Social butterfly?

So I got depressed that the URL analysis said it didn't find any posts in English. Well, we move on.

For the past week, I somehow kept getting reminded of something that someone said to me over 15 years ago. One of my cousins put a picture of one of our school teachers on Facebook (Mark, you are Time's man of the year!) and this teacher was the one who said that.

I told on some of my friends who kept playing radio in school (or played cards, I don't remember which) which landed them (and me!!) in a lot of trouble. Back then I was this uptight kid, who thought very highly of herself. So I told on my friends. And after a bad session at the principal's office (which left me puzzled as to why I was even sent there), this teacher called me and said "You are a loner. You will always be a loner". She said a whole lot of other things but this is one thing which stayed with me and I remember it as if it was yesterday. (The reason why I think this stayed is because I was not very sure what loner meant, actually ;) ) So I found out what it meant and then I guess subconsciously made an effort at every opportunity to not turn out like she predicted, just to prove her wrong ;)

I don't know exactly what my point here is, but this line keeps popping up in my head every now and then these days. Shows how powerful teachers can be? :)

What?

I saw this on Shilpa's blog and tried it. And this is what I got:

Sinusoidal Scribbles

Ups and Downs, General Notes on Life;)

Text analysis

Could not find any enough English posts. Posts with less than 50 words are disregarded. 

 

 

 

 

What the?!?!?!?!

BYJU - The serial CAT Topper

I was reading a news paper ad about BYJU - The serial CAT topper. I figured without much ado, as to what a CAT topper meant, but I didn't know how you could ever be a serial CAT topper unless you were stupid enough to give the CAT exam year after year in spite of topping it one year.

Then I took the pains to read through the whole ad. BYJU was just the owner (or so I presume) of the institute called BYJU coaching. And this institute has supposedly rolled out CAT toppers year after year (serially!).

Wonder I never heard of this before ;) Have you?

The MAC - What I like, what I hate

I got a MAC in July and Subhash has been suggesting that I do a post on what I like and what I don't. I have been putting it off but I think now I have the leisure to do a little bit of thinking on this tool of my trade.

Overall, it is not a wonder machine, awesome thingy. It is just another machine, which runs fast, which runs quiet (this is a big plus over my older Lenovo) and does its work well almost all of the time.

What is to like

1) I hated the trackpad initially. But once you get the hang of it (and learn the many shortcuts to doing things with multiple fingers on the trackpad), which usually takes two days, it is a joy to use it. Makes me feel very sad to go back to a non Apple trackpad.
2) I love the fact that I have spaces much like the SUN workstations. I can put my browser in one space, my documents in one, email in one and chat client in one. It is a joy. I used to always miss this feature in my Lenovo an actually had two monitors (one on the laptop and one external) with the desktop extension, to make up for it.
3) The keyboard is nice. It is probably the best I have ever used or experienced.
4) Battery life is good. If I don't play music or do any other such battery-sapping activities, it has even lasted me 7 hours sometimes.
5) Of course the Apple Dock is good. Far better looking than the Windows task bar.
6) I love the MAC widgets! They have one for every taste :)
7) I love the fact that a lot of apps are in-built, like stickies notes, remote terminal connector (unlike windows terminal, this looks good) etc.
8) I love how well this thing searches (whether it is email, documents or anything else). The COMMAND+SPACE is a lifesaver. Lenovo needs a Google Desktop to do what the MAC does inherently.


What is to not like:

1) Let's face it. A MAC is not a Microsoft product. Nor was it made for MS. So naturally although you have the entire suite of office at your disposal, it is just not the same. Especially for XLS. Ohh, and I HATE Entourage (of course I can use Apple mail). But my hatred for Entourage merits another bullet item by itself.
2) ENTOURAGE is BAD. As if that was not enough, it also now crashes liberally after a recent patch for upgrade by MS. And I have no idea why they don't fix it. I can never seem to select a conference room (actually I cannot even scan the list) without crashing it. And now, I found a solution to preventing it crash (thanks to an internal Wiki tip) when I am scrolling through emails randomly but still setting up a meeting gives me nightmares.
3) It HAS to sleep when I shut the lid. I find this extremely annoying, an extremely poor design and really idiotic. Especially considering how difficult it is to carry this machine around without shutting the lid :( And coming back up after a sleep takes forever sometimes (with getting back network coverage especially)
4) The edges are SHARP. So when I type with it on my lap (which is what I am supposed to do, going by the technical definition of a laptop), it makes the lower part of my arms (just beyond the wrists) very sore. I hate it.
5) Needless to say, its sharp edges make it a very unsafe device for kids. You get your finger between the laptop lid and base when its closing and that makes it unsafe even for me! Plus it is metallic so people who try to use it in cold temperatures can wear gloves.
6) The MAGSAFE power cord pin is a joke (or maybe my piece is defective). Sometimes it refuses to sit right and charge my laptop. Those are the times that I am scared as to what will happen to my data when I run out of battery.
7) The VGA adaptor is a pain. If I forget to carry it to a meeting (this I always do, by design), I cannot project anything. Even if I do carry it along, it doesn't work well with projectors for me (at least I have never been able to figure out how to make it fit my screen size) so I just leave it back.

I will probably add more to this list later :)

Kinect

For the first time in my 4+ years of XBOX ownership, I played on it for the first time for three successive days for at least an interval of 30 mins :) (I think that makes Subhash very happy since he always felt vaguely sad that I never play on the XBOX). Thanks to Kinect. And more importantly thanks to the Fitness game in it.

It is an awesome device and leaves me much in awe of how much humans have achieved with technology. Much like we get numbed to everything else, we get used to all the wonderful gadgets that help us get by life easily, till the next wondrous thing comes along. And that next thing is Kinect for me for sure.

The fitness game not only scans you as you exercise but also counts your calories based on how much you move (no cheating here by running the treadmill while standing next to it ;) ).

There are other games that we have but I am only using the Fitness game for now. It has surely made my work-outs at home a lot more interesting and interactive. It is like having a home gym with a personal trainer. What else can you ask for, eh?

The cold brought me back

Yes, I have taken a long hiatus from this blog. Blame it on the cosmic powers ;)

Yesterday was COLD. I mean, after moving from California, it was the first time I felt cold when I walked out into the open at 4 PM. That is saying something for South Indian weather.

The cold brought me back to my blog though ;)