From a Combination of Words to an Identity

How do you come up with such fancy names?

Hello MysticDews, or whatever that handle of yours means.

Didn't quite get the tale behind your MysticDews identity.

This was a fraction of number of questions of that nature. A lot of people have been asking me about the MysticDews identity that I maintain throughout my social cloud. I wanted to do a post on this when I started writing here, but somehow it didn't seem appealing to me at that time.

So where did this MysticDews actually come from?

It happened one chilly morning, when I had to attend a lecture at my physics classes. As usual, I reached a little early and was wondering what to do. I walked on the grassy ground nearby and dew drops on the foliage caught my attention. I wanted to photograph it and asked one of my teachers if he could allow me to use his camera phone for a while. I clicked a few pictures and was so lost that I didn't notice that all my classmates had arrived and were watching me click those pictures. I heard someone whisper "He's a mysterious guy..."

The day continued, and ended with not even a distant particle of hint that it would be the making of something that I'll be identified as. Next day I couldn't attend the lecture and when I later met my friends, they asked me where did I disappear and that the teacher was asking about why the dew drop boy didn't attend. I replied, without much thought,

"The mysterious guy disappeared like the dews - Mystic Dews."

That's when I first used that name. Later in the night, while on the bed, looking at the stars from my window the sound of Mystic Dews kept ringing through my ears. I liked the fanciness of that name and the way it came into being - so much that I decided to use it as an identity for myself.

That is the story of MysticDews - from a combination of words, to an identity.

With a special thanks to all those who appreciated me for that handle, I end this post.. :)

4 Quick Short Posts: Part 3 & 4: 1008 Laddus and Self Discoveries

1008 Laddus and 8 pundits:

I never thought I'd blog about a puja (a religious worship ritual), but this one had some thing interesting. At first, the idea of 1008 Laddus (for those who do not know, a Laddu is a spherical Indian sweet) didn't seem to be a big one to me, but when I had to carry the boxes containing them, 4 floors to my home, I realized how much it was.

In the image are: 1) Boxes, all filled. 2) and 3) are Laddus

There was a puja at home, which mom and dad said was for Lord Ganpati. All this puja and God stuff never sounded logical enough to get my interest, but I wanted to see what 1008 laddus looked like when together. And the sight didn't disappoint me. 1008 is a large number. We had to fill large vessels, two large dishes, a canister and a plastic container to accommodate them.

After the puja, we distributed boxes of those laddus to the 8 pundits that had come, to our neighbors and friends, but there's still a reasonable amount of it left for us. Good luck to my sister, she'll enjoy it perhaps.

[This post is part 3 of a multipart post, read part one, two and four by clicking on the links]

A Few Self Discoveries:

No, they aren't about the inner-self or the philosophical types but three things that I discovered about myself lately. It might as well sound insignificant.

One, is that I've developed a liking for liquid hand-washes. I like its versatility and how quickly and conveniently I can use it. Two, Nivea's Musk Talc makes me feel unwell. I keep sneezing and coughing if I smell it even once. I think it is because of the super fine particles it is broken into that irritate my nose and throat. (No, I do not eat it, but it still makes my throat go all kaboomzaboomkizoom) Three, I often feel like dropping out of my current college. I'm still not able to adjust myself there. I don't quite like it. :(

[This post is part 4 of a multipart post, read part one, two and three by clicking on the links]

4 Quick Short Posts: Part 1: What, Why? And Google Chrome

A lot happened since I last blogged. I have a reason for being away. I've been very busy with my college assignments. Not that I say I've been very regular in the past, but it so happens that when I think of being more loyal to the interwebs, something or the other crops up and all that loyalty gets trapped within the confines of my head.

Thought of writing an abridged post, but there is a lot to write and having them separated in to shorter posts sounds like a better idea to me. Plus, some topics deserve to stand out from the rest. They won't be detailed posts, so spare me if I'm not able to serve you well this time.

All done creating a base for the rest, here's part one for you...

