~cyntalist

I've finally given up trying to get beryl working on the lappy. The ATI drivers refuse to play nice. Maybe, I'll get back to it in a few weeks.

Got a note from Apu's class teacher asking for a family photograph to be sent with him tomorrow. So, as is normal when dealing with such issues we have over reacted. Lacking any photos with all three of us, we went to a studio and got some photos taken. New experience.

There's a lot of construction going on all over Bombay. Our neighbourhood is no different. The past few months have been really depressing because of this. There's so much dust in the air. All the trees have been looking dull and lifeless.

A couple of days ago, while contemplating this, I concluded that the only hope was to wait for the rains even though they were still several months away. And then, this morning we woke up to wet streets and clean leaves. The sun's begining to make an appearance. The leaves look so bright. There's a gentle breeze that makes it look like the trees are dancing in joy. There's a smile on my face. I love the rains.

Ofcourse, this is not going to last but hey, that's not going to stop me from enjoying this.

Trying out a Java based client on my cell phone. Let's hope it works.

It has been a few months now since we declared alternate saturdays off. Yesterday on of my colleagues mentioned that he was so used to it now that going back sounds dreadful. Gives me a nice feeling all over :)

As the kid and I were waiting for his bus this morning, the sky looked overcast and as my mood perked up immediately as it always does at the prospect of rain. Then as Sumy and I left for work, it started drizzling. That was enough of an omen for me to consider coming back here after such a long break.

The three day weekend has done me a lot of good. I'm back at work ready to take on the world. The post IMTEX euphoria is still around. I just hope we can convert that into something that will go all the way.

You are The Cap'n!

Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any man that stands between them and the mantle of power. You never met a man you couldn't eviscerate. Not that mindless violence is the only avenue open to you - but why take an avenue when you have complete freeway access? You are the definitive Man of Action. You are James Bond in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. Your swash was buckled long ago and you have never been so sure of anything in your life as in your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off their head if they show any sign of taking you on or backing down. You cannot be saddled with tedious underlings, but if one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

The folks are off to Kerala for a while.

Why do I feel like a teenager?

I'm not sure where I went. I was checking mail and everything but was otherwise totally off the online world.

Well, I'm back now and hope to make up for lost time.

Managed to get all the toys to sync with each other. So, now, I can ignore my to do list on the mac, any one of two nokia phones or the palm. All I need is for evolution (on the lappy) to start sync'ing and we're all set.

I've switched over to Ubuntu Dapper Drake over the past week or so. It seems to be brilliantly packaged and all but I miss the geeky feel Debian had.

Also missing are the huge debian package archive. Interestingly, Ubuntu does a few things that I wasn't used to. By default, none of the development related packages are installed - which, I suppose, is good for the non geek. Also, apparently from the time zone information, it has decided that I prefer the Indian system for inserting commas in large numbers. This means that most GTK apps put commas so that the numbers are read in Lakhs and Crores instead of Mega and Giga. This is really irritating. I'm sure for someone dealing with money, this would be good but not when you're trying to determine file size!

One other issue that may crop up later is related to the upgrade path. The Debian Testing release was a good way to have a continuous path without ever worrying about a total dist-upgrade.

Maybe, I'll ask someone who has been on Ubuntu for a while.

So, here I am installing dapper drake on my lappy and I notice that it has correctly detected and configured my wlan. Only, we don't have a wlan in our office. Digging a little deeper, I find that not only is it configured but I can see a whole bunch of computers that don't belong to us. Digging further, I see all kinds of information - including accounting stuff, sales stuff. Finally I find a file happens to be a company profile.

The network belongs to a company called Novire Technologies that is based in the same building as us. Reading through the profile I find out what it is they do - They provide reliable, safe and fast wireless networking solutions to enterprises.

I wonder how their customers would react if they knew the state of Novire's wireless network.

Just located our house in Trichur on Wikimapia

Have you noticed people on the roads who hog the passing lane? And when, after a while, you honk to pass, they don't give a hoot? And then you honk again and maybe one more time they go half way into the next lane - believing that the half lane they have so generously left you should be more than enough. And if you were to honk again, they give you this dirty look as if you are so greedy for asking for more room.

As of this morning we have a river flowing through our street. Not that this is unusual in anyway - We have that happen at least three times every year.

Non-Bombayite readers should note that I'm not cribbing here. I love the rains. I know that it causes a lot of people hardships and I fully support any movement that tries to improve the drainage situation here. I just get a little fed up of people outside Bombay who pontificate about how lousy the situation here is. Most of the Bombayites I know use the opportunity to have fun. Yesterday, for example, we had an impromptu vada-pav and bhajia party in the office only because it rained.

And as for all the snide remarks about how bad we have it here - hey, if you had a fraction of the rainfall we have here fall where ever you are, you'd be looking for the tallest trees in your neighbourhood by now. So, give it a rest.

The rains in Bombay seem to be behaving rather nice. It only rains at night and at dawn.

I hope I haven't broken the spell by noticing it.

[Update - 2006.08.05] The spell is broken. It has been raining all day.

If you're from Bombay, you know what a "naka bandi" is. If you aren't, these are road blocks put up by the police as and when they need.

On the Ahmedabad Road (NH 8) just outside the city limits there exists a permanent naka bandi. The barriers on this particular road block have the sponsors name written across them in bold - "Suvidha" - Convenience.

The irony is totally lost on the cops manning the place.

What do you do when your lazy Monday morning goes on until Wednesday?

About the only thing I got done yesterday is get enough info to file my returns.

the photos are now available @ flickr.

Not that there is anything great there to see. Only us of the dhinchaek hanging out at iitb

We went out shopping for the kid today. After we got his stuff, the SO wanted to get some stuff for herself. This is when the fun began.

You know how they arrange stuff in clothes stores - especially in a store for women - they have these neat racks angled down from behind so that all the clothes hung on them can be seen. Well, the kid noticed that some of these hang points had more than one piece of clothing hung on them. He spent the next half hour or so trying to get his hands on them. My curiosity aroused, I enquired just what he was up to. That's when he said that he "didn't like" them hung like that. Each hang point was to have only one item and until he got that way he wouldn't be satisfied.

It took some threats and some looks from the store assistants to get his mind of it. Finally, I had to tell him that he could open his own store when he grew up and there he could arrange to his heart's content.