Naughty or Nice???

Oh! You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town!
He's making a list, He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town!
He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!
So...You better watch out, You better not cry
You better not pout, I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

Since the day I was enrolled in KG class, this was one of the Christmas Carol that was taught to us...!!! And this was and still is one of my favorites...!!! Well.... it talks about Santa... and who doesn't love Santa? It's always gifts time and the lists that are made and put in the stockings for Santa to find.

Every year, till we stopped insisting that Santa gifts us, it was a time for reckoning, because whenever we didn't get what was in the list, it was because,we were naughty in the year and Santa was not happy with us.

So now that Christmas eve is round the corner and time for the stockings to go up on the hearth has come... do you think that Santa is gonna give you what's on ur wishlist...?? I know, that the wishlist is on the virtual world, and Santa too checks his email for special requests....

So have you been naughty or nice this year?

I have been... extremely naughty... So am not expecting Santa to come and visit me, though I would be pleasantly surprised if he does...!!

So here is wishing you all A Merry Christmas.....!!! And do temme what did Santa give you as a present....!!!

Shayon's Wish List For Christmas '07!!

Another year almost gone by, another Christmas on the fray! Santa Claus is almost set with all the gifts wrapped and stamped, just getting the elves disciplined and rehearsing this years' plans. I've been keeping myself so busy last few days that couldn't even prepare a wish list for Mr Claus. Anyways, here comes my this year's wish list for X'Mas, hoping Mr Claus would take notice with enough time in hand to get any of the following gifts for me :-P

1. The very first and foremost on the list got to be the all new XBOX 360 Elite gaming console. The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. Its Xbox Live service allows players to compete online and download arcade games and content such as game demos, trailers, TV shows, music videos, or rented movies. The Xbox 360 is the successor to the Xbox, and competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of gaming systems.
   
   The Xbox 360, commonly called the Premium or Pro, priced at US$349.99, includes a hybrid composite and component cable with optional optical out instead of a composite cable. The Xbox 360 also includes a detachable 20 GB Hard Disc Drive to store downloaded content, provide compatibility with original Xbox games, and store game data.
   
   The Xbox 360 Elite is the fourth and most expensive variation of the console. It is priced at US$445.00 and includes a 120GB hard drive and a matte black finish. The Elite retail package also includes an HDMI 1.2 cable and a controller and headset that match the system's black finish.
   
   
2. After I get the awesome gaming gizmo, how can I not then strive for Need For Speed : ProStreet which is the 11th installment of Electronic Arts' popular racing game series Need for Speed. On May 21, 2007, Electronic Arts published a teaser trailer of ProStreet, and was then officially announced ten days later on May 31, 2007. It was released worldwide in November 2007.
   
   
   
3. Just in case Mr Santa Claus refuses to get me a XBox 360 but yet, gets me the NFS ProStreet, I think I shall need a pretty good graphics card to run the same on my computer. If that remains the case, then I doubt if could ever do without NVIDIA's nForce 780i SLI MCP?
   
   Just in time for the big guy’s annual holiday sleigh ride, NVIDIA Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, today introduced the Company’s next-generation NVIDIA nForce® 780i SLI media and communications processor (MCP), designed specifically for 1333FSB Intel QX9650 (Yorkfield) processors. The new nForce 780i SLI MCP brings a multitude of new functionality to Intel platforms, including support for the new Enthusiast System Architecture specification and PCI Express Gen 2.0. It is also the first motherboard solution to support the Company’s new 3-way SLI™ technology, the industry’s preeminent multi-GPU platform solution based on NVIDIA® GeForce® graphics processing units.
   
   
   
4. After gaming consoles and graphic cards, the very next component that comes into the mind is an awe-inspiring processor and in that department, nothing can beat AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processors.
   
   In 2006, the desktop processor race once again became interesting as Intel successfully took away the performance crown from AMD. While AMD doesn't deny the lead by Intel they have broken their silence and believes that 2007 will be the year of their comeback. When AMD announced the Athlon 64 FX-62 processor back in May of 2006, little did we know that it would remain the fastest socket AM2 processor thanks to it's 2.8GHz clock speed. Nearly nine months later AMD has launched a faster socket AM2 processor called the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+. This processor is clocked at 3.0GHz and other than the increased multiplier that allows the 200MHz speed bump, it has no other changes architecturally speaking.
   
