i, prash

it's official!

2005-07-25T20:19:00.000-04:00

the move to wordpress is complete and tested. i will not be updating this site any longer. the new location for i, prash is: http://www.prash.net, but i have found a good use for this place.
whenever prash.net is down for maintenance, i will point it here. please do not change your bookmarks back to this site: the new location will be back up soon whenever that happens.
see you there!

i, prash, am on wordpress!

2005-07-06T23:05:00.000-04:00

finally!
after much procrastination, i, prash, am excited to report that i now use wordpress! i, prash, join the ranks of fine predecessors like alex, carthik and of course those southern artistes karthik and manoj!
it was not really a 5 minute install thanks to wordpress still in tune with mysql's OLD_PASSWORD, but anyway, here i, prash, am - all set to explore the wonderful features, themes and plugins of this truly easy to use tool.
for sometime, i will continue to update here until things are all set with the new location. thereafter, i'll see you there!
here's to many more fun days of blogging!

razor sharp!

2005-07-04T20:04:00.000-04:00

two seconds after razor2 is installed, it kicks in like the superstar it is!
vipul, you, sir, rock!

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searching for spam

2005-07-04T10:59:00.000-04:00

who would have ever thought it would happen?
2 hours waiting for spam. 2 self-loathing, anger-inducing, can't-believe-i am-actually-waiting-for-spam hours.
and then it comes, gets a score of 3.5 and slips right into my inbox without a by-your-leave!
#*&$%!(^#*@&!!!

ok let me explain.
yesterday i installed my own mailserver. yes yes, it had everything: qmail, qmail-pop3d, bincimap, vpopmail, qmailscanner, spamassassin, clamav - in short "the works".
and then the craziest thing happened. i had to verify that everything was hunky-dory with my setup and so guess what i needed ..... some spam! and can you believe i got not one piece of junkmail on that sunday evening for 2 straight hours. and then, when it finally comes, all decked up in its grandiose promise of increasing my length and girth, spamassassin takes one cursory glance at it, gives it a score of only 3.5 ( my threshold is 5.0 for junk mail) and sends it skipping off to my INBOX.
darn it! (those were not my exact words, but i am trying to keep this pg)
anyway, i think it's time for vipul's razor.
more on this later (and for those trying to do something similar - coming soon is a complete guide to a decent debian system - i had the sense to document my every step this time around - so keep that ping coming!)

Me too! Me! Me!!

2005-06-22T20:10:00.000-04:00

ok, so karthik book-tagged me, which is not so bad considering i was waiting to be tagged and if it didn't happen soon, i would have done it myself. (this reminds me of the people who think they sing well: once they are in a party and the small talk is over, they get a kind of glazed look in their eyes and they will refuse to say anything unless someone requests them to sing that "titanic paattu". of course even if no one requests them , they will route the topic around until it settles on songs and somehow that titanic movie - "so nice movie, no?" anyway it's bound to happen: for the next 5 minutes you will be treated a very indian-accented rendition of a very dion-y song. of course, everyone should clap in the end ... good heavens!)

anyway, where was i?
oh yes, let's begin with ...

How many books do I own?
this is difficult to answer, the bulk of my favorites are back home in india, because of luggage weight restrictions and because somehow a tilting wet grinder that weighs a gazillion tonnes is more important than my hardbound copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. i am still waiting for the idlis ...
i guess i have about 400 in total of which i was permitted to bring (and then bought some here) about 150.

Last books bought
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. When I first heard the basic premise of the novels, I refused to buy them for many years because I found it hard to believe that someone could make such a bold statement on what is usually a very personal decision of the mind. Finally after much coaxing from my brother-in-law, I decided to buy them just to prove him, Rand and all you fans wrong. I am still reading the first, so judgement is reserved! But I will accept this much: the writing is sharp and I find that a rarity these days.

