Long legitimate comments on my blog posts - I love (who doesn't??)
Not so long legitimate comments - I welcome.
Long spam comments - I tolerate.
Long spam comments that sound like they come from all the way from Jerry Falwell roasting on his spit in hell - I grit my teeth and put up with it anyway (hey, what can I say - I'll sell my soul for more visitors to the blog..)
Long spam comment that sounds like it was written by a right-wing, think-of-the-children, Dubya-fellating, homophobic, ID-loving, propaganda-spewing, wannabe neo-Nazi - ouch. Damn. Fine, I'll let it be.
But the title of this post is justified when said long spam comment messes up a perfectly nice post page (with comments from a couple of girls I don't really know! woohoo!) and then adds insult to injury by bad-mouthing BOTH Apple and The Simpsons.
Do not call Homer a bad influence! Die a slow painful death!
I still wont delete the comment, though ;-)
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Bwaahahahahahahaha
My Inner Hero - Wizard!
There are many types of magic, but all require a sharp mind and a cool head. There is no puzzle I can't solve, no problem I can't think my way out of. When you feel confused or uncertain, you can always rely on me to untangle the knots and put everything back in order for you.
How about you? Click here to find your own inner hero.
There are many types of magic, but all require a sharp mind and a cool head. There is no puzzle I can't solve, no problem I can't think my way out of. When you feel confused or uncertain, you can always rely on me to untangle the knots and put everything back in order for you.
How about you? Click here to find your own inner hero.
Ooh that Chris Rock...haha..
You know the world is going crazy
when the Best Rapper is a white guy,
the Best Golfer is a black guy;
the Tallest Guy in the NBA is Chinese,
the Swiss hold the America’s Cup,
France is accusing the USA of arrogance,
Germany doesn’t want to go to war,
and the two most powerful men in America are named Bush and Dick.
Monday, 21 May 2007
Well, That Seems Clear Enough
(Paraphrased via a Quicklink from Plastic)
Guess why the average American can't figure out the complexities of foreign policy, domestic violence or other contentious issues? Because their primary sources of news are, to put it succinctly, a bunch of numbskulls, corporate shills and just plain dumbasses. And of course, as the Hoffmanian blog says..
I'll stick to Google News, blogs and discussion forums, thankyouverymuch.
Guess why the average American can't figure out the complexities of foreign policy, domestic violence or other contentious issues? Because their primary sources of news are, to put it succinctly, a bunch of numbskulls, corporate shills and just plain dumbasses. And of course, as the Hoffmanian blog says..
I'll stick to Google News, blogs and discussion forums, thankyouverymuch.
Saturday, 19 May 2007
Repost - May The Force Be With You
This was done quite a while back. Reposted for the sake of garnering more eyeballs. [Thanks to AB Wan Kenabe for reminding me of this.]
Vivek and I were doing what software engineers usually do - chatting on the intranet IM service.
Now, Vivek signs off each email of his with "May the Force be with you", so we were discussing how one would use this to wish someone other than Luke Skywalker good luck.
And this is what we came up with. Some of these may not be too correct, but hey, that's the best we could do..
Vivek and I were doing what software engineers usually do - chatting on the intranet IM service.
Now, Vivek signs off each email of his with "May the Force be with you", so we were discussing how one would use this to wish someone other than Luke Skywalker good luck.
And this is what we came up with. Some of these may not be too correct, but hey, that's the best we could do..
- Stockbroker - May the bourse be with you
- Golfer - May the course be with you
- Richard Stallman - May the source be with you
- Boatman - May the oars be with you
- Obelix - May the boars be with you
- Soldier/sailor returning from a long hard time looking for a good night out - May the whores be with you
- Congenitally seasick landlubber - May the shores be with you
- Viking lover - May the Norse be with you
- Lion recovering from sore throat - May the roars be with you
- Personal lawyer - May divorce be with you
- Banker - May endorse be with you
- Sponge - May the pores be with you
- Quadruped - May all fours be with you
- Marvin the Paranoid Android - May the bores be with you
- Telegraph operator - May the Morse be with you
- Mallu guy stranded in the desert looking for a way to escape - May the horse be with you
- Big B/Sachin - May the crores be with you
- Terminally lazy person - May the snores be with you
- Housemaid - May clean floors be with you (aside: a housemaid's hesitant lover might say "I may clean floors to be with you")
- Mafia don - May the chors be with you (can also be used above - chores)
- Horny Peahen - May the mores be with you
- Jim Morrison fan - May The Doors be with you
- Democrat American population in 2000 - May the Gores be with you
- Winnie the Pooh who's just stolen the donkey's tail because he wants it for himself - May Eeyore's be with you
- Sutherland employee - May outsource be with you
- Miner - May the ores be with you
- Shopaholic - May the stores be with you
- Selfish person - May what's yours be with you
- Hot babe who keeps getting annoying IMs from unknown idiots wanting to be friends - May ignores be with you
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Orkut hidden SWF
For a few days, I have been noticing a tiny Flash object in every Orkut page I visit, called "datastore2.swf" (full URL - http://www.orkut.com/talk/datastore2.swf)
Every page, bottom right. And it doesn't scroll with the page. Detected, almost just like my random buddy here, with AdBlock Plus.
