Hi,

I have an LG 2030 Reliance cell. This handy gadget replaces many pieces of electronics in my room. I use it as a calculator, alarm clock, calendar etc. Sometimes I use it to call people also. Every morning at 6:30 am this device sends out some horrible vibrations through the air. I, snuggled in my blanket, receive it and, as a reflex action, snooze it.

I thank technology for the snooze button. I think its the biggest achievement in the human history since digital watches (which are a pretty neat idea). It can stop time (which was thought to be impossible by my good friend Einstein). I get up and go to the bathroom in night-of-the-living-dead-zombie style. Switch on the geyser and back to bed. Every minute spent sleeping in bed (alone or otherwise) is a minute worth spent.

In sometime, I hear the doorbell ring. I can safely ignore it. I know its the maid and I know that my good-boy roommate will get up and open the door. But sooner or later (mostly sooner after the thrird snooze) I have to get up. The first thing that I do is to check if the fan is spinning. If its not, it means that there is no power and I dont have to take a bath ("Bath in cold shower??? ARE YOU CRAZY?????"). In that case, I can sleep for some more time.

But not always I am that lucky. Most of the times I have to take a bath. Before that I grab the Bangalore Times and read it over the toilet. Maybe this is too much information for some but since this is probably the best part of the whole day, I have to document it here. Garfield, Archie, Beetle Bailey, Calvin and Hobbes and Animal Crackers. This makes me feel optimistic about the day.

For some time now, I am planning to put up a list of things that can "Make my day". Getting the right combination of hot and cold water in the shower is one of them. Sometimes I think that proving (or disproving) P = NP is much more simpler than getting the water temperature right in the shower. I am going to make an embedded device with 32-bit processor and a good genetic algorithm to solve this problem once and for all. This idea is patent pending.

As I am a (full-featured) male, I dont have to spend more than 5.4327 seconds to decide what I am going to wear. Jeans (unwashed for atleast 3 weeks) and Tee. Tee is not ironed so a jacket over it. A few frisks of a deo (which apparently attracts opposite sex) and I am ready to go!

Yours Sincerely,
Hi,

.. for reading :


Yours Sinerely,
Hi,



:) :)

Yours Sinerely,
Hi,

While at it, here are some more snaps from the trip. If you like what you see then let me clarify that it is the place and the camera that make them good. Photographer has nothing to do with it. And if you dont like these then you are welcome :)

















In the next snap, just excuse the electricity cables and people. I apologize for that.






















Yours Sinerely,
Hi,

I had written about my trip to south sometime back. I had clicked a lot of photos (256MBs of them!). One of my friends forwared these photos to his friend and one of these photos ended up (no points for guessing here) on a blog. You can see it here.

Its a nice postcard-types photos. Lets see if this photo makes this blog look any better.



This was taken in KodaiKanal. Amazing place.

Yours Sinerely,
Hi,

. This is big. Some months ago there was a news that they found collisions in SHA-0 and now its SHA-1. Bruce Shneier says that he is not sure if its for real. But it had to happen someday. War between cryptographers and crackers is on. Ball is back into cryptographers court.

Here is a .

I am very excited about this :).

Yours Sinerely,
Hi,

The reason I posted last to entries (Sting and Page 3) is this entry. I always try to be chronological whenener I post my opinions about the movies I see or the things I do. I wanted to finish Sting and Page 3 post so that I could write about the movie I watched on Friday (11th Feb).

I saw Black. And since then I have been telling people not to miss this movie. Many times when I write about movies, the question I wonder about is where to start. Right now, thats not the question however. I am wondering if I will be able to stop talking about this movie.

I was googling and I found some comments from some people that this movie is based on some old hollywood movie called "The Miracle worker". I just dont care. You watch the movie and you are dumbstruck. I was telling everyone that Amitabh should win an Oscar for this. But that doesnt really matter.. really. Even if he doesnt get the award, he will always remain the best actor just for his performance in Black. Way better than the Brandos, the Paccinos or the Hanks.

This movie puts the word 'word' into perspective. The meaning of 'word', the importance of that meaning and the role it plays in our lives. Makes you think. This was something we already knew. In my opinion, power of words is what keeps the bloggers like me going.

Hats off to a movie. I bow to it.
\o/ _o_ \o/ _o_ <-- thats me bowing.

Yours Sinerely,
Hi,

Last Tuesday (8th Feb) I came to office at 9 in the morning for some meeting (there are so many of them!). I had a meeting at 9:30 in the night as well. So some of us decided to take a break inbetween two meetings and we ended up watching a movie.

We saw Page 3. I heard some good reviews about the movie and wanted to see it. Page 3 is basically a newspaper page where they put a lot of color snaps of unknown wannabes who want to become well-known celebrities. Most of the girls are scantily clad and try to be bold. It is also full of gossips and masalaa. The movie is about these high society people who are always in search of some publicity.

Film has some shock-value and some good performances. In the end it makes you think about hipocracy and cultural divide. The movie is a little slow but not boring. There are scenes where you laugh out loud and there are scenes where you want to cry out loud. A good movie. Very well directed. Good performances.

Warning: After watching this you might end up skipping Page 3 of your favourite newspaper every morning.

Last Satuday
Yours Sinerely,
Hi,

I was . It was some 10 days back on 4th Feb. It was nice. I am not a big Sting fan. I never was. But I do like some of his songs. One of my all time favourites is "It's probably me". I dint know more than 10 Sting songs. But I could still go there and enjoy just because his music is good. And his voice so powerful.

The turn-out was good. Obviously, it was not as good as that at Brian Adams concert in the same place call Palace Grounds a year back. BAdams is huge in India. It was jam packed then. This time there were plenty of space to stretch your arms and whistle and dance. There were so many white-people and so many of them were high on "things".

He played for two hours and in the end it felt too less. I am glad that I dint miss this concert.

Yours Sinerely,
Hi,

Last Saturday I saw . I, for one, had high hopes for the movie. I have read two out of three . (Third one is still pending.. so many things to do, so little time!). When I was finishing the second book, I had heard the news that Oliver Stone is making the movie. I was thrilled. The books were good, full of drama and mystical history. I began thinking about how the movie should look. Clearly you cant show everything in a movie (even if you make a 3 hour movie like they did). But still, in my opinion, there are some dramatic situations you have to show. For example, Philips assasination, battle of Halicarnassus, death of Leonidas, I thought, were some of them.

To my surprise, the movie did not have any of it. I was DAMN sure that they would give a good amount of footage when Alexander meets Memnon, the only enemy Alexander respected. But there was absolutely no mention of Memnon and his beautiful wife, Barsine in the entire movie. It was sad, really.

I have not read the third book but I was sure that Alexander did not die in India, noway! And in the movie he dies in India when an Indian king shoots an arrow in his chest. That was ridiculous. I was shocked to see this.

Next morning, news papers had that give the credit to this awful mistakes to Indian theatre owners who cut 30 minutes of this 2 hour 55 mins movie to fit in an extra show. This is simply unacceptable for a die hard movie fan like me who makes it a point to go to theatres and watch the movies. This will just encourage video piracy.

Anyway, this doesnt give the movie a bit of benefit of doubt. One of my friends said that it was neither entertaining nor informational. The movie was bad and That is it.

Yours Sinerely,