Another Killing Spree

Whats wrong with all these shooting and killings at the US universities and schools. In news an hour ago, 18 shot, gunman dead at Northern Illinois University.

Last weekend we were talking about something similar (over a game of Spades), about guns and whether one should have them or not (not that I want one, they are a menace to society and should be banned in my opinion). While discussing, a canadian friend of ours said, they always had gun in family but mostly pass on thru' family sort, even in mine, some uncles of mine had guns in their farms, but thats doesn't mean, we go killing like this. What makes these students, people, even teenagers .. to go on killing spree's. Is it just becoz that guns are so much widely accessible in US and somehow your don't think your life is the best you have (think of people living in worse conditions than we are and still fighting hard to live their lives, its a shame) or how does one makes that jump from having an access to gun to killing spree. Are we lacking in teaching the kids about it, is it so stressful for them, not sure and hard to pin point the reasoning behind it.

Pink Google

looks like "Google Docs" team is headed by a very romantic person (chances: male 49% or female 51%)I was not impressed by it, keep it bit more professional guys and not change the whole feck*** page. Anyways!!

Futuristic - London

6766, originally uploaded by magnus*.

Conversation on flickr:

me: cool framing m .. n finally in London :D .. have a nice time
m: yeah... finally! too bad my time was so limited!

b: Great futuristic shot.

m: it was quite daring to place such an futuristic looking building in close proximity to some of london's famous historic landmarks, but it works well!

me: well said M., rarely cities with such historical sites would dare to do that.. and london has done it number of times..

m: unlike berlin, they really did a good job!

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 5

Following up on previous post in the series, Part 4.

A lot has happened in the race to select the Presidential candidates since I last posted, where I mentioned that Obama and Hillary are pretty much neck to neck. We are not worried about the Republicans, Bush will find them a suitable candidate to lose or win or lose?

Obama has cleaned sweeped all the smaller states which held the primaries & caucus's during last week or so, Wisconsin, Washington, Maine, Nebraska n some other unknown states. I was reading about it on washington post and they had detailed review of which states matter and which don't. Lot of them which matter in terms of selection, like California, NY, NJ are won by Clinton. But there has a been a lot of new additions and first timer's, never-before voters which are playing big role for Obama campaign. Some other old runners like Michigan, Florida have been ruled out for voting, no need for going into details of that.

So, what does all this mean for Mrs Clinton, the scripts are saying that Texas and Ohio should be won by her, if she wants to remain in the race, and that we won't know until next month.

A candidate need 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. Both are still pretty much equal in terms of numbers right now and some extra "Super" delegates which can make a difference are still unsure who they might support and might be sweeped by Obama if he continues on its roll.

An interesting bit I read was that as Obama is exposed more n more to people in the race, people are liking him even more and interest in his candidacy is growing, which is def. good for him.

And yeah, another interesting bit from Fox News offcourse: one of the best lines -

Republicans are worried that if Barack Obama gets the nomination, it is like running against hope. How do you attack hope?

Its sort of bit boring right now, small states, big states sleeping, counted or not, matter or doesn't, useless pre-conditions, etc.; lets leave it here and wait for something exciting to come up.

--
Update: almost forgot this, between all this drama, Obama also won a Grammy Award over the weekend for Best Spoken Word (for the audio version of his book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream)

Happy Chinese New Year ：2008 人喜盛世 鼠兆丰年 2008 戊子年 新年快乐

Happy Chinese New Year ：2008 人喜盛世 鼠兆丰年 2008 戊子年 新年快乐, originally uploaded by Wang HL.

Wishing everyone and esp my Chinese friends a very prosperous Chinese New Year. Best Wishes.

PS: I don't what's written in Chinese in the header of this post :-/ .. I'm guessing "Happy New Year"

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 4

Following up on my previous post, here, which seems to have become sort of a series of posts about US Elections. Whats new now!

Super Tuesday (its just like Super Size Burgers, Super Size fries, Super Coca Cola, everything is supposed to be "Super" in US :D) CAME & WENT and the climax still remains in our US Elections Soap Opera.

Clinton and Obama are pretty much neck to neck. She took all the big states like California, New York etc and he took more of the small states like Delaware, Colorado (valley citizens), etc., doesn't really matter now as we don't have a winner yet. Its looks to me like in the end, both candidates will go for closed door meetings or something of that sort to decide who will run and other might run for Vice President. Warning: don't take my word for it, I have no clue of how the democratic process of selecting the candidates works. It came to my mind just now, but somehow it feels right, no, both of them together will do quite good. But as we are just outside viewers, we need more drama in the series to keep our interests alive.

And offcourse, we don't care about the Republicans. Do We?

Better late than never

Following up on my previous post, First American Football Game.

If you still haven't heard about it, because you don't care about American Football, its totally cool :D, am myself a very recent fan (or just) only. But few days back, New York Giants won a thrilling final against Patriots.
via - NYTimes

The picture above is pretty much the winning catch of the game for Giants and it happened at like 2 mintues before the finish. And the last 30 seconds of the game were absolutely thrilling. It was a good sport game and very enjoyable. Hopefully I see more of it (Am Fo) next time.

