Winamp 5 Review

The most highly anticipated winamp 5 is finally out. After the major let down of version 3, the guys at winamp decided to take the fibonacci route, which meant that the next version would include the best of both worlds (2+ 3). After downloading it the first day it came out, and playing with it for a while it does meet up to the expetations. It combines with ease the stability of the winamp 2 core engine and the skinnabilibity of winamp 3. This long wait between updates has lead to some new competition from iTunes and other major players.

Installation was a breeze and even if you dont take the "customized" installation it is very easy to assign or take back file associations, incase you like to play certain files with a different player. I prefer that
people take the customized installation since this gives you the option of not adding all those painful AOL icons.

Start up time for the program is lightning fast which was one of the trademarks of the older versions. The default skin is the new blue look which kind of looks like music match, which is very easy to get used to. But I prefer the old school look and that is also their recommendation for slower computers.

First off we start with the good features:-

One of its main functions is playing music, and this it does very well. Users should have no trouble organizing
their music and tweaking the equalizer to achieve the perfect sound for your system. Like before it also comes pre
loaded with a number of presets.

With winamp 3 many people couldnt use their old plugins which was a big let down, but winamp 5 not only allows you
to use all your winamp 2 plugins, you can also use the old skins with no issues whatsoever. This gives users a huge
number of plugins, visualizations that can be used.

The video player can handle a plethora of formats, but in most cases users would stick to their default players as
far as video is concerned.

Here are some of the new features:-

The "more info" which gets biographical information of the artist and also an option to buy cd's online.

A better media library, which organizes all your media ( audio and video ), and has sub categories like "most-played", "top rated" etc. The "rescan files" and "remove duplicate files." options really stand out.

Now come some of the things which i found were not that great:-

Although it does support AAC files it doesnt play back songs that are recorded with Itunes or Nero.

Also if you want mp3 encoding and full speed burning you have to upgrade to the pro version which will set you back $14.95, this is an option that is available in iTunes for free!!

The video player is good, but doesnt pack enough control features like color adjustment etc.


Despite some minor setbacks, winamp 5 is a real breakthrough and without a doubt races ahead of winamp 3. This time it really does whip the llama's ass !!

You can get your copy from winamp.com

next major update will be about winamp 5. i have been playing with it for a few fays and have been very impressed, but more in next major entry.

Wow it has been a while since I have updated. Also been more than a year since i started to blog and this year I think i deciced to make this a vehicle for my opinion on all things technology. I started off with some reviews and tips (just one but what the heck). But this semester was terrible, that I hardly updated. But now that winter is here I will update more stuff, and will keep the general direction of a tech based blog.

hmm anything else, FINALS OVER ON THe 16th wohooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gary Kasparov won game 3 in the Kasparov vs. X3d Fritz chess match pitting man vs humans. The score now is 1.5 each and Gary had to win yesterdays match in order to move on. The final match is on Tuesday, wohoo!!!!

On another note, I am going to talk about protonic.com . I joined this place in march and since then have helped over 400 people and have also posted various times about the volunteer work that I do. For those geeks out there who would like to join in on the action you can head on over to protonic.com and click on become a tech. Good luck :)

Simpsons rule

Yesterday day Apple released iTunes, its highly acclaimed application for managing/playing mp3's and also buying legal mp3's from their online store. I too downloaded it the very first day and here is my take, after playing with it yesterday and a little bit in the morning when I booted the laptop:-

The good:-

The installation was painless and with a simple reboot of the computer I was ready to go. First impression was the looks, it wins in that department hands down, amazing and at the same time simple enough for someone to maneuver their way through it. It also looked just like the iTune on Mac right down to the little check marks next to the songs , very nice. A little messing with the equalizer settings and the sound was perfect. Recording songs was also very simple, and the aac format( the default ripping format) was surprisingly very good though I didn't see any difference between audio quality or file size for that matter between mp3's or wma's. It takes up hardly any hard disk space, about 7 mb which is quite appealing.

The bad:-

Now for the downside, I found it to be a very intrusive and pushy application. During the install it doesn't prompt you that it will add itself and quick time tasks to the start up folder and also makes itself the default cd player. Even the player options there is no way to turn it off and I had to remove them from the start up folder using RegCleaner. Being a small application it took up a lot of ram and played songs choppy even though my machine is quite powerful with a 1.6 GHz processor and 256mb of ram and when you would close the application it would still keep ipod services and gearsec services running in the background. Only way to get rid of them was to use the 3 finger salute and kill them individually. It also makes it self the default player for various audio files and default player for the cd's everytime you started the application , a major pet peeve for me.

Verdict:-

A lot of work is needed in the port, especially the memory bugs and it assuming default player every time you start it up. Hopefully it should be patched up soon. CD and file associations broke the deal for me and I uninstalled it right before making this entry. I would definitely stick with music match or windows media player for ripping and burning cd's until any radical changes are made to iTunes.For people having issues with iTunes, you guys should visit the discussion board at apple's website and hopefully you can find a solution to your problem.

mozilla seems to be getting more kick ass with each update....and the new version is finally out and can be downloaded from here http://www.mozilla.org . It is packed with more features and more compatibility with websites !!!!!

i havent used IE (except for windows updates) since the whole thing about security issues with it, and I dont think ill be going back to IE for sure!!!! :)

Today when I clicked on the little windows media player icon in the quick launch bar this message popped up in my face "The file wmp.dll has a version number of 9.0.0.2980 where 9.0.0.3008 was expected.
Windows Media Player is not installed properly and must be reinstalled. Do you want to install the Player from the Microsoft Web site? "

Solution:-
The deal here is click on no, do not re-install because you will end up with the problem all over again. Goto this Microsoft link and download that little package file over
there . This will update your windows media player to version 9.0.0.3014 and also cure that problem.

