Spartan 117

My article published in Packet Magazine

2007-04-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

1 - 0.9 - 0.1

2005-12-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

Google calculator flaw...

Bought an ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition display card

2005-10-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

Ordered a X850XT Platinum Ed. from Newegg.com. Cheapest deal you can find for 366$ inclusive of shipping. Awaiting the arrival of the card in the next one day or so...

Trip to Canada

2005-08-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

Recent trip to Canada - Pic showing the route-map

Latest add on to my Gadgets - Casio Exilim

2005-08-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

Yet another add on to my gadget collection - a Casio 5.0 MP, Exilim camera - almost as thin as 10 credit cards stuck together. The performance of the camera is excellent, can take pictures at resolutions as high as 2568 * 1920 with movies at 640*480 MPEG. A 1 gig memory card can give storage space for movies upto 1 hour long. Good thing abt the memory cards is that it will take either SD or MMC, unlike Sony who makes good cameras, but have to rely on using Sony proprietary memory cards (Memory sticks). Check out some of the pictures below.

This camera is an excellent choice for the money you pay less than 400 $...Slim, compact and still use point and shoot with 3x optical and 4x digital zoom. Also has a built in Anti shake DSP which prevents shaky/blurry images. Bought this camera from Norman Camera in Michigan - an excellent store to buy your cameras online. Shipping was cheap and was right on time.

Finally modded my Xbox after 3 yrs of owning it

2005-08-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

After 3 yrs of owning an Xbox 1.0 (newly released versions have reached version 1.6). The Xbox is nothing but a P3 733 Mhz processor with 64 Mb ram and 8 gb hard disk and a DVD rom drive. The GPU is from Nvidia with 32 MB of VRAM ( i think) and DRAM is also built on board. Check this link for more pictures associated with my Xbox Mods.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=806109446205

Approximate cost of the project = 70 - 80 $.

Some caveats, if you have recently bought the Xbox, and is still under warranty from Microsoft or a retail shop, dont mod it as you will lose warranty. You have to remove two hidden screws underneath the warranty and disclaimer sticker to open the xbox. The Xbox uses a special screw called Torx bit screw, which have a Star shape on the surface of the screw. You cannot use regular screw drivers to unscrew them, so I had to get a Torx screw driver for 10 $ from a local Home Depot store. I also bought a Xenium SP ICE chip for 62 + shipping online. Got the chip 2 days after I ordered it and after 2 days of reading various documents on the Internet , on how to mod an Xbox with Xenium chip...I still couldnt figure out where the Xenium chip goes into the motherboard of my Xbox. All this was because most documents on the Internet talks about installing Xenium chip on V 1.6 Xboxes. My version was a 1.0. Microsoft obviously used different chips for each versions on the mobo and hence all this confusion...I finally realised that some of the components that shipped with the Xenium SP ICE chip is not required for my Xbox (v 1.0's). Started this project on a Friday evening, and finally by Monday evening, I successfully installed my first mod chip on my Xbox. Also ugraded the stock hard drive on the Xbox (which is a 8 gb) to a massive 200 gb Ultra ATA disk from Seagate. Note that you have to buy a Hard drive that canbe locked and unlocked. Upgraded the hard disk to the new one and copied all the old hard drive contents (my save files, game profiles etc) from Old disk to New disk. At this point my modded xbox was ready to be installed with a new dashboard so that I can load applications, rip games to hard disc, rip dvds to hard disks etc....

The next part is the hard part...trying to find a dashboard (like Evolution X or Avalaunch) which are pirated versions of Microsoft original Xbox code. So its illegal to distribute such code. You got to rely on bit torrent files to download this software. After a day of searching I was finally able to locate the software which could be burned into a CDRW or DVD (no CDRs as Xbox doesnt read from most CDRs)...and all you got to do is boot the Xbox from this disc. Rest if piece of Cake.

My Modded Xbox can,

a. Now run two dashboards - EvoX and Avalaunch as well as the original Microsoft dashboard
b. Rip games to local HDD
c. Rip DVD movies to local HDD
d. Massive 200 gb storage
e. XBMP - Xbox media player - playes mpeg video as well as audio - mp3
f. XBMC - Xbox media center - streams video from a Media center edition XP PC with a tv tuner card built in...
g. Take backup copies of games that you own to a DVD (blank disc)
h. Has built in emulators that can play old Nintendo, Sega, Mame, Atari rom based video games
i. Downloadable skins
and lots more.....

More projects on the way...

a. installing win 98 on Xbox
b. installing Linux on Xbox
c. installing Windows CE on Xbox..

Until then..i will keep this blog posted with more fun stuff that I am gonna do with my Xbox...

