Thus Speak Nirmal

Trains

2011-11-16T09:42:00.002+05:30

This post is neither about my fascination for trains nor about my rants of a train journey. Its just a post that captures the various kinds of people I've encountered in my 4 years of travel between Bangalore and Madurai

1- The bunch of people who right after boarding would plug-in wires (sorry earphones) into their ears and enter into another world. At times, you can even hear them exhibiting their singing talents.

2. The other kind who usually board the train as one big family. And always on the lookout for innocent victims to exchange seats and rescue their family members from a different coach. It might also happen that the exchanged berth might be in RAC status and the victim would end up sitting all the way while the other enters into snoring mode to avoid an exchange.

3. The kind that comes as a three member family. A husband, wife and a new born baby(which would turn the world upside down with its cry). Born to cry tagline would suit it better. You don't have to worry about alarms to wake up the next morning, because you never get to sleep the whole night.

4. The elderly gentleman and lady who would have reserved the Lower Berth in the coupe. Just when you thought that you had a good magazine or a book to read, the lights would go off. You end up going to your Berth half heartedly trying to search for the elusive sleep.

5. The college gang.. The fun loving gang who would be awake atleast half the duration of the journey. As usual the topic would be, movies, politics, company life, good old college life, who's getting married next in our class topics, lastest updates on who's where n what doing now stories ( i can see your smile )..what not.. The patrol officer in the train would dissolve the assembly session for the night.

Having said all these, I would love to be a part of the college gang when travelling with friends and be a bookworm forced to sleep when travelling alone.

Whatever, I still enjoy travelling by train.

Life without the internet!! nah..

2010-05-25T21:33:00.007+05:30

I just cannot imagine a life without the internet.

Following are my observations on this internet age:
1) Login to mail and check for a mail every 2 minutes.

2) Mailbox would be the first site that would be visited right after the system boots.

3) If no new mail arrives within 30 minutes, we are driven to such an extent that we suspect somethings wrong with the mail server and hit Refresh button twice.

4) Have a mail account created with almost all of the mail service providers ,from Yahoo to Zapak.

5) Watch videos uploaded by our friends in Facebook, Orkut etc.. and losing track of time..

XOR magic

2010-02-04T15:35:00.000+05:30

An interesting read: http://rumkin.com/reference/algorithms/linked_list/

2010...

2010-02-01T11:23:00.005+05:30

This is my first post in 2010. Looking back at 2009, it was quite an eventful year. The year has gone by, but not its memories. Where can I put my trust, except in Him.
A wonderful hymn which means a lot to me.

Living one day at a time

2009-10-18T22:19:00.003+05:30

Nice read :-)

The Bible is very clear that there is needful help in every trial. Physical burdens are ill to bear, and mental burdens are even harder. However, faith allows me to face each day knowing that tomorrow is also in God’s hands.

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
(Psalm 118:24 KJV Bible)

I know He is the beginning, so why do I worry about the end?
I know He is the creator, so why do I wonder who will destroy?
I know He has forgiven me, so why can't I forgive myself?
I know He is a healer, so why do I speak of sickness?
I know He can do all things, so why do I say I can't?
I know He will protect me, so why do I fear?
I know He will supply all my needs, so why can't I wait?
I know He is my strength and my salvation, so why do I feel weak?
I know that everything and everyone has a season, so why when someone's season is over do I weep instead of rejoice?
I know He is the right way, so why do I go the wrong way?
I know He is the light, so why do I choose to walk in darkness?
I know that whatever I ask of GOD, GOD will give me, so why am I scared to ask?
I know tomorrow is not promised, so why do I put off for tomorrow what I can do today?
I know that the truth shall make me free, so why do I continue to lie?
I know He gives us revelation knowledge and understanding, so why do I lean on my own understanding?
I know I should live in the spirit as well as walk in the spirit, so why do I choose to live in the spirit but walk in the flesh?
I know that when praises go up blessings come down, so why do I refuse to praise Him?
I know I am saved, so why do I refuse the word He has given me?

Story time it is...

2009-10-10T09:09:00.011+05:30

I read this story on the internet and felt that it should go in my blog for sure:

There was once a bird which stayed close to a sugar factory. It usually had the habit of taking sugar from one place to another. One fine day, while repeating its usual course of fly, the sugar which it was carrying fell off into a pot containing water. Desperate to get the sugar back, the bird dipped its beak into the pot containing water. Since the sugar had just started to dissolve in water , the water on top of the pot tasted very sweet for the bird. On its way back, thinking the water would still be sweet it dipped its beak to find that the water wasn't sweet. So the bird started taking more amounts of sugar everyday and added it into the water, but still the water in the pot wasn't sweet. In desperation, the bird started working over-time, just to show its mates that it has found a water pot that had sweet water. Its mates never knew the ground reality.

Moral of the story: Half-truth is far worse than complete falsehood.

Tweets from Rick Warren

2009-10-05T11:07:00.002+05:30

People tend to believe the parts of the Bible they like & ignore/deny what doesnt fit their system.U cant box in God!

"The very day I call for help, the tide of battle turns.Enemies flee!This one thing I know:God is for me!" Psalm 56:9 LB

If u look at the world,u'll be depressed.If u look within, u'll be distressed.If u look at Christ,u'll be at rest.-CTenBoom

PS: Who is Rick Warren?
Follow Rick at: http://twitter.com/rickWarren

Always know...

2009-10-02T21:35:00.003+05:30

Always know that God cherishes you and live that way

What a wonderful promise it is. A sense of security in God's arms. A sure sign that ONLY God can love us unconditionally come what may. Like an expression of joy that descends on a sailor's face on seeing a lighthouse when sailing though a tempest. He gets the assurance that the destination is not far away and he just needs to focus on the lighthouse and sail towards it.

The Bible says in Psalm 55:22 "Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you, He will never let the righteous fall". An answer when we are too bothered about the problems in life.

God's restoring power by Rev.Arun Andrews

2009-09-17T23:26:00.004+05:30

To track Rev.Arun Andrew's event calendar visit here

stars n smile

2009-08-22T11:56:00.003+05:30

I happened to read this interesting quote somewhere...

If I were to hold a star in my hand for everytime you made me smile, the entire stars in the evening sky would be in the palm of my hands. I don't find any stars in the sky today.

That's deep... :-)

Granny's cake

2009-07-28T21:42:00.005+05:30

Atheists say "the reason mankind still believes in a Creator is because he has not yet fully understood how the Universe came in to exisitence. Just because Science has not yet proved convincingly the Big Bang Theory(& the likes), mankind clings to his age old beliefs".

Hope, you might have heard this umpteen number of times. This, to an extent can be summarized as "Science is God".

Assume a granny has baked a chocolate cake.
A group of scientists are asked to examine the cake.

One says "NaHCO3 is present"
Another says "It is made of wheat & cocoa"
Another says "Flour & milk is mixed in the proportion 3:1"
Another one says, "It contains sucrose"

Well said. The above could be true. But examining granny's cake never answered "WHY Granny baked it in the first place?". Science answers only the "how & what" part. Granny could have made the cake for a birthday bash!.

Now, coming to the original topic, where science fits in? Mankind in his knowledge has found a scientific explanation to the constituents of the Universe. But Science can never answer the WHY part or the purpose behind it.

This is the reason why Science cannot take God's place.
Science only helps us understand the fingerprint of the Creator.

Changing boarding point for a tatkal E-ticket

2009-06-13T13:18:00.008+05:30

I booked a train ticket from Mysore(MYS) to Tutucorin(TN) under the Tatkal scheme in the IRCTC website and forgot to change the boarding point from Mysore(MYS) to Bangalore City Station(SBC). If I were to board the train at Bangalore, chances are that the ticket would have gone to someone else :( and would have been treated as a Wait Listed passenger.
After a quick check with the IRCTC Customer care, I was informed that the boarding point needs to be changed at the nearest reservation counter with a Chief Reservation Supervisor(CRS):
Little did I know about these:
1) Take a Xerox copy of the ID
2) Write a letter to the CRS requesting for a change in the boarding point.

First thing that struck my mind was the K.R.Puram railway station, as it was close by my place. That did have a reservation counter, but not a CRS. Someone in the reservation counter suggested me to go to either Bangalore City station or the Cantonment Station as it had a CRS. I rushed to the Cantonment station. Once reaching there I was informed about (1), I walked for a km to get my ID Xerox'ed. Then to my surprise I was informed about (2) and walked to the same shop to get A4 sheets for writing a letter requesting for a change.

Once all the formalities were over, the lady at the counter logged into the application and changed the boarding point. It was an exercise for me, thanks to my folly, but things could have been more simpler if this information was properly put up in the IRCTC website.

How small we are!!

2009-05-28T14:29:00.006+05:30

I got this link from one of my friends. Just a reminder of how small we are.
Click here to view

Top 30 innovations in the last 30 years

2009-03-16T22:10:00.000+05:30

The Wharton School of Business has created a list of the top 30 innovations in the last 30 years. The complete list is here, but here are the top ten:

Internet, broadband, WWW (browser and HTML)
PC/laptop computers
Mobile phones
E-mail
DNA testing and sequencing/Human genome mapping
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Microprocessors
Fiber optics
Office software (spreadsheets, word processors)
Non-invasive laser/robotic surgery (laparoscopy)

Others...
11. Open Source Software Services
15. Online Shopping/ E-commerce
20. Social Networking - Orkut, Facebook, etc
22. Digital Photography
24. Genetically modified plants
26. Bar Codes & Scanners
27. ATMs
30. Anti-retroviral drug for AIDS.

