Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
You Can If You Think You Can!
If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you'll lose, you're lost,
~ C. W. Longenecker ~
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Male Vs Female at ATM
**************************
MALE PROCEDURE:
1. Drive up to the cashmachine.
2. Put down your car window.
3. Insert card into machineand enter PIN.
4. Enter amount of cashrequired and withdraw.
5. Retrieve card, cash andreceipt.
6. Put window up.
7. Drive off.
**************************
FEMALE PROCEDURE:
What is really funny is that most of this part is the Truth.!!!!
1. Drive up to cash machine.
2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine.
3. Set hand brake, put the window down.
4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card.
5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up.
6. Attempt to insert card into machine.
7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from thecar.
8. Insert card.
9. Re-insert card the right way.
10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.
11. Enter PIN.
12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN.
13. Enter amount of cash required.
14. Check makeup in rear view mirror.
15. Retrieve cash and receipt.
16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside.
17. Write debit amount in check register and place receipt in back of chequebook.
18. Re-check makeup.
19. Drive forward 2 feet.
20. Reverse back to cash machine.
21. Retrieve card.
22. Re-empty handbag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided!
23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you.
24. Restart stalled engine and pull off.
25. Redial person on cell phone.
26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles.
27. Release hand brake.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Mobile Fun - Everything Mobile (web review)
Another quick thought on the same on sale items. I thought those items are rotating, I mean they are changing every time someone refresh the page or log in. Seems to me those are just static continent? I guess only those 2 items, jabra bluetooth headsets, and other types of headsets on sale, plus nano Bluetooth dongle on sale are the only items in this category. If you just have few, why you want to pop them to show? It makes the site bit cheap.
I know there is a big demand for Bluetooth Headphones, bluetooth car kit and all those small gadgets. But most the people want to see, and like to see, some featured mobile phoned you have. This will give you a better view on the site and the items on the Mobile Fun page (just a thought). In my opinion, mobile gadgets are in second consideration, and first priority is for Mobile Phones, at least as a customer, thats what I’m looking for. First buy a mobile phone and then buy other gadget stuff. Why don’t you move all the featured mobile phones up on the list and then show the other accessories?
Another quick thought on the layout of the index page. There are lots of information on the left side panel, currently Mobile Fun page is listing all the Mobile accessories, and Sim free mobile phones with showing all available brand names. Personally its OK for me to have them in a drop down box and its easy to go through the phones that way. You are categorizing phones bases on the popularity I guess. But why don’t you have a drop down list and then put them in alphabetical order of the brand name? This makes easy for customers to find the item or the brand they want. And this will help Mobile Fun web to save some space on the side panel and use it for some other task.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
“The Man from Earth” – truly a remarkable movie………………..
I just spend astonishing hour on watching this master piece. I’m thrilled and no words to say. Never saw a movie like this (except Da Vinci Code and National Treasure, both brilliant in their own way…..). This is the first time I watched a movie which plays in the same location without actions packed and tack ticks…….I liked how it speaks about Buddhism and how Christianity emerged from Buddhism…….
Here’s a comment from its official page…….
...every so often you will see a film or hear a story that will take your breath away and leave you wondering...this is one of those stories. That said it is probably not for everyone. If you don't want your believes challenged you should probably stay away from this one. The film is all about the characters and their dialog, it is what makes or breaks the film, and I must say they did an excellent job, it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, wanting to hear more. All this topped with great acting makes this a film really worth seeing.
It goes to show that you can make great films these days without explosions and killings...so simple yet so effective. Great movie!
The movie begins with Professor John Oldman (David Lee Smith) packing his belongings onto his truck preparing to move to a new home. His colleagues show up to give him an unexpected farewell party: Harry (John Billingsley, a biologist); Edith (Ellen Crawford, a fellow professor and devout Christian); Dan (Tony Todd, an anthropologist); and Sandy (Annika Peterson), a historian who is in love with John. Edith spots in John's belongings next to his truck an unknown Van Gogh painting of John's with the note "To my friend, Jacques Borne" on the back written in French. Once inside, his friends persistently ask John why he is leaving.