New Plasma TV

2005-05-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

After two months of anticipation and lot of research time put into reviewing plasma tv's i finally made the decision. Bought a new plasma tv..err..i should not call this a tv, but a panel. Now whats the diff between a tv and a panel. A tv has a built in tuner, while the panel does not. The panels are usually a lot cheaper than tv's due to the above reason. I got mine for 3700$ plus shipping, which is a very nice deal on one of the top selling plasma panels in the market today. Check out the pics below - Click the thumbnails for a bigger picture.

Lazy dood

2005-05-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

Three months, thats a long break from blogging...I cant believe i did that. I was so enthu. when i started blogging, but then I guess I got lazy as usual..Finally my college mate's comments made me start all over again..Its a good thing, coz so many things have happened in the past 3 months, that there is lot to tell..

Speeding Ticket

2005-02-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

Havent got one in a while. Tonight a cop pulled me over for speeding at 48 mph on a 35 mph speed limit road. And this will be my 6th speeding ticket in the past 4 yrs. Felt weird that I got a speeding ticket only for 48 mph, when I usually speed at 60-65 mph on 35 mph limit roads. Atleast for the next few weeks my speeding will be under control for some time.

DSL versus Cable

2005-01-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

I dont mean to use this blog as a board to review which is faster - DSL versus Cable. But definitely I did do some benchmark tests to find out which is faster DSL or Cable. And I could not resist blurting that out at my blog. I have been a SBC DSL customer for the past 1+ year. I had a promotional rate of 26 dollars + hidden taxes for the first one year. Since November I have been paying almost 60 dollars for my internet and phone bills...basic phone service with caller ID and SBC DSL (1.5 Mbps down and 256kbps upload). As a move towards reducing my internet costs, i decided to order cable internet and finally got basic cable TV + high speed internet from Comcast (local cable provider). The free cable modem (leased from Comcast for 3 dollars per month) didnt seem to work properly (long story) and Comcast was ready to send a technician to fix it for 50 dollars. I told them to "scr3w y0urs3lf" and went ahead and bought a cable modem from a local store.

The new cable modem from the local store did an awesome job and tonight i am a proud owner of two internet connections - Comcast Cable and SBC Yahoo DSL. I decided to use some bandwidth testers to measure download and upload speeds. Here are the test results..

Test Setup:

3.4 Ghz Intel CPU running Windows Media Center edition 2005
1 Gig ram
10/100 nic connected back to back to Cable modem for Cable speed tests
10/100 nic connected back to back to DSL modem for DSL speed tests

Test Results:

Test no 1: SBC Yahoo DSL has a online tester. I used the service to test both my DSL and Cable internet connection.

DSL -

Download speed - 1111 kbps

Upload speed - 306.98 kbps

Cable -

Download speed - 1669 kbps

Upload speed - 367.81 kbps

It looked like there is not much difference between both the flavours. So I decided to use another website and after much googling found a website which seem to perform much better with bandwidth measurements. Read more about it at Test no:2.

Test no 2: Download /Upload tests at www.Testmy.net

Visit "testmy.net" website to perform Upload as well as Download measurements. The unique feature with this website is that they measure bandwidth with different file sizes.

Cable : Download tests (Speed of connection/File Downloaded at)

Test 1: 3098 kbps/378 KBPS (Kilo Bytes per second)

Test 2: 2737 kbps/334 KBPS

Test 3: 2474 kbps/302 KBPS

Cable : Upload tests (Speed of connection/File Uploaded at)

Test 1: 361 kbps /44 KBPS

Test 2: 362 kbps / 44 KBPS

Test 3: 361 kbps / 43 KBPS

Conclusion : Cable seems to have an average Download speed of 2.5-3 Mbps and Upload speed of 364 kbps

DSL : Download tests (Speed of connection/File Downloaded at)

Test1: 1306 kbps / 159 KBPS

Test2: 1210 kbps / 148 KBPS

Test3: 1302 kbps / 159 KBPS

DSL : Upload tests (Speed of connection/File Uploaded at)

Test 1: 284 kbps / 35 KBPS

Test 2: 286 kbps / 35 KBPS

Test 3: 284 kbps / 35 KBPS

Conclusion: DSL seems to have an average Download speed of 1.2-1.3 Mbps and Upload speed of 284 kbps.

Test no 3:

A simple file download of 8 mb in size took 18 seconds on an average (based on 3 successive tests) via Cable modem.

The same file download (8 mb) took 50 seconds on an average via DSL modem(based on 3 successive tests)

Definitely Comcast cable is outperforming SBC DSL in download speeds. Upload speeds are failry the same. After all this blog did become a benchmarking arena for Cable vs DSL.

The Pianist

2005-01-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

I missed watching this Oscar winner back in 2002, until yesterday when i finally got a chance to rest my bu** to watch this movie!! The movie has a li'l drag but over all I would admit that this movie is definitely worth watching. The movie revolves around a pianist from Poland who has to suffer the discrimination from Nazis for being a Jew and how he survives through 4 years (the movie is dated back to 1945 - WW time). This movie is the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who in 1930 was known to be the most accomplished pianist in Poland. Note that this movie will add to your hate list for Germans, for what they did to the rest of the world during Hitler's rule!!