I have gotten the MoBlog up , and is at http://k4shif.textamerica.com . At the moment there are only 2 pictures, but I will be adding more. Its really fun.
Maybe will have it update the new pictures in left frame.

what better than a whole new host of features from blogger. Wow!!! now only if we could get a xml file for syndication.......

its been busy since day one almost, but im having fun with math and computer science. I dsilike human situation, but then again it gets rid of a lot of core requirements so in that way its not bad. Only thing is that its essay time again. I also have a moblog now, now i have to figure out how to set the sucker up. Once done ill post a link.

feels good to be back

wohoo so many featurs can it get any better. more later

finally time for an update, its been a while and more than a month. wow. Classes are over and now starts fall, cant wait since the whole group from last years english class will be there, but like all semesters busy nonetheless.

Big New, i am admin of protonic.com and am the new coder wohooo, real fun and a learing experience.

Have to catch up with blogshares and play in my fake millions lol

Its been a while, so how about a small update......first time someone actually asked for tech help through the blog, and it worked, so I hit upon an idea if you have any questions (tech related) ask me, and I will answer them if I can, use my commenting system to ask....this should be real cool and I cant wait for more stuff.

I have also started a photo blog and Im just waiting for the first perfect pic to start it off....

and here is a little plug for a site called blogcoop:- If you have played bloghsares(see link on left) and love it, this will be great for you. This is a new website where you can actually make money with your own blog, and here is a little quote from them itself as to what they intend to do "Bloggers would join forces to form online business ventures. In the Blog Cooperative business model, each person has an equal ownership stake in the company, with an equal voice in all decisions. If this interests you, visit the web site, launched today" sounds interestin....visit it at visit it at

>http://www.blogcoop.com

Now this is what you call lazy:-

friend: ive teached a nw level of laziness
friend: im using the onsreen kwyord cuz i dont feel like usig eal one
friend: *eyboard
me: woah
me: that is lazy dude

first blog entry from a linux machine(almost) ever.....well since i had plans to install linux and that didnt go exactly as planned, so I downloaded knoppix. And it is amazing, amazing hardware detection and is packed with stuff(over 2 gb of stuff) All you have to do is boot from the cd. My brother who is skeptical about linux enjoyef playing with it for a good hour. There are some downs, like settings are saved etc..., So go download knoppix and give it a whirl.
http://www.knoppix.com

Oh yeah i finally got rid of onestat, that thing was so fussy, any change in the html and it would start complaining. Now I have blogpatrol and the best part is that you have the option to run it in stealth mode or choose some colors that are pretty cool. You can check it out at http://www.blogpatrol.com

Yesterday was just a horrible day. My brother hardly takes any care of the Vaio, so when he isnt around i check up on things and do defrags and etc.
So i run spybot and discover that there are 32 installed spyware that need to be taken care of and a pcpitstop check up said that there were still some running. So after clearing that mess up I decided to scan the system since the fool doesnt even have a AV. I go to one of those free online scans at panda and find out that the system has a number of backdoor trojans and viruses installed. The big one being Win32 pirate which spreads over the network. Luckily my dell was saved since it had infected only one file, but the sony had to go through a clean install. Never having done a clean install before (because never a system got screwed this bad that i couldnt fix), called over friend Anirudh who helped me out with this. Well on the bright side i removed all that ME junk on the system and reclaimed alot of hard disk space. And also formatted both drives from FAT32 to NTFS. The system is running fine, so it ended well, but I still have this idea lurking in my head to take away all his admin priveleges....I might have to do that
I hope that never happens again.

i ruled in basketball today

Here are some of crazy friends


This is Anirudh as morpheus



This is Sameer as Laurel of "Laurel and Hardy"

Nothing really to follow up......not going to post review as planned over here because of some issues that had occured earlier with my previous review over spybot and ad-aware. so this is just a very minor update.

Matrix Reloaded was just awesome...not as great as the first one, but it was awesome..some of the best action scenes evere. The car chase by far was the best.
Just waiting for the third installment to come out in November.

In another new Mozilla Firebird has come out with a new version and cna be downloaded from http://www.mozillazine.org . Ill write my views on that in a while as well

Wow, tommorrow is the day i feast on matrix...some mixed reviews...doesnt bother me one bit. I also heard that there is sneal preview of the third installment at the end of the credits. My view on the movie Saturday

Well the final grades are out, very happy with them and now I can enjoy my break to the fullest.

still have to get myself to upload all enteries(too lazy to do so)

hit 100 on protonic.com, so thats really kewl!!!!

Well the movable type blog has a new changed look, and it looks nice, very nice. Now all I have to do is change some of the code in their to make it work for blogger.
http://kashif.pcplayground.com .....maybe I can do that in the morning....a change will be nice, kinda bored of this look anywayz.
and if I am unsuccessful I can get nabil to do it again lol....
I also plan to put all my enteries ever into MT and then save them, so that i dont loose them like i did with 8tc

Summer break is so great...wohoo!!!

My blog just got listed on blog shares...so head on there and buy as many stocks as you can.....got tickets for the 16th for matrix...
asked my brother if he give my blog that matrix touch...he is workin on it(but he is kinda lazy)

Matrix Reloaded in 7 days......yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe if im lucky i can get for the midnight show....just cant wait...wohoo

well spend my doing NOTHING....but got up real early, my system just hasnt realized that its summer break, but it will slowly(but I hope not too slowly)

Another promotion to A2...wohoo!!!

fixed the broken links at the community website, but I do plan to move the forums onto another server, since that one is already bogged up.

Tommorrow is the last day...cant wait

The pcplayground MT blog is up at http://kashif.pcplayground.com....as for other news I got promoted to A1 tech at protonic, very excited about that.

Tommorrow I turn the economics paper in and then I have one more exam left...wohoo!!!!!

now cant decide which movie to see:- X2 or Matrix Reloaded???

Cant wait for the weekend, even though I have to work on a paper for american government. As for the whole pcplayground thingee, the web master is trying to install everything today so i will set up the MT blog in a while, that will be cool.
Gots lots to do over the summer, lots of reading, tennis and other stuff which i missed out on during this semester.

