A preview of a movie that I am waiting for eagerly - Spiderman 3 !!
YouTube - spiderman 3 teaser
Friday, June 30, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Free Download Manager
Download manager software - free and nice !! I use it personally, so I thought I should advertise for them ...
Free Download Manager
Free Download Manager
Top 10 Web Developer Libraries
Some nice libraries that you can use in your web applications ...
Top 10 Web Developer Libraries - Cameron Olthuis
Top 10 Web Developer Libraries - Cameron Olthuis
Monday, June 26, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Confucius says ... (Doctrine of the mean)
Excerpts taken from "The Doctrine of the Mean" by Confucius:
"Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attainment of sincerity is
the way of men. He who possesses sincerity is he who, without an effort,
hits what is right, and apprehends, without the exercise of thought;-he
is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the right way. He who attains
to sincerity is he who chooses what is good, and firmly holds it
fast.
"To this attainment there are requisite the extensive study of
what is good, accurate inquiry about it, careful reflection on it, the
clear discrimination of it, and the earnest practice of
it.
"The superior man, while there is anything he has not studied,
or while in what he has studied there is anything he cannot understand,
Will not intermit his labor. While there is anything he has not inquired
about, or anything in what he has inquired about which he does not know,
he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which he has not
reflected on, or anything in what he has reflected on which he does not
apprehend, he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which
he has not discriminated or his discrimination is not clear, he will not
intermit his labor. If there be anything which he has not practiced, or
his practice fails in earnestness, he will not intermit his labor. If another
man succeed by one effort, he will use a hundred efforts. If another man
succeed by ten efforts, he will use a thousand.
"Let a man proceed in this way, and, though dull, he will surely
become intelligent; though weak, he will surely become
strong."
...
Sincerity is that whereby self-completion is effected, and its
way is that by which man must direct himself.
Sincerity is the end and beginning of things; without sincerity
there would be nothing. On this account, the superior man regards the attainment
of sincerity as the most excellent thing.
Full story at:
The Internet Classics Archive | The Doctrine of the Mean by Confucius
"Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attainment of sincerity is
the way of men. He who possesses sincerity is he who, without an effort,
hits what is right, and apprehends, without the exercise of thought;-he
is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the right way. He who attains
to sincerity is he who chooses what is good, and firmly holds it
fast.
"To this attainment there are requisite the extensive study of
what is good, accurate inquiry about it, careful reflection on it, the
clear discrimination of it, and the earnest practice of
it.
"The superior man, while there is anything he has not studied,
or while in what he has studied there is anything he cannot understand,
Will not intermit his labor. While there is anything he has not inquired
about, or anything in what he has inquired about which he does not know,
he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which he has not
reflected on, or anything in what he has reflected on which he does not
apprehend, he will not intermit his labor. While there is anything which
he has not discriminated or his discrimination is not clear, he will not
intermit his labor. If there be anything which he has not practiced, or
his practice fails in earnestness, he will not intermit his labor. If another
man succeed by one effort, he will use a hundred efforts. If another man
succeed by ten efforts, he will use a thousand.
"Let a man proceed in this way, and, though dull, he will surely
become intelligent; though weak, he will surely become
strong."
...
Sincerity is that whereby self-completion is effected, and its
way is that by which man must direct himself.
Sincerity is the end and beginning of things; without sincerity
there would be nothing. On this account, the superior man regards the attainment
of sincerity as the most excellent thing.
Full story at:
The Internet Classics Archive | The Doctrine of the Mean by Confucius
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
New System Blocks Unwanted Video & Still Photography
Paparazzi beware !! You can be blocked !! (And that would be a good thing, too...)
Newswise | New System Blocks Unwanted Video & Still Photography
Newswise | New System Blocks Unwanted Video & Still Photography
Top 10 Strangest Luxury Gadgets
TechEBlog » Top 10 Strangest Luxury Gadgets
Ever wondered what the idle rich can buy with their idle money? Go check these gadgets out (and feel sorry for your poor existence )...
Ever wondered what the idle rich can buy with their idle money? Go check these gadgets out (and feel sorry for your poor existence )...
