Moving to Wordpress

I am moving on to Wordpress. Please update your Bookmarks with http://jnarin.wordpress.com.

Concerts And My Mess Ups

I've been to three big rock concerts (read concerts by international artists) in Bangalore so far. I've always managed to screw up something or the other before I got to one of them. Here's the details..
The very first rock concert I'd been to in Bangalore was Joe Satriani's show. Man, can't forget it! Can never forget it! No words to explaim what it meant to be there with God on the stage. OK, I'l skip the concert review part for now and get to the mess up part. It all started with the tickets. I'd got one which had a tear off part and the whole ticket. Another person who I got to know through the Joe Satriani forum had purchased ticket from the event organizers directly, and he did not get the tear off part. When I told him mine had it, he freaked out, calling people after people, trying to find out how he could not have gotten his. Apparently, I was lucky. :-) People were not supposed to get that part of the ticket, and it was supposed to be retained by the sales people for a proof of tax or something of that sort (Tax? I guess I need to undertake a course on taxation to really understand why they might have needed it). OK, fine, I admit it. This didn't mess me up, but surely messed the other guy up, since he couldn't stop calling me once every 3 hours to find out if I had returned the tear off counterfoil. Like hell I would! Man, I must have been crazy to do that! I retained the counterfoil, and it lies safely in my collection of concert tickets and other music valuables. Coming to my mess up, I went to work pretty early that day, had worked late a couple of nights before the day of the concert, and made sure that I could be on time. And yeah, I was there on time! Heard the sound check, saw Jeff (the drummer), even got his autograph, wait wait wait! The mess up part came much before that! As I was running down the stairs from my house to Palace Ground (I stay at a stone's throw distance from Palace Ground), I slipped on one of the stairs, and twisted my left leg, and sprained. Somehow, I managed to drag myself (No auto-wallah would come from my place to Palace Grounds, and I just couldn't wait to get there to see the sound-check!) and got through the show without realizing anything. But the next day, man-oh-man, I was a mess! :-) And with this, the mess up at the first concert comes to an end. I won't go into the details of how the event organizers messed it up, for it was a pain that everyone there had to bear. :-)
Part Two - Bryan Adams concert. Had a lot of close calls through out the day. Almost hit a cyclist when I was riding around on my motorbike, somewhere near MG Road. Why was I there? Oh yeah, had been to Planet M on Brigade Road to get tickets to the Uriah Heap concert. I was lucky to get the red light signal @ Anil Kumble circle (MG Road, St Marks Road Junction), I'd got a call from a friend of mine, I took the call, said that I'll call back, and no sooner than I'd done that, the person standing behind me on a two-wheeler got a call on his mobile, and he took the call. To everyone's surprise, out of nowhere, came a cop, turned the two-wheeler off, grabbed the key and asked the guy to come over and pay a fine since "You were not supposed to be talking on a mobile when on the road" thing. I thank my stars and drive off, when I almost get killed by this guy in a car who's hell bent on sandwiching me between him and a BMTC bus! And since it was a do or die situation, I reduced the gear on the bike and just ripped off! Dude in the car, be warned - I know the make of your car, know the number. If I ever see you or the car again, you'll remember the guy on the bike who you almost killed! Anyway, reached home safely. Went out with a friend for some snacks near my place before hitting the concert area, and parked my bike where I usually park it. Apparently, the cops were on the prowl and having made that zone a no-parking area, three guys jumped down from the tow-truck, and lifted my bike off the ground to take it (Dudes, what do you eat? I need strength like that!). I ran out of the restaurant, left my half eaten Raj Kachori (*SNIFF*WAIL*SPUTTER*), begged the cop and he let me off with a Rs. 100 fine. I was thanking my stars again. If he had towed it off, I'd have had to shell out Rs. 300+! Whew! That was close. And then, I hit the concert and had a great time. :-)
Part Three - Uriah Heep Concert - The one and the only mess up - The Tickets! On the afternoon of the Adams concert, I'd got the tickets from Planet M. What I noticed was that the ticket did not have a tear off counterfoil. But since the Joe Sat tickets didn't have them eitehr, I thought that this could have been the same way, and took the ticket and came back home peacefully. The next day, I was speaking with a friend, I got to know that I *ACTUALLY* needed the tear off counterfoil to get inside the concert. Off I go to Planet M to confirm, and the dumbass dude who sold me the ticket coolly sits and doesn't want to talk with me. He points out another nice guy, who, after hunting around, calling people, and making me wait for about 45 minutes gets me the counterfoil. Hooray! Now I can enjoy the concert. And didn't I! I had a great time. Awesome show!
I have no plans on the next concert that I might attend. But hope it turns out to be less eventful than the last three. :-)