Last day of classes today, finals begin on Friday.
My next piece of software review will be of my two favorite open source browsers:-
1. Mozilla 1.4
2. Mozilla Firebird(previously known as Phoenix, I think this is a cooler name though)

I personally cant wait for both to come out since they have some major feature upgrades!!!!

Other tech news, Grokster and Morpheus have won the P2P battle by proving that they couldnt track what was going on, on their servers....but I am sure there will be appeals to this decision. Kazaa is not yet free though.

I wonder when the next version of winamp will come out, since 3.0 in my opinion is quite bloated and a resource hog....I still use 2.9....

Just my luck, the new host does not support MT...:(

Talk about irony, I mention about the reliable servers of pcplayground and their website gets suspended...well got another host, so I will put it up there

All exams over....did them well....now dreaded finals!!!
well movable type blog is set at reliable pcplayground servers and can be seen at http://kashif.pcplayground.com

so busy this week, not even funny....no more updates(i think till friday)

wohoo!!!! im in the top 3....http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/interact/story/0,24330,3425210,00.html

It is so ironic that, all throughout the week the birds are so quite and dont chirp at all.....but as soon as the weekend comes around you can expect them to be at their chirping loudest in the morning, and its so unbelievably loud as if they are just next to your ears. Now its not that I dont enjoy the birds chirping, its just that, please not on the weekend!!!! Also bird poop on your car is a force to reckon, its as if they seem to know which cars have just been washed. They like sit on the community tree discussing that, and then in hoardes poop bomb the cars....thats why I had to wash both cards today, just disgusting.

As for the programs, all tweaks have been done and is ready to be given in for grading. wohoo!!!!

hmmm.....SNL what can I say, it was just somdry....2 times in a row...what a damper.

Simpsons was the winner this week, it was hillarious, probably one of the best shows this season.

Man these couple of days have been hell, there is this program that I have to write that translates a line into piglatin.....now for a while this program was acting like a unicorn, I was unable to catch yet I was crazy driven towards it, resulting in having dreams about that program.....you can imagine how bad things are when you start dreaming about the program( I even saw that it executed successfully...lol), well the program has been completed needing only a minor tweaks, which I shall do tommorrow. I have had enough of looking at my screen and endless amount of code.

I think my 8tc MT blog went down, I just hope that this is some downtime, and not like the last time. This time would suck even more cause I had manually transferred all my archives from here to there.....just hope they arent lost.

Now off to get some much needed sleep.

try this out it is a like a stock market with blogs Blog Shares. Seems like a lot of fun, i just registered.

Why did SNL have to suck that bad....comon it was pitiful, no excuse for that...ok thats that

I hate the climate in Houston--being so unpredictable and all, one moment the suns out, birds are chirping, the next its pouring cats and dogs. And to top it off are the drivers who drive as if they can see everything and are just zooming off splashing water all over your windsheild making it impossible to see for about 10 seconds, which is vvvvv dangerous. Just hate that!!!

Got schedule okayed today, just have to register.

What a week...really nice to meet someone you know for such a long time, after such a long time. Talks abt the "good ol days" and all the cricket stories and what a rogue class we were...hmmmm

Speaking of cricket, played cricket after 3 years(another great feeling), bowling and batting were a little rusty, but fielding(something that I was always known for) was spot on!!!! But the effects of lack of exercise are being felt....I am so damn sore...lol

Finally got the school alumni community up, and this time it is with pictures, here is the link http://nk2002.f2o.org/community

Waiting for SNL, Bernie Mac, cant get better than that!!!

My first ever software review got published today, here it is now for your reading pleasure:-

Tech Discussion:

Thanks to Kashif Khan (kashif) for this contribution.

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware has been the popular choice for removing spyware and other malware. However, Lavasoft seemed to neglect Ad Aware, and there was a period when no updates were available. This created an opportunity for Spybot, and many people switched from Ad Aware to this product. Lavasoft are back in business now with the release of Ad Aware 6, so I decided to pit these two against each other to see which was the best.

1. Ease of Use: Ad-aware won in this category hands down, with an attractive gui and very helpful step by step wizards, that can even make a newbie use this with a fair amount of ease. Spybot S&D on the other hand is geared more towards the advanced user and some of the buttons can be confusing at times, such as the Spybot s&d button instead of a simple scan button. Spybot has made changes to gui in the newer versions by having an "easy mode" and an "advanced mode".

2. Getting the job done: I updated both the software's with the latest patches from their respective sites. Spybot S&D won this category detecting more spyware and malware in my system that Ad-Aware, one of which was extremely shocking was that Ad-Aware could not even find alexa installed on my system and even valueclick and other notorious spyware for that matter.

3. Advanced features:- The winner again was Spybot S&D. One of the features that impressed me the most was it gave you a detailed explanation of what the spyware does and also from it usually originates. More advanced features include immunization and check for bho's and active x controls. Ad-aware on the other hand had nothing to match these features. The Bho feature helped me detect a .dll file that would show an "enhanced search result" page while searching on google.

4. Scan time:- Both had practically the same timings when it came to scanning. I felt Ad-Aware 6 was slower than previous versions. So it was a tie here

Keeping all these things in mind I removed Lavasoft Ad-Aware from both my computers and have installed Spybot S&D. Even though you have to be a little careful about what you delete it does an excellent job of cleaning the system (it has a recovery mode as well), and its bundled advanced features are just the thing that advanced users want. Ad-aware just could not keep up with Spybot S&D and is now my favorite pick.

Today's my birthday...just love to open my mail and see all those funny cards that people save..wohoo!!
well nothing new for the week, just waiting for this one to get over.

I have been complaining as to how this week is going to be hell with so much work and all. Well it is going to be like that, but my american government professor has made the third paper that is due optional. So that means I do not have to worry about it and is a huge relief...wohoo!!!!! But it has been an unbelievabley long day.....just waiting for this last class to get over so that I can go home.

Nothing like a weekend where you dont have to any work whatsoever.....but this feeling is going to pass pretty soon once the week starts and the work starts piling up( and I know that this week is going to be busy). Maybe if the webCT is easy enough I can get rid of it on Monday.
I uploaded all my archives from here and xanga to Movable Type, though a little tedious its up there, and now i can make a backup of it whenever I want.

looking forward to simpsons this week as it involved everybody's favorite officer, officer wiggum.