Last books read
As is obvious from my blog, I have last read Illusions (i read this book off and on - actually you can do it in one sitting - a philosophical treatise on the adventures of a reluctant messaih who influences the author during their flying exploits over the midwestern crop-fields. I like Richard Bach and was a fan ever since I read his Seagull book) , Who Let the Blogs Out (when I started off with this whole blogging thing and wanted to know what else I could do with blogging; turns out not much else .....) and before that: Eats, Shoots and Leaves (a comical adventure on the misuse of pronunciation - the title is a take on the following joke: a panda walks into a cafe and orders a sandwich. After eating, he fires a gun in the air and walks towards the door. When the waiter asks in confusion what he thinks he’s doing, the panda throws him a badly punctuated book on wildlife: “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves”.)

Five Books that mean a lot to me
Although many books have meant a lot to me, including my LAMP book, no not that lamp!)
1. The Little Prince: An amazing story of the journey of a stranded airplane pilot from planet to planet where he meets different people each lonely in his own way.
2. Who moved my cheese? (I also read bigger books, but for now, just hear me out ...): The story is deceptively simple: Two rats are stuck in a dark maze and have all the cheese they want nearby when one fine day the cheese is gone. One rat wants to just stay there hoping someone will put the cheese back, while the other simply starts out looking for more. You will not believe me if I tell you the amazing influence this story had on me when I read it about 2 years back. It made me get off my lazy backside and find a new job in a new city. I have never regretted that and still keep reading this novelette now and then.
3. Illusions Most times you will just walk through the aisles of a library and pick a book at random and read it at home and return it. And then you will repeat the process ad infinitum. Othertimes, you will come across a book that so changes you think that you will buy it and then read it once every other 3-4 books. This is one such. There isn't much I can tell you about it except to look out for the parallels with advaita - the philosophy I most closely associate my innermost thinking with.
4. A Tale of Two Cities Maybe it was because I read this at the very impressionable age of 14 or maybe because I am just a sucker for a martyr story, but this book still ranks very high up for me simply because of the powerful narrative and the way Dickens is able to bring togther such a diverse set of characters into a specific period and bring out the best and worst in each of them. Oooooh, I have spent countless nights just imagining Madame DeFarge knitting the names of the doomed into her weave!
5. Moby Dick From "Call me Ishmael." to "...;then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.", a whale of a read (ouch!) - every single word of it ... (Oh yes Karthik, indeed classics can be fun reads)

Now for the tags - since I am relatively new to the blogosphere, let me just say that if you are reading this and haven't done this yet, please consider yourself tagged (and since it's likely I don't know you, drop me a line and let me know).

and now for sale: AIR!

2005-06-11T00:03:00.000-04:00

just when you thought ebay had seen it all, it now sports a fresh jar of air breathed by super-stars angelina jolie and brad pitt.
ninemsn reports that the ad proudly proclaims:

"Be the first to own this jar of Celebrity air, which may contain air molecules that came in direct contact with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt!!"

and as proof of authenticity, includes 13 photos of the air being captured.
some people are truly jobless and get paid for it too. bidding stands at more than $20000 (wait, it's now $425000)!

the real thing?

2005-06-07T17:32:00.000-04:00

from the christian science monitor comes this neat piece of news that could well change the way we look at energy and its creation. have we really discovered the cornucopia of cold fusion this time?
only time will tell.

thank you!

2005-06-07T00:09:00.000-04:00

thank you! thank you!! thank you!!!

if i wake up tomorrow ...

2005-06-05T23:19:00.000-04:00

... and find out that debian sarge is delayed some more, i will scream out loud!!!
and while on this topic, the nerve of those idiots from redmond to post an ad for "Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition Beta 2" (thanks ms, for the pithy name) and that too right on the slashdot linux page (refresh a couple of times if you don't see it at first, it's hiding in there somewhere!) that is announcing the imminent arrival of sarge.
aaaaarghhhhh!

tomorrow is monday ...