   Other than launching the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor, AMD is also bringing to market a pair of energy-efficient 45-watt AMD Athlon 64 single-core processors called the 3500+ and 3800+. The new energy-efficient AMD Athlon 64 processors 3500+ and 3800+ are based on their recent 65nm process. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ has 1MB of L2 cache per core and is still manufactured on the 90nm process, so in terms of energy efficiency and overclocking it should have the same characteristics that AMD users have become accustomed to. By remaining on the 90nm process it makes for an easy upgrade to exisiting motherboards as a BIOS upgrade is not required and th 90nm processors have lower memory latency over the new 65nm parts.
   
   
   
   
5. Next in line is the most coveted Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse. The G5 uses a laser to achieve an impressive 2,000dpi sensitivity. The G5 can be configured using Logitech’s SetPoint utility. In SetPoint you can configure five pre-set sensitivities which can be adjusted on the fly, making it simple to have different settings for different weapons during gameplay. This also makes it easy to drop down the sensitivity when you’re in Windows, saving you the frustration of barely seeing your mouse pointer as it zooms from one side of the screen to the other.
   
   The 2000dpi sensitivity of the G5 really comes into its own when you’re trying to hit a tiny target from a great distance - this is something that I also found with the MX518. With an average mouse trying to zero in on a very small target can be frustratingly difficult as you can’t move in small enough increments to get the target in your sight, but with a high sensitivity mouse like the G5, you’re aiming adjustments can be so minute, that locking onto the last bad guy from 1,000 yards becomes, if not simple, definitely achievable.
   
   
   
6. If mice are being considered, can the keyboard be far behind? As far as the mice and keyboards are concerned, I've always had a blind faith on Logitech and that's why the most logical choice for a gaming keyboard was undoubtedly Logitech's G15.
   
   The Logitech G15 is a keyboard produced by Logitech designed specifically for gamers. It includes 18 macro keys that can each have 3 macros assigned to them (making a total of 54 macros available) and a backlit monochrome LCD display (which can show helpful information from compatible applications to the user). The Screen is the only difference (other than slight structural differences to accomadate the screen) between the G15 and it's sister product the Logitech G11 keyboard. Logitech distributes an SDK for the LCD display panel on the keyboard's drivers disc which can be used to add application compatibility to the screen.
   
   In 2007 Logitech released an updated version of the G15 calling it the Logitech G15 keyboard (whereas Logitech refers to the earlier version as the Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard). This was partially due to the fact that the original design was too wide to fit in most keyboard trays and to give it a more organic look. The new version has an orange scheme as opposed to the blue scheme of the original, 6 G keys each with 3 different states making a total of 18 macros available. The screen is also built directly into the keyboard, as opposed to the earlier version where the LCD is on a hinge. Due to the change of LCD design, the media keys have also been redesigned and placed either side of the screen, and the volume controls have been changed to +/- buttons as opposed to a wheel. Finally, the new revised G15 has been named "G15 Refresh", to differentiate between the two editions.
   
   
   
   
7. Last, but never the least, I'd request Mr Claus to consider IOmega's 1GB external hard drive just so that I can store and tug along all those games and movies that I'll play.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Merry Christmas!!

Good Ol' Orkut Has Changed

It was high time that Google had considered me too to be worthy enough for being bestowed with the latest look of Orkut. I have been hearing about the change in their popular social networking site Orkut's layout on The official Orkut blog , Google Blogoscoped and various other news sites for the last 4 days. Even here in my college, quite a few students have been blessed with the new design, but not me. Although Orkut's blog had said "We're rolling it out to groups of users at a time over the next week", it was getting tough for me to keep patience. Well, finally I too get to use the latest layout from today and I thought, why not check out every nook and cranny of the new layout and find out how much our good ol' Orkut has actually changed.