A fantastic win for the rockets as they fight the warriors for the play-off spot
go houston!!!!!




So close to converting the blog at 8tc to make it look like this....thanks to my brother.

Finally done with the week, nothing feels better than that. On top of that I am done with the webCT quiz and the program as well, so that leaves me free to do other things during the weekend....wohooo!!!!!
Maybe I can experiment with making the 8tc blog look more like this one or work on finding a place for the online community and if its a bright and sunny day I can go play some tennis.
Also excited to meet one of my bes friends after 3 years, so thats something I am looking forward to.

Really addicted to this game

Nothing much today.....I really like it since I have started taking the car to university more often....I use to take the bus on alternate days in the beginning, so that I would not be stressed out through out the week since the highway 59 of houston is hell !!!!! the traffic on there is horrible at all times, I take the highway 90 which is kinda of a backroad, but takes the same time to reach the destination. So bottom line, now that I am driving everyday, I dont find it that bad and plus you know that you have the car so you can leave immediately when classes are cancelled etc.. plus it takes a longer time to travel by bus. So it has been decided, more driving for me.

I am seriosuly thinking of getting a website(hopefully free) and moving everything to movable type, and all the archives here there as well, hmmmm lets see about that.....it seems like a high possibility, lets see...

Done with WebCT earlier this week, clearing up alot from what I have to do in this week.

Well the webCT quiz didnt take forever like the last time....that was just hell, but on a brighter note they do make good reviews. I tried getting a rss feed for blogger from an external site, but it didnt go that well....but the mt one does have one.
What I need right now is one of those programs that feeds the latest news right on my desktop, I tried downloading newsdesk today, that uses the xml feed of a website to view website, but you have to download a 20mb microsoft .net platfrom thingee from microsoft, which I dont wanna do even though I have broadband, but i bet there must be alternatives.
Well the article that I was talking about, got accepted and will be published in the next new letter, I will also post that article the day it is published.

My buddy sameers impression of hardy(of the laurel and hardy duo!!!).....he also plans to send this pic to a potential date.....i wish him the very best...lol

Program 7 has been completed before schedule....thats a good thing because that means I have more time for study over the weekend. But I still have to take that damn webCT quiz.
Finally I removed all signs of ad-aware from my system, spybot s&d really does rule. You can download it from Downloads.com.
I cant wait to see head of state...it looks hillarious.

Well I was so hoping that I would have a work free weekend, but alas, it sped by me so quick that I didnt even notice, exams are back!!!! The whole next week....*sigh* maybe next week will be cooler. I have still have not had time to write that article comparing spybot s&d and adaware.....I really wanna do that but seriously with all this work there hasnt been any time.

The deadline is over..........

Wohoo!!!!!!!!!!! The paper is done and there is no better rewarding feeling once you have done all your work and there is no backlog left, even the program has been tweaked to perfection and has to be turned in tommorrow. I so wish that blogger would provide an rss feed for this website, that would be real cool. Maybe they will have more features in the next versions of blogger, such as built in commenting, syndicaton formats etc..

This has been one hell of a week for me. First of all I had to take the webCT quiz umpteen number of times to get a hundred so that my average remains high, this took me practically the whole day and really screwed up my schedule. Then the craps program was giving major problems and required tweaking that went on for another day. All this mean that instead of two days for my paper, I had one...welll atleast I got two of the three pages done....another reason why im leaving university early tommorrow so that I can do my work and maybe do some math homework.

The Movable Type mirror is up at http://kashif.8tc.com....so you guys can go there and visit. I tried implementing this template on their but it was difficult and html is not really my cup of tea, give me a decent looking free template any day.
Hopefully the rest of the weekend goes well.!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so frustated with this code right now it in unbelievable, its not a bad program but the way the professor wants it is so difficult....damn....well I do have most of it solved, but im gonna call it a day and do something else as I have a horrible headache.

update:- program finished wohooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It feels so nice that today is thursday, because that means tommorrow is the last day of the week wohoo!!!!! But this week is gonna be real busy for me, just like most of my weekends.
There are great chances that the mirror with movabletype will be up and running soon.
Go and download the latest version mozilla 1.3 which just came out of beta testing. Click here to download link. It has alot more cool features such as advanced spam mail filtering and more compatibility with your favorite sites.
Soon I will be writing an article for the Protonic Newsletter comparing Spybot S&D and Lavasoft's Adaware and which is the best as of right now, which i will be posting on this site, cant wait for that. Most probably be working on it next week.

Ever since university has started we have been bombarded with so much work.....there calculus homework to do, american governemnt papers, programs etc.....and the list goes on. There was a tech show at the university and I was pretty keen on attending it....my overall impression was that it was good, had besically a lot of laptops, since it was all university people over there. I had fun playing with the mac's.

The other day I decided that for a project I go back to the ex-king of search engines alta vista. In its prime it was the best damn search engine, but lost its charm due to excessive commercialization and people paying them to put their results on top. And lately i heard they had improved things, trying to catch up with the google. Put in my search entries, and the results were show quite quickly, but the items had nothing to do with my query. Tried some other combo's for searches and still nothing related to my project. I gave up on that immediately and went to my other favorite after av's decline hotbot. Now this site was very good with searches, but now first of all get rid of that cheesy background, it literally makes you dizzy which is not good if you want people using for site, but i must say that there search results were real good. I had done all these because I had time to kill and even after getting some good sites with hotbot I completed everything with trusty, dependable google. Hope this is one search engine that doesnt fall into the same traps that its predecessors fell into.

Big news today, the new intel centrino chips are turning heads.....have really improved power and battery life, some sites reporting that they have been able to run a 1.6ghz laptop for a whopping 7 hours!!!!!!!!!!!