First Football (American) Game

Even after watching quite few games with my cousin back in US, never got the hang of watching American Football. Still haven't, but last weekend, I saw the first full game of American Football, ie. the NFC Championship Game - New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers. I must say, it was indeed a very good game, and some small technalities were explained by my friend who is a big NY Giants fan. Apart from the fact that I felt the game itself is freaking slow, in sense that they keep taking breaks, time-outs, half-time, 4 quarters, it never seemed to end; but a very entertianing game indeed. The temperature that night was like -1 F (ie. -18 C), freezing cold and a very good game on top of it. I was enjoying the game and again for first time, looking forward to watching the Superbowl next week, between NY Giants vs NE Patriots. Here are the highlights of the game.

Wednesday Links

this one is pretty good.. some day Google will show us our lives online.. what happened to privacy or oh wait.. we don't need it .. do we .. Google wants to get rich on your lives :D .. simple


Bird Poops In Mouth


Just got these links from mailing lists of MB:
"What is legal in Amsterdam or decriminalised in London is illegal here (UAE), having it in your urine qualifies as smuggling" .. this is outrageous (if its all true as mentioned in story) .. read the story here
1) http://users.livejournal.com/_yungfuktoi_/306878.html
2) http://pixthulu.livejournal.com/23108.html

if thinking of visting Dubai, now, not after going to Amsterdam ;)

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 3

Following up on my previous post: Part 2 of US Election for Dummies

South Carolina - everybody knows it by now that Barack Obama won the democrat primary in that state by big margins. I was watching Colbert Report last night about his views on it. South Carolina - What Could Have Been. If he would have ran in South Carolina, am sure noone, noone could have won, Obama, Clinton, whoever.
Enjoy the video, until next presidential elections ;), if he runs.


Oh and also, as I said in my last post, and compared US elections to some sort of soap opera; am not alone in saying that, last week in The Tonight Show, (watch it here on Hulu, only US Viewers), leno said the same. Its ON.

Oprah -> Pope-rah

Absolutely genius.. colbert is genius. In recent Colbert Report, he compares Barack Obama to JF Kennedy. Its amazing how he makes up Pope-rah comparison, you gotta see the video NOW. I couldn't stop laughing and have seen it like 10 times straight on. And way he ends it, brilliant, he knows it too. "Copyright Stephen Colbert"

Apple is sortof Evil :)

On the video below, No. 4 caught my attention esp. after just posting about apple iTouch.

Here No. 4 - I won't let Apple release the new and improved iPod the day after you brought the previous model. (Brilliant Barak Obama)

iTouch - First Apple Love n Hate

DSC_0031, originally uploaded by Mohan S.

Yeah, finally after all these years, I bought an Apple Product and a real MP3 player (thou' it my for my brother, I just opened it a bit to see how it works :D). First Impression, its freaking sleek and brilliantly made (in China :D). I never had a real need to carry a MP3 player, not sure why, hence never got one.

After using it a bit, I still don't see a real use of just a MP3 player for myself. What I really love about this, which made it a fav. of mine, is the user interface and web browsing, it is The best interface on such a small device/screen size. I have a windows mobile PDA for last 2 years and heck I even hate (using hate becoz it cracked my lapton screen once :), its less than hate) using it as a phone, forget about using it for any other use (thou' i don't have a wifi card for it, which makes it a bit more useless). Also in Sony PSP which has a wifi & the screen is brilliant, but the interface is ok, surfing on its in-built browser is just a pain. But Apple got all those things just right in this device. Its great to check emails, browse small pieces of quick information, its quite good in browsing normal webpages too (lacks flash player thou').

Its all not so rosy thou', iTunes, without which this little device won't work, is a messy piece of software for windows atleast (it runs like 4 processes on PC all the time, why?). So my friend got it for me from US, also got the new upgrade for 20 bucks, all good. I sync'd it to my PC here, booom, it won't sync, so I had to reset it, boom again :), sync'd now, but lost all of the new apps and we tried all methods to get them back, but no, iTunes or apple or.. just won't let it happen. What the hell?? It's my PC, my device, my iTunes store, my cc, my purchase, but still i am not allowed to have what I purchased, f***?? Anyway, after trying few days, just gave up. Probably, I need to buy it again here.

The story continues, I like that iTouch has minimal settings for all functions, which is def. a plus, and it just works in most cases too. But suppose, something doesn't works as its suppose too, then you are screwed, so YouTube app. just won't work for me. Wifi works, safari works, I can browse everything, iTunes wifi store works too. But YouTube, it keeps saying "not available" and thats it. What now, there are no settings, nothing, just "not available". What to do? I did check the Apple forums and have tried most stuff, there is not much, no luck. "Not Available" and then!!

So, even thou' the device itself is just great, love the UI and so easy to use and is prefect in most sense's. But the overall cloud surrounding it is a big mess. That's what I think!

Stock Markets

I don't have in-deep knowledge of stock markets as an economist but I still know more than enough. In past one month, Google (whose stock never seemed to go down) has fallen by around 20%. Are the markets really in trouble?? Few weeks back, citibank reported one of their biggest loss in history and are raising money to save their soul.

Last month Curve for Google's Stock Value (From 700 to 580 USD)

Letter Writing on TED

A very Inspiring talk by Lakshmi Pratury on Letter Writing and how this wonderful art is loosing with the new technological advancements like email, IM's etc. etc.. do you remember when the last time you wrote a personal letter or card to someone of some real value (excluding some crap you might have writen which means nothing and the farewell cards we sign every now and then :D), thou' it might be like when I was in high school.


