MERC HAVEN

Trial switch to Tumblr

2008-12-05T01:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been more than a year since I posted anything on this blog. As of today I have decided to switch over to Tumblr, because it allows better integration with my 'under-construction' website. If Tumblr doesn't work out, I might get back to my old trusty blogger account. For now, Tumblr it is.

New blog URL: http://blog.mercurysquad.com/

Version numbers

2007-08-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

This always amuses me. As if the kernel version of 2.6.20.16.28.1 was too short, here are a couple more to marvel at:

Opensource version numbers from the Ubuntu repository:

The commented version number

libqt3-mt - 3:3.3.8really3.3.7-0ubuntu5.1

The dfsg version number

libmagick9 - 7:6.2.4.5.dfsg1-0.14ubuntu0.1

The source package version number

libnss3 - 2:1.firefox2.0.0.6+1-0ubuntu1

The kernel module version number

nvidia-glx-legacy - 1.0.7184+2.6.20.5-16.29

The compulsively specific version number

freewnn-common - 1.1.0+1.1.1-a021-1.1

The all-in-one cvs tag version number

faad - 2.0.0+cvs20040908+mp4v2+bmp-0ubuntu3

The usual timestamp version number

ippd - 1:3.10.20070306-0ubuntu1

The holy-crap-you-win version number

comerr-dev - 2.1-1.39+1.40-WIP-2006.11.14+dfsg-2ubuntu1

Then there are Microsoft version numbers like
6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2gdr.050301-1519 (Internet Explorer 6).

In terms of actual point numbers, the linux kernel image of 2.6.20.16.28.1 pales in comparison to a Drupal based shopping cart's version number of 1.125.2.23.2.17.2.50. That's a whole eight levels of nesting!

I gave up on such schemes long time ago. Everything I code has only a serially increasing 'build number' which starts from 1 and goes up to however many times I change and re-build it ...

MercurySquad.net is gone

2007-06-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

That's true. The domain registration and hosting account expired yesterday so now it's gone ...
I don't know when I'll be able to renew the registration because PayPal stopped direct debit on my account, despite being a verified member and having used my account for 2 years.

Until I'm able to buy back my domain (which probably will cost me a lot because someone's hoarded it already) and a hosting account, there will be no more mercurysquad.net. Sorry all you facebook hackers.

The most unforgettable cartoon theme tracks

2007-06-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

A while ago there was a post linked from digg.com, titled the "15 most unforgettable cartoon theme songs". It was a neat article, but it grossly missed some *real* themes which should have been included. So here is my own compilation. Not all of them link to the cartoon versions, but you can get an idea of the theme anyway :

10. Johnny Quest (new one)
9. Popeye theme
8. Looney Toons (+crappy remix)
7. Addams Family
6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
5. Tale Spin and Flintstones (tie)
4. Ghostbuster
3. Arabian Nights (Aladdin)
2. Family Guy
1. DuckTales (hindi version!)

That's all I can think of right now. Might update later.

Password rules?

2007-05-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

A prominent computer services company has the following rules on their website when you register for their job stock:

1. Passwords must be at least 8 characters long and no longer than 16 characters.
2. Passwords must only contain alpha and numeric characters, not symbols.
3. Passwords must not contain more than two identical consecutive characters.
4. The first or last character of a password cannot be numeric.
5. Passwords cannot contain your e-mail address.

I wonder who came up with point 2, 3 and 4. Anyone can see that :

Assuming the restrictions weren't in place, there could be a possible of 26 times 2 (letters) + 10 (digits) + 10 (approx number of symbols) = 72 to the 8th power.. combinations. I don't even want to calculate that.

Restriction 2: cuts down the number of combinations from 72^8 to 62^8.

Restriction 4: cuts down number of combinations about 20 times (10 possibilities for first and last)

As for restriction 3, I would need to spend more than a few minutes to come up with the number of possible combinations that rule removes.

Needless to say, their rules make it easier for brute-force password attacks to be successful, and harder for people to come up with a password they are not likely to forget. Bravo.

Just finished a new track

2007-04-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

Replaced the strings on my guitar and started jamming. An interesting funk riff caught my fancy, so I added some loops, a couple of extra guitar parts, and turned it into a song. Called "Siesta", it's an electronica/lounge track for my in-the-works album "All an Illusion."

You can download Siesta here. (8 MB mp3 file). Or if you prefer, you can download a 5 MB mp4/aac file here, which can be played in iTunes or Winamp, for example. The mp4 also sounds loads better than the mp3, by the way.

The original mix I made turned out to be almost 7 minutes long. The one I have uploaded here is actually a shorter edit, about 4 min 44 second long.

The other track from this album that I have released already is Conditions for peace which you can get here. It's a techno/breakbeat track.

Back from CeBIT 2007

2007-03-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

Yup! Made it to Hanover this year. Couldn't afford to miss it again. Here's what Wikipedia says about CeBIT:

CeBIT is the world's largest computer expo. It is held each spring on the fairground in Hanover, Germany, and is a barometer of the state of the art in information technology. With an exhibition area of roughly 450,000 m² (~ 5 million ft²) and up to 700,000 visitors, it is larger than COMPUTEX and the no-longer held COMDEX.

And it's true - the whole thing is HUGE. Each exhibition hall is roughly the size of 1 or 2 football fields, and there are ... twenty seven such halls. :-\ No wonder it's the world's largest. What could be better than 27 stadium sized halls full of tech gadgets (and chicks).

There were lots of cool things to see, although for the most part the halls were occupied by Chinese/Tiawanese companies demonstrating such technological wonders as... a mouse! A webcam!! Holy damn, LAPTOP BAGS!

Anyway, some highlights were: natural 3D displays, eye tracked video conversations (also on 3d displays), huge point-to-choose displays where you simply point at the screen with your finger, from a distance, to select objects (it was guided by a green overhead laser and some cams). Face trackers (it tracked people's faces, eyes, lips, and shows the gender, mood of the person etc.). Audio cubes (new way to compose music, crappy, in my opinion).

And the above was all from ONE single section of ONE hall (the Fraunhoffer IIS section)! The World Cyber Games 2007's Euro championship finals were being held there, as well as some Germany high school robotics competition.

More details, pics etc. will follow later. I'm too tired right now to write anything more. For now, satisfy yourselves from this: Videos of CeBIT 2007 on Google.

Pi Day

2007-03-14T06:18:00.000-07:00

It's here. 3/14. Also happens to be the birthdays of Albert Einstein (scientist) and Johann Strauss (composer). Great day indeed.

Took a personality test with a twist

2007-03-01T13:46:00.001-08:00

The whole Software Engineering Lab course is getting on my nerves.. in a sort of good way.

Your programmer personality type is:

DHTB

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.

You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it's parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.

You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.

More facebook hacking

2007-02-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

Discovered another little hole in Facebook which lets you view anyone's notes - even those who are not on your friends list or those you don't even know. You can read about the hack (in detail) on this page.

I have packaged it as a bookmarklet so using it is drag-and-drop simple. This is mostly not because of any security hole in Facebook, but a simple default setting which most people never bother to change. For anyone worried about this, all you have to do to prevent your notes from being viewed is to use the My Privacy page sensibly, instead of leaving it to defaults.

Got PageRank 4

2007-01-31T20:15:00.000-08:00

So Google recently completed their database update, and funnily, my blog gets one notch higher, from a pagerank of 3 to a pagerank 4. There are commercial sites which struggle to move above pagerank 3, so I am not sure why my simple, personal blog has a rank of 4. In fact, there was a time some years back when my blog was linked to some very popular/important webpages - at that time I had a pagerank of 5!

My website www.mercurysquad.net has a PageRank of 3 right now, even though it was put online only about a week ago.

But whatever, I don't really care that much about pagerank and all. This is mainly because recently at work, I had to do some research on search engine optimization, so that got me interested in this. As long as I enjoy blogging and the few visitors I have enjoy the content, it's fine!

Rage Against the Machine to re-unite - only for a day

2007-01-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is big news. Rage Against The Machine are going to play at the Coachella music fest in Los Angeles, after 7 long years. Read the announcement here. What more, Red Hot Chili Peppers and DJ Tïesto are set to perform as well, along with numerous other bands at the 3-day festival. I hope some sort of live cam or something is set up, or at least recordings are made available later. Those of you in LA, do something.. e.g. Take good quality camcorders to the show ;)

Les chansons Français

2007-01-26T21:58:00.000-08:00

Up until some years ago, we had the French music channel MCM on TV. In those days there were several songs which I used to listen to and loved. Among them were some French songs. In a fit of nostalgia, I dugg up some of them. The French music scene is bumping when it comes to Pop (as compared to, say, Korea or Thailand, where I'd throw up if I had to watch their music channels for more than 10 minutes). Listen to them all, you won't be disappointed!

Des Palmas
Regarde moi bien en face - Catchy song, used to be my favorite, I even made a backing track for this, and know the lyrics by heart
J'en reve encore - A recent one. Actually I can't find a video of his other song, Sombre.

Marc Lavoinne avec Cristina Marocco
J'ai tout oublié - Very nice haunting song, duet, with lyrics. Not that I get more than 20% of it, but still fun.

Jenifer
Au soleil - Sorry for bad video, but song is nice
Des mots qui résonnent - Nice song, but some of the added sound effects destroy it (it's the TV version)
J'attends l'amour - For some reason I remembered this as "J'attends la monde" and was going nuts trying to find it :-\ First French song I heard on MCM. Valentines day is coming, appropriate video!

Iva Fruhlingova (or just "Iva")
Ou tu veux, quand tu veux - Amazing song. Haunting tune. This one appears to be a slightly remixed version from the MP3 I have. Very good video, and amazing vocals of a very pretty singer. One of my favorites.

Lorie - yes it's ridiculous but hey, at that time I liked it, plus she's hot as hell
Toute seule - First video I saw, I believe this was her first too. Apparently she was spotted on some website where she posted a song of hers. There is another of her songs which was way better and less cheesy but the title escapes me now.

Tiziano Ferro
Perdono - This is one song that had annoyed the hell out of me, being played non-stop. But it's OK. Endure to the end for the camera girl dance ;)
Imbranato - MUCH better song, must listen. Slower and soulful.
I don't think both these songs are French, though... my ability of identifying languages ends here but if I am given guesses, I would say Spanish or Italian. Te amor is Spanish right? But the lyrics have so much O sound I'm tempted to say it's Italian. Anyway, I don't know.

Renaud et Axelle Red
Manhattan Kaboul - It's obvious from the title and the video what the song is about. Catchy guitar riff and chorus. Video is recorded off MCM :D

There was also this song by Yannick Noah, but it was reggae and I hated it so I'm not going to bother recalling what it was titled.

And the mandatory: Alizée - Moi lolita - Everyone has perhaps heard this song (and seen the video). Dance track. Anyone know what they're talking in the beginning? All I got was Tu m'aime...(blahblah)..Je t'aime. Anyway, Alizée is such a doll you can't miss this video.

And that concludes my French Song Megapost. It's amazing I was even able to recall all these songs and dig up the videos, it's been something like 5-6 years. Oh good old times... what's crazier is that all these artists are located in one city barely 400 miles away from me!

Google Video search now includes YouTube videos: and vice versa!

2007-01-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

I was just looking for something on Google Video and noticed that it returned a lot of results linking to YouTube videos! Although there was no fanfare, not even a separate page describing this, but only a small blurb on the Google Video homepage. Here's straight from the horse's mouth:

New! Now you can also search for videos from YouTube.

It's great that we can now use Google's search features (duration tag, boolean operators) to search for videos on YouTube. Because honestly, YouTube has the worst search feature (you can't even add a - sign before a word to exclude it from the search!). But it seems the integration is two-way, because YouTube searches are now playing well with Google-style search terms.

The Google acquisition was a good thing for YouTube, indeed! Let's just hope the whole copyright issue remains outside of Google's area of interest. What I mean by that is, hopefully Google will adopt a no censorship/monitoring policy and will only remove infringing videos on request. That's the stand any publicly available information carrier should take.

