Dhruv hatyara hai!

Super Commando Dhruv's a killer?!


Profile.
He was my role-model when I was kid, my all time favourite. That time I didn't know any other brand than Raj, all the popular ones, Nagraj, Doga, Bhokal were Raj's. I didn't like them so much as they boasted of super-natural (or un-natural) powers which I didn't believe in. On the other hand, Dhruv was a perfect human, with his amazing brain, fast reaction, and strong punches. And ya! Never forget the way he cud ride the bike on a rope! Which he learnt owing to his murdered parents being part of a Russian(?) Circus.

The most interesting part was his equally brilliant team, and his sister, who without Dhruv's knowing abt it, was also a super-woman(?). That was the best part when she wd suddenly pop into action whenever Dhruv was in danger.

Am remembering all these again, and feel like enjoying them once again. This time when I am back, will surely go and order at least a dozen comics to make up for the missed episodes. Almost forgot abt him!!!

2.0 web!

"They are the crux of it, whatever it is."

Just found this 2.0 link: http://web2.0bingo.com/

Forces me to do a checklist upon myself, so here it is:
tags: Got a flickr account!
Ruby on Rails, AJAX: Will surely(adamant) use in next project!
Integrates with Flickr: haha! All over me!
Beta: will soon release one!
Adsense support: emm! no visitor, no money!
Candid Blog: Highly partial towards technology
OTHERS: Dun understand! OOPS!

haha! love this! :)

Version meta alpha - Reason to like Flickrfs

For those who love flickrfs, this is a 'must have'.
For those who dun like flickrfs, rethink!!!

Why? Here are the reasons:

• Direct access to Metadata! Right from the comfort of command line. Just fire up your favourite editor and you can modify the photo title, description, tags, and license.


• Direct access to your photostream! Just create a directory 'stream' at your mountpoint root, and your whole photostream (upto 500 photos) will be accessible.


• Don't like the permissions of your photos? Do a 'chmod' and voila! the perms are changed!


• No longer need to be root to mount/access/unmount flickrfs. Enjoy normal user account luxury.

Well, how it all works? Just visit http://flickrfs.sourceforge.net


Tags: flickrfs flickr

Downloading media from webpage?

"just use Firefox to accomplish this. "Tools -> Page Info -> Media" shows you a list of all the media (audio, stills, video, Flash, etc) in the page. Just scroll through until you find the Flash and either hit Save or copy the URL..."
Hence says Cory Doctorow

Flickrfs version 1.1 out

Flickrfs is popular and in business, so here is the new release, with the following changes:

* fixed bugs (if photo title=='', then flickrfs crashes)
* Including API Key and Shared Secret. (Why? Keep following)
* Support for spaces in tags while uploading
* Permissions support while Uploading (mode=abc - a=7(always), b=(friends=5 | family=6 | none=4), c=(5=public | 4=private)

The API Key distribution in open source code is a debate. Here are the excerpts:
1. The API Key issued is actually per application instead of per user.
2. The main idea is just to track the usage of Flickr API.
3. Though, it is retrieved in the developer's name, Yahoo has intelligent methods to determine its bad usage.

Second comes, the much awaited support for permissions. While uploading, you can specify if you wish to make your photos public or private, and in private, friends, family or both.
Here is a quite tut:
755 - public
754 - friends (only)
764 - family (only)
774 - both friends and family (not public)

So, just change the permissions of photos, and upload them. And yope! Here are your private 'bikini' photos ;).

As the popularity of flickrfs is increasing, so are the problems encountered. I have started a mailing list to keep track of these problems/bugs along with usage tips etc. Please do subscribe to the list here.
Also, do include '/var/log/flickrfs' when you are reporting abt some problem. This will help me reproduce/diagnose it easily.

People surely are trying it out at different platforms. It will be great if you can create an account of how to install, and what has been ur experience, it will surely help other users. Let me know, and I will include it in the docs page, just like this one

All in all, do let everyone know abt ur experiences, struggles, your success, and joy when it worked (if at all ;). The means may be your blog, my gmail account, or best of all, the users mailing list :). Thanks to all!

Tags: flickrfs flickr

Announcing Flickrfs!

Always wanted to create a virtual filesystem for Gmail in Linux. However, someone stole me of that privilege. Now that festival holidays were coming near giving me some time to do some hacking, I decided to go for the most popular online photo sharing service, Flickr. What other way can it be when you want a prototype up and running rapidly; hence, Python.

