Pre-RC1 Build of Vista Available!

I hate to sound like one of those dorky ads on TV, but:

Quick! Grab it while you can! In a new and improved effort, Microsoft(tm) is offering 100,000 copies of Windows Vista build 5536 to the public! Hurry, and get your iso while the offer lasts!

via Paul Thurrott's Windows Super Site

Tech Support...

Reading through Sriram's old blog, I came across this nugget from a while back. Needless to say, it's exactly the same situation as I am in.  Difference being, I have all non-techy normal people to handle, so it can get a bit frustrated...

Sriram says about the "Computer being upside down". And, he "Still Don't know" what caused that...

But...

I know! I'm such an egoisticall buff that I can't but write a blog post when I discover something I know that an uber-geek doesn't:D

It's called by a bunch of names in different video cards, but it's advertised as a "Feature". In my NVidia Geforce FX, it's called NRotate. And, in most Intel Integrated Video Cards, you still have that "feature".

What's more, there's actually a Shortkut to rotate the screen! It's thankfully off by default, but a few bits of Exploration will switch it on...

And then, all you need is to press Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow to flip it upwards, Ctrl+Alt+Left Arrow to put it up in "Portrait Mode" and so on. It's actully a rather fun prank we try at school...It's not uncommon to find upturned screens in the School Lab. But, it's rather common knowledge, so most guys know to correct it. But, it's always fun to watch the horrification of some of the lower class CS teachers when they see the Screen upturned:D

I know it! I know it! I beat an uber-Geek:D

Geee, I'm such an egoistical bastard:D

P.S. Just more link spamming, I've written about this before. More ROTFL, because she's actually supposed to be a "Fully Trained Computer Professional":D

Good Procrastination....

Reading Paul Graham on Good Procrastination. 

Here is what I think is the most striking sentence in the Essay:

 

...the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They're type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.

What's "small stuff?" Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary.[Emphasis Mine]

 

Main reason why I am completely dissed about marks and studies, atleast here...

Ever read an obtiruary that went like:

Scored 194 out of 200 in Tamil in Eleventh STD Quarterly Exam. Went to the Shop and bought Sugar. Saw 200 Films a Year...

Hopefully, more people will come to realize this, especially my Dad...

P.S. I'm posting this from Windows Live Writer, and it rocks... A couple of issues, mainly toolbar coloring has to be ironed out, but the UI is really quite responsive, and the writing experience is great, 'coz it uses the same style as the actual blog. As far as I know, this is the only blog writer that offers this feature. What else can I say: .NET Rocks!:D

Mini-Challenge from Sudar…

Ahem. After a small post when I had nothing to do about Aswin’s browsing habits, and a small joke I pulled of him in Sudar’s comments section, Sudar just posted a mini-challenge for me, asking me to try out to do the same thing to him after he posted a small screenshot.[Whew, what a long sentence!:P]

It is harder than last time, because this time, it’s just a small portion of the screen, rather than the full screen itself. Nevertheless, I did find a full sized screenshot, which he’d posted some time ago. Ofcourse, it’s outdated, but I guess I could infer something from that screenshot.

1. Uses GMail for Mail. Obviously.
2. But, also uses Yahoo mail ocassionaly, as characterized by the Yahoo Mail bookmarklet on the toolbar.
3. Too lazy to remove IE6 from the Quicklaunch bar, or even just to hide the Quicklaunch bar.
4. Too lazy to install GAIM, and instead has both GTalk and Yahoo Messenger installed.
5. Uses Bloglines for feedreading.
6. A compulsive user of Raaga for listening to music.
7. Has two folders called log and Dev which he uses frequently. Real frequently.
8. Uses a Blog-Writer that integrates with Firefox, and has a Quil icon. I’d have to check it out for the name, but it’s not Performancing for Firefox.
9. Uses an extension that adds Yahoo to the Menu in Firefox.
10. Is a complete customization freak. How else would you have the Menu and the Navigation bar on one line, and the bookmarklets and Searchbox on the next?
11. He doesn’t have a label named “Self” for emails from himself.

Ahem. Most of these are not mostly useful to anyone, except maybe for social engineering. Or, maybe, if there exists some obscure security bug that can be exploited if you have IE6 on your Quicklaunch, but don’t use it:P Or, some another bug that gives malware ability to read from folders on your Bookmarklet toolbar. But still…

Anyway, another post when I had nothing worthy to do…

This year’s taught me the full meaning of the word “busy”, and why 11^th STD is cool as well as hectically nonsensical. Hope to write a blog post on that. And, write MCP Exam 70-536 as well

                            

Aswin’s a Kid!

Oh, read it fully guys…

Incase you didn’t know, Aswin’s the Java God around the Microsoft Student Champs. Heck, he even has a tutorial or two on Java MIDP Applications, which I gather are the equivalents of .NET CF apps. Oh, he’s a Microsoft Student Champ, and a damn good one at that. Right now, he’s all hot and bothered over Ruby on Rails[who isn’t?:P], and that goes to the extent of trying to find out about this thing called as Railsconf, which looks like a Conference for Rails People[Sorry Aswin, it’s not in India….yet!]    

    He was among the top 20 Finalists in the whole of India for the MSAPP sorta-cometietion, which by and itself is cool.

    But, he’s a kid;) How? Lemme enumerate….