Snow

2007-01-24T13:36:00.000-08:00

So it snowed finally. Brings back memories. But it's January 24th - kinda weird for a first snow when it should be the end of the snowing season. And the 'entry' this time was not as grande spectaculaire as last year (late November). I hope it snows really heavily at least once this winter... it is a pretty sight.

mercurysquad.net - soft launch

2007-01-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

Yes I finally decided to change the site from offline mode to online mode. This is it - www.mercurysquad.net is now online for the whole world to behold! There aren't too many sections or pages yet, I will keep adding content later as and when I get time.

Cult of Vi

2007-01-22T17:11:00.000-08:00

...And I hereby proclaim that I am joining the Vimpires at the Cult of Vi.

The Vi brigade in the Holy War* now has a soldier more. Church of Emacs, bring it on. For you lesser mortals still in the clasps of Notepad or GEdit or what-have-you, it's time for an awekening. Rise to Vim.

On a side-note, I read about the ed editor (written in 24 bytes of code, jokingly called the 'standard text editor'). It sure is scary. Here is my first session with ed (blue: me, red: ed) -

Feisty> ed
test
?
clear
?
help
?
q
Feisty> _

Reminds me of EDLIN from DOS days. Thank goodness, even Notepad is better. Electric Pencil, anyone? :-P
*There exists a lesser war: The tab vs space war.

Those of you who have no clue what this post is about are encouraged to check out all the links I have sprinkled across this post ;-)

:wq

Review: flying-pizza.de

2007-01-22T15:02:00.000-08:00

Ferri's is good and great, but sometimes variety is nice. I might be the dream customer any Pizza house would ever want (6 pizzas in a row is no big deal), so I thought of 'expanding my horizons,' in the process also benefitting the Jacobs population (and perhaps any other Bremen visitors) by offering a small review of FlyingPizza.

First off is the convenience of being able to order online instead of by phone. It might just be a life-saver on a night when you really need a Pizza but don't have a calling card and your Skype balance is zero. Not that that has happened to me before, I am usually too well prepared for that kind of thing.

Second, the menu is good. It is a small annoyance having to pronounce the toppings you want in the clearest German accent you can fake so the Ferri's guy (or the lady) understands you mean Hähnchen and not Schinken. FlyingPizza has a vast range of toppings and pre-built pizzas available in 3 sizes (note: don't order larger than the 20 cm unless you know what you are doing - or have other people in your room) - all available online. Apart from pizzas, they also have a large selection of other stuff, noodles and all that. I decided to order their "Neue" Chicken pizza which comes with Hähnchen, Barbecuesauce, Zwiebel, Paprika und Goudakäse. Being really hungry, I went overboard and ordered an extra topping of Ei and Extra-Käse - on a 26 cm base!

Total cost: €10,40. Yes that's a LOT, especially in comparison to Ferri's five-buck-a-pop. I was determined not to let cost be a factor, considering this was perhaps the first tummy-filling meal I would be having in the past 2 days (sorry Aramark). What I should have realized is that a perfectly acceptable pizza could be 'crafted,' had I gone for a simple 20cm base with just cheese and sauce, and added my own toppings. The base starts at €3,90 so a 2 or 3 topping pizza would come at about €6 (their minimum delivery). Overall the prices were quite affordable, provided you are not foolish like me and know what pizza size you can handle.

The website is in German, but easy to follow for anyone who has taken A1.1 (proud pupil here). The website is easily navigable and adding a topping is quick (they use AJAX so the page doesn't reload on every click). Make sure you use the extra info field to type in the university name and your room number! The order is routed via another website so after you click Jetzt bestellen, you gotta wait about half a minute before it is confirmed.

Then the waiting begins. Delivery time was about 45-50 minutes, which is quite good considering it comes all the way from Blumenthal (Schwaneweder Straße or something) instead of from Grohn like Ferri's (who still manage 1½ to 2 hours at their whim). There was a once-in-a-blue-moon instance when Ferri's delivered in 20 minutes, but don't count on it. Considering that FlyingPizza probably aren't familiar with IUB (the bill had instructions printed on how to reach me), I was expecting a phone call and having to pick it up from the porter's or something (or in other universities: the front desk). Instead, the delivery guy rings the bell and it's delivered straight to your room. They speak English and are in uniform. All the more professional. But make sure you tip the delivery guy (I didn't and he was a bit taken aback as he counted the €10 note and two 20¢ coins I handed him).

The pizza: It was bulky. Yes, I repeat, don't order larger than 20 cm. Especially not with 5-6 toppings. It's a waste of money, as I found out. But the quality: delicious! Nice and juicy, unlike the dry cardboard that Ferri's calls pizzas (which we all have come to accept much like Aramark food). Yes it also does look exactly like the pizza photo on their website. My only gripe is that they don't slice the pizza for you. FlyingPizza is also the first pizza house which understood that by Ei I meant boiled eggs, sliced; not fried eggs scrambled in the middle of the pizza (unlike Ferri's who sent me a Peperoni pizza when I asked for vegetarian). It does taste a little sweet so even if you're not Asian, you might want to add some extra Scharf (60¢ extra).

Verdict: Just a tad pricey, but the good quality and fast delivery coupled with the ability to order online make FlyingPizza a very good alternative to Ferri's. Only downside is that they take orders only until 11:00pm.

MENU & SELECTION: 7/10
EASE OF ORDERING: 10/10
FOOD QUALITY: 8/10
PRICE: 6/10
DELIVERY TIME: 8/10
OVERALL: 8/10

www.flying-pizza.de

Now for this little advertisement, FlyingPizza, will you also offer me 5-10 free pizzas, like Microsoft did for tech bloggers.

Ten thousand eight hundred?!!

2007-01-12T05:25:00.000-08:00

Wow. Someone searched for 'mercurysquad' and landed on my website, so I click the statcounter link, and what do I find?

Google.com: Results 1 - 10 of about 10,800 for mercurysquad.

This is crazy. I should really stop using the 'net.

The Facebook profile pic hack - reloaded

2007-01-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

This was originally posted on my facebook profile's notes section, but is reproduced here with a bugfix and made easier to use for the benefit of mankind.

Here's a neat Firefox trick to view someone's profile pic (or another photo) in full size even when they are not in your friends list.

So here goes:
Simply drag and drop the following link to your bookmarks toolbar:
View Full Pic.

Note: If you are viewing this in Facebook, please click View Original Post and then drag the link from there instead. Facebook adds its own stupid link tracking so dragging directly from here won't work.

That's it. From then on if you wish to view the full profile pic, just right click the thumbnail > View Image > and click the View Full Pic bookmark on your toolbar.

This should also work in Internet Explorer (and maybe any other browser, but I have not tested). Firefox just has the View Image option making everything much easier.

How it works

As everyone (perhaps?) knows, to view profile pics of people not in your friends list or network, all you gotta do is (in Firefox) right click the little thumbnail of the photo and choose View Image. It opens up the same image. Now to view the full size pic, you have to change the /t130139303 (or whatever the number is) to /n130139303, in the location displayed in your address bar.

This is a hassle, so we create a bookmarklet to do the search/replace for us. Here's the code:
javascript:window.location.href=window.location.href.replace(/\/[t|s](.*)jpg$/,"/n$1jpg");

The regex has [t|s] because there are two versions of a thumbnail on facebook, a 't' (tiny) one and an 's' (small one). The full pic is 'n' (normal). Yes, I know the regex is not comprehensive and will match any URL which ends in a .jpg file whose filename starts with 't' or 's' but who the F cares when it works on facebook just fine - simply don't click the bookmarklet while on other sites to avoid running into 404 Page Not Found's and other side effects.

Let's see if I can whip up a Firefox extension to make it even less work.

PS: In case you are wondering about my motivation (you perverts), it was a 'side effect' while I was trying to muck with the commenting system on digg.com. Apparently digg is quite secure (so far) and I didn't get anywhere but the idea worked on facebook for now.

digg.com has perhaps the weirdest crowd online

2007-01-06T03:14:00.000-08:00

Man, this is crazy. I have been visiting digg.com quite often in the past few months, because it's a great source of news and discussions. But with each passing day, it seems more apparent that most diggsters are a group of self indulgent, let's say, cultists.

As an example: A guy posts a lame comment on a story, with his website address plugged in as a signature. The comment gets dugg down to -ve thousands. Then he posts on his website about this. Someone posts his website on digg.com and now the same site gets front page with thousands of +ve diggs.

To sum it up in someone else's words: This is a post on digg about a blog posted in response to a comment on digg posted on a story about a digg.com mirror.

Ugh..

Link here

The RIAA are fuckin nuts

2006-12-23T12:33:00.000-08:00

So according to this article, the Recording Industries Association of America sued the Russian mp3 vending website AllofMP3.com for a total of US$1.65 trillion. That's more than the entire GDP of Russia which stands at US$1.4 trillion, according to Google. What dumbasses.

SomaFM needs your support

2006-12-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

The internet's best underground radio station needs to pay off $25,000 of bills by December end and is asking for donations. I just wanted to spread the word. SomaFM.org has absolutely the best radio channels ever, and I've listened to them for almost 2 years now.

http://somafm.com/

If you like SomaFM too, or simply want to help, go to the Support SomaFM page. You can pay by credit card or German debit card etc. via PayPal. They already have almost $19k...

UPDATE: They have managed $25k already. From the site :

Thank you to everyone who supported us during our end of year fund drive, we raised $25,000 towards paying off our outstanding expenses for 2006! Thanks for supporting listener-supported, commercial-free, independent internet radio on SomaFM! -- Rusty Hodge 14-Dec-06

Three worst movie titles

2006-11-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

3) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
2) Clear and Present Danger
1) Snakes on a Plane

Anyone know any more? Add to the list!

Guitar tabs and lyrics are now illegal ???

2006-11-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

WHAT THE FUCK ?!!!?

Guitar tabs are now considered illegal by the MPA/RIAA ?! Check these pages out -

Sorry dude, we got pwned by the MPA. No tabs anymore. Kthxbye.
Wikipedia
A blog entry with details
Another article

I came across this while searching for some tabs to practice tonight (Saturday, kinda free). And on many big tab sites, I got the message that tabs are unavailable. www.fretplay.com for example.

WHAT the hell is wrong with the music industry?? I guess then performing any songs should be illegal as well. Big middle finger to you RIAA assholes. I think it's not too far fetched that they are going to limit the number of people you can have in your room when listening to a song... and might even call you a criminal if you hum a tune on the subway or a bus or while walking on the street. COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT MY ASS. Rot in hell you blood sucking greedy bastards!! I say we boycott ALL big name artists. Fuckin retards. This is making me sick to the point of throwing up.

For all Tintin fans

2006-11-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

Here are 5 full episodes from The Adventures of Tintin !

Tintin videos on Google

Enjoy! As for me, I always preferred snuggling up with a Tintin 3-in-1 hardcover book. In fact I just bought one of those from ebay.de, waiting for delivery.

And yet again

2006-11-03T03:57:00.000-08:00

I hate it when things don't work even when you try. Why the hell does that experiment have to quit with an error 15 minutes before the demo? You work furiously all night on making the damn thing work, from scratch, when it could have been easier to modify an existing one. Just because you believe it's going to be better in the long run. And it does work. Very well, albeit with a few rough edges. You're happy and cheerfully declare that you are going to go ahead with the demo. Except that the demo does not want to go ahead. Along with itself, it takes away all your credibility.

I hate life.

What a retarded article

2006-10-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

There's an article on Gizmodo (an otherwise great site) about Win XP completing 5 full years now. IT IS SIMPLY RETARDED. I've read one million articles comparing operating systems, and there are so many good points about Win XP. However, this guy, whoever he is, has managed to come up with so many lame ideas it makes me wonder ..... man .. Cuz Win XP is a fine operating system, apart from its quirks, but this guy totally misses the point. I hope it's sarcasm, actually.