Flickrfs is a virtual filesystem based upon FUSE for Linux. It can be mounted on your computer and then can be accessed using the standard commands. But, here are the twists. The filesystem uses threads, and hence, improves usability and speed. When you mount the filesystem, it will create 2 directories automatically: 'tags' and 'sets'. 'sets' will automatically retrieve your photos (only metadata information, hence fast) and will show you all the photos available in your sets. You can then easily copy images to your hdd. And here comes the nicer part, If you want to add some more photos to these sets, just copy them to the folder, and they will be uploaded to the respective set.

'tags' directory allows for searching functionality. It contains 2 directories, 'personal', and 'public'. To search for any tag, just create a directory inside, with separating the tags with ':'

# pwd
/tmp/flickrfs/tags/public
# mkdir linux:ubuntu

This will start searching for photos available in public domain matching these 2 tags, and will provide a list of all these photos. And all this will happen in background, with the help of threads, so dun have to sit and watch while results come.

Now, if you want to upload your photo with tags 'opensource', 'party', 'sfd', then just do this. In either tags/personal, or tags/public, create a directory

#mkdir "opensource:party:sfd"

and then just copy over the images to this directory, they will automatically be uploaded with these tags. And ya! An additional tag 'flickrfs' ;).

For those who will be wondering how long is it going to take to search and 'download' the files over to local disk; Dun worry! Flickrfs doesn't download anything till you either open the photo for viewing, or copy them to some other location. Its a purely virtual filesystem, even the files and directories that are visible to you don't exist on your hdd.

And here comes a trick:
If you searched for say photos with 'linux' tag, and like a particular photo, want to post it online on flickr; just do this

# cd /tmp/flickrfs/tags/public/linux
# cp Penguins\ Austin ./Penguin_Austin

And whoa! The photo is straightaway uploaded to flickr with tags 'linux' (and 'flickrfs' :D).

With Flickrfs, you don't have to worry if you have the photo or not, just upload from where you find it. And those who are mad about 'Flickrlicio.us' (like me), what other way to copy over all those *beautiful* photos to you hdd. Flickrfs is made to provide maximum functionality possible using the general linux commands. If time permits, I will probably be adding a 'gmail' folder, which will allow uploading of photos/files to gmail as well.

The project is hosted at sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/flickrfs. Check out the Installation instructions at the home page: http://flickrfs.sourceforge.net. To the fans of Flickr out there, Do try it out! :)

I would surely like to thank the Open Source Community for allowing the creation of such a FS. Used flickr api by beej. Though debugged and modified it to allow for uploading through proxy as well. Richard's (the someone) Gmailfs code came in handy as well, to create all those virtual inodes. And especially thanks to my prime inspiration for flickr Deepak's pyflickruploader.

Tags: flickrfs flickr

Hrithik on top of Food Court?

"Hrithik Roshan is no ordinary eater. He loves his lunch when standing right at the top of food court."

Lau Pasat was much more crowded today than any other day. Reason: Krrish action sequence was being shot. Half of the road was blocked by Police where huge cranes were standing. Hrithik's duplicate first went fwd and did a testing of the equipment followed by Hrithik himself doing the shot. In the sequence, our 'super-duggu' was supposed to fly from one building to another.

When I reached the spot, he was back at ground zero, and was enjoying his 'Subway meal'. No photos were allowed because of his special make-up. Still, it was really a tough time for his guards to stop people who were flocking from the food court to see their favourite superstar.

I as well met some of my friends from the crew. Kamal was standing in front of Hrithik taking care of arrangements and shooing the photo-shooters away.

Manoj (Right)- Member of crew, A freelancer from Mumbai


Manoj, on the other hand, scared me by suddenly jumping on me. He pointed to the creamish van standing.

Hrithik's Van


"Yeh hrithik ki van hai. Yahin par woh dress-up karta hai. Uska sab saaman yahin rehtaa hai"
[This is Hrithik's van. He dresses inside and everything is kept inside the van only]
Also, came to know about Priyanka's duplicate from him. What for? No one knows. Still dunno if it was true or he was just joking. But, this time it was a bit faster when enquiring about where is the shooting going to be held next.

"Jurong mein."
"Jurong mein kahaan? East or West?"
"Woh nahin pata. Jurong mein bas"

["In Jurong", "Where in Jurong. East or West", "Dunno! Just know that its in Jurong"]

Tags: Krrish

Gift from Google

"A Google T-Shirt?"

