BlogDiary

Fall Colors

2006-10-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

Visit to Niagara falls.

2006-05-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

On the long weekend we went to niagara falls. We had already obtained canadian visa before our journey so we could also go to the canadian side and see the falls. Compared to the US side the view from canada is toooo good.

The first video is from American side and some part from the maid of mist boat.

One can see the falls from the maid of mist also but its difficult to see the complete picture due to the mist. But from the canadian side you get to see the complete extent of both the falls.
The second video is from the canadian side.

I am in the process of uploading the photos will post a link once its done.

Vi-Vim Cheat-sheet

2006-05-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

Useful for new users or even the most experienced ones, for those moments when you forget what undos the entire line, or what inserts a new paragraph.

Found via digg

read more | digg story

Pictures: AMAZING views of Planet Earth

2006-05-04T22:18:00.000-07:00

Breathtaking shots of planet earth from space

read more | digg story

Photos of an Atomic Blast taken at 1/1000,000,000 of-a-second

2006-05-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

These Photos are of an Atomic Blast prior to any Mushroom Cloud forming. We rarely see these kinds of images. Harold Edgerton is famous for taking photos using High Speed Cameras to capture what the Human Eye alone, cannot see.

read more | digg story

Breaking News: 8.2 Earthquake in Pacific Tsunami Expected

2006-05-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

Breaking News: 8.2 Earthquake in Pacific Tsunami Expected

With recent earthquakes closer to asia who knows we might see more of tsunami devastation...
link to recent quake activity in asia

Ever written a "quine"? Know what a "quine" is?

2006-04-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

A "quine" is actually a program that's output produces the exact code that it was generated from. Sounds stupid or pointless? Well give it a try and realize that it might not be as trivial as you think!

Found Via Digg

read more | digg story

S/w Hack: Make any* Digital Camera to act as Web Cam

2006-04-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

I recently brought a Cannon Powershot S2 IS. The software that accompanied the camera included applications to synchronize the photos, do some settings and remote shooting.
The Remote capture feature included allows to connect the camera to PC giving a view finder from the camera on the screen.

Most of the camera even basic ones come with s/w from the manufacturer which provide a viewfinder window of the camera in their application window while rendering live stream from the camera. I wondered if my camera has been added to my system as a capture device so as to be able to use as a webcam. But it was not :( I fail to understand why most of the manufactures do not provide this utility function why should we be required to buy one more gadget when you can get the same functionality from a device you already own.

Given Below to configure your digital camera as a webcam.

1. Install the s/w included with you camera and launch remote shooting

2. With Cannon Software it asks a folder location. Select a folder and press ok

3. Now you can see from the cameras eye on your PC :)

4. Download and Install Camtasia Studio. It allows to record a part of screen and broadcast it as a live stream to other applications like yahoo. Start Camtasia studio and select start a new project by recording screen. Click OK.

5. It will ask you what you want to record. In this dialog select Region of screen and click next.

6. Then you can select the viewfinder window of canon remote shooting. Click finish. It will open the recorder window. In the Tools->options> under the Live Tab select "Eanble Live output" and select the frames/sec. Click OK

5. In camstia record window click the record button

6. Launch your yahoo client and select mywebcam from the menu. Now you have a webcam available to you .

So if you don't have a webcam and want to do a video chat your digital camera. instead.

I suspect it might be possible to use twain/wia generic driver to stream/enumerate your device as a webcam on your system. Any ideas would be of help.

Njoy

Note:
1. Some cameras when connected to PC may be still running on batteries instead of using the USB power so your batteries might be used for keeping the camera ON while you use it.
2. This method should work with a cameras that come with manufacturer software for remote capture.
3. I know that using a camera 350$ camera as a webcam is overkill but I have access to a casio lv-10 which is a basic digital camera and would like to use it as a webcam as soon as I find it :)

Site Seeing around Minneapolis

2006-04-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today we had gone to downtown Minneapolis. There were around 30% chances of rain as per the weather prediction today. We took a chance and went ahead with the plan. After looking online for some of the nearby places. I found the site yahoo travelguide useful with a listing of near by places with user review.

We Planned to go to the following places
1. Falls of St. Anthony -directions

2. Minnehaha Falls Pegoia Garden -directions

3. Minneapolis Institute of Arts -directions
We were late the museum closes at 5pm so we decided to drop the idea.
4. LAKE calhoun -directions

We had to take maps with us since in US you need too know the directions to any place you decide to go because once you are on the freeway and if you miss a exit then you might have to go for miles before you can take a exit and get back on track. We collected the maps from the office and started at 1.30. All the place were good.

