Add Music to your Blog

So while I was going through the different gadgets that you can add to your blog.. I felt the need of listening to music. A thought came as to why do I have to download MP3 files when they are already present on some servers..

So here is the way to do it...
1) Go to www.mixpod.com
2) Create a login id and password, its completely free and doesn't spam your mailbox
3) Creating a playlist is damn simple. Add the URL for the path of MP3 file, to do this go to www.guruji.com (the best music search website), the search results include the path of the mp3 file from where you can download it. Simply copy the link and add the URL to the playlist.
4) Once you are done creating the playlist, choose the player from the list of numerous players available on the site.
5) Save the playlist.
6) Save the HTML code for the playlist and your done.

This playlist can be easily integrated to any of the websites, so for example if you want to include this in your blogspot blog, you simply go to >> Layout >> Add Gadget >> HTMP/Text >> Paste the HTML code from step 6 and save it.

Simple isn't it ?

Friday worth remembering !!

Well every Friday is worth remembering but often I am at a loss of words to describe it.. Being an IT pro, I start feeling weekendish from Friday 4 pm... This friday was absolutely rocking and weekend started much before the usual.. While writing this, I somehow am remembering an old song from the movie Namak-Halal.. For many ppl this song is a gateway to retro.. Any guesses ?? Well m not going to play a quiz anyways.. I am talking about "Jawani Janeman Haseen Dilruba..." Howz that connected to weekend ?? Welll not this line.. but the next line which goes.. "Shikari khud yaha, shikaar ho gaya..."

Seems pretty disconnected till now isn't it.. Well many of the things in life are like that only.. I at times feel like I am playing a big puzzle which says connect the dots and the final outcome would be the picture of your life.. Your picture is never lone... it always, always overlaps with some of the other pictures... Some of these pictures add meaning to your life.. some stay in background.. As the puzzle starts unravelling, life starts rocking.. Seems like the puzzle revolves around you.. The same puzzle when viewed from some other perspective doesn't remain yours.

Anyways, so on thursday eve I and few other colleagues got a meeting request from my manager.. It was for a brainstorming session with minimal details.. It was scheduled for 3 hours .. that seemed a lot of time.. and it was scheduled to start at 9 in morning... The location wasn't our daily meeting rooms or the boring cafeteria, it was in the new RBS building.. I can boast about the building being in the most expensive areas in Gurgaon, being the most technologically advanced IT structure, in short its the modern day pyramid etc etc.. but obviously I won't do that .. So the agenda of the meeting was brainstorming.. brainstorming for what ??? I don't use my brain unless its absolutely essential.. so here we were brainstorming what the brainstorming was all about.. A little later, we got to know that it was a feedback session for our managers.. WHAT ?? This never happened earlier.. actually I always have been stoned at the bottom of the pyramid throughout my carrier... I've always been the first one to be stepped upon.. this meaning that the appraisal cycles were always harsh on me.. Improve on your visibility, take ownership, deserve and then desire and much more of this management crap...

The brainstorming group consisted of 10 ppl, 2 managers, 2 tech leads & 6 empowered developers.. The session started and we went on merrily.. We developers are always cribbing... I at times feel really hungry if I don't crib .. offcourse these bitching sessions are carried out on secluded places where the management can't even think of reaching(the Chai shop outside our office being the favorite, plz don't disclose) Many of you reading would have similar spots.. now just imagine that you guys are having a gala time bitching about your managers.. shouting, criticising and even abusing them.. Ctrl-X the scene and Ctrl-V in a lavish meeting room.. along with the same managers you were bitching about... That's what was happening.. our manager was lambasted for so many things, with so many examples, with so many frustrated hearts.. This continued for a whole 2 hours.. OMG, we kept hitting him again and again..(offcourse virtually) Meanwhile I kept analysing his reactions.. I saw tiny droplets of sweat on his forehead and nose.. Yes it was working... finally we were melting a stone by shouting at it.. I wish we could carve the stone according to our precision but that was too much to expect..
Once we were done he said - Guys I need a smoke.. (ohh you want to burn yourself.. go ahead be my guest..) Thus the guy who was the tormentor was traumatized..

Uff I have described this incidence to so many ppl over the weekend, this alone could have been the reason for a fantastic weekend.. But thanks to my dear friend Rahul, we enjoyed a hell lot more in the next two days.. More to follow...

