Friday, October 29, 2010

posts on hold

Hey
I've been having bigtime issues lately. With a crashed hard drive,another hard drive which refuses to detect, an altered dth channel package, and examinations overhead, i'm getting less of time to leep up with the blog. i'll be back soon to posting some stuff

prattzzhackzz

Monday, October 11, 2010

Google launches Google TV


Google officially launched its TV service - the Google TV.The package groups in television and internet.

The Google TV would be providing online content which includes websites,apps, shows, and movies apart from the regular tv. Google has already com up with deals with many major US Television networks.

Now the question is... would Apple march ahead or Google walk past it. A piece of trendsetter is about to come..

How to stop snoring


Here are a few tips to get control over the snoring at night problem. Here they are

1)Take a side posture at bed
Sleeping on your side and not on the back will help prevent snoring.

2) Choose the right pillow
Use a firmer for sleeping. A pillow that is quite soft relaxes the throat muscles and hence narrows the air passage.

3)Avoid dairy products

Dairy products can cause mucus buildup right before you go to sleep. In case you're overweight,lose some weight as it will reduce snoring by increasing the space in the air passage way.

4)Check meal intake
Don't have a big meal right before bed. A full stomach pushes the diaphgram up,which limits the passage ways.

5)Take the right position
Use multiple pillows, or a thicker pillow for sleeping, as it helps reduce snoring. Also don't have alcohol,tranquilisers, anti-histamines, or sleeping pills as they help the muscles to relax.

Hope these tips were helpful for you. Feel free if you have something to ad to this list

Liver Tips

Winter's coming in Delhi, and so is the Hepatitis season. I know how bad can hepatitis be, i've even once been hospitalised as i had lost a lot of body fluid.

Here are a few tips for those who have a weak liver. I found them in a local newspaper. These precautions should also be taken by those who get mouth ulcers frequently, or face digestive problems regularly.

here are the steps to be taken
1) No nonsense intake
Regular alcohol and drug consumption weakens the liver and deteriorates it. The toxic elements in them hog a lot of liver energy in breaking them down, and hence weakens the liver. They can also cause excessive damage to the liver.

2) Go green
Increase intake of cabbage,broccoli,and carrots. They help in detoxifying the toxic stuff. Also avoid food that has been stored in the fridge for more than a day. All such things make the liver weak and vulnerable to hepatitis. Radish is also good for the liver as it strengthens the liver.

3)Do not overeat
Don't eat frequently. Try having a vegetable salad as a healthy alternative for regular snacks. Try keeping your snacks light.

4) Avoid artificially sweetness and limit the natural ones
Artificial sweeteners are poisonous for the liver as it leads to high physical exhaustion of the liver and abnormal glucose levels in the blood.

5) Drink loads of water
Have at least 8-10 glasses of water everyday. It flushes the toxic leftover in the liver.

Follow them, and have a good health. I'm goign to follow them from now only.

Comments are welcomed

Movie Review - Dabanng

Last week, i finally managed to catch up on the Salman Khan's latest offering - Dabanng. Being too much in hype, i finally made up my mind to watch it amidst a dilemma whether the movie would be good or bad.


Salman does only two kinds of movies - one is absolute senseless stuff, which resembles the old Bollywood style stuff(which is more like the South Indian cinema), or some really sensible and sensitive stuff. And Dabanng reminded me of the former.

Dabanng is the story of Chulbul Pandey(Salman Khan), a cop in Lalganj,Uttar Pradesh. As a child, he had a hard time adjusting with his mentally weak brother Makhan(Arbaz Khan), and his second father Mr Prajapati Pandey(Chulbul's father expired when he was two, and his mother had to get married once again). The movie then shifts gear within 3minutes of the start of the movie to show the present , where he combats a group of bank robbers alone in a hillariously stupid fight scene(dancing on tunes while taking a break from fighting, and suddenly again starts fighting....illogical).

