Thursday, December 30, 2004

Happy New Year 2005.

Hi all,

1. Don't take any resolutions that is hard to keep up.
2. To all stags don't worry, AXN-India is showing 8 hrs non-stop programme on New Year's Eve. That shud light up our minds! What a way to welcome a New year. Yeah..
3. Don't try to call me up on New Year's eve, you won't get the line. Not because I will be talking to someone spl., but this cellphone networks usually clog during that time.

If you guyz have anything to say put them in the comments. Happy New Year to you all.

Update: Feel free to wish me, people. I am expecting a lot of them in my comments section!

Regards,
Sudhakar.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

A post worth mentioning..

The Tsunami and Chennai

How many of us do this?

Monday, December 27, 2004

Friday 13 April, 2029 - Doomsday for Earth?

A new asteroid, named 2004 MN4, is discovered recently and is being closely watched by the astronomers world wide. When it was sighted first, this asteroid was rated at 2 on a 10 point Torino scale and was said to have a probability of 1/300 for an impact with earth. None of the other objects was given a rating above 1 in Torino scale. Recent developments in the data collection of its orbit, raised the warning level from 2 to 4 in Torino scale and the probability of impact is increased to 1/45. The encounter will be on Friday 13 April, 2029. Letz hope it is going to be a close shave and not a deep impact. Friday 13th is considered to be unlucky in the west.!!

A beautiful AI program...!!

Think of an object and the A.I. will try to figure-out what you are thinking by asking simple questions. The object you think of should be something that most people would know about, but, never a specific person, place or thing. It's awesome!!
The link:
20Q.net

Boxing day - A black day for second consecutive year.

2003: Tremour of magnitude 6.6 in Richter scale devastated Iran.
2004: Tsunami due to Earthquake in Indian Ocean measuring 8.9 in Richter scale causes havoc in Srilanka, India, Maldives, Thailand, Indonesia & other South & South-East Asian countries.

Boxing day has turned to be a black day for the second consecutive year.
ps: Tsunami is different from Tidal waves. some of the news channels could not get it right.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Why there are no polar bears in Antarctic?

One of my chat friend asked me this question. I found the following explanation at Frequently Asked Questions about polar bears

The distribution of all animals is a function of luck and history. Having everything you need is no guarantee of being able to reach any point on the globe once you are there because it may not be possible to get there in the first place.

Polar bears likely evolved very recently (about 200,000 years to possibly as long as 500,000 years ago) from grizzly bears somewhere off eastern Russia or the Alaskan Panhandle. They are totally dependent upon sea ice for their primary habitat for getting their food (mainly ringed seals and bearded seals). As the world's oceans never have been frozen from the north to the south, polar bears never have had the possibility to reach the Antarctic. Polar bears are strong swimmers but not strong enough to swim to the Antarctic.

Some species have wider distributions because their habitats were connected at some time in the distant past. For example, grizzly bears (also called brown bears) live in the USA, Canada, Russia, Spain, Italy and even Norway! They crossed over a land bridge between Russian and Alaska. The same is true for wolves, wolverines, lynx and many other species.

However, polar bears would really like the Antarctic. In the absence of polar bears, seals and penguins in the Antarctic are not afraid of predators (except leopard seals and killer whales). A polar bear would have a lot of fun and probably get very very fat! On the negative side, the seals and penguins would be devastated. Polar bears are really better off in the Arctic.

For more polar bear faq read: Frequently Asked Questions about polar bears

Now, here comes my question:
If there are only two poles in Earth and these bears live only in arctic region, why should they be called polar bears instead of just arctic bears?


Update:
Thanks to kathak-thestoryteller & her Dan Brown's "Deception Point" novel, I found this:
The Arctic, home of the polar bear, takes its name from the Greek arktos, meaning bear. The Antarctic, anti-arktos, is a realm devoid of bears.
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/6675.html

Monday, December 20, 2004

2004, a(?) love story

2004, a(?) love story

Dec 5, 0725 hrs

Myself, Vendru, BalLs, Bharath & Jai were waiting in Cubbon park for the Wild group to pick us up. There came the angels from the outer world and they were also waiting. We didn't knew if they were also going to accompany us in the trek as we ourselves were not sure that the bus had already left or not. After a while the van came and as usual we were the last to get into it and we all were split up and sitting with strangers. BalLs sat with a small gal, she is just 8 or 10 years old and already completed 6 treks successfully.

Myself in the last row with a punjabi gal. Two of those angels were sitting in the row in front of BalLs and two more in the row back to him and one in the row parallel to him. So he was the one surrounded in 4 directions by gals throughout the onward journey. I was comfy in the back seat for the reason I was sitting with a hot kuri beside me(atleast thatz what everyone thought; but I was avoiding any bodily contact with her for the fear of her slapping me :)). BalLs, unusually, desperately, wanted to talk to Jai sitting 2 rows behind him with those 2 gals in between them.

