SnadBoy Rantz

To prove myself wrong

2008-08-08T12:00:00.005+05:30

My immediate reactions and responses are pretty much the ones that never usually touches the brain..

Infact i feel most of my answers to questions can be improved given more time. But if i were given more time, i would never get the "perfect" answer out. I guess this is what people called regret.

Only once i have a stupid reaction or a response, i would go ahead and think well yeah, it could have been better. And to add insult to injury, i can come up with a better reaction that would have been better for me.

If I expand on this, i find that its true with everything i do. I write a piece of code or do something, after a while, I find that the entire stuff could be done better, in a better way..

It goes on as a fight against myself to improve myself. But its an infinite loop. So i don't do it often.

For example, I have a very narrow minded game of generalizing information, and i end up generalizing, a particular set in a very conclusive manner with some abstract weird but logical manner. It doesn't take long for me to break my on logic and improve upon it to get an almost inarguable generalization of the facts.

[I do love to make my friends convince that they are wrong in what the do]

Thinking of this.. It kind of makes me feel, to write another generalization

The time taken to realize one's action was stupid, decreases as one matures.
One can claim true intellectual maturity, if one can realize the stupidity of the action one is about to perform.

This is another one of my abstract posts, thanks for listening.
Read: http://snazzed.blogspot.com/2006/07/destined-anomaly.html

Kinematic or Kinetic Typography

2008-07-27T21:14:00.005+05:30

One of my newest obsessions

Wikipedia:Kinetic typography, is the technical name for "moving text," is a study of Communication Design in animation work involving text. The first part of the name 'kinematic' derives from the word kinetics (i.e. the motion of objects) and the second part of the name is the art of typography. This text is presented over time in some sort of way which can imply or evoke certain emotion. Some commonly seen examples include movie titles and credits, end tags, on web pages and other entertainment media.

A few examples
1.Pulp Fiction

2.The Matrix

And the link from where i ripped it off (shamelessly)
http://www.marcofolio.net/video/15_stunning_motion_typography_videos.html

Code Names, Project Names & Just Names

2008-07-26T23:45:00.000+05:30

No one usually questions me or even provokes a single thought in my mind on the stuff i name. Its weird to say it, buts its really true.

But recently(11 months back) Somebody realllly senior and authoritative question on my naming styles, and that provoked a spark in what i name.

I generally do ask around a whole bunch of people for some suggestions and end up with nothing., and i take the creative liberty to name all of my projects as well as the ones teams are present.[Disclaimer : Not Related to Work]

Like for instance, my initial naming style was so skewed, i named stuff Cr3ati, that's"Creative" when the 'ive' is dropped and 'e' is reversed for a '3'; and pronounced as "Crati", as similar to a "Crate", with a tagline "Creative Boredom"

Please note my wierd obsession of using a single quote for characters and double quotes for Strings. How Lame.

Anyways that's the old story. Moving on to more recent namings.

Lazylabz.net

Why: I'm lazy and i work ?
What: College Major Project + other project(s) home page in future
Where: Online
When: Since Jan 2007
How: I really dont know, it happened

Project WildMeadow

Why: I wanted to do whatever i wanted to do
What: Flex based project, thats kinda very responsible for what i'm doing now, probably my future too
Where: Done at home, took about 3 months intially, improved it with another month of work
When: Idea was as old as from 2005, but never had a tool to work it out with, but actual work started on it late November.

Oh other honourable mentions would be

Project Capital Indigo
Project TrackMe

I guess the naming style is inherited from my father, who infact has pretty "wierd" name according to others. The fact is, I've heard of 30 different pronounciations and spelling combination for his company.

Once upon a time i had even used the correct spelling as a password !

But guess what, its so unique, people have been starting to mimic names like that. So i guess mimicing is the best form of flattery

Promises

2008-07-25T22:34:00.000+05:30

I promised more posts
I promised new art (or atleast copy pasted old ones temporaryly )
I promised many things.

I promised myself to do or to improve some things or some activities, but no, i don't tend to keep promises.

Before i used to be a boolean guy with a yes or a no, at least towards others. May be its maturity or may be you can call it plain darn lazy, or something else.

But recently i find myself answering questions with the vaguest possible reply that wouldn't invoke the next question and would like to keep conversations short.

Boredom, another phase, or a brick on the wall?

And yeah
its been 11 months, i've been planning on my tech blog. Where is it... yeah i got it hosted long time back.. but no posts... sheesh thats gotto bring down value; Self esteem atleast !

Ah who cares !

Change!

2008-02-10T19:29:00.000+05:30

These days I seem to be complaining and viewing things with a very critical eye. Is it age? Well I just don’t feel like appreciating things like I used to do before. Have I lately developed a superiority complex?

Or there are simply more things to complain about in the world than to appreciate?

I wanted to post about how the blogger interface is not inspirational enough to make me come back and write every day. And I find Microsoft office more inspiring to write blogs. It’s just that I don’t care; it’s that I don’t give a damn to anything anymore.

Few probable reasons.

In internet junkie who’s no longer on the net because of the superior quality of service available in Bangalore?
Away from home?
Not much friends around here?
or is it because im getting screwed over one thing or the other by a whole bunch of freaks.
or am i trying to adjust to the new place.

whatever it may be ;

Since I came to Bangalore, life has been moving towards the type of a typical IT guy in the city. Work hard and play hard.

Where as my previous motto was only one word. ‘Passion’

Well in any case, last night was the wake up call. I’m going to change back to my old ways. My passion leads me to my destiny; instead of bothering what others think and do; Instead of complaining to appreciate the little things.

I have to have a renewed interest in me, and what I am ment to do.

Other than that I’ve been putting off a whole list of small tasks that I wanted to do but never got around to doing that..

Like for instance, linking up 2 of my friends to my blog.

Ah what the hell do you care for. 15 comments. After one year of keeping the blog alive..