Another friend, Art Jenkins (William Katt), an archeologist, and his student Linda Murphy (Alexis Thorpe), arrive and John's friends continue to pressure him for the reason for his departure. John poses the question, "What if a man, from the Upper Paleolithic survived until the present day?" They assume that John is working on a science fiction story and play along with the discussion. As the film progresses, John slowly reveals that he is the "caveman" under discussion when he mentions that he was given a chance to sail with Christopher Columbus in the 15th century. The revelation starts off with John's recollection of the terrain of prehistoric Earth and John's origins, which happens to be roughly 14,000 years ago. John reveals that he was once Jacques Borne, a friend of Van Gogh's, and he is now "moving on" since some people have noticed his lack of aging.
As they take a break from the discussion, Art – who is concerned about John's sanity – telephones another friend, Dr. Will Gruber (Richard Riehle), an elderly psychologist, explaining the odd situation and asks him to come over right away. In the meantime, Sandy confesses to John that she loves him, but John tells her they can never be together because of his immortality. John resumes his story by stating that he was once a Sumerian for 2000 years, then a Babylonian under Hammurabi, and finally a disciple of Gautama Buddha. Dr. Gruber arrives, at which point Dan mentions that John's tale is as impossible to be disproved as it is to be verified, a response to the many attempts to poke holes in John's story by his colleagues. The discussion takes a turn into the biological and physical condition of John and the topic of death. Gruber propels the discussion deeper into the topic of death and tension rises as Gruber interrogates John on that subject. The tension culminates with Gruber pointing a gun at John. After the drama ends with the departure of Gruber, Harry reveals that Gruber's wife has died the day before and the profession of John's immortality had hit Gruber very hard. Art and Edith are upset with John's story, while Harry, Dan, Sandy, and Linda appear to be more sympathetic.
The discussions of John being Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible continue and Edith, unable to take John's tale anymore, breaks down crying. Emotions in the room run high. Gruber takes charge of the situation and sternly demands that John end his "high tale" and give closure to the story; he threatens John with the possibility of locking him up for observation. John apologizes to everyone and, as he doesn't want to further upset any of his friends, he tells them that all he just told them is just a story.
As each of John's friends leave, John apologizes to Harry and Edith, while Art and Linda leave without many parting words. When it is Dan's turn to say goodbye, it is hinted that Dan believes John's story. After everyone but Dr. Gruber and Sandy has left, Dr. Gruber overhears John relating to Sandy some of the other pseudonyms he has used over the years. One used over 60 years ago was the name of Gruber's father, a chemistry professor from Harvard, who had left the family. Gruber, shocked and over-excited, suffers a heart attack and dies. After Gruber's body is taken away, the movie ends with Sandy walking towards John (sitting in his truck); at the last minute he changes his mind to spend some part of his life with her.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Cricket without Cricket........awsome video......
This is what I like about Sri Lankan Cricket…….simple, fun and no aggression at all……..People, Players, and everybody around enjoying the movement. If we lose the match, that’s not the end of the world,
Friday, June 12, 2009
We found the next unorthodox cricketer…….guess who?
Here’s a remarkable piece of fielding by Angelo Mathews, a definite six, or may be a four, but finally it was unimaginable react and stop by young cricketer. Great job…………thumbs up, Sri Lankan cricket…………..
It’s not fair, if we forget all other unconventional Sri Lankan players……..
Asanka Gurusinghe
Slowest batting……(we used to hate this guy….)
Not sure we can put Angelo to this list yet……but hopefully he will for sure, later on…………
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Nanotube chip could store data for a billion years....
Researchers have demonstrated a form of archive memory using carbon nanotubes that can theoretically store a trillion bits of data per square inch for a billion years.
The technology could easily be incorporated into today's silicon processing systems and it could be available in the next two years, a lead researcher said.
The scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California said the new technology can potentially pack thousands of times more data into one square inch of space than today's chips.
