Happy Birthday hotmail!

So it’s the 10th birthday of my hotmail account, which was my first email account. That also marks the 10th anniversary of my access to the internet. I still love hotmail, in spite of having a gmail account. Hotmail was the first web based free email, developed by Sabeer Bhatia in 1996, who then sold it to Microsoft. The initial space given per email account was 2 MB (yea, that’s right). Today it is 5 GB.

I still maintain that hotmail is superior to gmail in many aspects. Here’s why:

1. The spam policy is pretty clear. Whatever is not known to the address book goes straight to the junk folder. Sure, you have to keep checking the junk folder for mails from new senders. But you certainly won’t have annoying mails from wayn and Hi5 going to your inbox, and large attachments from your friends going to your spam. Gmail is supposed to learn from the “reported spam”, but unfortunately, it hasn’t learnt so far.

2. The inbox contains ONLY incoming messages and sent items contain only sent messages. Nothing sent by you or replies from other people. Every item contains only one message.

3. Hotmail does not save annoyingly long orkut headers as “names” in the address book.

I do wish Hotmail would learn some things from gmail:

1. Allow you to download all attachments at once, rather than download each one at a time.

2. Allow use of colours and filters to make your inbox organized.

Beware- It's my birthday

I’m usually not a fatalistic person, but somehow, reality has got the better of me.

It’s my birthday in a few hours, and I can’t help remembering what happened on my last two birthdays.

20^th may 2007- An uncle of mine suddenly got a heart attack for the first time. He then had to stay in the ICU for a few days and then an angioplasty. Luckily he’s completely recovered from it now.

20^th may 2008- Two close family friends passed away, from cancer and old age respectively. Though both deaths were due to health reasons and not ill fate, they both happened on the same day, my birthday.

For those who don’t know it, a trend of disastrous birthdays runs in my family. My mom’s birthday is 11^th July (train blast day). Others have birthdays on 7^th December (Pearl Harbour day), 11^th September (you-know-what day), 26^th January (earthquake day).

In a few hours, it’s gonna be 20^th May 2009. So everyone reading this, watch out and take really good care of yourselves. At least for the next 24 hours.

Acknowledgements

So I’m finally done with my project report and the “black book”. We’ve been forced to thank a bunch of people for their support, encouragement and all that. Now that the official acknowledgements are done, I’d like to thank a few people who actually made it possible to do the project.

1. Larry and Sergei: I can’t thank you enough. Google has brought the world to our fingertips. Searching was never this easy. I could have never learnt and used python if it weren’t for you.

2. Jimmy Wales: Documentation would have been of 10 pages if wiki didn’t exist. And thanks to all the editors and contributors out there.

3. Guido Van Rossum: Thankssssssssss. You’re awesome. Connecting applications was a piece of cake.

4. Statsoft: You gave us respite from the troublesome task of coding mining algorithms. Not just in the project, but also in the mining lab work.

5. Torrents, utorrent: Thanks to you, getting cracked software is child’s play. Thanks also for making the latest movies n tv shows available immediately. It’s saved me many movie tickets. I should dedicate an entire post to you.

6. Songs.pk: One good thing that Pakistan did for India. They stock Indian music. Which we listened to all the time while coding. (Actually, we listened to music and did a bit of coding in between.)

7. Subway, Mama Mia, Tewari Brothers: For the great cheap food that gave us the strength and motivation to work.

8. Mundu: For the great masala-chai. Although I didn’t have it myself, the expressions on others’ faces looked like it was good. Or so I believe. Also for the mascot idea.

9. Gelato: I love you guys! Double scoops of orange cheesecake ice cream had never been so affordable. What a great way to celebrate the beginning of the project success. BTW, you do owe me commission for publicizing your offer to the whole of Mumbai.

And now here’s the first release of our unofficial mascot for the software we created. To understand why it is used, you need to read the entire black book. A soft copy will be provided on request and proof of sufficient interest. Applications may be sent to zskerkar@hotmail.com

We did it again!

In the last week of college, the wizards have done it again. The walk-out of the CG exam was a historic event for us. Today, history repeated itself, but only after reversing.

We were to have class test 1 and 2 (coz the lazy ass prof didn’t take class test 1 earlier) at 9 am. As you know, the only people who are present in VJTI at 9 am are the canteen guy, the quad dogs, watchman to scrutinize your ID, and some lab assistants. Even the geeks don’t come to college at 9.

Most of my class had settled in the classroom by around 9.15, which is quite an achievement. Naturally, everyone wanted to grab a seat on the last bench, huddled in groups of 3, with textbooks open on their laps.
At 9.40, a TA (this is what they call M Tech people to make them sound productive) walked in with question papers and answer sheets. He announced “Sit roll no wise and only two on a bench”.

Nobody moved an inch. No one spoke a word. We sat there in utmost silence. The TA kept staring at us, giving us weird looks(like Ghajini), glares if you may call them so. Personally, I think he was either constipated or just gotten dumped. He just didn’t know what to do. Finally, he called up someone from his mobile. And guess what? Another TA (the screeching dinosaur) came in and yelled “Roll no 1 come here. Eeeeeeeee“. Again, nobody moved. Giving up, both the TAs walked out.

