I’ve used gnome as my default desktop for the better part of the last three years. Why? Because it “looked” better than KDE back when I tried them both. KDE was a tad faster, but everyone wants some eye candy! But it looks like KDE has come a long way. This post has convinced me to give KDE another spin. Of all the things mentioned, I think amarocK looks the most impressive. A serious iTunes replacement? We’ll see…
Over the past few days I’ve been trying to decide on a photo sharing website. flickr is extremely popular and the pro account has unlimited bandwidth and storage. It also has an amazing community with millions of cluncky but functional groups. However, I could never get myself to like the flickr user interface. Sure, there are quite a few intelligent features, but for the most part the UI is simply unusable. The amount of whitespace wasted on each page is absolutely ridiculous. The slideshow feature is really a joke (who would want a slideshow in a tiny part of the window!?). I even setup a flickr account for myself, but never really uploaded much.
pbase was one of the very first photo sharing sites on the net. It has some really cool features like searching the camera/lens database. Unfortunately the interface is somewhat antiquated (though very flexible), and they offer very little storage space.
And then there is smugmug. It has the best UI by far (though not very configurable for the standard account). They offer unlimited storage and a generous bandwidth cap per month. They have a fairly decent API for third party apps (though not as popular as flickr). Nice full screen slideshows, print ordering, and the option to upgrade to a power user for a highly customizable look are added benifits. The only thing that really goes against smugmug is the lack of a real photo-sharing community like flickr.
So, I was really jumping between smugmug and flickr and finding it hard to decide until I came across this thread on their smugmug’s support forum. This guy basically wants to upload 2+ terabytes worth of images, and is wondering if smugmug can handle this. Here is the response that he got from those incharge:
Wow, that must be close to 500,000 JPEGs! Quite a collection - I can’t wait to see them.
So we’ve always said “unlimited storage” and we mean what we say. We’re happy to take your photos and host them, but we need a little time to prepare.
Just so you know, this is something like a $20,000 first-year commitment for us in terms of disk space, power, cooling, and physical space. You’ll basically have two complete RAID arrays to yourself in our datacenter. Of course, you’ll only pay your $30, $50, or $100 per year, depending on your account level. Again, we’re happy to do it - but I want to be up front here and let you know that we need to order some equipment and get it installed to accept your photos. We’re not geared for accepting 2.5TB overnight.
We’ll also be buying extra image processing machines just for your batch of photos. Luckily, once yours are done, everyone else at smugmug will get to benefit from them, so I don’t consider that a cost to host you.
Does that sound fair? Can we ask you to hold off while we order and install the equipment and power required?
Thanks!
Don
Wow! This is called customer service. I immediatelly signed up for a standard account at smugmug
Here is my smugmug webpage. I’ll be adding pictures and organizing it in the coming weeks. Will also post links here, and hopefully have something like a photoblog that is linked to smugmug soon.
Finally, if you do decide to go with smugmug, use this referrer code while signing up MwBAowRs6Oiis - it will save you $5, and give this poor graduate student a $10 credit towards next year’s service.
… or am I? Its been a long time since I wrote anything here. Have lots of stuff to add and lots of pictures to share. I hope I’ll try to update this more often. Meanwhile, upgraded WP to the latest version - was really straightforward.
To get started, here is a nice little twenty minute special on the best TV serial on air - Battlestar Galactica. Its not much, but atleast something to chew on while we wait for the rest of the second season.
Just saw story on /. about how the Simputer is turning out to be a failure. About 3 years back I was really interested in linux on the hendhelds, and came into contact with several people working on the Simputer project at IISc, Bangalore. While it is a really fascinating idea to have an open source hardware/software solution, I was never convinced it would succeed. In fact, I would say it was a really bad idea!
Unlike software, having an open source project for hardware does not work very well in general because electronic hardware is a numbers game. The more you manufacture, the cheaper it gets. For a big manufacturer such as Compaq or Dell or Palm, the actual manufacturing cost of the handheld turns out to be very close to negligible. For a company like Picopeta, however, it the cost turns out to be orders of magnitude higher! A hardware product for a niche market was never going to work.