2005-06-05T11:40:00.000-04:00

... and for the first time,

i am not worrying if there is a brand new technology out there that has cropped up over the weekend with another tla like JCP or JMX, and which i might need for my "next project" which would happen once my "bench" period was over,
i feel my contribution is actually being valued by a company that does not think of me an hourly expense,
i am given the freedom to explore new technologies and use them only if i feel the need and i am sure they would improve the bottom line (and not like my previous projects where i would be forced to use a caterpillar earthmover, when what i really needed was a shovel),
i actually want to get out of bed on a monday morning...

ok, it's out of my system.

bosey: back with a bang

2005-06-01T00:05:00.000-04:00

if you haven't already seen it, you should totally check out the all new bosey - it's back and with an attitude. really hilarious is their take on billy joel's "we didn't start the fire".

hey, after all how can a song fail with a chorus like this?

We didn't eat the paya
Did you create it? Cause we really hate it.

We didn't eat the paya
Even if we ate it, we'll regurgitate it.

dave clocked in first!

2005-05-31T09:57:00.000-04:00

over the long weekend, i was just reading dave barry in cyberspace (go ahead - judge me!), when, on page 7, i came across this surprising piece of clairvoyance:
[talking about alarm clocks and the possible future]:

"And that's just the beginning. As clock radios become more intelligent, they'll start to actually anticipate your actions. Even as you read these words, top appliance scientists are working on a prototype clock radio of tomorrow that will have little feet, so that after it sounds the alarm, it can dart around the nightstand, evading your fist."

to think this was written almost 10 years before the "invention" of the clocky about which i wrote earlier.
and of course, in his inimitable style, he proceeds to write:

"Eventually your clock radio will be so smart that it will figure out, after being punched a few times, that you don't really want to wake up at 6 a.m. Instead of sounding the alarm, it will tiptoe quietly out of the room, telephone your workplace, and, mimicking your voice, inform your employer that you're quitting."

man, i just love that dave barry.
go ahead - judge me!

a consultant no more ...

2005-05-28T18:22:00.000-04:00

after 7 years of consulting for firms like sun, ge medical systems, novartis and pfizer, i finally took the big leap on friday and accepted a permanent position at louis dreyfus. some trepidation, some hope, some expectation, some excitement and some raw, primal fear are going to fill my mind when i start next wednesday.
but i have a plan: when terror overcomes me, when i have painted myself into a corner, when i see no possible outlet to escape ...... i will blurt out: "i love seinfeld!" and i will be acquitted of all crimes because of obvious reasons!

blog entry leads police to killer.

2005-05-25T01:54:00.000-04:00

thanks to Instapundit for this unbelievable story. A doomed man's last blog entry has led the police to his killer.
apparently he had just finished blogging about his sister's ex-boyfriend roaming around downstairs and was probably killed minutes later ...
never thought that would happen! may his soul r.i.p.
wait - what is that sound outside my door ... ?

AMDITD - Episode 4: Bovine Intervention

2005-04-18T02:00:00.000-04:00

nope - no long drawn out complaints about traffic and pollution - hey the city is spitting out 45 new cars every day and some things can be expected, even lived with; but not the mooing speed breaker we encountered sitting calmly on - believe it - airport road, no less.
there was one difference though: the bovines had become smart enough to leave a small gap for passing vehicles, while they continued to chew the cud and watch us with those soulful eyes as if to say: use the dimmer, please.

AMDITD - Episode 3: Saar! Give Tonty Fie Rupees Saar!

2005-04-18T00:30:00.000-04:00

hardly does one need to step out of the customs queue and onto the final mile to that welcoming door that leads to the great country that is india, than one is accosted by a group of well-wishers. these people will help you greatly by providing extremely difficult services, such as:
1. pointing out the exit: "that way out saar; taxi?"
2. giving you the weather update: "india becoming very hot, saar".
3. making minor adjustments to the luggage which you had to heave onto the cart yourself.
of course these invaluable services come at a cost. "saar, give tonty fie rupees saar" will echo in your ears all the way to the door.
finally by around 1:00 a.m. on 18th we were out. whatever happened to the 17th of april? just lost in transit...
after a flight where mantra had to be on my lap almost the entire time (no, i won't even bother explaining what happened to our bassinet row seats), it was a welcome relief to step out into the cloud of dust that was once called the garden city of india.
home sweet home!

