Friday, September 02, 2011

Simple truth 1


Sometimes even though I have many important things on my agenda, I still waste time browsing the internet.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Learn Morse Code: God knows why...but it's cool to know it anyway.

Found this great website about how to learn morse code easily and quickly. The website is http://www.learnmorsecode.com/. The image below is from the website. There are also plenty of books out there like this one....in case you are interested


Monday, June 27, 2011

Worst lines in movie history! Truly Epic!

Below is a small collection of truly epic line and scenes in movie history. These will go down in history as pure awesomeness.

Garbage Day!




Oh My Goooooooooooood!




Oh Man! Oh God! Oh Man! Oh God! Oh Man! Oh God!...




and finally.....Death by Frisbee!



Sunday, June 26, 2011

Tesco or Homeplus in South Korea

Tesco or Homeplus in South Korea came up with an amazing idea to sell to customers. This is probably an idea that could revolutionize shopping everywhere. Watch the video below for more details.


Monday, June 20, 2011

Surviving the World

I am an ardent fan of Dante Shepherd, the owner and creator of Surviving the world. His is a unique kind of blog where he draws on a blackboard discussing the many idiosyncrasies of life. He creates one "lesson" a day and posts it on the blog. While a lot of his musings on the blackboard are good, I was absolutely floored by today's lesson and just had to share it here. It is genius!


Subscribe to his blog here if you are using an RSS reader. The daily lessons he gives are quite interesting and very enlightening reads.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Paradox of Choice

This is one of my favourite speeches from TEDtalks. The talk is given by Barry Schwartz where he talks about the Paradox of Choice. He wrote a book about it as well. I've linked the talk below, which I think is well worth a watch.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Portal for real!

This enactment of portal is brilliant. Very nicely done.



You know what would be even better? Portal the movie with Daniel Craig as the lead actor. That would blow my mind!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Rug Master!

So today I stumbled across this amazing blog which is all about rugs! (http://rugmaster.blogspot.com/) Apparently the owner of the blog (Dr Khosrow Sobhe) is a Rug Master and is a specialist on rugs and carpets. He's got a rug website, rug blog and even rug lineage (his father was into rugs as well). So he's got rugs and carpets in his blood. The blog and the website are both very cool with tons of information about rugs. Quality, repair, maintenance and essentially any information about rugs can be found at his sites. I myself have no clue about rugs and find his website fascinating. So if you are thinking about buying a rug or are having rug problems (?), you  might want to give Dr Sobhe a call and ask for his expertise.


Picture courtesy www.mprugs.com

Rugs man....Who knew!

Thursday, June 09, 2011

Of netipots and nailfiles

I recently came across this weird contraption called a netipot which is basically a small kettle like thingy that is filled with saline and water and then used to irrigate the nasal passages. Weird huh! But such a contraption exists and is apparently used widely in some countries. Picture of a netipot below.


I have no idea why anyone would want to irrigate their noses, but it just sounds like a weird idea to me.

Regarding nail files, I pose a question to you....Would you spend $21.95 on a nail file? The Malteser French Cobalt Triple-cut Nail File costs $21.95 on Amazon.


Now I know that spending money on quality items that you always use is a good thing; but 20 bucks for a nail file? That seems really out there. I'm guessing that you would never need another nail file in your life again. I'm also guessing that butterflies will seek out and croon over your fingernails after using this nail file. After all, for $21.95, it better do something other than just file nails right?

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Creating my first meme...



Haha...this is true....and fun! Btw...if you want to create your own meme, go to memegenerator.net which allows you to create any meme and write any text that you want. It's definitely a lot of fun.

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Didn't know about Sulphur Hexafluoride...and now I do!

I thought Helium was awesome...but Sulphur Hexafluoride is 10x more awesome than Helium.

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Waterspouts filmed off Australia - Very Cool

Waterspouts filmed off Australia from a helicopter - Australia is a very strange country...and the footage is Very Cool

Monday, May 30, 2011

How to get beaten up real quick.