Poked around the HTML, which says:
Intriguingly, it doesn't seemed to have caught the interest of the Google-baiters. Yet. A Google search for "datastore2.swf" throws up only that blog above, and the directory listing of some enterprising chap who has all the items from the Orkut front page. And an '0wn3d' graphic. Interesting aside, that was - Orkut h4x0r3d? *shakes head* MSN Live Search gives bupkes. Yahoo! Search gives that blog again, with another Portuguese (?) discussion forum. A few (three) Diggs. Some speculation that this is somehow linked to Google Talk.
No doubt this would trigger another wave of privacy concerns with Google. Shady fellows. Can't say they don't deserve it either, not giving Roofie a job properly and all that..
Every page, bottom right. And it doesn't scroll with the page. Detected, almost just like my random buddy here, with AdBlock Plus.
Poked around the HTML, which says:
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.orkut.com/talk/datastore2.swf" name="plugin" height="100%" width="100%">
Intriguingly, it doesn't seemed to have caught the interest of the Google-baiters. Yet. A Google search for "datastore2.swf" throws up only that blog above, and the directory listing of some enterprising chap who has all the items from the Orkut front page. And an '0wn3d' graphic. Interesting aside, that was - Orkut h4x0r3d? *shakes head* MSN Live Search gives bupkes. Yahoo! Search gives that blog again, with another Portuguese (?) discussion forum. A few (three) Diggs. Some speculation that this is somehow linked to Google Talk.
No doubt this would trigger another wave of privacy concerns with Google. Shady fellows. Can't say they don't deserve it either, not giving Roofie a job properly and all that..
Thursday, 10 May 2007
Getting to work
I stay in Chromepet, Chennai for the duration of my summer internship with Cognizant. (Not CTS – Cognizant it is) My office happens to be in this really far-off place called Navalur. A very commonly recurring joke is the appearance of many addresses ending in “Navalur, Chennai”. Navalur, in Chennai? Bah! :-)
In order to reach Navalur, I have to take the office bus. Every day. This is not mandatory, but the company does its best to make you believe it is, by conveniently keeping offices that are closer to Kancheepuram than Chennai. Nobody who lives in Chennai could disclaim knowledge of the Cognizant buses. The organization has so many offices in “Chennai” that it deploys a veritable Armada of buses to every conceivable corner of the city, and then some. This is ostensibly to cater to the commuting needs of the employee, but an ulterior motive does exist – ensure that the employee cannot afford to saunter into office late, or leave early. Well, at least make it decidedly inconvenient to do so.
Which is where I get to the point of this post – every time I am unable to (or prefer not to) catch the bus, I have to whip out the trust old Bajaj Discover DTSi (the 125cc variant) to get me there. With only a small hitch – getting me there involves traversing 27 km of weird roads, with confusing terrain. Yes, twenty-seven kilometres. In one direction. I must add here that I am exceedingly fortunate to be in Chromepet now, as compared to being in Kodambakkam earlier. In that case, my distance would have been closer to 40 km. Would you know it? Not being within city limits has its advantages :-)
I had always figured I could handle long distance bike rides. Hey, I did it for a year when gainfully employed with Verizon India (whose existence Verizon, Inc. will never acknowledge) – traveled 20 km at least, depending on post-work activities, in one direction. But I had failed to reconcile an important factor – boredom.
Every trip to or from Verizon had been with a Nokia 6030 in my pocket, tuned into Radio Mirchi (mostly) and earphones firmly held in place by my blue helmet (which some people take issue with!) The morning rides especially were quite the pleasure, owing to Suchi, and the more than decent breakfast that would follow in the Tidel Park Food Court. The evening/night rides were also tolerable, because of the (usually) kick-ass dinner that would have prefaced them.