AMDITD - Episode 2: The long red line

2005-04-17T10:30:00.000-04:00

there it is on the screen again - that long red line on the big blue ocean relentlessly tracing the path of our 747 as it made its way across the atlantic. once again there was talk about why the line was not straight from new york to frankfurt and once again we discussed the great circle line - after all what international travel is complete without discussing such interesting topics.
thankfully, mantra was quite relaxed during this journey since most of it was night-time (EST). we were treated to a showing of spanglish and i thought it was pretty good.
we already knew we had a very short transit at frankfurt but nothing could have prepared us for the walk-out-of-one-plane, climb-up-a-flight-of-stairs, climb-down-a-flight-of-stairs, walk-into-another-plane that greeted us.

just another 10 hours to go ...

AMDITD - Episode 1: Life in the bassinet row

2005-04-16T21:30:00.000-04:00

and so the journey to india begins ...

lufthansa crew: sir, you asked for bassinet seats so we put you on row 41 and your wife on row 34 - they are both infant rows.
me: huh? but me and my wife need to be in the same row with our infant.
crew: sorry sir, only one bassinet row per family.
me: ???

and so we had to become the center of attraction on the flight as we juggled some seats around with other passengers and finally settled down.
actually "settled down" is probably the wrong term to use when you are on the same row as 5 screaming toddlers but thankfully everthing quietened down after awhile and we managed to get some sleep - only to be woken up in the middle of the night to be given breakfast.

ah, the little joys of international travel ...

Around My Des In Thirty Days (AMDITD)

2005-04-16T00:43:00.000-04:00

all packed and ready to go!
the next month of entries will mostly be updated information about my "Around My Des(Country) In Thirty Days" (AMDITD) trip to india. des is probably too braod a term since i don't plan to visit to visit more than 3-4 cities but hey, that's the only word that rhymed well!
various episodes are bound to include the ayushya homam (first birthday function) of my daughter; the wedding of my brother-in-law, my various cuisine-tasting tours in chennai and bangalore and of course watching movies in my favorite theatres back home!
watch this space (and if you want me to bring you back some halwa, b.good in my absence!)

the grouse struck one, the clock ran down ...

2005-04-14T11:55:00.000-04:00

no, i haven't forgotten the nursery rhyme. just updated it for our modern times:

what at first glance looks like an alien, wheeled-mouse, is infact mit media lab research associate, gauri nanda's newest creation. hit the snooze button on "the clocky" and this locomotive 'larm clock takes off and hides in a corner of the room.

Clocky will roll off the bedside table and wheel away, bumping mindlessly into objects on the floor until it eventually finds a spot to rest. Minutes later, when the alarm sounds again, the sleeper must get up out of bed and search for Clocky. This ensures that the person is fully awake before turning it off. Small wheels that are concealed by Clocky's shag enable it to move and reposition itself, and an internal processor helps it find a new hiding spot every day.

i don't know about this, but like one guy says, what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is the quintessential snooze button, and i like it within my arms reach dammit! i can just picture myself in the morning grabbing the nearest pillows (note plural: myself needs more than one ... but that is a separate blog ...) and hurling them around one by one until i clock this monster (oh yes: that was intended).
snoozing is my birthright and i shall have it!

red lorry, blue lorry

2005-04-13T01:51:00.000-04:00

no, not the tongue twister (although it would be fun to keep repeating it ... red lorry blue lorry red lorr-somebody stop me!)
no, this is a ditty that involves a late night at work and the recycle bin.
so it came to be that last week i had to work late on thursday and after venting my fury on my colleague because i was forced to miss the apprentice, i was merrily tapping away at the keyboard when what should i see but the very same colleague throwing a banana peel into the blue recycle bin.

oh, if i forgot to mention, i am also a huge environmentalist and so i descended into a lengthy pitch about the virtues of recycling and what to do with certain types of aluminium cans and paper trash and what to do with certain other types of trash, namely banana peels and used prophylactics. infact i always pictured the two types of trash going to the city dump in two separate trucks (still reciting in my mind: red lorry blue lorry ...)
the poor chap was forced to drop the peel into the regular black trash can.
10 minutes passed and along came the cleaning lady who then unceremoniously grabbed both trash cans and emptied their contents together into one large wheeled canister.
before i could say hola!, the deed was done and she was off on a new expedition to destroy a tropical rainforest somewhere and, i am sure, kill some baby seals while at it...
aaaaaaaargh!!!!

eat that little green tree!