As the movie progresses, his strained relation with his father and brother Makhan is shown. Suddenly Makhan's love story appears and its plot reminds of the old bollywood romantic saga's. Then in the middle of a chase sequence, he falls in love with a girl(Sonakshi Sinha), chats with her while the gangsters run, and suddenly catches up with them and nabs them. Chulbul falls in love with that girl, and comes to know that her father(Mahesh Manjrekar) is a damn alcoholic. Later when the father dies, he marries the girl.

Chedi Singh, a local political tout, happens to get his money stuck with Chulbul. He uses all means to get it back. Chulbul arrests him for operating illegal liquor breweries which produces poisonous alcohol, and Chedi avenges revenge for it. And in the process, he kills Chulbul's mother. Later he kills a leader too.

Pandey finds him guilty for killing the leader, and while he gets to him, Chedi had managed to blast away his father's factory . It is the shortage of money for the medical expenses for the father which make the challenged brother Makhan deliver a box to the leader's house not kowing that the box had a bomb.

Chulbul reaches the scene. The fight begins. And in a ridiculous chain of events, he gets to know how his mother was killed by Chedi, and kills Chedi for his misdeeds. The End


The movie is utter nuisance. Everything has been done on a very high budget scale to cover up for the weak story. The high promotions by Salman had already hinted me that the movie was a dud. Everything in the movie doesn't seem to make sense. Song sequences, fight sequences, story continuation, literally everything. The story throughout vests with Chulbul Pandey.

The screeching of the brakes is too loud and irritating, dont know where have they acquired it from. The sound effects are good Salman's performance is good. Vinod Khanna has also done justice to his role. Director Abhinav Kashyap has done a terrible job to the senseless script. Thats a different thing that expectations from him was of a movie like his brother's Dev. D or Udaan.

One funny thing about the movie is that the crew seems to have bought Ray Ban Aviators in bulk. Everyone appears to be wearing them. And Salman's character seem to have those aviators as his second layer of eyes. And the dialogues are wierd.

On the music front, Sajid-Wajid have done a good job, which helped a lot in building the initial 'super'hype. All of them had given a good share of work which helped the movie having the highest Box Office opening in bollywood.

For everything including a nonsense script and a few pieces of acting, i give the movie 1.5 out of 5, which includes a 1 only for Salman's acting. Those who like meaningful cinema would rather consider spending money on this movie as money stolen from their pockets.

Athletes rejoice @ Khel Gram

In the ongoing Commonwealth Games, players have been enjoying a lot. As the media reports, players have been spoilt as much as possible in the Commonwealth Village premises.

For example, players have been handed over more than 8000 bottles of muscle relaxant oil at the spa. There has been a nightclub constructed inside the village by the Noida based club Quantum(earlier known as Elevates), and there are no cover charges for it. Also many free concerts and cultural performances are held every night. And to add to this list, skin care,dental,medical and cosmetic services are free.

And you must have heard of the 24hour main dining area where anyone can eat any time they want.

Leander Paes, who has been a big name in international Tennis for over fourteen years, says " This is the best CWG Village i have ever been".

Way to go...

NZ,Aussie media allege nonsense on Indian CWG

There have been some defaming reports coming out of the Australian and New Zealand's media which are not true. These fake reports are giving the wrong impession to the world about the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2010 being held at New Delhi, India.

A few days back, CWG Federation chief had joined the players staying at the Commonwealth Games village in praising the facilities there. He said that never before in the history of the games that such a world class facility was being provided to the players. Specifically mentioned that such five star facilities weren't even there in the Beijieng Olympics. Two players were alloted a room ,irrespective the size of the contingent. The recreational,food and security facilities are probably never seen before. Every evening there's a special show held in the village only for giving the visitors the best possible time of their life.

But there's a reporter Paul Henry of TVNZ from New Zealand who gave racist remarks on the Chief Minister of New Delhi Mrs Sheila Dixit. Later he was sacked by the firm for doing so. Earlier, some Australian media channels had spread rumors that the pools were dirty and tracks were broken during the games events, which is nothing but a pack of lies meant solely at growing money and defaming India. Earlier, Channel 7 of Australia had also come out with a fake sting operation claiming security breaches, which was negated by Mike Fennell when he was checked as his car didn't have the required entry pass. Also the Indian home minister underwent the same procedure when his personal car didnt have the pass during his surprise inspection at the village. Infact , during the games opening ceremony, people were instructed to arrive 4 hours prior to the function as they had to undergo a whopping 19 security checks of all kind. That tight has been the security.