Its been such a long time since I blogged....but seriously speaking there was nothing to write about. Anyways spring break has come to an end.....no regrets about going back to university, but I wish it could be a little longer, since a week isnt just enough for spring break...
As for SNL I thought it was pretty decent this weekend...and nothing could top Simpsons today, it was hillarious and filled with political allegory.
more later, I'll have more to write about once university starts.

The broadband is back and it feels great....got all my work done, checked my mail all at the speed of light...lol

Off to watch a movie but there is a good question to ponder over:-
What technologies or devices have gone far beyond your expectations?????
Put your thoughts in the comments.

The worst thing ever happened 2 days ago....my cable modem died out....wouldnt respond whatsoever......so I have been running on dial-up power, which as most of you know is quite a painful experience. And just the fact that blogger takes forever to load on dial up discouraged me from making enteries.....anyways someone from the cable company will be coming tommorrow to look in to the matter so hopefull i should be back up tommorrow.....wohoo!!!!
As for update I am enjoying my spring break to the fullest.....balancing rest, not doing alot of work and the same time getting ahead in my programs and other classes...so i feel this is not a total waste. Also I got accepted as a support technician at Protonic, which is a great site that offers techincal support for computer for FREE...yes for free....all the guys over there are volunteers, and are very very good.
as for the movies i was kinda disappointed by My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I found it ok, while on the other hand Shanghai Knights was pretty entertaining and you can always trust Jackie Chan with those mind blowing stunts....just great!!!!!!!!!!!
more later

Finally will get to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Shanghai Knights.....Ive heard the former is a great movie and is hillarious.

I just realized that the spring break is till the 10th, and thats only a week, man that sucks, but a break is break..wohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now all I need is something sweet to go along with those movies.....gotta look around the place.
Off to watch the movies

Played basketball after nearly 2 years today...my brother challenged me, thinking that he could squish me like a little bug....little did he know that I played against some of the toughest guys in new jersey. And that really helped alot, and even though I was a little rusty I showed him how to play b-ball....lol.....playing today reminded me of the time when I first moved to NJ, and my skills werent that great....I remember being the last pick for the guys while mamking teams( though that did not bother me one bit because I used to do the same thing when I used to play cricket!!! )...but as time passed I got better and i got picked earlier and that was the best feeling ever.

Decided to change the look of my computer as the mac look was kinda getting boring, so have a look at it here...I personally think it looks great!!!
more later

Yesterday was the first time ever that I have had car trouble in my life.....I walk up to the car and keyless entry thingee wouldnt work, so I figured that maybe the remote had weak batteries, again another first i used the key to open the door, and then went to hit the "unlock all door" switch and nothing...the car would not respond, then I kinda became skeptical, sat in put the key in the ignition and tried to start it, no response...for some mysterious reason the battery had died and car would not respond at all....double checked the lights made sure there werent any attempts to break in, nothing.....and to top it all (thanks to the Houston weather) it was pouring....but luckily AAA came to my rescue, jump started the car and the same day I got the car a new battery. Thank god it just caused me a 45 minute delay or else studying for the history exam would have become very difficult.
Cant wait for tommorrow people, because after I turn in all my stuff in I AM FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes Spring Break baby!!! wohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no school, no homework (but that doesnt mean no studying) for 10 whole days...wohooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
more updates tommorrow.

paper done!!!!!!!!!!!!yes it is done and what a wonderful feeling it is...he he. Plus the fact that I come home early gives me more time to study for my history, which shouldnt take alot of time ( I dont have alot of time as it is)....but its all under control.
netfirms started this sucky new policy that you cant remote link files here, but the bigger thing is that you cant evev view pictures as is they have to embedded on a webpage, but if you want that feature you have to pay....bah!!! so i had to change the code, but everytime i update the code the script for the tracker has to be updated, and this makes it all a lengthy project. Ill fix that later on.
as for other projects set up a phpNuke community for my friends from IIS so we can keep in touch and all. Now i have to add a photo album thingee, and then it should be perfect.
Also I decided to reduce the frequency of blogs so that there is more to write and more information, and i feel that this is working.

Done with 3 pages of that paper....yes I know, it takes me alot of time to write papers...but seriously it used be worse...but since I blog practically everyday the writing part doesnt seem as much a daunting task like it used to...so blogging does have it pluses!!!! Well i am very unhappy with the way the artificial club is going...no updates, no meetings, poor attendance...even the guys who started it seem to have lost interest....have to look for a new computer group to join...the earlier group really did look promising but I dont think its gonna float. Hopefully the TA replies back quickly so that i can give my program earlier, that way i can come home earlier and get all my homework and stuff done. SNL was great yesterday, you can always count on regulars and the special guests were even better. Probably gonna go to sleep a little eaerly today...soooo tired.

I guess this has been the longest period ever after which i blogged...the main reason being that i have been very busy....exams, projects et al. I have a 5 page essay due next friday, and i have completed 2 pages of that. It actually was great that i finished my webCT quiz last week so i wouldnt be doing it now, time which I used for writing the paper. But the bad thing was today was a beautiful day.....but just couldnt go to play tennis because I was busy doing my paper that i just couldnt.
Today's SNL looks something worth staying up for....Christopher Walken.....I am positive that he will play the role of that desperate French guy...something to look forward to.
Also I found where Phoenix 0.6 is...well first of all they have to change their name because of some legal issues and second there are some bugs( you can go to their project page and see which ones have to be fixed) which they still have to fix, and as soon as that is done 0.6 will be out.
So to sum up of my weekend- complete paper(which I will love, because i want to get it over with), some history(thats fun) and maybe some T.V. and then work on calculus.

Still contemplating whether to take my laptop to university or not???? its not that its heavy or something(though some people claim otherwise), its just that at times i feel kinda lazy to lug that thing around...it would be cool if there was some kind of locker for computer science students.
These two weeks are going to be busy, with all these mid terms and stuff....ill be glad when it is over...because not only will it all be over, it will be Spring Break time....yeah..wohoo!!!!
Now for some tech review- Last week i tried the latest version on Opera. I must say i was very impressed...not only is it fast it is also so small at a measly 3 mb. The pop-up blocker was impressive, and the mail client is very capable. For those people who dont want Mozilla because of its size or want to get IE of your back should definitely give it a a ago. 2 thumbs up.
I am still using Mozilla, because i am very comfortable with it....but Opera is a good contender!!!!
by the way speaking of small i am wondering why it is taking so long for phoenix 0.6 to come out??