The first three points sound very reasonable, but move on to the fourth or fifth... it goes downhill from there. Read the whole article yourself, but I'd like to quote some gems from there. This guy has got basically every sentence wrong or warped beyong the point of being just amusing -

And don't even get me started on the awesome case mods that always accompany XP-powered machines.

Hahahahhhahaahaha haha h ahahahahah hahaahhaha ahah. He likes XP because all XP machines come with superb awesome CPU cabinet designs!! HAHAHA. I guess we should stop drooling over iMacs now!! And how the hell does an OS allow more/better cabinet models?!! Damn ..

There are hundreds of companies out there manufacturing machines to run XP. This drives the prices of machines down. Want a complete desktop unit for $300? It's possible with XP.

Hahahah... considering that Win XP costs a couple hundred dollars itself, let's see... putting a free OS on it will give me a cheaper desktop!

The competition may think they are cool with the animated enlarging icons, but that shit eats the ram, hardcore. XP uses less ram and runs a lot faster.

LOL! Now who can claim their Win XP based computer runs mean and slick, compared to a Mac? And... ahem... let's wait for Vista and see how fast it runs and how little memory it takes. Oh by the way, can it run on your wristwatch or MP3 player?

New Technology - What's that? Core 2 Duo? 64-bit processing? SLI graphics? Oh, XP has been doing that for ages now.

Hhahahhahha again! Let's see, ever try installing XP on a SATA harddrive? How about built in packet writing on CD-RW's (let alone DVDs)? Dude what does "for ages" mean according to you? Win XP has supported "new technology" for ages?!!! That doesn't even make sense.

And finally -

Raise your hand if you have ever used a version of XP that wasn't exactly purchased. Windows Genuine Advantage has since hindered that possibility, somewhat, but still. XP helped kick start a generation of kids that do not pay for software with the help of P2P programs like BitTorrent, as of late. Free is always good.

This one takes the cake! Especially the last sentence. Man, how retarded can one be!! :-)

If you want more, you can read the consequent discussion about this article on this webpage.

Why are Subcontinent addresses so long?

2006-10-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

For example, Google's Germany office in Hamburg has the following address -

ABC Strasse 19
20354 Hamburg

I could even skip the Hamburg since the PLZ (20354) is enough.
Compare this to the Mumbai address -

Office No. 211, Level 2,
Raheja Centre Point, 294 CST Road,
Near Mumbai University
Off Bandra Kurla Complex,
Kalina, Santacruz (East)
Mumbai 400 098

Or the Delhi address, or the Bangalore address... etc.

Yeah so the PIN code is given, making it possible to skip Mumbai. Big deal. One could imagine the address going on with something like, Patli gali se aage daaye mod par Chimpu paan dukan ke peeche peepal ke ped ke bagal wale dhabe ke paas pohauch kar, kisi se bhi pooch lijiega !! (Sorry to those who do not speak Hindi/Urdu).

GoEar - the Youtube for audio/music

2006-10-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

Just what the title says.

www.goear.com

Although it's not as popular as youtube, but I'd encourage people to use it, upload songs etc. so that it gets a database as large as youtube! Then we can have a 24 hr on-demand radio station without the high bandwidth and processing power requirements!

Google buys YouTube!!

2006-10-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Wow. Google is a crazy company. They paid 1.65 billion dollars yesterday, to finally buy out YouTube.Com. I just hope all that copyright shit doesn't hit YouTube..... none of us could live without our 100% free On-Demand music video jukebox, can we? :-) Just the other day I was reading an article titled "Only an idiot would like to buy YouTube." Then there were rumours that Google might be that idiot company. Well, they are, idiot or not.

In unrelated news, this photo here is supposed to be a composite, computer generated face of a very attractive woman, averaged over 15 real faces that were rated "attractive". Interesting stuff. Yes she is pretty but..nahhhhh...... ;-)

How much more barbaric can religious violence be?

2006-10-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

Clipping from a BBC news article (in Hindi) about the recent curfew in Mangalore, India -

ऐंबुलेंस में जा रहे लोगों को खींचकर बाहर निकाला गया और फिर वाहन को आग लगा दी गई. घायल हुए लोगों को एक निजि अस्पताल में भर्ती कराया गया है.

Translation:

People inside the ambulance were pulled out forcibly, and the ambulance was set on fire. The injured have been admitted to a private hospital.

Makes me shudder..pulling patients out of an ambulance?! Well, at least I can say they didn't just set the ambulance ablaze with people still inside it. Which does not seem too implausible anymore...........

Hahaha.. introducing the REAL Windows Vista

2006-10-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

Check this video out !

Voice-over of Bill Gates explaining the "new" features in Windows Vista, with the same things being demonstrated in parallel -- in MacOSX !

Absolutely hilarious.

How we work on problem sets at IUB

2006-09-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

Watch here ;-) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqNeeoT92gc

And what we do during lectures - Watch here
BTW if you are wondering, that's last semester's "Dimensions of Space" USC.

Videos courtesy Md. Jehanzeb aka JJ.

Nerd stereotypes

2006-09-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

So I was a bit annoyed by all the "You must be new here" comments on every article on Slashdot, and was referred to Wikipedia to understand what it was all about. While reading the article about "Slashdot subculture" I came across common nerd stereotypes popular on that site. Gosh......... who can guess how many of these apply to me??

Nerd stereotypes are extremely common on Slashdot. The most common stereotypes are:
That Slashdotters are male
That Slashdotters are single
That male Slashdotters have poor social skills, particularly in relating to women
That female Slashdotters are rare, unattractive, non-existent, or in reality males hiding behind a feminine name
That Slashdotters spend inordinate amounts of time in front of computers
That Slashdotters use the GNU/Linux operating system on their computers
That Slashdotters have poor hygiene
That most Slashdotters usually live with their parents (often expressed as "living in their mothers' basements")
That Slashdotters are obsessed with pornography and/or masturbation (example: "500GB hard drive? How am I going to fit all my pr0n in that?!")

Music labels are now officially mad

2006-09-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

So Warner Music signed a deal with YouTube to "legally" allow using its music videos and songs on the site in return of advertising. Sounds good so far. Now read this -

The technology would also enable Warner to review homemade videos and decide whether to approve or reject them.

So now they want money if someone decides to do a lip sync to a popular song.
My reaction - "UP YOURS WARNER!"

Seriously. They can keep their Madonna music, I don't give a shit. I'd rather listen to indie artists and bands which are against this insanity that is plagueing (however you spell it) the music industry. Maybe I'll wait for the day when these big record label honchos remove the pieces of rock from their skull and put some white and grey cells in. Till then there's enough awesome indie artists to listen to.

Lucky Ali's song "Kabhi aisa lagta hai" ...

2006-09-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

...has a big flaw. It seems to me that in the recording studio, one of the monitor speakers were wired incorrectly... as in, +ve went to -ve and -ve went to +ve terminals instead of the other way round. And so the whole recording (or at least the bass drum) turns out to be phase inverted with respect to the stereo channels.

Consequently, if you listen to the song on a speaker system with two separate bass/woofer drives, it sounds a bit different, but when you listen to it on a 2.1 system where there's only one subwoofer, the left channel bass cancels out the right channel bass and so you hear NO bass drum at all....

I have MP3 collected from two different sources and they sound the same. I wonder how such an obvious error got through to the mastering stage and was pressed on to CD's which are now sold in the market.... ??

Spontaneous sampling of real-world OS usage

2006-09-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

I'm in my Information Theory class right now, sitting in the last row. I see 15-16 students (this is not a popular course), most with their laptops turned on. Professor is teaching about probability spaces and decides to count the number of 1st year, 2nd year and 3rd year students and other such things to illustrate a point. I decide to do my own survey silently. The result is as follows -

6 - Windows XP
4 - Linux
1 - Mac OS X

I can't say for sure whether it's 6 Win XP and 4 Linux or 7 WinXP and 3 Linux, because this one guy in front of me is booting up WinXP from inside of his Linux desktop using VMware........ yes IUB is really diverse ;-)

Here's a suggestion

2006-09-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

If you need to refresh your mind and you decide to watch a movie, don't watch "Vanilla Sky." It will flip your brain and tie it in knots. It's crap. And how does it end? Almost like those 4th grade stories we wrote in English Language classes which end in... "and then I woke up."

The only good bits in the movie are -

- Tom Cruise running around in an empty, devoid-of-traffic Times Square. When I saw that I was thinking, how the hell did they do it? Computer generated imagery maybe. But Wikipedia says they actually shut down Times Square for 3 hours on a Sunday. That requires some effort (probably the only place where they actually put in some effort)

- All the Penelope Cruz goodness ;-)

MacOSX vs Ubuntu

2006-09-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

Interesting discovery on Google Trends -

Mac OS X vs. Ubuntu

And I'm not even typing Linux there.... just one distro! Of course adding Windows blows the whole thing out of proportion, but Windows Vista is still below Ubuntu.

Coming up: The (Great) Linux Party 1 & 2 at IUB Fall 2006 ;-) Hehe.

An article on Slashdot.org

2006-09-10T05:28:00.000-07:00

In Elektra v. Wilke, the Chicago RIAA case in which defendant Paul Wilke has moved for summary judgment, the RIAA has responded to the summary judgment motion by filing a motion for 'expedited discovery', alleging that it needs expedited pretrial discovery because it does not have sufficient evidence to withstand Mr. Wilke's motion. The RIAA's lawyer said: 'Plaintiffs cannot at this time, without an opportunity for full discovery present by affidavit facts essential to justify their opposition to Defendant's motion.' The motion and supporting affidavit are available online.

Anyone have an idea what's going on? Anyone?

Then I look at comments. Someone says - "could'nt he just fucking translate the submission into english before posting"

Another guy clarifies -

"Defendant: I'm tired of this bullshit. Show me what you really have so we can get this over and done with.
RIAA: Uhhh... shit. We don't have a thing. Your honour could we please search everything the defendant owns in order to find something?"

Ok.......

Version numbers, Google, Woh Lamhey

2006-09-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a quiz - which software is the newer version? Version 2.14 or Version 2.2 ?

Does anyone else find it weird that 2.14 would be newer...? Even though according to ordinary intuition, 2.2 > 2.14 .... it's slightly annoying to me that because 14 > 2, 2.14 is newer.

On a different note, has anyone else noticed that the "Google" image on google.co.in is sliced into 3-4 parts while the same thing on google.com is one single image? I guess Google knows how pathetic most internet connections in India are.. so they don't believe that the 10 kb google.gif will download all at once :P

BY THE WAY: Anyone who was trying to download the Woh Lamhey cover track and couldn't do so - I HAVE FIXED THE LINK.
DOWNLOAD HERE

Far away from the Line of Control...

2006-09-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

...we do stand together.

Borders merge.

Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalese, Germans, Brazilians, Egyptians, Romanians....

That's IUB for you. A melting pot of the world's cultures.

the megaparty you don't wanna miss

2006-09-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

Spass 2006 :: "Sessions"

"This country is very very tolerant"

2006-09-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

A Ugandan newspaper has published first names and areas of work/profession of many men who are allegedly gay. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, and a lot of uproar is going on about this list that was published. This is what an editor of that paper has to say about it -

We don't want to expose them (homosexuals) to the government and the police has never contacted us to investigate the list. This country is very very tolerant.

LOL! Of course, as this second quote clarifies -

People are calling here (the paper) to make sure they're names are not named; others are calling and cursing us

Goa / Psychedelic

2006-08-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

GOA TRANCE is the best club music on Earth!!! Proud to claim its roots in INDIA!!! Psychedelic trance is the 2nd best. Also invented in India.

Example 1 - Listen (must listen all 1:30 min)
Example 2 - Listen (also must listen full 1:30 min)
Click here to download an awesome hypnotic psychedelic track (ogg file).
Click here for an album full of Goa trance.
Click here to listen to goa/psych any hour of the day (winamp/real player/any aac+ player needed)

3rd best - breakbeat
4th best - Russian trance

And another one gone

2006-08-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Prashant,
I appreciate your application.
However ,the position has been already taken.
Good luck,
xyz

Sometimes it really pisses me off when a job position goes to someone else before all the applicants have applied. If my credentials are not good enough, that's another matter. But losing a job opportunity without even being considered is really messed up.