That was my aim and my insentive probably when I started working upon an indexing plugin for Bioinformatics databanks. Though I am not interested in Bio related fields; for me it was more of technology involved.
After trying with c++.net; I finally realized that as the plugin expands, it gets more and more complicated. So, with great suggestions and cool googling from deepak, I decided to switch to C#.NET. Though I had never worked upon C# before, but realized that it was just a reformatting of Java. There is no much difference b/w the 2 languages just that Java uses CamelCase while C# uses lower case letters.



Finally after packaging, submitted the plugin which got accepted by Google within 2 weeks :). The plugin is now at their downloads page: http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/genvea.html
Apart from the company's name being posted up on Google due to which a search will show you Genvea on the top results; I got presented a cool 'Google Desktop Search Developer TShirt', TOTALLY FREE!

Well, that's a 'googly' ;).

Krrish and Rain

"Priyanka is not here."

That sentence and half of my incentive to cover Krrish shooting gone. There goes my chance to meet one of the most beautiful ladies in the world.

After much research, and tracking of the Krrish shootings, finally came to know the location they are going to shoot. Its was my own Robinson Road where I go everyday to have lunch. It was raining heavily when I left from NTU, met my friend Rochak at Jurong East, and together we left to meet Indian superstar Hrithik Roshan and ex-Miss World Priyanka Chopra.

WAITING for the rain to stop


The whole road was blocked by Singapore Police, their vans and motorbikes and a big truck on the other side. Amazing to see the otherwise crowded road so deserted. It was raining and they had paused the shooting. The sequence they were planning to shoot was of a kid jumping from a building and our superman 'Duggu' (nickname of Hrithik) saving him. They had already shot some parts of it in the morning when it was sunny.

Hrithik was sitting inside an air conditioned van when we saw him. We tried talking to some crew members to get us an interview from Hrithik so as to publish it in NTU magazine; who redirected us to the line producer Kamal.

Kamal didn't allow us to meet Hrithik as they didn't want to disclose his special make-up. He was quite angry by a popular media channel who according to him after being rejected an interview with Hrithik, took a photo of 'Krrish shooting' from the top of a building.
But, he was a nice person to chat to. He and Manoj (another crew member from Mumbai); both started off their long stories on how the people from Uzbekistan had given them a warm welcome when they shot for 'Bose -A forgotten Hero'; to some cheap naughty clips on his mobile. Ending with Sardarji jokes and an audio clip of 'Bobby' (Bobby who? Bobby Deol). All of them were in relaxed moods while the rain continued to pour.

Rakesh Roshan popularly known as 'the father', was sitting in front of MPH, Robinson Road with his other friends. Though he didn't say anything, while just nodding to our 'hi's; initially seemed a bit cold. We requested him to allow us take a photo and he quite generously offered us a chair to sit and click.

Me and Rakesh Roshan


After a while he himself got restless and came towards OCBC at Singapore Airlines office where the cameras were set. The Stunt Director 'Tony Cheung' from HK was sleeping inside Standard Chartered bank, and he started teasing him, took a photo as well.

Rakesh teasing Tony Cheung


As we were feeling hungry, so went over to Amara and had lunch at Subway. Came back at arnd 4:30 pm, and found out that they are already packing up, lost their hopes for rain stopping. Saw some other fans at the set (who became friends), jumping of joy; as they had got autographs from Hrithik.

"He just came and sat with us and gave autographs. He was so near you cud just take out your mobile and click his photo."
But anyway that didn't happen. We tried to convince our crew friends to allow us take a photo as he must have removed his makeup by now, but, by then Hrithik had already left on this white van. Also, the crew was discouraged by seeing the rain. It costed them $25000, all loss.

"He is the hero. The last one to come and the first one to leave" - Crew

Where they are shooting next is a big issue no one knows about.
"Director saab shaam ko hi batatey hain ki kahaan shooting honey wali hai. Pehley se maaloom nahin rehtaa" -crew (The Director only tells abt next day's shooting location in the evening. No one knows abt it beforehand)
But, as the day was packing we came to know that the shooting will be held in National Library again on Monday. And back on Robinson Road next Weekend.

Priyanka is back in Mumbai enjoying her holidays. Apparently, she doesn't have any more scenes or this is what they told us.