Uriah Heep rocks Bangalore

Disclaimer: I have never before heard Heep before!

No opening act, which was like cool, since you did not have to bear with a bunch of guys on dope screaming out something incomprehensible. Was waiting outside the venue for my friend when I saw this guy wearing a Deep Purple T-Shirt with a bag and all walking around looking for someone. He called up someone, and out came one of the organizers. A brief exchange of words between them, and the organizer was handed some LP's and CD's and a poster, promising that he would get them autographed by the band. Wow, now that was something. Imagine getting the autograph of your favourite band on the vintage CD's/LP's that you own! (Dream Theater, I am waiting for you to come to India. Doesn't matter where in India, I'll come where ever you perform!!)
Anyway, after a few minutes of waiting, during which I was reading all of the Levis posters there, which, by the way, were really cool, my friend came over. In we went and waited for the band to come over. The band was bang on time at 8 PM. They performed all their hit songs (the names of which I can't seem to recollect now). And since I was hearing those for the first time, I felt they were a great band. The band has an AMAZING bassist. Man, he was deadly. They performed for pretty much about 2 hours, and they did know how to get the crowd on to their feet. I kind-of felt that the band was into progressive rock and the likes of that, but my friend vehemently denied it. He so read my mind that it was like when I was about to say "Dude, this bit sounds progressive", he'd say "No, they are not progressive..".
Had a great time, and Uriah Heep proclaimed "This is the first Heep Tour for the year 2006" and "We'll be back again, Bangalore!!".
On a different note, two concerts in a week. Not bad, huh? ;-)

Cool Javascript Routine

*DISCLAIMER 1: I am not responsible if something happens to your machine*
*DISCLAIMER 2: Hoping that you have read DISCLAIMER 1, this works ONLY on Internet Explorer*
*DISCLAIMER 3: Please read DISCLAIMER 1 and DISCLAIMER 2 again, and if you are OK with me not taking ANY responsibility for whatever happens to your computer, read ahead*

javascript:function flood(n) {if (self.moveBy) {for (i = 35; i > 0; i--) {for (j = n; j > 0; j--) {self.moveBy(1,i);self.moveBy(i,0);self.moveBy(0,-i);self.moveBy(-i,0); } } }} flood(6);

Copy the above segment (including javasctipt) and paste it in the address bar of the Internet Explorer. Cool, huh? ;-)

Defenders of Wildlife

I love Polar Bears, I love Penguins, I love Seals, heck, I love all animals and birds.
I was agahast when I saw this!
Do you love animals? What are you going to do?

Images of Vietnam

I *know* I've been obsessed about Vietnam ever since I've been there. I got this link from my friend out there, which sums up pretty much everything about Vietnam. It's a small French Song, performed by a Vietnamese lady. The images are awesome, and I couldn't understand a word of it! Do check it out.

PS: Standard Disclaimer - It's a Flash Animation. *Not for Dial-up users*. In the rarest case that you still want it, please leave a comment with your eMail ID. I'll mail the file to you.

Scientists Find Lost World in Indonesia

Was splashed all over the news papers today morning. Anyway, did some R&D and got these pictures from Nat Geo. Go ahead, check it out. They look great!

Pay Postage for eMail?

No, I'm not kidding. Courtesy: Interesting People's Mailing List.
Check this out.

Bryan Adams Rocks Bangalore (Again!)