Courtesy: David Chappell

My orkut algorithm

2009-03-07T15:39:00.003+05:30

Thanks da.
Thanks a lot..
Happy new year..

this is the what appears in my orkut scrapbook more often than not.
Orkut is lifeless or atleast my scrapbook is.

This is how my orkut algorithm works,
1) login to orkut
2) check the birthday list
3) wish them
4) logout
5) Repeat from Step (1) the next day.

Orkut was a big craze when I was in 3rd year. I got an invite from one of my friends(I don't exactly remember who it was). It was in the Database Management Programming Lab 5th Semester I joined orkut. Within the next few months, orkut mania swept our college and they issued a ban on accessing orkut. From 0 friends to 300 friends in 3 years... got a chance to link with my old schoolmates which otherwise would not have been possible...

Apart from that, invites pour in from HiFi, Facebook ..blah blah. I chose not to join any other social networking website.

7 things the world doesn't know about me

2009-03-05T23:57:00.008+05:30

In continuation to my earlier post on 5 Things the world doesn't know about me some years back, here's an update :)
Here it goes...

1) I have the habit of adding sugar to coconut chutney every time. Well... Sugar + Sambhar also tastes good... It seems a bit weird, but I have always liked the taste :)

2) I have been to the theatre only thrice in my life so far,
Jurassic Park (1994) - with family @ Madras
Jungle Book (1998) - school trip @ Madras
Chak De India (2008) - Team outing @ HP, Bangalore

3) Gulab Jamoon & Rasagulla are the sweets I hate the most. Maybe it is too sweet for my tongue.

4) Chess, the game I love the most. I have represented my school in chess tournaments at Madras. And have always regretted for the lack of exposure I got after moving to Madurai in 1999.

5) I have the habit of treasuring my old stuffs safely. And of course, memories of my Kindergarten days, 11th & 12th tuition classes, the unlimited fun I had while seated at the last bench during my 12th std @ SBOA, 1st day at college, new friends during my college days, campus placements , semester exam scare and the list goes on...

6) Of late, trying to explore the ironies & contradictions in life.
A random thought, X- boy, Y- girl,
Statement 1: X likes Y. X decides not to approach/talk to Y until things get settled. After some years, X happens to meet Y. Then X decides to talk. The Crowd says, X does not even know Y and so no point in talking now.
Statement 2: X likes Y. X decides to approach/talk to Y. Years go by, they get along very well. The Crowd says, how can X do such a thing. X should not have talked with Y in the beginning.
Statement 1 & 2 are ironic.

7) Many people who interact with me become surprised when they come to know that I am a Christian. "Nirmalanand" which means "a person who delights in holiness" literally gives very little hint that I am Christian.

By the way, there is absolutely no significance as to why I have chosen 7 things and not any other number ;-)

SQL Server Rocks

2009-02-17T14:19:00.007+05:30

T-SQL Server Enhancements is being handled by me!! :-)
Snaps taken at the event is here

Just Click to Register for the Event

What Christmas Is & Is not

2008-12-25T15:17:00.003+05:30

It Isn't about:

1) It is not about the Santa Claus that appears these days as a default logo during Christmas season

2) It is neither abt the Christmas tree nor the star that hangs in front of the house.

3) It is not about plum cakes & new clothes.

4) It is not about all-night parties.

The media and the society portray Christmas as yet another day to party & exchange gifts during the holiday season, in effect the real-meaning of Christmas is lost somewhere. It is analogous to a person arranging a huge banquet for a King and not inviting him. How good is that???

It Is about:

God’s love for mankind. A love so pure & lasting, that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for us and to save us from our sins [which would end in death otherwise]. And a time for us to realise, repent of our sins and accept Him so that we might live and walk with Him every day.

A year gone by..

2008-12-17T14:58:00.016+05:30

Dec 17th 2007, it is still etched in my mind, the day I underwent Zyoptics Eye Treatment to correct my vision, of course to do away with my specs :-). I have been wearing specs from my 3rd standard, probably due to hereditary reasons, since my father & grand father started wearing specs at a young age.

Coping up as school going kid had always been difficult, especially when I stood out so distinctively in the class just because I wore a spectacle so big that would cover two third of my face 8-) ... Not to mention the insults & nicknames from teachers & other contemporaries. This went on till I completed my 12th standard. I switched over to contact lens once I joined college[Ah, what a relief!! :)]. Looking back, it brings a smile on my face and am thankful to God for making me go through these sort of experiences so that I could learn from them.

PS: I have abstracted on my Zyoptics Eye Treatment procedure coz I ain't a doc ;-) .. On second thought, I would post it sometime in future on-demand basis :-)

Proof that God exists!

2008-12-17T02:06:00.008+05:30

Statement:
Let us try proving that God exists conversly. As per defnition of God, " God is holy, just, full of truth, loving & the law giver".

Proof:

Assume that God does not exist.
1) Good & evil exists in this world. Even an atheist would agree to it for sure.

2) But, man cannot set the rules for what is good & evil.
Say for eg: Mercy killing is it good or bad? As per a survey conducted by NDTV recently, 67% agree that it is Correct. The remaining 33% do not agree to it and feels that is Not Correct. We have different opinions here. A statement's correctness is purely relative and varies from person to person. So, man cannot be the moral law giver because what one feels to be correct may not be acceptable from the other person's perspective.

3) So the moral law giver should be someone who is true, just & correct always.

4) This matches with the definition of God. This conflicts our assumption.

Therefore God exists.

I'm reading

2008-11-16T11:37:00.005+05:30

Since the start of 2008 I've been reading some books. Books that I read this year so far...

No more in its teens :-)

2008-09-27T23:11:00.006+05:30

Couple of months back our car crossed its teens. Manufactured in 1988, FIAT(Premier Padmini Deluxe) has been a part of our family since 1990. It was bought as a second-hand car from the Art Director Thotta Tharani(you must be seeing his name in a lot of tamil movies these days). Couple of features I really admire in our car is its floor gear design and push back seats, which was a rarity in those days, hence it was tagged as a Deluxe model.

It has taken us to many places: school in Madras. trips to Guindy Zoo, Marina beach, especially my one and only transport during my 12th Public Examination in SBOA and to semester examinations in all my years in college. One thing which has never troubled us for the past 18 years is its engine [so durable!!]. Our car drinks [Er.. I mean runs on :-)]pertol (Lots of 'em!). It has crossed over 70,000kms and gives a milege of around 8kms/litre.

For the past 10 years, it has run only on second-hand retreaded tyres. If we were to buy steel radials like MRF ZVTS, it would cover more than half of the car's worth :D

Though Premier Padmini hasn't been tagged as a vintage car yet, you see them very rarely on the roads. Be it anyway, it would be in my books as one of my favourite cars and am really proud to see it parked in our portigo :)

There she stands!

Back to school!!

2008-08-01T23:34:00.010+05:30

Yep..Back to school, this time for my piano classes :-) . I can remember very well as a small kid in 4th standard so desperate to learn piano. But that almost came true when I was in my 8th standard, I got a chance to take up classes for a month in the school where I studied in Madras and could not study further as we moved to Madurai.

Finally, in my 3rd year in college we bought a 5 octave Yamaha keyboard E303. I have been taking up classes on both Western & Classical (BTW, very little of it) ever since I moved to Bangalore for my work. I can play a bit of Treble notes, rest is still cooking.

That's me practising hard :-)

Its always fun to learn the stuffs you always wanted to do.
Piano classes also taught me a very good lesson on humility, "a place one has to listen to a third standard kid and watch him play a tune. You never know, they are more experienced in it than what we are!!"

If you are passionate about Piano, Violin or Guitar and you stay close to S.S.Colony/Bye-Pass Road in Madurai, you can write to me at nirmalanandj@gmail.com. I can put you in touch with our Music Sir :-)

2008-07-24T23:09:00.002+05:30

Up & Running

By God's grace the website of Bethel Methodist Church, Bangalore is up and running at http://www.bmcbangalore.org/. The website was dedicated for the Glory of God on July 13th 2008. Too complex for me to fathom that it was God's plan that I should take up .NET as my passion during my college days. Read here & here & here

2008-05-28T17:07:00.005+05:30

God answers to ALL our prayers

This is one of the forwards I got in my mail box, it made me realize how wonderfully God had led us thus far. Despite that, we in our usual-selves are quick at saying "I pray everyday for my wants, but God doesn't seem to answer". We need to change this part in us to move closer to God.

Patience is what we need in prayer

When the idea is not right, God says, "NO".
No - when the idea is not the best.
No - when the idea is absolutely wrong.
No - when though it may help you, It would create problems for someone else

When the time is not right, God says, "SLOW".
What a catastrophe it would be if God answered every prayer at the snap of your fingers.
Do you know what would happen?
God would become your servant, not your master.
Suddenly God would be working for you instead of you working for God.

When you are not right, God says, "GROW."
The selfish person has to grow in unselfishness.
The cautious person must grow in courage.
The timid person must grow in confidence,
The dominating person must grow in sensitivity.
The critical person must grow in tolerance.
The negative person must grow in positive attitudes.
The pleasure-seeking person must grow in compassion for suffering people.

When everything is all right, God says, "GO."
Then miracles happen:
A hopeless alcoholic is set free.
A drug addict finds release.
A doubter becomes a child in his belief.
Diseased tissue responds to treatment, and healing begins.
The door to your dream suddenly swings open and there stands God saying, "GO!".

Remember: God's delays are not God's denials. God's timing is perfect.

The Lord wants the very best for us, but let us not arrogantly assume that we know what this "best" is.

As the trials of life and our circumstances continue to frustrate us, be comforted by the admonition from James: 5:7-11 "be patient; strengthen your hearts" and know for certain that "the Lord is full of compassion". Amen.

