevails as the one that makes people want to stay close to one another. Friendship is one of the best forms of relationship where you are true to yourself in portraying your inner identity.

It is an amazing feeling to meet as strangers skeptical of one another, growing together enduring different phases of life through time, sharing common thoughts, making memories in this process and as time passes by, leave one another in favor of the destiny and silently wish to go back to the time spent together.

We learn it the hard way that every journey begins only to end at a certain point of time and that appears to happen when one gets legally bound to spend the rest of their time with their soul mates in a nuptial agreement. It really is difficult to think that circumstances wouldn't allow us to share our personal space with the ones we've been sharing our valuable secrets for almost half of our lives here after, but I guess it's a way to let go of the old contemplations to give way for some new ones to occupy the void.

Hell yeah, new people new places and new beginnings do excite us, but it's always the old wine which is delectable. Maybe in this journey called life, everyone one of us is bound to meet an accomplice who sculpts us into something that defines our identity and then moves away just so that we could evolve into what we are destined for.

"People come and go through different phases of our lives, but the trails they leave behind in our memories to think about and muse over for the rest of our lives is what makes this intricate emotion exceptionally great"

To Love and To be Loved

2015-11-28T13:19:00.000-05:00

(Spoiler: NSFW)

The Love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

~The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin.

"Whenever I get drunk, I miss her like hell. God my head is aching and I swear I will never have another shot of vodka or rum in the next party..!! I swear..!" Are the words of Ram, my best friend upon waking up at 2pm on any given Sunday which had been his weekly routine from the past 3 months. He's been suffering from some distress off late which I have been observing but couldn't push him to spill the beans.

Prelude:

Whenever people spoke about best friends, Ram and I were the only topic they could think of. We had been friends for God knows how long from childhood, and I knew exactly how Ram would behave in different situations.

Being a very bright person with morals and ethics right from his childhood, he was always the paragon for children in our locality. People would follow him blindly for they believed that Ram would never go wrong in anything that he does and he always lived up to their expectations. Never had he disappointed anyone in anything, he was the ideal person.

This virtue made him an ace in any field that he chose, and I being his ardent worshiper, always used to follow him wherever he went and this went on until we had completed our bachelor’s degree and joined the same office.

It had been two years since we had joined office and Ram had already received accolades from the top management for his work. Being awarded the best employee of the year, he was now the star of the multibillion dollar company and everyone looked on his performance and secretly wanted to be like him and I was one among them. There were admirers of his work and there were people who were jealous but nonetheless he was the star.

But life is not all bed of roses, and this is true even for the most successful people. For the past four months I had been observing the changing attitude of Ram, he was not socializing as he used to and was always keeping to himself. People who once found him as a fierce competition in the office started ignoring him, and Ram who was once a star started losing his charm and started fading away, he started spending most of his time strolling in the office canteen busy scrolling down on WhatsApp or Facebook and feeling distressed. It looked as if he had lost some valuable part of his life.

In knew that a man could go so low only in two issues, one is money and the other is a woman. Ram was attractive with muscular body type that most of the woman desire secretly in their fantasies, and I knew from childhood that he less cared about girls or women, so I obviously thought that he was being bothered by money.

So I started thinking in that direction. He had this habit of investing in shares and his interest for share market was very high, so I initially thought that he must have lost a huge chunk of money and I felt he was brooding over those issues. So I started bringing up the issues about the latest developments in the share market to give him fresh insights on the market but his behavior was erratic and he never bothered about the market and used to stare constantly at his phone. I now felt that something seriously was going on in his life and I even went to imagine if he was being threatened by goons in the share market and I seriously wanted to help him.

I wanted to dig deep into this to find out the reason which kept him shackled to this misery.

It was a Friday evening and he was looking into his mobile as usual and I saw him getting frustrated over people bantering over where to hangout for the Friday night and I was observing him and noticed an unusual distress in his face and in this frustration he started walking briskly towards the office elevator away from his cabin, and in this process he forgot his mobile at the office desk and reached out to his bike to escape the chatter among us.

I found this as an opportunity to sneak into his privacy to find out what has been bothering him so much these days. I initially started out looking for contacts which where strange enough for me, I knew most of his friends so I could immediately point out if any contact was strange enough in his list but I couldn't find anything of that sort. Then I started looking into his gallery to find out if he was being threatened by any obscene pictures as it is common these days for the cyber criminals to attack anyone for money but I was out of luck, he was being cautious enough by deleting all the media as and when he would receive and so I checked his Facebook feed but in vain and as a last resort I was scrolling quickly through the Whatsapp, I knew I wouldn't find anything out of box so I was about to close the app and place the phone at the place from where I picked it up and it was then that something struck me as a million volt jolt.

It was that picture, seeing which I was dumbstruck. I couldn't move an inch and all I could do was look at it with perplexed mind. Everything was the same except for the name. It was then that I knew what was bothering him so much and everything fell into its place. My mind revved and took me back to the college memories.

I immediately realized that it was not money neither fear nor pain. I was wrong in thinking that there's always these three reasons behind a man's success or failure, there is one more element which has the power to unite or devastate a man.

It blew my brains when I came to know that it was much more dangerous than these two elements, and it was none other than "LOVE".

It took time for me to come out of the shock, I had read about people going crazy for love even to the extent of attempting suicide but had never experienced it with any of my friends, but for the first time I felt that LOVE really has a long lasting effect on people.

I had to act quickly else I knew I wouldn't be able to bring back the old Ram, for Love has adverse effects on people who fail in it.

I knew it was her and she was back and this time she is going to be there in his mind for a very long time. I knew I was going to have a difficult time in bringing him out of that situation, and so I started thinking when and where it had all started, and as I looked back into time, I knew I would have to start from the juvenile days of my bachelor’s degree where we were all young and untouched by the cupid.

I wanted to dig deep into this to find out the reason which kept him shackled to this misery.

3 years back.....

OnePlus to launch the second version of the OnePlus Two by December 2015..!!

2015-08-03T16:21:00.002-04:00

Did you know that OnePlus is launching a new phone this December?

OnePlus to launch version 2

Yes..!! Despite the fact that the OnePlus has launched a phone one week back with all the #HYPE, the Chinese start-up's Co-Founder (Carl Pei) surprised everyone with the news confirming that there would be new phone which would be launched in the month of December (hopefully by Christmas). The fact remains that the OnePlus Two’s market is still fledgling with all the pre-orders pouring in, and at this point of time with the announcement of the new phone, the customers are in a dilemma whether to buy the OnePlus two or go with the new model which is soon to arrive.

Although the Carl had announced that the new model might or might not be as attractive or as powerful as the OnePlus two, the buyers minds are now at a turnstile where they are unable to decide between the already tough choice of choosing between the OP2 and MOTO X.

Carl's verbatim “There's going to be a second phone this year, before the end of the year. Hopefully for Christmas. It may or may not be (higher spec'd than the OnePlus 2). When I saw the prototype for that phone I was like 'holy s*** that's going to be my daily driver' but then when the OnePlus 2 production version came out it's also super nice, so it’s really hard to decide now what to use. It's going to be amazing, but today I'm not going to talk about it."

Speculations are that the phone might sport a better screen with higher resolution as opposed to the full HD screen in OP2, but when asked about the lack of NFC in the OP2, he said “I know that Android Pay is coming but all that is in the future. It (NFC) is going to gain widespread adoption in stores 12-18 months from now. By that time people will have moved on to the next device” so we might as well expect the new phone to be be stripped of the NFC feature.

Click here for more information

Know the science behind choosing your coloured sunglasses

2015-08-01T01:13:00.001-04:00

Sunglasses, Shades, Goggles, Specs, blah blah blah.. this was the most fantasized pair of shit I've always wanted. From childhood, I started bugging my dad to buy me a pair of these shiny looking eye-covering things so that I could go about in the bright sun to play cricket or roam around the city (which was just a reason to show off) and he always used to drag the issue to the point where he would win the argument of not having this pair owing to the worldwide deteriorating
eye-sight conditions which are more prevalent in children between the age groups of 12 to 18 years and he always used to live up to me by saying that he would get me the best pair once I turn 16, and it was in this hope that I waited long enough that before I turned 16, I prayed to God daily to change my dad’s thought process and escalate the issue. But God always played on my enemy side and hence lo and behold, my prayers have been answered and I now have a thick ugly looking pair of spectacles which I've always dreaded of wearing. Thanks to my eating habits and my addiction to playing video games, the thickness has been increasing similar to the IQ of an engineering student (small but significant).

Despite my inability to don the shades, I was always interested in how cool the different coloured shades would change my average looking facial contour and thereby I started trying out different colours whenever I stepped into a shopping mall. Although I never bought any of them I used to pester the sales men at the stores to show me more and more colours just to quench my curiosity and while I was at it, the people at the showroom used to curse me internally for wasting their valuable time and I could hear them whispering about me when I walked out of the shop empty handed. This went on for years and I gradually developed an interest on the colours of the shades rather than the form. I didn't know when my obsession for the colours started but it quite changed my perception of styles let it be Pilots, Rounds, Rimless, Wayfarers, or Wraps, I always used to end up with the selection of colours.

I always felt that black and mirrored reflecting surfaces are fair and square but wondered why in the world would any sun-glass manufacturing company go out of the way to produce shades of green, yellow, gold, rose, orange and sometimes double gradient tints, and hence I slowly started my research on the reasons why most manufacturing companies produce shades in different colours and I finally ended up finding out that there is a specific reason for each and every colour and this blew my brains out. I thought that it was always the cosmetic appeal that played the major role in the design of these products but I was astonished to find out some out of the box facts.

But before jumping into the colours, let me tell you that these three types namely Direct light, Reflected light and Ambient light play a vital role in the perception of the intensity and its reception by the eye and hence based on these light conditions the colours are to be chosen. The sunglasses with different colours are very functional and attractive but only the right lens for the right occasion can give you the advantage of using one.

