Watching V-Day Protests on TV

Only in few countries could you see stupidity of this sort. This is irritating and deeply disturbing.

Couple of weeks back, I didnt even know Ram Sene and stuff existed. Now they have had the most exposure that even they wouldnt have anticipated.

I know everyone has an opinion about this and can validate them successfully, and hence there is no point ranting about it here. However, if people who dont belong to any dal or sene remain sane, it would be much appreciated.

Blackberry Storm

I love this phone already!!! Have been checking out specifications and looking at reviews almost every day...

My wife says she'll kill me if I spend on another phone. Well, I am heeding (as all husbands do), and praying that she'll show some mercy soon...

Its up at 24k in Univercell. Will wait for some more time. But the big bummer: No Wi-Fi. :(

Will I still go for it? I am going to wait and watch - myself.

Wirelessly Connected to...my wife!

Now, I have a bigg excuse for not blogging more often: Blogs are prohibited at office. This is a UK based company, and worse than the Chinese when it comes to web access control :(

And at home, its too cumbersome to sit at a desk so similar to office and type away when the favs are running on TV.

And today I've done what I have been avoiding for a long long time. I've got the home wi-fi enabled.

Staples is a store I love to hang out in. The kid in me jumps in glee at all the gizmos. I've been there wandering aimlessly four times since last Monday, and the fourth time is when I've made a purchase..actually two..actually some freebies too..and oh, a few coupons too!

I bought:
1. NETGEAR WGR614 108 Mbps 802.11G (sounds cool with so many numbers isnt it ;) )
2. Wireless Staples Mouse (cute little thing)

I won:
1. A jumpclip box
2. Handy Highlighters
3. 4 permanent markers

Anyway, now that we've got the house all wi-fi and stuff (a super-simple setup process), my wife and I are sitting beside each other on the couch, she with our laptop, me with my office laptop, typing away into different websites, not even looking at each other!!! And I'm thinking of pinging her on Google Chat to grab her attention, what say?

Reminds me of the golden days of sitting beside each other and talking to far away beings over mobile phones. We've become more techno, but the relative distance of 2 feet has grown worlds apart!

"Watch" Out!

I think I am beginning to have a humble watch collection.

I've had several watches, all of which are very precious to me. My wife added a fantastic watch to that collection, this morning. Thats the one in the pic.

My first ever watch was a black TIMEX that I got in Sapna Plaza, Infantry Road, Bangalore. The watch cost my dad Rs 499 after a discount from 540.

The next one was a watch that I got when I exchanged one of my dad's watches with his brother. I got a HMT digital watch with a lot of features.

Then the one I flicked from my dad, a classic HMT, one in which you'll have to wind the spring up for it to work.

Then I got the best of them all so far, Casio dual dial (analog and digital), square golden dial. I had it for 9 years till I broke it when I banged my hand against a table after losing a point in table tennis. I didnt wear a watch for a year, as my punishment. I still have the dial (the link cog broke, rendering it unwearable again)

I replaced that with a Casio MDV 300 with a white dial. The heaviest watch I've got so far. I still wear that. I consider it my best buy, the king of my collection.

The next one is a Mexx. This I bought as a present from dad-in-law. Its the second square dial watch I've got. Leather strap, all black.

And then comes the prince of the collection. The Fossil Blue BQ9335. Its a wonderful piece, suits me to the T. I was a bit surprised with the perfection of my wife's selection, because I had a notion she wouldnt know.

Without intentionally doing so, I've developed a small collection for myself. Nice.

Adobe's Online Apps

In the line of what Google provides, Adobe has come up with its Online editing and sharing tools.

I just LOVE the ConnectNow App!

What I like most is the simplicity of using it. I've used my fair share of online conferencing tools, and this is one of the simplest to setup.

And the clincher is the fact that its Online! So you could connect with anyone on the net!

Check Out these features at Adobe.

Google Reminders on Mobile

I've just setup Google's SMS facility to my mobile phone, to remind me of Calendar events. Its a cool App! I cant help setting up dummy reminders and checking if my mobile is receiving them.

Do check it out. Go to Google calendars, and in Settings checkout out the 'Mobile' Tab.

Used to have mail notifications sent as SMS, when I worked for Oracle. That was one of Oracle's internal tool.

Must find a way to do that with my current Outlook.

Oops! I had myself Caught!

Now that was FUN!!!

Difficult animation and playing around made so simple!

This is a cool site. And look what I did to myself! Searched for a pic where I looked like a crook, and there were many of them! Sigh! I hoped I wouldnt find one. Anyway, this is what I made of it.

And yeah, you can give your own voice for the picture too. I couldnt do it from office, but nevertheless typed a few words that will be read out by pre-recorded voice.

Update: Wife just checked it out and listened to the voice. And I had said "sleeping" in the text I gave to be voiced out. And the site has added a "snore" noise to it! Aha! Thats SUPER cool!

Get yourself out of shape @ Gizmoz.com

My Office Laptop Beeps

Disclaimer: "Beep" is not used as an euphemistic substitute for any expletive. If you thought so, shame on you.

My Dell Latitude D520 kept literally beeping all the time for no reason. I logged into a remote server and opened Oracle Applications. Everytime I saved a record or submitted a program, my laptop beeped, even though I had the system muted and all sounds disabled. This happened even when I was working on Personal Express. I had to log into PE through SNAPI for the beep to stop. And take it from me, it can get VERY Annoying to be working amidst thousands of beeps a day!!!

Then I googled for a solution. And lo! I was not disappointed, coz 1. Many people were facing the same problem (yayyy!!!!)
2. And someone had actually found a solution and put it up on the net.

So if you dont get to the kind soul's page, and you've come so far here, here is the solution (it actually works):
Go to Device Manager and choose "Show Hidden Devices" from the View menu. Right Click on "Beep" and disable it. Now this requires system restart to take effect, as with any changes to the device properties, and hence make sure you are not in the middle of anything very important. After the restart the sound "poye pochu"!!!!!

My personal laptop is an Inspiron 6400, and hasnt shown this behaviour so far. Touchwood.

Anyway, Thanks for all the kind souls on the net. May you all face more problems and find more solutions.

The Teacher in Me

I have been handling KT, training sessions and presentations, and lectures and speeches on invitation, for a long time now. I have been interested in delivering a good speech in front of an interested audience, ever since my school days.

And there was a small gap for me in preparing presentations and giving lectures. Which started again yesterday and will go on till 19th of this month. And after the initial session yesterday, a fresher in my team for whom everything was new, came to me and said I was a much better trainer than the certified ones who took various trainings for him throughout his stint in the company.

And a few people have already mentioned that I should freelance as a trainer and eventually will be a big name. Hmmm...

Nevertheless, feeling good and hope the rest of the days are only better.

Google has got Gears

Check this out: Google Gears

Google Apps going offline. That sounds good to me, but have to wait and watch.
Somehow it is not too appealing to me.

At this point of time, there is some problem with the intallation. It is failing for my wife as well as for me. Asked her to check with the system at home. However, something is wrong, and Google better rectify it soon.

In the meanwhile, take a look and see if you are going to like it.

Attach More in Gmail

For those who havent noticed, you can attach upto 20 MB, thats twice the previous limit, of attachments, in Gmail.

Thats wonderful news to me!