God bless you!

2008-04-22T23:16:00.008+05:30

Live Streaming!!

Last friday, I went along with my teammates to the the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore to watch the Inaugural match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between the Banagalore Royal Challengers and Kolkata Knight Riders. Since it was my first such experience, I was really excited. We started off early to avoid the rush and reached the stadium at 5.30pm. Dressed up in our corp T-Shirt & with face paintings done :) we were all geared up for the match. While standing in the queue, we were seeing a couple of news reporter interviewing people and turned their camera to focus us ;) donno which news crew. When we were about to enter the stadium, we were asked to drop all eatables/ drinking water before our entry. I even heard one of the stadium officials say "This is not just another cricket match, but a business. So please drop all your stuffs outside". Without much difficulty we were able to locate our stands, sadly we found all the front rows occupied. We occupied the last few rows of the stands.

We waited for another one hour before the opening ceremony started. It was really grand to see the acrobats swinging on hanging sheets of cloth & acrobats descending down a winch from the stadium's flood light pole. The lighting effects and the show where some girls were dancing inside plastic bubbles deserves a special mention. There were big BOOs from the crowd when the BCCI Chairman, Mr Sharad Pawar started to speak. We could hear the same reaction for the IPL Chairman and also when Ricky Pointing entered the stadium for his turn to bat.Then Shankar Mahadevan, a playback singer was singing some hindi songs and the entire stadium was singing along with him. This went on and on and finally the match started at 8pm. From the stands we were seated, the faces of the cricket players couldn't be seen , we were assuming names. We saw a good show by both the team. Kolkata for their superb innings and Bangalore for their quick innings ;) , which helped us in reaching home at 00.30am itself. Altogether it was a wonderful experience and a nice opportunity to see all the cricket stars Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly, Dhoni, Sharne Warne, Yuvraj & VVS Laxmanan face to face under one roof.

A Few dislikes:

All the food items were sold at twice the MRP or maybe that's how it is in cinema halls oops I mean cricket stadiums.
You can find huge money invested by the team owners in entertaining the crowd, first the cricket players and then the cheer girls (what a waste!)

Some tips for first timers:

Start off to the stadium as early as possible and occupy the front bench.
If you want to be covered by the camera DON'T dress differently, rather go and talk with the camera man ;)
To get a feel of the crowd, you can visit the stadium otherwise its not worth it. IMHO, TVs are a much better option.

Some snaps of that day: Will be updating it soon

2008-04-16T23:41:00.001+05:30

Highs and lows of comparison

I was reading through Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life", when I came across this passage about comparing oneself with others.
Rick in his book says, There are two reason why you should never compare your works with others.

1) First one, You'll always be able to find someone who seems to be doing a better job than you are and you'll become discouraged.
OR
2) You will always be able to find someone who doesn't seem as effective as you are and you will get full of pride.

Both these attitudes will rob you out of your joy.

The Bible also warn us never to compare ourselves with others in Galatians 6:4 "Each of you must examine your own actions. Then you can be proud of your own accomplishments without comparing yourself to others.".

So just ponder over how many times we have compared ourselves with others and whether it has resulted in pride or depression?

2008-03-03T23:17:00.005+05:30

People around us

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:31-32)- The Bible

We have every right to be angry with people when they say ill about us. But when one realises the love that God showed upon us(the entire world) when He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, we should have the heart to forgive all and in return show the Love of God.

2008-02-25T22:33:00.005+05:30

Goodbye to stage6

For those who don't know what stage6 is, read here. It is an online streaming website that hosts high quality videos (.divX format). It used to be my favourite hangout place ever since I started viewing movies of Tintin. Just a couple of hours back I was shocked to read the admin's post, that they have planned to shut down stage6 right after February 28th ,2008. The reason they stated was that, they couldn't run/manage the website any longer and they couldn't find any buyers for the website. Also, they've decided to focus on the DivX technology licensing business. Too bad that I had to say goodbye to it so soon. One great blow for Web 2.0 :(

2008-02-07T00:12:00.000+05:30

I'm in the desert right now...

Its 00:12 am in the morning, almost time for me to go to sleep. With my laptop in my hand, I'm sitting in my room without knowing what to blog on. Ever since the start of this year 2008, I have had plenty of topics in my mind to post in my blog, but as soon as I login to blogger my mind goes blank and I'm completely out of topics. So I have decided to carry a small piece of paper to jot down petty things/incidents that I come across. To cite an example, how bike riders in Bangalore prove their driving skills by NOT driving on the road but on our legs OR on the first ever shooting star I saw with my very own eyes. By the way, don't expect me to write on what I wished for, I can't do that, that's very very personal ;)

Hope my post count increases in the days to come.

2008-01-07T17:16:00.000+05:30

Amazing Grace

I couldn't resist myself from posting this:

John Newton was born in 1725, and died in 1807. It seems that the only Godly influence in his life, was his mother, who died when he was only seven years old. When she died, John was virtually an orphan. His father remarried, sent him to a strict military school, where the severity of discipline almost broke his back - he left in rebellion at the age of ten. One year later, deciding that he would never enter formal education again, Newton became a seaman apprentice, hoping somehow to step into his father's trade and learn at least the ability to skillfully navigate a ship.

By and by, through a process of time, Newton slowly gave himself over to the devil, determining that he would sin to the fill without restraint, now that the righteous lamp of his life had gone out. Later drafted into England's Royal Navy, he deserted, was captured like a common criminal and beaten publicly several times at the mast, and dismissed from the service. After enduring the punishment, Newton again fled, entertaining thoughts of suicide and made his way to Africa, deciding that would be the place he could get farthest from anyone that knew him. Again he made a pact with the devil to live for him.

Somehow, through a process of the events, Newton got in touch with a Portuguese slave trader, and lived in his home. He was married to a wife who was brimming with hostility and took a lot of it out on John. She beat him, making him eat like a dog on the floor of the home. If he refused to do that, he would be whipped with a lash.

From there, penniless, and owning only the clothes on his back, Newton fled to the shoreline of Africa where he built a fire, hoping to attract a ship that was passing by. A skipper took him on thinking he had gold or slaves or ivory to sell and was surprised because the young man was a skilled navigator. It turned out to be a slave ship, and John lived on this ship for a long period of time. It was not uncommon for as many as six hundred blacks from Africa to be in the hold of the ship, down below, being taken to America.

During these years, on a number of occasions, Newton went through all sorts of narrow escapes from death. One time he opened some crates of rum and got everybody on the crew drunk. The skipper, incensed with his actions, beat him, threw him down below, where he existed on stale bread and sour vegetables for an unendurable amount of time. When the skipper brought him above for another beating, Newton fell overboard. Because he couldn't swim, the skipper harpooned him to get him back on the ship, and John lived for the rest of his life with a large scar in his side. On board, inflamed with fever, John was enraged with the humiliation. A storm broke out, and he wound up again in the hold of the ship, down among the pumps. To keep the ship afloat, he worked as a servant of the slaves. There, bruised and confused, bleeding, diseased, he became the epitome of a degenerate man. It was then that John Newton remembered the words of his mother, and cried out to God, calling upon His grace and His mercy to deliver him, and upon His Son to save him. The only glimmer of light he could find was in a crack in the ship's floor above him - he looked up to it and screamed for help.

Soon afterwards, while reading "The Imitation of Christ", Newton's heart was softened. At first he tried to justify his work by improving conditions on his ship, and even holding worship services for his crew. Later he served as a clerk at the Port of Liverpool and became a strong crusader against slavery.

Newton married a childhood sweetheart, entered the ministry and was ordained in 1764. Everywhere he preached, rooms had to be added to the building to handle the crowds that came to hear the presentation of the Gospel and the story of God's grace. At age 39, he became Pastor in Olney where one of his "extremist" practices was the singing of hymns which expressed simple heartfelt faith rather than the staid singing of Psalms. Not finding enough hymns of this nature, Newton began writing his own. In 1780 he began a long pastoral ministry in London. When advised to retire, Newton replied, "What, shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can still speak?" His epitaph, which he wrote himself, reads:

John Newton, Clerk

Once an infidel and libertine,

A servant of slavers in Africa,

Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,

Preserved, restored, pardoned,

And appointed to preach the Faith

He had long laboured to destroy.

First entitled "Faith's Review and Expectation", this hymn, was sung to the plantation melody known as "Loving Lambs".

Courtesy: http://www.joyfulministry.com/amazingt.htm

2007-12-06T16:27:00.000+05:30

HP Notebook+Memory stick= Disaster

The first lesson I learnt while using my Laptop is that NEVER try inserting a Memory Stick directly into the 5-in-1 Multimedia Port of any HP or Compaq Notebook. Usually I use the Data cable that comes along with my Sony Ericsson mobile to exchange data between my laptop and my mobile. To try out things differently I decided to remove the memory stick from my mobile and insert it into the 5-in-1 Multimedia Port. The port was quite hollow and I was not too sure as to how far I should push it inside. i did that until my OS detected my card. After transferring some stuffs to my stick, I tried pushing it an inch further to pop out the card. To my horror it never came out. It was still at the same depth caught inside my port. After trying endlessly for one whole night with paper clips and pen caps it didn't give way. Frustrated I tried Googling for a remedy and found some 5 hits on the same issue. The solution was none other than to try using some object gently and patiently pull it out of the port. Some 5 minutes of hard worked payed off when Praveen used the caps of a Reynold's Ball Point Pen to pull the stick out. The very next weekend I rushed home to get my memory stick adapter, which is long enough to pull in and out of the slot. This made me wonder why the people who could come up with such a sleek design on the notebook did not think about the consequences of inserting a memory stick into the 5-in-1 multimedia port.

