A mild earth quake rocks the campus:

A mild earth quake, that lasted for around 10 seconds, experienced in the form of a minor rocking motion- sufficient enough to wake me up from sleep occurred at around 4:45 am. The campus had a brief moment of activity sharing how different people first noticed it was an earth quake (kinda funny though!). Hope the epicenter has minimal damage due to this quake.

Shimmering Light, Glimmer in the sky:

Glimmer in the sky, shimmering light in the dark well of grief,

Gliding like a burning meteor in great haste

Glowing in the eyes of the beholder like a treat

Glitter that lost in just a second but worthy of the feast

 

Everything you gave for the rest with a smile

Endlessly over a ton of loves pile

Energizing those you touched and compiled

Entering the world of compassion and love

 

Call of your eternity came early and sadly

Canceling the endless compassion that you rained happily

Covering the desperate and the needy in a shell of homely

Compassion and care you only source with the almighty.

 

Alas I spoke too early in a bitter tone

Almost none did I understood the meaning of your work then

Arrogant and appeasing was I when I was young

Away did it went along the drain when the light burned out in a second.

 

No man can do great deeds but small ones with great love

None of these real traits I knew when I saw the shine

Neither was I in touch with premonition and future

Nice little glow would last only for fraction of time.

 

Leaving behind just the after image of the flash

Lingering aurora of the darkness it slashed

Listen to the sky and you can hear this story

Love and light kept darkness for a quick second at bay.

Joss Stone Experiment Details

Joss Stone Experiment After Final Touches

Joss Stone Experiment Before Editing

Asta La Vista Baby:

 

When Microsoft in the last quarter of 2006 announced their windows Vista Operating system, I was initially skeptical about its feature set, hardware compatibility and the exact minimum configuration to run the Vista decently on my four year old PC. The initial configuration that I had in which I was using Windows XP professional with the second service pack was a modest AMD 3200+ (2.2 GHz) 1Gb DDR400 RAM and 320Gb 7200rpm Hdd. The graphic sub system in my XP professional was a Nvidia 4400MX. The graphic subsystem had no support of the pixel shader model 2.0 required for the Windows Aero Interface even though the VRAM was an adequate 128Mb.

After a little bit of research I found out that Windows Vista Home Basic and the Business versions without the Aero are just a small step over the XP pro. It just had improved security features implemented in Vista. These versions lacked the networking, Encryption, System recovery options to mention the least that could be found in the Vista Ultimate. So the ideal choice for me was Windows Vista Ultimate. But Mind you, Vista Ultimate is good only if you are using the Desktop or a Desktop replacement mobile platform. If you are a battery life conscious Laptopper then probably you might be muttering curses and swears for my decision to run the Vista Ultimate. Vista Ultimate is a battery killer with the aero interface and the window edge translucencies and popping effects are less important than battery life for many. Take for example my sister. She carries her laptop almost every day to her college to her internship office and uses Wi-Fi for internet access. She never minds if the window edge is transparent or not. She only needs her laptop to run at least five hours a day on a single charge nothing else. So I recommended her Vista Home Basic and Home Basic is a good choice for laptop users because of its advanced power management features that you can't find in a Windows XP.

So since my four year old AMD desktop was going to get an extreme makeover I wanted to make sure that it won't be very expensive. I went to the Ati Radeon site and they had a Windows Vista Advisor software. I ran the script and it indicated that I only have problem with the Graphic Subsystem. It advised me to upgrade to an ATi Radeon X1600 pro or an x 1900 series graphic card which matched my target price also. But then I remembered one thing. ATi radeon has got pretty much messed up drivers. The ATi Catalyst series are like years behind the Nvidia drivers. Nvidia has got a nice control panel and a better reputation than ATi in India. So I started looking for a good equivalent for my aging AGP motherboard that could support the pixel shader model 2.0 has around 128Mb of VRAM and decent graphic processor. I ended up with the Nvidia 7600GS the Nvidia's top most offering for the AGP platform. I know AGP is an aging platform. Despite the ATi Radeons continuing interest in AGP by releasing X1950 Nvidia seems to have abandoned this aging warrior. So the next step was to look for major driver issues in the online discussion borads especially with those who were running a VISTA+Nvidia combination.

