Wi-Fi Hotspots in Chennai Airport

Last week I went to Madras(Chennai) Airport to pick my brother. As I haven't accessed any Wi-Fi connection in Madras Airport, I took my new Laptop, to check out the Wi-Fi Hotspots.  BSNL, KingFisher & TATA-Indicom are the three networks available inside the Airport. Though I expected Sifys' Sify Wi-zone, but it was not there.

I tried connecting

Mission Impossible 3 & Superman Returns

Today Im going to 2 movies(Mission Impossible 3 and Superman Returns) one after the other in Satyam Cineplex in Madras. Sometime back I went to In her Shoes & Hanuman in Satyam on the same day with my cousin. And now its with my friends.

We are 10 people in total, I booked the ticket through their website, thecinema.in. The website, gives the ability not only to book the ticket, also to get coupons for the snacks & while booking they allow you to select the seats which comes wth an aditional fee of Rs.10/-

Mostly I used to book the tickets online, but this is the first time im booking 10 tickets, thats the maximum number of tickets one can book at a time. Its getting late, im moving for Superman... as a superman

BarCamp Chennai 2006

1) What is BarCamp ? You can say its as a Tech Meet.

2) Who can attend ? Anyone can attend...

3) Im not still clear about BarCamp ? Barcamp is : Just a get together of unknow people to know the latest development in technologies in your town.

4) Where is it Happening ? It happened, is happening, will happen all over the world....

5) Don't confuse me, what exactly it means ? No one will be clear unless & untill you attend a Camp!!

6) Ok, ok Who is going to talk ? You are going to talk & we are going to listen.

7) What ? Yes, everyone in the conference is a participant.....

Ok, I will add more, stuffs in few hours..

 "BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction. The two day BarCampChennai focusses on Web 2.0 and Next Generation Internet. It takes place on April 8th and 9th (Saturday and Sunday)" - Kiruba.com

A Trip to Vedanthangal

Last weekend myself with Senthil Raja, Arun, Prathap, J Prakash went to Vedanthangal. Actually we planned to Vandalur zoo, but, I saw in some TV Channel a day back that Vedanthangal 's season is going to end, so extended the route to see the birds. Vedanthangal is around 80 kilometers from Chennai / Madras (from thiruvanmiyur). We started here at around 2 pm, and reached there by 3:30 pm in bikes.

Vedanthangal, one of India's largest bird sanctuary, spreads around 75 acres of water & a bit land, which is a bushy with trees, ideal for birds to nest. Water mold covers most of the water surface, so the unclosed area is full of fishes & toads. We saw many birds, and none of us are bird watcher so we don't know the name, but we saw many birds with long-bills.

But, the main problem we faced was, we had nothing to zoom, even we neither had binocular nor SLR cameras. There was small 50 meter outpost-kinda  building, which had a binocular which is zoomed to particular area & was given 15 seconds by the sanctuary people to the visitors watch. But there were many foreigners with big sized SLRs & binoculars, enjoying!!!

My new camera Canon Powershot A610 was used to take the above snaps. And the time was around 3:30 it was bright sunny, so every object illuminates...

Update : Just today, (08-Feb-2006), I saw in Sun TV about Vedanthangal and it was good to see, the birds closely. Even some birds where feeding their young ones. and some with Eggs. So, go with a binocular or a SLR camera.

Update : Now you can rent  a binocular in Vedanthangal!! That too for Rs 10 / hour.

 

Three days back, Microsoft Launched Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 & BizTalk Server 2006 here in Chennai. As I couldn't attend the launch in Bangalore, where BillGates presided, I went to this Ready Launch Tour 2005 in Chennai. But I couldn't stay for the whole show. I was there for 2 hours. And in the registration desk they gave a stuffed paper carry bag, with Ready Lauch Tour 2005 printed on both sides.

Contents found in the bag :

1. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 professional Edition (90 Days Trial)  - CD

2. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition  (180 Days Trial)  - DVD

3. MSDN for SQL Server 2005 - DVD

Two days back only I downloaded  Express Edition of  Visual Web Developer 2005, SQL Server 2005 & Visual Basic 2005. Anyway I can use that later.

Free Exam  Voucher  for any one of the following :

70 - 431 SQL Server 2005 - Implementation & Maintenance

70 - 536 .Net Framework 2.0 - Application Development Foundation

70 - 551 Upgrade : MCAD Skills to MCPD Web Developer

70 - 552 Upgrade : MCAD Skills to MCPD Windows Developer

70 - 553 Upgrade : MCSD to MCPD Enterprise Application Developer

70 - 235 Developing Business Process & Integration Solution Using BizTalk Server 2006

And, as usual a dozen Pamplets from Microsoft & other supporting Third Parties.

Just 15 minutes back only I was chatting with my cousin in Scotland, about the rain. And also I was telling the weather forecast about this week's rain in madras. In minutes, it started raining. Anyway everyone in madras prefers to have frequent rain, but not like the    last one. The worst part I felt is, Madras is not even having 1/4 th of trees like bangalore, but is 3 times bigger than bangalore. The last time rain, took many of the trees, & also few lives. So Mr. Rain, please visit us frequently, but don't show your violent love

 

November 3^rd is considered as World Usability Day, by Usability Professional Association (UPA) . World Usability Day is a project of UPA : promoting usability concepts and techniques worldwide. Around the globe the event is happening in more than 200 places. And in India, as on date, the event is going to happen in three places, viz., Bangalore, Chennai & Hyderabad.

If anyone is working / interested in Usability then feel free to attend   And there is also a blog for World Usability Day - Chennai.

Venue :

            Anna University,
            Hall of Guines 68,
            Department of Manufacturing Engineering,
            Sardar Vallabhat Patel Road,
            Chennai, 600 002

UPA also has a Indian chapter based in Pune.  Also Muthu, a Usability Engineer is blogging about Usability, which is named as Usability in India. Worth Clickling 

Its raining for more than 12 hours non-Stop, here in madras. Weather forcasting are towards the same result for few more days. I couldn't go to office today, due to rain. Im getting many SMSs saying "Nearly 50 people died due to power cable fell into the rain water, so avoid going out." I searched in the net for these news, but nothing turned up. I think it must be a rumour. Anyway its a +ve one.

Like BBC Weather, most of the weather forecasters say the same : Temperature as a Max of 31 for next 4 days & 24 as the Minimum. And they are confirming that the rainfall will be less for the following days, when we compare it with today.

Hopefully, Chennai won't suffer any water scarcity next summer. The forthcoming Assembly Election in TamilNadu will also fall on the same summer. So, there is a possibility that : a small % of voters may cast towards, the current J Jayalalitha government, since water scarcity is the major problem Chennai (Madras) is facing every summer.

Update : Just now I checked Chandroo's Blog, from there I found that there is blog created for Chennai Rains as Chennai Help.

2nd Update (28-Oct-2005):  Today it didn't rain, no drizzling, even a drop!!!. Sun was glowing, and most part of the city was very very normal. 

As I said in my Floods in Bangalore blog, water was absorbed in a fast rate. On the way to my office in RA Puram there was nearly 2 to 3 feet water yesterday, I noticed. But this morning, I couldn't find a drop!! To my surprise, it was normal as if nothing happened !!! Many trees stood horizontally, which was also cleared. Government is also doing worthful work.  Its not exactly like what SUN TV(a private TV channel owned by the opposition party Head) is spreading. 

And atlast the Slums are the affected.