The Issue: Insertion of a RAW memory stick into HP & Compaq notebooks (the one that comes along with Digicams & some models of mobile phones. NOT THE smaller version of the memory sticks that come along with Nokia mobiles)

Solution: Never insert a memory stick directly into the port, use a memory stick adapter instead. If you have already inserted and wondering what to do, try pulling it out patiently without damaging the pins.

2007-12-02T16:08:00.000+05:30

You Are My All In All

I would add this to my list of favourite songs...

You are my strength when I am weak

You are the treasure that I seek

You are my all in all

Seeking You as a precious jewel

Lord, to give up I'd be a fool

You are my all in all

Chorus

Jesus, Lamb of God

Worthy is Your name

Jesus, Lamb of God

Worthy is Your name

Taking my sin, my cross, my shame

Rising up again I bless Your name

You are my all in all

When I fall down You pick me up

When I am dry You fill my cup

You are my all in all

2007-11-20T17:05:00.000+05:30

The unfortunate tourist

The unfortunate tourist on top of the World Trade Center just seconds away from his death on the fateful day on September 11, 2001

This image of a tourist standing on the terrace of the Twin Towers just seconds before the flight crashed onto them may look dramatic. Also the way in which this photo has been edited to absolute perfection so as to fool others and grab the limelight can be appreciated. But its just one of many such photos which floated on the internet claiming so. There were many contradictory elements that led to it being called a hoax. Such as:

September 11th, 2001 was a warm and sunny late summer day, not the type of weather in which a tourist would have been decked out in a winter coat and hat.

The airline shown in the picture is approaching from the north and therfore would have been the plane that hit the north tower of the World Trade Ceter (WTC 1), but WTC1 did not have an indoor observation deck on the 107th floor and an outdoor deck above the 110th floor, but WTC1 housed only Windows on the World, an indoor restaurant with magnificient view of the city but WTC1 housed only the Windows on the world, an indoor restaurant with a magnificient view of the city but no outdoor deck.

The opening hours in September for the WTC2 observatories were 9.30 am to 9.30 pm, meaning they opened too early for a tourist to have been present on one of them on September 11th before the first plane hit the WTC at 8.49am.

The aircraft shown is a Boeing 757 bearing American Airlines markings, but Flight 11, the only American flight to crash into the WTC was a 767( The 767 is a wide-body jet; the 757 is a smaller, standard-body craft)

Finally a guy named Peter, a Hungarian came forward and admitted to have created the infamous "Accidental Tourist" image. He later on supplied similar snapshots from the same session.

The truth finally revealed
Infact he grabbed the spotlight, and even got a website dedicated to his name and this one too ;)

2007-11-15T19:06:00.000+05:30

My Laptie

Yupee!!! Finally I have it in my very own hands, after asking quotations from a dozen shops and browsing the web endlessly for the optimum specification and with a budget that can fit in my pocket :) The search ended with the HP Pavilion DV6516TX series Laptop. One thing that made me buy this masterpiece is its looks combined with its number crunching ability. Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 processor, 2 GB DDR2 RAM and 128MB NVIDIA graphics card, games that I once thought as a big overhead on my desktop can simply run like a knife slicing through a piece of butter. But its comparatively lesser in cost than Sony's VAIO and Dell series of Core 2 Duo & 2 GB RAMmers. Like any new laptop that comes with Windows Vista pre-installed in a single partition, dv6516 is no exception.

If you are so keen on looks you can try the HP Pavilion's dv2000 series Special Edition that comes with a much sharper body work, but with a 1 GB RAM at almost the same cost of the dv6000 series, its a matter of choice between specification and looks. Both the models come with a integrated Web camera and a microphone :)

There are tons of features which comes with it, this will give a better insight into that

2007-11-02T18:28:00.001+05:30

A New Trend???

Over the past couple of months, I have found that people in the blogging world have shown a lot of interest in their own mother tongue (Hey..that's obvious). Be it orkut profiles or blogs , you can find at least one or two phrases written in that. This bug has also bitten people hanging around on GTALK and other IM clients. Its good that they are patriotic about their language. Another thing I really need to appreciate in them is their poetic sense in their writings. As for me, I can hardly dream of that, after having taken French as my second language from 8th Grade in school, my language writing skills is that of a 7th Grade kid :(

To look at it in a positive angle, I learnt French some three years before a whole bunch of people aspiring high scores in the 11th and 12th grade opted for French. No offense guy!!! I am in that list ;) As it is said, Nothing learnt goes to waste, I have resolved to brush up my language skills and don't want to loose them halfway.

2007-10-23T19:00:00.000+05:30

The Iceman Effect

Never has any F1 season been as controversial and interesting as this season. After the exit of the Michael Schumacher, everyone's eye was on the two time world champion who kicked dirt on Schumi's face and on the Iceman (Kimi) who had moved to Ferrari from McLaren. Suddenly out of the blue came the rookie Lewis Hamilton who went on to surprise everyone with his almost flawless driving. The squabble between Alonso & Hamilton both on and off the track and within the McLaren team made way for its exit in the Constructor Championship race. Till the very last race the Driver's Championship was open. But hopes were high on the rookie but the iceman proved them all wrong.

As for me I could only hear the news of Kimi winning the title through a SMS sent by my brother around 11.45 pm in the night while returning back by train to Bangalore :(
Out of excitement i woke Senthil out of his bed to pass on the news to him who was fast asleep in his berth then :D

Kimi on the podium

The Iceman zooming just before the start of a race

2007-10-18T17:33:00.000+05:30

Lost in Time

Have you ever wondered what has happened to all the cartoons and programmes we once enjoyed as kids. Have they disappeared or they have been replaced by cartoon characters with eyes as big as their head and an almost circular mouth ;)

Talking about cartoons that captivated me the most. The list goes like this...

Dexter's Laboratory
The Centurians
X-Men
Jonny Quest
The Justice League
Superman
The Mask
Scooby Doo's All Star Laf''lymbics
The Jetsons
The Flintstones
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
SWAT cats

Coming to TV shows, I don't have a big list here, and I am not sure whether people might be aware of these shows as they are broadcasted only on DD2(Metro)

Johnny Sako and his Flying Robot (This is my favourite show. Surprisingly, the no of hits in Google for this is very less. I think people have forgotten this show)
Lost in Space
Superhuman Samurai
The Investigator
The X Files on Star Plus

Almost all of these shows have been on air since the mid 90's and its really sad to see them no more. All these proove one fact that I'm no longer a kid...

2007-10-11T19:03:00.000+05:30

Down the memory lane...

There are lots of incidents that I can never forget in my college life... especially the opportunity of catching Bill Gates right in front of my eyes and that too with me sitting in the front benches of that event. Wow!!! I still can't believe it happened. You can view my previous post on this :) In my 10th Matriculation English syllabus there was a lesson on Bill Gates, the story of a boy turning into a billionaire "The Billion Dollar Secret". Never in my wildest dream I thought I would be able to catch him in person. There have been different opinions on how he climbed the way to the top, but none can reject that he is a role model of millions of coders and entrepreneurs.

And a year later exactly on this same month in 2006, I got a chance to visit the Microsoft India Development Center for a 3-day technical training, that was the first software company I visited. Roaming around the campus and drinking free coke and chocolate coffee, I got a chance to meet my peers who were just like me amazed by the campus :) Read my experience here

PS: There are a lot of people who consume RSS feeds from my blog, you can try the aforementioned links if you want ;)

2007-10-09T19:07:00.000+05:30

Diamonds are forever

Diamonds on rings and pendants are a common sight all over the world. Talking of diamonds on human teeth..that would be really weird isn't it?. Believe me, this happened in a trade fair in Madras, where a group of people have found innovative ways to decorate their teeth. One of them even said "it looks really cool and grabs other's attention". Maybe they are competing with the dotted cow in the Orbit White chewing gum Ad :P , after looking at their tag line "After all man is a social animal" . A small paste of that fluid costs around 35k. Boy That's big money!!!

If you are someone who has a lot of money and would like to add some sparkle to your teeth.. Try that!!. I'll tell ya whether it grabs my attention or not :D

2007-10-04T18:54:00.000+05:30

The Longest Day...

Tuesday being a holiday, we had planned for a trip to pearl valley around 30kms from the Bangalore city along with my friends and our college seniors. But unfortunately it got postponed. Having got up very early in the morning, myself, Sens, Praveen & Musi were sitting and thinking how to pass on the day. After eliminating a big list of spots to visit we finally settled for Cubbon Park. We started our walk right from Shivaji Nagar to Cubbon Park stopping here and there to catch a glimpse of the Gandhi Jeyanthi Celebrations on M.G.Road.

The very first look of Cubbon Park created an impression that no one cleans the park and a there's a swamp waiting to welcome you. No wonder if you find crocodiles in them :D . Then we sat on one of the benches for sometime. The constant honking of the Bal Bhavan Express drove us away. We started exploring the park and for a first timer like me it was quite adventurous takling all the small bushes that blocked the path, and suddenly I found that we had reached the end of the first half of the park and a road separates the other half of the park. Unable to cope the cry of our stomachs we walked all the way to Cunningham Road for lunch. On the way we accidentally took the road infront of the Vidhan Soudha without knowing that it is open for the public. I would have counted more than 2000 heads on the entire stretch.