2005-04-08T16:58:00.000-04:00

continuing my series on orthorexia, i discovered something today that made me very happy (and being orthorexic, i automatically felt a feeling of superiority over other meat and non-vegetable eaters).
did you know that a medium stalk of broccoli (about 3 florets) contains 5g of fiber and 5g of protein with virtually no fat or cholesterol? well, i have been eating about twice this quantity everyday for the last month and i feel great and am losing weight a la jared!
of course broccoli's history brings to mind that famous new yorker cartoon by e.b.white(who preferred to remain anonymous):
,
but i say steam it, add madras curry powder to it or, heck, even just drown it in vodka, but have some of it whenever you can. it do you good.
yay for broccoli!

Gotcha, Discovery!

2005-04-08T14:33:00.000-04:00

NASA's site has a photo taken by Commander Leroy Chiao as the International Space Station he is travelling on flew over the launch site.
220 miles above the surface of the earth! and i get giddy just looking down from the glass floor in the cn tower!

hindi chini bye bye ...

2005-04-07T19:31:00.000-04:00

so ash makes the cover of the beijing review and it's big news. why? because this comes at a time when delhi and beijing are already getting ready for talks that involve, among other things, economic cooperation and (egad!) the establishment of a Free Trade Zone
reading through the articles on the beijin review site, brings up some insightful facts:
China's Backbone Industry: Manufacturing sector (talk about the obvious:

)
India's Backbone Industry: IT sectors (ok i get this), motion pictures (but, i DON'T get this) do we really have to mention motion pictures given that there is space for just 2 "backbone industries"?
the articles go on to ask such profound questions as this by a certain highly noted American scholar. Dr. Elizabeth J. Perry, Director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University: "We are exploring questions such as why Communist China has been able to achieve such a markedly higher ?quality of life? (measured by such indicators as literacy, health care and life expectancy) when compared to democratic India. And why, we ask, has recent economic liberalization in both China and India resulted in notably higher growth rates in China?"
so quality of life is literacy, health care and life expectancy? how about some true freedom and equal right to life?
this about where i stopped reading the articles and turned to other things that take up my busy schedule.
like wondering what is happening to this world???

the knife goes in your right hand

2005-04-04T12:29:00.000-04:00

yes - but that's the easy part. what do you do if you are in a different part of the globe? better make sure you know exactly what to do!

a neat little service

2005-04-02T18:50:00.000-05:00

ringo is a neat little service that allows people to stay in touch. update your info in only one place and let all of your friends know about it - automatically. and it works the other way (all the other ways?) too!
i might never forget a birthday or have an outdated phone number ever again!

more tomFOOLery

2005-04-01T14:24:00.000-05:00

even fool.com didn't want to be left behind.
announcing (april)FOOLottery!

got gulp?

2005-04-01T09:53:00.000-05:00

it's the 1st of april (ho hum!) and everyone out there is trying to outsmart the other in coming up with the most (un) believable lies.
of course, google does something weird (and even weirder) every year this day. today is no exception. apparently this new drink (google gulp??? come on!) has "a DNA scanner embedded in the lip of your bottle reading all 3 gigabytes of your base pair genetic data in a fraction of a second" and "it's low in carbs".
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.
and sepia mutineers, nice try!

r.i.p.

2005-03-31T14:02:00.000-05:00

well it had to happen anytime now and it did.
today the world's most advanced nation successfully starved an innocent woman to death. don't get me wrong, i fully support euthanasia and a patient's right to die, but, like i said before, let's not get barbaric in the process.
enough said.
may her soul r.i.p.

how to make a bowl of maggi noodles!

