Reducing the size of Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)

Most of us are working in the vhd, and quite often the size increases like a hell. Reducing the vhd size was a big problem for me. 4.5GB (.vhd) file grew to 8GB in a month or so..
Not comfortable with DiskFragmenter and suddenly today I found another from an article CLEAN MEAN the VHD, which was not bad. It helped to reduce my vhd size my almost 30%

My Stupidity Revealed 7

Disclaimer : This can’t be projected as my Stupidity. You people have to decide!

I’m staying in Shollinganallur, where there is no way to do general shopping even. So two days back I went to a nearby  Food World(Spencers) (a regional Deperatmental store here in India), on ECR Road, in Madras. I was much interested in buying a Body Spray as the current one got over a few days back. Since it involves few kilometer ride from my home to food world, I started my bike with Earphone connected.

Got inside the store and took the shopping cart and kept few biscuit packets & a loaf of bread. Then moved on to the place where the Men’s Cosmetics were being shelved. More than 2 dozen varieties of Body Sprays were there. I picked nearly 8 of them to smell in order to choose. Simultaneously, I was listening to some song from my favorite movie Hum Apke Hain Koun. Spraying the body spray on hand (around the wrist) and smelling it is one of the common sign most of us do in order to pick the right one. Even I followed the same. As I was with many choices left, I tried it in different parts of my body viz., on the left Hand, left side of my shirt, in my palm etc. Suddenly one of them just sprayed a thick paste of a blue colored gel on my shoulder. Before I could react, the color changed to a white foam!!!
Oops, it was a shaving Gel :( The sellers have kept all of those very nearby which were really confusing for anyone to segregate shave gel from body spray at one glance. Well to conclude, you guys decide upon this issue whether it is my mistake or the one who arranged it??

Microsoft's Offer to Yahoo

Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $44.6bn in cash and/or shares. "We dont have any other option" must be the answer from Bill Gates in Microsoft's Board of Directors meeting. They are offering nearly 62% more from Yahoo 's Thursday(31-Jan-2008) closing price. Just see the graph below plotted against Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Dow Jones, Nasdaq for the past 5 years.

We can very easily say that Googles' stock has increased very high than its rival(s).

Below, is the Microsoft’s letter to the board of directors at Yahoo, proposing to buy the company.

But its something similar to HP-Compaq Vs Dell - Though its not so equal in any means though. But the deal might workout like that.

Am not so superstitious, yet once in a blue moon at least few incidents will happen to prove that am of the above sort.

On 15th Jan 2008 I planned to return from my native to Chennai after long leave for pongal. I was doing some thing or the other that I forgot totally about my return ticket; “yeah I haven’t taken a printout yet!!!!!”  said to myself. Forced with an urge to get the work done as soon as possible kicked my bike vigorously. As and when I tried pushing my bike forward a cat crossed my way across...Ahhh...What a bad indication?? “Never mind!!!” I started my bike with full speed, after going few yards forward; my friend Senthil Raja called me and told he has taken the printout… Patting my self I thought “So cat crossing our way is not a bad sign here onwards!!!”… That day night I and my friend Guna traveled to Salem to catch our train. When cross checking with the tickets I came to know, ours was on the same day early morning 12’o clock, which according to us previous day night!!!!!!a stupid misconception!!!!!!

Actuall reason was I booked 8 train tickets on that day, as that day was the opening day (60 days) so some confusion... Even though we managed to get a private Omni Bus, I was really thinking why this happened to me, and not for the others I booked the tickets

So, is this due to the effect of that cunning cat which crossed my way???

Its been a year that I posted to this section. But the stupidity was one of the biggest!!!

Nokia 5310 Express Music

Bought a new Nokia 5310 Express Music two weeks back. Awesome for the price. Will be posting about this in few days!!

Windows Live Ids

Get your Windows Live ID here soon!!