On similar lines, Isabel Allende talks about writing, passion etc.

Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 2

Following up on Dummies Guide to US Elections - Part 1

Tomorrow is one of the big shows for US elections, esp. for the Democrats. (Just to remind - there are only two parties - Democrats and The Republicans). South Carolina Democrats Vote tomorrow for their primaries in the state of South Carolina. The interesting angle here is, Bill Clinton, during his election days was called The Black President and he is quite popular among the community. Thou' its not his time now, its Mrs. Clinton who is in charge now, n offcourse has the backing of her popular husband and also the female voter's support supposedly. And on the other side, we have the actual / real first time (to be) black / african american president.

I don't have any information whatsoever about South Carolina itself (not important, irrelevant just like in any TV Drama, do we care where Heroes or Friends etc. happened, its just everywhere), and here also its all over news n internet, so we will believe in whatever the writers (thou' the real ones from Hollywood are on strike) wrote for us for the next episode and hence South Carolina has large number of votes from African American community and African-Americans strongly support Obama in South Carolina and then there are women voters which would again supposedly favour Clinton (i'm just assuming that seeing the last vote off), which would be critical for both candidates. Thuo' both sides are trying avoid that angle, but we all know its there and they are also trying to play it nice. Via Fox News (offcourse they put the most interesting angle out there, read it on their website only).

For the twist, or climax and the third angle, lets say John Edwards is also rising in popularity or people just can't make up their minds between Obama and Clinton and would vote for Edwards.

Isn't it fun, so get ready for an interesting episode of the US election primaries, watch it with your entire family. Its the weekend special for wholesome family entertainment.

Mighty Boosh - Noel Fielding

if you haven't seen Noel Fielding, he is a British Actor, Comedian, Animal Talker, Fashion Statesman, Musician, Standup Comedian, etc etc.. in short - brilliant performer. I saw him first time on The Mighty Boosh, British Comedy Show (you can see some episodes here), which is again one of The best comedy shows I have seen, its like one of those things, which is bit strange to grasp first time but if you just hold on to it, you will never regret it. It's pure enjoyment, very very original, staright from the mind of Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett and truely hilarious.

I know, I am talking too much in favour, but am telling.. the show ie. The Mighty Boosh and Noel Fielding (n also other actors in the show) are brilliant. Its very different sort of comedy, very un-american; and hence much better :D .. it has all sort of strange settings and storylines, sometimes unreal, magical, space age, animal kingdom etc etc., which might put off some people, but i love it :) . In their own words - its actually very hard to explain what the show is about and what sort of comedy it is.

And whats even better, they do live performanes also of the show, I need to get those tickets (playing in Dublin in September). I am super excited, nothing wrong :) .. its good comedy. You gotta see it to love it.







More Links:
0) (Full DVD Live in Brixton - its very funny)
1) (live Melbourne 2001)
2) (live Melbourne 2003)
3) (The Mighty Boosh: Act Natural)
4) (The Mighty Boosh: Jazz Trance)

The more I hear/read about it

Tokyo Nightscape, originally uploaded by /\ltus.

Tokyo, yeah capital city of Japan, the more I want to go there (NY Times). I have seen quite of the western world and Japan is sorta one of those countries, ultra modern (thou not in same way, i suppose, its different), historial, its has a sense of craziness, wildness, street fashion, people, food, just everything.

Hopefully 2008 would be the year to visit it.

Wanderer

wanderer, originally uploaded by Caroline Bonarde Ucci.

I went out riding
Down that ol eight lane
I passed by a thousand signs
Looking for my own name
..
..
Yeah I left with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering
-- U2 (or Johnny Cash)

Lack of concentration

no better way to put it and have no convincing reason for having it, but its there. Since last week, I am having a strong lack for concentration for most things & esp. for work. I think of all the stuff I need to do all the time, but its not working and not going the way I want it too. Damn!!

Window to Dublin

Window to Dublin, originally uploaded by Mohan S.

London from Behind the Glass

DSC_0114, originally uploaded by Mohan S.

Dummies Guide to US Elections - 1

Now you might ask why US elections and what do I have do with them whatsoever. I am not exactly sure of it either but would try to explain some parts in this post.

First - offcourse it has be to a dummies guide, a view from outside US.

More importanty, the main reason for following it or reading about it or watching it on TV is like watching or following a nicely scripted TV Drama Series like Heroes etc.. (thou' Heroes is better)

In my apt. we get Sky News (one of the few free channels we get), its a UK based news service (News Channel of the year "forever") owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which also owns the creepy Fox News Channel in US. And hence they follow the US elections as if its going on next door every 15 mintues and also shows fox news specials of it. And its almost like watching a drama series, as I said earlier.

Previous US elections, in 2004, I was living in NJ, US and it's a bit weird, I (or we) never cared to realize whats going on in elections (everyone said they are voting for democrats but what happened in between, I don't know), hated the news coverage in US of anything, it feels all so artifical. Thou' there were other reaons too, who cares!!

But now, they are almost everywhere, all over Google News, Sky News Channel, blogs, NY Times, etc. etc., and they are still almost a year away. So in some way its hard to get away from them even if you have no real interest whatsoever. Very much like watching some TV show, which you watch but its just a show, so who cares.