Red:

Red Tinted sunglasses

I being in Michigan suffer from a condition called the “Snowy Weather” (I hate snow) for most of my year (almost 6 months) goes by in snow and its highly unlikely that I see sun in these six months and so I tried out different coloured lenses for my sunglasses and according to my research I found that the shades of Red serves the purpose. I found that my eyes strained less and was able to view the roads much clearer. It’s not normal to go for bicycle ride on a snowy day, but if I ever do that then I would venture out with the Red shaded sunglasses.

Yellow:

Yellow tinted sunglasses

Now yellow would look good for T-shirts with blue jeans, but for the eye-wear I strictly don’t prefer such inaccessible colour. But this one does have its own benefits, such as in foggy or smoky conditions this colour definitely helps us out in sorting out things by sifting out the blue light that makes it difficult to concentrate and it’s great for skiing, skydiving and other outdoor activities that involves a lot of sky view but let me remind you that this colour causes a lot of colour misrepresentation and hence I would suggest you to use it during the sunrise and sunset times.

Green:

Green tinted sunglasses

Now this is getting awkward, I have never seen anyone sport a green lens but I had read somewhere that this colour actually can be used in the rain which I have never tested out (yak..!! who would want to go out in the rain with green shades on his face) and to be honest, I would never want to use it (duh..!! I know that Green is good but I hated vegetables from childhood and I hate green). But the science says that it reduces glare by enhancing the shadows and provides greatest visual sharpness which should be good for all-purpose use (but guys..!! seriously?? Green??).

Gold/Amber/ Copper/ Orange:

copper color tinted sunglasses

This is interesting, chicks dig gold and as the history says gold is expensive. But with great price comes good quality and it appears to be true with this colour. Looks like this lens has a red element that can enhance the depth perception by making the environment look brighter and hence it can be used for games like Golf, high altitude sports, sailing where distance needs to be judged (expensive sunglasses for expensive games eh?).

Black/Grey:

Black tinted sunglasses

Provides good shielding from intense light with marginal distortion to the colours around us and provides true colour perception. Been always my favourite and it can blend along with any clothing style and any weather conditions and can be used at any outdoor sports.

Double gradient:

Gradient Tinted sunglasses

These are shaded from top to bottom and these can cut out the glare from the sky but allow you to see clearly below which is exceptionally good for driving but not so good at beach and snow as the water and snow reflects light back to the eyes. These are cosmetically appealing, fashionable, improves colour perception and can be generally used for watching sports (audience) and driving.

Good news:

There are some health benefits of coloured lenses and apart from making you look cool, these lenses cut out the blue light which causes sleeping problems and bipolar disorders by suppressing Melatonin and hence always make sure that the sunglasses that you choose can screen out 75-95% of visible light and for this, test the glasses by standing in front of a mirror and see if your eyes are visible, if they are, then they are probably too light. (see health benefits here)

There are other lenses such as polarized, photo-chromic, impact resistant glasses but my interest was only on the colours and I could only gather information on these and I feel that there’s lot more to explore.

“Always remember that you have only one pair and so you should protect them”

you can click here for more information on sunglasses.

Weekend Diaries 2015 A.D, July - A two day Trip to Chicago--->> DAY-2

2015-07-29T22:01:00.000-04:00

DAY 2 (Continued from DAY-1)

We had a sound sleep in the car except for the backache and the cramps in the neck sleeping for 6 straight hours in the car. So by the morning when we woke up we found that the rest area had a big complex where we had good breakfast and bathrooms to freshen up. There was something special about that rest area (price: free), it was built on top of the freeway connecting two opposite ends like a bridge giving an amazing view of the roads and the vehicles passing beneath it.

And there was a display of vintage Chevrolet Camero along with a Ducati inside the complex.

Rest Area

Vehicles passing beneath the rest area

Chevrolet Camero

Ducati

Architecture Tour-Chicago First Lady [map]

We had booked the tickets for the Chicago Architectural Tour (price $42) the previous day and the tour stated at 09:30 in the morning and we were having our breakfast here at the rest area at 08:50 and we had to rush as we had to travel 15 miles and according to the maps we were right on time, but the one thing that we overlooked was the traffic and so by the time we reached there and by the time we parked our vehicle, it was already 09:30 and the ferry had left by then, disappointed we tried to test our luck in getting another set of tickets for a ferry that was scheduled at 10:00 and hence we went to the ticket counter and requested them that we had missed the boat at 09:30 and asked them if we could get an exchange on tickets, and the gentleman over the counter was kind enough to exchange those tickets for another ride and viola..!! we were in the queue for the amazing Chicago architectural ride.

For the next 90 minutes we witnessed the amazing architecture of Chicago and its unforgettable history. The first lady (name of the boat) had a woman who was standing at the deck and explaining the beauty and the history of each and every building we came across in the boat ride which took us though the city cutting into every corner of the river. It was a great experience to see those big and tall buildings standing straight for centuries withstanding the harsh weather and providing shelter to the population coming from all over the world and also the beauty of the modern architecture which utilized a wide variety of materials for those buildings.

Chicago Sky Line

View of the TRUMP hotel from the Cruise

City Tour

Chicago River

The Museum of Science and Industry [map]

This is by far the biggest museum that I have seen until now (price: $18). It covers all the aspects ranging from History, Space, Technology, Genetics, Automobiles, Aviation etc. and it would take a minimum of 3 hours to see the entire museum at a glance. So have patience and good stamina to roam around this museum moving across the three floors and juggling between different genre.

Museum of Science and Industry

Astronaut from the Space Genre

It's a Dog..!! Believe me

From the History Genre

Wrapping up

By the afternoon, we had finally completed touring the museum and we were very hungry and so, we ended up going back to the Hyderabad House to have some Haleem and Biryani and then by 16:00 we started back to Michigan. It took us 4 hours to travel back considering it was Sunday and the traffic was normal and by the time we reached home, it was 21:00.

Chicago is a fun-filled, and beautiful city with the exceptionally good landscapes, architectures and people all around us making us realize that life is still fun and always exciting.

P.S: Things required for the Journey:

1. GPS.
2. A car in a good condition.
3. Minimum of $400 in credit card.
4. An Account in UBER.
5. A thing for the appreciation of beauty.
6. A DSLR camera

Weekend Diaries 2015 A.D, July - A two day Trip to Chicago--->> DAY-1

2015-07-29T19:32:00.000-04:00

The impromptu travels have always been fun considering my group of friends and the laziness we possess. I have always been thinking of writing about my travels, but considering my procrastination and the busy schedule (which is completely not true), I've skipped some of the most important journeys mainly covering the major cities and to mention a few would be New York City, Atlantic city, Texas, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina.

Given that it's been a year since I had first traveled to the United States in 2014, I had developed a sense of traveler's eye. But considering the Master's Program that I had enrolled for, I haven't had a lot of spare time to travel so I had to squeeze in my journeys or limit them to weekends or the long weekends.

It is true that when people have the right age they don't have the money to travel, and when they do have the money they don't have the time to explore and when they have both time and money they tend to lose the age. In order not to fall into any of those three categories, I've decided that I would make the ends meet and explore the world even with all the three constraints of money, age and time. And with this motto in mind, I have decided that I would travel the world with all my resources and I've decided that I would record all the memories so that when I grow old, I would look back just to see how effectively have I used my days.

What inspired me to write this story:

Recently I had traveled to one of the busiest cities of the United States which is bustling with people from all corners of the world and which is popularly known for its architectural marvels. Yes, you must have guessed it right by this time and its Chicago- The Windy city.

I had always wanted to travel to this place, considering that Chicago is not so far from Michigan (where I live), I couldn't get a chance to travel although many of my friends had been to this place multiple number of times and they had been cursing their fate for not being able to live there. Whenever any of my friends traveled to Chicago, the first thing they would start off bragging about would be the roads of Michigan, they would start off with the potholes and the unfinished roads and then they would turn their views to the beautiful high rise building of the city and would infuse my brain with their love of Chicago, and this had always annoyed me. I love Michigan and I cannot stand a word against it as such decided that I would have to travel to this place at least once to check out the city and to see what's so special about this place that everyone is craving to live there.

And one fine day, one of my friend had a chance to travel to India (I would consider that as a golden opportunity to taste the homemade Indian food as opposed the daily insipid diet that we as bachelors cook regularly just to satiate hunger), so taking this as an opportunity we planned on making a road trip (a superfluous word to show off that we traveled a good amount of distance on road) to Chicago just to wave him goodbye (student’s mentality: just to save the ticket from Detroit to Chicago). Finally after my band of friends agreed upon this, the dates were fixed and the tickets were booked.

I being so much frustrated by the amount of good things fed into my ears about Chicago, started searching for the famous destinations in this windy city, and indeed I stumbled upon so many places that I started prioritizing the exhaustive list of all the places in accordance with the two days that we had planned to stay. So my list for the two days went on like this:

World famous Giordano’s Deep Dish Pizza (To get killed by the cheese)
Skydeck -Willis Tower (To experience nausea with the vertigo)
Navy Pier (To go blind with the amazing fireworks
Chicago’s subway train (To avoid the deadly traffic)
Chicago architecture tour (To get amused by the Architectural marvel)
Museum of Science and Industry (For the love of technology)
Millennium Park- Cloud Gate (cause all Indians take a picture here)
Magnificent Mile (To go bankrupt with all the shopping)
Walk along the downtown (To see the colors of America)
Chicago beach at the lake Michigan (Because babes look gorgeous in Bikinis)
360 Chicago
Shedd Aquarium

The Journey

This list continued but I had to condense it for the two day travel. We started off the journey on Friday the 10th of July (Damn..!! Two days short of the 13th) by renting the all new Chevrolet Impala (price: $40 per day) at National Alamo. I must admit that the General Motors had seriously worked on their blackboards and thrown in their best of Stylists, Designers and Engineers into this piece of sheet metal. It’s a sheer beauty to look and ride this 3.6L V6 engine with 300 horses under the shiny metal (I am sorry to elaborate this but the slightest touch of automobiles grabs me off the grid).