2005-03-30T23:27:00.000-05:00

i hadn't realised how bad ganguly's reputation had become, until i received this on my instant messenger:
how to make a bowl of maggi (2-minute) noodles:
1. boil 2 cups of water in a pan.
2. when ganguly goes to bat, put the maggi noodles and flavor in the water.
3. keep stirring as long as ganguly is on the field.
4. when ganguly is back in the pavilion, the noodles are ready to eat!
maggi, maggi, maggi .....!

am i an orthorexic?

2005-03-29T12:57:00.000-05:00

i always knew i loved eating healthful foods, but little did i know the extent of my obsession until my wife sent me this! am i really an orthorexic? even if i am not, there are definite signs that i am getting there!
and the scary thing is that the article mentions some of the exact symptoms i am displaying like taking only the healthy portions of unhealthy foods, reading the labels almost maniacally and also serially stopping certian classes of foods (already on the do not eat list: pasta, rice, nuts, cream cheese).
but the reason i am not really all there yet, is that i still love pizza (and milk shakes and icecream and cakes). just be there when i am at a pizza hut or sweet tomatoes buffet and you can be assured of a sight that is truly special (no, that's not me, but you get the idea!).
and hey, atleast i am not anorexic!

kaadhal mannan forever

2005-03-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

it was with a sense of sadness, that i heard about the passing away of one more of the trinity of tamil cinema (the other two being, of course, the evergreen mgr and the inimitable "shivaji" ganesan). "gemini" ganesan lived to be 84 and his screen epithet of "kaadhal mannan" (the king of romance) proved true in real life too - 8 (known) children through 5 women including actresses pushpavalli (celebrity offspring alert: rekha) and savitri.
i will always remember him as the sambhar (so called for his portrayal of softer rather then action roles) who ran around singing "oho enthan baby" with vyjanthimala in the classic "then nilavu", although i can never forget "manidan enbavan deivam aagalam" (even man can become god) in a self-abdicating role in sumaithangi either.
truly a great loss for us on earth but maidens in the heavens above, beware! the king hasn't quite lost his touch yet!
and, oh, to the folks at the malayala manorama, it's "gemini" ganesan and not "shivaji" ganesan.

meanwhile, terri schiavo continues to dehydrate ...

2005-03-22T17:28:00.000-05:00

i cannot (pretend to) ignore this anymore.

first, the facts:
terri schiavo is a woman who is *not* on life support, who smiles, blinks and follows you with her eyes but otherwise lies in a vegetative state and is being fed through a feeding tube. she has been like this for 15 years, but today she is suddenly at the center of a raging controversy that, after her feeding tube was removed on friday and she started to dehydrate, caused an emergency session of congress on sunday(03/20) and a 1:00 a.m. signing of a bill on monday (03/21) that forcibly transfers jurisdiction of the Terri Schiavo case to a U.S. district court for review by a federal judge.
meanwhile, terri schiavo continued to dehydrate ...
the judge then hemmed and hawed and went to sleep (after a hearty dinner, i am sure) without giving any judgement on monday.
meanwhile, terri schiavo continued to dehydrate ...
early tuesday came the news that the judge, predictably, refused to allow the feeding tube to be reinserted.
meanwhile, terri schiavo continued to dehydrate ...
now, the schiavos have appealed to the 11th circuit court of appeals in atlanta, ga and have requested for an emergency injunction to the earlier ruling.
meanwhile, terri schiavo continues to dehydrate ...

