ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు

11 Apr

అందరికీ విజయ నామ సంవత్సర ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు. ప్రతీ రోజూ తెలుగు చదువుదాం. తెలుగు చదివిద్దాం.

Ugaadi

పై ఫొటోలో ఉన్నవి ఈ రోజు చదవడానికి సిద్ధంగా ఉన్న పత్రికలు, పంచాంగం.

House Of Cards

10 Feb

I am not a big fan of watching TV series, except for random watching of shows like AFV or special interest shows like National Geographic. However, when Netflix announced House Of Cards (here), I got a little more curious than usual. Part of the reason is the presence of Kevin Spacey, the actor who left a very strong impression on me when I watched the The Usual Suspects (1995). After watching the first 3.5 minutes of the first episode and liking the next 1 minute of the titles, I am completely sold.

The storyline is very focused; never intends to be a “feel good” one, but tries to give a vivid description of the dark side of politics and its ecosystem (like political journalism). The characters go darker as their inner selves and motives are exposed, yet maintain the political correctness in formal situations. Its an amazing script, from that point of view.

The cast played their roles to the perfection. Kevin Spacey needs no special mention. Whenever he looks into the camera and annotates on the situation and his ruthless next move, he is at his best. Robin Wright is very impressive, especially in situations where the character demands stubbornness. Corey Stoll is surprisingly effective, Michael Kelly plays shroud with ease and Kate Mara plays her complex character with ease. I love the background score and the title sequence – never fast forwarded the title sequence while watching these thirteen episodes.

Friday night happened to be the perfect time to complete the series. Looking back, I couldn’t believe that I completed the entire series in less than one week, given my really hectic work schedules. Credit goes to the gripping series and captivating cast. Waiting for the second series – they left that bait for me!

Replublic Day 2013

26 Jan

My Republic Day morning is spent at SA Palm Meadows. After a brief session of Squash, I headed to the flag hoisting ceremony organized by the community. This short and sweet function is attended by residents of our community – from all age groups.

The sequence of events included flag hoisting, message by the President of the community and views by a few co-residents. Here are the events captured in photographs.

 

RepublicDay-2013

 

Snacks served at the end of the ceremony are delicious!

Stupid yet simple fixes: Door blinds

16 Apr

Ever in a situation where the door blinds are broken by someone and you don’t have time to get new ones? Here is a simple and stupid (but works) way to fix them.

Here are the bill of materials that you need:

  • Broken Blinds (yes, this is what we are fixing…)
  • Clear tape (Duct tape gives a look that is too classic for system administrators)
  • Clear Plastic Tabs used with file folders
  • Hole Punch (not shown in the picture)

How to do it:

  • Punch a hole in the Plastic Tab, guessing the depth it would need from the top of the tab
  • Insert the tab on either side of the blind and position the hole.
  • Use Clear tape to wrap the contents
  • If Clear tape closes the hole during the previous step, make sure that the hole is punched again.

Here is the “before” picture:

 

From Misc


 

Here is the “after” picture:

 

From Misc


 

Note: This post may look stupid, but stresses on the importance of trivial things in what we call as “instruction manuals”.

డాక్టరు పెప్పరూ, జెమినీ పళ్ళపొడీ, ఉపమాలంకారమూ

05 Apr

అమెరికాలో కోక్ తరువాత నేను ఎక్కువగా ఇష్టపడేది డాక్టర్ పెప్పర్. సుమారు పదిహేనేళ్ళ క్రితం మొదటిసారి డాక్టర్ పెప్పర్ తాగినపుడు మనసెటో వెళ్ళిపోయింది. వేరేరకం వెళ్ళిపోవడం అనుకునేరు సుమా, అప్పటికే నాకు పెళ్ళయిపోయింది. నాలుకమీది చిల్డ్ డాక్టర్ పెప్పర్ బిందువులు చిన్నప్పటి పల్లెటూరి ఉదయాలను గుర్తు చేసాయి. ఎడమచేతిలో పళ్ళపొడిని వేసుకొని, కుడిచేతిలోని టూత్‌బ్రష్‌ని చల్లని నూతినీళ్ళలో ముంచి, దానికి నెమ్మదిగా పళ్ళపొడి అద్ది నోట్లొ పెట్టుకున్న ఫీలింగ్ కలిగింది డాక్టర్ పెప్పర్ నోట్లోకి వెళ్ళగానే. ఇప్పటికీ డాక్టర్ పెప్పర్ తాగుతున్నపుడు చిన్నప్పుడు మిస్సయిన పళ్ళపొడి తినడాన్ని ఇప్పుడు భర్తీ చేసినట్లనిపిస్తుంది.

