K-Media - Puma®

Blog moved

2006-05-12T16:05:00.000+04:00

Just figured it's time to move on: http://khalil.wordpress.com

NaNoWriMo & Flock

2005-10-21T16:08:00.000+04:00

I'm in! 50k words in a month. Surprisingly at first it didn't seem that difficult because I did once write about 15k in a day! But it's only now that I'm starting to realise that this is more challenging than it first seemed. My novel will be named Writer's Block and it deals with 5 characters namely Sky and Sara, who are from Mauritius, Kenton Pulse, a sci-fi writer, Jade Khan, a copyeditor of Business Weekly and Bertrand Roselmack, an indie publisher of books. More info later. But I just downloaded Flock, that new browser. It's completely like Firefox with a few add-ons. I wonder why it isn't just a Firefox update actually. I'm just going to read this article to find out. But I've been trying to get this post from Flock... and well it failed!

Spam getting smart on K-Media

2005-10-03T14:52:00.000+04:00

Here's a comment I received on my previous blog post. It definetely looks like a spam to me. But it nearly worked on me.

Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you! I have a ***** site/blog. It pretty much covers ***** related stuff. Come and check it out if you get time :-)

Yes, I did add small * to hide the name of the website being advertised.

I like my country

2005-10-03T10:43:00.000+04:00

You know sometimes I feel very patriotic. I don't know why but it's just like this. I have a feeling of solidarity with Mauritius. Maybe it's because of the elections, who knows.

I can say that I'm feelling better

2005-10-01T17:14:00.000+04:00

I love to write. Really do. Plus there's an idea of a new blog germinating in my head right now. All I can say is that if ever the project goes on, it'll be a group blog.

Depression

2005-09-22T18:32:00.000+04:00

I'm not sick, I'm not tired but I'm sick and tired of everything.

I just type

2005-09-20T21:03:00.000+04:00

It's a great thing to do, especially when you're stressed. Or have to talk to someone but there's nobody to listen. I'm in a teen depression phase, sorry.

Influence I always thought that girls had a big infulence on guys but I never thought it was that big. When a boy falls in love with a girl, he can truly change for her sake. And that's from a guy's point of view, girls! That made me wonder: guys really have a tender heart. They may sometimes get hurt more easily than girls. True! And I'm not really a feminist.

Ultimate I suppose the ultimate thing that can happen in a boy's life would be to have sex. But maybe that's what most girls think. A boy is a tender human being not just a muscle-packed body. A boy needs affection because he is fragile and a little lost in this huge world, too big for his mind to process. A boy seems to be only the pawn in this world. Because it's the girl who gives life. And it's that the ultimate thing: giving life? But that's, I should say is a girl's ultimate desire. As for a boy's one, well... to be loved deeply, affectionately and by that unique person is enough.

Try this impressive, ingenious and well-deserved-a-place-on-my-bookmarks-list website.

It's my blog, right? 03/08

2005-08-03T14:43:00.000+04:00

[music: Slipped away_Under My Skin_Avril Lavigne]

How many weeks? Two or maybe three? No actually I think it's been a whole complete month! Don't blame me guys, I know that you've been missing me like hell (as if) but I just wasn't near the notebook (or laptop, if you prefer) for some time. And obviously, a lot of things happened during the intervening period.

d.r.e.a.m is in 20min on mbc1
[music: Somewhere only we know_Hopes and Fear_KEANE]

I've been in hols for about two weeks now and it's been ok. Really! I've been actually working a bit, writing an awful lot and listening to a lot of music (mainly Within Temptation). And of course I've been reading.

As many of you probably know, I'm in the transitional process of becoming an atheist and hell, it is difficult to get yourself accepted in the Mauritian society when you're atheist - particularly by adults. But now that I'm fleeing from god, the question is what do I believe in? It's always been science; I still am convinced that science can explain anything and everything, whether it is love (I actually wrote a column about the chemistry of love) or the creation of the universe. "But can science really answer anything?" Well, that's the question that the writer of "8 problems that shows the limits of science," is trying to answer. It's a really book which I just started.

Speaking of books, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was finally released two weeks ago. Well I obviously have the whole series displayed next to me in the tv room/laptop room/library room at home. I took it slowly this time. I mean I didn't really rush to finish the 6th book; I think I took 3 or 4 days in all actually. Well ratings? Here's how I'll list the series in order of preference (best first):
1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Philospher's Stone
3. Goblet of Fire
4. Half-Blood Prince, Chambers of Secrets & Order of the Phoenix.

But the 3 books tied on 4th spot are not synonyms of worst. There're not as good as the other 3 obviously but I still enjoyed them. The 6th book disappointingly though only seems to be the prelude to the final book of the series. It doesn't really has a plot. It only gives us some backstory about the Horcruxes. And I loved liked mad, the Ginny-Harry relationship.

And about the Horcruxes, I have a theory about where the locket is, that I've pitched to a Harry Potter fansite. I'll let you know when it's published, if ever it is.

Just watched k2da on mbc1
[music: Welcome to Paradise_GreenDay]

Apart from Harry Potter, we're going to have a reboot of the laptop later today. And this means that practically all of the files and software currently on the laptop are going to be deleted. I've already done my back-up (only need to actually store the 1.2 Gb of my files on CD) and well, we'll see how it all turns out to be. I'll have to download FireFox again for instance and some other software as well, I'm afraid.

Today will also mark the first day of my participation in the rehearsal of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Yeah, I'm a Shakespearian actor! Impressive? Well that's the second time that I'll be playing in the Macbeth play on stage. I don't even know which role I'll be playing this time around. We'll find everything in the afternoon at half past five. Rehearsing is always a lot of fun. Everybody is there: the actors (and actresses), the director, the costume designer... But the first time I was on stage was really frightening. However it always goes smoothly afterwards - "nearly always". And when I attended the Girls Kata Competion earlier this year (it was this year, right), I could totally understand how the girls were feeling upon performing before so many people. Fortunately once on stage, you don't see any of the spectators. But the first time is still intimidating to anybody.

The coolest part of playing in Macbeth the last time, was without doubt playing in front of the Bocage students. They were applauding after each and every scene, let alone act. Playing in front of the QEC gals wasn't bad either, I admit. It's great when you see some of the girl spectators trying to catch a glimpse of you on your way to the actors' loudge (if it can be called a loudge) when the play is over.

I'm all alone at home. Yeah!
[music: How Soon Is Now_Charmed theme song (complete version)_Love Spit Love]

It seems strange that a shy guy like me can act on stage, let alone talk! But drama has helped me a lot, mainly with my pronunciation. And there are many out there who would love to be in my place even if they aren't too keen on admitting.

Did I say that I'm currently writing my autobiography? Who on earth would want to read the autobiography of a nearing-17-year-old-teenager? Well it doesn't really matter. It's not really an autobiography but rather an account of my writer's life. I've been actively writing for over 2 years now so I thought that I was going to compile my experiences, doubts, mistakes and achievements. Plus I'm going to write as things happen. I mean it'll be like keeping a journal in some way and that's why I'll be putting it all on a blog as it happens.

I opened an account with the France2 blogging facilities and I'll be publishing the entries in both the original English version and French version. It's so easy to translate English into French nowdays: just use Google's translator. The final product isn't perfect so I'll have to proofread before actually pressing the "Publish" button. But my French is so bad that I wonder how it'll all turn out to be. Well, we'll see.

To the most important stuff of all for a teenage single boy like me, girls! Are you watching d.r.e.a.m on kd2a at 1215 p.m. everyday? The girls in there are really... well appealing, to put it mildly. But did you see Frankie? She's so hot. Her hair is simply so rocking great. She isn't too prickly nor too silly but above all, she's not too sophisticated. She's the simple girl but she still isn't like anybody else (am I making any sense), far from it. And oh, what about her smile? Man, let's face it... she's really sexy. And she dances really well, she has a beautiful voice and... and I can go on ranting about all of her qualities for years.

Also, d.r.e.a.m just released their cd with some of the songs that they sing in the series. I have to get my hands on them. Their songs ARE okay, aren't they?

Well I don't think I have much more to say. I'll let you all know how the rehearsal turns out to be in my next entry - and god knows when that'll be! A question to you all: Do you want me to write weekly reports of the behind the scenes of a theatre play? I've been thinking about this for some time and I'm up to the challenge if you want to read about it.

Not Scientific Science over at backwash is doing good. The latest column deals with number theories. I really enjoyed writing this particular article so I suppose that's good.