Changes in Orkut (that I could figure out):

• Added a few lovely round corners here and there.
• The tabbed links actually look and feel like tabs now.
• The special first character for your name is missing now.
• It looks like a complete package now. No more a social network under the development phase, if you know what I mean.
• They have now added breadcrumb-like navigation for communities.
• A very useful navigation bar added at the top (reminds me of free blogs on Blogspot, though).
• Options like "send message", "send teaser", "add to crush list" etc have been removed from the main profile page. Rather, they can now be view by pointing your mouse on the "more" link below the profile pic. This is for others' profile page, not your main homepage.
  Update: However, I feel the "Report Abuse" link should not have been hidden. It should rather be prominently visible to the users.
  
• The way "trusty", "cool" and "sexy" meters have been incorporated looks much better now.
• "Edit Profile" page looks much cooler.
• The fact that you can now crop your profile picture after uploading just rocks!
• Update: Thankfully they have done away with the line "You are connected to xxxx users via xxxx friends" from the main page. It was an useless piece of information, anyway.
• Update: You can now know about every change that your friends make, right on your homepage.
  

Changes in Orkut that would have been desired:

• Akin to the Orkut extension for FireFox, I would have preferred if I could have direct access to a profile's scrapbook, album or communities or send message to him/her just from a profile's picture or name.
• I wish instead of just "scrap tips", there would actually be a rich text editor for scraps and messages to be able to modify fonts, add pictures or insert smilies.
  Update: Or, how about keyboard shortcuts? Say, Ctrl+B for bold and Ctrl+I for italicized text.
  
• I would've preferred to be given an option to write in Indian languages.
• After you reply to someone's scraps using the "reply" button just below that profile's scrap, you can't refresh your scrapbook without sending the same scrap again to that profile. It's so irritating while trying to chat with a friend that I just end up scrapping on my friend's scrapbook itself, the old way.
• I hate the fact that you can send a message to either one person, a group or all friends at the same time. What if I want to send a message to my classmate, my girlfriend and my brother? How do I group them then? I would rather have the option of tagging people and then message them according to tags or I should be allowed to manually select profiles from my friends list, the way my email client allows me to select addresses from my address book.
• It's time for Orkut to shed the Beta tag.
• Update: Just as, in GMail, we get a notification and request to "update conversation" the moment we get an email concerning the same conversation that I am currently reading, I'd love it if I could get a similar notification asking me to "update scrapbook" the moment I get a scrap from a contact. That ways I don't have to keep a track on my GMail inbox or Google Talk to know whether someone has scrapped me.
  

My perception of the latest change:
On the whole, Orkut definitely looks much better than how it was before. Yet, as I've already pointed out, there are still more scopes for improvement. Allowing user post videos and html on scrapbook was a huge step Orkut had taken. Somehow, the very first time I looked at the new design, it suddenly reminded me of Windows Live Mail and Hi5.

Anyways, I guess we just got to change to survive. Darwin's theory always stands true, be it a living being or be it a website. I have pointed out as much changes and wanted features as I could. But that doesn't mean you aren't welcome to add to the list ;-).

Happy Orkutting!!

Yahoo Gets You Texting, Out Of Beta Now!

The news is out. Yahoo Mail is said to come out of Beta on Monday (Pacific Daylight Time). After shifting to Beta about 2 years ago, Yahoo has incorporated a lot of changes in it's email service. Keeping in tune with GMail and Windows Live Mail, Yahoo had been forced to up the bar for its competitors. After announcing unlimited quota for it's email users, Yahoo Mail had also incorporated chat feature from within the mail window, courtesy Google Chat, and had also improved the performance of Yahoo Mail Beta a lot.

So, we know all about it. What's the news, buddy?
News? News is Yahoo has upped the ante again. Just like Yahoo Messenger, you can now even send text messages to mobile phones in USA, India, Canada & Philippines using Yahoo Mail. Although I'm sure rest of the world won't be kept waiting for long, the very fact that India has been included in the very first list is a pleasant surprise indeed! Well, whether it's free to send unlimited SMSes to the same number or whether you need to get at least one reply from that number after you've texted thrice (same as yahoo messenger) is unknown, yet.

So, what do you say? Wanna start texting your buddies?

Hooray! Increased Feed Subscribers on Labyrinth!!