What is interesting is thinking about what should have been done. The need for an electronic computing device for the rural environment is understandable, but developing a new piece of dedicated hardware is wrong in my opinion. A better alternative would have been to take a compaq ipaq (which retailed for about $150-$200 even back in 2001), and develop custom software for it. Linux ran great on the little ipaq 3100 even back then. Developing a nice and easily usable UI would have been the smart thing to do. Since hardware only gets cheaper, and older handhelds can be had for peanuts, this would make the “simputer” far more affordable and would have had a much greater chance of success.
In the end, the simputer still costs $250+, while you can get a modern Pentium 4 with decent graphics and a 19″ monitor for under $200. I hate to say this, but I guess this is what happens when a company is run solely by academicians!
Ever since I started reading Alistair MacLean, and watching World War II movies, I wanted to hear the story from the other side. The thing I was most interested in seeing was how a German movie would portray Hitler, and if it would explain some of his actions differently. While Das Boot is widely regarded as best German war movie, it has very little about Hitler or even the Nazis, and other than the end could very well have been a story fromt he Allied point of view.
Downfall is a movie about the last few days of Hitler’s life in his underground bunker in Berlin. Not only does it shows how Berlin was captured by the Russians in twelve days, but it also shows the more human side of the Germans generals, and particularly of Hitler. The movie has Hitler ordering the execution of his one of his generals who he thinks was a traitor in one scene, and asking a doctor for advice on how he should commit suicide in another.
One of the things that I really liked about the movie is how it brings across two somewhat contradictory points at the same time. It shows the amount of destruction and suffering a single man can cause all over the world, and at the same time shows how the whole country claims responsibility for all that had happened. In a war, no one is innocent. It was really interesting to see people give everything they have for what they think is the right thing. Everyone thinks that he/she is doing the right thing, and still the result are disastrous.
Technically, the movie is about as good as it gets. The acting is so close to being perfect all around that you get the impression you are watching the actual thing. Bruno Ganz, who does the role of Hitler is a real treat to watch. The picturization of the war scenes and all the destruction is absolutely amazing. This is easily one of the best war movies that I have ever seen.
Highly recommended if you are into war movies - it is perhaps the best ever made. Others can watch it as the missing chapter in most history textbooks! The movie has really inspired me to read Mein Kampf, which has been collecting dust on my bookshelf for quite some time.
Quentin Tarantino wrote the script for True Romance, but never got to direct it himself. As sad as that is, the movie is perhaps one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen in a long time.
The movie is about a newly wed couple who, through a series of events, find themselves in possession of a suitcase-full of drugs, and the mafia and police looking for them. What follows is a series of amazingly bizzare, violent, hilarious, and explosive events, as they try to offload the drugs to a famous movie producer.
The story is fast, dialogue is sanppy and Tarantino-witty, background score is excellent, violence is gruesome, and just about everything is technically perfect! The movie stars some really big names, though most play really small parts. I thought the performance of some of the characters was not the best at some places, but who cares, everything else in the movie is so brilliant, you hardly notice it.
Would it have been different if Q had directed it? Yes, no doubt. Better? Most likely. It wouldnt have been as straightforward and hollywood-style for sure. Also, Q had originally written a different ending, which I think might have been interesting if he was directing it. That said, the movie is still pretty amazing. A highly underrated gem; beg, borrow or steal, but watch it now if you havent already!
I generally trust imdb’s movie ratings quite a bit. A rating of 6.5/10 generally indicates an average/below average. This is what kept me from watching M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village for a long time. I finally got around to watching it, and oh boy, I dont think I’ll ever blindly trust imdb’s ratings again!
I would The Village better than Shyamalan’s more popular Sixth Sense, and in the same league as Signs. I think too many people want him to do an encore on Sixth Sense in every movie. Too many people watch The Village expecting a horror movie, or a story with a twist in the end, and are disappointed on both counts. In fact, the main twist The Village has is that it keeps the viewer guessing what it really is about till almost two-thirds into the movie. I have to say that I really liked the story and the setting, and even the little twist that it had.
The acting and direction is absolutely brilliant. In particular, I think Bryce Dallas Howard deserved at least an Oscar nomination. But then we all know how bad the Oscars are at identifying real talent! The cinematography, lighting and the use of yellow and red to contrast the humans and the “monsters” was really amazing. The music was really good and suited the story perfectly, and did end up getting nominated for an Oscar.