This T-Shirt is a sure way for you to get beaten up really fast as you walk down the street. Only for the bravest of souls...


Friday, May 27, 2011

Richard Branson knows people

Spotted Richard Branson at the queen's dinner. Hah!...The guy goes everywhere.


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

True Cyan

True Cyan: I found this picture and had to share it. True Cyan is truly beautiful. Click on the image to view a larger version.




Monday, May 23, 2011

Freemake Video Converter

Freemake Video Converter is a free media file converter from freemake.com. Finally I stumbled across this great free file converter - a software that was looking for a long time. Until now, I was using realplayer's free file converter which they stopped making free a few months ago. So since realplayer stopped being nice, I wasn't able to find any other good converter now. Initial tests with this player have shown it to be a very good converter - especially mp4 to mp3. I use mp4 to mp3 very often and this has done the trick. I highly recommend this software to users looking for a good media file converter.


By the way, the software also has a bunch of other features such as downloading videos from facebook, youtube etc, as well as bluray ripping and dvd ripping. Give it a try and see.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

How to tie your shoe

Didn't know I was tying it wrong all these years...

Saturday, May 21, 2011

The most hilarious gif - The Lord of the Rings



This Lord of the Rings gif is the most hilarious gif that I have come across. I don't know who made it - really want to credit him, but can't find his name on the internet. If anyone knows who created it, please let me know.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

progeCAD: An Alternative AutoCAD

progeCAD is a great alternative to AutoDesk's AutoCAD for individuals for private use. The layout is very similar to AutoCAD and the rendering has so far been very close. I have been using it for my designs so far and it seems ok with the dwg extension files. I'm just glad that there is a very good alternative out there for AutoCAD. The monopoly of AutoDesk was not good for the industry as the cost of the software was too high for small companies or even individuals. progeCAD at least provides a low cost alternative with the same features for companies that can afford it. I further applaud progeSOFT for providing the software free for individual use on their home personal computers. Give progeCAD a try and see if it is good for you and your company.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

SMBC - The webcomic of webcomics

There are very few contenders to the Dilbert webcomic today. One of them is Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (by Zach Weiner) which is perhaps the only close contender to Dilbert on the web today. Originality, hilarity and the subtle supreme intelligence of the comic have propelled it to one of the most successful of webcomics on the net. The website is www.smbc-comics.com. If you have a chance, subscribe to his RSS or just drop by his website to read the latest comic. At the very least, it will give you some comic relief for the day. Oh and he uploads a new comic everyday! No Exceptions. Zach Weiner is brilliant!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

How many people have ever lived on Earth?

How many people have ever lived on Earth?



The answer is 57 Billion...according to www.1000memories.com. It's actually a pretty simple calculation - the integral of total births with respect to time. For a mathematician, it's a trivial calculation. The details are discussed on the website for those interested.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Reporter makes half-court shot...

Reporter makes an incredible half-court shot...while reporting on a story about a half-court shot. His face...is AWESOME!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Turn it off!

Weird robot that does not want to be switched on...


Monday, May 09, 2011

Basic Security tips about using Public WiFi's ... VERY Useful

Basic security tips about using public WiFi's ... VERY Useful - Especially towards the end.


Sunday, May 08, 2011

Monday, May 02, 2011

Friday, April 29, 2011

www.stolencamerafinder.com

www.stolencamerafinder.com is one of those innovative sites that does that one specific little thing that you are looking for. The website does exactly what the url says. However, I'm not sure how well it does it, because I've not lost my camera, but it would be worth a shot to anyone who has lost a camera. I must say that I tried a couple of pictures from 2 different cameras which didn't return any results - which is disappointing since I've uploaded pictures onto imgur and other picture sharing websites. Theoretically, it should have returned those results at the very least. Anyway it's worth a shot for those who have lost cameras.



