Mixture 1

Just thought, so started again.. a mixture of some things i wanna tell...

->ARR music for Vince Vaughn hollywood film - Couples Retreat.. Hope it goes well too.. http://www.musicaloud.com/2009/09/25/couples-retreat-music-review/
->ARR music for Blue - good music, slow poison .. i guess the movie should be a usual high budget Hindi crap.. http://www.musicaloud.com/2009/09/10/blue-music-review/
->ARR music for The Passage - in torrent now, will hear today.. review says good..
http://www.musicaloud.com/2009/09/16/passage-music-review/
->Unnai Pol oruvan, i liked almost all the songs as the film..

->Playing Batman Arkhum Asylum, its very tempting.. but struggling with the piracy bug they put in it.

->Started using Trillian, i am using it for having gmail, yahoo, twitter and facebook at the same time.. i feel it good.. http://www.trillian.im/
->I am in twitter, http://twitter.com/boo3dmax ,following some 13 with 8 followers.. its different, and it good to see wat johnmayer is doing right now, though its none of my business..
->This one is really good if you had organized music and want to see the lyrics instantly from internet without any pain.. i like this very much for my itunes.. http://www.crintsoft.com/minilyrics.htm
->Again started using some tools - movie label2010, password memory2009, personal finance pro.. all are in torrent and helpful for me..

this might seem like a hurry post.. it isn't, its something like going to office/exam hall at the last moment.. wow i posted finally.. congrats boo!!

An Indian to the land of Native Indians..

Even a poor old beggar lady begs in fluent English!!
All the electricians are dumb, keeping the switches inverted!!
The traffic police are dumb enough to come in wrong direction!!
Seems a big backup generator always is running: matchboxes are meant for only smoking, candles are meant for praying only..
Noise pollution can only be done by blasting hip-hop music and not by horn in your car!!
A taxi ride just costs you buying a bike and ride it!
Two way flight charges are cheaper than one way!!
YES, am in the land of native Indians.. AMERICA..

I have been here nearly 3.5 months. This whole period passed as fast as my flight which am travelling now, from Sanfransisco to Denver, and to St.Louis by a connecting flight… Got 2 ½ hours, my IBM lappy and a strawberry juice from south west airlines, to start my first blog about my trip. So here it goes…

Where to start? okay from the beginning, coz i understand memto only after multiple tries.. Got short term onsite assignment.. Any living thing having VISA can go US and get their jobs.. Got flight to St.Louis – Bangalore to Paris, Paris to Atlanta, Atlanta to St.Louis. Spent some 2 hours in Paris roaming here and there in airport finally figuring out that Paris uses Euro and its conversion rate. Arrived Atlanta and got the I-91 attached to my visa. So became an NRI, in perfect words, a essential and basic qualification to become a bridegroom to these days girls.. Getting a American return bridegroom has become a fashion these days.. okay keep aside tat stupidity..

Now to St.Louis, figured out easily the missisipi river by seeing the big river near the st.louis when landing.. Finally got my baggage after 15 minutes and easily became the entertainer of the airport, struggling to pull those two baggage. My friends are kind enough to give me their address and giving me a great idea that I can get a taxi..

My big deal was to get the baggage to the taxi stand.. somehow figured out and got a taxi, which is far more good than the personal cars.. I saw in Chicago, taxi drivers havin laptop in taxi and streaming you tube songs connected to the car audio! First taxi driver having and using laptop! Second connecting to internet and steaming audio!! But the drivers in st.louis is not tat developed as the area.. but did a cruise in the highway, somewhere about 100 mph.. and did all the interesting feats, swearing words I saw in films.. here am in America, place where I am Me, I do wat I like to do…

So now in St.Louis, Missouri. It’s the gateway for west, it’s the land which had Jesse James (if you have seen – Assasination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford), it’s the land of Nelly & Chuck Berry.. route 66 passes through it.. it’s the US second crime city.. That’s it nothing more..


This is the Scrap which I wrote when I was in US, will add more abt my travelling in upcoming posts..