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Top Ten Accidental Discoveries
Top Ten Accidental Discoveries
A list of many discoveries made by accident that have helped make this world a better place. Well, the list does include popsicles, but I think that has made this world better, too ;-).
A list of many discoveries made by accident that have helped make this world a better place. Well, the list does include popsicles, but I think that has made this world better, too ;-).
Friday, June 16, 2006
Star Trek vs. Star Wars
YouTube - Star Trek vs. Star Wars
Great video - what happens when the USS Enterprise meets the Death Star?
Really well made ...
Great video - what happens when the USS Enterprise meets the Death Star?
Really well made ...
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Shayari from Khushwant Singh's autobiography
"The Dawn", a Pakistani newspaper, has an article that contains a lot of Shayari from Khushwant Singh's autobiography.
Note: I am not endorsing the contents of the entire website. I just liked this article and that's about it.
Entire article posted below:
---------- START ARTICLE ----------------------
Is Khushwant Singh a ‘hypocrite and a liar?’
KHUSHWANT Singh likes to quote from Urdu and Persian poetry in his autobiography, Truth, Love and a Little Malice. He begins with Hakeem Makhmoor in his prologue:
I told no one the story of my life
It was something I had to spend;
I spent it.
He does not give the lines in the original Urdu.
Then in the chapter on Lahore, he gives us these oft-quoted lines:
Paida hua vakeel toa Iblees nay kaha
Allah nay mujhey sahib-i-aulaad kar diya.
I have heard these lines thus:
Paida hooay vakeel toa Shaitan ne kaha
Lo aaj mein bhi sahib-i-aulad ho gaya.
No matter what, Singh has got the second line all mixed up.
In his interview with Tikka Khan, he quotes the general as having given him the following lines:
Shauq-i-tool-o-peych iss zulmat qadeh mein heh agar
Bengalee ki baat sun aur Bengalan kay baal dekh.
He translates them thus:
If you like to add length to a story, put a twist in its tail,
Hear a Bengali talk (endlessly) and gaze upon his woman’s long hair.
Again,
Nishan-i-mard-i-momin ba toa goyam
Choon marg aayad, tabassum bar lab-i-ost.
(You ask me about the signs of a man of faith
When death comes to him, he has a smile on his lips).
Iqbal comes next:
Jahaan mein ahle imaan soorat-i-Khurshid jeetay hein
Idhar doobey, udhar nikley; udhar doobey, idhar nikley.
These lines have been quoted so often by so many that they have lost all meaning. They don’t sound even trite now.
Saadi comes in handy, too:
Sana-i-khud bakhud guftan
Na zebad mard-i-daana ra
Choon zan pistan-i-khud malal
Kuja lazzat shavad baqi?
Singh’s translation:
It does not behove a man of wisdom
to use his tongue in praise of himself
What pleasure does a woman beget
If with her own hands she rubs her breasts?
Urdu again: Woh waqt bhi dekha tareekh ki ghariyon ne
Lamhon ne khata ki thi
Sadiyon ne sazaa payee.
(The ages of history have recorded times
When for an error made in a few minutes
Centuries had to pay the price).
Then he advises a certain Pakistani minister how to face the thekedars of Islam:
Mullah, gar asar heh dua mein
Toa masjid hila ke dikha
Gar nahin, toa doa ghoont pi
Aur masjid ko hilta dekh.
(Mullah, if there is power in your prayer,
Let me see you shake the mosque!
If not, take a couple of swigs of liquor
And see the mosque shake on its own).
Khushwant Singh quotes from Ustad Daman, too. But since some of his lines (Khushwant’s, not Daman’s), are suspect, I’ll let them pass.
Iqbal again:
Dhoondta phirta hoon mein aye Iqbal apney aap ko
Aap hi goya musafir, aap hi manzil hoon mein.
(O Iqbal, I go about everywhere looking for myself
As if I was the wayfarer as well as the destination).
