Rungta’s Webmarks

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! ∞

The director of the gem “Khosla Ka Ghosla” does not disappoint with his second venture. Another excellent, offbeat, dilli movie.
(Official Site | Wikipedia)

Rock On!! Soundtrack ∞

Rock, desi, depth — musical traits you would presume were mutually exclusive. Well, the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio have dispelled that myth with “Rock On!!”. While the album works great as a soundtrack, it also shines as a standalone composition.

“Socha Hai” and “Sinbad the Sailor” are your standard enegry-filled rockers. “Pichle Saat Dinon Mein”, as seen in the movie, is pure concert material. Then there are the two beautiful melodies — “Ye Tumhari Meri Baatein” and “Phir Dekhiye”. The title track “Rock On!!” is, quite fittingly, the anthem of the album, and “Tum Ho Toh” perfectly sums up the spirit of the movie and the music in one song. (“Zehreelay” is the thorn of this rose and I wonder what they were smoking when they decided to include it in the ablum.)

The music has a very raw yet satisfying feel to it. It isn’t your perfectly finessed Rahman-esque material, but it’s got that authentic, young feel. Definitely one of my favourite albums of 2008.

11th Grade Activities ∞

Any high–schoolers looking to make a career in IT, take note.

Is that a paper on Single Serving Sites? ∞

Yes.

Besides being an interesting read for people in the website business, if you, like me, don’t have a lot of time to waste, but if you, like me, like to waste time anyway, head on for 161 new options to do so.

Jeffrey Zeldman: Inventing Something New on the Planet ∞

If web design is a religion, then Jeffry Zeldman is one of them Gods.

Head over and check out the interview to get a glimpse into Zeldman the man. There’s also some great advice towards the end:

Keep working, keep learning, and don’t be discouraged. Apprentice yourself to, or work with, people who know what they’re doing. Don’t settle for easy. Don’t be too lenient on your own work.

Take that to heart, word to word.

Cholesterol ∞

Greg Storey:

My mentor in college, Jim Avery, once told me, “If two people think alike all the time, one of them is redundant.”

Sound advice.

More on the 26/11 siege of Mumbai ∞

26/11 is actually a misnomer, because unfortunate as that day was, the attacks were hardly a one night stand. The city’s battle with the terrorists raged on for four long days.

With the situation mostly under control now, I think it’s time to react. I don’t agree with people who say “we shouldn’t let these acts of terrorism affect us” or “life should go on as it used to as an act of defiance” — it shouldn’t, or they’ll come again, and again. We’ve got to do all we can to correct the flaws that let these filth seep through and kill at leisure.

There’s something hobbit like about Indians. We forget too easily and care too less about things that do not personally and directly affect us. 2008 has probably seen the highest amount of terrorist activity in our country for a long long time.

Also, name calling is exactly the wrong approach. I quote this comment by Rose:

Terrorism has been going on for hundreds of years, by people of all different ethnic groups, nationalities, and religions. And as long as some person somewhere in the world has their own agendas and their own way of doing something there will be terrorism. Because in the end all of this is some pathetic mob of people doing these horrific stunts in the hope of scaring the world. Blaming one place in particular doesn’t solve anything, the only thing it manages to do is anger someone else somewhere else in the world.

One shouldn’t be so ignorant to say that every citizen of a particular country or every follower of a certain religion, wishes for, agrees with or rejoices at the inhuman acts of terrorism. Placing blame only lights the spark for another fire.

It is very important to act responsibly, or you may end up creating more holes instead of closing gaps.

• Mumbai under attack – Photos on The Big Picture.
• A Night Out in Mumbai – Amit Varma’s experience on the night it all started.
• This City With Arms Wide Open – His followup post.
• The longest day – Vir Sanghvi reacts to the attacks in three very valid points.

Tracking the horrific Mumbai attacks on the web ∞

New York times page with regular updates to all and any information on today/yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Bombay.

The Final Inch ∞

A film about the global effort to eradicate polio, with most remaining cases identified in India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Watch the real heroes of our time at work in this 38-minute collaboration between Google.org and Vermillion films, accompanied by what sounds like excellent music. (via)

JS-909: A drum machine in JavaScript ∞

Ultra-cool.

Creative Pause ∞

There’s something about showering that tends to spawn new ideas which may not occur otherwise. And the frequency with which this occurs seems to suggest that perhaps the occurrence isn’t merely happenstance, but instead a decent model for what has been called “creative pause” – the shift from being fully engaged in a creative activity to being passively engaged, or the shift to being disengaged altogether.

You may or may not be able to replicate this “creative pause”, but one thing is certain – a shower is the place for the most awesome epiphanies. I am constantly surprised by the quality and elegance of solutions that strike me under the water spray.

Coming Soon ∞

What does a person do on the day before an exam? Watch movie trailers of course!

• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (trailer 3) – Can’t wait to watch the sequel.
• Up (teaser Trailer) – Pixar’s next.
• Slumdog Millionaire (trailer) – Like The Pool, I hope I get to watch more than just the trailer.
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno (trailer) – Seth Rogen seems be the master of comedy these days.

A DSLR Catechism ∞

This one’s for all current and future DSLR owners.