Anyway see you and as Ravi always ends his never-ending posts over that the ShinKyo board (no offence Ravi),
Take care.

Bye. I'll be thinking about you all. I'll be back.
(You say: Oh SHUT UP!)

Well...
[music: Closing time_Green Day]

sorry but...

2005-07-30T19:14:00.000+04:00

... I'm not getting too much of the computer for the time being.

Olympics 13: The vote's figures

2005-07-06T17:33:00.000+04:00

When New York was eliminated, their voters started voting for London and Paris but not much for Madrid. Whereas the Madrid voters sticked to their original votes but saw Madrid go.

First round

London 22
Paris 21
Madrid 20
New York 19
Moscow 15 (eliminated)

Second round

Madrid 32
London 27
Paris 25
New York 16 (eliminated)

Third round

London 39
Paris 33
Madrid 31 (eliminated)

Fourth round

London 54
Paris 50 (eliminated)

IOC members from countries with candidate cities were ineligible to vote while their candidates were still in contention.

bye bye for now. i look forward to 2012 in London. congrats to you guys.

Olympics 12: 54-50

2005-07-06T17:21:00.000+04:00

That's the score after voting. London wins by only 4 votes! You can't get any closer than this.

Olympics 11: French President wishes luck

2005-07-06T17:18:00.000+04:00

He was flying to the G8 summit when he got the news.

French president Jacques Chirac has wished London "good luck" in hosting the 2012 Olympics after the UK capital pipped Paris in the vote in Singapore.

Olympics 10: What british newspapers said

2005-07-06T17:12:00.000+04:00

The Sun: London's burning, London bid bosses have Olympics within grasp
The Mirror: Lord of the rings, Seb Coe calls star-studded line-up to help London across finishing line
The Guardian: Paris banking on third time lucky, Paris stands on verge of historic Olympic achievement
The Daily Telegraph: Ultimate gold medal awaits
The Times: London confident entering final straight
Daily Mail: The closest race in history
Daily Express: Coe's moment of destiny
The Independent: London sprints to line with Blair pitch project
London Evening Standard: It must be us

Source: bbc.co.uk

Olympics 9: IOC president's message

2005-07-06T17:01:00.000+04:00

So true.

1355 BST: Jacques Rogge, IOC president
We are very pleased with the victory of London. It was a high quality bid and they are people we trust who will deliver a great Games. We know the cruelty of sport, but this an even crueller game with only one medal - a gold one. Well done to London.

Olympics 8: Contract signed

2005-07-06T16:59:00.000+04:00

Mission accomplished!

1325 BST: London sign the host city contract.

Olympics 7: Some "no to London" amongst the English

2005-07-06T16:55:00.000+04:00

Well I never thought that would happen but maybe the journalists should interview this lady to know a little bit more about her views. I suppose a small minority of 0.00001% people in London will back her.

1244 BST: Saj Chowdhury, BBC Sport at Trafalgar Square
In an address on the big screen Tony Blair told the crowd in London "well done". Listening were a group, who work for a design agency who have helped with the bid, wearing cut-out Seb Coe masks. One of them, Matt Akex said: "We've got a day off workso I think we'll have a few drinks". Not all shared the sense of elation. Vannessa Fristetd holding a 'No to London' placard said: "I believe it will turn out for the worse.I think this is bad news".

Olympics 6: Message from Tony Blair

2005-07-06T16:50:00.000+04:00

1333 BST: Tony Blair, Prime Minister
This is a momentous day for London. It's a great chance to develop sport and leave a legacy for the future. It was genuinely a team effort and Seb Coe and the team were just awesome throughout. For me it was easy coming in with the way that Seb and his team worked. They were focused and clever in every single aspect. It really shows what you can achieve if you work together. I couldn't bear to watch the final bit. I've been trying to work on the G8 stuff but my mind has been in two places today. I went for a walk and got a call from the switchboard. It's not often in this job that you punch the air and do a little jig and embrace the person next to you. It's a fantastic thing and I'm thrilled.

Olympics 5: French tv coverage

2005-07-06T16:47:00.000+04:00

They weren't bad but the presentators were indeed very sad.

La capitale anglaise a été désignée pour organiser les Jeux olympiques de 2012, mercredi à Singapour.
The English capital was indicated to organize the Olympic Games of 2012, Wednesday in Singapore.

translation by Google Translate

Olympics 4: Madrid apparently celebrates

2005-07-06T16:34:00.000+04:00

Looks like London were actually good! Pity their official website is unavailable for the moment. Maybe they're revamping it for the big occasion.

1320 BST: Katya Adler, BBC News, Madrid
The crowds have now gone but they hung around for the final decision. When Paris was mentioned it received huge boos. But Plaza Mayor went wild with delight when London won and they went crazy when they saw Real Madrid's David Beckham celebrating on the big screen. They're sad they did not get the decision but are happy London won the vote.

Olympics 3: Why slipping politics inside?

2005-07-06T16:29:00.000+04:00

Paris - and thus France - lost the bid. Ok but life goes on. So why do the English snick the little phrase [link for the whole Countdown page], "bad French," again? You won so just enjoy and have fun and do a good Olympics for 2012. That's all we ask.

1318 BST: Jon Sopel, BBC News, Paris
You could feel the atmosphere drain away from the crowd that had gathered outside the Hotel de Ville. Everything was in place for Paris. What could go wrong? Well, absolutely everything. They've lost to the old enemy and this will add a piquancy in the relationship between Tony Blair and Jacques Chriac in the coming days at the G8 Summit at Gleneagles.

Olympics 2: BBC is firing

2005-07-06T16:23:00.000+04:00

*1246 BST: Jacques Rogge opens the envelope and declares London will host the 2012 Olympics.

1314 BST: Tessea Jowell, Olympic minister
I've been shaking for the past two hours. This is the biggest prize sport can bestow and we won it for London and this is to unlock the ambition of children. Sport will now be central to government policy.

1310 BST: Richard Caborn, Sports minister
While London has won it this is for the whole of Great Britian. We were very concerned because all the photographers were around the French delegation. When Jacques Rogge opened the envelope I've never heard a sweeter word in my life. London will have a games to make us proud. It's fantastic.

1307 BST: Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
This is amazing. When we started out it was a mountain to climb, but we've had an incredible few days here. What came over in our presentation was giving kids the chance - it's not just about cities. We spent a lot of time before formally submitting our bid preparing things and we will start work on that tomorrow. We'll give the world the best Games they've ever seen. We only had about four jounalists in front of us and Paris had 50 in front of them so we thought they'd been tipped off. We assumed we had lost.

1300 BST: Lord Coe, London bid team chief

It's just the most fantastic opportunity to do everything we always dreamed of in British sport. We can change the face of sport in the next seven years¿ and beyond. This was a splendid team performance from two years ago when the team came together and everyone pulled together. We never lost confidence.

1257 BST: Danny Crates, Paralympian, Trafalgar Square
We'll do this better than anyone and we're more passionate about Paralympian sport than anyone else. I was shaking and felt sick, but when they said 'London' it was a brilliant feeling. It was deserved and a quite brilliant bid.

1255 BST: Dame Kelly Holmes, double Olympic champion, Trafalgar Square
This is incredible. I'm really emotional and I don't know what I did when they announced 'London'. This will do wonders for the country. We came from the back and proved we wanted it and this will change the face of Great Britian forever.l

1250 BST: Alan Robb, BBC Radio Five Live, Paris
There is utter disbelief at the Hotel de Ville. Initially it was shock and after an intake of breath from thousands of people the crowd started booing. People are really not happy and are now leaving the square. There is bitter disappointment here.

1249 BST: Saj Chowdhury, BBC Sport at Trafalgar Square
People are stunned as a wave of cheers carried through the square as some appeared to hear the result before others. The mood is one of enormous elation.

1247 BST: Gordon Farquhar, BBC Radio Five Live
The London team have gone absolutely ballistic here. There are extraordinary scenes in the ballroom with all the emotions you'd expect. The Pairs team are understandably disappointed but all the focus is on the London team who are celebrating hosting the Olympics for the first time since 1948.

Source: Olympic reporter's log

Olympics 1: London 2012 no more a dream

2005-07-06T16:15:00.000+04:00

I was following the vote in real time on the Internet. Now that I have an ADSL connection, it's more than possible. I was on the BBC's website from an hour ago and saw how the sites uploads as news come. Cool.

But what's even cooler is the Countdown to the big decision, a sort of blog by the BBC's reporters at different places on the planet; France, Uk and Singapore, where the voting was held and winner declared.

