thiya.blog has moved to the base website!

thiya.blog has moved to the root URL, thiya.net and will be accessible there now on. I have migrated the blogging application to WordPress and am in the process of porting all the old posts to Wordpress.

Please continue to view my blog at thiya.net and I apologise for any inconvenience caused. This blog will be eventually replaced and removed and hence I request you to update your bookmarks too!

Thank you!!

Even aliens prefer firefox! :-P

I came across this page which shows a Crop Circle that some Oregon State University students and some local firefox fans from Dallas have created sometime in August this year! This crop circle is visible from space and Google Earth has also picked it up!! Find it out on Google Maps here!

Coimbatore!! Here I come!!!

Atlast I am starting to my home after more than a month!! :-) Will be boarding a bus to take me to Coimbatore by tomorrow morning!! I am coming there to attend a wedding of one of the best staff who had taught me back at College!! Feeling great!!!! :-)

This is hilarious!

Check out this faux website that talks about apparently "MS Firefox" and a takeover of Firefox by Microsoft!! Its hilarous.. Though News sites talk about the site disappearing, Its still there!! Check it out here and here.

Here's an excerpt:

MSFirefox 2007's new TakeOver(TM) technology protects the Windows Kernel by automatically recognizing all McAfee and Symantec programs as viruses. Downloading has never been safer.

He he he! I dont know how this guy(or gal) is still staying online!

Dont bother searching for Nemo

If current trends continue, Its curtains for sea-fish by 2050 according to research performed by leading researchers and published in the journal Science.

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.

Fishing bans and other regulations that prevent over-fishing are the only things that can prevent this decline. But there are a lot of other factors, including political, that is preventing this from happening.

Protecting stocks demands the political will to act on scientific advice - something which Boris Worm finds lacking in Europe, where politicians have ignored recommendations to halt the iconic North Sea cod fishery year after year. Without a ban, scientists fear the North Sea stocks could follow the Grand Banks cod of eastern Canada into apparently terminal decline. "I'm just amazed, it's very irrational," he said. "You have scientific consensus and nothing moves. It's a sad example; and what happened in Canada should be such a warning, because now it's collapsed it's not coming back."

From The BBC.

Orkut improves functionality!

Though I had openly voiced my dislike towards Orkut's unintended non-functionality, Orkut has finally given in to feedback from users I guess to include a "Reply" feature in each scrap! I had personally given this feedback quite a while ago and I guess a lot of others had done the same too!!

Now this is cool! You dont have to waste a lot of time just to reply to a 'scrap'! Just click on "reply" at the bottom of a scrap you have received to open up a "Reply-box"!


Pretty cool! :-) Now it isnt a pain to reply to scraps!

Firefox 2 has been released!!

The Award Winning Browser just got re-incarnated! Spell Checking is a cool feature that has been added in addition to the loads of other features like Tabbed Browsing, Pop-up blocker etc!!

Download and check it out for yourself if you still havent tried it out!

Portable Anonymous Browsing

Download Torpark and browse the internet anonymously by connecting via the TOR Network. Your true IP address is not displayed to the server.

Its based on the portable version of Firefox and can be run from a USB Drive without any traces of installation on the system where you intend to run it on. Regarding privacy at the exit servers, I could not come up with information on that at the site. Except that the Creator, Steve Topletz supports privacy!

And yeah, its free. :-) Download it from here.

Lazy

That is precisely what I am. Its been close to a month in the Corporate World. I am getting a grip on the way of life here. Kinda settled down for the time being. I have not yet been fully incorporated into the project that I have been assigned to, a lot of training sessions are still going on, but I strangely felt lazy to update my blog even though I had quite some free time left. Lethargy is having me for lunch.

I have settled down at my residence with more than two months having passed since I came out of the confines of my house, my parents, my sister and my(unofficial) kitten. Had to buy supplies that had gotten over. Finally I am beginning to know that maintaining a house is really no easy task. Hats off to you mom(and a little, to you sis!).

One thing I have noted is that I am beginning to find people familiar even if I have never met them before in my life! When I was in school, I could place anybody I had met before at the location I had met them, the circumstances etc. But as time passed by and I made more contacts and moved to more places, College, Small organisations etc., I am beginning to face difficulties in ascertaining the initial meetings that I may have had with people. And one strange off-shoot to this is finding people familiar!! Whew!!

I bought a TVS Bike to carry me along the roads of Bangalore, my First love (Bike only! Dont scream Maddy!)which is still at home, with my dad having taken over its control.

