First the iPod Shuffle, and now a Macbook! Granted, that the shuffle was a raffle prize at work, it still was my first official Apple possession. For the longest time, I imagined myself never ever buying a Mac simply because to me it never appeared as a serious development platform. Having grown up with DOS and then the ever evolving Windows platform, adopting an OS that still used Objective C for most app development just didn’t seem interesting to me.
Category: Life and Personal
Life teaches a lot. Sometimes, sharing those experiences leads to deeper insights.
Categories
Plastic Surgery
This past Friday, I had to undergo an hour long plastic surgery procedure to get rid of a lesion that had formed at the bottom of my left big toe. According to the surgeon, there’s a
“one in a million” chance of it being malignant, but I am still awaiting the biopsy report.
The lesion was circular, but the surgeon mentioned that he would have to take out a square chunk of tissue, followed by performing plastic surgery to compensate for the lost tissue. The incision was a 2cm square and took more than 23 stitches to cover up! I was pretty nervous during the entire ordeal as I had never had surgery before, but I have to say that it wasn’t that bad, except for the excruciating pain once the local anesthesia wore off in the middle of the night.
I have a cast on my leg for the next 2 weeks. Of course, this means that I would be unable to drive to work, or anywhere else, for that matter. Thanks to my superiors at work, I would be able to telecommute/work from home until then.
Amazing how a harmless looking wound turned out to be something so serious….
I finally took the plunge into Amateur Radio and successfully qualified for the Technician Level license on the 12th. Although, I am still waiting for my license to arrive by mail and the call sign to show up on FCC’s website, I am also preparing to qualify for my General Level license, which would give me access to almost all the High Frequency bands for very long distance communications.
The preparation was pretty easy, and between purchasing the study guide and passing the license exam, I spent about 15 days. The Technician level is supposed to be an easy entry path for anyone interested in being a Ham. On the other hand, the General and Amateur Extra levels require much more intensive training in the fundamentals of radio communications, engineering, and regulations. It is definitely to my advantage that I have a degree in electrical engineering with extensive coursework in radio theory and antenna design.
There are exam sessions organized by volunteer examiners several times during a week, and all it takes is a simple email/phone call to register. The exam session I attended was organized at the Police Station/Courthouse in Wake Forest. I got a perfect score on the exam! The VEs coerced me into taking the exam for the General level license on the spot, even though I wasn’t prepared, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to qualify for that. Needless to say, I am happy that I am now a “ham”, and look forward to graduating to the next level very soon!
Now that I have my license, I intend to complete the requisite courses mandated by the Department of Homeland Security, and successfully enroll in the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) and the RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service). Other than volunteering, my other interests at this point are DXing (contacting other fellow hams around the globe), antenna design, and digital communications. There are a multitude of clubs and organizations around the globe, and regular events/conventions are organized on a fairly regular basis (hamfests, Field Day, nets), which makes it very easy for beginners to get their feet wet.
If you are interested in becoming a ham, too, please don’t hesitate in sending me an email for further information/guidance!
UPDATE: I just got my license information from FCC. I will now be known as Saurabh Garg, KI4WAH !
Not everyone remembers using dial-up networking to get on the Internet. This is more true for people who started using the Internet, in general, around the last 6-7 years. I used a dial-up connection to get online up until Fall 2002, which was when I finally got a 3Mbps cable connection.
Hence, after reading the announcement by the NCSU IT Department that they were retiring all their RAS modems, I was compelled to reminisce my first few days as a grad student. I ran Linux on my cheap hand-me-down desktop PC, and that meant (at least back then) that I couldn’t use AOL or any other dial-up service with the operating system without using some kind of a “hack”. Then, I discovered that NCSU had a pool of fast, albeit insufficient, modems that could be used for free off-campus network access provided you had an active campus ID.
The TCP/IP modems were pretty hard to dial into, considering that they were insufficient in number, and that most TCP/IP sessions are expected to last long. The shell access modems, on the other hand were always available. For those unfamiliar with shell access, it was basically a *NIX shell modified to fit the needs of remote dial-up users without providing them the capability of forwarding, or even running, any X server apps. You could still browse the net all you wanted using a text based browser like Lynx.
RIP, NCSU Dial-up RAS!
Came across this “interesting” personals on the local Craigslist:
The biggest challenge I have faced in life is finding company and ways to do things which I desire. Not everything is as much fun alone otherwise Adam and Eve could very well have been created of the same kind.