After reaching the hotel Nisarga we had some good Barota after a very long time. Then we once again returned back to Cubbon Park and sat on a rock chatting for sometime. Then we walked all the way towards M.G.Road. Suddenly it started to drizzle and we enter the Indian Coffee House a legacy coffee shop, the interior says it all, You can find grey hairs chatting over coffee. I was astonished to find this shop, that too on one of the most happening streets in B'lore selling lemonade for Rs.7. The we started our journey once again from M.G.Road-> Brigade Road-> 5th Avenue [Watched the India cricket team eating dirt] -> Garuda Mall-> Bangalore Central Mall-> Commerical Street [Went around in circles in search of a shop]-> Shivaji Nagar-> [Bus to Indra Nagar]-> CMH road[again in circles]. Waited in Coffee Day for an hour to eat an almost rotten veg pizza, I guess it must be atleast 2 years old :(

We would have covered around 10kms by walk. It was fun and luckily I didn't end up counting sheep :D

2007-10-01T18:21:00.000+05:30

Random Art

Ever since I started eating sandwiches a new habit started developing in me. After picking up my sandwich, I take the ketchup bottle and squeeze around the top of it, make random designs. This is one such design of mine.

BTW folks, if anyone thinks, this is no art and this is too small a matter to be posted on, I can do nothing but remind you that a blog is something that brings out the silliest and most inane things in life ;)

2007-09-25T17:24:00.000+05:30

Dogs Everywhere

On my way to the office, I found this sight of two dogs lazing on a wall at a busy intersection where there's always constant honking of cars and buses. I stopped by to take a snap.

In Bangalore, dogs are everywhere from busy roads to small street corners. I'm a little scared of dogs and I dread walking in the streets at night. Near small mutton shops on the street you can find dogs (very muscular ;) ) which often chase people riding in bikes. Whenever you read incidents of dog bites in the newspapers, you can see people from NGOs and Blue Cross flocking around and say "They are innocent creatures. Leave them alone!". One question I would like to ask them ,"What if that same dog bites someone in our family, you still stand by what you have said???". I agree that killing dogs is inhuman, but leaving them on the roadside is dangerous. They are also responsible for many accidents, when they suddenly come in front of speeding vehicles especially bikes. Dogs can be adopted, this avoids killing them and guarding people.

2007-09-07T18:52:00.000+05:30

Of Oil & Masala Dosaas

Almost every hotel here serve masal dosaa (this is how its pronounced here). You can catch them in the menu of hotels ranging from big ones to the not so famous eat outs here. But no matter where you eat it, you can't do away with the oil that also comes along with that [free of cost :)].
This morning me and my friend ordered for masal dosaa, after seeing the waiter bring it, I grabbed a bunch of tissue papers from the table and so did he, which must have made the waiter wonder what these two guys are up to with all these tissue papers. If you think that we took it for wiping water off our hands then you are absolutely wrong!!!! As soon I reached the table, i placed the tissue paper on the dosaa and it started soaking like anything, the tissue paper because as transparent as glass. Then I sat wondering what will happen if I keep on eating this dosaa soaked in oil for a year. No wonder the doc wud say, "Hold it chap! you have a high cholesterol level". I don't want anything like that to happen, so I decided to avoid dosaa items as much as possible and eat it only when I have no other option.

2007-09-04T18:42:00.000+05:30

Spooky dreams!!

Last night feeling too bored i went to bed very early and was simply rolling around until 11.30pm as I couldn't sleep well. I woke up at 3 am the next day, courtesy my dream.

The dream?? here it is... There is an old museum in some unknown place where people visit very often. In one of the halls showcasing old furnitures, a grand piano is at one corner. Ocassionally the piano plays on its own. The person who sees this piano while it is playing disappears under mysterious circumstances the very next day. So far no one is aware of incidents such as these. On the next day, I (an ordinary character in this dream) visit the museum. I start exploring the museum and I enter the room hosting the grand piano. I see no one in the room and I see the piano playing on its own. Thinking that to be some mechanical setup I move around the room and when I was about to leave the room, a woman rushes towards me asking me to stop. Feeling a bit sceptical as to how this woman ended up in this room without my notice, i start marching forward as if turning a deaf ear to her call. Then I hear repeated shouts from that woman. Tired of her shouts I turn back and I see that lady approaching me. I see a big dressing mirror placed on the wall, to my astonishment I dont see her reflection on the mirror. Then I quickly look at her, and find her completely dressed in white with a pale yellow face and bloody red eyes. I then start running and I suddenly wake up in bed thanking god it was just a dream.

2007-08-28T18:17:00.000+05:30

Food does matter!!

If you had asked me what my favourite food was a couple of years back it would have been a dish which any college going boy would like eating. But things have changed a lot over time especially when I am staying away from my home and wake up each morning and rush to a place where the tastiest food around was the one i hated the most, which i even stopped eating for two years at one go. Guess what??? its Idli.

Within two months out here Idli has become my favourite food... But it never works out well with the Sambhar(No yaar! its actually a sweet dish). Mindboggling how they prepare it with that special taste... Having no other go I eat that almost every day and ocassionally having a bite at Adayar Anandha Bhavan (A2B) during weekends. Puri tastes good there along with the Urulaikelangu(Aloo masal) something which is closer to the taste back home.

After coming here food has become an item which I take for keeping myself alive rather than a thing of taste and enjoyment :-

2007-08-24T18:02:00.001+05:30

My Camera at its best :)

Gooseberry buds, originally uploaded by nirmal_2186.

What you see here is actually the buds of a Gooseberry Plant which stands in front of my house. I was truly amazed by the clarity of the shot

2007-08-13T19:18:00.000+05:30

Leading from the Front

Arun & Jebasingh (Microsoft Student Partners from Thiagarajar College of Engineering)

With just a couple of months passed after the start of the academic year, Arun and Jebasingh (Microsoft Student Partners from Thiagarajar College of Engineering ) have done some amazing job in conducting .NET related technical sessions in campus.

Look!!! what's in the background :)

Cool Eh!! A nice banner from INETA for the MaduraiDotNet User Group. For people who are not familiar with what INETA means visit: http://apac.ineta.org

With 8 more months to go.... I wish them both and the entire .NET Team here at campus (If I were to mention them all, it would cover two posts :) the very best :)

Keep up the good work!!!

2007-07-31T18:55:00.000+05:30

Why we are here today????

I've always heard people say "what we are doing in this planet called as earth? Why are we here? We study for 20 odd years then work, have a family and eventually we all die and what awaits us? So life, is it just a pass time? what's the purpose in our living?" You can keep on adding n number of questions such as these...

So what's the answer to all these... Last Sunday, at the Indranagar Methodist Church they sang this wonderful song answering almost every question... The chorus goes like this:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

Matthew 28:6
"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.
Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

The whole song is as below:

God sent His son, they called Him, Jesus;
He came to love, heal and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!

The Chorus
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days because He Lives!

Chorus Again

And then one day, I'll cross the river,
I'll fight life's final war with pain;
And then, as death gives way to vict'ry,
I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives!

Chorus Again

Because He lives I can face tomorrow and life is worth a living just because He lives!!!
In our living we have to glorify God and we are accountable to our actions!!!

God Bless You!

2007-07-31T18:34:00.001+05:30

Big Bazzar's Big trick

Its true that games such as Bumper car and other games are pretty costly at shopping malls. There's one game called as Cupid's at Big Bazzar. The objective of the game is to position a mechanical arm with three fingers over any doll(these dolls are really cute that's why you can find people flocking around to grab one and present it to their ....) inside a glass compartment. All one can do is, position the arm, rest is done by the computer. It drops down and falls over a doll and closes its fingers and grabs it by its head and voila you have the bunny. Easy????

In all my visits to that place I haven't seen anyone win a bunny or even crossed the 50% mark.

The trick is(believe me! Big Bazzar makes quite lot of money out of it... after all its business man!!!!)
The mechanical arm is intelligently programmed in such a way that when the mechanical arm falls on a bunny it doesn't close its fingers immediately. Only after moving a couple of inches from its head it begins to close it fingers. As a result no bunny gets grabbed by the arm. The person who comes thinking that Cupid would help him goes away empty handed :)

2007-07-27T17:49:00.000+05:30

Harry Potter Everywhere!!!

Everywhere you turn around you can find one thing or the other related to Harry Potter. I guess I'm one of the very few not bitten by the Harry Potter BUG. But it can be wrong too. I got a chance to read the last chapter(After Nineteen Years) in the final sequel of the Harry Potter series from him.For a person who has not even read a single book in that series, this is one big achievement. I can see you getting ready to comment this post. As you wish!!!
I'm not going to write about who lives or who dies coz I'm least bothered. If you ask me why then this post... Simple...I've no other topics to post on..

2007-07-13T18:15:00.000+05:30

Things so unique to Bangalore :)

Bus conductors in Bangalore take commission from you without giving you a bus ticket. Read This
One can't travel in bus especially after 9pm. The reason, you can find people who are drunk standing next to you and falling on you.
No foot-board travel allowed in bus. If you still dare to,you would be crushed by the hydraulics of the automated door.
The only place where u can see both sunshine and rain coming up alternatively the most times in a day.
The place where people speak so many languages.
You can easily guess why bikes here have a steep seat at the back.

2007-06-11T23:01:00.001+05:30

The Cherry Fruit

Cherry Fruit, originally uploaded by nirmal_2186.

This is the same cherry fruit u see on cakes and fruit salads. Cherry fruit in unprocessed form :)

2007-06-06T13:11:00.001+05:30

P6300652, originally uploaded by nirmal_2186.

If you are from Madurai and if you are walking along the Bye Pass Road, one thing that would immediately catches your eye is the new set of Street lights put up along the entire stretch of the highway from Kalavasal to Palanganatham. Looks really superb especially when there is no traffic. Now even streets have this thing set up ;)

PS: THIS IS NOT THE BYE PASS ROAD. This place is near my house ;)

2007-06-04T22:11:00.001+05:30

The Cherry Flower

Flowers, originally uploaded by nirmal_2186.