In stark contrast, every trip to or from Cognizant, Navalur has been with a Nokia 6680, for which I was too cheap to buy extra storage, and too dumb to bring the earphones along. So no music. 27 km of silence. At least music-wise. Otherwise, there are always the trucks with their air-horns and other random idiots who believe the accelerator and horn are coupled devices. Thus far, I am ashamed to admit, the only fun I’ve ever had on these rides was racing with a female on a Honda Activa.
Add into all this, my paranoia about getting a flat, and you have a recipe for a thoroughly terrible ride, which I enjoy nonetheless, for it lets me use my bike, which I have foolishly brought with me all the way from Jamshedpur. And yes, I also intend to take it back. Sigh...
In order to reach Navalur, I have to take the office bus. Every day. This is not mandatory, but the company does its best to make you believe it is, by conveniently keeping offices that are closer to Kancheepuram than Chennai. Nobody who lives in Chennai could disclaim knowledge of the Cognizant buses. The organization has so many offices in “Chennai” that it deploys a veritable Armada of buses to every conceivable corner of the city, and then some. This is ostensibly to cater to the commuting needs of the employee, but an ulterior motive does exist – ensure that the employee cannot afford to saunter into office late, or leave early. Well, at least make it decidedly inconvenient to do so.
Which is where I get to the point of this post – every time I am unable to (or prefer not to) catch the bus, I have to whip out the trust old Bajaj Discover DTSi (the 125cc variant) to get me there. With only a small hitch – getting me there involves traversing 27 km of weird roads, with confusing terrain. Yes, twenty-seven kilometres. In one direction. I must add here that I am exceedingly fortunate to be in Chromepet now, as compared to being in Kodambakkam earlier. In that case, my distance would have been closer to 40 km. Would you know it? Not being within city limits has its advantages :-)
I had always figured I could handle long distance bike rides. Hey, I did it for a year when gainfully employed with Verizon India (whose existence Verizon, Inc. will never acknowledge) – traveled 20 km at least, depending on post-work activities, in one direction. But I had failed to reconcile an important factor – boredom.
Every trip to or from Verizon had been with a Nokia 6030 in my pocket, tuned into Radio Mirchi (mostly) and earphones firmly held in place by my blue helmet (which some people take issue with!) The morning rides especially were quite the pleasure, owing to Suchi, and the more than decent breakfast that would follow in the Tidel Park Food Court. The evening/night rides were also tolerable, because of the (usually) kick-ass dinner that would have prefaced them.
In stark contrast, every trip to or from Cognizant, Navalur has been with a Nokia 6680, for which I was too cheap to buy extra storage, and too dumb to bring the earphones along. So no music. 27 km of silence. At least music-wise. Otherwise, there are always the trucks with their air-horns and other random idiots who believe the accelerator and horn are coupled devices. Thus far, I am ashamed to admit, the only fun I’ve ever had on these rides was racing with a female on a Honda Activa.
Add into all this, my paranoia about getting a flat, and you have a recipe for a thoroughly terrible ride, which I enjoy nonetheless, for it lets me use my bike, which I have foolishly brought with me all the way from Jamshedpur. And yes, I also intend to take it back. Sigh...
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
Spoems
As distant memories, through the fog-dimmed light,
and turn it into something cartoon-funny.
Scrawny wolves, and you,
Life, or only joy, that stands out
Grateful, I know, for just such compensations,
Dim, and die tonight?
In Florida, it's strawberry season—
Not so much of place as of renewed hope,
Onto my frozen fingers.
Hoarfrost is in his bones and on his head,
Appendices
Partly stone, partly the absence of stone,
Cascading snowflakes settle in the pines,
Everywhere, utterly.
III. Earliest Recorded Northern Explorers: The Greeks and the Vikings
XI. Franklin's Last Voyage
(Our fortitude grows dim in
XXI. Flying in the Arctic
How bittersweet it is, on winter's night,
VIII. Russia: The Great Northern Expedition
And trumpet at his lips; nor does he cast
Thinking of your abiding spirit brings
But when, on the timepieces that we call
Shadows keep piling up as surfaces
Beneath a pile of corpses, lying massed
trainer flips young alligators over on their backs,
Like some poor wounded wretch—long left for dead
Snow haze gleams like sand.
In dense bare branches, or the ubiquitous
By bloody pool—rattling, gasping his last.
And I would like
Snaps of ice cracking in the hidden air.
