World Suicide Prevention Day

September 10, 2006 is World Suicide Prevention Day.
You might wonder why there is a need for this kind of a day? But after becoming aware that every year one million lives are lost due to suicide, you'll agree that there's a need to think about this serious issue.
I'm sure, you must have noticed the increasing number of suicidal attempts around you. Even in the city in which I live, which is not a Metro, newspapers have reported many suicide cases last month that makes me think about this issue.
We can talk about its causes and all the prevention methods at length but for now, I just want to emphasize the need to think about this actively. The important thing is - can we do something to prevent it?
Yes, we can. But, what and how? I think the first and foremost thing we need to do is: We should identify people around us who are suffering thru depression. We should talk to them. Somehow we need to help them get rid of depression and stress.
In this regard, here I'm putting a TV-Ad's message also:
"Kill Depression
Kill Stress
Kill Anger
Don't Kill Yourself."

Here r some useful links to know more about prevention methods


Stop A Suicide
The International Association For Suicide Prevention

I wanna be a frostbite…

When
You’re complaining of my hot blood
When
I don’t want to obey the customs
At the same time,
When
Society doesn’t allow me to
Go out of the system

Tell me, what I’d do then

You say that I ‘m a ‘Social Animal’
I say
Society is an organization of animals!

Believe me,
I don’t want to oppose the things
Near to me
When I’m even not able to decide
Not to oppose


You say ‘I am an iconoclast’
Sociologists call it a quarter life crisis

Believe me,
I don’t want to engage myself
In terminologies of Society and Psychology

Now, I’m not going to talk it more
To my friends
You say they are ‘my age’
I see they are in miseries themselves

Tell me, what I’d do then

Believe me,
I don’t wanna escape
I just want to wait for getting understood
The things in proper (by you and me both)

Believe me,
My brain chemistry doesn’t allow me to think it more
Neuralgia has caused to waste a paper, sure


Hey!
I’ve come to know
Mad scientists can freeze our body
With inventions in Cryonics
They can suspend our life
And pain too!

Leave me, alone!
And believe me,
I’m not angry with you
As you’re complaining
Of my blood being hot
I want to get it cold
So cold that,

Before
I come to follow the things
Without reasoning them,
I may get frost!

********************
sometimes things go against u n sometimes u find urself against things.This kind of mood triggered me to fire like this, last year(Oct,2005).

Enjoy ur mails - Offline!

Yes! This much-desired-by-user thing is now made possible by Gmail.

Many of us already use Gmail n know its features as well; then what’s the fuss about it?

What I’ve noticed that many of my friends don’t know about this great feature of Gmail that is not provided by other popular mail services (e.g. Yahoo, Rediffmail) as a free service. They charge for it what Gmail is providing free.

Technically speaking, it’s called – POP3 (or simply POP) access.

Errrr….many of u non-techies might be thinking that what’s this POP(sounds rock to u? ) actually n what does it serve?

Let me tell u bit by bit – POP (Post Office Protocol) lets u download ur mails from servers onto ur PC so u can access mail with a mail client software like Microsoft Outlook, Eudora etc. n u can read them offline too!

This POP access is free by Gmail.

So How do I setup my POP access?

…I’m going to tell u …First, u need to have a mail-client software(e.g. MS-Outlook) installed at ur PC then goto ‘Settings’ in ur Gmail account -> click ‘Forwarding and POP’ -> ….Heyyyyy! u can access Gmail’s help then why do this next-next-next here!

Many times, u get busy working on net n u don’t have enough time to read all funky-junky, inbox-cluttering mails forwarded by some of ur friends’friends’... This feature is really great in these times. So while u r online, accomplish ur other important jobs first n let ur mails downloaded onto ur PC n read them even when u r disconnected to net!

Dudes! Enjoy ur mails – Off--------------------------------------------- too!

