Understanding spoken English

I have always felt there is a difference in the way I understand English spoken in an
Indian accent and the way I understand English spoken in a foreign accent.

I guess, today I know what is that difference.

For a word spoken in a foreign accent I don't understand it unless it has
been pronounced completely while in an Indian accent I usually have it
guessed before its utterance is finished.

A tribute to the spirit of Marwar

In Jodhpur :

Trader fights 29 years to recover one paisa

Keyboard shortcuts for gmail/google reader/firefox

Most of my time spent online is spent using firefox/gmail/google reader. So it is
really important that I use keyboard shortcuts for the above three to avoid
the heavy strain caused by the frequent mouse clicks and constant switching
between mouse and keyboard.

For switching between tabs in firefox I used to use Ctrl-[Shift]Tab earlier
but it created problems at my workspace desktop since that is Linux
and Ctrl-[Shift]Tab combinations are used for switching between multiple
desktops etc. Similarly for Ctrl-F4(used for closing tabs). Then I started
using Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDn for tab switching and Ctrl-w for closing
tabs. Firefox has pretty much done away with Ctrl-F as well with its
"finding as you type" feature. Another cool feature from firefox is its
quick searches.

For gmail, some of the shortcuts I use often are :
g-i : go to inbox
g-a : go to All Mail
g-s : go to starred
y : archive
r : reply
f : forward

Similarly for google reader :
g-a : go to all items
g-u : go to subscription
g-t : go to tag
m : mark read/unread
n : next item
v : open the item in new tab

Though i don't really know if using keyboard shortcuts prevents wrist
injuries since if it takes less effort to use a computer, you will use it
more and in effect you would be hurting your wrists by an equal amount
in either case.

Note(3-8-07) : Here is another link to firefox keyboard shortcuts.

Uploading videos from my Sony Handycam to Youtube

How to upload videos from my/your Sony HCR36-E handycam/camcorder to Youtube :

Well, you can upload them to Google Videos as well since it doesn't put any constraint
on the video size or duration unlike Youtube.

Anyway, once you have transferred video from your cam to the PC, you will
notice that it is in avi format. And a clip of around 3 minutes will take almost 1 GB
on your disk. Ok, forget that for a moment. Your first concern should be to edit
your video. For doing that I use VirtualDub. Just select the unwanted frames
and press the delete key. Then from the file menu, select "Save as AVI".

Having trimmed your movie you would like to compress it so that you can
send it to your Gmail account(I mention Gmail since it gives you the largest
attachment size - 20MB- as of today), or transfer it online quickly.

Earlier I used to use VLC(by using its wizard option)for converting avi to mpg,
but many a times the conversions were not foolproof. At times I got only the
audio part of the original. While some times the Youtube rejected the video
saying it was too long, even though it was well within its 100MB/10 minutes
limit.

Then I started using Super, which is free of the above-mentioned problems
till now.
Select the following options :

output container : mpg (Mpeg I)
output video codec : MPEG-I
output audio codec : mp3


Drag and drop the input file and click Encode(active files).
And that's it. happy uploading/emailing.
Btw, here are my videos : http://youtube.com/dharm0us

Unplanned Freefall? Some Survival Tips

http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html

Form ITR1 in Excel format - for filing tax returns in India

Here is the link.

Everonn IPO India

IPO of Everonn Systems India Limited, which opened on 5th July, has already been
subscribed 0.9 times in retail portion. Rather unusual, considering the fact that it will be
open to bids for 3 more days. Retail investors in India have been known to wait till the last
day of the bidding, even for the issues subscribed around 40 times. Very rarely
does the retail portion gets fully subscribed before the last day. So what's in store for
Everonn? A 100 times subscription in retail segment ;-)

On a different note, DLF got listed and is currently trading at 10% premium from its
issue price. Much better listing than GMR, which was panned prior to its IPO by analysts
who, I am sure, are yet to get their feet outta one of their natal holes. Or may be they
did it to distract everyone so that they can buy it in lumps?

Any sane mathematicians in Hollywood?

Just finished watching this movie, Proof.
This along with A Beautiful Mind and Good will hunting
constitutes a trilogy of insane Math-o-holics,
and makes me wonder if Hollywood would ever be
able to lay its hands upon a "Normal" mathematician's
tale.

BTW, here is the torrent and the english subtitles for Proof.

PS: Proof and the two other movies mentioned above are
indeed fantastic, and in no way do I mean to pan them.
I was just wondering about what I wrote above.