We stopped by one ashram in Tumkur road for breakfast. We took some pix with that huge Chariot with Krishna & Arjun in it. Then after 2 hrs we reached the foothill of the Sidharabetta peak. From there we gotta trek through 1.5 to 2kms up in the hill which had steps cut out in the rocks. Right from the foothill we 5 teamed up and started to crack jokes in Tamil, what we thought no one wud understand. We knew that was wrong only when we were climbing down inside the caves. The caves were full of mazes and surprises. Without a proper guide it is very easy for one to get lost in it. So everyone stuck together through out and we 5 were very close to those angels.

"Helping hands" Bharath out-stretched his arms and helped out those angels climb up a difficult steep. And Jai too was helping him to an extent. BalLs commented, in Tamil, that Bharath won't wash his hands for quite a few days. One of the angel was fast enough to ask me if the language we were chatting in is Tamil. I was awe-struck and replied yes. She immediately said "Show some respect, We too have people who can understand Tamil to some extent". And one more angel was murmuring that she was avoiding those gripping hands. Another one angrily said that she can give a soap to wash my friend's hand. Only me and BalLs were there in that isolated place apart from those angels. Yes. The angel was right, they had people who can understand Tamil to only some extent. If they understood it fully they wudn't have shouted at us like that. We were just commenting on my friend's action and it never mentioned any of the others in there. Me and BalLs didn't utter a word out thinking that it might spark a big fight there which we wanted to avoid. So we took the blame and were silent for a while.

And soon, as we never knew in life what is shame or insult, we(Myself & BalLs) were back to form and cracking comments in Tamil more loudly that the decoders the angels got could hear. We occassionaly included that we shud avoid talking about Cellphone operator and News Channel as some of the angels were from Airtel and TV today. We were really fortunate that we didn't end up in any police station for eve-teasing or got murdered by that angry angels. Now we were climbing down those rock cut steps. Bharath already disowned us and went with a gal. Jai tried to ditch us for that punjabi gal. But Lord Brahma has scribbled with his left hand on Jai's forehead that the gal stopped in between saying that her legs are too tired to go any further and he can carry on without her. Jai soon joined myself & BalLs.

Like this everyone(Bharath, BalLs & Jai) enjoyed the whole trip except me. But how the blame came to my head? I once said that I liked one of those angels. I don't even know her name. I was thinking of her name as something but "Helping hands" Bharath said I am wrong and he told me some other name. Whatever, I was the scape-goat in all their happiness. When the trip got over and we 5 were walking down the M.G.Road PK called us and enquired about the trip(I persuaded PK the night b4 to come to the trip but he was hell-bent that he wanted to write some essays for some univs). When he called us I just told him that it was better he didn't come to the trip and if he had come we wud have not enjoyed the trip[becoz whenever something(I meant that great insult :)) like this happens he used to go into his shell and never comes out and that wud have made us also go down in spirits]. PK mistook it that I got a gal in that trip and thought that if he was in the trip this might not have happened and thats why I told him like that. He wrote this(All Alone) immediately after the call. BalLs, Jai & Bharath built up the story on the phone itself. PK was cursing himself Why Why Why in the world he didn't go to that trip even if he wudn't get any gal in that trip he could have prevented me in getting one :) And upon every one's request I too acted as if I got a gf in that trip. For more than a week PK was just lamenting my fortune and his misfortune to everyone he could think of.

So this whole love story was a big build up to make matters worse for the one and only PK. Only person who guessed it right was Naga(my other roommate). Though he too was teasing me with that fictional gf of mine, he used to ask me if we guyz got any slappings from the entire Wild group as he knew us and our activities better. I acted my way blushing whenever they used to tease me with my hearts burning thinking of what actually happened in the trip and what they were thinking. Now tell me whether I was right or wrong when I said "I am not in a mood to write anything more about it now" in the post Trips/Treks in this weekend (Dec 4th & 5th, 2004)

Friday, December 17, 2004

Round, round baby round, round.

Yesterday I went during my lunch hours to renew my vehicle insurance for the next year. I could have done it online or sending a cheque but I need to change the Address for communication too. Also thatz the last day b4 my existing insurance expires(I am strict follower of deadlines :)) I called up Bajaj-Allianz insurance company and got to know that they were located in residency road but I am not sure of the exact location in residency road. The call centre executive told me that it is opposite to Bishop-Cotton School. I knew the location now.

