Monday, April 28, 2008

Imagine

Me and Manu were discussing this amazing movie - "Once Upon A Time In The West" which stars Charles Bronson as Harmonica. Beautiful movie. It was followed only later by "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". Love this movie and we are trying to get the soundtrack. Well, Manu has this to say and I totall agree!!
Imagine...
A big carpeted room with 2 split ACs (like Renie's Ngl room), a couple of bean bags, sitting on a monday afternoon when the whole world is working, sipping ice cold beer and watching western classics in a 42inch plasma TV with surround speakers....
Wouldnt that be something...

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Ubuntu and a new computer

Have been looking to get a new computer for quite some time. Due to some foreseen circumstances ( no money), I have been putting it off for some time. Now I think I can afford one. As usual, my CPU will be an AMD. Read up on the new Phenom processors and don't think they are that great a set of processors. Anyway, too costly. So am settling for the older Athlon core processors. Checking on the net, I also see that I can get a neat 19" Viewsonic LCD monitor for around 9000 bucks. Thats cool. Also saw that the prices of 250 GB Seagate hard drives are amazingly low. And the RAM - drool! drool! as cheap as 1000 bucks for 1GB and at 800MHz speeds. Awesome!!! So thats the basic stuff I need. Oh yeah and most important - the Motherboard. Planning to get an ATX MSI motherboard for close to 6K. Cool. Lets see if I can get it this weekend. And the best for last - install Ubuntu!!! Hardy Heron more specifically. Have already placed the order at ShipIt.

Update on the Ubuntu installation - have already downloaded the Ubuntu-8.04-desktop-amd64.iso. Found it easier to do than wait for the CD to come through. Downloads fast also, using a BitTorrent client.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

How can we improve the traffic condition in our city?

Ok, I should have blogged about this on the 20th as the topic for the day in the ongoing Blogathon. Didn't get time and thought I'd write now. Right now.

I have written about traffic problems before on my caustic look at Educated fools. I am writing about traffic problems now. I will be writing about traffic problems in the future. Cause it is going to be PERENNIAL!!. Unless we change our mindset about a lot of things, we cannot really change the traffic problems. In fact, I believe that the roads are not the only problem. Its the attitude. But hey, what isn't?

But its quite insane when you look to see that a distance of just 8 kms sometimes can take you an hour!!. I travel by company cab and my drivers are either Schumachers or guys who should be driving bullock carts on dusty dry roads in some village somewhere. There is this particular driver who sits without his back touching the seat, haunched and ready to run!!. He literally takes turns like one does when in a go-kart. I really do feel that I will get killed or maimed one day for sure. But the point is, I make sure that he does follow traffic rules whenever possible. And its good to know that he is actually following them - atleast when I am there.

One thing that I have noticed or something that is rather obvious is that everyone is in a damned hurry. To get to where, nobody knows. I doubt if the guy realises that cutting lanes and all that is not going to shave more than a couple of minutes. By the way they drive, sometimes he might not even make it. Crazy idea, but I think I have a small solution. Cabs/cars that make insane turns etc have to be stopped. No tickets, nothing. Just lock the car tyres and let the driver/passengers steam for a while. Then let them go. But for this, we need more cops. Ok, we need more honest cops. And for that, we need people with good attitude in the first place. Err, isn't that where we started?

Monday, April 07, 2008

A Counter Culture of Courage

I read this article on Desicritics.org about a Madhavi Kapoor who wanted to sell her flat in Pune and found that her efforts were being thwarted because her buyer was a Muslim. You can read the whole article here.

From this article, I came to know about a poem by Martin Neimoller which goes thus :

They came first for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist
Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew
Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist
Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic
Then they came for me and by that time, there was no one left to speak up!!

Metal Fan

Haha, found this pic quite funny!! Off 10 Daily Things.



Thursday, April 03, 2008

April post

I have been blogging from December 2004 and have posted every month hence! The rates at which I "conjure" up posts is not very steady and I have posted most in the months September and August 2007. Hmm, makes me think why.
Rarely, I get this fear that I will not post some month and the blog archive link on my page will be broken!
Why do I mention all this? Cause I don't have to worry about this month now!! :)