I wonder why the fuck this position is still being advertised on CampusWeb ?? Is the policy something like - Accept whoever applies first? In that case I guess a notice saying so would be appropriate. And if I may suggest, also consider taking off the month-long advertisement, before someone else believes that the spot is still available. Not everyone can access the CampusWeb from off-campus.

Back to Deutschland

2006-08-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh.... don't ask me to write anything more than the fact that I made it back to my bed at IUB. For the third time in a row, the airline misplaced the guitar. This time they lost it totally with no tag and no trace. They've GOT to fuckin bring it back. Serious. As of now they are still "tracing" it.

And this seems to happen only at European airports. US/Indian airports don't really care and just put it in the hold like any other `cargo' ... but you know how delecate we Europe dwellers are (added we to avoid political correctness debates). We have to take care of things so much that it gets hard to even find stuff back. Bahh.

If I have time after the day long workshop tomorrow, I will write about my ... "interesting" loopy-loop route which turned an 8 hour journey into a 27 hour ordeal. Wouldn't blame the airline(s).

Now I have to die for a while.
Bbye.

By the way, the Boeing 747-400ER is a freakin big plane. Like, whoa.

And the detour begins

2006-08-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

Travelogue Part 1

It's funny. The real part of the journey back to IUB hasn't even begun and I'm already tired. It's 2:15 am. My legs hurt like hell. I'm hungry and sleepy. And so far all I have managed is getting from Patna to Delhi.

Travelling from Patna to Delhi was fun - first time that I went to my hometown's airport. Met Mr Vinod Singh (Oxygen movement), who happens to be the head of an airline's operations in Patna/Bihar (the one I was travelling with). Naturally, I got preferential treatment (ugh... sounds so bad). Had a VIP-like check-in. Attendents carrying my luggage, checking it in for me before everyone else's, getting me a priority boarding serial #, letting me carry 2 pieces of cabin baggage despite regulations (because I had two valuable items on me, in separate bags), X-ray guy coming with me to instruct the security personnel to let me carry those 2 ... even right up to a guy taking me to the best front window seat in the aircraft (they have free seating policy). The hostesses were, for a low-cost-airline, quite nice. You know.

And all this on a low cost carrier's ticket purchased for INR 800, which is less than 20 bucks. AND with no extra baggage cost, and this airline is fam0us for charging exhorbitant rates for even 1 kg of extra baggage.

So I was advised by Vinod uncle to buy books worth the money he saved me on the excess baggage charges. Will do.

Delhi airport is the worst airport I have ever been to. Once again, NOTHING was labeled, and security people or other official looking guys were no help. For a second time, I went out the exit, searching for the international terminal transfer bus. Went as far as the main road and found auto drivers. How much do they want? Rs 150. Another guy said Rs 200. I spat some mild swearwords and headed back. After much running around, finally managed to board the free transfer bus and arrived here at the international terminal's waiting lounge (after paying Rs 30 to get in - I'm too early).

Talked home. Talked to Rajeev. Had some water (tasted chockfull of chlorine). Put my luggage somewhere I could monitor it from my seat here in this iWay cafe, and logged on (didn't feel like checking for wireless here).

6 more hours to go before I fly off to London (yay). Hope to not get into problems. Check in at Patna, contrary to what I thought, was pretty tight in terms of security. Pretty tight. Yes I did see them haggling with a woman adamant on carrying her moisturizer lotion on board.

Laterz.

Woh lamhey cover...

2006-08-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

This has got to be the quickest one I have ever done. Although halfway through it we got bored (and also were a bit short on time).

What is it? Well, a recreation (attempt, at least) of JaL's song "Woh Lamhey."

Very rough mix actually.. done in just 2 hours. It is kinda annoying when Anando wants to "gift" his girlfriend a song in his voice and I am the one who is supposed to stay up all night recording the guitar, drum, bass, everything for him to sing over. So this time I just left it for when he would come to record the vocals... he was pissed, but so was I. Heh. Whatever.

DOWNLOAD HERE

"Akele" - final mix done!

2006-08-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

So here's the final version of the song. There are actually 2 versions - a short and a full version. The one linked in the previous post was the short version in its preliminary form (now removed from the download server). The new one linked here is the full version which is almost 7 minutes (!) long... has a one minute long solo in the end. This is also the first song which I fade-out... I don't like it but hey it sounded cool with the solo playing.

Anyway, here it is (comments are welcome)

"Akele"
Prashant Vaibhav & Anando Mukherjee

DOWNLOAD HERE (3.7 MB, OggVorbis)

Note: You need a media player that can play this .ogg file (e.g. Winamp, VLC, most Linux players etc.) If you use Windows Media Player, please download and install "Ogg DirectShow Filter" (look for it on Google).

The Duo Returns - NEW song!

2006-08-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

That's right!

Nice co-incidence that Anando happened to be in town for a few days, so we decided to use the opportunity to finally complete recording a song we were writing 2 years or so ago. It's called "Akele".

This is just an initial mix, by the way. The intro and the ending are not completed, neither are the vocals final (just a guide). Quite a lot of changes will be made to make it sound more polished before we can call it "complete" (we're doing that tomorrow).

But I can hardly wait :-)

Download Here (3.7 MB, OggVorbis)

The nice thing about this song is that we recorded it using completely consumer-grade equipment. Basically, just my laptop. But most of the sounds are from the excellent Syngeri GS soundfont which I purchased (but it costs less than 20 USD). The microphone was a cheapo computer headset, and the soundcard was the one built into Dell laptops.

BUT - I used the Fender Strat to record the guitar parts (listen for it!).

I like this song. Just make sure you don't fall asleep during the first minute or so (it's not final).

Heheh... nice "scenario solver" about drunk sex

2006-08-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

This one is really hilarious, although it might actually be correct in everything it says.

Wow. Politicians and Technology just don't mix

2006-08-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

By god they don't.

Just read this webpage and you'll know why. This guy (or girl.. I don't know and I don't care) is supposedly lobbying for a "hacker-free America". I wanted to include quotes from that site here, but it seemed I would end up copying the whole thing. Anyway, here's my favourite few -

There should be an “Internet drivers license“

Linux computers are often provided without any anti-virus software, and often become riddled with viruses.

We should make an example of these evil people - Americans demand life imprisonment or possibly a death penalty. [...for the offense of 'hacking']

Check it out, it's a nice blog.

EDIT: I thought it was a satire website, but Wikipedia says nope, it's real.

Coffee Cup Future Prediction

2006-08-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

LOL.

As if we don't have enough lunatics to laugh at, things just keep popping up.

Right now on STAR PLUS, a show is going on which is about some people (a lady, to be specific), who predict a person's future. And how do they do it? By looking at patterns in left-over coffee in a cup the person has drunken from. Because they spell out words in Arabic, and sometimes show pictures.

Awesome. These so-called astrologers seem hell bent on predicting future out of anything. But ... coffee patterns?!!!

Yeahhh.

Broadba... 'nuff said

2006-08-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry to anyone who might get annoyed at my continuous ranting about broadband in India.

One friend recently told me his 600 kbps broadband connection has a data transfer limit of 350 MB per month.

Simple calculations -

600 kbps = 75 kB/s download. Let's say it works at 50 kB/s.
At 50 kB/s, 350 MB will take around (350 x 1024) / 50 seconds to download.
Which comes to around 7200 seconds.
Or, 2 hours.

So yeah. Broadband connection. With a 2 hour / month usage limit.
What this particular company can't get in their heads is that broadband is not to "get email fast". I don't give a fuck if my email loads in 2 seconds instead of 10. What I do care about is whether I can use VoIP or Video chat or not. Whether I can download the latest Linux distro CD or not. Whether my Windows update takes 10 minutes or 4 hours.

The guy is switching to "150 kbps unlimited" plan instead. 150 kbps is by no means broadband, by the way. At least it's better than "32 kbps broadband" that Satyam was selling up to only a year back.

The company in question is Reliance, in case you're wondering.
As for BSNL, their rates seem to be more in line with what they should be. 256 kbps unlimited plans start from Rs 900 per month. If only they would make it actually available to those who are not their existing customers. In the 2 or 3 years that it has been in operation, I have filed the application 5 times. No luck yet.

"Love more, score with more"

2006-07-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

An article in today's Times of India, titled above, begins like this -

Danella and Michael are happily married, but they also like having sex with other people, and so, with each other's permission, they do. That's polyamory. What Danella and Mike want is more love and intimacy than they can get from a monogamous relationship. They are not interested in being unfaithful. Neither do they want to be promiscuous. What they like is having a relationship. They like relationships so much, you might say, that they want to have more than just one, writes William Leith in The Observer.

All I have to say to Danella, Michael and Mr Leith is - FUCK YOU!

This particular part made me cry out of laughter -

They are not interested in being unfaithful. Neither do they want to be promiscuous.

I know I'm being conservative here, and I'm not, but if you are so manically left-wing, you can go to hell. See if I care.

hi wutsup

2006-07-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

I hate it when people begin an IM conversation with "hi" and then continue with "whts up" ... the answer to which is invariably "nuthin much." It screams and begs to be answered that way.

Vedanta University ?

2006-07-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today's Times Of India's back page has a fullpage color ad about a soon-to-be-opened "Vedanta University". It is supposed to be a "re-incarnation" of the ancient Nalanda University (which, it is said, was the world's leading center of education in its time).

The ad mentions that the 10,000 acre campus (oh my god) will house 100,000 students (oh my god again). It also says that it's going to be as good as or better than "Ivy League universities like Harvard, Stanford and Oxford." True that Oxford rhymes with Stanford but since when did either of the two become an Ive League university ??

That said, I can't wait to see how this idea turns out. I was really wishing for something like this, and sincerely hope Vedanta University turns out to be the ultimate Harvard-killer in 25 years.

Wow. Unbelievable.

2006-07-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe this.
Indian government has decided to start blocking and censoring websites on the Internet, taking China's lead.

Read more here

I am devastated. After the 51% quota nonsense, now censorship on the Internet. Wow. Well done Mrs Gandhi. I applaud your government.

Here is the Slashdot article (with a lot of discussion)
And here is the Google group

He's a computer guy. He must be boring.

2006-07-15T07:12:00.000-07:00

Nerd stereotypes are aplenty, mostly false. But when it comes to computer nerds (male, programmers) it can sometimes be true. Here's an advertisement for an online programmer's community website... showing a "hot chick" (why exactly, is anyone's guess). I saw this on another programmer-related website (www.thedailywtf.com).

Now, using women for advertising unrelated products is nothing new. What is funny is the discussion that ensued following this ad's appearance.

Read - http://thedailywtf.com/forums/thread/81687.aspx
Some are especially humorous.. like the second one.. and #81802. They don't sound like sarcasm to me at least ;-P

Heh? IM affects people in strange ways

2006-07-11T04:53:00.000-07:00

A potpourri of some recent Yahoo madness. Here goes :

Someone commenting about my display pic on Yahoo! -

Person: wats dis xpression on ur face ???
Person: it seems 2 be sumthin like cruelty !!
merc: lol !
merc: cruelty ??
merc: woh kaise? (how so?)
merc: i think it's more like a smile
Person: ohhhhhhh thanx
*** Person has logged off.

Um.. thanx??

And another one by some random person I don't know -

karanahuja567: hello howz u
merc: hello
merc: i'm fine thank you
merc: who's this ?
karanahuja567: this is binish..........
merc: ok
merc: your ID says 'karan ahuja' ..
karanahuja567: ya ...
karanahuja567: muy name is karan........
karanahuja567: my.
karanahuja567: wat abt u........
merc: but you said binish.. ? i'm confused
merc: my name is mercury
karanahuja567: u r nt binish..........
*** close window and run

Yet another one -

jacky_disouja: hi
merc: hello
merc: who's this ?
jacky_disouja: jacky
merc: i mean i know you are 'jacky'
jacky_disouja: no u dont kno me
merc: please introduce. thanks.
jacky_disouja: r u male
*** Put on ignore.