I set out at 1300 hrs from my office. Until I reach MG Road - Residency road split everything was proper. But when I have to enter Residency road I saw a sign "One-way, do not enter". From there I tried to enter Residency road from all the ways it had but could not find the Insurance Co. This way I was circling the Residency road 5 times and the circles were really big and congested. Atlast when I saw Bajaj Allianz I found that it is at the far end of Residency road where there is one more Bishop-Cotton school. Even after I found it I could not go into that building, since I entered Residency road from Hudson circle and there is a the bridge coming down to Residency road & a divider between the roads which is yet to be removed. Like that I gotta go another round through Richmond Circle to get into the building. It took me 1.5 hrs to reach it. After that some paper work for another 15 min and return journey took me only 15 min :)

Whoever designed this one-way for Residency road should be a genius. There is no alternate one-way going in the reverse direction near Residency road which can be accessed from Residency road. Y'day I explored lots of routes and to my surprise I didn't get frustrated but was murmuring "Round Round" song by Sugababes to myself throughout the ride. There are still 6 more roads which were made one-way last weekend. Yet to explore them too ;) And not to mention, every ride I go is becoming a road trip to me. LOL.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Miracle of death - an excerpt from Fight Club novel.

For two years, Chloe's been crying in my arms during the hug time, and now she's dead, dead in the ground, dead in an urn, mausoleum, columbarium. Oh, the proof that one day you're thinking and hauling yourself around, and the next, you're cold fertilizer, worm buffet. This is the amazing miracle of death.

One Haiku from Fight Club:
Worker bees can leave
Even drones can fly away
The queen is their slave

Monday, December 13, 2004

Want to have good time, try this way - Funny fwd from Vinayak

A young man walked into a jeweler's shop late one Friday, with a
beautiful young lady on his side. "I'm looking for a special ring for
my girlfriend" he said.

The jeweler looks through his stock, and takes out an outstanding
ring priced at £4500. "I don't think you understand ... I want
something very unique", he said.

At that, the jeweler went and fetched his special stock from the
safe. "Here's one stunning ring at £33000." The girls' eyes sparkled,
and the young man said that he would take it. "How are you
paying?"

"I'll pay by cheque, but of course the bank would want to make
sure that everything is in order, so I'll write a cheque and you
can phone the bank Monday and I'll collect the ring on Monday
afternoon".

Monday morning a very irate jeweler phones the man. "You lied
there's no money in that account."

"I know, but can you imagine what a Fantastic WEEKEND I had?"

Google suggests!

Google Suggest Beta, As you type, Google will offer suggestions. Try typing any search string and google will drop down a list of things that u might intend to search on. Looks cool, but yet to know how helpful it will be.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Microsoft's latest downsides

1. Penn State Tells 80,000 Students To Chuck IE
2. New file system has long road to Windows - The much awaited WinFS filesystem which is supposed to be faster in searching for specific files/data is long way to make into the OS.
3. Last but not the least, Ulu, an open source extremist, has joined Microsoft. LOL.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Monkey Vs. Monkey ??

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

See what people want!!

Monday, December 06, 2004

Trips/Treks in this weekend (Dec 4th & 5th, 2004)

Dec 4th:

Trip 1:
Myself, Vendru, Ulu & Ulu's schoolmate Krupa started off to Sivasamudram. As I raised a question in my previous post "Footloose programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp", Part III(This weekend I am planning for back-to-back trips. On saturday to Sivasamudram falls, a bike trip for 120 kms waiting to happen(?))", the trip got over even b4 itz halfway. The bike in which Ulu and his friend went skidded at 55 kmph on a muddy patch, 25 kms from bangalore in Kanakapura road and these 2 were fortunate to escape with minor scratches. But the vehicle sustained heavy injury that the bike's headlight turned up like a spot light in Batman's distress signal light. We got a pic of that too. I will upload it tomorrow(forgot to copy it!!)
Update: for more info on how this accident happened, please visit the link - OOPS!! An Accident!!

Trip 2:
The same night at 2130 hrs myself, PK, Bharath & Jai went to drop Ulu in our friend Urulai's home in DRDO quarters. I thought it shud be very near. But it proved to be another road/bike trip!!!

Dec 5th:

Trip 3:
Myself, Vendru, BalLs, Bharath & Jai went to Sidharabetta with the group "The Wild". The place is something where one has to trek for 1.5 to 2 km up and then enter caves to have a dharshan of Lord Shiva and from there trek starts inside the caves for another 1.5 hrs. I am not in a mood to write anything more about it now. I am posting the linkz to the pix here. I guess my friends will have comments for it.