Live.com site is up and running for more than a year I think. Now Microsoft is giving email Ids with @live.com

The main advantage is that you can link your existing @hotmail.com or @MSN.com or @passport.com to this. Instead of having something like username1308@hotmail.com, name.2005@msn.com  etc., you can have yourname@live.com

All the service like your MSN/Hotmail Messenger, mail etc., can be linked so you will maitain only one ID that is yourID@Live.com Id

Get it sooooon here.

Dell India is Hell

A month back I ordered a Dell Laptop for my friend SasiKumar. It was my sole decision to go for a Dell Laptop here in India. I ordered for Dell Inspiron E1505/6400. It was more than a month, and I didnt get any reply from Dell Sales Team in Bangalore, India. At one point, I  started asking for the status, and not the Laptop. But they didnt even reply to my email for more than two weeks.

I was given a link longtime back to check the status. Excellent updation on the status. For nearly 3 weeks, there was no status update. Even I bounced these things back to them and to few other email Ids I got from their website and Google. But nothing invain. I really felt bad talking to my friend, though he didnt tell anything.

Even I sent two mails insulting them for this. Its here.. Even for that they didnt respond, thats different story!!

Actully, a friend of mine nearly a year back had the same problem. But, I thought it was Past(a yr old story). But it again happened!! Really I think no retail buyer will go and buy in the Dell India or their Website.

Atlast yesterday someone from Bangalore Dell called me and asked whether the Laptop has been despatched.
I shouted "No".
Then she said "It might be on the way to your place".
I replied "Place in the sense where ? Even Chennai is the place where Im staying and even India is the place where Im residing".
She said "Its in Madras and will come today itself ". And it really got delivered in the same day!!!

Unattractive Ads

Even though Indian Consumers are being attracted towards great advertisements, still there are some ads which are really unattractive/bad. Companies like Hutch(Vodafone), Airtel(Google Search Ad), etc are posting damn good Ads daily. But today I saw an Ad for HDFC Bank NRI account.  "Open a HDFC Bank NRI Account and get a pack of 2 Amitab Movie DVD"

I saw this 'Unattractive Ad' in the NDTVProfit site. The Advertisement is targeting NRE/NRI people. But do they open a Bank A/c for those 2 DVDs ??? I dont think so.

Exclusive Disclaimer : Im not attracted to Amitab. And I wont tell HDFC Bank is doing a better service than other banks(im writing a small review about Banks in India)

Long time back I got a call from a girl called Priya, a tele-caller based in Madras, for HSBC Personal Loan. I was not interested so I told her that. But she called me again, and I shouted that Im busy and Do not call me. She called me again, fourth or fifth time.

But I have registered in the Do Not call Registry of HSBC bank, in their website a long time back.

I asked for her age & education. she was in her early 20s' and some BSc degree. Then I replied, "Priya, Im really interested in talking to you, I dont mind talking to you regulary, but dont call me for this Loan. Just talk, tell me about yourself etc.," She didnt reply, thats all. She didnt call me from that moment. 

Like this a guy called me for deutsche bank credit card. I told him that I already have many cards ...

Today is Bloggers' day, so I thought of posting a blog after loooong time.

Its, 31 - August :  3108  it can be read as BLOG, as you see in the image, so it was considered as bloggers' day.

And its like everyone must link 5 new blogs, (im neither blogging nor reading anything nowadays, I have to look for 5 new blogs) So I have to confine from my huge list, and have to read all those home page entries fully!!

Im posting this on Sep - 9th, which shows my perfectionism   But really these blogs are good.

• Neha Vishwanathan
• Prabhu Karthik
• Prabhu Krishna Moorthy
• Smyta
• Somu

I hvnt' visited their blog many times, so I can't give any description as such.

Electronic Funds Transfers from any Bank to any ICICI Bank account

I hold some SB account in few banks in India (it doesnt mean that I use it very often or have money in that other than the minimum balance). In that list, I have a ICICI is also there, which is generally used for making my ICICI Credit Card payment, and rarely i use the Debit card branded as ICICI N Cash card. The SB account what I have, is opened some 4 years back in Trichy.

