Gangsta Gadgets

Need some cool Gangsta style gadgets. Then you have got just the right site here. It's got cool ipods, lowrider laptops and golden shower heads and tons of other gangsta stuff.

Air Deccan Experience-Two sides of a coin

For a while Air Deccan has been the talk of the town when it comes to air travel in India. It is mainly because of the no frills (read cheaper fares) service that the airlines has to offer. More often that not I have heard people whining about the services in the airlines. But face it, Air Deccan has become one of the most profitable airlines in India today.

I will definitely fly on Air Deccan once (although I am yet to travel by air in any airlines :) ). I don't think it will be such an ordeal to use Air Deccan for short flights.

Here are two mails I got, which show the two sides of the same coin. It's upto you to decide which side of the coin you choose.

Subject: Air Deccan Experience!

Simply Fly

I share with all of you a unique air journey I had over the weekend. I had to travel to Chennai urgently on personal work and to save some money decided to travel Air Deccan. For those of you who don't know about this airline, this is an airline that's being advertised as a "no frill" airline,you get tickets cheap (or so they tell), and hence won't get the royal treatment that other airlines give you.

Accustomed to flying Jet, I made some brisk comparisons.
Ticketing : I checked the net for the ticket. They were available, and could be bought on credit card. "No hassles" I thought. Also there need not be any special ticket, you can just take a print out of the confirmation page and at the airport endorse it by the ticketing staff, and that becomes a genuine ticket. Incredibly convenient and time saving. However, I could not get the ticket at .501 (as they so popularly advertise). Neither for the intended date of travel, nor for the same date next year. So I don't know, may be such tickets are reserved like "Tatkal" tickets in Indian Railways, you just get to hear about them, never get them.

Anyway, I thought of trying out this airline, even though being a freq flyer in Jet and I could avail a host of privileges. I bought the ticket at just Rs.500 less than the Jet airways cost.
Airport : Because of the unique way of ticketing, you are expected to be there at least 2.5 hours before departure to endorse your ticket, as opposed to Jet which expects you to be there 20 minutes before time (if you do not have check in baggage as in my case). Chalo Maaf kiya, it was a weekend and I had nothing better to do at home. Rather I could be in the airport and check out the "high class" crowd.

Seat allocation: The way seats are allocated is also unique. They have a huge list of stickers, each named for one seat, and they stick it on the ticket. It isn't printed on the boarding card.
The rest of things at airport went smoothly, nothing "Deccan" about it.
Boarding: While boarding, the bus that took me from the terminal to the plane, must have been an old repainted BEST bus, as opposed to the AC Mercedes bus of Jet. Again forgave them, remember I paid less, even if it was 500 bucks.

In-Flight: I was relieved and happy to see that the plane was clean and as spacious as Jet economy (FYI, Deccan does not discriminate between fliers -there are no Economy, First and Business class, and also there are no frequent flier schemes), minus the reading material, and my favorite pre takeoff candy. The only reading material you get is the emergency exit map and the menu card. Yes, you are right, in this "no frills" airline, you get only what you buy. The costs were a bit higher than airport costs, around 2~2.5 times of MRP. Take off was uneventful and smooth.

Later, one of the air stewardesses came in pushing the snacks cart (or so I thought). Since it was lunch time people were very hungry. However, the stewardess politely answered everyone that she has nothing besides Noodles to offer. I found it ridiculous. Since even if the airplane did not care for what people might want, at least they could have seen the potential to make some profit, by keeping something to eat on flight. Anyway, I ate the noodles, thinking my mom would be happy, since I make a fuss at home when she makes noodles. I tried to question the stewardess as to why they didn't have anything to eat, to which she replied with a "It's not in my hands". Reminded me of the dialogue from Bruce Almighty, when a worker of a cookie shop is asked whether he feels happy to make people happy and smile, and to which he honestly answers, " I work in back, I see no smiles" I gave up.

Later I wanted to use the rest room, and the snacks tray was in between. From my experience in Jet, the stewardess would politely apologize and move the tray aside in the aisle allowing me to pass, but I was in for a shock. The stewardess gruffly told me "You would need to wait till we clear the tray". I wish they could control nature. Finally she cleared the tray, and I got permission to visit the rest room. On the way, I happened to glance at the seat where the air hostesses are expected to sit when the plane is landing/taking off, and to my horror I see the chief stewardess sleeping. That's scary. I haven't seen such an attitude even in an Indian Airlines international flight. And she wasn't catching a quick nap, because I made it a point to walk near her and cough, but could not break her deep slumber.

