What's going on...?? !!!

Van Roy's Law: An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.

Exams!!! Exams all around the corner... Am jus being a little busy these days coz of the EXAMS..

Hopefully, everything will be right on track by May 5th!

Have a happy weekend! :-)

Find the positive in negatives

Here's something which I found interesting while browsing through one of the forwarded emails:

Selective Gravity Law: An object will fall so as to do the most damage.

This is nice - finding positive out of every negative - which we don't always manage to do. I am thankful...

1. For the husband who snores all night, because he is at home asleep with me and not with someone else.

2. For my teenage daughter who is complaining about doing dishes, because that means she is at home & not on the streets.

3. For the taxes that I pay because it means that I am employed.

4. For the mess to clean after a party because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.

5. For the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.

6. For my shadow that watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine.

7. For a floor that needs mopping, and windows that need cleaning because it means I have a home.

8. For all the complaining I hear about the government because it means that we have freedom of speech.

9. For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.

10. For the noise I have to bear from my neighbours because it means that I can hear.

11. For the pile of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear.

12. For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been capable of working hard.

13. For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I am stilll alive.

AND FINALLY ....... for receiving personal and meaningful forwarded e-mails because it means I have friends who are thinking of me. And yeah my mail server is also working.

Hope you enjoyed this post as I did while reading the email :-)

Have a great week ahead!

Answer for the puzzle

Hola Bloggers!!

The N-1 Law: If you need four screws for the job, the first three are easy to find.

Morning, I came up with a hilarious idea of puzzling the visitors and guess what! It actually did. I had very few comments on the puzzle. But I guess that's okay to start with.

Well, the most deceptive answer one could get is 80. The right answer turns out to be 31. Here's how (the way I got the answer):

Assume the shop has "X" no. of breads in it.

The puzzle says the first guy eats half of the total and 1/2 of a bread that means:

He eats X/2 + 0.5 breads. Remaining no. of breads is X - (X/2 + 0.5) = (X - 1)/2 (or) X/2 - 0.5

Similarly remaining no. of breads after the second guy gratifies his wishes:
(to simplify the calculation assume (X - 1)/2 as X in the previous step and proceed)

(X - 1)/4 - 0.5 = (X - 1 - 2)/4

I guess one would be able to find out the sequence involved now... Remaining no. of breads after everyone finishes eating:

(X - 1 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 16)/32 = 0. ==> X = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 = 31.

So, the second law of blissful ignorance turned out to be right - ain't it?

What's next? Want more puzzles? Pour in your feelings as comments... ;-)

Adios

Puzzle of the week

Second Law of Blissful Ignorance: Inside every small problem is a large problem struggling to get out.

Here is the puzzle of the week:

There are 5 burglars and once they went to a bakery to rob it (obviously). The first guy ate 1/2 of the total bread and 1/2 of a bread. The second guy ate 1/2 of the remaining and 1/2 of a bread. The third guy, fourth guy and fifth guy did the same. After fifth guy there is no bread left out. Can you tell how many bread were there?

Solutions to this puzzle can be posted as comments. Try for the most optimal solution. I'll also need to try out...

Hope to see an active participation for this... :-)

A day for my computer... (Part 2 of 2)

First Law of Blissful Ignorance: What you don't know will always hurt you.

Now, I was prepared. I did not want to switch ON my computer to test it again because a problem in SMPS could directly lead to drastic voltage fluctuations in the power supply to the system's main board as well as to the hard disk and other drives. So, I unplugged all the pheripherals that were connected to the CPU cabinet and took it to Richie Street as I was sure I could find a suitable solution for this problem there!

I asked the shop keeper for a AT form factor SMPS. He said it was not available and it was out dated. Just then I remembered reading in my motherboard manual that it is capable of supporting both AT as well as ATX. So thought I could directly go in for ATX SMPS. Then here comes a problem: The cabinet that I was using then had the push button type power switch which is not compatible with a ATX form factor SMPS. Instead of worrying about other issues, I purchased a new Zebronics cabinet itself with two exhaust fans located at the side and a 400 Watt ATX SMPS. The whole thing was transferred from the old cabinet to the new one.

