mere funde

I have pretty busy over the past many weekends, and this one was no different. Debo was in town and it was nice spending time with him.

Anyways a few interesting nuggets from the web.

• Upgrade to XP from Vista says CodingSanity - I agree. Too many warnings. Let me use it please. I not a effing retard you know. [Link via FSJ]
• Vicky Nanjappa asks Scorpions if they would introduce hip hop into their music. Yes. And they are also thinking of hiring Anu Malik as their composer and Himesh Baba as their lead singer. [Link via India Uncut]
• For the IP Geeks - Espacenet is thinking of allowing download of search results in XML/CSV format. Good going folks. I remember having given a similar suggestion to Google Patents team. But they seem to have gone into hibernation.
• Finally, Apar has great series going on here. Must read.

Don’t have much time for a full post, so a small roundup:

• Google goes hindi. In a related news, it also launched the Finance service for China. Do it for India - the markets have gone bonkers!
• Jason Calacanis analyzes the Facebook hype. It is not a Google killer. Period. And I hate some Facebook apps that allow people to chuck things at me.
• Daily WTF - Copyright stupidity - Act One.
• Daily WTF - Copyright stupidity - the Grand Act. Sue a Durga Puja pandal of all things!!

This one promises to be a less than an exciting weekend.

I have already spent my day today doing grocery shopping and completing some banking tasks. Also, spent the later half of the day watching “When Harry Met Sally” and the Turkish GP Qualifying. With Ferrari and McLaren taking the top spots again, it promises to be a cracker of a race tomorrow.

I need to get my Bike repaired. It suffered quite a bit in the chutt accident that I had before I had gone home. Race in the afternoon, and then I would need to shop a bit for my sisters for Rakhi. I have kind of decided on a book for one, but cannot think of anything for the elder one? Choosing gifts is such a pain. Any ideas?

Meanwhile, I have also decided on ordering “Godel, Escher and Bach” and “A Short History of Nearly Everything.“

Chanced upon this beautiful piece from somewhere.

rain.
it rained.
I
fell.
it
rained
I
loved.
it
rained.
I lost.
it
rained.
It
loved.
I
rained.
rain.

Source: http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/sur/sr1.htm

Some interesting posts from around the blogoshpere.

• What if Harry Potter was written by someone else?
• Highlights from the Seventh edition - I specially like the one with “inhe kanoon ke hawale kar do”
• The Harry Potter movie review. Check out the special

Some spoilers ahead.

So I am finally done with Deathly Hallows and my verdict. Awesome.

There were so many questions in my mind before reading this book that I thought that all of them could not be answered in a single book. However, I must say that Ms. Rowling has done a fantastic job and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is one of the best books of the series.

The shocker first. The book does not belong to Harry Potter. It is all about Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore. Yes, Harry does most of the job, but it is Dumbledore and Snape that provide the real meat to the entire story. This is not to take anything away from Harry, Ron, and Hermoine.

The entire story of the brilliant yet enigmatic Dumbledore is poignant. He is a genius, yet human. He is perhaps the best wizard but even he falls to the philosophy of “greater good” for a wrong purpose and his desire for glory. I had this writing on the walls of my school once, “The greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall.” And that is what makes him so great. He learns from his mistakes and becomes the champion of people (Muggle) he once scorned. Equally touching is the story f his family.

Snape is altogether a different story. I had almost killed myself thinking why would Dumbledore trust this fellow. But Rowling provides perhaps the most convincing reason. Love. His undying love for Lily and his dedication to saving her last belonging moved me to tears. That one mistake of calling her a Mudblood, him begging Dumbledore to save her, and his insistence that Harry never knows the truth. Very believable and incredibly sad. Would things have turned out different had he been in Gryiffindor? Maybe. It is about choices. Between love for Lily and hatred for James. Between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Between Voldermort and Dumbledore. He sure made some wrong ones initially. But in the end he made the correct choice, a tad bit late though.

The book moves at an incredibly fast pace and still there are a very few loose ends. Rowling almost magically weaves the different threads together that you believe most of what is happening. The wandlore is a slight disappointment to me though. Also, I think I expected a lot more from Prof McGonagall and the Order of the Phoenix.

All in all a very well written piece. One complaint though, Albus Severus, very bad. As rahul said, have two kids instead.

Quote of the book:

You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon. . .

I got the book yesterday and read for 5 hours at a stretch, and again got up in the morning and read for another hour and a half. I am more than half way through the book and expect to complete the entire book by sometime around midnight today, and will then post a full review.

Meanwhile, Misra has completed reading the book and you might head over to his blog and read his review. Beware though, it contains spoilers. Also, though I had laid my hands on the ebook on Saturday itself, I waited for the actual book to arrive. Did not want to spoil the fun, and thankfully none of my friends messaged any spoilers.

I have finally received the book. Shipped in perfect condition, but just a little late. But I have lost faith and I am not ordering important stuff off Indiaplaza.

I hate Indiaplaza.in! Stupid people. Definitely my worst online shopping experience ever. You guys suck! I wish I could Avada Kedavra you.

I had ordered the final edition of Harry Potter some ages back and they have not yet delivered my book . I am furious and angry. On top of all this, they do not take calls, and their support has not been responding since morning.

Also, the last book I had ordered through them - Excel 2003 VBA - was delivered in 17 days. Can you frickin’ imagine that!!

I think I want to kick some ass. But the problem is, whose?

Can someone provide me with any other number to call them on? 080-41303030 does not work.

Indiaplaza has mailed back with the shipping details and it seems that I should be getting the book today. Also, they have sent me a Rs. 100 gift voucher, for filling some feedback form, and I am sure I am going to provide some feedback for the last two books I purchased.

A friend of mine is a dog person and not a cat lover. Here is a quote I came across this morning. Dedicated to my friend.

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.

Also reminds me of Babel-fish in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

CSS is the de-facto standard of web styling and is used to enhance the presentation of markup languages. Web designers everywhere use it to improve accessibility and maintain consistency amongst pages.

CSS: The Definitive Guide - Eric A. Meyer is an excellent place to begin learning about CSS. All you require to have is a beginner’s knowledge of HTML and you are ready to go. Meyer is a well known web design consultant, author and an expert on CSS.

Meyer starts from the basics of cascade and inheritance and drills into details of not only how but also why of almost all topics. You would find details of how and why even on oft ignored topics as font and colour units used. The reader is not bored with details of obsolete or proprietary CSS properties. Instead, Meyer focuses only on properties (CSS2 and standard CSS2.1) which are supported by most web browsers and are actually in use today.

The related properties are grouped together into separate chapters and they are well organized. For example, the chapter on font properties is followed by one on text properties and one visual formatting by a chapter on padding and borders. This makes it easy for the reader to find what he is looking for.

A couple of interesting chapters on UI styles and non-screen media complete an exhaustive and informative book. This is followed by an appendix of various CSS properties references that you will find yourself going back to again and again.

The book lacks only two things. Colour pages and problem solving. The book tells you about floating and positioning but does not tell how to use it to create a two column layout. Nevertheless, it is a very informative and useful book. Though not “definitive” it is certainly a great book for anyone, right from experienced users to complete novices.

Disclaimer: I was provided the book for review by O’Reilly Media.