Google Chrome:

Google recently (ok, it was recent when I thought of writing about it) launched their new web browser - Chrome. It is based on code from the open source browser Chromium. Chrome became an instant hit without much publicity. That is one thing I highly admire about Google - there's never much flashy advertising about their products, but still they get famous pretty quickly. Chrome, for a relevant example, obtained a little more than 1% of the browser market share within two days of its launch.

As of now, it has been launched for the Windows platform only, but a Linux and Mac port is being worked upon. For the same reason, I've not been able to personally review it, because I never really returned to my PC after 29th July. But from what I hear on the web and from people who tried it out, it has been one great browser. Google, as they put it on their blog says, Chrome is a browser for the current face of the web.

Google Suggest which graduated out of Labs few days back, is built into the OmniBox (the address bar, because it does more than just getting URLs, has been christened that) in Chrome and is a great feature. I see Google Chrome as a step closer to the hypothetical Google OS for computers. Who knows may be we'll have it some day sitting pretty on our computers (Naah, I still don't see the thought of me leaving the Mac!)

To know more about it, I'd suggest all of you on the Windows platform to take it for a spin once, you'll sure like it.

[This post is part 1 of a multipart post, read part two, three and four by clicking on the links]

A College Assignment was Never so Much Fun

Having a Mac has its own frills and tons of advantages. What you can do is limited only by your creativity. I sure knew that, but recently when I had to submit an assignment at college, I found a cool new way to complete it using my Mac.

Now since our college does not accept typewritten assignments, I had to write it manually. After some research on the internet, I collected information and organized it in Mac's built in text editor TextEdit. After adding in my knowledge too, it started getting quite lengthy. I usually avoid printing unless it is absolutely necessary and to write looking at the Mac seemed time consuming. While trying to figure out a better way to do it, I found the Speech option in the TextEdit's Edit menu. I quickly configured System Preferences to start and stop speaking selected text by a key combination and reduced the speed at which Victoria (Victoria is  a voice in Leopard, which I felt was the clearest) would speak. And there you have it - Mac dictates and I write.

But keeping up with that speed while writing was not my cup of tea. Besides, it would either repeat the entire selected text when I asked it to speak again, or I would have to reselect the text omitting the part that I've already written. I knew I had seen a solution to this while playing around with Automator.

Command+Space > Typed "au", hit the Return key, and Automator was up and running. I created a workflow that had actions arranged this way:

• Get contents of TextEdit document
• Text to Audio file

Opened my document in TextEdit and executed the workflow and I had an AIFF file on my desktop. I opened it in iTunes and now everything seemed in place. I could see the text in TextEdit if required and had iTunes dictate to me the contents. With the media keys, it was not necessary for me to keep iTunes as the frontmost application. I could pause the playback whenever I felt Victoria was speaking too fast and could resume it with the press of a key. I could complete my assignment very quickly that way.

Completing an assignment was never so much fun :)

The Day the Mac Finally Arrived

29th July, 2008. The date will be recorded as an eventful day in my history - as the day the Mac finally arrived. It was definitely one of my happiest day. One of those when I literally shouted out "YaY!"

Not that it came to me as a complete surprise but after almost an year of rejected and postponed demands, when you finally get something you always yearned for, you do feel extraordinarily happy. I've been smiling with a smile so big, that at times I myself feel that my smile would extend out my face.

So finally, let me introduce to the world my cute little MacBook, which I got as a birthday gift on my 21st birthday.

It is a 13.3 inch white MacBook, with 2GB of RAM and 160GB of hard disk space and Intel's X1300 graphics chipset and a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor powers this beautiful machine.

As a true Apple fan, the MacBook was welcomed home with an un-boxing ceremony, pictures of which have been uploaded to Flickr.