Yes, there had been some mistakes committed by the co-ordinating authorities. But the main reason behind them was Emaar-MGF JV, which handed over the possession of the building structure years late, and that too without any electrical or plumbing,sanitary fittings.

When Hollywood stars like John Lennon,Julia Roberts,Sting,Padma Lakshmi,Vikram Chatwal Katy Perry and Russel Brand intend to return to India for spending the memorable part of their lives, they must have found something good here. I mean, if Katy Perry and Russel Brand announce their marriage to take place in India, then they must have found something worth noting. Marriage isn't done everyday.

So please don't listen to these rumors. The Commonwealth Games are being held at the highest possible levels. Play a contructing part and support India in organising these games. Who knows when might you visit India in the near future...

'Poor' Britons not provided any official outdoor dressing

In the opening ceremony of the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, the English delegation had wore kurta pyjama's and this came as a surprise to everyone. Here's the story behind it.

The English team didn't manage to find any sponsors for itself.

Now that is quite surprising,especially when its the Commonwealth Games, and organisations like Vodafone,Royal Bank of Scotland, Marks & Spencer, and so on are present in India. But still they somehow remained sponsorless. This comes as a shock as even miniature African and Asian nations have sponsors like Reebok and Nike if not the giants like Hero Honda like India has.

And neither was the English government kind enough to set some funds for a good clothing lineup for their contingent members. Maybe thats one reason why the queen didn't appear to set the games open(the primary speculation being the fact that only after India that all other british captured colonies started slipping out of Britain's hands, and as Gandhi ji said it rightly, within 50 years of India's independence, all other colonies got freed).


Britain...after Afghanistan.after Tony Blair, has some more reasons to get embarrased !

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Site Picks

Hey everyone
Here's my pick of the web for this edition. Hope you guys enjoy going through them.



twisst.nl
Just in case you want to see how your region looks like from space, here's the site. This site links you to a twitter account,where you can request for a snapshot of your region. Whenever the space centre goes over your regon, you will be notified by a tweet,and the photograph would be uploaded.

bigappshow.com
An app which features the best apps online. Adam Curry picks the best apps he comes across online.

androidtapp.com
The best online site to download android apps. The site's looks make me feel more like as if i'm surfing Cnet or Soft32, with its app listing,screenshot, and rating styles. The site also previews and reviews the pleothra of new android handsets.

rescuetime.com
If you're one of those who loses track of time when being online,here's a site offering a piece of software which can help you out. Just download the software from the website, and install it,and the software will start logging what all activities you are doing online, and how much time is being is being spent. The premium version has the feature of stopping you from surfing those sites once the time you pre-decide has lapsed. Though this premium service is initially available as a 5 day trial.

gist.com
Having a hard time managing contacts at many accounts. Here's a solution to it. Gist offers an iPhone app which aggregates all the contacts from all the accounts you have, and gets them duplciation free, and ready for use.

aisquared.com
This site offers one of the oldest applications for desktop magnifcation. The application is many times more useful and feature loaded than the Windows magnifier. You can download a free trial, or download a full paid version.

Comments are welcomed

Xplore CWG Delhi 2010 - a new CWG tour guide app

HCL Technologies has rolled out an iPhone app just for the commonwealth games. The app titled "Xplore CWG Delhi 2010" is aimed at helping out the tourists and athletes participating in the games, or for watching it.

The app uses GPS data and maps to help tourists find out ATM's,bars,restaurants,shopping places,hotels,hospitals and metro stations nearby. Also emergency numbers like police,ambulance,fire brigade and utility numbers like radio taxi numbers are built in.

The app also carries information about the various event schedules and the venue's for them.

And the beat part - the app is FREE. Downloadable at the iTunes store at itunes.apple.com

So better download it right away !

Sky, Virgin launch 3D TV in UK

Earlier last week, Sky and Virgin media launched their respective 3D channels in the UK. While Sky was showing sports telecasts on this channel, Virgin has only a movie available on the 3D lists.

