XP to 7 - a giant leap

Thats windows 7





Thats windows XP



Finally, i upgraded my old Windows XP to Windows 7. Yes, being a tech savvy person, i should have done that ages back. Its Windows 8 that's making waves lately, and now i'm using Windows 7. Sounds funny,though true. My old mates would never believe this.

Well,coming back, 7 is completely a glossy seeming Windows. The feel that 7 gives is very close to XP's. The gadgets are good. Though i'm still adjusting to 7, it feels good to use. And by the way, HD looks best in 7, probably because DVD was the 'hi-tech' thing at the time of development of XP.

All these years, the only reason for me rooting for XP is that XP is easy to insta`ll, and is a complete no-nonsense OS. Old compilers such as Turbo C run smoothly on it. 7 on the other hand, works efficiently and smooth. Its not that its more efficient than XP, but relatively faster.

XP is an operating system which can be used with 1Gb hard disk space, but 7 on the other hand needs atleast 7Gigfor the same. All the additional space required is for the upgraded features. It would not be wrong to say that 7's kernel is a copy of XP's pathbreakign kernel, which still is fun to explore. Very recently, i had a virus infection in which a file called "regsvr.exe" used to load at startup. I deleted the file, and all its associate files, and made a zero command program in C, and renamed it to the earlier's. Now XP runs flawlessly.

Also, XP has a very robust crash protection mechanism. Once i had a file in my Documents and Settings profile corrupted. I copied a file from another system, and replaced the old file with it. Post then, i was able to save my data. The profile was still usable, it would only take time to load the profile, and that becamne the reason i reinstalled XP.

And the best part. XP needs hardly 30 minutes to get installed and running on any multi-core system, whereas 7 needs atleast an hour to copy files, and another hour to get installed. Comparatively speaking, XP has way more advantages over 7.

XP has been one of the finest of the Windows Microsoft has ever released in the last decade(or even in history), and will still remain unless the software giant comes up with something big. Back in 2001. when XP got launched, it had outbeaten all OS's available then in the market, and flagged Microsoft as the undisputed king of softwares. Its XP that hindered Red Hat Linux's development. GNU had to rebrand RHL to Fedora to make it usable. Even OS X developers had to work too hard to save their existing customer bases, and Apple had to launch BootCamp to prevent Mac users to dump their Mac's and shift to regular PC's. And that is one big reason why most of the computers out there still work on XP and nothing else.

And for the fact, i installed 7 on a partition other than of XP's. So i have the freedom of using my 'old pal' XP sideways with this relatively new kid 7

What do you think about this? Do you agree that XP is way superior, or 7 outsmarts it. Feel free to pour in. Comments are welcomed

Jobs goes, iPhone 4S woes

In the recent chain of events, Apple unveiled its new iPhone 4S. The phone was labelled as dud, considering that it only had a mere few enhancements. Thats a different thing that people don't realise that 4G is not yet standardised, so Apple cannot come up with a product claiming its 4G ready(ignorant people). But one thing was sure - the Steve Jobs magic was not there.

And the very next day, Steve Jobs dies from cancer at the age of 56. This came as a big blow for Apple, as for them, its was Jobs who was weaving magic all around. Whether it was iPod, iPhone or iPad, all the products were released by Steve himself. The only product that was released in is absence - the iPhone 4S, was immediately termed dud by the journalists. Not only Steve Jovs was the face of Apple and Pixar, but was also associated with the innovation, quality,and product dellivery that Apple was reputed for.

But one thing is for sure. The death of Steve Jobs for a second must surely have shaken Bill Gates,whom Jobs was the closest competitor to. Suddenly the demise of the founder, and the subsequently media criticism of products must have made Gates worried, who was already on fire ever since Windows Vista was released.

Seems like tough times are coming. Already new innovations seem dim, and the old innovators leaving the planet, dark days are knocking the door. One thing is for sure - we will miss the innovation Jobs was famous for.

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs, you shall be eternally missed

Movie Review - Batman Begins

In my ongoing movie marathon,i watched the 2005 DC thriller Batman Begins. Directed by my favorite Christopher Nolan, i couldn't resist watching this movie. So after watching the movie, here's the review. Being a Christopher Nolan movie, the duration is long(just like in most of the Nolan movies), but the length is well justified considering how much in depth Nolan explains the character and his ways.