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

New Yahoo Mail (Beta)

So Yahoo launched their new yahoo mail (Beta) which I switched to today....and then switched back for 2 crucial reasons. The new layout had a much thicker header taking up much more screen real estate than the current layout. This is a huge blunder and problem that yahoo MUST fix before releasing the new version. I for one will not switch unless the header is brought back to the current size. The second reason was that the inbox has gone back to page views. While in the current mail layout just scrolling down will load the older email as you scroll, the new layout has gone back to the even older yahoo mail where the inbox was divided into pages of 20, 50, or 100 emails. I find this an unnecessary return to older design principles which are less user-friendly. While Yahoo mail is still props over Gmail through the use of tabs, these new backward features will set the mail service behind once more.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Phychologytoday

psychologytoday published an article that talks about the top 10 psychological studies done by science. The results are truly eye-opening and can help average people improve their lives tremendously through this knowledge. problems such as breaking bad habits, improving willpower, and how to make things easier are included in the article and is definitely worth a read.

Friday, March 11, 2011

pdfsam for Merging and Splitting pdf Files (free)

pdfsam is one of the most useful tools I have been using recently in joining and splitting pdf files. Adobe Reader doesn't do it, and Adobe Acrobat is just too expensive for me. pdfsam is an opensource free alternative to Adobe Acrobat and works like a charm. The website is www.pdfsam.org. You can also support the developer by donating some money as well. Please do so if you can afford it.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Quote of the Century

One of my previous bosses used to look at a pile of CV's, pick up half of it by random and stick it in the bin saying "I don't want to work with unlucky people"



Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Lamborghini makes Tractors

Lamborghini makes Tractors - Whoda thought it. They look damn cool too.

www.lamborghini-tractors.com



R8



R7


R6


CV

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

365 Days of Exercise

Exercise and its benefits seen clearly.


365 Days Of Exercise - Watch more Funny Videos

Patrickjmt - Another online teacher

Woah....just stumbled across a VERY close competitor to Sal Khan's www.khanAcademy.org. Patrick from www.patrickjmt.com does only math....but he's made hundreds of videos as of today...in the same style as Khan....I wonder who started the idea first. But the websites sure look similar, except that Khan covers other subjects as well as Maths. I wonder if the two of them know about each others websites. Anyway this is soooo COOL. This is the future of education.

The Binomial Theorem by Patrickjmt - http://patrickjmt.com/the-binomial-theorem-ex-1/

Monday, March 07, 2011

Khan Academy and Trignometry Website

For those struggling with math, maybe this website about trignometry can help you.
http://www.touchtrigonometry.org/

Another good website for studies is the Khan Academy. http://www.khanacademy.org/

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Facebook Privacy Settings

Mashable has posted a guide on facebook's privacy settings. Even I was surprised by some of the hidden settings here. Please take a look at the article to check that your settings are what you wish them to be.

http://mashable.com/2011/02/07/facebook-privacy-guide/

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Sneaky

Questionnaire pawns people who don't read carefully. Click the image for a better view.

Monday, December 07, 2009

Brilliant kid calls 911 for help with his Math homework

Brilliant kid calls 911 for help with his Math homework.



Operator: 911 emergencies.
Boy: Yeah I need some help.
Operator: What’s the matter?
Boy: With my math.
Operator: With your mouth?
Boy: No with my math. I have to do it. Will you help me?
Operator: Sure. Where do you live?
Boy: No with my math.
Operator: Yeah I know. Where do you live though?
Boy: No, I want you to talk to me on the phone.
Operator: No I can’t do that. I can send someone else to help you.
Boy: Okay.
Operator: What kind of math do you have that you need help with?
Boy: I have take aways.
Operator: Oh you have to do the take aways.
Boy: Yeah.
Operator: Alright, what’s the problem?
Boy: Um, you have to help me with my math.
Operator: Okay. Tell me what the math is.
Boy: Okay. 16 take away 8 is what?
Operator: You tell me. How much do you think it is?
Boy: I don’t know, 1.
Operator: No. How old are you?
Boy: I’m only 4.
Operator: 4!
Boy: Yeah.
Operator: What’s another problem, that was a tough one.
Boy: Um, oh here’s one. 5 take away 5.
Operator: 5 take away 5 and how much do you think that is?
Boy: 5.
Woman: Johnny what do you think you’re doing?!
Boy: The policeman is helping me with my math.
Woman: What did I tell you about going on the phone?
Operator: It’s the mother…
Boy: You said if I need help to call somebody.
Woman: I didn’t mean the police.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Bill Gates talks about philanthropy