That patch of white at the very end of the road
Toward something that the world is pointing toward
With my foot the supple ball, for perhaps
In Winter Haven, the ballplayers are stretching
At these masses the snow hides from me.
Figures of light and dark, these two are walking
The paths of childhood.
IX. After the Great Northern Expedition
Glimmering of light:
Cascading snowflakes settle in the pines,
From there. Toward . . .
From point to point of meaning—open? closed?—
He never even dreams, being sheer snow;
And the wide arrowhead the road itself
Before those virile women!
The weight of being born into exile is lifted.
And I would like
Shadows keep piling up as surfaces
Covering the land—
And half-starved foxes shake and paw
Will sound, then the Lord's face will luminesce
Glimmering of light:
III. Earliest Recorded Northern Explorers: The Greeks and the Vikings
Nor, indeed, the bit of paint itself can know of.
And Mère Chose's square of world, even as they
All three bits of verse via spam asking me to download Adobe Photoshop CS3 for only $89.
Heh.
Tuesday, 8 May 2007
The places one ends up when reading Slashdot...
I wanted to check up on the progress of the Low Budget HDV Filipino Horror Movie in NYC (TM), where I find out that Tulsi Ramsay has made a vampire movie.
Big deal, one would think. He's always does this kind of stuff. Except, this movie is Malay/Indonesian! About a legendary Malay/Indonesian ghost thing!
From the page (which in itself is most interesting):
Big deal, one would think. He's always does this kind of stuff. Except, this movie is Malay/Indonesian! About a legendary Malay/Indonesian ghost thing!
From the page (which in itself is most interesting):
Penanggalan
Country: Malaysia / Indonesia
Date: 1967
Directed by Tulsi RamsaySUMMARY: (from IMDb): Tara (Tanny) is a village girl with extrodinary powers, capable of harvesting both black and white magick elements. However, this girl holds a dark secret that her mother and father (both are magick researchers) have been keeping from her. Tara's sister, Durgha (Suzanna), is a Penanggalan, an undead being that could remove it's head at will to swallow the living whole and has bloodthirty qualities, later turning Tara into a Penanggalan. When Tara finds this out, her family, her boyfriend Rocky and even Tara herself must watch over Durgha and monitor what she does. When the town finds out about Durgha and talks about slaying her, Durgha promises Tara to hand down her powers, so she could break Tara's Penanggalan curse and live a normal life, still having control of her extrodinary abillities.
AKA:
'Headless Terror, The' (1967) (USA)
Friday, 4 May 2007
Friggin Hutch
Hutch - where rationality does not exist.
Hutch - where "Your complaint has been resolved." really means "Your complaint has been forwarded to the concerned department."
Hutch - where the systems screw up, gobble up my money, Customer Care accepts their mistake, and refuses to return my money.
Hutch - a major consumer court case waiting to happen.
Hutch - where "Your complaint has been resolved." really means "Your complaint has been forwarded to the concerned department."
Hutch - where the systems screw up, gobble up my money, Customer Care accepts their mistake, and refuses to return my money.
Hutch - a major consumer court case waiting to happen.
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
This has to be
..one of the oddest URLs I've seen in a while. Oh well, let's see how long this blog lasts...
Extreme annoyance
And that would be putting it mildly.
Not getting to eat at Eden (The Besant Nagar one) the previous night was bad, but the beach air and an LMC at The Fruit Shop has unmatched healing potential. But that's where the okay-ness ends. At least till now.
Woke up too late to be able to take the bus to Navalur, which meant another ~55 kms on the bike.
Enter office to find out that the A.C's turned up pretty high. In Chennai! Goddamn! It feels like 30°C in here!
Crappy lunch.
Hutch screws around with call rates. There's another big wad of money I'm never seeing again, for no fault of mine.
Got chewed out by manager.
Weather sucks. As always, in Chennai.
Sigh...Oh XL, how I pine for thee..
Not getting to eat at Eden (The Besant Nagar one) the previous night was bad, but the beach air and an LMC at The Fruit Shop has unmatched healing potential. But that's where the okay-ness ends. At least till now.
Woke up too late to be able to take the bus to Navalur, which meant another ~55 kms on the bike.
Enter office to find out that the A.C's turned up pretty high. In Chennai! Goddamn! It feels like 30°C in here!
Crappy lunch.
Hutch screws around with call rates. There's another big wad of money I'm never seeing again, for no fault of mine.
Got chewed out by manager.
Weather sucks. As always, in Chennai.
Sigh...Oh XL, how I pine for thee..
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