Update 2: My New Toys

Hello ppl

Recently i added another tinee tiny weapon to my arsenal though this one shoots damn fast and can capture u within seconds .No its not a gun but a Canon Powershot S2IS digicam ,had wanted one for a long time. Waited all thanxgiving deals to get a decent bargain but in vain and then finally i quit waiting on dec 4 and ordered this toy on amazon.com.For the tech-savvy readers here are the captures and its tech specs.Tech Specs

Product Features

• 5.0-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 13 x 17-inch prints
• 12x optical zoom; 1.8-inch vari-angle LCD display
• Records VGA film at 30 frames per second with stereo sound; includes wind filter and adjustable levels for sound
• MovieSnap feature allows you to capture a 5.0 MP still image while recording a movie; also features digital zoom and manual focus options for movies
• Powered by four AA-size batteries; stores images on SD memory cards

Technical Details

• Type of camera: Compact digital camera with built-in flash and 12x Optical / 4x Digital / 48x Combined Zoom
• Image capture device: 5.0-megapixel, 1/2.5-inch type Charge Coupled Device (CCD)
• Total pixels: Approximately 5.3 megapixels
• Effective pixels: Approximately 5.0 megapixels
• Lens focal length: 6.0-72.0mm, f2.7-3.5 (35mm film equivalent: 36-432mm)
• Digital zoom: 4x
• Focusing range: Normal: 1.6 feet/50 centimeters to infinity (wide), 3.0 feet/90 centimeters to infinity (telephoto); macro: 3.9 inches to 1.6 feet/10 to 50 centimeters; super macro: 0 to 3.9 inches/0 to 10 centimeters; TTL sutofocus (continuous/single)
• Optical viewfinder: 0.33-inch low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD
• LCD monitor: 1.8-inch low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD with variable-angle function
• LCD pixels: Approximately 115,000 pixels
• LCD coverage: 100%
• Maximum aperture: f2.7 (wide) to f3.5 (telephoto)
• Shutter speed: 15 seconds to 1/3200 second; slow shutter speed of 15 to 1.3 seconds is only available in select modes
• Sensitivity: AUTO, ISO 50/100/200/400 equivalent
• White balance control: Auto, pre-set (Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Flash), custom flash
• Built-in flash: Operation modes: Auto, Red-Eye Reduction ON/OFF
• Flash range: Normal: 2.3 to 17.1 feet/0.7 to 5.2 meters (wide), 2.3 to 13.1 feet/0.7 to 4.0 meters (telephoto); macro: 1.0 feet to 2.3 feet/0.3 to 0.7 meters (when sensitivity is set to ISO 100 equivalent)
• Shooting modes: Auto; creative zone: P, Av, Tv, M, C; image zone: Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Special Scene (Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Indoor, Night Snapshot), Stitch Assist, Movie, My Colors
• Photo effects: Off, Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Sepia, Black and White, Custom
• Language display: 21 display languages: English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, simplified/traditional Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish

And here are some pics i clicked with this cam in Washington DC

WHITE HOUSE

Believe me its damn small for a president house and that too president of USA or may be thats what the illusion is but it seems to be really small.

Some Ducks at THE MALL

Washington Monument
Winter Blooms

Nice na ?

Ciao for now

Cudnt resist putting this one up here

Charles Wadsworth

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong."

U Can Change Habits but not ATTITUDE

hello guys

I write this entry not to mock anybody but somewhat amuse my ownself .

As a honorable Science Graduate i always looked up to the attitude of never believing anything without a reason or without seeing the un-explainable with my own eyes.And so superstitions or "shubh/ashubh" never mattered to me much,though i am a firm believer in destiny and luck paying some kind of role in our life.

Ok now to the incident that inspired me to write this entry --Day before yesterday we were making chicken for dinner when one of us decided to make paneer for our vegetarain roomates because he always ends up with bad food when we prepare chicken for ourselves ."Cottage cheese mein woh baat nahin hai " came a comment from one of us so the most ardant cook from us decide to make paneer by over-boiling milk .And so the process began ,as expected it was taking a long time to do so which deviated our attentions from paneer to chicken (evrybody likes better thngs :D).The consequence milk got over-over-boiled and spill out of the vessel and then came the disaster.

Both my roomates were in awe and destitute as if sky had fallen on dem ,and so after a minute i also got into awe that why are these two behaving so .We spill thngs in the kitchen all the time ,its probably the dirtiest place in our house .It still didnt struck me until one of the guys said some words and his words were "aaj din hi manhus hai (today is a bad day ) ",i thought what the heck ?? and then he said "doodh girna bahut ashubh hota hai(spilling milk is inauspicious)" and i sank back into my awe feeling this time ironically of course .And then to add injury to insult the other guy goes " abbey shubh hota hai " .