During this transfer, I had to face up with a hell lot of problems which I've listed down below:

1. The cabinet did not have a provision to support a PS/1 slot which was hard fixed to the motherboard. - Resolution: a hole was made in a blank sheet metal and was screwed to the cabinet at the required position.

2. One of my two USB ports was dead. Hopefully the new cabinet had support for USB port at the front side. So I connected one to this and other one was connected to the back slot.

3. There wasn't enough space to do the wiring. Resolution: Optimal wiring.. managed to overcome this problem :-)

4. When all things were setup and the computer was booted - System RAM was reported as 128 MB. (What happened to the rest half of the RAM :-S)?? Resolution: Cleaned the RAM strips's contact with moisturising solution - did not serve the purpose, instead...

5. Computer monitor became garbled???? Resolution: Cleaned the RAM slot's contact with salt paper.

6. The SMPS fan was not running. Resolution: Oh.. it needed some motivation since it was all new for this place. I hit started it with a screw driver and it started to spin. After that, it started by itself as and when the computer was switched ON.

Well.. That's all. The whole thing forced me to spend 1500 bucks (Rs. 1250/- for the cabinet and Rs. 250/- for service) out of my pocket! :-(

I'm home now and everything seems to be running fine.. I gave some stress tests to my PC. It withstood them. Let's see how the new equipment performs..

The day turned out to be a special day for my computer! It has got a new shelter (the outer cabinet shell). For me, I went in to a state of acute trauma as Murphy's Law was over powered for the rest of day's time. Yet, I came across a lot of things that eventually happened to upgrade my knowledge on ATX form factor based computer systems.

A day for my computer... (Part 1 of 2)

Harvard Law: Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.

I woke up late in the morning and I was surprised to see my computer switched off. Actually, mine is a AT form factor SMPS and hence the computer's power switch is push button type. So, I was about to switch on my PC. And again to my surprise, the button was still in the pushed (ON) state. Thought that it could be due to a power failure during the night which I might have been unaware of.

So I hard booted my PC and everything was working fine. I began with my usual work of checking mails, browsing for torrents and reading reviews. Time started to roll... - untill it was about 2:35 PM. I heard a crackling noise from my Sony 48X CD ROM drive and the PC turned off by itself. Still I felt the problem was only with the drive and not with my computer as the drive was already in a faulty state. So, I opened the cabinet, unplugged the drive, took it out and replaced it with a blank drive slot. I hard booted my PC again. Then I happened to see an error in the BIOS screen which I haven't seen ever in my PC. A "BIOS Checksum Error" and it contained a message that the Fail-Safe defaults have been loaded into the BIOS. As I could barely imagine, all the settings in my BIOS have been modified and set to the default values.

I changed the settings, saved it and rebooted the PC. After Windows loaded, I straight away opened the browser and searched for "BIOS Checksum Error". Now, I've found out what the problem was.. It was with the CMOS battery - it has gone very weak.

Symptoms:

1. Frequent BIOS checksum error

2. System Date and Time - either gets reset when computer is booted or doesn't roll when computer is switched off.

So I went to the nearest hardware pheripheral shop and bought the CMOS Battery - Maxell CR 2032 which costed Rs. 10/-. I replaced the battery in my motherboard and everything was working fine after that.

I browsed the internet and found some interesting torrents which I thought could be shared and started to download them. Again I heard a crackling noise. This time I was sure that the noise was not from the CD drive. I analysed where it came from... - the noise was produced due to some spark which was generated in the SMPS. And again there went off, the power of my computer! This time I was shocked!