This is how the flower of a cherry plant looks like. It has got little resemblance to the cherry fruit.

2007-05-30T21:54:00.000+05:30

God is in control

I was reading through chapter 28 of the book Man the Dwelling Place of God by A.W.Tozer when I came across this wonderful reality from which we’re often blinded. There are times when we can’t find answers to questions such as Why me? How? Whence? What? But we’ve to understand that God is in control of our lives and all the things that appear so wonderful in this world will pass away over time but the things that we do for God lasts.

Here are some things that we should keep in mind always:

*Only God is great
*Only God is wise
*Apart from God nothing matters
*Only what we do for God will remain to us at last
*Human sin is real
*With God there is forgiveness
*Only what God protects is life

Below is an excerpt from a very meaningful song that God is in control of our lives:

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.

It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,

The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.

How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

2007-05-17T23:17:00.001+05:30

Rain drops, originally uploaded by nirmal_2186.

Just after the afternoon drizzle I shot this. Good that it rains. Madurai is too hot these days.

2007-05-17T22:38:00.001+05:30

Flowers in my backyard

Flowers, originally uploaded by nirmal_2186.

This is my first shot of nature using my Digi Cam

2007-05-08T14:51:00.000+05:30

No more a student

The final semester results are out. I’ve scored a GPA of 8.93. Never have I been so anxious about the results. It’s for two reasons I was so. Firstly, all through the final semester I’ve been involved in organizing Microsoft related activities at our college campus: 2-day .NET Workshop, Launch of Windows Vista, Campus Reach Programs and not to forget the 2-day session on Windows Vista by Ajay Thomas, Academic Developer Evangelist, Microsoft in TCE, MKU, KLN CE and SIT. Secondly, three out of the six papers were very theoretical.. With college life drawing to a close lemme compile what all I've done in each semester right from first semester till the eight semester:

I Semester: Came across a totally different teaching style at college compared to school. Disappointed with the score I got in the semester exam with the amount of effort I put in.

II Semester: Completed my first project along with Ramji, an Inventory Control for Web Design Lab, CSE Dept, TCE using VB6.0 and MS ACCESS. Then, a couple of projects in JScript and VB 6.0. During the semester holidays, started learning ASP.NET (Microsoft ASP.NET Web Matrix Mechanical Workshop by Mike Pope) hoping that it would have something for me in the years to come. Semester results were better this time :)

III Semester: Did a Quiz engine using ASP.NET and SQL Server 2000 along with Ramji. Then registered as a team of five on Police Crime Record Management System under the Microsoft Student Project Program 2004-2005 (renamed now as Microsoft Academic Project Program).

IV Semester: Was busy the entire semester even during the weekends seriously working for the project. Then the preliminary project review at Coimbatore Institute of Technology. Had interesting experiences (My teammates know what it is ;)). Got in-touch with Kevin D’Souza, Abhisek Kant of Microsoft. Our project got listed among the Top 300 projects in India and our project won the Best Project Award in South Zone from Microsoft

V Semester: Not much activity this semester except for the first .Net User Group meet at our campus where only 12 people turned up after a lot of canvassing. I and Padmashree made as Managers of the MaduraiDotNet UG.

VI Semester: Got an opportunity to see Bill Gates in person at Bangalore. Then the community launch of VS 2005, SQL Server 2005, BizTalk Server 2006 at Madurai and Kaushik’s session. Got in-touch with Deepak Rajendran of Microsoft (Rarely can you come across with a guy with such a passion towards Microsoft technologies) who helped us in organizing the event here. Microsoft Community Roadshow headed by Reza and Team in TCE, KLNCE and SIT Placement Preparations ON.

VII Semester: Got dual offers. Visit to the Microsoft India Development Campus, Hyderabad last September as a part of the Microsoft Student Partner Program. Got a chance to interact with peers all across India. Won the Best New User group Award from Microsoft for the MaduraiDotNet User Group. Visit to KLN CE, LDC and SIT for conducting .NET Sessions.

VIII Semester: You can read it in this same post and here

I almost forgot!!! my good old mini bus, my mode of transport to college every morning for which we celebrated Bus day in the 8^th semester :)

Over the past 4 years my college has shaped me well and am thankful to God for helping me complete my course.

All these incidents mark the end of college life whose memories will be with me always.

2007-05-05T13:35:00.000+05:30

Warning...Warming!!!

Yesterday a news report in CNN showed an alarming increase in Global Warming across the globe. CO₂ from vehicles is the major cause for Global warming. The top 3 nations that lead the pack are the US, China and India. But reports suggest that this will not be the trend in the coming years. China is fast competing with the US and will overtake it within the end of this decade. India too has reasons to worry as its emission rate has grown by 50% as it was in the early 90s. Scientists all around the world are working on techniques to prevent CO₂ from reaching the Earth’s atmosphere. Former US Vice President, Al Gore and Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic Airlines have announced a cash prize of $1 million to anyone who can come up with an ingenious solution to counteract this problem.

If you have any idea don’t just sit at home, go get the prize.

2007-05-04T13:44:00.000+05:30

Mr. Weirdie

I read a review of the movie Spiderman 3 in The Hindu today. The thing that immediately came in my mind was the sticky hairs and its weird looking eyes. So I decided to snoop around my backyard for spiders. After a couple of strolls I found this weirdie on the wall. Thanks to my Olympus Digital Camera the photo came out pretty good.

Camera model: Olympus SP510UZ
Mode: Micro mode
Focusing: Automatic focus

A great way to celebrate the release of Spiderman 3 ;)

2007-05-03T10:24:00.000+05:30

5 things the world doesn't know abt Me

I was tagged by this friend of mine. Here it goes:

1) I always wonder why one doesn’t fall while riding a bicycle. Keep aside the laws of Physics I know how it works. But it’s truly awesome to sit and think over that.

2) I always start studying only at clock times which are multiples of 15, like 3:00, 3:15,3:30,3:45 and so on.

3) Mango is one of the fruits I hate the most but I like drinking mango juice for reasons I don’t know myself

4) I eat cornflakes very often for breakfast. Except the plain flavor I don’t take any other flavors with milk.

5) The food I hate the most is Idli....

2007-05-03T08:50:00.000+05:30

Procexp Tool => IE7 Vs Firefox 1.5

The procexp tool which comes as a part of the Windows CRK Toolkit is really cool. Its one amazing tool that allows developers to analyze the performance of an application by stepping up through the stack of DLL calls. So I tried to analyze which one of these either Firefox 1.5 of IE 7 consumed a larger memory overhead in terms of bytes occupied by its executable. If you’re a guy from the Open Source World, this info would be interesting

Move to drive name\CRK\Tools\CRK-Tools.zip directory and start the procexp tool. Then invoke separate instances of Firefox and IE7. These two EXEs appear below the Explorer.exe which is the parent process of both. Then select Properties from the context menu of these two processes, you’ll get a dialog box showing the following.

The analysis was made under the following conditions:

Processor: P IV 1.4 Ghz

Main Memory: 384MB

IE version: 7.0

Firefox version: 1.5

I opened 5 Tabs in both and the private memory occupied was as follows:

IE7: 40.7 MB

Firefox: 10.2 MB

Much to the delight of the Open Source Guys!!!

The point I am trying to make is procexp is a superb tool to analyze your applications :)

The Windows Academic CRK comes with Presentations on the following:

Overview of Operating Systems
Operating System Principles
Concurrency
Scheduling and Dispatch
Memory Management
Device Management
Protection and Security
File System
Real-Time and Embedded Systems
Fault-tolerance
System Performance Evaluation and Troubleshooting
Scripting
Windows Networking
Comparing the Linux and Windows Kernels
Windows-Unix Interoperability

You can download the Windows Internals CRK here

It’s about 50MB in size.

2007-05-01T14:20:00.000+05:30

Silverlight??? What it is all about

Microsoft Silverlight (code-named Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere or WPF/E) is a proprietary dual-platform XAML-based WPF technology for video, vector graphics, and animations. These plug-ins will allow compatible browsers to use Silverlight graphics capabilities. The browser plug-ins will be similar to Adobe Flash. Microsoft claims that content created with Silverlight would be more searchable and indexable than that created with Flash as it is not compiled, but represented as XAML

Silverlight is being designed to work in concert with XAML and will be scriptable with JavaScript. Version 1.1 will contain a version of the Common Language Runtime so it can execute VB.NET and C# code.

If you are an AJAX guy. This is one thing you wouldn't want to miss!!!

2007-04-20T23:39:00.000+05:30

Back to Blogspot

After some time in thespoke.net I am finally back to the place where it all started. That too after a pretty long time I am blogging. Over the past few months a lot of things have happened:

1) Became a member of the Worldwide Microsoft Student Partner Portal. I am HERE

2) Sessions on .NET in colleges around Madurai

3) Ajay was here for a 2 day session on Windows Vista

4) 5 new student inducted into the Student Partners Program

5) The MaduraiDotNet Community Launch of Windows Vista

6) A 2 day workshop on “Evolution of Computing towards .NET 3.0 and Allied Technologies” by Sarang Datye, MVP(No longer he’s one coz he’s into Microsoft). A nice chap. Can’t forget the two days spent with him…Especially the outing at Bell Hotel :) I should really thank Ajay for his timely help

7) Bought a new Olympus Digital Camera 7.1 Mega Pixel, 12x Optical Zoom

8) Developed a great deal of interest towards Photography

9) The Final Semester is over and the season of writing autographs has come to an end

10) College life has come to an end :( but its memories will last a lifetime

2006-09-15T13:24:00.000+05:30

I am moving to thespoke.net

I no longer blog here. I've moved my blog to thespoke.net the site which is blogged the most by .NET freaks all over the globe.