Because I understand the value of this gift, I've decided I wont ask my parents to buy me anything, well not at least anytime soon. I'm just trying to be a good son you know ;)

All this family stuff reminds me of another promise that I made to myself -

"I'll never buy my children a Windows based PC. They will be iChildren. Smart Mac Kids ;)"

I even got a WiFi router so that I can use my internet connection on my Mac anywhere in the home. Ever since I laid hands on this beauty, I've been very happy. Mom says I'll put on weight because of that happiness. :) Well, perhaps they will never understand how it feels to free yourself from Gates and Windows. I've fallen in love with every single thing on my Mac, right from the way the icons on the dock bounce to notify you of certain events, to the screws on the sides. One of those things that I love a lot is the Apple logo on the lid that glows when I'm using my Mac.

With that and another sweet Welcome to Mr. Mac, I would end this post which also happens to be the first to be composed on the Mac.

The Happening

There is something about M. Night Shyamalan that draws me to his movies. So when I saw the adverts and trailers of his latest movie - The Happening, I knew I had to watch it.

On Friday, 13th when it was released, I planned to watch the first show at the nearest theater that was screening it. The show was to begin at 2pm and it was already 1 when I finally decided that I am going to watch it. Messages to friends requesting company were understandably replied in negative on grounds of extreme spontaneity of the plan. At just a few minutes to 2 I reached the theater. This would be my first First-Day-First-Show movie and sixth that I would be watching alone in a theater.

I will purposely skip details so that this doesn't become a spoiler for those who are willing to watch it.

The movie opens with a scene at a park in New York where people are busy with their early morning walks. Soon a gust of wind blows and the series of activities that actually define the movie begins. Basically, the movie is about this set of events that starts spreading in all of the north-east America and the way people get killed due to it. People try to escape from the places affected by The Happening but eventually get killed because it is too late and it spreads everywhere.

What appears to be a terrorist attack in the beginning is later on ruled out by scientists and is given an ecological reason. It is a typical Night Shyamalan movie, with no conclusive end. The reason for The Happening, till the very end remains a mystery.

On a scale of 5, I would rate it at 3.5. It is a one time watch for people who like movies of such suspense and thriller genre.

Signing out...

A bad day at Cafe Coffee Day

Before they began, I was pretty much looking forward to my vacations. But later, when exams got over, that excitement started to fade away. And the reason was very much obvious - no more meeting friends as regularly as before, that feeling of remaining in the confines of my home and more prominently those black benches in the college which would be missed a lot (I must clarify, the benches in our classrooms were brown, black ones were near the campus lawns ;) ). So today, about a week into the vacations, I decided to meet up few of my friends. I stay a little away from where most of my folks stay, so its me who goes out to meet them. And even otherwise, this place seriously lacks good relaxing, enjoyable venues.

So, I headed to Aaditya's home, and called Robert over to his place. For me, being an ardent coffee lover, in Aadi's company, selecting Cafe Coffee Day as our next venue didn't take much time and came rather naturally. So we three landed up in CCD and seated ourselves on the chairs as against the couch, were we usually sit. That upset us a bit but then its no Central Perk, and we are no F.R.I.E.N.D.S. that we get to sit at the same place everytime.

Knowing less, about the more unpleasant things that were to happen, we took a look at the menu. It was certainly different from what it usually is. The brown, multi-page menu was replaced by a single, slightly long placard-ish purple one. Ever before today, I used to somewhat admire CCD for the sophisticated and appealing names they gave to various coffees. The feeling changed, on finding that their attempt to be creative was miserably overdone. They had to take help of certain Hindi words to name the Coffee-combos. First, I have no objection to using Hindi names, unless it is done pathetically. Second, notice the word 'combo'.

After discussing that in a confused state, we were not-so-soon helped by a CCD-guy. We were told that the changed menu was only for today and that we won't be getting our regular coffees. They would be accompanied with either ice-creams or cookies - Compulsorily. Further more, an irony was awaiting us. We were told that the add-ons will be Complimentary, but they will be charged for.

"My dear CCD too started resorting to such marketing strategies", I said to myself.