Following all sorts of coverage in last few weeks, facebook et al. debate, youtube CNN debates, freaky oprah with obama, clinton with barbara s, etc. etc. and finally last week, Iowa Caucus (Winners - Barack Obama & Mike Huckabee) and following it all the hype about Hillary Clinton being thrown out of the race (hopefully u saw news of that, it was hilarious), polls showing all againsit her (f*ck news polls) and all sort of crap, again well scripted. Then she cries (or almost) on TV, and boooom, New Hampshire primary (Winners - Hillary Clinton & John McCain), found her own voice.

Isn't it a great start for any drama series, pilot episode.

If I get something wrong, unclear, totally out of context, please feel free to leave a comment, keep in mind thou' its only a dummeies guide.

--
Update (Daily Show is back on air) (episode 9 Jan 08)
* Ice Queen "HIllary" is melting
* they have tech gimmicks also
* and all those movie reviews while reviewing politics .. unbeatable

Updated Again - Jan. 15 (oh apple keynote .. get ready to spend some more money :D)

Rethink "Twitter"

So, the other day I posted about twitter, here, and never thought in a week I would be posting about it again. Today, through Metroblogging Dublin and Sean Bonner, I met with some very cool people from Dublin, who are huge twitter followers also, and we all end of going out for drinks and had few discussions about how twitter has or is changing ways of social communication. It was quite interesting to hear their point of about it. Thou' one thing I didn't notice earlier was, with twitter you can actually send updates thru' SMS's; which also bring out the fact which Sean mentioned that they "twitter" are paying for all of it "SMS" thru' their own pocket.

I still have my doubts about it but I def. like the idea of meeting interesting people thru' it, I'll give it another go over the weekend ....

Weekly Flickr Fav. - India Gate: War Memorial

India Gate, originally uploaded by trance_nut.

Beautiful night shot of the India Gate in New Delhi. Built in the memory of soldiers who fought various wars for their motherland. Growing up in Delhi, we used to visit it everyone now n then, going late nights there to eat ice cream, flying kites during festive season, etc..

Reviews: Does it matter, I got time

So following up on my hibernation time, got to see few movies, and got few random words, in order I saw them

• The Brave One: Liked it, it has a lot of bang bang, the ending could have been better but overall a nicely crafted movie with good story line. I would say good value for money even thou i watched it off the internet but thats how i watch them anyway.
• Once: I had forgotten about this one, saw the trailer few months back and last week Grace reminded of it. Its a very nice movie, easy going, charming and very well acted; It is set in Dublin and it has this feel to it in someways of being there, all the time i could feel that its story is so perfect for Dublin. Sometimes you watch movies set in some city like NY, London, Chicago etc. but it never feels like its happening there. Its a romantic drama with indie musical and melody. There is this scene in the start where she has a hover following her thru' the city, so cool :), its a simple story which is very well done and it also has a modern feel to it being set in recent times of Dublin. Def. worth watching and visiting me in Dublin then :D
• No Country for Old Men: Reviewers are calling it a masterpiece. I am not sure if its a materpiece or not, I would say its brilliant movie with powerful editing, set scenes of wide open spaces, fast paced, no story telling just good movie, its a very American movie i would say. And Javier Bardem as the perfect villian with his f***ing cool air sucking and releasing sort of gun. Thou' at later point, i thought it was bit long and was loosing some interest thou it can probably due the fact that i was watching it in on small screen.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: Back to some music.. i like the combination of animation and real actors. It def. has not much of a story line, but if you are getting bored of terrible weather, like I did, its an ok movie to watch, and liked the voices of the chipmunks with their musical talent and dancing. Surely kids will like it.. moving on..
• Bee Movie: Hmm, i didn't like it that much.. i hated the voice of main Bee :) .. its done by Jerry Seinfeld.. sometimes typical voices can create disturbance :D .. not sure how to put it.. but its kept reminding me of something else. The story is ok too, but i didn't find it funny and its lacking a charm which an animation movie should have like Ratatouille.
• I Am Legend: Worst movie of the year with a dog in it (with no fault of dog). What the hell .. not scary enough, not furturistic enough, not convinving enough, not surving tale sort of movie enough, actually it had nothing. Plain boring.. Will Smith gotta do something else.
• Eastern Promises: Good Movie. Russian mob drama set in London. I enjoyed it a lot and actually I liked it better than The American Gangster.

Cheers

Get back to work

Its been lazy last few days since back from new year's celebrations in London. Thought of going to work, but empty office is not the best motivator to go there. Hence i have been hibernating, the weather is horrible, windy, rainy, cold, n all reasons to not leave the house. Thou' it can be tough, i need to buy something like xbox or DS lite keep myself busy during hibernation holidays like theze :D

I was reading about this next web 2.0 apps stuff OpenSocial, etc. .. & one thing I keep hearing is "twitter" one of the next killer apps.. but i don't see the reason for that. Why should i keep updating what am I doing every few hours or minutes like going to work, going to gym, writting a paper, cooking, eating, etc etc., i don't see a very convincing reason as of yet. I am sure, it might be of some use if atleast some of my friends use it but until now it hasn't catched on. And I can atleast do a part of it thru' facebook or bebo or orkut and I knw my network will see that, so why another one like twitter. We'll see how it grows in '08.