Oh My Science ∞

replacing god with reason… one tweet at a time

Haha! Twitter mash ups are awesome, aren’t they? (Via Shaun Inman)

Formula 1 Cost Reductions ∞

It is no secret that Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsport, is a costly affair. Team budgets run as high as $445 million! Surely, the sport could do with some cost reductions (especially given the current state of world finances).

The FIA however seems to be demeaning the essence of the sport by proposing to standardize engines in order to reduce costs. Don’t get me wrong, cost reductions are good and in fact necessary given the current 20 car grid (with one team’s future uncertain), but I think that standardizing engines will change the sport fundamentally, and not in a good way. In F1 as we know it, the team matters as much as the driver.

Then, as the linked article points out, there’s the question if, given the FIA’s other targets, adapting their proposals would indeed reduce costs after all? There’s a lot more on the subject so if you’re interested in the future of F1, read on.

Fifty People One Question ∞

Excellent little indie video by Benjamin Reece. (Via Authentic Boredom)

Features you want desperately but still can’t use – HTML5 demos ∞

Ian Hickson demos a few HTML5 features that’ve already been implemented by various major browsers in this aptly titled ~90 minute Google Tech Talk (that I conveniently found time to watch when I really should be revising for my Computer Systems 2 exam).

Google Chrome to Pranayama ∞

Brilliant even if it’s only a Photoshop job.

Babel ∞

noun [in sing. ]
a confused noise, typically that made by a number of voices *: the babel of voices on the road.*

You may or may not already know this, but I am – for lack of a better term – a soundtrack freak. Recently, I’ve been hearing Gustavo Santaolalla’s excellent score for The Motorcycle Diaries in a lot of different places, and I decided to check out some of his other compositions.

To my delight, I discovered that he won the 2006 ‘Best Original Score’ Oscar for his work on Babel. Delight because an Oscar meant the soundtrack would definitely be worth a listen and also because I finally had a good excuse to watch Babel.

So, Babel. Similar themes as Lost in Translation yet not the same. Great direction, some great performances and a good script. I say good, not great because I think that a little more work on the script could probably have resulted in one of those must-watch movies. That, or I didn’t fully get it.
(Official Site | Wikipedia | Apple Trailers)

The Pool – Trailer ∞

Venkatesh the room service boy; Nana Patekar the owner of the house with a pool. Shot in Panjim, Goa. Hindi with English subtitles.

The trailer made me nostalgic, and the soundtrack already has me intoxicated. I hope I get to actually watch the movie.
(Official Site)

This Week in HTML5 ∞

Mark Pilgrim’s semi–regular column keeping tabs on the HTML5 standards process. Not meant for light reading.

The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!) ∞

It’s 2008, and as far as Unicode goes, things have thankfully improved a lot since 2003 (when the linked article was published). However, ever so often I stumble upon the work of an character encoding ignorant developer and that just makes me sad (at the state of affairs). If you’re a developer and have the slightest doubt that you might not know everything Joel Spolsky wrote in the linked article, please read the whole thing.

First Impressions: Marina Bay Street Circuit ∞

My first impressions of the new Singapore street circuit — hosting both its inaugural race and Formula 1’s first ever night race — after witnessing free practise 1 and 2 yesterday.

• Very dangerous pit exit.
• Favourite parts of the track so far — the wide Turn 23, the Tortoise chicane at Turn 10 and the Anderson Bridge.
• The lighting was great. Yet to see how it holds up in wet conditions.
• Bumpy track, and so bumpy that you get irritated just by watching the cars. Can only imagine what it must be like for the drivers.
• Most (if not all) drivers were using clear visors during free practise which meant you could see their eyes in the close up shots.
• On screen, the track looks great at night. However, I have a feeling it’ll look even better during the day because the brightness of the track lights shadows everything around it.
• Overhead and wide angle shots of the track were awesome but too few. The camera crew need to get a few more people up there because they sure are missing out on a lot of great views.

Let’s see who bags pole position tonight.

Lost in Translation ∞

The title puts it perfectly. I love movies like this.

Check out Shopgirl as well if you liked this one.
(Official Site | Wikipedia)

Scenes from India ∞

Nice collection of photos depicting a few of the recent events back home.

Federer as Religious Experience ∞

Makes you fall in love with both tennis and writing all over again. By the recently deceased David Foster Wallace. (Via Daring Fireball)

Music from the Third Floor ∞

Retro Bollywood soundtrack vinyl covers galore!

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet? ∞

Ingenious! (Via Daring Fireball)

Seven reasons many F1 fans are furious about Hamilton’s penalty ∞

As much as I wanted Ferrari to win at yesterday’s Belgian Grand Prix and reduce Hamilton’s lead in the drivers championship, I’ve been disgusted by the stewards’ decision to strip Hamilton of his awesome victory. The great Spa–Francorchamps circuit, a wet start with plenty of overtaking and a crazy finish (again in wet conditions) made this one of the most exciting races of the year. Both Räikkönen and Hamilton put up an awesome fight, all for nothing it seems.

The Power of Editing ∞

What you leave out is often what turns good into great. What you leave out is the difference between something that is either 1) never seen or used or 2) simple, clear, and actually digestable. It’s true for photography. It’s true for features in software. And it’s true for plenty more too.

Damn right it is. I think editing is one of the most vital tasks when creating anything. This statement by Steve Jobs states just that:

We are proud not only of the products Apple has shipped, but also the products Apple has decided not to ship.