A little disheartened, we ordered a Sizzling Brownie - which would be served with three extra scoops of ice-cream - "Complimentary".  Meanwhile, the couch was vacated and we promptly moved over to it. After the usual chat and an unusually long wait, the sizzling brownie finally arrived, not sizzling. At least one thing didn't change. The way we friends gorged on it (and no, it is not uncivilised).

Suddenly, when everything started to seem normal, the music suddenly started hurting. The shrill voice from some old Akshay Kumar - Shilpa Shetty movie hurt our ears and our tolerance. Ignoring it under the pretext of a It-Might-Be-Another-Mistake we waited for it to change. It changed, for the worse. Now it was Govinda, definitely not at his best. All this at a place which Aaditya introduced to us as one with "good ambience and good music" and to which we sure agreed, sounded disheartening.

We soon asked for the bill, "Cheque" as what Aaditya would prefer to call. As with everything else, that too arrived, late. After making the payments, we asked if they allowed us to write in our comments and suggestions somewhere. We were "promptly" (no sarcasm intended here) provided with a small coffee cup shaped questionnaire and a pen. Annoyed with the day's service, we commented with sarcasm. We wrote all over the questionnaire, ignoring the questions, as if it were a plain piece of paper. We would have written more than 2 sentences, if the pen didn't stop working!

We stepped out of the place, not missing the smell of coffee - it was anyways not there today.

Here's signing out with a small wish for my dear CCD..

Get Well Soon...

How Geek Are You?

Last month was quite a busy one. With university exams going on, it was tough to find time to do anything else but study. Now that my exams are over, its holiday time for me. And holiday for me, means finding new things on the web, coding, designing and other geeky stuff.

Incidently, I happened to find this website from somewhere (must be be from one of my various jumps - from one blog to the other or from one website to the other or some random takes at Google) and took the Geek Quiz to get a proof of my geekiness and to have a numerical score associated with its degree. Usually I never have to prove it to people, they somehow make it out from my appearance perhaps.

The description of the test goes this way

The Geek Quiz

Ever lose your car keys and wish life had ctrl+f? Have you trained your parakeet to whistle songs from the Ocarina of Time? You could be a geek: take our 2 minute quiz to determine how much geek is coursing through your veins!

Ctrl+F, thoughts of having RFID tags on everything, dreams of a completely automated world and such often cross my mind. So, without hesitating for a moment, I jumped into taking the test and here's the result.

73% Geek

My score was not bad though.

Try your hand at it and find out your Geek Quotient.

Of Twitter, Tumblr and 512 kbps

Honestly speaking, I'm writing this entry so that my blog doesn't feel lonely. It has been more than a while that I last updated here. But I have an excuse for this hiatus - My exams are fast approaching, and nothing that could make my writing skills feel that desire to wake up, has happened.

The schedule these days has become void of any thing that would bring a bright smile to my face. Everything seems to be monotonous these days. Get up, study, eat, study again, eat again, sleep and then everything would repeat itself in cycles of infinity. The only interesting things that I do at times, to deviate from the humdrum life is a little Twitter-ing and Tumblr-ing.

These two Web 2.0 applications have been giving me a dose of the much needed F5 for my life. Twitter, as defined on its home page, is

a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

On the other hand, Tumblr, is correctly described as a scrapbook. The entries on Tumblr are called tumblelogs. The help section has a better analogy to understand it.

To make a simple analogy: If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.

You can also look at tumblelogs as slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to post and share stuff you find or create.

I have developed a liking for these two places. I twitter here and my tumblelog which i have named Dew Drops (all spelled in the lower case actually) is here. I like the simplicity of their concepts. Tumblr allows you to collect stuff from the web and tumblelog it in quick and easy steps, whereas Twitter lets your tweople [a tweatiful twerm supposedly coined by my fellow tweeter - Preshit] know what are you up to.

And what else could beautify the pleasure of doing all this and more, than 512 kbps. I recently got my speeds upgraded to 512 kbps. It seems to be working great - pages open faster, files download at twice of what they used to and the internet has even stopped playing its favorite, hide-n-seek with me.