And most of them were actually about a video about a strike at college. Other than that I guess nobody cares J

And most of my visitors are here to actually find out how to rip of photos from orkut. Alteast that’s what my highest viewed post is all about..

Adios, toast to change ( ∆ )

Another thing i noticed !

2008-02-08T19:58:00.000+05:30

As days go by, i have lesser and lesser ideas, designs. I am trying to bring back those days where i designed for fun.

like the one below.. the creature in the center is called the cr3ati thing :)

The next time i go home i should get all of my designs and put it up at lazylabz.net/snaddesigns or something.

That ought to inspire me

Atlast even Gmail requires an AD to draw customers

2008-02-01T18:28:00.000+05:30

Nokia Explains why its N series is freakishly slow

2007-12-29T13:00:00.000+05:30

This is copy of the mail i received from Nokia, the plausible reasons why its new N series phones are slow. I dont know how many people out there are facing this issue, and Nokia seems very reluctant to take care. This in reference to Nokia N7* series that includes (N 70,71,72... etc). Anyways my phone is N72, two months old, and slower than a koala bear.

What do you say guys, do add in your comments and discussion about performance vs loads of features?

Dear Mr. George,

Thank you for e-mailing Nokia Care.

This e-mail is in reference to your enquiry regarding the features of Nokia N72. We regret the inconvenience caused. Nokia phone is unique and have different features and technical specifications which cater to the needs of several mobile users. All the mobile phones do not support all the features.

Kindly be assured that Nokia manufactures mobile phones and accessories with focus on optimal performance, reliability and user friendliness. It is always our sincere and diligent effort to recommend our customers to take the requisite care in the usage and maintenance of your Nokia product to ensure the desired performance as that of an electronic product. Mobile phone being a high usage product, a high degree of wear and tear is associated with the usage. However, it is unfortunate to hear of the concern you are facing with your mobile phone.

Further, you may kindly note that having several application open at the same time may slow down the performance of the phone and may cause the phone to temporarily undergo a User Interface concern.

We suggest you to close the applications running in the back ground that may occupy large memory space while using other features in the phone. In order to close the applications running in the back ground, please follow the below steps:

1. Long press the menu key
2. Select the application
3. Options > Close.

If the concern persists, please visit a Nokia Care Centre. Our technicians will assess your phone and assist you in the best possible manner.

Before submitting your phone at the Care Centre, you may kindly take a backup of the phone contacts data to the SIM card. If the phone supports memory card, take a back up of contacts, messages, images, clips etc. on to the memory card or on to the PC. Back up can be taken, provided the phone is in “Power ON” condition. The technicians at the Nokia Care Centre and Nokia India would not be responsible for the loss of data during the repair process.

We request you to take along the proof of purchase/receipt of your phone when visiting the Nokia Care Centre.

For location of an Nokia Care Centre nearest to you, kindly access the following web link:

http://www.nokia.co.in/A4536241

We seek your patience and further solicit your cooperation.

For further enquiries, please feel free to contact our Technical Support Executives at 30303838 between the hours of 9:00am and 9:00pm, seven days a week. For online support, visit "Have a question? Ask Nokia" at www.nokia.co.in. You may also find answers to your queries at www.nokia.co.in/support. We reassure you of our continuous support.
Please help us improve our services by clicking on the following link:

www.nokia.co.in/caresurveys

Kind regards,

Shamshad Begam
Nokia Care

and thats how the cookie crumbles, to end up with a really slow phone you cant do anything about... comments please?

Highly Trained Monkeys at YouTube

2007-12-28T19:53:00.000+05:30

One monkey to save them, One monkey to rule them all. The youtube 500 internal server error page.

A tribute to my stolen phone.

2007-10-22T11:08:00.000+05:30

(1^st September 2005 – 21^st October 2007)

My phone was stolen at the age of 2 years and 21 days. In its life with me it had been under 3 numbers, (2 Kerala, and 1 Karnataka).

It was ruthlessly taken away from me at one of the biggest mart in Bangalore, SPAR.

Along with it, my 350 odd phone numbers, Key Combinations (although it takes time to find out which one is for what (encrypted in my own way)), pictures of loved ones, my addresses, my employee ID, a few of my bank details L.

IMEI :356233000862190
Make : Nokia
Model : 6021 (Bluetooth and IR)

May my “snadboy’s 6021” rest in peace, sorry to have you put down.

Do comment on Theft of phone, your stories, your Triumphs, your anger? Anything you feel like.

More details to follow.....

An amazing technology to solve all your aspect ratio problems.

2007-08-30T21:48:00.000+05:30

This promising technology answers ALL the questions that you worriers of aspect ratio, movie details and what not trying to bring nonstandard to standards and vice versa..

One of the creators of this wonderful technology is now working for Adobe from Massachusetts.

Who isn’t annoyed you bought a over 1000$ TV it shows really boring black bars on sides or on top or bottom… If you zoom you loose data.. Well this technology promises a whole deal more to your problems.

I am an avid technology reader, but it’s very few instances like this one, when technology simply blew my mind away.

This movie has been watched over 178753 times already in just 10 days. That just creates an average of about 18 K views per day. If that doesn’t impress you on the technology; watch the video. Its self explanatory and out of this world simple.

The application of this technology is not limited to just images, but also for the whole big deal that movie watchers, TV makers are trying to solve.

The problem of aspect ratio. This method can ideally solve any of these problems and cut out that ugly black bars on the top/bottom or on the sides depending on your TV or anything else. It’s kind of amazing what a simple energy function can do; when applied in the right way.

Oh yeah. SE phones have a big trouble when coming to the aspect ratios of the wallpapers, its kinda cranky on those, and gets you really weird images. Well this is the best solution I can see for a whole deal of programs.

Just have a look at these images, none look falsified or anything. But it truly looks really original.. How about that. people.