I mean we have travelled 7000 miles from our homes to study Masters Of Science in respective fields and then we talk and believe such omens .really ??

I think the subject line is apt to quote here ..right guys ?

Shantanu

Mathematical Basis of Computing

A few days back i was reading a book on the logic and i read a statement which had the meaning that every truth or false is restricted to the semantics in which it is being discussed about .The below quote is a perfect example of that statement

Michael McClary

"Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'."

No wonders Maths is like the core of everything .One of these days i am gonna start studying maths much more than what i do usually.
Can I ?? I can if Mr. Fawcett gives me extension on his projects ;) ..

Shantanu

Some Materialistic Things I miss about Delhi

Hi

Almost everbody wanted to know that was i missing india when i moved to syracuse ,intially to be honest i was so obsessed with america that i thought i was here for good but now i think i have done enough time here to start missing some things about Delhi

1.Chicken Tikka-- I dont think anything can match the chicken tikka of delhi ,it simply is awesome ,i have already wasted 50$ in america to get something close to it but in vain .

2.Delhi ke thulle --cops in america treat u so damn well (of course if u rnt a big time criminal)that u almost feel like they are ur caretakers instead .

3.College--Theres nothing like a lot of friends around you ,Grad school is like a lot of competitors around you.

4.Traffic and crowd --Syracuse is so empty that u have to search for people on roads and with winter on the doorsteps things are about to get worse in this department.

5.My Bike--Come to america and make walking as your hobby unless u r rich enough to own a car .although cars are dirt cheap here as compared to india but we desis dont even have money fr dirt cheap things :) (the truth is we desis do have money but dont wanna spend it (i dunno y)).

6.Movie Halls--Although my city has multiple multiplexes the biggest having 28 screens i havent seen a single movie in a movie hall since i have come here .And back in delhi me and nishtha used to watch a movie almost every week .I miss those 2-3 hours badly ..



I am sure this list will grow bigger once i have lived here for an year or so ..Lets see ..

Shantanu

"Cooking" not that hard after all

Hello ppl

The first time i seriosuly i thought about moving to america to pursue my masters the idea of living without my mum came to my mind .Everything was going fine until it struck me that i need to eat ,OMG who is going to cook my food ,to hire a cook in america would be like buying a new flat in India hence a possibility ruled out .Then came the idea of eating ready to eat food but that too succumbed in front of the more important budget issues .So i was left with but one choice "to cook on my own " and i thought what a day that would be in my life when i cook a whole meal for my own self .Coffee and omlette is all i knew to cook till the day i boarded my Lufthansa flight to frankfurt and with no hope i was relying that my roomates never ask me to cook but it was not to be so .

The intial days of my stay were in the house of my noble seniors namely Sridhar,Nihir,Pritesh and Sudheer.So for the first 18 days i never was asked to cook ,thanx to their courtsies but soon things were about to change.I moved into my own appt and to quench the thirsts of our stomachs as well as save some dollars like every other desi we started cooking our own food.Again the intial days were extremely easy as all 4 of us used to cook together and my tasks were restricted to cutting onions ,cleaning tables etc .But then came the horrendous decision of making dinners individually,screached i was to the core of my stomach and heart.

The D-day came and it was my turn to cook the dinner for everybody in the appt of course under the supervision of an instructor ,one of my roomates .I decided to do it the safest way and cook Rajma rice,after all even very lamely cooked rajma seems gud to we north indians.Very nuch in accordance with my fears i did mess up with the cooking by totally forgetting to add tomato puree till the very end but then certain counter measures helped me turn that rajma into a palatable dish.All in all if not an A- i did fare with a B+ in my cooking exam .


And now after 3 months since i arrived into the land of dreams and the city of snow i can even cook semi-delicious chicken curry and mutton rogan josh .A pat on the back to me HUH

Cook Shantanu

"Cooking" not that hard after all

Hello ppl

The first time i seriosuly i thought about moving to america to pursue my masters the idea of living without my mum came to my mind .Everything was going fine until it struck me that i need to eat ,OMG who is going to cook my food ,to hire a cook in america would be like buying a new flat in India hence a possibility ruled out .Then came the idea of eating ready to eat food but that too succumbed in front of the more important budget issues .So i was left with but one choice "to cook on my own " and i thought what a day that would be in my life when i cook a whole meal for my own self .Coffee and omlette is all i knew to cook till the day i boarded my Lufthansa flight to frankfurt and with no hope i was relying that my roomates never ask me to cook but it was not to be so .

