Rest in Peace

Misleading title. I’m not going to mourn for some dead bugger. The title is very very literal. AIEEE ended on the 27th and after a long time, all of us decided to take a long hiatus from studies and being nerds that most of my school is, its a surprise all of them succeeded.

The last 3 days have been fun. I haven’t studied one damn thing. I have been either roaming around aimlessly or sitting online and reading news and science and tech articles or installing essential software and improving my PC (it actually crashed exactly 15 minutes ago and I had to use some skill to get it running again).

Sunday was when AIEEE ended and I didn’t do much that day although Vikku did call me to Sandeeps house (since we’ve never needed Sandeeps permission to enter his own house, I never bothered to make him invite me :D  ;)  ). I wasted the day completely. I won’t in any manner specify about the AIEEE exam except by saying that I believe I did well.

From monday till wednesday, I enjoyed myself immensely and felt carefree after a very long time.

Monday :

The day started with me going to Vikkus house to find that only Arjun had arrived as of yet. But all of a sudden, the other 3 goons crashed in as well. So, the 6 of us - Vikku, Arjun, Sandeep, Sharan, Shridhar and Me started off by playing Last Bronx. Last Bronx is one of the best Arcade games of all time and I used to be quite good at it. But I just didn’t get the hang of it on PC when I gave it a small try and obliged to watch while the others played. They played it for a short time and then, we saw the videos that Vikku had downloaded from YouTube. The two videos (both of which I had already seen were brilliant to say the least. Videos 1 and 2 were both Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat videos. But, in all respects, video 2 was much much much better than video 1 and I urge all of you to follow that hyperlink and see it 

Then, we sat down to watch Oceans Eleven which was a very very good movie though I didn’t find it so very gripping like Vikku promised it would be. In the middle, Vikkus mom called all those who hadn’t yet eaten for lunch and all of us went to the dining room. Shridhar and Me fiddled with each others phones while the others ate. Then we went back to the movie. In the middle of the movie, Vikku, Shrids and Sharan went off to plan some bullshit (Don’t ask me what, I still have no idea!) and left Arjun, Sandeep and Me to watch the movie and came back only towards the end. After watching the movie, we went to the study where we lazed around deciding what to do (and also took photos with Sharans camera in the meanwhile) and finally decided on playing cards.

We played cards for sometime. We played ass first and then we played this STUPID game called Bluff with 4 WHOLE GODDAMN BLOODY packs of cards. It took all of us an eternity to arrange it in order to play the game. Though Shridhar used some instinct and caught Vikku each time he bluffed, we ended the game early because we were bored and left for the beach. Sharan, Shridhar and Arjun went on Sharans scooter while Vikku, Sandeep and Me went walking (me with my torn sandals, yes!). By the time we reached, Sharan had taken the liberty of extending his friendshi[ by lending his scooter to some friend from Sankara which did not look like it was coming back. We went to this STUPID restaurant called Mash (courtesy Vikku) where we found the items so costly that we exited making some excuse or the other. We then sat on the beach for some time and enjoyed the breeze while Sharan took my phone and tried calling the friend of his who had taken the scooter. Then, we got up and went to some road side restaurant where we ate some junk food (and also where I had a real good time seeing Sandeep fumble with his food ). Then, Shridhar, Arjun and Sandeep went walking to the bus stand with Vikku while Sharan dropped me home.

Tuesday :

I wasted the whole day until Vikku called me to Sandeeps house around 2:30. I was so bored that I didn’t give a damn to the distance and had my bath and ate my food in a matter of 5 minutes (thats a very great feat for me, I swear) and caught the bus to his house. There me, Swami, Vikku and Sandeep had a good time playing either on the Play Station or Sandeeps SOTHAI computer  ( to you Sandeep if you’re reading this). I had a real good time playing Tekken and PWNing Vikku much to his amazement. Then, when we got bored, this controversy about this planning between these guys over their friend Amogh’s birthday celebrations came up. Then we came outside and chatted for a while before deciding to go the bakery for eating. After eating there (I had some more good time since I was with Sandeep once more while he was eating ). When I and Vikku were contemplating the different modes of transport we could use for our return, my sandals tore up and I had to resort to taking an auto home with Vikku :(  .