Right before the Journey to the Windy City

So we started off the journey by 22:00 (which we initially planned to start by 20:00) and cruised along the I94 and after travelling for like 4 hours we had to stop to rest as it was almost 02:00 and so we booked a hotel on the fly at DaysInn, the rooms were good enough for the night stay for $120 for 4 people. Before we slept, we had planned that we would wake up at 06:00 which left us with 4 hours of sleep so that we could spend the most of our time in Chicago downtown but by the time we woke up we found that we had dozed off a bit more than the time planned for and so realizing this we hit the breakfast fast enough and then hit the road to the downtown.

DaysInn

Day-1

The day started off with each of us planning on what to see for the rest of the day, but the main agenda for the day remained that we would drop off our friend at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport, by 17:30 as he had to catch the flight to India by 20:30. So we reached the Chicago downtown by 11:00. But every one of us knew that Chicago is a busy city and considering the downtown which is always crowded by people, we all feared as to where to park our vehicle. Parking had been one of the major problem we faced on many of the travels in the past, and this time we had come up with a good solution for this problem and for this we had to take help of the smartphone industry. We found out that there is a smartphone app for finding out the parking spaces in cities through which we could book the parking spots and it's called the spothero app [android, iPhone] and this tiny app saved us a lot of frustration thanks to technology. Using this app we found a convenient place to park our car at prudential plaza which was the cheapest place we found to park for that day and also which was closer to the Millennium park, Chicago river walk, and the Magnificent mile.

**Millennium Park [map]**

After parking, we finally ventured out into the downtown, we first started off with the Millennium Park [map] which has the cloud gate or more popularly known "Bean". It was designed by Indian Born British artist named Anish Kapoor and he named it "The Cloud Gate" [map] as 80% of its surface reflects the sky, and it is made of 168 steel plates welded together with no visible seams resembling liquid mercury. It adds up to the beauty of the city as more and more visitors are drawn towards this piece of architectural marvel.

Cloud Gate

Cloud Gate and buildings surrounding it

Jay Pritzker Pavilion [map]

After clicking few snaps at the cloud gate we moved along the park and encountered the Jay Pritzker Pavilion [map], this is the area where we found the young and the old dancing to the tunes of the instructor and upon further inquiry we found out that it was Zumba which resembles the form of dance but essentially turns out to be a workout session with dance moves. The place basically is an amphitheater with a capacity to accommodate 11000 people in a single gathering good enough for social events. And the one that was going on at that time was the summer workout session in which any one could participate.

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Magnificent Mile [map]

We walked through the Pritzker pavilion and came out through the walkway which connected the art institute of Chicago, but us being not the art connoisseurs had to take a U-turn and check the next destination which was the Magnificent Mile [map]. This is one of the main attractions for the people who see Chicago as a shopping destination. You would find all sorts of brands ranging from Gap to Zara and the best part is that these shops have sale running from time to time. So if you are planning on shopping along with your girlfriend in Chicago then I would suggest this place so save your time and money.

Garrett Popcorn shop [map]

While walking along our way from the Millennium Park to the Magnificent Mile we stopped at this shop which was solely dedicated to making popcorn. We were amazed to see a big popcorn shop in the middle of this busy downtown and wondered how something as trivial as popcorn could generate such huge amounts of income that a whole shop is dedicated to serving popcorn to people, and as we were wondering about this we smelled the sweet scent of the popcorn slowly drawing us towards the shop and in no time we were inside the shop choosing the different flavors and hence we concluded that it was the taste of the popcorn that had essentially generated the revenue. The popcorn tasted of something that I had never tasted before it was just perfect in all senses. We bought two different flavors one of which was caramel and the other being spicy cheese something which tasted absolutely mouthwatering. And then we continued walking from one shop to another to see the different brands of clothing and other stuff.

Garrett Popcorn

CTA Blue Line [map]

By the time our shopping had ended, we were exhausted and we had to travel to O’Hare international airport to send off our friend. So we headed towards the subway as it was the fastest means of transport in that busy traffic. We found out that the nearest subway station was at Monroe and so we picked up our luggage from the parking where we had stuffed it up in the Prudential Plaza and then carried it all the way to Monroe subway station and took tickets for the CTA Blueline Express to the O’Hare International airport.

It always amazes me comparing the train fares to other means of transport and finding them to be so economical. Travelling in the subway is a great experience (similar to the one that I had in India with the MMTS in Hyderabad except for lesser people and faster speeds) with people travelling to different destinations. Looking through the windows of the train reminded me of the childhood days when we used to travel in train during the summer vacation to our grandfather’s place and I used to fight with my sister for the window seat to enjoy the view of the paddy fields and villages moving in front of us quickly as the train zipped with its enormous speed (although we used to fall asleep every time the train starts picking up momentum). It took approximately 30 minutes for the express to reach our destination which is also the dead end of the city for the trains. We quickly reached for the airport terminal and waved good bye to our friend as he was all excited to visit India after 3 years of his stay here at the United States. And then we returned to the same old CTA Blue line station and planned the next part of our journey.

We had already consumed a day without our notice and now we had to check out the next destination on our agenda and it was the Willis Tower [map]. So we booked our tickets to the Jackson [map] subway station so that it would be a 10 minute walk from there to the tower. And so did we get down at the station and started walking. This part of the city was not so active with traffic or people when compared to the one at the Millennium Park, and we wondered if it was the time that had taken a toll on the movements as it was 20:30 in the night but the sunlight was pretty bright (Basic Geography: The sun sets at 20:30 usually in the summer as North America is nearer to the poles).

Willis Tower [map]

Strolling through the streets following the directions of Google maps we finally reached the Willis tower [map] (price:$19) and let me tell you that it’s no joke constructing 108 floors with all the fledgling technology in 1973 (praise the architects). It enjoyed the status of being the world’s tallest building beating the world trade center until recent times (Burj Khalifa takes pride in being the tallest now). The building looks behemoth from the ground level and one could easily experience vertigo from the top most floor of the building and I’m sure of it (experience speaks volumes). The main attraction of this tower is the Skydeck at 103 floor..!! Boy it’s a treat to view the city from the ledge..!! The tickets to this Skydeck are $19 per person and there is an option for the VIP entrance which costs a whopping $40 which I wouldn’t suggest as both of them would get you to the Skydeck almost at an equal pace. The elevator to the 103 floor is the best part of this building, moving at 18.2 mph it is one of the fastest moving elevators in North America and the most amazing part of it is that you wouldn’t realize the G-force acting on your body. Once there at the 103 floor, you would literally see the entire city of Chicago coming to life and its breathtaking to view such a beautiful city from that altitude. And there’s a ledge which has a glass balcony which can be extended approximately 4 feet from the portico of the 103rd floor, which gives the spine chilling view of the city. We stayed there until 21:30 and got down and got into a cab and then moved on to the next thing on our list which was the Navy Pier.

View from the 103rd Floor

The breathtaking view of Chicago from the SkyDeck

Navy Pier [map]

It was a $10 drive from Willis tower to the Navy Pier and I must say that Chicago comes to peace with the sky at this point. Navy pier (price: free) is that kind of a place where most of couples come along with their kids so that they can leave them in the park so as to spend some quality time with their spouse without having the fear of losing their kids in the crowd. We had specifically been to this place to see the AON SUMMER FIREWORKS on that Saturday night. The night was calm with clear sky, and the people settled in by 22:00 at this place to get a clear view of the spectacular fireworks which are shot biweekly from the 4th of July (Independence day) until September 5th. It was 22:15 in the night and the music started off slowly from nowhere and all of a sudden there was a spectacular view of the fireworks, and the fireworks danced to the tunes of the music being played. It was amazing to see fireworks in the United States after one and half year of Diwali celebrations in India. [Fireworks Video].

Fireworks

Giant Wheel

Merry Go Round

The fireworks came to a halt after 20 minutes and all of a sudden it started drizzling quietly and everyone was rushing to get a cab and we too got into a cab and rushed to the prudential plaza to get our car. We were all very hungry by then and immediately looked at our “Things to do at Chicago list” and guess what we found out?

Hyderabad House [map]

Being an Indian and especially from Hyderabad, the one thing that comes out of my mouth whenever I feel like having delicious food is the authentic Hyderbadi Biryani. And at that point of time when we were all hungry and looked at out “Things to do” we couldn’t thank God more than this, as it was the Hyderabad House which was listed as the most important thing for that night. So we set our GPS to the HYDERABAD HOUSE at the Devon Street [map] and zoomed to this place cutting through the night traffic. The place itself smelled so good that it reminded me of the place at Hyderabad where I regularly used to have Chicken Biryani (I miss India) and then we immediately ordered chicken Biryani for everyone and before having the Biryani we had ordered Haleem and with the first spoon of Haleem stuffed into my mouth I felt like the most happiest person and gained immense respect to the Indian Dishes. Having bland dishes daily leaves you tasteless and craving for spicy food and when you have it all at once you don’t know what to do with it.

Hyderabad House Haleem and Biryani

The day ended with us having "The" Haleem, and finally we wanted to take some rest as we were really exhausted covering most of the places we thought about on the first day so we set out to look for a hotel for the night. Now comes the most interesting part of the journey, as I said earlier that we wanted to look for an accommodation "on the fly", we never really looked at hotels or any sort of accommodation and we started browsing through our phones to look for some decent hotel below $150 for the night, but to our surprise we dialed nearly 20 hotels and all of them returned with the same answer that there wasn't any vacancy, we tried all the hotels covering a radius of 20 miles from the Chicago downtown and it was already 02:00 in the morning and we were all tired so finally we decided that we would park the car in the rest area nearby the freeway and sleep in the car, and hence we reached a nearby rest area and slept in the car for the night. It was a nice experience sleeping in the car for 5-6 hours in the dark night.

(Click here for Day-2)

Motorola Moto X, and Moto G launch event live coverage 2015

2015-07-28T10:32:00.002-04:00

Find the live streaming link of the keynote here

Theme

The theme of the event is the relationship between users and their phones. Motorola surveys says that, only 39% of phone owners are happy with their handsets and the rest feel that their phones are boring, bland or unreliable. Motorola guaranteed that the cameras in their new phones will be best in class and user friendly. Motorola is providing more customization options and smart, location- and time-based actions like Google Now, which is integrated across its operating system.

