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