.mobi – Get ready to get on the mobinet

“.mobi” is the latest tld –top level domain (like .com – u r much familiar with) for websites intended for use on mobile devices.
Yeah…u might think that u can visit websites on mobile even today as well, then what’s the need for a new domain? Ok, then tell me how often do u surf web thru ur mobile device? Not much now, coz its not easy to locate URLs or website addresses on mobile n it’s a tiresome thing to navigate web pages on a 2-3 inch screen. Right?
.mobi is intended to achieve good user experiences on mobile-web enabled devices.
It’ll fulfill the need to make mobile devices as useful as a PC for browsing n it’ll definitely make the navigation scheme on mobile-web much user-friendly.
As globally, four mobile phones are sold for every one PC, there’s a need for web-apps to go mobile.
The official – mTLD’s .mobi website says:
“dotMobi is the first – and only – top level domain dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices. dotMobi will revolutionize the use of the Internet on mobile devices. dotMobi is designed to guide mobile users to made-for-mobile Internet content and services that can be accessed with confidence.”

With mobile Web surfing growing more and more popular – by 2008, 1.3 billion people are expected to be connected to the Internet via cell phones, according to research firm GSM Association, it seems quite natural to standardize format for mobile-web domain names. Now u’ll be able to access a company’s website for mobile by ‘companyname.mobi’. All these .mobi sites will have the XHTML-MP pages.

Don’t rush man! It’s ‘sunrise’ period that means only registered trademark owner organizations can go for it. General registration is scheduled to open to everyone on 26 September.By the way, it sounds cute - .mobi, isn't it?

Have u ever met ur death?

Yeah…I felt it n met it for a while. I wanna tell u – it’s true.
The day (August 08, 2006) was horrible.
The story is:
I visited a Picnic spot near to city with some of my relatives, this place I’d never seen before. It’s amazing. It’s a fountain – Garvaji, situated among mountains, having rocks as high as sky, as straight as walls!( seems to have no vertical limits – for human brain)
When u c these rocks with ur eyes upward, u wonder n just sit on ur knees, astonishing the natural scenery here.(By the way, my city is surrounded by one of the world’s oldest mountain ranges –‘The Aravalis’.)
This place has many small pools developed naturally all through the way in mountains.
There’s a temple at a height on mountain. As soon as we reached there, I decided to take a refreshing mouthwash n reached to a nearby pool (more like a wide pit).
All of a sudden…I got slipped by the moss n entered into the water as an oblique. And soon reached to the middle of water. My whole body was inside the water.Though it wasn’t large n deep but I couldn’t manage myself coz 1) I didn’t know how to swim n 2) it happened within the moments. I tried a lot but… all this wasn’t worth. I heard 3-4 sounds of Gulup-Gulup, inhaling water into my lungs n moreover I heard… that now I am No More!
Making every possible (n I think-irregular too) move with my hands n legs, when I couldn’t achieve success to make my face outside the water, I lost every hope…
I was about to be unconscious…within 2 more seconds. I felt that someone (probably, the surface of the pool) was trying to pull me inside n water wanted to dissolve me in it!(one of the five elements of body).
I became a fish without gills to breathe n fins to swim!
In water, a human being wriggles as a fish do outside the water.
I yearned to breathe air.
Somebody, coming up the way, saw the incident n offered his hand inside the water, by that time; I could’ve managed to have a wrist outside the water seeking for help but whole of my body was inside the water, loosing every hope.
My eyes weren’t able to c anything but a jelly-like fog.
He pulled me out with the help of our car’s driver.
My nostrils filled with water didn’t seem ready to breathe…somehow after some moments; I came to have a breath.
******
It seems to me as if nature evaluated my life till now n found it of no use for the world, n wanted me to throw away!

Anyway, it makes me think about transitoriness of life.
This moment u r n the another moment u r no more!