The intial days of my stay were in the house of my noble seniors namely Sridhar,Nihir,Pritesh and Sudheer.So for the first 18 days i never was asked to cook ,thanx to their courtsies but soon things were about to change.I moved into my own appt and to quench the thirsts of our stomachs as well as save some dollars like every other desi we started cooking our own food.Again the intial days were extremely easy as all 4 of us used to cook together and my tasks were restricted to cutting onions ,cleaning tables etc .But then came the horrendous decision of making dinners individually,screached i was to the core of my stomach and heart.

The D-day came and it was my turn to cook the dinner for everybody in the appt of course under the supervision of an instructor ,one of my roomates .I decided to do it the safest way and cook Rajma rice,after all even very lamely cooked rajma seems gud to we north indians.Very nuch in accordance with my fears i did mess up with the cooking by totally forgetting to add tomato puree till the very end but then certain counter measures helped me turn that rajma into a palatable dish.All in all if not an A- i did fare with a B+ in my cooking exam .


And now after 3 months since i arrived into the land of dreams and the city of snow i can even cook semi-delicious chicken curry and mutton rogan josh .A pat on the back to me HUH

Cook Shantanu

Mario - Live

Golden Goose - A yearly talent show held at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. This video is a "live" performance of the first level from Super Mario Brothers. A must watch for all those who ever played video games.

Update : My New Toys

Ok ppl here s the new addition to my inventory ..
> Logitech® Z-5300e Performance surround-sound.
Feel the power of 280-watt, THX-certified quality audio while gaming or watching movies.


Mind you these are THX ..They simply rock my appt ..



Ciao

MY NEW TOYS

Olah

Almost a month after i came to america i got the latest weapons of my arsenal or shud i say my latest toys to begin my journey towards a successful graduate course .Yeah i had never been so elated in the last one month as i was to see my laptop box being handed over to me by the fedex guy.He was like my saviour and the box in his hands my life saving potion .

Honesty speaking life in america is extremely dull without electronics specially when you dont even have a television at your place .Laptop is like a Panacea here ,you can do anything with it and nothing without it .For the techies i bought an Alienware Area-51 m5550 , yeah there is no spelling mistake and alienware is a major company about which 99% of the world doesnt know and i still bought it .

For those who are still reading here are the snapshots



The best thing about the brat is that it has a 256 MB Nvidia Ge force 7600 graphic card on it,believe me any game made till today simply rocks on this GPU and i have tried Quake 4 ,FEAR ,NFSMW to name a few . If you wanna read more about it you can go to the following link
http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_m5550/area-51m_gallery.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M5550-R3&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT#pdp-nav

To be honest i love it so much for its beauty that i am extremely hesitant about nebody else touching it but then you always have to bow in front of your roomies and good friends .

The other addition to my gadget set is my new Cell Phone Motorola A780.It is a PDA with a touch screen display and the looks amazed me so much that i bought it even without reading about its rest of the features .To me its a real beauty although it may seem to be little bulky to some Motorola users .The features include touch screen display ,handwriting recognition software ,1.3 MP camera ,video recoridng ,mp3 player and the speakerphone throwsout very nice quality sound although not as loud as a music junkie would like to hear ,128 mb mini sd card and blah blah .
Overall i would like to rate it a very good buy for that money .

I gotta head back to my project about which i will write very soon but for now i gotta leave ..


Ciao

My First Glass of Beer in America

Ola

Well its been 11 days since i came to the land of dreams and i kept feeling everything is not like what it should be like :something is wrong ;i dont know what but something is surely not correct but what is it .I got that all figured out yesterday.

My landlords for now ,my seniors took me for a visit to the Carousel Center Mall in Syracuse ,and i i must say the mall is bigger than almost 3 indian malls combined or maybe even more .The sad part Indians are forbidden to shop there ;in the sense that everything is kinda expensive ,so we just kept strolling in the mall appreciating nice things and building our wishlists for the much awaited thanks giving shopping time .

I went to a lot of shops like CompUsa,BestBuy,J C Penny and many more .Food in America smells damn good but its taste isnt upto the hype built by its smell so u end up a little disappointed sometimes .But what didnt disappoint me at all was Beer.We went to a eatery called Hooters ,its like a concept bar ,yesterday the flavor was "NURSE" so all waitresses were dresses in skimpy nurse skirts and some also had stethscopes around them .The attire was damn hot for a desi like me who has just started to get into the american groove .You can decide for yourself ,here is the first page of the menu. I hope you get it now and if you wanna know more about the place here is the web address http://www.hooters.com

Well apart from the gals i must say the beer was awesome ,one glass and i could feel the swirls in my head ,for the alcoholics from india it was MOLSON .Molson is a canadian beer and if you ever get your hands on it then do gulp a bottle or two .

I am signing off for now ,will get back soon with a lot more of american flavors .