2009 TODOs

Okay, Don’t know if anybody got affected or going to be affected, I AM BACK - may be the most common word used by most scribblers like me. So I AM BACK..

March 2008, I did my last post.. so I don’t want to tell reasons coz its always usual.. 2008 was an incredible year in my life, yes for the first time I was called NRI for few months… from may to aug 2008, lots of pain to get that name.. and lots of enjoyment in that short duration.. Back to India; Back to Singaara Chennai on September.. I got to love it; so I guess I love it.. Back to stay with parents.. again the same struggle with BSNL Broadband.. and few weeks before got internet.. so guess it is clearly stated though not proved that “I was busy from March till now”..

Okay its now 2009, as usual I stayed in home, tuning some TV channels at 00:00 2009 for the wishes.. as usual the same orchestra programs in all channels; I used to surprise about orchestra groups, they survive because people instead of hearing the original song, like to see them trying to reproduce the original song.. Fine, so this New Year went fine.. As everyone tells and few of them executes, here is my resolution plan or 2009 TODOs.

It just took me few minutes to list these, may be becoz I am good at identifying the faults in everybody (as everybody includes me) or may be becoz I am more faulty..

I believe taking a resolution like “I will be kind to others; I will not get angry; I will not cheat others; I will be perfect” is good just to list down but not to execute.. it is simply like I will not lie in my life or I believe Ajith’s next film will be good or Vijay’s next film won’t have rowdies; I mean to say impractical; So I decided to put small actions that is really possible by me.. Guess the intro is big enough..

First one. “try perfection like arrange things” – more generic; I am not going to save any file in my desktop; only the scraps. I am going to save the files in proper folder.. this TODO isn’t new, but its new for me.

Second one. “try to update blog regularly”; update blog weekly, so do it in the week ending for sure. Donno how good this is for u.. okay, any have the TODOs are for me..

Third one. “sleep soon; wake early”; stick to sleep before 11:00 PM and not after 7:00 AM, trust me, haven’t seen two consecutive 7:00 AMs in the past 3yrs..

Fourth one. “try to complete things tat time itself; don’t postpone” – no one can really do that, So maintain a todo list in the desktop and prioritize things.

That’s it I guess, there are lots that can be told, but i believe the above four though small will make some significance difference, first and third makes my job easier in office and home; especially with computers, second should make my friends circle healthy, third should make myself and my parents circle healthy.. Guess its overdose of words for a resolution.. have a draft post written in flight somewhere during my roaming in US, will continue about that.. only thing that I got now to write, boast and celebrate – My US Trip.. will be back with that, bfn..

Template Change

I always like changes and especially in designing.. So altered the blog template, to avoid not to be too much blue-ish.. Hope you like it.. Also did a small scripting to show the front image randomly.. These are the altered/designed images that you will see randomly...

Finding ME with GPS

Finding Me – Not psychologically but geographically.. Yes with the help of GPS receiver that I installed in my PSP. A short description on this product.

I always like to use my PSP for some other purposes, other than gaming. Found out that it can be used as navigation device. As it has display, a small GPS receiver and software with maps loaded in the memory, helps to see the maps and track where we are and where we are heading.
I ordered this device – GPS Receiver official from Sony and hence cost little more, but very reliable. I saw some other cheap GPS receivers for PSP, but they required extra wires, which need be genuine, it seems. Also I realized from some forums, about the compatibly issues with other receivers. So finally decide for sony product which doesn’t need wires. I ordered from Play Asia, Hong Kong in this link.

It got shipped within few days by postal, as if you wish to track it by DHL or BlueDart, you can but paying price more than the product. It is relatively small compared to the device and it mounts on the top of the PSP perfectly. That’s it, its installed.