Editing just goes to show you care.

Melbourne’s first Apple Store opens 13th September ∞

Finally! See you at Chadstone at 10am.

Straight out of Compton ∞

John Siracusa on the aforementioned Chrome, Google’s new web browser. I too think this a great move by Google.

From a web designer’s point of view, Google releasing a WebKit based browser is one of the best bets at reducing IE’s market share by a bigger margin. Even your average mom uses and knows about Google, meaning they’re more likely to try a Google browser than something called FireFox.

Mutilated WebKit in Google Chrome ∞

I know it’s only in beta but I must admit I was disappointed to see the Chrome team had removed text-shadow support from WebKit. The biggest reason I was excited about Chrome was wider adoption of WebKit. Let’s hope they embrace it completely when they do launch.

In Bruges ∞

Artistic, melodious, violent. Just like a dream.
(Official Site | Wikipedia | Apple Trailers)

In Rainbows – Radiohead ∞

I know, I know, was I living under a rock all this time? Maybe I was. A few days ago the “House of Cards” music video rang my bell, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

US Open Tennis draws for 2008 ∞

Now featuring up–to–date singles draws for this year’s U.S. Open Grand Slam. Matches start on the 25th.

Dive Into Python ∞

Dive Into Python is a Python book for experienced programmers.

And a very good one too. I especially liked the ‘diving in’ philosophy throughout the book, like in chapter 2:

You know how other books go on and on about programming fundamentals and finally work up to building a complete, working program? Let’s skip all that.

You’ll also find plenty of bits like this one from chapter 5:

Java programmers who have been taught to believe that the world is a better place because == in Java compares by identity instead of by value may have a difficult time adjusting to Python’s lack of such “gotchas”.

Another one from the same chapter:

As a former philosophy major, it disturbs me to think that things disappear when no one is looking at them, but that’s exactly what happens in Python.

Some nice humour goes a long way in making the mundane task of learning yet another programming language a fun task.

If ever you plan on learning Python, make this your first read. Oh, and it’s written by Mark Pilgrim.

Profanity Works ∞

It seems that profanity can work as a record button for the brain. It brings people to the edge of their attention as they’re trying to figure out whether they’re supposed to be offended or inspired. And then the content warrants the emphasis, the idea seems to stick better and longer and with more affection.

Yeah it does!

Walt Disney Animation Studios website ∞

Nice simplistic design with some gorgeous artwork. (Via Gus Mueller)

xkcd on Google Maps ∞

Google Maps is great and everything but their directions recently made what should’ve been a 20 minute trip a 1 and a half hour hunt.

High Court orders ban on plastics in Delhi shopping centres ∞

Good news. Let’s hope the government is able to enforce this ban.

Space Tourism posters ∞

Awesome retro–style tourism posters for interplanetary space travel. Got to take one of those trips. (Via Subtraction)

Location–sensitive car park signs ∞

Very clever design for directions in one of the last places you’d expect to find clever, innovative design — a car park. (Via Daring Fireball)

Last-lap Losers ∞

[Dan Gurney] soldiered on with no more than the dregs in the tank but only made it as far as Stavelot on his last lap.

Graham Hill inherited the lead but his fuel pump broke on the last lap. That left Bruce McLaren leading for Cooper but as he neared the finishing line (which in those days was after the La Source hairpin instead of before it) he too ran out of fuel. He came out of the last hairpin and rolled down the hill — as Clark blasted past him to win.

Some other racers who faced similar situations like the heartbreaking mechanical failure with race leader Massa’s Ferrari in the third last lap of yesterday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Look ma, no Flash ∞

A nice demo of the -webkit-transform and -webkit-transition CSS properties by Shaun Inman. You can also see the -webkit-transition property at work over at my Grand Slam draw charts.

Driver Debates: Fernando Alonso ∞

Will be interesting to see how the rest of his career pans out.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s reply to the Trust Vote, or, BJP’s latest and most shameful attempt to unseat the UPA coalition ∞

On BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L.K. Advani:

Can our nation forgive a Home Minister who slept when the terrorists were knocking at the doors of our Parliament? Can our nation forgive a person who single handedly provided the inspiration for the destruction of the Babri Masjid with all the terrible consequences that followed? To atone for his sins, he suddenly decided to visit Pakistan and there he discovered new virtues in Mr. Jinnah. Alas, his own party and his mentors in the RSS disowned him on this issue. Can our nation approve the conduct of a Home Minister who was sleeping while Gujarat was burning leading to the loss of thousands of innocent lives?

Petty — yes petty — issues are the biggest road-block for India’s progress. How then do these issues manage to hamper the growth of a country so large and so populous? Well it’s because unlike those caused by care–free children, these can’t be put to rest or ridiculed since these are caused by old, narrow and conservative folk such as Shri L.K. Advani who people might (by not voting) appoint as our next Prime Minister.

On the proposed Indo–US Nuclear deal:

We have large reserves of coal but even these are inadequate to meet all our needs by 2050. But more use of coal will have an adverse impact on pollution and climate. We can develop hydro-power and we must. But many of these projects hurt the environment and displace large number of people. We must develop renewable sources of energy particularly solar energy. But we must also make full use of atomic energy which is a clean environment friendly source of energy. All over the world, there is growing realization of the importance of atomic energy to meet the challenge of energy security and climate change.