1. He has IE6, and that too as the First item on his QuickLaunch Bar, right before Firefox and Opera 9!
2. He uses a “Rotating World” as his “Working in Background” Mouse Pointer
3. Likes food which is mashy basy watery [tamil:kolakola]
4. Some time ago, All Punctuation will come in doubles or triples, or if you’re lucky, even Quadruples, but that’s changed now. Examples here, here and here.
5. The Site Layout/Template hasn’t changed much in the almost-one-year since he’s started.
6. Last, but not least, he reads the blog of one Lame, Useless, Sick, Idiotic, Stupid, Dumb, Brainless, Hairy Kid called Yuvi. Did I mention Dumb? I’ve seen that guy, even spoken with him, and believe me, I’m yet to meet anyone so clueless…

Lemme Come to the Point. As Mr. Nicholas says, “Pullikku Vanga”

So? What’s the Point of this Blog Post? As Raman Shankar likes to say, what’s the Big Deal? Really, nothing. Yep, nothing. I was just browsing through my Feeds in IE7, saw Aswin post this Screenshot, and having nothing much interesting to do right now, just pulled his leg a bit. And, what else would a Lame, Useless, Sick, Idiotic, Stupid, Dumb, Brainless Hairy Kid do anyway?:P

But, there’s a small Point here.

I learnt all this from his blog. And, if I’d also had his Search History….[Evil Smile]

And, if I were to combine his blog run on Blogspot[a Google Service], with his emails on GMail[another Google Service] and his IM history on Yahoo Messenger, I’d virtually know more about him than he himself!

But ofcourse, I don’t have access to these, though I know they are there. But, I know atleast two who have access to these big repositories of Information:

• The Big Bad ol’ Government
• The Corporations themselves

The thing is, the first, Government is run by mostly people without a Brain, and the second by people who have Brains, and only Brains.

So? What was the small point I was referring to? Get People who have brains into the Government.

Forget it. Talking about politics, in India, is so pointless, that it actually swallowed up the small point I was referring to…..:P

Anyway, Have Fun, Aswin:D

[School]Yrtsimehc Note Last Page

Uh, I know I’m supposed to be writing about [Inside .NET], but I’ve had a tough time deciding where to start: I’ve actually written and torn away several drafts. But, anyway, I’ll write it eventually, so it doesn’t matter…

Update: Any Ideas guys? I'll post the list of supposed Topics somewhere next week.... But, my Knoledge is a mere fraction of the Knowledge of you guys, so I'm asking for advise:)

What matters is, I’ve been stuck. You know, one of those people who think everyone else is a dumbass, and it’s their appointed duty to boss over people as if they know everything. Ofcourse, they are usually the worst at what they’re doing, but it doesn’t matter to them.

Anyway, in yet another torturing period of boring Yrtsimehc of having forced to copy stuff that’s already in the book in a more, uh, say unclear manner, I turned my attention to the back of my Yrtsimehc note book and did some usefull work. And, here’s the result of that half a period of useful work:D

Note: I know, I know. Just String.Reverse it. Reason for that is that there’s one guy from my School who’s not my friend who’s reading this Blog, and I almost got into hot water for the last post, and I’m sure I’ll get into a Volcanic Lake if he were to grok what I’m writing about…. So, please bear with me…..

10 Unspoken commandments by the Yrtsimehc Rehcaet

1. Leave the part of your brain that does independent thinking at home. I don’t have one, so it must be dangerous.
2. Thinking an Idea by yourself is against the will of God®.
3. Having fun is the work of the Devil®.
4. People who laugh are under the evil influence of the Devil®, and need to be brought under the Will of God™ by such techniques as bashing them for no reason, and giving them extra homework and fines for no apparent reason.
5. People must not be happy. Ever. How could you…..
6. Teaching means reading what’s in the textbook in the most unclear manner possible, in such a way that nobody will have a hairline chance of understanding anything that’s said.
7. Asking doubts is against the Will of God™, and against giving respect to teachers. If you respect your teacher don’t ask doubts.
8. The most important thing in a Classroom is my Concentration, and not your concentration. It shouldn’t matter a damn if you understand or not, as long as it looks like I’m the best teacher on Earth, atleast to the delusional few who fear me.
9. The best tool of the teacher is Fear. Ever.
10. The Most Important one: Never teach the students, always teach the Blackboard, the Fans, Tubelights, and ofcourse the Floor along with the Textbook: They’re always present during all Exams, so they need to know everything.

This List is Incomplete, because of the fact that the whim of the Yrtsimehc Rehcaet becomes a commandment the next nanosecond.

Anyway, this is just me Yrtsimehc Rehcaet bashing. Ofcourse, in due course, I’ll stop typing Yrtsimehc Rehcaet and start writing and thinking “I hate Yrtsimehc”, resulting in me shying away from Yrtsimehc for the rest of my life, eventually voiding me of the benefits of Yrtsimehc. That’s how millions of Students’ lives have been spoilt by the unscrupulous Teachers who’re not really, uh, Teachers: Just morons, Jocks, claiming to be Teachers….

And yes, it’s fanatical people like this who spoil religion…. That’s how it came into being this corrupted mass of blabbering idiots from the useful way of life that it was intended to be.

Anyway, just hoping that Yrtsimehc Rehcaet doesn’t grok this, though I think that has as much chance as a Windows OS running on a Linux Kernel…. Oh wait, we used to say “as much chance as Apple switched to Intel”, so I guess we better be on our Guard now:D

Thanks, and comment man, I’m tired of finding no comments on my blog