Happy 2008

DSC_2007, originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/tahir/.

Hope everyone had a wonderful start to the new year.

We were in London for new year's eve; thou missed the fireworks at london eye.. it was great fun being in london for it.

Wish you all a prosperous year '08.

New Year Eve, London, originally uploaded by Anshuman Singh.

Happy Christmas

Def. nothing wrong in saying "Happy Christmas" which is the way people wish in Dublin, I always thought it should be "Merry Christmas" .. anyway .. thats not the point of the post. Its been quite an eventful christmas i must say; if you are following my previous posts; i haven't attended that many christmas parties, lunch's, dinners, night outs and all related stuff. Thou' i missed the Chriskindlmarkt's (christmas markets) from Germany; but i suppose the mold (or mulled) wine (just like Gluhwein) is keeping me not to miss them too much. In last 2 dinners i went; i just had mold wine :D

Its quite a busy season in dublin, the streets are packed to brim (i wudn't say it unless i really mean it, they r really really packed), at all times of the day. Also, its a big, sorta tradition or mebbe not a tradition but def. big, to go out tomorrow to local bars and pubs and drink a lot :) .. no big news .. ha'an.. its ireland.. so my friend suggested that i should go to some pub tomorrow and get myself a good old fashioned hang over for chritmas day .. loving it :)) .. will update on that after that.

I hoping to do some xmas shopping tomorrow and i am relying on that people will not shop tomorrow that much compared to what i saw yesterday n so .. cudn't even step inside store .. hopefully there are not many last minute shopper's like me .. which again i highly doubt .. we'll see that tomorrow ..

hope u all r having a wonderful xmas time also .. share the xmas feeling with everyone .. and have a nice, safe, warm, snowy christmas :D

Merry Christmas

So contuning on my last post about xmas parties .. in some sense i am enjoying all of it .. last night we went to see the movie "I am not there", based on Bob Dylan's life n songs; the movie was good, but bit confusing .. they never once mentioned Bob Dylan and sometimes it just felt whether it all makes sense; thou i did enjoy Cate Blanchet's character for bob.

We had some great carving for mexican food after movie, surpringly there aren't that many mexican places to go, the first one we tried to go was a mix of italian and mexican .. am sure they won't be good in any .. how can u mix those two best cuisines .. Anyway we went to next one on George's Street and it ended up being booked for whole evening and we didn't knew of any other place. Following Kathleen's idea, we went n booked a table in a Lebanese Resturant (pics below) called Byblos.. such a full filling meal .. delicious; and we were so stuffed, we didn't vene looked for dessert menu thou we didn got see some belly dancing as dessert, if i might say :D

DSC_0016, originally uploaded by Mohan S.

Been a while

4 weeks since my last post; i wanted to post something last night/morning, but internet was not working; thou i am sober now, whichever is better. So wats going with me in Irish land. Last weeks have been busy in several ways, had few presentations to give and the dry runs for those never went very well, so had to spent even more time in polishing the slides; in the end both presentations were good. In between those, its xmas time and to be true, am kinda sick of going to xmas or related parties; but i still have to force myself not to go to one.

Working in a university (phd student/research) has it benefits :) .. so I/we started with

1. xmas lunch with just our own group .. extending until late night
2. evening drinks with people from just our floor, to have more collaboration/interaction .. turned out be a whole night affair
3. xmas party from the CS department .. extending until 7 in morning and for some other friends, going on until 7 in evening of following day :)
4. mould wine n mince pies evening from student advisor at our dept.
5. xmas party from the research lab i work in
6. after xmas parties of people who i knw in other departments.. eg. conway
7. and yesterday xmas/new-year's party by a friend

this is all in last 4 weeks, along with work n presentations, along with some drink evening with colleagues on odd days also; can imagine why i am sick of going to another one of those.. next week, am sure there is something from friends in other dept. but i have TO avoid going there. Thou' all of them were great fun. One of the best's :) times .. thanks all ..

Winter is Coming

Winter is Coming, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

The title says it all .. Stay Warm n Healthy

facebook ads

Facebook sponsored ads showed up in my profile today - iTunes Travel Podcast. Didn't feel very intrusive of it and as Traveling is in my list of interests, i suppose it has something to do with it. If they show ads matching my profile info, and shows as news feed, it might be useful. We'll See..

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali, originally uploaded by JMike.

Wishing all my family members and friends all over the world and in India, a very happy and prosperous Diwali. Have a wonderful time and best wishes for all seasons :)) .. Cheers

Happy Halloween OOOOOAAHHH

some pics from our halloween party ->

Group Shot


Coolest Costume .. in symphony


actually he had a cool costume too, he had like a huge coffin around
him, probably too tired to carry it all around :)


The facebook's zombie :)


Red Stars


Guinness is the imprtant one in the picture

Damien Rice - Too Good

Damien rice - he is good, like too good. Great songs .. all of them .. here are 2 live performances at the Four Seasons -
Cold Water


Blower's Daugther

tv-links sad demise

just saw on slashdot that tv-links.co.uk has been forced to shutdown and the owner has been arrested. It was THE best site around to look for online shows, instead of searching each n individual video sharing site which actually host all the shows. Sad to hear about it.. GREAT work guys.. hopefully you would out of trouble from the authorities soon!

