Forsyth's Second Corollary to Murphy's Laws
Just when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, the roof caves in.

It was this day, the 29th of August. 2003 that I started my blog, and my first post. I have come a long way from that. But I can still remember that nite at my house when I created my account with Blogger. Why I created it, I do not know. Herd mentality, probably.

Inspite of its nuances, I have still stuck with it. I have also changed from the default template it provided to the final one, which I created in the month of November of 2003, I think to the current one. And then I became too lazy to mess around with html again. But I do like this template and it reflects what I like a lot - a soothing dark blue and glittering nite mood.

Very soon, as I got my hand on a digital camera, I had started posting pictures in my blog - thanx to Photobucket. Alas, my first images are lost, as I had deleted them to free up some storage space!. Now with more than 2700 photos - I have decided not to upload all of them. They are still stored in my hard-disk waiting for the day to get classified and the selected few, uploaded.

I also started out with the habit of putting Murphy's Laws before each post. Just to remind the average person that if something can go wrong, it will. And I aim to put one for each post that I have.

Over the past two years, I have got quite a few friends, and I have had the pleasure of meeting them, and going to the blog meets to see the faces behind the veil of their blogs (having attended, I think, about 3 meets). Unfortunately, now in the US, I am quite far away from them, and I do find it quite difficult to meet anybody here at all.

My blog has also been a very good channel to communicate with my family - my parents and some cousins who read it regularly. This is slightly easier than individual mails that I send them, and cheaper than international calls that I make.

I shall continue writing about my sojourn into life. As long as these tireless fingers never tire out.

Flaw of Long-Range Planning
The longer ahead you plan a special event, and the more special it is, the more likely it is to go wrong.

Google Sightseeing
My Contributions to Google Sightseeing.

See the entire world from the comfort of your own chair!.
STATUTORY WARNING: Good broadband internet required.

Flagle's Law of the Perversity of Inanimate Objects (Flap's Law)
Any inanimate object, regardless of its composition or configuration, may be expected to perform at any time in a totally unexpected manner, for reasons that are either entirely obscure or else completely mysterious.

Google Talk
Over the nite, google introduced a slew of services, aimed at cutting into the pie now owned by Microsoft and Yahoo.

Gmail officially opened to everyone yesterday (everyone in the US with a phone atleast). Its no longer "invite only". A direct competition to Hotmail and Yahoo mail
Google Talk, a messenger service rivalling windows messenger and yahoo messenger. Though with not that many features, it does have an intuitive interface. Havent used it much, since I had only a couple of people in the contact list.
Desktop 2, a kind of integreted search service, offering a lot of miscellaneous stuff apart from just a search, and definitely a memory hogger!!!.

As I mentioned before, it is targeting into markets were traditionally not where its speciality was. Are all these applications cooked by the chefs inside Google on their way to making the purported Google OS?

And what about Google being the Gentle Giant now with its policy of Do No Evil. As it develops more and more applications to compete with other companies and as other companies become afraid of its power and its ability to push around.

Is it Google's Turn to be a villain (Free registration required)

Fitz-Gibbon's Law
Creativity varies inversely with the number of cooks involved with the broth.

I know I havent been faithful to my blog. But that was because work beckoned. As it got really busy during the last week, I just could not find the time.
Then again, my cerebrum got tired. I just ran out of things to write about. I needed a fresh perspective.

As of today, I am completing my internship. And my stay in California.

The end of my internship

Preparation for internship: $25
Shopping for stuff (clothes!): $100
Flite Ticket to california: $150
.
.
The internship experience. Priceless.

That pretty much sums what I had gone through for the past three months.
These three months ran by extremely fast. Right from the time as the plane to San Jose peered through the bank of clouds to give a fleeting glimpse of the Bay Area, to rite now, as I wait for the manager to give the house keys back to her, it has been a wild and fast ride. But to say that I have seen much more of USA than I did in the last 8 months in Texas is quite an understatement. That, perhaps, is the beauty and magic of California.