Motorola has introduced three new phones today

First

The first model is the new “Moto X Style.” It has 5.7-inch display and good customization options such as new woods, a new soft-grip rubber, and new metal accents along with 4GB of RAM. It comes with a 3000 mAH battery and it boasts that's it's the fastest-charging smartphone in the world. It uses Moto’s own proprietary fast charging system which adds 10 hours of battery life in 15 minutes.
They say that they have rebuilt the camera on the Moto X Style from scratch. It’s a 21-megapixel sensor that lets in more light than any camera Motorola has ever included on a smartphone. The Price of Moto X Style will be $399 which is less than the apple iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6

Second

The second model is the new “Moto X Play”

It has a 5.5-inch full HD display and a 21-megapixel camera. Motorola says the Moto X Play battery will last for up to two days on a single charge due to the 3,630 mAH battery with snapdragon 615. It’ll also support Motorola’s new fast charging tech, just like the Moto X Style.The Moto X Play will cost between $299 which is way less than the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6.

Third:

Finally, Motorola is introducing the follow-up to last year’s Moto G. The phone is an improvement over its predecessor in every way.

The Moto G will cost $179.99 off contract with 8GB of memory.

Availability

The Moto X Style will be launched in September 2015, the Moto X Play in August 2015 and Moto G goes on sale in 60 countries starting today.

Apart from smartphones

Also being introduced today are the Moto Pulse wireless on-ear headset ($60) and Moto Surround wireless in-ear headset ($70)

You can find more details of the Moto G here: 2015 moto G

Also you can also find everything you need to know about the Moto X Style and Moto X Play right here in this post.

Author's take on Big Fat Indian Weddings

2014-07-14T15:08:00.000-04:00

(Disclaimer: Please bear with my unpolished approach towards an interesting topic which might be crude at times, but I hope you would take a note of the points that I'm intending to express)

This is a controversial topic to start off with which involves sensitive hearts and bonds that revolve around two families who would soon be bound by all the forces of nature. So bear in mind that the article provides a first person perspective of Indian marriages and it is strongly appreciated not to get involved into a personal level.

It was a long time since I enjoyed a scrumptious dinner buffet at one of my friend's marriage recently, and after wishing them the regular "congratulations and have a happy married life" stuff and giving away a decent gift with my hard earned money,

hoping that some day I would be treated in the same manner, my thoughts began to drift away seeing the happy bride and the groom (who would obviously be happy in the first month because of some obvious reasons which i hope you all know) into carefully chosen realm escaping the immoral thoughts of after marriage phenomenon. It is regarding the hardcore fact that Indian marriages are one of the most opulent, flamboyantly pompous, unfathomably large celebrations that would consume half of the family fortune and would increase the electricity consumption by a significant manifold.

The Overture
The history dates back to the ages of ancient HINDU Mythology where the six-packed Lord Rama takes over the lousy looking Ravan in a battle for the beautiful babe Sita. After defeating Ravan in a strange case of "break the bow contest" whose bumper price was Sita, there was a phenomenal change in the position of Rama in people's hearts, where people started investing their hard earned money on the wedding to celebrate the victory of good over evil.
The then King Mr.Dusharadh who also happened to be the father of Rama, then made a public announcement that he was delighted with Rama's performance and would celebrate the wedding in a way which only the Gods could challenge. This was the beginning of the extravagant weddings in India.

This continued with the generations that passed on the tradition of trading gold and other expensive gifts for a flamboyant wedding. The same case went on in the age of the playboy Lord Krishna, who in-spite of having innumerable affairs with around 16,000 girl friends, married only two women for the fear of loosing out on his family fortune if he had to marry all the women that he ever dated.

Interlude:
Enough of the past and let's jump back into the modern age of XBOX and PlayStations, where money seem to be flowing along with the technology. If we have a quick glance at some of the big fat Indian weddings, (and when I say big fat Indian weddings, I mean real big fat bad ass weddings) we can easily conclude that the Indian economy has evolved into a level where people don't care of the expenditure when it comes to getting their off springs married. Following are some of the excerpts from the weddings in India which made a significant mark worldwide:

In 2004, Lucknow had a luck in gazing at one of the ostentatious weddings of Subrata Roy’s sons Sushanto with Richa and Seemanto with Chandini and let me remind you that India has never seen such marriages till that moment. There was a heavy downpour of money and the Sahara chief made sure that it would be remembered through out the world by investing almost
552 crore Indian rupees into the wedding.
In the same year Lakshmi Mittal- the steel giant of the world had spent a fortune of his strategically earned money into getting his daughter married which was the second biggest wedding to date, for the fear of losing out on the status quo. The cost of the wedding was estimated to be around $60 million.
In 2011, Congress Minister Kanwar Singh Tanwar’s son, Lalit’s wedding to Yogita Jaunapuria took place in Delhi with the in laws gifting him a Bell 429 helicopter as the wedding present. The wedding is estimated to be priced around 250 crore Indian rupees.

There is a sense of joy in celebrating this once in a lifetime moment with a spectacular display of wealth, but I must remind you that this kind of public display of wealth is changing the style of weddings in India and influencing the common man's thought process. Am not going to judge the system or make a bold statement regarding the extravagant Indian style of celebrating the marriages which involves lavish marriage halls or horse driven chariots just to show off the family savings in this status driven society.
I would like to stress upon the fact that now there has come a situation where in an ordinary man who would have to strive hard on saving money for a long term peaceful life is being forced to satiate his child's demand of a pompous wedding in order to maintain a decent stature in the society. The Indian weddings are no longer a ceremony for bonding two people but an occasion to display the wealth that an individual possess. I have witnessed families who have used up an entire fortune in looking after the comforts of the people who just attend the wedding for the sake of food and no longer bother about the well being of the bride or groom.

Conclude:
So, being diplomatic and analyzing this system from close quarters as far as I'm concerned, I find it annoying to digest the fact that people are pouring out their hard earned money into getting their offspring married by arranging for high level buffets, booking fancy cars, or acquiring marriage halls whose rents for over a night sore high. As everyone of us want to have a wedding that would be remembered throughout the life, I would advise the youth to think wise and stay conscious while spending a bomb for a single day, and instead invest the same on the well being of the couple who would share their lives for the rest of the years to come. After all, money saved is money earned.

A step by step application process for masters in USA from India

2013-12-23T16:56:00.001-05:00

( P.S : I wanted to make it very informative for the aspiring students who are willing to plan for masters in US. I tried to give in every detail of the application process so that it might help few of you in the process. Please bear in mind that this is not a topic to entertain the readers in the lines of comedy genre, but a guide on "know how " and "do it yourself " kit for those confused few who are skeptical about going to US or staying in India, along with a tinge of my first hand experience on masters)

So it all started with a dilemma if I should go international or stay national. It took me almost 3 months in deciding what was against my will of going international, for I am a man of attributes that most of the youth of this generation posses. It's a virtue by nature that you end up procrastinating things once you start earning, and considering the IT sector and the life sucking monotonous jobs it throws at us, I find it obvious for certain reasons that people end up being couch potatoes or should I say lazy slugs, for IT is a job of lazy minds. It's with great difficulty that I actually made up a plan of going abroad for I was becoming more and more dependent on the landlords or should I say my parents for food, clothing and shelter which have been considered as the basic amenities from the prehistoric ages. I've always found it difficult to hunt and eat as I never faced a situation for the survival of the fittest.

The Overture
"Dude get over it!! It's all done. You don't get laid untill you cross the Indian waters" were the words that my brother was trying to edify me with while I was digging into women with a famished look. There were arguments and debates in the past regarding this issue and now I was beginning to feel that I was fighting a loosing battle. There were instances where NRI's were given priority over the desi bachelors in various prospective proposals, considering the fat wallets they carry with american express cards stuffed inside which eventually pop out at the right time (I don't understand if they do it on purpose) which attracts most of the female stratum. This gave me enough push as to what my destination should be and thus I started finding out which country would provide me with enough opportunities, as in having equal opportunities in both social and economical status. After performing mind boggling inquiries and innumerable cross references with friends, Internet and past experiences, I found out that the only viable options left were USA and Germany and rest all sucked at long term "return on investment " policy. I had to choose between them, where I chose the former as it had more number of desi connections to hangout with.

Interlude
Now comes the difficult part, the part where I get to choose between staying in India or chasing my dreams into the wild. This was the most difficult part to decide upon, considering my relationship with my family (although I never stayed at home or spent quality time with my family), friends, and a decent paying office which is just 5 minutes from my own house. I had this perfect life, just about what every individual would wish for, but there was this deep desire inside me which was stabbing me from inside saying, I have a life which should be explored, I have to go and see places, for I have lived long enough in a single place with my parents guarding me from all the bumps of life. I've decided that I had to break free from what seems to be a perfect life and venture into rough waters. After thinking a lot from every aspect and consulting lot of friends and finding out that it's difficult in India to get a perfect date, I decided upon traveling abroad in the name of masters which I was least interested in.

The Start Off
The kick off procedure of my international journey started with me and a couple of friends applying to the schools that we thought were the best in the field that we were pursuing, although it rarely mattered, all that mattered was to find a means to go to US and start earning in dollars which was the only inspiring factor (apart from white chicks) like a beacon of hope. So we were all geared up with the applications and after spending over half of our savings on this process,and waiting for some anxious moments, we finally got the admits from the colleges that we've applied for.

Application process
The application process consists of careful analysis and observation of the past records of the colleges and the kind of students that the college is interested in admitting. The admission of a student into any college basically depends on four factors: "GRE, TOEFL or IELTS scores", your "academics", "Industrial experience" and your "statement of purpose". Basically before venturing out into applying for the schools in US, I suggest you to spend some time in contemplating and assessing your goals. If your goal is to only earn Dollars, then I suggest you not to take up a big college and burn your pockets, instead go to a small college where scholarships are abundant and make the most out of it and join a consultancy at the end and get a job and start earning. If your goal is to achieve something phenomenal in life rather than minting money, then it's a real deal. Get your ass onto preparing for GRE and earn a decent score which is your ticket to a good college.