Chinese Lantern Festival in NTU

After around 1.5 years of renovation of the Chinese Heritage Center in NTU, finally they opened it for public on occassion of the Lantern Festival. Last years festival saw it closed only. However, this year was slightly better in that the center looks cool from inside with a red-creamish appeal. And ya! this poster there as well.


Nanyang Lake Decoration


The performances were quite few; and Nanyang Lake was quite dark with minimal decoration. Crowd was still quite okay; just that didn't see any of my 3rd and 4th year friends over there; probably because of the steadily decreasing quality of Lantern Festival.

Blog Spam?

Surprised by sudden activity in my blog, I checked out the comments, and this is what I got:

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Photo Shoot at Chinese Garden

The ClubSnap members meet was organized at 6:00 pm. And 5:45 still, I was in my room only. Just rushed when I woke up, took my tripod, camera and ran for the bus. When in MRT, just did a regular checking of my camera. And phew! didn't charge my battery. The monitor show 2/3 :o. Anyway! can't do much.

Met the other members at MRT. Very nice group of ppl, very friendly. Especially, when seeing me carrying a small FZ5 camera, they instantly recognize that I am a starter; and start giving tips and all :). Esp. this guy I met today, who is a Unix administrator in HP, and has been clicking for more than 4 years. Very enthu, and very keen on getting the basics and techniques of photography correct. His details on each and every minor thing were just amazing.
The garden was very well decorated. Pagoda was looking very beautiful. There were also statues of humans and animals, which I suppose narrated the old chinese stories. While roaming arnd, we met across this group of kids who were burning crackers. What caught attention was this girl in the middle, very innocent looking, very quiet. The look at her face along with the light of candles in front of her made it really nice.

After clicking a lot of photos of the girl and her friends, I headed towards the lake in front to take reflections. And then suddenly, battery went dead. Arrghh!! Not now; we just started only! Anyway, I resolved to buy spare battery pack asap; and keep it always charged.

From that point onwards, I just roamed arnd and tried to learn from other ppl. I took my friends huge canon DSLR in my hands and clicked some photos. He was using a tele-lens; that's why huge. Also enjoyed learning from these ppl abt photography; its various techniques, ways of learning. And the quote as always "Its not camera that matters, its the person behind the camera who is important".

Its fun going over to these meets. Probably, if my battery hadn't gone out today, I wudn't have checked out what others think abt photography, and wouldn't have tried hands on that huge DSLR as well. Today I got lot more than what I wd have got otherwise. And, it was a very great experience. For now, I am just too eager to read the book on photography I am carrying in my hands :D.

Finally flickr!

After having lotsa doubts and checking out all other photo sharing systems; finally tried flickr. Installed its uploading tool. Liked it instantly. Just right click on any photo and upload it.. very friendly.
The tool can upload lots of photos coz it reduces the size of photos to arnd mere 100kb.
For all these reasons, and that I dun have to pay anything right now, I created an account. Here's the link
www.flickr.com/photos/tuxmann
And also a group for open source enthu ppl to link their flickr photos:
www.flickr.com/groups/opensrc

Visit to Msia

Last wednesday had a chance to go for a 1-day trip to Msia. This was a industrial site visit organized by SCS in collaboration with SCE, NTU.

Well, the first thing it reminds me is that I only had 3 hrs sleep; needed to complete some stuff of IA. However, woke up at 5:30 and left off to Kranji. We started off at 8:00 and crossed the border from woodlands checkpoint.

Reached FLEXITRONICS at Johor Bahru at arnd 10:00. We weren't allowed to take cameras in. However, didn feel much disappointment abt it; coz wasn't really interested in the factory. They took us arnd the production unit where the production of chips was going at the rate of millions/month. The whole huge room was filled up with workers; as if the crowd of JP is all over there ;). Our tour of the company ended at arnd 12:00 from where we started off to Fruit Farm.

It took us more than 2 hrs to reach the farm during which I had my full quota of much wanted sleep. I was expecting a good scenary and vegetation however, caught something equally interesting. The first 15 mins of tour of the farm took us to their mini-zoo. I saw Ostrich for the first time; just like my friends who hadn't also seen them. Everyone started clicking to their best ability while the ostrich seemed to get excited after seeing so many humans arnd. There were other animals as well including rabbits, small goats, and others.