TED Talk: Brain Mysteries

The introduction on TED for V. S. Ramachandran says, he is a mesmerizing speaker and if you listen to this talk of his, he indeed is and explains brain theories with so much easiness :), amazing. Great talk, excerpt -
"His investigations into phantom limb pain, synesthesia and other brain disorders allow him to explore (and begin to answer) the most basic philosophical questions about the nature of self and human consciousness"

Weekly Filckr Fav: Golden Temple, India

Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) Amritsar, Punjab, INDIA, originally uploaded by voobie.

What a beautiful image of Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, India.

Gigapan has a panoramic view of the Golden temple complex, HERE.

Concert for George - Anoushka Shankar

Some clips from Concert for George (of Beatles) in 2003, by Anoushka Shankar, if you don't know her, she is daughter of famous Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and sister of Norah Jones, performing solo and an orchestra. Really Good Performances. I haven't myself seen much of Indian classical music, but these are good even for novices.

Arpan (Ravi Shankar for George Harrison)
Uploaded by jagatinho

TED Talk: Richard Branson

If you have some time, have a look at this interesting TED interview: Richard Branson

Mohan Always on Phone

Courtesy Grace :))

Looks like am always on phone, isn't it ..

2007 Munich Odeonsplatz with "Ask Pops" sticker on myself

2006 Univeritaet

2006 Olympiazemtrum

Double trouble, 2006 - Universitaet Cafe

oktoberfest oompah

First Day: 8 in morning, still no entry

Opening day Parade

At 9 in night :)

Beer Mass

Dindl Girls

When September Ends

wow, its been long again, its been hard to catch with the blog this month. I was in Munich for last 10 days and met friends and once more attended Oktoberfest. Will be posting pics soon on flickr and some good once here too. Its gonna be a hectic Oktober, have tons of work to do, will try to keep up with blog too.

Keep it good!!

Summer in Autumn

I have been a bit lazy to write a real post for quite sometime now, there are quite few reasons for it apart from just laziness :)) which i won't go into details of.

The summer (actual summer months) in Dublin were like rainy season or more like all-time-pouring season, so it was also not helping in motivating to write anything. But finally the summer is back in autumn in Dublin. Isn't it great :))

Top of the Pops/London

DSC_0123, originally uploaded by Mohan S.

This time, its my own fav. :)

Recently, have been to london a few times, just love that city. Keep in your list of cities to visit :)

It's a Small World

It's a Small World, originally uploaded by bubba trout.

it indeed is.. to all my friends all over the world :))

India loses maximum lives to terror except Iraq

via -
Times of India Newspaper (LINK)

Excerpt -
The US and UK may like to believe that they are leading the war on terror globally, but the country that has had to face the worst of terrorist attacks on its own soil, barring war-torn Iraq, is India.

Recent Flickr Fav

Sitting On The Edge Of The World, originally uploaded by IvanoMak.

Sitting On The Edge Of The World

awesome shot and awesome guts to sit there :)

Change is Universal - India

After a bit of searching, i found the excellent documentary which BBC did this year about India hosted by Sanjeev Bhaskar. And i must say, its one of best i have seen, potraying india in all forms and not just slums, snake charmers :) etc... which is still very much part of india too but its changing and as a country, we have lot more to offer in all aspects of life. I think, Sanjeev gives a very insightful view of the society which we have now, as i always say, its a huge country with lots of different cultures and its hard to put everything in one hour episode... but its good to see all ascepts of India or any country for that matter. Can't put all in here, so you gotta watch it :))

If you have a hour to spare and want to know more, have a look.. you would def. learn something :) .. And as he says in the beginning "its gott to be different.. different .." and he does that pretty well. Ah and if you don't know who Sanjeev is.. there is always Wikipedia.. LINK.

Hope you like it too and i would love to hear your viewpoint about it.

And its excellent quality video.. so enjoy.



PS: Works better in Firefox and its scaled better to fit. IE is not letting the video scale to fit window.

We Feel Fine

Once more, thru' TED talk by Jonathan Harris and an interesting sight into the human feeling through blogs and wide spread use of internet. Very cool visualizations of "human feeling" and revealing web secrets and his latest work "Universe" - which presents current events as constellations of words -- a tag cloud of our collective consciousness.
We Feel Fine

Knowledge Source - TED

Have been busy lately with work, watched yesterday some new talks at Africa 2007 and others given at TED and i am always amazed by the wealth of knowledge out there, which we don't know of.
Here are some interesting ones:
George Ayittey: Cheetahs vs. Hippos for Africa's future

William Kamkwamba: How I built my family a windmill

Allison Hunt: How I got my new hip

More on TED.com

Homer on Jay Leno

Don't know how long its gonna be up on youTube, but if you missed Homer Simpsons on Jay leno yesterday.. be quick .. thou' not the best .. but worth the watch ..

Kick A** Action

I know, its the big Harry Potter night and book release.. but as its not in my range of interests.. so here is some for people who are not gonna read the book and just wait for movie like myself.

I am in between watching this movie (this movie becoz thou i heard about it, but wasn't in top list to see) and its 4:30 AM, but i had to blog this.. tell u name in a sec.. its a freaking kick a** movie, action like no other action and the graphics & those cars .. in all .. its kicking .. so go and watch Transformers, hell of an action .. more when i finish it!!