Ciao

five fckin rejects !!

yesterday evening i gt back home around 8 pm and as usual i opened my pc even before i take the bag of my shoulders ...aftr d normal booting process came d gamil beep which said it had a new mail in store fr me ....alas it was frm d univ i had been waiting to listen to fr months University of Florida Gainsville ,but perhaps even the last day of the months decided to take its toll on me and then i saw the words "unable to give you admission " ...the 5 words felt like a big atom bomb on my dreams on making it to a big university in United State of America ...although i hav one admit i wanted dis 1 very badly !! i wish i could change this 1 decision !!



lets c wat happens wid d rest !!

ciao

SAW !!!! a masterpiece for me .

Hellos ppl


Am specially writng this one for some of my dear frnds who dint lik /undrstand the movie SAW .
I respect their right to have their own choice and views but still i thnk d movie was great enough to force me to write dis and draw ppls attention to my conclusions from the movie ..

Well i found SAW a fast-paced, intricately plotted and intelligently macabre psycho-thriller that does not just defeat its genre rivals, but leaves them for dead, alone in the dark, screaming for mercy.

To begin with the name itself is higly intrigue , SAW has 3 meanings 1.the tool 2.past tense of see 3.a series of events
and if you try to analyze u shall observe dat d title is pretty apt from all angles although i personally felt d writers had the third meaning in mind when deciding it .

my own conclusions from the film were ( m nt sure hw many of dem writers had in mind while writing d story but nevertheless i thnk they r worth mentioning )

1.d movie is a derivative from SE7EN for sure , its like paying for your sins and all that but i guess all of you would have got that so lemme skip to other thngs .

2.the "jigsaw " killer doesnt punish you rather he leaves you in a 'game' where you could end up with evrythng (win) or with nothing (loose ).Thats why we play games to win or loose ,right ??

3. like evry game d whole thng is timed .there is a deadline kinda thng .

4.like evry game dere is an opponent .

5.like every game dere is a referee who keeps check on the 'whole sereies of events'(SAW)

6.UNLIKE evry oder game d purpose is not to defeat ur opponent instead the purpose is to pay for ur sins and suffer to an extent.how much you suffer depends on ur deeds in the game .The point is the more hollow u r frm inside the more u ll b sufferin in the game .

The punch line of the film " A serial killer who doesnt kill "is saucy enough to make you watch the whole movie .All in all i liked the movie coz it made me realize a whole new world of concepts .Every scene is screeching out to you some thng .Depends on you how much you squeeze out of it .

Neways if you happen to watch dis movie and read my post den pls do leave ur comments ...

adios

BUDDHA MUSIC !!

hellos

BUDDHA dats wat is d latest fad for me ,if not the latest the most intense one for sure !!
The music has the power of trance and yet as melodious as songs by kishore and bhupender .the first i heard was Veena by Talveen Singh and since dat day my disc man plays buddha music only .

Its sad that music cds for dis genre are pretty expensive but then such is occult of the music that it deserves that price tag . Had been listening to rock for quite some time now and so dis came as a very welcome change , thanx to a friend who gave me a big folder of buddha mp3s . All in all i would say this is the " one " for me .

Buddha cds are sure to stay for long in my cd case and in my hard disk drives !!

MY personal favs are
1.Talven singh
2.Nitin sawhney
3.crystal rainforest

and in particular radha raman by tulku .

Now me logging on back to the times of Buddha

Ciao

mixed doubles !! is it a little too hotch potch ??

hellos ppl

well two days ago it so happened dat i bought tickets to watch this movie mixed doubles by rajat kapoor , and believe me dere is nothing double about this one , rather i would call it a half .

the movie starts wid some fair enough adult or so called adult jokes , from viagra to screwing ur friends wife : it went through all of them .Just when u feel alas i see an indian movie which somewat matches the likes of american pie, comes ranvir 's idea of wife swapping and from here starts the mourning of the funeral of your 125 bucks .


The man is relly desperate to screw some one elses wife which i never understood why ?? is dis world short of hookers ?? neways watevr the director wanted to show didnt go thru my throat .I never understood that how could a man become so damn unethical jus for satisfying his d**k and in the process even killing the integrity of his own wife and her wish of not to sleep with another man .

Moral of the Story :- The film was nothing like its punch line " adult comedy " , the comedy lasts for 20 odd mins or so and then begins the unfloding of the ugliness of homo sapiens ,and the those two hours seem to become never ending if you are watching the movie sitting next to your wife .I was lucky with that part (was wid my galfrnd ) but i gotta see the cold faces of a lot of couples who had sat in there seats cozily anticipating 2 good coemdy hours ahead but wat did dey know that rajat kapoor came out to be a bluffmster and this time the audience were at the receiving end .