Can I have her?

Kids.. They are so adorable..


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Read the full story here: http://vimeo.com/2113477

Pick from my youtube playlist, part 1

My general observation:
Hi speed internet connection + free time = you are a youtube junkie.

Yes, its absolutely true. Even if you don't directly go to youtube, all the blogs, news sites are loaded with youtube video links. And once you are there, you are bound to check whats new. As the videos plays instantly and you go on.. click.. click.. related videos.. and yes, by that time 20 minutes is gone. I am not saying its totally worthless. Sometimes you really find something really good, something really meaningful. Most of the times if I come across these videos, I say to myself "I should have made this". Ok folks, long story short. Here are few of my youtube picks.

An animation film that won Golden Palm in Cannes 1973. Directed by Fyodor Khitruk.


Can we kiss? A short film by french director Pierre Oliver.


An Indian awareness ad. Though I don't understand hindi properly, but the message here is clear as daylight.

10 Open Source Desktop Softwares I Use Everyday On My Windows Machine

I am a big fan of open source and free softwares. Here is the list of open source desktop software I use every single day on my windows machine.

Google Chrome

Free Download Manager

uTorrent

Notepad++

Console

7zip

Mozilla Firefox

VLC Media player

OpenOffice

Cygwin

xkcd comic derivative.

One of my favorite xkcd comic is this one.
http://xkcd.com/149



Few days back our product manager made this:


Inspired by that I made one more:
for the phd students:

Trainspotting: A movie with great soundtrack

Few days back I had a small debate with my teammates on which movie has the best soundtrack. My teammate George said one of the top three has to be Trainspotting. I never heard of this name before. Being a movie buff, I had to watch this movie. And George was right, the movie might not be great but the soundtrack is awesome. It might not be the within top three but definitely in top 10. I googled for the list of best soundtrack movies. And crap! there are lots of movies in the list I haven't watched yet.

This one is my favorite in the movie: Underworld - Bornslippy


If you are more interested you can visit these sites:
http://www.filmsite.org/100soundtracks.html
http://bestuff.com/category/movie-soundtrack

if you want to kill more time :D, here is a good way to do so:
YouTube

Fuzzy System Restore

This is a really big problem. System restore(SR) seems to eat up a lot of disk space. I don't want to turn this feature off. It helped me recover from few crashes earlier, but I don't want to waste that much space also. I will give you an idea how much space it took. My disk is 232 GB with 8% set to SR. My data is about 59GB. It turns out that despite of limiting the SR to 8% (roughly 18GB) it took up 55GB of my hard disk. What the hell, this is pure junk. Over time SR should delete the older restore points, I mean it should never exceed its cap limit.

I need to find out whats going on.

[Update]
Ended up reading the following articles after a quick googling on system restore.

1. zdnet blog: A smarter way to manage System Restore space on Vista
2. Lifehacker article: Vista Tip - Reduce System Restore disk usage
3. MS Help and Support: Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
4. MS Help and Support: How to Automate the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP

Related Articles:

5. MS Help and Support: The Registry Keys and Values for the System Restore Utility
6. MS Technet: Windows XP System Restore from microsoft technet
7. MS Help and Support: How the System Restore Tool Handles Hard-Disk Space Usage
8. MS Help and Support: Windows XP System Restore Is Easy to Use

So it turns out that you can automatically clean up system restore files (read 3 & 4) or even do it manually. I suggest not to switch on/off SR to delete old restore points. Instead clean up the old system restore points from diskcleanup 'more options'.

My Good Old web portal.. :D

I almost forgot about this site. This was my personal website 4 years ago. Then I just learned few tricks about html, css and other stuff. I am surprized that the hosting company has not deleted it yet.

This is where you can see the old site. http://arif-pasha.netfirms.com/

Just remember it was almost 4 years back. enjoy!

Regualr Expression Quick Reference Guide

Here are some handy files I found over net on regular expression matching.

[download] RE quick ref guide
[download] RE Cheat Sheet


This website is for the javascript coders:
http://www.visibone.com/regular-expressions/

One minute cheer up..

Sad? Frustrated? Just watch this video. I bet you will be thanking me.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

A very well compilation of all the events mentioned in the song. Just awesome.
[wiki about this song]
[lyrics]

My room..