Now the Software for using this: You need two software, PSP mapping software and software for your PC to download maps. There are plenty of softwares for your version of PSP, luckily the software I downloaded first, worked for me. FYI my PSP firmware is 3.51 m33-6. I am using MapThis! Software in PSP for GPS Navigation and using GMDL0.5.04b software for downloading necessary maps (from Google Maps, Microsoft live maps, etc etc)

The Map This! Wiki Guide: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Map_This

The GMDL Guide: http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=60230

I downloaded the maps of south India and Bangalore covering my location and put it in my PSP. Then turned on my PSP, and opened Map This!, turned on my PSP. I couldn’t get any satellite if I sit inside my house. But I am able to get up to 13 satellites at the max when standing out. When I give some 3 minutes, I can get easily fixed to 4 satellites and able to get my position – longitude and latitude something like N 13` 04` 13` and E 77` 38` 17` . Now a tiny blue arrow shows my position, even if my map is somewhere, it centers it and shows my position.

So now I have the point where I am and If I move the point moves. The software just needs this, it calculates the speed, max speed, avg speed, distance travelled, trip time and different 3d views of map. I tried using it in my car, seems to be working, but couldn’t test it thoroughly as I was stuck in traffic that day. Will go home or somewhere with the map loaded just for testing this!! Here are some of the PSP screenshots of my location.

All about my PSP – Versatile portable

I bought a secondhand PSP a month above to quince my thrust on Create Zen Vision W or to prevent myself from big expenses by getting Zen Vision. I see PSP (Play Station Portable) far cheaper and worthy comparing to any portable players if you are an active PC user, I mean you have to compromise the memory size by replacing files you want to play. Here is why I put my money on PSP.

Short description:

PSP is Play Station Portable by Sony Corporation launched in 2003. It is meant for portable gaming. It has separate drive called UMD drive, where you can only put UMD discs. So Sony PSP is meant to play game/software only from UMD disks. It will be the same if there are no hackers in the world and no users like me to utilize them. By doing a 1000 INR firmware update, the PSP is hacked. Now it is ready to play anything from its memory stick.

Features:

Now coming to features, PSP is versatile. It can play games, obviously. It can play videos (mpeg-4). It can play audio (mp3/wma). It can be used to view pictures. Nothing can beat its video quality and audio quality is also fine and its obvious as it is a Sony product. It is Wifi enabled. It can also read pdfs. It can read docs. It can be used as organizer. It can be navigating device…the list goes on, until the PSP software hacks halt.

Why all these features with such a low price of 8k INR? I heard that there are still people getting original UMD disk paying 1k INR for one game UMD disks are sole proprietary of Sony Corporation. Seem they get money in them.

Drawbacks: size and size.

Yes, memory size and device size. The PSP I am using is having a memory size of 1GB only. By far I have seen PSPs having memory 4GB at the max in common. But in my 1GB memory stick I can put two movies and one compressed game and some software as well. Won't that be enough for your journey? Yes it won't if you have uncompressed game which could be 1GB, but 4GB should be more than enough to put all.

If you are okay with this memory size then comes the player size.. it is definitively bulky, but bulky enough for good video display and to sit in lap for movies in long journey.

Small comparison:

Ipod nano, wins in player size and sucks in everything. Ipod classic wins in memory size and sucks in everything. Ipod video without its wide screen first sucks and I feel it would be difficult to hold it to see an entire movie, where PSP seems better. Zen Vision, which is around thrice the price of PSP has only the media features of PSP. No portable player has gaming, wifi, applications like pdf reader, gps navigation…

I watched Michael Clayton, Bee Movie and BeeGees live last during my last time journey. I played NFS Most Wanted from UMD disk in between each movie. I saw neither my watch nor the mile boards of my home town with a sleepy head.

Conclusion :

Only music – Ipod
Only Video – ZEN Vision
Only Game – PSP
Atleast any two of the above – PSP. Am for all the three… In the next post am gonna write abt the navigation feature of my PSP…

Online AOE Guide

Again a game related post.. Thought of trying this long before.. Finaly into it, I would say more into it..for about a week..Playing Age Of Empires 2 and 3 and Asian Dynasty expansion online daily.. Got some friends from India and abroad too.. This is post is just a shot tutorial for playing Age of empires 2 and 3. Here it goes…

Things you need.