And finally, after a few minutes, I could see the pilot walk by in the aisle, probably stretching his legs, but the funny part is there was no copilot (at least I could not see him, yes the door of the cockpit opens in the main cabin hence we also get a view of the plane's front windows, the pilot's windows, and the complete cockpit), so I guess the plane was running on autopilot. Though I have little knowledge about flying a plane, I think this is a careless act which could cost all the passengers lives. Anyways he could finally successfully land all of us safely.The first thing I did after I got off....I cancelled my return ticket through Deccan, and instead switched back to Jet. "Enough of experimenting", I thought.

My Verdict : Avoid traveling by Deccan, unless you need the 500 bucks terribly. Poor on service, and poor on customer satisfaction, I wonder how they allow such an airline to "SimplyFly" when they are most probably flaunting security and safely norms.

The owner probably knows lots of higher ups.

Hi,
I did travel by Air Deccan this Tuesday(26-07-2005) from mumbai
(infact those terrible rainfalls started about 30 mins before the take
off causing a delay).
Now the service might have been bad I agree, but I did end up saving
a lot. I havent checked the jet fares but I paid just 2000 for one-way
to bombay. Now I assume I have saved atleast 2000 bucks ! I bet this
is a great deal. Besides Deccan has managed to get a major dent in the
Flight costs. I had heard about a year back that fares from mangalore
were upwards of 5000. Now its somewhere around 4000. I guess the
flights are worth it.
I understand the guys plight to attend the natures call and the
stewardess sleeping thing. But I dont think these chaps have
compromised on the security and all. The take-off and landing was very
normal, and there was a co-pilot(both of them spoke on the
public-address). I guess this chap got a raw deal ! But I had an
awesome flight ! come on guys! i saved 4 grand ! and had loads of time
with my family.
No offence with the person who had the raw deal. Just felt like
telling what I felt.
Cheers !

Aishwarya Rai's Application Form

I don't know the credibility of this but, interesting nonetheless. Here is Aishwarya Rai's application form, apparently for a Reliance India Mobile Connection.

Create a google style logo.

You can create a google style logo, and add it to a personalised search page. The search engine is powered by google. The site is called Logogle. Get the satisfaction of seeing your own name on a search page.

This is the screen shot of what I just made using this service.

Bubblewrap!!!

Everyone must have loved to pop bubblewraps when they were young. Some of them might still love doing it(count me in). Well, here's a cool link to do it all over again.

Bubblewrap

Interesting Recipes

Well some of you might think what the hell is up with me. Well, I was real hungry when I was browsing the web and this site made my taste buds to start working. So, here I am, a new post to linger your taste buds.

Recipes

Tattoo Designs

Click here to find some cool tattoo designs. They are a bit _geeky_ , that is, if tattooing popular game charecters and chemical symbols on your body parts is called geeky.

Optical Illusions

Well, if you don't believe that our color perceptions are based on the surrounding colors then you have to visit this site which has three cool illusions that justify this.

Even if you believe in optical illusions it's not a bad site to visit. Click here to visit the site.

Konfabulator

Well Konfabulator is a widget viewing tool that is now bought by yahoo and available for free download. Well, for those of you who don't know what widgets are here's a brief description. Actually , it is a definiton of widgets I found on Google.

Widgets are customizable objects which can be placed in any valid Cell on a Page. Widgets are self-contained bits of code, designed to make it easy to create and add new ones to the system. Examples of Widgets which already exist include Newswires, Pictures, Raw HTML, Text Blurbs and Indymedia City List.

Now, Konfabulator is used to group some widgets on your desktop. A bit like saving a website and displaying it on the desktop when offline.

Here's a screen shot of Konfabulator.

Jai Jawan!!!

Take a few moments and pay your tribute and salutations to the soldiers who helped India recapture Kargil from terrorists backed by Pakistan. You cannot but appreciate Pakistan's eagerness and thirst to taste defeat again and again. Let us not get into it and commemerate our brave soldiers again.

