We had a team event from work yesterday and went Go Karting - which was the first time for me! It has been something I have been wanting to do for a while but never got around to for one reason or another. It was a lot of fun - we did three rounds of about 15 minutes each with about 10 minutes break in between each session. And other than our team there was no one else there for some reason so we had the whole place to ourselves - which made it quite easy and flexible....
Nope, you ain’t that lucky - I am alive and kicking and just have been quite busy lately (or for a change as some of you might say). Between starting a new project and traveling (with very limited access to emails and the Internet), getting the final chapters and code samples for the book out the door and have friends and relatives over from abroad, does not leave me any time for blogging....
Those who know me, know how much I love Fry’s electronics and is the single most thing I miss after moving to London! They finally have a website now ! Although they have had the domain for a while they have not started using it till now. If you have not heard of Fry’s (where the heck have you been living dude), then read up more here . Ah, I miss the those Fry’s Ads in the newspapers every week....
Hope all of you have an very happy and safe Diwali! http://www.bahree.com/diwali/happydiwaliwithahumor.htm
I am not really a TV junkie (with the exception of Tom and Jerry and Discovery Channel), but I recently saw a few episodes of a new drama called Numb3rs , which is all about a genius mathematician who uses Maths and helps solve crimes with the FBI. It is pretty cool (and g33ky of course ), check it out if you are into maths - you usually learn something in each episode....
Continuing the Living dangerous theme I upgraded this blog to CS 2.1 Beta 2 . It’s a painful process (including smoke testing). Anyways it all seems to be working. I also added a couple of new things which are not very evident upfront. One being the completely automatic public turing test to tell humans and computer apart control (or better known as captcha control) - to get a better handle on spam and the other is a Google Sitemap generator that you can check out here ....
It seems I cannot get enough of the adrenaline rush and like to live on the edge. I have further upgraded this blog to run on CS 2.1 (Beta 1) and is now using .NET 2.0 instead of v1.1. and also on the backend is using SQL 2005 instead of SQL 2000. Now all I need to do is sit and pray that nothing breaks. 🙈
The HDD on my work laptop crashed over the weekend - started with CRC errors and then went kaboom (not literally). While our IT folks are trying to recover the data off it as I type this, I wanted to know if you can recommend a cheap or free tool for backing up? I of course did not have the latest backups of my files - I use to till about a year ago and got lazy....
If you have send an email to my work email address within the last week and you have not heard from me, chances are I did not get that email. I am one of the lucky guinea pigs, whose mailbox has been moved to Exchange 12 (officially now called Exchange 2007) where we are using it in production. There seems to be an issue (which we are investigating), where Exchange is kicking back emails saying something along the lines of:...
Well lots of stuff happening in life and as a result this is on the back burner. Firstly we bought a place and moved last weekend, so last few weeks have been just awfully busy with that. Also started a new project in the last few weeks and that has kept me busy as well. Some more stuff happening, which hopefully I can talk about some day. But all in all, next few weeks, I am going to be snowed under again, and you should hear from me eventually....
I have had an issue for a while - how to share calendars with Meenakshi and the rest of the family in an easy way. Right now my primary calendar is in Exchange at work, and that is fine for work related items, but tracking and sharing personal items was not possible. Right now, I mark them as Private in Exchange so my colleagues can see that I am busy then, but cannot see the details....
Its snowing here in London right now - first snow if the season and its big flakes! Yippppeee!
A fellow Avanader is on the way to Seattle and I was helping him find deals for Fry’s and that that is probably the only thing I miss about the US! There is nothing close to that in the UK! The trip down memory lane has been quite nostalgic for me. :)
Both Meenakshi’s and my parents and everyone else in the family is OK in Delhi after the blasts. Also been calling around and asking and of all the people I can get in touch with from the extended family to friends, as far as I know everyone is fine.
I am quite new to the UK having moved from the US a few months ago and seems like I need a new battery for my car. Any ideas which sites I can look at to get an idea for cost, etc? I would prefer an OEM (same brand that originally came with the car). Any ideas?
Thanks for all those who emailed, IM’d and SMS’d me. Both I and Meenakshi are ok, we were in Amsterdam this week and not in London. Everyone we know are ok too, but there is still lots of confusion in London. What a sad world we live in. :(
Not sure if you know, but I am in Amsterdam this week for TechEd Europe as a result, it would be a bit tricky posting here my useless mindless good-4-nothing blabber! I guess, you would need to just survive on caffeine till then. ;)
Waaah, I missed the Festival of Speed for this year, did anyone go? How was it? Would you recommend for next year? Sniff… sniff… :’(
I am thinking of joining up Yahoo! Music Unlimited - quickly while they still have the promotional price - and its cheaper than Napster and Raphsbody, has anyone signed up? What is your feedback?
Has anyone checked out Dave Mathew’s new album called Stand Up ? If so, any feedback, how is it?
I think I just found my business case for a Bike! :). Meenakshi (my wife remember), is dead against me getting one, but if I think I bought this helmet first, then I have to get a bike to match the helmet…. :). Now lets just hope she is not reading this…
Phew! I was in Seattle this week for training - part of new employee orientation and now am on my way back home for a few hours and then I get back on a plane and haul ass to Delhi. I am at the airport right now, on a red eye (I hate those, since I cannot sleep when I am travelling). Home sweet home… err… I should probably say… Home messy home…
Here is a very chilling series of satellite images from CNN that provide a before and an after view of some of the damaged areas: <p> <img src="images/popup.02.male.jpg" alt=""/> </p> <p> <img src="images/popup.03.srilanka.kalutara.jpg" alt=""/> </p> <p> <img src="images/popup.04.kalutara.so.jpg" alt=""/> </p>
Not sure if it can get any better, but this post is the perfect example of an Idiot! And please like someone else pointed out, don’t generalize on one person’s folly! [Listening to: 10 - Track - (04:54)]
There is a list of aid groups which are accepting donations for the victims; which is a good one to pick? Though, all of them are doing a job that helps humanity and I am not questioning their dedication or anything, but I do want to pick one where most of the money I donate goes to the victim and as less as possible towards the overheard or administration fees (though I understand this is getting into a catch-22), what do you think?...