Personally, i find this risk taking stuff 'not very smart'. With the restrictions of a pair of 3D glasses and limited content, its quite difficulty to encourage this. Plus a strain on the eyes after sometime is also a hampering cause. Till HD. it was okay, but with 3D TV invading the living room,humans sure have started opposing the natural ways, which might deteriorate the human body(the virtual image formed by the 3D systems can cause many eye disorders, especially to the young and the already disorder patients).

Wondering should we impose a limiting ban on business aspects..

Movie Review - The curious case of Benjamin Button


I had the DVD for 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button` for sometime, but hadn't got the opportunity to watch it. But this week, i found that opportunity. And the Brad Pitt starrer didn't disappoint me at all. Infact, it did what a movie should do - make the audience think on the topic being depicted.

The movie is about the life story of an unusual child - Benjamin Button. This child was born as a rebirth of a blind watchmaker, who was deeply saddened by the death of his son in the first world war. Benjamin was born 'old', and he used to turn 'young' with time while others turned 'old'.

The movie starts with an old woman Rose who asked her daughter Chelsea to read a diary which belonged to Benjamin - her love. Benjamin had his whole life story written in it.

Benjamin had a hard life. His mother died soon after he was born. His father considering him a devil abandoned him ,and he was adopted by a social worker who used to run an oldage home. Life wasn't so easy for him. During his childhood, he had all the problems that old people used to have. He couldn't walk well,had problems with his knees and elbows. Benjamin grew up seeing watching people dying.

He later started working as a seaman,met a lot of experiences which people never realised. Benjamion infact had a very sharp sense of observation. During his life, he did enjoy the company of half a dozen women, out of which Rose was one. Surprisingly, Rose had met him at the old age home where her grandmother used to stay, and was introduced as her granny's friend.

As story progresses, Benjamin finally gets to know and meet his father. He later settles down with Rose, not knowing that life had something else in store for him. They had a baby girl whom they named Chelsea. Ever since he came to know that Rose was pregnant, Benjamin got worried how Rose would be able to keep up with two children in the future(Benjamin knew he was going to turn into a child soon). After an year of Chelsea's birth, one night Benjamin left both of them and went away. He did leave away money earned by selling every ancestral asset he had for Chelsea's education and career.

A few years later, he did meet Rose, not knowing that that would be his last meeting in is conscious. Another few years down the lane Rose came to know Benjamin had turned into a child, and had forgotten everything. He moved into the oldage home once again. Rose used to check on him everyday,in spite of her growing age. She later moved into his place, and eventually accompanied him till the day he died . On that day, Benjamin was no more than a newborn. And as everything comes to an end, Rose also dies a natural death.


The movie makes me ponder over everything that i saw all these years, literally everything. Suddenly all those sayings like "Everything happens for a reason", "Lord give it and lord take it away" and "Everything is predetermined to happen" start to make sense. It shows how everything is being balanced by the mighty lord, and we just seem to ignore this fact.

Life is indeed painful. People get left all alone in the peak of their old age just to be left isolated. Life isn't too easy to live. You have to plan every single thing in advance to survive it in full.

The movie is sensible, mature, enlightening and touchy. Each one of the characters make a mark on your soul. Everyone gets to learn a new lesson every time he watches it.

I give the movie a 5 out of 5 for its brilliant screenplay,amazing acting and marvellous direction. Showmanship at its best.

I'd just end by quoting a line from the movie.


But when it comes to the end, we have to let it go

Bigg Boss 4 A Disaster with Controversial Participants


In the ongoing fourth season, the Bigg Boss's house has housed a few controversial contestants. But a select few of them has actually brought the show to the lowest of standards. Thats because the thing they represent is nowhere near humanity.


Abbas Kazmi - Lawyer defending on behalf of Kasab, the terrorist behing the 26/11 Mumbai attacks
Seema Parihar - former dacoit and local militia leader
Devendra Singh alias Bunty "Superthief" - jailed for 500+ cases of theft and burgulary
Rahul Bhatt - allegedly involved in supporting David Coleman Headley intentionally or unintentionally

Bunty has already been expelled from the Bigg Boss's house on grounds of misconducting and violating the show's terms and conditions.

