Fail

The great fail

Failorama tags: #fail #banana #kela #sad

My Twitter T-Shirt

Yippy! I have ordered a twitter t-shirt [and i got it finally! Click here to see the real tshirt]

Design as given below – Navy Blue:

Front Design:

Back Design :

Made it in a jiffy So no time to tweak the design. But then, i like it this way

In case you are interested in knowing the details on how i ordered, here it is, ordered online from a site called myntra.com. Select a basic tshirt template and upload your front and back designs, Customise with on-site tools if needed and buy your order. Payment possibilities are numerous – credit card, debit card (includes SBI and other not-so-commonly-shown-banks), Mobile payment, etc, etc. Rates start from as low as Rs. 299/-, shipping charges and taxes add up. So you can easily get the above tshirt for about Rs. 350/- Oh.. i almost forgot, the moment you register afresh onto the site, you will be given 5 gift vouchers worth Rs.100/- which can be sent across to your friends or family. But in order to claim the voucher, a minimum purchase of Rs.200/- or above has to be made.

If you want the same design as above, i shall be pleased to send the Photoshop(.psd) designs across to you. You can put your own twitter username instead of mine and give it a shot. Just leave a comment here.

Boy O Boy O Boy.. eagerly waiting to wear this and go places So, BlueDart please make it home soon

[Edit - After i got my tshirt delivered]

A double yippy cuz i got my tshirt delivered to my doorstep in just 3 days (ordered on 17th July 2009, 01:00 IST and got it by 20th July 2009, 14:25 IST). The service was excellant. I even got a mail saying that my tshirt has been dispatched alongwith a BlueDart ID to track the status of the package. And wallah! whaddya know? it was delivered within 7 hours since i got that mail from myntra.com.

I have just one minor discontent – the printed area could have been bigger!

Here is a real view of the tshirt

A fun way to learn the periodic table

For the uninitiated, “The periodiс table of the chemical elements is a tabular method of displaying the chemical elements.” (words lifted from wikipedia ). In this post, i will share my experiences on how i learnt up the periodic table when i was in the 11th Grade.

A word of caution! Some of the methods illustrated here will be only suited to readers who have bare minimum knowledge about the Tamil Language (and Chennai ). If you don’t have a clue on words like paambu, saapadu, sethu po! etc, then i would advice you to continue to some of my other posts. Ok enough dilly-dallying…  let me begin now

The periodic table consists of 117 elements as of 10th March, 2009. The methods i list out will enable you to remember at least about 60+ elements, whose positions are generally tough to remember. A sample of the periodic table is shown below.

Periodic Table - Tips are given for area marked by the black rounded rectangles

As marked in the above figure, the tips are given to remember the D-block and P-block elements. So, assuming you know the first 12 elements (which you ought to), after reading through this you can remember the order of close to 65+ elements.

The P-Block elements

Now, starting with the P-block, Take one column at a time. So, you are about to learn groups 13 – 17.

Group 13 – Starting with Boron [B] – is to be rememberd as – B Al Ga In Tl = BAGIT (or BAG IT !)

Group 14 – Starting with Carbon [C] – Carbon and Silicon chips in Germany doped with Tin(Sn) and Lead(Pb) – C Si Ge Sn Pb

Group 15 – Starting with Nitrogen [N] – Naga Pambu Aasaiya Saabuduthu Biscuit – N P As Sb Bi

Group 16 – Starting with Oxygen [O] – Ohh YeS! Se Thu Po (as in O S Se Te Po)

Group 17 – Starting with Fluorine [F] – Remember it as if you where rushing through it! Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Astatine – all the ‘ine’ endings somehow rhyme for me

Group 18 – You got to learn these by heart as they are NOBLE enough to be on the periodic table

The D-block elements

We shall now deal with the Dreaded D-block elements. Here, i would prefer to attack in a row-wise (period-wise) manner.

Period 4 - Taking up the 1st row of D-block, that is the 4th Period in the table, break it down into two equal halfs: viz. Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn and Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn

For the 1st half – Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn – remember it as – Scandium saw Titanic in Vettri Chrompet Theatre with Manganese

For the 2nd half – Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn – remember it as if your are reading of the Symbols – Feh Co Nee Ku Zinc – FeCo   NiCu   Zn – Fe,Co and Ni,Cu are two couples whereas Zn is a bachelor ( Be careful not to mess up the order of Cobalt – Co – and Copper – Cu – while remembering it )

Period 5 – Assume, this period is a story about two friends Y (Yttrium) and Z (Zed/Zee – Zirconium). Now, Y and Z are two friends and they say “Namba(Nb) Teacher(Tc) R-square(Ru,Rh)” (Our teacher R-square). Then they sing, dance to music from a CD – Padi(Pd) Aaadi(Ag) Cd

in short: Y and Z – two friends – say “Namba Teacher R-square” – and Padi, Aadi to a Cd ……. Sounds good ??