And ICICI bank is one of the first bank in the country to implement Core Banking Solution, i mean 4 or 5 years back. So everyone who has account with them gets a 12 digit account number, which can be used across any of their branch easily for Cheque/Cash deposit or withdrawal. I always give 7 r 8 out of 10 for their service, ie, their service is far more better than many other private & Multinational banks operated in India.

My salary is credited in my CITI Bank account. To transfer money from my CITI account to that ICICI account opened in trichy is not possible as inter-Bank fund transfer list of CITI wont show Trichy ICICI Bank branch. It shows all the bans that participate in NEFT/SEFT in the major cities across the country. So I used to transfer money from CITI account to my friends who have ICICI bank account.

Last month I want to transfer money to my ICICI. Generally I used to tansfer to my friends' account, so that he  will transfer it to my ICICI. In the inter-bank EFT (electronic fund transfer) many of ICICI Bank branch was listed and nothing from Trichy. As ICICI, implemented Core Banking fund transfer between their branches are very easy. So I selected my branch as Cenotaph Road Branch(in madras) in my CITI online transfer page, and entered my 12 digit account numbe and registered as a Payee and transfered some amount.

After two days, I could see that transaction reflected in my ICICI account!! The amount was credited here like a non-listed ICICI Bank account. And I tried this in few other banks like UTI, HDFC & my friend tried in HSBC, which all worked out well.

Im sure this is not a bug, its just a missed option/ unclosed one way hole.

HSBC Security Device

I have a HSBC credit card and often check my account/statement online. In the last week of May, I got a mailer from HSBC saying that they are going to deliver me a "SECURITY DEVICE", and with that only I have to use my HSBC account online.

And on 14th of June, I got a red colored box from them which read - "Until now, banking online with us was SAFE". And when I opened the box it had another: "We are now making it EVEN SAFER". And there was a small lid type of thick sheet & upon opening I found the  Security Device, which was in the size of a keychain.

Problem in Microsoft Visio

I have been using Microsoft Visio for about a year to draw flowcharts & block diagrams. MS Visio was actually a good tool, in terms of usage like other Microsoft Product & it is smart enough to convert all the diagrams into many type of image formats.

My current project Prima, is a product thats under-development in Saksoft. It has so many modules and each of us have part in designing work also. As per some standards I created a .vsd file(visio native file format) so that I can share with my teammates.

Im using Microsoft Visio 2003 & most of my team mates use Visio 2000. So, there exists a backward compatability issue. The problem is, the file saved in Visio 2003 is not supported by Visio 2000, and that is normal. So I opened the file & tried to save the same in the lower versions like we do it in the Word...and the worst part is that Visio 2000 was missing, only Visio 2002 was there. And actually the file(the one I designed) had half a dozen rectangles & couple of arrows & Texts. Basically, this a simple workout in the Visio but the fileformat is not supported/missing.

Atleast Visio 2003, supports some other formats such as XML drawing, XML stencils etc., but there is no solution for my problem other than re-doing the drawing.

So I have to use one of my Teammates' PC with Visio 2000, to create that .vsd file!!!

Private Banks Vs Nationalised Banks

In India, Retail banking is very much successful than any other developing countries. Take some private banks for example : ICICI, IDBI, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra etc are not just a Retail banking institutions started. They were started for some different purpose or to render financial services for Home Loan, Consumer finance, Corporate Lending etc.,and in years they have started Retail banking. Not only Private Banks, Multi-National banks like HSBC, CITI Bank, Standard Chartered, ABN Amro etc., are also there in the list, and they are doing a very good business over here. Then we have the Nationalised Banks like State Bank of India, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank, etc are there in the list, and these Nationalised Banks only have a large customer base.

