MS sucks. No surprises there, but here are some findings on VC 6 v/s VC 7 (.Net whatever hell), not by choice!
VC6 against VC7 goes:
--Alt-EI against Alt-EFI
--Ctrl-F2 against Ctrl-KK
--F2 against Ctrl-KN
--Saves files while building, against asking you. VC7 asks if you really want to save while building. Mostly, VC7 screws up if you save while building, whether or not you're saving the file that’s being compiled!
I miss Linux...God, are you listening, please? A little more help won't do you harm!
Also, MS sucks consistently even if they make inconsistent products. Following are some examples:
--Ctrl-F for find everywhere, except Ctrl-F on Outlook forwards mails!!!
--cmd versus command to open command line prompt on various so-called OSs.
--How the hell do you launch applications from command line or Run window? Here's how: mspaint, versus winword, versus excel...
(If any MS fan does read this in coming days, feel free to bash me up. In my defense, in advance, I don't care to RTFM about MS if this is how they maintain compatibilities across their own products. Let this also be a warning to MS *standard* followers: WM, sweetheart Sony 's BluRay products..., whatever!)
Most absurd Diwali!
The shocking news of Kanchi Shankaracharya's arrest spoiled the Diwali completely!
This event marks the Indian politicians reaching the pinnacle of success in ruining the country. They've been irresponsible over the years, making money, taking the country to the dogs. Whatever good some of the still-alive ministers tried to do in favour of the people, were never re-elected by massive booth captures and the like. Its a country of Lalus, Jayas and Mir Zafars... very rightly has Shri Rajiv Dixit questioned: when one Mir Zafar gave India 500 years of slavery, how much misery does India need to go through with her being run entirely by Mir Zafars?!!!
Many a ministers have to their account a few crimes to say the least. Still, they're on the stage of the country, taking decisions for us. No one bothers to open their books for verification, leave alone arresting them, even after having ample proof to hang those anti-nationalists. But based on some investigation-pending statements made by peace-unfriendly goondas, our responsible police have gone ahead to arrest one of the topmost religious leaders in the country! That too with such hideously planned act: arresting at an odd hour, on an odd day, so that the Swami gets delayed help, if any. They didn't bother to ask the pontiff to co-operate till the investigation is over; instead they just put him behind bars! This is the same pontiff who helped negotiating the Ayodha issue when we all felt that the country's about to go through another mishap on the Ram mandir account. Nevertheless, none thought of the impact this is to have on the sentiments of Hindus, the so-called majority of a secular nation.
Such are the great people we've elected, stood by and are tolerating. These are one of those rare moments that I feel ashamed of being an Indian. How wrong was I when I felt good of Gurcharan Das' The Elephant Paradigm! Yes, we do have a long way to go; but, now I ponder, is the path right? The country sleeps on...
(Reminds me of a song: rAmachandra keh gaye siyA se *aisA* kaliyug AyegA!)
This event marks the Indian politicians reaching the pinnacle of success in ruining the country. They've been irresponsible over the years, making money, taking the country to the dogs. Whatever good some of the still-alive ministers tried to do in favour of the people, were never re-elected by massive booth captures and the like. Its a country of Lalus, Jayas and Mir Zafars... very rightly has Shri Rajiv Dixit questioned: when one Mir Zafar gave India 500 years of slavery, how much misery does India need to go through with her being run entirely by Mir Zafars?!!!
Many a ministers have to their account a few crimes to say the least. Still, they're on the stage of the country, taking decisions for us. No one bothers to open their books for verification, leave alone arresting them, even after having ample proof to hang those anti-nationalists. But based on some investigation-pending statements made by peace-unfriendly goondas, our responsible police have gone ahead to arrest one of the topmost religious leaders in the country! That too with such hideously planned act: arresting at an odd hour, on an odd day, so that the Swami gets delayed help, if any. They didn't bother to ask the pontiff to co-operate till the investigation is over; instead they just put him behind bars! This is the same pontiff who helped negotiating the Ayodha issue when we all felt that the country's about to go through another mishap on the Ram mandir account. Nevertheless, none thought of the impact this is to have on the sentiments of Hindus, the so-called majority of a secular nation.