Period 6 – For this one, i would like to approach it from the reverse. That is Hg, Au, Pt, Ir, Os, Re, W, Ta, Hf

Expanding and associating each symbol with easy to remember words like:

Hg – Mercury – Marie – a brand of biscuit which is popular in India

W – Tungsten – Wandhichu or Vandhichu- meaning “to come” or “to get affected with”

Ta – Tantalum – Theriyuma – meaning “do you know? “

So imagine your talking to the element Hafnuim (Yup! Hafnium is a tamilian and knows tamil Absolutely no questions to be raised here !!), the complete sentence in tamil is like

“Marie Gold Platinum biscuit saaptu Irridium ku Soree Wandhichu Theriyuma Hafnium ?”

The same with some more explanation in braces for better understanding would be:

“Marie(Hg) Gold(Au) Platinum(Pt) biscuit saaptu Irridium(Ir) ku SoRee(OsRe) Wandhichu(W) Theriyuma(Ta) Hafnium(Hf) ?”

which translates to “Hey hafnium, did you know that Irridium got a bad itch after eating Marie Gold Platinum biscuits ?”

And not to forget the first element of the 6th period (also the first element of the Lanthanides) – Lanthanum !

So there you have it! That was how i learnt the periodic table.

Kudos! to my chemistry professor – Mr. Baskar or ‘Aufbau’ (Wondering why we named him so? for everything he would say “Aufbau principle padichiko! Adhu podhum !” ) as we used to call him affectionately in school, and i must not forget to mention that we do have this Orkut Community dedicated for him, http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=18670311. This is just one of the most amazing things which he taught me. And i must say it was damn helpful during those gruelling times when i was in 11th & 12 th grade. And guess what?  I still remember the periodic table by heart! even after more than three years of passing out of school

So did you find this useful? Or, Have you figured out a better way of learning the periodic table? Do share your thoughts on this as comments

Hope that helps

How true !

“Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so.” – David Grayson

Just <3 it !

Win rapidshare accounts for free – Contest

** What follows is not a prank or joke to increase the number of hits of any website or to generate revenue by ADs. Its a genuine contest where you have a fair chance of winning a Rapidshare Premium Account ! **

1. Never heard of Rapidshare? Then read on.. (or skip to here)

Rapidshare is one of the best and widely used file uploading service. Tons of useful stuff including E-Books, Music albums, Videos, Softwares can be found on Rapidshare. Huge amount of stuff is already available on RS. So it makes perfect sense to make use of it

2.Is downloading/uploading free?

Yes, its free. Users are free to download/upload files but have to encounter a few rules like Waiting time, File size limit, etc.

3.What does a premium account entitle me?

A premium account allows parallel, resumable, uninterrupted downloads. The rules on upload/download limits are lifted. It enables support for download managers.

And last but not least, if your hooked up to the world wide web through a large local area network which works on a common internet gateway/proxy which is in turn used by a massive bunch of crazy downloaders, then its not surprising if you haven’t encountered the most annoying “your IP address is already downloading a file” warning! So, in cases like these, a premium account will surely come handy

4. How much is a premium account worth?

Find out more about the pricing here

5. Am game! Whats the contest all about?

Check out Madhur Kapoor’s blog contest here and get the contest details. Complete the steps mentioned and don’t forget to keep your fingers crossed

HTH

PS: Post your queries regarding the contest at Whoismadhur.com

Finally a Final Year ?

Finally a final year? Well.. Not YET!

Its been long since i blogged. So i have to decided to come out of the hibernation period starting with this post. Ok, now coming back to the point of discussion! Yippy am a final year. After the summer of 2k9, i ll be one of the “final years” of my college. Feels good (well.. atleast for now.. ). Summer hols have come as a breather! phew! whatay sem that was! Right from the start.. Classes, CPCs, PIs, GDs, Assignments (yuck!) and finally the Sems! (i guess all those exclamations would convey my level of happiness now that all of that is over. Even if its for a brief period. It does matter you know!). And then the good times – Pragyan’09 & Nittfest’09.

All those grueling CPC’s, though appear to be taxing you too much but it actually helps you at the end of the day. Even if you dont take it seriously, the whole experience is worthwhile. But opinions may differ .

Ah! finally.. Summers here and am going home . Am reminded of those good ol’ summer hols during school days which used to be filled with fun. And heat is on the rise   Guess i ll have to try my luck at beating the heat this time (more here). But then, this summer is going to be action packed. Really looking forward to it.

Some of the tags that will remind me of 6th sem :

OR – cee pee cee – cee yes – staff c – dfm – proe – minmal dota – Pragyan – prodigy? – nittfest – gd’s & pi – project LOL – wifi – heroes, himym, smallville & tbbt – finally “soup”

Can’t believe it all this happened so fast so quick! all seems to have gone past in the blink of an eYe!!