All the Nationalised banks are operating in the rural areas and the Cities. Whereas very few private banks like Karur Vysha Bank (KVB), Karnataka Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB), operate in the rural areas.

Many other private banks like IndusInd, ICICI, HDFC have started to show their presence in the rural areas. We know that in rural areas its tough to do business since those people won't be looking for all these hi-fi services like ATM, internet

Spams in the Mailbox

Generally I used to get nearly 500 spams a day. The SPAM filter is not that much good since 10-25 SPAM mails comes into my Inbox(not getting filtered properly), so i have to do something else. Also is there anyway to stop/reduce the number of spam mails ?? Since my mailbox bandwidth is increasing by 8% a month due to SPAM.

Quota issue to the MAX

Pro Vegetarianism Ads

Don't be surprised to see five cute chicks appealing to you with the words,  "We Are Not Chicken Tikkas. Please Don't Eat Us".
These babies are the newest celebrities to star in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India's pro-vegetarianism ads.

Nice ones, hopefully it will attract children....

Via [ Dance with Shadows ]

Opinion Poll for TamilNadu Election 2006

My Blog for TamilNadu Politics (Arasiyal TALK.com) is going very well with more than 3500 visitors a day. I started the website 2 years ago, but I didn't do anything there for long. Just before the General Election to the Parliament 2004, it was active, and after having some bitter experience with my Hoster, I was not doing anything there... And this year from January, I started working on it. Now, its fine and a week back I have started a Forum in that website as well. And, yesterday I have created a Opinion Poll for Tamil Nadu Assembly election 2006.

Even if any of you are interested in writing any article regarding Politics, im ready to publish in the website, arasiyalTalk.com

SUN TV to enter Capital Market (IPO)

Sun TV, one of the biggest TV Networks in India is open for subscription with an initial public offer of 68,89,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each through 100% book building process.The issue will close on April 7, 2006 and the price band has been fixed between Rs 730 and Rs 875. The company proposed to be listed on the BSE and the NSE.

It is well known that the current IT Minister of India, Dhayanidhi Maran & his Grandpa M Karunanidhi, DMK President & ex-Chief Minister of TamilNadu & their family is having the full control over this TV network.

A quick look at Sun TV IPO:

Company details

• Four Tamil channels including one news channel - Sun TV, KTV, Sun Music, Sun News
• Two Malayalam channels - Surya TV and Kiran
• Three FM channels in Chennai, Coimbatore and Tirunelvelli and Visakapatnam through subsidiaries
• Has extensive programming content; rights to 2650 regional movies
• Won 67 bids in phase II FM bidding; subsidiaries would choose & retain 46 licenses

Issue snapshot

• Issue of 68.89 lakh shares
• Price band of Rs 730-875  (My fixture is at 840)
• Issue closes on April 7, 2006

Objects of the issue

• Launch of new channels: 113.68 crore
• Construction of corporate office: Rs 62.34 crore
• Purchase of new equipments & upgradation: Rs 31.2 crore
• Capitalisation of radio subsidiaries for operating 46 licenses: Rs 355.47 crore

Financial details - Half year ended September 2005

• Net revenues at 150.93 crore versus Rs 135.4 crore
• Operating profit: Rs 86.9 crore
• Net profit: Rs 61.4 crore versus Rs 32.2 crore
• FY05 net revenues at 290.3 crore versus Rs 261.6 crore
• FY05 operating profit at Rs 175.3 crore
• FY05 net profit at Rs 76.7 crore versus Rs 77.7 crore

 Have a look at this small issue(Vaiko & Sun TV), which in no way related to the listing.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in INDIA

Just last week ony I have changed my mobile number (ie., I have moved from BSNL to Airtel) I have used BSNL for a long time. Since I don't want to continue with BSNL, I shifted to AIRTEL, so my mobile number have changed from 94433 76694 to 99940 49398. Not to miss few important calls, Im holding the old number for a month. But this issue will be over very soon, since Telephone Regularity Authority of India (TRAI) have come up with the idea of implementing Mobile Number Portability(MNP), moving to any Operator, but retaining the same number. Also, they have ordered that this must be implemented within one year down the line, and from April 1st 2007 eveyone mobile user must be able to port the number.

