intermittent chatter

Once there was a time when I didn’t have a single credit card. I never felt the need for any card. My dad still doesn’t have a single one. Everytime someone offers him a card, he says “I don’t want any credit!!”

I applied for my first HSBC credit card 4 years back and paid 2K as annual fees!! Times have changed and now I have 6 credit cards and all are free. The first HSBC card has also become free now, I have 1 more HSBC card, 1 SBI and 3 ICICI cards.

I had applied for ICICI card almost 6 months back and when nothing came, I thought my application is lost somewhere. But I was surprised to receive, not 1 but 3 cards after such a long time. First week of September was pretty hectic! Everyday there was some mailer from the ICICI - 3 cards, 3 pins, site password and some other miscellaneous mailers! They kept coming in from ICICI.

Some days back I received yet another marketing call, this time from Citi Bank, offerring me a lifetime free credit card. I asked whether its VISA or MASTER? Caller said its MASTER. Out of the 6 cards that I have 4 are VISA, 2 are AmEx. So I agreed for 1 more card. I was told that they only need a copy of my PAN card, LIC premium receipt and my autograph on their form.

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Some months ago, I went to ISKCON Chowpatty temple to click pictures of deities. We wanted to put some special pictures on Deity Darshan. I mounted my Nikon Coolpix 5200 on my tripod and clicked a few pictures.

I clicked with flash and was highly dissatisfied with the colour reproduction. Colours in the photographs were very much different from what I could actually see. Then I switched off the flash and clicked a few more pictures. Once again, the result was not to my satisfaction. I was highly disappointed. If a camera worth 20K can’t reproduce the colours properly, whats the use of spending so much? But I hadn’t lost hopes and knew that I was missing out on something.

Then I shifted the tripod to the other end of the temple hall. Once again, I clicked a few pictures with and without flash and this time even switched on and off a few lights in the hall. But it didn’t work. After a struggle for about an hour, I left it there for the day.

I went home and flipped through the pages of the camera manual hoping to find something that will improve the colour reproduction. Then I came across something and I was over-joyed. I tried various available modes. Also switched on and off a few lights in my room and took over 20-25 pictures. (Would have I ever done that with a film camera?) I checked the colour reproduction of those pics and immediately realised what was wrong! Afterall my camera wasn’t faulty. I was relieved.

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BlogCamp has already started and fortunately its setup with all basic tech needs - WiFi, IRC chat and streaming audio. There are loads of people around with their gadgets. Laptops and DigiCams are on almost all desks. There are some live blog competitions going on. But there are far better (and professional) bloggers around and therefore I have no intention of participating in the competitions. On the personal front, I am meeting a few new people and intend to meet a few online friends like Sathya, Kato, Ashwin, Qwertmaniac, etc. Already met Varun and Vinay here.

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Some days back, my friend and a GNU/Linux fanatic Anurag called me up to inform me that Richard Stallman is in Mumbai and will be giving a speech in the Patkar auditorium on Sunday 27th August 2006. I got excited! He surely is a genius in his own right and founder of Free Software Foundation and GNU. I attended the meet and was somewhat disappointed to hear the same old things from the great man! What is “Free” software (and it doesn’t mean freeware!), why we should use free software, etc.

On hearing the speech, I remembered a Stallman book Free Software, A Perspective, that I had read (once again given by Anurag) and the whole thought process started once again. I must say, I disagree with Stallman’s economical ideas.

“Free” software is an ideallistic approach. Very noble. Good for the society and the users, but doesn’t seem good for the programmer. I have been a programmer as well as a user. So can think from both the perspectives. From a user’s perspective, I will say I love GNU/Linux because I don’t have to spend for it and still get something thats fantastic and better than the alternatives. I can get it from someone who is willing to give it to me. Thanks to Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman.

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I am going to Chennai for the BlogCamp on 8th September. Me and my wife planned out a small holiday alongwith it, since she has some relatives there. We all wanted to fly because Mahi-Meha are too young to travel such a long distance by train. But recent fear of terrorist attacks and new rules of flying without carrying any liquids robbed us of this opportunity

Mahi-Meha need something to eat/drink every 2-3 hours. We need to carry their feed and bottles of milk everywhere. We inquired with a friend working in Jet Airways. She said, baby food is allowed. But we again called Jet’s security section to be completely sure and they said no liquids are allowed. I called up the office of GoAir and they confirmed that no liquids are allowed. So ultimately we had to cancel the plan of a small holiday and M2 lost their first opportunity to fly!

BlogCamp, blog unconference, is being held in Chennai on 9th and 10th September. Deep informed me about it and I confirmed my participation soon enough.

We are leaving on 8th evening. We had an option of leaving on 9th early morning. But we were afraid of flight delays and consequently missing out on the initial part of it. So decided to leave on 8th and return on 10th by a late night flight. We have already booked the tickets and will book our accomodation soon.

Besides the unconference, I am also looking forward to meet a couple of friends in Chennai whom I have never met - Ashwin and Sathya! I have interacted online with both these many times over in YIM and/or forums (Digit and TechSpot). But this is the first opportunity to meet them in person. I have also suggested a TechSpot Chennai meet on one of these days so that we get to meet some more guys from Chennai while we are already there.

The thought of this camp and an opprtunity to listen to experienced bloggers excites me quite a bit. Hold on Chennai, I am on my way!

A few friends and cousins have always been fond of the twins-timeline that I maintain. Some of them remind me to update it if I havent done it in a month. For those who don’t know, twins-timeline contains the pictures of my twin daughters - Mahi & Meha - since their birth in May 2005. I put 2 pics every month in the timeline. It really shows the progress these two have made since their birth.

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I feel better I have upgraded to WP 2.0.4. I had my share of hiccups while upgrading and a wrong click due to lack of concentration, messed up the whole thing. I am glad, I backed up my MySQL database and restored everything from there. On the way, I learnt a few things

Now the next step is to get all the plugins back and search for a new theme for WordPress

Due to an extremely busy work schedule and a couple of new projects on hand, I could not blog for almost a month! I hope to do so now. I am still very busy with about more than 20 different work projects on hand. But still hope to blog at least twice a week. And yes! Twins-timeline will remain upto date and will be updated every month!

Here’re a list that gives best freewares. The list contains 95 entires so far and its still not over!

I have two doctors in my family, my sister Dr. Tejal Mehta (a homoeopath) and my brother-in-law, Dr. Ashish Mehta (yes, even he is Ashish Mehta :)). He is a neurosurgeon, practising at Mumbai. They both have been toppers who got their admissions on merits and has deservedly become doctors. Now they are taking proper care of their patients. Patients are happy because they know that their doctors are capable of doing what they are doing.

I once asked my brother-in-law about his views on Quota System & SC/ST/OBC Reservations in education. He said most of those who get admitted without merit can’t cope up with the demands of courses and drop out within some time. Thus they don’t benefit by this and they also spoil the chances of someone who deserves to be there. Then he told me about one of his friends who lost admission to MBBS course by a single mark and lost his mental balance. That fellow is still not got back to normalcy and is the only son of a widow mother! All those people must be cursing V.P.Singh and now Arjun Singh from the fathom of their hearts!

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