Blessed with a lovely weather for most of my stay here (Less or no rain at all, a cool temperature, a mild but non-stifling humidity, clear skies most of the time), I enjoyed the weekend outings. For about 8 of the 13 weekends that I have been here, I had gone out. Camping, hiking, skydiving, scenic drives, mountain biking, white water rafting, touristing - in short, whatever I had wanted to do! The nightlong LAN parties which extended to the next day morning made it quite a fun experience.

The work was great. Nvidia is a great company to work with - it even got placed as one of the top 100 companies to work for by Fortune in 2004. And as an intern - it is even more fun. There was no dearth of the intern activities that had been organized to keep the interns happy. They do go to a great extent to make everything perfect for them. (Perhaps they can allure them for a full time postion)

Granted, that I did have to work some long hours on some days, and sometimes on weekends too, but that is something everybody has to do, whether in a tech company or not.

I do have an offer for next year too. I mite hopefully come back again; again - to a separate country with sunshine, beautiful beaches and babes ;-)

Finagle's Rules of Scientific Experiments
1. To study a subject best, understand it thoroughly before you start.
2. Always keep a record of data. It indicates you've been working.
3. Always draw your curves, then plot the reading.
4. In case of doubt, make it sound convincing.

San Francisco - The city I left my heart in.

Suggest you have this map ready in order to get better oriented to the city. And links in italics are to pictures that I have taken.

A quaint old city jostling for space in the narrow peninsula fighting with tall glassy modern rock formations called skyscrapers. That interspersed with steep crooked streets, lined with Victorian era houses, which give panaromic views of the giant turquoise bay, the surrounding, often cloud-covered mountains and snaky suspension bridges which reach out like long steel arms trying to touch the opposite bay. And in between are antique cable cars that still shuttle passengers up and down the city slopes; All make San Francisco one of the most picturesque cities in the US.
A truly worthy city to spend a lifetime in.

The city is truly a melting pot of cultures, music, food, and last but not the least people. You will find Chinese delicacies in narrow crowded cafes in Chinatown giving fair competition to the finest Italian cuisine and wine in upmarket restaurants; people in black coats walking elegantly among tall skyscrapers rubbing shoulders with tourists from Germany; these and many more make it a veritable pot pourri of destinations and help it become one of the must-see places in USA.

As it is quite a small city, it is easy to get around just on foot. Walking around is probably the best way to see the otherwise unreachable and more hidden mystical places of the city. And being tourist-friendly, it is quite easy to get around public transportation. I myself did about a 5 mile walking tour of San Francisco, starting from the famous Pier 39, after treating myself to delicious Ghirardelli chocolates while watching the frolicking sea lions, to downtown and then the Embarcadero along San Francisco's Shoreline. Some highlights:

• Japanese Tea Garden: This quaint Japanese garden filled with small bonsai trees and intricate statues and shrines attracts people for its famous tea also (which I did not have).
  
• Conservatory of Flowers: Houses a lot of really pretty flowers, as its name indicates. Some mesmerizing orchids and mystical dahlias fighting for space with large tropical plants and temperate ferns.
  
• Alcatraz Island: The famous prison-island, the story-line of "The Rock" and accessible only by ferry is pictured in this . This was taken from a top of a steep road, looking down at Fishermans wharf and the Alcatraz island.
  
• Coit Tower and San Francisco: This hill and the tall tower on it, which uncannily resembles a fire hose provides panaromic views of the downtown, the bay area and the two suspension bridges.
  
• Downtown and the financial district: If New York is the financial capital of (eastern) USA, then San Francisco is the financial capital of western USA - clearly epitomized by the dense congregation of buildings in the downtown and the financial district. Downtown also houses many beautiful structures best seen through a casual stroll.

After all this, it is a city which wants me to see even more. A city with a magnetic personality, its everchanging face never ceases to amaze me. And makes me come back again and again to soak in its eternal beauty.

Finster's Law
A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Came across a very nice video based on stop motion animation. Thought it to be really funny.

Made by a bunch of guys who had absolutely nothing else to do.

For dialup and slower connexion users, click here.

Work safe, unless you consider spending 5 minutes of work time not work safe.