This image resizing and manipulation demonstration is sort of jaw dropping, particularly as the video goes on. The related paper, written by Dr. Ariel Shamir and Dr. Shai Avidan is available here.

WildMeadow bags Adobe Developer Olympiad

2007-06-28T20:08:00.000+05:30

Adobe Developer Olympiad winners announced

Ever wanted to make a web experience better than what it is today?

Adobe Systems conducted a nationwide developer contest to beat out the best of web development skills from among various students pursuing degree in any stream as a full time student of a recognized university in India. By this, Adobe threw a chance to build next generation rich internet applications which will redefine the way the world interacts with the internet. The competitors went through three stages of the development process wherein their projects were strictly and elaborately reviewed by the senior Adobe developers from various parts of the world.

The project codenamed "WildMeadow" was declared winners in Adobe Developer Olympiad. WildMeadow received special accolades from Adobe Jury in "Innovative UI and Experience models" and "Mash Up Applications" category. The project is undoubtedly an attempt to build interactive hybrid environment for web service integration which in turn acts as a platform for highly responsive internet applications. The core innovation in the project is the convergence of applications, service integrations and high end organisation which as a combined force could not only improve the user exposure to the web applications, but make it a new culture to be able to live an elegant computing experience inside the web world. The official hosting for wildmeadow is at www.lazylabz.net

Also visit hosting site (www.lazylabz.net) for source code, documentation, credits and other finer details regarding the project.

Original Posting

Which Programing Language you are?

2007-06-03T01:37:00.000+05:30

Which Programming Language are You?

Find out today!

Crazy Apple

2007-06-02T22:48:00.001+05:30

This is a cool video of apple, launched just near the all things d conference. the D5.

Google has kept its promise

2007-05-08T22:43:00.000+05:30

UPDATE ON GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Google's duo, asked their engineers to concetrate on features rather than number of applications. and thats how the stuff are progressing....
this is the new and improved interface for the google analytics
the tool that the webmasters use.

[Note: CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO GET A LARGER VERSION]

The main page of visits

The map overlay shows visit density based on continent.

Map Overlay Based on Country LEVEL.

Top Content Analysis

The most popular Browsers

By closely analyzing the site, i believe this new improvement is based on the new flex standards from adobe. the same improvements that they made in Google finance and Google trends; applies to Google analytics.

Anyways one can have the level of abstraction that was not present in the old interface. One could change the view of the map detail from city level, to country to subcontinent and finally continent level.

The new interface looks similar to that offered by finance softwares with important numbers in big.. Its good, and takes a little time to getting used to. For those users who use the old interface on hour to hour basis

For the current scenario. We have an access to the old version of the interface as well as the new one..

Like they did with the reader, they are improving it stage wise. Although Here again, a search functionality {THE BASE OF GOOGLE} is still missing like google reader.

By far the beta version of the new and improved version of goggle analytics seem stable.. Except of course a Firefox crash. Reason UNKNOWN..

Suggested method for using google analytics, A VERY LARGE SCREEN , my 15" TFT is not giving me enough space to move around and feel the interface.. Its now getting to look like the akamai visualizations you see on their videos.

Furthur suggestions, a perhaps a plugin KML for google Earth to locate the users, and perhaps something like that you guys have whipped up for the google visualizer. The one with the fires. It would be extremely kool.

Signing off
Sandy

When the search company forgot to search!

2007-05-05T20:19:00.000+05:30

I have a ogling for google, I find it really hard to disagree with such a fantastic company. Sometimes I used to feel that google has too much of search. They search from webpages to mails, from products to friends. And the list is growing.

If I were to rhyme, it would be

Old Google had a search.
With a search right here
And a search right there
Here a search, there a search
Everywhere a search - search
Old Google had a search.
Ee i ee i o

But one of their famed product where I wish there could be a search. THEY DON’T HAVE IT.

That’s the google Reader http://reader.google.com why don’t they have a search there. What has happened. They’ve forgotten if their main aim is to search? Or they getting forgetful as they age. The reasons are unknown. But for the fact is true THERE IS NO SEARCH.

Is google loosing focus? In this big game of spending over 6-7 billion USD on acquisition are they getting a blurry vision?

Its upto you to decide.

They intend to send emails of RSS rather than search within them. SHow trends of whatever your reading methods. Features are good. BACK TO BASICS people lesson 101 Stick to your roots and your values.

Ofcourse One could defintily argue that its not even graduated out of labs, but I see a lot of products well in the early stages of labs, but they do have search. Remember this is the NEW AND RELOADED reader. So what do you say guys? gals?

How orkut's Image Security Works & How to get over IT....

2007-04-08T12:48:00.000+05:30

It's been a while since i blogged about something or the other... But this stuff is worth a blog entry... so here it is...

Orkut
One of the most prominent and requested feature in orkut, the social network network of google.. is that the SYSTEM MUST not allow users to copy images, of other users!
Googlers,came up with a brilliant yet simple solution for this problem… To keep an image [transparent] over the actual image. So for 90% of the webusers. When they try to right click and save image. All they get is a transparent GIF image. Instead of the underlying image. As browsers of the day render in layers but clickable on one.

To get over the SYSTEM

You could do a print screen and photoshop it to get it. But what the heck. We all want the original right? This is the way to get that.

Even though its totally antisocial of me to blog on how to overcome the system. Its pretty simple.

1.Go to the desired Profile.

2. In firefox goto View > Page Source or press CTRL+U , or your browser equalent.

3.In the source window search for, “orkut.com/images/medium”

4.Copy That Entire Link into the browser’s address bar. And press go , Voila ,There you Have it a fully savable picture of the profile.

Naming Schema
Orkut uses a naming schema where the image is stored in a folder, named by the last 3 digits of the filename.

That’s all folks.
Sandy

Strike at College

2007-01-20T14:55:00.000+05:30

So people take a look at this video and do comment on it!
Comments appreciated.