Such are the great people we've elected, stood by and are tolerating. These are one of those rare moments that I feel ashamed of being an Indian. How wrong was I when I felt good of Gurcharan Das' The Elephant Paradigm! Yes, we do have a long way to go; but, now I ponder, is the path right? The country sleeps on...
(Reminds me of a song: rAmachandra keh gaye siyA se *aisA* kaliyug AyegA!)
Nostalgia
My food habits, camp Cambridge, seemed to tend towards starvation due to the exhaustive driving and samosa sandwich lunches. Moreover, currently, I'm on a restrictive diet, leaving me with less choices among almost nothing thats there to eat out here! The TV channels and the music aren't entertaining and they leave me with a good time on hands to think back of good songs, movies, etc that we have back home.
Once you get into thinking such things, you're bound to miss your family and friends, especially, when you're not travelling with people you've spent more time with. Slow it is... my life here. The good things back home: all of them, feel a long, long-- eternal-- time ahead. I keep on thinking of what I could, would, and should do in India. Why didn't I do all that? Its really strange: you don't seem to really value what you have, while craving for other things in life. That takes you farther, from where you should be, to almost a point of no return.
And, I read a blog entry and started feeling more miserable, missing mom, dad, brother, friends, er... life?
Once you get into thinking such things, you're bound to miss your family and friends, especially, when you're not travelling with people you've spent more time with. Slow it is... my life here. The good things back home: all of them, feel a long, long-- eternal-- time ahead. I keep on thinking of what I could, would, and should do in India. Why didn't I do all that? Its really strange: you don't seem to really value what you have, while craving for other things in life. That takes you farther, from where you should be, to almost a point of no return.
And, I read a blog entry and started feeling more miserable, missing mom, dad, brother, friends, er... life?
Irresponsible driving!
I used to consider myself a responsible driver, until yesterday. Thursday morning, when a colleague and I started off, I was to reverse the Mondeo from the parking lot. There's this edge of the shed on my left and another Mondeo parked on the right... we were late for office. Usually, I do not accelerate the car in reverse gear. But the Ford had got cold enough to switch itself off and I'd to race. I could've chosen to warm the machine up on neutral with a little race. I didn't. I put it in the r-gear, raced it a bit and drove it back. While doing so, I didn't realise that the wheels weren't straight enough for a sharper left turn and definitely not so early. We were almost out of the parking lot, when the right-front of our office Mondeo hit the neighbour's left-back! I swore some thing when I realised that I scraped the cars badly, leaving scratches on both and a dent on ours!!!
I immediately jumped out and studied the damages. The green Mondeo that the neighbour's car was, had a few lines that went off on rubbing; a few more remained on the panel just over the wheel. Ours, however, had some green lines on the silver car, with a dent and some scratches on the headlight!
I haven't been able to think straight since then, not to mention work, food and sleep. And we're still researching on a good solution to get things upright.
Whatever the outcome, this was a shameful experience for me... and it'll remain so.
I immediately jumped out and studied the damages. The green Mondeo that the neighbour's car was, had a few lines that went off on rubbing; a few more remained on the panel just over the wheel. Ours, however, had some green lines on the silver car, with a dent and some scratches on the headlight!
I haven't been able to think straight since then, not to mention work, food and sleep. And we're still researching on a good solution to get things upright.
Whatever the outcome, this was a shameful experience for me... and it'll remain so.
Lost in Cambridge
Thursday evening, we drove (read as I drove) back from our office at Histon to our apartment at Cherry Hinton Rd. It was pretty dark and I, unfortunately, trusted one of my colleagues to have studied the map that he took a printout of, tracing the way between the two pin codes. For this same reason, I asked to place himself in the front seat and let the other good colleague on the back seat, so that he could guide me.
Cambridge, for that matter anywhere, is not the place that you can take a left after you've missed it! This is how my company was guiding me. He was guiding me into more and more darkness, I felt. It was getting cold in the evening and we were almost nowhere in no time. This is how it went: In all fairness towards me, I'm going to say that it was the first time I was driving a Ford Mondeo Zetec-- a big car that it is-- without a localite (just a day before, I'd taken a test drive to a nearby restaurant with someone sensible), first time in Cambridge, UK, and first time outside of India ever, not knowing many official driving rules here.