I am not all surprised why this movie got the Oscar award!! The same reason why I always like Roman Polanski's films.

GCF Scape

2005-01-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

Ever since I started playing Half-Life2, I have been interested in some how ripping the background music of the game ..I knew Valve had come out with a OST audio Cd for some odd 20 bucks a piece!! I wasnt that crazy enough behind Half-life2 like I was behind Halo and Halo2 ( I actually bought the OST of Halo and Halo2)...After considerable amount of time spent behind this, I finally was able to find a tool (This might not be new to you) called GCF Scape. FYI, Steam users of Half-Life2 should know very well that most of Half-Life contents are stored as GCF files. GCF Scape is a tool that parses through a GCF file and extracts the contents for you. After playing with this tool for some time, I was able to extract all OST tracks of Half-life2. FYI Valve stores these files as mp3 (not a safe way to store these files huh!!)

Picture attached below!

2005-01-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

GCFScape used to rip HL2 OST files.

Modded case

2005-01-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

My P4 has been screaming hot (with no OC). I already have installed 2 80 mm fans and a Gigabyte 3D Cooler PRO wth adjustable fan speeds (upto 4000 rpm) I think its my case , that its small, that it has bad ventilation thats causing all these problems. Finally decided to get a 120 mm fan - got one from Aerocool for 18 bucks...The case and system idle temps are now down to 37-38 deg C and under load conditions 50 deg C...I remember Intel had mentioned that Prescotts run so hot that they can run pretty good upto 65 deg C.

Also added two Dragon grills to the 80 mm fans on my case (one on top and one on bottom). Post your thoughs. Pictures attached below

2005-01-22T23:04:00.000-08:00

Thats the Dragon grill on the 80 mm fans..

2005-01-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

120 mm (colored fan on the back) adds to a lot of cooling for my case.

A Day at Fogo

2005-01-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

Ever heard of Fogo-de-Chao ...sounds portugese to me..but its actually the name of a Brazilian restaurant. Now meat haters and vegetarians dont need to read further as the content of the rest of this blog is so meaty that it might bring a lot of veggy stuff out of your stomach. Its much easier to call it Fogo rather than Fogo-de-Chao. If you are a meat lover you will definitely love this place. Its a steakhouse - the brazilian way. This is my third time to brazilian restaurant and I will have to admit that Fogo is the best. I have been to Texas - de- Brazil before - the price tag is cheaper there but the restaurant sucks. Fogo rocks!! I am not a meat lover, but I dont mind eating variety of meat..

There is something different about Fogo. Fogo's meats are slowly cooked..err...I should say slowly roasted over an open flame..There is no menu available at the restaurant (infact there is one for the wine/dessert section, but none for meat). The pricing is "fixed-price"...When I say fixed price, it can vary during holidays, dinner, lunch etc. Guests at the restaurant can choose any or all of the available meat choices including chicken, beef, lamp, pork...The best attraction is the salad bar which looks so pretty and filling too..Its a Salad buffet, full of fresh cut vegetables, side dishes, variety of salad dressings.

Guests can control the service with a small circular chip with red color on one side and green color on the other. The green color indicates the chefs to serve meat, and the red side indicates them to stop the service. During the course of the meal you can flip the chip between red and green as many times as you want.

With all this said, I really have to thank our CEO for throwing a free lunch for all of us. I will never forget two of my colleagues who were just pouncing on meat rather than talking, while the rest of them where busy eating and talking BS. The lunch almost consumed 3 hours of our afternoon and it really felt like nappy time after the dessert (Chocolate Flan) that I had at the end of the meal. If you ever visit any Brazilian steak house just remember this - "never forget to order your dessert"...

Hmm..I will be waiting for next year's PS Lunch. (PS - stands for Professional Services group)

Tribute to Amrish Puri

2005-01-12T21:16:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite actors in my ever long list..it was really a great shock to me to read news on Indiatimes.com tonight. The actor was 72, suffering from a blood clot in the brain plus a coma. Still remember his very famous dialogue "Mogambo Khush Hua" from Mr India. I just saw one of his last movies (or his only last movie) - Hulchul directed by Priyadarshan in a theater here in Dallas. While watching that movie, I did feel how old he looked/acted..and even a thought came to my mind what will happen to the movie business once he dies..Feel sorry for what I thought about him 2 weeks ago!!!! Sure its a great loss to India and to Bollywood!!

