Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

March 28, 2010

Wikibooks has a open-content textbook on Cryptography

Filed under: Computer Security,Interesting Sites,Tech Related — Suramya @ 11:56 PM

I don’t know if you have heard about Wikibooks yet or not. If you haven’t then you are missing out on a great resource. Basically Wikibooks is a community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. Sort of like Wikipedia but specifically for Books.

One of the books they have is a book on Cryptography that is quite easy to read and follow. At the time of this writing a lot of the sections in the book still have to be added but new content is added regularly and over time I think it will become a great resource for everyone.

Check it out.

– Suramya

March 27, 2010

I like the cold but this is ridiculous

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 6:39 PM

I have started using the AC in my room as the temperature in Delhi has hit 41 Deg C. (Today is 35 Deg C or 95 Deg F). Then I heard sound that suggested that something was stuck in the vent, I thought that it must be a leaf or something so ignored it. After a min or so the noise stopped.

About 15 mins after that the AC started ejecting Ice chips at me instead of cold air. I know I like the cold but I think I prefer cold air to frozen water esp in my room. I shut down the AC and after a couple of hours it seems to be working ok now. Thankfully an AC servicing is scheduled for Tuesday so they can check the AC and figure out why its acting like an Ice machine instead of an AC.

– Suramya

March 26, 2010

Why is Yahoo India Censoring the web?

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 9:58 PM

Why is the Yahoo India site (http://in.yahoo.com/) censoring the internet? Basically when you do an image search on the Yahoo India site, which Yahoo automatically takes you to when you go to Yahoo.com in India there is no way you can turn off the “Safe Search” option.

As far as I know the Indian government hasn’t banned porn in India. Actually… according to this news article on the Times of India dated Feb 11th 2010 the Govt can’t ban porn websites for obscenity.

So why is Yahoo filtering out results? Yahoo is the only search engine that I know which is doing this. Google, MSN don’t filter out stuff so…

In any case I don’t use Yahoo for much, but still. Does any one reading this have any idea what is going on?

– Suramya

March 19, 2010

GGRP Sound: Cardboard Record Player

Filed under: Interesting Sites — Tags: , — Suramya @ 11:14 PM

The best way to prove competency in a field is to show a working sample of your work to the client. GGRP wanted to show off their sound engineering capabilities so they contacted ‘Grey Canada’ which is an ad agency located in Vancouver, Canada.

They then created a record player from a piece of corrugated cardboard that folded into an envelope. Once assembled, a record can be spun on the player with a pencil. The vibrations go trough the needle and are amplified in the cardboard material. (See image below) This was then sent out to creative directors across North America


Cardboard Record Player

Source: Ads of the World.

– Suramya

March 18, 2010

Jalapeno Ice Cream

Filed under: Interesting Sites — Suramya @ 4:43 PM

Jalapeno Ice Cream… Wow. I want some.


Jalapeno Ice Cream

Wonder if it is real? hmm.. a Google search tells me that it is quite real. Even found a recipe for it:

1 medium jalapeño or serrano chile
1 cup water
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
9 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon framboise or vanilla extract

Quarter the chile lengthwise and remove the seeds, veins, and any remnants of stem. Chop it into 1/4−inch pieces. Place the chopped chile in a small saucepan. Add water and 1 cup of the sugar. Bring to a gentle boil over medium−low heat. Cook for 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and let stand for at least 4 hours.

In a medium−size heavy−bottomed saucepan, combine milk, cream and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Bring to a scald.

Meanwhile, put remaining sugar (1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons), egg yolks and framboise or vanilla extract in a large bowl and whisk just to blend. While gently whisking the yolks, drizzle the hot cream mixture into them so that they are gradually warmed up. Return the mixture to the saucepan and set over medium−low heat. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon and constantly scraping the bottom of the pan, until the custard has thickened slightly and coats the back of the spoon.

Strain the custard through a fine sieve into a bowl and nestle it in a larger bowl of ice. Let cool, stirring occasionally, then transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Drain the chile and add to the soft ice cream. Transfer to a storage container and freeze until firm.

Found this while surfing on: www.foundshit.com.
Recipe Source: freecookingrecipes.net

– Suramya

Why is it that

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 2:08 PM

when two girls are best friends and really close they are called sisters but if two guys are best friends and close they are called gay? Why can’t they be brothers?

Just something that I have been thinking about.

– Suramya

March 13, 2010

American architect creats the world’s largest house of cards

Filed under: Interesting Sites,My Thoughts — Suramya @ 2:01 AM

An American architect Bryan Berg has created a replica of the Venetian Macau using 218,792 playing cards from 4,051 decks of cards. It took him 44 days to create the model which measures 33 feet by just under 10 feet.


Bryan Berg with the world’s largest house of cards

All I can say when I see this is: Wow! It takes skill to do something like this and its just wow. If you are in Macau then do check it out. Its located in the Macau’s Cotai Strip.

Source: American architect beats his own record after creating the world’s largest house of cards | Mail Online.

– Suramya

March 8, 2010

Another Hindi Book Scanned (#4)

Filed under: Books Related / Reviews — Tags: — Suramya @ 11:59 PM

This is the 4th book I have scanned so far. This one is called “Bado Ke Jeevan Se Siksha” (Lessons from lives of your elders ). This is about 110 pages and has been scanned with two pages per image except for the 1st and last pages. A couple of pages are missing from the end of the book but I have scanned all the pages still available.

You can download the book from here: “Bado Ke Jeevan Se Siksha” .

In the new version of the site I am going to put all these files on the suramya.com mirror. That should make it easier to track all the book releases. Will post a note here when the new site is live.

– Suramya

March 7, 2010

Common Misconceptions About Publishing: Thoughts on a writeup by Charles Stross

Filed under: Books Related / Reviews,My Thoughts — Suramya @ 11:29 PM

I have talked about books and publishing industry before but since I am not an author I can’t give you first hand views on how the publishing industry works. Luckily others can. Charles Stross is an author who I really like and he is doing a series of posts on his blog about Common Misconceptions About Publishing (CMAP). He has made 4 posts so far and each gives a fascinating view of the industry from an author’s perspective.

Check them out here:

Out of all the posts listed above I like and #3 the best. explains how a book gets from a concept in an author’s mind to a finished product in the market. I think its a great read for anyone interested in publishing and how it works. #3 explains what authors sell to publishers and what a standard contract consists of, again quite interesting how the entire thing breaks down and how the remuneration works.

I don’t write fiction, but if I did I would find these posts quite informative on how the entire process works and knowing that gives a person advantage when they try to sell their manuscript to a publisher. So if you write or are planning to, do check out the posts above.

– Suramya

March 3, 2010

Mom’s new car (Chevrolet Beat) has arrived in one piece

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 1:29 PM

After 3 years of wait and constant nagging from my part mom’s new car has finally arrived. This car was supposed to be bought the same time as the Honda City three years ago. Basically the Honda was my gift to Dad and this my gift to Mom. Anyways after all the delays we have finally purchased a Chevrolet Beat LT and I drove it home from the showroom a few mins ago.

I had just about given up that this car would ever be purchased because everytime we would start deciding on a model a new model was announced and we just kept postponing the buy waiting for the next one. We Went from Zen Estillo to Spark to Honda Jazz to a couple of others.

Here are some pics to give you an idea of what the car looks like:


Our new Chevrolet Beat parked in our Driveway


Dad, Mom and Me with the car


View of the car’s Dashboard.

One thing I can say after driving the car… Its a smooth drive, the steering is very sensitive and the engine is quite powerful so the car will be fun to drive once I get used to the controls. 🙂

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

– Suramya

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