I will give you a brief checklist of the steps involved in the application process:

▪ The whole process involves swiping credit card at some point or the other, so I would suggest you to beg, borrow or steal a credit card for a smooth process flow.
▪ Contemplation and goal set up.
▪ Assessing colleges and selecting a list of colleges that you are interested in getting admitted into and making a survey about the scores that are required in getting the admits into those universities.
▪ Find out the deadlines of the important admission dates of the selected universities.
▪ Join a coaching center for GRE, TOEFL or IELTS if you are not good at aptitude or English skills.
▪ Start the preparation process and select the dates for giving the exams (You'll never ever get the interest in studying unless you book the dates for the exams)
▪ ETS usually offers an option of reporting the scores for free to 4 universities. So before going to the exam try to find out the institution codes so that after the exam you can immediately send the scores to the universities free of cost.
▪ On the day of exam, try not to freak out, keep your cool and give your best as your future would be at stake if you take it casually. After the exam, punch in the codes of the universities that you intended on applying.
▪ Now its time to act smart and start speeding up the application process. Joining a consultancy is one I would suggest if you are lazy enough or else you could as well apply all by yourself.
▪ Check the university websites and fill the online applications. Some colleges have free applications, so there's no harm in trying them out.
▪ The process involves getting 3 recommendation letters from your college professors if you are fresher passed out from college, else 2 letters from college and 1 from your work place should do the job. Get the envelops signed and stamped by the ones who give you the letters. Working people could as well attach the business cards to the envelops.
▪ Prepare a strong SOP, cause it would reflect your personality at the University where you are planning to join. Mind you, SOP should be as strong as possible cause great colleges choose great students.
▪ Get the transcripts of all the undergraduate memos. Each college would ask for a set of all the undergraduate transcripts and duly attested copies of the 10th and Intermediate memos.
▪ Arrange for the bank statements and affidavit of support of your financial status along with two passport size photographs.
▪ After getting the test scores and the above mentioned documents, you can put them all in a packet and send it to the college through DHL or FeDex and wait for the results.
▪ Start making consultations and negotiations with the banks if you are planning on an education loan cause it might be a real pain in the ass.

The ISSUE
I was all set with the admits reaching me way before anyone could ever think of, but there was an issue that was stopping me from proceeding further. I was actually having an opportunity, or should I say, a choice to make from two juicy offers- one was staying back in India and proceeding in the same job where I was being offered a promotion and a decent salary hike, and the other was to reject the offer and take up studies at a foreign University and start fresh. Either way I was having an edge, if I stayed back then I might enjoy the power at office commanding the subordinates like a boss, or if I reject the offer and go away for higher studies then I could as well earn respect and with 3 years of industrial experience I could work my ass off in finding a well paying job after completing the masters. So weighing the options and doing the math, I found out that going abroad widened my scope of domain and expanded my opportunities.

Conclude
But the only thing that worried me was the fact that I have never stayed away from home, thanks to my ever loving parents, but in a way I now feel that it's time to stop living a secured life, for I have become someone who cannot decide what is good for my future. So going by the word "adventure", I decided to leave the luxurious life that my father had bestowed upon me and I decided that I would start from the scratch and build an empire of my own. I stumbled across this quote while doing the weighing "The only thing that stands between you and your goal is the bullshit stories that you keep telling yourself as to why you cannot achieve it" which kind of inspired me in taking a decision that in some way changed the course of my life.

click here to download the list of things that are to be brought along with you to the united states for the first time as a student.

All the very best for the aspirants..!!

Part-2: Two options and a possible outcome..!!

2013-12-10T06:23:00.001-05:00

(P.S: please read Part-1 here before jumping into Part-2)

Sorry to keep you guys waiting for the next episode of my college melodrama, I find it difficult to manage time between office work and playing Candy Crush Saga. I was in the 30th stage and for the love of God, it took me almost 10 pathetic days in finishing the level.

After an overwhelming response from the remotest of friends regarding the post that I thought no one would view, I was skeptical to proceed with the next part, for the fear that loomed in my so called peanut brain which yells at me saying "stop being a hypocrite" and continue doing what suits you best, i.e.. being a moron, which I am for some obvious reasons, one of which is writing this useless piece of crappy blog which only consumes time and patience and attracts criticism from pesky people stating that "it may mar your so called reputation which symbolizes you as a Demigod of goodness" and "what would the society think about you if you send out such mixed signals of immoral conduct" type clichéd monotonous monologues which I cared less about. Being brought up in an Indian society I was given all the freedom to do whatever I liked the best, and was never interrupted in my thought process, but it was the other pestering life sucking people surrounding me who held me back, else I would have been a superman with my underpants under the pants.

So I wanted to break away from being a mere spectator and venture out into the dark world of bloggers who constantly upload every single shit into the Internet and start looking at the number of likes for their posts(which includes even me) for which people give a damn. So am writing this for all the fans(yes..!! I meant you) out there who feel that they could spend some time instead of money to be entertained for free.

Now enough of my whining and let's get back to the point where i left u before the end of Day 1 (OMG I should have been a professor) , so it was hard time for me settling in for crappy rusted dies and the fire breathing monstrous engines rather than sitting inside the glass walled sweet smelling mother of jesus computer labs. I sometimes felt that God had punished me for all the porn that I have ever watched in the past and got shit kicked out of me by intentionally pushing me into the satanic world of gears, metallurgy, fluid mechanics and God knows what stroke engines..!!

So finally my first year at college started with all the humbug that mechies are the base for any industry, u can't do shit without them blah blahh blah..!! in which I was least bothered. All I ever wanted was to earn money and screw everyone which eventually never happened.

Being helpless I had to accept my fate and continued my laborious mechanical life deprived of all the fun that I ever wanted and occasionally vented out my anger by punching my fellow spartans with the drawing sheets and drafters.I started branding myself as a Mechy and started scribbling MIGHTY MECH on all the benches and walls to let the dark world know that am happy being into this crap. There was this notion among the other god fearing branches that the mechanical students are rugged species and shouldn't be messed with, which eventually made all the girls to alienate mech boys. And those unlucky mechies who already had girlfriends from the pre-engineering life started having breakups.

This continued for a while, and then came the real deal- The Ragging part. While all the other branches had seniors who would rag the Juniors for a day or two, and later become friends and start hanging out together, mine was amazingly different scenario, it was more of an execution or a judgement day only to be repeated everyday.

The Canteen
Being diffident or should I say shy, I never had the nerve to interact with the seniors and always went about in groups where ever I went, even for the nature calls (there were incidents where I almost killed myself by stopping my bladder from performing its regular act due to the lack of company). The college canteen was the most dreadful place which I avoided the most. It was the place where the monstrous seniors were at large, sucking every ounce of courage that Juniors had. They were free to pick up whomever they wished for, just like a hawk picking up its prey from a standstill pond and the juniors, having no other option had to follow them just like a prisoner being dragged towards the gallows to bear the pain and agony but with a smiling face, else the professors in mufty who think they were the gatekeepers to hell might catch hold of them and kick the shit out the one who was about to rag. This wouldn't have any effect on the predator but would double the intensity of the punishments or I must say ragging techniques on the prey, so Inorder to avoid this shit most of the juniors without any second thought moved silently towards the dungeons where they were slayed. Thinking of all this I used to have goosebumps all over my body, and I secretly pledged that I would never venture out alone into the canteen premises. And sticking on to my promise I went unnoticed to most of the seniors for almost a month or two until one fine day when my fate went furious over my luck and landed me into grievous consequences.

THE DABBA
It was a bright sunny day (I hate it when I use sunny to describe a day, cause I feel that it fits more into the name of a steamy pompous actress whom i like a lot and less into describing the state of a day) and I was all ready and packed up for college just like the regular days, but there was something that was hitting me hard from inside and I knew that something wrong was surely going to happen and I was right, my 6th sense worked miraculously fine (my 6th sense works when my common sense gets derailed) and there indeed was sadness all over the college. One of the seniors passed away and it was declared a holiday, and everyone instead of offering condolences, were happy to hear the announcement and were rejoicing this once in a lifetime opportunity of going home just after reaching the college, I was happy too but my happiness lasted only for a few minutes when I was informed that the only way to go home was to cross the DABBA.
It's a peculiar name for a place being named by the way it looks. DABBA-meaning "A Box" in English, was the most feared place outside the college premises. No fresher dared to go there for the fear of seniors lurking around it eating bread omelet and puffing out white fumes of smoke often ring shaped which by practice they have all mastered with hardwork, diligence and discipline.

Now that I was forced to cross the DABBA, I furiously searched for company but my efforts went in vain, so I pretended that I was ill and started walking out on the road that was swarmed by juniors who were in the same state as mine. Without looking either ways and my head pointing the road I started my journey into the wild. I was internally chanting prayers to all the Gods that ever existed just to finish off with these nerve shattering moments. Just then something hit me hard on my back, my heart sank into delusions as to what could it be and when I was about to turn I was hit by a tiny stone again and i was being called by a junior(It was the ID TAG that made me believe that he was of my genre), seeing whom I was relieved to the core. He was my classmate Riddick (name changed for privacy issues). I was delighted upon seeing him, so much delighted infact that I started hugging him. People around me were perplexed at my behavior and started giving me weird glances as to why I was doing all this shit filled sentimental overdose of Indian daily soap, but I was unaware of what was happening around me and was being happy for I found a company in that chaotic quest for crossing the DABBA.

Even before I could come out of my happiness of finding a companion to walk with, I was surrounded by 4 grizzly looking godforsaken hillbilly goliats. I could only imagine hyenas surrounding a torn carcass ready to rip it into pieces. They called themselves the EIE seniors. In my entire life of 20 years, I have never seen anyone so scornful, so dangerous whose eyes meant death, whose words spoke of the things that let alone me, no man would have ever heard of and their sole mission of that day was to find juniors and rag them until they could digest all the shit they ate at that dubious DABBA. I will never forget that incident in my entire lifetime.