The Plot:

The movie starts with a dream. Young Bruce Wayne(played by Christian Bale) is in a greenhouse with Rachael Dawne(katie Holmes). While hiding from her, he falls into a well which was closed. Rachael goes to home and calls for help. Inside the well, because of the noise Bruce made while falling, enormous number of bats start flying outside, and he gets scared. And here ends the dream.

Bruce wakes up to find that he's in a jail. Just before his breakfast, he gets into a fight with a bunch of hustlers, and is locked in a cell. There, he meets Ducard(played by Liam Neelson) who proposes him to come visit him in the mountains if he wishes to pursue his desire to fight the evil. He represents a group called the League of Shadows. Bruce does so. He faces extreme difficulties in reaching the top, and when he does, he is greeted by Ducard. He starts his training immediately. The story goes back into the flashback as Bruce tells Ducard his story.

Bruce's young again. Post the falling into the well incident, Bruce and his parents go to an Opera. Bruce feels uncomfortable, and asks his parents to leave. While leaving, they come across a street gangster who kills both his parents. This affects young Bruce a lot. He considers himself responsible for his parent's death.

Bruce comes back to his home. He attends the trial of his parents's killers, but just when he thinks the killer's about to fall prey to him, he is killed. When he tries to reason the killers of his parent's killers, he is beaten up and thrown out of the building. He is told that being at the top of a multi-million enterprise, he will never know how the dark world operates. He takes this statement to his ego, and goes to an exotic land where he lives like a commoner, and observes the world of illegal doings.

While meeting an underworld trader, he gets caught in a police raid and lands up in a jail. And thats where the story had started.


The story comes back to the present where Bruce is in the mountains.Back again in the mountains, Bruce starts rigourous training. This training continues for sometime. He is taught by Ducard, under the supervision of a martial arts guru Ra's Al Ghul. After the completion of his training, the league of shadows asks him to kill a man who committed crime. They also disclose that their next target is Gotham city which they will wipe out compeletely. Bruce doesn't do so, and escapes. And in the process, kills everyone, but saves Ducard.

Bruce then returns to Gotham city, and joins his company Wayne Enterpises. He comes in contact with the old people he had left. He joins the R&D division of his company where he meets Lucius Fox(played by my fav. Morgan Freeman), who once was a director at the time when Bruce's father used to run the company. He introduces Bruce to various defence products that the company had developed, but not put on production. Sending Bruce to the R&D division was just a way for the board to keep Bruce away from the company's proceedings.

Then starts Bruce's pursuit of creating a new identity. He starts working on his Batsuit. And uses it to counter the criminals.

But meanwhile, a microwave vapouriser used to convert water to vapour for industrial purposes gets stolen. Later it turns out that Dr Jonathan Crane, a doctor who has been getting criminals transfered to sanitorium has been supporting Ra's Al Ghul in his evil plan to wipe out the city, by mixing his poisonous mixture in the water supply of the city, and vapourising it. Bruce later finds out that Ducard is actually Ra's Al Ghul. Ra's Al Ghul comes to Bruce's birthday party, and exposes his intentions, and burns down his house. Ra's Al intends to blow up the central water pumping station with the microwave vapouriser using a train to reach there,which would cause hallucination among the citizens, and hence cause people to kill each other out of fear(hence the city will destroy itself). Bruce manages to escape with the help of his loyal butler of his family Alfred(played by Michael Caine).

Batman then goes out to save the city. He gives Sargent Jim Gordon(played by Gary Oldman),the very officer who handled his parent's murder case when he was a child, the access to his car, and asks him to blast away some metro pillars, so that the train that carries crashes. Gordon does his work, and manages to rip off the track. Meanwhile , Batman goes into the train,holds up a fight with Ra's and when he finds that Gordon had completed his work, leaves. The train crashes, and Ra's dies.

Meanwhile, Rachael finds out about the real identity of Batman. Bruce decides that he would rebuild the burnt Wayne mansion brick by brick. In the last scene, Gordon calls Batman, and briefs him about a new criminal called "The Joker". The end

Final Take:
Christopher Nolan is one nightmare for all directors trying to compete with him. His direction has been marvellous to watch, whether it is Inception, and Batman Begins shows such a brilliant director he is. His screenplay is great.

Christian Bale, and the rest of the cast also has done a brilliant job in the movie. Michael Caine, in the role of Alfred has done some outstanding role.