All of a sudden…

I’m hurt…I’m really hurt today.
Though Doctors can transplant heart, I believe that a shattered heart can never get repaired!
I never get hurt of rejections in life as cheats do. I feel myself cheated again but it’s as usual as my constipation problem – there’s no need to complain about it.
People get cheated here-n-there, every now-n-then in life – nothing new to shout at.
Moreover, I really feel a pain about the way, the system operates around us. Every operating system has flaws n bugs – you know it well (Even the one that I’m using at this computer – Windows) no matter how good it’s programmed!

Crap happens always but sometimes- all of a sudden! – making it more severe then it’d have been otherwise. You work for something for hours or days or months – sincerely n then all of a sudden, u just get fired – out of the things!
Do you wonder, if there’s any system in this world? I see a total chaos! And if there’s some system n you believe that there’s someone who runs it then I’d like to say that it looks like a boxer is programming a computer!
But why should I cry out?
Coz I think there’s an equal liability on all of us to let go things awry. Coz we don’t speak what is wrong and what is right. Coz we don’t have a science student approach of asking ‘what-why-n-how?’

We all know about public organizations, now its turn for private companies as well. Now-a-days there are a lot of companies in India as a result of globalization n liberalization – International n Indian as well. There are also a lot of people looking for jobs. So now there’s no code of conduct for these companies yet. No ethical business practices they r implementing in their processes at all. Apart from that, all other kind of services n professionals r also not bound by any of their professional ethics.

A company screens ur profile n ask u to appear in its interview process, n give an appointment in odd timings like 6:30 p.m., you have a four hour bus journey, reach their place, n the guard outside the main gate tells u to stay there, talk over phone to the concerned person n tells u that ‘sir is very busy. There won’t be any interview today. You need to wait till day after tomorrow.’ You stay in that city for this much of time n the-day-after-tomorrow-morning only to know that it’ll be at 7:30 p.m. today, n at 5 p.m. again ur consultant tells u that it couldn’t be arranged that day n u can leave for ur city, we’ll call u again. After a week u go thru some of their telephonic rounds n finally called for an interview, n like this you go through their one-month-many-a-round long process, they finalize you, congrat you on selection n then ask u to wait until their director come back from a business trip to sign the appointment letter. After a fifteen-day-long-yes, their HR is not ready to speak to u, n finally receptionist tells you (after a number of calls) that 'ur profile is rejected' as if they screen a profile after getting someone selected! Consultant enquires n tells u that the company couldn’t get the project from US for which they'd selected u. Is anyone there to ask them – why do they preplan things if they are not capable of managing them?

One of my cousins (having much demanded ‘consistently-good-academic-record’) with a degree in Electronics told me that an MNC rejected herself after an interview coz she is a girl n they don’t wanna recruit girls in hardcore engineering section( the dream field to work for her) as one of her acquaintances in that company, revealed her. The question is ‘Why did they let girls interviewed’, perhaps to earn the repute of being an Equal Opportunity Employer. What do you think – girls r only meant to become good school teachers, nurses or to smile at reception desks?

Can someone control many a malpractices like this?

Damn! these companies n their recruitment processes! Hey! Bio guys!, there’s a brand new species of human being that have ‘Humanity Resistance’ power in them –they r called ‘HR’ people.(Hey! I wanna tell u one thing if u r preparing for an interview – they ask u one damn question always- ‘Tell me about yourself’. Here’s a tip – just keep ur answer to their point – ur experience n skills thru which u could serve for them. Don’t tell about your family or hobbies – until asked. By the way, when you’ll be forced to work without watching the clock, you’ll hardly find time to have n share feelings with ur family. Don’t take it as serious or as vague as much-queried-by-philosophers question ‘who am I?’)

Sometimes its technology n sometimes its life that makes me write this blog! n this blog says me - move on!!
By-da-way, thanx for reading this blog! Sometimes it looks that a blog is a person itself telling its story. And like many ones never-read-but-always-written blogs( or man?) , this’d have been untold as well, if u won’t have come to read this blog. Thanx again!

Microsoft .Net 2005 – Jus’ Drag n Drop!