Wednesday :

I woke up at 10:00 to find my cell filled with messages and missed calls. Vivek had been talking about going for lunch the previous day with Ashwin, Rishab and the gang. Somehow it was never properly planned and so, I thought that it had been cancelled. Vivek calls and says that we’re having lunch at Ascendas. I, on the other hand, had planned to go for a movie with Vikku and gang. Did I suffer from indecision? Hell no. I dropped the movie plan and asked Vivek for details. After being picked up by him near Raghavan Sir’s house, we went to Ascendas which is in Taramani. We spent 3 solid, enjoyable hours over there. The first being spent in chatting. The second was spent in ordering food from the various stalls in the food court. The third was again spent in chatting and waiting for Ashwin who unfortunately didn’t make it since it was too late after he had gone to the embassy for his visa extension. Though the 3 hours can’t be called uneventful, too much happened to detail every aspect. Akilesh was, as usual, the heart of the whole lunch with his non stop jabbering with occasional support from Vivek about the goings-on of Vidya Mandir and other random shit in IIT classes. It was a real good time that I had.

I came back home and spent the whole day whiling it away again.

 

On the whole, the 3 days were quite a bit more fruitful than any normal days. 

And oh yeah, I saw Ratatouille. I’ll write a review on that BRILLIANT movie later on.

Rapster

Racetrack Memory

Sometimes, I feel everyone must know about some of the most revolutionary changes or proposed changes in technology. Unfortunately, not many people keep track of it as it is a very very tedious job (unless you’re an expert and know where to look for it ). I see so many many advances in technology that it seems Chennai (or India for that matter) is far far behind the world in such cases. Some examples would be ‘The Grid’ (if you don’t know what that is, its a Fibre Optic network which has been laid through Europe by CERN for analysing data from the LHC. Its about 10000 times faster than the traditional connections and allows a feature movie download in 5 seconds (Whoa ma gawd!) ) and this, the ‘Racetrack memory’ among many others. So, I thought about blogging it to let some of my more tech-savvy friends to read about it.

So, what is this ‘Racetrack Memory’? This, according to the scientists who have proposed its development, is the most advanced means of memory storage of the next generation. It makes the now predominant Solid State Random Access Memory and the Magnetic Hard Disk Drive means of memory storage literally pale in comparison. Although it is in its initial stages of development, it has been found to be feasible and is estimated to be replacing older data storage means within this decade.

With this new memory technology, you can store upto a whopping 500,000 songs on your iPod or nearly 3500 movies … about a 100 times more than is possible in today’s high memory storage equipments. For a music buff like me, this should be a god given boon if it becomes reality. There also remains the possibility of computers coming into existence with lightning fast boot times instead of the 100 or more seconds they take in the present scenario (apparently, this is not unique with the Windows OS alone!)

Racetrack Memory is poised to replace a highly susceptible part of today’s memory storage equipment - moving solid state parts which are literally the cause of their premature ‘death’ and their extreme slack in retrieving and storing data (calling a millisecond or even a second as a slack is a bit too much but still..). This new technology on the other hand is going to be based on the highly perceptible effect of magnetism (caused by electron spin according to the quantum theory).

Now, to the real and finer details. The usual and now predominant memory storage devices are based on the shuffling of small packets of electronic charge around. Racetrack Memory on the other hand counts the ‘up’ and ‘down’ spin of electrons as 1’s and 0’s (which on the other hand are raw units of information storage in any PC) and stores the information in these patterns. The information races around a microscopic magnetic track (hence the name - ‘Racetrack’ memory) and is stored in nanowires which are about a 1000th of human hair in width. So, essentially, a fully fledged memory chip using this technology can have billions of nanowires along the edge of a chip and hence store hundreds of times the data present memory storage systems can handle in the same physical space.

The other 2 means of memory storage - random access Flash memory and the magnetic hard disk drive have their own problems. The former has the drawback that even though it is very fast in reading data, it is absolutely slow in writing them. Although it doesn’t have any moving parts, it is slightly damaged with each use and rewrite and so, cannot be used more than a few thousand times. The latter, on the other hand, has moving parts, which as I have said are a bane to any memory storage devices. Of course, this is barring the fact that it is very very cheap compared to the former.