And a ridiculous request:

Guy: will u do me a favour?
merc: depends on whether i can do it or not!
Guy: its very simple
Guy: i hv made aforum
Guy: (website address)
Guy: go to this site
Guy: and plzplzpzlzplzplzp
Guy: register urself
merc: and then?
Guy: and then
Guy: keep posting stuff
Guy: and readin them
merc: what the ..

I didn't know this person (he added me one day and I decided to be polite). Turned out he had just finished his Class 10 board exams. Unfortunately I had my semester finals during that time, so I couldn't be any more understanding.
Some trivia about the site -
Categories on the forum: jokes, hollywood, bollywood, songs, gossip, sports, cars and wallpapers
Number of registered people: Three (at that time, around 10 right now)

And the best is yet to come. This happened about a month ago while I was in the Programming:1 chat room in Yahoo! Someone sends a message saying he has a great deal for student programmers to earn money over the internet. Now I have made money before by programming for random people, so I decided to get more details. Read yourself -

merc: whats the deal
profcharlessoludo0000: im a cashier
profcharlessoludo0000: i work in a bank
merc: and?
profcharlessoludo0000: so i need a hacker that we can work together
merc: sorry, what you need is a cracker.
profcharlessoludo0000: nop
merc: spam around more, someone will take up the offer
profcharlessoludo0000: someone to transfer into my account i will pull out and we share it
***Oh great. Let's play with him a bit.
merc: what surety do i have
***Guy logs off.

Sigh......

Bad example of web "designing"

2006-07-11T04:22:00.000-07:00

To continue the web annoyance series -
Site in question: www.skyscraperpicture.com

First annoyance: When you go to the webpage, it displays some information about the site (since obviously we can't guess what this site is about from its address). And then it has an "ENTER" link. Well, what do you think I came to your site for? As if there is also a reason to leave the page (under 18?). I really don't appreciate websites that display a "splash screen" first (especially those with Flash intros) and then display an "Enter" button (shouldn't there also be a "Don't enter" button?). Also ridiculous are multi-megabyte flash intros which have a little link at the bottom saying "Skip Intro" ...... The main homepage of such sites is invariably called "index1.html" (useful tip).

Second annoyance: The whole damn index page is composed of images. GIF images. At the bottom is some text (copyright and all that) but the rest of the page is just sliced images. The designer probably designed the entire site in Photoshop and then cut it into pieces and put them on the webpage. HTML consists exclusively of IMG tags. I wonder, why not just put up the whole site as ONE big GIF or JPEG file and then use image maps to make clickable areas... I mean, come on. Images are for images, text is for text. But some people are bent on using images to display text (in Arial font). And there are also programs which create HTML formatted text which shows up as an image (obviously these ASCII-images fulfill their purpose very well, taking 5 times longer to load than a GIF or JPEG of the same thing). One day I'm going to create a site in which all text is made of BMP images (uncompressed of course) and all photos are created by using ASCII-art (font size 1 for finer resolution).

Anyway, after this point (seeing my browser window filled with about 40 image placeholders), I decided to close the browser window. Guess they really should have had a "Don't Enter" link on the intro page. Though the author of this site was sensible enough to include an "index2.html" page and explain nicely that index1 is going to take a while to load so you better ENTER HERE INSTEAD !

How stupid can a web programmer be ?

2006-07-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

In connection with the last blog entry, I went to worldclock.org, and look what it said about time around the world -

19.5:57 - Los Angeles
22.5:57 - New York
03.5:57 - London
05.5:57 - Paris
06.5:57 - Moscow

You get the idea...

And of course it's correct, because India Standard Time is 5.5 hours (5 hours and 30 minutes) ahead of GMT. So the bright programmer takes my computer's local time and my time zone information (script kiddies..), and subtracts the no. of hours my time zone is ahead of the GMT from the local time. Then it adds the appropriate no. of hours to get the time at each city.

But what about the minutes? Fractional hours?

Nepal, for instance, uses GMT +5:45 .... I bet the times from there are going to be something like 19.25:57 in LA, 22.25:57 in New York and so on.

Long live computer education. (we did this hour-minute adding subtracting program in grade 8).

Sunday ho ya Monday: ask the BBC

2006-07-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

Either the BBC is slightly confused or I am.

Maybe I've had an amnesia attack and/or all the clocks near me have slowed down or something equally drastic has happened. Like the BBC laying their hands on a time machine.

According to this breaking-news report, a plane crashed in Russia at 2300 GMT Sunday. At the time I am posting this, it is currently 03:15 GMT (at least I think so, since it's around 8:45 AM in India right now). The accident seems to have happened at "0300 Monday" local time (at accident site).

The problem is, Monday (July 10th) hasn't arrived anywhere in the world yet. According to www.worldclock.org, it's still Saturday or Sunday on earth, depending on where you are. Some prophecy going on here..

So now that I am blogging this, either BBC, or I am going to get laughed at.. and I really don't know who it's going to be because I'm still.... confused.

EDIT: An hour later, the page has been updated. Except that now it says 0800 on Monday local time, BUT still 2300 GMT Sunday.... um, did the accident site change its location ? Jumped a few longitudes maybe.

Anyway, 1.5 hours later it's fixed.

Here is the full text of the original -

Passenger plane crashes in Russia

Up to 150 people on board a Russian airliner are feared dead after the plane crashed on landing.
The Sibir Airbus A-310 plane had flown from Moscow when it crashed at Irkutsk airport in Siberia.
Russian media reported the plane slid off the runway and hit a building at about 0300 on Monday [2300 GMT Sunday].
News agencies quoted emergency services as saying at least 43 people were injured .The plane was carrying 192 passengers and eight crew members.
It was reported to have caught fire after crashing.

Amazing Tips & Tricks

2006-07-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

Some people go a bit too far with providing hacks, tips and tricks about computers. For example, here's a page which describes a Windows registry 'hack' about how to remove a service. It explains: Go to regedit, open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE...find the entry blahbalh... and that, sometimes you have to set permission, some services are cunning..blahblahblah... check the page out yourself.

Hmm... so... why bother with all that when you can hit Win+R, type "sc delete servicename", and BOOM: service deleted. Hee hee.

Max Payne 2

2006-07-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Max Payne has got to be the best RPG ever. When the original one was released, my entire CS class in high school went crazy. All of us played during the same week, trying to outdo each other. Malyaj managed to finish it first, while I placed 2nd, finishing it a whole day after him.

Now, 2 years after Max Payne 2 has been released, I decided to try it out too. Right now in Part III Chapter 7.

EDIT: I finished it today.. wow, what an end to the story. Mona does die, though. But Max manages to kill Vladimir Lem, and that too in quite a dramatic way. Also, the end theme, "Late Goodbye" by a Finnish rock band is really nice.. this whole thing is a freakin movie, nothing less.

The graphics are TOP NOTCH, and gameplay is awesome as before. There are some new weapons like "The Striker" and MP4 Carbine and MP5, AK-47 Kalashnikov etc. in addition to the usual ones like Desert Eagle, 9mm Pistol, Ingram. Colt Kommando was missing! So was Barretta but Desert Eagle makes up for it. Molotov Cocktails and Grenades are the only two secondary weapons, apart from good old (useless) melee. Bullet time is also enhanced and is much more stylish.

This time Max also has a love interest - Mona Sax, a murder suspect. Although there are no candle-lights or bird-songs. The bad thing is that I heard Mona dies in the end... which is tragic, considering the original began with the death of Max's wife and child.

In some parts of the game, you are even required to control Mona instead of Max. At one point, Mona is covering for Max, while he tries to find a way in. There is also a great addition - playing the same chapter twice, once from Max's point of view and again from Mona's.

And the "nightmare" chapters are no longer as 'nightmarish' as before - it is actually quite easy to get past them. Although you might want to wander a bit just to admire the awesome graphics (everything seems to float and twist as if under water).

It's a great game. Ich liebe.

Brown vs Dickens / Germany vs Argentina

2006-06-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

Last night I started reading Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" - just because someone remarked that, "You, of all people, haven't read that book?"

It's true that I have been into this sort of thing: the Fibonacci sequence, the Golden Ratio... etc etc. But I had never been into what I call "pop fiction". Anyway, I picked up the book and started reading. As reference, I always use Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" which must be familiar to anyone who knows me (or this blog). It has the merit of being the only classic I have read cover-to-cover more than once (apart from being a heavy influence on me, almost a blueprint of where my life is going).

Getting back to the topic at hand - Dan Brown's so-called masterpiece, selling more than 60 million copies (right?) and translated into 40+ languages (somehow all popular books end up being translated into 40 or 42 languages, never 20 or 30 or 70).

A second reason for my having started reading the book was that the movie was out. It is a habit of mine to read the book a movie is based on, beforehand. For example, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Merchant of Venice etc. Since I was already reading Memoirs of a Geisha these days, I thought about adding The Da Vinci Code to the list as well.

The novel begins with a "Facts" page, as everyone knows, a page listing three facts. It then launches straight into a murder scene. I knew what was in store. It is a thriller after all.

The book is filled with historical references, especially to art history, secret societies and Christianity. By about the 34th chapter (a third of the novel), I figured I had had enough Christian Catholic secret history-mystery nonsense. I decided to stop reading this "Hollywood screenplay" novel. I went on to Wikipedia and read the remaining plot outline. Interesting story.

Dan Brown's writing style is usually simplistic. He is a commercial writer - the way he writes is designed to clutch a reader in until he has finished the book. That's why his books sell. That's also why Sydney Sheldon sells. Brown is more concerned with captivating the reader - thrilling her with what is going on in the story. Dickens, on the other hand, was concerned with using language to paint a picture and let the reader figure out herself what was being described. Brown's style is narrative, Dickens' is artistic.

Dickens created immortal characters - so complex that you are left wondering whether one is a hero or a villain or just supporting cast. Look at Philip Pirrip, who himself proclaims that he "is a complex mixture of good and bad." Or the little Mar's Davey transmogrifying into the intimidating profile of an adolescent David Copperfield. That's Characterization. Brown fails miserably here. The most powerful character, Robert Langdon, is reduced to a hollow encyclopedia who does nothing more than blabber out history texts from memory. Sophie Nevue, "the chick", is a typical, much-needed clever hotshot spy-type woman ubiquitous in any kind of thriller novel. All dead characters.

In any case, comparing Brown with Dickens is pointless. Some may laugh, but most will agree. It is like comparing Mozart with Michael Jackson. Jackson's music is not bad, and it is more popular than Mozart's in his time. Still there is no comparison.

That said, the other match tonight, the one between Germany and Argentina, ended with a victory for Deutschland..... as I had been saying all along, yet people took Argentina's side because they were leading with 1-0 at one point. But well... they are OUT. (And just look at the un-sportsman-ship displayed by them after the match, in that melee that broke out).

Skype Zones ??

2006-06-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

I can't comprehend the idea behind Skype's new service "SkypeZones". It's still in beta testing phase, though. Basically it enables anyone with a Wifi enabled device to make and receive Skype calls when they are in range of a Skype-friendly wifi hotspot. For this they are charging €2.5 for two hours or €6.5 for a whole month.

Now wtf ?!

What was wrong with going online in a wifi area, logging on to Skype and making calls? That's how anyone who has wireless (or any kind of internet access anywhere) will do. Recently, while travelling back to India, I waited about an hour at the Vienna airport, in transit. I had checked their website already and knew that they had free wireless internet there, so I took out my laptop, logged on to Skype, plugged my headset and started making calls. Talked home for half hour at no extra cost (except Skype outgoing rate, of course).

Where exactly does this new type of service, "SkypeZones" come in then?

Even if one has to pay for WiFi access, logging on to Skype after that should be no problem at all. Is Skype trying to create its own WiFi network across the world? If yes, then at a cost of 6.5 euro/month for unlimited access, I think it is perhaps the cheapest service ever, if they also allow access to the general internet. If not, then only Skype honchos know what they are up to.

