Hi Everyone,
After months of procrastination I have finally put Vinit and Surabhi’s Engagement photographs up in the photogallery.
Thanks,
Suramya
February 17, 2006
Surabhi and Vinit’s Engagement Pics are online
February 14, 2006
February 10, 2006
Liquid Camera Lens Ready For Phones
This is pretty cool, now liquid lenses are now available for manufacturers to use in cameraphones. The new Arctic 320 is a zoom and auto-focus lens, but has no moving parts. Instead a small current warps liquid trapped inside two lenses to change the distance them and adjust focus or zoom.
Now we will probably get a camera phones with more powerful digital camera’s and better zoom features. Can’t wait till its out in the market.
Source: Liquid Camera Lens Ready For Phones
– Suramya
Police blotter: Patriot Act e-mail spying approved
Another not so useful move by the US govt in the ‘war’ against terrorism. My cooking can be described as a lethal weapon so I guess they need to check my email to make sure I am not a terrorist.
Abstract:
A federal judge recently approved a prosecutors’ Patriot Act request for e-mail surveillance without any evidence of wrongdoing by the target. The Patriot Act’s amendments authorize that type of easily obtainable surveillance of e-mail. All that’s required is that prosecutors claim the surveillance could conceivably be “relevant” to an investigation.
Complete Article: Patriot Act e-mail spying approved
– Suramya
February 7, 2006
Good Article on Profiling and Generalizations
A really good article that talks about profiling and generalizations. It takes a case about generalizations regarding Pit Bulls and compares them to terrorist/smugler profiling and how thats not such a good idea.
Profiling is never a good idea, if I know that there’s a profile for a particular kind of person then when I am trying to do something unnoticed as that person I would deviate as much as possible from that profile. I think thats a logical/intelligent response and while terrorists are acting on a false sense of right/wrong that doesn’t make them idiots and this is proved time and again when a bombing or terrorist act is carried out by someone completely unsuspected as they were completely outside the usual profile.
Another issue with generalization is that people tend to start focusing on them and ignore other vectors of threat. e.g. terrorists usually hijack planes right? So the reaction is that lots of money is spent on airport security etc. What is to stop them from taking a shopping mall/theator hostage? They can seal off the exit’s and threaten to blow it up. This is not a threat that is commonly recognized. There are hundred’s of other ways they can terrorize us.
So what do we do? Do we hide at home and refuse to comeout? Nope, we learn not to limit our responses to a list of threats, diversify and learn to counter/field unexpected threats.
Original Article: The New Yorker: Fact
Thanks to: Schneier on Security for the link.
– Suramya
February 6, 2006
What do you say when…
What do you say when you open your CD player to put in new CD’s and you notice a 1/2 mm layer of dust inside it, telling you no one has used it in the past 4 years?
What do you say when your desktop at home hasn’t been powered on for over a year?
What do you say when you want to get a new gaget for home and the response is: What will we do with it/My current one works fine.
When you go to bed at 5:00 am when everyone else is waking up.
– Suramya
February 4, 2006
February 1, 2006
IT Crowd: Awesome show
Found this new show on Channel 4 called IT Crowd thats really funny. Best of all its available of the show’s website for a free download.
Show Website: IT Crowd
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Show Synopsis:
The high-rise towers of Reynholm Industries are full of go-getters, success stories, and winners… apart from in the basement.
While their beautiful colleagues work in fantastic surroundings, Jen, Roy and Moss lurk below ground, scorned and mocked by their co-workers as geeky losers, doomed never to make it back into normal society
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Episode 1 (Yesterday’s Jam) Story line:
In a cluttered basement deep in the bowels of Reynholm Industries lurk Roy and Moss, the I.T. Department. Reviled and mocked by cooler colleagues, their world of servers and firewalls is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Jen, a new “Relationship Manager” who knows as much about computers as a yak.
She doesn’t want to work in a dingy basement, and they don’t want a manager who doesn’t understand BASIC let alone binary, but they discover sometimes there are benefits to having a woman about the place…
The IT Crowd Cast
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Check it out. Its worth it.
Thanks to Google Blogoscoped for the link.
Thanks,
Suramya
January 31, 2006
Politically incorrect but Hillarious retelling of Mahabharat
Check out this extremely hillarious retelling of Mahabharta: Vyasa’s Dissertation
Yes, I know its a sacred text for Hindu’s.
No, I don’t think its wrong.
Yes, I think its really funny.
No, I won’t remove links to it.
Yes, I will mirror it if it goes down.
Thanks to Anomalizer for this link.
– Suramya
January 30, 2006
Meeting with friends is fun
This Saturday I met up with Tarini, Sachin and Udit at Ansal Plaza. It was a lot of fun we had a lot to talk about as I was meeting Tarini after about two years and Udit after almost seven years. Sachin I had met a few months ago in NY so he didnt look that different. Udit has lost a lot of weight but other than that he hasn’t changed that much.
Sachin took pics so I will post them here when I get them from him. We sat outside enjoying the sun and talked and talked and talked. Then Tarini had to leave so after a couple of hours of yakking at each other we split.
Have to meet Yash and Monica also but our schedules never seem to match. 🙁
Well this is all for now. Will post more later.
Cya,
Suramya