Wonders of World

T A J, originally uploaded by ░▒▓ Enchantress ▓▒░.

recently declared one of the seven new world wonders..
as we say Wah Taj :))

Live from Leicester Square

London always amazes.

More when i come back!!

I got a new iPhone

its hilarious, you want one too with blue-tooth :P

Pure Fun - Wii

wow, wii, so so cooool.. just cool. Today, for the first time, I played few hours of games on Nintendo Wii and man it is just so much more fun than all those Xbox's or the ever expensive PS3's. Bowling is like real bowling with the throws n all.. golf is like real golf with all the swings.. tennis like tennis.. and don't even try boxing.. after a few games.. its worns you out.. :)) .. i am sure other games are equally immersive..

Wii for All, originally uploaded by pinboke_planet.

In short it is pure fun, with a bunch of friends and so easy to play (sort of) and controller does wats its suppose to do. Kudos to Nintendo!!

Further Up the Road

A great performance from Bruce Sprinsteen with the Sessions Band last year live in Dublin (dedicated to the legendary Jim Aiken), came across it while surfing TV, and since then, been hooked to it :) .. all songs in the CD are 'very' enjoyable. Here is one (quality is not the best, still):


keep rocking!!

Ultimate Frisbee

I have joined the summer league for Ultimate Frisbee here in Dublin, to have some summer (thou its hard to describe what irish summer is like) fun and further to get some sports done too :) .. As per the sport, if you don't know what is it, looks at what wikipedia says here about it. I would say its just pure fun to play. Thou' in the league, its a bit more professional and learning more pro rules and strategies for defense and offense. I would give the credit to Brad for introducing the sport to me, but i suppose never had the chance to play with him in Munich. Thou' last summer/autumn, did played some with friends back in Munich. Play it if you have a chance.. for fun and sports both. Enjoy the summer sun!!

Daily Show - Jon Stewart

iPhone - it indeed is good.. but so much craze .. enjoy the clip :))


On Immigration Law (rejected twice now by US senate).. watch the news clips they show about immigration issues which the immigrants are bringing to US.. unbelievable.. crazy talk..

New insights on poverty and life around the world - Hans Rosling

I just love TED talks.. so much information in single talk.. that makes you think and strive for more..

Again one of best talks of TED (all are marvelous).. listen here Prof. Rosling talking about golbal poverty and means to achieve it and the goal to achieve. Extremely informational and fully based on statistically sound data and one of best endings you will see for such talk.



--
About this Talk (From TED.com)

In a follow-up to his now-legendary TED2006 presentation, Hans Rosling demonstrates how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He shows us the next generation of his Trendalyzer software -- which analyzes and displays data in amazingly accessible ways, allowing people to see patterns previously hidden behind mountains of stats. (Ten days later, he announced a deal with Google to acquire the software.) He also demos Dollar Street, a program that lets you peer in the windows of typical families worldwide living at different income levels. Be sure to watch straight through to the (literally) jaw-dropping finale.

Flickr Fav of the Week - Tokyo Sunset

Sangenjaya Sunset #2, originally uploaded by /\ltus.

A city to visit!!

The Landlord

this is one most hilarious clip have seen recently.. Pay your rent on time!!



Doesn't seem to work on Internet Explorer: Here is the Link to Click

Flickr Censorship!!

Against Censorship!, originally uploaded by vandyrk.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the censorship imposed by fickr on user photos, banning members and blocking specific photos. Also, based on my experience on flickrCentral group, that the moderators often lock topics, discouraging sensitive conversations and sorts (who gets to decide that, thou' personally I didn't feel those topics were sensitive). They also have now safe, moderate, etc. settings for every flickr member based on his/her photos, decided by flickr management, which sounds bit crazy to me. Also, in news that they have blocked turning on "Safe Search Off" feature in some countries.

I am a huge fan of flickr and its service.. and it has helped me grow my love for photography to a higher level. I have spent hours exploring it :)) ..

Although it is a sensitive topic for both sides, who want some sort of censorship and who are against it. I totally accept if its under some sort guidelines. They can't just one day, block pictures and members.. a protocol is necessary.

iQuit

No worries, I am not quitting blogging. Thou' there hasn't been anything interesting to blog in last few days. Thou', speaking of exciting news, I did celebrated my Bday on June 6 with some Irish Whiskey ;) (story another time)

Lets move to another topic, the reason I was posting.. you must have by now seen those iconic Windows vs Mac ads (my fav. is the Windows Guy). Here is one the recent commercials "I'm Steve Jobs and iQuit" - its abs. hialrious.. Watch out

Microsoft Photosynth & Surface Computing

The TED talks are meant to be instant fav., the time you see them. Here is one of most recent ones from March 2007. Blaise Aguera y Arcas of Microsoft shows a very interesting photo browsing, visualization, mutildimensionality technology called Photosynth and features which are mind-boggling and just leaves you wondering how technology will affect our lives in years to come. During the video, hear how the people gasp and hush's while he shows the awesome zooms he does on photos. He even got standing ovation for his talk, something which some people might probably won't relate to Microsoft in first place :). One of the best tech. demos of 2007.



A few weeks back, I posted about another cool demo by Microsoft, HERE. Also related to Jeff Han TED Talk in 2006. And, I thought it still might be few years before it comes out in market. But day before yesterday, Microsoft released the first commercial versions of it, calling it Surface Computing. (MS LINK). And wow, it def. takes computing to next level. Check out popular mechanics first preview of the Surface Computing.