How to make a successful freeware (Listen up Microsoft)

2006-12-15T19:49:00.000+05:30

How to make a successful freeware that gets you rich.

A case study of the ubuntu model;

Disclaimer: This text contains certain views as perceived by the author. Predictions and other details may be found from other’s point of view as wrong absurd. Or not entirely my idea; or in otherwords a collection of ideas.

The beginning. The circle of life

Mr Shuttleworth had a dream. Sure he was a crazy millionaire who had his way to space on occasions, but a really brilliantly crazy.

He never did believe in anything but himself, free software or you pay for it. Whatever used to be his idea? That’s the kind of idea that leads to the ubuntu. He takes best of both worlds [a recent take on the nvidia and ati drivers for linux with ubuntu]. And the best from the free world. Debian period. Combines them to make a one of a kind that used to be pioneered by the mandrake, the drake people. [now mandriva; has totally lost its touch]. He poured in millions into setting up Canonical Inc which had the dual edge knife, one of developing and integrating the best of free and the non free world. And other to give out free CD’s to the entire world populace with a PC.

With the distribution method of sending out free CD’s, few of them tried hoarding them as personal copies. But how much can you hoard. Then finally one starts to give it away to the ubuntu-less.

About footing the ubuntu bill

Development : 1 million USD
CD dispatches : a high estimate of 100 Million CD’s @ 0.09$ per peice [incl shipping] => 9 Million

This way he spend a total of 10 Million USD, in various versions and installments. I bet he would have done it much cheaper than the 9 million tag definitely . He could have outsourced this task to china or india or some other country for a much cheaper rate.

Anyways he spend 10 million USD, shipped out 100 Million copies with an average of 10 cents per disc you wonderfully rejoice.

What he got

A modest 10% turn out of conversation to ubuntu? Lets estimate 10 Million ubuntu users either from another distro or from EVEN windows. That’s about half the estimate of linux users worldwide. [counter.li.org]
Shuttleworth made a brand that clicks with the population. Even though untold people believe they too follow the Google motto of don’t be evil!
A command over what other developers in the community should do and shouldn’t do [the SuSe issue]
A place in the OS history Textbooks. Even economics and some others as well.

What he can do

Create enterprise versions of ubuntu, which of course would be preferred by the 10 million ubuntu converts!
Either enter into a model like redhat or SLED
Create a subscription based model like Symantec
Or be an outright authority like Microsoft.
Whatever he does could be and will be done at his additional expense and keeping his 10 million happy and growing to even more numbers.

Lessons for Microsoft

They could make the basic version of vista free. Damn I’ve been preaching that home version of vista would be free for about an year now. But none of my friends seem to listen.

But I sure hope it would be, at least if not in the first season it bound to be. Because it’s like trying to sell cakes with icing to a guy with a full stomach of plain old turkey and bread. It’s pointless. Unless you give it free. He’s not going to buy.

Microsoft’s got more than enough money from other sources. Its not that Microsoft survives on the poor end user like me or anyone like home user for their existence. It simply is too trivial for them. So why not make it free. As in free beer. Not as in free as in freedom.

Anyways Microsoft you know your numbers, why bother the consumers at lower levels with your mambo jumbo about money and such. You collect money from those who have money. Be more of like Robin Hood. Be more of a hero to us than be a dictator of sorts.

Tell me what do You think about my article.

Regards

Sandy

Really Old Articles

2006-11-28T21:34:00.000+05:30

Hey i just found a bunch of articles that i used to host on my 2 million bytes of hosting space provided my sancharnet (my old isp).

The articles are at least clearly 2 years old.

Here they are
An Introspection into the Message Digest 5 Algorithm [Sadly DOC]
Uploaded on :15-Sep-04
Article on MD5 algorithm which got me a lot of prizes in and around my state. Oh yeah this stuff made me a quite popular geek in my college.

Monetary Policy??? [DOC again!]
Uploaded on : 03-Jan-04
Sort of like terminologies and other related information to the monetary policy.Got Absolutely No idea why i wrote this stuff. Not that well written too.

International Monetary Fund [RTF]
Uploaded On : 25-Feb-04
Yeah this one is well written with reference and so on. But clearly its not a final version of things. I guess its got comments and all written by me. Oh Where in the world shall i find the final version. Yeah But who cares its just comments to check the spellings and so on.

Aspect Oriented Programming [PDF]
Uploaded on :29-Dec-04
A not so popular paper from me. But its sort of average i should say. Not that great. But the explanation sort of stuff i did on stage for this were out of the world. But this one little paper got accepted at IIT-Delhi; For reasons beyond my comprehension.

After the AOP paper, i was like made the supergeek of the college.

Its like when sitcoms do a patch up job instead of a new show, i do a patch up article writing. But i most of them are worth reading.

Reasons Beyond : Who i Am !

2006-11-27T11:27:00.000+05:30

Have i ever told you why i am doing what I'm doing right now? The reason why i am into computers.

I always am into thinking a lot, a lot about me, a lot about my future, near and far. I've always wondered what would be life when i am 60.I want to be appreciated for what i do. Nasty of me but that's what i need.

Its a crazy and weird thought, i always want to do something, something that was worth, no, something well appreciated. My first break was when i saw cartoons of Disney (In fact i still watch cartoons, some may find it strange, but anyways i do), in which it said that these cartoons are the work of animators from Disney a whole 60 years ago. That made me think about these people. The animators. Who would be retired, probably sitting on their rocking chair or doing something around the house.His kid's trying to make a living in some company or the other. Busy with the youth of life.

On a typical lazy Sunday. When his kid's are working in the garden, or making food. The grandchildren all sitting in front of the TV watching a cartoon that you help made possible. When some kid pipes up to the other one you know grandpa made that cartoon. What can i say about that. That's the best kind of job satisfaction anyone can get.its probably the proudest moment one could have.

