Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

January 30, 2008

Another interesting advertisement

Filed under: Humor — Tags: , — Suramya @ 2:29 PM

Saw this one at the IndiJoe’s (or is it IndeJoe’s) restaurant in Bangalore when I went there for dinner. It made me laugh.

– Suramya

January 29, 2008

Open Source Software lists

Filed under: Computer Software,Tech Related — Suramya @ 2:10 PM

Open Source Living has a great list of the various Open Source Software’s (OSS) that are available out there on the web.

It addresses one of the biggest problems with the OSS: the lack of knowledge about the various alternatives that are available. It is classified into various subsections like “Graphics & Photo”, Video, Audio etc. With a great listing. It is being migrated to another CMS (Content Management System) so while thats going on the creator is not making any additions to the site.

The advantage of OSS is that its free to try and its free to use. 🙂 So instead of spending big money on proprietary software check out OSS . You just might find something that you like and save a few bucks.

In an earlier post I had talked about various Open Source Project Management software. Found this post that reviews the various Project planner software. Check it out if you are looking for a Project Management software:

– Suramya

January 27, 2008

Reading a dying art? Thoughts on the Kindle and random ramblings

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 6:40 PM

Steve Jobs was in news a few days ago for his comment stating that Kindle will fail because Americans don’t read anymore. Well.. If that was true it would cause a decline in sales but as Jobs apparently forgot there are a lot of other countries in the world and some of them contain people who do read a lot. Even if 1% of the world wide population bought the Kindle it would make it a smashing success. Which if I remember correctly Kindle is.

The other point is that the people who do read, read a lot. I have been a member of the Book forum the past few days and most of the members over there are people who read atleast a book a week, some like me read a book a day. Just to give you an idea of what quantities of books I am talking about here’s an example: since 26th Nov 2007 I have read 74 novels. This doesn’t include the comics & magazines that I have read. and there are other people who read like this at this forum.

I know that some of the kids nowadays think that reading books is not cool. But you only have to see the line of people waiting to purchase the latest Harry Potter book to see the number of people who do read. Whatever else I may say about the hype for Harry Potter it has made kids interested in reading. So no I don’t think reading is a dying art. I usually do my level best to encourage kids to read and my favorite gift (both to give and receive) is a book.

Though I am not a fan of the Kindle system. Its is a DRM laden system that could have been a lot better without it. I would rather get a PDA and use that to read books as I don’t see the point of buying a device just for reading books and have another device for your general computing needs. I would much rather have one device that does both. On that front I finally found a good e-book reader software for my phone. The screen size is small but it is sufficient to read a book one para at a time which is perfect for when I am stuck somewhere without a book to read and need to pass time. Mostly when I am stuck in traffic or waiting for someone.

Ok, its late at night and I am tired so I will stop rambling now…

– Suramya

January 17, 2008

Projity releases OpenProj ver 1.0

Filed under: Computer Software,Knowledgebase,Tech Related — Suramya @ 5:06 PM

Version 1.0 of OpenProj (which is a software that I have talked about before) was released earlier this week. This is a big step for the Open Source world as its the first formal release of one of the few competitors of MS Project (That can match it in features).

According to the information I received OpenProj has had over 25,000 downloads in the first two days after its launch. That means a lot of people are planning to use it or are atleast willing to try it out. Infoworld did a detailed review of the Beta version product last year and they mostly had good things to say about it. Now that new version is out we should be seeing another review from them shortly.

As most of the readers of this blog already know, I prefer using Open Source applications. That way I know what I am installing on my system and I get to install/use software without having to pirate it, or paying through my nose for it. Hence my recommendation that if you use MS project you should give OpenProj a try.

That being said; I haven’t installed OpenProj on my system yet nor am I planning to and no Its not because I don’t like the software but rather because I have no need for a project management software. So I don’t want it taking up disk space on my system. But if I ever need a project management software I know where to look.

You can download OpenProj ver 1.0 from their source forge page. More information on it is available here.

– Suramya

January 13, 2008

My Trip to bangalore

Filed under: My Life,Travel/Trips — Suramya @ 11:19 AM

I was in Bangalore right after new years and was there for 5 days. Was there for work and to meet Surabhi and Vinit. It was a fun trip. The traffic was bad, work was ok, meeting friends/relatives was awesome.

In the 5 days I was there, we ate out every day at a different restaurant, it was a filling experience. Especially liked the IndeJoes place. It is the first place in India where I have had good Mexican food. Their portions were big enough that we had to get most of Surabhi & Vinit’s dinner packed (We were full from the appetizers). I loved the music they played which was mostly late 80’s and early 90’s. Don;t really remember the name of the other places but the food there was also very good. I am sad that they don’t have a branch in Delhi 🙁

On Sunday Me, Vinit and Surabhi went to Wonder La which is an amusement park. Spent all day over there having a blast. Since schools were about to open and everyone was busy finishing their holiday homework the park was pretty empty. The water rides were fun but the best were the remaining rides like “Insanity”, “Twister”, “The mixer”.

On my flight back I was supposed to be on a King Fisher flight but the travel agent couldn’t get me tickets so they put me on an Indian Airlines flight. At first I was pretty mad but then I saw that I was seated next to the emergency exit and had plenty of leg room so I lazed about and enjoyed the flight. Plus the flight was mostly empty so I could have chosen any seat. Got to Delhi pretty late at night and Mom and Dad picked me up from the Airport.

Over all it was a good trip. I had fun.

– Suramya

January 3, 2008

New Year’s Party

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 4:21 PM

Spent my new years with Friends at Yash’s place where he had thrown a party for all us friends. About 25 of us were there and it was a fun night. I got there at 9pm as that was the time he had asked me to show up. As usual I was the first one there, though 5 mins later Rahul and Udit also arrived. A little later the rest of the group started showing up.

We burst some fire-crackers to celebrate the new years and I think we must have woken up every one in the area. One of the guys was trying to be smart and was lighting the crackers in his hand and then throwing them. He kept doing this inspite of being warned against it and sure enough one of them burst in his hand. We had him lie down after giving him first aid and the funny part was that his wife was panicking more than him.

After the new years we decided to try out our singing talents (which sadly don’t exist) playing karaoke. I don’t think I have laughed so hard ever. Some of the songs we sang and the way we sang it were really funny.

Got back home at about 3:30 am. Over all a great night. The cartoon below pretty much sums up how most of us felt the next day 😉


Didn’t take that many photos this time as Yash was taking lots of pics. Will post them online once I get them.

– Suramya

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