Why is it that when something good can happen, we hear war cries but when something bad happens, all we see are turned backs?

Mumbai’s water supply could go dry in 120 days if it doesn’t rain ∞

High time people started to listen, don’t you think?

LinkedList Updates ∞

Recent updates to both my sort–blogroll–using–feeds plugins:

• Can now limit the number of feeds displayed
• Shows relative time for feeds updated within the last 24 hours
• Shows a loading indicator before the list is displayed
• Reduced file size

Limiting the number of links (to say the 5 most recently updated ones) has been the most requested feature and I apologize for the delay in implementing it, but its here finally so grab the relevant release.

• LinkedList JavaScript plugin 1.2
• LinkedList Wordpress plugin 1.1

The Dark Knight ∞

Me after watching the movie:

Met my expectations, blew them away, left my mouth hanging.

If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it ASAP. Oh and if there’s an IMAX theatre in your city, make sure that’s where you treat yourself.
(Official Site | Wikipedia | Apple Trailers)

Why Google Search is so awesome ∞

For example, [Côte d’Or] is a geographic region in France – but it is a large chocolate manufacturer in neighboring French–speaking Belgium; and yes, we get that right too…

Examples of few of the “Technologies behind Google ranking” in action.

Spots on that Apple? ∞

I really do think that, as Mac OS X has grown long in the tooth, and as Apple has tackled more and more priorities across multiple platforms — not just iPhone, but maintaining Windows applications too, and Apple TV, and the iTunes Music Store, and even the basically disappointing MobileMe — the company is starting to get sloppy, their ability to finesse details now compromised.

Not that I expect Apple (or anyone for that matter) to be perfect, but one of the characteristics that I admired most about Apple as a company was their eye for detail (not just in design) and I couldn’t help but agree with Khoi Vinh.

• Me so sorry
• No Contact Is an Island
• Did Apple set developers up for failure?
• iPhone 2.0: Hindi
• iPhone 2.0: The glory wore off in wash

Being a programmer myself I’m more than aware that what might seem like a trivial feature to implement almost always ends up taking much more resources than one would’ve estimated but I feel the issue at hand is with quality, not quantity.

Unexpectedly Quit ∞

Looks like its Adobe bashing month. Tsk–tsk.

The Dark Knight Soundtrack ∞

Looking forward to the score almost as much as the movie. Already love “I’m Not a Hero”.

Melbourne to stage Australian Grand Prix until 2015 ∞

W00t w00t! Contrary to rumors suggesting there would be no Grands Prix held at Albert Park after the current contract expired in 2009 unless Melbourne hosted a night race, the Australian Grand Prix is staying home till 2015 without a night race. The race start however has been pushed back to 5pm.

Public Service Announcement ∞

Mac users please do NOT install Adobe Reader 9 (or any version of Adobe Reader for that matter). There’s an application bundled with Mac OS X which handles PDFs beautifully on Leopard and just fine on Tiger. It’s called Preview. Use Skim if you want something more powerful.

In case you need more persuation:

• Installation experience
• Inharmonic convergance

101 Photoshop Tips in Five Minutes ∞

How many can you eat?

Scenes from a Franchise ∞

Khoi Vinh on the Batman movies through the ages, echoing something that’s been on the back of my mind too. “Batman Begins” has set some high expectations for “The Dark Knight”, let’s hope Christopher Nolan didn’t forget his roots.

Quantum of Solace – Trailer 1 ∞

The name’s… well you know that already.

Wimbledon Draws ∞

Frustration with the near pathetic state of the official Wimbledon website and a strong urge to visualize the draws of the ongoing championships resulted in three very long nights and me designing my own Wimbledon draws charts. Do check them out.

Update: Added info on the design and the development process.

We are all weathermen now ∞

It seems almost everyone wants to see wet weather during Grands Prix and it’s no secret why. Rain equals action. Rain equals drama. Above all, rain equals racing.

Next year’s regulation changes attempt to bring more racing in dry weather. Let’s hope it has the desired effect.

Introduction to CSS3 ∞

A 6–part series that takes a look at some of the new capabilities introduced by the CSS3 standard.

Computer expert meet computer novice ∞

Cameron Moll on natural mapping at An Event Apart New Orleans, 2008.

Surprising how we often underestimate — and at times downright ignore — natural mapping in the virtual world. I know I was a happier man when I realised Leopard (unlike Tiger) preserved the icon positions of my external hard disks on my desktop; I don’t keep a centered dock because it keeps shifting all the icons when the number of items change, I keep it at a screen corner because that at least affords me fixed positioning for stuff like the Trash, Downloads and Applications folders. (Via Zeldman)

About that world record ∞

Me loves my Webkit! Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of Firefox on the Mac.

Real Snail Mail ∞

Average delivery time — 1.96 days.

Disney and Pixar’s line-up till 2012 ∞

Lots of animated goodness to look forward to.

Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends ∞

Coldplay’s new album. Favourite tracks so far – “Lost!”, “Violet Hill” and “Cemeteries Of London”. Be sure to check out their Violet Hill (Dancing Politicians) music video. (iTunes)

The Big Picture ∞

Photojournalism never looked so amazing. The ones that stood out — World Environment Day, Daily life in Afghanistan, Chaiten volcano and The Sky, from Above.

