My sidekick and me!

Yup. I finally got myself a T-Mobile sidekick today. A great buy. Now I am truly mobile. Can browse the net anywhere (well theoretically atleast) and am always uptodate with my email. And the best part is that it has an SDK so I can write my own applications. Well not that I have done it yet, but atleast I have the opportunity to do so.
I installed Hiptalk on it so now I am online on yahoo, msn and AIM on my phone. My only complaint is that Hiptalk still doesn’t have the ‘Invisible’ mode that I have learnt to love :D. Anyway I am sure my dear friends out there will come out with that feature soon.

The sidekick

Anyway if any of you guys out there are considering a sidekick, I give it a thumbs-up. Go for it… A good deal and the internet experience on it is awesome.

To Buy or Not to Buy

Hmm. This will always be a question. I dunno what got into me today. I was looking at the Powerbook G4 from Apple and suddenly felt like buying one. Man those things are a piece of art. They have amazing features. Apple thinks about everything when they design their UI. Well at least I think they do. You might disagree, but in reality I think that is true. Anyway I really DO NOT need this laptop. I own an emachines M5310, that serves me well and have a desktop and another really old powerbook. But still am really tempted. And another thing that really tempts me is the tablet PC. Swami in my lab just got one, and mmm I liked it. Will be nice to walk around with that thing in my hand. Someday maybe I will buy it. But for now, I think I shall refrain.

Updates

Well well well. I got myself an account in Gmail, thanks to blogger and Anil. Unfortunately couldn’t get vivek@gmail.com. Turns out they accept only usernames with a minimum of 6 characters. So I am stuck with vivekiyer@gmail.com. Not that I am complaining. Anyway was looking at Gmail. Cool options especially the 1 GB of space. But was kinda sad that they didn’t have any mechanism to import an addressbook in. I hope they add that in later. I am way too lazy to type my contact list all over.
There seems to be another worm on the loose. Crap, at this rate I will need to update my machine everyday. And I know you are gonna ask me why don’t I use that aup-update thing that XP ships with. Well there is this stupid driver update from AMD that refuses to get installed. So then XP keeps popping up a message box every 30 minutes reminding me to install that update. VERY irritating. So I got rid of that feature all together.
Been using the new beta version of Yahoo Messenger. Man pretty cool idea of integrating Yahoo Launch with the messenger. It convinced me into buying the Launch Cast Plus. Only 4 bucks a month. Definitely worth the buck.
Bought myself a new phone today. A TMobile Sidekick. If only it was running a better OS. I could have done something worthwhile with it. Actually what I was looking for was a phone that has both 802.11 b/g and GPRS. Turns out that the only one that is expected in the market soon is the Motorola MPX100. Though the phone does look great

Motorola MPX 100
, the problem is that it is not expected till later this year plus I am not brave enough to test a new Motorola product that is just out in the market. Somehow not too very fond of Motorola products. I feel their UI sucks big time. I guess by the same time next year there will be better products out in the market and I will have a better choice as far as smart phones go. So I will stick to the sidekick till then. But what I did wanna own was the Sony Ericsson P900. However they don’t seem to have a tie-up with any service provider yet, so the phone costs 700 bucks. Way beyond my league.
Anyway more later

A promise not kept

Yeah turns out I was not able to stick to my word. My blogging has been so inconsistent. Well I will blame it on work and too much work.

Anyway updates are – I am now the proud owner of the email address “e e e @a s u . e d u”. The spaces has been left for obvious reasons – spam. Well turns out that ASU doesn’t really value email address like the one I managed to obtain :D. Man, imagine being able to say that I own that email address. It almost sounds as if I am responsible for admission into the EE department at ASU.

I might end up going to sunny Miami, Florida this summer. A welcome respite from the Phoenix heat. A lot of snorkelling and swimming. However don’t think I care too much for tanning, since I already have a natural suntan.

Anil and I were checking out laptops recently. It seriously seems that none of the stores have a good value for money. If the laptops are small they are too expensive, else they look huge and ugly. EMachines has just launched its new line of laptops and they do look sweet. Imagine a 64 bit AMD 3200+ on ur lap. Man that would rock. And they FINALLY upgraded the goddamn video card. A relief to some. Anyway more later.