Actually MNP is already there in countries like US, UK, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore etc., Mobile Number Portability is a very big advantage to the customers(subscribers) as well as to the operators. I have a uncle in Coimbatore, basically a tech entrepreneur, who is having a mobile number for the past 9 years. Im sure, he wants to change the operator(since that is the worst rated in Tamilnadu Circle), but he don't have the choice of retaining the number. So, he still maintains it. Likewise we can see many people we have this kind of issue. So, if this MNP is implemented, then we can freely move to any operator. Also, TRAI have said, the changing (Porting) of number must not take more than three days.

Technology behind this is maintaining a database of the numbers by the Operators, as available in other countries.

So, operators with good & cheap service & excellent customer support will be benefited more!!

For more details : [Link]

Microsoft Windows Live Mail Beta

First I want to thank my good ole friend Suresh, for giving his Hotmail ID for me to try Windows Live Mail Beta.

For a couple of months, I was reading many blogs & news about Microsoft Windows Live Beta usage. Even I have registered for a Beta testing Live Mail, HOTMAIL didn't send any invitation till now. But I have got a invitation for Windows Live Messenger. So now Im using my friend Suresh 's Hotmail ID to have a feel on this. Since then Gmail offered its email Service in a AJAX model, Yahoo & MSN also converting their legacy web based email system to AJAX based. Not only these AJAX applications are fast, they also give a liveliness to the user. 

Like Outlook Webaccess (Exchange Server), we have Windows Live Mail in 3 Panes.

Just a single click shows the message in Last Pane, & a double click closes the Second(Middle) Pane & makes the third one bigger, which is easier to read mails with large text content.

When we request for a process (clicking a message etc.,) we can see a small box with a message (intimating us)
"Working on your request....", which is like "Loading....." in Gmail.

Rich Text Box Editor in Windows Live Mail

Unlike Gmail Rich Text Editor, Windows Live Mail Editor supports automatic spell check. There you can see kiruthik, asdasd, underlined. But note the word Suresh(which is my friends name) is not Underlined. Even in MS Word, when you register the product in some name, it won't add that name into dictionary!! But its here!! Cool na  

Listing Address Book

Right Click in Windows Live Mail

Also, the mailbox size is made to 2GB.It was previously 250MB for a US Resident, 8 times more. Im using Windows Live Custom Domains, which will captues mails to your-domain based email (mail@kiruthik.net, etc.,) & its simple to setup. Just we have to change the MX record!!

Update :

Even I have got the invitation, but I have deleted the mail without reading the subject!!! So, this will also suit in My Stupidity column.

Now, I have 40 invitations to Windows Live Mail,  which can be sent to email Ids associated with my Windows Live Custom Domain registered mails!!!

My Canon Powershot A 610

Two weeks back I bought Canon Powershot A 610 Digital Camera. Sony Mavica FD-73, was my old camera which I used hardly for a year in 2000, which was a floppy disk model and it can hold only 10 images in one media. Later, my cousin Sudhan with whom I roam a lot, had few cameras, and also  Canon PowerShot S410, so I had no intension of buying a digital camera. And the truth was I want to sell my Sony Mavica FD-73 before buying a new one.

But, last year  I was interested in buying a new camera, so I started searching and reading many reviews. I always recommend Canon, Sony & Nikon cameras. So, I selected  Sony DSC-W5, Nikon Coolpix 5600, Canon PowerShot D450 & Canon PowerShot A610 in October. From then, I took nearly two months to select Canon PowerShot A610.My budget was around 300$. But in a good deal we can get this for even 225$ (with a Dell.com coupon). Here in India, the price is around 16,500 INR (around 350$).