At 3.49 p.m. that is some 10 minutes from time of writing the London was declared winner and right now I'm still following the Countdown. France is obviously very disappointed as they were the favourites right from the start.

Just before I publish, some 3 more stories have been published in 10 minutes about the London being elected as winner. Call it instant Internet news.

Are numerology and astrology considered to be sciences by the scientific community?

2005-07-01T17:47:00.000+04:00

Q: Are numerology* and astrology considered to be sciences by the general scientific community? If not, why not?

A: The short answer is that numerology and astrology are not considered to be sciences by the general scientific community; rather, the general scientific community considers them to be pseudosciences, because they do not comply with the scientific method.

"Numerology and numerological divination was popular among early mathematicians such as Pythagoras, but is no longer considered to be part of mathematics and is now regarded as pseudoscience or quackery by most mathematicians. This is similar to the historical development of astronomy from astrology, and that of chemistry from alchemy [...]"

*Numerology: the study of the supposed occult influence of numbers on human affairs.

Incredible what you can find by searching Google Answers. The part above is only 2 paragraphs from the original and complete answer. By the way what about this one? More carbon emissions from riding a bicycle than taking the train?

The price offered for this question was US$25.00 - not insignificant. The more money you offer and the more complete and detailed will be their answer.

That's my blog, right? 28/06

2005-06-29T15:53:00.000+04:00

[music: mash up Boulvard of Broken Dreams & Wonderwall_GreenDay & Oasis]

It's been a really long since I last wrote a decent entry: about 2 weeks I think. Believe me I long for "those" times though. Really I would love to sit and write all day long but the problem is that I can't because school has been driving me mad these days.

Silence in the house. Everybody is in bed except me!
[music: Wonderwall_What's the Story Morning Glory_Oasis]

School is becoming more and more hectic these days. It'll be a miracle if I have a week without tests or assignments. Like this week, on Friday a bunch of friends and I will have to present a sort of expose on Mass Spectrometer for our chemistry class in front of the class. That's a problem in itself as we already had some practice speaking in front of the class this term when we presented an expose on "Transport system and Traffic control in Mauritius" for GP class.

Speaking of the exposes, it's amazing how I always end up to be the leader of my group. Take the GP expose, I was ultimately chosen as team leader and as for the chemistry one, well I am the self-proclaimed leader but nobody was against this. Being a self-proclaimed leader when the other members are ok with it, is a good thing but what surprises me is how I automatically took the role of the leader. Seems like instinctively really. Maybe that's because I'm the elder brother.

Being the only one awake in the house makes you feel all grown-up
[music: Don't go away_Oasis]
Anyway during these 2 weeks, some interesting stuff happened. Firstly as you might have noticed, my music has evolved. The collection has literally swelled and it's no more Avril Lavigne exclusively. In fact I can't even recall when was the last time I listened to her music.

I'm currently listening to Oasis. I always liked their music - since I was 11 I think. And now thanks to those extremely handy Peer to Peer software (Kazaa being the most popular example), I have about 14 tracks of Oasis. Not bad for a start.
But here's my collection:
-Avril Lavigne (both albums)
-Evanescence (both albums)
-Oasis (songs from different albums)
-Within Temptation (3 albums)
-Keren Ann (1 album)
-KEANE (1/1 album)
-Kyo (2nd album)
-The Corrs (songs from a different albums)
-Maroon5 (1 album)
-Nickelback (1 album)
-Moby (coming up...)
-White Hot Stripes (coming up...)

Dogs howling outside. Creepy.
[music: You remind me_Silver side up_Nickelback]

The best of all out of these is without doubt KEANE's "Somewhere only we know." I know the song by heart and I didn't even google for the lyrics to print them; quiet an achievement for me in any case. Moby (remember "Lift me up, lift me up, higher nywamba") and White Hot Stripes are coming up. I discovered the latter while foliating the pages of my friend's Newsweek magazine. They seem a cool duo but I just hope that they aren't of the hard rock type. And by the way Newsweek sucks.

The most dissapointing artist of my lot though is surely Nickelback. Apart from "You remind me" I find it hard to appreciate the other tracks. Mind you, I didn't even listen to all of them.

Apart from music, there's the pass (student's identity card) incident. Yep, I indeed lost my pass 2 weeks ago. You do know how the FBI agents in films (well in reality too I am told) introduce themselves, right? Taking out a wallet from their pockets and showing their gold badge. Well this is a cool thing to do. Well my wallet has a special part where one can store a whatever-card. My pass took this place.

Well 2 weeks ago, while my nisa was fort, I don't know why but I decided to do like the FBI agents. I took my wallet from my pocket and flew it open. And out went the pass...
To my utter surprise and shock/dismay/whatever you like, the pass flew out of the window and to nowhere's land. Now the probability that the pass flew out the wallet and out throught the window was minimal, like 10% or even less but there you go.

No need to tell you how my friends took the joke out of me. Zot ti pe trappe vente, riE.

It's getting colder and colder.
[music: (Track01)_Silent Force_Within Temptation]
Anyway I finally got another pass made and I won't need to pay a full bus fare anymore till I leave secondary school at least. Well to get a new pass was an all other episode. I'll just say that the government sucks.

But don't think that Labour will be any better. Well they will be better because you can't get any worst than this government. And yes, Labour is clearly winning: not 60-0 but my guess is 40-20. Well we'll see.

Vote Lalit (no kidding or anything). Was I paid to say this? You want to bet?

Google Earth launched + FREE

2005-06-28T18:40:00.000+04:00

This was a complete secret until its launch. Just like any other day, when I connect to the Internet, I open 3 tabs in Firefox namely GMail, backwash.com and hi5.com. And then I wait for my RSS feeds (still in my Firefox browser) to load and check for any cool updates. On of those feeds are from John Battelle's Searchblog. He's a very popular blogger and blogs about search engines and blogs.

Well he hadn't reported anything about such a Google release. This means that he didn't find any other sources who fought about it - thus not reporting it - or he himself didn't forsee this. In short, nobody saw this coming.

But back to Google Earth. This is a fantastic piece of software. Dad, being a civil engineer, has this sort of programs on his PC at work and I've always dreamed of having one for me. REALLY! And now it's more than possible. Because with a click I can get Google Earth on my PC - obviously it's free.

The idea is simple. It’s a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route.

This is so great an idea that Google had here. Unfortunately it's only a huge map of the US. Maybe we should all email them and ask them to release the internetional version quickly.

However you need a 128kps connection to be able to utilize it properly. And as you know, I'm still on 40kps for the time being but I'm finally shifting to ADSL 128kps in a week. Cool! Plus I don't know why they're hiding the size of the software. I even started downloading in on my dial-up just to check the size but it stated that the size is unknown! Strange.

To finish in style, let me just say that Google ROCKS! As usual.

Add-on: Be sure that I'll review this software when I download it.

SEx - Science Explained Forum

2005-06-24T21:56:00.000+04:00

It's new and it's great plus I'm contributing with this project. You basically ask anything science-related and there are 'Experts' who'll answer and throw some links. A bit like Google Answers but free and not answered by professionals but rather by people who have gained a bit of experience.

We have a team of people from the h2g2 community who have knowledge and experience from many different scientific disciplines and we're all ready and willing to answer your queries. We will do our best to answer in language appropriate to you, in a non-threatening way and where possible, using everyday life references.

My name on a title post of a blog

2005-06-23T20:46:00.000+04:00

You might remember my posts about the blogs beep. Well thanks to beep (although undirectly - some credits do go to me) my name will appear for internity on this blog: New Media Hack.

The post focuses on the blog project beep but for the below reason, I'm featuring in it. Anyway here is the actual post itself.

Cassimally: Diggin beep
Digging through the logs for beep I ran across at least one satisfied customer. At 16 years of age, K. A. Cassimally might be a bit below the targeted demographic but the enthusiasm for the project is encouraging.

And it's always neat to get shout outs from Mauritius!!
bmd at June 5, 2005 12:18 PM

It's always nice to read ones name on the web specially when somebody else wrote it! Plus this particular entry is the number1 search result on Google for "cassimally." Indeed I do google my surname from time to time.

Anyway wanting to know more about New Media Hack and the author of the above post, I went to alexa.com and found that the site is ranked 4085th. Very good for me! And about the author, well you can find his self-written 'About us [me],' here. He's a university guy; lecturer in journalism (a field of specialisation of some sort) if I'm not mistaken.

Not to brag or anything: am I becoming popular?

Your chance to help the scientific community

2005-06-22T15:27:00.000+04:00

It's simple and fast as far as you're a blogger - and have a blog - you can help the MIT!