Citroen Dance

2005-01-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

Check out the famous Citroen transform into a robotic dancer. A 30 second TV commercial - The C4 was cyber scanned using laser to create a 3D model and using movie like animation techniques, took two months to create this transformation. FYI, the background music is "Jacques Your Body make me sweat" by Les Rhythmes Digitales - Courtesy : Marty Kudelka (Justin Timberlake's Choreographer) . You have to click the play button to start viewing the video.

ThatZ my Zar!!!!

2005-01-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

Ice skating - a Hobby??

2005-01-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

Thats me Ice skating in Galleria

German Engineering - No Questions asked!!!

2005-01-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

Largest Bucket Wheel Excavator

This unit is the largest ever created in the whole world..Built by a German company called Krupp. The unit is crossing a highway, supposed to be cheaper moving this small beast this way, rather than dissassembling/transporting/assembling at the destination. Here are some of the specs:

a. 95 meters tall
b. Weighs only 45,500 tons (looks like she is an over eater)
c. 215 meters long (thats 2.5 times a foot ball field)
d. Cost is 100 million dollars
e. 5 people to operate
f. 5 years to assemble
g. 5 years to design/manufacture
f. Max speed - 10 meters / minute

Add On's to my PC = Weekend Project

2005-01-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

I have a few stuff added to my inventory today...so that adds up to a weekend project....Dont know if $ spent = worth any #

a. Returned 3.2 Ghz to where it came from...Bought 3.4 Ghz...(I think I am going nuts) - extra $65 from the 3.2 Ghz

b. Gigabyte 3D Cooler Pro with Speed/Noise/Cool control capacity - $35

c. LGA 775 socket for the 3D Cooler Pro - $4

d. Zalman ZM80D-HP Noiseless VGA cooler -w/Dual Heat pipes. - $35

e. Extra Zalman fan for the VGA cooler - $9

2005-01-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

Zalman ZM80D-HP - Noiseless VGA Cooler with Dual Heat pipe
Photo Courtesy : www.xbitlabs.com - Didnt get enough time/energy to take my unit's picture

2005-01-06T19:20:00.000-08:00

3dCooler Pro CPU Fan
Photo Courtesy: www.tomshardware.com - Lazy to take a pic of my unit..

Car Cam

2005-01-05T21:46:00.000-08:00

Nothing great! A pic of my car from another car!!!!!!
PS: No Adobe effects used! All pictures posted in this website are taken for real, unless otherwise specified!!!!!

Courtesy: Santhakumar and his Olympus camera.

Another Cold Wave

2005-01-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

Yet another cold wave hits Dallas, and I guess this time the precipitation point has not yet reached, so its all in rain and wind and temperatures in the -'ve celsius ranges...If you stay outside for a minute, you will be frozen to death. Dallas is supposed to be one of the hottest places in Texas (of course its winter now), but off late when I hear news like "It snowed in UAE", "Saudi Arabia has been getting too much rain in 2004" makes me think how close we are towards our own destruction due to Global Warming!!!!!!

What socket should I buy?

2005-01-04T14:59:00.000-08:00

Its a very common question that comes to a person's mind while upgrading your PC ?? What socket motherboard (MoBo) should I buy ??? If I buy Socket XXX what processors can I install on it...?? I found an excellent link which gives a very solid FAQ-Answer type information about various Sockets...Check it out here..

http://users.erols.com/chare/cpu_sock.htm

Happy New Y3ar 2OO5

2005-01-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

2005 is here..and its been almost 16 days since I havent updated my blog. Most times I have been lazy to type...or else I forget about doing it. Until I got an email from my college buddy ...about his blog...check his blog here...http://tech-no-babble.blogspot.com/

New year day was filled with fun...had a get together at a friends place. The next day we played Xbox /Halo 2 - 9 people on 5 plasma screens. It was the best experience we ever had....

Overclocking

2005-01-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

Have been playing around with motherboards and processors from P4 to AMD back to P4....Finally I have found a very stable motherboard/processor combination. I got a P4 3.2ghz and Asus P5P800 motherboard, 1 GB of RAM, ATI 9600SE display card (This card sux)...

3.2 ghz was overclocked at 225Mhz FSB to get 3.6 Ghz..(pretty stable and cool with a system idle temperature of 39-40 deg C). When playing games like Half-Life2 the processor temperature rises to 55-60 deg C (which is not bad)....The graphics processor was overclocked using Radlinker (or u can use ATITool) - check out http://www28.brinkster.com/chrisww1942/

The Vcore has been running stable at 450 Mhz while memory is stable at 250 Mhz (havent pushed it up so far)....Remember the dumb aXX 9600SE cards run at 325 Mhz and 195 Mhz for vcore and memory out of the box ...

Here are some pics.

CPUZ showing 3.2 ghz running at 3.6 ghz

While playing Half-Life2

S3xy lasses from Half-Life2

2004-12-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

Whoa!!! check out these s3xy lasses from Half-Life2..Comments welcome!!