1. Of course Age Of Empires Game
2. Hamachi
3. AOE loader (only for AOE3)

AOE Games:

As far as I know there are two versions of AOE 2, having same version with both peers is mandatory for online play.

1. AOE 2 - Age of Kings (Red) : CD2.0
AOE 2 – Conquers expansion (Blue): CD1.0

2. AOE 2 - Age of Kings (Red) : CD2.0a
AOE 2 – Conquers expansion (Blue): CD1.0e

For AOE3, you have three editions: Age Of Empires 3 (Basic) and two Expansions: The Asian Dynasties and The War Chiefs. For AOE 3, it is always better to update whatever edition you are having through net. So make sure the editions and versions of the peers are same.

Hamachi:

Hamachi is a VPN internet application which makes one to connect to peers as if you are connecting in LAN. Just install it from here and power it on. You will be given an IP something like 192.168.xx.xx. Choose your own Nick name, and create your own network for your friends, or better join my network
Username : booaoe
Password : password

You can chat with your peer friends to setup all using hamachi.. That’s it, nothing else, if you want to play AOE 2

AOE3 Loader (Only for AOE3 users):

As AOE3 has problems in seeing the internal IP provided by hamachi, this small comes for rescue. Just download this loader from here. Run it and choose the hamachi IP like 192.168.xx.xx and start game and choose the game you want.

Now for AOE2 and AOE3 you are in the game, go to Multiplayer and LAN settings as if you are playing in LAN and host a game and wait for the peers to join or join the game of your peer and enjoy gaming.

Troubleshooting Tips:

1. Make sure all your peers are in sync with the editions and version you are playing. Make sure all peers have updated for AOE3.
2. You should be seeing the hamachi IP 192.168.xx.xx in the Peers joining screen. If you are some other IP, check if you have selected hamachi ip in aoe3 loader.
3. For AOE2, if you are not seeing hamachi IP, goto, control panel -> network connections. Select Advanced -> Advanced Settings menu. Make sure hamachi Connection is in ordered first above all other connections.
4. If you have problem in finding the game of the peer who has hosted, try to connect using IP of the peer instead of searching the game present in the network.
5. If you get CRC Version Mismatch error, try different Crack. I had the same problem for Asian Dynasties expansion, and I used this crack to solve it. Download it from this rapidshare link.

I would like to thank Quang, a Vietnam guy who helped me patiently for my first online gaming. And this 14yr old kiddo, Denis from Israel, who helped me for AOE3 setup. And he is a Photoshop geek too… the pic posted in this blog is done by him.. hats off to Denis.. Denis, I think its enough!!

So dudes, come lets play aoe2/3.. join my network :
usename : booaoe & password : password

All About Games

So for all of the gamers , Q4 of 2007 made them busy. Yes busy in Crysis, Gears of War, War in Confilct, Command and Conquer, COD4 the list goes on.. Fine this should be rather an old post about the hot topic of Gamers in earth – The Crysis. I completed it a month ago I guess and the thing is luckily or efficiently I completed it without referring any walkthrough guide.

Why is it so? Crysis which has the promising graphics and game play has quite enough bugs too. But the game play is awesome but very short, you will have different environments which makes you feel you really miss the previous one. So if you are a gamer you must try this one. Gears of War, from Microsoft is a good one with its different 3^rd person shooter style, which only console users might have used, I guess. This one is different and good except the same environment and same stuffs again and again, I played only few levels. I am not sure how it will be in the next levels. COD4 is the also most spoken game, seems there is a good competition between Crysis and COD4, so downloading it now. Bioshock with amazing graphics and sound, but gameplay is not the way I expected, so I left it without continuing. The same goes to STALKER.