I have shifted to a new house. So far I am liking it. Haven't bought a lot of furniture though. Only a bed, a table and a chair. For now this is sufficient I think. Life has been hectic for the past few months. I was doing lots of random things. And it hampered my work and day to day life. Now I am quite settled and hope can focus on my work.

Some pictures of the room:

No more social networking

Yesterday I have taken a big decision. I will no longer spend time in social networking. So I deactivated my facebook account. Opted out from all mail notifications from friendfeed, orkut, linkedin, twitter. There is so specific reason to do this. But I felt like "OMG.. I am spending so much time in just browsing those sites. It cant go on like this". After some time if I feel the urge to come back then I will re-activate those. But right now, full stop. Its like hiding inside a cave. I dont want to see the sunlight anymore.

Whoever wants to reach me, contact me through mail or phone.

bye

Arif

Life in Mountain View, California

Hi all, I am here again after a short break.

I have moved to mountain view on last 24th august. So far things turned out good. Currently I am staying at the corporate guest house. Still looking for a place to live. Last saturday we saw some apartments. Next week also I will look for some more apartments. Hopefully by then I will find something.

cheers

Last day at Bangalore

Today I am leaving Bangalore. My next destination is Dhaka. Later I will fly for Mountain View, California. If all things goes well then I will be flying to USA on 15/16th of this Month. I still don't know what will happen with the visa process. But looks like all the processing has been done and the embassy guys asked for the passport for further processing. They said they will take at most 1 week to do that. I am going to submit my passport there on next Sunday. So if everything is ok then I should get the visa by 10.

Right now I am waiting at the Bangalore airport. My flight is as usual delayed. Waiting at the airport is one of the most boring job in my opinion. Nothing to do. But today I am not feeling that bored, as Bangalore airport has free wireless internet access.

I have been staying here in bangalore starting from march, 2007. Its almost been one and half years here. I don't know about others, but I feel really sad when I have to leave any place. When you stay at one place for long time, It becomes a part of you. Leaving that place is like you are leaving one part of you. Its so hard to describe. I feel really sad. All the good memories, friends, my roomies.. I don't know when I will see them again. I hope that is not forever. Every time I have to say goodbye to any of my friends, it breaks my heart. I never lived in any place where I was alone. I thank God that I am always been blessed with wonderful friends.

I don't know what is waiting for me in USA. A little bit scared too. New culture, new locality, new friends. Hope everything will turn out good.

How I spent this week..

Another week pass by. I was just thinking what are the things I have done so far in this week. I can't remember all the things I did, but few I can summarize.
1. Movie Watched: The Dark Night, Kung-fu Panda, Wall*E
2. Watched several episodes of How I Met Your Mother
3. Gone for trekking
4. Got the basic ideas of origami creation. I can do the crane, duck, lily & rose.
5. Did shopping for myself & my brother in law
6. Cooked for myself twice
7. Went to gym for 2 days only (punted the other days)
8. Spent 4 hours in Self Defense Session (Yes its all about unagi)

Thats it. Nothing else is done.

Skandagiri Trekking

Yesterday we went for trekking in Skandagiri hills. It was our official monsoon offsite. Almost 30 people was there. Actually we were heading to Savanadurga hills but due to heavy traffic we decided to go here. I was pretty much happy about this. I trekked in skandagiri earlier and was looking for another chance since then. The journey was a little bit boring because of heavy traffic. Other than that the whole day was simply awesome. Everything was perfect for the trekking. The weather was terrific.. it was windy & cloudy. The view was really stunning from the top. I tried to capture it with my camera. Best of all when we were almost down, it started raining. It was simply awesome. We played soccer at the downhills in the muddy & watery field. We were so drenched into water that our driver said he wont take us in his bus. Today I feel like every muscle of my whole lower body is aching. But this ache is nothing compared to the joy we achieved yesterday.

Few photos:

My Origami Creations

I tried to create few origami things.. like duck, lily, crane. I wanted to learn the tricks when i saw the serial prison break. Creating this kind of stuff is not hard but also not trivial. But its always fun. So far I managed to create duck, crane, lily and few airplanes. Right now I am trying to learn how to create origami rose. This one seems a little bit trickier and harder also. I haven't taken any picture of all those things I have done so far. Mainly because all those things I tried on normal papers. When I create them on colorful papers I am going to take some pictures and upload them.