I announced that I'll need to know which road to take next, way in advance, to everyone's agreement, but only in theory! Cambridge has pretty thin roads that split up into lanes or merge back at various places. At these junctures, one is to make a decision to stream into one lane or the other. The traffic can be pretty heavy at peak hours and not knowing your lane at the proper time can put you uncomfortably off the track.
We started at 1830 hrs from Chivers Way, Histon and on we went to Station Road. Our man didn't know we were on Station Rd, while I did, and by the time he registered that, I'd taken turns and was at the Bridge Rd junction! That was the time to have pulled over and asked my two colleagues to swap places. The fella yelled "right-right, there's Brigade Rd". I regretted my decision of seating arrangements already! After our right turn over to Bridge Rd, we went straight ahead over a big roundabout that forks a road onto A14 motorway. Now, we were to go down till we get a left for King's Hedges Rd. This one, we missed somehow. Having missed it, we didn't find a King's Hedges Rd around and I was told after one of the stupid lanes: thats the left we should have taken. In fact, there was this lane at the signal junction earlier where our man said: "left... wait... not here... next". And guess what, I ended up being in the middle of two lanes!!! I'd a little trouble getting back in the lane, that I'd almost left, but somehow managed to, save for a little honking from the car behind.
After that, we went around most places around Chesterton Road, trying to find Milton Road, Arbury Road, and God knows what all! There was this one particular time when I made it to the wrong road, on the directions given by the map-expert we had, that led to a major highway A14. This motorway had cars ripping by, from what seemed like all directions known to me! As it turned out, we entered A14 in the rightmost lane. Since I hadn't ever been on such fastlanes while I was on wheels, the ongoing nervousness turned into instant panic! It took a few minutes to really come back to senses and lead ourselves to the left side exit back to Cambridge... by now, we'd learnt that we were outside of Cambridge! Well, this exit helped us get back to smaller roads of confusion and residential areas where turning around the mega-sized Ford was quite difficult.
After maneuvering in lots of small roads that led nowhere and turning around in front of people's houses, I was pissed off. I took a little break from within the car and stood by (perhaps, praying) in the cold. It wasn't any comfortable outside, but peeking into the windows showed that someone ought to read the map right. This is when I decided to study which part of the world we'd ended. That moment, somehow, things looked a little better. Driving back, we spent some time back and forth map-listed roads since we'd hit Elizabeth Way. This one seemed quite a long road that narrowed to a single lane and sometimes grew up. We also spent time circling the roundabouts getting to read the road names on the small boards almost invisible at nights. This one time, the backseater showed a board that led to Cherry Hinton, but for the board seeming to point in the reverse direction. I wasn't sure.. so we decided to check the other end of Elizabeth Way. Interestingly, this way met a roundabout, across which the Elizabeth Way continued. So my guess was that one of the roads spawning off this round about ought to be Milton Way (this is where we should have come from, as per the map). With that reasoning, I drove back to the Cherry Hinton board and decided to continue across from there although the sign pointed in not-so-helpful direction. It was a good guess. We ended at a crossing of Mill Rd, where from, I knew how to proceed to Cherry Hinton!
At the end of the day, thank God, we didn't end up in the American Cemetery that A14 was leading us towards.
Now, now... it didn't turn out as bad as the title, did it? :)
Cambridge, for that matter anywhere, is not the place that you can take a left after you've missed it! This is how my company was guiding me. He was guiding me into more and more darkness, I felt. It was getting cold in the evening and we were almost nowhere in no time. This is how it went: In all fairness towards me, I'm going to say that it was the first time I was driving a Ford Mondeo Zetec-- a big car that it is-- without a localite (just a day before, I'd taken a test drive to a nearby restaurant with someone sensible), first time in Cambridge, UK, and first time outside of India ever, not knowing many official driving rules here.
I announced that I'll need to know which road to take next, way in advance, to everyone's agreement, but only in theory! Cambridge has pretty thin roads that split up into lanes or merge back at various places. At these junctures, one is to make a decision to stream into one lane or the other. The traffic can be pretty heavy at peak hours and not knowing your lane at the proper time can put you uncomfortably off the track.