Truly that's the best, better than the money you make, or anything you do.that's the best kinda impression you get back .. that i should say is the best job satisfaction you'll ever get Think about it.

And i decided to be that grandpa,

I tried with all my effort to be an animator. But god's fate for me was against me. I tried to draw a crow, but it looked like a crowbar. Lack of imagination combined with arms that wont move to make a smooth curve are not designed by god to make an animator.

I thought thought and seeked advice and soon many said that computers are the next biggest in animation, so you can do help animators make systems that's faster and better.

Damn the next morning i wake up , i see myself going for engineering in Computer science. However much its not my cup of coffee. As you may remember before computers have never used to be my favorite subject, but economics.

The thought about the grandfather,made all the difference.

what do you think about this

Typical answers

1. You have found enough reasons, to declare me crazy
2. You think dat i think 2 much & i shud get a lyf instead of writing this
3. You want to be an animator?
4. Get lost.

Definitely I'd like your response to this wonderful thought of mine, even if they are the ones listed above , or others like comments or something!

forever,

My Monkey

2006-11-26T11:13:00.000+05:30

Flickr Image

Warning
You may conclude that i am

* Crazy
* Weird
* Cukoo
* Foolish
* _____________ [Something else!]

History
Made in some country , bought in UK , brought to India. Over 18 or 19 years old !
The only doll that survived after my recklessness.

Its name is "Monkey".. ! kinda lame to have a doll after 20 years on this earth. but i love my monkey!

Present
I don't Converse with my monkey anymore , since 10 years now !

Jokes
My sister asks my monkey, who's the monkey you are with ! + lots more!

Destruction
It was designed to be a hanging toy! but not anymore , seems that i never liked the string on its head. I managed to pull it off keeping its head in a single piece

Future
I am going to keep it. Whatever it takes to keep it.
Currently its been to the washing machine at least ten times to keep it clean. I think its getting too old for that kind of handling. So thinking of alternative to maintain it.

so what do you think of this?

Take Care
Peace!

Sandy Boy [1% of people call me this way]
a.k.a
SnadBoy[i call myself this way]
a.k.a
Sandy[24% of people call me this way]
a.k.a
Big Guy[10% of people call me this way @ School]
a.k.a
Sandeep[60% of people call me this way]
a.k.a
Zach[5% of people call me this way @ School]
a.k.a
Sandeep Zechariah George K [0% of people call me this way]

Google + Females

2006-11-21T12:24:00.001+05:30

I've represented Google at many events for women in engineering, and I'm always asked the same thing: "What's it like to work there?" I certainly don't mind discussing the subject, but I often think it would be great if more people could see it for themselves. Well, now you can. We invite you to take a sneak peek inside Google and hear straight from some of our female engineers what life here is really like.

Of course, our goal of recruiting as many gifted female engineers as we can also means encouraging young women who are still in school. So I'd like to issue a hearty congrats to the winners of this year's Anita Borg scholarships.

- Jen Fitzpatrick, Engineering Director, Google

Project TrackMe !

2006-07-23T06:03:00.000+05:30

Intro

Ah Life seems to simple , yet too complex. Trackme is just a simple project.It does what it says.It’s gonna track me wherever i am and most of all let you know where i am.

How it works

Well well, all of us have mobile phones right? Have you seen that little area on the phone where it says either u are in Worli,Mumbai or Kadavanthra,Cochin. Yeah Thats the whole deal what i’m intending to do. I will write a little java application for my nokia phone, which will then send out this detail of Kadavanthra or Worli to this website and store all those details in a database and the date & time the server recieved that message.

It would then sort out which one would be the ideal one to show you, if there is any change in the location. It will do so around 96 to 100 times a day an average of one every fifteen minutes.

Why

To put it simple, its just another one of my wacky ideas, i’d like to do when i’m not lazy. And when i feel like working on it. Hmm and you could always check on me if i am a lying or track my way for an appointment with you?

Current Status

Idea’s good. advisers say its doable. It’s way easy and practical. Ah that’s about the current status. Been too lazy to download the java Dev kit for mobiles specially my nokia darling.

Nah I'm too lazy to do this !

Merging the Obvious

2006-07-19T17:59:00.000+05:30

Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG announced that, they will combine their mobile-network operations to create a joint venture with annual revenue of about $20 billion, a move that will help them compete with market leader Ericsson AB.

The 50-50 joint venture, to be called Nokia Siemens Networks, will be comprised of Nokia’s network business group and Siemens’ carrier-related operations, creating estimated synergies of 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by 2010, Nokia says..

The deal is the latest in a wave of consolidation that began last October when Stockholm-based Ericsson agreed to buy Marconi Corp.’s broadband Internet and telecommunications assets for 1.2 billion pounds. In April, Paris-based Alcatel launched a $13.4 billion stock swap to acquire Lucent Technologies Inc.

Wow , now lets see what does this mean for us? cheaper mobiles? or a war with ericsson? Anyways for customers and companies its a win win situation. But one should not forget the workers that will get fired as a direct result of this merger. Both the companies agreed that between 10 percent and 15 percent of staff positions, or about 9,000 jobs, would likely be cut over the next four years.

Spirited Free Fire !

2006-07-13T11:13:00.000+05:30

I can see you fly.
You are an angel with wings,
high above the ground!

Soars so high,
rules you defy,
Freeing your soul benign.

The world combines,
to see you shine,
So Divine.

~ Yours SandyBoy ~

The Marking Scheme?

2006-07-10T17:11:00.000+05:30

One of the first lessons that physics teaches us (well don’t worry that I’m going to talk about physics or anything boring, so read on) is that we have units of different kind. But what’s the use, we can’t measure distance between galaxies in nano-meters? Can we?

So here’s the deal of what I’m to blab all about. Like all major companies do, they device unique measures to prove that their product is better than anything you can find in this whole world. Be it your new flat screen TV, to the deo-spray you use.

