Monthly Archive for July, 2006

bitten by the google bug

Published on July 25, 2006 in Computers, google and Internet. 1 Comment

Life has become so easy after I learned to use google search (courtesy : Balaji). I wouldn’t say that I am a best user of google. I will rate myself above average.

A few of my colleagues know that I use google to the max. The other day, we were chatting about FM stations available in chennai which brought up a small argument. One of my mangers was around and he started commenting to a colleague.

” I know the next thing he (me) is gonna do is google out FM stations in chennai“.

I was done with it before he had finished his statement.
How do you think google helps you? Do you love it or hate it? Scribble here!
P.S.:-

I still remember an episode when I found out that people search for a lot of curious things. Thanks to IE’s Auto-complete, I was searching for something starting with the letter S and the first suggestion from IE was Shakila (the most famous malayalam actress) . A die-hard Shakila fan has not spared office PC too.

Daddhimaan Returns

Published on July 21, 2006 in General stuff, humanity, life and people. 3 Comments

Balaji calls me a daddhi in tamil. It means I am a lazy goose. Am I really? To be frank, I am one. With mom falling ill and Balaji griping about his woes, now I realize that I am doing justice to the salutation (daddhi).

A few years back, I was not this lazy and I used to do some household chores. I remember washing my own clothes, mopping the floor, helping mom in cleaning the house. At least, I was taking care of my activities. That lessened the burden on mom. Believe me, she is one clean bug. She wants everything at home to be neat and clean. As always, I am the one who gets blamed for all the dirt. Yeah! I will say 90% of the dirt accumulated was through me.
After joining a call center , I was not mentally and physically prepared to do household chores. One hard reason was that I was sleeping when everyone was awake. I slept around twelve hours a day. But my job demanded that kind of rest.

I quit call center and started feeling the sun’s heat after a very long time. At least now I see people during day time. But the laziness bug has bitten me so hard that I am behaving the same way. Last week was really terrible. I think I have expected more out of Balaji. Now I feel how hard it is when people who baby feed you are not present.

Oh man! SHould not I start working on these?

I have started mopping the floor,washing my clothes. I don’t want to bother mom or anyone by being idle. Let us see, how far I succeed.

P.S. :- Gayu calls me Kutchimaan. (Inspired from Shakthimaan, as I am tall and lank resembling a kutchi which means stick). Now that I am a daddhi, daddhimaan will suit me better.

Quality never compromises with money – Deccan Chronicle vs The Hindu

Published on July 16, 2006 in General stuff, Internet, news and people. 9 Comments

Started the day today with Deccan chronicles’s e-paper. Thumbing through the pages, I was in for a shock when I reached the supllementary (chennai chronicle). It had an article on how cine stars are pestered by over-enthusiastic fans and how they should tackle them. It related certain incidences where cine stars are bugged by some of their own fans. Excerpts from certain stars were also given. Arya’s (an upcoming tamil actor) views shocked me. I am quoting tha daily’s exact words here.
Arya feels that Kollywood is a far safer industry than Bollywood. “Compared to the kind of mafia threats that Bollywood stars face, the Tamil film industry is much more peaceful. Take the case of Martina Hinges who was stabbed by her fan. Her career is ruined. A situation like Suriya’s is critical and sensitive and it is definitely unwarranted. We as stars try and satisfy our fans to a large extent, but they expect us to talk to them whenev er they want and always be nice and approachable. When we don’t due to work pressure, they tend to resort to such means, which is ridiculous,” he says. ”

Is it not Monika Seles who was stabbed on her back by a die-hard Stefi Graf fan?

I am not sure whose negligence this could be. Is it DC’s or Arya’s ? Deccan chronicle has made it a habit of committing mistakes often. I am thinking of switching back to “The Hindu“.

“Quality never compromises with money“. It is true. For one rupee, you cannot expect quality.

Airtel Super singer

Published on July 13, 2006 in Humor, Just for Jolly, music and pastime. 7 Comments

I commute to office by train and it takes around 2 hours to reach Tambaram (where my office is) from Ambattur (where my home is). I kill the time either listening to music or reading a book. One fine evening, on my way to office, as usual was listening to songs on radio. The train was not much crowded and I got myslef a corner seat. I usually have the habit of singing songs when I commute by train. singer Getting myslef seated in the corner, I started singing with great fervor and was facing the window all the while. I did not want others to spot me singing.