Twisted & Wacky

2005-06-16T16:46:00.000+04:00

I just published my first issue of the ultra-popular backwash newsletter, Twisted & Wacky.

The Internet mapped

2005-06-16T16:17:00.000+04:00

What is this? The map of the internet of course.

ebay's social network - and the backwash link (#2)

2005-06-15T17:28:00.000+04:00

photo courtesy: baybuddies.com

After NIKE's announcement that they have created a social network - using backwash's Sparta - there's ebay that's coming. The social network is due to be officially launched tomorrow.

So to all ebay fans: enjoy!

And to backwash fans: we'll be getting more and more popular!

Spam reported

2005-06-15T17:17:00.000+04:00

Yep. The first spam on K-Media has been reported today, 15 June 2005 at 17 15. I immediately deleted it but I admit that there weren't anything bad.

Anonymous said...

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Ohio

A bunch of hyperlinks to other Blogger blogs. Well they're just trying to get traffic but K-Media isn't what we can define as popular... not yet at least.

Cool StarGate SG-1

2005-06-14T15:56:00.000+04:00

Don't lie. StarGate is cool. And so is this design.

Best designed logos: my view

2005-06-09T17:28:00.000+04:00

Tennessee Aquarium

This logo isn't particularly beautiful to me. But it is stricking by its design. The way the designers have managed to blend all those aquatic animals is extraordinary. I just don't like the colors though.

Brand Australia

This logo uses a technique called blow out. It's a simply great and eye-catching design. Couldn't done better.

Total

The best logo I've seen for some time. The logo uses these colours to combine the flagship colours of Total, Fina and Elf to represent the merger of these 3 European petroleum giants. Definetely my favourite logo.

The Bank of New York

Not really my type of logo but I have to admit that for banking stuff it fits. Reminds me of stamp designs though!

Water.com

It's good; no it's definetely great. Of course the message relates to the PC and water. Meaning a website that deals with water. Go to Water.com to check whether I figured it all out. One of the new generation logos.

Nielsen

A simple logo but just one question. Would you have thought about such a design?

Total System Services - DotsConnect

Quickly becoming a classic type of new logos. This one is cool but I have yet to figure out if it'll always stay in my head. Or will it evaporate as quickly as it came? If that's so, then maybe the logo isn't that extraordinary but till then...

Metabolife

Making a butterfly with leaves can't be an easy think to think of. The colours match exactly with the life-biology-ecology thing and... well the logo is very good indeed.

Everland

Cool logo! I wonder what more can be created out of leaves. However maybe they should have worked a little more with the colours. Or is it just me who doesn't like purple?

Futuristic logo or present day logo? In fact the so-called futuristic logos have just become a type of logo. Because these type of logo is clearly for this new generation. God knows what logos we'll see 25 years from now.

Design Machine - Art Directors Club

A "Y" or a cube? Fiugure it out by yourself. Again a simple logo but with a lot of thought behind.

photo courtesy: Good Design USA

KEANE is simply the best

2005-06-08T21:15:00.000+04:00

It's the first time that I've been so hoked to an album that I'm even bothering to write about it. I noticed KEANE late really. I saw two of their clips (Somewhere Only we Know & Everybody's Changing - I think). They were nice - really nice - but most importantly so was the music.

photo courtesy: www.ooodoggy.com

Good music and great lyrics plus the last track of their album, Hopes and Fears is really cool. They've brended the best tracks of the album into one track and it's pretty cool.

My advice to you if you haven't bought the album yet: go out there and take out your wallet man. It won't be wasted money.

NIKE's latest social network - and the backwash link

2005-06-07T22:46:00.000+04:00

There's big news today. Well you probably know that I write for a website called backwash.com - I've been ranting about it for so long. Well backwash.com launched a social network software called Sparta at the end of December last year, I think. They've been looking for partners and they managed to get a good bunch of them as well, including popular teen website Swirve.

But now NIKE runnining has partnered with Sparta and thus backwash. I can't wait to find how the number of visitors of backwash.com will include.

I'm becoming a reporter

2005-06-05T17:56:00.000+04:00

Today was the first Rose Hill competition of the ShinKyokushinkai Karate Mauritius. Being part of the group, I've been asked to write an article about the tournament. Not a big thing to you maybe but it's my first on-field reporting. And I'm really flattered to have been asked about to do this.

I did a couple of interviews with the medalists and they really seem surprised to be interviewed actually. In the beginning, I have to admit that I was a little bit stressed about going for the interviews but once I did the first interview - with the Girls Kata Competition winners - it felt better and I had full confidence.

I swear that I'll never throw the pen I used during the interviews and which is going to be used for the writing of the article away.

A souvenir.

UPDATE: I think it's going to be posted on the ShinKyokushinkai official Mauritian website (the site was being revamped at time of posting), but I'm not sure. We'll wait and see.

Keeping in touch

2005-06-02T21:25:00.000+04:00

Man, this year is really a pain in the ass. Really! I always thought that Lower 6 would be the most interesting year in college but how wrong was I. Wait a minute; what am I saying?

Lower 6 is a cool year... except for the education part. Ha, it's true to say that Lower 6 is the year when you're really at ease at school. You become friends with the teachers and the latter actually do take you seriously. Because when you're in Lower 6 you've become a big boy.
Funny but I have a strange feeling that in 5 year's time, I'll say that Lower 6 teenagers are still too young people.

This year was full of extra-curricular activities - for me at least. First I was greatly involved in RCPL's first periodic newsletter. I eventually quit but I have good memories of my time there. In addition there are also some other stuff at school which maybe only Form 6 students realise are worth coming to school for.

Examples? Well the physics teacher of course! About 28, plum face, light brown hair, brown eyes but married with a newborn baby. The thing is that in Lower 6, ironically the guys aren't as obsessed with girls as they used to be in Form 4 for instance. Are we becoming more mature? Creepy thought men!

About the studies. Well that's the big problem, isn't it? 5 subjects - 4 as principals and 1 as subsidiary - but hey, the syllabus is way bulkier than they were last year. Maths is starting to become cool. It's a bit different than Add Maths in the sense that you have to use your common sense a little bit more.

Chemistry and biology rock but there's much to learn. As for physics, well I'm starting to get a grip at things at last. I thought I was dead and buried in physics.

Apart from the school, there's been writing. I won't brag about this much but I'm getting the sensation that the creativity boom I had since about a year ago is slowly starting to fade away. I just hope that it doesn't all end up in another writer's block. That would be a real blow indeed. I guess I'll have to find some time to write a little bit more.

No, I'm not writing as much as before. In fact, I think my editor at the bbc.co.uk is going to fire me if I continue this way. I'm supposed to send her a column once a week but the rate is closing more towards the biweekly mark. But on the positive aspect of things, for once I have a clear idea of the subject for my next column: the science of stargate. Sounds great, doesn't it? I'll let you know when I finish writing about it. In fact I've only just started the research work!

And one last thing, I've been given the responsibility of a very famous newsletter at backwash.com called Twisted & Wacky. You might want to check it out. It has about 900 subscribers, making it one of the most popular newsletters over at the site, if not THE MOST POPULAR. I was a bit strained about the number of subscribers the newsletter has but I accepted the job! But I'm still intimidated. Maybe I'll publish my first issue next week.

[album listened to while writing this entry: (first 8 tracks + 3 more tracks while editing this entry before publishing)_Not Going Anywhere_Keren Ann]

You'll never walk alone

2005-05-27T20:08:00.000+04:00

[song: You'll never walk alone - fans chanting_LiverpoolFC anthem]

It's been more than 36h since Liverpool lifted their 5th Champions League Trophy. What a dream-come-true! Throughout the whole of yesterday, I couldn't get the Liverpool anthem out of my head and I still can't now. This is more than a song. It is the trademark of LiverpoolFC.

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high,
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm,
There's a golden sky,
And thesweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown...
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone.

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone...
You'll never walk alone.

This, my dears, is a song that I will never forget. A song that will always have a special place in my heart. Nobody apart from Liverpool supporters can understand the magic of this song.

I remember the other day when Moobeen (my karake tutor) jokingly told me that as a Liverpool fan, I'll always walk alone. I didn't say anything but I know that as a Manchester United fan, Moobeen doesn't understand how the "You'll Never Walk Alone" slogan is important to us, Liverpool fans. I repeat, only Liverpool fans can understand the magic of this song.

Afterall, LiverpoolFC is a magic club indeed.