"We've developed a new mechanism for digital memory storage that consists of a crystalline iron nanoparticle shuttle enclosed within the hollow of a multiwalled carbon nanotube," said physicist Alex Zettl, who led this research.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
No more Kwai Chang Caine (Kung Fu) , Actor David Carradine found hanged in his luxury hotel room in Bangkok
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.
The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room.
It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday.
The newspaper said Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie was not immediately available.
It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room's curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted.
A police officer at Bangkok's Lumpini precinct station would not confirm the identity of the dead man, but said the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel had reported that a male guest killed himself there.
Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith.
In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby. One of his prominent early film roles was as singer Woody Guthrie in Ashby's 1976 biopic "Bound for Glory."
But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series "Kung Fu," which aired in 1972-75.He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues."He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga "Kill Bill."The character, the worldly father figure of a pack of crack assassins, was a shadowy presence in 2003's "Kill Bill — Vol. 1." In that film, one of Bill's former assassins (Uma Thurman) begins a vengeful rampage against her old associates.In "Kill Bill — Vol. 2," released in 2004, Thurman's character comes face to face again with Bill himself. The role brought Carradine a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor.
Bill was a complete contrast to his TV character Kwai Chang Caine, the soft-spoken refugee from a Shaolin monastery, serenely spreading wisdom and battling bad guys in the Old West. He left after three seasons, saying the show had started to repeat itself.
After "Kung Fu," Carradine starred in the 1975 cult flick "Death Race 2000." He starred with Liv Ullmann in Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" in 1977 and with his brothers in the 1980 Western "The Long Riders."But after the early 1980s, he spent two decades doing mostly low-budget films. Tarantino's films changed that. "All I've ever needed since I more or less retired from studio films a couple of decades ago ... is just to be in one," Carradine told The Associated Press in 2004.
"There isn't anything that Anthony Hopkins or Clint Eastwood or Sean Connery or any of those old guys are doing that I couldn't do," he said. "All that was ever required was somebody with Quentin's courage to take and put me in the spotlight." One thing remained a constant after "Kung Fu": Carradine's interest in Oriental herbs, exercise and philosophy. He wrote a personal memoir called "Spirit of Shaolin" and continued to make instructional videos on tai chi and other martial arts.
In the 2004 interview, Carradine talked candidly about his past boozing and narcotics use, but said he had put all that behind him and stuck to coffee and cigarettes. "I didn't like the way I looked, for one thing. You're kind of out of control emotionally when you drink that much. I was quicker to anger."
"You're probably witnessing the last time I will ever answer those questions," Carradine said. "Because this is a regeneration. It is a renaissance. It is the start of a new career for me.
"It's time to do nothing but look forward."
Omio - Ultimate Phone Comparison Site (Web review)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Fate of a Boy Who Tried To Escape from LTTE Clutches
This very a disturbing video. Should not be viewed by children. This video shows the barbaric acts that were done to a boy who, together with his family, tried to escape being held as a 'human shield" by the terrorists of Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The boy's legs had been chopped off by an axe, in front of his own family, as a 'punishment' for trying to escape. Mercifully, the boy had died soon. Note how a Red Cross worker is aiding.
This is only a tiny fraction of the inhuman treatment that innocent Tamil people who are being held by the LTTE for their protection are being subjected to. The Tamil diaspora in western countries paint a very different picture, just to get international support to stop the Sri Lankan armed forces from completely eliminating these psychopathic terrorists. The government of Sri Lanka is trying to help these innocent people to lreagain a life free from these terrorists. It is too bad that those in the United Nations, the "Human Rights Watch" with many other international aid organizations, and many other politicians have fallen for their blatant lies. They say that one can fool some people some of the time, but no one can fool all the people all the time. This video should speak a lot of words for those who care. The dialogs in the video are in Tamil.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
"Brother" greets "Brother" in London... (Black Barack with Black Cop)
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Genius Beatboxers……..Nathen “Flutebox” Lee & Beardyman
These particular types of musicians are called “Beatboxers”. Here’s what Wiki says about Beatboxing.
Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion which primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and more. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing is connected with hip hop culture although it is not limited to hip hop music
Saturday, April 18, 2009
PERRYS - Great deals on new & used cars, and vans (Site Review)
Secondly, the static random image in the center of the page. I liked the way it's designed and the placement, but a flash image or animated image with all those random images into one movie like animation will really suited for this place. And also may be the image corners with some circular shape like in the search for vehicle or the find dealership options? Same thing would be better for the More hot deals option. Instead of having static deals, probably an animated pictures and information galary for deals will be a pretty good addition to the Perrys site. Also I would like to see the prices with different options, I guess may be with dollars and euros?
I liked the color match in the "Search for a vehicle" box with shaded light blue. If this can be extend to the entire page? or maybe to the other two search boxes in the Perrys main site?
I searched the site with Vauxhall dealer and Vauxhall corsa, and loved the way how the other two search options changed accordingly. This is the first time I saw a cool feature like this, great job.
I like to see following options in the index page of the PERRYS dealership site.
- An option to get a free dealer price quote. A small option box with make, model and postcode with a Get Quotes button?
- A viewer box with "Most Researched" or "Most Searched" vehicles. This could shows a list of vehicles both cars and vans with ranking 1-10
- A tool, research and Explore, probably to do a search by a price range or by category, or by features, and an option to do comparisons with different makes and models.
Another missing item in the PERRYS motor dealership site is a custom search option. Say I want to search for a "Vauxhall dealer" instead of getting into the "Search for a Vehicle" option. I guess its good to have a separate custom search box to do other types of searches within the site. May be placing a custom search in the top right corner with the banner ad?
Overall, PERRYS motor sales dealership site is a pretty good tool for consumers. But I would like to see some animated site, when comes to vehicles, rather a static site like the current one.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Eastern Inspired Living (Site Review)
When it comes to amenities for a luxuries living, one will feel more comfortable with surrounds, with more soft and smoother background. As a consumer, I feel the index page design is more edgee , with the square faces and rectangular menu selections. Color selection is more like neutral than a vivid feeling when thinking about Eastern Living.
With the use of search term “log basket”, I tried to see how a general consumer looks up items from the web “Eastern Inspired Living”. Thumbnails are pretty much with details, but feel the size is bit larger compared to other consumer product supplier web sites. May be a reduced thumbnail size and a link to get all the results into a single page, will make the search feature a proper tool for the Eastern Inspired Living site.
Is there any option to view the search items price in other popular currency values, like American Dollars, or Euros? If the Eastern Inspired Living site is targeting international consumers, this will give kind of a feeling that the site is closer to consumers living style. As a consumer from the US market, I felt the site is far away and this will certainly affect the actual consumers who want to buy products. May be an option to convert currency values with the viewing option will certainly increase the consumer popularity of the site.
With search keyword lamp shades and laundry baskets, I found that the index showing the different lighting options bit confusing. Whenever particular sub category under the term Lighting is selected, the keyword background is highlighted with a grey color bar, which I felt more like a separation title than a selection among other sub titles.
Overall, “Eastern Inspired Living” web site provides an interesting consumer appliance sales portal and, with a bit of vivid touch on the interface and some developments based on the stated options, it will be a great place for people who looks for things out of ordinary.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
No Reservation ( Anthony Bourdain ) - Sri Lanka
This is a quote from his final conclusion about Sri Lanka
“ This could be such a beautiful place if one could wonder freely from top to bottom of this country, it’s so amazing people were you seeing, they are lovely. The food after all my troubles earlier on what felt like the verge of death? Finally would able to actually enjoy it, a revelation. So distinct from Indian, so different from what I’d expected. And I guess and I hope when it all opens up, Sri Lankans settle their problems one way or the other, this will again be a place that a whole world will fall in love with”
……I totally agreed Anthony Bourdain………….cheers………..
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
I'm on Texas State CS department research spotlight - First South Asian graduate student on main page............
Here's the link for the CS department web site: http://www.cs.txstate.edu/
Read more about my achievements here at my personal web: Web Maze