Such absolutely stunning amount of memory storage is expected to trigger the invention of devices and applications (softwares mainly) that cannot even be imagined at this point of time. Although the current version has only 2 dimensions of memory storage, the creators are working on a higher 3D one (the problem being the complex task of creating a feasible algorithm to write and read data efficiently).

I for one will be looking forward to this advancement.

Rapster

Windows Vista Code Released!

Ok. The title was completely misleading. But I found this picture online - a spoofed MS Vista code. I found it extremely funny and also uncannily accurate. Looks like MS entry products are getting as bad as Apple’s. Fortunately Apple fixes the products quickly enough and usually there are only minor quirks. Lets hope MS does the same. In any case, here’s the code :

Funny is how I find it and you can be sure that’s what it was made to be.

Call or Message?

With the advent of the mobile phone, its the order of the day that people have 2 choices of communicating instantly - either calling or messaging. I discount e-mails here since neither are they ‘instant’ forms of communication and neither are they into play due to the advent of cell phones.

I was asked recently by my oldest friend as to why I always message. Why don’t I ever call? What makes me cut calls from my friends almost abruptly? The answer is very simple in my case. I love messaging for more than one reason.

Messaging helps in letting me have my attention elsewhere and also replying at my leisure. Something which I cannot do if I call. I need to give the caller my undivided attention which is very very annoying to someone like me who suddenly wants to move from a discussion on gaming into one on human emotions. Two completely diverse topics which I speak on with two different people. If I feel bored with one, I keep messaging the other and reply later on to the first guy when I feel like talking about gaming again.

It helps me to tell anyone anything important at a moments notice even if I am not able to reach them by calling (which will be the case if they are attending another call, have switched off their phone etc). The messages weave their way into switched off cell phones and into busy networks and also (at very very rare instances if I may add) into some sort of remote server which sends the message to anyone who has gone out of range of communication and has just come back into it (going into the IIT campus is a perfect example).

I am one of those guys who lacks social skills in every form in every scale imaginable (or not). There are friends of mine who can keep on talking. They somehow come up with different subjects to talk on and keep a conversation, which should have long ended, going. Examples among my friends would be Sappi, Narender and Zombie, Venkatesh, Mirza. I, on the other hand, completely lack the skill of pulling subjects out of thin air like these guys do. So mostly, if the other guy hasn’t got much to talk, the conversation lasts less then 2 minutes. In fact, Zombie holds the record for speaking to me for the longest time - just over an hour (Phew!). I must mention that an older friend holds a better record but that wasn’t in vetti talk. We were actually discussing some subject. Messaging, hence, gives me time enough to talk on a new topic and pull new ones out for conversation - something very very advantageous.

And to be perfectly honest, I don’t like to use my mouth too much. I would rather keep it shut. I have no idea why. So don’t ask!

And last of all, I love messaging simply because my phone has the best messaging interface in the entire world (excluding other Sony Ericsson phones of course). It gives me some amount of (completely unexplainable) pleasure to message from my phone.

I didn’t explain these reasons to my friend. I just said “I dunno. I just like it”. My friend calls and says, “You like it eh? Good. Then I’d rather call than message from now on. hee hee”. The nerve of some people!

Windows Live Services

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a very very long time. Why? The title says it all. Windows Live Services RULE! Period. This is the best bunch of software MS could have ever come up with.

So, what is the Windows Live Services? Something awesome you can say considering the fact that it has impressed me. *ahem* . On a serious note, I found out about the Windows Live services when I was opening an account in Hotmail.

When you try to open a Hotmail account, Live (alias MSN) gives you 2 options : 1) Simply open a Hotmail account, 2) Open a Hotmail account and also download a software package containing certain softwares developed by Microsoft. In this case, the software distribution is completely free!!!

I chose option 2 for some reason and I’m happy I did. Live let me open my account (it also gave me an option as to choose my address as @live.com or as @Hotmail.com; I chose the former) and then I downloaded a setup file called WLInstaller which was, if I remember right, pretty huge. I then run the setup (which took a lot of time thanks to my slow internet connection) and voila, a bunch of softwares were installed.