Digital Clock

Well you might have seen hands on a clock. But, now you can have a clock that is written by hand every second :). One hundred percent hand made huh!!!

Link

Bit Torrent- The new buzword for sharing

I know I might be getting some comments (or none) for explaining bit torrent now. It's been around for some time now and gaining in popularity.

Bit torrent is wonderful if you believe in fast downloads of files from the net through the simple way of sharing. Well, not very simple really. Well, for those of the very few bit torrent illeterates, here is a quick wrap up of the technology.

In normal P2P(peer to peer) downloads, a user tries to download a file from a single server. It's fine as long as a single user is downloading the file and the filesize is very small. But, when multiple users try to download the same file, then there will be issues like slow download speeds, breakage in downloads due to excessive load on the server.

Now, as I said before bit torrent works on the principle of sharing. Well, when a user starts to download from a server he has to keep uploading the part of the file he has downloaded as well. For eg; If you were downloading a movie, when you have downloaded about a part of the file you start uploading the file as well. All the other users downloading this file will also be doing the same. So, in affect you are downloading a file from multiple servers simultaneously thus, solving the bandwidth problem to a large extent and thus accounting for higher download speeds. Infact, I could download a hindi mp3 album of 80MB file size, on a 100KBPS system in about half an hour or a little more. This shows the efficiency of the system.

Right now, none of the browsers out there has bit torrent built into it. But, you can download a free tool from it's official website. Also, you can get all the documentation and help needed, on this site.

Ever written your name on snow with....

Even the ladies can write on snow now with this. I found this link in the eye rockers blog. I betcha, if anyone needs some fun after work, this is the best site out there.

Expensive Tastes-Vertu Mobile Handset

If you have an expensive taste and have the power to fulfil them then here's a mobile that takes exclusivity to the extreme(atleast in mobile terms). The features or the battery life is not what that matters with this phone. It's style, class and the wealth of the owner of this phone is what matters. Coz' from what I see, the mobile certainly must cost a fortune. Check out the features of this mobile here. Heck one of the model is even made of platinum, white gold and yelow gold. Even the website depicts the class of the handset.

Check your wait on other planets

Here's a way to find out how much you weigh on some other planets in our solar system. Well had nothing to post really. Be satisfied with this one for now.

Click here to visit the site.

Baby Laugh

Well something to post. Ever wanted to hear a baby swinging around holding your hand. Well this is the closest you could get in the virtual world.

One more funny blog

Thought the convict's blog was funny. There's one just as funny. It's called the eye'm of my rocker and I tell you this site really rocks if you are bored and need some time off :)

I am certainly adding this blog in the list of my favourites blog.

Salman-Ash Conversation Transcripts.

The following is the transcript of the telephonic conversation between Salman and Aishwarya Rai. Enjoy!!!

Aishwarya Rai: Hello.

Salman Khan: I want you to do the Abu Salem show. Hello?

SK: When I told you to do the Salem show you put the phone down. F**k you. You are doing the Salem show because of me. I asked you to do the Salem show. You are not talking to me.

Ash: F**k you.

SK: You f***ing bitch. Are you doing the Salem show or not? I want to know whether you are doing the Salem show or not.

Ash: Oh really, you got drunk.

SK: Are you doing the Salem show or not? Abu Salem show or not? Abu Salem show or not?

Ash: Your phone is tapped.

SK: You know my phone is tapped. I want to save my own ass, you f***ing b***h. I would like to know whether you are doing the show or not.

Ash: You're too late.

SK: You know Chori Chori Chupke Chupke? I was the only one who knew it was a Chhota Shakeel film.

Ash: Listen, listen. Now stop it, Salman.

SK: I will call up Salem and compromise. You don't know anything that is happening. It is a big bad world. You don't know the connectivity of the underworld.

No, listen to me. Chori Chori Chupke Chupke was a Chhota Shakeel film. I was the only one who knew. Not even Nadeem Rizvi or Bharat Shah. I did this role because I was scared of Chhota Shakeel... (Shakeel said) Yeh Mussalman aadmi hamara Hindustan ko aagey lekar jayega. So I did Chhota Shakeel's film and that is what I had to do.

Ab mujhe Salem Saheb ke phone aa rahe hain.