 

To my surprise the low-mid range 7600GS was a very respected card, had little driver issues unlike the Nvidia high end Sli platforms. But lots of users were complaining about blank screens and video playback issues and unusually high number of blue screens with the VISTA+ Nvidia combination.

Finally I settled for the 7600GS because I got a new XFX 7600GS 256Mb DDR2 card for 7500 rupees which I found was reasonable. The only question in my mind was the warning on the box that read it needed a minimum of 400Watt power supply for proper functioning. I knew my PC had just a 300 watt power unit. Even with the Nvidia 4400MX it occasionally gave hard drive crashes and frozen screens due to a gasping power unit. So I was concerned about this part of the world.

The installation was smooth. There was a warning on the box that reminded you to attach the extra power cord supplied with the package to the GPU to ensure adequate power supply. The unit was pretty nicely built, and the fan was barely noticeable. The noise of GPU fan was muffled by the much louder Chassis cooler that I had installed previously. I didn't run the CD that came with the driver. Instead I went to the net and downloaded the latest driver from the Nvidia site.

The system was running fine for around two hours when I noticed suddenly my Download manager has stopped working in Vista. In a second the mighty blue screen appeared and it had a strange percentage counter that read Writing Information to Error dump. I had never seen such blue screen with a scary counter in XP. Hmm one thing that Vista had surely changed- the mighty Blue screen. I thought the blue screen was due to my SAMSUNG Sata Hard drive. I sent the hard drive for repair after backing up important files. The guys at Samsung just replace the hard disk every time I complain. Next time I had a spanking new Samsung Hdd. Booted it up. The poor Vista Crashed again after barely an hour. Then suddenly a chill ascended through my spine. My PC has not enough power. The graphic subsystem is a power hog and that was XFX guys aptly placed warning that it needed a minimum of 400 watts of power.

The next thing I knew was I was on my way to Nehru Place to start hunting for a decent power unit. I came across this shop that sold cheap Chinese power units. I picked up one that said 450 watts and got it for around 300 rupees. I replaced my power unit and there it was my old PC running smartly and smoothly the windows Vista.

One thing that surprise me though is that Need For Speed Most Wanted 1.3 released nearly a year before the release of Windows Vista runs pretty much okay (I always get lower frame rates in VISTA than in XP. Might be due to some driver issues) but the Need For speed Carbon that was released almost simultaneously with VISTA (mind you the EA developers even had VISTA release candidates that were closer to what was going to be the final Vista) sucks big time. It never loads. Even if it loads after the first turn I get a blue screen. I don't know whom to blame, but as always its fashionable to blame Microsoft. So let me say VISTA suck or let me rephrase it VISTA+ Games suck. But since I am supposed to be usisng my PC for academic purposes and gaming will be one reason compelling enough for my parents to cut back my financial aid let me again rephrase it- I don't play games with my PC( hmm inside laughter). But in general I like most of VISTA's features. I don't even need an Antivirus software for VISTA . Its secure, its easier to use than XP has a couple of WOW factors like the Flip 3d, the windows calendar, the Internet explorer 7, Windows Media Player 11, Windows Photo Gallery, The Windows Recovery Options, The super fast search and indexing options, the options for gadgets, the windows side bar, the windows Clipping tool…. and so on and on. I am loving the Vista experience and I can never go back to XP because the experience offered by Vista is far greater than even my last heavily customized XP pro with SP2.

 

By the way last night after experimenting with the Ubuntu Fiety Fawn ( A good open source option especially in its Kubuntu flavor) I messed up the Grub loader. My PC was crippled like Ray Charles in louver. I inserted my Vista DVD and the recovery option had a secion called repair the startup. It automatically detected my windows installation mounted the boot loader and my PC was functional again: Like Picasso in front of a mirror.

 

So will I recommend VISTA to others? Of course, but if they ask why: I can't give a definite answer but my answer will be Use and you will know why! (PS: I hate the drum roll in XP, but I love the drum roll in VISTA, short and sweet- the way I always like it.)

 

 

Funny Times Quotes- June 10, 2007

"Last night I met a chic who can listen Ramstein even beyond my iPod bud phones. And the funny part is she shooshed for listening Ramstein"- U2 Lead singer Bono.