Click here for Sidharabetta Trek Snaps

Friday, December 03, 2004

Footloose programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp", Part III

For Part I follow this link:
Footloose programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp", Part I

For Part II follow this link:
Footloose programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp", Part II

For Pix follow this link:
Click here for my Footloose Programme - "Cauvery Fishing Camp" Pix

Nov 26, 1330 hrs

Everyone was dead tired and more than that were too much hungry. Fortunately the food was ready and waiting for us. I was so hungry that I didn't mind that the food was hot. Result, loss of sensation in tongue. Who cares? I was appeased now. Since there were only a limited no. of vehicles in that camp, some people are still waiting to be transported to the camp. By the time they came here we all were taking rest in the river banks.

I was taking snaps in the digi cam I borrowed from my friend PK. And after one more hr every one was transported and every finished their brunch. Now we were ready for our next activity and no one knew what it is. The coordinator gave us 2 options - 1. Trek & 2. Go to the other side of the river and play those team building games. No one is ready for a trek after that tiring trip and moreover everyone just had their brunch. So we chose to play.

We went to the other side of the river by the coracles. That was the first time I have ever been on a coracle. My colleague said in Hogenekal is the place where coracle rides will be scary due to the currents. But I felt that feeling in Galibore itself. It is just 5 min ride in the coracle to get to the other side. From the other side the camp looked really beautiful with so much vegetation. I just clicked and clicked and then only I found out that the memory is getting lower and lower. So I stopped and started concentrating on taking snaps with people in it.

Then the instructor assembled all of us in the sand. I should thank the weather for playing good. It was cloudy but no rains. So it was not hot atleast. He made 6 groups out of us. And we started playing the number game. 3 teams will be competing with each other in 2 rounds and the winners from each round will compete against each other in final. The game is like: There will be 10 people in all the groups and each one will be given a digit. Then the instructor will call a multi digit number and we got to arrange ourselves accordingly. It seemed easy but when he called out the number it took much time to arrange. It was fun. But we lost. In the next round one team lacked people and I again played the game with them and this time my team won!! And again in the final we lost. Then we played another game of passing balls (and not balLs!) through strainer. The time went away very fast and it was 1645 hrs now.

Now the coordinator said we can have a trek and come back down in an 50 min. So we gotta cross the river again using those coracles and reached the main side. There we split up into 2 teams and trekked up from different directions. I cud see how much my smoking & drinking habit deteriorated my stamina. But now I have quit it. The last I took either a smoke or drink was on Nov 05. From that day to now(the moment I am writing this), I haven't touched any of them even once. On Nov 5th all my room-mates took a vow(for no reason) that we won't drink or smoke again. I can say proudly that I am the only one who still maintains that vow. OK back to trek. I got exhausted in the first 10 min of trek itself. I wondered how myself, smaraa & ulu trekked for 35 kms on a single day last year in that beautiful green route. But I composed myself and trekked for another 20 min and I was totally down when I reached the watch tower up there. After a 5 min rest we all went up the tower took snaps and ready to come down. Trekking down is not that tiring but it is not without challenges. Lots of stones that will roll just at the place where ur feet touches the ground. So I didn't take the way it had instead went through the bushes which were firm to the ground. As expected we were down there in 50 min in total.

Now it's time for us to again go back home. Everyone enjoyed the trip though it started like a disastrous expedition. This trip is far from over. We need to transport all those 55 people to the road which is 9 km and there were only 2 jeeps and a van available. So this transport took another hour. We were waiting for the bus to start. At 1900 hrs the bus started and I thought of having nap in my seat. But our guyz were full of enthu that they had brought the Thumbola or Full house game too. They distributed the tickets and collected Rs. 5 ofcourse! Whenever the lot is picked and number is called I exclaimed that I had that number and everyone gave me a surprised look. But even when the second full house was won my ticket was as good as new with a very min punches against it. Like that one more hour gone past and we were still having an hour to reach the office from where we started. Now I just talked to a colleague of mine who is competing strong against me in seeing all the gals that go past our cube. yes.. he sits just near my cube. We were chatting about all the good songs and movies we knew and occasionally he was teasing a gal sitting in the other row about her watching the same-type-shahrukh-khan movie "Veer Zara" twice. And the remaining one hour also went past. The bus reached the office and every one left to their place happily expecting that this sort of trip shud never happen to us again atleast the onward journey!!!

The sequence of events can be traced by following the pix I have uploaded here. It even has the road-block pix!!!!

This weekend I am planning for back-to-back trips. On saturday to Sivasamudram falls, a bike trip for 120 kms waiting to happen(?) and on Sunday to Sidharabetta, a beautiful hill with caves through which one gotta squeeze thro most of the part with the trek team "The Wild". I will update this page this monday again. Till then Adios amigos/amigas. Happy Weekend!!!

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Counter crossed 1000 !!!

Wow! The counter was 995 when I left yesterday and when I refreshed the page today morning it was 1013. Thanks to all who frequent my page. And thanks to all the feed subscribers which is the main reason for this counter to run as fast as it is. Thanks again to everyone!!!