We started at 1830 hrs from Chivers Way, Histon and on we went to Station Road. Our man didn't know we were on Station Rd, while I did, and by the time he registered that, I'd taken turns and was at the Bridge Rd junction! That was the time to have pulled over and asked my two colleagues to swap places. The fella yelled "right-right, there's Brigade Rd". I regretted my decision of seating arrangements already! After our right turn over to Bridge Rd, we went straight ahead over a big roundabout that forks a road onto A14 motorway. Now, we were to go down till we get a left for King's Hedges Rd. This one, we missed somehow. Having missed it, we didn't find a King's Hedges Rd around and I was told after one of the stupid lanes: thats the left we should have taken. In fact, there was this lane at the signal junction earlier where our man said: "left... wait... not here... next". And guess what, I ended up being in the middle of two lanes!!! I'd a little trouble getting back in the lane, that I'd almost left, but somehow managed to, save for a little honking from the car behind.
After that, we went around most places around Chesterton Road, trying to find Milton Road, Arbury Road, and God knows what all! There was this one particular time when I made it to the wrong road, on the directions given by the map-expert we had, that led to a major highway A14. This motorway had cars ripping by, from what seemed like all directions known to me! As it turned out, we entered A14 in the rightmost lane. Since I hadn't ever been on such fastlanes while I was on wheels, the ongoing nervousness turned into instant panic! It took a few minutes to really come back to senses and lead ourselves to the left side exit back to Cambridge... by now, we'd learnt that we were outside of Cambridge! Well, this exit helped us get back to smaller roads of confusion and residential areas where turning around the mega-sized Ford was quite difficult.
After maneuvering in lots of small roads that led nowhere and turning around in front of people's houses, I was pissed off. I took a little break from within the car and stood by (perhaps, praying) in the cold. It wasn't any comfortable outside, but peeking into the windows showed that someone ought to read the map right. This is when I decided to study which part of the world we'd ended. That moment, somehow, things looked a little better. Driving back, we spent some time back and forth map-listed roads since we'd hit Elizabeth Way. This one seemed quite a long road that narrowed to a single lane and sometimes grew up. We also spent time circling the roundabouts getting to read the road names on the small boards almost invisible at nights. This one time, the backseater showed a board that led to Cherry Hinton, but for the board seeming to point in the reverse direction. I wasn't sure.. so we decided to check the other end of Elizabeth Way. Interestingly, this way met a roundabout, across which the Elizabeth Way continued. So my guess was that one of the roads spawning off this round about ought to be Milton Way (this is where we should have come from, as per the map). With that reasoning, I drove back to the Cherry Hinton board and decided to continue across from there although the sign pointed in not-so-helpful direction. It was a good guess. We ended at a crossing of Mill Rd, where from, I knew how to proceed to Cherry Hinton!
At the end of the day, thank God, we didn't end up in the American Cemetery that A14 was leading us towards.
Now, now... it didn't turn out as bad as the title, did it? :)
Cambridge Times
This year, almost the same time as last, I'm back in Cambridge, UK. Though I flew via hometown, Bombay, I couldn't break my journey due to project pressures. I hope to do so on the way back, either three weeks hence or six, depending on whether or not our stay here is extended.
I reached Bangalore airport around 1920 while the Sahara flight was at 2040 hrs. Till quite a while, my colleagues hadn't arrived. After having checked-in and offloaded my painfully-heavy bag, I went out with not-so-very-painfully-heavy shoulder bag! They didn't seem to be around until it was a little late to check-in. Somehow, I'd missed them or so I thought. I decided to enquire at the check-in counter. They had data about one person. The other was not found, but I knew he was also past the security point. There, I also met Parag Bhide; an old time colleague from L&T. That was like 7 years before! We recognized each other, spent some time chatting, and followed that we're on the same flight to Bombay! Okay, surprises never end. Past the security check, I found my colleagues waiting, who had sneaked in behind my back, or so I thought. The plane started late, was crowded, uncomfortable with noisy people, extremely small seats and I got the second-last row. I was quite happy when it landed, except for the stupid bump as we touched the runway!
Transiting between Bombay airports was a pain carrying huge bags of ours. Somehow I neatly forgot that I needed a bigger-better-faster-more kind of a check-in baggage since last year's travel. We managed to reach the international airport, but my brand-new haircut nearly got me into trouble at more than one place. I'd a few suspicious looks and a couple of questions to answer at the counter. Fortunately, it wasn't so at the London airport.
