pastime « Karthick Raghavan

I got a new iPod video yesterday and I am really amazed at the sound and picture quality. This is a gift to me from my sister and brother-in-law. Thanks guys! I owe you a lot.
I have a few video song DVDs and I wished that I could load them up in my iPod easily. A search on the internet found me Videora iPod converter. I would say that it is the best video converter software I have ever used. It is so simple to use and it simply works the way I want it to be. IPod plays only a few file formats and Videora easily converts .vob files to .mp4 files in minutes. After converting the files to mp4 format, I fired up iTunes and loaded all the videos into my iPod. The clarity and sound synchronisation was amazing. I am really hooked up with the videos videora churns out.
I would not prefer to use ITunes for mp3 songs as it locks up the songs once they are into the iPod. A quick search on the internet fetched me yamipod. The only freeware for songs management in iPod using a PC. Spent a few minutes with yamipod and got myself familiar into creating playlists and loading up all my mp3 collection. No more worries about music getting locked in iPod. Yamipod has both the option to copy music into and from iPod without locking up the music. And moreover, it simply works in z PC. All my praise goes to Tomas , the guy who coded this small application. Kudos Tomas!

As I wanted to do more with my iPod than music and video , I worked a bit to integrate my google calendar and tada! did it . Downloaded all my calendars from google into the calendars folder in iPod. Now I have the FIFA Worldcup 2006 schedule , ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 Schedule , my office shift schedule etc;
A few more hours on the internet taught me to use the notes feature in iPod. I stumbled upon a site which hosts free iPod eBooks. A few clicks got the ebooks like How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin , The World War and What was Behind It by Louis P. Benezet (86) into my iPod. The one feature I have yet to dig is the photos. I hope to work on it by tomorrow morning.

Overall, I will say that iPod video is really a awesome product with extra feture other than music and video. Only thing is that, people should know how to and where to find hacks and resources for it.

I was on my weekly off from yesterday and had a lot of time to kill. I had surfed all day yesterday and slept only at mid-night. Woke up at 10.30 today morning and wanted badly to kill the time. Borrowed handful of movies from my neighbour and started of with “Kill Bill”. The name interested me a lot and I got it running in my DVD player. I have seen Uma Thurman in some movies before. But, she was at her best in Kill Bill. This movie is the most violent movie I have ever seen in my life. Kill Bill is directed by Quentin Tarantino. I thought this guy must be of a chinese origin and I may be right as there were hair-raising stunts in the movie. But a few were crap with guys walking the walls to reach the ceiling.???????????

The story is about a gang of assasins with Bill as their leader. And every member of this death viper assasins squad has a code name. Something like Black Mamba, Copper head and a few other creative names. Uma Thurman who is a professional killer wants to lead a normal lead a normal life tries to get married to a record music store owner. Her dreams are shattered with a massacre of her friends and her fiance in a marriage rehearsal. She is shot by Bill and goes to coma for 4 years. The rest of the story revolves around how Uma Thurman hits back and takes revenge on Bill and his assasins.

Things I liked in the movie