But something really fascinating was waiting to be seen. As we were roaming arnd, we saw this small glass box. And it had a big Cobra inside it! It was the first time we saw it so near to us. Unlike Ostrich, Cobra didn't like to get teased by so many arnd. It got angry and hissed at one of the dareable one arnd while also tracing the guy face to face as if it were a reflection of the guy. Was just amazing to see it...

We had a nice fruit buffet along with original honey dew juice. As for me, I was more than happy as that was the only veg thing I got since morning. Had my full share of fruit meal :). Just roamed arnd for some more time and clicked more photos. We left at arnd 6:00 for our next destination, the seafood restaurant.

It rained very heavily during our way to the restaurant. Took us arnd 1:00 hr to reach the restaurant. Knowing that I was a veggie, was served fried rice. Not nice, but anyway, more like I was giving company to others at the table. It was sunset time; so just thought of taking one or 2 more photos before leaving. But as soon as I came out, I was taken by surprise. I hadn't noticed before, but in front of the restaurant was Sea! And with the rain that just got over, the view was amazing. The best one I had ever seen till now. I got some very nice ones. However, it soon became dark and the exposure started lasting for 6 secs. And I had forgotten to take my tripod with me. Felt disappointment on missing out the after sunset view :(.

However, the ones I took made my whole trip more than perfect :).

Reached at woodlands checkpoint at arnd 10:00. Too much rush, so took long. Reached my room at 11:30 ready and energized for next day's work after a refreshing day at Msia.

Hi... Am trying from BloGTK which is a cool blogger for Linux Desktop. And, it has support for proxy also :). Hence, my search reaches a destination ;).
But, I can't change the title apparently.. :(.

food at tanjong

"I was not feeling like eating the same old thing i.e. naan, chapathi and rice". Well this can tell you the kind of food we get at Tanjong area. I never expected Singapore to have such amazing Indian food quality. Went to 'pangat' today to have Indian paranthas. Really nice food ranging from puri, chapathi, naan and aalo, methi and plain paranthas. Having all these stuff here in Singapore just gives a joy which can't be expressed. All my talks back home used to be 'no food'. But, this time surely I have much more to say.

Yesterday, I got one of my photos printed and framed as a gift for my friend. Though, I am not so good at photography currently, but, that one came out quite nicely. Even in print. My friend liked it too :). Hence, my first success at photography :D.

My experience with novels...

These days am practising on my novel reading habits. Till now I had no time to read them. But, now I have so much journey to perform everyday; going to company; that novels are the only choice. And, they very much fit in also. Generally my reading is limited to scientific fictions, and murder, mystery. These are probably the only novels I can concentrate upon. Coz, last time, for a change, I tried my luck on a romantic novel. First 2 chapters, and I was already bored. The novel was just too slow; and it was not happening also anyway ;). So, I came back to my types only.

All my attempts at getting 'Da Vinci Code' and its bro's like 'Angels and Daemons' etc. have been fruitless. Every other person on road is carrying one which belongs to his friend's friend's friend. So, Am currently reading up John Boyne's 'Crippen'. Abt a doctor 'who likes to see blood flowing out'.... Well, I am sure you wd agree that this is nothing new actually. Last novel I read was abt a brilliant psychiatrist who killed ppl if they refused to tell him 'everything' abt themselves. But, even if the characters resemble, still there is enuf material to make u keep flipping thro the pages. Though I am longing for more scientific fictions now.

Desktop blogging

Have been looking for a 'right from desktop blogging' app. Checked out the linux apps out there. There is a bunch of nice apps; esp. gnome-blog. It allows you to write, and keep editing your 'to-be' post; and then, finally whenever you feel like it; just post it over. And more than that, it will stick to your gnome desktop in front of ur eyes. But, its still amateur. There is no proxy settings. Hence, ppl in universities or offices with an intranet, won't be able to blog.

In windows, there are quite a number of good apps. One is this w.bloggar which I am using now. Its quite nice GUI and supports proxy also; on top of that is its amazing speed. You can post, you can edit your posts and all that within a few secs of the keystroke.

Apart from blogging; there is another very fast and easy-to-use app known as 'Gmail shell'. This app will create a drive on your 'My Computer'. You can drag and drop / Copy-paste your files etc. to this drive and it will automatically send these files to your Gmail account. Convinced huh? Not so much. Keep listening then. Apart from this drag-drop interface, it uploads ur files to Gmail in very less time. I have had success even with 9 MB files; while in contrast doing thro' my browser will take forever.

