I want an island too...waaaaaaaaaaa



Heard that Athina Roussel (who is not known to me, even though I might show a lot of familiarity here) has inherited a pathetic sum of 2.7 billion dollars for her (gasp!) 18th birthday from her dear departed granddaddy Aristotle Onassis.

(This is the same dude who married Jac Kennedy who is the lady who married, surprise, surprise, John Kennedy who is the dude who... aah, forget it)

If that doesn't sound impressive, she has her very own island in the Ionian sea named Skorpios. Now when she wants a rave party, she need not worry about the neighbors.

random thought: If she were to donate $100 million to a school of engineering at some university, would they rename it to the Athina Roussel School of Engineering? (I dare not abbreviate the name!)

Losers...

AOL Time Warner lost $100 billion in 2002. That's 100,000,000,000 dollars to think about.
The analytical part of my brain tells me that I could finish my masters 3 million times over with that kind of cash. Or 3 million guys like me could finish their masters once.

The voyeur...


I enjoy watching people.

When Before Braille was playing at the Memorial Union today, I found the reactions of the audience more interesting than the band itself. We all get our pleasures vicariously, be it from watching *unmentionable stuff* or jumping up and down at a concert and trying to shake our heads loose while strumming an imaginary guitar. ASU is a voyeur's paradise especially because half the population of Arizona can be found in ASU. Take a walk down Orange to see the world's biggest collection of nuts, nerds, lovers, brilliant ones, suited guys, guys who look like they slept in their clothes, girls who look like they forgot to wear something and guys like me who are on the lookout for free pizza.


Talking of pizza, I managed to get a free one today and free coffee and pastries from Starbucks yesterday with my friends. It's another matter that the waitress would turn away and scram each time we looked at her with that "what -else-is-free" look.


starbucks advice: Adding sugar to a coffee latte will not make it less bitter or more edible. No, not even if you fill it with sugar.
ogling advice: Start by looking at the ground and work your way up. It looks more natural.

Alien Bloopers..

A "grand" oversight...

Today along with many of the esteemed ASU administrators, I temporarily became one of the highest paid students when I was paid $1310 for 12 hours of work! Nearly 300 dollars went in taxes before ASU realized its mistake and pulled out its money from my account. Thankfully the business manager came and explained the situation before giving me my payslip, and saved me from a potential heart attack. I guess it is all part of the pay raise they are giving to all ASU admnistrators..ahem..ahem..




Waaarm and sunny Arizona

If you read the jokes about Arizona somewhere on this site (scroll down and you might just see some of them) and think that Arizona is a prototype model for hell, you should come over to Tempe now. While the rest of America is freezing and suffering sub-zero temperatures, we can go out wearing thin clothes, bask in the sunshine and ogle at the famous ASU girls who seem to be forever in danger of spilling out of their sub-micro clothes. Life is beautiful!



iDevices from !Apple

Most people I know either love Apple or hate it. Here's a collection of cool iDevices that Apple would never make. On the other end of the creativity spectrum is a genetic researcher from New Hampshire who carries around the entire human genome in his pocket in his.. iPod.



How to create a CD Toaster

How do you destroy a CD completely so that no one on earth can retrieve data from it again? Simple, just pop it in the microwave for 12 seconds or so, and watch the nice display of sparks while it fries your CD. Pop out the CD and admire the beautiful work of art on it. Now you know what to do with all those CDs that AOL sends you. I've been itching to try this method for some time, but the microwave at my apartment got fried (nopes, I don't know how it happened) so I am waiting for the new microwave to arrive before creating my very own works of art. If you still need inspiration, check out these works of art by these untiring students of AOL-art.


On a sidenote, here's my favourite Apple iDevice up there...


Thodi si timepass..

For those who are taking Image Processing courses like me, here's a test to check your perception. Spot the difference between GIF and JPEG images. There are some really hot kittens in there, so open the page carefully.

PHP Vs ASP

Discovered the world of PHP after years of wallowing in the world of ASP. While I am still basking in the honeymoon period, let me quickly evaluate PHP and ASP.

1. PHP is written by nerds for nerds. ASP is written for everyone. PHP uses the syntax of C, so all you C programmers out there, welcome to the world of web programming.

2. PHP is a wayyyy better language. The function libraries are simply mindblowing. Guess how many lines of code it took for me to accept an uploaded file with PHP? Just one. With ASP, I would have to find a server component, install the dll on the server, and then wade through the user manual to find the syntax!

3. PHP has function modules for almost every conceivable thing. For creating PDF files, for creating JPEG images (they had GIF functionality too, but someone who initially created the GIF standard decided to ask for royalties, so PHP has dropped those modules.), for creating flash movies (now that's really cool), for accepting uploads, and for using XML files.

4. Variables are really easy to use. Apart from the quirk which requires you to put a $ sign in front of every variable (probably a take off on the fact that almost everything is free), it leads to some really interesting ways of generating strings. You don't have to worry about terminating strings and then concatenating variabless them - just put the variable somewhere in the string, and as long as you don't forget the dollars (oops, the $ symbol), PHP will put in the variable data for you.

5. Strings are easier to handle using ASP. The vbscript functions for strings is way easier to use than in PHP, but after a while, I guess u get to know your way around such quirks.

6. Database access is quite different in PHP, but ASP uses a recordset approach to databases which is quite useful. The PHP way takes a while to get used to, but I find it much easier to use than ASP now. I guess, it's only a matter of choice in this matter.

7. You can use PHP with Macs. I love that.

This page was not made with a mac, but I wish it was...




The new 17 inch powerbook from Apple has the largest LCD screen for laptops and it is still an unbelievable 1 inch thick. Guess how much it weighs? 6.8 pounds! There isn't anything cool which the designers didn't think of, including firewire ports and compatibility with the IEEE 802.11g standard which Apple calls Airport extreme. The wireless connectivity blazes at an amazing 54 MBPS. Would they compromise on the drive? No, this one comes with a rewriteable DVD drive. Now that's what I call a computer!

Quick and Easy Tutorial on How-to-spend-a-night-in-the-slammer in the United States.


Step 1: Wake up 10 minutes before you are supposed to be at Phoenix airport, so you can forget most of your documents while you try to phone the cab, tuck in your shirt and pop in a chewing gum (did I talk about brushing?)


Step 2: Proudly show your new IP to airport security, so that you get more and more confident about not having to show your passport anywhere.


Step 3: Promptly dump your IP and passport somewhere in the kitchen after reaching San Antonio.


Step 4: Make travel plans to a place which is at least 8 hours by car. (If you want to go to some place far like New Orleans as I initially planned, wait for an advanced tutorial). Also make sure that it is near someplace like Mexico.


Step 5: Take all your luggage with you(minus the useless stuff you dumped in the kitchen).


Step 6: Have a lot of fun at South Padre coz we have work to do on the way back (the gods are really laughing now).


Step 7: At a federal checkpoint proudly show your I-20 and look sheepish when you are told that you need some state ID to cross the checkpoint. Someone has to drive 8 hours to get the "useless stuff" you dumped in the kitchen.


Step 8: Bravo, if you have followed steps 1-6, you are now the proud occupant of a 12ft by 8ft steel cell with a glass window, combination water fountain-cum-toilet, steel rack and closed-circuit-cameras!


Step 9: Brag about it.


© 2003 Anil Kumar. All rights reserved. Any further questions on this subject will be charged @ $5 per question.