Why has no one yet thought about the way they the old cronies evaluate our skills. With some concept called “marks”. Yeah innovative ideas like Grades, Percentile, Grade Point average, and plain old marks are there. But is it correct? Is this the best way to evaluate you?

Well in any case I don’t know much about you. But what I feel is that I can’t score anywhere you can call descent in these methods, because I’m a lazy kid. So Like all major companies I decided to push forward the idea, like kilometers/liter, why don’t we evaluate marks earned / hour studied?

The advantage lies with those people who do most of the learning the last minute. Critically the 11th hour. Well in some extreme cases 11th hour 59th minute and 58th second? Well those who do that will score terribly high in these scoring methods.

Ah lets consider the statistics, facts states that over 90% of the students fall in the category of those who study in the last minute. Lets not forget the 10% who scores well in the current schema, what will we give them?

Hmmm with reference to the current scenario in Delhi and other places in India, I guess we ought to allow for some reservation.

Think about the concept of studying for half an hour to get the essential 50%? Well that person has got a very high score in my marking scheme. The persons rate of studying is 100% per hour.

One should understand that these kinds of scores are not actually absolute scores. We can see people who study for 10 minutes and absorbs like a sponge all the information and get 40% marks, well in those cases their scores are well above 100%

Let’s leave how it’s done to the experts. But let us analyze why this type of scoring is more important.

1. It evaluates how good a candidate can absorb information
2. It Tells you how well the candidate can perform under extreme pressures
3. Leaves out all those people who stores entire math problems in their head.
4. It Evaluates individual’s potential. A potential that could be Microsoft’s Passion.
5. Ensures that this model teaches the student everything. From A to Z of the topics involved with Continual Evaluation.

The Drawbacks include, we have to formulate a method to involve teaching teachers to evaluate how much time has a candidate used for studying, a particular concept. The concept also has a break point when a candidate scores marks without studying for a single minute or second. Then his rate would be infinate. For this the ideal solution would be to create minimum study time say a reasonable half an hour to one! What do you say?

I’d like to hear your comments or this darnest issue that we students as a whole face?

MS Office Professional Plus 2007

2006-07-10T03:47:00.000+05:30

Installation

Installation was the simplest of all things. The first point of order you will notice is that the progress bar is not a liar unlike the previous version cheating on multiple runs. The welcome change is that you don’t have individual boxes for the product key. Just one long box for the entire thing.

As obvious the installation looks like simply like a page from the Mac’s Big book of GUI. Just a progress bar and the name of the product. On a large page with a simple background design.

Microsoft Word 2007

As obvious the interface has gone under a major facelift from anything I can relate to from the previous office products. The first thing that strikes me Is that the interface, I have seen it somewhere. Yep got it. It’s strikingly similar to the design in Microsoft’s Kids Software Interface with all the cool tools like Talk It and so on. That was a part of the Microsoft Plus Toolkit of the ever famous windows 98

Looks terribly blue. A major feature of the sliding bar for the zoom looks like a direct rip off from the Google’s Picasa Software. The Buttons are arranged logically. That is Clipboard, Font , Paragraph , Styles And Editing Sections.

Should say a terrible loss for those folks who are looking for the standard windows API that made it ever famous. Yeah I am talking about the File Edit Insert etc kind of menus. None of them exist anymore. Should say the main aim of windows was to give a common look and feel. Now I can safely say. Its time to relearn or reconsider.

Mouse over highlights has got a delay in fading. Looks like we are playing a light up keyboard. Anyways instead of menus this has got tabs. Tabs of stuff that we would like do. The plug-ins has got a special section. So it’s way too easy to find them.

Whatever happened to times new roman. Font.. The new default font is called Calibri (body) , looks like a makeover of Tahoma and Verdana.

Many features have been added like digital signatures. More support for file versioning and so on. A most welcome change is that the direct support for PDF document creation. I still don’t see the ODF hyped stuff these people talk about. So I guess I’ll wrap up Word Here. And review the rest.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007

Interface looks exactly similar to that of the word. Sheesh I sure did wish that it would be having an orange color scheme was like word logo blue. PowerPoint logo orange. That way. The most welcome change that I can say about PowerPoint is the themes. They got fewer themes and some of them looks cool. But really it’s nowhere near the Apple KeyNote. Wow that thing can deliver a keynote by itself. The theme I liked best (Civic) is really simple and neat. Another feature of this is mouse over preview of themes or options. It’s a great feature for all those running a dual core Intel D or an AMD x2 , but what about us poor folks it sometimes tends to be a disadvantage on the longer run.

Animations tend to be better understood with this version of PowerPoint as they are described as wipe from above. Instead they give a nice little diagram about what could happen with all arrows. And so on. But to tell the truth the blue is slightly getting on my nerves. Although I am a blue color freak, is getting a bit too annoying.

Another nice feature I found about PowerPoint is the new one in which one can have the presentation view. That is you can see how exactly the show will go on. Lucky me I could test out this feature and how it runs because I had my new Sony HDTV hooked onto my PC.

One can save the PowerPoint presentation as pdf. List like those Linux freaks do, it’s really cool to do it in windows. Another rip off from KeyNote is that the charts and diagrams have got textures that was a stunning feature of the Apple Software, The implementation is Nice but not as cool as one in KeyNote.

Finally, to speak of a common feature is the mark as final, as I consider myself as one of the lazy retard folks who can’t keep tag of where the final version of the file is. The office provides a MARK as FINAL option. But again. This has to be extensively tested against marking so many different files as the final. I guess a simple time stamp of when it was saved would save me the trouble of opening it and checking everything. Like I do with the previous versions.

Microsoft Excel 2007

As obvious as it is this devil also denies you to float around with toolboxes. All are fixed and they are on top. Just as adamant as Henry Ford was on Ford comes in all colors that are black. But that seems intelligible thing to do because after a while of using the office suite you will have to reset the tool boxes to the default location as the suite tends to look more or less like your very own desk. Cluttered and messy. Mouse wheel can move you through the tabs or ex-‘toolboxes’.