My rating 4.6 out of 5

Movie Review - Delhi Belly

In my ongoing movie marathon, i caught up with the controversial Aamir Khan production Imran Khan starrer Delhi Belly. Heard of it a lot, i decided to watch the movie.

The Plot:
Tashi(played by Imran Khan) is a journalist who lives in a stinky apartment with his two friends Arup(played by Vir Das) and Nitin(played by Kunal Roy Kapoor). Nitin works as a photographer with Tashi, and Arup works as an animation artist in a company. Tashi has a girlfriend cum fiance Soniya(played by Shehnaz Treasury) whom he intends to marry.

Vladimir - A diamond smuggler Vladimir, comes to India. His associate in illegally exporting diamonds who happens to be an airhostess is busy somewhere,and asks her friend Soniya to take a packet from Vladimir and deliver it to the mentioned address. Soniya being a airhostess herself, doesn'tgo through extensive baggage check.

Menaka(played by Pooja Jagannathan), a special correspondant is a collegue of Tashi, who likes him. They meet during a star's interview. She keeps on hitting him every time she meets him.

On the other hand, Tashi is gifted a car by Soniya's parents.

Soniya gives Vladimir's packet to Tashi for delivering, but Tashi asks Nitin to do so. Nitin gets sick(hence Delhi Belly). Because of this, he is unable to do so, and asks Arun to do so, along with giving a sample for medical examination at the pathological laboratory. Arun mixes up between the two packets, and delivers the sample to the address, and the smuggled packet to the path lab.

Meanwhile, Menaka calls Tashi to a party where he gets into a fight with her husband Rajeev who is extremely drunk. They escape the party, but Rajeev follows them. He damages Rajeev's car a lot. Menaka and Tashi reach a hotel where they are able to escape Rajeev. Tashi drops Menaka to her place, and goes straight to Soniya's place.

The next morning, everyone goes their regular ways. But Cowboy(played by Vijay Raaz) reaches Vladimir's hotel asking for the package. The package contains diamonds worth millions. There they find out the blunder in packet delivery. Cowboy goes to Tashi's house with his men, and hold them. Nitin by chance brings the package from the lab, and when he returns to his place, finds all of them waiting. They find out that the package contains diamonds. Cowboy decides to kill them, but the ceiling for the flat collapes. Cowboy and his men go unconscious, and Tashi and his friends escape.

They sell the diamonds to a trader. But later, Cowboy calls them and they find out that he has Soniya, and he'll kill her if they don't bring the diamonds back. So they go back to the trader who asks them double the price the gave them for the jewels. He throws them out of the place. Tashi includes Menaka in the group and forcefully exchanges the diamonds with him, and escape. Nearby police pursues them. While escaping, Menaka and Tashi go cosy.

Tashi and the group reaches Cowboy's stated place, and are ready to make the exchange. But Cowboy starts pointing the gun at them. Just in the nick of time, the trailing police comes and starts firing, and Cowboy and his men counterfire. Tashi, his friends, Soniya, and Vladimir(who was also in the room) duck , and save their lives. Everyone else in the room is either killed, or left unconscious. They escape. The package containing diamonds falls from the window of the room, and onto Tashi's landlord.

Soniya finds out about Tashi and Menaka go cosying. She goes mad over him for so. Tashi calls off his marriage. Menaka returns to bid final goodbye, but when she's about to leave, Tashi realises his affection for her, and kisses her. The end

Final Take:
The movie funny and stupid. The story isn'tpowerful,but yet manages to make one laugh. Mature people will not like the movie, and so will the female audience, as the movie extremely vulgar. Vulgar abuses are used in the movie in every scene.

Ram Sampath's music is a bit catchy at first look, but slowly one tends to get irritated of them. The old songs used in the movie are good.

The direction is good, one cannot find any contradicting facts in the movie. Usually in such mindless comedies, direction is usually poor. Aamer Khan makes sure the movie has a good end product.

Frankly speaking, Delhi Belly seems like an Indianised version of The Hangover, infact quite is. Its just the Hangover story modified to Indian situations.

My rating for the movie 3 out of 5. Too much abuse, no strong story, and just mayhem in the movie doesn't make me want to give anything more than 1.5, but the humor is just mindblowing.

Movie Revew - Mr Bean's Holiday

Another one of the movies that i caught up recently was the 2007 release Rowan Atkinson starrer Mr Bean's Holiday. Being under Mr Bean's label, the movie had my expectations up high.