And memory card I have 256 MB SD which is not even sufficient for a one day shoot. So Im planning to buy a 1GB SD Elite Pro Kingston from Buy.com

Specifications :

5.1 Mega Pixels
4x Optical Zoom
4x Digital Zoom
ISO Rating : Auto, 50, 100, 200 & 400
Focus : Auto & Manual
Exposure compensation : -2 EV to +2 EV in 1/3 EV steps
2.0″ vari-angle color LCD with up to 10x playback zoom
Program AE, Shutter-speed priority, Aperture priority and Manual modes
Shutter speeds : 15 seconds to 1/2500 second
Inbuilt Microphone & Speaker
and more...

Canon Powershot A 610 is bit bulky, & its difficult to keep into your shirt pocket, but still the size gives you better result!!

Canon Powershot A 610 Back side View

Back side View with Credit Card (to Compare)

Canon Powershot A 610 compared with my Credit Card

Canon Powershot A 610  Side View showing the USB, AV & power supply port.

Top view of Canon Powershot A 610 with Minimal Zoom

Also, I will post more photos soon, & Im planning to write a review soon

Create username / ID with a dot in Yahoo

Email ID / Username of Yahoo, the web giant can have alphanumerics, with underscore ( _ ) the only used special charachter. But, now they have included dot (.) as a part of their username / id  special character list. The best of all is if you have a yahoo Id before you can then integrate it with the new one, means you can have two username pointing to the same mailbox. Cool    Click here to integrate your existing account with another one. 

If you have a yahoo mail Id like : kiruthik_kumar then you can also create kiruthik.kumar pointing to kiruthik_kumar. Even you can change the primary account to the new one. Also you can login with that!!!

Gmail gives an option to send mails from any email Id provided that is a valid one. (Its very much different from Yahoo's work)

The main difference between the Gmail and Yahoo in this regard is :

Yahoo Supports only one mail Id (that must be also a yahoo Id) both sharing the common mailbox.

Gmail supports any number of email Id(regardless of domain), but its for outgoing mails only. (Even not possible to get mails from your other gmail account/username into one.)

Electronic giant Sony has introduced Sony Reader, a PDA sized device, which lets you to read ebooks. Also it comes with a headphone socket, which helps to hear MP3 songs as well.  

It lends the display technology from e-Ink.

Display      :   15 cm(6 inch)
Weighs      :   250 grams 
Thickness  :   2 cm

Supports Adobe PDF, JPEG & Blogs(RSS). It supports both Secure Digital & Memory Stick to have more memory.

Best of all is, many of the world's leading book publishers will support Sony eBook Reader, including Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster and Time Warner Book Group.

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.

I was looking for 30 Gigs, email a/c a month back, which can be thru invitation only. Like Google, they are also saying they in beta!!! ThanX Ashraf, for send an invitation.

Actually it comes with 7 invitations. but I have multiplied it. So I have loads of invitation, if anyone is interested then Mail me at :  mail (yut) kiruthik.com or  kiruthik (yut) gmail.com  But people, don't except me to send the invitation immediately. I will be send in the night (after 11pm IST), i mean, after I get back home, since we are nearing our project delivery date.

Cool Feature of 30 Gigs is that : it display, the map & the country name, from where the email originated.

Update : I expected some 30  to 40 people may ask for the invitation, but I got nearly, 70 mails. Im multiplying it, & getting ready, for hundred more.  Now I have 7 x 5 invitations.

Update :   Click here for 30Gigs invitation. Its an automated link, looks like its working. Thanks Ramesh, Nitin & others for sending me the link.

Update : Now, www.30gigs.com is open to everyone, no need for a invitation...  Just now I tried to create new one....

I was using b2Evolution, a PHP & MySql based blogging Engine, which was my second move from Wordpress. And now im using Dasblog. So my old blogs are still lying as MySql data. I was thinking to converting it to XML, so as to get support in Dasblog.