My third and final try with netfirms has been met with no success......I am not gonna install MT on their...its just messed up. Also I am done with the paper that I have to turn in for american government, just have to add the finishing page to it, which I will do as soon as the class is over( wonders of wi-fi, in class and connected!!!!), and then turn it in on wednesday....by the way this prof is another who just loves technology. Computer Science mid term coming up this week, all prepared for that as well. Just have to start doing that homewofk for cal II so that i can turn it in all done Friday.
And like it says below, got a new scanner from cannon....works like a dream, jus love usb plug and play.
Finally a decent show from the guys at SNL....this one actually made me stay awake till the end. Plus the 300th episode the Simpsons was fun, but i kinda liked the 301th one....hehe.

got a new scanner....but still have to finish paper for gvt.

The internet went out again....and I just hate it when it is the splitter at fault....because that means I have to move alot of furniture to fix the problem....well all said and done I am back up and running again..wohoo!!
To end the week on a brighter note the quiz was easy aced that and right now i am sipping on a brownie frap...what else could you ask for....lol

man the frikkin bus came 45 minutes late....i was late for my calc exam by 10 minutes...and that hurt my overall score...i was so mad the whole day...next time there is a test im taking the car.....now i have to work doubly hard to keep an a grade in that class. But thats ok, coz i do enjoy it.
well done with prog 4 and now i am 2 weeks ahead of the class...wohooo!!!!!

The game yesterday was amazing, just the fact that it went into 2 over times is just wonderful....very unpredictable. Just loved it. The spoof of Yao Ming at Simpons was smart too.
As for univ, its gonna be all study for Calc II exam on wednesday...the review is done with so that is good. Hopefully the MT version of the website will come up soon.

simpsons was real cool......watching the all-star game and things look good so far...astonishingly Jordan has missed 5 of his shots so far!!!!....nothing done over the weekend except calc II review sheet.....and my hosting went down a couple of days earlier, lost all files, entries.that sucked...off to watch the game.

the Ti-89 is so damn powerful, they have so many features that I am slowly learning.....if you can master it , probably it can do anything, ive even of c compilers for this baby..wow!!!
Finally managed to get hosting somewhere that will let me transfer the MT site...hopefully.

The MT project will be down for a couple of months.....yeah the host said that he will not install the modules due to some restrictions from his server, also netfirms is so screwed up that installing MT on it has become impossible.....anyways its a good thing I didnt stop blogging here. Gotta start studying for my mid terms(though I am done with the programming bit).

Came back home a little earlier today, got alot completed as well as some major homework so that means less work for me tomorrow!!!! wohoo!!!!....the MT blog situation doesnt look good, the new host does has MySQL but one of the modules are missing so i still cant install it and chances are real slim that ill be able to set it up there anyways.....but you can get all the info from good ol blogger.

Mid terms are right around the corner, and I dont know if its just me, but this semester is really flying by real quick. Fall took forever to finish..lol. It feels like only yesterday when spring semester was going to start, come to think of it all my classes practically end by April!!!!! wow!!!!
The MT blog at the new website is ready, but guess what forgot, I to ask for a MySql db....so I have to wait for that, and then its only a matter of time before I upload everything up there and make it look exactly like the 8tc one..wohooo!!!!

Well my 8tc.com finally decided to close down as their website was plagued by some people who were quite immature.....forcing them to close down due to various reasons. But I have found another host that is giving me the double the space and the other specs are the same...so tomorrow i move my movabletype to the new webste...I just love Movable Type for that reason, the ability to export all your enteries so that you dont loose them in case of an emergency, like this. I already have the domain, but after I transfer everything tomorrow I will post the new url.

As for university today was just great, started off calculus II on a bright note with a 100 on the first quiz!!!! so that was nice. wohoo!!!!!

Long time since an update.....but seriously there was nothing really that interesting I had done over this week....just did a little organizing, seeing when the mid terms are other stuff. done with homework and all making this one of the most boring weekends ever.
Simpsons was very funny, a good episode. Another good move was that they are gonna run for two more years, before they are completely saturated( though many people feel that they are already saturated!!!!!)
Saw a horrible move too this weekend, a bad remake of i know what you did last summer.
More tomorrow.

Finally the week has come to an end...and this weekend was especially was just too tiring. Also had a bad charley horse the other day, not once but twice while sleeping....man those hurt.
The calculus quiz went well today, and our math class is getting more high tech, in a few days we can get help for Calculus II through aim, isnt that just great???
off to watch a movie.

I joined the H.A.I.R.S today which stands for Houston Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Society. This is so cool because we get to make our own robots, something which i have wanted to do always. We start off with the simple BEAM robots and then move upwards to making more sophisticated ones. I am so excited to get started!!!!!

Was so busy today that forgot to eat lunch...which is quite surprising for me!!!! I shall never do that again as it made me feel horrible the whole day, because the breaks in between class arent that long....atleast i got my homework done though :)

I am usually not that big a fan of history...but todays class really changed my feelings about it. This History professor is perhaps the best teacher for history that i have ever had, and his style of teaching makes the matter more interesting. We learn History not only with the facts but also with movies that were there in that period. Also how films mirrored the complete opposite happenings of that period as well. well todays class had clips from the movie Wizard of OZ, and how it was a allegory showing the political happenings during the 1890's. It was just amazing and lots of fun.

Got all my books(finally!!!!)...now have to study from them :)
can u believe it January is almost over???

The TA for calculus II knows what he is doing....but he cannot explain the methods or other vital information of calculus for crackers......I just dont get it...and its not only me...the whole class feels that way.

On a brighter note all my books were shipped out and the rest will be bought tomorrow...wohoo!!!!