Now I had two options infront of me. One was to stand infront of them and get ragged Or start running so hard that I would have to break the bolt's record of the fastest athelete to escape from this embarrassing situation. Either way I was at a loss, as I was outnumbered and outpaced from every angle as they seemed to be well built and muscular. I didn't dare choose the second option as it would only make it more easier for them to rip me apart. So I stood there like a brave heart waiting for the incarceration.

END OF DAY 2

Part-1 Two options and a possible outcome..!!

2013-12-09T11:49:00.001-05:00

(P.S: In order to make it more gripping or should I say, to make it easy for the readers to digest the content of this blog, the author (myself) decided to break this article into 3 different sections which would be posted on a daily basis continuing for 3 days. The comment section is closed so that I don't get abused after you read this article)

OK.. So it's been quite a while since my last post. Of course there was nothing great going on in my life apart from the monotonous schedule of waking up early in the morning, going to office and retiring to bed in the night. But of late there has been so much of stress bugging me regarding my life that I thought I have to put it down on a piece of paper to make it more interesting (I should rather say pacifying or soothing to make it more apt) rather than venting out my anger on my fellow colleagues or pestering them with my indecisive nature. So here goes my story or I would say my cinematic sadness of inconspicuous decisions which would appear to be of greater interest to people surrounding me rather than myself.

It all started from the day 1 of my college in my so called happy engineering days. It appears to me that God had a different perspective of happiness for me which always happened to have whiplashed my life in the form of gloomy events giving me the opportunity of choosing between two completely different or I must say two weird options which somehow at last made me to happily pray for the almighty for giving me those options. I shall give you a brief overview of the the choices that I had to go through in my course of life in chronological order just to add up more words to my boring blog:

1. Choice to study Maths or Science in intermediate (it never occurred to me that people also study arts for I always thought that arts were performed rather than studied). So I took up Maths for the fear of having to dissect slimy rotten earthworms or the grumpy pimpled frogs, or the pathetically malnutritioned white rats which were a nightmare during my school days. So, having taken up Math as the prime subject I had to work so hard to meet the ends, that I started having dreams of being a Russian secret spy who had been assigned a secret mission of finding the variable X. I was forced to invent ways to find the variable Mr.X which if I had used to find Mohammad Bin Laden would have helped me get placed into FBI with honor and valor. Anyhow finding X and Y somehow generated an interest which slowly consumed my interest in women. Now rather than watching porn, I prefer watching international math Olympiads or Bournvita Quiz Contest, pity me. Days passed by and the course of study came to an end or should I say that the two years of conviction came to an end leaving me with two choices again "B.tech or Bsc".

2. "Huh, It's a piece of cake" was my expression at that juncture of taking the crucial decision later only to be found that it was the only arduous decision of my life next to getting married. After having faced an embarrassing situation of getting through the EAMCET (which i prefer to be called -the infamous common entrance exam for engineering and medicine for which the students are nailed for the rest of their lives if they don't get through) with a meager percentage, I was facing the counselor with my father beside me. I was there, sitting with sweaty palms and running nose (caused due to excessive discharge of saline liquid through the sensory vision of the eyes- an attribute usually possessed by the female gender) almost made me feel dehydrated. The counselor was looking at me as if I had committed a crime of raping a girl and running away without my pants on. It was terrible thing or even a sin in the eyes of the counselor if a student gets low score and attends the counseling, even a slight glance into his eyes meant that I was going to faint, so escaping his wrath of fury which was by no way possible, I had to choose between 10 colleges for my rank. In the process of selecting the colleges, I had to forget my dream of studying the computer science stream which was usually enjoyed by the privileged few who had scores which were possible to be achieved in my dreams. So browsing through the colleges and courses and making all possible permutations and combinations I arrived at a point where I was again posed with a choice of two colleges for mechanical engineering, "VNRVJIET OR GRIET". The decision was difficult so I had to take the help of my dad who was sitting beside me but was in no way having the faintest idea of what was going on. So I had this huge responsibility of choosing a college which I felt if wrongly chosen might end up in starting the world war three. So I had to make a quick check list of the things that I always dreamt of doing in college when I grew up. So the list goes on like this:

1. Beautiful girls to look at or even to date with, which I did only in dreams.
2. Plenty of outdoor sports and games which I never played but felt were necessary in proving my status-quo.
3. Open gate system to bunk the college and hang around at my wish and will.
4. A very big canteen where you could choose between various girls to stalk on.
5. A big library to sleep after having a sumptuous lunch so that u don't get caught sleeping.
6. And a digital library for all the free WiFi and free YouTube.
7. Beautiful girls again.

So considering the quick checklist that I prepared in the few minutes of my stay in front of the mighty vampire slayer, all the options were almost matching with both the colleges. At that point of time and in that precious moment of giving my verdict, there was a minute of complete silence and my mind was racing like a super computer performing billions of calculations in split seconds, raking the neurons and putting them to work to find out at least one reason to choose my Alma matter. Something amazing happened to me in that very moment. A thought, a clue, a savior of my life flashed in front of me. I remembered one of my friends talking to me in one of the regular lunch meets in my intermediate days saying that his brother studies at VNRVJIET and that the college is eclipsed by all kinds of hot chicks and fashion babes who wear nothing but micro minis and jeans who have long past left the salwars at bay and are the most sought after girls in the town. That's all was I ever wanted and my decision of joining the college was made and the constitution of my life was written based on the availability of female gender. Strange but true...!! And time came when I finally joined the college and I was again presented with two options to choose from "Computers or Mechanical".

My dreams were all shattered on the very first day (which continued later on through out my life at college) when no girl showed up for class. Having consoled by fellow mates who were expecting the same, it was said that girls usual don't turn up on first day at college, hearing these were like hearing the words, which meant the essence of life and I was given a Ray of hope by the enlightened few and I continued my quest for beautiful girls the next day. Next day, Nothing happened but the repetition of what happened the first day. So finally it took me a month's time to know that girls don't usually prefer mechanical engineering. All my life seemed to be a lie in front of this ugly truth. I went mad, I was roaming around Computer science branch hoping that I would be adopted by them like a mad Dog hoping for shelter in some rich family. But life had something else for me. Instead of being adopted, I was suggested not to waste my time in the computer science corridors but to flee and find some solace in engines. My pursuit of happiness ended in disgust and found out that i had to make love to machines and pistons rather than babes and b**bs.

END OF DAY-1

(CONTINUED ON DAY-2)

Free of cost calls from computer to landlines or mobile phones

2011-01-07T13:08:00.000-05:00

There have been many services offering free international VOIP calls and most of them rely upon ad-supported funding to get things going, most of such services have closed there doors but there are still a few left. One such service Evaphone allows users to enjoy free international PC-To-Phone calling from there website (or any other flash supporting device) to any landline or mobile phone in most parts across the globe, the service supports almost all major countries of the world including USA, UK, Canada, India, Pakistan etc. with each country having a fixed single free call duration with unlimited numbers of calls.

Received Call Proves Service Works As Advertised

Calls Can Also Be Made From Any Adobe Flash Supporting Mobile Device

To get started with free international landline and mobile phone calls simply point your web-browser (from your PC or flash supporting mobile) to EVAPHONE.COM, a list of all supported countries with free call duration limit can be found here.

Bom Sabado virus attacks Orkut, posts auto scraps

2010-09-26T05:13:00.000-04:00

Just few days after the microblogging site Twitter was attacked by virus which sent its followers to porn sites, another popular networking hub Orkut is also affected by virus. Orkut, which is very popular in India, has been hit by a worm named 'Bom Sabado',which means 'Good Saturday' in Portuguese. Analysts told that the virus attacked the XSS (cross-site scripting) of the site. This virus posted scraps to the Orkut users with the text BomSabado and is sent to the users account by the name of the other friends account. Making it more severe the worm also adds affected users to new Orkut groups.

The security experts warned the users not to not log into their Orkut account until the
problem gets solved. Users are also advised not to click on any suspicious links.

Earlier on Sep 2010, the most popular social networking hub with more than 500 million users, Facebook, also faced networking glitches due to an outside technical problem. It was Facebook's most tragic outrage in its history.

classic pig... :P

2010-09-19T05:19:00.000-04:00

Disable SHIF+DELETE

2010-06-14T08:54:00.000-04:00

Sometimes we wonder how to disable Shift+Delete so that even if the key combination is used, the files always get to the Recycle Bin.

Unfortunately there isn't really a way to do this. You can disable it in particular applications, for example there is a registry hack to prevent it in Outlook, however I do not know of any for Windows Explorer.

You could use something like AutoHotKey to map Shift+Delete to Delete.
However, you would need AutoHotKey running all the time for this to work.
The AutoHotKey script to do this is as follows:

+Delete::
KeyWait Shift
Send {Delete}

But it's not possible to guarantee that files end up in the Recycle Bin.  
Some files are too large. Or a user might delete too many files and a 
file that was recently deleted gets evicted right away.  Technically 
that file went to the Recycle Bin, but for practical purposes it did not.

The TweakUI Powertoy lets you customize certain key-bindings but 
Shift-Delete isn't one of them.

Delete the Recycle Bin Icon from the Desktop in XP

2010-06-14T08:35:00.000-04:00

How to remove Recycle Bin Icon from Desktop
If using XP Pro
Go to START > RUN
Type GPEDIT.MSC
Navagate to USER CONFIGURATION >ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES >Click on DESKTOP,
On the right hand pane find " Remove Recycle Bin icon on the desktop " , double left click on it to ENABLE it.
Sorted!

