Switching to wordpress

I am moving my blog onto wordpress.com (please note. it is wordpress.com and not .org). The two are from the same group. .com is free, whereas .org is not. The .org version also provides more features than the .com version and hence comes at a price.

Wordpress.com offers some extra features as compared to blogger and categorizing the posts is one key feature that I have been looking for. I looked around for this feature in blogger, but couldn't locate it. Also, wordpress offered a nice import tool to import all my existing posts (with comments) onto wordpress. So that didn't stop me from switching over.

One feature that I will probably miss is messing around with the template. wordpress doesn't allow tweaking around with the HTML code in the template. So I guess I have to learn to live without that.

Let's see how this goes forward. I hope to stay there for a while.

The new URL is http://vsankarv.wordpress.com

If you are subscribing to my blog via any readers, the feed URL is http://vsankarv.wordpress.com/feed

See you over there :)

Alarm clock with a puzzle

For all the people out there (like me) who snoozes the alarm clock again and again before getting up, this is for you. An alarm clock that will force you to get up and solve a puzzle before it is silenced. We can still go back to bed after solving the little puzzle, but at least it will make you get out of bed :) Not sure if such a product will ever succeed. This will probably end up being just another so called gadget.

http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/puzzle-alarm-clock-presents-mild-challenge-wakes-you-up-157999.php

Go over the comments that follows the article. Some are really funny!!!

Coming up: An Alarm clock that is connected to a water pipe that sprays water over the bed after which you not only have to get up, but also replace your bed :)

Source: www.digg.com

Movie Review: Dishyum

In a nutshell: Definitely worth a watch!!!

The movie has been out for a while now. But I just had the chance to watch it this weekend. Wish I had watched it earlier instead of movies like Paramasivan and Kalabak Kaadhalan.

The movie revolves around 'Risk' Baskar (Jeeva) who is a stunt artist and Cinthya (Sandhya) an art student. Baskar is a take it easy character who is very popular in the stunt world for this daring stunts in the movies. He meets Cinthya and falls in love with her. Cinthya rejects and explains that she is just a friend. Baskar tries to be her friend, but realizes that it is something more than that and confesses his love to Cinthya. Cinthya asks him to wait to see if she also falls in love with him.

For a change, Cinthya's parents give the go-ahead for the love marriage. While Baskar waits for Cinthya's approval, the movie takes a turn and things march towards the climax.

The director has done a great job to give a clean entertainer. The screenplay is pretty decent and the movie does not get on your nerves at any point.

A couple of songs are melodious and good on the ears. After a long time, the movie has a very good comedy track (not a separate comedy track) provided by Baskar's sidekick in the movie (a dwarf) and it is really refreshing after sitting though Vadivelu and Vivek for a while now. After a long time, I can literally laugh for some comedy. No double meaning jokes. Really straightforward and simple jokes. The comedy is definitely a plus for the movie.

Do watch it if you get a chance. You won’t regret it.

I was pleasantly surprised...

...when I saw the latest issue of "Sportstar".. The very first page of the issue carried an article on India's U-19 Cricket team and its performance in the recently concluded U-19 worldcup. It is good to see that even the U-19 team is getting some coverage in spite of India's recent sweep of the one-day series against Pakistan.

Wish the media gave similar coverage to other sports too.

How they named companies

Came across an interesting post in one of the blogs that lists several companies and how they were named.

Adobe- came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the houses of
founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke .

How they named companies

Flickr Interesting Photos

I am sure most of you are aware of this... but just wanted to post it anyway.
There is a page at Flickr that lists the best photos uploaded over the past 7 days. Believe me, if you are like me who are very much interested in photographs, you will end up spending a few hours in the site. The photographs are just awesome!!!

Check it out here

And don't forget to hit the reload button (not the browser refresh) on top of the page to get another set of best photographs!!!

Movie Review: Kalabak Kaadalan

In a single line: This is the inverse of movie "Aasai".

Two people (Arya and Renuka Menon) get married and start living happily. The wife's sister (some new face… I believe) falls in love with the brother-in-law. How the bro-in-law handles the situation and what happens in the end forms the rest of the movie.

The photography and the movie all together looks rich, but the +'s end there. The songs are all mediocre. Nothing great about the background score either. The movie could have been handled slightly better and the end could have been much better. The movie just had an abrupt ending. And the whole concept of having the entire movie in a flashback is just getting old these days.

But one thing that I should really appreciate is that the director did not give in to the usual element of having a separate comedy track. It could have been really awkward for such a movie. And almost 60 - 70 % of the movie is just between the three characters and in a single apartment.

Great video

Came across this great video in Shiva's blog. The manner in which the person has played with the lights is pretty cool!!! Definitely worth a look.

Time Capsule

Just came across an article in www.damninteresting.com regarding a time capsule that is maintained in University of Georgia that was setup in 1936 and is not meant to be opened until 8133 A.D. Pretty interesting.

In the basement of Phoebe Hearst Hall at Oglethorpe University in Georgia, there is a stainless steel vault door which was welded shut over sixty five years ago. Behind this door lies a 20' x 10' waterproofed room containing a menagerie of once-modern artifacts and microfilm records, placed there by men and women in the years between 1937 and 1940. If their goal is realized, the contents of this vault will remain unseen and undisturbed for the next 6,107 years. This ambitious project, which began in the dawn of the Second World War, is known as the Crypt of Civilization; it represents the first concerted effort to collect and preserve a snapshot of human civilization and technology. Though the term had not yet been coined at its inception, it was the first modern time capsule.

Check it out here.

listible.com

I came across this site today. www.listible.com

The site lists various other sites under specific categories. Very interesting collection and definitely a good pointer to various resources on the web. We can still google and get to most of these sites, but being categorized into common lists, it is really useful and very fast.

For example, there is list of sites for "Best online calendars" that lists different sites that provide that feature.
Do check it out!!!