Gearing up for ...

... I don't know what. October has come to an end before I even knew I started. I was just talking to Manish about our Industrial Tour to Bangalore-Kerala-Kanyakumari, and never realized I was making a huge mistake with the dates. I kept telling him we will be starting the Trip on October 29th and we'll be back by November 10th. And he reminded me that today is already October 31. I got a jolt and realized we'll be leaving in November and we'll be back in December. Confusion Prevails...
  Before all that, we have these exams to attend to. My Onlines are nearing The End, and my average marks are falling after every exam. At the moment, I can see everything below 15 on 20. That'll be a blow after we get our ever-shocking External Exam Results. Those few marks you lost in the Internal might just pull you back so that you can write the exam again in the next term. I never feared exams, but when there's pressure, even your best friend is a monster.
  Today Natarajan was slightly put-off after Raj Kiran failed to get some notes for him. The way he started talking looked as if our whole group was trying to neglect his presence. I don't like such things to happen but when they happen, they leave you in a tight situation. Any kind of explanation won't work.
  The last post of October comes to an end, and November will dawn in by tomorrow along with a renewed pressure of Lab Externals and Finals. Hope November is good ... may someone show mercy on all of us, kids of Aero, and make this month fruitful (Children's Day coming in .. heheh.)

Classic 1.0.2

  Well, Apple sent a firmware update for the Ipods Nano and Classic, version 1.0.2. I read a few reviews about the update and started feeling edgy about downloading it. The first surprising thing was, the download was 56.6 MB, and an update being so big sounds really funny. That wasn't the only problem. People have complained about various things happening to their iPods after updating. Some said the iPod keeps restarting continuously, or that it is not being detected, or that it isn't getting ejected. As I read on, the list started increasing and I was wondering if this is some problem from Apple.
  Inspite of it's great looks and good sound and perfect video playback, i had concerns of the ipod being slow during the CoverFlow, and during Menu Navigation and the Click-wheel being less sensitive. The recent update claimed that it has improved some of these things and also unlocked a TV Out option. Well the TV Out option sounds pretty useless because we need to buy an original cable from Apple alone. Any other cables don't seem to be working with it.
  Somehow, half-heartedly, I set up the update and now the result is out for me to observe. First thing I noticed was the Menu Navigation which seems a lot faster than before. But then, it still isn't as fast as it's previous models. One more change was that, the CoverFlow has become smooth and sensitive. Sound quality has no change at all. The TV Out option is of no use to me. The Click-Wheel sensitivity improved for 1.0.1 itself and nothing else was done this time. A funny thing I noticed was, while ejecting, the message that comes on the iPod sounds something like it's still in the process of ejecting and yet it is safe to disconnect. Now, if Apple can explain that to me, I'd be happy. All I know is, no experiments till it is totally ejected....
  1.0.2 has improved performance greatly but I must see how this affects the battery life. I'll be waiting for 1.0.3 if it promises me more bug fixes...

The Kimilton Controversy

   This F1 season has brought up controversy after controversy. Looks like Schumacher is giggling to himself that he is thankfully not involved in all this. As per the latest, the very Driver's Championship Title is at stake. After McLaren's info exchange and the sacking of important technicians from McLaren and Ferrari, there is one more twist now, this time, involving BMW Sauber and Williams. McLaren Merc filed a complaint saying these both teams ran on fuel at a temperature lower by around 10 degrees. Sounds like not much of a big deal here, but then, if we have to go by the rules, it does make a difference.
   A lower temperature means, the same amount of fuel occupies a lesser volume and hence leaves some space for more fuel. This way, the driver can run on more fuel and last longer on the track, maybe a 2 pit-stop strategy might take him to the finish line.
   If by any chance, McLaren's case is considered and the BMW and Williams teams are found guilty, they might be docked off their points in the last Brazilian Grand Prix. Because both the BMW's finished before Hamilton in this race, their disqualification means Hamilton moves up and gets more points. This also means, he finishes with more Championship Points than Kimi Raikkonen and wins the Title.

   So, this particular controversy can make things really big and I fear, Kimi will not only lose a hard-earned Title, but Hamilton will win it in an unconventional method and McLaren's brand-image might droop down as well. It'll be like a sad end to an exciting story and a 10 degrees temperature difference will change the winner of the Title many days after the season got over....

Kimi Champion

The latest news, Kimi Raikkonen has just been named Kimi Champion. Sorry, World Champion. Wow. What a day for Ferrari. I wouldn't be surprised if they partied right till the start of the next season. The Driver's Championship has been sooo close this time and I was really expecting the new rookie, Lewis Hamilton to make an explosive start to his career. With the last Brazilian Grand Prix to go, the top 3 drivers were just 7 points apart. Hamilton - 107, Alonso - 103, Raikkonen - 100. At the end of the race, the points are, Raikkonen - 110, Hamilton - 109, Alonso - 109. That is one of the closest ever finishes as far as I know and the P3 finishing at P1 by the end is really great.