The superbowl game is going quite good so far(even though I dont understand alot of it, quite a newbie i am !!!!!). The Raiders are making huge mistakes and are letting the Buccs run over them literally. But the ads that are going on so far are just great. the best one uptil now have been:
1. The ozbournes ad for pepsi twist
2. The budweiser ad with the guy with a dog over his head.
3. Yao Ming's "yo" ad

As for today I was so hoping that a new episode of simpsons be shown, but I read wrong, apparently on the website they have dated the new episode for February 2. and are showing Independence Day instead. Finally placed orders for my American Government book over at Barnes and Nobles, now I just have to get my History books. I would have had all of them by now, but on Friday the 2nd floor and some portions of the 3rd floor University Center were burnt down because of some person who left a lit cigarette carelessly which led to the burn down. So even the library(which is on the second floor) has been closed for a couple of weeks.

I finally got fed up with the look of my 8tc website, and decided to change the look of it....so here is the new looking website. I feel the white color is quite a refreshing change.

off to watch the game!!!

While writing this entry the Buccs have made an excellent 44 yard touch down!!!! by the way i am rooting for the Buccs....wohoo!!!!!!

I had planned yesterday to blog a second time yesterday after that update.....but sadly the the internet came back and then went off again. But it is back again and its all good. A number of places on the net were down today as well because of a series of denial of service attacks and also a virus that is quite rampant.
well got alot of work done, finished my second program that was due for c programming class.....but I still have to buy the books....did not get to go today :(
off to watch a movie.

The woes of 56k...yesterday my ISP went down, and said that they wont be up for a while now. Im stuck with 56k, something that i havent used in a while. And like they say once you go broadband, you cant go back.....its so true....56k is horrible, because you'll be really lucky if you connect at those speeds. Can;t go to my regular websites because it takes so long to download(I just dont have the patience for slow loading pages...lol)....thats why i did not even blog yesterday!!!!! right now i am at University and using one of the computers in the lab, time to go to class.

Went to get my buy my books today from the university library.....now you must be wondering why so late, well I decided to hold off until my schedule is permanent so I dont have the headache of returning the books and all that....but it seems that man are doing exactly what I had planned to do. Even after a week of school being opened people are still buying the books, and lines till the cashier are just too long. I have a good hour between classes, but I dont think even that is enough to get all my books, even though I dont have to buy alot of books this semester as most 2 of classes(calculus, c programming) are continuations from where we left off. Probably will go to saturday so that I might avoid the rush.

Also it was so cold today, and they say the weather is going to be worse tomorrow, good thing is that i take the car tomorrow, so i dont have to wait outside for long in the cold. Hopefully the weather clears up over the weekend so that i can play some tennis, that would be cool.

I so wish that there was a Dunkin Donuts here, their coffee is just excellent, and i am kinda getting bored of Krispy Kreme.

Wohoo!!! my schedule has changed, so now not only do i have a better teacher but also better use of time....so now tuesday and thursdays ill be home by around 12pm. now all i have to do is buy the books for those classes.
Hoping to join a few clubs as well this semester, mostly related with comp sci.

today was so nice, just perfect, but they say that this will only last for only a couple of days :(

man i feel like drinking a brownie frap again!!!!

Feeling kinda lazy nowadays to post, plus nothing exciting has been happening that made it worthwhile to post everyday.....the holidays came and went quite quickly, didnt do much except write a stupid essay for american government class of mine.
thanks to my bro the pic(the one on your left) that I had fixed(it had a real irritating white border) with photoshop to perfection was ruined....he said he could "fix" it and make it smaller...but all he really did was ruin the pic.....so i had to make another one, but it doesnt look as good as the original....ill deifnitely have to sit with that pic and work on it again. arrgh!!!!!
Anirudh told me about a game caleld hegemonia, but their servers were so full that i could'nt download it all, but lately with all the university work i dont have time to play games as well.
nothing great on TV as well....simpsons was a repeat...and SNL sucked big time, even weekend update was horrible.

And i do agree with Chris that majority of the blogs arent being updated as regularly as they used to be....so come on go ahead and update!!!

Update: gave him the pic again, so he has made it better...thanks dude!!!!

What a game yesterday between the Lakers and the Rockets....Stevie Francis was just amazing with 44 points, just too good. But everywhere in the news they still talk abt the Yao-Shaq match up....though I have to give it to Yao, he was able to block the big guy, not once but 3 times which I feel is quite an achievement.

Remember that American Government teacher i was unhappy about, well i got an email from the other professor, and she will be able to take me in the class, so thats just great!!!!!

Saw something real ironic today.....a farmers insurance claim car, was being given a ticket by a policeman...that was so hillarious that the insurance company was getting a ticket.

here is something real interesting, that made me go wow!!!!! when i read it(though i think it might be a little expensive, but maybe with popularity it will come down)
click here

Tomorrow is going to be great....the last class has been cancelled, so that means i get to be at university for about an hour or so...wohoo!!!
Almost done with all the work from university, so should be free over the weekend, just the fact that I have to write the dreaded essay for american government. Maybe ill do that friday.

This semester so far is going great....I have some of the best teachers this time...a lot of research was put in (by me :) ) to choose good teachers over, time of day......but the sad thing is that my american government teacher is'nt that great(actually she is'nt the one that i opted for originally,but for some bizarre reason the other guy disappeared!!!!)...she does know her material and all that....but the amountt of work that we have to put in for a course that is just a core requirement is unbelievable...we have to write reaction essays after every chapter, then there are 3 other separate papers on different subjects, and a final paper. not to mention debates every week where we have to do research, and then a final presentation. The best part of the course is that it will be over by april 18th, and the final will be during the first week of may, so thats like a good 20 days before summer break. It would be real kewl if we had more classes like this in my major (computer science), where we would write papers on the latest technologies and debate about them with their downfalls, advantages etc...