If using XP Home
Either use TweakUI or make the change manually in the registry.
Create or modify the following registry entry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
REG_DWORD 0x00000001

List of keyboard shortcuts for Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007

2010-04-21T07:40:00.000-04:00

Command Name                  Shortcut Keys
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------

   All Caps                      CTRL+SHIFT+A
   Annotation                    ALT+CTRL+M
   App Maximize                  ALT+F10
   App Restore                   ALT+F5
   Apply Heading1                ALT+CTRL+1
   Apply Heading2                ALT+CTRL+2
   Apply Heading3                ALT+CTRL+3
   Apply List Bullet             CTRL+SHIFT+L
   Auto Format                   ALT+CTRL+K
   Auto Text                     F3 or ALT+CTRL+V
   Bold                          CTRL+B or CTRL+SHIFT+B
   Bookmark                      CTRL+SHIFT+F5
   Browse Next                   CTRL+PAGE DOWN
   Browse Previous               CTRL+PAGE UP
   Browse Sel                    ALT+CTRL+HOME
   Cancel                        ESC
   Center Para                   CTRL+E
   Change Case                   SHIFT+F3
   Char Left                     LEFT
   Char Left Extend              SHIFT+LEFT
   Char Right                    RIGHT
   Char Right Extend             SHIFT+RIGHT
   Clear                         DELETE
   Close or Exit                 ALT+F4
   Close Pane                    ALT+SHIFT+C
   Column Break                  CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
   Column Select                 CTRL+SHIFT+F8
   Copy                          CTRL+C or CTRL+INSERT
   Copy Format                   CTRL+SHIFT+C
   Copy Text                     SHIFT+F2
   Create Auto Text              ALT+F3
   Customize Add Menu            ALT+CTRL+=
   Customize Keyboard            ALT+CTRL+NUM +
   Customize Remove Menu         ALT+CTRL+-
   Cut                           CTRL+X or SHIFT+DELETE
   Date Field                    ALT+SHIFT+D
   Delete Back Word              CTRL+BACKSPACE
   Delete Word                   CTRL+DELETE
   Dictionary                    ALT+SHIFT+F7
   Do Field Click                ALT+SHIFT+F9
   Doc Close                     CTRL+W or CTRL+F4
   Doc Maximize                  CTRL+F10
   Doc Move                      CTRL+F7
   Doc Restore                   CTRL+F5
   Doc Size                      CTRL+F8
   Doc Split                     ALT+CTRL+S
   Double Underline              CTRL+SHIFT+D
   End of Column                 ALT+PAGE DOWN
   End of Column                 ALT+SHIFT+PAGE DOWN
   End of Doc Extend             CTRL+SHIFT+END
   End of Document               CTRL+END
   End of Line                   END
   End of Line Extend            SHIFT+END
   End of Row                    ALT+END
   End of Row                    ALT+SHIFT+END
   End of Window                 ALT+CTRL+PAGE DOWN
   End of Window Extend          ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE DOWN
   Endnote Now                   ALT+CTRL+D
   Extend Selection              F8
   Field Chars                   CTRL+F9
   Field Codes                   ALT+F9
   Find                          CTRL+F
   Font                          CTRL+D or CTRL+SHIFT+F
   Font Size Select              CTRL+SHIFT+P
   Footnote Now                  ALT+CTRL+F
   Go Back                       SHIFT+F5 or ALT+CTRL+Z
   Go To                         CTRL+G or F5
   Grow Font                     CTRL+SHIFT+.
   Grow Font One Point           CTRL+]
   Hanging Indent                CTRL+T
   Header Footer Link            ALT+SHIFT+R
   Help                          F1
   Hidden                        CTRL+SHIFT+H
   Hyperlink                     CTRL+K
   Indent                        CTRL+M
   Italic                        CTRL+I or CTRL+SHIFT+I
   Justify Para                  CTRL+J
   Left Para                     CTRL+L
   Line Down                     DOWN
   Line Down Extend              SHIFT+DOWN
   Line Up                       UP
   Line Up Extend                SHIFT+UP
   List Num Field                ALT+CTRL+L
   Lock Fields                   CTRL+3 or CTRL+F11
   Macro                         ALT+F8
   Mail Merge Check              ALT+SHIFT+K
   Mail Merge Edit Data Source   ALT+SHIFT+E 
   Mail Merge to Doc             ALT+SHIFT+N
   Mail Merge to Printer         ALT+SHIFT+M
   Mark Citation                 ALT+SHIFT+I
   Mark Index Entry              ALT+SHIFT+X
   Mark Table of Contents Entry  ALT+SHIFT+O
   Menu Mode                     F10
   Merge Field                   ALT+SHIFT+F
   Microsoft Script Editor       ALT+SHIFT+F11
   Microsoft System Info         ALT+CTRL+F1
   Move Text                     F2
   New                           CTRL+N
   Next Cell                     TAB
   Next Field                    F11 or ALT+F1
   Next Misspelling              ALT+F7
   Next Object                   ALT+DOWN
   Next Window                   CTRL+F6 or ALT+F6
   Normal                        ALT+CTRL+N
   Normal Style                  CTRL+SHIFT+N or ALT+SHIFT+CLEAR (NUM 5)
   Open                          CTRL+O or CTRL+F12 or ALT+CTRL+F2
   Open or Close Up Para         CTRL+0
   Other Pane                    F6 or SHIFT+F6
   Outline                       ALT+CTRL+O
   Outline Collapse              ALT+SHIFT+- or ALT+SHIFT+NUM -
   Outline Demote                ALT+SHIFT+RIGHT
   Outline Expand                ALT+SHIFT+=
   Outline Expand                ALT+SHIFT+NUM +
   Outline Move Down             ALT+SHIFT+DOWN
   Outline Move Up               ALT+SHIFT+UP
   Outline Promote               ALT+SHIFT+LEFT
   Outline Show First Line       ALT+SHIFT+L
   Overtype                      INSERT
   Page                          ALT+CTRL+P
   Page Break                    CTRL+ENTER
   Page Down                     PAGE DOWN
   Page Down Extend              SHIFT+PAGE DOWN
   Page Field                    ALT+SHIFT+P
   Page Up                       PAGE UP
   Page Up Extend                SHIFT+PAGE UP
   Para Down                     CTRL+DOWN
   Para Down Extend              CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN
   Para Up                       CTRL+UP
   Para Up Extend                CTRL+SHIFT+UP
   Paste                         CTRL+V or SHIFT+INSERT
   Paste Format                  CTRL+SHIFT+V
   Prev Cell                     SHIFT+TAB
   Prev Field                    SHIFT+F11 or ALT+SHIFT+F1
   Prev Object                   ALT+UP
   Prev Window                   CTRL+SHIFT+F6 or ALT+SHIFT+F6
   Print                         CTRL+P or CTRL+SHIFT+F12
   Print Preview                 CTRL+F2 or ALT+CTRL+I
   Proofing                      F7
   Redo                          ALT+SHIFT+BACKSPACE
   Redo or Repeat                CTRL+Y or F4 or ALT+ENTER
   Repeat Find                   SHIFT+F4 or ALT+CTRL+Y
   Replace                       CTRL+H
   Reset Char                    CTRL+SPACE or CTRL+SHIFT+Z
   Reset Para                    CTRL+Q
   Revision Marks Toggle         CTRL+SHIFT+E
   Right Para                    CTRL+R
   Save                          CTRL+S or SHIFT+F12 or ALT+SHIFT+F2
   Save As                       F12
   Select All                    CTRL+A or CTRL+CLEAR (NUM 5) or CTRL+NUM 5
   Select Table                  ALT+CLEAR (NUM 5)
   Show All                      CTRL+SHIFT+8
   Show All Headings             ALT+SHIFT+A
   Show Heading1                 ALT+SHIFT+1
   Show Heading2                 ALT+SHIFT+2
   Show Heading3                 ALT+SHIFT+3
   Show Heading4                 ALT+SHIFT+4
   Show Heading5                 ALT+SHIFT+5
   Show Heading6                 ALT+SHIFT+6
   Show Heading7                 ALT+SHIFT+7
   Show Heading8                 ALT+SHIFT+8
   Show Heading9                 ALT+SHIFT+9
   Shrink Font                   CTRL+SHIFT+,
   Shrink Font One Point         CTRL+[
   Small Caps                    CTRL+SHIFT+K
   Space Para1                   CTRL+1
   Space Para15                  CTRL+5
   Space Para2                   CTRL+2
   Spike                         CTRL+SHIFT+F3 or CTRL+F3
   Start of Column               ALT+PAGE UP
   Start of Column               ALT+SHIFT+PAGE UP
   Start of Doc Extend           CTRL+SHIFT+HOME
   Start of Document             CTRL+HOME
   Start of Line                 HOME
   Start of Line Extend          SHIFT+HOME
   Start of Row                  ALT+HOME
   Start of Row                  ALT+SHIFT+HOME
   Start of Window               ALT+CTRL+PAGE UP
   Start of Window Extend        ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE UP
   Style                         CTRL+SHIFT+S
   Subscript                     CTRL+=
   Superscript                   CTRL+SHIFT+=
   Symbol Font                   CTRL+SHIFT+Q
   Thesaurus                     SHIFT+F7
   Time Field                    ALT+SHIFT+T
   Toggle Field Display          SHIFT+F9
   Toggle Master Subdocs         CTRL+\ 
   Tool                          SHIFT+F1
   Un Hang                       CTRL+SHIFT+T
   Un Indent                     CTRL+SHIFT+M
   Underline                     CTRL+U or CTRL+SHIFT+U
   Undo                          CTRL+Z or ALT+BACKSPACE
   Unlink Fields                 CTRL+6 or CTRL+SHIFT+F9
   Unlock Fields                 CTRL+4 or CTRL+SHIFT+F11
   Update Auto Format            ALT+CTRL+U
   Update Fields                 F9 or ALT+SHIFT+U
   Update Source                 CTRL+SHIFT+F7
   VBCode                        ALT+F11
   Web Go Back                   ALT+LEFT
   Web Go Forward                ALT+RIGHT
   Word Left                     CTRL+LEFT
   Word Left Extend              CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT
   Word Right                    CTRL+RIGHT
   Word Right Extend             CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT
   Word Underline                CTRL+SHIFT+W

Note Some keyboard shortcuts in earlier versions of Microsoft Word no longer work as expected in Microsoft Office Word 2007.

BSNL BroadBand usage account details for the Hyderabad users

2010-04-19T11:55:00.000-04:00

BSNL BROAD BAND usage and account details for HYDERABAD users :

click here: [ vinayanand2 ]

To view the above link you need to have internet explorer 5.5 or above... The BSNL link works only with the Internet Explorer....