Ab aapke mere relationship hain. Jaise Dawood Bhai mere bade bhai ke relationship hain. Chhota Shakeel ka mera relatonship hain. To aap ka hoga. We are hand in glove.

Ash: Hello?

SK: Abi aap ne disconnect nahin kiya. Itna information ley liya phone pe.

Ash: Hello?

Kyonke main underworld se taluk rakhta hoon… mujhse contact nahin rakhna?

(They get disconnected)

SK: Phone nahin rakha. Mere liye point prove karne ke liye. Ha. Tum ne kabhi Salem se baat nahin kiya? Ash. RAW hain jo mere conversation sun rahe hain.

Dawood Ibrahim kuch nahin hai. Salem kuch nahin hain. Chhota Shakeel kuch nahin. Jo bhi hain woh main hoon.

Yeh mujhe malum hai ki Ash ka phone tapped hain. Is liye disconnect ho gaya. Mujhe malum hai mera phone tapped hai. Ash law-abiding citizen hai. Unhone London airport mein phone guma diya. Kyonke main underworld se taluk rakhta hoon. To mujhse contact nahin rakhna?

Ash: Ho, ho.

SK: You are trying to pretend you don't have to do anything with me. Suno mere bhai suno.

Salman Khan, don't you dare...

Ash: Yeah?

SK: You had a problem. You called me up.

Ash: I called you up because I had a problem.

SK: You never call me up otherwise. Anyway Ashji. You are going to be there for 47 days. Ok, 47 days my guys are there. They will watch what you do there like the last trip.

Ash: Salman Khan, don't you dare.

SK: Don't you dare f**k with me, Ash.

I know Abu Salem, Chhota Shakeel, Dawood Ibrahim, Guru Satam...

SK: Underworld people call me up here. I am their main man in Bombay. I do all that s**t.

Ash: Stop it. Don't talk nonsense. You can get into trouble.

Ash: Ok, Christ.

SK: F**k you. F**k you. Don't use that language towards me.

Ash: Stop it.

SK: You use abusive language against me. I know Abu Salem, Chhota Shakeel and I know Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan.

I know Guru Satam and all these underworld people. If I say, 'Aisi r***i ne mujhse aise baat ke,' they will shoot you. Pehle baap ko maro m*******d, phir bhai ko maro, phir isko maro. Pehle pao pe maro, phir thigh pe maro, phir haat pe maro. I have the power to do that. You know I can do that.

It is a fact, it is a fact

SK: Because of my connection with the underworld Abu Salem will speak to you. I know all the people.

Ash: Salman Khan, stop all this rubbish. What is this?

SK: It is a fact, it is a fact.

Game for some virtual sex?

Whoah!!! Gaming has never been this exciting. Read an article in Times of India about a patch tha has been released for the new version of the PC game Grand Theft Auto (GTA). This patch apparently, unlocks some hidden alleys where the player can go in and buy some hookers for himself. Acoording to the article, the user can have sex with the hooker by tapping the keyboard or by clicking the mouse. The user is also allowed to try out some seemingly impossible positions with the girl. The experience is made so close to reality that, the girl even moans in pleasure when the right "KEYS" are hit. The game is yet to be officially released in India. But, who cares, the pirated versions are already available in the market. The hack, I presume is also available for download on the net. Anyone, buying the game and who does not mind getting dirty (or atleast try it for the heck of it) can certainly find use of this article.

Certainly PC games have come a long way from the simple and harmless pacman. Now, I think the next step would be for the user to start experiencing for real the happenings of a game. I certainly will try to find a free version of GTA from someone :)

Click here for the complete article.

Check out this blog....

Alright, let me be honest. I bumped into this blog ,Convicts-blog, by accident. But, trust me, it's one of the funniest blog if you are not into mushy-mushy stuff and understand the value of a good laugh. It also has some trivia and what not. I am hooked on to this blog man. If anyone wants to have some fun then check out this blog and become a convict yourself. You won't get bored. The blog is listed in the Other blogs section.

If you are looking for some tech stuff or other intellectual stuff, then this blog is not for you. Frankly speaking, I surf this blog for it's absolute nonsense value.

What's up with Salman Khan

Salman Khan has done it again. That's the reason I don't like him. How dare he threaten Aishwarya Rai when I am her biggest fan.