View my new blog at

www.nirmalanand.co.nr

or

http://thespoke.net/blogs/nirmalanandj/default.aspx

2006-09-11T20:53:00.000+05:30

Déjà vu

Last week the World Finals of the Imagine Cup 2006 which concluded on August 15th 2006 was aired on CNBC TV. Prizes for the different categories were given off to the winners. Almost every prize winner looked like a geek :)

Kapil Sibal addressing the gathering at Imagine Cup 2006

Back in September 2004(when I was in my Second year) our team FUTURE INSIDE started a project on Police Crime Record Management System for the Microsoft Student Project Program (Now under the name Microsoft Academic Project Program). MSAPP as we all call was the first of its kind for students by Microsoft. The project spanned 8 months and we got a placed in the Top 300 projects on an all India basis in the second phase of our Project. We also got an opportunity to exhibit our project at the Student Project Expo’05 at Meenakshi College, Chennai. There our projects were reviewed by professionals from ISoft, Verizon and of course Microsoft. As we had taken Ramji’s CPU in order to exhibit our project we ate our lunch half-heartedly. Then it was the moment of truth as the result were about to be announced. Finally 8 months of Hard work paid off and we won the BEST PROJECT AWARD in SOUTH ZONE.

Ramji and Me(other three of my teammates not in this picture) receiving Wireless Desktops from Shiela Gulati, Microsoft India Director at MSP Expo 2005,Chennai

Through this project I could get in touch with people like Kevin D’Souza who is an Academic Developer Evangelist from Microsoft, Abhisek Kant and many other from there as well.

It was at the same venue that Kaushik Srenevasan, Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi bagged the best project award in South Zone for Imagine Cup 2005. All the three are now in Microsoft India Development Center, Hyderabad. It feels great to have shared the same stage with people like them :)

2006-09-11T20:18:00.002+05:30

My .NET Session at KLN College of Engineering

On the 26th of August 2006, I went to KLN College of engineering with our team from MaduraiDotNet UG as a part of its Campus Reach Program. The Campus Reach Program (a newly coined activity) aims at taking .Net to the colleges in and around Madurai. KLNCE was the first college in our list and it was there I took my first Technical Session outside TCE facing a crowd of over 200 plus. This remembered of my “Introduction to .NET” session at the Community Launch in Jan 2006. Read the article in The Hindu

Me In Action

The .NET Team consisting of 13 members, 3 from Final Year and 10 from Third Year started of from TCE at 9.30am in the bus that KLNCE had offered us for the trip to their college. We reached there at around 10.30am. We were received there by the Placement Officer of KLNCE. We decided to start the session at around 11am but we had trouble installing VS2005 as we couldn’t find systems with the right configuration. So I had to proceed without the demos planned for my ASP.NET Session.

The first session was an Introduction to .NET. Then was a Quiz session which was handled by our juniors. Trial Versions of VS 2005 DVDs were given off to the students who answered enthusiastically. The next session was mine. It was on Web Services. I started off with a slide on how the world would be if there was no interaction among the web apps hosted on the internet and the “Vision of Microsoft.NET”. I went on to speak for 15mins and towards the end of the session I cited some web services offered by WINDOWS LIVE, PASSPORT.COM and GOOGLE. As we ran short of time I couldn’t take my session on ASP.NET 2.0 :(

We then had a hearty meal provided by them. The Principal appreciated our efforts in taking pains to inculcate .NET among the student community there. We then asked them to nominate two students to take up the role of Microsoft Student Partners at KLNCE. Within two days I got a mail from them. I was overwhelmed by their response and I am really thankful to the Principal of KLNCE for helping us organizing this event and allowing MaduraiDotNet UG’s wings to reach out to the student community there. Also the junior team from a college got a good exposure by conducting Quiz sessions. I can say that this is one of the best way to train potential UG Leads :)

One feedback that really impressed me was that of a second year student from the CSE Dept. who thanked us for this wonderful session and making him understand what .Net is all about and wiping away his misapprehension that .NET was something related to Networks and Hardware.

With happenings like these I can guarantee that the Campus Reach Program will definitely be a super hit :)

2006-09-11T15:14:00.000+05:30

Take up Microsoft Technical Specialist Certifications

MaduraiDotNet UG has provided an opportunity for eight students to write the following Microsoft Certification exams free of cost:

1)70-431:Microsoft Technical Specialist: Microsoft SQL Server 2005-Implementation and Maintenance.

Screening Test Portions:
* .NET Fundamentals
* SQL Basics
* SQL Server 2000

2)70-536:Microsoft Technical Specialist: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 -Application Development Foundation.

Screening Test Portions:
* .NET Fundamentals
* VB.NET or C#.NET

3)70-235:Microsoft Technical Specialist: Developing Business Process and Integration Solutions Using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006.

Screening Test Portions:
* .NET Fundamentals
* BizTalk Server Fundamentals
*Advanced Knowledge on Integration of Business Solutions.

These tests can be taken up at any of the Microsoft authorized centers. There will be a screening test conducted on 25.9.2006 at Zo Hall of CSE Dept,Thiagarajar College of Engineering and based on their score eight members will be selected to write the Final Online Exam for which the voucher would be provided. Interested students can just add a comment with their Name, Year of Study and Department.

I am also planning to take up the test on 70-536.

ALL THE BEST GUYS!

2006-09-11T00:01:00.000+05:30

PHP Language Compiler for the .NET Framework

Phalanger is a PHP compiler for .NET Framework. Using Phalanger you can write PHP codes and run them under .NET Framework and IIS. One another important feature that this compiler enables for us is the ability to use thousands of .NET great classes. One cool feature of this compiler is we can write an ASP.NET application with PHP codes for code-behind so PHP programmers can enjoy the power of .NET. You can download current release from here.

2006-09-08T00:10:00.000+05:30

Windows Vista for 199$

Microsoft Corp. a couple of weeks back announced that its Windows Vista Operating System will be available at a cost of $199. If your are having a Genuine Version of Windows then you can upgrade it for $99.95. Click here to learn more on this.

2006-08-28T00:19:00.000+05:30

Madurai DotNet udergoes a transformation

I was browsing through the web and this thought came to my mind."Why don't we redesign our Groups' home page??"...as the UG activities at MNET has started to pickup its pace.So I sat for 2hrs and redesigned the page using Fireworks 2004. Check that out Here
Ur feedbacks are valuable :)

2006-08-23T18:04:00.000+05:30

Portable .NET

Sounds wierd isn't it.How one can associate the word "portable" to .NET. Yep..its true the Portable .NET or pnet as it is called is a Open Source venture to provide the services offered by the .NET Framework on windows in Linux too.It is a DotGNU project

2006-08-23T17:10:00.000+05:30

AJAX at TCE

On the 11th of August we had a session organized for the 2nd and 3rd years on using AJAX in ASP.NET apps by Kaushik Srenevasan of Microsoft India. The session lasted for two hours and demos on the usage of ATLAS to develop the GMAIL kinda experience was shown by Kaushik Srenevasan. The session was really fine and only the 2nd years were a bit confused as they found it difficult to understand the concepts. We recorded the session on tape and would soon be made available to all the members of the MaduraiDotNet User Group.

2006-08-23T16:41:00.000+05:30

A dream comes true
It has been a pretty long since I blogged…but I made it a point to record one of my happiest moments in my life. By God’s grace I got a dual placement in Hewlett Packard. It all started on the 13th of July, first was the AT, which lasted for 2hrs. It was pretty tough actually. Out of the 285 attended 25 were shorted listed for the Technical Interview. The Technical Interview was quite easy and was on my project in a Linux Cluster, the one which I had been doing since my second year. Then after that was the HR that lasted for 20 mins. The results were announced at 8.30pm and 8 out of the 25 who cleared the AT got placed :)

2006-06-23T23:51:00.000+05:30

Placed in TCS
After a very long time i've updated my blog(nearly three months). I've got a job after 15years of studies.What 15years? From I standard to my III year in college. I was one among the 287 selected from college.TCS arrived at our campus on Monday, the first phase was the online AT. I should say the AT was pretty tough especially the Critical Reasoning section. Then we had the Technical Interview, for me it lasted for 15 mins almost all the question were on my .NET project which I did in my second year. Then I was shortlisted for the MR interview. This also lasted 15mins. The results were announced on Wednesday and I was happy to find my name on the list of selected candidates.

2006-03-05T22:33:00.000+06:00

My pet Squirrel
Hurray I have bought a data cable for my mobile phone. I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. The first thing which I did was, I transferred the photos of my pet squirrel named Thread to my system. Wonder why this weird name. The story goes like this.. when my squirrel was very small a tiny strand of “thread” got around it and almost got it strangled, we saved it just in time. Here are some snapshots of my pet.

How is that :-)

2006-03-01T17:52:00.000+06:00

Your Personality Is

Guardian (SJ)

You are sensible, down to earth, and goal oriented.
Bottom line, you are good at playing by the rules.

You tend to be dominant - and you are a natural leader.
You are interested in rules and order. Morals are important to you.

A hard worker, you give your all at whatever you do.
You're very serious, and people often tell you to lighten up.

In love, you tend to take things carefully and slowly.

At work, you are suited to almost any career - but you excel in leadership positions.

With others, you tend to be polite and formal.

As far as looks go, you are traditionally attractive. You take good care of yourself.

On weekends, you tend to like to do organized activities. In fact, you often organize them!