Bill Gates talks about philanthropy in his keynote speech at the Carnegie Mellon University (Sept 22nd 2009).


Thursday, December 03, 2009

Speak with Conviction - By Taylor Mali

We must all learn to speak with conviction and not...like...you know...Watch the video below, and you'll...you know...see!


Monday, November 30, 2009

Modern Warfare 2 - Amazing Knife Throw

This shot was either pure luck or bloody good. Either way, it is super awesome.


Thursday, November 26, 2009

Hans Rosling talks about Asia's rise

Asia is rising in the world again. Hans Rosling a renowned statistician predicts the exact date at which Asia will overtake the west.


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The most brilliant comedy clip I have seen in years!

Americans may get offended. On the other hand, it's from SNL (Saturday Night Live) an American TV show....

EDIT: Stupid Youtube removed the video for my country due to "copyright restrictions". Which translates to them being jerks; like they've never heard of "fair use". I found it on Metacafe. See below...




Saturday, October 17, 2009

Some useful code for firefox users

For those using Firefox, you might be annoyed with the All Tabs Button on the top right side of the tab bar. This button is not only useless, it takes up space that becomes valuable in a tab bar full of open tabs. The method to remove this button is not so easy, but it is still possible by editing a particular file.

For Windows users:
1. Go to your profile folder (C:\Documents and Settings\******\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\3lwzvjk3.default\chrome) and locate a file named userChrome-example.css
2. Open the file in wordpad or any text editor.
3. Add this line to the file: .tabs-alltabs-button { display: none !important; }
4. Save and close the file.
5. Rename the file to userChrome.css
6. Restart Firefox.

For Linux users:
1. Go to your profile folder (/home/******/.mozilla/firefox/9t25yjxp.default/chrome) and locate a file named userChrome-example.css
2. Open the file.
3. Add this line to the file: .tabs-alltabs-button { display: none !important; }
4. Save and close the file.
5. Rename the file to userChrome.css
6. Restart Firefox.

Hope this helps.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009

Google Sidewiki

Google Sidewiki is the latest addition to Google's tools and services. As a product just released to the world, it is too early to tell whether it will be a success. As an idea though, it is just the thing we the internet users have been looking for. It is quite literally an unbiased review/comment section for every web page on the internet. A consumer need not search the internet for reviews of a particular website. Instead, with Google Sidewiki, he need only click the Sidewiki icon on his Google toolbar to instantly see unbiased reviews of the website he is viewing.


Being an avid internet user, I can say that Google Sidewiki will be used to review not just websites, but the products on the websites too. In fact this is the purpose of such a review/comment section. I myself totally depend on reviews when buying any product. The collective human knowledge gives me the big picture about any product that I want to buy. My decisions based on unbiased reviews on the internet have never gone wrong enabling me to make the best decision possible. Such is the power of the internet. Google Sidewiki now brings that power even closer and more accessible to the average user, and I applaud Google for their clairvoyance in this respect. Since it is still new, the reviews are not sufficient to make informed decisions about products; but once people start depending on Google Sidewiki (which will inevitably happen) the reviews will be in sufficient amounts to make informed decisions using Sidewiki alone.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Google Reader

I am a follower of the official Gmail blog. It started when I saw a Gmail post on the Gmail site (before you login) and decided to follow it. I must say, they don't post drivel on that blog. It's all pretty useful stuff. So I pretty much frequented the Gmail blog and learned new useful stuff about my Gmail with every new post they posted there. That was also where I learned about Google Calendar and recently about Google Reader. This is the direct link to the post: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/find-great-stuff-to-read-in-google.html. I must say that I am now hooked to Google Reader and I can't believe that I lived without this useful tool for so long.