The in-flight movies were boring; so was the food distasteful. Moreover, I didn't have any wine but put myself to sleep. In the wee hours of the morning, while in this British Airways flight's toilet, some idiot knocked on the door. As it is, the place was inconveniently small for my height and this knock made things no easier! Stepping out in a few minutes, I saw two people waiting outside, one of them an Indian. Although I said sorry (for nothing) the other chap seemed to be highly irritated and made some smart-ass comment to the effect that I fell in asleep inside. I managed to ignore him, and being pleased about myself, returned to my seat. Later, I was wondering what the heck was he doing all this while, if he was in urgency! I gave up the thought.
Parking the flight at London took a real long time although we were not much late when we landed. After what seemed like 20 to 30 minutes, we got off the airplane. It was a long walk through the immigration and then out via the baggage collection. Our taxi was already around with the huge, tall, driver waiting. After some trouble shoving the baggage in, we rested in the good Lexus till Cambridge was around. The Andy guy welcomed us from Cambridge Apartments and showed us around one of the flats. We were stuck with another apartment not being ready till 1400 hrs as told, and being handed over only at 1800 hrs! Between these times, we shopped groceries and loaded our fridges! A very tiring day ended with a bath and a light dinner.
Lights out!
I reached Bangalore airport around 1920 while the Sahara flight was at 2040 hrs. Till quite a while, my colleagues hadn't arrived. After having checked-in and offloaded my painfully-heavy bag, I went out with not-so-very-painfully-heavy shoulder bag! They didn't seem to be around until it was a little late to check-in. Somehow, I'd missed them or so I thought. I decided to enquire at the check-in counter. They had data about one person. The other was not found, but I knew he was also past the security point. There, I also met Parag Bhide; an old time colleague from L&T. That was like 7 years before! We recognized each other, spent some time chatting, and followed that we're on the same flight to Bombay! Okay, surprises never end. Past the security check, I found my colleagues waiting, who had sneaked in behind my back, or so I thought. The plane started late, was crowded, uncomfortable with noisy people, extremely small seats and I got the second-last row. I was quite happy when it landed, except for the stupid bump as we touched the runway!
Transiting between Bombay airports was a pain carrying huge bags of ours. Somehow I neatly forgot that I needed a bigger-better-faster-more kind of a check-in baggage since last year's travel. We managed to reach the international airport, but my brand-new haircut nearly got me into trouble at more than one place. I'd a few suspicious looks and a couple of questions to answer at the counter. Fortunately, it wasn't so at the London airport.
The in-flight movies were boring; so was the food distasteful. Moreover, I didn't have any wine but put myself to sleep. In the wee hours of the morning, while in this British Airways flight's toilet, some idiot knocked on the door. As it is, the place was inconveniently small for my height and this knock made things no easier! Stepping out in a few minutes, I saw two people waiting outside, one of them an Indian. Although I said sorry (for nothing) the other chap seemed to be highly irritated and made some smart-ass comment to the effect that I fell in asleep inside. I managed to ignore him, and being pleased about myself, returned to my seat. Later, I was wondering what the heck was he doing all this while, if he was in urgency! I gave up the thought.
Parking the flight at London took a real long time although we were not much late when we landed. After what seemed like 20 to 30 minutes, we got off the airplane. It was a long walk through the immigration and then out via the baggage collection. Our taxi was already around with the huge, tall, driver waiting. After some trouble shoving the baggage in, we rested in the good Lexus till Cambridge was around. The Andy guy welcomed us from Cambridge Apartments and showed us around one of the flats. We were stuck with another apartment not being ready till 1400 hrs as told, and being handed over only at 1800 hrs! Between these times, we shopped groceries and loaded our fridges! A very tiring day ended with a bath and a light dinner.
Lights out!
About thanks & apologies
Okay, I confess that this one's a selfish blog entry. I use the words: thanks and sorry, very liberally, while meaning it too. It always turns out that people don't know the usage very well; they end up using one more than the other. It also depends on the company you keep, though.
For me, it irritates much if people keep me thanking every now and then. Moreover, it puts me into an awkward situation when this kind of thanking or praising is made public.