At the lake Calhoun I saw some wind surfer's. I thought there was a sailing club and I can come there and do some surfing some time. But all of them had brought their own boards :(. But Minnesota state being with 10000 lakes I am sure there might be a lake where there is a sailing/ surfing school :)

More photos at flickr

Unattended Windows++

2006-04-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

There was a article on digg on unattended windows setup link . It's a nice article which describes how to create the lasted install disk in addition to how to install windows unattended.
The article has a section where it deescribes how to update the source with the latest hotfixes it describes 3 methods to create a update list. I would like to add two easier methods to get a update list. The first one is a slight variant of the
method 2 mentioned in the original article.

1. Windows update : If you have a machine which is installed using the same service pack say service pack 2 and you have auto updates turned on Then you could got to update.microsoft.com
and view the link review your update history to get a list of all the hotfixes installed till now from windows update.

2. Using Add remove programs: In the add remove programs applet there is a check box show updates which when selected will give the list of updates installed.

Note: I suspect that you will have to have "a machine which is installed using the same service pack number" to get the correct update list.

My Car

2006-04-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

Its been long I have trying to post some pics of my car. I bought the car on the 7th of march 2006. Its a 1997 Honda Accord Ex. I had found this on car after a lot of searching on cars.com Before buying any car it generally better to check the car history. Its easy in US to get the car history because of sites like carfax.com which provide a car registration, mortgage loans/refinancing , auto accident history , Title checks, odometer frauds , major accident record, Leased/Rental fleet registration check for the car.

One of my friends told me the accident record may not be completely because if it is not reported to the DMV/police the record does not appear in the history.

The car is good and smooth to drive :)
See the pics below

Funny sense

2006-04-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

After the recent hype about contextually targeted ads on digg . I noticed that digg.com uses the same technology for delivering ads. Digg being a high traffic site I decided to do a search for revenue of digg from using it :).
Results page

I did not find the revenue for digg but I clicked on the first result on the page see it below. See the ad served at the top of the page :D

LOL competitors ad served by competitors :). I guess they forgot about filtering their own competitors out :)

How to register a domain name that 2 free :)

2006-04-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

Microsoft.com as a free beta of their Live Basics web site solution. Get a free domain with 5 e-mail accounts, free traffic reports, 30MB storage. Credit card required, although their Basic package will remain free even after beta.

Found Via Digg.

read more | digg story

Found this on linuxdevices.com...

2006-04-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Linux mobile phone does FMC
Wow isn't that great. Checked Aftek's site no mention of this on Aftek's site though.

I remember seen this :) in early stages. The features listed in the posting are limited it does not talk of being able to use the phone as wireless modem ?? either Bluetooth or Wifi.

Lookswise also its more sleek device compared to the ones I had seen.
I wonder what os its running on now ? Can any one elaborate on the latest features??

Searching for patents filed in India now easy

2006-04-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Some days back While I was trying to search for intellectual property patents
site in india I came across the site http://ipindia.nic.in. Its the equivalent of United States Patent and Trademark Office

The site for Indian patents has a manual of patent practice and procedure here. It explains the procedure for filing patents with the Indian Intellectual Property office.
Its always better to have your patent application prepared with help from a patent lawyer. The patent attorney will change your application such that even you won't recognise that its your patent idea :). But thats the way it needs to be.

The site has within it the link to list of publications from the Jan 2005 at this link. I found 2 applciations in my name on the site :D.

Free USB drive

2006-04-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

Free USB drive ;) from audi click here

Underwater Adventures @ Mall of america

2006-04-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

We visited the the underwater sea aquarium at MOA. It has lots of variety of fishes . They also had a lot of sharks on display.
check this out

We were lucky to be there at the right time since when we were there the fishes were fed. All of them went in to a feeding freenzy.

We spent around 1 hour total in 2 visits. We took a lot of pics. The pics are ok kind of. Since the camera used was a sony handy cam :( which prompted me to get a new camera since my old camera nikkon coolpix had stopped working sometime back.
Thinking about getting a new one either a cannon or snoy this time considering my experience with nikkon. Though it was good when it worked. Not sure what exaclty caused it to stop working but seems my experiment went bad ..

More pics are here flickr

MOA Photos

2006-04-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Went to the Mall of America on the 2nd of April. It was ranning a lot that day :( but once we were in we had no idea as to what was happening in the outside world.
Its said to be the biggest mall in the united states.

Here are some snaps from the trip

Americana Carousel

Paul Bunyan’s Log Chute

A view from top

The park has around 18-20 rides for children and adults. Its a fun place to be.

more photos here flickr