Dr.Somebody in HL2

Look at her!!

Expensive Chirstmas Gift - For Myself

2004-12-25T07:44:00.000-08:00

I built an expensive Xmas gift for myself...took me three months....I have been working for the past three months trying to build a stable PC platform. This PC has gone through various transitions from P4 to AMD and now back to P4. Here is a brief spec of the PC:

Asus P5P800 LGA 775 socket MoBo
P4 3.2 Ghz overclocked at 3.6 Ghz (FSB - 225 Mhz)
Stock CPU cooler/120 mm UV blue top case fan/120 mm UV Blue side case fan
PCI slot System exhaust blower
1 GB (2 * 512) PC 3200 Dual channel DDR
ATI Radeon 9600 SE with 128 MB (sucks) - Overclocked at 425 Mhz Vcore/250 Mhz Mem
6.1 ch onboard Audio
Built in Gigabit NIC
8 USB ports

Here are some pics:

PC Side view

PC Front view

Poor mans Snow

2004-12-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

Dallas doesnt usually get any snow, but the last few years it has been snowing atleast once (atleast since 2001). I guess this is all due to Global Warming...Well thats a whole new topic to discuss...so let me cut short and get to the point. It usually snows (or ice fall) around February, but this time it snowed really early and only 1/2 to 1 inch of snow. And the next 3 days was at 0 F that the snow ( i should all ice) took 3 - 4 days to melt...Hoping to see some good snowing in February when the next Cold Wave hits Dallas..

Yagi antenna ripped apart

2004-12-20T12:12:00.000-08:00

Perhaps every body knows what a Yagi antenna is. Most people use Televisions with Yagi antennas. I have been doing a wireless implementation for a hospital and they had a Yagi antenna for a building-to-building wireless network. A stormy night one of these antennas was ripped off from the pole on which it was mounted. Here is the before and after pictures of the antenna...

Before Storm

After Storm

32 F - 0 C in Dallas

2004-12-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

Its 0 degree C in Dallas. Last two days have been very cold. I am making good use of my new leather jacket...

Yanni show on Dec 2

2004-12-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

For all those who are Yanni haters, you dont need to read this post. This show was one of the best concerts I have ever attended. I carried a binoculars with me to see him real close. He really has maintained his hair very well..It looked like a shampoo advertisement on stage...About 3500 people showed up for the concert. This will be one night that I will remember for a long long time...until the next Yanni concert...

Watched the movie "The Incredibles"

2004-11-26T20:52:00.000-08:00

This movie was indeed incredible..The movie introduces to a incredible family...worth payin the buck!! Pixar animations always end up producing a movie that makes your jaws drop all the time..No wonder it made 51 million dollars the first week it got released...not to mention that Halo 2 made 125 million (close) on the first day !!! Incredible isnt it ??

Thanksgiving Shopping - Window shopping

2004-11-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

Dudessssssssss...my thanksgiving shopping spree this year became a window shopping event...Past one year, i had bought so much electronic gadgets that I was left with nothing to buy. I left Fry's empty handed :)) LOL..I am working on getting together all my gadgets and clickin a photograph of all of them together ....

Dallas Morning News

2004-11-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

Its Thanksgiving Holidays ..and people are in the mood to feast and shop and save for gifts for Xmas...Usually all stores are closed on the day of the Thanksgiving (usually 25th Nov) and all stores will have tonnes of specials for the next day (26th). Stores will open by 6 am in the morning and the specials will last for 5-6 hours..You get to know what specials are available only through newspapers in your local area on the 25th.

I woke up at 11.30 this morning and was frantic to get ready to go out and check out Dallas Morning Newspaper (costs 0.50 cents). I had noticed that my apartment complex has 3 boxes which has atleast 10-15 newspapers on each box every day. I was running to get the papers, but was disappointed to see all the papers were gone....i guess i was snoring too late in the morning..

I had to drive 3 miles to finally get hold of a copy of Dallas morning news...At 10.00 pm tonight after coming back from a Thanksgiving feast at my colleagues house, me and Vani are busy isolating which stores to hunt at 6.am in the morning..I hope tomorrow morning wont be a cold day like yesterday!!! I guess I will be able to make good use of my new leather jacket I bought from Wilson's...

Happy shopping guys!!! (oh yes...ladies tooo)

Thanksgiving Feast

2004-11-25T21:04:00.000-08:00

I was glad when I got the invitation for Thanksgiving dinner from Tim (my colleague) and Susan (Tim's wife's aunt). Both of them work with me at my office. This will be my first thanksgiving dinner with an American family. The feast was great. 3 big old turkeys, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pies, pecan pies, banana puddings, lots of 'Spirits' - to tell you the truth, I was totally full and unable to move myself...This dinner will one that I will always remember!! Thanks Tim, Jessica (his wife) and Susan for inviting us for the dinner!!