(Click to enlarge)

Wow! It seems all my hard work is finally paying off. I can't believe sprucing up my blog page would fetch me so many subscribers, and that too overnight. It was just yesterday that I had installed the menu bar at the top, gotten the links work fine and even asked George to help me out with the header.

The picture above is a summary of my feed subscribers for today, as charted by FeedBurner, my RSS feed management service. Even until yesterday, the maximum subscribers I'd ever had was 16. I was pleasantly shocked to find that it has increased to 27, today. As is pretty apparent in the above report for today's activities on my page, I've gotten the highest subscriber today, in the past 30 days. I can see I have 80% new visitors on my page and people have actually started to reach my page searching for terms like "sort my inbox", "mozilla" and "problogger" (that was a shocker, especially because the site itself gets a huge turnout as compared to mine, where it's mention only in my blogroll.

Well, what can I say? I love Google and I love FeedBurner (which incidentally is again a Google service, now). I'm now just keeping my fingers crossed while anticipating the reaction from all you readers, after I get the revamped look of my blog, live!

2K3 Mini ReUnion

Remember the last time I posted about the awesome week I had with Karma, Raj, Dino & Rathz on our mini reunion? Well, the pics are finally here and Dino has got them up on our blog TWM :: Online. Do check them out. Some of them have come out real beautiful.

An Awesome Break

Oh, I had almost forgotten to mention this. Just in case you were wondering how come there's not a single post for almost 10 days, after this one, it's just that a few of my very close buddies, namely Karma, Dion, Atri & Rathz, had been in town for a week. Had loadsa fun, between us and a few juniors too. If you wanna know about those 7-8 days, check out this post by Rathz.

Special: I had cooked chicken for about 8 guys. They say they loved it! ;-)

Climbing Up The Search Engine Ladder

Wow! Since the time I have been consciously trying to improve the PageRank of my page, this web page has climbed up quite a bit. I was just searching for my name (Shayon) on Google & Yahoo and, I must admit, I was impressed to check out the results. Not so long ago, I had to go to at least the next page to find my blog listed in the results and now, it' secures the 2nd place on Google and 3rd on Yahoo! I guess I shall have to be some more famous and stay online for a few years more to overtake Mr. Robert Lewis Shayon (top result on Google), who writes for Waymark Press :-p. And of course, I am surely gonna buy shayon.com (result #2 on Yahoo) one day, although $60 is a little too steep, I must say.

Oh boy! Ego surfing does make you feel happy!! ;-)

2 Years Of Narcissism

Yippie!!! I just can't believe it. I was just talking to Karma when it suddenly dawned on me that my beloved page just turned 2 today! What a journey...right from Rediff to Blogger, through Yahoo 360. What an euphoric feeling it gives! It was a lovely journey, I must say!!!

Updates & More Updates

Well, loads of Updates pending! Got the Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, yesterday. Finally back in college now. Had loadsa fun in Kolkata, this time. Still gotta write about my night stay in Howrah station. Then I'll be off with a review of the book. Yes, I'm gonna post the spoilers here! Oh by the way, I already have the ebook version of the latest Potter series. I've already mailed it to quite a few friends of mine who, I know, shall be interested. If you too want a copy, kindly leave your email address in the comments section. As for the rest, as I've already said, loads of updates are due, now. Hope i get to be more regular at the college Computer Center.

Ciao!!

Vacationing In Kolkata

Yeah, I'm in Kolkata right now, on an extended vacation. I was supposed to reach here on the 19th of this month, by 10pm but actually reached the next day, 12 in the morning! Would you believe it? I was waiting in Howrah station itself, for the next 4 hours, all alone, just so that I could catch the first bus next morning to Belghoria, that's where my maternal uncle lives! Loads of experiences in the station. Can't write about it just now, 'coz I'm posting from a cyber. I'll be back to college by the 24th. Shall post a full account then. Till then, sayonara! Have fun and enjoy!!

A Li'l Bit of Mumbai Darshan...

