Happy New Year 2005!

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Hello World!
Happy New Year 2005!
Best wishes to everybody out there.
This is my first post of the year. 🙂
And guess what, I LOVE Waffle House! Especially the hashbrowns and the cheese omeletes! 🙂 🙂
Also, see this small forward that I got from one of my friends. I think it is pretty nice.
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Wishing You Everything Good
Wishing you everything good
Every Star, a guiding one
Every Sky, a blue one
Every Heart, an open one
Every Friend, a true one
Every Dream, a lasting one
Every Song, a bright one
Every Path, an easy one
Every Turn, the right one
Happy New Year 2005!
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Upgrading from Fedora Core 2 to Fedora Core 3

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Upgraded my linux machine from Fedora Core 2 (Tettnang) to Fedora Core 3 (Heidelberg). Here are the steps I followed.
[1] Downloaded the ISO images (FC3-i386-disc1,2,3,4.iso) from ftp://sunsite.utk.edu/pub/linux/fedora/3/i386/iso/ .The download took about 10 mins each for each CD image. Maybe it was faster because I was in my office and downloading from the UTK network. So, maybe it was like downloading over the LAN.
Note: For faster downloads, choose the mirror nearest to you: http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors.html
[2] Created the CDs from the ISO images using Roxio Easy CD Creator
[3] Inserted CD1 into my Linux machine and rebooted it.
[4] Chose the “Upgrade” option after reboot.
The total process took about 2 hours. Everything seems to be working well.
Note: Make sure you have all 4 CDs before you start the upgrade process.
More Links:
– Fedora Project Homepage
– Mirrors
– Wikipedia page about Fedora

2004 Google Zeitgeist

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Google released its 2004 Year-End Google Zeitgeist list yesterday (Thu, 12/23). It lists the terms most frequently entered into the company’s search engine over the past 12 months.
The most popular queries for 2004 are:
[1] Popular Queries: Britney Spears
[2] Popular Men: Orlando Bloom
[3] Popular Women: Britney Spears
[4] Popular Consumer Brand Names: Ebay
[5] Top Public Figures: George W. Bush
and many more…
And “Zeitgeist” is a german word which means: “the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era”
Related Links:
– Google Press Center: Zeitgeist
– News article at ZdNet
– Google Blog

Google SMS

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Came across Google SMS. It is a service (still in Beta) introduced by Google where users can send phone book listings, dictionary definitions, product prices etc. I decided to try it out.
Note: The queries need to be sent to 46645 (GOOGL).
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Case 1 (Local business info)
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Query: papa john 37919
Reply:
Papa John’s Pizza: UT Campus
South 1819 Lake Ave
Knoxville, TN 37916
865-522-7272
Papa John’s Pizza: Northwest
5617 Western Ave
Knoxville, TN 37921
865-546-7272
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Case 2 (Zip code info)
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Query: 37919
Reply: zip code for Knoxville, TN
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Case 3 (Area code info)
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Query: 865
Reply: area code for Eastern Tennessee
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Case 4 (Word definition)
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Query: define alacrity
Reply: Glossary: * alacrity: liveliness and eagerness; “he accepted with alacrity”. Source: www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn
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I think the service is pretty interesting and very useful too. I intend to use it more in the future.
Related Links:
– http://sms.google.com/
– Wallet size Tips Sheet (36 kb pdf)
– PC World article (10/07/2004)

.mobi and .jobs domains

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ICANN has given the preliminary ok to two new domains – “.mobi” and “.jobs”.
The “.mobi” domain names would be for websites and other services that that are specially designed to work around the limitations of cell phones, including their smaller screen size and data capacity.
The “.jobs” suffix, meanwhile, would be for employment agencies/human resource departments – for example, the job postings section of corporate websites.
.post and .travel domains had also been given preliminary approval in October 2004.
Related Links:
– Yahoo News
– BBC News
– News item at ICANN.ORG

Ocean’s Twelve

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Just came back after watching Ocean’s Twelve. I have been waiting for this movie for about 3 months. I really enjoyed the movie. It was great! Compared to Ocean’s Eleven, this is a less action but more fun movie. I don’t know which one is better – Ocean’s Eleven or Ocean’s Twelve? But if I have to choose one, I guess it would be Ocean’s Eleven.
Bottomline: A fun movie and definitely worth watching.
Note (1:30 AM 12/11/2004): Just remembered noticing in the movie that Catherine Jeta-Zones’ name is Isabel Lahiri. Struck me as a bit odd. Because Lahiri is a Bengali lastname.
Update (1:35 AM 12/11/2004): Found a related article.
Related Links:
– Review at Yahoo Movies
– Official website
– Ocean’s Twelve page at IMDB

Alexander

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Just came back after watching “Alexander“. And I was really disappointed. I had expected a lot from the movie.
The movie is long (3 hours) and most of the dialogues are boring. I think the movie is just plain stretched out. Many times in the middle, I felt really bored. One of the battle sequences is good but the others are just not worth seeing.
I had watched “Troy” and I was really impressed with it. And I was hoping that “Alexander” would be on the same lines. But after watching the movie, I realize it does not even come close to “Troy”.
And when I went to buy the ticket, I was told that they do not accept credit cards. So, I had to go the ATM machine and spend $2 extra. So, I spent $10 in total for an extremely boring movie!
Final Verdict: Do NOT see the movie! It’s not worth it.
The next movie I am waiting for is “Ocean’s Twelve” which is releasing on Dec 10th. I hope it will be good.

Kevin Sites clarifies

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I generally do not write about politics or wars. However this one is worth looking at.
Last week, NBC cameraman Kevin Sites, embedded with the Marines in Fallujah, wrote a startling report of a marine who shot and killed an already wounded Iraqi insurgent on Nov 13. On his website, Sites explains why he went public with the video footage. He wants to counter speculation that he is an anti-war activist or anything but an impartial journalist.
More Links:
– The open letter (Nov 21) | cached copy (141 kb pdf)
– The original report on MSNBC (Nov 16) | cached copy (19 kb pdf)
– Instapundit’s post on this topic
– KevinSites.net
More about this later.

Why is “i.e.” read as “that is”?

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Some people read “i.e.” as “eye eee” and some others (me included) read it as “that is”. Did a quick search on dictionary.com and found that “i.e.” stands for “id est” which is Latin for “that is”. Now, I know! 🙂