Alas! I just hope all goes smooth.. inluding the three letter Gee-Word (interpretations of the different meanings conveyed is left to the discretion of the reader )

[Edit]

Just for the record, i managed to get my very own first 9+ gpa in my department (in 5th sem) and am happy bout it…

Extract Email PHP Script

I had a task that the publicity team should have done well in advance – Mail out invites to previous year’s participants. I had about 180+ emails piled up under a crapy heap of  data. And i had to send invites manually to each and every email! Ctrl+C,Ctrl+V – Man.. that would have been a lame thing to do. At first i thought of – The C language (yawn). I was too hesitant to code in C. Hmmm.. maybe because i have developed a dislike for it nowadays.. But why?(again.. one of the million questions to which i dunoo the answers)

Hah! PHP came to my rescue, so i gave C a good ‘ mind-ur-attitude-sonnie-after-all-you-are-only-C ‘ look and settled down with PHP. The best thing about PHP is that, almost all of the code that you think of making up is already available. Got hold of a site called zubrag.com and tweaked the Email-Extractor script. (hosted at a4arvind.uuuq.com/email_extract.php) Sigh! finally got those addresses separated and in proper format for ready-made use.

Finally the day was saved, thanks to PHP

the accidental husband

Well, i had no intentions of another midnite post. But, it was the occasional tamil background scores and the whole nature of the movie “The Accidental Husband” which made me do quite the opposite.

The Accidental Husband, is all about a Radio talk host called Emma Lloyd(Uma Thurman) and how she is tricked into a prank which changes her life. She is an accomplished writer who publishes a book on “Real Love” and also hosts a radio talk show in which the callers ask her for advice regarding their love life. Emma is engaged to Richard (A well-tried fellow in my opinion.. he he). One fine day, she receives a call from a woman named Sophia and Emma advices her to call off her marriage, but unfortunately this conversation is also heard by Sophia’s fiancé – Patrick Sullivan. Now, Patrick goes nuts and tries to screw up Emma’s life by taking help of his neighbourhood kid who hacks into the New York Marriage Bureau and registers that Emma is already Patrick’s wife.

The story is kind of boring from now on and moves slowly. Emma meets Patrick and a lot things happen. But in course of time, she begins to like him and the both fall in love. A lot of facts about love and romance splash all over the movie in the meantime. At last, Emma’s wedding with Richard is called off and she is seen with Patrick driving down the lane in a fire brigade (Yes, Patrick works in the NYFD – New York Fire Department)

The story is not over yet folks. The last scene is when Emma is between her show and Patrick comes to meet her! Thats when the beautiful background score of the tamil song “Swasame” from Thenali is played. I was just impressed by this scene. It was kind of a feel-good moment!

Although the movie is a bit boring (chaat, mokka, whateva!). Its a movie throwing light on how life can change and how new relationships can take for the ride of your life. and ofcourse, one of the dialogues were kickass -

“It was nice being married to you“

I mean, how many people get to say it that way huh?

UPDATE: Some typos were corrected.. Sorry for the errors

3G’s – Ghajini, Goodbye, Guilt

Here goes my post on the 3G’s viz. Ghajini – a well hyped hindi movie (ripped from its tamil counterpart), Goodbye 2008 – how i bid the year 2008 adios, and Guilt – Hey, wait a sec, this can also be GPA you know

Yesterday (31st Dec 2008), i had a gala time with friends. Went for a the movie Ghajini(hindi) at Sathyam Cinemas, and to KFC@Spencer plaza for lunch. The treat (movie + lunch) was hosted by Shankar,GD and Algae. Kudos! to you guys! Thanks for that awesome treat. It was good to meet  college friends after a long and boring winter break

And some juice about the movie. I felt the tamil version of Ghajini was a lot better! Even though Asin has done justice to both tamil and hindi movie, the hindi version lacks the original charm. Well, the climax has been changed considerably, without which the the hindi version would not have been upto any good than a tamil-to-hindi dubbing! But overall, some of the numbers were cool enough to keep my lips busy for a couple of days now

Sad that i could’nt see my 5th sem results last year itself. It has brought me into a stage of sadness and madness in this beautiful new year of 2009. I know its a crucial year for me, i would reap what i sow in this year! So, thats got to be planned well. And as for the grades, just forget it! i knew i blew it this time… arrgh! man, i feel like kicking some ppls ass (including mine.. LOL)

But anyway, looking forward to a brighter and more challenging year ahead. And i wish my readers a VERY HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2009

Google Wireless Transcoder aka Google Proxy

I stumbled onto this article about Google Wireless Transcoder. It is a service which strips a webpage of its styles (i.e formatting, css, etc) and serves it onto the browser just as plain Text and Images. It has a simple to use user-interface (UI) with a text box to enter the url and a ‘Go’ button. There is also an option to display images or hide them (just showing the text)

http://google.com/gwt/n – try it!

I found it very useful because of the problems that i face with my Sify ISP! The GWT is really fast and the page loads in seconds! Hope this article helps others who are stuck with a very low bandwidth internet connection.

But i think GWT will surely come handy while browsing through GPRS on a Mobile  or even iPhone too

Try out my blog on GWT and feel the difference

http://google.com/gwt/n?u=http://a4arvind.wordpress.com

The best part is, the css divisions in a page like the main content area and sidebar are both distinguished and shown separately on the GWT. This feature is awesome !