Your PC in your pocket !

This is what was keeping me busy for the last few days. It all started when I got a laptop from my office, and along with it all the restrictions like no admin rights, restrictions on websites (even youtube, gmail, ymail etc) I was really pissed off by this and wanted to break free out of this.

An year ago, I also wanted to break free out of Windows.. the constant virus attacks and re-installations had really frustrated me. I being an open source guy (Long live sun, and Java :) ) myself wanted something which is efficient, small and easily available. I thought about Linux but then all the hazels involved turned me off. One of my friend told me about Ubuntu. I although was reluctant, but then gave in to the tempation of learning something new.

Ubuntu is a Linux based operating system, with an excellent user interface. Its absolutely free and what's more there are millions of people already using it and supporting each other. It is an extremely stable operating system, with minimal virus attacks.

I requested a free Ubuntu CD (although I was skeptical about receiving it). It was shipped to my address within 4 weeks, I was really thrilled and keen to try it out. The instructions on the CD said that it was a LiveCD and I can run the OS, without installing it or making changes to my existing OS. That's something I never heard of, but seemed like a cool idea. I restarted my PC and booted from CD, I got an option to try Ubuntu without installing it, I went ahead and lo, I had a sleek desktop waiting for me. I could access internet instantaniously without further installs, I could play music, videos, pdfs, you name it. There was also an option to install it to the Harddrives (I was also able to access the windows partitions) The install was easy and needed a separate partition (which I got created using Partition Magic)

To get past my office laptop I used the same Ubuntu CD, I was able to browse internet and save data to USB drives. The only thing which I couldn't do was to save my settings, back to harddisks. Looking at the USB pendrive I wished I could install an OS on it. Searching on internet, I realised that this is absolutely possible and easily achievable. Infact Ubuntu could be installed on a PenDrive and PendriveLinux is an excellent golden source for reference and the necessary support for the same.

I used Ubuntu 8.10 LiveCD to first boot up the OS and then used the option to create a USB startup pendrive. The process required to format the USB and it took around 10 minutes to prepare the USB. After this short and simple step, you just need to restart your system and boot from the USB (you would need to check if your PC supports USB Boot up, usually the older ones don't). Once you go through this process you can carry your operating system with you !!

Different PCs have different hardware and there is a possibility that your pendrive OS won't be able to recognize some of the hardware. But be rest assured, all the commonly used hardware and their drivers are already loaded in your USB so there is a good chance that your Portable USB OS would work like magic on any system anywhere...


Also see www.kubuntu.com

Kubuntu is a different flavour of Linux with KDE as the UI, which is much easier to use for users accustomed to Windows. Ubuntu ships with a GNome based UI which is lighter than KDE. Whichever flavour you use, the underlying kernel is same and thus different UI provides exactly same stability and features.

McLeod Ganj

It was a normal lazy weekend morning(?) when me, Ankur and Indrajeet planned to go out of the dusty Gurgaon to escape the heat...

As it turned out, this weekend morning came again and again till one fine day we gathered all our courage and broke free out of the working weekends... those came periodically for either of us...

After much consultation to our travel guide Chandu, who brain washed us against going to Vaishnav Devi, we decided to go to McleodGanj... which was also suggested by Chandu, and also there were interesting articles about the place in TOI.

As soon as you reach this place, there is a huge "Chowk" the lifeline of McLeodGanj, which welcomes you with open hands and hearts... The view of the hills around was beautiful... as you

can see from the image.. the temperature was somewhere around 20 degrees and the cloud cover was giving it a heavenly touch...

It was a feeling of getting away from all the tensions of life... the people over there much to my amusement looked so content in what they were doing... from the chowk there was a boulevard that was going upwards ... there were iron benches that people used to sit and gaze the beauty of nature... It was difficult to imagine the same situation in Gurgaon.. where scorching sun prohibits you from going outside AC rooms even at 7 o clock in eve... anyways... so there people were ideally sitting and observing travellers like us who were feeling elated to have come to McLeodGanj...