The Three Question Personality Test

2006-02-25T16:18:00.000+06:00

IWeee

We left the hostel at midnight and decided to go to Kanyakumari to see the Sunrise. 8-( we couldn't see it properly, then we raced towards Trivandrum and reached RajMahal Cottage(the place where we stayed during the trip) at 11.00.I shared the room with Senthil, Shanoof, Prabhu & Praveen .We liked that room, especially for that ... :-P. We then visited the BSNL company and went over to see the sunset over the beach. That evening we went looking for a NV hotel and we finally ended up into one and left there with tears in our eyes bcoz of that Chicken Masala we ate(tooooo spicy). Shanoof unable to bear that poured some water into it ;-). We then retuned back to the cottage and joined our friends who were playing Dumb Sherads. Later that night we five decided to have a GD kind of thing. From the moment I and Praveen started to speak, all the others went to sleep ;-) We spoke on things from blogging to Da Vinci Code. It was fun. The next day we visited the USSoftware Company at the Tecnhno Park(Truly awesome). That night we left for Madurai after having dinner at Nagercoil. Lessons learnt at Trivandrum- never eat Chicken there ;-) . Had a great time at Trivandrum.

2006-02-11T23:13:00.000+06:00

Off we gooooo

After much of an hassle we have finally set things right to go for an Industrial Visit to Trivandrum on Sunday night(12th). This is the third time we are going for such a tour oops! ... I mean Industrial Visit. We had earlier gone to Chennai and Bangalore. I am keyed up for tomorrow. I could somehow find time to go to KLN and SIT ,with the Community Road Show around the corner. Will return back on Wednesday(15th). I'll blog once when I return from the trip.

2006-02-07T19:11:00.000+06:00

Un changement enfin!

Zapppp! And it's ready. My blog has undergone a transformation. Not to be too technical... Nice template isn't it.

2006-01-28T13:13:00.000+06:00

Microsoft Offers to License some of its Source Codes.(Courtesy: MSNBC)

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Microsoft Corp. will license some of its secret software blueprints in an effort to avert fines of up to 2 million euros ($2.5 million) a day for failing to comply with European antitrust penalties, the U.S. company said on Wednesday.

“We are putting our most valuable intellectual property on the table, so we can put technical compliance issues to rest and move forward with a serious discussion about the substance of this case,” Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said.

The European Commission said in a response three hours later that it would “study carefully the announcement” by Microsoft. (MSNBC.com is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)
Microsoft’s offer to license a small amount of its source code, relating to server software that helps manage tasks like printing within a group of desktop machines, would help proprietary software makers but not the so-called “open source” community. More..

2006-01-28T13:11:00.000+06:00

How I happened to learn .NET?

During the beginning of my second semester in college I went out to town to buy some books. It was there in a store in front of the College House Restaurant (near Railway Station) I saw a Computer magazine by the name Developer IQ. During my school days I used to go the library to read Computer magazines like Digit, PCQUEST, Computers@Home ,…. and I even subscribed to their CDs from our school computer lab just for the Demo Games. So I couldn’t resist the lure and guess what? That CD contained the .NET FMK and ASP.NET Webmatrix. I had no clue idea about .NET at that point of time and my brother told that it’s an upcoming technology and said we buy it. I was very much excited about the Games and other Benchmarking tools in it. After installing the games, the CD was put in the closet where it lay to be uncovered at the opportune moment.

As a new entrant to our CSE Department I got an opportunity to showcase my talent at the Cyber Showcase, a software presentation for the I yr students along with my friend Ramji. I was eager to make a mark there and we decided to present two softwares, a Quiz using Jscript and an Analog Clock using C. During the exhibition of our softwares a couple of my seniors asked “why u didn’t use any Database to retrieve the questions and why no dynamic pages?” We lost the competition. I pondered a lot over this question and thought of learning a Server Side programming language. My brother and I tried a lot to configure Apache Tomcat in our system but in vain. So my dream went into shambles.

It was then my brother happened to borrow the ASP.NET Webmatrix Mechanical Toolkit book from his library. I installed the .NET FMK and Webmatrix as told in the Book and was all too excited to develop my very first Dynamic web page.Success! 8-) I started working on the exercises given in the book chapter by chapter and I never knew developing interactive web apps would be that simple. I didn’t have SQL Server at that time, so I had to download the MSDE (63MB) from my system through a Dial-up connection which lasted over 6 hours. It gave me anxious moments until I could install and configure it for my Webmatrix.

In the next semester we had the same Cyber Showcase, this time round I had developed Quiz using ASP.NET and MSDE along with Ramji and we bagged the First Prize. Right from that moment I developed a passion for .NET Technology and believe it or not we bagged the First Place in the South Zone of Microsoft-India Student Project Program 2004-2005(Expo’05,Chennai). A remarkable achievement is it. My ardor for .NET will persist.

2006-01-27T15:00:00.000+06:00

A lesson learnt

It was the last day of the qualifying round of Code4Bill. It was 10.30 pm and just one and half hours to go for the showdown. The question set consisted of 8 questions and I was confident about only two ;-) and 4 were doubtful. But I thought I wud give it a try. With just two minutes to go for 12.00pm instead of clicking the Submit button I accidentally the Backspace (<-) key :-(. By the next time I could resubmit it I got the message Timed-Out. I could do no more. Hoping that I wud get another opportunity next year.

2006-01-12T18:23:00.000+06:00

Phew...

Phew the community launch is over. MaduraiDotNet has achieved yet another milestone. It was my first experience onstage ,addressing a large gathering of over 300+. After the intro session on .NET was over I was nostaligic, looking down the path through which I came, from my first seminar in college Microprocessor... :-). "Experience is the best teacher",how true it is . The Communty Launch is just the beginning of what's going to come next. Its a whole new xperience for me, the last minute scare ;-), the decorated salads..... Its just like a dream too real to believe but its true. The dream continues......

2005-12-24T22:38:00.000+06:00

On a Christmas Eve

On christmas eve I could somehow find time to modify my website and host it once again .I got some valuable feedback from my friends and have tried to implement it. One major cause of worry is that I have some banners tied to my page which takes quite some time to load. Hope it looks much better this time round.

2005-12-21T16:08:00.000+06:00

New Features in ASP.NET 2.0

Cross Page Posting - ASP.NET 2.0 allows you to post back from one page to another and you can obtain the source page values from the target page.
Wizard Control - The wizard control allows you to easily add multi-step form entry scenarios to your pages.
Validation Groups - Validation groups allow multiple forms on a page to be separately validated.
Focus API - The Focus API enables you to set focus to any control on the page, specify default buttons to submit for input controls, and more.
Compilation Build Providers - ASP.NET 2.0 includes support for compiling declarative file formats when they are placed in the App_Code directory.
No Compile Pages - Pages in ASP.NET 2.0 can be excluded from the compilation process, to be interpreted at runtime instead.
Securing Non-ASP.NET content - Under IIS 6, you can easily secure non-ASP.NET files such as static images or classic ASP pages from within an ASP.NET application.
Client-Script Features - ASP.NET 2.0 includes several new features that take advantage of client-side script.

For more on this visit New Features in ASP.NET 2.0

2005-12-19T18:51:00.000+06:00

My fears Shift+Del -ed

On the day when the results were out I was a bit hysterical coz it was the first time internal setting and valuation of papers were implemented and moreover I didn't want my score to fall below my overall score. In the end my fears became a history and it turned out well :-).

2005-12-15T07:44:00.000+06:00

Bill Gates right infront of my eyes!!!

14 km of wiring, 800 tons of steel and 10000 tons of air conditioning then suddenly there was a flash of light. Out came the persona inspired, Bill Gates. People who had gathered there from both the IT & student community gave a standing ovation to the man who redefined the PC. Bill spoke about the upheaval that’s taking place after the advent of XML Web Services and .NET. As for me, never in my wildest dreams I thought I would see him in person and sometimes it still seems a fantasy to me. Folks from all over the country were watching it LIVE on their PCs and the official figures crossed over 35000. Then demos on VS.NET 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 were shown.
Then once again Bill made a comeback onto the stage, this time around for a tête-à-tête with Sheila Gulati, Microsoft India Director. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

Sheila: What’s your favourite food in India Idly or Dosa?
Bill:”Upma”

Sheila: When was the last time you wrote a complete program?
Bill: The last program written by me for a product was in 1983 and on the chipset it was in the early ‘90s.

Sheila: What would have you become if you hadn’t become a software programmer?
Bill: I am interested in things that are constantly changing, so I would have become a biologist (I am not sure about this answer)

Sheila: Had you ever thought what you were going to do with all this money?
Bill: I was pretty amazed at what I am going to do with this money…..but there are a set of diseases that affect the developing countries like Malaria, TB and eradication of these would bridge the gap between rich and poor countries.

Sheila: What do you think about cricket?
Bill: Cricket certainly thrilled me as the Indian cricket team is using its MediaCenter PC to analyse the other teams. (Bill even signed a bat for them)

Sheila: What is your advice for future entrepreneurs?
Bill: Very simple. Pick up something which you enjoy doing and be constantly updated with new happenings in technology as price alone will not be a differentiator and ultimately quality matters.

Sheila: What have you got for the Indian developers?
Bill: They are very talented and Microsoft has launched a nation-wide talent competition to identify the best student technologists in India pursuing various technical streams. The best participant will get an opportunity to work directly with the Bill Gates Technical Assistants Team for a year at Redmond. (For more on this visit: www.code4bill.com)
There were a lot of goodies given to the attendants including trial edition of the three softwares and hip-pouches. Finally, at the end of the day, whether it was really worth it? Yes. I was able to meet and interact with top-notch professionals from Microsoft.

2005-11-26T14:41:00.000+06:00

Hello,World

It was on this day that I started to blog. Amidst the tight exam schedule and the nearing Community Launch I could somehow find time to do this.