Few minutes passed and I was at peak singing along with Hariharan. Radio mirchi was airing anbae anbae from Jeans which happens to be one of Hariharan’s best and I was really into it. The train had stopped for signal which I had not noticed. There was a pat on my shoulder and I turned around to see a elderly passenger trying to convey something to me. Took my headphones off to hear him. (original conversation was in tamil).

Old Man : ” thambi! what’s your problem? Is there anyway I can help you with? I have been watching you from the park station and you have been trying to do something with your headphones on. Please do consider other people travelling with you.”

Me : “%*@$$##!!!”

Off he went in the next station. I had a strong feeling that the other passengers were smirking at me. Switched the radio off and continued my journey quietly.

Next evening I was at home surfing channels. Airtel super singer aired on Vijay TV, hosted by Chinmayi, caught my attention. A good programme to search for voice talent. The winner gets a chance to sing in Harris Jeyaraj’s (a well known music director) tamil flick. Hopes of me becoming a super singer started glimmering again! When I told the above incident to one of my friends, she said that certain people and certain things in the world can never be changed and I am one of them. I asked her the following question and got a great response.

Me : Hey! Can I become a super singer?

She : God only knows!

hehe!

Mosquito catcher zapper

Published on July 2, 2006 in General stuff, Humor, Just for Jolly and people. 0 Comments

Call him a techie!

Call him a web-master!

Call him a good friend!

Call him whatever you want. Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby announce the one and only champion of mosquito catching. It is Balaji. As a way of appreciation, let us all visit his blog thrice a week. Believe me or not, I witnesses him using a small lamp with a banish or a good-night mat at its top. He used to improvise it and kill a lot of mosquitoes then.

I don’t know why he is so much against this poor insect. Balaji, any specific reasons?
Now that dad has got him a tennis-bat-like mosquito catcher, he has started hitting them like Pete Samprass. Gosh! I will try to post the photo of him with this mosquito catching device. It is highly sophiticated that he charges it daily. If I ever lose a job what am I going to do next? Balaji! you don’t have to fear much. With Chennai becoming the mosquito breeding factory, you have a bright career ahead.

P.S.:- When I mean “the one and only” – he is the only participant in the competition of mosquito catching.

A customer service joke

Published on July 2, 2006 in Humor and Just for Jolly. 0 Comments

Adding up to my post on humorous customer service calls, I have a joke to share with everyone. This was forwarded by my colleague and I really enjoyed this one as it involved Microsoft and its customer service.

Here it goes,

A plain computer illeterate guy rings tech
support to report that his computer is faulty.
Tech: What’s the problem?
User: There is smoke coming out of the power supply.
Tech: You’ll need a new power supply.
User: No, I don’t! I just need to change the startup
files.
Tech: Sir, the power supply is faulty. You’ll need
to re place it.
User: No way! Someone told me that I just needed to
change the startup and it will fix the problem! All I need is
for you to tell me the command.

10 minutes later, the User is still adamant that he
is right. The tech is frustrated and fed up.
Tech: Sorry, Sir. We don’t normally tell our
customers this, but there is an undocumented DOS command that will fix
the problem.

User: I knew it!
Tech: Just add the line LOAD NOSMOKE.COM at the end
of the CONFIG.SYS. Letme know how it goes.

10 minutes later.
User: It didn’t work. The power supply is still
smoking.
Tech: Well, what version of DOS are you using?
User: MS-DOS 6.22.
Tech: That’s your problem there. That version of DOS
didn’t come with
NOSMOKE. Contact Microsoft and ask them for a patch
that will give you ! the file. Let me know how it goes.

1 hour later.
User: I need a new power supply.
Tech: How did you come to that conclusion?
User: Well, I rang Microsoft and told him about what
you said, and he
started asking questions about the make of power
supply.
Tech: Then what did he say?
User: He told me that my power supply isn’t
compatible with NOSMOKE