A night at my estate

Its been more than a decade since i had chance to stay at my estate for a night.  Got the chance for tat this month, when a me and my friend planned for a trip to estate. Decided to make the most of it .  Started with a trekking , a swin in a river , a night walk in search of some bears and yes a very hearty meal after everything outing  .  So was the climate, Just perfect .

Time-Lapse Videos of Massive Change on Earth

Found this article on wired

Literally show how we are playing with our planet without thinking about its consequenses

Urbanization of Dubai
Nothing says environmental exploitation like building your own palm tree-shaped archipelago. Dubai, of the United Arab Emirates, has dredged sand from the sea floor to build hundreds of artificial islands along its coast, hoping to attract wealthy tourists. Many projects have been put on hold since the global credit crunch hit the region.

Sucking Out the Aral Sea
In the 1960s, central Asia’s Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world. As a result of irrigation and damming, it had shriveled to 10 percent of its original size (marked by the thin black line) by 2007. It is now three separate, highly salinic, lakes.

Clearing the Amazon
Over the past three decades, the state of Rondônia in western Brazil cleared almost 35 percent of its rainforest. According to NASA’s website, the pattern of deforestation is common in the Amazon. People build roads, then clear some of the land for small farms. After a few years, the land erodes and becomes depleted. The farmers, suffering from low crop yields, convert the land for cattle, then clear more forest for crops, and so on until large cattle holders buy the land.

Post-War Clean-Up of Mesopotamia’s Wetlands
Sometimes, change is a good thing. The marshes of Mesopotamia had been drained and decimated by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. When his regime ended in 2003, Iraqis began reclaiming the marshes. This shows the reflooding of the marshlands and regrowth of vegetation. But serious concerns remain: the water used for reflooding may not be sustainable as the population recovers and expands its agricultural efforts, and the region may have already suffered an irreversible loss of species diversity.

Drought in Utah
Southern Utah’s Lake Powell was once teeming with boaters, fishers and vacationers. But from 2000 to 2005 its water level dropped from 20 million to 8 million acre-feet, due to severe drought. Water levels have rebounded a bit, but are expected to plummet to levels even lower than those of 2005 during the next serious drought.

Best Online Photo personalised gift site

Past few days , was searching for some good online site to print all my photos at less least cost.  Only few sites are available in india for this.

Zoomin

This site follows web2.0 standards . Has a neat and clean layout.

• Has Support for Picasa and Flickr
• Lowest print at 2.95 for a 6 x 4
• Photo can also be uploaded directly via web
• Payment Via Debit card
• Print available on Glossy Matte and metallic papers
• Gift option available

• No Credit for first time sign on
• Requires to enter Debit card details including CCV and address before contuning

Some Stuff provided by them are

photomug

calendar

greeting card

tshirt

collage

zoomini book(5 sizes)

photo print(8 sizes)

canavas prints (7 sizes)

PicSquare

I prefer picsquare coz of many options for gifts to choose from

• Support for Picasa and Flickr
• Free credit on first registration
• Gift option available
• Photos can also be uploaded even via web
• Payment can be done via net banking or via ur tataindicom account(if u are a tata customer)
• Couriers are delivered via DTDC or Overnite express
• Very fast processing of 2 r 3 days usually

• Photo paper quality too bad

Snapfish

This site is too costly , too cumbersome to use

• Has no support for flickr or picasa
• Provides Credit points for first time registration
• Uploading photos from computer requires a standalone app to be downloaded

Google April 1st Prank

Was eager to check out what prank google is going to pull out for this april. They have went with Youtube. All video layouts has been flipped upside down..  Not stopping with tat google has even added tips on how to view this inverted videos . 

uTorrent Speed charts

After the famous rule by indian ISP of FUP , i restricted downloads and other bandwidth heavy applications. while my utorrent still used to run idle all day . Even under the idle condition they keep sending out datapackets at periodic intervals  producing nice charts.

The value of 500Rs

The current india described with a 500 rupee..  It is worthless to 1 guy and it means a entire tution fee for another.. A very good video

5 stages of a blogger’s life

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

Funny Tech Support

Came Across this today , it reminds me of my office

Me: “Thanks for calling ***** tech support.

(The customer gives me her info and has a thick accent I can’t place.)

Me: “Great! What can I do for you?”