The Plot:
Mr Bean who resides in London, goes to a Raffle in the month of June. Its raining profusely. He's late, and on reaching there, finds out that he's won a holiday to the south of France along with a handycam. And in the next scene, he's on the train to Paris, playing with his new camera. He's destined to Cannes. In Paris, he has a mixup of cabs, and reaches Vous Etes Ici instead of the railway station at Gare De Lyon. He starts walking and reahces there,but misses the first train to Paris, so has lunch at a local restaurant. After having his lunch, he goes to the platform , and starts doing some shooting with his camera. There, he asks a gentleman bound for the same train as him to record for him. In the process, the guy recording for him misses the train, and his son is left alone inside the train. The boy gets upset on finding this. Bean tries hard to cheer him up, but the boy remains angry. At a local station, the boy takes revenge by making Bean miss the train.

On the next train, the boy's father comes, but the train doesn't stop. The man had displayed his phone number, but the last two digits go missing. Bean tries to call the number, but doesn't help. He boards the next train, but he realises that he's left his passport and wallet on the station's telephone booth. He's kicked out of the train the next station.

There starts a long struggle for Bean to reach Cannes, and loses the boy. He reaches a road in the countryside, where he's given a lift by a girl, who also has to go Cannes. They stop at a restaurant where he meets the boy again. They again continue for Cannes. The girl stops at a place on the outskirts of Cannes to get her car refuelled where she comes to know about Bean and the boy. It turns out that the boy's father is a jury of the Cannes Film Festival. And by chance, he is judging the same movie the girl had acted in.

They reach Cannes,and crash at the venue of premiere. The film is a complete bore. The girl finds out that her scene has been cut, and is heartbroken. Looking at this, Bean plays the video he had recorded of her in the journey, and by chance it makes perfect sense with the narration. The jury member recognises Bean, and when he comes to get him, meets is son who was itting on the back side of the projection screen. Bean reaches the beach. The girl becomes a star. The director of the bore film becomes a master director. At the End, the movie becomes a musical.

Final take:
Te movie is okay, but not as good as it could be. Personally, i found Johnny English a dozen times more funny than Mr Bean's Holiday. As i had indicated earlier, the movie didn't quite live up to the expectation of the extremely popular Mr Bean .

Rowan Atkinson has done really good acting. So did everyone else in whatever little part they had. There wasn't much acting involved, as there was not much story.

I'd give the movie 2.5 out of 5

Movie Review - Johnny English

Another one of the movies which i had a peek at recently was the 2003 Rowan Atkinson starrer Johnny English. Mr Atkinson, being a funny man, is hard to resist. The movie is a spoof on the Bond series.

The Plot:
Johnny English(played by Rowan Atkinson) is a British secret agent of the MI7. He works at the office, and is nothing more than a paper pusher. Once, during the funeral of the topmost agent, where the incharge for security was Johnny English, an explosion occurs, and all the agent die.

But meanwhile, the security of the queen's jewels becomes an issue. The secret service suspects a multi-millionare jail operator Pascal Sauvage - a frenchman , to be behind this. Johnny is posted at the place of exhibit to protect the jewels, but the thieves somehow manage to steal the jewels and escape.

While investigating for the theft, English and his associate reach Pascal's hideout where his men have the Queen jewels. Because of a blunder, the thieves escape with the jewels in a hearse. English and his asscociate Bough chase him, but lose him in the way and track the wrong hearse. When they realise their blunder, they somehow manage to get out of the situation.

Later it comes out that the MI7 was correct, and Pascal is the mastermind behind the theft. He intends to control Britain.

Meanwhile, the MI7 chief discontinues English from the case when English suggests that he suspects Pascal to be the mastermind of the theft. English decides to inspect the office of Sauvage. When they do, they find out about Sauvage's plans to crown himself as the King of England. They meet Special agent Lorna Campbell(played by Natalie Imburglia) of the Interpol who also is tracking Sauvage's activities, but unfortunately they get caught. The MI7 chief discontinues him from the case. This breaks English's confidence.

Pascal's men break into the Buckingham palace, forcefully make the Queen sign a will to crown Sauvage the king, and hide her. Meanwhile, the case gets reassigned to Lorna, and she seeks English's assistance in catching Sauvage. They reach the outskirts of Pascal's secret hideout palace and break in the night before Pascal would be sworn in as the King. There they find out that pascal intends to convert the whole of England into one large jail, but in the process, get caught.