Muxtape ∞

MP3 mixtapes. Super simple and super cool. You can keep up with my music tastes at rungta.muxtape.com or, if you prefer a rockstar, try out M Shinoda’s Hip–Hop mix.

Zap Colours bookmarklet ∞

All it does is make the text on a page black and the background white.

Great for people who dislike pages with black backgrounds and high contrasts (or even low contrasts for that matter).

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination ∞

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

From J.K. Rowling’s commencement address to this year’s Harvard graduates. Watch the video stream if you have a decent connection.

goosh.org – the unofficial google shell. ∞

Command–line in a web page! Pretty cool. (Via stevenf)

Bring the Leopard Help Viewer down to earth ∞

One of the persisting annoyances introduced with Leopard — floating Help Viewer windows — can now be tamed thanks to the folks at Mac OS X Hints. (Via MacUser)

Max Mosley wins vote of confidence to remain FIA president ∞

I hope they stop fussing over this now and move on to racing. It’s sad that Formula 1 has been in the news for all the wrong reasons (Ferrari–McLaren Spygate, Alonso–Hamilton rivalry and Mosley’s Nazi orgy) in the last two years. With quite a few organisations disappointed at the outcome and threatening to withdraw, doesn’t look like this case is closing anytime soon.

Hoodwinked! ∞

In the re-telling of this classic fable, the story begins at the end. Chief Grizzly and Detective Bill Stork investigate a domestic disturbance at Grannys cottage, involving a karate-kicking Red Riding Hood, a sarcastic wolf and an oafish Woodsman.

The real “Little Red Riding Hood” story! Refreshingly funny.
(Official Site | Wikipedia | Apple Trailers)

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu ∞

[…] translates roughly as The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one. At 85 letters, it is one of the longest placenames in the world.

Try pronouncing that!

Rowling writes an 800-word Potter ‘prequel’ ∞

She wrote it for a charity auction and ended it with this:

From the prequel I am not working on - but that was fun!

Let’s hope the winner of the auction is kind enough to share the story.

Mac OS X 10.5.3 ∞

Improves 802.1X behavior and reliability.

Yay! Hoping this means I’ll finally be able to connect to Monash-Connect.

Fixes an issue in which certain function keys may be disabled after using Time Machine.

About time. This one irritated me big time and I hope Time Machine never disables my shortcuts again. Fire up Software Update on your Macs!

Grand Prix de Monaco 2008 ∞

The jewel of the Formula One crown it is called, and this year’s certainly lived up to the name in terms of being chock full of incidents. Rain for most of the first half of the race at a street circuit was bound to make the result unpredictable, but seeing a Force India at P4 towards the end of the race was still very surprising.

Luck did not favour them all the way and it was very painful to watch Kimi Räikkönen slam the back of Adrian Sutil’s Force India and end his best race so far. Also, I discovered that I was more disappointed to see Sutil and Force India’s race ruined that I was to see the Ferrari make the mistake. The first wet race of the season certainly turned out to be very eventful, and just like at Melbourne earlier this year and Canada last year, Hamilton kept his cool and drove to victory. (Results)

Earth Film ∞

Planet Earth on the big screen! Granted it’ll only be a 95 minute summary instead of the 11 hours in the original documentary and will be narrated by Patrick Stewart and not David Attenborough, but I can guarantee its still going to be jaw–dropping.

“Earth” was apparently released in 2007 around Europe but only on 29th May will it hit the theaters down under. Don’t miss it — I know I won’t.

“Welcome to Facebook!” ∞

19 word summary of Facebook by Wil Shipley.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels ∞

Hard to describe as anything but awesome, although the only way to do justice to the genius of Guy Ritchie would be to watch the movie.

Also, now I know where Phir Hera Pheri got most of its story from.
(Trailer on YouTube | Wikipedia)

The evergreen Lalu Prasad Yadav ∞

Playing the funny at a Lok Sabha session. (Via Varenya)

The day the music died ∞

Bought (or planning to buy) music online? Care about digital rights management? Have no clue about DRM? Looking for a nice read?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, I would highly recommend reading the linked piece.

The Dark Knight - Trailer 3 ∞

70 days and counting. (Via Rakesh)

Pangea Day ∞

4 hours. 24 films. A new way to see the world.

A global, multi-cultural film festival with the aim of uniting the world through the power of film.

Found out through David Pogue’s recent post:

Sure, people of all nations have been joined by Internet video before, thanks to a little thing called YouTube. But YouTube joins people without them realizing it; there’s not much sense of community (unless you count the juvenile, raunchy comments), and zero sense of mission or purpose. It’s very unlikely that, after watching some YouTube video of someone putting Mentos into a Coke bottle, you’ll stand up and announce, “I’m a changed person.”

Pangea Day, I suspect, will be different.

You can attend a live event, catch it on TV, or watch the free live stream over the internet at 18:00-22:00 GMT, May 10 2008.