Once we were done snapping pics, it was time to search for a room where we can stay.. Basically the Chowk is the central place, there were 5 roads that headed to different places... we randomly chose one of the way and started searching for lodges... The roads were really cramped for place and cars and other vehicles kept cramping us more... One thing which you can't miss is the buildings which probably were made during the British Raj, lot of wood work, proper ventilation and the old touch made us feel really wonderful... There were traits of Tibetan culture everywhere at this place... people didn't speak too much of Hindi, neither English.. The hotel receptions were usually very calm and the receptionist wearing typical Buddhist attire were in no hurry to allocate room for us... The place was full of patient people, we impatiently searched for room... finally got the room, which was really clean and contained everything that one would need to enjoy the comforts of this place..

The view from the room was awesome yaar !!! We all felt that we need not go back to Gurgaon... We had shower and we were feeling really starved by then... Utpal who has stayed in Darjeeling... for 10 years was our guide to the place..

We went to a place called Tibet Kitchen... We all were really hungry by then and Utpal suggested that we try out Thukpa and Thenthuk.. We wanted to try out something new and it seemed like the right opportunity which was served to us on a lunch plate... After a wait of around half an hour.. we finally were served those voluptuous dishes... These dishes are really an extension of noodles... As the weather is usually cold... the noodles are served along with hot soup.. And they are eaten using Chop Sticks... That reminded me of my two month trip to Japan

where I had eaten everything using a chop stick, from rice to fish, to chicken to noodles... It was time to test my chopstick skills... it felt a bit weird as I last ate using a chopstick was years back.. but then after a small amount of struggle I was able to try out the food using these chopsticks.... I must say the food was realllllly delicious, the hot soup along with the smooth noodles... melted into my mouth like butter... It also had shredded boiled chicken which added to the taste... The spices used were very mild, so we added some of the additives that were on the table, like the Vinegar, a spicy hot black coloured "chatni" and what not... Apart from Thukpa, we ordered Thenthuk, which is pretty much the same.... the difference being the type of noodles that are used... In thukpa the noodles are the normal Chinese noodles, and in case of Thenthuk the flat chips type of noodles are used... We also ordered the Momos ... I had tried the NorthIndian version of Momos in Gurgaon and they were kind of okay... but the Tibetian version of these delicacies was just mind blowing... The red hot "Chutney" with these Momos, brought a burning sensation on our tounges and then the mild Thukpa/Thenthuk calmed it... All in all I have become a great fan of Tibetan cuisine... and would want to try it again and again....

Once we were full we headed to our next spot... "Bhakshu Naath"... It's a waterfall covered with valleys and is around 2 kms from McLeodGanj... More to follow.....

Ohh he is rude and arrogant !

Isn't it that we always say about someone who is brilliant at whatever he does, is the most important and dependent person of your team and you don't like him because he is your lead...

You admire him, want to be like him but still there is something about him that makes you say "Ohh he is rude and arrogant !" Well that is the feeling I had about one of my leads.

Well let me describe him to you...

When I was in the interview process for the firm where I work.. there was this guy who took my interview. He was extremely meticulously dressed, extremely confident looking and he had this wierd kind of thing in him which makes you feel nervous. Anways, then he started grilling me about my previous experience etc etc. He was really intelligent and quick in making out whatever I knew and whatever I didn't. His speaking style was peculiar, giving each word excess of stress, as if thinking twice before speaking each word he uttered. Also there were lot of phone calls that were interviening our discussion, which told me that he was really sought after by lot of people in his team. All in all he seemed like a really important person in this team, and his overall personality commanded a lot of respect.

Well then I was selected for his team, and now I was a part of the same team. He was a really important person of the team. Whatever he said was listened to without any questions... You tend to immediately get impressed by such personalities.. Accounting to my general knowledge about sunsigns, he seemed to be one of Taurus,Leo or Virgo... These are dominating and influencing personalities, they would have as many admirers as detesters... Usually I don't get along too well with these.... anyways... then as time passed I started feeling that even though this guy has got a lot of talent, but due to his rude looking attitude, people don't get along with him too well...

This was a general feeling that was growing in our team about this lead... Later on after his promotion we felt that now he didn't even care if anybody is hurt due to his behaviour.. So we kind of lived with it, that he is going to be like that only and we can't do anything about it... This was the time of high pressure when people were working really hard for the project, putting in 16-18 hours daily, working day in and day out... This lead of ours was always one step ahead and working harder and faster than anybody could ever.. sleeping just for 2 hrs in night, coming to office sharp at 9 o clock before any of us.. We started feeling that he is doing this on purpose, so that we should also follow the trend.. anyways this was all getting too irritating for the team... he was taking up all the work upon him and we were just feeling like his personal assistants working on small , petty issues which crop up here and there... We guys even started spending more and more time on Tea breaks and evening snacks... This continued for a good 2 months... After the development of the project was complete.. we all had some time under our hands..

