Macro mode

This time I managed to work out some more - trying to capture a couple of insects on my ceiling.



















It can only get better.




















Can't believe I took something even as good as this.

The late evening sky from my balcony

Jobless as I was this winter evening a little past six, I decided to head out (to my balcony) and try out the night snapshot mode of the camera. It does seem to give considerably better results than in the auto mode.

Exam:fever :: Laughter:medicine?

The Data Communications final exam paper of the 5th Semester is one our batch will remember for long. Completely numerical; no amount of theory mugging would have helped in answering this one. VTU finally decided to pass most of those who'd attempted something. I'd tried all 8 questions, and managed to get a 75. A selection of images from this one below:







Recollection of this paper even two years after the incident will not fail to arouse at least a smile in most of those who attempted it.

Features wins over looks

[Possible Target Audience: Canon/Olympus wanting n00b digicam buyers]

It was for me to choose between the Olympus Mju 700 and the Canon Powershot A540. Both would have cost me about 15k overall. The Olympus is thin, and has looks (to repeat the cliche) "to die for". It just fits in one's palm so easily, and has dimensions just like some Sony Ericsson Walkman mobile. It's about 20.4 mm thick. The Canon on the other hand is 44 mm thick, and I suppose barely fits in my pocket. The Olympus was a 7.1 MegaPixel, and the Canon was just about 6.2. These facts made me lean in favour of the Olympus, mainly the sleekness. Upto last night, I was sure of buying the Olympus.

Still, the Olympus didn't have a viewfinder, which would most probably be useful shooting in daylight when the sun shines down into the LCD screen making its display invisible.
Also, it shot video at 15 fps only, which I guess is nearly as good as no video at all. And also I didn't want to take a chance on the other features Olympus might have cut in order to get that cam that thin (that cheap).


So, now, I am the somewhat-proud owner of the Canon Powershot A540.
Here's the bill details for reference:
The cam : 13,095/-
Sandisk SD 1 GB : 1,395/-
Uniross Charger 104865: 897/-

All these are inclusive of VAT (and other taxes). Because of the sale, I got discounts of approximately 10% on each of their MRPs.

I thank you all for your inputs.

An unexpected book purchase

[Substance-less drag - skip down, read the book titles, and borrow them from me.]

On my way back home, I was passing through Malleshwaram. For a change, I thought I'll go into a shop without intent to buy a specific thing - I thought I'll go into Nilgiris and see what they have in stock which wouldn't be available elsewhere. Coming from Gutahalli main road, I parked on one of the crosses and started walking down the main road on which I thought Nilgiris was. Soon, I'd reached Malleshwaram circle upon which I realized that, well, I wasn't on the right road - (Nilgiris is on Margosa road, I was on the Sampige road.).

Just when I was going to turn and walk back, to my left I saw a book exibhition cum sale. I did want to do some window-like shopping, and what better than books to, so I just get inside. I end up coming out with:
Jeffrey Archer's The fourth estate and First among equals, and Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Supremacy. Priced (fixed) at 90/- each, I didn't need to haggle with the shopkeeper. The books were in the usual bad condition, old brown pages, near-tatters, partly-torn outer cover etc. - much like how they would be if I got them from my local library, except without the outer plastic sheath.

My reasoning to buying them was that they're fat enough to take me at least two weeks to read them, my library would charge about Rs. 18/- per week for each of them, and if I get a couple of others to read these too, then that'd more than make up for the price of the book.

The hunt for a digital camera

[Possible target audience: Point-and-shoot low-budgeted amateur digital still camera buyers]

After long-time deliberations about whether or not to buy, finally the question had changed to which. The budget was set - Rs. 15,000 was about how much I could afford. The when and where part had been answered too - G K Vale have (/had) their Camera Fest at the (2nd floor,) Sigma Mall, Cunningham Road, Bangalore from the 15th to 25th December, 2006 where they offered about 10% (they claim upto 50% off) discount on all models.

Cash withdrawn, I went there this lazy monday early-evening. The fest is quite famous seemed like, judging by the crowd. Many of the companies had stall-likes inside the shop - pro's) - model separation, lower confusion, con's) - people at a stall will definitely want products at their stall to get sold over the others, i.e. I couldn't get someone who could impartially tell me which brand was better.

Neat posters displaying the fest models with their MRP and the discounted price were displayed all over the shop, making it easy for us price-conscious buyers.