Harry Potter goes off the NYT Best-Seller list after 10 years ∞

The New York Times created a whole new children’s best–seller list in 2000 to “clear some room”. Guess they were right in thinking “this ain’t goin away anytime soon.” (Via MuggleNet)

twistori ∞

Of the multitude of web apps that feed on twitter that I’ve come across so far, I like this one best. Awesome design! (Via Shaun Inman)

No head injuries or broken bones for Kovalainen ∞

McLaren have established that Kovalainen’s speed was approximately 240km/h when his front-left tyre deflated and about 130km/h when he hit the tyre barrier. He experienced a 27g deceleration.

For Kovalainen to have come out of that horrifying crash virtually unscathed is amazing. It just shows how well thought out the safety precautions and devices in Formula 1 are today.

webmarks/friends ∞

What’s that under the title?

LinkedList Updates ∞

I recently updated both my sort–blogroll–using–feeds plugins:

• LinkedList.js 1.1.4 – Cookies are now optional, and turned off by default.
• LinkedList.wp 1.0.3 – Fixed a bug where some single quotes would go unescaped; contains LinkedList.js 1.1.4.

Don’t bother updating if its already working fine for you.

Spanish Grand Prix history ∞

Formula1.com takes a look at the history of the Spanish Grand Prix before this year’s race. Its got an interesting past.

The closest five-car finish in a Spanish Grand Prix - and a spectacular sight - occurred at Jarama in 1981, when Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) led home Jacques Laffite (Ligier-Matra at 0.22 sec), John Watson (McLaren-Ford at 0.58sec), Carlos Reutemann (Williams-Ford at 1.01sec) and Elio de Angelis (Lotus-Ford at 1.24sec).

That sure would’ve been an awesome race.

iPhone unboxing photos ∞

By far the best unboxing photos I’ve come across. (Via TUAW)

Consequences of stupidity ∞

CNN is now selling shirts with headlines.

[…] what’s great is that you can fuck with the URL and generate shirts (complete with the CNN logo) like I Prefer MSNBC or Wolf Blitzer is Hairy or Fire David Payne (senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com).

I doubt they thought getting a good programmer was important.

Paths and the Pen tool ∞

In the three years or so that I’ve been using and learning Photoshop, I was never able to get a grasp of the Pen tool and thus would always shy away from any drawing related work. Not anymore.

This tutorial made it seem so easy. Highly recommended for amateur Photoshoppers still shy of Paths and the Pen tool.

Funny F1 moments ∞

Couple of funny Formula 1 moments caught on video, over at F1Fanatic.

Michael Schumacher: The Edge of Greatness ∞

He [Schumacher] won more Grands Prix, he won more championship titles, he scored more championship points, he appeared on the podium more times, he took more pole positions and set more fastest laps of the race than any other driver in F1 history.

James Allen gives a mostly unbiased account of how and why Schumacher managed such a career in this biography. He takes up the innumerable controversies that Schumacher’s career was dotted with, all of which make for a very interesting read.

I was hooked to the book the moment I started reading it, especially because I was mostly unaware of any Formula 1 history. It made me see the sport in a whole new way. Highly recommended for all F1 fans.

Is hell endothermic or exothermic? ∞

[…] if hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter hell, then the temperature and pressure in hell will increase until all hell breaks loose (i.e.,Hell is exothermic).

Of course, if hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in hell, than the temperature and pressure will drop until hell freezes over (i.e.,Hell is endothermic).

So which is it? […]

Full proof provided, and make sure you read it! (Via Aditya)

“Rockin’ Our Sales” internal Microsoft video ∞

I don’t know which caption goes better — “Seriously, what the fuck were they thinking?” or “Microsoft at its best”. You decide. (Via Daring Fireball)

Bheja Fry ∞

Hilarious!

I’m constantly being surprised by excellent, short and song–free Bollywood comedies like Bheja Fry. I was a bit disappointed when I read this though:

Bheja Fry is an Indian film and a frame to frame remake of the French movie Le Dîner de cons.

Superb performance by Vinay Pathak nonetheless. (Official Site | Wikipedia)

Consequences of using Stock Photography ∞

Pointed (and collected) by my Multimedia Programming and the WWW lecturer.

Perian ∞

Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats.

Just incase you’re using a Mac and haven’t heard of Perian (because I just found out that my two best friends hadn’t).

Dinner in the Sky ∞

Crazy! (Via SimpleBits)

Juno ∞

Totally Boss! Doesn’t even have to try.

What a performance by Ellen Page! I can’t think of a single bad thing about the movie and might as well go so far as to call it perfect. (Official Site | Apple Trailers | Wikipedia)

Flickr gets Video! ∞

Only for pro members and with a 90–second limit. Check out the announcement or FAQs for details.

KM Music Conservatory ∞

A.R.Rahman:

The KM Music Conservatory is an attempt to recreate a world–class orchestra for the enjoyment of India’s people. Currently Indian composers must go abroad to find orchestras to record. The vision of KM Music Conservatory is to eliminate this obstacle and provide an exemplary orchestra here in India.

With a long term goal of becoming a music school offering a bachelor’s degree, this is a great step towards the revival of classical art and music in India. Watch the introduction video (part 2). (Via Rakesh)

1 to 100 ∞

100 people, 100 ages, all banging a drum. Very clever!