Was @ the Bryan Adams show yesterday. Can be described in one word - AWESOME!
Was at the venue by 4:45 PM, and there was a HUGE crowd forming up in front of the entry area. The gates opened promptly @ 6:10 PM (the ticket said it would open @ 6PM, but hey, that was only 10 minutes late). The event promoters (Reliance, Nokia, VH1, Lays, Worldspace) had done a good job in marking path for the concert area, since there was anther exhibition, and was leading to a lot of confusion among people. They were also distributing ribbons, banners, bandanas, toy guitars(!) with words proclaiming the greatness of Bryan Adams.
Some band which had bagged the first prize in the Campus Rock Idols 2005 opened the stage @ 7 PM. The band was pretty good sounding (which explains the prize), consisted of one guy on lead guitar who doubled up as the vocalist, one totally doped out guy on the bass, and one dude on the drums. They did a good job of getting the crowd up, and when the crowd had enough of them, they were ready to oblige. They wrapped up in half an hours time, after 4 or 5 songs.
Then came torture. The giant screens which were being used to project images, suddenly became advertisement boards. Imagine someone coming for a Bryan Adams concert, made to watch and listen to advertisements! Not just that, but each ad was played twice, continuously! Killed time thinking and modifying the punch lines shown there. The ads stopped, and the crowd started to cheer. False alarm! Technicians were just checking the equipment.
After several such false alarms, when no one expected, out he came with the band, singing "Room Service"! After a couple of more songs from his new album, he paused to greet the crowd. The band was amazing! All of his hits - Cuts Like a Knife, Run To You, Summer of '69, I'm Ready (with Bryan doubling on the Harmonica to replace the person who played the flute), Let's Make a Night, Please Forgive Me, Everything I Do, Kids Wanna Rock, Back To You, Best of Me and much more were performed. And as usual, he picked up this chick lady from the audience and asked her to perform the role of the female vocalist for "Baby When You're Gone". And boy, did she bray sing! She said she was a "Software Engineer" from "AP" (You got that right! Just "AP"). The worst blow was yet to come when he asked her how many people she came with, and all of them got free T-Shirts!!! And he also asked the Sardarji who was on the cover of "Do To You, What You Do To Me" to come and meet him backstage. It was like - "The last time I came here, we got a great photo fo a person wearing a turban sitting on another guy. If you are here, I am inviting you to come over backstage and be my guest". I was half out of my mind to get a false beard, and a turban and run out there.
Anyway, DNA did a good job of organizing the event. Congratulations to you. The techies made sure that the event went on without hassles. The crowd was pretty decent, and I wasn't pushed around. And was able to see everything pretty neat and clear. He did say that he would be coming back.
Well, that's all about that. Will be attending the Uriah Heep show too, and that's on Wednesday.

Anti-Telemarketing Campaign

Sick of all those telemarketing calls offering you free credit cards, free personal loans, free tickets to Goa (Yeah, I've got that once), free gift vouchers worth Rs. 7000 (Yeah, I've got that too!), discount on computer courses, and what not? Martijn Engelbregt tells us how to handle telemarketing in a great way. There's a lovely script, which will guide you through the entire process. And the script is available for free in 10 different languages (English included). Well, what are you waiting for? Point your pointer here, and click.

Web Browser Forensics

I came across this website recently. I was impressed with an article titled "Web Browser Forensics".
It talks about how someone used the company server to store some 500GB (Yeah, you read that right!) of MP3's, movies and pirated software. Investigators later nailed the guy who did it. Now, what's so interesting about that? The link describes how they nailed the dude who almost got away.
Read Part 1 and Part 2.
And now my friend, before you click on that "Download Now" to get the MP3 thinking that no one could ever trace you back even if you used someone else's machine, think again.

The 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers

I came across this on one of Percy's blogs a long time back. Had bookmarked it, thinking I'd go through this when I had the time, and as usual, forgot about it. But trust me, this is an amazing article. All those top-of-the line companies, that everyone aspires to be a part of, have some pretty dark secrets. Check it out.

PS: Percy, sorry man. Searched hard, was unable to locate the original post on either of your three blogs (on Blogger).