We made the supervisor walk out of our class. That’s the wizard spirit!

But yea, we did go and call back Mr. Ghajini and we did write the tests (after a lot of convincing). And what’s even better, Miss Dinosaur allowed us to keep our books open too.

The new ipod shuffle

Apple released the 3^rd generation of ipod shuffle earlier this week.

It’s unbelievable small, yet astonishingly big.

With a one-sized flash memory of 4GB, it is priced at 79$. Colours available are silver and black.

A unique feature of this ipod, which is not available in any other ipods, is the “voice over” feature. The ipod talks, and tells you which song you are listening to. Not just English, but 14 different languages.

This is the first shuffle that has a non-shuffle play mode. You can choose between a regular mode and shuffle mode. You can also have multiple playlists for the first time on a shuffle. It is also the first ipod shuffle that doesn’t have the trademark navigation wheel. The volume controls are on the headphones, while the mode control is on the ipod itself.

And that’s not all, it’s big enough for some personalised engraving.

Of exams and laughs

I always thought the CG MST would be the best exam memory I would carry from VJTI. But I was wrong. I underestimated the novelty of paper setters in VJTI. From questions that make your stomach churn to ridiculous instructions , they have it all.

This is the paper I got for the mid semester test of Multimedia Systems.



“Please don‘t write stories”
It’s a known fact that engineering papers are graded based on their length. So, we HAVE to write looooong answers with a lot of masala to spice it up. Paraphrasing is used extensively to convert a one-sentence answer into 3 sentences, without increasing the actual content. The examiner, not wanting to waste his time in correction, didn’t want to read “stories” in a 20 mark paper.

“Write crisp answers. You may use bullets”
Hands down, this person was definitely a big fan of MS Word. If only we could submit a soft copy of the answer sheet.

“Describe a multimedia application used in VJTI. lf there is no such application, describe what activities can benefit from multimedia applications.”
No such application in VJTI? Are you kidding? I wonder if Mr/Miss Paper-Setter knows what multimedia is!

Such are the exams of the oldest and most prestigious engineering college in Maharashtra. VJTI raaks!

Rahman Raga

He’s finally done it। The Oscars, not one but TWO black ladies, proudly go home with him। The Golden Globe, Baftas, and our very own Filmfare aren’t far behind. Hats off to the musical genius. Here’s a list of the lesser known famous songs of this music maestro. Source: my personal music collection.

Pray for me brother: Title track of his first English album as his contribution to fight global poverty।
Bombay Dreams- Wedding Qawalli, Love’s never easy: Featured in the Broadway musical that had packed audiences.
Delhi 6- Arziyaan: A mosque song inspired by traditional sufi music.
Janne Tu Ya Jaane na - Kahin to hogi who: A very un-Rahmanish song by Vasundhara Das and Rashid Ali
Jodha Akbar- In lamhon ke daaman: The sweet romantic song depicting Jodha and Akbar’s love story. Jodha Akbar- Khwaja mere Khwaja: The mosquito-killing sufi song. Have you seen the choreography? Kisna- Hum Hai is Pal Yahaan: Featured Vivek Oberoi in a pre-independence era love story with Antonio Bernath
Lagaan- O Re Chhori
Lakeer- Paighaam, sadiyaan
Meenaxi- Ye Rishta: Reena Bharadwaj’s debut song that topped the charts for weeks. Excellent art direction by M F Hussain.
Rang De Basanti- Tu Bin Bataaye: Slow romantic number by Madhushree.
Rang De Basanti- Khoon Chala: Riots after a public protest. Very touching song by Mohit Chouhan (of Tum se hi fame)
Saathiya- Humdum, Udi Udi, Mangalyam, Naina Milaike: The music was originally composed for Alaipayuthey, the Tamil movie starring Madhavan. It was then remade in Hindi as Saathiya. All songs except “Naika Milaike” are also in the Tamil version.
Slumdog Millionaire- Dreams On Fire
Slumdog Millionaire- Ringa Ringa: It bears a resemblance to the famous “Choli ke peeche kya hai”
Swades- Yuhi Chala
Taal- Ishq bina, Kariye Na, Nahim Saamne
Yuva- Fanaa, Badal, Kabhi Neem: Like Saathiya, music was composed for Tamil version “Ayutha Ezhuthu”, starring Madhavan and Esha Deol.
Zubeidaa- dheeme dheeme, mehendi, Hai na, Pyaara Sa Gaon
Fiza- Piya Haji Ali: A guest composition in Fiza shot at the Haji Ali dargah.
Jeans- ajooba: The originally-Tamil-but-dubbed-in-Hindi movie captured all 7 wonders of the world
Pukar- Que Sera Sera: Prabhu Deva’s rubber-man dance made everyone go towards the dance floor.
Dil Hi Dil Mein- Dola Dola: An unheard number from an even lesser-heard of film, which was a remake of You’ve got Mail.

Songs sung by the legend himself:
Guru- Tere Bina: Another sufi song with real-life couple Abhiash.
Dil Se- title song: The lovely cinematography in conjunction with the beats was the chartbuster.
Swades- Yo jo des
Rang De Basanti- Lukkha Chhupi: A mother-son song by Lata Mangeshkar and Rahman.
Slumdog Millionaire- O Saaya