I am 26, grad student, 5’11, brown eyes, black hair, decent, ever smiling, inquisitive. Would not label myself as glass breaking looks but surely smart looks. As a person I am creative and surely intelligent. I enjoy movies, music, cooking, writing, poetry, reading, interesting conversations, travel, dreaming, sleeping, sports, photography, silence, emotions, occasional partying, blah blah. I love going out for walks, food or even to sit in the library with coffee. I am good with most things related to a computer. Haven’t been clubbing for long. I am easy going, peaceful, something between an extrovert and introvert, humorous, philosophical and friendly. I am the types who would go to a concert on the eve of an exam or could be awake for an entire night discussing world peace or which country has the hottest girls. I have missed entire semester of classes and still got an A. I have written 40 page love letters and chatted online 12 hours non stop. I am the kind who could dance the night away or sleep for 24 hours at a stretch. Nothing about me is deterministic and that is even an enigma for myself. As a person I have always lived maverick – my ways, my style and my choices.
I am only looking for friends or activity partners. I can be a great dependable friend and thats all I need. If you have different taste in music, have different choice of movies, drinks, places, culture, fashion, food and style – even better since it might turn out to be new and exciting to share and explore. As I said you should be different from the rest and confident about that. If you are special, you would be treasured. I believe there is always someone better than us and always someone worse but no one as unique as who we are.
I would love to play sports or go to a movie or share music, hang out for a coffee or meal, sit and have interesting conversations, go for a outing, for photography. We can listen to music together. We can be bored together, we can smile together. I don’t mind going shopping and have a classy taste. Probably we can play tennis or go for a swim. Probably you want to start gymming, so do I. Maybe we can share some stories about our lives and places we have been. I am interested in learning to play Guitar or dance. Maybe visit NY or CA or Greece or Switzerland sometime in the summer. I can teach you anything about computers and you can teach me something else. Maybe just interact on email or maybe just meet or maybe something else. I don’t know. There are too many choices.
My only expectation from you would be to find a kindred mind and a smart personality, rest all is relatively inconsequential.
BTW, I am not American. I am from India. Does this disappoint you? Well, sorry to waste your time.
Enjoy!
Now, since I had spare time on my hands, I began to analyze the person behind the post. This is what I concluded:
- He’s not fat or “weight challenged”.
- He has trouble finding friends even though he’s not an introvert — he could be an extremely unreliable/selfish person.
- He writes 40 page love letters — he is pretty obsessive/stalkerish, or is easily infatuated.
- He has tried Craigslist to meet women before, but failed, and attributes this failure to his being an Indian.
Now, this is what the female friend of an accomplice had to say about it:
- “I am afraid of him”.
- “He has written 40 page love letters than sticks in female’s minds as slightly obsessive stalkerish”.
- “What the heck do you write for 40 pages? unless you have issues”.
- “and he is Indian but only interested in American girls? hmmmm”.
- “its the same as people who are close-minded and only date within their own race”…”yet even more odd….because they are only interested in one race and it isn’t even their own”…”or in his case culture more than race”.
- “yeah but even more odd…so a russian girl that is studying…she is off limits….just sounds odd to limit yourself”.
- “maybe he wants his green card”.
I gave the guy the benefit of doubt and take it that he simply meant ‘Girls of America’, but for some reason the accomplice’s friend wasn’t willing to give him such a discount with words.
In any case, can I now say that I understand women?
Categories
New walking shoes
I went to a store called 9th Street Active Feet yesterday to get new shoes. It had been recommended to me by my manager, who seemed to remember going there a long time ago. After coming back from the store, I have to say that it was the best shoe shopping experience I have ever had!
First off, someone on the staff examines your feet and gait cycle to point out any irregularities or “over-pronation“. After that, they measure your foot size, insisting that you wear a new pair of socks to help pick out the best comfort level for your feet. I tried out 3 pairs of shoes before I settled for a pair of Brooks Addiction shoes with pronation correction. I also bought 4 pairs of the Thorlos socks. Now, these are padded sole socks that are not cotton, but acrylic, giving the foot enough breathing room. They are also the most comfortable socks I have ever worn.
Now, the interesting thing that happened was that the Marketing Director of the “sock company” was there while I was shopping, and he offered me a buy 3 get one free deal. He was really glad that I was trying out their product, and talked to me for a bit. After coming back, I did some reading up about the company and discovered that they’re NC based, with manufacturing facilities in this state itself!
I would have definitely gone to a Dick’s Sporting Goods or similar chain-store had this independent shop not been recommended to me. The service and satisfaction I received far exceeded all of my expectations from a shoe store.
So, basically, if you live in the area, and need new shoes, head over to the 9th Street Active Feet, Inc.!
Categories
Marriage
This is what Voltaire had to say about marriage:
I CAME across a reasoner who said: ” Engage your subjects to marry as soon as possible; let them be exempt from taxes the first year, and let their tax be distributed over those who at the same age are celibate. “The more married men you have, the less crime there will be. Look at the frightful records of your registers of crime; you will find there a hundred bachelors hanged or wheeled for one father of a family.
“Marriage makes man wiser and more virtuous. The father of a family, near to committing a crime, is often stopped by his wife whose blood, less feverish than his, makes her gentler, more compassionate, more fearful of theft and murder, more timorous, more religious.
“The father of a family does not want to blush before his children. He fears to leave them a heritage of shame.