There were a few flaws in the movie though. It is a little slow for the average viewer. Also, there are a few small loopholes in the story here and there, but most of it is quite consistent and coherent.
Its a real pity that most people (even too many “film critics”) go in expecting a horror movie, or another Sixth Sense, and are dissatisfied and disappointed when it is not. Watch this movie without any expectations, and I am sure you will like it for what it really is. Highly recommended, in fact one of the best of 2004!
After two back-to-back paper deadlines, and weeks of 16-20 hour days, finally got a small breather. Luckily the International office was organizing a ski/snowboarding trip this weekend (just a day after the paper deadline), and it sounded like a great way to unwind.
I chose snowboarding because many people said that it would be more fun than skiing. While it was a whole lot of fun, I seriously doubt skiing involves as much falling over as snowboarding atleast on the first day. And at a place like the Alpine valley which makes new snow every night, this means that you fall on ice rather than fresh and soft snow most of the time. I am not sure how many days before I can move without crying!
One thing I find very hard to understand is the lack of the safety concerns with skiing. While everyone is super careful while riding a bike, and helmets and other protective gear is almost mandatory, I dont think I noticed anyone wearing a helmet while skiing. Another alarming thing was the lift to get to the top of the slope. The lifts never stop, and require you to jump on and off as it slows down slightly. While getting on it was only a minor challenge, getting off was almost impossible with the snowboard strapped to the feet. There was always a pile of people down on the ground in front of the landing area. What was even more surprising was that there was no rail or something to prevent slipping and falling on the ground 20-50 feet below on the lift. It almost felt like a disaster waiting to happen.
Installed captcha to prevent comment spam. Hope it works! Comments enabled again.
Well, this obviously doesnt take care of trackbacks. Disabled all trackbacks for now…
I dont know how I missed this movie when it first came out. I happened to finally come across it thanks to its phenomenal sound track! This is one of those rare movies that is sad, funny, and has a rather deep story at the same time.
The acting is so close to perfect, that you almost forget it is a movie you are watching! Natalie Portman was great as usual (well, as long as you dont count the Star Wars movies). But the real surprise for me was Zach Braff. While being the director, writer, and the lead actor does give him complete creative flexibility in the movie, I imagine also makes it all the more easier to mess up everything! Definitely a director/actor to watch out in the future.
Another thing I liked about the movie was its visual appeal. This is one of the things where it is hard to say what exactly makes it so good. I guess it is great photography, intelligent use of color, interesting camera angles, etc. Everything is just so slick, you want to see more of it, and the story and acting are just an added bonus. There are some really amazing and memorable scenes in the movie. Such as the Sam doing the wierd dance just to be the only person who has ever done it. Also the whole expedition to find Andrew’s good-bye gift is simply amazing!
I cant end this “review” without mentioning the soundtrack of the movie. One song that I have been playing over and over and over again for the past few weeks is “Fair” by “Remy Zero”. I think the song captures the essence of the movie very well. Sad and happy at the same time!
The only thing I did not like in the movie is the ending. It really lets the movie down, in my opinion. I thought the ending was not as crazy as the rest of the movie, and a better ending might have done better justice to the movie. Maybe I just was expecting too much by the end…
All comments and trackbacks on the site are disabled as of now thanks to all the comment spam that I have been receiving. It will be re-enabled once I manage to find a nice solution to the problem. Also, expect regular posting to resume only around the end of this month. Until then…
A moment of silence for the thousands who lost their lives, and millions who are now homeless and starving as a result of the deadly killer wave that caused perhaps the worst natural disaster in history!
I recently came across this search engine by amazon. It is actually a fancy front-end for google. So far, I am pretty impressed. In stark contrast to google, a9 uses your amazon identity to remember you. What this means is that it can use your previous search queries to refine the search results. You can also simply drag URLs to add them to your a9 bookmarks. Another really cool feature is the a9 diary, which lets you leave notes about websites you visit. You can also get search results from Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book”, and imdb! To top it all off, there is a really nice and functional toolbar for Firefox. The site makes heavy use of javascript (very similar to gmail), and is extremely configurable. Read more about why you should care.