Well jokes apart, I think it's foolish of Salman to do whatever he has done. I know everyone has the right to act the way he wants to. But, to impose your will on someone and to threaten them on not accepting it is ridiculous. I really don't care whether Salman has any connections with the underworld or not. I don't give a damn if he is punished for his crimes or not. But, how could he have done such a silly act like speaking about his connections with the underworld on a telephone, knowing that it is being tapped. What's up with these celebrities man.

Also, however much I like Aish (I am crazy about her man), I don't understand how could she have gone out and have had a relationship with such a jerk like Salman tolerating all his abuses for four years. I read a article about female celebreties finding it hard to accept that they are being abused. I mean, how can someone tolerate abuses but, not accepting a simple truth of life.

But, I still have not stopped liking and respecting Aish for what she has done. I mean, i don't think there is no other person or place in India who is as famous as her, other than of course, Mahatma Gandhi and Tajmahal.

Also, my disgust towards Salman has manifolded. I could have beared with the facts like his lack of histrionics and his shirt shedding to cover it up. I knew he was not very smart, but this is taking foolishness to the edge.

Anyone, having any comments or disagreeing with me are welcome to do so. And, I do not need any conections with the underworld to defend my views and myself.

New Website

For the sake of convenience and organization of our blog i have created a website where I will upload all the non-cartoon pics and also post a few useful links as and when I come across it. The site is located on a free web server . So, the bandwidth is low and thus the speed. But, it loads fairly quickly from my office machine. For now I have only a page containing some pics of Aishwarya Rai. Trust me, there will be more to look forward to in the future as and when I start updating the site.
Here's the link for the site My Files Gallery.
Well right now the site is nothing much to look at. But, I have created a basic template and hope to move forward from there. I hope to add some useful stuff there other than just a few pics.

Test your IQ

I found out this link while browsing the web. This site provides a simple test to test your IQ. I don't know how true the results will be. This test is real easy and anyone who can do his math can get a high score. Also, as most of us by now should be familiar with the answers, we should get the same IQ scores or atleast similar IQ scores. The site though, claims that it compares the result using some algorithm. That should be debatable. Anyway, here is the link Test your IQ

Have your own Pirate name.

I found this in a blog named The Oz Dust Ballroom. It's a cool pass time. You can have your own Pirate name after you answer a few simple questions about yourself. I got the name _Calico William Kidd_. Click here to get your "Pirate Name". It's a lot of fun.

Calvin in Zoo

Important to have friends - Non Calvin

India Kink

Like to have a look at the mindset of Indians about sex. India is no longer the old conservative self when it comes to sex anymore. Don't teust me? Then have a look at this article. Everyone, interested in kinky sex can take heart from this article and feel that you are not alone.
Click to read the article Kinky Sex

India ranks 4th on global rich list

I came across this article in the Times of India. Anyone who is proud to be an Indian will love to read this article. In my opinion, this article gives you a slight taste of the future for India. So, anyone who plans on going abroad for a better life can think twice.



Also, I feel we should be happy to be at the right place at the right time. Click on the link to read the complete article Article-TOI

Garfield - What a life!!!

Some Interesting Blogs

Have a look at this blog. It's titled Front Doors. It has a few pics of some of the front doors. Interersting!!!

Also, I came across another blog containing some oil paintings. Good viewing.
Oil Paintings

Dating a Programmer

I kinda bumped into this article when browsing the web. It is a long article but interesting to say the least. It's an article related to Dating an Apple programmer but, could be applied to a PC programmer as well . Hope, anyone has not yet fallen into this category yet.

Space Odyssey

Came across a nice article in IndiaTimes.com. It's an interesting story about some facts and the future in space exploration. Also, there is an article about the realization of _Space Travel_ for everyone fantasy. Should be nice reading for anyone fantasising space travel and stuff.
Click on the link to read the article Space Odyssey.

Heady Stuff

Never Trust Parents

Thought for the Day

Stupendous Man vs Mom Lady

Some Serious Stuff - Linux Docs.

Well some serious stuff in this post. Anyone working onLinux or interested can follow this link. There is a ton of Linux related material here related to Redhat, suse and others. So, go ahead, click on the title of the post and have fun.

Homework Trouble

Stupendous Man