Unfortunately, thats not true with apologies. Although I don't want others to thank me even for my biggest goodwill gesture, I do expect atleast a simple sorry when I deserve it. Its not an ego issue, I feel. It just helps me forget things faster. Mind ya, forget, not forgive. Because, I forgive way too easy. Its just that the pain sticks on into memory long enough to make forgetting difficult (Maybe thats why I've a short memory in other things!). Its like telling me that you don't feel sorry at all.
I'm reminded of a song by MLTR...
There is no excuse my friend,
for breaking my heart again
This is where our journey ends
you're breaking my heart again.
Down to basics, if you don't like to say sorry, don't do things that'll make you say it; simple.
For me, it irritates much if people keep me thanking every now and then. Moreover, it puts me into an awkward situation when this kind of thanking or praising is made public.
Unfortunately, thats not true with apologies. Although I don't want others to thank me even for my biggest goodwill gesture, I do expect atleast a simple sorry when I deserve it. Its not an ego issue, I feel. It just helps me forget things faster. Mind ya, forget, not forgive. Because, I forgive way too easy. Its just that the pain sticks on into memory long enough to make forgetting difficult (Maybe thats why I've a short memory in other things!). Its like telling me that you don't feel sorry at all.
I'm reminded of a song by MLTR...
There is no excuse my friend,
for breaking my heart again
This is where our journey ends
you're breaking my heart again.
Down to basics, if you don't like to say sorry, don't do things that'll make you say it; simple.
A good day
Its a surprise that yesterday was one of the good days of recent times! You generally don't end up being in the middle of all the happy news in one day. But it sure was so.
The day started early at office with a blogged ode. Much work was already done before others joined in at work. Prashant called in to say that there's a flat in Thane that he would really pursue this time. That statement, in itself, was a good start for me! I went around asking people about the area... and ended up with just the right people showing up on chat.
It wasn't late until both Sandy & Rags came in and we had an early tea break. That hasn't happened in a while now.
When I was following up on the flat thing, Raghav spread around the great news about Vathsala being blessed with a baby girl. Thankfully, she was available on the phone to share her happiness. All this was just during the morning session alone!
Out of nowhere, I also received a call from Veena aunty. We had some nice talk about her daughter's marriage. The day was turning out into a blast by now. Mind ya, this wasn't all... I got quite a lot of official work done too. By evening, I'd talked to Prashant some three times, mailed up a couple more, and got to a bit of understanding about how the Thane area is to settle down.
The day ended late by a visit, with Raghav, to see Vathsala and her baby. This niece of ours even looked at us both, one at a time... my God, was she adorable... and she's not even a day old! May God bless all of those who made my day a memorable one!
The day started early at office with a blogged ode. Much work was already done before others joined in at work. Prashant called in to say that there's a flat in Thane that he would really pursue this time. That statement, in itself, was a good start for me! I went around asking people about the area... and ended up with just the right people showing up on chat.
It wasn't late until both Sandy & Rags came in and we had an early tea break. That hasn't happened in a while now.
When I was following up on the flat thing, Raghav spread around the great news about Vathsala being blessed with a baby girl. Thankfully, she was available on the phone to share her happiness. All this was just during the morning session alone!
Out of nowhere, I also received a call from Veena aunty. We had some nice talk about her daughter's marriage. The day was turning out into a blast by now. Mind ya, this wasn't all... I got quite a lot of official work done too. By evening, I'd talked to Prashant some three times, mailed up a couple more, and got to a bit of understanding about how the Thane area is to settle down.
The day ended late by a visit, with Raghav, to see Vathsala and her baby. This niece of ours even looked at us both, one at a time... my God, was she adorable... and she's not even a day old! May God bless all of those who made my day a memorable one!
Prayer to Maya
I remember the time spent with you
All you said seemed so true
Such was the binding faith I had
I couldn't tell good from bad
My true Self I really miss
I was blinded right from your first kiss
The illusory traps, they made me wait
Now that I know, would you please help me liberate?
Until then, I'll recall the time spent with you
As there's nothing much I can do...
All you said seemed so true
Such was the binding faith I had
I couldn't tell good from bad
My true Self I really miss
I was blinded right from your first kiss
The illusory traps, they made me wait
Now that I know, would you please help me liberate?
Until then, I'll recall the time spent with you
As there's nothing much I can do...
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