Vivek’s Blog

So here we are, exactly seven days since I decided to post every day.  I’ve kept up my promise to post daily and I intend to carry on as far as I can.

Had a pretty up and down day today.  First I got two grades that didn’t make me very happy, considering that I had put in a lot of effort.  Then, today being the D-Day for fall housing, I looked on in shock as all the good rooms went quickly.  Thanks to my shitty lottery number, all the good rooms I had picked out were taken before I got my chance.  So, things were not going particularly well.

But I was able to pick into a room right across from a friend and then two more friends selected rooms on the same floor.  Quite a turn of events, I must say.  I went from wondering if I would even know anyone near me to a situation where everyone that I knew and had not selected suites are going to live right next to me.  Then a friend came over to visit and we got some good Ethiopian food and played Rock Band and Smash Bros.  And thus the day ended on a high note, in stark contrast to the way it had begun.  I now have the pleasure of working on 3 different essays for the next two weeks.  My friends, the good times have only just begun.

This post is about how a virgin sacrifice almost didn’t happen. Have fun.

The Columbia University Science Fiction Society decided to have a virgin sacrifice to appease Cthulhu. I found out from a friend and decided I had to go. I wasn’t sure if they were going through with it but figured a walk up to campus before dinner would be nice anyway. I got there a few minutes early so I thought I’d walk around campus for a bit until they started. This was 8:42pm. While walking around, I ran into my friend who was finishing up with his guitar lesson on the famous “Low Steps”. So I sat with him while he practiced playing his guitar. It was a nice evening so I stayed there for a bit. Another friend stopped by to ask for directions on a homework problem.

Now, it got to 9:20pm and there was absolutely no sign of any virgins or sacrifices. My friend and I decided to leave. It was already half an hour past their scheduled time so we thought it wasn’t happening. We had dinner at a nearby pizza place and then I headed back home while he went to his lab.

I was almost home when I got call from my friend saying there was a lot of chanting going on and the sacrifice was about to happen. I didn’t go back. Frak those lazy, unpunctual sci-fiers. Or maybe I didn’t get the memo they sent about a revised schedule because I’m not on their mailing list. In any case, it happened, and I wasn’t there. End of story.

1. Guy buys The Orange Box from India while home for winter
2. Guy tries to install game in the US
3. Guy finds out game is region locked
4. ???
5. Profit!! (Valve, not guy)

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello folks! I got back to the US on Monday and have started classes already. Getting used to the new schedule will take a week or two as will getting back into the habit of doing work. But I’d rather not bore you with my education when I can entertain you with stories from my flight here.

Delhi airport is a mess right now. It has always been super-crowded but since they started renovating it, the mess is terrible. However, the good news is that the parts that are done look fantastic. Hopefully they can get it done soon. Check-in was a breeze but security took forever due to the limited, makeshift booths that have been set up during renovation. By comparison, the security check-in at Frankfurt went smooth.

The flight to Frankfurt was largely uneventful. The flight was not late. It was supposed to leave at 3:05am and we got going around 3:10am. However, we got into Frankfurt a few minutes after the due time because of traffic at Fraport. The flight to New York, however, was delayed by nearly an hour. Take a guess as to why it was delayed.

No idea? Try this on for size: there were too many aircraft in the British airspace and we were asked to leave half an hour late. Add that to the regular 20-30-minute delay in take-off from Fraport and you get a net delay that was too much for the pilots to overcome completely. We landed at 1:15pm, half an hour late and immediately ran into what looked like 500 more people waiting to clear immigration. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that getting past immigration took ages - two and a half hours to be precise. I got back to my dorm at 5pm. Amazing.

I was half-expecting to not find my luggage after all the delays I had already faced. Thankfully, that did not happen and I was able to easily locate my checked-in luggage. But I did have to wait a long time before getting a cab. It was freezing and I was probably under-dressed for the weather. It’s freaking cold here.

So that’s about it for now. Stay tuned because there’s more to come very soon.

Sounds like the name of a Scrubs episode, doesn’t it? Except, I’m not Zach Braff or a doctor for that matter. But I like to think that I know a thing or two about technology and cell phones to come up with my ideal device. It’s not going to be some kind of elaborate phone that can literally do it all. But I do have some rigid requirements that this phone must fulfill. Anything that the phone can do beyond my requirements is just an added bonus. I’m going to make this post look like the spec-sheet of this hypothetical phone, minus the picture of course. I’m not a graphics designer unfortunately.

HARDWARE:

Form Factor: Don’t care although sliders and candy-bars are preferable since they can accommodate larger screens.

Surface Finish: Matte finish please! No glossy surfaces. Those attract fingerprints like crazy. A matte-metallic finish/surface would be ideal. Black matte would be great too.

Size: Reasonable enough so that the device can fit in my pocket and still have regular keys. Under 20mm thickness is good, mmkay?

Display: 2.4″ or larger and at least QVGA resolution. If the size is going to exceed 2.5″, then something like 352×416 or 480×320 would be a lot better for viewing webpages and documents and maps.

Battery: 1000mAh minimum. This device is going to suck power and it better come with enough juice to last more than a day.

Connectivity: Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and triband HSDPA (850/1900/2100). I could do without the HSDPA though since 3G data is obscenely expensive. EDGE is slow and still expensive.

WiFi is important. Living in New York City, there are plenty of available hotspots. Almost every part of campus has WiFi available so it will be great to quickly check up on some news or email when I don’t have access to a computer.

Camera: 2 Megapixels and up. I just need something that takes decent pictures when I don’t have my Canon Powershot on me. A second camera for video calls would be useful only if I can use it over WiFi for video chat via IM clients.

SOFTWARE:

Operating System: Symbian OS (UIQ or S60) or Windows Mobile. S60 preferred.

Music/Video Player: I won’t be using the cell phone for music and video that often, but during times when I don’t have my Zen Vision: M, I’d like a secondary media player.

Maps: Some kind of application for maps will be very useful. Nokia has Nokia Maps which is swell.

Any feature other than what I’ve listed is welcome, but not required. GPS is slowly making its way into more and more phones and that’s good. It’s nice to be able to find your way around new places or get help when you lose your way. Phones with built-in 8GB of flash are relatively expensive right now and if I already have a dedicated media player, I don’t really need it. Perhaps 1 or 2GB with a microSD slot would be a better idea.

I don’t think the phone I’ve described above is difficult to achieve in practice. By dropping features like a 5MP camera and 8GB flash memory, existing phones like the N95 can be made cheaper and still satisfy my requirements. As it stands, I’ve settled on the N95-3/8GB as long as they drop to an acceptable price level. With CES and 3GSM just around the corner though, new devices are not far away.