Charmed season2 on DVD

2005-05-23T18:07:00.000+04:00

The 2nd season of Charmed was expected to be released in May but instead it'll be in August and maybe on the 23rd!

MAN UNITED LOST! YES!

2005-05-22T08:30:00.000+04:00

1. Arsenal won the FA Cup (well good for them)

2. MANU were the unlucky finalist (yesssssssssssssss)

3. I do hope the Champions' League final on Wednesday doesn't go as far as penalties (i swear i'll have a hard attack)

Charmed is renewed!

2005-05-19T15:58:00.000+04:00

Rock on ladies for another season. The 8th one in fact. I wonder how many other shows managed it to an 8th season. We're good, man. We are indeeed.

She replied!!!

2005-05-18T18:44:00.000+04:00

My previous entry was about a new groovy blog of the Daily Herald based in Chicago, US named beep. But more precisely about one particular blog, Total Drive Time: 47 min. 38 sec., which forms part of the beep brotherhood - and also about Lisa, the gal who writes the blog.

Well a little after that particular post on K-Media about beep, I opened an account with the beep website. By doing this, I would be able to post comments to any entries. And that's exactly what I did as soon as I got my account all set up and ready. I wrote a comment on Lisa's entry "What Do We Want?."

The first comment basically asked for some insider's info about the journalism world. But here's the exact second comment I posted:

[...] To our eyes they are [the] elites because reporters like Lisa made it! They ARE journalists. We are still watching from below dreaming about us making it as well. So to us youngsters, they're the model. To us, they're the elites. They are our motivation and I do hope that they realise that without them, our dream of becoming reporters ourselves may just vanish.

We need somebody to show us the way!

And then surprise surprise! The following entry made by Lisa on her beep blog completely fulfilled my wish. Just to tell you that the title of that following entry was "So You Want To Learn About Reporting (Are You Sure?)." And the actual entry itself had my name in it with a really nice compliment too. Here it is:

[...] (By the way, I'd like to give a shout out to Khalil A. Cassimally, a very insightful young man who is particularly interested in the wonderful world of reporting. By the way, Khalil: Thanks for the compliments. You're not so bad yourself, sir.)

I'm sure that if you re-read my previous entry on K-Media, you'll realise what Lisa means by that last sentence. That's another great thing about blogs: one can post ones message to somebody specific in ones public blog without other readers even realising anything at all.

Wondering what 'coded' message is being featured in this entry?

beep, a blog by young journalists

2005-05-13T17:20:00.000+04:00

I discoverd beep just yesterday through John Battelle's Searchblog. And it's really great. I've always looked for something like this to read. Something dynamic from young and joyful journalists who have not yet died of boredom because of their work. These guys who form part of the beep blog truly rock - some more than others but I'll talk about this later.

The Beep team is made up of three Northwestern grad students working with the Daily Herald in an effort to prove that news, like science, can be fun. Somebody gave Daily Herald reporters their own blogs, and, well, see for yourself...

This is how they describe themselves. In fact beep is made up of a variety of blogs (7 or 8 I think). Each blog is written by one of the reporters (they are more than three by the way) except for Remote Patrol, which is co-written by 2 guys.

I admit that I haven't really read all 7 or 8 blogs but nonetheless I've fallen for Total Drive Time: 47 min. 38 sec. This blog is written by a gal named Lisa and man she's hot... and her blog entries are cool too. She's the typical 20 year old modern single girl. And she dyes her hair red! Her entries are very varied and just like the other beep bloggers, she doesn't talk about her professional job - that is being a reporter. I was a bit disappointed by this. I mean getting an insider's view of a young reporter's life would be cool but I guess we can't get everything in life.

Anyway her blog really rocks... and did I say how hot I thought she is?

Road to Istanbul

2005-05-04T15:36:00.000+04:00

We're in the FINAL! I can't wait for the 28th May, the date of the final.

50 million downlaods for Firefox

2005-04-30T21:11:00.000+04:00

I think the picture speaks for itself, right?

I'm a mature person!

2005-04-30T18:54:00.000+04:00

Apparently my posts at hi5 have impressed more than one. One of my karate friends, whose logged on hi5, sent me a message telling me that I write really well. And also adding that she's getting a bit jealous too. Ok that was a joke but still...

Then my karate mentor himself told me that he now has a really different view of me. Here are his words (more or less), "I discovered a new facet of you through your hi5 posts." When that really made me proud.

Charmed last season?

2005-04-29T20:51:00.000+04:00

Is it really nearing its end? I can't believe it! I've been keeping a close look at the Spoilers and the story is getting really good. There's only the last episode missing now but I don't think that'll we'll ever get it before the episode is actually broadcasted on tv in the US. That is to say in a month!

I mean the producer hasn't even submitted the complete story lines to his boss. Said they want to keep in secret.

We're still in hols but school already sucks!

2005-04-29T20:39:00.000+04:00

Today I received a letter from school. No actually, my dad received a letter from my school. But to cut the story short, I opened the envelope, read the letter, replaced it back into the envelope and even glued the latter. Don't you dare 'raport' mwa!

Anyway, school wrote to inform my parents that as from now, report books have to be collected by parents, at the school premises. What the hell do they think they're doing? Aren't we old enough to collect our own exam results?

Not that I haven't worked well this past term. In fact, I produced my best performance since I arrived to this institution, more than 5 years ago - since Form1.

But this rector - rectrice - is really pissing us all off. By 'all,' I mean students of course. She such a... oh there's no word to describe it. She an imbecile, moron, cretin, changeling and other words that I prefer not write here. Does she think that parents have nothing to do just like her. They, contrarily to you, go to work to actually get something done, madam! Because you definetely bring your butt to work to keep it hot in your armchair, in your office 'climatisE.'

There's something that I have noticed this year. The 'star schools' all have rectors as stupid as the other. Are they competing for a prize or what? Coze there surely aren't any worst-off cases around for sure. Here at RCPL, there's Kushiram, a minister's sister-in-law or something. At RCC, there's Uteem's family - a woman as well. At DMC, there's another bullshit of a woman, I hear. At QEC... well dunno but god'll spare them if they don't have an imbecile!

Poor women! You've surely noticed that all of the above are rectrice. Talking about equality of the sexes, euh? My foot yes.

Columns published!

2005-04-29T14:45:00.000+04:00

So I finally updated Petz! at backwash.com after an absence of 3 months. And I'm really proud of this last column. In case you don't know, Petz is the life of my imaginary dog, PetSci. In short, it's life from another point of view. In this last column, PetSci describes the introduction of another imaginary dog named Hugo. He hates him but through his sarcasm writing and funny manners, will he be able to accept his true feelings for Hugo?

And also Not Scientific Science was rocking at backwash.com during this past 2 weeks! And the thing is that it had the same column for these 2 weeks. The 'famous' column was about synaesthetes, those people who can taste colours, hear shapes and all. Maybe you should go and read it too then! Anyway, today I published a new column today about how a cluster of some atom can act as a completely new element.

The column also appears at bbc.co.uk The h2g2 Post in the latest issue of the publication.

And don't forget, if you have any ideas for my columns, think of dropping me a note. Thanks in advance!

P.S. Did this post really seem much like self-promotion?

Just a note

2005-04-26T20:24:00.000+04:00

That I'm back again! I had some probs with the blog. Couldn't get into the homepage. I emailed the Blogger team and here it is: back to normal.

See you more often.

It's my blog right? 25/04

2005-04-25T22:16:00.000+04:00

Ok everybody! Haven't written for some time and I thought you waited enough for an update. No actually, I wanted to take a little break from K-Media but then there were a lot of other small complications which entangled with the maze of my paranomia. Does this sentence even make sense?

[mum and dad downstairs watching Lion King one and a half... song: Don't tell me-Avril Lavigne]

Today was a cool day! We, that is to say friends from the Rose Hill Shin KyokushinKai karate group and myself, went to Chamarel's Adventure Park. It was really great; really. The atmosphere of teenage people 'partying' was at its climax! The entrace fee wasn't insignificant though: MUR400! And that's a discount as we went in a big group - 22 people. The normal price for a person older than 12y is MUR950! Man, can you believe this? I mean, it was real fun and all but MUR950 is really a little bit high.