So im planning to write a small tool, to covert data (blogs) from b2evolution to dasBlog. Is there anyone, with similar difficulties ???

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

Karuthu a new tamil site to express our views

Karuthu is a Tamil word means View.  Karuthu.com, a new web forum to express our views, thoughts on any general issues or happenings. Click for latest topics on board. The forum even supports Tamil. The site was launched this sunday and holds Freedom of Speech, Expression & Views as their Caption. To know more click here.

The highlight is that, Karuthu.com was started by Karthik Chidambaram, son of Union Finance Minister P.Chidambaram along with Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK Chief Karunanidhi

Also, Mr. Karti Chidambaram, owns Myvakil.com, a legal advisory site.

Update : Its really nice to see, Karuthu.com with nearly 3800 entries (replies & posts) in just 45 day!!  Well, the truth was, there wasnt a good, reliable site before to throw peoples' karuthu. .

Now we can call this as a good initiative, rite.

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.

Speaker s  for FOSS. IN ( Linux Bangalore / LB ) 2005

FOSS. IN announces its speaker list for the forthcoming FOSS. IN 2005 event. We have unexpected set of people... Thanks Atul for making it.

The Key speakers are :

He is the co-author of what could probably be called "The Bible of Linux Development", in which he uses his keen knowledge of the Linux kernel and its design to show people how to develop device drivers. No one in India would even *think* of trying this without referring to his book, now in the third edition.         He is Jonathan Corbet, co-author of "Linux Device         Drivers", and editor of LWN.NET, aka "Linux Weekly News".
His code safeguards millions of networks across the world, and can be found in virtually every consumer router these days. And when he isn't writing code, he makes the world a safer place for the GPL, by relentlessly tracking down and exposing corporations who "don't get it" when they use GPL'd code without following the rules of the game, and provided the first precedent of the GPL standing up in court - and winning. From Germany comes the chairman of the netfilter/iptables project, and the man behind GPLviolations.org - Harald Welte.
He speaks Japanese, German, English and a variety of other languages, but most importantly speaks Geek as well. He had a knoppix CD before people knew what that was, and can lie in the sun for hours without getting a tan or a sunburn. He is Mr.Wizards-of-OS - Volker Grassmuck.
Every time you go to the web to access information, you are using technology that this man has had his eager fingers in. His work is one of the first instances of a FOSS project almost completely demolishing the proprietary competition, and is used in a majority of all web servers across the Internet. The man behind the Apache project, COLLAB.NET's Brian Behlendorf.
He started off writing something to make it easier to maintain his personal home pages, and ended up changing the way the world created websites. He is Mr.PHP - Rasmus Lerdorf.
When she speaks, people sit up and listen. She was behind the open sourcing of the project that today gives FOSS a place in every office and in every home, and is also part of the organization that decides what's Open Source, and what is not - literally. The Diva of Open Source - Danese Cooper.
As one of the world's best known bloggers, he has played a vital role in getting his highly influential organization to play nice with FOSS. He loves to dabble with things ranging from Linux servers, databases, to PCs, gliders and now powered aero planes. He is Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny.
The world of sound and music is a fascinating one, and there has always been a deep connection between code-hacking geeks and music. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that a lot of effort goes into making FOSS platforms "music compatible" - not just in the playback department, but in the music creation and recording department. The man behind Linux Sound and Audio - Dave Phillips.
He is probably one of the most recognizable faces in the FOSS world, and at the same time one of the most respected names, as well. His contributions to Linux rank with those of all the greats out there, and that includes Linus Torvalds. He has been the official kernel maintainer, and little happens in the Linux kernel today without him having some say in it. He is Alan Cox.