The first thing I noticed about this ever popular accounting / spreadsheet application is that the new sheet is as simple as a click away. Before one had to go click insert new sheet or right click new sheet option. But there seems to be a tiny button to do that daunting task for you. Although rename takes double clicking, it’s a welcome change from clicking exactly on the text saying “sheet 1” as in the prior variants.

I always have this question as how different colors are shaded based on the values in the boxes. I did ask few of my teachers at college about and they were like “oh yeah it does that?” attitude. Ah that makes me understand that they work on a template that is designed my someone else to enter our marks. But this version simplifies that task by an option called Conditional Formatting. You can color grade your values. So I guess I can see top students mark go green, bottom guys go red, but I still remain yellow. However that can’t change I guess.

Another Awesome feature about this is the Format as table option. I always wanted to format stuff like the calendar colors that word offers. But this thing helps you to do that automatically. Loads of preset ‘cell styles’ are offered that helps you pep up your numbers. As always the great leader Microsoft Taught us, or at least is helping us Make Numbers Fun with Colors.

The graphs have got a major make over in color. Yeah its cool to look at graphs with various colors rather than the obvious red blue green yellow combination. But shades of colour.

Conclusion

This is just a simple review by an engineering grad student at the way he uses office. So its a review of the major tools that i use. So to simply put it: this is just another upgrade, no major makeover other than the GUI, and some features here and there. The Claims are high the stakes are high, But the frank point is that I have never been as impressed by this major software company since Windows 2000. I really got freaky happy at the release of the Windows 2000 on 17 February 2000.

All I can see around Office 2007 is major Hype. And Of course the controversy of the ODF formats. But as long as the Beta is free, I’ll keep it.

Adios Buddies - Do Comment - Took lots of pain to write em

Destined Anomaly

2006-07-02T12:17:00.000+05:30

Indeed… whatever you do… you can’t mess with destiny..!!!…
If u are bound to be good… you will be… or vice versa…

That’s what I’ve been telling sujith, a friend of mine… its an age old concept… but I’d still like claim it as mine… because I’ve put serious thought into it…
Whatever happens…. its because you are destined to make it happen or it to happen….
its basically says the entire happenings on the world is pre programmed…
but I add something to it… if you are bound(and destiny says so) to get it .. Or do it… you can get it or do it… with MINIMAL effort…

But if someone… who is not programmed or destined to be the one.. However hard… how much ever he tries… one MAY NOT is able to achieve it…

If someone does. That one is great… The one is an anomaly to the system… to the world…. they are mostly world leaders… or highly influential people…
or simply happier people..!!Simple examples of this includes… getting rich… From extremely poor situations…: e.g. Ambani… he was destined to make a change… so he could do with a minimal effort that would have taken anyone else… take extreme pains… than what Ambani had to achieve the same….

Others is sheer will.. To succeed… and stubbornness…. to get what one needs…. e.g.: Gandhi… mahatma…
I would love to quote my favorite leader in this category… Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi… but some restrictions do make people… dead in the effort to be an anomaly….

what do you say?
True to every extent..?
Or what crap am I talking about?
Or do I have to put up with this?

As far as I’m concerned… I want to be an anomaly… if possible… if……. that’s destined for me… I am happy to be an anomaly…

do think about the last statement… its pretty recursive…

Retiring an Era !

2006-06-19T22:55:00.000+05:30

Just found this email of just too great importance for you and i. Even if it doesn’t directly influences us.

From: MSBILLG

Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 1:41 PM
To: Microsoft and Subsidiaries: All FTE
Subject: My Transition Plans

I wanted to take a moment to share some of my thoughts, as well.

As Steve’s mail indicates, I’ve decided that two years from now, in July 2008, I want to devote more time to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Right now and for the next two years, my full-time job is here at Microsoft, and my part-time job remains the Foundation. Beginning in July 2008, I will switch that, to be full-time at the Foundation, while remaining involved with Microsoft as Chairman and an advisor on key development projects on a part-time basis.

To prepare for this change, we have a well-thought-out transition process. Again, I will continue at Microsoft full-time for the next two years, but over the course of those two years, my day-to-day responsibilities will shift to a team of incredible technical leaders who are already doing amazing things at the company.

I feel very lucky that we’ve got extraordinary technical leaders at the company, like Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie, who can step up to assume the roles that I’ve played. I’ve known Ray for the last 20 years, and he has created some of the most important developments in the industry. Craig and I have worked together for nearly 14 years, and he’s been a technical visionary and a leader on policy throughout his career. With Ray and Craig stepping up, I feel very confident that the technical stewardship of Microsoft is in very capable hands.
And I feel the same way about our business leadership. Our core businesses are strong and we have a clear vision for how we will meet new challenges and opportunities. We just had our first $12 billion quarter, and we continue to generate almost a billion dollars in profit every month. We are about to launch breakthrough versions of Windows, Office and Exchange, which are already generating a lot of excitement.

Six years ago, Steve and I made a major transition when he stepped up to be CEO. He’s done a fantastic job by every measure, whether it’s the people he’s brought in, the new ways he’s running the company, or just the objective results - like doubling our revenue in six years. Steve has driven us to make bold bets on things like Xbox, Real Time Communications, business applications, IPTV, and many others including the Live platform. Steve is the best CEO I could imagine for Microsoft - he is changing the company in ways it needs to be changed. He is bringing in new leadership at all levels. And, he is focused on the long-term - making Microsoft a great company not just today but for decades to come.

With Steve’s organization of the company into three divisions led by our incredible presidents - Jeff Raikes, Robbie Bach, and Kevin Johnson - we’ve laid a solid foundation for greater autonomy, agility and entrepreneurial spirit in our product groups. And with the great addition of Kevin Turner as our COO, our leadership team has never been stronger.