[brother pacing up and down in the corridor, pissing me off... song: How does it feel-Avril Lavigne]

The Adventure Park had some great activities. Basically you have to walk on dancing ropes from one side to the other. For me, the coolest activity was the last one of all. There were 4 ropes dangling up and down, side to side, back and fro, whatever. To cross the damn thing you had to walk on the 2 bottom ropes and hold the 2 higher ones. Seems easy? But it's not exactly that easy though! I was doing the acrobat stuff with a friend and the interesting thing when you work in pair is that you actually have to work in pair! Because when the guy falls or even loses his balance the ropes get all 'excited' and hell, you fall as well; at least if you're not prepared. And of course when you fall, he'll fall as well. Cool!

But again what I thought was really cool about the Adventure Park was the atmosphere. We were all teasing each other and laughing and... damn it was a cool day. I feel so sorry for the people who have to go to tuition at 8.30 a.m tomorrow to do Chemical Energetics! Good luck, gal.

I almost forgot that the day didn't end just then. After Adventure Park, we went to the beach, more precisely at Tamarin. The sea was great. Optimum temperature and yet only a handful of swimmers from our group. I can't understand how people can go to the seaside in a real sunny day and yet manage not to have some crawls in the sea.

Well after Tamarin, it was Plaza again. Everybody seemed happy but maybe a little tired. However instead of taking the bus, I walked all the way home. About 25min away! My 'nisa' was most probably at its highest. (For you guys who can't read creole, 'nisa' is the pinnacle of joy, excitement and joy-de-vivre, without the intermediate of sex.)

And oh, a tiny last thing. Mo crowre mone crak mo lipied badly! Hurting with every step I take.

May hi5 welcome me as I welcome thee. Maybe I'm just a little out of my mind.

[i think that my world is utopia!... song: Fall to pieces-Avril Lavigne]

Liverpool FC into the semis

2005-04-14T14:10:00.000+04:00

Yes, yes and double yes! Today in the early morning, the final whistle was blown by the referee. The score was 0-0. But on aggregate, Liverpool FC win 2-1 thanks to their amazing home performance back home at Anfield Road in Merseyside a week ago. So what?

Man, have I told you that I'm a huge Liverpool FC fan? Has been since I was 6 I think. Anyway back to the match. Actually I have to admit that luck was on our side. Juventus are about as strong as Liverpool FC but their problem is that they are afraid to attack. Football is a game where the team which has scored the most is declared the winner but ironically Juventus - and most other Italian side - prefer not to concede rather than try to score. They are dangerous when they counter-attack and even had a ball strick the post to be saved seconds later by the Liverpool FC keeper off the line.

And Juventus only had to win the game 1-0 to pass through to the semis. They couldn't score because a football team cannot be afraid to attack. Afterall the best defence is attack. For now, come on Chelsea FC!

My message to backwash

2005-04-14T12:09:00.000+04:00

When I came to backwash, about one and a half years ago, I thought it was a cool place with great columns - it still is.

But now that I form part of the 'inside' of backwash, I realise that the site has not progressed since then; in fact it seems to have deteriorated. Many of you will not be happy with this thought but that's what I think.

For instance, let's take today when I published my column. I had to wrestle for about 20min just to get that damn writing published! I had all sorts of problems with bw not wanting to load the pics and all. Before it wasn't like that, was it?

To me, the deterioration process started the moment the new social network was released. Don't ask me how it fits all, I don't know. Ask Ringy. But he's probably too busy.

Backwash was the place where I started writing science. My writing has evolved since then - although I'm far behind many of my fellow columnists here - and I don't want to see the site dead! But the way it seems to be heading...

As you might have realised, I am not at all happy with the site at the moment. And leaving backwash is definetely on my mind right now. I am not threatening anyone but maybe I'll stick around for a month or two unless the site gains back its prestige. Only then will I be proud to form part of this family.

Liverpool new UNofficial kit!

2005-04-13T19:12:00.000+04:00

The new UNofficial Liverpool FC home kit 2005-2006 has just been released exclusively on K-Media! Liverpool FC have desosiated with Reebok and made a partnership with Puma. Now the question is: "Is this kit better or shity?"

It's Puma man!!!

Note: As you might have guessed, this post is pure fiction. Posted because blogger had nothing else to do.

K-Media: an update

2005-04-13T14:30:00.000+04:00

So, everything is going on fine with the new false sponsor project. I even created a couple of Puma banners more so that you don't get bored with the same advertisements. Unluckily no animation in the ads, not even a GIF animation because I don't have the required program. But if you know anything about that particular GIF animation program and where to get it, please drop me a note or post a comment.

Thanks.

K-Media: new project

2005-04-13T10:13:00.000+04:00

I've thought about this for some time and said to myself, "why not?" I am refering to the advertisement you'll notice at the bottom of K-Media. Yes, Puma is advertising. But they don't even know about that!

That's the project. I place a different company's advertisement on K-Media every month. Keep in mind that the advertisements are unofficial as I am even designing the company's banner. And I'll even try to optimize my posts so that they accomodate the advertiser's status. Don't understand? Just read my posts for this month and see whether you can spot "Puma is the best" or "Try Puma and you won't regret it." Of course the comments won't be so obvious but if you search for them, you'll find them. But if you don't it means that I'm the best copyeditor in the world.

That's just an experiment by the way. We'll wait and see! Feel free to comment.

The Lego world as seen by BBC

2005-04-12T20:12:00.000+04:00

It's official!!! Lego® is the best plastic product ever made. This does bring old memories back. Remember when you built your first Lego® house? Or the Lego® car? The power of Lego® is that it relies on the user's creativity rather than the product's creativity itself. Because let's face it! What is Lego®? A simple plastic brick. It is the user who fits the bricks into one another to create a special something. Lego® is like drawing but the lines are the bricks.

The BBC News Magazine has an article about Lego® and its vulnerability. The title asks whether Lego® is losing ground to computer gadgets. And to my surprise, the article - and thus the BBC - seems to be siding to the fact that Lego® is NOT in real danger.

But the author of the article seems to have based his entire research on one people/company: Tania Williamson, Lego®'s PR manager! Is this really good journalism? I mean of course, Lego®'s PR will say that Lego has a future in the toy world.

Why not go out there and interview children? Ask them and not Lego®'s PR, right BBC?

Watch yourself draw... your own drawing

2005-04-12T20:06:00.000+04:00

Art.com's artPad is amazingly cute and interesting to use. Draw something, anything and then watch how you moved paintbrush/pencil (which is in fact mouse at your place) to do the drawing. One more thing: you can actually send the picture-in-progress to a friend. No attachments or anything but only a simple link. Because in addtion, artPad saves your picture-in-progress on the server so that anyone can access it from the internet.

The only minor pitfall is that with a slow dial-up like mine, it takes about 10min to load the thing so that you can actually use it. It's no big deal of a problem for me though because I use FireFox, which has the power of tabs. Meaning that I visit a multitude of website simultaneously. Not much waiting afterall!

BBC News website editor's desktop

2005-04-10T12:08:00.000+04:00

This is guy isn't just anybody. Pete Clifton is the editor of the BBC News website and here, he chronicles this working life at the BBC.

The great thing about such companies, either public or private (like Google) is that they quickly the understood the power of blogs. And the friendly way of blog writing.

For example when Mr. Clifton writes, you'll think that he's just a simple guy like you and me. When Google employers write in Google Blog, they too seem to be 'normal' people with the average IQ. But I personally don't really think they are.

I wonder how much training they've received before they could write this with this blog style. Or maybe there are a lot of copyeditors who are delicately reviewing each and every one of their pieces. Yeah, that's the whole secret.

GMail freeware: Drag-and-drop 2 store on your account

2005-04-10T11:33:00.000+04:00

This is an amazing freeware. It creates a virtual drive in the Windows Explorer, allowing you to use your Google GMail account as a storage medium. It allows you to do basic file manipulation, such as copy and delete of files inside the GMail account. Because it is a Shell Extension, the interface you work in is Windows Explorer itself. GMail Drive appears as a virtual drive under your My Computer folder in Windows Explorer.

I highly recommend it. The only minor drawback is that everytime you want to send a file to your GMail account, it asks you to enter your username and password. But I think it's worth it nonetheless.

And by the way, it downloads in seconds with a 40K dial-up connection. I personally tested it.

Birthday Charmed

2005-04-09T14:55:00.000+04:00

So! Today 150th Charmed episode airs in the US. The big thing in this episode is the guest appearance of Julian McMahon who again takes his role as Cole Turner. It appears to be a good episode. If you're in the US, watch this episode. That'll help save Charmed for an 8th season. I beg you.

1 2 3... TESTING

2005-04-08T16:34:00.000+04:00

I've just downloaded Zoundry. Just seeing whether this thing really works.