Our lead, sent everyone an individual mail for feedback... I thought lo ! Now we are gonna listen a lot of crap from him... Everybody was trying to avoid this feedback session... not knowing what would be the contents... Everytime he came to us, we excused giving work as one of the reasons... Then one day he offered one of us for a small Bear session... It was reluctantly accepted by our team member..

Once Daaru went in, frustration came out.. We had totally misunderstood the feedback session, it wasn't a feedback for us, instead the lead was expecting some feedback about how he was behaving, conducting himself and leading the team. We were all shocked ! The guy who gave the first feedback, said that the lead was in a really nice listening mood, he listened to all his complaints and suggestions, noted them down on a notepad and promised to work upon them. This was a reallly nice jesture that we all appreciated.. It was my turn then, and everybody was then looking forward to their sessions... Mine was a long two and a half hour session where I explained him where he seemed rude and went against the teams' cause... He was admirably noting down even the smallest points... he was citing for incidences which made us feel the way we felt for him... and then was also giving his side of the story...

One such incidence, where he scolded on of our most senior members for not delivering work on the predecided date. This really made us wonder, that if such a senior member is being scolded then we would all be humiliated in similar way in future... this had really made us all uncomfortable...

Many a times the leads tend to put extra pressure on people to deliver the work on time.. they even expect to get it done without any mistakes... This expectation is justified to some extent if the people are vastly experienced... But still I feel that experience helps you to some extent, after that it is the natural ability of a person to cope up with situations like this and not everyone could come up with flying colours in such situations... To take a very simple example... I dn't have to tell you people about Sachin Tendulkar... he is vastly experienced and has conquered almost everything in cricket... Still people say that he hasn't played many match winning innings while chasing... whereas Yuvraj Singh, is although a kid in experience has been a tailor of many such innings.. it is just the mindset of an individual... some perform exceedingly well under pressure, others tend to crumble under it....

Anyways so I was talking about this lead who scolded one of our senior most members... I felt bad for him, infact everyone felt bad for him... I took this thing up with my lead... He clarified the matter, telling that even though it sounded like scolding to us, it wasn't one... He was in constant touch to this senior-most member and was helping him out in solving the issues that he was facing... he souned rude coz he wanted to timebox the meeting and thus kept on asking him what is the final date when they would deliver the module...

There were many such incidences... but this whole excercise of taking a feedback cleared lot of misunderstandings that we had in between... he realised that his tone of speaking was sounding rude... he did many more amendments in the way he conducted himself... and many some small things... All in all our respect for him suddenly grew many folds.

He is one guy who is brilliant in whatever he does, has an attitude which indicates that he has self-realization of his potential and at the same time he shows gratitude and is down to earth. He somehow maintains a perfect balance in these three seemingly different personality traits... He shows his attitude if need be, is down to earth to his colleagues, very supportive every time...

Hats off to this lead of ours.... He really tought me a thing or two apart from the technical knowledge that he has.... and yes he is a Virgo :)

DEV D(on't)

***** 

Please don't think this to be an abuse to the movie... This is the rating that was given to Dev D, the movie by Anurag Kashyap by various film reviewers... A five star rating ... Rang De Basanti didn't deserve it, Taare Zameen per didn't, Jodha Akbar didn't .. But DEV D did... 

So what's in the movie that got it a 5 star rating ? Well firstly what would you like to see in a movie ... 

As a normal viewer who doesn't care about the cinematography, direction, screenplay etc etc... I would want the movie to have 

a) Entertainment value

b) Script

c) Viewer might feel emotionally associated to the movie

d) Adventure, fiction, way of presentation etc

e) Music

Well Dev D doesn't have any of these... It is an extremely boring movie which you would start hating from the time you start seeing it... The director has tried to present the legendary movie Devdaas in a contemporary manner, and in doing so screwed every aspect of Indian culture and youth...  I don't understand why on the name of freedom of speech and expression these kinda directors try to show only the dark side of indian youth... The movie is a pity effort to sensationalize one of the most talked about MMS scandle of India. It also feature an ugly representation of a Punjabi lower-middle class girl who doesn't have any shame, and tries to seduce DevD in the middle of a marriage... Meanwhile to use as much masala the director also adds the (in)famous BMW drunken driving case. 