I dont think a9 is going to replace google for my day-to-day searches quite yet, but I am really excited about the future possibilities it holds.
I had absolutely no idea what to expect when I went in for Closer, a movie by Mike Nichols (director of The Graduate). The movie has some really big name associated with it (Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen). Unfortunately most movies with big names like these turn up to be nothing great, and Closer came precariously close to being another one of those, but in the end I think I really liked it.
The first thing I really liked about the movie was the dialogue. All four characters are extremely witty and snappy. Whats makes this better is that the acting was really top-notch. A very interesting thing I read on imdb was that ONLY the four lead characters ever say anything throughout the movie. In fact, the camera never really focuses on anyone else. I didnt notice this during the movie. I think to pull something like this off requires a really good director. Pretty neat!
The movie starts off with a really nice song (The Blower’s Daughter) by Damien Rice, which really sets the tone for the rest of the movie. However, unlike The Graduate, is really very little background music in the rest of the movie. I think this goes very well with the really strong dialogues.
About two-thirds through the movie, it felt as if the movie had started to lose its punch. The story was getting nowhere, and I was almost expecting another one of those crappy Hindi movie style endings, where everyone lives happily ever after. But I think the end really pulls the movie together. It was quite unexpected, and is really what sets the movie apart.
Its interesting how I almost didnt want to go for this movie at first, but now I really like it.
Its been over a month and a half since my last post. My excuse? I was vacationing in India, and though I had access to the internet, and also had lots to write about, I was just too busy and never really felt like it…
But now I am back in the icy cold Chicago, and there is lots to share.
Lot more to come, so stay tuned!
Every quarter, Dell pulls a nasty trick on its stock holders. In order to increase their quarter revenues and look good to the investors, they sell thousands of computers at a HUGE discount. A bulk of this discount is generally in the form of a Mail-in-Rebate (so the rebate comes out of the next quarter’s revenues). These discounts work on different levels, but more often than not they are in the form of coupons that “people in the know” post on various deal websites. At other times it is a “secret link” that lets you get a computer for much cheaper (again, this link is posted by someone on one of the many deal forums). The end result: the stock holders are happy, customers are happy, dell is happy, and we have world peace!
I have got several good deals thanks to these quarterly dumping of computers. The latest was a 2.8GHZ HT enabled P4 computer, with the Intel 875 motherboard, a 80GB hard drive, 128MB RAM, and a CDROM for the sum of about $150, including tax and shipping. The CPU itself would cost you around $180 on newegg. And what tops it all is the case. It has an innovative Dell single fan cooling design. The result is that the computer is ultra quiet (well atleast it was before I loaded it up with my noisy hard drives and graphics card). I was initially concerned about the punny 250W power supply, but it has held up very well inspite of all the load I am putting on it! Very impressive.
For more information about the now famous Dell 400SC, see the unofficial Dell 400SC FAQ.
A laptop for $900 with three year complete care, warranty, and what not. A 200GB hard drive for $20. A great desktop for $150. Keep it coming, Dell!
Spread Fire Fox has launched a campaign to collect funds to place a full page ad in NYT celebrating the launch of Firefox 1.0. All those who donate would have their name a part of the ad. If you use firefox, consider donating (this may be your best shot at getting your name in NYT 
). If you are still struggling with IE, get firefox NOW and be a part of the revolution!
The Others is quite an old movie (2001). I am not sure how I managed to not watch it all this while. Maybe it was the scary trailer that drove me away…
Anyways, the movie is really amazing. If you havent seen it yet, do so now. The ending is really sweet. It is one of those movies that tell an age-old story of a haunted mansion in a new and different way. Great use of lighting, great acting, direction and music. The only flaw is that I think it was a little too long. I was able to guess the ending about 10 minutes before the actual climax, and had it been about 10 minutes shorter, it might have been perfect!
Switched the blog over to WordPress from Movable Type. The process was quite smooth. Was able to import everything effortlessly. Only problem is that all the older permalinks are broken since WP uses a slightly different permalink scheme (and I could not find an easy way of mimicing MT). Everything else looks great so far. Quite impressed by WP. Expect changes in the look and feel as I customize the templates over the next few days.
I will be using this post to maintain a changelog on this new blog:
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