మేము రెండు రకాల పళ్ళపొడి వాడేవాళ్ళం – అందరికీ తెలిసిన కాల్గేట్ ఒకటయితే కొందరికి మాత్రమే తెలిసిన జెమినీ పళ్ళపొడి రెండవది. జెమినీ పళ్ళపొడి పాకెట్ మీద బూరాలు ఊదుతున్న ఇద్దరు అబ్బాయిల బొమ్మలుండేవి. అందువల్ల నాకూ, మా తమ్ముడికీ జెమినీ ఎక్కువ నచ్చేది. అంతేగాక జెమినీ పళ్ళపొడిలో మంచి లవంగం రుచి ఉండేది. à°† కారణంగా నాకు డాక్టర్ పెప్పర్ రుచి కాల్గేట్ కన్నా జెమినీ పళ్ళపొడికి దగ్గరగా అనిపిస్తుంది. జెమినీ పళ్ళపొడిని మాటిమాటికీ గుర్తుకు తెస్తున్న డాక్టర్ పెప్పర్ à°•à°¿ ధన్యవాదాలు.

SRKR Alumni Meet Coordination Committee First Meet

29 Dec

We are conducting Hyderabad edition of SRKR Engineering College Alumni Meet in February, 2012. Prof. G. V. Padmaraju helped putting together a Coordination Committee to ensure the success of the meet. Today is the first meeting of the Coordination Committee. We did the introductions and then discussed the logistics, approach and ownership for various activities.

Attendees are

  • Anand Reddy
  • Venu Myneni
  • Mohan Kumar
  • Sridhar Narra
  • Satya
  • Sirisha
  • Divya Prathima
  • Jahnavi
  • Raju Alluri

SRKR Alumni, stay tuned for an exciting event!

 

 

SRKR-AM-CC-2011-12-29


 

Switchover to Android

26 Dec

For more than two years, I have been using Blackberry smartphone for my dialing and mail needs. The service is awesome especially for my email needs, but the charges I am paying for the relatively monopoly service are very high by today’s standards. Also, the handsets and the OS are relatively constrained and I am not using the full potential of the spare network bandwidth I have at home and at work.

Given this situation, I am compelled to make a switchover. Going by the choices in the market, there is no better option than Android based smartphones. I really like the Apple phones and their OS, but the feeling of lock-in always haunts me. So I decided to go with Android.

I bought a HTC Wildfire S, the entry level smartphone that should take care of my primarily email and social networking needs. Played with it for the last few hours and configured my email accounts, Google utilities, facebook and twitter on the phone. Being new to capacitive touch screen, I am having a few challenges typing my emails, but the adoption curve seems to be steep enough so far. Currently using this phone with my second cell phone connection, still leaving the contacts on the Blackberry with my primary carrier. Will make a switchover of the phones during next weekend.

Haven’t put in additional memory on the phone yet, want to test it with the basic memory for a few days. Hence haven’t downloaded many apps yet. Using the default ones that come with the Gingerbread (2.3.3) installation on the phone.

Will post more updates after I play with the phone for a while.

Xylo @ 12345

20 Dec

My Xylo clocked 12345km on the odometer this morning while I am reaching work. Air Conditioner consumption also is at a nice reading – 4444 units. Here are the pics taken using a low megapixel camera on cell phone.

 

 

Xylo-12345

 


The miles on this (almost – bought on 29th Dec 2009) two year old vehicle are very low, justified by the fact that this vehicle is used mostly during weekends, long drives and occasional trips to work. In the company of three other cars at home, this guy gets very less time on the road during weekdays.

Two years and there are no major issues with the vehicle. All minor issues are fixed during regular service visits. Overall, a great buy and value for money, with very low maintenance costs.