Dictionary game

2005-04-08T15:56:00.000+04:00

Ok, here's the game. I open the dictionary, search randomly of a couple of words that I've never heard of before and make a paragraph, which includes the words. bevy: a gathering or group, especially of girls of women. consul: an official sent to live in a foreign country to look after the people from his or her own country that live there. forsake: to desert, abandon or give up someone or something. haphazard: random of not planned. jut: to stick out Ali worked as a consul for the People's Republic of China. He was not married and always had a bevy of giggling teenage girls on his back. Did that make him a proud man? Not exactly. Ali always thought that males should forsake the female 'race,' as he puts it. Ali's philosphy was indeed that women were inferior than man and that the former had no importance at all except to be mothers. But his fans didn't mind his way of seeing things. "His life is just too haphazard," said one of them. "I just hope he would give us a smile though," added another. Ali died on the 23rd October 1987, when he commited suicide. Nobody really knew why he did it but he something was for sure: he would be greatly mourned and certainly by that girl who said, her red eyes full of tears, "His house's roof juts over the wall. He just slipped and fell and..." She broke off. Ali was an icon and yet because of his way of thinking, he had to be remembered as the biggest git that the world had ever seen. I'm rather satisfied actually. I'm sure it's not top-class but still. It isn't really bad, right?

It's my blog, right? 7/04

2005-04-07T19:52:00.000+04:00

Actually this post is just an excuse to be on the computer, which in turn is an excuse to listen to Avril Lavigne. Don't try to understand! [dad just came back home... song: "I'm with you"] Anyway today was a rather cool day. Woke up at 06h15 as usual. First thing I did was switch on my mobile phone. And yeah we're in the modern era after all, aren't we? [dad just came to say hello... song: "Mobile"] I've been switching my mobile on the very minute I wake up since last week actually. To check text messages of course. From whom? Ruwaydah - my girlfriend. And today a message actually arrived when I swtiched the cellphone on. She was wishing me luck for my chemistry assignment that was due for midday. Had my last chemistry assignment of the term today - actually the last assignment of the whole term itself, hey. I have to get at least 25/30 to get an overall A in chemistry. I thought that it would be a difficult thing to achieve but surprisingly after I sat for the test, I realised that it was not an impossibility! But still... Many of my friends found the test difficult. And I didn't; well it wasn't really that hard. Good thing? Well usually if you think that you worked great for a test, it may mean two things: either you really did great or you are so stupid that you didn't even realise that you may well have failed the test! Let's just hope that I wasn't that bad. Of course this period of exams also paradoxically mean that the teachers are returning our past tests' answer sheets with the mark printed in red on top of it. Well today I got my biology paper back today. I revised much for this particular test; 3h in a single day, I think. When I received the paper, I saw a big 38/52 on it. That was a shock! Only 38! The friend who sits next to me had 45. That couldn't be. Although 38 was one of the top marks obtained, I wasn't that satisfied. And indeed, I was right not to be happy. The teacher had completely forgotten to correct on complete question (which holded 6 marks). At the end of the day, I had a nice 43/52 printed on my paper. Much better! Heading for A in biology as well then. [dad asking whether I can give him a 'porte-clef'... song: "Things I'll never say"] And yeah, Ruwaydah 'miss called' me during my third break at college. I called her back only to get her, to more or less reject my call. But she phoned after school when I was in the bus heading for tuition. Just wanted to hear my voice. And she also told me that she loves me, which is always great to hear. Finally back at home at about 16h30. Watched the 3rd episode of Charmed on DVD and then FullMetal Alchemist on Canal+. That's a pretty cool manga which is getting very complex. I sometimes ask myslef whether the creators actually know how the plot will end. I do think that they are just playing with it and letting it to flow. Anyway, had to listen to Avril. Pardon me but that's why I did this whole lot of ranting. And if you read the title of this post, you'll find a tiny little date. Maybe there'll be more posts of this type in the future then. Ha! Take care and stay connected if you suffer from insomnia: cause that's the cure!

New energy source is...

2005-04-04T18:02:00.000+04:00

Nuclear? Solar? Actually it could be trees! Simple.

In fact, the future is 'now' in some Scandinavian countries, said Dr. Darwin Foster, Texas Cooperative Extension forestry program leader. "In Sweden, they're already bundling up what we're leaving in the forest after a timber harvest and using it as bio-fuel," Foster said.

GMail's birthday present - 2 us!!!

2005-04-01T16:25:00.000+04:00

Even they tell you this: The gift that keeps on giving. What is the gift? More storage of course. GMail is upgrading from 1Gb to TWO Gb! The funny thing is that at the time being I have about 1280Mb storage. But that value will continue to grow to 2000Mb. Misunderstanding me you think? Well at this precise moment I now have 1281Mb. Yes it's getting bigger and bigger. And they are aiming to offer infinity Mb. By the way GMail is 1 year old now and I have 1282Mb space. ROCK ON GOOGLE; AND GO TO HELL YAHOO! Beat this.

Haha Google

2005-04-01T16:18:00.000+04:00

Google again does it's April Fool's Joke and it's sure to catch some eyes because they do appear to put some energy on creating such stuff. This one below is my personal favourite. Beta Carroty – Want to be healthy without actually going so far as to eat (shudder) vegetables? Get your daily pick-me-up dose of cancer-fighting carotenoids with this smooth, not all chalky morning smoothie.

Freeware for blogging

2005-03-31T17:29:00.000+04:00

I did not test it or downloaded it yet but it does seem to be a good freeware. You may download it and get the release notes here.

A Google puzzle answered - sort of.

2005-03-30T15:57:00.000+04:00

Google posted this on its blog. Why do they always seem to know how to make people feel like they're a simple company! Anyway you can find the answer by connecting to the website hyperlinked to at the end of this post.

As a little bonus for my fellow employees who were around during the winter, I held a little on-campus contest. I took 130 photographs of things around the buildings and challenged people to identify them and go to the location, where they'd then have to find a little hidden sticker with a letter on it. They'd email the letter to me to confirm that they found the location. I thought our blog readers might find it interesting to identify what's in these photographs, which were some of the more challenging pictures.

-Wei-Hwa Huang, Software Engineer


Cvaonyy znpuvar (Onyyl "Fcrpgehz").	Neebj sebz n "Bar Jnl" fgerrg fvta.	Jngre obggyrf (FznegJngre Fcbeg).

Cbby gnoyr cbpxrg, nf ivrjrq sebz orybj.	Fgevatf vafvqr n onol tenaq cvnab.	Hfrq pbagnvaref sbe Vyyl Rfcerffb.

Fgneg ohggba sbe ivqrb tnzr znpuvar.	Lryybj (nzore) fgerrg yvtug.	"Ivfvgbe Ybool" fvta nf ivrjrq sebz vafvqr.

To decode the fuzzy text, copy the annotations and paste them at this site.

It's just a GIF image

2005-03-30T15:52:00.000+04:00

I thought it was a GIF animation and I am proved correct! All bloggers who have their blogs hosted on Blogger know what I'm talking about. THIS!

It's just funny

2005-03-28T20:14:00.000+04:00

It's real fun. I can't explain but you have to try it.

How to read our Mauritian blogs?

2005-03-27T11:03:00.000+04:00

I always knew there was a way for one to be able to search for other bloggers of the same nationality as one's on Blogger. Why? Sometimes, a Mauritian just pops up and comments on my blog like for my previous post. Then by mistake, I discovered the link to the Mauritian directory of blogs hosted by Blogger! You might just want to have a look at it.

everybody is doing this...

2005-03-25T10:18:00.000+04:00

I'll do it as well, Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says. Wings by San Cassimally (my grandfather's bro), "[... How come he] understands young people? How come he doesn't think so badly of us [... youngsters] Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first? The printer, hp deskjet 3535 What is the last thing you watched on TV? Bugs Bunny! With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? The tv playing stupid children cartoons. When did you last step outside? I can't remember!!! Before you came to this website, what did you look at? Check whether my column (at bbc) got any comments. It didn't. Yet. What are you wearing? A blue jean. A long sleeves T-shirt with my favourite yellow T-shirt right on it. Did you dream last night? Yes. I'm not sure what it was but i have the feeling that it was a personal dream, if you know what I mean. When did you last laugh? Some hours ago. My mobile phone rang and I thought it was Nawsheen (a friend). Unfortunately it was only a little girl who called by mistake. What is on the walls of the room you are in? 4 paintings: 1 with the different planets of the solar system, another with the moon and the earth together with some prayers printed on it. A painting of the dodo with other Mauritian mammals (golden bat) and birds. The last painting features an artist view of Mauritius. What is the last movie you saw? Don't know the name. It was about a black US soldier who was wrongly accused of having raped a woman. About racism mainly. It wasn't so good though. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first? Pre-order the Charmed second season DVD and save for the other seasons' DVDs. Tell me something about you that I don't know. I'm in love with a beautiful girl who already has a boyfriend. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? Make us have the technology to go to Mars! Do you like to dance? Maybe. Ok, not so much. George Bush. Git! Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? Sarah. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him? Difficult, maybe Sky (what?) Would you ever consider living abroad? Yes, Australia seems really cool.