Wednesday - Nappy time

2004-11-24T05:19:00.000-08:00

I hate Wednesdays too, because I have to wake up at 5.30 am in the morning to get ready to attend a 7.00 am weekly meeting at office. My Boss got ill starting this week with Flu and he has been out of office. He mailed us at 6.58 am this morning, saying that there will be no meeting today. I could have slept at home for another 2 hours, rather than snoring at the office!!

Move against Intel

2004-11-23T21:54:00.000-08:00

I have officially started my war against Intel...Finally I decided to trash my P4 motherboard and processor. Today, I bought my first AMD Athlon 64 processor. I also bought an expensive Gigabyte motherboard ...costed me an extra 150 dollars compared to my last investment on a motherboard. .Intel Sucks!!!...AMD Rocks!!! I am gonna build this new PC tomorrow!!

What a waste of a Monday

2004-11-22T18:07:00.000-08:00

I usually hate Mondays..coz I hate to wake up early mornin to go to office after a nice weekend...But today was a day when I didnt have much to do at the office!! Lazing around, having to do nothing, no projects on my head..having fun browsing websites and of course blogging some blogs....Did a bit of shopping for groceries in the evening...and ya of course did see a Mallu movie "Nadodikaatu" - I bought a bunch of Lal movies from Beema Palli when I was in India - July 2004.

Not but least..had a small word of disagreement with Wifee...so she has now sealed her mouth with duct tape...i am glad i dont have to sleep in the sofa...

My benchmates 26th birthday

2004-11-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

Nov 21st was my benchmates 26th birthday (oops..i dont want her to know that she is getting old)...Benchmate..hmm...what are you talkin about..?? Coz she keeps telling me that she used to sit with me in the same bench in 1st grade...wow that was a long time ago...in 1984 ???

I sent her a birthday card at 11.53 pm CST on Nov 20th and I also noticed that she saw it at 11.55 pm CST on the same day...I realised that she might be eagerly checking all her birthday cards...but the next day she told me that mine was the first card she received...am I glad...?? She insists that her name be kept under the table..

Two Movies this weekend

2004-11-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Cant believe we saw two movies this weekend and both of them were fun to watch and worth the money we paid...After the Sunset - excellent performance from Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek..and National Treasure - Nicholas Cage - I am a great fan of his...its been a long time I havent seen him in any movies..(except for Face Off, Conair - that I never stop watchin)..

I would recommend to efinitely watch these 2 movies - worth the buck!!

Built a new PC

2004-11-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

Caution: You dont need to read this post if you are not a techie !!

Half-Life 2 was out Nov 16. I still have not started playin HL2 "properly" - thats a whole another story. I will pen that down later sometime. Here is some interesting events that happened today.

My old pc's motherboard had konked off a month ago..one of the capacitors blew out...I was stuck without a bad*** PC to finish Doom 3. After HL2 released I started playin it via Steam (www.steampowered.com) ....(hehe..I got a free copy of the game, because last year I bought anATI display card and they bestowed me with the boon to play HL2 when it gets released..)

I started playin half-life2 on this crap laptop that i use atwork...which crashes every time a new level loads..i finally got fedup of it..and wanted to do somethin real quick to fix my pc. I knew I could probably buy a new MB and swap the old MB on my broken PC. That was my plan. I also knew that I would have to get new RAM, as my old PC had RDRAM andRD's are so expensive...I went to a local Fry's electronics and checked out the motherboards. Asus MB's were like 120 + dollars ...i did not want to spend that muchon it...so I thought..let me test a cheap motherboard and got one for49 bucks...i know these might not run for long..but i guess its goodfor the time being..i will sell this on ebay some time later...the MB had 800 Mhz FSB, 2 DDR memory slots (this is the downside,memory can be upgraded only to 2Gig..(but whats the point in having 4gigs of memory?) It has 2 SATA with RAID built in, AGP 8x slot, can support Processorsupto 4Ghz + and also supports HT technology. I also bought 2 DDR2 (theduals which runs at twice the speed - if you get a 400 Mhz DDR2memory, it will essentially run at 800 Mhz). I went back home and tookmy P4 processor out of my old PC...and found out that P4 was a 1.7Ghzbut will not fit a socket 478..It only fits in a Socket 423 MB.Shucksssss...........Ran back to the shop again..while the rain is pouring cats andcats..now I had to buy a processor..otherwise there is no gooduse...a new processor means...need addons like a CPU cooler +heatsink..Now what good use is it to keep a brand new motherboard,processor, memory in the OPEN...(without a case, unlike my oldPC)...So I went ahead and bought a ATX case also...Thank god I could shell out my 250 GB hdd, dvd rw drives, sound cards,ATI display cards out of my old PC..In effect this is what I spent yesterday night..