now, my opinion:
obviously, in a case like this, it is extremely difficult to make a point one way or the other because of the sensitivity of the issue. on the one hand you have right wing idiots like wabc radio talk show host mark levin who blames the husband for having "a woman on the side and having children with her". i feel the husband cannot be blamed for this - hey she has been in this state for 15 years! i would think that after a year of trying, the hospitals and the parents would have taken the right decision to euthanise her and rid her of the agony that her life has become.
on the other hand, i cannot believe the absolutely cruel ruling to "remove her feeding tube". wait a minute, i support your decision to end her life, but does it have to be this way? do we have to let her slowly dehydrate and let her organs fail one after the other as she wastes away into oblivion? is there no quicker option to end her life?
and before you judge me as a cruel and apathetic euthan-enthusiast, let me clarify that there are multiple reasons for my view on this case.
firstly, there is the time factor. this is not someone who has just lapsed into this state. it's been 15 years and it's a daily agony for many of her loved ones. yes, it's natural for her parents to hold out hope for her and we all wish there could have been another way, but there is none.
secondly, consider the economics of the situation. i agree, there is no price to human life, but there is one for terri's feeding tube. i have heard on the radio, that this is about $6000 per month. 15 years worth is about $1,080,000. this amount could save the lives of hundreds of childen who are malnourished and not brain dead.
finally, it's the law! the spouse, good or bad he/she may be, has the final say over such matters when the partner is not in a situation to respond. in this case, he claims she had told him (though there is nothing in writing) that she did not want to continue being fed through a tube. there are many nurses who have come forward saying he is a bad person who only wants his wife dead for her money, but again, that is a matter for the courts to decide.

my final thoughts:
FIRST INSERT THE FEEDING TUBE, WHILE YOU DECIDE WHETHER YOU WANT TO KEEP HER ALIVE OR NOT!
and then if you decide to euthanise her, use barbiturates or something - and get it over with.

meanwhile, terri schiavo continues to dehydrate ...

domain hunting

2005-03-21T14:29:00.000-05:00

sometimes i like to think up some (what i think are) really cool sounding names for a concept, company or thing and then rush to a domain search site and see if it is available.
sometimes i feel really happy with myself when i see that the name is available (atleast was at the time of this posting) and no one else thought about it first! but othertimes, i am amazed too, but not just the fact that someone else came up with the name first, but with what they have gone and done with it!

ordinary words

2005-03-21T00:31:00.000-05:00

while on a blogroll, i hit the love movie.
if you have a minute, just watch it.
even if you don't have a minute, just watch it.

that sinking feeling you get ...

2005-03-19T14:04:00.000-05:00

... when you are driving ...
... and the radio is on ...
... and you approach a fairly long tunnel ...
... and you know you are going to lose reception ...
... and the verdict is about be announced ...
... in the long running murder trial ...
... and you wanted to hear about it first ...
... but you won't ...
... and then you reach home ...
... and someone yells "can you believe the jury voted - "...
... ... ...
... ... ...
... ... ...
... i hate that sinking feeling ...
... and i hate tunnels.

thank you for your payment ... your confirmation number is ...

2005-03-16T14:43:00.000-05:00

... hey, wait a minute please! hold it right there. are people still writing down these confirmation numbers? i mean what the hell am i supposed to do with it? quote it the next time i get a collection notice that says i never payed? and what if they say they have no idea what this number is and they have no record of it on their system?
hey, you know what? if i make a credit card payment and it doesn't show up on my online statement in 2 days, i will know that the payment is not confirmed. so you can go take your confirmation number and ... no not that ... enter it in your system and keep it safely - i don't want it!
btw, your confirmation number for having read this blog entry is READMYLIPSNOMORECONFIRMATIONUMBERS!

Unakkum Enakkum Anandam ... say The Black Eyed Peas ...

2005-03-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

This Tamil oldie has indeed got da beat! If The Elephunk Theme (song 11) by The Black Eyed Peas is any indication of things to come, rappers are now going back (aaaaaaall the way) to the roots - good old melodies from the southern lands of India. Ilaiyaraja'a classic from Rajni's Sri Raghavendra sung by Malaysia Vasudevan and S.Janaki has been metamorphosed into a surprisingly good remix. Check it out! For more info (and the really kooky lyrics) go here .

Gandhi all over the world.

2005-03-14T15:12:00.000-05:00

Mahatma Gandhi on webcam? Telecom Italia has released an awesome commercial featuring the father of India's non-violent movement against the British rule.

No, you do the math!

2005-02-27T12:19:00.000-05:00

napster, the born again legal service to download music is touting a "to go" $15/month service to fill any non-iPod music player and asks us to do the math in comparing it to the iTunes service where you might pay $15000 to fill it with 15000 songs. but the fact is that the songs are worthless once you stop paying the monthly fee. and the biggest kicker is that it won't play on an iPod!
as rob from the washington post, says "...it looks less like a service that allows you to pay to get new music and more like one that forces you to pay to keep your existing music".
nope, the math doesn't add up indeed! looks like "napster to go" is going ... going ... gone!