Recently I got this expansion pack from fleming, Age Of Empires - Asian Dynasties. With a great interest in seeing the things regarding india, I got it from him. Basically three cultures are covered in that – India, China and Japan. As all AOE has, this too has campaigns which tell the story with the game play associated with it. I was very interested to see the game play of India, but I have to finish China, Japan campaigns to unlock this one. It took some few hours to complete these at first started without cheat and finished with cheat codes. Now started the india campaign, the first plot starts with barakpur and then Punjab, seems the campaign is about Nana Sahib and at first he about to resist the Indian revolts L So in the starting campaigns Indian are enemies and after some levels Nana Sahib joins indian to protest agains English and I see no great in the game play too, as Indians start doing some revolt and I have to go and crush them. So started the skirmish mode, where me being Indian. You have maps of Himalayas, Central Deccan and Cyleone. The funny and interesting part is: The voice of Indians, all in HINDI; "Mein Aaa Rahaa hoon", "Makan banana vale", "Youth karne ke lea" ,"Sharir mar saktha hai, parathama amar hai". You get mostly elephant warriors and sultans and sipoys. Its really interesting to try this out, you have to install AOE3 first as this one is an addon.

Corporate Crude Jokes

Well, am tired of telling reasons for long gap in post that am tired of writing posts. So..
In most of the team there will be at least one person who sparks these corporate jokes spontaneously, which other team members inevitably smiles (like me) or laughs (like him). Generally once he opens his mouth all will keep his mouth in smiling position.. that’s corporate culture yaar… Most of these jokes will always consists of these keywords : FTP (measurement of work), Day light savings (time setting changes), issues or Tickets, Onsite, night out, reimbursement or claiming etc..

Recently we had our lift having announcement system for blinds. So started corporate crude jokes.. Whenever I use the lift, I will hear some jokes on this, and the whole lift rocks, laughing! Some of those:

Once it announced, “You are in 1st floor and the time is 6:39”. One man as usual started cracking, “what? 39!!” LOL!! LOL!! Everyone in the lift, laughing… Hey its digital thing yaar, what different it is doing? Whats there in this, to laugh?

The announcement was something like the life is stopping now. no body understands the announcement, but a joke sparkled from one- “Hey.. the lift is falling down” everybody laughed, fine, okay.. now, he is adding more flavor – “ Common man run! Run!, the lift is falling down”. Very few including me in the lift, looked at him murmuring - shut the …

As usual it announced the same pattern and one guy started his ultimate creativity, “can’t this announce daylight savings?” wow!! wat a joke...k i understand you know these stuffs, but why the day light savings comes here? But still two other persons laughed for tat. So it’s a joke.

Well, whether the announcement system in lift is useful for blinds or not, its very useful for these joking jokers. Bye! for next post...

Crysis: Great expectation, Well served

So back to Bangalore after my (pre) Diwali vacation. Since am not a kid to use crackers to disturb others, instead of using RDX, I decided to have my diwali vacation earlier and so bigger. But the only thing that made me worry is the Crysis Demo, which got postponed a month before to the exact date when my vacation begins. So the first thing I did after my vacation is the download of the 1.8GB download of the Crysis demo. Tried some of the mirrors and found this one having very huge bandwidth, I downloaded it from my office @ 320KBps! NVIDIA link

Completed the demo two times. The great expectation on this game is well served. There is no game to beat its graphics and gameplay. I am having the following rig: Intel core2 E6600 @ 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 7600GT. The game is fine to play in 1280 X 1024 with medium settings and no antialliasing. I don't like to compromise resolution to quality, so only tried in 1280 X 1024 resolution. With my 7600 GT card I am even able to see things in high settings while very high setting is disabled. But it is very hard to play the game in such setting.

As everyone says the graphics is simply superb, you see an high quality movie being rendered in front of you depending on your movements! Apart from graphics the gameplay is outstanding. You can complete a mission in your own creative way. I completed the demo first using the vehicle and in land, then the same demo using boat the next time. It has all farcry features plus plenty of creative things to enjoy. One can shoot the trees and make it fall down to see the enemies hiding behind the trees. You can use object to throw on them and you can shoot at the tires of vehicles to make it immovable. Likewise when you are in a vehicle you can be in different positions and there is display showing the damaged parts of the vehicle, simply superb! Apart from these, you can switch to different modes and attach special features to your weapons. There won't be any game to make you creative and enjoyable like this.

So as the world does, I am dying for the game's release on Nov 15^th.