Batman: The Dark Knight

Yesterday we watched the new batman movie. It was on my the hot list for several reasons. First of all for Heath Ledger and Cristian Bale. All my friends who have seen the movie earlier, their reaction was like, "Gooo-ooh-ood". I did not like the earlier Batman movies that much. 'Batman Begins' was ok, but not something extra-ordinary. After watching this one, I have to say, this is something extra-ordinary. Ledger was top of the class, and Bale was perfect fit for the batman. But all i can think is Ledger is gone. Its hard to get the fact the guy is dead. I liked him when I saw the movie 'Ten Things I Hate About You'. He was not that kind of actor who only has a pretty face.

Today I had the chance to read the reviews at rottentomato.com. Its absolutely amazing. It also turns out the long lasting number 1 in imdb is no longer 'Godfather', the place is claimed by this movie. Maybe its because for the hype/softness for the late actor. Lets see for how long it can hold the first place. All the top newspapers also had similar kind of review. They also stated that Ledger might get the academy award for his role as the joker.

Dripping Experience in Bangalore

Today me and quazi both went for shopping. Actually its not shopping, better would be if I say, roaming around in the shopping malls and if any shop on sale, then have a look on those shops. We do it on almost every weekends. But the experience of today was a little bit different. It was raining. First it was drizzling. So we got stuck in the mall. Decided we will move as soon as it stops raining. But to our utter disappointment the rain just got better. Thought what the hell, its not going to stop anyway, lets go out. I have done this a lot of times in dhaka, but never in bangalore. It was good. And just got better when we had hot coffee at the barista. Long live rainy days, long live hot coffees.

Trimmed my hair

Two weeks back I trimmed my hair. Although I actually wanted to shave it, then settled in trimming. Everyone who knows me, knows this fact that I don't give a damn about how I look. So I don't want to describe how I look after that. Later sometime I may upload few photos. The facts I discovered, Trimming is actually better. You don't have to comb your hair (I never do it anyway). You don't have to shampoo that frequently. If you have hair falling problem just like me, then this helps a lot. Only problem is it doesn't feel scratching as it felt earlier. And you can't grasp your hair when you are thinking too much (or pretending to think deeply when you are feeling awkward).

Few pictures:

Awesome video

Watch this video.. just splendid work..

Thoughts on 24/7 News Channels

Recently I observed something that really annoyed me. Every single news channel, at least in India never shows any good news. Its like every thing happening in the world in bad, something horrible or all weird news only. I asked some of my colleagues about this. Almost all of them said that they also noticed this. Some of them argued its for the best of us. People are getting more conscious. They are taking more protective measure. I just wonder how this will impact the day to day life of a normal healthy kid, to whom this world is just a heaven. Aren't we turning this to a hell to them?

My point is, besides all those horrifying news or events, there are lot more things happening in this world, really beautiful. Please, highlight them also. Surely those will cheer up all of us. Please do this for the kids. Don't make their world into a nightmare. Let it be as beautiful as it is now.

Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts for visual studio. This is quite useful..

[Download]=>Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts.pdf

In the Jungle song

Remember the song from 'Friends' where Marcel used to listen...

Awesome Guitar plays...

Came across some awe guitar plays on youtube. I bet you will like each one of them.

This is Hilarious!!

Came across this from Niniane's blog.


Differences Between Men and Women

International Mother Language Day, 2008

Today is Martyrs day. Every year all Bangladeshi's commemorates this 21st February.

History of that day

On that day of 21 February 1952, corresponding to 8 Falgun 1359 in the Bangla calendar, a number of students campaigning for the recognition of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan were killed when police fired upon them.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah(the Governor general of Pakistan) declared that the Urdu will be the only language for both west and east Pakistan at a public meeting on 1948, 21 March. The people of the East Pakistan (now Bangladesh, whose main language is Bengali) started to protest against this.

A student meeting on 21 February called for a province-wide strike. But the government invoked Section 144 on 20 February. The student community at a meeting on the morning of 21 February agreed to continue with their protest but not to break the law of Section 144. Even then the police opened fire and killed the student.

[source:WikiPedia]
[imageSource:http://meenar71.tripod.com/]

My Salute to all the Martyrs. May their souls rest in peace.

Wonderful Movie, No Country for Old Men

Yesterday night i watched the movie 'No Country for Old Men'. You can watch the trailer here. Its a wonderful movie. No wonder why this is nominated for the upcoming 80th academy awards. [Movie reviews @ RottenTomatoes.com].

[Update] This movie won the oscar for best picture.