What is funnier is their choice of locations. There are 5 SkypeZones in India - all in relatively obscure places in Bangalore. In France there are 6-7 airport locations - but no Charles de Gaulle (Paris' main int'l airport). And many such oddities. Like only 2 hotel locations in Luxembourg, Skype's corporate headquarter.

2006-06-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

I think India should go the USA way and change the standard electricity supply voltage to 110 volts, since 220 obviously seems impossible for these guys to maintain. Perhaps even change it to 55 V, because right now the supply voltage is less than 80.

Roots

2006-06-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

This post is in celebration of receiving an A in a humanities course (and a projected D in Computer Science, but their grading is screwed up and they are fixing it right now).

I figured it would be nice to re-affirm that I am still a "hardcore science person" (as someone attributed to me), I decided to take a look at my homework submissions in CS. Now our CS class homeworks are/were the most engaging and "hardcore" assignments because of two facts - the pace of the course is incredibly fast. One week you start to learn about boolean circuits and next week you are already writing compilers. The other reason being that we had 'encounters' with no less than 10 programming languages* through the course of our freshman year - but settled on using an arcane, esoteric functional programming language called Standard ML. We never used 'for' loops!

One of our assignments was to use SML to write an interpreter for a register machine (assembly language interpreter, in other words). That was one behemoth of an assignment. A full night of coding in the lab (how nerdy) and by 6 am I had my submission ready - 6 hours after the deadline. (please no comments).

The grader's comments - "Nothing much to say. 100/100. You came, you saw, you owned."

The next assignment was to write a Fibonacci sequence generator using pure assembly (and a rather restricted subset of assembly... we had only 4 registers in total, among other things). The real fun was to write this program and test it on the register machine (affectionately called the REGMA) we had just built. It worked beautifully. Now some of you might laugh at all this hyperexcitement, but believe me, for someone who has coded in VB and C++ for basically half his life, writing his own language, compiler, interpreter; not just from an implementation point of view, but from understanding the theory behind it, is incredibly exciting.

Another assignment was to create a compiler for our own imperative (C-like) language. It was called SW (Simple While - because it only had a simple while loop instead of for loops). Our job was to convert programsn written in this single-typed (integer only), rigid syntax language into a stack-based virtual machine code (also a severely restricted subset of any commercial VM implementation). That was rather fun.

So, not forgetting that I straight out failed the first humanities course (Intro to Social Psychology), I present hereforth, my code for the REGMA.

Cheers.

(******************************************************************************************************************)
(* Problem 1.4 - REGISTER MACHINE SIMULATOR *)

exception UnhaltedProgram; (* raised when program counter goes beyond the last instruction but there was no STOP *)
exception AccessViolation; (* heavy MS-Windows influence to be seen here.. ;) *)
exception FatalException; (* not used.. just for fun :D *)
exception InvalidJump; (* self explanatory *)

datatype instruction =
(* Basic *) load | store | add | sub | loadi | addi | subi |
(* Index *) loadin1 | loadin2 | storein1 | storein2 |
(* Moves *) moveaccin1 | moveaccin2| movein1acc| movein2acc| movein1in2| movein2in1|
(* Jumps *) jump | jumpeq | jumpne | jumpless | jumpleq | jumpgeq | jumpmore |
(* Other *) nop | stop;

type datastore = int array;
type programstore = (instruction * int) array;

datatype CPUState = CPUState of int * int * int * int;
(* Stores the 4 registers : ACC PC IN1 IN2 *)

datatype Computer = Computer of programstore * datastore * CPUState;
(* Represents the whole computer... we'll toss it around between functions *)

fun change(arr, i, x) =
let
val blah = Array.update(arr, i, x)
in
arr
end;
(* quick function to update an array AND return it *)

(* The following function will take a "Computer" and an (instruction * int) and run that instruction on The computer.
Because the Computer datatype has the complete data store as well as the 4 register values, that one instruction
will be run in the proper context and environment. The function then returns the resultant Computer, with possibly
modified values of the registers or the data store *)

fun parseInstruction(The:Computer, a:(instruction * int)) =
let
(* First we get some values out of the Computer and into some variables *)
val Computer(Program, Data, CPU) = The
val CPUState(ACC, PC, IN1, IN2) = CPU
val (opcode, operand) = a
in
(* now the command execution.. after each operation, we return the computer.
basically I reconstruct the whole computer from its various parts, possibly changing some values
depending on the instruction being executed. For example, LOAD will rebuild the computer
but with a changed ACC in the CPUState *)

if opcode = nop then Computer(Program, Data, CPU) else (* just return same computer back *)
if opcode = load then
(* make sure that the guy is not trying to load from a non existent location *)
if operand >= Array.length(Data) orelse operand < 0 then raise AccessViolation
else Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(Array.sub(Data, operand), PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = store then
if operand >= Array.length(Data) orelse operand < 0 then raise AccessViolation
else Computer(Program, change(Data, operand, ACC), CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = add then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC+Array.sub(Data, operand), PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = sub then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC-Array.sub(Data, operand), PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = loadi then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(operand, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = addi then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC+operand, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = subi then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC-operand, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = loadin1 then
(* same boilerplate checking...*)
if IN1+operand >= Array.length(Data) orelse IN1+operand < 0 then raise AccessViolation else
Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(Array.sub(Data, IN1+operand), PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = storein1 then
if IN1+operand >= Array.length(Data) orelse IN1+operand < 0 then raise AccessViolation
else Computer(Program, change(Data, IN1+operand, ACC), CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = loadin2 then
if IN2+operand >= Array.length(Data) orelse IN2+operand < 0 then raise AccessViolation else
Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(Array.sub(Data, IN2+operand), PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = storein2 then
if IN2+operand >= Array.length(Data) orelse IN2+operand < 0 then raise AccessViolation
else Computer(Program, change(Data, IN2+operand, ACC), CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
(* move commands... pretty self explanatory. Only change is in the CPUState that's returned with the Computer *)
if opcode = moveaccin1 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, ACC, IN2)) else
if opcode = moveaccin2 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, ACC)) else
if opcode = movein1acc then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(IN1, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = movein2acc then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(IN2, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = movein1in2 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN1)) else
if opcode = movein2in1 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN2, IN2)) else
(* here are the jump commands.. instead of increasing PC by 1, we increase it by the operand.
I will NOT check for invalid jumps here. One simple check in the Boot function will do the trick *)
if opcode = jump then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+operand, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = jumpeq then
if ACC=0 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+operand, IN1, IN2))
else Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = jumpne then
if ACC<>0 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+operand, IN1, IN2))
else Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = jumpleq then
if ACC<=0 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+operand, IN1, IN2))
else Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = jumpgeq then
if ACC>=0 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+operand, IN1, IN2))
else Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = jumpless then
if ACC<0 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+operand, IN1, IN2))
else Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else
if opcode = jumpmore then
if ACC>0 then Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+operand, IN1, IN2))
else Computer(Program, Data, CPUState(ACC, PC+1, IN1, IN2)) else Computer(Program, Data, CPU)
end;

(* This is the recursive function that takes a Computer and runs the instruction which is pointed to by the PC.
If the instruction is a STOP then it returns the value of ACC otherwise after executing the instruction it
feeds the computer back to itself to run the next instruction. The PC was incremented already *)
fun Boot(The:Computer) =
let
val Computer(Program, Data, CPU) = The
val CPUState(ACC, PC, IN1, IN2) = CPU
in
if PC >= Array.length(Program) then (* ..and the PC goes beyond the last line *) raise UnhaltedProgram else
if PC < 0 then (* negative PC... how the hell? *) raise InvalidJump else
let
val (operator, operand) = Array.sub(Program, PC)
in
if operator = stop then ACC else Boot(parseInstruction(The, Array.sub(Program, PC)))
end
end;

(* AND FINALLY.... THE REGMA FUNCTION. Just convert the prog and data to a Computer, initialize the registers to zero and Boot The Computer! *)
fun regma(prog,data) = Boot(Computer(prog,data,CPUState(0,0,0,0)));

(* Test cases .. *)

(* NOTE - 1) memory cells start from number 0, not one. so to load first number, load 0 will be the command *)
(* 2) the data store is NOT expandable. so if the assembly program uses let's say memory cells upto no. 5,
then the input data store must be at least 6 in length... no auto memory resizing (come on, not
even real computers do that.. they all have fixed memory! *)

(* simple program to add 3 numbers and store in the 4th cell *)
val prog1 = Array.fromList( [(load,0),(add,1),(add,2),(store,3),(stop,0)] );
val data1 = Array.fromList( [2,3,5,0] );
regma(prog1, data1); (* so result should be... 10 i think? .. and that 0 will be overwritten with the result but we cant see that of course *)
(* yep it was 10 ! *)

(*
you can test different programs by changing it above ^
try replacing (stop, 0) by something like (jump,~50)... you will get a nice InvalidJump exception.
or maybe load,~2 to get the equivalent thing of a Blue Screen :-P

I really wanted to return the whole data store. But since i'm not asked to do that in the problem statement, I won't.
But it's easy to do. Just have to change the "if operator = stop then ACC" in the Boot function
to "if operator = stop then Data" or maybe even the whole Computer together with the data, registers, program store.
*)

2006-06-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

This blog has gone into dormancy.
I am back in India and don't have easy net access.

Bis bald.
(see you soon)

The end (for now)

2006-05-31T16:25:00.000-07:00

First year's over.
One more day at IUB before I go back home for 3 months.

Brown out

2006-05-24T03:42:00.000-07:00

So in the almost 9 months I have been in Germany, today was the first day we had an unannounced internet and power outage. Total 3 minutes of power outage, and around 10-12 minutes of no internet. There have been no power outages at all, and the internet has been turned off for about 2-3 hours a couple of times for maintainance, which was hardly noticeable. I like it how they are able to maintain things so well.

Holy mother of god

2006-05-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

Check this page out - http://t.div0.ccc-offenbach.org/html2php/nottrivial.bf

Who can guess what that is?

It is a program written in a language called "Brainfuck."
Here's the same code with some comments added. You can try to understand it. It's actually pretty simple and elegant. Good luck.

If you're wondering, that program does some sort of text processing to convert HTML files to PHP files using echo statements. Yeah, that's another WTF but what the hell... at least it's good entertainment.

EDIT: Ok. I have lived. I have seen all there is to see in the world of programming languages. Because there is a programming language called Taxi which is based on "escorting data across a virtual town." And there are more such things. Like Ook! and COW.

God save me. (Tomorrow morning is the General CS 2 final exam).

That double is a float, you f'in piece of f'in s !

2006-05-18T01:35:00.000-07:00

LOL !

Whoever out there is a programmer, or at least a tech-head, should read this IRC conversation -

http://spedstories.blogspot.com/

And be prepared to ROFL for 20 minutes.

Warning - If you don't program and/or enjoy computer science, you will not like or understand this.

Also, this site is quite nice - www.thedailywtf.com. Some of the comments for each post are funnier than the post itself.

Windows update in Firefox

2006-05-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

So yes it can be done.

In a very old blog post I reported that Yahoo! Avatars are now supported in Firefox as well. My friend Shikhar commented, "I'm waiting for the time when Windows Update starts to work in Firefox."

Here it is.

http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/

Of course that site is not from Microsoft, but it's supposed to work anyway. Funny thing is that it won't work in Internet Explorer :-P

They also have an interesting License Agreement: When downloading the WindizUpdate plugin, you did not have to agree to the terms of any license agreement. You are free to do whatever you want with the software. This includes disassembly.

Heh.

I played a concert grand!!

2006-05-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

Yesssss!

There is one in the Campus Center conference hall, which unfortunately is either private property, is only meant for exclusive use of some people, or is a showpiece. But at last night's spring festival, they used that piano for a performance (I wasn't there then). Now I had a performance in the other hall too, but I lost all my picks and had to search for one. Fortunately, Iza found one in the conference hall. The conference hall was empty then, with 2 guys folding up the equipment.

