30 October 2008

Vishwanathan Anand

The inspiration for an entire generation of chess players from India, Vishwanathan Anand, becomes the world chess champion and thereby, the champion in all formats of the game; a feat few have achieved before him.

Congratulations go out to him and I think we can now safely say that he is the best sportsperson India has ever produced.

Shyam

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Posted by Unknown at 9:57 AM 1 comments

29 October 2008

Office Live

As I read the news that Microsoft is offering browser only versions of its cash cow, the Office suite, I was filled with nothing but skepticism. I was quite sure that even though the claim was that you can use a browser (including firefox), it will not work when you are on Linux or Mac.

Sure enough, a visit to the office live homepage from firefox on linux returns back a message that says that your browser is not supported.

Well, I guess supporting firefox would be a major climb down for them, but it is quite silly when a browser only version of office does not work on all browsers and across all platforms.

I guess I would stick to Google docs for now.

Shyam

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Posted by Unknown at 9:55 AM 0 comments

25 October 2008

Plagiarism

First, the copy



Then, the original



I rest my case.

Shyam

PS: That song is from the movie Kadhalil Vizhundhen.

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Posted by Unknown at 6:14 PM 4 comments

24 October 2008

WiFi

After the cheap trendnet router that I got during CompUSA bankruptcy sale conked out, a bit of digging around led me to a linksys router (At some point I must show company loyalty right ? ;-)). I got myself a nice WRT54G. Surprise. I found that there's a linux based firmware for it. To know more, check out here.

Agreed that I have a pathetic 256kbps connection from BSNL, I still think as long as I can eliminate the internal bottlenecks, I can squeeze out the maximum from that connection. So, time to test out this firmware for the weekend !

Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 8:14 AM 0 comments

Aegan

I was planning to watch Aegan in Theater's, but once I came to know that it is a remake of some Hindi Movie, I scratched it off my list.

Varanam Ayiram seems to be the one I would watch. For a tamil movie, its songs have some pretty heavy guitar riffs.

Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 7:53 AM 0 comments

18 October 2008

Barcamp Chennai

Barcamp chennai is on. I managed to meet with all old guys (Kribs, Syed, Aswin, Moyeen) after real long time. Hanging around and checking out a few things. Aswin has a nice idea. But, I think I am already booked for the evening. Let me check it out.

Shyam

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Posted by Unknown at 11:56 AM 0 comments

16 October 2008

Once again

I have lost count of the number of times I have used that title for a blog post. Anyway, that is besides the point now.

As I was getting ready to work the other day, Sun Music played out a nice song. Incidentally, 7Am-8Am is the best time of the day to listen to Sun Music. No RJ's putting up a facade, no chit-chat, no nonsense. Just a few words and some amazing songs. As always, good things do not last all the time and hence, these amazing songs come up only on a few days of the week. I am sure they are on on Wednesday's and Tuesday's though.

So, check out the song Sengamalam from the movie Thavani Kanavugal. As I kept checking out the strains of the song, I could not help wondering that this is quite close to the song "Idhazhil Kadhai Yezhudum", from the movie Unnal Mudiyum Tahambi. A little bit of googling around and it does seem to be true. Both songs are in the Lalitham base. It is possible that purists can affirm/strike down my guess work.

So, without much ado, here is the video. Check out how nicely the violins open the song and then blend in with the chorus. Those little flute pieces and interludes, And of course, SPB and Janaki's gamakam's when they sing "velai". All in all another of King's stunners !



Shyam

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Posted by Unknown at 10:52 AM 0 comments

15 October 2008

Comics

For those of you who do not read xkcd, well you are missing some good humor.

This is indeed a nice one !

Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 12:31 PM 1 comments

Please stop

To the average Indian male:

A Pink shirt, in any form, striped or not, looks gross on you. Please stop. Even with all that exposure to the outside world through your television, you still do not seem to have learnt a thing or two about dressing yourself up.

Shyam

PS: This reminds me of a time when I went to buy a shirt along with my Dad. The shop stocked only pink and more and more varieties of pink. The shop keeper was quite open in saying that those shirts are still there on the shelves because no one bought them.

Posted by Unknown at 10:21 AM 0 comments

09 October 2008

mist


mist
Originally uploaded by shyamk
Misty morning. Illayaraja's putham pudhu kalai song. What more can one ask for in life ?

Posted by Unknown at 8:00 PM 1 comments

flower


flower
Originally uploaded by shyamk
A flower along the Pune-Mahad road. Taken at around 7 or 8 am in the morning, with dew drops still intact.

Posted by Unknown at 7:56 PM 0 comments

08 October 2008

Observation

Observations from my 3000km road trip:

1. Karnataka has some of the best that nature has to offer. It also has the worst roads. Golden Quadrilateral project has not been initiated in many places. I fail to understand as to why even the stop gap arrangements made for the roads are in such bad shape.

2. NH-17 (Bombay to Mangalore), was a dream to drive on till we reached Karnataka. What puzzles me is that when the highway reaches a town/village it is pathetic. However, once you cross the town/village, it is free of potholes.

Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 9:42 AM 3 comments

Adios


Adios Dada Saurav Ganguly. The one cricketer who proved that, the only quality that the Indian cricket team lacked to win matches, was aggression.

Hope your have a fitting swansong in the current series.

You will be missed.

Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 9:39 AM 0 comments

06 October 2008

Ride

3000 and odd kilometers on a royal enfield. Chennai-Bangalore-Kolhapur-Pune-Malwan-Goa-Gokarna-Bangalore-Chennai.
One kick-ass trip.
Unforgettable memories.

More pictures as and when I finish processing them.

Posted by Unknown at 10:02 AM 2 comments