Thanks to McLaren's controversial secret info exchange, they were fined heavily and they lost all the Constructor's Points. Ferrari grabbed both the Driver's and Constructor's Championships and finished with a 1-2 on the final race. What more could anyone ask for ?? It's like seeing Micheal Schumacher back into racing for another 10 years....

Previous Post Answer

Well, there was a simple question last post, the answers are ...

O T T F F S S E N --T-- ... they are the numbers 1-10 ..

W T F S S M --T-- ... the days of the week, starting from Wednesday ... don't kick yourself now .... Both blanks are to be filled with T ... simple.

Marooned

It's the right word to use right now coz after missing the whole of last week's classes and going straight for the internals, it feels like crash-landing in an enemy base.. Answering 2-3 questions out of the 5 is starting to become an achievement and the 4 internals we had till now haven't gone as wanted. The 1st exam (APT) was fine and then started the downfall.
Thankfully, this festive time has brought us some holidays and that's gonna be given to well-deserved rest and some music. Let's see if it can happen. My blog's gone to an all-time low with no interesting posts though i managed the 100th post recently.

  There's a small thing I would like readers to solve. Here it is ...
  O T T F F S S E N ___
  W T F S S M ___     .. just fill the blanks.

100, Normal health and exams

After a week of pain, bed-rest and a blocked nose, I can finally smell good health. All those medicines must have worked really hard to get me back onto my feet. And to announce, the 100th post in my blog, I feel really proud. Yes, you can raise the toast, but don't expect me to pay for the Champagne. A 3 digit accomplishment wouldn't mean a 6 digit bank account. Anyway, now that I am back into action, college also gets underway and along with it, exams. 'Tis no time to celebrate when internals are ready to bite at your heels.

Down with the Sickness ...

Well, what started as a tiring day on 7th (previous post) has continued on as sick days even till today. I over strained myself on that day after an early morning soccer match and then a long jam session and now I am having to suffer. I got ill the very next day (on 8th) but managed to go to college. After a complete sleeping day at college, I came home with fever. That fever hasn't left me yet and I am still struggling with body pains, temperature, Cold, and Cough ..... hope I can get well fast. I have a constant fear of missing the internal exams that will start soon.

Music/Soccer/Music/Soccer/Music/Soccer ....

Oh God!!... what a day it has been. Clearly the longest day of my life. It all started when I was dozing peacefully hoping that I could sleep till noon. I suddenly got a call from a friend asking me to come to a Soccer Match at Rail Nilayam. I was late for the match but managed to play the last 20 min as a substitute. Was a very good match though we lost 4-3. We made some good movement and all players had a kind of zeal in them to play good football rather than simply score goals. The formations were very bad with no player sticking to his role but still, there was a co-ordination among the players that left no space for the opponents (Railways soccer guys). The MGIT and MRGI guys together played the match against the Railways...
Overall, good match. But after going home, I got a call from my bro and he asked me to come over to his place so that we could have a jam session. I drove my car out and reached his place. We had a long a tiring jam session and after lunch the effects started to show (of tire).. and now, after reaching home, my eyes barely open and my fingers barely moving, I somehow managed to type this post. Today will surely be an "early to bed" day and i hope i can rise early tomorrow....

iPod hW s,.L!

Well, my iPod days have started and the last few of them have been a blur. I just couldn't realize the speed of the clock ticking away as I spent time on the new Classic.
First of all, it's an 80GB thing which I might take a few years to fill. (just kiddin').. the interface is has been stepped up and looks very cool, but it's definitely slower than the previous models. The Main menu is the slow one with the animated AlbumArt on one half of the screen. It's not exactly slow, but it takes about 0.5 secs to show up the menu when you move in from another. It's takes another 0.5secs to enter the new CoverFlow menu. It looks exactly like the CoverFlow in iTunes and once loaded, it feels really nice to scroll through the Covers. The music quality is pretty much the same. I couldn't feel any real improvement in the playback. The EQ presets are not fun coz it's a long process getting into the Equalizer and they cannot be changed to our style. The video playback is really cool and smooth and it's the best thing that I liked in this model. The iTunes converter was really taking a long time to convert simple MPEG formats and moreover, once converted, the audio was completely lost. I heard of cases where the audio-video sync was having a lag, but in mine, the audio was gone totally. I was a bit worried about this but fortunately, I found a software that works just fine. It converts almost all formats (including FLV and SWF) and does it very quickly without any lag or loss in audio. My Video Playback just got better. The clarity, even at 0% brightness is great and I am really enjoying the overall performance of the Classic. The battery-life is one that has to be tested because I am connecting the Classic almost every evening and in turn charging it up. But my approximations tell me that it could come upto 10-15 hours and not more than that. But the specs say it comes to 30 hours. I hope I am wrong.
The extra stuff available is fun to use, but everything has to synced in from itunes. Hardly anything can be done on the iPod itself. But I don't wanna get into the details of that.

Anyway, this craze will go on for a few days and later, it will slowly subside. All I can say is, Patience can do miracles ...

Just tell me if you understood the Title of this post.