Google Reader is a web based feed reader. Basically, this means that a feed enabled website (most websites) can be viewed through this reader as posts whenever there is an update on the website. There are a bunch of websites that I check everyday for my hobbies, entertainment and latest news. Not all these websites have updates everyday nor are most of these updates interesting to me. Before Google Reader, I would visit each of these websites everyday in search of the latest updates. Most times I would just forget about one particular website and by the time I visit it next, I have already missed several posts which are no longer relevant for today. Even if they are not time dependent, I would feel lazy to go back read each and every post that I missed. Google Reader has simplified this process by bringing all the updates to all my favourite websites to one place. I can read the new post directly in Google Reader or I can click the link and go to the website to read it. To me, it is the most useful tool since the advent of email and I would never have known about it unless I read the Gmail blog (which is now one of my many Google Reader subscriptions).

Google Reader even enables me to read posts/updates on websites that are months old. Nothing downloads to your computer because everything just loads as you scroll down to older posts...and it just keeps going. I bet that it is possible to scroll down to the very first post of any website. I find Google Reader particularly useful for reading blogs, and webcomics. Below is a screenshot of my subscriptions.


Notice that the boston.com's "The Big Picture" is a feed that is not updated everyday; but when they do post(usually thrice a week), it is not a post to miss. I also find it useful to follow webcomics which I am a fan of. Some comics update everyday while others update only once a week. So instead of wasting time (I consider reading comics a waste of time) everyday checking the websites to see if there is an update, I just check my Google Reader to see if there are any new updates on the websites. Since the essence of the comic is in the post itself, there is no need to visit the website because I can just read the comic from Google Reader itself.


A word of caution though. When you first sign up for Google Reader, you will be given the option to subscribe to a bunch of "recommended websites" which I maintain are crap. Not only are they useless, they would intimidate you with hundreds of unread posts which you might be compelled to read, get frustrated with the volume and ditch Google Reader as a result. Just start with a clean slate go to your favourite website (eg. abstrusegoose.com) and click the following icon:In other websites, there might not be an icon. It might just say "RSS", "RSS feed" or "Atom feed". So long as you are able to subscribe to the feeds, you can add it to Google Reader. Click the Google icon:If it does not appear, just choose Google from the list of readers. It will then give you the option of adding it to your Google homepage or Google reader. Choose Google Reader and you are all set! Try Google Reader on a few webcomics (it's the best way to test it out) to start off and then decide whether to make Google Reader a part of your life.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A free CD/DVD burning software?


Want to burn CD's or DVD's without having to pay for expensive software? Well, CDBurnerXP is the perfect alternative for you. CDBurnerXP is a free software that allows you to burn CD's, DVD's, ISO's , audio CD's, bootable CD's, as well as data verification and multi language interfaces. For the average user, it's like Nero without the cost.


CDBurnerXP even burns Blu-Ray and HD-DVD's as well. The software currently works on all the major platforms including Windows XP, Vista and 7. It has yet to come out on Linux, which I'm hoping will be soon.

I am a fan of free software that work just as well (almost always better) than paid software. I don't know why; but free software just do what you want it to. Maybe it's because their makers are altruistic and genuinely want to make a difference in the world by making software that just work. Anyway, it doesn't matter. What matters is that the software is free and does the job. With the web becoming more open, it is only a matter of time before cloud computing (which are mostly free software/affordable) becomes ubiquitous allowing human knowledge to be shared by all. Overpriced junk posing as good software don't stand a chance in the new world unless they embrace the new direction the world is taking and reduce their prices to affordable levels.