And here are a couple of Pakistani citizens. I protest against them for the reason that our Indian legends are not allowed to perform in Pakistan. Even Pakistani's should not be allowed to participate in Indian media's entertainment activities. Why should they feed off INDIAN money. The Paki's participating are

Begum Nawazish Khan - A crossdresser who hosts shows
Veena Malik - involved in a relationship with the tainted Pakistani cricketer Md. Asif

Already pakistan has sent a lot of its citizens as trained terrorists through the Line of Control to create havoc in India. The sole aim of Pakistani government is to make life hell for the millions of humans worldwide who progressed ahead of them.

Bigg Boss, get those pests out of the house..

New Headphones - Philips SHH4520


After my old headphones broke, i had been looking for a new earphone which i could use for my daily requirements. They were the Philips SHH4520. And they do seem to work well enough.

When i first tried out the earphone,i was utterly disappointed at its performance. The earphone used to crack up the audio at high treble pitches.`But tweaking up my phone gave fairly good results. But i must say that the results aren't amazingly brilliant, they're just above average.

The earphones have high treble intensity. They're good for listenng to Indian tracks, but not equally good for the English ones. Their performance dipped significantly for the bass intensive rock tracks. But after tweaking my equaliser, i got satisfactory decent results.

Right now i'm listening to Lady Gaga's Telephone, and it seems to be pretty good, but i simply cannot comment how good will it perform on other tracks.

And for movies, the product is quite good. I watched the whole "The curious case of Benjamin button" on these, and they did give me a good performance.

I give it a 8/10 for its performance.

Do you think the same, or you have a different opinion on this. Suggestions/Comments are welcomed.

Anger Management Tips

All in this hectic,stressful life, we all tend to get irritated, and hence angry. And everone knows anger does more harm than any good.

Here are a few tips to manage anger

1)Workout
Find a healthy outlet for your anger. Do things like beat the pillows,matresses,ht the punch bag, cry out loud(when you're inside the house),break plastic bottles in a bag to name a few.

2)Calm yourself
Learn some deep breathing exercises and some muscle relaxation techniques. Try deep breathing. Try some soothing instrumental music, or chanting a mantra(such as Om) to relax. My pick for this - try listening to trance(tracks such as Om Numah Shivay by Apache Indian),it works.

3)Introspect
Once you have relaxed yourself,and are in a position to think about what made you angry, make a mental note of the things(if not actual) that triggered off the anger.

4)Write it out
This is one great technique suggested by psychologists. Take a pen, and a piece of paper, and write down your feelings,those instances when you lost your cool over something. Once you can pinpoint the cause,draw a conclusion, and a plan to how to resolve it(f it needs resolution).

5)Just Let it go...
This phrase by Usher(from the track"Intro" of the album "Confessions") says it all. Its been my stress buster whenever i had relationship issues. Hanging on to oyur anger is harmful. It leads to depression and aggression. So once you're calm, analyse the situation and let it go. Forgive and forget the person against whom you had the grudge. And feel light hearted and relaxed.

Hope these tips were useful for you all

Friday, October 1, 2010

Select Healthy Foods

Here are a few useful tips on choosing the healthier foods . Here they are

1)Stick to green
Try to eat like a vegetarian, and keep grass-fed,hormone free animal based proteins not more than twice a week.

2)Go Organic
Find out the pesticide free products available in your marketplace. A list for such products is also available on foodnews.org(look for the Environment Working Group or EWG's cheat sheet).

3)Pick your color
Eliminate the white colored stuff such as salt,sugar,and flour in your diet(or reduce them to hazard-free levels). Overdose of them leads to many-a problems

4)Count your stuff
Do not buy any products which has more ingredients than what your finger can count, then better avoid it. The product is more likely over-processed.

5)Do a deep thought
If you don't know about a product's ingredients, then its better to leave it. Harmful chemicals are the root for many allergies and other health problems.

6)Go for whole foods
Instead of going for processed foods, go for whole foods like nuts. This is especially for oils.

