Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

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

December 31, 2007

Happy New Year

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 11:09 AM

Wishing all of you a very Happy New year.

– Suramya

December 30, 2007

Attended Nidhi’s wedding

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 11:50 PM

Attended the last wedding of the year (for me atleast) today. Nidhi (a classmate of mine) got married today. A bunch of us friends got together to attend the wedding. We got there at 8:30pm thanks to my leaving on time and very little traffic. The event was fun.

I got to meet a few classmates that I hadn’t seen for 10 years. Nidhi looked pretty. The food was great but it was freezing and as the wedding was in the open we squatted next to a heater and refused to move for most of the evening. We didn’t stay all the way till the wedding itself as they had delayed it a lot. The barat had come at ~10:30 pm but Nidhi only came out about 11:30 pm. It took her about 1/2 an hour to get to the stage for the Varmala and none of us had the courage to wait till the phere’s as it looked like it would take a lot of time for that to start. So we left at about 12:00 am. Nidhi was the first person I know who cried at their wedding.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

December 26, 2007

Christmas Celebrations and the day after

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 11:45 PM

Christmas was fun. I spent the day just relaxing and at night I drove to Gurguan. Tarini had thrown a “small” get together at her place just for good friends and had invited me to attend. The drive to Gurguan was ok, even though I had to drop mom off at the mechanics I got there in 45 mins. Then it took me more than an hour to get to her place from there. The traffic was insane. It took me almost 45 mins to drive a 1 km stretch of road.

But when I finally got there it was fun. We had a bonfire on the roof along with a barbecue. A lot of people came and this was the first bonfire I attended where someone actually played the guitar. It was nice. Tarini cooked a bit. The food was surprisingly edible 😉

Got done at about 1 am, then crashed at Kangan and Gaurang’s place (Gaurang was also at the party) for the night. The next day we got up at about 10am, had breakfast and chatted with Kangan’s mom till about 12. Then drove to Gopinath market to select pics for Kangan and Gaurang’s wedding album. That took us till 4 pm. Then dropped off Kangan at work and me and Gaurang headed back to my place (with a stopover at Nehru place).

Over all a fun day/evening/day.

– Suramya

December 24, 2007

My niece’s Annual day

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 11:07 PM

Today I attended my niece’s annual day with my cousins. Rakhi didi and Ritika picked me up from home at about 3pm and we drove to Greater Noida to attend the annual day. We were supposed to be there at 5 pm (latest by 5:30) but we got there at 4:10pm. The annual day was ok. I was telling my cousin that I hardly ever attended my own annual day but here I was attending my niece’s annual day. So she told me that that’s what Mama’s do…

The show got done at ~8:00pm and we drove back to Rakhi didi’s place and had pizza for dinner. Then we stayed up till almost 3 am talking. It was a fun visit.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

December 23, 2007

Pushkin’s Last Poem

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 3:53 PM

Went and watched Pushkin’s Last Poem today with Tarini and Rahul. It is based on the life of a Russian Poet called Aleksandr Pushkin. The play was directed by Bhaskar Ghose and hosted by the Yatrik Theatre.

The play was a bit long(~2 hours 15 mins). If they had cut it by 1/2 an hour it would have been great. The play was interesting and a lot better than what I had expected. I was prepared to fall asleep during the play if it got too boring but it never got to that point. I think it was worth spending the time and effort to go and watch it. Though I don’t think I want to watch it again. It was good but not that good. 😉

Cast of Pushkin’s Last Poem
The cast of Pushkin’s Last Poem

– Suramya

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