They manage to escape when Bough comes behind tracking them. They escape, and break into the ceremony. There, in a string of events, English tries to expose him, but Sauvage orders him to be thrown away.. Sauvage gets irritated of all the drama, and utters ill things to the British. English escapes the guards, and just before the crown gets placed on sauvage's head, English pushes him and to everyone's surprise, English gets crowned. English immediately understanding the changed situations, orders to arrest Sauvage. People roar in praise of English's order.

The Queen gets restored of her powers. She awards English with a knighthood. English goes on a vacation with Loren, where he makes a blunder which leaves Loren in a pool. The End

Final Take:
The movie is very funny. Rowan Atkinson plays his part wonderfully. Natalie Imburglia suits the role well. Others play their part well.

I watch the movie twice, because it was so funny. Because it mocks the British monarchy and the church,it has been rated much lower than what it deserves. This movie is more funny than most of the Mr Bean movies, which are low on dialogues.

My rating for Johnny English : 4 out of 5.

Movie Review - The King's Speech

I had the opportunity to watch a movie - the oscar nominated The Kings speech.. Having heard a lot about it, i decide to watch it. Now, here' sthe review

The Plot:
The story sets in 1925. King George Vth's younger son - Albert Fredrick, the Duke of York(played by Colin Firth) has a stammering issue. He stammers too much every time he needs to talk. This stammering problem becomes a cause for embarrasment for him at the closing ceremony of the Empire Exhibition at the Wembley stadium - an exhibition staged by the various British colonies from all over the world. He excessive stammering makes the speech a headache for all the listeners out there.That is when he decides to take medical treatment for the illness.

He tries many medicinal procedures to reduce the stammering problem including some really silly ones, like cigerette smoking. But none of them show any results. He eventually gives up hope.

His wife Elizabeth(played by Helena Carter), on suggestion of the president of society for speech therapies, secretly visits Lionel Logue(played by Geoffrey Rush) who resides in Harley Street and discusses the issue.. The doctor agrees to treat his problem, but with the condition that the duke would have to follow his rules. But initially the king finds the techniques of Lionel offensive.

Later one evening, while being extremely tensed over a christmas speech that his father had asked him to deliver, he decided to hear a recording from the last session at Lionel. And he found that Lionel's experiement was extremely successful. He decides to continue the treatment, and finds himself in a better state.

After the first world war, King George Vth demises. After his death, Albert's older brother David becomes the King. Albert does everything to make David the king, as he is scared of the public speaking responsibilities that a king has. As a ruler, David does not discharge his duties as a king, and wastes his time in the service of his love interest Wallis Simpson. She is a twice divorced woman who knows how to control men. David decides to marry her. But that would be deemed illegal, as the King is the head of the church.

It is decided that Albert would be the king, and would be called King George VIth. On 12th of December 1936, Albert is sworn in as the King, but his first briefing as a king to his men is a disaster for him. His stammering makes it too embarrasing for him.This stammering breaks his soul. He consults Lionel again.

Before getting officially sworn in at the Westminster Abbey, Albert discovers that Lionel did not have any formal credentials, and gets hurt. But Lionel in time, controls the situation, and makes him assured. They practice the speech's in the Abbey. And Albery becomes King George VIth without any embarrasment.

Later, World War II between England and Germany. The king had to deliver a speech on behalf of the nation. And this speech would be a historic one. Just as George gets his speech, he calls in for Lionel. Lionel comes and assists him. His futuristic vision helps George to be at ease while giving the speech. The speech was a success. After the speech, everyone applauds the king for the well delivery. George acknowledges him as a friend, and thanks hi for all the suppor he had contributed to the monarch.

Later in 1944, Lionel was awarded with the commander in chief rank for his services to the monarch. The movie ends.

Final Take:

The movie is good. It shows how the most powerful person on the planet is so terrorised by a small fear, and his struggle to overcome it.

Colin Firth has done a splendid job. He played the role of a stammering royalty with brilliance. Geoffrey Rush and Helena Carter have also done a splendid job.

Ther direction has been outstanding, the director Tom Hooper has done a magnificent job,and rightly gets the credit for it.

My rating for the movie - 4 out of 5