It’s been a while

Sheesh, I really need to write my blog more often. Well it has been so long. So many things to do – I need to make some changes to my blog, especially to the colors. Not too fond of them. Shall do something about it soon enough. Well updates from my side are that I moved into a new apartment, setup a wireless connection to play games over the network and nothing else, and got my SVideo out to work. Hey for all you guys out there who own an emachines laptop and are unable to get your SVideo to work on your TV, go ahead and ask me. I managed to crack that tough nut after 5 hours of concentrated effort. Man was so thrilled to see video on my TV. Also I just got myself the 3 cd collection of Led Zep’s ‘How the West was won’. Pretty cool. Also bought a copy of ‘The Life of Pi’ and ‘The Da Vinci Code’. Need to read those books. Again like I said before shall do that too soon enough. If you do get a chance try out Mozilla Firefox (aka Firebird, Phoenix). The 0.8 release is out. Waiting for the 1.0. I have added a link to their product page here. Click away.

A few clarifications

I have been watching the referrers to my website, and I have noticed that of late there have been a lot of visits thanks to my post about the Abercrombie and Fitch Quarterly. Well I do not have any of those pictures on my website. And also for those of you who want to know what the Easter Egg for Mozilla Firebird is – go ahead and say about:Mozilla in the address bar in FB. It’s cool isn’t it? I thought so too. Also bad news is that it seems that I still can’t afford to own an iPod. Jobs threw water over my plans to purchase one iPod-mini. 249 bucks is way out of my league. Sigh, I guess it will be another day!

Updates

Am posting after a really long time. Been a good New Year so far, since I have been doing absolutely nothing. But that will have to change and change soon. My lab (infact the entire CSE department at ASU) moved to downtown. Yup you heard that right, I am now placed strategically in downtown Tempe. The good part about the move- more restaurants , Harkins is right next door and more desk space. Yeah desk space reminds me. I am back to being a cubicle dweller like I was in India at Tata Elxsi where I had an L shaped cubicle to myself. Same case here too. Just that it is a wee bit plusher. New Year began with Live (the band) crooning a song I really hadn’t heard before and then Lightning Crashes which I couldn’t hear (thanks to the bad acoustics). And since then I have been chilling at my new home (oops friends home). I guess this year is bringing along with it a lot of new things. A new house (moving to a new apartment on the 27th of Jan) , a new lab. Lets see what else the new year has in store for me. Well for the latest news on the technology front, it seems DVD Jon has been at it again. He cracked the iTunes DRM. I really think someone should offer him a job. And I am waiting with bated breath for Steve Jobs to announe the release of the 100 buck iPod. Shall buy myself one asap. On the downside, one of my friends Anil had a really bad experience on his trip to India. Check out his blog for further details. My deepest apologies. The irony of the entire situation is that my laptop that I had sent survived the ordeal.

Here’s a nice piece about the war on Iraq

I came across this piece quite a while ago on one of the egroups I am a member of. Quite entertaining. Go ahead and read the entire thing. Sometimes makes me wonder who comes up with such stuff. Quite creative he / she is

——————————————————————————————————————

Permission is freely granted to copy, print, and distribute this

material by any means, so long as the author is given proper credit

and so long as this statement is included in any and all copies made

for distribution.

Q: Daddy, why did we have to attack Iraq?

A: Because they had weapons of mass destruction.

Q: But the inspectors didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction.

A: That’s because the Iraqis were hiding them.

Q: And that’s why we invaded Iraq?

A: Yep. Invasions always work better than inspections.

Q: But after we invaded them, we STILL didn’t find any weapons of

mass destruction, did we?

A: That’s because the weapons are so well hidden. Don’t worry, we’ll

find something, probably right before the 2004 election.

Q: Why did Iraq want all those weapons of mass destruction?

A: To use them in a war, silly.

Q: I’m confused. If they had all those weapons that they planned to

use in a war, then why didn’t they use any of those weapons when we

went to war with them?

A: Well, obviously they didn’t want anyone to know they had those

weapons, so they chose to die by the thousands rather than defend

themselves.

Q: That doesn’t make sense. Why would they choose to die if they had

all those big weapons with which they could have fought back?

A: It’s a different culture. It’s not supposed to make sense.

Q: I don’t know about you, but I don’t think they had any of those

weapons our government said they did.

A: Well, you know, it doesn’t matter whether or not they had those

weapons. We had another good reason to invade them anyway.

Q: And what was that?

A: Even if Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, Saddam

Hussein was a cruel dictator, which is another good reason to invade

another country.

Q: Why? What does a cruel dictator do that makes it OK to invade his

country?