They had Canon, Kodak, JVC, Olympus, Nikon, Sony, Polaroid, Panasonic, and Samsung, and also claimed to have Casio and Yashica.
Polaroid, Panasonic, JVC and Samsung aren't too established in this particular industry, at least as far as I've heard, so I thought I'll stick to the more-sold brands.
Looking at the Sony models, one word came to mind - "fleece". Kodak too didn't seem to catch my attention - they maybe the best with the film models, but digital is a different ball game, and I somehow thought they'll start fleecing me again with their photo docks.

Now, it was down to three.
Canon. Olympus. Nikon. For my budget, the following models seemed fine:

[Model - MRP - Fest Price]
Look up the specs of these models on their individual official sites or try the digital camera comparison at http://www.opendigitalphotography.com.

Canon:
Powershot A530 - 11,395 - 10,290 [Free 512 MB SD Card]
Powershot A540 - 14,495 - 13,095
(The A630 was 18,000 after discount).

The Canon guy was vehemently insisting I buy the lower end model, the A530, which was apparently the fast selling model which was why they gave the free card only with that.

Nikon:
L1 - 17,100 - 14,535
L2 - 15,500 - 13,175

A free SD card and a case with each of these, apparently.

Olympus:
FE-190 - 14,000 - 13,000
FE-200 - 17,000 - 16,000
Mju-700 - 17,000 - 15,000

A free 512 MB Xd card with each of these.


For possibly the first time in my life, I resisted the temptation to buy something when I had the money and had gone to buy it. (Of course, I'd informed at home I was only going to check out the range and the prices, and would buy only if there was a superb deal ending today, but with me being as lazy as I am, I buy at impulse.) I decided to do another internet based comparison on only these models, so that I could pick one of them and left the mall empty handed.


(continued)
Also, watch out for the post "The n00b's 15k digital camera buying guide".

Langauge Tips 2 - English (typographics, grammar, punctuation)

Most of the text below is from or based upon text in the Oxford English dictionary:

• Year and Time:

BC and AD instead of B.C., B. C. etc.
Also, write BC after the numerals, as in 42 BC.
Write AD before the numerals, as in AD 175, unless the date is spelled out, as in the fourth century AD.

a.m. and p.m. instead of AM, A. M., a. m. etc.

• Apostrophe usage:

The easy part -
Short forms:
he's, haven't, can't, don't, won't, we'll, '68, o' clock (of the clock).
Letters or numbers referred to in plural form:
Mind your p's and q's. Find all the number 7's.
Omit in MPs, 1940s.
Omit in plurals of a regular noun: three cats rather than three cat's.

Tougher -
To indicate possesion:
With a singular noun: boy's book, week's work, boss's salary
With a plural (s ending): a girls' school, two weeks' newspapers, the bosses' salaries.
With a plural (other than s ending): the children's books, women's liberation.
With a singular name: Abhijit's phone; Yashyas' (or Yashyas's) phone.
With a name ending in -es that is pronounced -is or -eez: Moses' mother
Omit in a business name: Grindlays Bank.

Only for the word its:
Use it's when you mean it is or it has. In all other situations, use its.

Also, a look can be had at: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_apost.html

Blog Customization

[Generally irrelevant blogging technicalities]

The site which hosted images of my customized blog template went down, and the blog was looking worser than usual (if that's possible). So, I've just dumped the customized look, and decided to stick to one of Blogspot's new-style templates. This one is readable and big fonted, but doesn't look too good at 800*600 with respect to the line wrapping, so please bear with me.

[Edit: It doesn't look good even at 1024*768, I just realized. Need to tweak the layout again :| ]

[Edit2: Now tweaked to look ok at 800*600.]

Reminiscence of a day at the cricket ground

[RD page-fill material]

We'd all gone to the ground to cheer our college team, the captain of which was our classmate. After the game (which we won), a 3-year old kid joined us playing on the sidelines. After playing [around] with him (or was it the opposite) for sometime, we decided to ask him his name. Someone asked in English, and another told the former that the kid wouldn't understand and repeated in Kannada, before which the boy had already answered - "Raja". Even to the question in Kannada, the boy gave his name, which led us to probe which languages the boy knew. Each one of us began asking him his name in any language we knew - Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, Malayalam, etc. and each time the boy replied correctly. Just when we were getting to be in awe of his linguistic talents, one of us managed to ask him in Kannada what his mother-tongue was. Pat came the reply - "Raja".