An unnamed Urdu poet is then quoted:
Too dil mein toa aata heh
Samajh mein nahin aata
Bas jan gaya teri pehchaan yehi heh
(You come into my heart
But my mind cannot comprehend you
I understand this is the only way to know you).
Shaad Azimabadi comes in next:
Suni haqiqat-i-hasti toa darmian se suni
Na ibtada ki khabar heh, na intiha maloom.
(All we have heard of the story of life is its middle;
We know not its beginning, we know not its end).
Singh says that there is “an amusing saying ascribed to the Sikh trading community once settled in Potohar (now in Pakistan), which was known for its adherence to religious ritual as well as its sharp trading practices:
Jhooth vi asin bolney aan
Ghut vi asin tolney aan;
Par Sacchey Padshah
Tera naa vi asin lainey aan.
(We admit we tell lies
We also give short measures;
But O True King of Kings,
We also take your name).
Iqbal yet again:
Khuda tujhe Kisi toofan sey ashna kar dey
Keh terey behr ki maujon mien iztirab nahin (May God bring a storm in your life.
There is no agitation on the waves of your life’s ocean).
In the end, he ascribes a couple of famous Ghalib lines to Iqbal — Rau mein heh rakhsh-i-umar ...
At his age, I suppose he can plead not guilty to seven murder charges and be happily let off. Misquoting Ustad Daman? I am sure the Ustad would have been the first to laugh the matter off. As for mistaking Ghalib for Iqbal, I have known many others to have done so. But I must give a break to Truth, Love and a Little Malice and see what a friend has to say about Khushwant Singh. A. R. Nagori, the painter, calls me a ‘dear friend’. I am honoured, of course, but the letter he has written to me from Karachi has left me not a little sad.
Referring to my piece on Amrita Sher Gil (Dawn, September 16), Nagori says:
“Amrita Sher Gil died on December 6, 1941” and not in September 1939 as ‘conjectured’. As the conjecture was mine and not Khushwant Singh’s, I stand corrected. I will, however, need further evidence on Gil’s death and not merely a statement.
Then Mr Nagori says Amrita Sher Gil died on the “first floor of the Ganga Ram Mansions next to the Dayal Singh Mansions and behind Fazal Din Chemists on The Mall and not on top of the Fazal Din Building.” Mr Nagori says so because he “used to spend some time at 29, Ganga Ram Mansions facing Amrita’s flat.” I plead guilty again. But, as Mr Nagori will appreciate, all this was rather before my time.
Nagori calls Khushwant Singh a “notorious hypocrite and a liar.”
He writes: “Amrita was, like all genuine artists, straightforward (and) blunt in expression”.
Khushwant Singh says in his autobiography: “Politeness was not one of her virtues, she believed in speaking her mind....” Mr Nagori has said almost the same thing. If anything, he has used a stronger word (‘blunt’) than Mr Singh who merely wrote that she (Amrita) “believed in speaking her mind”.
Telling an untruth at 88, anyhow, is a far more forgivable sin (if sin it can be called at all) than the lie direct spoken deliberately with malicious intent.
So, I’ll say this to my friend A.R. Nagori: I don’t know whether Khushwant Singh is a hypocrite or not, but if he is a liar, he is quite the most delightful liar I’ve ever read. As he says in his prologue:
“My only chance of not being forgotten when I am dead and rotten is to write about things worth reading... I have no pretensions to being a craftsman of letters. Having had to meet deadlines for the last five decades, I did not have the time to wait for inspiration, indulge in witty turns of phrase or polish up what I wrote... All said and done, this autobiography is the child of ageing loins. Do not expect too much from it: some gossip, some titillation, some tearing up of reputations, some amusement — that is the best I can offer (emphasis added).
I ask you now: is it the writing of a hypocrite? If it is, I am one of the original hypocrites.
The only thing I don’t like about Khushwant Singh is that he has willed that he be buried rather than cremated. Just imagine!
--------------- END ARTICLE -----------------
"The Dawn", a Pakistani newspaper, has an article that contains a lot of Shayari from Khushwant Singh's autobiography.
Note: I am not endorsing the contents of the entire website. I just liked this article and that's about it.