A: Well, for one thing, he tortured his own people.

Q: Kind of like what they do in China?

A: Don’t go comparing China to Iraq. China is a good economic

competitor, where millions of people work for slave wages in

sweatshops to make U.S. corporations richer.

Q: So if a country lets its people be exploited for American

corporate gain, it’s a good country, even if that country tortures

people?

A: Right.

Q: Why were people in Iraq being tortured?

A: For political crimes, mostly, like criticizing the government.

People who criticized the government in Iraq were sent to prison and

tortured.

Q: Isn’t that exactly what happens in China?

A: I told you, China is different.

Q: What’s the difference between China and Iraq?

A: Well, for one thing, Iraq was ruled by the Ba’ath party, while

China is Communist.

Q: Didn’t you once tell me Communists were bad?

A: No, just Cuban Communists are bad.

Q: How are the Cuban Communists bad?

A: Well, for one thing, people who criticize the government in Cuba

are sent to prison and tortured.

Q: Like in Iraq?

A: Exactly.

Q: And like in China, too?

A: I told you, China’s a good economic competitor. Cuba, on the other

hand, is not.

Q: How come Cuba isn’t a good economic competitor?

A: Well, you see, back in the early 1960s, our government passed some

laws that made it illegal for Americans to trade or do any business

with Cuba until they stopped being Communists and started being

capitalists like us.

Q: But if we got rid of those laws, opened up trade with Cuba, and

started doing business with them, wouldn’t that help the Cubans

become capitalists?

A: Don’t be a smart-ass.

Q: I didn’t think I was being one.

A: Well, anyway, they also don’t have freedom of religion in Cuba.

Q: Kind of like China and the Falun Gong movement?

A: I told you, stop saying bad things about China. Anyway, Saddam

Hussein came to power through a military coup, so he’s not really a

legitimate leader anyway.

Q: What’s a military coup?

A: That’s when a military general takes over the government of a

country by force, instead of holding free elections like we do in the

United States.

Q: Didn’t the ruler of Pakistan come to power by a military coup?

A: You mean General Pervez Musharraf? Uh, yeah, he did, but Pakistan

is our friend.

Q: Why is Pakistan our friend if their leader is illegitimate?

A: I never said Pervez Musharraf was illegitimate.

Q: Didn’t you just say a military general who comes to power by

forcibly overthrowing the legitimate government of a nation is an

illegitimate leader?

A: Only Saddam Hussein. Pervez Musharraf is our friend, because he

helped us invade Afghanistan.

Q: Why did we invade Afghanistan?

A: Because of what they did to us on September 11th.

Q: What did Afghanistan do to us on September 11th?

A: Well, on September 11th, nineteen men – fifteen of them Saudi

Arabians – hijacked four airplanes and flew three of them into

buildings, killing over 3,000 Americans.

Q: So how did Afghanistan figure into all that?

A: Afghanistan was where those bad men trained, under the oppressive

rule of the Taliban.

Q: Aren’t the Taliban those bad radical Islamics who chopped off

people’s heads and hands?

A: Yes, that’s exactly who they were. Not only did they chop off

people’s heads and hands, but they oppressed women, too.

Q: Didn’t the Bush administration give the Taliban 43 million dollars

back in May of 2001?

A: Yes, but that money was a reward because they did such a good job

fighting drugs.

Q: Fighting drugs?

A: Yes, the Taliban were very helpful in stopping people from growing

opium poppies.

Q: How did they do such a good job?

A: Simple. If people were caught growing opium poppies, the Taliban

would have their hands and heads cut off.

Q: So, when the Taliban cut off people’s heads and hands for growing

flowers, that was OK, but not if they cut people’s heads and hands

off for other reasons?

A: Yes. It’s OK with us if radical Islamic fundamentalists cut off

people’s hands for growing flowers, but it’s cruel if they cut off

people’s hands for stealing bread.

Q: Don’t they also cut off people’s hands and heads in Saudi Arabia?

A: That’s different. Afghanistan was ruled by a tyrannical patriarchy

that oppressed women and forced them to wear burqas whenever they

were in public, with death by stoning as the penalty for women who

did not comply.

Q: Don’t Saudi women have to wear burqas in public, too?

A: No, Saudi women merely wear a traditional Islamic body covering.

Q: What’s the difference?