Other than that, I am still the same guy, albeit a bit more lazier than what I was. :-/

PS:- Now, after beginning to 'work', I really appreciate people like Jax, Mahendran, Kishore and all the others who maintain great blogs even with all the work that may come across their way!

Enlightenment

Two days earlier, I went home from work, The previous night I had washed all my clothes and hung them up to dry, on the second floor. All the clothes were dry, but a gap broke the peaceful row of clothes on the clothesline where a very good shirt was. I assumed my friend would have taken it and kept it inside.

It was only yesterday evening it dawned to me that the shirt will not be found in my premises again. It was stolen! It was a good-looking shirt and I was flustered. When I told this incident to my friend who has been residing here at Bangalore for quite some time, his reply was

"Welcome to Bangalore!!" :-/

Life @ Bangalore

No.. That's not an incomplete email address.. :-P

Now that I have started working, the things that need to be worked out are my day to day activities! My part-time Masters programme in Computer Science and Engineering will be beginning shortly and the only day I'll be free(thankfully) is Sunday! But, come Sunday and I take the form of a ghastly human washing machine, Washing all my clothes that I had worn the previous week which takes away the better part of the day. Aaargh! I have contacted a maid who was willing to take up the washing job shortly, So I'll be having time to spend around with other activities like Programming and Music!

I am planning to take up guitar classes though I have to fully settle down here at Bangalore! It has always been my dream of being able to play the guitar, if not the likes of the greats, atleast something that is pleasing to the ear on rainy days. I learnt to play the trumpet and the cornet during my stint at my school's music troupe. I'll try to find some good maestro here!

Right now, I have to decide on the right career path that I'll have to take to pursue my interests, and generalising that is something that I dread. I have to decide on what exactly I have to do in order to be where I belong.

Time can tell.

Coimbatore was better!

In some ways, I feel Coimbatore is a lot better when compared to Bangalore. But the reassuring thing is, there are quite a lot of people who are willing to help! Lost your way, ask someone! If you ask a few people, chances are highly likely that you would come across a person speaking your own language in addition to the regulars like Hindi and English! And people help us out by giving complete directions! I know this is quite contradictory to my previous post, :-P But almost six out of ten people I ask for directions are either new to the place or have directions only to reach their own places!! Ha ha ha! :-)

Another crazy thing which I guess is improving is that the place names are not written in English in the buses that ply around Bangalore, leave alone for the 'Volvo' buses. But the situation is improving with ordinary buses getting those stylish LED displays!

So, gotta start for home! Tata for now..

All roads lead to roam

Without a bike and without proper directions, its walk walk walk all the way criss-crossing small parts of Bangalore!!!

Its been quite a while since I got my hands on an internet enabled system and the time to access my blog! Life without internet is getting on my nerves!

I landed here at Bangalore on the 16th of June and have been going through the phase of change.. I am so homesick that I want to go back home.. Its like all of this is just a small vacation and that I would be going back home soon, but the fact remains that I have finally become a professional and I have to get used to living alone. Yeah, with friends.. But the atmosphere that existed at home no longer exists. I am almost getting done with the formal induction at the company I have joined. Yet to get some hands on experience though.

So, thats it for now.. Am living in a rented apartment with one of my friends along for company. I dont have a clue of where I'll be posted after my training. It would be three cheers if it is somewhere near the place where I stay! Lets hope for the best!!

WARNING: Disgusting stuff ahead!
There's one disgusting thing I do not like about the place here at Bangalore. People spit almost on all possible places! I mean all!! I was in this well-known hotel as part of my induction and people had spat on the corners of the AC conference hall.. Aaaaah! You need to watch your step when you are walking on the road to avoid well.. Lets leave this for now...

I am literally going crazy without Internet. I am planning to get a broadband connection as soon as my location is finalised and I am sure of the place where I stay. Until then, its just those stolen moments every now and then when I take the slightest opportunity to post an entry, as I did now! :-)

Two days and counting

I'll be on my way to Bangalore in two days. I have begun to think over the various things that I would have overlooked or taken for granted back here at HOME!!

There are quite a lot of things that I can think off! I have to wash my own clothes, sweep the house, clean everything, get food ready. I cant expect to wake up in the middle of the night and expect something to be there to gobble if something wasnt kept ready already in cold storage! I have never thought of all of this when I am at home. But now, that I have to let go of these luxuries and begin my new life there, I must rethink everything! Get ready for come-what-may!

Staying away from home for the first time, I must get through this difficult time without any kind of home-sickness on the long run. The time has come for me to fly, to be free, to be more responsible. There is a 'first time' for everything and I hope this would be filled with happy moments!