Okay, before you start checking out the pictures, let me warn you. The camera (in my phone) that I've used to snap the following pics is just another simple VGA camera and I realised it only now that although it gives me decent pics in the daylight, the pics are horrible when clicked at night. I guess I should've switched the night mode on, but I didn't realise that it'd be necessary. Hope i get similar quality of pics in the night time too, in future.

Well, I've been catching up with friends for the past 3 days and had been going to a few places too. It just so happened that I'd been to Vashi Railway station, yesterday, and it's supposed to be one of the best looking local railway station in Mumbai. And then I'd been to the legendary Marine Drive, today, and got wet in he rains. You won't realise how much fun it was, unless you experience it yourself! While being a part of all that, I did felt like clicking a few pics on occassions when I found the seeting pretty beautiful. Hope you like the journey.

That's Marine Drive for you, when it was raining cats & dogs!

And that's Marine Drive again, to my Left.

The old Taj, of Mumbai (Yeah, Mumbai has 2 Taj :-p)

Taj again, just in a different angle.

Gateway of India, from the place where we were standing.

A closer view of the same.

My companions of the day, Vijay & Pallavi, great buddies!

It's called Flora Fountain, a very famous landmark in Fort.

The rest of the pics are all of Vashi Railway Station. After actually checking out the pics on the comp, I was so upset. I wish Inew this was how the pics are gonna come. I'm sure I'd have gotten the night mode switched on, then. Could't do absolutely no justice to this beautiful station. Anyways, still put up a few, hoping you could find the essence of the station.

NOKIA, Photobucket & The Wall Mag!

So, can u see the picture of a pretty NOKIA handset at the top? Well, I happen to be a proud owner of one of them :-P. The reason ain't all that romantic, though. My previous phone, the NOKIA 1108, had been flicked by some unfortunate bloke off my pocket, while I was travelling in a inhumanely congested train, from Kanjur Marg (that's where my office is) to Dadar. At the first, I was definitely very very pissed off. But then, u hardly have anything you can do, in these situations, have you? Hehe, "unfortunate bloke", 'coz my sim was blocked with pin code and the phone was locked with security code. He can't even insert a new sim in it 'coz in that case he shall have to insert the security code! :-P Anyways, wot had gotten me pissed off the most was the fact that I lost all my fucking contacts and messages. Over 250 of my contacts got washed off in a jiffy. Hope people do respond to my mails fast and send me their contact numbers.

Oh, did you hear that Yahoo! Photos is shutting down? The moment I heard that (about a month ago), I've been wondering how to save the hundreds of pics I have storred in there, in the past 3 years. Although Yahoo! has given options to export your pictures to a lot of other photo hosting websites, it was getting tough for me to choose between Flickr, Photobucket and Shutterfly. After some research, I realised Photobucket was the one for me. I just started the export of my pictures from Yahoo! Photos onto Photobucket, right before I started writing this post. They say it's gonna take them about 72 hrs, that's 3 days. Hope it's a satisfying service!

While I was in college, staying in Hostel 'E', the topfloor boarders of the same had formed a community called "TopFloorers" which consisted most of the top floorers and a few regulars from other floors and hostels too. My dear friend Rathin suddenly, out of the blue, thought up of creating a "Wall Magazine" where bits and pieces could be shared by us all, and hence "The Wall Mag"was born. It gives me immense pride to inform that I happen to be a co-admin of that blog page. It's a novel idea that Rathz has started, hope the tradition of the TopFloorers continues.

Amen!

Wow...it certainly feels good!

I just cudn't stop myself from writing about it. Nothing much, it's just that, for the first time in my life, I got asked for a visitor's card of my own! Wow...it feels good to be working...although it's true that, at times, all the pressure just squeezes the juice outta you..hehe!! :-P

Hello! Namaskaar!! Vanakkam!!!

Hmm...I see my absence from the blogging world has created quite a stir, eh? Well, being a regular reader of this page, I'm sure you'd understand how much I need to struggle to even be online from college. First n foremost, the incessant power cuts. And then to top it, there's slow connection speed. It becomes quite a herculean task to keep my page updated. Ask my girlfriend, the co-contributor of this page, and she'll tell you how much she needs to nag me to write her a single mail, even if it is once in every 3 months!! I know it's shameful...but then, that's how life's been with me, I guess!!