After the show, I came to the conference hall to return the pick... and couldn't resist it. The piano was shiny-new, golden brown in colour. So I sat down and hit the keys. It had a very warm touch to it. The sound was loud, and I tried to play it slowly so as not to cause any disturbance. I hit some random notes, when one of the two guys exclaimed, "We have some music, eh!", in a German accent.

Well I decided to get on with it. I started playing, what else, the Moonlight Sonata, 1st mvt :-) After it I also played the first part of Für Elise. The sound was heavenly. It was not a Steinway (in all the excitement, I had forgotten to note the make of the piano), but it sounded sweet, with enough sustain and a darker, warm tone (the piano was probably not more than a 6'). The keys had a light touch, which was great because I could be much more expressive with regard to the volume of each note (anyone who has played the Moonlight sonata knows what I mean).

So there it was! My first real encounter with a concert grand! Though I had played one before for 2 minutes, when I was in Boston (and it was a Steinway), at that time I couldn't really play anything. Now I could.

As I was leaving, one of the guys said, "It was nice!"
"Yeah, the piano - it's real nice!", I said as I walked out of the hall.

:-)

Restart

2006-05-04T16:47:00.000-07:00

Life to me is one big iterative programming laboratory. You try new things. Some work out, some don't. If it does, great! If it does not, it's a lesson learnt. You go back, modify your plan of attack, and restart.

Summer is here

2006-05-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

24 degrees Celsius today. The campus looks like a freakin holiday resort, with groups of guys and girls sunbathing every 20 yards, people playing beach volleyball (in the sun after a looong time), blasted music on boomboxes etc etc. It's actually hot in here in my room. But Patna is burning already, I wonder what it will feel like next month when I go there.

Body awareness my ass

2006-05-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

Some sort of "Body awareness week" is going on, and some people at IUB have been sending spams about it 2-3 times every day since last week and now it's getting on my nerves. Since expressing any personal opinion on the IUB mailing list is usually frowned upon, I thought I'll vent here on my blog. So yeah, this is freaking me out. The emails say various things, "Love your body, stop hating it for once, stop counting calories and stop being ashamed of your own body" ... and now there is a competition to write a poem about your body, encouraging students to "be creative, because anything goes!"

What the hell? One or two emails are enough, I get the message. But twice every day?

And what more, now they are having some sort of Osho meditation thing going on. I hope they don't hold an orgy in the name of body awareness. In Hinduism, the body is said to be a prison for the soul and the ultimate goal in life is to free yourself, and here these people are, asking us to "love our bodies". Honestly, I am not much of a religious person by any means, but I sure do not care the least bit about my body or whatever, within the healthy limits of staying fit and groomed. I am certainly not obsessed neither do I support such obsession. Unfortunately, at IUB there is this specific trait (I can't get a better word) - that of selecting something totally stupid and making a deal out of it.

Some time back, they were creating an anti-racial-discriminatory organization. There is no discrimination at IUB whatsoever, and the idea was severely criticized by most students. Then they started forming an anti-sexual-harassment body. Well...

And the best of all, the student government succeeded in getting "Offices" in the student activity center building. Although they feel more "official" and authoritative now, the rest of the student body doesn't give a damn. How? Well, last month, the student government was sending out a few emails every week advertising their new offices. The interesting bit is that the email went like - "Want to talk about something with a member of the parliament, or just grab a coffee? Come to our new Student Government office in the SAC!"...

Then there is conformist tradition about academics. When a student pointed out a less-than-optimal way to solve a problem, he gets the response from the TA - "This is not a course on efficient programming. This is a course to learn the basics of computer science." On another occasion, when I pointed out that almost everywhere a stack is top-down instead of bottom-up, I got the response - "You are not everywhere, you are at IUB", and then they proceeded to modify one of the language constructs to include a special way so that we can actually solve the homework problem - the correction coming the night before it was due.

What more? About two months ago I sent an email to the facilities department asking them to get the only publicly accessible piano at IUB to be restored from the horrible condition it is, or at the very least, be re-tuned! Their response -

"Dear Prashant Vaibhav,
not our duty!!!!
Thank you for your request."

That was the exact response I received. Now I totally agree that it might not be their duty, but could they so much as take the pains to tell me WHOSE duty it was if not the Facilities Management? But why do that, why not let me stay caught up in beauraucracy? Which reminds me, I still don't have my laptop back, after the whole semester has ended.

Anyway. Now close this window and go and love your body. Ciao.

The big day

2006-04-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

Finally it's here. The Talent Night performances are tonight, and I am nervous. Despite the fact that I have been anything but nervous in the past. Maybe it's because this time a LOT rests on my shoulders, since in addition to playing two songs with my band, I will also be playing some six songs for other bands - that's half of all performances! This is what I would call being drowned in music...

My line-up is as follows -

Muse - Time is running out [lead guitar]
Alanis - Uninvited [piano, keyboard]
Ugly Kid Joe - Mr Recordman [drums]
A Paki Band - BC Sutta! [drums]
Artcell - Dhosor Shomoy (bengali song) [lead guitar]
Greenday - Boulevard of broken dreams [acoustic rhythm guitar]
Weezer - Beverly Hills [rhythm guitar, some lead]
Nik,Ogy,Me - Transit of Venus (instrumental kickstart) - [drums]

The first two are the ones I'm playing with my band. Soundcheck starts in 2 hours, so I better run. The whole show is being recorded in audio so I will post pics and soundbytes later. I so love this!

Ich bin back

2006-04-08T23:34:00.000-07:00

The city is nice, mid-sized but congested and haphazardly (un)planned. Transportation is cheap. Museums are expensive. Weed is legal. Canals are many. Traffic regulations are incomprehensible. Architecture is old. People speak English. Women are pretty. Trains come late. Place is safe.

More info/photos will follow.. right now, Zzzzzzz....

EDIT: Photos are here - Click

Phew! ... Amsterdam here I come

2006-04-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

Finally! Spring break is here. Past few weeks were so frustrating, I am glad to get a breather. And what better way to kick start the spring break than with a tour to some place OUT of IUB. And not just out of IUB, but out of this whole Deutschland. Yep, this weekend I'm on a short trip to Amsterdam. Infact I am leaving in less than an hour. Well I don't know a lot (or anything) about the city so it's going to be interesting. All I know is it is famous for pot, hookers, Van Gogh, and canals. Let's see.

I'll be back on Monday morning, hopefully with photos (unfortunately my camera is with a friend who was too busy DJ'ing for tonight's party to check his email or pick up his phone.. Octav are you reading this??) :-P

So the trip is through the worst tour operator in Germany. This company has so many bad reviews we almost dropped the plan, but then there was no other way to go anywhere else in < 50 Euro (!). So we'll see how it goes. It's just 2 days, can't be that bad.

Ok I'm a bit late. Tschuss!
[I'm becoming more German everyday]

Nice

2006-04-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

12:33 am.

CS Midterm tomorrow. Midnight study marathon continues. Damn I'm hungry. So is Shrestho, studying for god-knows-what in his room. Typical college kids: no money, hungry at midnight. He borrows 5 Euro from his flatmate Horia, who also tags along. And off we go to the pizza place round the corner. Melody's aka Ferri's. It's the only place open after 8pm. Not a soul outside. Us three walking on the pavement.

We get to Ferri's. We order. Drei pizza, mit schinken, mice (?) und chaff. Me: "Mice??"
"It's corn," says Horia. We munch.

1:04 am.

We pay.

And then we get dropped right outside IUB's main entrance. In a Nissan. By the pizza place guy. Nice.

Pizza guy: "Das ist gut?", near the IUB entrance.
Us: "Ja, vielen danke! Tschuss!"
Pizza guy: "Bitte schoen, tschuss."

He backs up and drives away.

Me: "I thought he was gonna deliver something at IUB.."
Horia: "What car does that !@#^!@$& have?"
Shrestho: "A Nissan? That sonova#(^)!"

JerryC - the world's best contemporary guitarist?

2006-03-31T15:03:00.000-08:00

CANON IN D (Jerry C)

Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

Make sure you listen till the end.

This Taiwanese dude is being touted as the greatest guitarist since Eddie van Halen. He IS great. See for yourself. Official site is - http://www.jerryc.tw/

EDIT - Wow. I had no idea this track was so popular already. The very same day that I post this blog entry, I go for rehearsal with Nik/Steffen/Ognyan etc. that night and my metal-o-phile friend Mihai Bailesteanu was there too. He asked to try out the Fender Strat that I have. He plugs it into the amp and guess what he plays? Canon rock's main theme! Though he couldn't play anymore than the theme :-)

Saturday morning

2006-03-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

It seems highly likely that I am going to restart Silence:Shattered from tomorrow night on IWAVE Radio (if I manage to complete Elec.Engg. homework by 8 or 9pm). For any techno/chillout/electronica fans out there, my recommendations for now are -

iMozart Lounge - Symphony 40 [was #1 album in Germany when I bought it]
Propellerheads - Take california [the ESPRIT timewear ad uses this track]
Thievery Corporation - Indra [Channel [V] uses this for their 'NON STOP' show theme]
Thievery Corporation - Warning shots
Thievery Corporation - Govinda
Apollo 440 - Charlies Angels theme [everyone has heard it..]
The Prodigy - Serial killa
Crystal Method - Keep hope alive

More will come.. watch this space.

It's been a while, so let's ramble

2006-02-27T20:43:00.000-08:00

Almost a month since I posted. What kept me at bay? Quite a lot of things.

First off, a rant (skip please) : I am now extremely irritated at not having a laptop for the past 6 weeks. So I'm not able to listen to music or plug in my guitar or watch a video or do some quick calculation or communicate with friends/family or ... virtually everything gets difficult without a computer. To make matters worse, professors assume that everyone of us has access to a computer despite the fact that there are hardly any public-access computing clusters at IUB. The only place is the library with its 4-odd Sun Microsystems consoles, inaccessible after 11:30 pm.

The big problem is not being able to study properly. Homeworks, notes, slides, everything is online. Important communication is via email or the course forums. There have been instances when I have almost missed homework deadlines or quizzes due to lack of information. Let's hope I get my poor laptop back.

Enough rambling (way to begin a post, yeah!).

The good thing is that I am regaining my love for the Keyboard - piano to be specific. It's a great feeling to have 88 ivory/black keys at your disposal. It's the same 88 notes but your fingers can make it sound however you like it. It's amazing. I am now perfecting the first movement of Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven, Op 27, #2) and am learning Etude in E major (Chopin, Op 10, #3) which I can barely play past the first 5 seconds as of now. It's not a piece one would begin playing with (it's an etude after all, has 3 separate melodies played by, well, two hands... it might take me like a year to get right!) But I really like it so why not. That said, I am getting increasingly worse at playing guitar. There has been no progress during the past 2 weeks that I have played with my band, and I have gotten even sloppier than I already was. Sad.

Next up - I'm back to my horrendous reading appetite. That's right, after a long break (of course because of lack of books themselves) Ich bin back in business, having checked out 22 books from the library as of now (and paid 10 Euro in late fines for having forgotten their due dates)... It's amazing. Everything from History of the Ancient World to Artificial Intelligence to Genetic Programming to Independent Component Analysis to Guy de Maupassant Collected Works to Undiscovered Chekhov... PARADISE! In fact learning new stuff is so cool, just last Wednesday I was reading about the 3x+1 problem in one of the books and next day I go to my Symbolic Software lab class and bang - the same problem appears as one of the parts of that week's assignment!

Also, I will probably re-start my techno-music show this Sunday on campus radio IWAVE. Am pretty excited since I've gathered a few amazing lounge/techno tracks. One of which that I especially like is a lounge/tech remix of Mozart's Symphony #40 (that guy composed freakin 50 symphonies?! No wonder he was Beethoven's teacher).