Stalled Printer Repair - Portable Application To Detect And Repair Stuck Print Jobs

2010-04-11T04:32:00.000-04:00

If you own a printer I am pretty much confident that you must have encountered the dreaded issue of a stuck printer job, getting rid of a stuck print job is not as straight forward as it sounds and the worst part is that subsequent print or fax jobs sent to the queue will not print until the first job (which is unfortunately stuck) is cleared from the spooler queue this is also known as printer spooler restoration.

There could be various reasons for a print request to get stuck in the printer spooler queue which cannot be deleted, most of the time this is caused by a corrupt or incomplete print job sent by applications or any other reason which interrupts the print job in middle of the printing. I have been using a hand-coded dos-batch script to tackle this issue which simply stops the spooler service, deletes the queue content and re-starts the spooler service, now I have found a better alternative as free portable utility for Windows - Stalled Printer Repair.
Stalled Printer Repair detects existence of stalled print jobs and provides functions to purge all stalled print jobs on the Printer with ease, compatible with Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Vista the utility can be downloaded from the direct links provided below.
Download Links :

Stalled Printer Repair [656 KB]
Dos Batch File [249 Bytes] does the same job without the user-interface.

ilivid Player - Watch Videos While They Download From Rapidshare, Hotfile And Megaupload

2010-04-11T04:25:00.000-04:00

One of the biggest limitation with videos hosted on one-click file-sharing websites like Rapidshare, Megaupload and Hotfile has been that you are not able to watch the video until all volumes of a split-archive gets downloaded, but we now have a solution to this in form of free Windows utility ilivid player which allows users to watch the video while it’s downloading to their computer.

ilivid Player knows it's job well and works with all types of rar archives including multi-volume files with password protection, the utility fully supports Rapidshare (Free and Premium), Megaupload and Hotfile services and also comes with an optional toolbar which automatically grabs all video links from a web-page, starting playing the video just seconds after download of the very first link begins.

ilivid Player Link Grabber

ilivid Player can be great for previewing videos files before downloading the whole-set, the only thing which I did not liked about it was that the utility changed my Firefox and Internet Explorer homepage without asking first - this is bad, However,I checked the file with VirusTotal and it came out clean.
ilivid Player Direct Download Links :

ilividSetup.exe

How To Trace Mobile Numbers in India

2010-03-08T13:18:00.001-05:00

(India Only) With rapid growth in mobile phone subscribers in India and low call rates, most calls we receive on our mobile are form other mobiles. At the same time, to cater increasing user-base most operators come up with new series everyday which makes remembering a cell number increasingly hard. Also sometime we just want to trace a mobile number for reasons like unknown number in miss call list, to get hint of callers permanent location (sounds unlikely, I know…), etc.
But if you have a look at this wiki page, you can certainly trace any mobile number up-to the level of its mobile operator and state (or zone) that’s too using first 4-digit only. It (wiki page) lists all mobile number series in nice tabular manner categorizing them according to mobile operator and state (or zone).
Like other wiki pages, this wiki is also updated regularly and provides you with latest information. I have never been disappointed by it and I am using it for over a year.
If you prefer simpler interface where you can just enter your cell number and get the desired information, you can try this website.
Link: Mobile telephone numbering in India

5 Ways To Improve Your Adsense Earnings

2010-02-07T08:31:00.001-05:00

If webmasters want to monetize their websites, the great way to do it is through Adsense. There are lots of webmasters struggling hard to earn some good money a day through their sites. But then some of the “geniuses” of them are enjoying hundreds of dollars a day from Adsense ads on their websites. What makes these webmasters different from the other kind is that they are different and they think out of the box.

The ones who have been there and done it have quite some useful tips to help those who would want to venture into this field. Some of these tips have boosted quite a lot of earnings in the past and is continuously doing so.

Here are some 5 proven ways on how best to improve your Adsense earnings.

1. Concentrating on one format of Adsense ad. The one format that worked well for the majority is the Large Rectangle (336X280). This same format have the tendency to result in higher CTR, or the click-through rates. Why choose this format out of the many you can use? Basically because the ads will look like normal web links, and people, being used to clicking on them, click these types of links. They may or may not know they are clicking on your Adsense but as long as there are clicks, then it will all be for your advantage.

2. Create a custom palette for your ads. Choose a color that will go well with the background of your site. If your site has a white background, try to use white as the color of your ad border and background. The idea to patterning the colors is to make the Adsense look like it is part of the web pages. Again, This will result to more clicks from people visiting your site.

3. Remove the Adsense from the bottom pages of your site and put them at the top. Do not try to hide your Adsense. Put them in the place where people can see them quickly. You will be amazed how the difference between Adsense locations can make when you see your earnings.

4. Maintain links to relevant websites. If you think some sites are better off than the others, put your ads there and try to maintaining and managing them. If there is already lots of Adsense put into that certain site, put yours on top of all of them. That way visitor will see your ads first upon browsing into that site.

5. Try to automate the insertion of your Adsense code into the webpages using SSI (or server side included). Ask your web administrator if your server supports SSI or not. How do you do it? Just save your Adsense code in a text file, save it as “adsense text”, and upload it to the root directory of the web server. Then using SSI, call the code on other pages. This tip is a time saver especially for those who are using automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.

These are some of the tips that have worked well for some who want to generate hundreds and even thousands on their websites. It is important to know though that ads are displayed because it fits the interest of the people viewing them. So focusing on a specific topic should be your primary purpose because the displays will be especially targeted on a topic that persons will be viewing already.

Note also that there are many other Adsense sharing the same topic as you. It is best to think of making a good ad that will be somewhat different and unique than the ones already done. Every clickthrough that visitors make is a point for you so make every click count by making your Adsense something that people will definitely click on.

Tips given by those who have boosted their earnings are just guidelines they want to share with others. If they have somehow worked wonders to some, maybe it can work wonders for you too. Try them out into your ads and see the result it will bring.

If others have done it, there is nothing wrong trying it out for yourself.

Controlling Another Computer with Remote Desktop

2010-02-07T08:27:00.001-05:00

If your computer is connected to the network either wirelessly or using a cable, in addition to sharing data, printers, internet connections, we also can do Remote Desktop.
With Remote Desktop you can see another computer screen (which in-remote) is the same as in the original computer, and we can make orders in accordance with what we want.

For example computer A and computer B. We want the computer to do a remote desktop by the user of the computer B. ( computer A controlled by the user on the computer B).

How to Controlling Another Computer with Remote Desktop

Because the goal to a remote computer, so we only need to set the computer A.
1 • Specify the user name (have to password), if not please create / edit the first (control panel -> user accounts), which will be used for remote desktop users

2 • Right click on my computer -> Properties - select the Remote tab

3 • Tick the Allow users to connect Remotely to this computer
4 • Click Select Remote Users -> click Add -> type the user name (as step-1) -> click the check name -> click OK -> OK

On the computer that will be used to remotely (Computer B, C, etc.) we stayed running the Remote Desktop Connection application (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Communications -> Remote Desktop Connection)

• Sign the computer's IP address or computer name that will diremote -> click CONECT (wait a while)

• Sign a user name (remote user) and password (username as step-4).

Now we can see, we are able to control the computer A from computer B.

Paper Bus – Free Proxy Service for Anonymous Internet Surfing

2010-01-26T07:22:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for a free, fast and reliable proxy solution for anonymous surfing, Here is a new multi-platform application, PaperBus (ad-supported) which lets you surf anonymously and bypass internet filters. Website: http://www.paperb.us/
1 - paper bus is free and fast. there is no registration
and the app is multi-platform.
2 – you can use paper bus to access blocked web sites and bypass internet filters and such.
3 – paper bus is very easy to use.
simply install, and run. It’s
so easy, it’s plug and play.

PaperBus was launched 21st of January and hopes to become a serious contender to Hotspot Shield, Ultrasurf, Tor, NotMyIP and other free online anonymity applications.
Basically, PaperBus is a proxy service with a nice, user-friendly interface. The best thing is that PaperBus is free. Plus:
* It’s fast
* It handles AJAX and Javascript heavy sites no problem
* It handles HTTPS connections no problem
* No registrations and very easy to use
As mentioned in the Terms of Service agreement, PaperBus is ad-based. It opens a new tab that shows an ad when you begin your session, and then again every 20 minutes. The ad page looks like this: PAPERBUS.
The installation and usage of PaperBus are extremely simple. Just download the setup and follow the steps. Then you will be able to start browsing anonymously.
Download: CURRENT APP VERSION 1.0.5b
Windows
Mac
Linux

Note: In case you did not see above PaperBus is FREE because it is ad-based.
Firefox user’s please read:
PaperBus requires its Firefox add-on in order to properly proxify under Firefox. The add-on should automatically install upon application installation, and Firefox needs to be restarted after the add-on installs. Known issues:
- Sometimes the add-on doesn’t get installed correctly.
Solution: go to Firefox -> Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions and confirm that you see the PaperBus add-on. If not, manually install it by opening this link: http://www.paperb.us/addon/proxyctrl_current.xpi.
- Add-on installs correctly, but doesn’t work.
Solution: go to Firefox -> Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions, disable all add-ons other than the PaperBus add-on, then try again. If it works, you can reenable the add-ons you disabled.

Creating an M3U playlist using bat file

2009-12-02T03:03:00.000-05:00

The other day i've posted the content on how to create a bat file and to create an m3u file. Now the harder part in this is that you have to create the entire file and then create a bat file. Now to avoid this i use a test bat file which can create the playlist of the songs present in a folder automatically whenever it is invoked.
To use this create a bat file named playlist.bat ( how to create a bat file)

To create this:

1) Goto start--> run
2) type notepad
3)type dir/b>playlist.m3u in the notepad
4) save it as playlist.bat
5) Now place this bat file in the folder where you want to create the playlist of the music files and double click the bat file. This will generate the playlist
6) Now use this file to listen to the entire list of the music files that you want to hear.

Note: The final playlist that we have created should be in the same folder as that of the parent folder.