Gotham on the web ∞

• I Believe in Harvey Dent
• Gotham Cable News
• Dana Worthington for D.A.
• Gotham City Clerk
• Gotham Election Board
• Gotham Victims Advocate Foundation
• Gotham Police Internal Affairs Department
• Gotham Police Major Crimes Unit
• Gotham Cab Company
• Gotham Intercontinental Hotel
• I Believe in Harvey Dent Too
• why so serious
• Rory’s Death Kiss
• The Ha Ha Ha Times
• Clown Travel Agency
• Concerned Citizens For A Better Gotham
• Citizens For Batman

That’s quite a long list of viral marketing sites for The Dark Knight, although I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.

Update: Added ‘Gotham Police Major Crimes Unit’ and ‘Gotham Intercontinental Hotel’ to the list.

Spielberg + Jackson = 3 Tintin movies ∞

This is great news, and was apparently announced sometime in May last year. I was a big fan of Tintin comics back in the day and I’m glad to know that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are going to be behind the movies, because I trust them to preserve the spirit of Tintin creator Hergé.

TedMosbyIsAJerk.com ∞

Barney is just awesome!

LinkedList.wp 1.0.1 ∞

Minor update to my WordPress plugin for LinkedList. Mostly cosmetic changes to fit in with WordPress 2.5 (which by the way I think is a great release).

Lost: A Theory on Time Travel ∞

Intriguing Lost theory based on time travel. (Via Aditya)

Earth Hour ∞

Join the world in showing their support for the environment by turning off your lights from 8pm to 9pm local time today (29th March).

Stupid htaccess tricks ∞

Handy reference for stupid htaccess tricks which can actually be quite useful.

O( Travelling Salesman Problem ) ∞

xkcd is the comic strip for geeks.

Rungta’s Site Map ∞

Site maps aren’t the most exciting of pages and very seldom (if ever) do I find myself visiting a website’s site map. Why then did I decided to make one for prateekrungta.com?

I can’t recall how, but a few months back I stumbled upon this blog entry by Dan Cederholm — Styling Nested Lists — in which he talks about how he used nested unordered lists (<ul>) to build a site map and went about styling them using just a single id and descendant selectors. I thought that was quite clever and got the urge to find out if I could use a similar technique to design a site map for my site. That’s how I ended up making a site map, and it was great fun developing and styling the page.

So yeah, I made the page and put it up online but didn’t advertise or link to it because of the aforementioned reason. It lay there, quiet and unnoticed…until I tweeted about it last Friday:

http://prateekrungta.com/sitemap - One stop shop for all the pages on my site. Very handy for searching.

Right after that tweet, I realized there was no way to carry out the ‘very handy for searching’ bit. So, I flexed my fingers, read up a bit, launched Photoshop, opened TextMate and two long nights later, the page now sports a sexy new search facility. Go check it out!

P.S. – I haven’t bothered testing the page in Internet Explorer. Upgrade, please!

Can we believe what people tell us? ∞

Interesting talk by Malcolm Gladwell that we had to listen to as part of the Systems Analysis and Design unit I’m doing this semester. He talks about how people’s preferences change for want of a better tool to express their choices, and how one should always be skeptical to the negative responses when testing a radically different product/idea on a group of people. How much of the feedback they give is actually true?

Australian Grand Prix 2008 ∞

What about the race, right? You probably already know the results (they’re linked, incase you don’t), so here’s the field report.

Well, it was HOT, in caps. The weather, the girls, the cars. You’ve just got to watch a Grand Prix live to experience the adrenaline rush the sound of an F1 car brings.

There’s more about the GP on my photoblog and I’ll be uploading photos from the event to my flickr account when I find the time, so keep checking.

Australian Grand Prix - Qualifying ∞

Like I said, it was too soon to write anything off based on yesterday’s practice sessions, and today’s qualifying showed just that. Its Lewis Hamilton on pole position, followed by BMW’s Robert Kubica, with McLaren’s Kovalainen and Ferrari’s Massa making the second row. Alonso will be starting from P12 while Räikkönen will be all the way at the back of the grid at P16 (due to technical issues).

I think this season’s going to be a lot harder to predict than the last few, which will only make Formula 1 even more interesting.

Earth + 6° = ?? ∞

National Geographic Short Video on the consequences of an increase in the Earth’s average temperature by six degrees. (Via Rashmi)

Australian Grand Prix - Friday ∞

The 2008 Formula 1 Season is here, and if you’ve been following this log since before November, you’d have seen this [post] coming.

• Practice 2 - Results - Report
• Practice 1 - Results - Report

That the Ferraris and McLarens were at the top was no surprise. What was surprising was Red Bull, with Mark Webber being the second fastest in Practice 2. If Red Bull has got their reliability issues sorted out, this could be a great Grand Prix for Aussie fans as Mark Webber is an Australian. Force India did quite good too. Renault and BMW were a bit slow today though. Its too soon to make anything out of this though, and tomorrow’s qualifying session will make things clearer.

Can’t wait for the actual race. I certainly hope it’s a lot cooler on Sunday than it was today (38° Celcius!) or hanging out at Albert Park until 5pm won’t be very enjoyable.

RetailMeNot.com ∞

Its like a discount booklet for Web stores, only better as it comes with a search box and doesn’t require any membership. Saving a few bucks never hurts. ;)

Avatars Address Book Plugin ∞

A nifty little Address Book plugin that lets you add a contact’s Gravatar (and other) profile pictures with a simple Command+G.