"Buy peace by buying a Colt" - Charlton Heston



"My grass is smokier than yours" - George Bush to Tony Blair (in the side lines of G8 summit)



"Buy Grass get a cuban Cigar free" - Best Buy promotional flier.



"Why does God seems to have no time listening to us- because Bill Gates gave him the latest version of Windows Vista pre installed in his computer that he sits in front of it 231/2 hours waiting to boot and the rest 1/2 hour to open the Outlook." - Insider St.Jobs from heaven



"Paris Hilton is a whore... she stole my Chihuahua and made it her ass licker. I will serve that bitch a life sentence"- Nicole Ritchie on Paris Hilton's imprisonment.



"Lindsay(Lohan) has really nice tits and Paris(Hilton) has sexy figure- and I am single. Release them for me I will chain and punish them"- George Clooney on Lindsay and Paris Sentence.

Disclaimer: the quotes can be true or false depending on the way you see. The author owns no liability for any damage due to use of these quotes in circumstances like the next presentation to your boss or as news paper/tabloid headlines

Hmm...useful links (for cave men and morons)

Cnet news on Microsoft Milan Table PC

George Clooney's Tears for big tit Lindsay and sexy bod Paris

Buy Grass at Best Buy(jus Kiddin)

The genesis of an Internet Legend:

So how do you feel when your college Essay ends up in one of the internet site? Do you feel pissed off or do you feel like a legend. If it was for me I would have been embarrassed about contemplating how stupid I am writing such bull crap on that sheet of paper- God I could have done better. But read this essay: the one written by the then 19 year old Hugh Gallagher form Pennsylvania

3A. ESSAY: IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:

ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat 400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet gone to college.

When you read this work- what do you feel like? Is it a joke or a well thought out satire… mocking at the question itself. For me I love the prose for its part romantic part humor approach. Over the years the article has become a legend…. Thanks to internet and the growing number of users for sites like MySpace, Orkut and Facebook. All of them ask you to include an about me section. The first time I came across this paragraph was right when I joined my college. I had seen this beautiful prose, but as usual I was too skeptic to believe it was written by my friend . So I did a Google search and came up with this interesting finding that it was actually written by Hugh Gallagher from Pennsylvania. Over the years different versions of this prose has appeared in several sites. The whole prose itself is an example of one of the first Internet celebrities…. Long long back when there was no Lonelygirl15 and the YouTube.

The reason why I have renewed interest in this prose is due to Jenny a friend of mine. She had the same prose in her profile and I asked her if she knew the original person who wrote this prose. She said no and I was overcome by my boyish charm. Wow finally at I can impress some one with my ton loads of bull crap trivia that I have loaded into my biological hard disk space.

(P.S Usually the trivia that comes out of my holy oral orifice has a high degree of sedative and tranquilizing effect. Other side effects including dizziness and nightmares are also show in certain experimental subjects. And Don't ask me if she was really impressed or not.)

Hugh Gallagher published his own novel called the Teeth and he is now performing as a music artist under the name Von Von Von. You can find a Wikipedia Page for Hugh Gallagher.

Hmm I know, I know I'm going to screw this week again by trying to find and read the novel "the teeth". Bye for now…and thank you Jenny for reminding me that being a maverick has its own rewards.

Hash Brownies

My friend gave me a couple of hash brownies,

Those make me stand up all night,

Like that Guard on a night long shift.

I tried to sleep in cold….

I started feeling being frozen

I tried to warm my room by lighting up,

It all felt like room and I was burning up.

I took a shower in my cubicle bath,

Felt like being killed by tsunami’s wrath

I started playing jazz to loosen up,

The speakers boomin’ with crazy hip hop!

I tried the album that said best ever music from the country,

But felt like poisoned by some metal that was too heavy.

Took my cell phone and called my bitch,

The phone was taken by my buddy Mitch.

I switched on the late night movies in black’n White

They all were colorful than the best Technicolor shit.

Looked for some beer in my Samsung,

Licked up all the red hot chili ketchup thing.

Searched for my choppers keys…

Then I remembered I never had any choppers or keys.

I slept with my eyes open

I kept my eyes open in my dream

The morning I knocked at the brownie buddy.

Asked him if he had more of that smoky shit.

To feel like I was dead or alive, both!