Shifting apartments not only helps you clean out things, it also brings back some old memories to life. 4 years, and this stack had never been looked at, so it was time to recycle all the trees I wasted while at school. Those linux commands to cancel the print requests had done good in saving the print money but also made me waste more paper than I really needed to.

While browsing through this stack I came across the test papers and project reports (4 more years will decide their fate), brings back the time when night-outs in labs working and having fun (mostly having fun) was something that I could do every night. Makes me wonder if I will ever go back to school! I know I want to, but will it be same as before?

Why is it so bad to go back, and its not just going back to school I am talking about? Why is “moving ahead” = “success” all the time?

While most like growing up, I look back and see a boy, wearing shorts and t-shirt, on his bicycle, riding as fast as he could on a small ramp on the rough ground and landing with a big thud - a perfect landing, as he skids and turns around, smiles at his friend who is about to go next.

I wish, I was that child again!

Talk about being ‘FREE’ - and no its not the free that comes from - you get a free phone when you subscribe to our new Verizon service plan - here my friend, I am talking about the free from ‘free’dom!

What will you do if you find out, your phone was wet and will not recover to life?
Me - I smiled!

For a week I experienced the feeling of freedom - what a way to commemorate 60th year of independence! For a week my steps were not being traced by radio waves hovering around me as I hopped from one hexagon to another! For a week, I could talk to someone at my discretion without being obliged to call back! For a week I was free, I was without my cellphone!

and now, I am not :(

Do you hate cellphones as much as I do?

I have always wondered if all these online petitions that float around actually work! While I have signed petitions in the past, I feel they are waste of time but worth the effort (time) if adding a voice ‘might’ make some difference.

In the last week of June, city officials in New York had proposed a law that would have forced photographers and film makers to obtain permits and a liability insurance of $1million to take pictures and shoot videos in the city. Any group of 2 or more photographers shooting in an area for more than 30 minutes would require this permit. Rule also applies to those using their Gorillapods, or tripods in a group of 5 or more for more than 10 minutes.

While this law was meant for professional filmmakers and photographers, ambiguity in the proposal would have made it difficult for amateurs like yours truly to hang around Times Square!

An online petition was signed by 31,000 photographers against this. As a result, city officials have withdrawn this proposal and have said they will work on a revised version.

Conclusion (based on this): Yes, they do! But really, do they work??

ps: reading Molishree’s comment, I modified the conclusion and I leave it open for others to answer!

When we were busy orkutting, myspacing, facebooking with friends - Geni.com comes up with a social networking site for family members.

It’s a website where you can create your family tree. Its simple, clean and fast. Took me 15 minutes to add 62 family members (and thats not even half my family). You can browse through the tree added further by others on your tree, invite family members, keep track of birthdays and anniversaries, send a group message - invite your family members to your wedding, if they are all technologically web based junkies - basically socialize online with your family.

While creating my family tree, I realized I know more about my friends than my own family members, its time I knew what they are upto :)

This is another wonders of Ajax, makes me really really want to learn this scripting language.

At the moment I cannot justify the cost ($750) of Nikon 18-200mm VR lens, although after reading numerous reviews and forums its one work-around lens to have in the bag.

Looks like it is going to be the ‘Nikon AF Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED DX‘ after all, found one refurbished for $240 at Amazon and a new for $300 at AbesofMaine.com.

This is a fairly new lens introduced with the Nikon D80 as a kit.

Advantages over my broken 18-55mm

I will get the extra 80mm of zoom, I always wanted that while shooting events.

Also this new lens comes with SWM - silent wave motor, which makes it very quiet.

Front element does not rotate while focusing. This helps if you have a polarizer or graduated density filter attacted to the lens.

From reading reviews and suggestions at dpchallenge.com

Looks like this is a nice sharp lens, fast focus. Has some distortions at wide angle, not a pro level lens, but will work great for an amateur like myself.

To add something wide, I will save some money and maybe later buy the Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X. Looks like another great lens to have in the bag.

My beloved ‘Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6′ is broken. Auto-focus mechanism stopped working on my trip to Las-Vegas, I used it to it’s last breath and got some last decent shots (will post them later).

I felt like sharing some of my favorite photographs taken using this lens

Now the search begins for my next lens. Here are choices I came up with after several hours of browsing
For Wide + tele combo

• Tokina 12-24mm f/4 $500
• Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 $500
• Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 $350 - temped by the f/2.8
• Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 $350
• Nikon 18-135mm f/3.5-6 $350

OR

• Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR $800+

Tempting but not sure if this is what I want. Besides there is a wait period of over a month for this lens and I need something wide soon!

Since the beginning of my internship, I have been having lunch with at least one *new* intern everyday (per the observation of one of the regulars). I must admit, I have never been so impressed with the MS Office Communicator (not that I used it too often) — scheduling lunches has never been so easy!

And once there were a bunch of us — about 30 or so — hanging out at one of the two on-site cafes and thanks to MS Outlook its steadily becoming a regular event. Also, there’s a new post everyday on places-to-go and things-to-do for the coming weekend (courtesy: the Interns-For-Fun Google Groups).

Wine-tasting, anyone? Or would you rather prefer claiming the bragging rights to rafting on Class V rapids? Or how about playing it safe and staying indoors for a friendly game of Poker? Or a stand-up comedy show instead? Or …

Ah well, you get the point :)

Glad to be on Chai Garam (although, I’d rather prefer it *ice* cold). Kudos to C2 for having this up and providing us souls a means of voicing our opinions/arguments/rants or simply sharing pictures.

I am still unsure on what I’d be sharing my thoughts on. Since I recently began working on the awesomely cool Web 2.0 stuff, I would surely like to write something on those lines (but I run the risk of being the resident geek and boring you guys so much that you’d really want to cross over to the other side!).

Or maybe I should use my camera more often and let my pictures do the talking :)

Its middle of April and we decided to have a beautiful white day in upstate NY when its supposed to be blooming!

All these beautiful sights were just too tempting for me to drive straight to work. So I decided to pull over on safe spots and capture some memorable shots. I saw this beautiful green church and a huge parking lot on the side. Quickly took some pictures and jumped back in the car. I check to my right to make sure no cars were coming. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I noticed a beautiful red house with the road curving in front of it, just what I wanted, so I put on the reverse gear and move the car a little.

Lets leave the car running, I won’t be gone long. Stepping outside I slide, I balance myself by holding on to the door and as I close the door I realize that I had just locked it while trying to balance. Within that moment as the door latched, I realize the keys are in the ignition! Dang! I am locked out. In this snow with my camera in hand, no camera bag, no gloves, no cap, no snow-shoes - a jacket to protect from the cold!

Luckily my phone was still with me and I keep a spare key in my desk drawer. Called Dave at work and asked him to rescue me. Good thing was, I got the shot I wanted while waiting 30min in the frigid cold and my camera survived .. well it wasn’t that cold so no frost bites either :)

Pictures in large size