And when all seems to be gleeful, its time to realize that exams begin from 9th this month and I still have a lot to study. The  piled up books lying around me waiting to be opened and thoroughly scanned, leave me with no option but sign out and study..

Till then..

Finally...

Finally, today after struggling with my ever DC/RC-ing connection and re-compiling code to have it work after uploading, I could get my  project website up and running.

Though it is not very well designed and still has quite a few bugs, but it was more than enough considering the limited amount of time that I had. Still, what's important is that I'm content (or may be not yet, I can do much better) with the way it is now.

More later, signing out...

[Edit {20th May, '08}: The link doesn't work any more. The website was hosted on a limited-time free hosting.]

Broken

The recent past was quite sad and shocking for me on the personal front.

The last two weeks have been the worst of my life. Major misunderstandings, irreconcilable differences and similar stuff that cropped up has sort of broken me down into a million pieces. I feel i have lost all my strength. People i trusted and called my own seem to have been lost somewhere, in a place where i don't seem to find them. The current situation due to some absurd and baseless misunderstood reasons has been such that i feel a lot lonely and as if i am an alien to this society. Just a couple of friends who have been really understanding and caring have helped me live through these testing times of mine. I still speak to those selected few about my emotional condition and the things that i am being made to go through, and they are the only ones who understand me, listen to me patiently, and are actively helping me to overcome this sad part of my life. I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart for helping me to keep standing and face the situation. But i must say, all this taught me a lot. Most of all, I learnt to be a bit aggressive, else people just take you for granted and walk all over you. I have changed a lot after all this, though i don't know, whether for the good or for the bad. Although that rough patch seems to be passing away now, but it has left a wound deep in my heart, and i'm sure it wont go away.

It sits there, reminding me of how people changed. It sits there, reminding me of a goal, i have to achieve. It sits there, quiet, yet hurting. Covered, yet painful. Silent, yet speaking a thousand words...

You have it - you enjoy, You dont - sit back!

It was not long back, when we were taught in schools about the 3 basic needs of mankind. Textbooks and teachers listed them as follows:

• Food
• Clothing and
• Shelter

Do these so called facts still hold true in today's world? In my various encounters with life, I have realized that whats said above is probably not true anymore. I am not saying that things have completely changed, but at least the order in which these needs appear, has. With the passage of time, a relatively newer need has surfaced and has gained prominence over the others. In today's world our top most need is something which we can never get enough of...

Money..

Money, which Wikipedia defines as any token or other object that functions as a medium of exchange that is socially and legally accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts.

But is has surely become more than just a token or an object. Money is inevitable. We need it to live our lives. The system of the world says so. If you have it, you enjoy, if you don't, sit back. We need money for food, we have to buy it. We need it for drinking water, we have to pay our water bills or again, buy bottled water! People who stay far away from their dear ones, have to again spend money, to talk to them. So its money again to even talk to our dear ones. We need to pay our telephone bills, we pay for the internet connection, we pay for snail mails (people do use it). So its money again. Another strange thing here is that to do all this, the money we pay, goes to people we might never even talk to or even see. According to me, (though my view, in the big picture, doesn't count!) we need to change. The concept of money should be virtualised. We can have a world were money doesn't really exist. We can think of it as an improved version of the Barter system. We can have our knowledge and skills being exchanged for services and goods that we use or buy. Or we can even think of a world where money can be replaced by virtual money. As an example, consider a system where all payments are made using the prepaid balance in our mobile phone accounts. We go to buy something, and the retailer could deduct money from our prepaid account. Similarly, we offer our services to someone, and we get our prepaid accounts credited with the appropriate amount. Every payment could be made using the simple mobile phone. And now, because of the advent of technology, the same money could be used for variety of purposes like talking, surfing the net, etc. Though this is a far fetched dream and just a dream, it would really be a great idea to virtualize money. Then perhaps people will be more happy, because their needs will be intertwined with their services they offer. Till something like this happens, if you have it, enjoy, if not, just sit back!