Facebook Networking

For quite sometime now, I have been successfully avoiding getting signed up for another one of several networking sites around. And I seldom use the sites i have registered to, exception being orkut (to keep touch with some indian friends, apparently its quite huge there) and linkedIn (for its professional touch).

But yesterday, I signed up for facebook, and to be true, its been good fun. Their methodology seems different and i am sure, i won't be cluttered with random people (like in myspace) who i have noting to do with. But at same time, it gives options to do networking with groups from colleges, work places, regional etc etc and also same time, its like a personalized homepage with personalized contents. And yesterday, they even released some sort of facebook platform which will allow anyone (individual, companies) to make content for personalization.

In short - its different. Give it a try and if you know me personally, see you there :))

Shrek 3 Preview

Thanks to some Russians :), just watched the very awaited Shrek 3. Hmm, its kinda hard to put it into category, its not the best of the Shrek's but its def. an above average movie with stunning animations. The movie is a bit loose on story line-up, at least i thought so. Bit it has it good moments and a must see at least for once :). My fav. part was the "offspring's of Donkey and the Fire Dragon" .. perfect combination of flying-fire-donkey-dragon. You will also get to see some old fairy-tale characters. Overall, its an entertaining movie.

It was not as disappointing as the Spiderman 3, which was completly off-track, with tons of characters, plots, detours and too long with all the drama. Hopefully some good fast fight scenes kept me away from sleeping.

And looking forward to the final sequel of Pirates of the Caribbean. It has to be good ;)

Flickr Fav of the Week

2573, originally uploaded by magnus*.

Conference Invitation

now, this is what i call a perfect conference invitation, who wouldn't like to attend this one. Picnic (in their words: is a seductive, exciting, intangible, unpredictable, cosmopolitan and cheerful annual event for and by the creative industry) shot this video to promote the event.



AMsterdam is coool..

Cool Demo by Microsoft

This is a cool demo of how future desktops might look like. Still far away from getting myself one but the idea of visualization and interaction is def. more interesting. Check it out

--
Not entirely related but somewhat on the lines of Jeff Han Mutl-Touch talk at TED last year, which is very interesting, if you haven't seen it yet. Would be an awesome combination!!

Stage6

I am sure everyone had seen and tried lot of different video sharing sites, and youTube def. has its big following but most of the times, the quality on youTube su*** bigtime too.

But remember our favourite compression technique DivX; DivX has a new video sharing site called stage6 and it rocks and the quality is awesome, like HD. Check it out.

And ya, they have another cool feature, which "dims" the desktop screen excluding the video viewing window, while watching the video. And the full screen online playback is wow :))
--
Some videos to watch:

Spiderman-3

Pussycat Dolls remix

Bob Sinclair - Rock This Party

Blessed - Brett Dennen

Following up on last post about Brett Dennen, here is another good song.
Enjoy!!
--

--
I welcome the sun,
the clouds and rain,
the wind that sweeps the sky clean
and lets the sun shine again.
this is the most magnificent life has ever been.
here is heaven and earth
and the brilliant sky in between.

blessed is this life
and I'm gonna celebrate being alive.
blessed is this life
and I'm gonna celebrate being alive

I dwell in the darkness
I live in the light
I sleep in the afternoon
and become the noise in the night
I trespass in temptation
suffered in sacrifice
but I awake each day with a new sunrise

blessed is this life, oh
and I'm gonna celebrate being alive
blessed is this life, oh
and I'm gonna celebrate being alive

Flickr fav of the week: London Eye

London Eye, originally uploaded by ChrisAston.

Completely Unedited

Music Industry Sucks

I just received an email (and probably if you are living outside US and an avid pandora listener, you must have too) from Pandora Support giving the very unfortunate news that from tomorrow, they would be blocking access to Pandora from Ireland and all countries outside of the US. Some excerpts from the email:
--
We show your IP address is 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx', which indicates you are listening from Ireland.

Consequently, on May 3rd, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from your country. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you. We deeply share your sense of disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.
--
I appreciate Pandora's effort to send the email and for their disappointment. It is/was one of best services avaliable to listen to music of varied taste and got to hear several good singers from their recomendations.

Gonna miss it, until I find a proxy server ;) to listen to it.

But in short - music industry and their DRM & copyrights laws sucks big time. Also they want to increase their licensing fees for online radios, so its not only pandora, mebbe in future, they might just kill all.

Demonstrating - First Timer

For last few weeks, I have been demonstrating (TA for US system) for a software engineering project coursework to 3rd year students. Its been kinda strange to be on the other side. I took the position to gain some insight into tutoring, but only 6 weeks before the end of semester (sem ends this week) as they urgently needed someone to help out with project teams.

Telling students what they should do, seems a daunting task for myself. And then I keep imagining myself in their situation (until last year, i was in their position) and how to deal with students who don't work-at-all, work-a-bit and then there is always the one who does all the work. Its hard to make a choice between the one who does all the work and the one who doesn't do anything at all; but its still a team. And then if they don't complete assignments, then what, did they had valid reasons; late joiners to team, what about their reasoning. I am trying to be casual and do my task of motivating them to do their assignments, task completion and complete the project on time. Next week is final submission, will update about progress :)