a. PC Chips MB - 49 dollars
b. P4 3.0Ghz with HT - 179 dollarsc. 1 GB PC 3200 DDR2 memory - 159 dollars (with 30 dollars
c. 1 GB PC 3200 DDR2 memory - 159 dollars (with 30 dollars mail in rebate)
d. Vantec Aerocool CPU Cooler with fan - 25 dollars
e. Thermal compound - 3 dollars
f. ATX Case with two extra fans - 79 dollars

Took two hours to assemble the entire thing..HT technology is\great..it fools the PC to think there are dual processors in the\system. Windows XP thinks that there are two...I tried overclocking\the processor today and saw that I could go upto 3.3 Ghz (Infact if I\use a FSB of 232 with a multiplier of 15 i can go upto 3.5 ghz - but\my PC was not booting with that speed)...I ran a 3DMarks benchmark\(remember i used 2001SE, havent used 2005 version yet)..and got a\score of 6503..not too bad..thought some overclocked AMD machines have\gone till 16000+ in score... I am trying to overclock the display card\and see what happens next...

Pretty interesting Day!!!!!! Spent Close to 500 dollars...All that for just playing Half-Life 2 ??

Half-Life 2 releases today

2004-11-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

Much awaited sequel to the GOTY Half-Life finally is hitting the shelves on Nov 16, 2004. I got a free copy of the game, coz I bought ATI's display card in Nov 2003 and the game came free with it...Have been waiting for this game for almost a year since Valve's network was hacked and the source code was stolen.

Some goodies about this game,

a. Valve software has done a splendid job as far as building emotions in the face of characters in the game. No two characters in the game are the same. And with Valve's proprietary Source (TM) engine every characters face has about 40 muscle movements which help bring most of the human emotions to the face.

b. Physics - Every single object that you see inside the game follows the laws of Physics - Gravity, Mass, Bouyancy..

c. Audio - Every object makes a distinct noise when you hit it...Firing a bullet at wood is the best sound so far I like in the game..

d. Story line and Gameplay - 10 out of 10..

Just go get this game ....

Finished playin Halo 2

2004-11-15T23:13:00.000-08:00

Finally I finished playing Halo 2 on Nov 16. The same day Half-Life 2 is releasing. What a timing.
Took me 7 days to finish it considering 2-3 hours put into it every day. I started the game in Legendary mode and they whipped my a** like anythin..So I had to finish it in normal first. Halo 2 legendary mode is way 2 hard unlike Halo 1 legendary mode.

PS: Am I not talkin too much about Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 ?? If you do not know what these are check out (www.halo2.com and www.half-life2.com)

3k miles on my Z

2004-11-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

Nov 15 cast the first servicing date for my 350 z. 3k miles on it, after my trip to Austin which added about 500 miles to the Odo. Bankston Nissan did an excellent job in servicing my car. Recommend trying Bankston if you own a Nissan..

Yanni show tickets

2004-11-12T14:47:00.000-08:00

Just bought 2 tickets (for me and Vani - ofcourse) for Yanni's concert in Dallas. Cost me 200 bucks!!! Freak...

Want to see Cirque De Soleil some time in November or December...Do you enjoy seeing circus ??

Halo 2 releases today

2004-11-09T23:25:00.000-08:00

The much anticipated Halo 2 releases Nov 9th. 7000 stores across the US will be opening their stores till 3.00 am in morning selling Halo 2. I preordered the game from a local GameStop and will be going to get this game tonight. Two of my other friends are also getting the same game tonite...Cant wait to get it in my hands...

Haloween Frenzy

2004-11-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

This turned out to be one of the best haloween parties (I aint braggin)...2 days worth of hard work and about 500 bucks spend out of my pocket to arrange my small mansion look spooky...The mansion was filled with cobwebs, spiders, fog effects, scary surprises, spooky haunted music...The party lasted for 6 hours. We played a few haloween games, until all the zombies started bored of it..and then all Z's decided to watch a scary movie ...and we saw Evil Dead...the original 1980s version...bah...it sucked...

Midnight - all the Zombies were in mood to play Halo tournament on a big screen projector and we played till 5.00 am in the morning fraggin each other...What a Midnight madness!!!! Btw I am the dracula in the pic below:

Inspired by my school buddy

2004-10-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

I happened to visit my friends Blog website today. I dont have the habit of penning down my daily thoughts on a diary, but I do have the habit of sitting in front of the computer for 8 + hours a day...thats my job...and Blogger.com is a great website to jot down your thoughts...Keep up the good work Bloggers...I wouldnt mind paying for this service, coz its so kewl...

I owe my blogs to nobody but Gopal, who indirectly inspired me to blog...