Entire article posted below:
---------- START ARTICLE ----------------------
KHUSHWANT Singh likes to quote from Urdu and Persian poetry in his autobiography, Truth, Love and a Little Malice. He begins with Hakeem Makhmoor in his prologue:
I told no one the story of my life
It was something I had to spend;
I spent it.
He does not give the lines in the original Urdu.
Then in the chapter on Lahore, he gives us these oft-quoted lines:
Paida hua vakeel toa Iblees nay kaha
Allah nay mujhey sahib-i-aulaad kar diya.
I have heard these lines thus:
Paida hooay vakeel toa Shaitan ne kaha
Lo aaj mein bhi sahib-i-aulad ho gaya.
No matter what, Singh has got the second line all mixed up.
In his interview with Tikka Khan, he quotes the general as having given him the following lines:
Shauq-i-tool-o-peych iss zulmat qadeh mein heh agar
Bengalee ki baat sun aur Bengalan kay baal dekh.
He translates them thus:
If you like to add length to a story, put a twist in its tail,
Hear a Bengali talk (endlessly) and gaze upon his woman’s long hair.
Again,
Nishan-i-mard-i-momin ba toa goyam
Choon marg aayad, tabassum bar lab-i-ost.
(You ask me about the signs of a man of faith
When death comes to him, he has a smile on his lips).
Iqbal comes next:
Jahaan mein ahle imaan soorat-i-Khurshid jeetay hein
Idhar doobey, udhar nikley; udhar doobey, idhar nikley.
These lines have been quoted so often by so many that they have lost all meaning. They don’t sound even trite now.
Saadi comes in handy, too:
Sana-i-khud bakhud guftan
Na zebad mard-i-daana ra
Choon zan pistan-i-khud malal
Kuja lazzat shavad baqi?
Singh’s translation:
It does not behove a man of wisdom
to use his tongue in praise of himself
What pleasure does a woman beget
If with her own hands she rubs her breasts?
Urdu again: Woh waqt bhi dekha tareekh ki ghariyon ne
Lamhon ne khata ki thi
Sadiyon ne sazaa payee.
(The ages of history have recorded times
When for an error made in a few minutes
Centuries had to pay the price).
Then he advises a certain Pakistani minister how to face the thekedars of Islam:
Mullah, gar asar heh dua mein
Toa masjid hila ke dikha
Gar nahin, toa doa ghoont pi
Aur masjid ko hilta dekh.
(Mullah, if there is power in your prayer,
Let me see you shake the mosque!
If not, take a couple of swigs of liquor
And see the mosque shake on its own).
Khushwant Singh quotes from Ustad Daman, too. But since some of his lines (Khushwant’s, not Daman’s), are suspect, I’ll let them pass.
Iqbal again:
Dhoondta phirta hoon mein aye Iqbal apney aap ko
Aap hi goya musafir, aap hi manzil hoon mein.
(O Iqbal, I go about everywhere looking for myself
As if I was the wayfarer as well as the destination).
An unnamed Urdu poet is then quoted:
Too dil mein toa aata heh
Samajh mein nahin aata
Bas jan gaya teri pehchaan yehi heh
(You come into my heart
But my mind cannot comprehend you
I understand this is the only way to know you).
Shaad Azimabadi comes in next:
Suni haqiqat-i-hasti toa darmian se suni
Na ibtada ki khabar heh, na intiha maloom.
(All we have heard of the story of life is its middle;
We know not its beginning, we know not its end).
Singh says that there is “an amusing saying ascribed to the Sikh trading community once settled in Potohar (now in Pakistan), which was known for its adherence to religious ritual as well as its sharp trading practices:
Jhooth vi asin bolney aan
Ghut vi asin tolney aan;
Par Sacchey Padshah
Tera naa vi asin lainey aan.
(We admit we tell lies
We also give short measures;
But O True King of Kings,
We also take your name).
Iqbal yet again:
Khuda tujhe Kisi toofan sey ashna kar dey
Keh terey behr ki maujon mien iztirab nahin (May God bring a storm in your life.