Cyclone straight ahead

2005-03-23T16:18:00.000+04:00

At cyclone is coming straight towards Mauritius. And you know what that means? No school tomorrow!

We break info to process it

2005-03-17T13:41:00.000+04:00

It's difficult to measure the limits of processing capacity because most people automatically use problem solving skills to break down large complex problems into small, manageable "chunks." A baker, for example, will treat "cream butter, sugar and egg together" as a single chunk -- a single step in the process -- rather than thinking of each ingredient separately. Likewise she won't think, "break egg one into bowl, break egg two into bowl." She'll just think, "add all of the eggs."

A great FireFox design

2005-03-16T15:47:00.000+04:00

Waow Canal+

2005-03-14T17:51:00.000+04:00

At last, a company - and a popular one - which replies to your querries. I always thought that only the best do this; and I appear to have got it RIGHT! Subject: Le Grand Journal : web-tricheur? Hi, sorry it's english here but i think you understand, right? I was watching le grand journal on friday (11 mar 05) and one 'chroniqueur' talked about a website: web-tricheur I think. Could you please send me the address of the site. I sort of forgot it. Thanks --- Hello The address of the site is: www.web-tricheur.net. The other one is: www.tricheurs-anonymes.fr.st. Bye

A really good lyric

2005-03-10T11:15:00.000+04:00

I think there's something more, life's worth living for Who knows what could happen Do what you do, just keep on laughing One thing's true, there's always a brand new day I'm gonna live today like it's my last day.

- Avril Lavigne, Who Knows, Under My Skin

The ultimate best INDEPENDENT journalist works

2005-03-09T17:22:00.000+04:00

Great journalists like John Pilger himself often contributes for this publication.

A good site for sms lovers

2005-03-05T08:33:00.000+04:00

A very good website, a very good service. Plus they've made it to work worldwide.

Newly discovered site - not actually

2005-03-02T15:35:00.000+04:00

A really good website of a guy who's taken blogging as his full time job! This is a very popular site which I ironically just discovered.

What's trackback

2005-02-23T15:43:00.000+04:00

Trackback is a means for one Web page to let another Web page know that it's been linked to. If that sounds simple but confusing, here's an example usage. Let's say Wendy writes a post on her Web site and enables Trackbacks** on that post. In essence, what Wendy has done is said, "ok, I've said something and now I'm listening." Fred reads Wendy's post. He writes a post on his site that links to Wendy's post. Fred can then send Wendy's post a Trackback ping that contains information about Fred's post. In essence, Fred is saying, "hey Wendy, I heard what you said and here's my response." Since it is Trackback-enabled, Wendy's post is then modified to include a link to Fred's response. In this way, Wendy can aggregate responses to her post, people who have read Wendy's post have a way of letting her know they've responded, and anyone who reads Wendy's post can click through and read those responses. There are a few more options that complicate matters (I've left out those details), but that's the gist of Trackback.

From kottke.com

A break from my column

2005-02-21T18:11:00.000+04:00

I asked my editor for a break with the column Not Scientific Science because "I have been drained up these last few weeks." Hope she gives me the 2 weeks off that I asked for.

I got it... finally

2005-02-21T09:01:00.000+04:00

Yes! The Charmed DVD arrived last thursday and I already watched 3 episodes. I never watched them before. I got hooked to Charmed in the 2nd season. And the packaging is really good.

Fun with font size

2005-02-16T16:24:00.000+04:00

Increase the font size and decrease them can be fun! Only if you have FireFox. Note: I'll edit this post!

What's this?

2005-02-16T16:22:00.000+04:00

So what's this pic?

The skeleton of a radiolarian, one of a group of single-celled sea creatures with skeletons made of silica, a glassy material. Radiolarians have evolved into a dizzying variety of shapes in their 600 million-year history. This photograph, whose original source we have been unable to determine, was processed by Dr. Sinan Canan of Baskent University, Turkey, who added color. (All scanning electron microscope images, as this one is, are in black-and-white). Despite their geometric structures, radiolarians are related to the blob-like amoebas often studied in high school biology classes. Most radiolarian skeletons comprise an intricate network of holes and spines that regulate pseudopods, limb-like outgrowths used to capture prey. The skeletons contribute to the so-called radiolarian ooze, a deep-sea deposit found in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Some websites are so... euh!

2005-02-16T15:55:00.000+04:00

Look at facsimilation magazine for example. Oh my god. Not updated since last year and here's their stinking message.

We're back. You can expect more frequent updates and new features blah blah blah. Enjoy!

Heading to be a laureate

2005-02-16T15:47:00.000+04:00

I decided that I would try to get a schoolarship next year for my A level. Why? Why not? I did well enough at O level so I have to at least try. Plus the schoolarship is really great; and so it the pride.

Cole back on Charmed is...

2005-02-13T12:13:00.000+04:00

A fluffy of emotions really. Although I only read the spoilers, it's still sort of depressing if you know what I mean. And it really looks as thought the seventh season of Charmed is going to be the last one. Dammit.

New notebook

2005-02-12T21:23:00.000+04:00

Of course notebook is 'laptop'. It's pretty cool but as it's a completely new one, all my internet websites are not in the bookmarked section! By the way it has 60Gb Hard Disk Memory space.

Saturn's blue heaven

2005-02-11T16:09:00.000+04:00

The Cassini spacecraft has sent back some Saturnian snapshots of a different color, tinged with a heavenly blue rather than the typical butterscotch yellow.

Diamonds world

2005-02-11T15:49:00.000+04:00

The inner planets in our solar system are largely made of rock, which are formed from silicon. But in a different solar system, with a different distribution of minerals, planets could be mostly formed from carbon instead. Inside these planets, where the heat and pressure are intense, this carbon would form layers of diamonds. Small versions of these planets fall to Earth all the time, in the form of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which contain different carbon compounds, such as carbides, organics and occasionally even diamonds.

Charmed website

2005-02-10T18:43:00.000+04:00

Well got an email today, through the Yahoo! Charmed Group. A guy is doing a charmed website and wants some help. So naturally I emailed back and told him I'd like to hlep out with the editing and contents. We'll see. Anyway Amazon.com already let me know that the Charmed DVD would arrive between the 10 Feb and 10 Mar. So I guess it's on its way, right NOW.

New and first favicon

2005-02-08T11:01:00.000+04:00

My new favicon!!!

Galaxies might exist without stars!

2005-02-08T10:47:00.000+04:00

Should they be called galaxies then? Engineers have outfitted the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Arecibo Observatory telescope with a new instrument that could help it discover galaxies that have no stars - so called "dark galaxies". The instrument is called ALFA (for Arecibo L-Band Feed Array), which is essentially a seven-pixel digital camera, which allows the radio telescope to receive data seven times as fast. Researchers will explore groups of galaxies, and determine how fast they're converting gas into stars. It should be able to discover if there are gas-rich regions, invisible to optical telescopes, which can be detected by their hydrogen signature. - Universe Today ---

Everything you need to know about Blogger

2005-02-08T10:40:00.000+04:00

Updated about once a week, it features news about blogs and Blogger in the blog type of writing, which we like so much.

Google Image search just got better

2005-02-08T10:31:00.000+04:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Google Image Search is now worth 1 trillion, 187 billion, 63 million words. Yes, that's right, math majors; we've updated our image index, and now offer users precisely 1.18763 billion newly updated images. - Radhika Malpani, Tech Lead, Google.

What's this pic?

2005-02-04T16:14:00.000+04:00

So what's this pic? Ans: A snapshot taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System on NASA's Mars Odyssey probe shows a satellite view of what appears to be a cartoon rabbit. It's actually a confluence of Martian valleys. - MSNBC

2 great sites just discovered

2005-02-04T16:05:00.000+04:00

Well yeah I visited 2 super great website. And I wanted to share it with you. A cool ezine about many things. exponentiation ezine is a publication dedicated to eternal truths, art, heroism and joy. by Alan Boyle and it's updated daily.