Finally Rains.

Yesterday it finally rained. Temperature dropped down by atleast 10C. We could go for our walk it felt so very nice. Later I fell asleep in the veranda with Aasim telling me a story.

I know soon the rains will be the cause of misery all around, least of which is clothes not drying and floor being perpetually dirty BUT right now it is the best thing that could have happened.

Today we are planning to go to the water/amusement park – lets see what Aasim has to say once he gets up.

This week swatisani also has put up an entry for the . I found the topic a bit morbid. Instead of Decay it should have been Rebirth!! I really resisted posting a decaying dead body with popping eyes and tongue sticking out as my entry, instead have put up something very plain and stark. See a larger version.

Sun finally says Java Sux

OK! the subject line got your attention but it is not very far from truth. It is well known that while Java may be great at server level for business processes it really sucks when it comes to web front ends. This initiative for making Java compatible to PHP by Zend and Sun attempts to fix it.

One LJ code deserves another

Some weeks ago I had posted an LJ code on someone’s journal. It was picked up there by sohnipreet I had forgotten all about it till today morning when I got a mail from her returning a replacement code – she had gone thru the trouble of finding out SANIsoft’s site, getting an contact email address and writing back.

I am posting the code she sent back here and adding one from my own cache 🙂

Whoever claims it first…

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Between Heaven and Hell

This is my picture for the theme Toys. With Aasim having toys and then some more toys the choice was a diffcult one. Finally decided upon using something simple and playing with light. The effect show is the result of a flashlight and a table lamp. A larger version is here, some other pictures which I took for the challenge are here. I particularly like the last one which I call Aladdin at the cave of wonders 😉

Just finished gorging ourselves on Hyderabadi Biryani and ice cold Coke

The temperature outside continues to be hellish.

Hottest day in 72 years

Yesterday Nagpur experienced the hottest day in past 72 years. It was a sizzling 47.3C and is expected to continue for some more days. Thanks to NMC and MSEB there is uninterrupted water and electricity supply, but I never know when I will have to bite my tongue for saying it too soon. Since Nagpur has a very dry weather desert coolers are very effective.

Today I intend to keep an egg in a black box with water out and see if it cooks 🙂

On the somewhat colorfully brighter note – the heat has driven flocks of Blossom Headed Parakeets to our garden in search of food and water.

Otherwise life just is.

The Sunday Report

One words sums it all “HOT”. I mean really HOT. Nagpur is baking at 47 degrees for nearly past 7 days. So we essentially stayed indoors. It was only toward late evening that we stepped out to check the new Planet M outlet which has opened recently here. Picked up 9 CDs some of them real good. Shubha Mudgal, Begum Akhtar, but the gem is Abida Parveen singing Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Swati, probably, will write about it.

Later we have a nice dinner at one of our favorite eating joints. The cable connection continues to be plagued by UDP flooding. The last recommendation from my cable walla was why don’t I use M$ Windows like everyone else. I really am still under shock.

[Update]
Most people are missing it, the thumbnail above is a link to 15 pictures I took of a Bulbul’s nest – So click on the thumbnail
[/Update]

Another week flies past

Have been posting regularly to the . This is my this weeks entry for the theme Red. Red Henna painted hands, Red glass bangles, Red Sari are essential wear for any woman in a traditional North Indian Wedding. Click here for larger version

This weeks choice was a tough one for me, the other pictures that I considered were this, this and this

Things have been rather hectic on the work front – thankfully all projects proceeding as expected, very stress free 🙂

Our Cable Internet Network is under DDOS with UDP Flooding, looks like a few winduhs machines are infected with the likes of wintroo OR whatever, the IPs are obviously spoofed as well – my cable guy is totally clueless as to what is happening and keeps asking me what to do…

Duh! When I tell him I cannot help more than this as I myself don’t know much he gets this hurt look on his face as if I am withholding his favorite candy from him…

Have shifted Aasim to writing using his left hand. Poor boy always used to write all the strokes the wrong way with his right hand but with left hand his strokes are proper but he needs practice. Maybe he is just wired like his dad.

One Sunday Morning

It promises to be another very hot day, I have been following a nest of a Red Vented Bulbul for a past few days, though I never fancy my camera as one to take bird photographs but here are 9 pictures taken around our home of other birds, was lucky enough to shoot a Paradise Flycatcher. Will put the Bulbul series once it is done

Graduation

This week has been one of the fastest week of the year.

Most importantly I feel that I have successfully extracted myself from the quagmire of my “late quarter life crisis” which I have been wallowing in for past few months. Thanks to Swati who gave me the rather melodramatic mantra “You can’t be a maverick all your life you have to graduate one day and become Top Gun”.

Plus I realized that I was being ungrateful to myself and my dear ones by belittling what has been achieved. This was shoved down my throat by a rather rude awakening to the fact as to how easy it was to lose everything I had.

I have had my “So you were the one” moment(s) and right now don’t know what *Top Gun* really means BUT I do intend to find out by late mid life ;0)

In other mundane things I am abandoning work on the LJ Stats projects, just be aware that depressingly large number of people view your journal – Non believers look here.

My rant on PHP

Learning PHP is easy anyone can do it over a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. That was one of the primary goal of creating PHP and has been very successfully achieved. Today everyone and their cousin twice removed can write PHP. Combine that with sites like sourceforge and freshmeat and you have got phenomenal amount of code which is very poorly written.

Now set these coders in a poor job scenario and you have a crowded fish market with PHP projects being bid at less than $1 an hour without any understanding of what they are in for!

Contrary to what most readers will expect the client is the last person to understand the difference. Another disturbing factor which came to light was a popular notion among neo DotCommers that if you get your technology cheap your success is assured!

However as expected this situation could not last forever, the dynamics of market forces had to take over. Cracks are showing up in software designed 6 month ago as the site becomes popular. Increasing numbers of projects are never being delivered and then there is a category of programmers and clients who are sensible and re-outsourcing to more experienced PHP programmers before too late.

My condolences to the gurus who could not survive this shake out, planning your cash flow would have helped. As for the stupid a** h**** who perished – good riddance