Anyways, enough of preamble. I guess it's high time I get you all filled up on how the past month has been, in my life. Seriously, I still sometimes wonder that why would someone ever wish to know about my life. But then I feel, what the heck, I've always been writing about myself out here. This very page is all about me. And yet, I do receive a few comments. I'm sure someone out there would always wish to know a li'l about me. This very thought always keeps me writing. :-P

February 23rd - 28th, 2007 had been exam time for me. It was my mid-semesters for the 6th sem. I ain't sure how I'm gonna fare, but just hope that it won't be too bad a news when the results get declared :-P.

And now, comes the best part of it! March 4th, 2007 was Holi, this year. It was just by sheer chance that I had the opportunity to have a li'l telephonic conversation with Priyam, Sakshi's best friend. It was her who got me all worked up to visit Delhi on Holi, so that I could spend a li'l time with Sakshi. It'd, anyways, been months since I'd last met her. Within a day, things got all finalised and I was all raring to go. I left Jamshedpur on March 2nd, 2007, by Purushottam Express and I was in New Delhi by next morning, about 7 a.m. We met up, had a good time & then I was back to Jamshedpur by the 5th. Here is where I am posting a few pics from my journey. By the way, sorry for eating into your bandwidth. I did wanted to put up a Flickr Badge onto my page, but somehow, after I shifted to the new Blogger, it simply refuses to work, dunno why. I did try to check out the forums, but all in vain. Hope you do bear with me.

That's Anshuman (left) & 2 juniors, before boarding Pushottam, around 6 a.m.

That's the couple for you, Sakshi & Shayon.

That was the hotel room where I spent my night.

Just a top view of New Delhi Station

That's mah buddy, Mehul, applying transparent nail polish,
while getting ready to play Holi ;-)

That's Me n Mehul, after we played Holi at Priyam's place.

Me n Sakshi. So, how do we look together?? ;-)

This one's cute....me with Arushi, Sakshi's sis.

Me, Sakshi, Arushi & Priyam, the host of the party on Holi

These were the number of sticks I fagged while I was in my hotel room :-P

Now this was my prize pic - T.T. collecting money for
alloting a berth to the guy in red shirt ;-)

I found this one too daring....sleeping quite peacefully on the connectors
of two coaches! What do you think?
Do they give a concession for this kinda berth?

Uhh...just two of my co-passengers!! ;-)

I wish Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav read my blogs. Then I could've asked
him how he thinks one might use the flush!!

Now this is the ultimate example of an Indian woman.
What a dedicated wife she is, doncha think so? ;-)

Well, that is all from the whole journey from Jamshedpur to Delhi & back. Even after I was back at college, life's been pretty much on a roll! ;-) Had been playing DotA all day long with Arun & Suman (buddies in college), even went out to play other clans, watched loads of movies & clicked quite a few pics. Here come some more of them!!

This one's my fav, though it's quite a familiar scene, isn't it?

That's me having food in one of the bastis within our college campus. Actually, it'd been too late when I realised I won't get any more food in the mess but was too hungry :-P

Arun Dhar & Me, sleeping in the same bed, on one of several nights ;-)

Suman Samanta, Abhishek Karmakar & Chiranjit Ghosh (l - r)
in Regent, one of only two 3 star hotels in Jamshedpur!!

That's Dhar, trying to drive an auto ;-)

Tired me & Suman, the philosopher

This was taken by Dhar, all unwarranted, while I was having a good, relaxed smoke in Dipayan's room, during one of innumerable power cuts!!

That is it for now. Anyways, I think this post has become quite a collage now. I hope I'm forgiven, now, for not being able to write anything for over a month now. Oh, by the way, we have our college Cultural Fest (Utkarsh) & Technical Fest (Pravaah) coming up in a week. It's gonna be a huge affair, trust me. If you think you can make it to Jamshedpur, Do lemme know. I'll get all the arrangements done. As for the websites, I'll get them posted as soon as I can manage.

So long for now! It's become a huge post, now. I'd like to sign off. It's past 4:30 in the morning, now & I'm certainly pretty sleepy. Hope to write again, soon. Till then, Sayonara!!!