Conclusion: There is an faster app for each mechanical work to be done. Just go find it out :P.

da vinci movie?

Heard that they are creating a movie on the novel 'Da Vinci Code' starring Tom Hanks. Well, for all the predictions; that must be a superhit movie. Too eager to see it... Btw, there are so many other novels also that deserve attention with stories so dramatic; that you can easily imagine how they will look with the special effects that hollywood can provide. Prey probably is one of the best examples. But, in all cases, movies based on novels have proved to have better success rates on box office than the movies with a tailor made story. The reasons may lie in the imagination power of a novel writer along with the years of experience with more focussed attention. This is in contrast to those movie writers who think of their characters in terms of box office profit.

A new Photo blog

So, I started clicking now. Thought of making a blog dedicated to my photos. So, here's it
My Photo Gallery

finally.. Panasonic FZ5

So, finally I bought the camera. How much for? Well simlim came out to be very sad in terms of ultra-zoom cams. There was only 1 shop which cud have given these cams cheap; but, it went out of stock of Panasonic; and Canon one was coming out to be very eX.

I got this camera for $660; along with 256MB SD Card, an original Panasonic camera holder(cover); and warranty card which though is for 1 year; but, has its date of purchase slot empty. So, I can put a later date of purchase and claim it ;) haha!


Now, I am all too eager to click some photos. Here in blk 44, hall 8; we got a nice roof top; very high. Will click some views from there :). Just waiting for my batter to get charged.

Rest with real photos; too much of talking done already!

today.. lotsa things

National day is coming soon; saw 3 soldiers walking down Tanjong Pagar MRT with long guns which looked very polished; more like toys than real guns. But anyway, was very exciting; wanted to hold one myself and try out ;).

Just one day before I saw some air show practise going on for National day; with fighter planes doing a vertical climb up in sky; and nose-diving. Oh man! it must have been very challenging to do so. More than enjoying that, I was already missing the would be 'mine' camera. Cud have taken some pics over there itself. Anyway can't go to National stadium; dun have bucks to spend.

Went to simlim again today. Checked out the price of Canon S2 IS. It appeared a bit fixed price over almost all of the shops; probably coz of its quality and demand out there. Anyway; the cheapest I got was $700. However, considering the quality of pics and all; panasonic FZ5 is more than just equal. And its much cheaper also at rates starting from $650. So, decided to buy Panasonic rather. Am going this friday to get that; lets see how it comes out to be.

Went to Sun Microsystems office today for a meeting along with Amey. Apart from the technicalities that we discussed and excited me; what caught my attention more were those cool chairs we were sitting on. You cud adjust the hand-rest; cud turn it arnd making it more comfortable; it also had some more complex mechanisms which I wanted to find out; but cudn't just start engineering them coz of the fact that I was in a meeting :p. But, still enjoyed twiddling with the chair hahaha... Hope no one noticed that :D.

And now, my IA. I would like to spend hours explaining how my IA is really cool and hectic; but anyway not now. Other cool things abt it is the tea shop I go to every morning. As soon I step over in the vicinity of the shop; that guy would just shout out "1 Tea. Have a seat!" hahaha... Nice morning tea with lotsa smiles :). Luv it that regular way.

feeling lonely?

Listen to smooth jazz. That's what I do whenever I got work to complete as well as want to keep myself stressfree.
Like this one: http://www.wssm.com/player/player.php

Mum-bhai ekdum danger place

where you survive if you got the pace...

Though I never went to Mumbai; always want to go over there and see the so most famous Juhu and chaupati and all. Was just reading up on the flood in Mumbai; and got across this eye-witness. Though I cudn't understand his this lady drove in Mumbai when the water is 5ft deep; "You can drown if you are 5ft tall".

Let's hope it comes back to normal soon.

held Panasonic FZ5 in my hands

the first time I held 12x optical zoom camera in a professional way... looked really cool. I focussed on some ppl from so far away; and it clicked very nicely. Panasonic compared to Canon S2 IS is small; very handy; light also. It has got Lithium batteries(or Nickel is it?); so you can put an
AC Adapter and charge them; unlike in Canon where you got to put 4 AA-batteries. Replacement will be costlier; though can always get rechargeable cells.