The regular drizzling rain in bangalore gone crazy last week, making bangalore a mini-bombay. Southern- Karnataka (mainly Bangalore), have good under water level, not like Tamilnadu. Even in Madras its raining most of the time. But the speed of absorption or the amount of water sucked by the soil/earth will be very less when compared to Madras/TamilNadu. So it might take more than a week to go out. And the climate won't help also.  Here in madras, it rains, but all of a sudden the sun plays well in the same day.

Atlast, Madras is becoming a mini-Bangalore & Bangalore has become a mini-Bombay, in the climate alone.

To say the truth this blog entry is to get more clicks from search engines. Im getting many clicks from the search engines for this flood in bangalore, not for proper keywords. So I thought of doing something to get a better keyword importance.

So please bear this :: please don't read below. Just look the stills below...

/*****************Its just for s.e.a.r.c.h--- e.n.g.i.n.e --o.p.t.i.m.i.z.a.t.i.o.n, ****** don't read*******************/

Actually Bangalore is affected a lot due to this flood still (stills are below, even flood image, images), bangalore city is more surrounded with water /  flood,  full of water, bangalore flood pictures, flood stills,bangalore in water, flooded bangalore image,stills

Actually Bangalore is affected a lot due to this flood still (stills are below), bangalore city is more surrounded with water /  flood,  full of water, bangalore flood pictures images, flood stills,bangalore in water, flooded bangalore image, stills

/**********************************************************************************************/

More stills, nearly 20 are in the power point file.[Link]

ThanX to Umaka & Anandha Balaji for forwarding it. Also Narasiman, my graduation friend & a native of Trichy for explaining the situation.  

I have blogged about Bangalore's pathetic Traffic situation illustrated in Jokes before too.

One more photoblog with the similar news is here. [Link]

Hi Sxrxxx,

Thanks for you interest towards Saksoft.
But you see, as a employee of a listed company, I can't share informations to anyone.  So for any types of queries, you can mail to : enquiry (yut) saksoft.com

 My collueges in that dept. will help you to their level best.

ThanX
- Kiruthik

This is my reply to a letter, we will come to that latter.

And moreover I have mentioned that Im working for Saksoft, so I used to get few mails a week asking for the companys' latest deal/projects. But I normally prefer not to respond. But two days back,  I got a mail. Thats, something immoral....

Interested in that letter ??? Scroll down.........

Dear Kiruthik,
Let me introduce myself as we don't know each other, or rather you don't know me. I know a few things about you through
www.kiruthik.com. My name is Sxrxxx Txxxe and I'm currently in Pune. My profession is to do equity research and I came across your site when I was looking for information about Saksoft. I required Saksoft information because I've to do research on your company. As the field of IT from the point of view of researching it is new to me, I wanted to know about this industry from somebody working in it. And also a few things about Saksoft. Ofcourse, you need not divulge the things you are supposed to keep secret (and it would be immoral under current SEBI guidance) but some information, you know which is better understood one to one from a person working in that company rather than just going through newspaper clippings and the saksoft website.  I would like to know how company has changed after getting listed, etc., you know, qualitative factors, which are hard to gauge from the plain financial statements.Btw, congratulations on getting Saksoft shares, lucky being one in only two employees to get them through the IPO.
And if you oblige me with this favour, I promise, I would give you sound advice on investing in stocks and mutual funds. My record has been impeccable, and my friends have made some money because of my advice.
So.. Its quid pro quo..

I hope you would provide atleast some information.. Please reply this mail with your contact number and convenient time for you. I won't take more than 15 minutes for my work. If you need few tips, and if we go along well (and I really hope so) we'll ofcourse talk longer..

Thank you,
Reply asap,
-Sxrxxx Txxxe
+9198906xx4xx

Last week MSN & Yahoo announced their plan to connect their Instant Messaging(IM) network together in the first half of next year. i.e., you can send IMs to your friends in MSN, if you have logged into Yahoo, and vice versa is also applicable. We can share emoticons, add new contacts etc. Also, voice chat is possible. Hopefully they will be in the phase of syncing up their databases