I recently tried out this kewl feature in windows messenger( it only works if u have windows XP)....desktop sharing and application sharing....with this feature on you can share microsoft applications and some other third party applications with other people on your buddy list....you can still share if the other guy doesnt even have the application installed.....i tried this over my network and it worked like a charm.....but the TCP requires port 1503 to be open, which firewalls or even routers with NAT might deny....but anyhow it is worth a try. Another feature that looks kinda intriguing is the remote administration(again works only with XP)...if you just like me receive calls or IM's from friends and family concerning various problems with their computers, and sometimes have a tough time explaining to them what to do, this is a real kewl feature that lets you, and then you work on their computer....even this requires some ports to be open, which if i ever do it, will let you know. Again if anyone has given this feature a look lemme know!!!!

Switch to linux update: not done yet, still looking for a computer, but on a brighter note i am using the linux computers in the computer lab, and learning the tricks in there, so its still good.

today was such a long day......after such a nice winter break of getting up late and going to sleep even later.
the worst part was that the two labs that i had to attend today were cancelled, so i had a 5 hour break between the two classes, ooohhhhh that was just terrible.
well starbucks has opened up at the university center satellite...so thats always good(more brownie fraps..wohoo!!!!! )

i still have to buy two books, maybe ill do that tomm.

tomm is the first day of univ....have to get up early.... :(
today was so cold...brrrr....made sure i had all the things necessary for tomm. just hope tomorrow isnt that bad because i have to do alot of walking, and will be back by 7:00pm...thats a long day

well heres my new blog, at the new host click here

the only good though is that the 20th is a holiday.....wohoo!!!!

hmmm there was nothing to do today, except move my netfirms site to 8tc....also it was pouring and no sun made the day even duller.

a new small company called e.digital is standing againt apple's ipod....their jukebox is also very sleek and is being showcased at CES in vegas. it boasts of USB 2.0, 20gb of space, and voice recognition, plays MP3's and WMA files. And just like the iPod it can also be used as an external hard disk drive....but even though it is fresh from the showroom it is a hundred dollars cheaper than the iPod with the same specs...lets see what happens.

this is pretty amusing Miss Cleo: 'I'm Sorry That People Were Scammed'

forget netfirms.... i got hosted at another palce with no ADS!!!!!!!!! wohooo access the site at here. more later

i am making the switch - at this moment right now i can hear ppl saying is he getting a mac after seeing those switch ads........well no(i feel they are a bit too expensive for their offerings)...im going to linux....yes red hat linux 8.0. ive heard alot of great things about linux, from a programming point of view and i wanted to get a feeling for another OS, especially linux. for most people who do not know what linux is, it is an Operating System just like Windows or Mac, and it 100% FREE, and is very powerful. it is very powerful it does alot for, but you should know how to make it work for you, but with KDE(desktop thingee) and Gnome, Linux has started looking alot like Windows and more user friendly.

But i wont be completely leaving windows out, ill just be moving between the two to get a feel for myself, and as soon as macs get cheaper ill probably get that as well :)....i just need an old computer(preferably a laptop) to run this.....as we speak i am downloading the third and final iso from their servers. For other people who are becoming a little enthusiastic and wanna stand out from the crowd there are many version of linux out there, the popular ones Mandrake and Red Hat.

i still havent watched jerry seinfeld on broadway....maybe tomm.
and a couple of days ago i was saying abt that feeling of wanting univ to start...well that feeling has passed..lol...but it will all get better after a couple of days he he

i think this has been my longest post ever(this was so random lol)

netfirms was down and out from a denial of service attack the whole morning.....alot of the problems have been fixed but there are alot of things still wrong only for me....and that makes me mad!!!!

on a brighter note im almost towards the end of teaching myself C++ and so far it has been a smooth ride.

wohoo made some good cash on old books today...sold them on half.com..got a heck alot of money than if i had gone to the univ lib..he he.

now what i want is an old pc so that i can run linux on it!!!!!

set up my own forum now using phpBB...best of all it was FREE!!!! and very easy to install...i still dont know what to do with the forums, but since i dont want everyone and anyone posting i will send out emails to people who i want to join. then later on you can put in ur suggestions as to what i should do...so that should be a good way to start off things. if you want to try your hand at making your own forums you can download the scripts from here

also did some minor updates to the netfirms blog templates.

finally got some time to watch robin williams...that dude is just so funny and his extempo stuff is even better...a must see.....next i get jerry seinfeld live on broadway, that should be fun as well.

the ibooks have a 17inch monitor and they look real phat, and are loaded with kewl features...i want an iBook!!!!!!!

so tired rite now....actually cant wait for college to start....which is very weird...i hope this feeling goes away ...lol
just mite go to bed early.

tried installing the trackback feature on the movable type blog (which in case you have forgotten is at http://k4shif.netfirms.com), but i messed up the index file, but its back to normal now...everytime i open that netfirms page i feel so proud..lol...took me 3 weeks to make that one(actually to figure out what to do). i have no idea what the trackback feature does, but if anyone does pls let me know.

i was watching this show on the travel channel, some french dude went to the rainforests and met this tribe that was totally oblivious of the world outside them..it was amazing...no clue of fire, iron etc...they were touching the french dude to see if the paint would come of his white colored skin...lol...it was just amazing.

i still havent watched robbin williams on broadway maybe monday :)

off to watch another movie.

the cloning thing that has been going on for a few days seems real fishay!!!! i personally am not that kewl with the whole cloning thing, and playing god....there are huge possibilities that they could mess up big time and create such a big mess that it would be very difficult to fix!!! the whole concept of the leader being fathered by an alien is also way out there (pun not intended)

since im back in the gaming modd i think i shall go back to UT2K3, which in my opinion was the best so far.

i have a copy of robbin williams on broadway...that dude is hillarious...i have yet to see it though.
off to watch a movie now.

that was real fun in the morning...got alot of click...tis was real fun, but had to remove it as it really slowed everything down.

anyways other who want to try that can get the code from here.

removed it...made my blog real slow...would take forever to load

nothing much to write abt today, but had to make some sort of post on new years day..lol
have to start thinking abt which summer session to choose out of the 4 available options since registration starts real early.
anywayz HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!