Apple Print Ads ∞

Mostly from the 1980-95 era. (Via TUAW)

The Men Who Killed Gandhi ∞

The author of the book, Manohar Malgonkar has done an excellent job of narrating the tale of events leading up to the assassination of the Mahatma. Being an adult who was staying only a bungalow away from Birla House (Gandhiji’s residence and place of assassination) during that period of history, and speaking at length to four of the remaining conspirators after they had served their life sentences (meaning they spoke as free men) certainly helped the author to get very fine details of most of the events. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, both as a piece of history and as a revelation to the conspirators’ line of thought and reasoning.

‘The Men Who Killed Gandhi’ was originally published in 1978. A new edition was released on the 60th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, illustrated with quite a large number of documents ranging from photographs and statements to court orders and air tickets used by Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte. Highly recommended!

Code Signing and You ∞

It probably won’t make much sense to most of you, but to the ones that it does make sense, it’ll be a very important read.

Reliance plans to open 60 “iStores” containing Apple products exclusively ∞

This is certainly good news for current and potential Apple customers in India. What remains to be seen is how aggressively Reliance prices the Apple lineup, because that alone will be the deciding factor for most locals. The first one apparently opened its doors on the 5th of March and is located at Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.

How ironic that Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is going about opening “Apple stores” all over the country whereas Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group does not even officially offer Mac compatibility and support for any of its tech products or services (including internet connections).
(Via TUAW)

Encyclopedia of Life ∞

Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world.

More on BBC News.

Staircase Bookshelf ∞

Very clever, both for saving space and providing easy access to the books. (Via Signal vs. Noise)

DoubleTake ∞

Great shareware app for stitching photos and creating panoramas. Easy to use and yet powerful enough to let you be in control. Highly recommended!

Check out the panorama of the Charminar area that I created for my latest photoblog post using DoubleTake.

Bye Bye Appu Ghar ∞

India’s first amusement park—Appu Ghar—amused people for the last time on 17th Feb, 2008. I remember calling all amusement parks “Appu Ghars” back when I was a dedhfootiya.

Ah well, the old must make way for the new, and I’ve heard tell that a Disneyland is on the cards for Delhi. (Via Rohit Nag)

iWoz ∞

Just finished reading Steve Wozniak’s autobiography. Along with being very insightful and funny, it was also one of the most inspiring books I’ve read in a long time. A must read for engineers(surprised?) and computer science students. (iWoz on Amazon)

Only 1,411 tigers left in India ∞

Makes me sad.

Big Ideas come out of Big Pencils ∞

Very clever interface for an ad(??) agency’s flash–based website. (Via Nimit)

The important thing ∞

From a book by Denyse Schmidt:

[This book] isn’t intended to be a comprehensive guide to quilting, and I certainly wouldn’t say that my way is the only, or the “correct” way to do things. Once you’ve developed a healthy obsession with quilting, you’ll want to explore many other approaches. The local library, quilt guilds and stores, bookstores, and the Internet are all great places to look for information and inspiration.

The important thing is to begin.

So, what’re you waiting for?

Google Spreadsheets now supports forms / surverys ∞

Great feature and sure to be a time, effort and frustration–saver when one needs multiple people to fill out a form. (Via Daring Fireball)

cameron i/o ∞

Cameron Hunt’s beautifully designed tumblelog. It’s been popping up in a lot of places recently so I decided to head over and check it out, and I guess you should too.

LinkedList WordPress plugin ∞

It’s here, finally! WordPress users, there’s no excuse to have a static, standard blogroll anymore. Give it a life!

Yahoo/Microsoft marraige ∞

Dowry offered – $44.6 Billion.

• Knee-deep in the dead – John Siracusa ponders on the whole situation.
• Microsoft Offers $44.6 Billion for Yahoo – John Gruber predicts the future for Yahoo’s current products if the deal does go through.
• Microsoft and Yahoo’s shotgun marriage – BBC’s Tim Webber offers a more business oriented analysis of the possible acquisition.

Personally, I hope the deal does not go through because I agree with Siracusa that:

…Yahoo, for all its problems, is just one good CEO and a few years away from a reemergence as the strongest real competitor to Google. A takeover by anyone—but especially Microsoft—makes the hopes of such a recovery quite dim.

Geometry of the Mint logo ∞

Porn for designers! Yet another reason to love Mint. (Via Daring Fireball)

Vote for your favourite Web App ∞

Show support for your favourite web app by casting your vote at Web App Charts. Some suggestions – flickr, Mint, Gmail, Twitter, YouTube…

Apple Store opening in Melbourne ∞

MacTalk claims to have confirmed that an Apple Store is slated to open at Melbourne’s Chadstone mall this February. If it is indeed true, I only hope the opening is after 23^rd Feb so that I can be there on the first day.

Follow your bliss ∞

Scott Stevenson, while talking about following your heart and not someone else’s opinions:

The idea that anyone has life and all of its little details figured out is a total illusion – especially when it comes to you.

I couldn’t agree more with Scott on the subject. I strongly recommend reading the entire post.

Simpu Singh – Sholay ∞

Channel V’s Simpu Singh with the class of Sholay. (Via Karan)

Ask the Pankass ∞

“30-second comedy at its best.” (Via Karan)