Archive for May, 2006

Back to Seattle from Yellowstone

Posted 31 May 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement, Technology

I’m back to Seattle from Yellowstone. It was a wonderful trip. I’ll write more about my trip soon after I come back to my place. I’ll be leaving Seattle on 3rd. I was excited to see that Google has released Picasa for Linux. I’m going to download and see how it works. I’ll write about that soon.

Update: I installed it and the installation was pretty simple on my Ubuntu machine. I then started it. It was just like Windows version. It’s scanning my computer for pictures now. This is what I did to install:

Updated sources.list under /etc/apt with the following line:

deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free

I then issued the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install picasa

That takes care of it. I have attached the screenshot to give you an idea of how it looks.

Picasa Linux Version

Nursery Rhymes

Posted 24 May 2006 — by Arun
Category Time Pass
Mary had a little pig,
She kept it fat and plastered;
And when the price of pork went up,
She shot the little bastard.
 
MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB
Her father shot it dead.
Now it goes to school with her,
Between two hunks of bread.
 
JACK AND JILL Went up the hill
To have a little fun.
Stupid Jill forgot the pill
And now they have a son.
 
SIMPLE SIMON met a Pie man going to the fair.
Said Simple Simon to the Pie man,
“What have you got there?”
Said the Pie man unto Simon,
“Pies, you dumb #$%!”
 
HUMPTY DUMPTY sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the kings’ horses,
And all the kings’ men.
Had scrambled eggs,
For breakfast again.
 
HEY DIDDLE, DIDDLE the cat took a piddle,
All over the bedside clock.
The little dog laughed to see such fun.
Then died of electric shock.
 
GEORGIE PORGY Pudding and Pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry.
And when the boys came out to play,
He kissed them too ’cause he was gay.
 
There was a little girl who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good, she was very, very good.
But when she was bad……..
She got a fur coat,
jewels,
a waterfront condo,
and a sports car.

 

 

Most expensive homes in the U.S. (2006)

Posted 22 May 2006 — by Arun
Category News

Frobes lists the top 10 most expensive homes in the United States of America. Top of the list is 1/2 million dollar home in Palm Beach, FL.

Windows Live Mail with Firefox not working yet.

Posted 22 May 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement

I wrote about Windows Live Mail supporting Firefox in my earlier blog titled Does Windows Live Mail really supports Firefox? This is what I got today when I tried to access my Live Mail account using Firefox:

Whoops!

You may have noticed that some of the new features in Windows Live Mail Beta have gone missing!

Well, you’re right. We hit a couple of bumps with our most recent release, but we’re working hard to bring back the great new features.

In the meantime, we’ve restored the service to the prior release so that you can keep using Windows Live Mail Beta.

For all you Firefox users out there, this means that you’re getting our Classic Hotmail experience again. Don’t worry – we’ll get your new Windows Live experience working as soon as we can!

This is all new stuff we’re doing so we appreciate your patience while we work the kinks out.

Out of town

Posted 22 May 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement

I’m flying to Seattle tomorrow and then from there driving down to Yellowstone National Park. I’ll be back on 3rd. I won’t be able to update my blog often from there. I’ll do it whenever I can.

The mountain that broke the speed limit

Posted 22 May 2006 — by Arun
Category News

A mountain near the Montana-Wyoming border once moved 62 miles in a half-hour period. Read the interesting story at MSNBC.

Yahoo Messaging Worm Installs Bogus Browser

Posted 22 May 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement, Technology

CIO.com reports that malware writers have created a new worm that installs a new browser and plays screeching music for Yahoo Messenger users. The annoyance starts with a link apparently sent by a friend in Yahoo’s instant messaging program. When the link is clicked, a worm installs the so-called “Safety Browser,” a program that leads the user to pages mined with adware and viruses. The Safety Browser uses an Internet Explorer logo to make it look more legitimate. Beware!!!

Ethanol: Myths and realities

Posted 19 May 2006 — by Arun
Category News

MSNBC has an article titled Myths and Realities of using Ethanol. The media has created an impression as if using Ethanol instead of gasoline will save you money. If you read this article, you’ll understand that it’s not 100% true. Here are some of the realities listed in the article.

  • Ethanol can’t travel in pipelines along with gasoline, because it picks up excess water and impurities. As a result, ethanol needs to be transported by trucks, trains, or barges, which is more expensive and complicated than sending it down a pipeline. As refiners switched to ethanol this spring, the change in transport needs has likely contributed to the rise in gas prices.
  • Is Ethanol cheaper than gas? : Surprise, surprise, it isn’t. The move this spring by more regions to use ethanol means that demand has spiked, driving up prices. On Monday, the New York harbor price was around $3 per gallon compared with about $2.28 for gasoline. In other words, for now ethanol is helping to increase prices at the pump, not to push them down.
  • Eethanol contains less energy than gas. That means drivers have to make more frequent trips to the pump.

Image Processing Flaw Found in Firefox 1.5.0.3

Posted 18 May 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement

Firefox users may be vulnerable to a denial of service attack after researchers looked into reports of a new vulnerability within Firefox 1.5.0.3. Securityview has a post with proof of concept which will open 100 mailforms when you click on a particular link. It’s a proof of concept and it could do lot worse. I hope Mozilla will soon issue a patch (Firefox 1.5.0.4?).

Not tonight – Joke

Posted 18 May 2006 — by Arun
Category Time Pass
Honey, Not Tonight

I have never understood why the sexual urge of men and women differ so
much.

FOR EXAMPLE: One evening last week, my wife and I were getting into bed.

The passion starts to heat up, when she eventually said “I don’t feel like it, I just want you to hold me.”

I said “WHAT??!! What was that?!”

So she says the words that every husband on the planet dreads to hear…”You’re just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man.”

She then responded to my puzzled look by saying, “Can’t you just love me for who I am and not for what I do in the bedroom?”

Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep…

The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her.

We went out to a good lunch and then went shopping at a very big department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits.

She couldn’t decide which one to take so I told her we’d just buy them all.

She wanted new shoes to complement her new clothes, so I said “Let’s get a pair for each outfit”.

We went onto the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings.

Let me tell you…she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck.

I started to think she was testing me because she then asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn’t even know how to play tennis.

I think I threw her when I said, “That’s fine, honey.”

She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement.

Smiling with excited anticipation she finally said, “I think this is all dear, let’s go to the cashier.”

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, “No honey, I don’t feel like it.”

Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled “WHAT?”

I then said “Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You’re just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman.”

And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, “Why can’t you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?”

Apparently I’m not having sex tonight either.