A: The traditional Islamic covering worn by Saudi women is a modest

yet fashionable garment that covers all of a woman’s body except for

her eyes and fingers. The burqa, on the other hand, is an evil tool

of patriarchal oppression that covers all of a woman’s body except

for her eyes and fingers.

Q: It sounds like the same thing with a different name.

A: Now, don’t go comparing Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis

are our friends.

Q: But I thought you said 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11th

were from Saudi Arabia.

A: Yes, but they trained in Afghanistan.

Q: Who trained them?

A: A very bad man named Osama bin Laden.

Q: Was he from Afghanistan?

A: Uh, no, he was from Saudi Arabia too. But he was a bad man, a very

bad man.

Q: I seem to recall he was our friend once.

A: Only when we helped him and the mujahadeen repel the Soviet

invasion of Afghanistan back in the 1980s.

Q: Who are the Soviets? Was that the Evil Communist Empire Ronald

Reagan talked about?

A: There are no more Soviets. The Soviet Union broke up in 1990 or

thereabouts, and now they have elections and capitalism like us. We

call them Russians now.

Q: So the Soviets – I mean, the Russians – are now our friends?

A: Well, not really. You see, they were our friends for many years

after they stopped being Soviets, but then they decided not to

support our invasion of Iraq, so we’re mad at them now. We’re also

mad at the French and the Germans because they didn’t help us invade

Iraq either.

Q: So the French and Germans are evil, too?

A: Not exactly evil, but just bad enough that we had to rename French

fries and French toast to Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast.

Q: Do we always rename foods whenever another country doesn’t do what

we want them to do?

A: No, we just do that to our friends. Our enemies, we invade.

Q: But wasn’t Iraq one of our friends back in the 1980s?

A: Well, yeah. For a while.

Q: Was Saddam Hussein ruler of Iraq back then?

A: Yes, but at the time he was fighting against Iran, which made him

our friend, temporarily.

Q: Why did that make him our friend?

A: Because at that time, Iran was our enemy.

Q: Isn’t that when he gassed the Kurds?

A: Yeah, but since he was fighting against Iran at the time, we

looked the other way, to show him we were his friend.

Q: So anyone who fights against one of our enemies automatically

becomes our friend?

A: Most of the time, yes.

Q: And anyone who fights against one of our friends is automatically

an enemy?

A: Sometimes that’s true, too. However, if American corporations can

profit by selling weapons to both sides at the same time, all the

better.

Q: Why?

A: Because war is good for the economy, which means war is good for

America. Also, since God is on America’s side, anyone who opposes war

is a godless unAmerican Communist. Do you understand now why we

attacked Iraq?

Q: I think so. We attacked them because God wanted us to, right?

A: Yes.

Q: But how did we know God wanted us to attack Iraq?

A: Well, you see, God personally speaks to George W. Bush and tells

him what to do.

Q: So basically, what you’re saying is that we attacked Iraq because

George W. Bush hears voices in his head?

A. Yes! You finally understand how the world works. Now close your

eyes, make yourself comfortable, and go to sleep. Good night.

Q: Good night, Daddy.

—————————————————————————————-

Wanna extract some DNA?

Wanna extract some DNA and look like ones of those detectives you see every other day on TV? Well it turns out all you need is 15 minutes of time, a blender and some alcohol. The rest of it is a piece of cake. Okay here are the instructions. Thanks to About and Slashdot for providing me with the information. Ok here goes

1. Gather together a banana/ an onion/ a chicken liver, salt, warm water, a blender, liquid soap, toothpicks, a strainer, a glass jar and rubbing alcohol.

2. Cut your banana/ onion/ liver into tiny pieces.

3. Place your banana pieces in the blender, add a teaspoon of salt and slightly cover the mixture with warm water.

4. Mix in the blender for 5 to 10 seconds making sure the mixture is not too runny.

5. Pour the mixture into the glass jar through the strainer. You want the jar to be about half full.

6. Add about 2 teaspoons of liquid soap and gently stir the mixture. You should try not to create bubbles when stirring.

7. Carefully pour the rubbing alcohol down the side of the glass stopping near the top.

8. Wait for 5 minutes.

9. Use the toothpicks to extract the DNA that floats to the surface.

10. Repeat this procedure for the onion and the chicken liver.

Tips:

1. When pouring the alcohol, make sure that two separate layers are being formed (The bottom layer being the banana mixture and the top layer being the alcohol).

2. When extracting the DNA, twist the toothpick slowly. Be sure to only remove the DNA from the top layer.