Mumbai Express - Catch it before it's off the platform

Basic Law of Exams: "The more studying you did for the exam, the less sure you are as to which answer they want. "

The affinity Kamal Hassan has for comedy is amazing and needs no foreword. Mumbai Express is no exception for his expertise in the territory of amusing plays. But Mumbai Express in general sense is quite different from what you would've seen in his CrAzY MoHaN accompanied movies like Panchatantiram and recent block buster, Vasool Raja. To make a convincing classifcation, we need to have a better outlook on Mumbai Express.

Mumbai Express, the movie storied and screenplayed by Kamal Hassan and directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao begins with a terrific scenary of Mumbai. The scenary portrays a valley and you could easily recognize the character "V" on the movie screen. To the either side of this, you can feel the city houses built up and being exhibited. It makes up the rest of "M".

Chidambaram (Pasupathy) and Johnson (Vyapuri) concocts a totally hilarious and absurd plan of kidnapping a school kid for ransom. As the third member of the gang falls sick, his brother-in-law Avinashi (Kamal Haasan) a.k.a Mumbai Express is forced to join the team by the sentiments and stories made up by Avinashi's elder sister (Kovai Sarala). In the movie, Kamal Haasan plays the role of a biker living a mediocre life by doing circus shows on his bike named after his own name (Mumbai Express). In the mean course of time, an insurance agent (Ramesh Aravind) enters the gang and exhibits his role as the "Financial Advisor" for the crooks.

Things don't seem to go the way it was planned and everything ends in a huge mess-up. The whole kidnap scene doesn't happen for the child they've actually planned for. Instead Avinashi ends up kidnapping (Manisha Koirala)'s son who also happens to be the illegal son of the city Assistant Commissoner of Police (Nasser).

The story continues with the usual misunderstanding and imbroglios between the characters. The final semi hour of the movie is about how Mumbai Express convinces Manisha Koirala and her son in Mumbai Express and flees with his Mumbai Express viz. that's the climax and you might want to watch the movie atleast once to understand this :-)

The comedy in the movie is so natural or rather classic - and can be compared to Kamal hits of early 90's - Michel Madhana Kama Raajan and Apoorva Sagotharargal.

Pros:

• Kamal's deceptive dialogues and double meanings

Cons:

• Poor graphics and occasional blurred/distorted scenes
  
• Not so impressive (unnecessary) subject on love

My Movie Rating: 7 / 10

Value for Money: 8 / 10

Murphy's Law

While I've been going through some of the advertising websites in the internet, I found this unusual statement:

"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy's Law

Then I started to think why would anything silly like this would be termed as a law! Only after getting to know about the history of Murphy's Law through the internet, I was so certain about what it is all about. Thought I could share the information I've got...

So here are my search results:

The following is an excerpt from "The Desert Wings":

March 3, 1978

Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base.

It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash.

One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it."

The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" and added this one, which he called Murphy's Law.

Actually, what he did was take an old law that had been around for years in a more basic form and give it a name.

The party pics have been uploaded...

Well here they are... My birthday party snaps (6).

6. The family... From the left: Senthil (my brother), Gayatri (my anni - bro's wife) with Little Surya (my cute nephew), me, my mom (Lakshmi) and my dad (Anandan)

5. That's my brother Senthil (on the left) giving me a share of the cake :-)

4. Now..., It's time to cut the cake ;-)

3. Ooff.. ooff.. I've blown it off! :-)

2. It's all set up.. The candle has been lit. Oh look!! There is a knife by the side ;;)

1. My dad is lighting the birthday cake

Birthday and all setup to take the fly...

Yes. Today is my 20th birthday and there are a few things that adds essence to it... And NO! am not flying anywhere!! :-D

I really don't know how frequently this is going to work out - but I made it a point to start doing it right from my 20th birthday and here it is...!!! My first blog - this is my first one ever in Blogspot, posted under the code name - "Potential Zigma".

My brother (Senthil) took efforts to arrange for a small (kinda intra family) birthday party for me.. I enjoyed it! Beleive it or not!! After I was 10 years old, this is the first time I'm celebrating my birthday with a Birthday Cake specially ordered for me. I'll upload a few pics from the party in my next post.

Adieu..