Talking of music, my band (Casey, Steffen, Iza and me) is scaling new heights with quiet a few covers we've been practising or plan to. Our repertoire currently is (the only two perfected songs are the ones starred) -

Alanis Morisette - Uninvited
Incubus - 11 am*
Incubus - The Warmth*
Incubus - Just a phase
Audioslave - Like a stone
Vertical Horizon - On the sea
Muse - Time is running out - watch video here - nice song.

... and more being added. Pretty soon we'll be able to just pick up any song and play it. (And yeah we play a lot of Incubus).

But coming back to sad news, I was not able to make my deadline to complete the AudioPrint project. Which means nil chances of submitting somewhere. Oh well. Maybe next year. But I have at least some interesting results - one of which is being able to segment an audio file into musically (or at least energetically) meaningful sections. But more info on that later (when I actually have concrete results rather than bump-ins).

With that I guess this post comes to an end. I got a quiz in less than 2 hours from now. It's about two-port theory and non-linear analysis, if anyone is interested (sounds formidable but that's how most of EECS is... simple concepts with big big names). Bbye to whoever visits this hut, apart from people looking for "FlyAKiteOSX" :-\ from one of my wayyy old posts (I know you are out there).........

Act II

2006-02-01T06:23:00.000-08:00

So the spring semester has already started. The second sixth of my undergraduate education...

It is sometimes hard to believe how relative time is. And how relative what you learn can be. I learnt more in the last two years of high school than I probably did in all the 10 previous years. After having complete the first semester of my first year in college, I feel the same way again. And it's not only academics.

To start with, I started living in a country and culture totally different from the one I grew up in. The transition was not easy (as if it ought to be!). There were things to worry about and hurdles to cross before I landed up here, and thankfully, with the help of everyone around me, I did end up in the middle of Europe at this wonderful place in Germany that we call IUB. At times, it can be an ass of a place to study at, while other times you sit down and marvel at the picturesque campus and the world class facilities, not to mention the rigorous (too rigorous?) course curriculum. And then there was coping with continental food. I think I did okay in coping with it, and Aramark, the catering company, did an ok job of creating a menu with at least some items in it that I could consider edible. (Not including days when they only serve five different dishes of beef and pork so you have to survive on cheese sandwiches).

Then there was this interesting experience of me running for the student government, getting into a draw with another candidate, publicizing myself and ending up being tried at the student court for violating no-publicity rules. The whole incident was more fun than tragic, as the election committee itself said it was ok while the court said it was not! I missed the opportunity to be among the ten parliamentarians - something that I am now glad of, because I wouldn't have had the time that the job requires. But it was still an opportunity that I missed, along with another big one - the opportunity to represent my university in the European semifinals for the ACM international collegiate programming competition. Due to some error in the online judging system, I ended with no accepted submissions despite having solved five of the seven problems. I was rank two in the local final, but ranks 1, 3 and 4 were selected to represent IUB at Stockholm. I cried that evening. I still remember the Professor applauding when I said "five" - and my name goes up on the board, below the top ranker. Then they check the online page and it says zero. I exclaim - "But I have all the solutions here on my computer."

"That, of course, doesn't mean anything!" -Professor

I did not have an account on the CLAMV (IUB's computing platform) because my lab course hadn't started then. I was asked to use my laptop while everyone else was on the computing cluster. Could that be it? I don't know. In retrospect, it doesn't even matter.

Yes. Nothing matters. While material things like the two incidents described above can appear important at a fleeting glance, what's more important is that you learn from your experiences. Certainly my whining about it is not going to help me, but not whining about it might.

There were opportunities that I grabbed. Like getting a job in a lab, DJ'ing for my own radio show, performing Incubus live before an audience of hundreds, visiting the US, or learning to play the piano.

The roster of experiences doesn't end there. Perhaps the most important of those is having matured mentally and emotionally. I found myself caught in a mire, a hurricane of emotions, at the center of which I stood. I faked calmness. To tell yourself "it's okay" when it's definitely "not okay" means two things - you are either weak and are taking the easier way out, or inhumanely strong to be able to take it all within yourself. Which of these I am, I don't know. But I sure know that I am standing.

I am standing here - before all of the people I know. Hollow from the inside, but still standing. Standing at what Shakespeare would call "The Stage." I'm playing my part; whether I choose to play Antonio with his inexplicable sadness or Gratiano with his nonsensical, yet jubilant behaviour; that remains to be seen.

But one thing I do know. That I have to stay up. I have to keep standing while the show goes on. It has to. This time not for myself, but for the audience that stands before me...

All good things must come to an end

2006-01-13T15:02:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow at 5:30 pm is my return flight to Germany.

:'-(

I wish I could stay a while longer... like, forever? This has been my best Christmas so far, and will be in my memories until the last day of my life. The hasty packing session the night before, the excitement as I stepped out the plane, the nervousness as I was questioned by the Immigration personnel, the boring wait for my baggage to scroll past.... the magical feeling when I was received... they all encircle my mind constantly. Being here was a miracle itself, and I hope another miracle happens. I wish I have 20 more days here, and then 20 more, and then 20 more... (they have a 100% rain/thunderstorm forecast for Boston tomorrow ;-)

Until such a miracle happens, it's goodbye Boston (and not only Boston).... I will miss you.

Squash

2006-01-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

So tonight me and Jerzy Szablowski went to play squash.

I had never played squash before, but Jerzy taught me about the techniques very well. In a few minutes I was up and running, and played not-too-bad. Actually he said "you're good in sports, aren't you?" which is quite an achievement for me who is hardly good at any sport. The only two physical activities I used to do were bicycling and rollerskating. Squash is cool though. And hey I also play pool a bit. Not bad. :-)

New York photos

2005-12-31T15:11:00.000-08:00

Although I'm still just a week into my 3-week trip to the East Coast, there's already a pile of photos stacked up from the past 5-6 days. I visited NYC for a day, with 4 of my friends. The place is a concrete jungle really, extremely impersonal and always in a rush. Boston is not as bad and if you talk about Germany, well Berlin beats em all. And hey, Bremen is ok too ;-) One thing that struck me was that NYC or Boston are NOT clean at all, no matter how much people make a hype out of Indian streets being dirty. The contrast here is Germany - every single street in Bremen or Berlin or Hamburg is squeaky clean with not so much as ONE stray piece of paper lying around.

Ok enough with the words. I still have to go on a photo shoot of the MIT campus, but here are some selected pics from NYC trip that I have taken. More will come.

Times Square, NYC
Me in Manhattan.
Crowded street, Empire State building in the backdrop
Broadway (sorry, couldn't get a better angle)
Some building near Rockefeller center I think.

And more snow

2005-12-20T06:07:00.000-08:00

So it's been snowing every morning for the past three days. But today the weather was pretty good: 7 degrees! Also, I'm done with all my final exams! Yay.

Here are some more pictures I took last Saturday.
(Yes my blog is turning into an album, but for now these are what I have).

First snow!

2005-11-25T16:07:00.000-08:00

Yay!

So I woke up today at 8 am, and went to the servery to have breakfast... and what do I see? It's snowing!!!! It was still twilight, and our servery has huge glass walls on either side. The snow was so beautiful. Here's a couple of pics I took later in the morning.

Midterms and Lab III opening ceremony

2005-10-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

MY MIDTERM EXAMS ARE OVER FINALLY!
Performance was crap. Almost failed Multivar Calc, and got C+ in Physics. CS was ok however, still waiting for results. The only relief was that my scores were at the class average or better... Well yes I am working on pulling them grades up, let's see what happens.

LAB III OPENING CEREMONY IS TOMORROW! Yep!
Read up on the front-page news here -
http://www.iu-bremen.de/news/iubnews/07490/
[That's where I work :-D ]

Here's some pictures of the lobby I took last night-

Working in a Lab

2005-10-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

So I am one of the lucky few freshmen here who actually have a job - and an exciting one at that! I work at the Behavioural and Social Sciences Lab (yeah yeah), developing software and experiments for the awesome eye-tracker there. Now my transponder has been reprogrammed and I can open lab doors like in Mission:Impossible.. so yesterday I went to the Lab and took some photos. Here they are !

2005-10-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

So... Friday night once again... I decided to post some photos. I'll begin with photos of my meeting with Tobias, from my host family, and his friend Tim. We spent hours together, building miniature mutants out of Warhammer kits. Later we went to Mama Leone's Pizzeria, an authentic Italian restaurant, and had some - yeah, pizza.

So here goes the photos.. you can click them for original size.

Me and Tobias.
That's my newly renovated room.. after a major overhaul last week.
Another view of my room.
Streets of Bremen.. during the evening.
Tobias in his backyard.
Tim, me and Tobias.
Ammar (my EE lab partner) taking measurements. Today the EE lab module ended (for this semseter).
Awesome digital oscilloscope that we use.
The circuit. It was an op-amp differentiator.
An artistic view of the Workbench.
My bicycle on a sunset background.. taken while returning from Research I, where the EE lab is. It's an awesome sports bike, gifted by my host family. Has speedometer, distance meter, 5 gears, 3 grips etc.etc.

So that's about it for now. More photos and another post will come soon. :-)

Hahahaha

2005-10-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write a new entry about the fun things to do at IUB. However, I just couldn't help writing this down instead -

Tomorrow we have 2 lab reports due for EE lab, CS homework, Math 1B homework, EE homework, and 1B quiz, CS quiz and EE quiz. :-D

The following is a conversation at 3:30 am today -

Muhammad Jehanzeb: whats up !!!!
merc: lab report!!!
Muhammad Jehanzeb: LOL!!!!!! =))
merc: :-D
Muhammad Jehanzeb: me doing EE hw and Maths 1B!!!!! my ass is on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
merc: :D :D :D

Will write soon... no more rants I promise :-)

The 30 hour day

2005-09-19T16:46:00.000-07:00

It's 1:45 am right now. I have a thick calculus book beside me, and the first Multivariable Calculus problem set open on my computer screen. So what's the deal?

My Electrical Engineering homework was due earlier tonight at 8 PM. I now have only 3 more, 2 of them due tomorrow, 1 on Friday. I've completed 3 of the 4 questions from the first pset, and am yet to start on the second one (10 questions).

Flashback 12 hours. It's lunch time and I find out we have a Computer Science quiz in an hour. I'm in my room, my EE homework put away for a while as I eat while revising from the lecture notes posted on the course forum. And who would think we'd get asked about the Greek alphabet?!

3:30 pm - I'm done with quiz and classes, and head straight to Research I, Room 37. I have a meeting with Professor Olk to talk about a possible job opportunity as a psychological experiment designer and programmer for the Eye Tracking Machine in Psychology Lab.

4:10 pm, I head back to my room and get cracking at the EE problem set. 7:16, I'm all done. Time for dinner; time to relax.

8 pm - Get started with CS problem set. What, CS?? Or is it Math ?
10 pm - Thoroughly jaded, I go dancing. Literally. The ballroom dancing club in the Dance Hall. Me and Ben (my flatmate) drop in. Turns out it's an advanced level session.
11 pm - Back to CS. Everyone else is working on Math 1B (multivar).
1:45 am - you know.

But wait - I have an Elec.Engg. quiz tomorrow morning?? I didn't know that!

Cool.

Two problem sets and one quiz to study for - all in 6 hours. Sleep? I don't think so :-P.
And hey, there's still the Physics 1 problem set for Friday. And two large lab reports, 25 pages each, for Thursday. And of course I'll get more problem sets before that. And then the Motion Capture Studio starts filming this weekend, and I have to be at the set because I'm supposed to be one of the few people who will (learn to) handle the camera. On Sunday I have a meeting with the Production Company club to discuss the new song we are composing. Then there's the IWAVE radio club meeting. And I also have to write my statement for the Student Government election. Tomorrow I have 4 classes and have to visit the Behavioral Sciences lab to check out the eye tracker. My host family wants to meet me soon as well. Of course there will be more lab reports to write by then. Then there's this...

Welcome to life at IUB.

:-)

Next post: The fun things at IUB + loads of photos.

At IUB

2005-08-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

Safe and sound.
It's an awesome place.
O-Week is fun.
More coming real soon, once I grab my computer (tomorrow maybe).