These softwares were : 1) Windows Live Mail, 2) Windows Live Messenger, 3) Windows Live Writer, 4) Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Windows Live Mail : This is the newest e-mail client from Microsoft. It is said to be the successor of Outlook but rumors say its not. For one thing, this software has an absolutely BRILLIANT interface. It makes Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 suck ass! :D. For your disbelief, here’s a screen shot of both e-mail clients when my dad (Live Mail) and I (Thunderbird) worked on them.

 

 

 

In the above 2 screen shots, notice the difference between the absence of all the clutter of toolbars in Live Mail and their presence in Thunderbird. Also, the buttons themselves are much more futuristic and stylish in Live Mail. My friend asked me why anyone would bother about the interface when all they want to do is check mail. In that case folks, both are brilliant softwares. And if you can compare them, its only through the interface and in this case, Live Mail beats Thunderbird by a huge margin.

 

2) Windows Live Messenger : The messenger isn’t all that great I’m sorry to say. As in.. there is nothing special about it. Although the interface again is quite futuristic, it isn’t any better than the Y! Messenger. Here’s a screen shot just for the heck of it.

None of my friends have a hotmail or live account so I don’t have any contacts. That hinders viewing what the actual contact list would look like.

 

3) Windows Live Writer : This is a software meant for those owning more than one Weblog (me, for instance). Windows Live Writer provides every option that your Weblog domain provider would when you want to post in your Weblog. No more hassles of signing in to sites and then visiting your Weblog Dashboard and clicking write and waiting for the editor to load (which takes an eternity in such a slow connection as mine). Windows Live Writer automatically takes up your Weblog editing style provided by your Weblog domain provider by using the technique of publishing a post and checking the style and then removing the post. So, assuming you have a Weblog in WordPress.com, Blogger.com, Windows Live Spaces etc etc, Windows Live Writer immediately loads the interface of any Weblog you want to publish to. It even gives the option to update the interface in case you make any change to it (changing your blog template is an example).

The interface is pretty neat with the facility to add videos, pictures and all other rich material your own Weblog provider would provide you with. Here is a screen shot (I’m posting this from Windows Live Writer so the screen shot is of what this post looks like)

 

But I must add that there are some minor glitches in the software. For instance, for this Weblog, Live Writer downloaded the editing style after I changed the interface. Here is a screen shot of what the top of my post looks like in my Live Writer.

 

It loaded the interface of my other Weblog (Programia Computeria) mighty proper. I dunno why this glitch occurs in this template of WordPress. But its a really good software I must say.

Edit : I’m doing this just to put forward my point. Live Writer has this amazing facility of allowing users to edit a post and publishes it online again.. AFTER deleting the previous post. So, its as good as the editor options provided by your Weblog provider. Also, I have updated my theme in my Writer. Here is a screen shot (and this time, the glitch has vanished. Yay!)

 

4) Windows Live Photo Gallery : This software is to help you manage all the photos in your computer. The interface is nowhere near as good as Picasa (by Google) and its not as great either. So, I don’t generally use it and I advise any of you out there reading this to not check the box for installing this software when the WLInstaller installs this package onto your computer. Go instead for Picasa. Its much better. Here again is a screen shot to compare both the interfaces.

 

 

Obviously, Picasa rules. The organising and options to edit and to publish the photos are also more numerous in Picasa than in Windows Live Photo Gallery. So essentially, I advise you to give this software a miss over Picasa.

 

On the whole, the package is absolutely brilliant and its worth the download the wait for it to get installed.

To quote a wise man (possibly me) : “Those were my 2 cents”

First Post

This, I have determinedly decided, will be my last blog after having made and deleted 4 blogs already. Though I will post seriously only after the 16th of May when my BITSAT entrance exam gets over, I will maintain this blog forever even if I don’t post for a long time.

Till 16th of May or hopefully sooner,

Rapster

PS : Windows Live Writer RULES!!! As does the rest of Windows Live software. Imagine… Windows Live Mail (e-mail client) makes Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 suck ass!!!