Category: Mundane Musings

Kindle 3 keyboard shortcuts that I frequently use and some more

This is more of note to self but at the same time I feel it will benefit someone some day

  • alt + shift + G takes a screenshot which gets stored in the document folder as a png file
  • alt + G will refresh the screen, this is useful to remove the ghosting which may at times occur
  • shift + alt + m on home screen will start the built in mine sweeper game and if you are into games on kindle take a look here
  • alt + top row of letters will type out numbers
  • Slide and hold the power switch for long enough and it turns off your kindle – further investigations reveal that this is 7 seconds to turn off and holding it for 15 seconds will reset it
  • alt + B while reading adds and removes bookmarks
  • alt + space turns music on and off (mp3 should be uploaded in Kindle’s ‘music’ folder
  • shift + Sym turns speech on and off Space pauses it
  • Skip chapters in a book by using right and left on the nav controller
  • I discovered that pressing G when in Minesweeper starts GoMoku

The are some things which I want to try but have not as yet –

  • Use the Image Viewer in Kindle
  • Try using Calibre to remove DRM from the books I have purchased
  • Try out the  alternate Kindle OS Duokan. Works without jail breaking and claims better PDF rendering

Last month @ SANIsoft blog February 1, 2011

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    Now this was a post which generated a record number of hits on the site

Osprey – A legendary bird

Osprey in flight
Osprey in flight

There are some species of birds which are common, almost everyone and their aunts have a great picture of them but I somehow do not have any decent pictures. The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) till very recently was one such species. Continue reading for some interesting trivia and 2 more pictures

Indian Muntjac

Indian Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak)
Indian Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak)

All my previous sighting s of this animal have been fleeting glimpses as it disappeared into the bushes. Indian Muntjac commonly known as the Indian barking deer is a small, very alert and shy member of the deer family. Read more with one more photograph

Last month @ SANIsoft blog January 1, 2011

  • [How To] Live index updates in Sphinx search
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Travails of 2010 and some new year resolutions

Last foss.in
Last foss.in

The year gone by can be best described as a year of photography and traveling.

I started the new year with my 20th picture on Flickr explore, but the novelty of Flickr explore wore off pretty soon as I got a front page explore again and then 40 pictures and finally 50+. We traveled to the Rann of Kutch for a week in the last week of January and got a lot of bird (and a few animal) photographs.

February saw me doing the long over due drive to Mallura Village in Melghat in quest for the the Forest owlet . The pictures I brought back from that trip have been in demand by several publications and websites.

I started collaborating with Lalit Vikamshi and we have been doing some very interesting experiments with studio photography since then…

Mid May we took another trip and this time it was to Tanzania, It was an wonderful and unique experience and once again there were a lot of photographs, in fact 14000+ I finally managed to post-process upload the last of selected few in November. Just before the trip we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary

I got myself an iPad and became a fan.

September I tried out the 750 Words experiment successfully, turned 44 and noticed that my blog has 200006 published words.

The trip Botswana trip I planned with Amit Sharma materialized and we camped in the heart of Moremi and Savuti.

The most significant event of the year for me was the last foss.in, it was an amazing journey for all of us. For the curious Atul has written why it was the last. We stayed one day more and took the last wildlife trip of the year to B.R. Hills with Kalyan and stayed at the awesome Gorukana Resort

Resolutions: I have never been too much of a new year resolutions person but this year I have decided that starting 1st Jan for 100 days I will be a vegetarian and not take any alcohol. The second resolution is to continue with writing 750 Words daily for next 100 days

Botswana trip – Camping in the heart of Moremi and Savuti

The camp fire
The camp fire

The seed for the trip to Botswana was planted when we were in the Serengeti plains of Tanzania in May. Amit Sharma, my good friend of many years said that there was a great price deal and photographer Vincent Grafhorst will be our host. I was instantly hooked. Six months was a long time but there were things which took long, like the Johannesburg visa, plans were changed which meant re-booking tickets several Times. Continue reading, 14 more pictures of the camp

An amazing journey – Aasim at foss.in

Yesterday Swati was reminiscing about how the event now called as foss.in began and what an amazing journey it has been for the past 10 years. Leafing thru the photos we realized that the journey has been more so for Aasim who began it as a 3 year old in ITcom 2000 and has been there every year ever since.

IT com 2000
IT com 2000

Click for other 9 years

Last month @ SANIsoft blog December 1, 2010

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Ngorongoro crater – A living Eden

The King eats!
The King eats!

Now that I am back from another wildlife photo tour in Botswana, Africa. It became imperative that I finish posting the pictures and experiences from the previous ones. Continue reading for GPS trail and mapped photos