Comparing the lens of both, Canon S2 IS's lens is based upon the SLR (as the site says); and its got really good reviews from every site as well as every photography expert arnd. Panasonic got a german made lens which is cheaper. So, you can save arnd S$200 for almost the same quality. What I am looking at is quality at night views; which require more exposure; and better lens also; for which Canon one is supposedly better.

Anyway; now my final comparison comes down to a lot of things besides lens only. Handiness; batteries; memory cards; weight. Both cams use cheaper SD cards; so no worry. Handiness, weight and looks are with Panasonic. With its black body it just looks cool; fits very nicely in hands and you can easily carry it arnd also.

The one field where canon obv outperforms Panasonic is video capture. Canon has a very high quality video in this class of cameras. So, now the only thing left is to go to Simlim again and check if I can get Canon one cheaper; otherwise go and buy a Panasonic.

more abt cams

Am still checking up on cams, and after checking out Ricoh R1V and R2; I want to go for image quality. So, thot of checking up on the compact ones (Ricoh is still considered ultra compact; though it is big when it comes to Compac IXUS 50).

Canon Powershot S1 IS shows up as one potential dig cam. With 10x optical zoom; 3.2 megapix. Its successor which looks really cool is S2 IS; which has got 12x optical zoom; 5.0 megapix. The close competitor is Sony Cybershot DSC-H1. Here's a comparison.

There are other models too which I have to check once I go to simlim again. Probably, if costs okay; I may be carrying a camera on my neck rather than in my pocket ;).



here is a photo of moon taken from Canon S2 IS using a converter.

cams and simlim^2

Jurong Point: My original idea of cam was obv. Canon IXUS 50 ultra-compact. Cool looking, 3x Optical Zoom, and 5x Digital Zoom. I initially checkedout Harvey Norman -> "just enter and find everything double priced" shop. You can get this cam at $699 with 2 256MB SDCards; and tripod. Anyway, not my choice of shop.

Funan IT Mall: I had heard abt this shop in Funan, John which is on 2nd level I believe. A very small shop with long cameras, very long tripod stands, and a amazingly cheerful guy Sam("they call me John"). Prices were quite nice. The same cam he was giving for $650 along with other stuff like a leather case, 256 MB SDCard, tripod stand. well! here I get an advantage. I came out quite cheerful; deciding to buy asap. But, then! there is this place in singapore you can never leave. Hence, my way to Bugis.

Simlim Square: Enter simlim; make a student "dun have any money" look; dig them up with ur info abt the products; and talk low, at the end where no other customer is -> Simlim prices will stun you! The second shop I went into, I met this elder shopkeeper; and he introduced me to the outside of ultra-compact world with a new name -> Ricoh.
Ricoh : Model -> Ricoh Caplio R1V 4.8x Optical Zoom, 5x digital zoom, wide lens, amazing startup speed; and seemingly got singapore's best award. Made in Japan.
Anyway, that time I was not interested in any crap he tells me; I wanted a deal on old friend ultra-compact Canon IXUS 50. So, here's the deal -> will give you a leather case, a 256MB SDCard, a tripod, and software that's all for $450. emm... did I hear you right???

Ya! shop #01-35. Meet this guy and you can finalize a cool looking IXUS 50 for yourself. Kick those Harvey Norman f*ers.

Went a bit more here and there. Till now, 4.8x optical zoom had started ringing in my head. Next shop, compare both of them. 4 out of 5 shops I asked; Ricoh is Obv. the best to them. "And it got award also!" The old guy was saying it right! The 5th shop didn't have Ricoh; and obv. it was the most weird thing they had ever seen.
Went arnd; and checked for more Ricoh's. By now, I knew how to impress them by my knowledge on Ricoh. I started entering into deals.
Ricoh Caplio R1V
#01-43B : $550
#02-91: $485.
#01-25(Simlim Entrance): $500.

Got to pursue them for some time; and stand there staring; till they suddently type something on their calculators and the figure stuns you. One piece of advice: Never go off the shop too soon. Hang arnd!

Did I buy Ricoh? No! I came back to check out what net has to say abt it. Got quite some links.
Ricoh Caplio R1V review
another one

I liked the black body of R1V though I didn't see it in Simlim.

Well, I am after quality. I didn't really like the body of Ricoh, but, its image quality and its speed was very nice. Its got the world's fastest shutter speed; with amazing startup time. You have got to see it urself to believe it. I am carrying a bag pack; and can put the stuff inside it anyway! So, can compromize on ultra-compacts. The single most imp. thing I want is nightview of buildings. There is nothing better than that in a cool place like singapore. And, I am for ricoh, till I find a better one.

