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Oct 30, 2011

This must be some really good milk !!!

0 comments

Hello.

Me and a friend went to have breakfast at the carnival area.
I had black tea. My friend ordered a milk tea.
When the bill came, milk tea was 6 times more expensive then black tea.
Makes you wonder what kind of milk they use and how much of it to make one cup of tea.
Must be some seriousy good milk, don't you think?
I'll just stick to my black tea for the time being, I think.
Unless I can have something other than ridiculously expensive premium grade cup of milk tea.

Also, what if someone ordered a Chai with with spices like pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and cloves milk and honey?

Laterx.

Oct 23, 2011

If your website does this, then damn you !!!

2 comments


Hello.

A quick not to say that if anyone of you have a website that displays a pop up or something like the above, be nice to your visitors and just remove it!

Wait, don't get me wrong. Its not that I want to take away even a bit of ad revenue from any websites I visit. I do not mind ads that are not obstructing the content I want to read.

However, this in my face every time I visit the website is unforgivably annoying, counter productive and cheap. Its also hard to close that darn box on a mobile device!

I don't know much about marketing, but if I had to guess, I'd say you are losing a lot of visitors by showing ads or sign-up boxes like that before anyone gets to your content.

I just want to maybe consume the information you've published. I'm not going to like you on Facebook. Am not going to tweet about your website or sign-up for your newsletter. I haven't even got to your website yet, so please, stop asking already!

Laterx.

Oct 19, 2011

Kiefer Sutherland's The Confession ...

2 comments

Hello.

Saw a Web Series a few days ago. It was good. Let me tell you a bit about it.


The Confession is an online-only series. Each episode of The Confession is five to seven minutes long. The whole series is just 10 short episodes.

The series stars Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer from 24? What? How can you ever forget 24?) as a very-good-at-what-he-does Hitman and John Hurt as an old priest with conflicting beliefs.

On a snowy Christmas eve, the Hitman visits a Priest at his church and explains to the priest that he has a kill order for later that night but forces the priest to listen to his confession by telling the priest that he will start killing the people in the church if the Priest does not listen to his full confession.

The story features flashbacks of the hitman showing what he does best while telling the priest how he came to visit him, climaxing with a pretty good twist!

Its a brilliantly scripted series and its amazing how engaing the short series turned out to be. It was really good.

I've shared the complete series here so you can download it easily.

Check it out. I think you'll like it.

Laterx.

Superman dead? A sad day indeed ...

2 comments

Beaten to death by a girl.
His cousin, in his own town.
A sad day indeed.
I'm sure he is not really dead, but how many times have they killed Superman now?

Metropolis, somewhere around East Coast, United States of America

Oct 17, 2011

Now … Get 50GB from Box.net for free for life !!!

2 comments



Hello.

I've always shared here with you whenever I got to know about good online file storage services.

I've written on this blog about Upload Robots, Dropbox and quite recently about Minus.

I've had a Box account for a few years now. It gave me 5GB of free space to start with. But last night, I got to know that if your create a new account on Box with an iOS device or log on to your existing Box account with an iOS device, you would immediately get 50GB of space for free, for life!

That is good news for iOS guys, but what about us with Android devices? Well, I tried with my Google Nexus S, and guess what, nothing happened. Android users have been miserably left in the cold for this one. I don't know why, maybe Box wants compete with iCloud.

So, I did what everybody would do in a situation like this. I borrowed a friend's iPhone4, logged on to my Box account, and bam! I now have 50GB for free for life. I can use it however I please.

Remember, Box.net is only running this until *December 2nd* this year, and you don't have to have an iOS device to use the free space. If you are on Android or using any other platform, just ask a friend to let you use his/her iOS device to log on to your Box account just once or to create an account on Box. Thats it, you will not need the iOS device anymore.

What are you waiting for? Back up your files now! Enjoy your free space!

Laterx.

Twicca: The best Twitter app on Android ...

3 comments

Hello.

What Twitter app do you use on your phone?

Everyone has their preferences when it comes to apps they use on their portable devices. Its quite natural that you've your own set of reasons to use a particular app for doing something on your phones or tablets. There are thousands of apps on the market and they pretty much do the same thing. So, I think, it all boils down to just personal preference. Nothing more.

When I had my Nokia E71, I swore that Gravity was the best twitter client for the Symbian OS. It had its shortcomings but it was the best I ever got to use. I even coughed a bit of my hard earned green to buy it. That must have been the only app I ever bough the whole time I had a Nokia.

Since I got my Google Nexus S in January this year, I've tried almost all popular twitter apps available for Android OS. I've tried the official Twitter app. Tried Seesmic, TweetCaster, TweetDeck and even Plume. I didn't like any of them. Then I stumbled upon Twicca,

Twicca is a full featured twitter client for Android phones. It is highly customizable and has very good plug-in support. I love how I can set color labels to specific people and view most photos in-line. Also, The user interface is beautifully simple, and I kind of like the dark theme. Its nice.