You must’ve already learnt dragging yourself from one technology to another, keeping pace with last night releases every morning, if you’ve been a developer using MS Technologies for past 5 or more years.

From VB6 to VB.Net then C# and now VB2005 – it’s been the learning curve for most of the VB developers that is to shift yourself into a completely Object Oriented Paradigm.
Though it’d have been a lot easier for people working with VC++ but I think in days of successors of C++ like Java and C#, is there any need to work with C++? (I simply [don’t hate it but] fear from it.)

Let’s look at some cool new features:

ASP.Net 2.0

You can just drag n drop a menu over web forms in ASP.net just like other controls without having to learn JS a bit!(JavaScript or Jscript?- you know it better!)

You can design a ‘Master’ page and apply it’s layout to many a pages in your web-site.
‘Themes’ are there to simplify the task of applying and organizing resources of your web-design. Apart from that templates are available at Microsoft’s site to get you start some kind of web-apps. (Though I feel there’s really a need of some more good web-apps templates coz web-apps developers are not always good web-designers like me.)

SiteMapPath makes it easy to provide navigation facility in pages of your site.

The whole new category of ‘LogIn’ controls makes it very easy to develop LogIn and User Creation forms in minutes.

IDE

The IDE (the real power of MS platform) has now equipped itself with never before functionalities especially for web-apps development.

Code Snippets contain code for routine programming tasks that you can include just like controls without having to write a single line of code!

VB2005

‘My’ namespace contains classes for all type of frequently used functions in VB. It’s a speed-dial into .Net framework base class library. As VB developers kept on using VB6 functions available in .Net instead of their .Net substitutes wrapped in OO paradigm due to the hierarchy of namespace and classes to access them. This ‘MY’ namespace is the answer to those difficulties and now you can access many a frequently used things simply.

So, what’s your cup of tea for programming tasks? Here’s a lot of options available in .Net:

• VB2005 - the newest VB equipped with all of OOP features and also maintaining it’s ease-of-use n RAD style
• C# (pronounced as ‘C Sharp’) - the whole new modern OO programming language developed especially for the .Net from the scratch(or from the Java?)
• VC++ with managed extensions – too long to manage now!
• VJ# - the successor of VJ++ (Microsoft’s Java or whatever it is, I haven’t met a single guy working with it)
• Or any other third party .Net framework compliant language (If you are using one then pls tell me that why do you prefer that language?)

I feel hot with VB2005 as I’ve not been a good typist than a programmer and that’s why I don’t prefer or like Case-Sensitivity much.(Case-Sensitivity remind me of horrible grammar lessons of language studies in school days) Though someone may argue that it’s verbose but what if you can use more natural language like interface to a computer , aren’t we trying hard to achieve this? That’s make VB a perfect High Level Language.
And also - it’s not lesser than Java now.
C# is really a powerful, modern OO language, for those who wanna prove themselves a whizkid-programmer playing with curly braces can safely go for it.



If you are still working with .Net 2003 then you should drag yourself into .Net 2005 and you can reliably drop yourself here(until some next Beta release!).

Moreover you don’t need to install or have disks of complete Visual Studio 2005 instead MS has released a lightweight Visual Studio 2005 ‘Express’ Edition. You can call it a learning edition as well for which you can download and install any part of it whichever you need individually i.e. for web-apps development, you just need to have Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition and for Windows-apps development with VB2005, you need Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition and likewise other things .But don’t forget to install .Net Framework 2.0 before installing any of these products. And what’s more! Express Editions are Free Forever!!

Happy Dragging!!!

Road Accidents - A mismatch with Technology!

Levaraging everyday life with technology , we have not been not able to have a mind about sustainable development. India is the 2nd, after China facing the increasing number of road accidents.
We have Speedy 'n' Powerful bikes, luxurious cars and trucks for mass transportation today, but along with that we have broken heads, permanently handicapped people, young boys loosing lives everyday in casualties too!!!
Is'nt it a mismatch?
Is there any solution to this?

Suggest your opinion and think over it too!