Btw, my research told me that the newer version of R1V is out, its called R2. Got the same features; but, has got 2.2" LCD display in comparison to 1.8" LCD in R1V. Also, has got a better look in terms of buttons; got more buttons, more shortcuts. Easier interface and all. Probably, can check that out, looks better than R1V. Here's it...

computers and an NTU[IIT]ian...

Technical things always excite me. I dunno when it all started; but, probably, my love for computers is since the time I came to know there was a machine I cud control. For me it was like a slave I cud give commands to; and I say that coz, till now I feel like a master typing commands and seeing it execute them with perfection. Adding spice to it, sometimes I even feel angry if it doesn't obey me... Well, that's how my relationship with computer has been. I never really thot that I wd pursue it as a career, even as late as I was in +2. That time Aerospace and NASA was my only fantasy. I never wanted to be an astraunaut; esp. when my physique eludes me; but, being a NASA scientist and doing loads of complex things was my dream. Well, my IIT rank didn't allow that to happen, otherwise, today instead of being over here, I wd have been in Bombay or something, reading up all abt rockets and missiles. 1 year works wonders; and the year that I dropped to pursue my only dream that time (which was only IIT) changed my prospective towards my future also. Dreaming of being a very rich software engineer getting more than US $50,000 after studying from MIT or Stanford, I went random ways. Obv, it was the effect of staying with a rich family for the time when I was studying in Vidyamandir classes, Delhi. My studies were completely bonkers, didn't even study for 2 hrs a day; but, ya! all the embassies and overseas studies organizations I have visited. After being invited to University of Melbourne, Australia, ironically due to my still cool rank in IIT(first time, 2807); I was just too eager to go abroad. But, anyway, I had come to know abt NTU thro one of my (IIT Counselling) friends. Well, probably, that was my way to go if my IIT doesn't go well, I told myself. Second IIT Exam went crap! No hopes; probably not even the rank I got first time. But, anyway, I got selected by NTU and was just too happy to go to singapore and criticize IIT... hehe... But, IIT has its own position and it proves itself again and again in random ways. 2nd time I got 572. When I saw my rank, I got a shock. No more happiness, it was more like Why now? It was just too late for me to accept it anymore. I had spent 3 years for that; and now my prospectives had changed. After everyone told me to go to IIT, I came here. Its 2 years here, and I am still struggling to get good grades. Have done anything and everything; no use. The way of education over here goes exactly like in BITS pilani; something which I had never liked coz of its emphasis on core memory based learning. Probably, this place is even one step ahead than BITS Pilani.
Am I lamenting? No way... But, have surely learnt the most imp. lesson of my life.

Photography... hobby?

	I like to click on photos esp. of those high rise buildings and the view from them. Last time, in Jan. I actually went to iDA building at Suntec Tower level 14 something. And, my mobile E398 is quite clear when clicking photos. There was this amazing view from their window; which I captured. Here it is...
I like this pond while going over to Suntec City from MRT. Just took a pic; but, not that nice actually. Am planning to buy a digital camera to have better views. Probably, will buy it before I go off to M'sia. Get a view from Petronas will be probably my priority (over work?) hehehe....
	This ultra-compact Canon SD400 looks really cool; the pic quality and all is really nice. Deepak sent me this link which actually compares 4 popular ultra-compacts. Sony ultra-compact looks really cool with black body and all; but, not having a space for docking on a tripod stand; think is not that nice. I had clicked some photos of Esplanade from a cool 5 MegPix camera but, they didn't come out clear; always shaky. Tripod is the only way out for clicking these lighted buildings. Anyway, just waiting for a first hand experience now :).

DayOne of bloggin

Its early morning at Genvea and I am supposed to work ;). Deepak was all too excited abt this blogging stuff and he dropped me into it as well. And it seems nice also.
These days there is a lot of time for me to read novels coz of long travelling in MRTs and buses. So, I finally started after 'Prey'. I heard abt it in my first sem and wanted to read it; just cudn't anyhow do that till now. Probably, something similar is going to happen to 'Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels and Demons'. Anyway, so, I was just reading this book while going back to NTU in 179; and got so involved that didn't have any account of time. Suddenly at the end of chapter I realized that the bus reached my stop and I had to rush towards the gate before they closed... hmmphh... Really cool book man! Grasping.