“Marry your soldiers, they will not desert any more. Bound to their families, they will be bound also to their fatherland. A bachelor soldier often is nothing but a vagabond, to whom it is indifferent whether he serves the king of Naples or the king of Morocco.”
The Roman warriors were married; they fought for their wives and children; and they enslaved the wives and children of other nations.
A great Italian politician, who further was very learned in oriental languages, a very rare thing among our politicians, said to me in my youth : “Caro figlio, remember that the Jews have never had but one good institution, that of having a horror of virginity.” If this little race of superstitious intermediaries had not considered marriage as the first law of man, if there had been among them convents of nuns, they were irreparably lost.
Interesting that it still holds true!
Categories
Come back and save the world….
CHORUS: Krishna Ni Bhe Gha-Ni, Baroo ! Krishna Ni Bhe Gha-Ni, Baroo ! Darkness coming around, And every body fight with the brother Every body wants control, Don't hesitate to kill one-another So come back as Jesus Come back and save the world Bless all the future of every boy and girl Come back as Rama, Forgive us for what we've done Come back as Allah, Come back as anyone CHORUS: ....... Religion is the reason, The world is breaking up into pieces Colour of the people, Keeps us locked in hate please release us So Come down and help us, Save all the little ones They need a teacher, And you are the only one We can't rely on, To build a better world A world that's for children, A world that's for everyone CHORUS:..... (Interlude) Time is healer, and time moves on Time don't wait for any one So, Tell me you'll be back But that will take some time I waiting ...... (with interlude) I'm waiting, yeah yeah...... Come back as Jesus Come back and save the world We need a teacher, and You are the only one Come back as Rama Forgive us for what we've done Come back as Allah Come back for every one....... (Interlude) Govinda Guruhari Gopala hu.....
I was finally able to grab a Wii console from Best Buy last week! This is an amazing console. It’s very different from all the current generation consoles out there in terms of both playability and enjoyability. The motion sensing controls are great for sports games like Tennis, Bowling, and boxing. Needless to say, a lot of time on the weekends has been spent playing these games with my housemates.
Just when I thought that my last ever Nintendo purchase would be the DS Lite, I was proved wrong by the phenomenal approach of the Wii towards gameplay. I am already spending more time with my Wii than I have ever spent with any of my other consoles to date.
Now, I just need to work on getting that “Pro” rating in bowling!
So my Xbox 360 console died almost a month ago while I was playing Geometry Wars. All this while I had been cherishing the fact that my machine wasn’t one of the numerous defective units out there, but as fate would have it, the console died about a month after its warranty expired.
Now, I have had a good experience with Xbox support, so I thought it would be easy to get them to fix my console for free, seeing that it definitely died because of a manufacturing defect, and not my negligence. This didn’t happen. They asked me to send my console to their repair center with a payment of $140 as it was not covered by the warranty anymore.
I would not have any issues with paying to get my console fixed if ALL of the following weren’t true:
- The replacement console would be a refurbished unit.
- The replacement would only come with a 90 day warranty.
- It made so much more sense to get a new core system for $299 and get a 1 year warranty on it.
Now, as you might have read in my earlier posts, I am also an Xbox ambassador. Also, I am a regular listener of Xbox Live’s Director of Programming, Major Nelson’s weekly podcast. So, I thought it would be a good idea to shoot him an email to see if he found something wrong in spending $140+shipping/boxing money to get a refursbished unit when it clearly died because of a manufacturing defect that countless others are facing. After getting back a vacation reminder from him, I received a short one line email from him or someone else monitoring his email address that said, “Where are you from? When did you purchase your Xbox 360? What are you support ticket #s?“
I sent back the information that same day, and later received an email that said, “And where are you know in the process?” Now, bad grammar/spelling apart, I was not really expecting any relief, but it’s always good to give it a shot. Nevertheless, after not hearing back from him for about 12 days, I decided to try support again.
This time, I requested the support person to allow me to speak to his supervisor because I was not ready to spend money on getting my Xbox 360 fixed. He put me on hold for about 5 minutes, and then came back on the phone saying that he could offer me a 25% discount towards the repair charges if I wanted. I politely told him that I am not looking for a discount, and that I would still like to talk to his supervisor.
So, the supervisor picks up the call and then goes through the same drivel about how I have to pay $140 because the warranty is up. Again, I explain to him that I wouldn’t mind paying if they promised me a brand new console instead of a refurb. At this point he goes on to explain to me that a refurbished unit is 99% new, and that I am actually getting a new replacement. I tell him that it is unacceptable.
Now, get this…he offers to give me a bigger discount than 25% towards the repairs! What are they thinking?
Now, after spending half an hour on the phone, I just tell him that I am better off getting a brand new Core Xbox 360 for $299 and throwing this one out. He seems to agree, and thanks me for calling support.
If your console has died outside warranty, too, and you have been successful in getting it fixed for free, I would be delighted to hear back from you.