There is no agitation on the waves of your life’s ocean).
In the end, he ascribes a couple of famous Ghalib lines to Iqbal — Rau mein heh rakhsh-i-umar ...
At his age, I suppose he can plead not guilty to seven murder charges and be happily let off. Misquoting Ustad Daman? I am sure the Ustad would have been the first to laugh the matter off. As for mistaking Ghalib for Iqbal, I have known many others to have done so. But I must give a break to Truth, Love and a Little Malice and see what a friend has to say about Khushwant Singh. A. R. Nagori, the painter, calls me a ‘dear friend’. I am honoured, of course, but the letter he has written to me from Karachi has left me not a little sad.
Referring to my piece on Amrita Sher Gil (Dawn, September 16), Nagori says:
“Amrita Sher Gil died on December 6, 1941” and not in September 1939 as ‘conjectured’. As the conjecture was mine and not Khushwant Singh’s, I stand corrected. I will, however, need further evidence on Gil’s death and not merely a statement.
Then Mr Nagori says Amrita Sher Gil died on the “first floor of the Ganga Ram Mansions next to the Dayal Singh Mansions and behind Fazal Din Chemists on The Mall and not on top of the Fazal Din Building.” Mr Nagori says so because he “used to spend some time at 29, Ganga Ram Mansions facing Amrita’s flat.” I plead guilty again. But, as Mr Nagori will appreciate, all this was rather before my time.
Nagori calls Khushwant Singh a “notorious hypocrite and a liar.”
He writes: “Amrita was, like all genuine artists, straightforward (and) blunt in expression”.
Khushwant Singh says in his autobiography: “Politeness was not one of her virtues, she believed in speaking her mind....” Mr Nagori has said almost the same thing. If anything, he has used a stronger word (‘blunt’) than Mr Singh who merely wrote that she (Amrita) “believed in speaking her mind”.
Telling an untruth at 88, anyhow, is a far more forgivable sin (if sin it can be called at all) than the lie direct spoken deliberately with malicious intent.
So, I’ll say this to my friend A.R. Nagori: I don’t know whether Khushwant Singh is a hypocrite or not, but if he is a liar, he is quite the most delightful liar I’ve ever read. As he says in his prologue:
“My only chance of not being forgotten when I am dead and rotten is to write about things worth reading... I have no pretensions to being a craftsman of letters. Having had to meet deadlines for the last five decades, I did not have the time to wait for inspiration, indulge in witty turns of phrase or polish up what I wrote... All said and done, this autobiography is the child of ageing loins. Do not expect too much from it: some gossip, some titillation, some tearing up of reputations, some amusement — that is the best I can offer (emphasis added).
I ask you now: is it the writing of a hypocrite? If it is, I am one of the original hypocrites.
The only thing I don’t like about Khushwant Singh is that he has willed that he be buried rather than cremated. Just imagine!
--------------- END ARTICLE -----------------
Great free online cryptography course .
University of Washington has made the whole Cryptography Course available online for free. All the presentations, videos (mp3, WMV), homework, quizzes etc. are available online.
Course Introduction page, homework assignments:
CSE P 590TU: Practical Aspects of Modern Cryptography, Winter 2006
Lecture slides, homework solutions and video archives:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep590/06wi/lectures/
University of Washington has made the whole Cryptography Course available online for free. All the presentations, videos (mp3, WMV), homework, quizzes etc. are available online.
Course Introduction page, homework assignments:
CSE P 590TU: Practical Aspects of Modern Cryptography, Winter 2006
Lecture slides, homework solutions and video archives:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep590/06wi/lectures/
Monday, June 05, 2006
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. From MIT.
Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. From MIT.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Thursday, June 01, 2006
The Scrutinizer
The Scrutinizer is a service that allows you to analyze, assess and validate any link using various tools and testers on the web.
Why use it?
Rather than creating direct links to various validators and link analyzers, one link can be used to submit to all of them. It simplifies the task of figuring out which application needs what type of URL (Domains only/HTTP/No HTTP) and also saves time and space by freeing up the code from unneccessary URLs.
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