Probably many of you would disagree saying that this is what goes on in modern India and is a symbol of the growing, shining, modern India. I agree that these incidences have considerably grown up since the last decade... but to glorify, highlight these in the form of a movie and trying to defend the actual wrong doers would only contribute to the upsurge of such events. There might be many reasons why the Indian youth finds pleasure being intoxicated... but one being the glorification of the characters on the big screen. Union Health minister A Ramadoss urged the Indian cinema to avoid showing start smoking on screen (survey - 52 %  children start smoking imitating film starts). 

Anyways so question still remains why the movie has got 5 stars... Well I would completely blame the media for creating so much of hype for such a third grade movie. Most surprisingly TOI giving it a five star rating really is a mockery of the people who tend to make an opinion about a movie by reading reviews... All in all, one thing that Anurag Kashyap really does well is to choose absolutely controversial topics, string them into a movie targetting the metro audience, and earn money.

A recent prank played on my colleague...

Before writing the details of the incident... one small question..
What is the major difference between the college life that we all cherish so much and our wretched professional life ? The answer follows in the end...

So as you already know this prank is on my colleague.. We all call him Gargma, fondly.. so it was one of those boring types official parties that have more of business sense than anything more.. it was mostly dinner and drinks for all the employees.. So going by that mood we all were already enjoying ourselves... To add to that, management had arranged for a Djj..
Earlier we all were reluctant like any other Indian is... but then with all those songs.. (Ee HipHopper, heheheh) and all we all started feeling the need for dance... Gargma the main character in this blog.. was already pretty drunk.. he was the first one to head for the floor.. with his typical head-banging dance that we all had witnessed many times earlier.. he was without any doubt the centre of attraction...

He started pulling us on the floor, we all obliged readily... Our HOD (a very strict, but energetic and sporty lady) was also on the floor... This was the point when I had this weird imagination of Gargma dancing hand-in hand with her... The party got over discently.. and while on the way back, me and few other colleagues.. we all thought of a plan...

The next day was implementation day... like any other exam, project delivery etc...
So Ajmani was the first guy to tell Gargma that he had misbehaved with our HOD.. Gargma offcouse couldn't believe it.. so he ignored... then I went and said the same... Vibhor, and Nitesh followed soon... now Gargma was in a bit of doubt...

The first stage was success.. now it was about the next step which was more outrageous.. we talked to our project manager to have a chat with Gargma .. He was a real sport and hindi main bolu to usne Gargma ki "Phad" di... Gargma ka utra hua chehra dekh kar we all were thinking about the next step... Till this time, most of our colleagues were suspicious that something had happened to Gargma.. they were constantly enquiring.. and we were happy to tell them what
Gargma had done that day (or what he had not done..) Slowly everyone in our team, around 30 people were involved.. constantly talking about gargma, giving him a feeling that every1 knew what he had done last night.... We let gargma sleep on this feeling...

It wasn't that we had not planned for the night... his roommate who was also involved in the plan tried to get Gargma talk abt the incident.. but our Gargma was a hard nut to crack.. didn't reveal his feelings...

So next day it was even big.. we had convinced our HOD to be a part of the game.. Once again our Project Manager, took Gargma for a one-on-one in a meeting room. What was convinced to Gargma was beyond his imagination, we told him that he got completely drunk, kept hanging around our HOD and constantly uttering bad words... Ab tak to Gargma ki phat gayi thi...
Then our HOD went into the room... this was the time when Gargma was literally down on his knees... pleading for forgiveness.. Meanwhile we all gathered outside the meeting room.. and also arranged for some cookies, chocolates for our Bakra.... Our HOD didn't had to say a word.. She just sat in front of him and he started speaking...

This was the time when we entered the room with our mobile cameras... Happy faces all around... It was a Huge relief for Gargma , his mental torture of 2 days finally came to an end.. There were even talks of next time Gargma actually getting drunk and eve teasing in the party and everybody would still think it is a prank... All in all a really nice change from the routine ...


So now the answer... in college life these small pranks, fun incidents were routine but in professional life these pranks are a part of breaking the routine...

Keep reading for more ...