If you have an Android phone, check out Twicca. Its a pretty neat twitter app. I'm sure you'll like it, just give it a go. Its free!

Laterx.

Trying to do the lobster thing ...

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Attempting indoor barbecue with all precautions.
Trying to grill a lobster. Did not turn out too well.
Guess I need to learn a lot about shell food.
I had a just a tiny bit, it didn't taste bad.
They say it could have tasted a whole lot better.
Maybe next time!

Malé, Maldives.

Oct 14, 2011

Installing iOS5 ... don't do it if you don't know how ;)

1 comments

A friend almost bricked his iPhone trying to install iOS5 on his Apple iPhone 3GS.

Oct 13, 2011

… and I am a proud father !!!

17 comments


Hello.

There comes a time in everyone’s life, at least there should come a time, where we begin to question our heading in life. A time to snap out of the complacency of today and contemplate towards what we want for tomorrow.

For me, expecting a baby was an exciting and somewhat scary prospect. However, once he arrived safely and seeing him for the very first time, I was filled with such strong instincts to protect, nurture and love the tiny being that all the feelings of stress, confusion and apprehension that I felt before quickly and mysteriously vanished and I was left with nothing but anticipation, excitement and pride.

Must have been a paternal thing, I almost felt like that my brain had just been naturally and instantly re-wired to prepare me as a new parent.

It was a very emotional and hugely rewarding experience, and a truly joyous occasion.

Friends and family were so generous with their well wishes and support I was often at loss of words to say what will truly convey my appreciation. So here is one for you - thank you for your advice, support and all the lovely baby gifts. Thank you very much!

Welcoming the baby into the world was one of the most special and wondrous times of my life. From the moment he was born, he became the focus of each and every thing I did, each and every conversation I had. He is now the center of my universe, everything revolves around him. It an amazing feeling!

Also, now that he is home, sleeping like he should be, I am responsible for providing him with everything he may ever need and make all the decisions pertaining to him in anyway.

Am I scared? Yes! Am I happy? Very!

Now that I'm a parent, this blog may or may not cover some baby topics and parental rants. I feel that I should give a heads up to my readers, so here it is!

Laterx.

Oct 10, 2011

Barbecue: Potatoes over the grill ...

1 comments

A photo from a barbecue I was invited to a few days ago.
It was at the beach and it was fun!
Among many other things, I learned that aluminum foil retains heat for longer than you'd think.
I am guessing these will be done now :)

Hulhumalé, Maldives.

Oct 6, 2011

Goodbye, Steve ... you'll be missed !!!

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Hello.

Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011.

You were a man with an extraordinary vision. You were almost single handedly responsible for the huge come back apple made last decade. You were a great CEO and gave us world class computers and magical gadgets. Somewhere in there, you also managed to make Apple one of the most successful technology company on the planet.

As a Mac evangelist, you will definitely be missed. You will continue to be in our machines and gadgets, memories and backups. Goodbye, Steve.

Laterx.

Oct 2, 2011

Google Music Beta: Sign-up from outside US ...

14 comments

Hello.

I just signed up for Google Music Beta and have been using it for a few days. Its awesome and works fine outside US. Its a neat idea to have all your music available to you where ever when ever you want to enjoy your music.

So what really is Google Music Beta? Well, in their own words:

Music Beta is a new service from Google that gives you instant access to your personal music collection without the hassle of wires or syncing. Add your music collection and listen on the web or any compatible Android device.
You can upload your own music collection, that is music you have on your computer to Google (up to 20,000 songs) and listen to your songs on any computer or Android device. Now you can take your music where ever you go! Sounds nice, right? Feel like checking it out? Thought so.

As with most new Google services, Music is in Beta testing, by invitation and available for US residents only. That's not good news for us living outside US. So, lets see how we can get around that for now.

There are few ways to dupe Google to think that you are in the US. You can us an American VPN like Hotspot Shield or a Free Web Proxy like Hide My Ass.

I used a different approach. I headed over to proxy list website to find an American Proxy and temporarily reconfigured my Firefox proxy settings. You  may have to try a few proxies out before you find a working American proxy which supports all HTTP standards.


On Windows you can change Firefox proxy setting by going to Tools > Options > Options > Options > Advanced > Network > Settings.

If you are using Firefox on a mac, go to Preferences > Advanced" > Network" > Configure how Firefox connects to the internet > Settings.

I used the above proxy to sign up to Google Music Beta.

It's a good idea to check if you have an American IP address before trying to request or sign up for Google Music Beta. You can check your IP address easily by visiting www.whatismyip.com.

Now, using the proxy server to pass off that you are in US, head over to music.google.com, sign in and request an invite.

It may take a few days, but when you do get the invitation email from Google (or if a friend invites you) make sure that you complete the sign-up process while masquerading that you are in US. If you don't, your sign up will fail.

When you are done with sign-up, you are set. You don't need the proxies anymore. You can utilize the service like any other regular web service.

I have 6 more invites left for Google Music Beta. Comment in your email address if you want an invite.

Enjoy Google Music Beta! It's free, for now.

Laterx.