Our deep technical strength is one of the key reasons I believe Microsoft is well-positioned for great success in the years ahead. I’m very pleased that in addition to Ray, Craig, David and Rick, Steve has asked J Allard, Bob Muglia, and Steven Sinofsky to play an expanded role in shaping the company’s business and technology strategy. And when you consider all of our remarkable Technical Fellows, Distinguished Engineers, all of the brilliant researchers working at our MSR labs around the world, and all the technical people in the business groups, I can safely say that our technical talent has never been stronger or deeper.

Obviously, this has been a very hard decision for me. Microsoft will always be a huge part of my life, and I’m lucky to have two callings that are so important and so challenging.

On a personal note, I know that my work on global health and education issues at the Foundation would never have been possible without the enormous success of Microsoft, so I want to thank you and all of the employees past and present who have contributed so much to this company.

For these last 31 years, I’ve had the best job in the world. I’ve worked with some of the brightest and most passionate people in the world. Together, we’ve built a great company whose products have empowered people around the world.

We’re only at the beginning of what software can do, and I’m excited about the impact that Microsoft can have. I’m going to take an extended vacation this summer with my family, but I’ll be back in late August and I look forward to working with all of you for the next two years and beyond, to make those dreams a reality.

Thanks.

Bill

Funnylifian & I

2006-06-15T04:55:00.000+05:30

Yeah, Its been 3 days and 171 visitors, reasonable performance for a first time blogger, in fact 5^th time blogger. I rampantly search orkut for my old friends , friends whom I haven’t seen for a long long time..

I meet funnylifian, yeah I met around june of 2001, we’ve been reasonable friends if you could say that. But what I’d like to say about him is his few facts that makes him special.

I’ve been a thorough nerd during my school years, well no one can complain about that anymore. I remember those days when I used to sit in the last bench or the second last and listen to the drone of chemistry or physics on why hexane is made this way or why the sky is blue , why can’t it be red like the girl in the amity advert.

Money and I are like birds in a tree, they come they go. But funnylifian was sure of what he wanted, he used to save a lot of money, he used to always carry a big fat wad of 100’s or 500’s , always sure of what his future had for him. He used to study well. I don’t know about the present. Anyways I never used to study and I still don’t coz my exams are just 4 days away and I sit and write this. He used to have this sony’s tiniest walkman he used to bring to school and listen to music from it. He used to do pretty cool tricks and making it fall onto his shoes when teacher caught him.Sad I bought an ipod, its white wire shows up in whatever you’re wearing.

I remember those days when he taught me a subtle lesson in few things. I believe around October 2002 when we thought these days would never end. We used to make so much theory on thought.. machines and ideas. If you read his blog you’ll know about the a4 paper he keeps in his wallet. Well he used to do it in school as well. I remember when we used to write crazy theorems. Machines far efficient in mind than in practice.

The one thing that he did wrong to me was that he used to show around my work, whatever I’ve written to all others, I’m pretty protective of whatever I do. Atleast I consider it as personal. Unless of course it’s the next big thing since the internet kind of idea.

I used to believe in music , but not as much since Funnylifian taught me about Bryan Adams.(oh yeah he’s a big fan & so am I ) and Mettallica, I used to hate soft songs and hard metal. But he made me appreciate music as a person, an individual with a soul.

The second lesson he taught me is to be honest and own up whatever I’ve done. The lesson 2 was a very difficult one. The incident goes like this , another friend of mine provokes me to crack into his mail id for fun, yeah … yeah it’s fun when you are 17 nothing to worry about and above the law as a juvenile. Anyway I did it. The next thing I know is that funnylifian comes over to me and asks me why is it possible for someone to get into my id or something like that I guess someone have done that to me. I lied to coverup something nasty I did to him.

The truth surfaces, always it does. And it did. From his blog u can learn that he doesn’t like someone lying to him. That day onwards, we grew apart. Ideas became a mere piece of paper. Sitting there in the wallet, crumbling into the future.

So that’s the deal between funnylifian and I, I’d never forget him for what he’s taught me. For the whacky ideas we used to entertain.

Arbid Thoughts - Funnylifian

Coolest Answers

2006-06-14T12:21:00.000+05:30

Often I feel that I am less capable of handling situations as smart as my friends do. Here is a splendid example of such a situation where my friend’s brilliant answer rescued me from making a fool of myself!

On a cool Friday evening at 5pm, three of my collegemates, Sachin, Nimil, Sujith and myself were having chaat (a sweet and spicy North Indian Dish) at a Mobile-Shop on the roadside of the heavy traffic-town named Kadavanthra.At that time there was a large crowd surrounding the shop to feast on the chaat. We four guys had to stand by the footpath and eat our chaat. The chaat was fresh, crisp and tasty. And we really enjoyed it.

Finally Nimil decided to pay for all of us. And on opening his black leather wallet Sachin got a glimpse of Nimil’s passport size photograph. On seeing this, Sachin jumps with astonishment and asks Nimil sarcastically, “Hey why don’t companies accept you as an employee inspite of you being very handsome? If I were to start a company I would definitely employ you as one of my esteemed staff. “

Sachin then seeks Sujith’s as well as my opinion on what would we both do if we were to start a company.

I was really hesitant to answer such a question and started to mumble, “umm, I think I would accept Nimil, I don’t have any justification as to why other companies have denied him. If I were to accept him in my hypothetical company I still don’t have any reason whatsoever…”

Luckily I didn’t have to answer as the quick-witted Sujith came to my rescue, he boldly said,” you know what, if I were to start a company, I WILL NOT take him however qualified he is. Do you know why I won’t take him? ”

Its simple replies Sujith ,” I don’t want all the females going goo goo gaga over this guy once I employ him. It would directly hinder the company’s growth and effective performance. And as it’s my company I don’t want that to happen. “

Edited By Dominic Antony