Follow these tips and see how your health improve. Comments are welcomed

Book Writing Tips for starters

Here are a few tips which might help out the budding writers out there. Here they are

1)Dedicate days
Plan a day in a week or few in a month when will you concentrate on writing. Don't clutter your ideas with work to be done. Wake up early, take your laptop and go to your favourite cafe. Absorb the atmosphere AND START WRITING.

2)Structure First
Have a basic idea of what you want to write about in your mind. Spend a few days thinking of a great topic to start with. If you go with a confused concept, or with a couple of ideas, it may not work out well. A coherent thinking is a an essential for a good book,so begin well.

3)Go with the flow
Once you have a basic idea in the mind, let your thoughts run. Be createful,thoughtful, even pensive. Whatever your mood commands, go for it. It's easier to edit later,but sometimes the most natural thoughts are the best ones.

4)Set a deadline
While its okay to give yourself sometime to let the book shape up, keep a rough sketch in your mind by when do you need to finish it. Treat it as a time bound project. This way you will be more productive.

5)Network
Never immerse yourself in the book so much that you forget about the final reward - publishing. Keep a note of the best publishers in the town,and talk to them about the subject of your book. Also speak to your friends for important leads that may help you in your book

Hope some of you out there find them useful. Comments are welcomed

Blackberry Boys - a great campaign from vodafone

I just saw the new Blackberry Internet Service ad from Vodafone. Its brillantly good and refreshing. The magic of old school musicals is evident in the ad.



Brilliant work Vodafone. May your BB Internet services be as good as the ads for it ..

Star group copies Twilight

Star group,in a part of its desperate attempts,has started showing the promos of a new show - Pyaar ki ye ek kahani.

Now i just saw its trailor somedays back. And the way the characters are depicted seems to be a replica of the girly epic twilght(girl because i haven't found a single guy liking it as much as girls seem to).

The promo reminds of the scene where the Vampire guy(played by Rob) saves the girl from having an accident in school. The promo is actually the same, just that the guy is on the middle of some road crossing and not in some college campus. Rest the whole scene is exact same. Same people staring,same old staring(ah,utter nonsense, staring in the middle of the road).

It seriously makes me wonder why producers prefer stale story over a budding writer's masterpiece. Why do they love producing stale stuff, and that too for a nation which doesn't get hooked to such stuff.

VMA 2010 Dull


The 2010 VMA's were very dull. This instant of the VMA's was probably the worst of all times. Nothing seemed to spice up the evening.

The host was a very dull one(so dull, that i can't even remember her name, which was something starting with H). Her PJ's weren't so funny. Probably she thinks too highly of her humour skills, that's why such Pathetic jokes.

Justin Bieber's performance wasn't something interesting. The beats were nice, but not good enough. i can very well get that the beats were 'usher's' contribution.

Usher, on the other hand managed it quite well in his act. His shaky voice showed how much talent he's got, he can sing while dancing. We're lucky to have great performers like him. Maybe its because of him that the club culture is still alive. He's probably contributed to it more than anyone else.

The best male video category was my favourite. Probably all the songs that stuck in my head were there. Though B.O.B's beats were the only thing i liked, it still qualified in my fav's list, as the current day music scenario isn't too encouraging.

LP rolls out its new 'catalyst'

Linkin Park came out with a new video sometime back, but checked it only early last week because of the exams going on. The video is refreshingly new, and remnids of the old LP. The track's called "The Catalyst". Here's what it looks like.



Underwater sequences,new sounds makes it something new yet familiar. Its one of those refreshing videos i've seen in a long long time.

Appz Pick - Android App " Places "

In case you're one of those users which have an issue finding out places in a city, then here's a solution for it. There's an app called "Places" available on the android market(as i've been told).

The app offers the list of eateries out there,the ATM's nearby, the critical helpline information(police,ambulance,fire tender) , hospitals, markets, and bars.

I had checked out for a pub in New Delhi, and it was able to come up with a few pubs in the GK1 N-Block market.

Hope you liked the application. Comments are welcomed.

An attempt discriminates!

An attempt discriminates!

A test for !dea. Hope they somehow add my blog here