Her: “Yes. I am trying to edit dees beedio, and eet’s blue and blue on de ting.”

Me: “So…it’s blue, and blue…on the thing?”

Her: “Yes.”

Me: “Where is it blue?”

Her: “On de ting.”

Me: “By ‘thing,’ do you mean the Computer screen or your camera?”

Her: “Yes…de ting.”

Me: “Ma’am, I can’t see what you are looking at so you’ll have to tell me the name of the thing that is blue.”

Her: *getting angry* “DE TING!!! Eeet’s BLUUUUE AN BLUUUEE ON DE TING!!!!”

Me: “What exactly is blue? The video on your monitor? Are you outputting to TV? The viewfinder on your camera?”

Her: “Yes.”

Me: “Yes…which one?”

Her: *yelling* “DE TING!!!!”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m sorry but I don’t understand where you are having a problem.”

Her: “THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!! I SPEAK PERFECT ENGLISH!!! MY HUSBAND TAUGHT ME HE WILL BE VERY VERY ANGRY WIT YOU!!! I DEMAND RESPECT!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!”

Me: “Ma’am, I agree. You speak english very very well. The problem I am having is you are not telling me where you are seeing blue video.”

Her: “ON DE TIIIING!!!”

(This exchange went on for a while before she got frustrated and hung up. The best part is, my call was being listened to by some higher level support guys. They created an internal troubleshooting document that appeared as follows:)
PROBLEM: VIDEO IS BLUE AND BLUE ON THE THING

SOLUTION: NONE AT THIS TIME

TROUBLESHOOTING:
>(TECH SUPPORT)IS THE THING BLUE? TRY REINSTALLING THE THING

>(TECH SUPPORT) THING REINSTALLED. STILL BLUE

>(ENGINEER) CANNOT RECREATE THING IN LAB.

>(ENGINEER) PROBLEM ALMOST RECREATED. THING RED.

Tata caps bandwidth following airtel

After the announcement from airtel to cap unlimited connection ,  Tata indicom has also joined the wagon. With a very decent name to the policy. Calling the policy as Fair Usage Policy the bandwidth is now restriceted. Its not literally a volume based plan rather than a unlimited plan, except that the company dosent accept this to be a volume based plan., and knowing the consequenses on company reputation they have managed to keep this out of media very well. No offical announcement has been made , Customers are informed when the contact customer care.  This is a very pitiable state in india. While countries are competing for higher bandwidth and faster transfer mode, here competetion seem to restrict ppl to what is profitable for the company.

Plan Type	Plan Speed (Kbps)	Fair Usage Limit (MB/Month)
Unlimited	64	5,000
Unlimited	128	20,000
Unlimited	256	45,000
Unlimited	384	70,000
Unlimited	512	80,000
Unlimited	1024	90,000
Unlimited	2048	105,000
Unlimited	4096	125,000

As per the new rules a 386kbps connection is only allowed for a total bandwidth of around 68GB per month both upload and download combined!! There is no point in calling this unlimited anymore. Its just another volume based plan . Worser the connection will be terminated once the limit exceeds.  Hope TRAI Comes up with a decesion soon in this , before other ISP take on this plan.

Funny Replies

Got this as forward

Q: Does it ever get windy in India? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? (UK).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see elephants in the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you’ve been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Delhi to Goa- can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it’s only three thousand kms, take lots of water.

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in India? (Sweden)
A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes.

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in India? Can you send me a list of them in Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta and Bangalore? (UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in India? (USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. In-di-a is that big triangle in the middle of the Pacific & Indian Ocean which does not.. oh forget it. …… Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Goa. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in India? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into India? ( UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Indiana Pacers matches schedule? (France)
A: Indiana is a state in the Unites States of…oh forget it. Sure, the Indiana Pacers matches are played every Tuesday night in Goa, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Can I wear high heels in India? ( UK )
A: You’re a British politician, right?

Q: Are there supermarkets in Bangalore, and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in India who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All Indian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: Do you have perfume in India? ( France)
A: No, WE don’t stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in India? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in India? (France)
A: Only at Christmas.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you’ll have to learn it first

Q: Can I see Taj Mahal anytime? (Italy)
A: As long as you are not blind, you can see it anytime.

Q: Do you have Toilet paper? (USA)
A: No, we use sand paper. (we have different grades)