Check his Blog website here : http://gopalnair.blogspot.com

Trip to Maine

2004-10-16T23:47:00.000-07:00

This trip was not meant to be...but Maine was only an hour and a half worth of drive from Boston, so we decided to visit some beaches and lighthouses in Maine. We went to York Beach, a very nice and old town on the south coast of Maine. While I was in York Beach, I already saw 3 light houses. FYI, Maine has 68 light houses - which I plan to visit all of them the next time - Light House Tour of Maine..

The best of the 3 light houses I saw was called The Nubbles..The light house is on a small piece of land (cant even call it as an island) separated from the coast by 200 feet. To get to the light house you have to use a cable car sort of carriage which is not in use any more. The point is ...you cannot get to the light house..You have to enjoy it from Maine land..

Some pictures of the trip can be found here.

http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=759073297105

Got XBL

2004-09-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

Just got XBL today...What is XBL - it stands for XBOX Live..it costs you 60 dollars a year (thats like 5 dollars a month) and your broadband connectin (cable or dsl)...After playin games on XBL..i sometimes think...why did it take 2 years after I got my Xbox to get XBL ??? Am I retarded ???

These games are a "must have" if you buy XBL - Halo 2, Splinter Cell : Pandora tomorrow, Return to Castle of Wolfenstein

Its so much fun to use the LIVE headset to talk to your buddies who are in different parts of the world...Msoft rocks!!

My Second Wife

2004-08-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

After a year of running behind this lady, I finally got to get her. I married my second wife, while I still have my first wife whom I love the most. People!!! Dont be amazed...I bought a Nissan 350z after a year worth of research behind the car. Silverstone color (greyish silver), 287 hp, can be revved up to 400 hp with a intake system, 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds..Some pictures of the car can be found here...

http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=230224335105&page=1&sort_order=0

Moved to a new apartment

2004-08-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

Moved to a new apartment - I hate moving because its a pain in the b***. But the new apartment is spacious about 900+ sq feet with 1 bedroom and 1 den, vaulted ceilings, 2 bathrooms etc. The den is gonna be my Home Office (SOHO)...

A few pictures are uploaded here..

http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=196219468105

High School Reunion

2004-07-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

After 10 + years, 8 members of the 1996 Arya crew rendezvoued (whatever) for a "Highschool Reunion"...btw this show was aired LIVE on Arya TV (bro of Surya TV)..It was great to meet some of my old school buddies after a very very long time....

Some of the pictures are uploaded here..

http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=315250297105&page=1&sort_order=0

I remember takin a very short video worth 15 -20 seconds of everybody..I am working on uploading that soon.

Wedding day

2004-07-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Very important day of my life! I finally got the woman of my life for ever! July 4th - is the day I got married to Vani Hegde!!! About 500-700 people attended the wedding. The marriage was at my home town Trivandrum in God's Own Country (http://www.kerala.com/)

And then they lived happily for ever!!

PS: For those who do not know about her and me...we were classmates since 7th grade...though we were not in love at that time..FYI, she has her Masters degree in Food Science and Nutrition and is currently doing her Phd in the same at Texas Womens University, Denton, TX.

Rookie Year at General Datatech

2004-05-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

May 20, 2004 cast the first year at General Datatech. And definitely my 5th year in my career. I am so glad I am workin for General Datatech! (Visit www.generaldatatech.com). GD is a Gold Partner with Cisco and is based in Dallas, TX.

Netpro Interview

2004-05-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

Cisco Netpro is one of the top forums available in the world of Cisco Networking...for all your Network Doctor's needs.. Btw..(not bragging about myself)..I am the top scorer (thisisshanky) at this time at Netpro. Cisco Netpro team bestowed me with the privilege of getting interviewed. My interview has been posted on the Netpro website Click here to read it

White Valentines Day

2004-02-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

This day is very special for me and my Valentine. To make it look more romantic it was snowing in Dallas from about 5.30 am in the morning on Feb 14, 2004. The snow lasted till Friday afternoon...half a day worth of snow - perhaps a inch or two thick..Feb 14 2004 was a White Valentines Day

Snowy view of my Apartment

Pictures of my new PC

2004-01-28T14:44:00.000-08:00

I have been working on building a stable PC configuration for the last 3 months. This PC has gone through various transitions from P4 to AMD and now its back to P4. Hopefully this will stay on for a while. The current configs are

ASUS P5P800 MoBo with LGA775 socket
P4 3.2 Ghz running at 3.6 Ghz (FSB = 225 Mhz)
1 GB PC 3200 DDR Dual channel memory
Maxtor 250 GB Internal HDD (IDE)
Maxtor 160 GB Internal HDD (IDE)
Liteon 4x DVD RW
Iomega Zip drive
6.1 channel onboard Audio
ATI Radeon 9600 SE with 128 MB running at 425 Mhz Vcore and 250 Mhz Memory
120 mm CPU /120 mm Top case/ 120 mm Side case/ System blower fan on PCI slot

PC Sideview

2001-07-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

NEC BNS TAC team - 2001