IsNot! Is Too ...!

2005-02-25T10:27:00.000-05:00

ok, here's a new low for ms (no clue how much lower they can go, since last i heard, even the lords of the netherworld looked down on them). eWeek reports that the visual basic division of ms has filed for a patent of a certain IsNot operator (our own belowed "!=" operator) that is supposedly "... a single operator that allows a comparison of two variables to determine if the two variables point to the same location in memory."
DUH and double DUHDUH!
watch out folks, the next patent in the works is "a natural system for the absorption of oxygen and the release of carbon-dioxide in an effort to purify plasma laden fluid".
i wouldn't hold my breath for that one!

so, paris loves china

2005-02-22T17:31:00.000-05:00

... or atleast that is what the hilton heiress would have us believe. ever since her sidekick's contents became public property, random folks reading blogs worldwide became privy to the unlisted numbers of such celebs as andy roddick and christina aguillera. and down there among all those famous names was one "chows, mr"!
please!!! atleast have the decency to list him as mr,chows!
anyway, it took me 3 clicks to get what i wanted and the answer was no: Lohan, Lindsay(+1-347-596-xxxx) would not go out on a date with me (or atleast i guess that is what those primeval screams meant) - but i had to sympathise with her: i was, after all, caller number 1392 and the time was 2 a.m. in hollywood. soooo sad .... why do these things keep happening to our own little clueless clod?
kudos to t-mobile for having known of this security breach months ago and never letting the unsuspecting public know about it.
anyone in the mood to call anna kournikova.........?
;-)

Webmail for Nuts

2005-02-17T15:45:00.000-05:00

for nuts? no way! squirrelmail is actually quite fantastic and easily configurable! the hard part was getting it to work over my existing tomcat installation because it uses php and tomcat has no idea what that is.
first step: hide tomcat behind apache: huge thanks to galatea for an excellent guide on the installation (oh btw, the instructions on apache's own website suck!). it took me awhile to realise that apxs only comes with apache2-dev - but after that it was all smooth sailing ...
next: the actual squirrelmail install - this was surprisingly easy: apt-get rocks (and so does debian :-)) .
minutes later mail.prash.net was up and about, looking for nuts!

iPods at Microsoft?

2005-02-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

apparently the higher-ups in good old gates' country are a bit peeved to see those telltale white cords hanging from their employees' ears!
here's a hint: make better products m$, and maybe people will take notice.

corollary: apple is now back to the number #1 spot as the most recognized brand on the planet taking over from google. unbelievably, al jazeera is #5!

valentine's day (and other hallmark holidays)

2005-02-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

it's february 14th.
again.
it's the day the rose growers have been waiting all year in anticipation of. the day that turns months of dismal losses into instant moolah-shmoolah (like my favorite radio talk show host curtis sliwa would say). a day that can make the most womanly-wise man tremble at his knees for want of that unattainable never-to-be-returned gift.
and that's why i have a policy at home. there will no roses (that's easy: you make up a story about how you don't like it when roses are cut from plants for our own selfish sake and how they look most beautiful swaying proudly in the wind still attached to their little branches).
there may be a nice dinner involved, but i cannot guarantee we will eat before 11:30 p.m. because that is the only remaining time slot i got when i called the restaurant on feb 14th of last year!
and as for the gifts? there will be no receipts attached.

i prash, therefore i am

2005-02-14T15:10:00.000-05:00

not knowing what to call my new blog, i decided to use my gmail id as the name of my blog. simply put, it means 'i, prash' (a la i, robot) or 'i am prash'.
ok, but what about the tagline? rene descartes' famous quote 'cogito ergo sum' (i think, therefore i am) came to mind and i knew i had it.
welcome then, to your one stop resource about everything prash: news about myself, my current likes and unlikelies, and of course much information about my projects on my spanking new linux system.
hope you keep coming back for more!