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Showing posts from 2005

Honda City ZX

Honda launched the brand new Honda City ZX last week. On the face of it, it seems to be a facelift but, but it some how makes the car a lot more appealing. it looks more balanced than before. It makes me very glad that I held out for this version and not the previous one. Now I just need to wait for the new year...

Peanuts and more Peanuts

Woohoo. Another purchase to wait for... The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set Series

Loony over Loans

I was looking to get a loan to buy a car. It seems that to get a loan for my unique circumstances is somewhat difficult. Finally got a financier, who is giving me a loan which allows me to get a Honda City. I think he is ripping me off. Will have to look around...

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

I'm planning to buy The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (Hardcover) . Costs all of $92 US and another 12 shipping to India. Books are so expensive. sigh!

Comment Spam Galore

I had a rash of comment spam over the weekend... I wonder why tho. This is quite a low traffic blog... What a waste of time for whovever is doing it. Could be a bot as well. Update: Spamming is going on as I write this down. Hmmm... Time to force use of a blogger id. Update: Hah! I just realised that Blogger had added word verification in the commenting system. It's on now :D

I Want my City...

After procrastinating about a car for many years I'm finally going in for a Honda City CVT. at nearly 7.7 lakhs (choke...) it is perhaps the best mid-size car to drive in India and with the CVT, it is a dream on the chaotic streets of Delhi. Didn't like the Getz too much and the swift was a plain disappointment...

Maruti Swift: First Impressions

As first impressions go, I came away with a mixed feeling about the Swift. It looks fabulous and drives really well. The power steering gave pin-point control (and this is inspite of the fact that I'm a very ocassional driver). Power delivery seemed to be bit lacking, but I can't be sure, if this is because of the car or because I was tentative and needed to be careful in the Delhi traffic. What really turned me off is the shockingly poor quality of the interiors. Cheap plastic and upholstery just gave a tacky feeling. The inside door handle (molded into the interior of the door) when used to pull the rear door shut gives a feeling that the whole assembly would come off. Similar tacky materials, if you saw the lining near the hatch door. The facia for the music system is a far cry from the Swift one sees in Europe. Leave alone integrated CD player and steering controls, one sees a gaping hole where the Casette Player needs to go in. Surprisingly enough, the outside finish ...

Google Webaccelerator for those who can't get it...

I only read about Google weba ccelerator today and it seems that only North American and European users can get access to it. Now that pissed me off ocmpletely. so I decided to look for it no matter what. So I did a google search . nothing, nada, zip... not to be deterred, I decided to have a look at Yahoo search. So the query google webaccelerator setup .exe throws back the first result as the winner... Drumrolls... the url is... http://webaccelerator.google.com/GoogleWebAcceleratorSetup.msi Ha Ha Ha...

Nirantar

Nirantar is a blog(zine) in hindi and uses the devnagiri font as well. THe authoir also claims that this is the first of it's kind... I think larger fonts need to be used tho... Nice...

PSP price update in Delhi

I was at Pallika bazaar yesterday and just happened to enquire about the price of Playstation Portable. adn the price has dropped to Rs. 16,500 which also includes a game of ones choice (out of the 9 available). THe unit is the Japanese Value pack. With Case, remote and a 32 meg memory card. the dealer is tossing in a game at the price... Among the games that were available were Ridge Racer and Spiderman. Individual Games are priced at around 3K each. I was almost tempted to buy when I calculated the cost in $. it comes out to be about 375 USD. Way expensive. Worthwhile to ask someone to carry it from the US...

Nokia 8800

Never wanted to buy a Nokia until Nokia 8800 woo hoo what a phone... reportedly will cost around 700 USD... I can get a PSP and a mess of games for that...

Ego Surfing

I go ego surfing once ina while and Google Search: chirag puts me at 82 at my current url which is http://chiragpatnaik.blogspot.com/ . It puts me at number 9 at my old url... grrrr...

Google Mozilla Foundation Spoof...

Someone did a fake press release of google acquiring Mozilla Foundation

Google Infinity +1 Storage

Before the world forgets about the spoof. i took a screen shot of the same.... I'd forgotten to do so yesterday. Ironically enough Google's Cache had it... Hah! even my Google Desktop cache had it...

500GB HDD

Toshiba creates a monster 500GB 5 Platter Hard Disk. This hard drive is said to be the last of it's kind as newer HDD technologies will start to come in by the end of this year...

Google wants 'dark fiber'

Google wants 'dark fiber' is a story on ZDNet which speculates as ti the reason why Google is planning to buy Fiber optic cable across America (and maybe the world)... Cable I think will be the future of media. people owning the pipes into the home swill be the big winners of the media wars of tomorrow...

No fair...

I bought an Apple iPod 20 Gig for 299 USD. now nto only the price has dropped by some 15 USD but also the iPod 40 Gig price had fallen till a few days ago. (now it's back up to 399 SUD). I think Amazon realised that the Accessories included with this obsolete model makes it a good buy. The amusing part is that iPod Photo 40 Gig at 360 USSD is actually cheaper than the regular iPod 40 Gig . This model is also obsolete but includes all the necessary accesories... Docks Connectors etc. The best part of all... the iPod Photo 30 Gig at 330 USD is only $30 less than the iPod Photo 40 Gig which includes the accesories not present in the 30 GB model... The bottom line... I wish I had waited...

5th Anniversary...

I didn't even realise it and it's the fifth anniversary of my blog... I'm seriously impressed... Even though there were some largish gaps in between... Marlinspike - Knot Untangler: March 2000

Spring Night in Delhi

Delhi has had lovely weather this spring and I just happened to lookup in the sky tonite and it looked lovely so I took a few snaps... I'm calling the series Spring Night in Delhi. For the most impact visit the March Archive The individual posts are... Every cloud has a Silver lining I'm Back... Navigating the Clouds... Hide and Seek... Hide and Seek... Part Deux... Here we go again...
Here we go again...
Hide and Seek... 
Hide and Seek... Part Deux... 
Navigating the Clouds... 
I'm Back... 
Every cloud has a Silver lining 

iPod eBooks Creator

Just four days ago I was wondering a way to convert large text files into small bite sized pieces that would fit onthe iPod. I was planning to dig in to my (rusty) programming skills to whip up something like that. But Now I found iPod eBooks Creator . Problem solved...

New Domain

I have a new URL which goes as http://patnaiks.in/chirag . I'd recently bought a domain on the newly opened India registry. It also means a new email address which goes as chirag@patnaiks... and for my brother and so on and so forth...

Finally...

I finally got my iPod yesterday after nearly a month of waiting. the iPod made a journey halway across the world from America to Delhi via Bombay. It's a monochrome 20G version and I've already stuffed half of it with music...

Leukamia patient needs Platelets

Smriti Thind, my junior from school, has been diagnosed with Leukamia and is currently at the Tata Memorial hospital in Bombay. She needs a constant supply of Platelets (A+ Blood Type) from Male donors. If you you or someone you know has this blood type and is located in Bombay, and can spare the time to go and donate. Do let me know, I'll put you in touch with the relevant person

Mediaah is back...

Mediaah is back. The Blog, which was a thorn in the side of many media companies till last year is going to be back after a 12 month hiatus from the 17th o Jan. Let me not rave about the blog, but have a look yourself...